Summary of recent Kentucky newspaper editorials:

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Jan. 8

The Daily Independent on coal mining deaths:

A year after recording a record low of eight coal mining deaths in 2016, the number of mining deaths nearly doubled to 15 deaths in 2017. Eight of those deaths were in neighboring West Virginia with two mining deaths in Kentucky. No other state had more than one coal-mining death during the year, with Alabama, Colorado, Montana, Pennsylvania and Wyoming each recording one mining death.

However, President Donald Trump's controversial appointment of retired coal company executive David Zatezalo as the new chief of the Mine Safety and Health Administration has raised concerns among some that coal mining deaths could continue to rise if MSHA under Zatezalo eases mine safety regulations.

Zatezalo is a Wheeling, West Virginia resident who retired in 2014 as chairman of Rhino Resources. In November, he was narrowly approved by the U.S. Senate to head MSHA.

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin, D-West Virginia, opposed Zatezalo's appointment because he was not convinced a former coal-mining executive was best suited to oversee the federal agency that implements and enforces mine safety laws and standards.

Trump repeatedly voiced support for the coal industry during his presidential campaign. The increasing reliance on natural gas and other less expensive sources of energy has prompted coal use to diminish.

Last month the Trump administration brought up for review standards implemented by Barack Obama's administration that lowered the allowable limits for miners' exposure to coal dust. MSHA indicated it is reconsidering rules meant to protect underground miners from breathing coal and rock dust — the cause of black lung — and diesel exhaust, which can cause cancer.

For his part, Zatezalo has said his priority was preventing people from getting hurt.

"President Trump is strongly committed to the health and safety of America's miners," Zatezalo said in a statement. "At MSHA, our focus is on ensuring that every miner is able to return safely to their loved ones at the end of every shift. To ensure the health and safety of miners, MSHA will continue to vigorously emphasize safety enforcement, technology, education and training, and compliance and technical assistance."

Those are the right words, and we trust Zatezalo's actions as head of MSHA will match his words.

The number of coal mining fatalities was under 20 for the fourth straight year after reaching exactly 20 in 2011, 2012 and 2013. By comparison, in 1966, the mining industry counted 233 deaths. A century ago there were 2,226.

Clearly, coal mining is much safer today than it was decades ago, and MSHA deserves its share of credit for the fewer mining deaths. Our hope is that MSHA under Zatezalo's leadership will not allow coal mines to cut corners on safety to reduce costs and increase profits. Time after time, OSHA inspectors investigating mining deaths have found that safety regulations were ignored to allow mine operators to cut operating costs. That can't be allowed to continue to happen.

Online: http://www.dailyindependent.com/

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Jan. 9

Lexington Herald-Leader on legislative issues and scandal in Kentucky:

Drama is distracting.

And, right now, there is plenty of drama boiling in the Kentucky House of Representatives, thanks to the ongoing controversies swirling around, and fueled by, former speaker Jeff Hoover, who acknowledged last fall that he and three other House Republicans had secretly settled a claim with a legislative staffer who had alleged sexual harassment.

Hoover stepped down from his job as speaker Monday in a long, emotional speech that took a host of enemies to task, including the governor of his own party. He continued Tuesday, proposing sanctions against lawmakers who unsuccessfully attempt to have other members removed from office.

None of this, though, will bring any clarity to the muddle surrounding how sexual-harassment complaints are handled by the General Assembly. We are doomed to suffer this kind of extended, distracting drama again in the future unless the General Assembly acts to create a clear path for all complaints to be registered and investigated in a timely, consistent and professional fashion.

So far in the Hoover saga, three investigations have been launched: the first when the Republican House leadership hired a Louisville law firm for $50,000 to investigate; the second when, after the law firm produced little illumination, House Republican leaders asked the Legislative Ethics Commission to investigate; and the third a special, bipartisan committee formed this month by the House to investigate the charges.

Legislative leadership appears to have taken action to correct a system that had made it harder for politically appointed legislative staff to register complaints than for non-partisan staff. Legislative Research Commission Director David Byerman said that late last year partisan staff was informed they could use the procedures established for non-partisan staff in 2016 to register grievances. That process was put into place after the last sexual-harassment scandal, involving Democratic Rep. John Arnold.

The Herald-Leader's Daniel Desrochers reported in November that the process for partisan employees varied according to the policies of each office's party leadership. Under the new policy, partisan staff will be able to take their complaints to the LRC's non-partisan assistant director of human resources or the LRC director, bypassing those who hired them or are in their direct line of supervision.

That's a significant improvement, but reform cannot stop there. Legislators, particularly those in leadership need to be told, and reminded repeatedly, that there's no such thing as a consensual relationship with someone whose career they control — not even a non-physical flirtation conducted through text messages.

Both time and money would have been saved if the investigation of Hoover had been handed to the Legislative Ethics Commission when the story of the harassment settlement first arose last fall. Instead, after over two months, there are tons of questions, few answers and lots of drama, distracting the General Assembly from the hard work of writing a difficult budget for the next two years.

Online: http://www.kentucky.com/

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Jan. 7

The Daily News of Bowling Green on carrying concealed weapons in government buildings:

"Criminals don't care about the laws we pass in regards to guns, that's why they're criminals."

- U.S. Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Florida.

Rubio's words invoke much truth. One only has to look at the city of Chicago, which just released its homicide report for 2017, when 650 people were killed in that city, and already at least three people have been killed in the new year. In fact, Chicago homicides outnumber U.S. military casualties 18 to 1. This is a prime example of people who have no regard for gun laws, as the majority of the weapons recovered from these shootings were procured illegally.

These criminals give a bad name to law-abiding gun owners, who go through the proper background checks to buy their guns. Sure, is it a little bit of an inconvenience, but at the end of the day it's not that big of a deal. This is the difference between criminals who have no respect for gun laws as opposed to law-abiding citizens who do.

People who have concealed-carry permits attend a mandatory class where they learn about pistols - such as how to assemble and disassemble them, safe handling techniques, instructions about where you can and can't carry a concealed gun, and rules for when a concealed-carry pistol can and cannot be legally used. At the end of the class, people must demonstrate their ability to hit a target.

These law-abiding citizens go through full state and federal background checks, pay a pretty steep fee for their permits and in some cases wait a rather long time to get their permits approved.

It has been proven that when someone commits a mass shooting, another person with a concealed-carry pistol can save lives by taking the shooter out.

Having said that, we believe the Bowling Green City Commission made the appropriate vote Tuesday, approving in a 4-1 vote lifting a ban on carrying concealed weapons in city buildings. Commissioners previously voted 3-2 on Dec. 19 to eliminate the portion of a city ordinance that prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons into city buildings. Commissioner Joe Denning changed his vote on the second reading to approve lifting of the ban, with Commissioner Brian Nash voting against, as he did on the first reading.

When the motion was presented, Commissioner Rick Williams clarified that Kentucky law still prohibits the carrying of concealed weapons into meetings of governing bodies, such as city commission meetings.

Nash has questioned the wisdom of allowing concealed weapons into meetings where contentious issues are being discussed. After Williams clarified state law, Nash also noted that the ban only pertains to governing bodies, and thus concealed carry would now be allowed at other meetings, such as of the planning commission, which also take place in City Hall.

We couldn't disagree more with Nash's opposition to this decision. If there were to be an incident at a city building, it is likely that it would be committed by someone other than a person who followed the law, took the required class and has a concealed carry permit. In fact, having legally armed citizens in city buildings increases the chances that lives will be saved, not taken.

That's not spin, it's just fact and we're glad the majority of the city commission saw it that way as well.

Online: http://www.bgdailynews.com/