The Kentucky Baptist Convention's Committee on Public Affairs is encouraging churches to promote voter registration this month ahead of the fall's election. Holding a non-partisan voter registration drive is easy and churches are allowed by Internal Revenue Service rules to hold such drives as long as no political party is endorsed or promoted.
To have a voter registration drive, churches simply need to:
- Download a voter registration form and duplicate copies. The voter registration form, a sample form and more ideas about hosting a voter registration drive can be found at www.votekentucky.us.
- Encourage people in the church who are eligible but who have not registered to fill out a form. Individuals must be 18 years old or older on or before election day and be a U.S. citizen.
- Turn the forms into your county clerk before Oct. 4. (Doing this by the end of September will be even better!)
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posted by: Site Administrator on September 1st, 2010
The Kentucky Right to Life organization's 2010 Walk for Life is coming up on Saturday, Sept. 11, in Louisville. Find out more and find a flyer for the event at the
KRLA website.
The theme this year is "A Person's A Person, No Matter How Small!"
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posted by: Site Administrator on August 31st, 2010
In a summer that has seen one bad decision after another by courts and governmental entities on both the state and national level when it comes to moral issues , the United States took a step toward legalizing Internet gambling when a Congressional committee voted to send a bill authorizing it to the full House.
Here's the story from
Baptist Press: WASHINGTON (BP)--Congressional advocates for legalizing Internet gambling in the United States have made progress in their effort less than two months after rules implementing a 2006 law that cracked down on the practice finally took effect.
The Financial Services Committee of the House of Representatives voted 41-22 to forward to the full chamber the Internet Gambling Regulation, Consumer Protection and Enforcement Act, H.R. 2267.
The bill would have the effect of rescinding the four-year-old Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, which largely barred online gambling in the United States by requiring financial institutions to block credit card and other payments to Internet wagering businesses. Long-delayed regulations enforcing the law went into effect June 1.
The new online gambling measure, sponsored by Rep. Barney Frank, D.-Mass., would both legalize such wagering and authorize the federal government to regulate it.
The committee's July 28 action came barely a week after Southern Baptist ethicist Richard Land and other pro-family leaders wrote congressional leaders to express their opposition to the new bill, as well as a related proposal. The latter measure -- the Internet Gambling Regulation and Tax Enforcement Act, H.R. 4976 -- would provide for taxation of gambling revenues in conjunction with Frank's legislation.
Click here to read the full story.
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posted by: Site Administrator on August 10th, 2010
The following is a guest post from Dr. Ivan Zabilka, a research analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky and one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the state on attempts to expand gambling in the Commonwealth.
Zabilka is a retired educator and historian. He has two theological degrees (M.Div. and Th.M.) from Asbury Theological Seminary and two degrees in U. S. History (M.A. and Ph.D.) from the University of Kentucky, with a specialty in the history of science. He has been an active opponent of gambling expansion since 1992 when he personally saw in his classroom the damage caused by gambling. He has three published books and numerous published articles in both history and about gambling.
What is in store for Kentucky?
Each year Spectrum Gaming Group puts out a list of 21 expected trends for the year. A couple of their 2010 trends relate to Kentucky.
Kentucky and Massachusetts are specifically named as states that will face increasing pressure to introduce racinos because of expansion in neighboring states. This comes as no surprise but will require continued effort on the part of us who oppose.
Another trend is that racinos are continuing to press for lowered tax rates, since they generally pay higher rates than casinos in the same state. We can expect this whining to begin the minute the racinos (if ever approved) open and fail to meet the revenue projections. This failure is a sure thing, since the projections are so high. Since the tracks have wheedled the Legislature down to about 1.5% effective tax rates, they will certainly not be satisfied with a 25-28% tax rate on the casinos.
There is an increasing trend toward electronic table games in casinos. These allow for less skill on the part of the player, and result in safer bets for the house. Even were Kentucky to approve table games we might never see a live dealer, which would undercut the jobs promises.
Gambling analysts regard the approval of Internet gambling as a sure thing, if not this year then next. Then you will be able to destroy your life from your living room with unregulated and slow to pay overseas games.
Off-reservation Indian gambling facilities are making progress against restrictions. They succeeded in getting the more recent Bush administration to change the restriction from the reservation to within 50 miles of the reservation. Now they are pressing to go anywhere in the state. Will over state lines be next? Then Kentucky could have a Cherokee casino, even though we have no recognized tribes and no reservations.
Once racinos are approved (if ever) we can then expect pressure to allow VLTs at taverns to raise the money the tracks don’t.
The pressure to expand gambling will probably never go away, until people on an individual basis decide to stop. The picture is grim, and we need continuous vigilance to avoid being overwhelmed.
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posted by: Site Administrator on May 30th, 2010
The following is a guest post from Dr. Ivan Zabilka, a research analyst for The Family Foundation of Kentucky and one of the most knowledgeable individuals in the state on attempts to expand gambling in the Commonwealth.
Zabilka is a retired educator and historian. He has two theological degrees (M.Div. and Th.M.) from Asbury Theological Seminary and two degrees in U. S. History (M.A. and Ph.D.) from the University of Kentucky, with a specialty in the history of science. He has been an active opponent of gambling expansion since 1992 when he personally saw in his classroom the damage caused by gambling. He has three published books and numerous published articles in both history and about gambling.
New York Racing Woes
Perhaps casino gambling doesn’t solve all track problems. The New York Racing Authority has been teetering on the brink of bankruptcy for over three years. This week Charles Hayward, the NYRA Chairman, said that the racing season would end within three weeks at Belmont, that is, the day after the running of the Belmont Stakes the third leg of the Triple Crown. The New York City OTB system owes the NYRA $17 million, but the NYCOTBs are bankrupt as well. The NYRA was to receive bundles of cash from slots at Aqueduct. But the legislation passed in 2001 still has not been implemented nine years later, with no machine vendor approved.
Now the winners of the Kentucky Derby and the Preakness are not running in the Belmont and predictions are that betting is going to tank there as well. Supposedly the state of New York promised to bail out the NYRA if they could not get regulations and vendors in place by April 2009. Today it was reported that the state will loan the NYRA $15 to $25 million to keep it afloat until Saratoga begins its meet in July. The NYRA will repay the loan with proceeds from the Aqueduct slots which are now scheduled to begin in August even though a vendor has not been selected.
The Kentucky legislators who have been resisting getting into the slots business at the tracks are looking smarter all the time. Churchill and Keeneland continue to prosper, while competitors continue to struggle. We can now watch and see how Florida fares with slots. The two Indiana tracks continue to hover near bankruptcy even with slots. Pennsylvania continues to be the only slots state that seems to have improving tracks. We shall see.
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posted by: Site Administrator on May 28th, 2010