FLEMING-NEON — Anna Gomez doesn’t know how long she’ll remain on the Federal Communications Commission under President Donald Trump. But for the time being, she says she’s speaking out against “this administration’s campaign of censorship and control.”

“It is my responsibility to respond to these attacks on the First Amendment,” Gomez told a small gathering in Eastern Kentucky on Wednesday. “I refuse to stay quiet while the government chips away at fundamental rights by weaponizing our regulatory authority.”

Gomez is one of three current commissioners — the only Democrat among them — overseeing the Federal Communications Commission (FCC), an independent federal agency that regulates a broad range of communications industries, including television, radio, satellite, internet and cable.

Traditionally, the agency has overseen the licensing of television and radio stations, taken on initiatives such as combating robocalls and worked to expand internet access across the country. But actions launched by the FCC in the months since the Trump administration has returned to power have greatly troubled Gomez.

Under FCC chairman Brendan Carr, a Republican confirmed by the U.S. Senate during President Donald Trump’s first term, the regulator has launched investigations into public media stations’ use of sponsorships; opened a probe into the promotion of diversity, equity and inclusion programs at Comcast, the parent company for NBC News; and revived complaints that media coverage was biased against Trump.

”The FCC has targeted the editorial decisions of news networks, independent reporting by public media and internal labor practices by private companies. These are dangerous and unprecedented actions by an independent government regulator,” Gomez said.

Gomez has embarked on a nationwide tour advocating for First Amendment rights and speaking out against what she sees as Trump administration actions to undermine those rights. Her first two stops were in two of the country’s largest cities, Los Angeles and Washington D.C., but her latest stop Wednesday was at a community center in the Letcher County community of Fleming-Neon, population around 500.

She said recent FCC actions are especially troubling because media corporations targeted by Trump and the FCC also have business before the FCC.

One example Gomez poses: CBS News and its parent company Paramount.

One of the FCC’s revived complaints over media coverage centers on CBS News’ “60 Minutes” news magazine show. Trump had sued the show over claims that an interview with Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris was deceitfully edited, something CBS News’ parent company Paramount has denied.

Paramount is trying to settle the Trump lawsuit at the same time it is seeking approval from the Trump-appointed FCC for a merger with media company Skydance. As lawsuit settlement discussions continue, both the executive producer of “60 Minutes” and the president and CEO of CBS News have resigned. Bill Owens, the 60 Minutes executive producer, had said he could no longer lead the show independently.

“The FCC is supposed to make decisions based on law, facts and technical expertise, not politics,” Gomez said. “We need journalists who feel free to report the truth even when it cuts against our own political biases, and corporate parents who give journalists the independence they need.”

The Lantern sought the FCC’s response to Gomez’s criticisms by emailing an address associated with Republican FCC Chair Carr but received no response by late Wednesday.

Gomez also doesn’t know how long she’ll be in her position. Other members of independent agencies such as the Federal Trade Commission and the Nuclear Energy Regulatory Commission have been fired by Trump this year. She said she checks her email daily to see if she’s next, even though she plans to continue her tour even if the Trump administration seeks to remove her.

“I don’t know why I haven’t been fired. I have not been quiet,” Gomez said.

‘Speak their truth’

Other members of the panel Gomez joined in Letcher County were also not quiet in advocating for rights protected by the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment, including freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom of the press, freedom of assembly and freedom to petition one’s government with grievances.

Other panelists included a journalist, a church deacon, a former Democratic Kentucky state representative and the leaders of Letcher County nonprofits Appalshop, the Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center and the Center for Rural Strategies which organized the event.

“People being able to speak their truth is what is going to really be healing for our country,” said Tiffany Sturdivant, the executive director of the media, arts and education center Appalshop in Whitesburg. “I want us to really, really be brave. Freedom of speech is to me — it’s about telling the truth and not being afraid of that.”

Wading through the near-instant accessibility of information and news sources is a different challenge, though. Sturdivant said people should try to “seek out the truth for themselves” and have conversations in person and in their communities beyond social media.

While stereotypes about Eastern Kentucky are perpetuated in the national media, she said, there can be “something special” about having an in-person conversation that can dispel those narratives.

Wes Addington, executive director of the nonprofit law firm Appalachian Citizens’ Law Center, told the gathered audience that it was up to people to continue to advocate for the right to petition one’s government — specifically in court before a judge.

Another panelist, author and former Democratic Kentucky state Rep. Bill Weinberg, mentioned how Elon Musk had at one point called for the impeachment of judges who defy or delay the Trump administration’s efforts to overhaul the federal government.

Addington responded by saying while some court decisions go down in history as deplorable — such as the U.S. Supreme Court allowing the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II — decisions can be reversed. But not abiding by decisions in real time is “when you cross that line.”

“When the decisions of the Supreme Court become something you can decide in the moment whether you’re going to follow or not,” Addington said, “that’s when you lose what this country was founded on.”

Gomez said hearing from the other panelists reaffirmed her belief in the need for journalism and the need to protect journalism.

“A lot of people that I speak to tell me they’re tired. It’s a little too soon to be tired,” Gomez said. “We need to take care of our precious liberties, and the way that we do that is by being aware and by speaking up and pushing back.”

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

CENTRAL CITY — Pastor Jennifer Banks and other leaders of Abundant Life Church were not sure what to expect when the mayor of this Western Kentucky town called a meeting to talk about their plans for helping people who are experiencing homelessness.

They had briefed the mayor and a few city officials once before. This time they were surprised to see downtown business owners and other city officials also gathered in the room.

They soon heard that the church’s plan — they had dubbed it the “Beacon of Hope” — was setting off alarms.

They were warned that their outreach to locals in need would attract — was already attracting — people from other places, raising fears that the community’s already short supply of housing and services would be strained even further. The specter was raised of Austin, Texas, where voters banned panhandling and camping in public places in response to burgeoning encampments.

“What will happen to a city that takes in all of this stuff — it’s destroyed,” said Central City Mayor Tony Armour. “We’re short on homes for people that live here, but the more we reach out for people to come in here, the shorter we’re going to be for homes.”

Zachary Banks provided the Lantern with an audio recording of the meeting.

Mayor Armour did not respond to requests seeking an interview about the December gathering. The Lantern sent emails requesting an interview, left messages by phone and in person at city hall.

During the meeting, Armour said constituents were complaining about seeing homeless people around the church and about water running off from its mobile shower. “We’ve got major people upset here in the city about the church.”

Abundant Life had gained a reputation as a place people could come for a meal and other resources. The church had allowed people to sleep in its parking lot when they had nowhere else to go. The Felix Martin Foundation, a local nonprofit, provided a grant to install a mobile shower outside the church.

At one point during the meeting, the mayor said to Jennifer Banks, “You’re not seeing the big picture. You’re seeing the kindness of your heart, and I appreciate that. I love you for that. But you know what? We’re not willing to destroy our community.”

“We’re not either, sir,” Banks responded. “The church was supposed to take care of widows. The church was supposed to take care of orphans. We’re supposed to feed. We’re supposed to clothe, and at the end of the day, Abundant Life Church-Central City is just trying to be that.”

The meeting ended with tentative plans to meet again and Armour saying there were different visions on “how to move forward and what to do.”

The mayor and Abundant Life Church leaders haven’t had any meetings since, and the “Beacon of Hope” plan to buy a local motel and transform it into something more is still in the talking stages.

The motel is already a place where people without shelter stay, sometimes paid for by a local church or members of a loose coalition of community members trying to help people experiencing homelessness or unstable housing.

The “Beacon of Hope” idea for the motel: Turn the rooms into efficiency apartments, where tenants could pay rent to build up a financial record, eventually moving on to other housing.

Local agencies could come in and provide pop-up services — dental clinics, mental health care — and the church would offer Bible studies. When asked if the idea would be a form of transitional housing, Jennifer Banks said “what is in our heart fits in no category that already exists.

“If services are offered in one location, even if it’s once a month, even if it’s once every six months — if it’s accessible to you zero times a year, but now it is twice a year, that can change the whole dynamic of everything,” she said.

Jennifer Banks said the church is still in conversations with the owner of the Central Inn about a possible purchase.

Meanwhile, disagreements over how to help have frayed the informal coalition seeking solutions. Some arguments are over how to help people who are using drugs. The debates also center on numbers: How many people are experiencing homelessness in Muhlenberg County? Does that number justify something like an emergency shelter?

AsheLynn Andrews, operator of a tattoo shop in Central City, worked closely with Gwen Clements and Abundant Life Church until they split over who and how to help.

In an interview in October, Andrews argued there is no need for a shelter — something she thinks would attract homeless people from other places — because there are only a handful of homeless people in Central City.

Clements, on the other hand, says she knows of dozens of people across Muhlenberg County who are homeless at least art of the time. Numbers are fluid, she said, changing depending on the time of year, weather and individual personal circumstances.

The Point in Time Count — an annual, federally-coordinated count of the number of people experiencing homelessness across the country on one day of the year — counted just one person as unsheltered in Muhlenberg County in 2024.

Advocates for the unhoused and even federal officials acknowledge the count is an underestimate because unsheltered people can be hard to find, the number of volunteers surveying can vary from community to community, the timing of the count in January when it’s cold means fewer people are outside, and the count is only a snapshot of one day.

Another count by Kentucky school districts that seeks to capture the number of students in unsafe and unstable housing situations reported 34 students, all of them in kindergarten or first grade, in that category in Muhlenberg County during the 2023-24 school year.

Muhlenberg County spans hundreds of square miles of rolling hills, making it hard sometimes to find people who are known to be without shelter. Finding them becomes urgent when the weather turns dangerous.

In January, the loose coalition sprang into action when bitterly cold air swept across the state, plunging temperatures into the deadly range.

Clements took to Facebook, asking her neighbors for donations to put unhoused people into motel rooms at the Central Inn and another hotel. Debra Gorham, a local food pantry director, met Clements at Wendy’s, and handed her hundreds of dollars Gorham had gathered for the effort.

Clements knew one of the people she had to find was someone she had known years before he started living outside, a man well known for walking the streets of Central City.

“Sometimes it’s difficult if you’re looking for him, it’s difficult to find him because you don’t know where he’s at, who he’s with, where he’s staying from day to day,” Clements said.

She had to find John Paul Shanks.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says at least 14 people are dead after tornadoes, wind and hail tore across Kentucky Friday evening into Saturday morning. Beshear said he expects the death toll from the storms to rise.

The Southeastern Kentucky cities of London and Somerset appear to be especially hard hit by tornadic damage. Somerset Mayor Alan Keck declared a local state of emergency Saturday morning, and London Mayor Randall Weddle told Lexington TV station WKYT that “lives have been changed forever here tonight.”

Beshear had declared a statewide state of emergency on Friday ahead of the “dangerous” storm system. Beshear wrote on X that five counties had declared a local state of emergency as well.

“This is another tough morning for Kentucky after a night of deadly weather,” Beshear said in posts on X, mentioning he has spoken with Federal Emergency Management Agency officials. “The devastation from last night’s deadly weather is heartbreaking, but we are going to make sure we get the support needed to recover and rebuild together.”

Social media users on Facebook and X posted pictures of what appears to have been a significant overnight tornado in Southeastern Kentucky. South Kentucky RECC, a local electricity cooperative, stated on Facebook that its building in Somerset took a “major hit.” The London-Corbin airport in Laurel County posted on Facebook drone footage of demolished airport buildings, along with nearby homes sustaining damage as well.

Over 90,000 Kentuckians across the state, from west to southeast, had lost power as of Saturday morning, according to the website PowerOutages.us that compiles power outage data.

Beshear said in an X post the Red Cross had available space at First Baptist Church of London and that more information on other shelter space would be shared when available.

State lawmakers from the area issued this joint statement from Sen. Brandon Storm, who represents Laurel County, Sen. Rick Girdler, who represents Pulaski County, and Senate President Robert Stivers, who represents multiple southeastern Kentucky counties:

“This is one of the hardest days our communities and region have faced. Lives have been lost. Families have been shattered. Homes and businesses have been destroyed. Sadly, we expect the loss to grow as search and rescue efforts continue.

“The destruction in Laurel and Pulaski counties is overwhelming, but so is the strength of the people who call this place home. Neighbors are already showing up to help one another, and first responders continue working around the clock.

“Local and state officials are working to get immediate help to those in need. If you’re looking for a way to help, please do. Every act of kindness makes a difference.“Our hearts are heavy today, but our commitment to helping these communities rebuild is even stronger.”

This story may be updated.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.