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We’ll get back to the music on 120 Minutes in just a moment, but first, it’s 1:00 and it’s time to check the news, for this week, January 10th.

The Kentucky Kernel reported Monday that faculty members at UK have expressed concern about “censorship on campus” after UK changed the titles of several of their campus events to remove any “identity-based” terminology. The Kernel cites examples such as an event about women farmers being edited by UK to remove the words “invisible, empowered, and erased”, and an event about economic disparities in D.C. edited to remove the words “gentrification” and “racial wealth gap” from its title. The Kernel said it did not receive a response from UK as to who redacted the titles and whether a list of prohibited words exists. Sociology professor Pat Mooney told the Kernel that UK’s actions are a “slippery slope”, saying that UK “can’t admit that there’s a list, because then it’s clearly censorship and a violation of free speech, so it’s up to us to guess”. The Kernel also reported that department chair Ed Morris emailed faculty back in November to warn them that there are “too many risks to discussing these issues in the current environment” and that speaking to the media could “potentially lead to unforeseen consequences”. Lexington Herald-Leader columnist Linda Blackford wrote on Wednesday about UK’s latest actions, “A university of open inquiry has been turned into an Orwellian swamp where middling bureaucrats play whack-a-mole with words and ideas, using their highlighters to change ‘dangerous’ words as determined by the brain trust leading Frankfort and the federal government. It would be truly hilarious if it weren’t so sad.”

In follow-up on previous news, the Kentucky Kernel also reported over winter break that several local organizations said they were unaware until informed by the media that they were among the over 1,200 UK partnerships at risk of termination. As part of a federal civil rights investigation, UK was ordered to eliminate partnerships with organizations that “may limit participation based on race”, but as previously reported by the Herald-Leader, UK went far beyond those requirements. So far, UK has declined to publicly release any specific reasons for who they targeted. An attorney told the Kernel, “It’s not clear how the university thinks it can withhold this information from the public”. Community partners said rebuilding trust with UK would be difficult and accused UK of acting without empathy or professional courtesy, the Kernel reported.

In other local news, the website Queer Kentucky has launched their 2026 bill tracker. Every year, Queer Kentucky helps keep track of the bills introduced during Kentucky’s legislative session that may impact marginalized people here in Kentucky. This is an important process to follow, especially considering that last year’s legislative session brought us HB4, the anti-DEI bill for higher education that’s led to a chilling effect felt by minorities here at UK, as previously reported by the Kentucky Kernel. As yet more bills inevitably come up this year that threaten marginalized people, Queer Kentucky’s bill tracker helps people stay informed about what’s likely to become law. You can find that bill tracker at queerkentucky.org.

Finally tonight, in national news, the Minnesota Star-Tribune reported Wednesday that federal ICE agent Jonathan Ross shot and killed a U.S. citizen, 37-year-old Renee Nicole Good, while she was driving in her car on the streets of Minneapolis. ICE shot and killed her following her attempt to exercise her First Amendment rights as a legal observer of their activities. Minneapolis mayor Jacob Frey addressed the public shortly after the killing, saying that “people are being hurt”, “long-term residents are being terrorized,” and telling ICE to “get the fuck out of Minneapolis”. Following the killing of Renee Good by ICE, Minnesota Public Radio reported that Border Patrol officers arrived at a Minneapolis high school on Wednesday while students were leaving and tackled and pepper-sprayed them and handcuffed parents and teachers, prompting Minneapolis to cancel school for the rest of the week, citing safety concerns. This week’s developments intensified widespread outrage against the deployment of ICE and Border Patrol in American cities by the Trump administration, with thousands taking to the streets in Minneapolis and other cities across the country to protest a federal government that Minnesota governor Tim Walz said is “at war” with its own states and that California governor Gavin Newsom said is targeting its own citizens with “state-sponsored terrorism”.

And that’s… the news.