The Daily Feather — Does Kentucky Ever Cross Your Mind?

If you’re ever in Salina, Utah, the last order of business is using the facilities. If you forget to do so after hopping on Interstate 70, you’ll have to wait 110 miles. The longest stretch of road in the U.S. interstate highway system without motorist services -- no gas stations, no bathrooms, and no exits – has no legal way to turn around either. Your eyeballs will be swimming by the time you hit Green River. For women it’s more of a problem. For men taking a whiz might be easy on I-70 which doubles as the Dinosaur Diamond Prehistoric Highway, one of the few to be listed as a National Scenic Byway. But some things for them were differently more difficult in the Wild West. At the risk of being indelicate, if you embarked upon a similar journey from Fort Worth, Texas in 1866, you’d be taking a lot more in your hand than anything seen on I 70. From that year through 1890, cattle drivers steered more than four million head through what became a major railhead. From there, you drove your longhorns across the Red River into Indian territory. Population 961,885 today, some might call Cowtown a bona fide city.

George Strait’s “Does Fort Worth Ever Cross Your Mind” is a smooth catchy tune made for dancing. It’s not Strait’s Texas, but another state that comes to mind when I find myself thinking of smooth. Not for dancing but for being the last man standing. Thursday’s release of continuing jobless claims for the week ended October 23rd left Kentucky as (almost) the last state standing. After a best-of-cycle reading of -47.5% year-over-year (YoY), Oklahoma’s continuing jobless claims are now at -0.3% YoY. That leaves Kentucky, which has been much steadier. Back in September 2022, not a single state in the U.S. had rising ranks of sidelined workers collecting unemployment benefits; at the time nationwide continuing jobless claims were -50.8% YoY. Thirteen months ago, at -40.5% YoY, Kentucky was faring a bit worse on a relative basis. As for the here and now, Kentucky claims remain at -13.3% YoY while they are up by a post-pandemic high of 30.2% YoY nationwide.