Reporting

Adam Anderson, an employee at N.c. Bailey general contracting in Fleming-Neon, clears a parking lot of mud after floodwaters rushed through Main Street early Friday morning. (Austin R. Ramsey / Herald-Leader) FLEMING-NEON, Ky. — Bonnie Kincer has rebuilt the little flower shop and dance studio she owns on Main Street in Fleming-Neon twice, after destructive Eastern Kentucky floods tore through the old theater building in 2022 and again in 2025. On Friday morning, as she surve

William Bader, who leads a faction of the Ku Klux Klan in Kentucky, shouts racial slurs to African Americans at a Klan demonstration on July 18, 2015, in Columbia, South Carolina. Flyers appearing in several northeastern Indiana communities advertise a rally and cross-lighting ceremony supposedly planned for Aug. 8 somewhere in Kentucky’s vast Daniel Boone National Forest. (John Moore / Getty Images) WINCHESTER, Ky. — Flyers promoting an alleged Ku Klux Klan rally in Kentucky

I reported on a former safety officer's whistleblower lawsuit alleging he was fired after reporting suspected child sex crimes. I read the complaint closely, sought comment from the superintendent, and got the Prestonsburg police chief on record to test the claims. I tied the case to a same-week sting arrest and explained Kentucky's whistleblower statutes.

The U.S. Capitol Building is pictured. (Creative Commons) Legislation designed to ensure rapidly developing data centers don’t raise residential power bills sailed through a key Congressional committee Tuesday, teeing up a full vote on the House floor. The U.S. House Energy and Commerce Committee, chaired by Kentucky Republican Congressman Brett Guthrie, advanced the bipartisan Ratepayer Protection Act, 52-0. The bill would require state utility regulators to consider large-l

When the Department of Education targeted 20 districts nationwide, I focused on the local angle: only Perry County, Kentucky, was named. I got the district's response on the record as the probe began, tied it to the Herald-Leader's 2022 investigation into teacher misconduct, explained Title IX and Kentucky's new grooming law, and interviewed attorney John Manly on why the threat of lost federal funding carries weight.

This pair of stories demonstrates the power of fast and efficient breaking-news coverage. I uncovered and broke this story and was able to quickly follow up by reporting about the real-world consequences of the officers involved. Police tape is pictured. (Royalty-free Getty Images) FBI asked to intervene after KY police reportedly slap mentally ill man following arrest The Laurel County Sheriff’s Office has asked the FBI to investigate the London Police Department following a

An example of tying environmental and energy coverage with daily business news, I followed and broke multiple stories about one of the few remaining glimmers of hope for laid off coal workers in Eastern Kentucky as its profits plunged. A coal pile is photographed in Totz, Ky., on Sunday, April 14, 2024. (Ryan C. Hermens /Herald-Leader) EKY coal operator with 16 regional mines files for bankruptcy after layoffs PIKEVILLE, Ky. — The Pike County coal company that furloughed and

Not far from where I was based in Eastern Kentucky covering the region for the Lexington Herald-Leader, I followed a local political disagreement that had regional and statewide ramifications. Developers are eyeing the small community of Myra in Pike County, Ky., as the future site of a 450-acre landfill project that would store garbage from surrounding counties in several states. The community is pushing back. (Austin R. Ramsey / Herald-Leader) Eastern KY residents fight pro

Outdoorsmen and women play a key role in the protection of Kentucky's natural resources, because the state funds its fish and game agency primarily through hunting, fishing and boating licenses. I made it a mission of mine at the Herald-Leader to engage with the little-known agency and give readers an inside look at how it functions. Kentucky Fish and Wildlife Commission Chair Chuck Meade speaks during a May commission meeting. (Screenshot / YouTube, Kentucky Department of Fi

Cultivating sources inside some of Kentucky's largest consumer advocacy groups and Republican lawmakers in Frankfort, my colleagues and I led coverage of dueling studies about the future of electricity in the commonwealth. TVA’s Paradise Fossil Plant in Western Kentucky, once a major source of coal-fired power, was shut down in 2020 after decades of operation. The plant’s closure marked another chapter in the region’s long transition away from coal. (Bill Estep / Herald-Leade

The Trump administration began clearing the way for alternative assets in workplace 401(k)s by eliminating Biden-era guidance warning plans about the danger off-market funds posed to retirement-saver nest eggs. The US Labor Department said it was rescinding a 2021 supplemental statement that cautioned against private-market valuation risks, illiquidity, and lack of transparency. Biden attached the statement to the strategy Trump’s DOL laid out during his first term, establish

The US Labor Department has released a closely watched rule that will expand strict fiduciary standards of conduct to cover more retirement plan advisers, and has already drawn ire from Wall Street. The rule from the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration could equip regulators with more power to oversee Wall Street heavy hitters and require companies to comply with expensive disclosure exemptions. EBSA will release the regulation on its website Tuesday following mon

The federal government overpaid one of the nation’s largest union-backed pensions by more than $127 million in bailout cash because it failed to detect dead participants the plan had reported, according to a new watchdog memo. A review by the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation’s Office of Inspector General found the government’s private-sector retirement plan insurer didn’t cross-check deceased participants the Central States Pension Plan reported in its application for spe

Employers can soon choose to let workers’ student loan repayments count toward 401(k) matching contributions under a recently enacted benefits law, but many are wary of taking that step while so much is unsettled with federal loan forgiveness programs. The program, part of the SECURE 2.0 Act (Public Law 117-328), was designed to address concerns that too many workers burdened with student debt are funneling money to their loan service providers instead of their 401(k)s, missi

Workplace retirement savers who fall victim to cyber crimes are finding they don’t always have an easy way to get their money back as employers and service providers grapple over who’s responsible. The $19.8 trillion employer-sponsored retirement industry is ripe for web-based thieves, especially as portfolio management and distribution services shift online. Several high-profile federal lawsuits involving companies such as Abbott Laboratories Inc., Colgate-Palmolive Co., and

As calls to defund law enforcement reach a fever pitch nationwide, New Mexico’s largest city is answering concerns about its police department by forming an alternative. Albuquerque Mayor Tim Keller (D) announced on Monday the formation of a new public safety department designed to relieve stress on the city’s police. Instead of the police or fire departments responding to 911 calls related to inebriation, homelessness, addiction and mental health, the new division will deplo

Bombshell testimony Wednesday draws Trump and his cabinet into the impeachment drama. In sworn testimony before House impeachment investigators Wednesday, Ambassador Gordon Sondland connected President Donald Trump and his personal attorney in a “quid pro quo” relationship involving access to the White House and politically motivated investigations. Sondland, the country’s top diplomat to the European Union, said Trump’s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani facilitated a pressure

Now more than 17 years after the two so-called “D.C. snipers” carried out a murderous rampage in the Washington metro area, the U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday heard oral arguments for a case that could decide if the younger of that pair will get a second chance at sentencing. At its core, the case centers on the rights of juvenile defendants and how how far trial judges can go in sentencing them for capital convictions. “It can be summarized in two words, which is that ‘yout

Two, back-to-back reports of gunfire on the same night near one Petworth rowhouse have reignited a simmering controversy among neighbors. It sounded like thunder. That’s what Charles Coleman said he remembers about the night he awoke to gunfire echoing against terraced homes two weeks ago near his home on Shepherd Street NW. They startled him and his wife from their bed and stirred a frenzy of barking dogs, bedroom lights and sleepy eyes peering past curtains into the early m