Reporting

I covered the data center fight in Mercer County by finding the twist: the county paused development while the city of Burgin weighed annexation that could bypass it. I obtained emails and texts through open records requests showing the project's 1.3-gigawatt scale and school officials' months of discussion, then interviewed residents, the mayor, and Shaker Village's CEO.

Construction scaffolding surrounds the Grand Central Rotunda of the Kentucky State Capitol building, currently undergoing construction on January 6, 2026, in Frankfort, Ky. (Tasha Poullard / Herald-Leader) Kentucky could forgo billions of dollars in state sales tax revenue if even a handful of the massive data center projects proposed across the commonwealth qualify for a tax exemption lawmakers expanded statewide last year, according to a new analysis. The potential cost dwa

Alice Whitaker, niece of founder Alice Slone, stood in front of the Cordia School on Ky. 1088 in Cordia. (Charles Bertram / Herald-Leader file photo) CORDIA, Ky. — Tensions flared late last month for the second time in six years between the Knott County Board of Education and a remote and beloved settlement school that has fought to preserve its place in the Appalachian community it has served for nearly a century. With students set to return next week, the school district sa

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.

Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis waves to a crowd of her supporters at a rally in front of the Carter County Detention Center on September 8, 2015, in Grayson, Kentucky. (Ty Wright / Getty Images) Former Rowan County Clerk Kim Davis is facing a new lawsuit in her home turf accusing her of hiding inherited assets to avoid paying the $565,000 federal civil rights judgment against her for refusing to issue marriage licenses to same-sex couples. Attorneys for the two Kentucky men who

Diversified Gas and Oil Corp. maintains a natural gas compressor station in Letcher County it believes it can leverage into an off-grid power generation data center project. Local economic development officials signed an agreement with the company and a real-estate firm called Maverick Holdings to explore the project for about a year. (Austin R. Ramsey / Herald-Leader) LETCHER COUNTY, Ky. — Plans are taking shape for the development of a major, 100 megawatt off-grid power gen

In November 2010, Bruce Maggard called up to the top at an underground coal mine in Perry County to alert them that a car was coming back up the mine shaft. (Jonatahn Palmer / Herald-Leader file photo) PIKEVILLE, Ky. — It isn’t lost on Brandon Crum that the coal dust never really left him or his family. A fourth-generation miner who dug coal in Appalachia since he was a teen, Crum, now a radiologist, sits in Eastern Kentucky exam rooms, studying X-rays and lung scans, diagnos

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

SB 39 would restrict game wardens from enforcing most fishing regulations on private lakes and ponds. (Austin R. Ramsey / Herald-Leader) JOHNSON COUNTY, Ky. — Legislation awaiting a final vote in the Kentucky Senate would strip state game wardens of their ability to enforce most fishing laws on private land and settle a growing controversy between regulators and angler groups who want to stock non-native, hybrid bass. Momentum for the bill, sponsored by Sen. Gary Boswell, R-O

An exterior view of the Kentucky State Capitol building in Frankfort, as seen Feb. 8, 2025. (Tasha Poullard / Herald-Leader) The GOP supermajority in Frankfort and Kentucky’s environmental advocacy groups don’t always see eye-to-eye, but this legislative session, lawmakers and green activists are focused on the same issue: artificial intelligence and the opportunities and risks data centers pose to the commonwealth. Energy- and resource-intensive data centers represent a boon

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

Hazard city officials plan to ask the Kentucky Supreme Court to consider their legal battle challenging the state’s defunct tier system for local restaurant taxes. (Ryan C. Hermens / Herald-Leader) The Kentucky Court of Appeals has denied a petition for a rehearing from an Eastern Kentucky city attempting to levy a 3% restaurant tax, but the city’s attorneys intend to appeal the ruling on the grounds the amended state law underpinning local taxing authority is unconstitutiona

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

Among the number of advisory boards that have been cut by the White House is one that gave guidance on the dangers of lithium ion batteries on aircraft. (Bruce Bennett / Getty Images) The Trump administration this year has eliminated about 160 expert advisory committees across the federal government, almost a third of them over the recommendations of the agencies that oversee them, in by far the biggest purge of nonpartisan regulatory advice in the nearly three decades in whi

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