Reporting

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

The Nature Conservancy led a project to restore this stream in Pulaski County that flows into Buck Creek, at left, to improve water quality in both. (Wilkinson Visual / Herald-Leader file photo) Senate Republicans are advancing legislation that would severely restrict Kentucky regulators from setting environmental policies by tying them directly to bare-minimum standards at the federal level — a move critics say threatens to permanently rebalance power in Frankfort. The Senat

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

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

Rural Martin County, Kentucky, remains one of the most underfunded water systems in America, contaminated by a devastated coal slurry spill more than 25 years ago. I used this short series to shine light on efforts underway in the community to clear up the community's water and reputation. The Curtis Crum Reservoir in Martin County, Ky., is seen Oct. 2, 2018. Water is pumped from the Tug Fork River and stored here before being treated and delivered to residents. (Alex Slitz /

The success of the Trump administration’s mission to modernize workplace 401(k)s with alternative private investments hinges on risk-averse employers that have steered worker assets almost exclusively into stocks and bonds for decades. President Donald Trump‘s executive order on Thursday paves the way for companies to consider offering private market, cryptocurrency, and other off-market investments in retirement plan menus. The order seeks to overcome deep-rooted employer sk

The Trump administration is rescinding 2022 US Labor Department guidance that discouraged workplace 401(k) cryptocurrency investing. The Biden-era guidance cautioned companies to exercise “extreme care” before adding crypto to their employees’ investment menus. That stance departed from the neutral approach the DOL’s Employee Benefits Security Administration is required to take by law, the agency said in a statement Wednesday. The 2022 guidance threatened an “investigative pr

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 part of my practicum studies at The Washington Post — and a relationship I fostered with the general assignment desk there — I joined a team of reporters telling the unique stories of people the region had lost as a result of the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic. The series chronicled the local tragedies and brought a human element to the numbers we'd grown used to seeing and reading about in the news. Longtime Miriam's Kitchen Employee Dies of Coronavirus Complications After Da

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

It’s no surprise that President Donald Trump has pushed for stricter immigration enforcement since he came into office. It was a key focus of his campaign. In his first State of the Union address, President Trump spent more than 10 minutes of the address talking about immigration from the U.S-Mexico border wall to the need for more border officers and stricter enforcement. “It is time to reform these outdated immigration rules, and finally bring our immigration system into th

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

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

Empathy, fairness and ethics are among the values that shape Americans’ measure of trust in public officials, and that trust, according to a new Pew Research Center report, continues to decline. The study found that Americans share nuanced views on which trust-building factors are important for which institutions, meaning the keys to winning them over — at the ballot box or elsewhere — may not be easy. “Trust is a variegated phenomenon; it’s not sort of this black-and-white,

D emocrats on Capitol Hill shot back at President Donald Trump’s administration on Wednesday, less than a week after his Environmental...

Security measures designed to protect American chemical manufacturers from terror threats aren’t being adequately communicated to those industry’s neighbors, according to an environmental justice advocate who testified Wednesday before a House energy and climate change subcommittee. ​ Michele Roberts, national co-coordinator for the Environmental Justice Health Alliance, told lawmakers that a Department of Homeland Security program that identifies high-risk threats of terror