Reporting

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

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

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

New Orleans Public Radio coastal reporter Tegan Wendland and I spent months scouring documents and interviewing sources for a five-part investigative series that uncovered decades of overuse, unregulated pumping by industries and agriculture, and scant oversight or action from legislative committees in rural Louisiana. Known For Its Floods, Louisiana Is Running Dangerously Short of Groundwater Louisiana is known for its losing battle against rising seas and increasingly frequ

Analysis of arrests in 15 cities reveals most GeorgeFloyd protesters were charged with misdemeanors and lived within the metro area where they were arrested. Protesters arrested after the May 25 death of George Floyd were a diverse, young group of people who demonstrated close to home and were charged largely with nonviolent crimes, according to a Washington Post review of data on more than 2,600 people detained in 15 cities. The data contradicts suggestions by President Trum

Police found Alani Hutchins, 16, slain in a car in June. A stray bullet hit Michael Goodlow III, 4, in the head on the Fourth of July. Someone shot Victrail Mora, 14, in the back of the head near the steps to his mother’s apartment on Aug. 12. At least 17 children have died violently in St. Louis this year, a tally that has shocked residents and underscored a widening racial crime disparity in that city and others amid the coronavirus pandemic. As the upward trajectory of cri

After days of sharp pain shooting up her left abdomen, Rose Wong hobbled from her history class to the student health center at Duke University. A nurse pressed on the 20-year-old’s belly and told her it felt like gas. Wong questioned the diagnosis but said the nurse dismissed her doubts and sent her to the campus pharmacy to pick up Gas-X that afternoon in February 2019. The next morning, Wong doubled over in pain, and a roommate drove her to a nearby emergency room in Durha

Since demonstrations against racial inequality and police brutality erupted two weeks ago in the District, more than 400 people have been arrested, most for curfew violations or looting, and city law enforcement officials said they have seen no evidence so far that organized groups came to carry out violence. The most common charge was for violating a curfew that was in place for four days. Many other cases involve minor assault or destruction of property. President Trump has

I had the exciting opportunity to put my video editing skills to task working alongside a team of features videographers at The Weather...

TOOLEVILLE, Calif. — An ongoing struggle between two communities less than a mile apart in one of the nation’s key farming regions is a microcosm that illustrates the challenges California faces as it tries to deliver clean, affordable drinking water to more than 1 million residents without access to what the state has called a “basic human right.” Nestled among orange groves in the Central Valley, the community of Tooleville has just 391 residents. Hardly a town or a village

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

The mayor of Dayton, Ohio, the site of a deadly mass shooting last month that killed nine and injured 27 others, challenged members of Congress on Wednesday to ban assault-style weapons she said are responsible for the carnage her city witnessed. Mayor Nan Whaley testified before the House Judiciary Committee, describing in detail an excruciating 32 seconds of terror as a man wielding an AR-15–style handgun turned it on crowds of bar patrons in a busy Dayton entertainment dis

When a chilling discovery thrust the quality of a public utility's drinking water supply into question, it became clear that fair and accurate coverage required more than just one story. I wanted to include these two stories among my writing samples for two reasons, however: Not only do they represent a long series, but they illustrate how that coverage can sometimes become the story, no matter how hard you try to prevent it. Investigation Uncovers Contaminants in Water, OMU

A new plan city leaders say they are considering could result in several notable downtown institutions relocating in the wake of the much-anticipated International Bluegrass Music Center grand opening this fall. Details of that plan revealed to the Messenger-Inquirer this week indicate that the Owensboro Museum of Science and History could be forced to downsize and move from its current location at the former S.W. Anderson Building across the street into space where the blueg

In 2013 for the first time in over 50 years West Kentucky coal mines produced more than their eastern counterparts. Coal companies employ more than 4,000 people in 10 west Kentucky counties, and more than 90% of Kentucky’s power comes from this ancient mineral. But there is much more beyond these numbers. In this joint, WKMS documentary, reporters explore West Kentucky Coal and its people, places and power.