In a state short of jobs, outsiders promising big investments typically receive a red-carpet welcome from Kentucky public officials. That was no doubt the expectation when Big Tech companies began scouting data center locations in the commonwealth. But when the trickle of interest became a flood, and when the proposals swelled from small data centers […]

Republican Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman is appointing the former CEO of electric utility East Kentucky Power Cooperative and a CEO of a barge company, both with coal industry ties, to a commission that the state legislature is looking to for advice on energy policy.  In a Friday release, Coleman said he was appointing “two […]

U.S. Sen. Mitch McConnell says he has been discharged from a rehabilitation program after a seven-week absence from the Senate.  McConnell, 84, was hospitalized in June and said on July 12 he would enter a rehabilitation center.  “Earlier today, I was discharged from the rehabilitation center to continue my recovery at home. Elaine and I […]

FANCY FARM, Ky. – The three-day political cavalcade that ends at the Fancy Farm Picnic was less about this year than next year. Yes, the picnic’s political speaking featured the first faceoff of candidates to succeed retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell, and they had vigorous exchanges – with each other and the largely Republican crowd stoked […]

Gov. Andy Beshear is expanding Kentucky’s “Pre-K for All” pilot program again — this time to his dad’s hometown of Dawson Springs.  About 160 children will be enrolled through the Dawson Springs Independent School District, Beshear announced Thursday.  “This is a town that’s been through a lot. It’s been through a level of heartbreak that’s […]

Democratic Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says he’s signing an executive order to protect Kentuckians “against any harmful impacts from potential data centers,” directing the state utility regulator and environmental protection officials to take specific actions on data centers.  During a Thursday press conference, Beshear said economic wins “can never come at the cost of the […]

On Wednesday, Nate Morris jumped through one of the last hoops to become the next U.S. Ambassador to Colombia. Morris answered questions from the Senate Foreign Relations committee, in preparation for a committee vote that will send his nomination to the full Senate. Morris is a native Kentuckian, a successful businessman, and a popular figure […]

U.S. Rep. James Comer appears to be the favorite to win the Republican nomination in next year’s Kentucky governor race before he’s even announced he’s running. Meanwhile, Democrats must decide between Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman and former Democratic House leader Rocky Adkins.

U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. traveled to Lexington on Wednesday to announce his office is firing a Kentucky organ donation organization accused of pursuing critically ill patients for their organs. Kennedy said the decision to decertify the nonprofit was reached after numerous reviews. “Federal reviewers found serious deficiencies in nearly […]

LEXINGTON — Kentucky is still not building nearly enough homes across all incomes, but especially for lower-income people, to bridge the state’s large housing supply gap that’s burdening some Kentuckians with severe housing costs, according to a state housing executive.  Kentucky would need to build more housing at a higher rate than currently just to […]

This story was published through the Appalachian News Exchange, a regional media collaboration.  Respiratory therapist Marcy Freeman doesn’t need a research study to confirm for her a return to the dark days of coal mining. She finds evidence in a stack of more than 150 funeral programs, all for former patients at her pulmonary rehabilitation […]

In the late summer of 1974 somebody set fire to the Mountain Eagle in Whitesburg. The blaze took the offices, the files, the bound archives — most of the institutional memory of Letcher County that Tom and Pat Gish had been accumulating since they bought the paper in 1956 and changed its masthead from “A […]

The mayor of Kentucky’s largest city is calling on city council members to pass a temporary ban or moratorium on data center construction within the city while the local government mulls over potential regulations restricting the siting and impacts of large data centers.  In a Tuesday afternoon press conference, Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said that […]

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear joined a coalition of Democratic state officials in suing to block the Trump administration from getting access to sensitive data of families receiving Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) benefits.  Filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., the lawsuit said that the Administration for Children and Families had issued a notice […]

New research — which Kentucky participated in as a trial site — shows a combination of cannabidiol (CBD) and tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) can help late-stage dementia patients feel less agitation.  Dr. Greg Jicha, the director of clinical trials at the University of Kentucky’s Sanders-Brown Center on Aging, said this combination, given to patients all over the […]

Character. The word seems antique in these rancorous times, as rare as truth.  As rare as objectivity and nuance in our political discourse. I recently came across Thomas Jefferson’s reminiscence of his fellow Virginian and nation-builder, George Washington: “I think I knew General Washington intimately and thoroughly; and were I called on to delineate his […]

A construction contractor says a hyperscale data center developer asked him to continue to clear Bell County land where a data center is planned, despite a two-year temporary ban on data center construction passed by the county government.  Lexington-based Murray Industries wants to use land with leftover electrical infrastructure for coal mining along the Bell-Knox […]

This article was produced for ProPublica’s Local Reporting Network in partnership with the Lexington Herald-Leader.  By the end of 2020, Kentucky’s newly elected Gov. Andy Beshear had one goal above all others: Keep people alive. The state was battling two merciless threats. COVID-19 was killing hundreds of people each month, and deadly drug overdoses were among […]

Paducah Mayor George Bray calls the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant in McCracken County the ideal site for a hyperscale data center.  When the plant was enriching uranium, initially for the nation’s stockpile of nuclear weapons and then for nuclear power plant fuel, it had the ability to use over 3 gigawatts of power and […]

As politicians in Washington D.C. and Dr. Anthony Fauci butted heads over the latter’s handling of the COVID-19 pandemic, a nonpartisan commission — which includes a former Kentucky governor — is pushing for better relationships between elected and public health officials.  The “Good Health is Good Governance” toolkit, released in July, challenges leaders to commit […]