Speed Kentucky plans to open a $1.47 million facility in Owsley County and employ 60 people who will work on “final assembly and distribution” of the company’s utility task vehicles, Gov. Andy Beshear said Wednesday.  This is the “largest investment and job creation announcement” in the county’s history, Beshear said. Owsley County, in Eastern Kentucky, […]

This story first appeared on WEKU. It’s republished here as part of the Appalachian News Exchange reporting partnership to strength Kentucky journalism. The state Public Service Commission said Tuesday it will not allow a group of stakeholders to intervene in an audit of Kentucky Power’s operations and management. The PSC launched the investigation earlier this year, though […]

This coming Monday — Oct. 5 — is the last day for Kentuckians to register to vote ahead of the November general election.  Registering can be completed online, via mail or by returning voter registration cards to your local County Clerk’s office. As of August, the state has about 3.3 million registered voters.  In order to vote […]

HARRODSBURG — The Mercer County Fiscal Court rejected zoning regulations on Monday that would have allowed the siting of large data centers on land adjacent to a Kentucky Utilities coal-fired power plant. The unanimous vote by county elected officials during a special meeting is the latest development in the rural community following months of contentious […]

OWEN COUNTY, Ky. — She usually had a “stomach of steel.” Most food wouldn’t really bother her. But when Eliza Petzinger had a helping of country ham during her family’s Christmas dinner last year, the strong reaction — stomach discomfort and nausea — came just hours later.  “I was so sick, and so I knew. […]

A decade or so ago I was talking with the CEO of a Fortune 500 company. The conversation turned to healthcare, and I was in a snarky mood.   “How do you like being in the health insurance business?” I asked, clearly looking for an argument over federal healthcare policy, because I had consistently supported single […]

Gov. Andy Beshear created the Governor’s Office of Music last week by executive order, saying the new office will work to connect and support artists through the Tourism, Arts and Heritage Cabinet.  The office will do that, in part, through its Industry Directory, which hopes to “fuel ongoing collaboration and growth” and will feature artists, […]

Kentucky towns are serving as the backdrop of holiday movies, thrillers and “Ethan Almighty,” an upcoming film about the dog who inspired the passage of a Kentucky law criminalizing abuse of dogs and cats.  The bump in film production in the commonwealth can be attributed to Kentucky lawmakers building up the state’s film incentives in […]

My connection to Appalachia didn’t begin when I became a community development professional; it began generations ago. Like many Appalachians, my story is woven into the history of our mountains and the communities that call them home. I chose to spend my career serving Eastern Kentucky because I believe in the people and places that […]

This story was first published in The Edge. Doctors who train in Kentucky will practice in Kentucky. That’s the thinking behind Eastern Kentucky University’s plan to build a medical school at its main campus in Richmond to help address a shortage of primary care and other physicians statewide. The first class of EKU-trained doctors is […]

On Oct. 24, 2021, dressed as a zombie and dancing in Lexington’s annual Thriller Parade, I collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest and died in front of the Kentucky Theatre. Main Street was packed with a thousand zombies and 10,000 spectators, making it impossible for an emergency vehicle to navigate through the horde of zombies. If […]

The Kentucky Supreme Court will not reconsider their decision that stopped the General Assembly from impeaching Fayette Circuit Judge Julie Goodman, according to a Thursday ruling. Last spring, the House voted to forward article of impeachment to the Senate, but the Supreme Court found the process unlawful because it violated constitutional separation of powers and […]

Gov. Andy Beshear asked Kentucky’s congressional delegation in a Thursday letter to throw their support behind a bill amending the Black Lung Benefits Act to “provide adequate benefits for miners suffering from black lung disease.”  The Black Lung Benefits Act “provides monthly payments and medical benefits to coal miners totally disabled from pneumoconiosis (black lung […]

Attorney General Russell Coleman found the University of Kentucky to be in violation of Kentucky’s open records law in three different cases since August, showing the school’s continuing pattern of problems with the state law aimed at government transparency. The Lexington Herald-Leader found that in 2025, 18 of 24 appeals to records denied by public […]

Lawmakers raised concerns this week that a new state policy could leave retirees covered by the Kentucky Employees’ Health Plan without coverage.  Gov. Andy Beshear’s office said it’s determined to keep that from happening.  During Tuesday’s meeting of the Public Pension Oversight Board, co-chair Rep.Walker Thomas, R-Hopkinsville, said that people who don’t make a health […]

“We're in Kentucky to stay. Planned Parenthood is not going anywhere.”

A land conservation nonprofit in Kentucky is using grant funding to add signs near birding “hotspots” in Eastern Kentucky that people can use to document birds through an app supported by an ornithology lab at Cornell University.  The Kentucky Natural Lands Trust is using part of a $10,000 grant from the Cornell Lab of Ornithonology […]

If there are one or two of you out there who still have doubts that Gov. Andy Beshear will run for president in 2028, doubt no more. This week, he officially released “Go and Do Likewise: How We Heal a Broken County,” joining the Presidential Hopeful section of your local bookstore already stocked with choices […]

Gov. Andy Beshear chairs the Democratic Governors Association this year and in that role his job is to help elect as many Democratic governors as possible in November.  In working toward that goal, Beshear’s super PAC, In This Together, made a $100,000 contribution in August to Project Battleground Georgia, a political committee supporting the election […]

Nearly two years ago, I wrote in this publication that the Kentucky General Assembly’s faith in income tax rate cuts as a vehicle for generating revenue was a mirage. At the time, the state was preparing to cut the individual income-tax rate from 4% to 3.5% even as revenue was expected to decline. I argued […]