The Courier-Journal (Louisville)

GOP SHOWDOWN

UofL’s Benninger left legacy in statistics

The Xerox boxes stacked in the closet contain thousands and thousands of sheets of paper. Lift the lid and pull out a piece. A college basketball fan can instantly see a University of Louisville game in 1972 ... Or the 1993 Final Four when Kentucky...

KY coal mine cleanup audit finds waste, lack of oversight

Kentucky did not always comply with federal requirements in its use of grant funding for cleanup of former coal mining sites, and in some cases “failed to appropriately report or track grant funds,” according to a federal audit released in...

Trump’s ‘reciprocal’ tariffs meant to help U.S. have hit Kentucky hard

President Donald Trump declared April 2, 2025, as “Liberation Day,” a day in which the president unveiled his “reciprocal tariffs” plan on major trading partners. The goal of the sweeping tariffs, according to the president, was to revive the domestic...

‘More jobs, more people, more places for people to go’

New salon chairs and mirrors. Cabinets and tables. Hair dryers and hair color processors. The list of equipment needed to fill Kentraya Johnson’s new salon in NuLu was long, but a loan program intended to help new businesses was able to lighten the...

Airport officials offer peek at progress of $1B upgrade

Passengers moving through Louisville’s main airport will notice temporary construction walls and machinery noises throughout the year as the airport works on a handful of capital improvement projects. Upgrades to the gate seating areas — yes, there...

State’s controversial 50/50 custody law faces criticism

A 2018 state law, intended to give equal custody rights to all parents, could be harming Kentucky’s children, advocates warn. The law was heralded when it passed, making Kentucky the first state to create equally shared, or 50/50, parenting time as...

CUT OFF

In March, as Louisville climbed out of a frigid winter, Areia Hill took out her phone, pulled up her LG&E bill, and read the total amount due: $692.82. ● The threebedroom, 55-year-old brick house she rents in the St. Dennis neighborhood is hard to keep...

Budget provision could hobble Dolly Parton reading program

In Dolly, Kentucky’s Republican-led legislature apparently does not trust. At least her literacy program. The Queen of Country Music gifts books to kids in tribute to her late father, who couldn’t read. Dolly Parton’s Imagination Library program allows...

Critics: KY waste program may allow for much abuse

BROOKS, Ky. – In a winding Bullitt County valley below the trails of Jefferson Memorial Forest, a light fog hung in the thin winter canopy, and construction debris spilled down into a wooded ravine. For years, a steady procession of trucks has hauled...

Months after audit, city residents say mail delays continue

Ben Jones, owner of Better Days Records, stands inside his shop at 921 Barrett Ave., in Louisville’s Highlands neighborhood on Feb. 2. Jones is one of several Louisville business owners who has experienced mail delays.

Churchill Downs bets on Kentucky Oaks race

Churchill Downs is betting that a later Kentucky Oaks race, in primetime, will be a growth driver for the Louisvillebased gaming and racing company. The primetime move for this year’s Kentucky Oaks race on May 1 was a multi-faceted business decision...

Toyota plant in Kentucky gets $800M investment

Toyota Motor has once again furthered its commitment to Kentucky, and U.S. manufacturing with a combined $1 billion investment into its plants in the commonwealth and neighboring Indiana. Toyota, the Japanese-based automaker of vehicles like the Camry,...

‘Servant-hearted and in sacrifice to others’

Friends, family, dignitaries and the Hardin County community on March 21 celebrated the life of Staff Sgt. Benjamin Pennington, 26, who died from injuries sustained while supporting Operation Epic Fury. A crowd streamed into the gym at at Central...

MAJORITY RULES

‘Not empty time’

A March 10 meeting of the Jefferson County Board of Education stalled over 13 contract days — time school psychologists insist is crucial for their work assessing students with disabilities but which is at risk of being eliminated for budget...

Surveillance cam locations could be made public info

A Louisville Metro Council member has proposed legislation that would require the city to publish the locations of automated license plate readers, like Flock Safety cameras — a move that, if successful, would buck the will of top police...

Kentucky airman had ‘exemplary character’

BARDSTOWN, Ky. — Ashley Young first learned to take flight in Room 140. While her feet were firmly planted on the white linoleum floor at Nelson County High School, suspended from the ceiling tiles above the Air Force Junior ROTC cadet’s head were...

‘Questionable air’

The Louisville Metro Police Department has skilled firearm instructors who deliver effective training. However, the frequency and diversity of that training is constrained by inadequate and outdated facilities. That’s the main conclusion of a new...

UPS pilots begin transition away from retired MD-11s

Four months after the deadly plane crash of UPS Flight 2976 in Louisville, some UPS pilots have still not resumed flying. Following the Nov. 4, 2025 crash, which left 15 people dead, including the three-person UPS pilot crew, UPS decided to retire its...

Lawmakers propose ‘bright-line’ law

In 2018, Kentucky was a vanguard in the fight to end child marriages, becoming one of the first states to enact legislation limiting marriages for those under 18. But in the eight years since the law was passed, more than a dozen Kentucky children...

David James is Jefferson County’s first new sheriff in decades. But he’s not around for long

The way he tells it, David James never saw himself as sheriff. Metro Councilman? Yes. Metro Council President? Yes. Mayor? Sure. But not sheriff. That is, not until last year when Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg spoke to James, then a top lieutenant...

IT’S A GO

Jefferson County’s first hyperscale data center will be coming to southwest Louisville after the Metro Government Planning Commission approved a revised development plan during a March 5 meeting. The 6-1 vote allows a partnership between the...

Trail

Work is underway to expand the Louisville Loop, a 100-mile trail encircling the city, into the country’s largest municipally-owned urban forest. New sections of the Loop could be built in the Jefferson Memorial Forest beginning in 2026, marking a...

$12 million streetscape project in NuLu has trees that are damaged

Newly planted trees in Louisville’s $12 million East Market Streetscape project in NuLu show signs of damage and improper planting, and many will need to be replaced, according to arborists who assessed the work. Cindi Sullivan, a certified arborist...

One year later, tariffs hit U.S. spirits exports hard

March 4 marks one year since provinces across Canada removed U.S.made spirits from its shelves in response to tariffs enacted by President Donald Trump — leaving many Kentucky distillers without access to one of their largest trading partners. While...

U.S. fighter jets crash in Kuwait

The Trump administration’s conflict with Iran will not be “endless,” Secretary of War Pete Hegseth said on March 2, as the United States and Israel’s joint air strikes against Iran expand, the death toll rises and a congressional debate over President...

‘There’s an incentive for you to readapt’

As Louisville seeks to convert some of its underused or vacant office space into other uses, such as hotels and housing, it can look to cities across the country for examples of successful, completed projects. Cities across the nation are facing the...

ATTACK ON IRAN

The United States launched military strikes and “major combat operations” against Iran on Feb. 28, President Donald Trump said, targeting the country’s missile capabilities. “Our objective is to defend the American people by eliminating imminent...

Gas prices expected to go down

Louisville gas stations will soon no longer be required to sell a special, more expensive type of fuel meant to improve air quality, Mayor Craig Greenberg announced Feb. 26. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has approved a request to lift...

Meidinger Tower appears headed for a $4.5M sale

One of Louisville’s tallest downtown office towers is poised to sell amid foreclosure proceedings for less than half its assessed value and 86% less than its previous sale price. Indianapolis-based commercial real estate investment firm KennMar...

EATING YOUR WAY TO WELLNESS

An apple a day keeps the doctor away, right? Well, Kentucky lawmakers think so. That’s why they’re backing “Food is Medicine” programs, which draw on long-held and evidence-based ideology that links diet and nutrition to more positive health outcomes....

A place of hope

As soon as this summer, Norton Healthcare may become one of 11 sites that offers a lifechanging treatment for chronic pancreatitis patients. That alone is exciting, but this new islet cell lab holds so much more hope. The new lab could be a dynamic...

Honorable mentions

As Louisville marks Black History Month this February, just over a dozen schools in Jefferson County Public Schools offer a lesson in local civil rights history. ● In 2020, as part of a national reckoning on racial justice, JCPS vowed to review the...

Bourbon burden lifted

In a shocking blow to President Donald Trump, the Supreme Court ruled the president lacks the authority to impose broad sweeping tariffs — creating much needed relief for those in Kentucky’s bourbon industry. In a Feb. 20 ruling, the high court issued...

MORE STOPS. LESS CRIME?

LOOKING AHEAD

Rising inventory and stabilizing prices defined the Louisville area housing market last year. Years of incredibly limited home inventory continued to improve in 2025, with just shy of 23,000 homes hitting the market, translating to more options for...

Louisville councilman to keep pursuing ban on ICE masks

Louisville Metro Councilman JP Lyninger is not letting up. Amid the Trump administration’s immigration crackdown, the Democratic councilman has twice pushed to amend Louisville’s ban on wearing face masks in public to prohibit local, state and federal...

TACKLING LITERACY

Kentucky lawmakers are again seeking to change how children can learn to read, proposing a bill that would ban a teaching method called “three-cueing.” Three-cueing — a form of instruction associated with balanced literacy programs like Reading...

10 controversial bills that are advancing

FRANKFORT – Legislative sessions in Kentucky can get contentious. Ask anyone who followed the 2023 General Assembly, which brought out scores of opposition as anti-transgender legislation moved forward, or the 2018 session, defined by teacher protests...

FIRST LOOK

The public is getting its first look at the proposed conversion of downtown Louisville’s Humana Building, which could be converted into part of a 1,000-room hotel development. Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg shared renderings of the $600 million to...

Louisville removes illegal donation bins, citing fraud

Louisville’s unlicensed donation bins are soon to be has-beens. Across the city, only four donation bins are licensed. The rest, officials say, will go. On Feb. 9, Louisville Metro Department of Codes and Regulations officials started the process of...

CONSTRUCTION DISRPTION

Orange barrels, heavy equipment, “Road Closed” signs — they’ve become a common sight along roadways in Louisville. For months, projects on some of the metro area’s major highways and thoroughfares, including Interstates 64 and 265 and surface streets...

Trump repeals key EPA climate finding

WASHINGTON — President Donald Trump and his administration have rescinded an Obama-era scientific finding on climate change that has served for nearly two decades as the legal underpinning for federal regulations targeting man-made greenhouse...

How the state’s hopes for huge investment crumbled

For a quarter of the workers in Lewis County, about 1,000 people, getting to work means driving an hour or more each way. As massive economic investments have sprung up in other parts of the state in recent years, this winding stretch of the Ohio...

Doors open for more horse racing workers

With the white twin spires looming in the distance on an overcast day last May, a handful of grooms and hot walkers stood beside a barn in jeans, work boots and University of Kentucky ball caps. A group of journalists asked questions about the...

Barr holds Senate race fundraising lead in KY

Kentucky’s U.S. Senate primary is about 15 weeks away, and year-end campaign financial disclosures released at the end of January have given us a closer look at where candidates stand as they enter the stretch run. On the Republican side, U.S. Rep....

Legal matters

It was another expensive year for Louisville Metro Government in 2025, with the city agreeing to spend more than $12 million to settle lawsuits over things like alleged misconduct by jail and police officers, auto accidents, employment issues and...

Makeover

The recently vacated Humana Building will undergo a sweeping transformation into a dual-tower, 1,000-room hotel, marking a first-of-its-kind conversion of one of downtown Louisville’s signature office towers. The 525,000-square-foot Humana Building,...

Former prosecutor running for Congress

Running for Congress wasn’t the plan. A Lexington native who spent time as a Navy JAG officer, Zach Dembo had landed “the dream job for a public serviceminded lawyer” when he joined the federal prosecutor’s office in his hometown in 2021 after stints...

UP IN SMOKE

Jefferson County industrial facilities reported releasing more than 2.7 million pounds of toxic chemicals to local air, water and land in 2024 — a slight uptick from the previous year, but still a general improvement over historical emission...

Journalist sees parallels between labor, tenant unions

As rents continue to rise, cities across the country have started to see renters fight back, forming tenant unions, holding rallies and even withholding rent from landlords. This week’s Sunday cover dives into the Kentucky Tenant Union, a relatively...

Shutdown

The Senate began advancing legislation to fund the government and avoid an extended shutdown on the afternoon of Jan. 30, breaking an impasse that had held up the bill. Senators began voting on seven amendments to the funding package. The bill had...

GE Appliances brings new water filter manufacturing

GE Appliances is once again investing at its global headquarters in Louisville. The appliance manufacturer, a Haier company, announced Jan. 28 it would bring a new advanced manufacturing operation to Appliance Park, 4000 Buechel Bank Road, with the...

Could this new bill have prevented toddler’s death?

E hvery four hours, as the pain medication began to wear off, Alyssa Burns asked the trauma nurses the same question. Where’s Cammie? Where was her baby girl, who loved yellow, especially yellow flowers. It had been one of those perfect fall days...

Not clear if facilities in the Louisville area may be closed in 2026

Following decreased fourth quarter revenue, shipping and logistics giant UPS has announced a plan to globally reduce operational positions by up to 30,000 and close more than 20 facilities across the company in 2026. UPS CFO Brian Dykes said during a...

More dangerous cold follows snow and ice

Following the weekend winter storm, Kentuckians are bracing for continued cold temperatures and wind chills, according to the latest forecast from the National Weather Service in Louisville. Louisville will be under an extreme cold warning from 7 p.m....

Amazon deliveries are getting cleaner, quieter

At Amazon’s warehouse on Durrett Lane, the day’s deliveries begin with a choreographed swarm of workers carting thousands of packages through the loading bay to columns of waiting vans. Once packed with bags and boxes, the vans disperse in all...

HOUSING THAT HEALS

On a cold morning in mid-December, Aaron Sammons woke up to the comfort of four walls around him, a roof above him and a mattress beneath him. He enjoyed a warm cup of coffee and listened as Christmas music softly drifted from the radio. On the table...

Temps plummet amid major U.S. winter storm

As part of a major winter storm that is forecast to spread heavy snow, sleet and dangerous ice and affect tens of millions of Americans across two dozen states through the weekend, cold air blasted into the central United States on Jan. 23, sending...

Her husband was killed in a KY prison

Robert Anthony Broyles, Jr. had just days left on his prison sentence at the Eastern Kentucky Correctional Complex. He’d kept his head down and had done his time, taking classes to better himself and shorten his incarceration, his wife said. He had a...

Frigid

Jefferson County Board of Education members have approved closing two schools at the end of this school year, making a small dent in the massive budget deficit the district is currently operating under. King and Zachary Taylor elementary schools,...