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Ryan Anderson is the main voice and songwriter for Kentucky band Bendigo Fletcher. He is also known at "Moose Loon" for his solo projects and just announced his debut album due August 7, 2026 called Out on The Edge of Everything. The first single now out is called "Kittens" and features the collaborative efforts of Kentucky contemporaries The Local Honeys and Don Rogers, who add vocals and mandolin to the stripped-down, heart-wrenching tune that tells of a romance that may have run its course. The rootsy song features a catchy chorus and the sublime harmonies of The Local Honeys. It's a very summery song that conjures sitting on a porch in the countryside and ruminating over one's life and loves. "Kittens" is now streaming.

Wyan-Pine Grove Elementary School was narrowly spared when an EF4 tornado swept through London the night of May 16, 2025, killing 17 people in Laurel County.

One year later, the school's gymnasium served as a gathering place for survivors.

"Pictures will never do justice," said Megan Vanhook, who was at home with her family on the night of the storm. "The destruction is indescribable. I remember the smell that night being of earth and diesel fuel."

Vanhook was planning to ride out the storm at home until she received a fateful phone call from her brother telling her to evacuate. The tornado destroyed her house soon after.

"That phone call undoubtedly saved our lives," she said. "That information, and my brother's phone call, saved my family's life."

Some at the remembrance event, like Vanhook, described the sights and sounds of the tornado and its aftermath. Others paid tribute to friends, family and coworkers they lost.

Laurel County Fire Department Chairman Chantz McPeek spoke to the crowd about Maj. Les Leatherman, who died in the storm.

"We've been in existence for 64 years, and he was there for 39 of those," McPeek said. "He dedicated his life to serving our community, and he served it with honor, professionalism and compassion."

Less than a half mile from Wyan-Pine Grove, wind speeds of up to 170 mph wiped out homes in the Sunshine Hills neighborhood. But the elementary school was left untouched and became a headquarters for volunteers and first responders.

Laurel County Schools Superintendent Denise Greibel said they canceled classes so people could help.

"I think it allowed our community and the students and staff to go help their neighbors," Greibel said. "Our coaches collaborated with their ball teams and they instigated some of the efforts, recovery efforts and cleanup efforts."

A year later, debris has been cleared and many displaced residents have landed back on their feet. But the recovery is still ongoing.

Laurel County Judge-Executive David Westerfield said as residents figure out their next steps, he's optimistic.

"Some people are still undetermined if they want to build or if they want to move, maybe into an apartment or move into assisted living," he said. "There's been lots of decisions you have to make, but for the most part, the people who are going to rebuild are rebuilding."

Other people are still waiting on aid from the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Westerfield said the government shutdown earlier this year affected that process.

"A couple of weeks ago they went back to work, so we're working with them daily, trying to get our reimbursements submitted where the county can get reimbursed," he said. "Some of the people are still having issues, and I'm speaking to FEMA about them, as well."

Research indicates climate change is moving Tornado Alley eastward, into parts of the southeastern United States.

Laurel County Emergency Management Director Jerry Rains said officials are exploring ways to fund warning tools that would better protect residents before storms.

"We're looking at some weather warning options — whether that be weather radios, whether that be storm sirens, an education experience to get weather apps on your phone, a way to get notified," he said.

John Allen, chief of the specialized emergency response team London Laurel Rescue Squad, said as efforts to rebuild the small community push forward, the emotional scars will remain for generations.

"[It] seems like we talk about it every day," he said. "You can just be going down the road, whether you turn down this road, going to another rescue call, and it's always there."

This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch Light newsletter here for news from around the region.

Copyright 2026 WEKU

NPR is restructuring its newsroom, including cutting some reporting and editing jobs, as it attempts to keep pace with changing audience habits while adjusting to an era without federal subsidies.

NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher says the network has to fill a gap of $8 million in its $300-million annual budget because of the elimination of federal subsidies for its member stations, which pay NPR to air programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In a memo to staff, she said the network expects to earn $15 million less in station fees this year and is anticipating a drop in corporate sponsorship revenue.

The network is offering buyouts to approximately 300 employees, mostly within newsgathering desks in the newsroom. Staff of NPR's news programs, including hosts, are not eligible. 

The actual number of departing journalists will be far smaller, NPR officials say. They say they will accept up to 30 buyouts but more targeted layoffs would ensue if an insufficient number of employees take voluntary buyouts by next Tuesday, May 26.

Paradoxically, just prior to the announcement of these cost-cutting measures, NPR received a pair of private gifts totaling $113 million — representing the network's second- and third-largest in its 56-year history. Most of that money, however, is dedicated to technological innovation.

Maher also acknowledges a mighty wave of individual contributions following Congress' vote last summer to take back all $1.1 billion it already had committed to public media. Those donations have helped sustain the network and the member stations, though many have announced their own layoffs over the past year.

"The extraordinary generosity of donors across the nation has really mitigated some of the hardest impacts of the loss of federal funding," Maher says. "I am relieved that that is the case. And now it is our responsibility to ensure that we take that gift that they have given us and use this time to get to a place where we are sustainable for the future."

The network plans to overhaul its app and reshape its user experience across platforms to enrich the experience for listeners, readers and even viewers of its digital and streamlining products. And NPR's senior corporate leaders — some of whom have deep roots in the world of tech — are pivoting from the mantra of "reaching people wherever they are" to encouraging people to use NPR on its own platforms.

"We have to change this organization. We have to think about this audience. We have to think about how they are consuming us. We have to think about the member stations," says NPR Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans. "We have to keep what I consider to be the last truly independent newsroom in the country healthy and alive and vibrant."

The way major tech companies, especially Google, have integrated AI into search engines and apps means people are presented with AI-synthesized information before individual search results. This has led to a sharp drop in referrals to NPR's website; in some cases they have all but vanished. Some are calling this "Google Zero" or the "Dead Web." Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch recently said on the TBPN podcast that he told colleagues to plan as if Google searches yield no referrals at all to the company's publications, which include The New Yorker. 

Currently, NPR has 425 newsroom employees, Evans says. Seven vacancies will be kept open.

Pat O'Donnell, executive director of SAG-AFTRA's Washington-Mid Atlantic Local, which represents hundreds of NPR journalists, commends the network's approach to making job cuts.

"It's not that many," she says. "The fact they were willing to [agree to] more buyouts, and will make fewer cuts for each buyout, means they needed to cut the budget, but were doing it fairly."

Such job reductions represent a familiar tactic for media outlets in financially challenging times. Earlier this year, for example, the Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. CBS shed more than 60 newsroom staffers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated the jobs of 15% of its staff. The Associated Press recently laid off or bought out roughly 60 journalists.

Other changes are in motion. NPR now has one of the more lenient remote-work policies among national newsrooms. The company is negotiating with SAG-AFTRA in an effort to require journalists to work in the office at least three times a week starting in the fall — a requirement that could encourage some to take the buyout. The union is seeking to ease the sting and breadth of those requirements, O'Donnell says.

Evans, a CNN veteran who was named editor in chief last September, says the job cuts are deeper than he, personally, would favor.

Even so, Evans says, the restructuring is warranted.

"My hope and my drive for this is that the journalists in the newsroom at the end of this will be able to still cover the stories that make us uniquely NPR," Evans says. "More quality over quantity. Less content for the sake of content. I want to focus our newsroom on 'capital-J journalism'. That's the foundation of NPR."

He says NPR's National and General Assignments desks next month will merge with a focus on deep dives, natural disasters, and news deserts. NPR's regional bureau chiefs will become part of a new desk that works closely with member station journalists.

Beyond that, Evans says he is merging NPR's desks covering culture, education, religion, addiction and sports to make a society-and-culture desk. He is unifying science and climate coverage in a single desk. And he plans to fold the global health team — now part of the Science desk — into the International desk.

"It's just breaking down silos," Evans says.

NPR's Washington desk will expand to include the states team and NPR reporters who focus on power and money. The new desk on power and policy would take in developments on the local, state, regional and national level.

"I think it's a healthier way for all news organizations to look at this country and the state we're in," Evans says, alluding to the political climate.

He also said NPR's Business desk could add positions, as the network wants to create a new daily business podcast to complement Planet Money and The Indicator. 

Evans says he has pitched NPR's corporate leadership on reinvesting some money back into the newsroom. Maher says she is hopeful NPR can afford to do so after improvements to the network's digital infrastructure.

They also announced shifts in the news leadership team. Prominent among them: Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez is shifting to become a consultant to the newsroom. She will be replaced by Chief Washington Editor Krishnadev Calamur. His deputy, Dana Farrington, will lead the new politics and policy desk.

Eric Marrapodi, who now oversees news programming, temporarily will move to lead the growth of NPR's video capabilities. Sami Yenigun, now the executive producer of All Things Considered, will oversee broadcast shows and NPR's newscast. Courtney Dorning will fill in for Yenigun.

NPR is in the process of hiring a chief content officer to oversee both the newsroom and programming divisions.

In early 2023, Maher's predecessor, the late John Lansing, ordered a 10% cut in staff. NPR was looking at a deficit of about $32 million as corporate underwriters peeled away in anticipation of a recession that never really played out.

Maher argues that Lansing largely shielded the newsroom from the brunt of the cuts, though several podcasts were scrapped and some correspondents took buyouts. (SAG-AFTRA's O'Donnell says she shares that assessment.) As a result, many other functions, such as legal services, were cut back sharply, she says.

"That was the right set of decisions" for that moment," Maher says.

Now, she says, budget realities require her to reduce spending in the core mission of newsgathering as well.

"We have made every effort to preserve the core capacity and strengths of what makes NPR different and distinct," Maher says. "This is never an easy choice to make, to have to cut anywhere near the newsroom."

Before Congress' vote last summer, NPR got roughly 1% of its funds directly from the U.S. government. But the network depends greatly on the programming fees that more than 240 member stations pay.

Maher says NPR initially estimated it would come up $30-45 million short – or about 10-15% of the annual budget – as a result of the federal clawback. Executives drew up projections for what that would mean. It seemed a brutal task. In comparison, the $8 million cut intended with these buyouts, while a bitter blow, is an absorbable one, she says.

The network has already reworked how it charges member stations for programming in light of the loss of Congressionally appropriated funds for public media, which had provided, on average, about 10% of public radio stations' revenue.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Copyright 2026 NPR

NPR is restructuring its newsroom, including cutting some reporting and editing jobs, as it attempts to keep pace with changing audience habits while adjusting to an era without federal subsidies.

NPR President and CEO Katherine Maher says the network has to fill a gap of $8 million in its $300-million annual budget because of the elimination of federal subsidies for its member stations, which pay NPR to air programs such as Morning Edition and All Things Considered. In a memo to staff, she said the network expects to earn $15 million less in station fees this year and is anticipating a drop in corporate sponsorship revenue.

The network is offering buyouts to approximately 300 employees, mostly within newsgathering desks in the newsroom. Staff of NPR's news programs, including hosts, are not eligible. 

The actual number of departing journalists will be far smaller, NPR officials say. They say they will accept up to 30 buyouts but more targeted layoffs would ensue if an insufficient number of employees take voluntary buyouts by next Tuesday, May 26.

Paradoxically, just prior to the announcement of these cost-cutting measures, NPR received a pair of private gifts totaling $113 million — representing the network's second- and third-largest in its 56-year history. Most of that money, however, is dedicated to technological innovation.

Maher also acknowledges a mighty wave of individual contributions following Congress' vote last summer to take back all $1.1 billion it already had committed to public media. Those donations have helped sustain the network and the member stations, though many have announced their own layoffs over the past year.

"The extraordinary generosity of donors across the nation has really mitigated some of the hardest impacts of the loss of federal funding," Maher says. "I am relieved that that is the case. And now it is our responsibility to ensure that we take that gift that they have given us and use this time to get to a place where we are sustainable for the future."

The network plans to overhaul its app and reshape its user experience across platforms to enrich the experience for listeners, readers and even viewers of its digital and streamlining products. And NPR's senior corporate leaders — some of whom have deep roots in the world of tech — are pivoting from the mantra of "reaching people wherever they are" to encouraging people to use NPR on its own platforms.

"We have to change this organization. We have to think about this audience. We have to think about how they are consuming us. We have to think about the member stations," says NPR Editor-in-Chief Thomas Evans. "We have to keep what I consider to be the last truly independent newsroom in the country healthy and alive and vibrant."

The way major tech companies, especially Google, have integrated AI into search engines and apps means people are presented with AI-synthesized information before individual search results. This has led to a sharp drop in referrals to NPR's website; in some cases they have all but vanished. Some are calling this "Google Zero" or the "Dead Web." Condé Nast CEO Roger Lynch recently said on the TBPN podcast that he told colleagues to plan as if Google searches yield no referrals at all to the company's publications, which include The New Yorker. 

Currently, NPR has 425 newsroom employees, Evans says. Seven vacancies will be kept open.

Pat O'Donnell, executive director of SAG-AFTRA's Washington-Mid Atlantic Local, which represents hundreds of NPR journalists, commends the network's approach to making job cuts.

"It's not that many," she says. "The fact they were willing to [agree to] more buyouts, and will make fewer cuts for each buyout, means they needed to cut the budget, but were doing it fairly."

Such job reductions represent a familiar tactic for media outlets in financially challenging times. Earlier this year, for example, the Washington Post laid off hundreds of journalists. CBS shed more than 60 newsroom staffers. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution eliminated the jobs of 15% of its staff. The Associated Press recently laid off or bought out roughly 60 journalists.

Other changes are in motion. NPR now has one of the more lenient remote-work policies among national newsrooms. The company is negotiating with SAG-AFTRA in an effort to require journalists to work in the office at least three times a week starting in the fall — a requirement that could encourage some to take the buyout. The union is seeking to ease the sting and breadth of those requirements, O'Donnell says.

Evans, a CNN veteran who was named editor in chief last September, says the job cuts are deeper than he, personally, would favor.

Even so, Evans says, the restructuring is warranted.

"My hope and my drive for this is that the journalists in the newsroom at the end of this will be able to still cover the stories that make us uniquely NPR," Evans says. "More quality over quantity. Less content for the sake of content. I want to focus our newsroom on 'capital-J journalism'. That's the foundation of NPR."

He says NPR's National and General Assignments desks next month will merge with a focus on deep dives, natural disasters, and news deserts. NPR's regional bureau chiefs will become part of a new desk that works closely with member station journalists.

Beyond that, Evans says he is merging NPR's desks covering culture, education, religion, addiction and sports to make a society-and-culture desk. He is unifying science and climate coverage in a single desk. And he plans to fold the global health team — now part of the Science desk — into the International desk.

"It's just breaking down silos," Evans says.

NPR's Washington desk will expand to include the states team and NPR reporters who focus on power and money. The new desk on power and policy would take in developments on the local, state, regional and national level.

"I think it's a healthier way for all news organizations to look at this country and the state we're in," Evans says, alluding to the political climate.

He also said NPR's Business desk could add positions, as the network wants to create a new daily business podcast to complement Planet Money and The Indicator. 

Evans says he has pitched NPR's corporate leadership on reinvesting some money back into the newsroom. Maher says she is hopeful NPR can afford to do so after improvements to the network's digital infrastructure.

They also announced shifts in the news leadership team. Prominent among them: Executive Editor Eva Rodriguez is shifting to become a consultant to the newsroom. She will be replaced by Chief Washington Editor Krishnadev Calamur. His deputy, Dana Farrington, will lead the new politics and policy desk.

Eric Marrapodi, who now oversees news programming, temporarily will move to lead the growth of NPR's video capabilities. Sami Yenigun, now the executive producer of All Things Considered, will oversee broadcast shows and NPR's newscast. Courtney Dorning will fill in for Yenigun.

NPR is in the process of hiring a chief content officer to oversee both the newsroom and programming divisions.

In early 2023, Maher's predecessor, the late John Lansing, ordered a 10% cut in staff. NPR was looking at a deficit of about $32 million as corporate underwriters peeled away in anticipation of a recession that never really played out.

Maher argues that Lansing largely shielded the newsroom from the brunt of the cuts, though several podcasts were scrapped and some correspondents took buyouts. (SAG-AFTRA's O'Donnell says she shares that assessment.) As a result, many other functions, such as legal services, were cut back sharply, she says.

"That was the right set of decisions" for that moment," Maher says.

Now, she says, budget realities require her to reduce spending in the core mission of newsgathering as well.

"We have made every effort to preserve the core capacity and strengths of what makes NPR different and distinct," Maher says. "This is never an easy choice to make, to have to cut anywhere near the newsroom."

Before Congress' vote last summer, NPR got roughly 1% of its funds directly from the U.S. government. But the network depends greatly on the programming fees that more than 240 member stations pay.

Maher says NPR initially estimated it would come up $30-45 million short – or about 10-15% of the annual budget – as a result of the federal clawback. Executives drew up projections for what that would mean. It seemed a brutal task. In comparison, the $8 million cut intended with these buyouts, while a bitter blow, is an absorbable one, she says.

The network has already reworked how it charges member stations for programming in light of the loss of Congressionally appropriated funds for public media, which had provided, on average, about 10% of public radio stations' revenue.

Disclosure: This story was written and reported by NPR Correspondent David Folkenflik and edited by NPR Deputy Business Editor Emily Kopp and Managing Editor Vickie Walton-James. Under NPR's protocol for reporting on itself, no corporate official or news executive reviewed this story before it was posted publicly.

Copyright 2026 NPR

Singer songwriter Paul Thorn's latest album Life Is Just A Vapor is full of humor and hard earned wisdom. Recently in town for a show at The Bomhard Theater, Paul sat down with WFPK's Laura Shine for a lively and fun conversation to talk about the album, his late mentor John Prine, his song "Geraldine & Ricky" about an evangelical ventrioquist, and the best advice he's ever received. Check out the official animated video for the song below and a picture of the real Geraldine and Ricky.

Kentucky voters head to the polls Tuesday morning to vote in the primary election, where they will choose the Republican and Democratic nominees for the general election this fall.

In addition to primaries for local offices across the state, voters will cast their ballots for state and federal offices in races that have blanketed airwaves and mailboxes with political advertisement.

The two most expensive and contentious primaries have involved President Donald Trump, as he backs two Republican candidates for U.S. Senate and House and seeks to expand the number of fully compliant GOP allies in Congress.

The GOP race to replace retiring Sen. Mitch McConnell pits Trump-endorsed Congressman Andy Barr against former Attorney General Daniel Cameron, where total spending has exceeded $50 million.

Nearly matching that spending is Congressman Thomas Massie’s reelection bid in his northern Kentucky district, where groups backing the Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein have blitzed the district with ad spending. The campaigns and aligned PACs have spent more than $32 million — an all-time record for any House primary.

Voters will also choose party nominees in the open race for Kentucky’s 6th Congressional District, which is being vacated by Barr. Though Republicans are expected to have an advantage this fall no matter who makes it to the general election, this district will be the most competitive among the state’s U.S. House races.

There are also numerous primary races for seats in the Kentucky General Assembly, where Republicans are all but assured to maintain their dominant supermajority going into the 2027 session.

Here are some of the big state and federal races to watch as the results come in Tuesday night.

The Republican primary for the U.S. Senate was suddenly upturned on the eve of the Kentucky Derby this month, when Trump nearly simultaneously announced he had convinced Nate Morris to drop out of the primary and endorsed Barr.

Much of the race had been consumed by PAC attack ads pitting Morris against Barr on their claims of who was the most supportive of Trump. Despite being massively outspent by his two opponents, Cameron stayed competitive in polling through April.

Barr’s endorsement changed the dynamics of the race, as he and supportive PACs have completely dominated the airwaves over the final three weeks of the race, with polls showing the race breaking in his favor.

Some familiar names are running on the Democratic side, as candidates Amy McGrath and Charles Booker again seek the party’s nomination. McGrath edged Booker in the 2020 primary before losing to McConnell in the general election that year, while Booker won the Senate nomination in 2022 before losing to Sen. Rand Paul.

The dark horse candidate in the Democratic primary is Dale Romans, a successful thoroughbred trainer who is billing himself as the most moderate candidate who could compete in the conservative state’s general election.

A Democratic candidate hasn’t won a Senate seat in Kentucky since 1992 as the state’s voters shifted rightward, but the party hopes Trump’s declining popularity could give them a longshot chance to take back McConnell’s seat this fall.

Trump has successfully knocked out several GOP incumbents across the country that he deemed insufficiently obedient to his whims, and the next target on his list is Massie.

Though Massie usually votes with Republicans in the House, he has consistently been a thorn in Trump’s side, especially when it comes to his insistence on the release of the Epstein files and his opposition to the war with Iran.

Trump sought a challenger to take on Massie and found one last year in Ed Gallrein, a former Navy SEAL who the president rallied for in northern Kentucky in March.

The record-breaking $32 million of ad spending in the race has been extraordinary, with most coming from outside PACs. Of the $17 million in TV attack ads, two-thirds have been against Massie, which are mostly funded by prominent pro-Israel GOP donors.

Massie’s political career has been one defined by his independence and willingness to buck the party over small-government principles, but his race could indicate whether such candidates can survive within a party that increasingly stresses loyalty to Trump.

With Barr choosing to run for Senate, both parties will choose their nomination in the 6th Congressional District which surrounds Lexington in central Kentucky.

On the Republican side, the odds-on favorite to win is the Trump-endorsed Ralph Alvarado, a former state senator who left office in 2023 to run Tennessee’s health agency.

Facing off against Alvarado in his return to Kentucky politics is state Rep. Ryan Dotson and Greg Plucinski, who founded a biotech and pharmaceutical company.

The race for the Democratic side has a large field of candidates. Zach Dembo, a Navy veteran and former federal prosecutor, has led the way in fundraising and spending, picking up endorsements from former Congressman Ben Chandler and former Lexington Mayor Jim Gray.

Also running for the nomination is Cherlynn Stevenson, a former member of Democratic leadership in the Kentucky House who is endorsed by Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman.

The Democratic candidates also include David Kloiber, a former Lexington city councilman who employs artificial intelligence to write letters to voters, and Erin Petrey, a former Amazon Web Services worker who is now calling for a statewide moratorium on new data center projects.

Republicans control at least 80% of the seats in both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly and are expected to maintain roughly the same percentage next year, as Democrats left many seats unchallenged.

While Republicans will maintain their supermajority, independent PACs have still spent $1.6 million on ads in GOP primary races, seeking to influence who will hold those seats.

Some of the Republican seats will assuredly change hands in open primary races, as seven incumbents in the House and one in the Senate chose not to run for reelection.

Even some GOP incumbents running for reelection are facing tough primary challenges, especially in the northern Kentucky region, where several incumbents have faced upset defeats in recent years.

Two House GOP incumbents in the region facing tough primary races this time around are Reps. Kim Moser and Kim Banta, whose opponents have attacked their 2023 votes against a bill banning gender-affirming healthcare services for transgender minors. Moser and Banta have been aided by $300,000 of spending from independent PACs funded by business groups, as well as party leadership.

Also in northern Kentucky, two House GOP incumbents from what’s known as the “liberty” wing of the party are facing relatively moderate primary challengers. Rep. Felicia Rabourn is facing a primary rematch against Mark Gilkison, with the challenger supported by ads from the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and two PACs funded by the sports betting industry and the Jefferson County teachers union. Rep. Steven Doan is also facing Jesse Forman, who has also received supportive ads from the teachers union PAC.

Another GOP primary rematch is in west Kentucky, where Rep. Kim Holloway is facing Richard Heath, the longtime incumbent in the region who lost in an upset to her in 2024. Holloway has been aided this time by $312,000 of ads in her favor by Kentucky Conservative Fund, the PAC entirely funded by sports betting companies. The PAC has spent more than $830,000 on ads supporting seven different GOP incumbents.

In the Senate chamber, Sen. Brandon Smith of Hazard is seeking a sixth term in office, but facing a challenge from House Rep. Bill Wesley of Ravenna, who has served in that chamber since 2021. GOP leadership and the sports betting PAC have spent heavily on ads supporting Smith.

Some of the most competitive legislative primaries on the Democratic side are in Louisville, where much of the party’s remaining seats are located.

Rep. Daniel Grossberg is seeking another term in House District 30, facing opposition from not just two primary opponents, but many Democratic Party leaders. Gov. Andy Beshear is among the Democrats calling on Grossberg to resign from office, after allegations of sexual harassment or misconduct from nine different women dating back two decades. Grossberg has denied the allegations and says he’s the victim of antisemetic targeting.

Rep. Beverly Chester-Burton is another Democratic incumbent in Louisville who is attempting to be reelected amid scandal, as she was sentenced last year for driving while intoxicated, the second time she’s faced such a conviction in five years. Her two Democratic opponents also have recent criminal convictions.

Also in Louisville, two Democrats are seeking the party’s nomination to replace outgoing Rep. Pamela Stevenson, who is among the candidates running for U.S. Senate. Robert LeVertis Bell is a public school teacher and democratic socialist, while Joi McAtee is a graduate instructor at the University of Louisville.

In the Senate chamber, two Democrats are running for an east Louisville district, where they will likely take on three-term Republican Sen. Julie Raque Adams in the general election. The candidates are former University of Louisville basketball player Luke Whitehead and Sarah Cole McIntosh, a former member of the Jefferson County Board of Education.

Redeemer Lutheran Church stood on South Highway 27 in Somerset for about 60 years. On the night of May 16, 2025, most of it was destroyed by an EF4 tornado.

The estimated cost to rebuild was $1.2 million, with the church's insurance only covering a fraction of that.

"It was basically totaled except the fellowship hall," said Sandy Schuldheisz, a local physician who serves as the church council's president. "The backside was preserved. So fortunately, we saved the beams. All the pews were destroyed, but our building committee — a carpenter on there — took them to a barn and meticulously refurbished and restored them all."

Schuldheisz said she found a builder who would do the church reconstruction below cost, saving hundreds of thousands of dollars.

"I said, 'You're not going to make any money,'" she recalled. "He said, 'No, but I can lay my head down at night.'"

Every member of the congregation pitched in, even a woman who's 105 years old.

"It's beautiful, it's just spectacular," Schuldheisz said. "And we have a lot of old members, you know, but everybody did something. I wanted to lead so that everybody felt that they had rebuilt the church."

Not even a mile away, South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative is in the process of rebuilding its headquarters, which was also wiped out that night. About one-third of the RECC's 75,000 customers in the region lost power after the tornado.

A dispatcher was working alone inside a reinforced part of the building. He was not injured, but the tornado flipped over his truck in the parking lot.

Communications administrator Morghan Blevins said it was a challenge to restore the company's internal phone and internet service and bring power back to thousands of customers, as employees worked from the parking lot of the headquarters.

"We had to bring in porta-potties," she said. "I was charging my laptop in my vehicle. … It was crazy how we had to work things. But just to be able to pull together and do what we did — I mean, in a week, have 27,000 people back on — it's just a testament to our team and their work."

The tornado struck a commercial section of Somerset, narrowly missing two schools, a mall and a residential neighborhood. It killed one person that night in eastern Pulaski County and 17 people in Laurel County. An elderly Russell County resident died in the aftermath of the storm.

With wind speeds as high as 170 mph, the tornado carved a path through the Daniel Boone National Forest that was visible in drone footage taken afterward. It devastated a neighborhood in London, as well as the London-Corbin Airport.

In Somerset, the damage was limited to structures. A popular coffee shop took a direct hit, as did a gym. Blevins said debris from the gym, including steel beams, crashed into the South Kentucky RECC building, with gym mats and trophies scattered all over nearby properties.

It was hard to comprehend the magnitude of destruction, she said.

"It's pretty incredible, but here we are now," Blevins said. "We've got our warehouse building back up and operational. We're hoping to be in our new headquarters before the end of the year. When you're in the business that we're in, it doesn't stop. You've got to find a way to make it work and keep on going."

Back at Redeemer Lutheran Church, congregants held their first service in the rebuilt space on Easter Sunday.

Prior to that, they met at the chapel of Pulaski Funeral Home. Schuldheisz, the church council president, said her initial reaction was, "Oh, creepy, but OK."

"They gave us a key," she said. "They gave us the code to get in. They had donuts every Sunday, had coffee made for us. They're all saying they kind of miss it."

There was an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at the church the night of the tornado, and the last people inside left around 10:30 p.m., just before it hit. Schuldheisz said God protected them.

This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch Light newsletter here for news from around the region.

Copyright 2026 WEKU

Kentucky Republican Congressman Thomas Massie isn’t afraid to tell his party, or President Donald Trump, “no.” His obstinance has made him a national figure, and drawn Trump’s ire at the same time.

Massie made national headlines as the Republican leading the fight, alongside California Democratic Rep. Ro Khanna, to call for the release of the Jeffrey Epstein files. He consistently opposed Trump’s involvement in foreign conflicts, introducing war powers resolutions to block further U.S. hostilities. He was also one of two House G-O-P opposition votes on Trump’s signature policy package, the One Big Beautiful Bill.

“I'm not going to vote with the party if they're going to bankrupt this country,” Massie said at a recent campaign stop.

With his signature federal debt clock on his lapel, Massie hasn’t shied away from being the GOP opposition voice, even when it makes him unpopular in his own party. He’s forced his fellow congressman to stay in Washington, D.C., for roll call votes and refused to vote for omnibus legislation even when the party’s majority is razor thin. He’s said the constituents in his northern Kentucky district don’t want a rubber stamp.

“There are people who may be registered to one party or the other, but when they go to the ballot box, they vote based on their beliefs and also, do they trust the person?” Massie said “I think I've earned the trust of Republicans, Independents and some Democrats.”

Trump has certainly not been quiet about his displeasure with Massie. On his social media feeds, he’s called him a “sick Wacko,” a “complete and total disaster” and the “Republican party’s worst congressman EVER.”

The president has made it abundantly clear he wants Massie out, including when he came to Kentucky in March to loudly and proudly support his chosen candidate to take him on, Ed Gallrein.

“Give me somebody with a warm body to beat Massie, and I got somebody with a warm body but a big, beautiful brain and a great patriot,” Trump told a crowd of his supporters in Hebron. “He’s unbelievable.”

If you’re looking for where Gallrein splits with the president, you won’t find it. The former Navy SEAL officer has said repeatedly he stands “100% behind the president.”

Gallrein, who previously lost a state Senate race in 2024, points to Trump’s huge margins in Kentucky as proof positive that voters don’t want a congressman who votes differently. In 2024, Trump won Massie’s district by more than 35 points.

“They support our president, all right, 1,000% and now I'm gonna represent them,” Gallrein said in Simpsonville earlier this month.

Louisiana Sen. Bill Cassidy, who voted to convict Trump in his 2021 impeachment trial, is the latest casualty in the president’s campaign to defeat Republicans he deems disloyal. Just over the river in Indiana, all but one of the six state senators who pushed back against Trump’s mid-term redistricting plan found themselves ousted by Trump-backed candidates.

It’s left many Republican politicos wondering if congressmen who refuse to “go along to get along,” as Massie would put it, can survive Trump’s wrath.

It’s a component of his race that Massie doesn’t shrink from. He says Kentuckians are voting on more than their next congressman — they’re showing their own tolerance from representation that’s willing to split with the president.

“It's a referendum on whether every Republican in the House and the Senate is going to be a rubber stamp for the executive branch or not,” Massie said after a dinner in Pendleton County. “They want no dissension whatsoever.”

Massie says that on the vast majority of issues, he sides with Trump, but he is unwilling to vote “yes” on legislation if there are parts he doesn’t agree with. He said his constituents agree with his votes when they hear his reasoning. The issues that have earned him such a high national profile — Epstein files transparency, opposing foreign wars — are ones Trump himself would have agreed with on the campaign trail, Massie said.

“President Trump's own children promised that the files would be released. JD Vance promised that. The FBI director, Kash Patel promised that, and even Trump himself, even though it may have been half heartedly, agreed to do it,” Massie said. “I'm just keeping a campaign promise that all of them made.”

Gallrein rarely gets into the minutia of policy, but said that he backs the president without reservation. He said if he disagrees, he’ll let the president know in his own way.

“I will speak my mind to the president. He knows that. He respects me,” Gallrein said. “We've met three times now, and all that to say I will maintain that relationship where I can continue to advise him with a plain spoken, no nonsense, apolitical optic about what's best for our nation and our party in this district.”

Massie has long voted against big omnibus bills because of the plethora of spending line items. It’s put him in the crosshairs before, like when he attempted an unsuccessful parliamentary maneuver in 2020 to require House members to take a recorded vote in order to pass a $2 trillion coronavirus relief package.

His refusal to vote in favor of omnibus legislation, including every budget bill, gives his opponents a lot of ammunition, Massie said.

“I have voted against omnibus bills, which the omnibus bill is, unfortunately, the entire spending bill for the entire year,” Massie told WVXU. “You can run virtually any ad you want against me.”

And Gallrein has repeatedly hit Massie for that failure to vote “yes” on some of the president’s biggest priorities.

“Thomas Massie, has repeatedly voted with the radical Democrats against President Trump, the Republican Party and the conservatives tax cuts and other measures to unleash businesses and our economy here in the US,” Gallrein said at a press conference to announce an endorsement from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce.

Gallrein also accuses Massie of burning bridges within his party with his stand against omnibus spending.

“He's got a problem for every solution,” Gallrein said. “He's gone up there to Washington, burned every bridge, burned a bridge factory.”

Some Republican voters are conflicted. While many have voted for Massie for years, they wonder if he’s become too much of an obstructionist. Here’s Ron Stamm, who attended the Kenton County Republican dinner.

“They pack all these extraneous things onto these bills. Well, Thomas Massie is the kind of guy, he says, ‘No, I'm not going to vote for all of this other stuff,’” Stamm said.

Stamm does wonder if maybe that strategy doesn’t work in Washington. Others say they don’t want to vote for a puppet and respect Massie for standing behind the same values he’s always had.

But Trump loyalists, like Janice Sewell from Hebron who attended Trump’s northern Kentucky rally, say it’s time for Massie to get out of the way.

“He should be a registered Democrat. Seriously, that's how I feel, because he votes with the Democrats on everything,” Sewell said.

Gallrein has faced some criticism among northern Kentucky Republicans for failing to agree to a debate with the congressman. After the statewide K-E-T debate that Gallrein didn’t attend, Massie said his absence is telling.

“If he can't debate me in the Boone County Library, if he can't debate me here in Kentucky on educational TV, I don't think he's going to be able to debate or advocate for constituents,” Massie said after the one-sided debate.

Local GOP members have posted videos online, where participants in closed forums question why Gallrein is unwilling to debate Massie. Northern Kentucky Young Republicans also blasted Gallrein on their social media for failing to appear at any of their forums or debates, and said that Massie is the “only option” for those who want transparent representation.

“It is deeply troubling that he did not want an audience with the young Republicans. If you refuse to engage with prospective voters, especially young adults looking to get involved in campaigns, you are not a serious candidate,” the group posted online.

Gallrein, who has repeatedly addressed his lack of debates with the press, said he believes he is debating Massie by speaking directly with voters.

“He's had 15 years. What's he got to say now he hasn't said already? He's got a body of work that speaks for itself. He should be debating that,” Gallrein said.

With candidate and PAC spending through the roof, it’s likely to be one of the country’s most expensive House primaries. Politico reported that Massie’s primary is the most expensive in history.

The ads in this race have, in many ways, gotten out of control with artificial-intelligence derived imagery showing unflattering representations of both candidates. One satirical ad made with AI appears to show Massie in a romantic throuple with Democratic congresswomen Ilhan Omar and Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez.

Overall ad spending has topped $32 million, according to tracking firm AdImpact. Prominent pro-Israel GOP donors have funneled millions, directly and indirectly, to try and take out Massie.

“He’s the most anti-Israel Republican in the House,” United Democracy Project spokesperson Patrick Dorton told Politico. “This is a competitive, close primary situation. It’s always hard to defeat incumbents. … But we think there’s an opportunity here.”

Massie said it’s one of the big differences between him and Gallrein. The congressman has long criticized Israel and knocked foreign aid spending in all shapes and forms, saying that money needs to go toward paying down the federal debt first.

“I don't think we should send a penny of it overseas,” Massie said. “I also don't think we should become belligerent, co-combatants in these wars by providing weapons that end up killing other people who aren't really our enemies. The people in Gaza are not our enemies, and Israel has decimated that area.”

Massie has significant funding behind him, both raised directly and by the PACS supporting him. He said even after competing in a primary with so much outside money flowing in, he doesn’t want most campaign finance reform.

“Unfortunately, I have to pay money to have a voice, and it's amplified by my opponent,” Massie said. “If somebody wanted to reform spending and say, you can only spend the money that's raised inside of your state from residents of your state, I would take that deal in a heartbeat.”

For more information on candidates and races on your your ballot, check out the LPM voter voter.

The U.S. Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled 2-1 last week that President Donald Trump’s administration violated the due process rights of many immigrants who live in the U.S. by locking them up without a bond hearing.

The ruling means more noncitizens who are detained in Kentucky, Tennessee, Michigan and Ohio can get a bond hearing in front of an immigration judge, said Louisville immigration attorney Duffy Trager.

For many years, when ICE arrested someone who’d been living in the U.S. a while and wasn’t stopped when entering the country by federal authorities at a national border, the person was allowed to ask a judge to let them pay a bond to get out of detention while they fight their deportation case.

But last summer, the Trump administration changed the policy and said immigrants arrested nowhere near a border and who’ve lived in the country for years also should be detained by default, without a bond hearing.

“And what that’s caused is a massive population of noncitizens, oftentimes nonviolent noncitizens, being detained on immigration violations, which costs taxpayers millions of dollars a day,” Trager said.

The Sixth Circuit appeals court’s ruling is already getting cited by federal judges in Kentucky’s Eastern and Western district courts, where immigrants have filed hundreds of habeas corpus petitions arguing they’re unlawfully detained. For example, last week judges in both districts quickly issued orders that said the Sixth Circuit’s decision made it clear the person in a habeas case before them should’ve gotten a bond hearing.

Even before this ruling, the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting found in February that judges in the Western District of Kentucky had granted about three-quarters of habeas cases filed by immigrants since Trump took office.

The appeals court’s case concerned several immigrants ICE jailed in Michigan who’ve lived in the U.S. for years. Circuit Judge Eric Clay wrote in the ruling: “Some … own property or work for locally owned businesses. Others … have worked with law enforcement to facilitate criminal prosecutions. All appear to contribute to their neighborhoods and local communities. Many are the primary breadwinners or essential caregivers for their families, which include their children who were born here and are citizens of the United States.”

The ruling said the federal government had a “previously unbroken 29-year streak” of granting bond hearings to noncitizens like them. It also said none of the Trump administration’s arguments were persuasive.

The ruling said people in similar situations "should have a forum to explain that their backgrounds and connections to their communities justify release on bond.”

Immigration attorneys with clients jailed by ICE in Kentucky have been waiting for the appeals court’s decision. In recent weeks, several attorneys told KyCIR the fate of some of their clients’ cases would hinge on the Sixth Circuit’s ruling.

Had the Sixth Circuit ruled in favor of Trump, attorneys said they would’ve lost their habeas cases for people who’ve been locked up without a bond hearing even though they’ve lived in the U.S. for years.

Yet while the Sixth Circuit’s ruling against Trump says longtime residents are entitled to a bond hearing, it doesn’t ensure a judge will say yes.

Multiple attorneys told KyCIR it generally has become harder to get bond granted by immigration judges during Trump’s second term.

Sarah Larcade, a Cincinnati-based immigration attorney, said it’s frustrating to win a client’s habeas case, only to have bond denied.

“You’ll go to the bond hearing and no matter what the facts are, the judge is going to say, ‘Oh, you’re a flight risk,’ or ‘You’re a danger,’ and deny bond,” she said.

Trager said the Sixth Circuit ruling provides some relief to people ICE detains in Kentucky, assuming they’re able to get a lawyer. It “provides a lot of legal basis” for people with open habeas petitions to prevail, yet he expects there still will be debate in individual cases.

“I think there’s still going to be a lot of interpretation, there’s still going to be a lot of confusion on this issue,” he said. “And there’s just a ton of people who are sitting in custody right now who really aren’t able to navigate the complexities of this legal situation on their own.”

The Sixth Circuit probably won’t be the final word on this issue.

Attorneys expect the U.S. Supreme Court to eventually weigh in because U.S. appeals courts are split on whether ICE can detain longtime residents with a bond hearing.

If the Supreme Court, which has a 6-3 majority of Republican-appointed judges, were to rule in Trump’s favor, that would once again allow the widespread denial of bond hearings to immigrants held in Kentucky jails.

But attorneys told KyCIR they can make other arguments in habeas petitions for why someone’s detention violates their due process rights.

National Immigrant Justice Center attorney Colleen Cowgill said her organization already has done that for clients in Texas, where an appeals court upheld Trump’s mandatory detention policy.

“But there we've been able to continue to bring challenges on due process grounds, and many judges there are still granting release,” she said. “We're not just going to stop, you know, trying to fight for our clients in this way, but it would likely mean changing our legal theory and our approach.”

Voters in Louisville will decide Tuesday which two candidates for mayor will move forward to the general election in November.

For the first time, all candidates for mayor will be on the primary ballot and Democrats, Republicans and independents will all have an opportunity to vote for one of them. None of the candidates will have a party affiliation next to their name, either.

It’s part of Louisville’s switch to nonpartisan elections for mayor and Metro Council, approved by the Kentucky General Assembly in 2024.

Here’s what voters need to know about the mayor’s race if they’re headed to the polls Tuesday:

Louisville residents will still receive different ballots if they’re a registered Republican, Democrat or not affiliated with either party.

For countywide races like Jefferson County Clerk, Sheriff and County Attorney, as well as state and federal offices, voters will be restricted to voting for the candidates running in their respective party primaries. Those elections remain partisan.

But registered Republicans and Democrats will see the full list of candidates for Louisville mayor. There are 11 candidates on the ballot.

The switch to nonpartisan elections for mayor also gives independents a reason to participate in the primary election.

Here’s how mayor and Metro Council races work now: You get to vote for one person out of the entire field. The two people who get the most votes will move on to a runoff election in November.

This means, as a voter, you may have to do a bit more research about the candidates, since there is no party affiliation short hand for you to use.

The primary race for Louisville mayor started off with a dozen candidates, including Democratic Mayor Craig Greenberg, who’s running for reelection. As we’ve gotten closer to primary day some people have started to drop.

JusAustin Lane withdrew from the mayor’s race before the ballots were printed, meaning his name won't appear.

Candidates Bill Wells and Jeff Yocum have also dropped out, but after the ballot was finalized. Their names will be on the ticket, but any votes for them will not count.

Yocum, a conservative candidate who’s been an outspoken critic of Greenberg, announced May 4 he was withdrawing from the race and endorsing Tina Burnell, a Republican transparency advocate and founder of the Louisville Metro Watchdog Alliance group.

The full list of candidates who will appear on the ballot include:

• Jody Hurt
• Douglas Lattimore
• Bill Wells
• Craig Greenberg
• Tina Burnell
• Bob DeVore
• Lisa M. Holliday Harris
• Jeffrey Yocum
• Matthew Solomon Bailey
• S. "The D" Dattilo
• Shameka L. Parrish-Wright
  

Most of the candidates participated in a recent forum hosted by the Louisville Urban League, in partnership with LPM News and WDRB.

You can see their answers to some of the biggest questions here.

With so many people in the mayor’s race, candidates have turned to social media, door knocking and campaign signs to try to distinguish themselves.

Only two candidates, Mayor Greenberg and Shameka Parrish-Wright, have advertised on radio or television.

They are also the candidates with the most name recognition coming into the race. Greenberg is the incumbent and Parrish-Wright is a progressive Metro Council member representing District 3. Four years ago, she came in second in the Democratic primary for mayor against Greenberg.

Greenberg has far out-fundraised and out-spent every other candidate in the race.

Greenberg has raised a little over $1.5 million since late 2024, when he first announced his intent to run again, according to filings with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance. He’s spent about $800,000 of that during this primary election, with his largest expense being ad buys.

Most of the other candidates haven’t reported raising a single dollar.

Parrish-Wright has raised $45,000 during the primary and has spent all but about $16,000.

And Lisa Holliday Harris, who sits on the Jefferson County Republican Party’s Executive Committee, has raised about $2,400.

If you’re going to the polls on Tuesday, all you need is an up-to-date photo ID.

Previously, people without a state-issued voter ID could sign a Voter Affirmation Form and present a Social Security card or a federal benefits card, like a SNAP or EBT card. That is no longer an option after the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 139 earlier this year.

If you plan to vote in the nonpartisan mayoral or Metro Council races, you may want to know more about them beforehand – since you won’t be able to rely on cues like their party affiliations on the ballot.

That’s why LPM News put together a comprehensive voter guide where you can find information about all of the candidates for Louisville mayor, as well as anyone else you’re eligible to vote for.

You can find it at vote.lpm.org.

Once you're inside of a Vince Gill song, you enter an entire world. In power ballads and two-steppers, he crafts intimate songs about how we treat each other: a relationship that has weathered the decades, one that's broken and another fighting to revive the spark. Some are silly, most are tearjerkers, but in these three-minute songs, you always come away with a full shape of humanity.

For 50 years, that tender storytelling — paired with the voice of an angel and guitar licks that playfully dance on the fretboard — has taken Gill to the Country Hall of Fame. He's collaborated with the likes of Patty Loveless, Dolly Parton and Maren Morris. He's a member of the Eagles. He's Mr. Amy Grant ("The best thing I ever pulled off," he told me.) How do you encapsulate that career into a Tiny Desk? By showing us what's been and what is, with the same care that's guided Gill all along.

This set sandwiches '90s hits with new material in the middle. There's the party song "One More Last Chance" — somewhere, George Jones' ghost is raising hell on a tractor. "Whenever You Come Around," written about the first time Gill saw Grant's smile, will make you swoon. "Heroes" is yet to be released, but will eventually appear on the 50 Years from Home project, where Gill will release one EP per month for one year. "When a Soldier Dies," inspired by a visit to Arlington Cemetery, is one of many songs already featured in that series.

As he strums the familiar chords and the keys play the last song's mournful melody, Gill simply says, "This song came from losing my brother 33 years ago." There are several reasons why "Go Rest High on That Mountain" was just added to the National Recording Registry, Library of Congress' list of significant recordings that reflect the nation's heritage, but mostly, it's a masterful song that not only understands our need to grieve but our capacity to love someone beyond this life.

SET LIST

• "One More Last Chance"
• "Whenever You Come Around"
• "Heroes"
• "When a Soldier Dies"
• "Go Rest High on That Mountain" 

MUSICIANS

• Vince Gill: vocals, guitar
• John Meador: guitar, background vocals
• John Jarvis: keys
• Jimmie Lee Sloas: bass
• Billy Thomas: drums

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Lars Gotrich
• Director/Editor: Kara Frame
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Kara Frame, Joshua Bryant, Maia Stern
• Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
• Production Assistants: Ashley Pointer, Alina Edwards
• Photographer: Elizabeth Gillis
• Copy Editor: Hazel Cills
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2026 NPR

Outlander has spent more than a decade proving that time is less a straight line than a badly behaved houseguest. People die, return, disappear, reappear, get separated by centuries, find each other again, and still have enough emotional bandwidth left to worry about property lines. By season 8, Jamie and Claire Fraser have made it back to Fraser’s Ridge, but peace, as usual, did not get the memo. The war has followed them home, family secrets are circling the floorboards, and the show has arrived at the dreaded phrase every long-running series eventually has to face: final season.

For showrunner Matthew B. Roberts, the job was not to turn the ending into television’s equivalent of a brass plaque. “I didn’t want to do a very special episode of Outlander,” Roberts says, invoking that great old TV tradition where a show suddenly puts on a serious hat and starts lecturing the audience like it found a pamphlet in the waiting room. “That’s from TV lore back in the day where, you know, you just have this one off that has nothing to do with the show and it just feels like, you know, that’s not the show I’ve been watching.”

Which is probably the right instinct for a series that has already survived wars, childbirths, shipwrecks, prison cells, witch trials, time travel, heartbreak, and the kind of wigs that could have unionized.

Roberts says the goal was to make the final stretch feel like the same beast people had been watching all along. “I think we all wanted to do something that was befitting to the show that we’d done for over a decade,” he says. “That’s what we tried to do, is try to make the last season very authentic to what came before.”

Luckily, they didn't try to do a musical episode either, as many shows in the past have done. “Yeah, the musical episode,” Roberts laughs. “We’re all waiting for that one. It worked for Buffy. Not many others, I don’t think.”

If Outlander isn’t going full Broadway, it is at least bringing in a voice with enough gravity to make the stones feel underdressed. Executive producer Maril Davis reveals that Annie Lennox took on the theme this season, a move that sounds almost too obvious once someone says it out loud and still unlikely enough that everyone involved seems mildly shocked it happened.

“Annie Lennox, which is so amazing,” Davis says. “I think when we did Sinéad O’Connor, we were like, well, we’ve kind of hit the pinnacle of rock legends. And then we were talking about how to up it after Sinéad, and someone threw out Annie Lennox.”

Roberts says the thinking came back to Scotland. “We wanted to do somebody who, you know, we were thinking about Scots. Who’s a huge Scottish star? Annie Lennox is Scottish. Somehow Bear knew her manager or something. We were like, reach out.” And then, because apparently Outlander still has a few portals left in the wall, she said yes. “We were as shocked as anyone,” Davis says. “She was really excited to do it.”

That’s the thing with Outlander. Even when it’s ending, it keeps giving itself escape hatches. Season 8 is being treated as the final season, but Diana Gabaldon still has more story in the tank, and Roberts is not exactly nailing the coffin shut. Asked whether another book changes the idea of closure, he goes right where any longtime viewer probably expects him to go. “I think with Outlander, what it’s proven over the years is we never say never,” Roberts says. “We’ve seen characters literally die on camera and then still come back. So, in flashbacks and in different ways, I think there’s a ton of story for Outlander that can be told even past season 8 if everything fell into place.”

That is not an announcement. It is not a tease wrapped in a press release. It’s more like a man standing beside a time portal saying, well, technically, the door still opens. “Because of the time travel, because of the way we have constructed the show, we go backwards just as much as we go forward sometimes,” he says. “So I’ll leave it at that.”

Davis, meanwhile, still has plenty of affection for the whole strange machinery of period storytelling. Time travel, she says, isn’t just a gimmick. It’s a way to look backward without pretending the past was tidy. “I love period stuff,” she says. “Everyone says period doesn’t sell anymore, but all evidence to the contrary, there’s so many shows on. I think we kind of love to look to the past to inform the future. And especially with everything going on right now, it’s a crazy world. I think the past gives us some comfort in some ways.”

Some ways, she adds, are not great. Outlander has never exactly treated history like a warm bath. But that tension has always been part of the appeal. The past has romance, danger, brutality, candlelight, bad medical options, and family problems that require multiple centuries to sort out. “There are other things that were an easier, simpler time,” Davis says. “So I think there’s some comfort sometimes in looking at the past, and once again, it informs the future.”

And for anyone still craving more stones, bloodlines, and people making enormous decisions in difficult clothing, there is Blood of My Blood, the Outlander prequel series waiting nearby with its own time travel business. “If anybody wants to time travel,” Davis says, “you can just go right over there. It’s also on Starz.”

So yes, Outlander is ending. Probably. Maybe. In the way that anything ends on a show where death has occasionally behaved like a scheduling conflict. Roberts and Davis wanted to land the plane without turning it into a ceremonial pageant, and if they’ve learned anything from this universe, it’s that goodbye works best when it leaves a little candle burning in the window.

Never say never, especially when the stones are still standing.

Watch the full interview above and then check out the trailer below.

In Milwaukee, Francisco Vazquez, 27, recently achieved what feels out of reach for so many in America today, especially young people: He bought a cute yellow three-bedroom home with a basement, garage and yard.

Like many a proud owner, he spent hours this spring fixing it up before moving in, starting with tearing out the carpet.

"I sanded down all the hardwood floors, stained them again. I was adding polyurethane today. It's looking really nice," he said.

Vazquez is part of a small but growing share of Gen Zers managing to buy a home despite historically unaffordable prices, and when the average age of first-time buyers has climbed to 40. They are outpacing millennials, many of whom also struggled to buy at the same age. They're less likely to use help from parents and far more likely to be single buyers, especially women.

"Gen Zers seem to have learned from millennials," said Jessica Lautz, deputy chief economist at the National Association of Realtors, which tracks buying trends. She also credits their use of social media for financial planning. "They're embracing the knowledge that is at hand."

Vazquez changed careers to make homeownership happen. He'd majored in conservation science, on a scholarship with no student loans, then moved to Texas to work in that field. First he helped rescue alligators and place them in a sanctuary, then got a job at a zoo.

He loves animals and said the jobs were "super fun." But the pay was so low he started questioning the value of his college degree.

"I wasn't going to be able to support a wife, let alone kids, or buy a home," he said.

Making it financially is important to Vazquez. Growing up, his parents didn't have much and relied on government assistance. So he moved back home to Wisconsin thinking he'd become an electrician, but stumbled on a job posting to help manage a fast food restaurant. It turned out to have great pay and benefits. He got the job and he's been promoted twice.

For two years, one living with his parents and one renting on his own, he saved aggressively.

"Most of my paycheck, probably like 70%, [went] into just a broad index stock," he said.

The biggest challenge to his spartan spending plan was when he started dating the woman he would later marry, who felt they should spend a bit more to have fun while they're young. "She's definitely helped me balance in that regard," he said.  

Still, Vazquez was able to build up a whopping $72,000 in savings in just over two years. Milwaukee is also among a number of smaller, affordable cities where Gen Z is more likely to buy. At $220,000, his home was nearly half the national median price.

By putting down a large down payment, Vazquez – not yet 30 – has a 15-year fixed rate mortgage, and an ambitious plan for the future.

"My biggest goal at the moment is just to retire early," he said. "So buying a home helps me buy myself more freedom in general."

The rise in the youngest homeowners is noteworthy because of the odds stacked against them.

A massive housing shortage has pushed prices to record high unaffordability for both renters and owners. Rising home costs have far outpaced paychecks. Lower cost starter homes have disappeared in many markets, while most new construction is geared to the higher end.

People in their 20s remain a sliver of buyers overall, but they're growing. The National Association of Realtors found last year 4% of homebuyers were Gen Z, up from 3% the year before. It counts buyers 18-26, although other definitions of the generation include those a couple years older.

Overall, Gen Z homebuyers had an average household income of $76,000 dollars, according to the Realtors association. And they are financially savvy.

"They're taking advantage of government [down-payment assistance] programs at higher rates than all other generations," said NAR economist Lautz. "They seem to be a little more reticent when it comes to student loan debt, which has historically been one of the biggest hurdles for millennials to enter into homeownership."

While 16% of Gen Z buyers did get a gift or loan from parents, that's lower than for young millennials, and less than the traditional average of 25% of all ages who use the bank of mom and dad. Instead, Gen Zers are more likely to tap a 401K, which is possible because they're saving for retirement earlier than the previous generation.

Another difference: The share of single Gen Z buyers is double that of millennials at the same age.

"I asked around the office to try and understand what's happening here and I was reminded, COVID," Lautz said. "So I think perhaps delays in getting marriage started, and partners started, could be one of the things going on here for these young adults."

Strikingly, 35% of buyers in their 20s were single women, the highest share among all generations.

"It's really amazing if you look back," said Sue Meitner, who specializes in helping women buy homes and is president of Centennial Lending Group in Pennsylvania. "Women weren't even allowed to own a house until not too long ago."

In 1974 they got the legal right to apply for a home loan in their own name, but even today she finds many young women don't believe they can buy a home on their own. Meitner encourages them to keep saving, ask for a raise or take on a side hustle.

"We don't ever want to say no," she said. "We always want to say maybe later, like, what can we do to get your income higher?"

Pittsburgh is another popular city for young buyers, although 25-year-old Joanna Belechak does not have many close friends who are also homeowners. That can feel daunting when there's a strange noise inside or something breaks down.

"I Google a lot to try to find the answers where I can," she laughs.

But owning her beige brick townhouse solo also feels "powerful," and she's grateful that her parents helped to make it happen.

She was able to save up by living at home while she worked during college. A paid internship led to her current job in marketing, and after graduation she stayed rent-free for 18 months in a townhouse her parents owned. They also contributed to the down payment when she bought her own place more than two years ago.

"I'm the only one on the mortgage and I'm taking care of the mortgage, so it's in my hands to figure out the rest of homeowning," she said.

Belechak found it a little scary to shift from saving up money to spending it for the down payment. She's adjusted her budget, but occasionally dips into savings to cover an unexpected household expense.

Her Gen Z friends renting in far more expensive cities find it "crazy" that she actually bought a house.

"I have a friend in Raleigh [N.C.] where it's a little bit more feasible," she said. "But the New Yorks and the Bostons and the Chicagos of the world, it seems like a pipe dream."

They're starting to ask how she managed to buy, and she figures some may end up back in Pittsburgh. But even here, the market was tough when Belechak bought. And since then, she feels like job security and the overall economy has gotten worse.

"The cost of living in general is just so high," she said. "I don't know if I would have attempted it now."

That makes her feel all the more lucky that she was able to buy a home when she did, with so many in her generation priced out.

Copyright 2026 NPR

This story was originally published by Grist. Sign up for Grist's weekly newsletter here."

Johnny Appleseed was ahead of his time. Not because he fed so many people by planting apple trees (really, he got them drunk instead, as his real goal was encouraging the production of cider), but because he created so much shade to enjoy on hot days. More than two centuries later, American cities are wishing they had better followed Appleseed’s lead, as rising temperatures and a lack of tree cover combine to make urban life increasingly stifling.

Two new studies show how simply planting more trees can provide huge temperature benefits, not to mention how the additional plant life would boost biodiversity and improve mental health for urbanites. The first finds that tree cover can cancel half of the heat island effect, in which the urban jungle gets much hotter than the surrounding countryside. The second compares neighborhoods in 65 American cities, finding that canopy-deprived areas suffer up to 40 percent more excess heat than heavily greened spots.

Places like New York and Atlanta and Los Angeles, then, don’t just have to foster and maintain their “gray” infrastructure — roads and sidewalks and such — but their living infrastructure as well. “Heat is already a major public health threat. It kills 350,000 people a year by some estimates, and it’s worse in cities,” said Robert McDonald, the Nature Conservancy’s lead scientist for nature-based solutions and the Europe region, who spearheaded the first paper. “The urban heat island effect would be about double what it is now if world cities didn’t have trees.”

By increasing their canopies, metropolises dress themselves like their more comfortable rural counterparts. A vegetated area cools itself both because plants “sweat” by releasing moisture from their leaves, and because trees provide shade. By contrast, concrete absorbs the sun’s energy, driving temperatures up, and releases it throughout the night. That beats back the cooling typically experienced in the evening, meaning urbanites without air conditioning don’t get respite. This is especially dangerous for vulnerable groups like the elderly, and it’s one reason heat kills more Americans every year than all other extreme weather events combined.

Such conditions are especially dangerous for those living in lower-income neighborhoods, which tend to have significantly less tree canopy than richer areas. In industrialized areas, for example, vast stretches of concrete absorb and radiate heat. In urban centers, policymakers may have prioritized building dense housing without incorporating ample tree cover. Compare that to the suburbs, which have plenty of parks, curbside trees, and yards to cool things down.

The differences in greenery between neighborhoods translates into striking differences in temperatures. The second study calculated this “cooling dividend,” or the difference in the average urban heat island in areas with low and high canopy cover. It found gaps reaching almost 4 degrees Fahrenheit. If you’re lucky enough to live where there’s lots of trees, you might experience 20 to 40 percent less excess heat. The report found that this is playing out regularly across the U.S. “I think what maybe was surprising is that there was a dramatic amount of consistency,” said Steve Whitesell, executive editor at the Healthy Green Spaces Coalition, which authored the report. “In other words, they were all showing an impact.”

The trick is not just planting enough trees, but planting the right kind. The biggest species provide the most shade, of course. But more cryptically, some provide more evaporative cooling than others — drought-adapted trees, for instance, try to retain as much water as they can. A neighborhood might also want to prioritize food production, opting for trees that create both shade and fruit. Favoring native varieties will also help support native animal life, like birds and pollinating insects.

Climate change, though, is complicating these calculations. Even in rural areas, without the added temperatures of the urban heat island effect, some places are getting so hot that native plants are moving north in search of cooler climes. Within cities, they are blasted with still more heat — and temperatures will only climb from here. So urban arborists aren’t just planting species that will thrive today, but will survive the climate of tomorrow. “I think that for us to use trees as a type of living infrastructure, that can counter those increased temperatures, is paramount,” said Edith de Guzman, a cooperative extension researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, who studies urban heat but wasn’t involved in either study. “I think it’s pretty much the most important thing we can do.”

But trees alone can’t save urbanites. McDonald’s study found that even if cities planted as many as possible, it would only offset 20 percent of the potential running up of temperatures due to climate change. Designers will have to deploy other techniques, like reflective rooftops, to manage the heat. That’s especially important in poorer nations, whose cities are rapidly growing but have much less tree cover than richer countries, the study found. “It’s just to say that climate change is a big enough challenge that while planting more tree cover helps with temperatures, it won’t do the job by itself,” McDonald said.

Urban areas have been here before, McDonald added. As the Industrial Revolution kicked in, people in overpopulated metropolises would have to travel to the countryside to glimpse greenery. An exception was London, with its many publicly available green spaces, which Paris took as inspiration when it essentially rebuilt itself in the 1800s and made room for massive parks. Today, planners are similarly bringing some of the country back into the city, blurring the lines between rural and urban. “We know how to increase tree cover, if we put our minds to it,” McDonald said. “But it takes effort and time.”

This article originally appeared in Grist at https://grist.org/cities/the-solution-to-urban-heat-is-much-much-simpler-than-you-think/.

Grist is a nonprofit, independent media organization dedicated to telling stories of climate solutions and a just future. Learn more at Grist.org

For a show built on time travel, war, grief, and people repeatedly surviving things no normal human being should survive, Outlander has always had one secret weapon in that it lets its characters age. Not just older, but fuller. Worn in. You can feel the mileage on them now.

Which brings us to Young Ian.

When Outlander first introduced John Bell’s character back in Season 3, he was basically a scrappy kid bouncing through doorways and accidentally getting himself kidnapped by pirates. Now he’s a husband, a father, and one of the emotional anchors of the whole series. Television does that once in a while if you stick around long enough. The strange part is watching it happen in real time.

“Massively,” Bell says when asked about the importance of Young Ian becoming a dad in the show’s eighth and supposedly final season. “On the game of life, it’s a big moment becoming a dad. Feeling like he’s got a complete family of his own.”

He talks about Ian almost like someone he grew up beside rather than played. “He’s always been Young Ian. He’s always seen as the baby of the family. So for him to have grown up and be taking all the lessons that he’s learned from his uncle and auntie and mom and dad, I think it is exactly what Ian’s wanted for a long time.”

And Bell would know. He was barely out of high school when he started this thing. “I was 18 when I first poked my head around that little door,” he laughs, recalling his first day on set. “Crazily, it’s one of the clearest memories. I think of that moment often and reflect on it and see the development and the evolution that’s happened.”

That evolution hangs over the final season in a way nobody’s really pretending to ignore. Even the cast sounds a little stunned they made it this far. Eleven years is an eternity in television unless you’re solving crimes in a CBS procedural or selling coffee mugs in the Friends apartment.

For Izzy Meikle-Small, who joined later as Rachel Hunter Murray, there’s still a slight disbelief to the whole thing. She arrived just in time to say goodbye. “It was lovely to come back to a job,” she says. “I’ve never done that before. I’ve never been on a repeat cycle for a character.”

Rachel became more deeply woven into Fraser’s Ridge this season, which also meant Meikle-Small suddenly found herself inside one of TV’s most famously devoted ensembles right as everyone realized the finish line was ahead. “We are very close as a cast,” she says. “So coming back as a family when your character is also now part of the family, part of the ensemble on Fraser’s Ridge, everything about it was just full of joy.”

Then comes the thing every long-running show eventually becomes during its final season: a funeral where everyone’s still alive. “From the first week of shooting, we knew it was the final season,” she says. “Everything was full of those last moments, which meant it was very emotionally charged.”

You can hear Bell quietly agreeing beside her. The younger cast members inherited something strange with Outlander. It isn’t just fandom. It’s mythology now. There are people who’ve literally structured portions of their adult lives around Claire and Jamie Fraser. Weddings, tattoos, conventions, vacations. Somewhere there’s almost certainly a baby named Fraser.

And the cast still sounds genuinely fond of it all. They’re also keeping tabs on the expanding universe. Asked whether they’re watching the prequel series Blood of My Blood, both immediately light up. “We love them,” Bell says. “They’re a great cast.”

That family vibe seems real enough that even the costume department apparently runs like a small kingdom with its own laws and border patrol. Meikle-Small learned this the hard way. “I tried to steal my bonnet on the last day,” she admits. “I got back to my trailer and my driver said, ‘Costume have called and they know that you have your bonnet. You have to give it back.’”

“And I was like, ‘This bonnet that I did not want to wear for the past three years. Now the one time I do want to wear it, I have to give it back?’”

In the end, she managed to leave with one smaller piece of Rachel’s wardrobe. “They did let me keep one of Rachel’s little neckerchiefs, which I actually really love and do sometimes wear. It’s really soft.”

Which feels appropriate for Outlander. For all the battles and mythology and centuries-spanning romance, the thing people seem to hold onto most are the human details. The people who became family. The weird hats. The feeling of growing up somewhere that technically never existed at all.

Watch the full interview above and then check out the trailer below.

A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo is skipping the Preakness Stakes tomorrow and will instead wait until June to run at the Belmont Stakes. This is the third Derby winner in five years to skip the second leg of the coveted Triple Crown. Byron King, an editor with BloodHorse, a news publication which covers thoroughbred breeding and racing, is here to break it down. He joins us from Louisville, Kentucky. So, Byron, what did Golden Tempo's trainer, Cherie DeVaux, say about skipping the Preakness?

BYRON KING: Well, one of the challenges of the whole Triple Crown series is the timing of it. So it's two weeks from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness and then three weeks to the final leg of the series, the Belmont. And for a lot of modern-day thoroughbreds, that time frame of two weeks' rest is less than what a lot of trainers prefer. And she looked at her horse for a few days, analyzed how he came out of the race and felt that it was in his best interest to sit out.

MARTÍNEZ: But wouldn't winning a Triple Crown make a horse a lot more valuable when it comes to breeding later?

KING: It does. In fact, the two current Triple Crown winners that are at stud - Justify and also American Pharoah - these horses are worth, you know, tens of millions of dollars, but they can also become quite valuable winning two legs of the Triple Crown, too. So I think that, you know, they have to weigh that balance.

MARTÍNEZ: How much of this, though, Byron, do you think it's about seeing these horses as investments?

KING: I don't see it that way. In fact, if anything, the whole industry is very focused on equine welfare. One of the things now is there's very little race-day medications. So in the old days, they might have been able to get some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories to help take away some of the aches and pains from one race to the next. But now these horses have such strict protocols in terms of their going to post without those medications and things that people are making sure that that horse is feeling his best and up to top condition on race day.

MARTÍNEZ: Byron, what do you think is the right balance then between keeping horses healthy and maintaining fan interest? I mean, it's an attention economy right now.

KING: It is. I mean, the Derby had 20 million people watching on television. It was the most viewed Derby in recorded history, according to NBC. And so what happens - you know, you have the first female trainer in the Derby's history to win the race with Golden Tempo. People are so excited. They're eager to see this horse run back. And he's not running. So it leaves, you know, an incomplete feeling with folks. Now, if you stretched it out, let's say, to a month between races, which some people are proposing, that could allow those horses to compete more regularly in all three legs, but it comes with a trade-off of maintaining public interest, as you mentioned. Plus, in these communities where these races are held, they're quite often accustomed and used to having the event on a certain day.

I think you're going to see some changes to the series because while it's an important three legs together, you know, I think of it in, like, almost, like, golf terms, you know, with the majors. If, you know, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were skipping key majors because the timing didn't work out, I think we would lose more fans than tinkering with the history.

MARTÍNEZ: That is BloodHorse's Byron King. Byron, thanks a lot.

KING: My pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF INSTRUMENTAL SONG, "CALL TO THE POST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

A MARTÍNEZ, BYLINE: Kentucky Derby winner Golden Tempo is skipping the Preakness Stakes tomorrow and will instead wait until June to run at the Belmont Stakes. This is the third Derby winner in five years to skip the second leg of the coveted Triple Crown. Byron King, an editor with BloodHorse, a news publication which covers thoroughbred breeding and racing, is here to break it down. He joins us from Louisville, Kentucky. So, Byron, what did Golden Tempo's trainer, Cherie DeVaux, say about skipping the Preakness?

BYRON KING: Well, one of the challenges of the whole Triple Crown series is the timing of it. So it's two weeks from the Kentucky Derby to the Preakness and then three weeks to the final leg of the series, the Belmont. And for a lot of modern-day thoroughbreds, that time frame of two weeks' rest is less than what a lot of trainers prefer. And she looked at her horse for a few days, analyzed how he came out of the race and felt that it was in his best interest to sit out.

MARTÍNEZ: But wouldn't winning a Triple Crown make a horse a lot more valuable when it comes to breeding later?

KING: It does. In fact, the two current Triple Crown winners that are at stud - Justify and also American Pharoah - these horses are worth, you know, tens of millions of dollars, but they can also become quite valuable winning two legs of the Triple Crown, too. So I think that, you know, they have to weigh that balance.

MARTÍNEZ: How much of this, though, Byron, do you think it's about seeing these horses as investments?

KING: I don't see it that way. In fact, if anything, the whole industry is very focused on equine welfare. One of the things now is there's very little race-day medications. So in the old days, they might have been able to get some nonsteroidal anti-inflammatories to help take away some of the aches and pains from one race to the next. But now these horses have such strict protocols in terms of their going to post without those medications and things that people are making sure that that horse is feeling his best and up to top condition on race day.

MARTÍNEZ: Byron, what do you think is the right balance then between keeping horses healthy and maintaining fan interest? I mean, it's an attention economy right now.

KING: It is. I mean, the Derby had 20 million people watching on television. It was the most viewed Derby in recorded history, according to NBC. And so what happens - you know, you have the first female trainer in the Derby's history to win the race with Golden Tempo. People are so excited. They're eager to see this horse run back. And he's not running. So it leaves, you know, an incomplete feeling with folks. Now, if you stretched it out, let's say, to a month between races, which some people are proposing, that could allow those horses to compete more regularly in all three legs, but it comes with a trade-off of maintaining public interest, as you mentioned. Plus, in these communities where these races are held, they're quite often accustomed and used to having the event on a certain day.

I think you're going to see some changes to the series because while it's an important three legs together, you know, I think of it in, like, almost, like, golf terms, you know, with the majors. If, you know, Rory McIlroy and Scottie Scheffler were skipping key majors because the timing didn't work out, I think we would lose more fans than tinkering with the history.

MARTÍNEZ: That is BloodHorse's Byron King. Byron, thanks a lot.

KING: My pleasure.

(SOUNDBITE OF INSTRUMENTAL SONG, "CALL TO THE POST") Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.

NPR transcripts are created on a rush deadline by an NPR contractor. This text may not be in its final form and may be updated or revised in the future. Accuracy and availability may vary. The authoritative record of NPR’s programming is the audio record.

Can ticks survive year-round? Find out in the latest Science Behind the Forecast.

This transcript was edited for clarity and length.

Bill Burton: It's time for us to take a look at the Science Behind the Forecast as I'm joined by WAVE 3 meteorologist Tawana Andrew. Good morning, Tawana.

Tawana Andrew: Good morning. I think this is the creepiest Science Behind the Forecast we've ever done.

BB: It may very well be. I'm already a little itchy just thinking about it, because today we're talking about ticks. What do we need to know about these bloodsuckers?

TA: They are very sensitive to weather conditions, and their populations can be influenced by temperature, humidity and precipitation. Like most of us, they thrive in warm weather. Tick season typically spans from early spring through late fall, with peak activity between April and September. As you get through March and May and temperatures start to get above 40 degrees, that is when ticks begin to venture out of their winter hiding spots to see what's going on and find a host by summer. From June to August, especially, ticks are thriving in the high humidity and the heat. Basically, they're having their own summer vacations.

In the fall, tick activity can remain high depending on where temperatures are the warmest. As soon as you get into winter and that temperature begins to drop, they become dormant all over again. But even as temperatures drop below freezing in the winter, ticks can still survive.

BB: Oh, that's just not right.

TA: I know! They become dormant underground or even in leaf litter that may be in your yard, so just keep that in mind. And most of us tend to think that, ‘Hey, snow will kill them.’ Actually, it helps them out. Snow works as an insulator through the coldest temperatures, and keeps the ground just a little bit warmer so they can live a little bit longer.

BB: As if we didn't have enough reasons to dislike snow.

TA: Exactly! I'm kind of anti-snow in this regard. But if winter temperatures are mild enough, then ticks will stay active all year ‘round. That's something to keep in mind for those winter walks, too.

But here's the thing, as temperatures drop below 10 degrees, research has found that a fifth of an area's tick population begins to die. I have never been a fan of very cold temperatures, but I am now! Research has also found that about 50% of deer ticks will begin to die at temperatures of 14 degrees below zero or lower. So it has to get very, very cold for us to start to see that tick population dying off in the winter months.

BB: That’s not likely to happen here.

TA: We don't get those kinds of temperatures often. While ticks don't necessarily like the cold, they don't really like extremely hot temperatures either. If the temperatures are too high, that can cause them to dry out, especially if humidity levels are on the lower side. And speaking of humidity, ticks require a certain level of humidity to survive, because they can easily lose moisture. Those high humidity levels keep ticks hydrated and increase their likelihood of survival. They're getting their beautiful, plump skin in the higher humidity, and this is why they're often found in areas with dense vegetation and a little bit more of that moisture in the air. For example, deer ticks will thrive in areas where the relative humidity is higher than 90%. Once you start to see that humidity dropping below 85% they will actually begin to die after a day or two. So 85% humidity is pretty high for us, but for them, it's actually a little low.

The Cincinnati May Festival is the longest running choral festival and community engagement project in the Western Hemisphere. It birthed some of the most impactful institutions in the history of Cincinnati classical music – Music Hall and The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra.

In 2024, the festival sought to bring new life and innovation to the 150 year old institution, implementing a new leadership model. That included an appointment for a festival director who acts as 'chief curator.' The roles have been filled by Pulitzer Prize-winner Julia Wolfe (2024) and renowned soprano Renée Fleming (2025). This year, Grammy award-winning soprano Julia Bullock takes on the appointment. Bullock's approach is a fresh, thoughtful spin on the festival's history.

Bullock says research is a crucial part of her process, and it was especially fruitful when she dug into the history of the May Festival. She found that it has been exactly 70 years since the Cincinnati May Festival first welcomed Black singers to their stage. In 1956, soprano Leontyne Price and baritone William Warfield sang parts of George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. To commemorate the anniversary of that historic moment, Porgy and Bess will be included in this year's selections. Bullock will be performing excerpts from the opera alongside baritone Alfred Walker. Other selections include the music of Duke Ellington, Margaret Bonds, Carlos Simon, and the literary works of Langston Hughes.

Moving repertoire isn't all the festival has to offer, there are also many chances for the community to get involved. Opening night kicked off May 15 with a dinner among the flowers, there will be a Festival Family Lounge before "The Water's Journey" performance on May 16, and an exhibition from the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center to explore throughout the festival.

The Cincinnati May Festival began on Friday, May 15 with events continuing until the Festival Finale on Saturday, May 23. Find more information at mayfestival.com

The above interview is a shortened version. Enjoy the full interview in our latest YouTube video.

There’s a point somewhere around season four of Outlander where the show quietly stops being just a time-travel romance and turns into something else entirely. A survival story. A family saga. A weekly exercise in seeing just how much emotional and physical damage one group of people can absorb before somebody gets kidnapped by history again.

Which brings us to Sophie Skelton and Richard Rankin, who’ve spent nearly a decade carrying Brianna and Roger MacKenzie through wars, kidnappings, hangings, Mohawk captivity, religious crises, and enough temporal whiplash to make most people swear off standing stones forever.

Now, with season eight looming as the possible final chapter of Outlander, both actors sound a little stunned themselves that they made it this far.

“Brianna’s been through pretty much everything a human could go through,” Skelton says with a laugh that sounds only partially joking. “So it’s always wonderful when they find new ways to put our characters through something instead of recycling things we’ve done before.”

That’s the thing about Outlander. Every season starts with the vague hope that maybe this year everyone can just settle down at Fraser’s Ridge, make bread, raise children, and avoid historical catastrophe for five minutes. Then somebody gets dragged into another century or nearly dies in a field.

Season eight picks up with Jamie and Claire back home, though “home” in this universe is usually just another word for “the place where the next disaster happens.” Family secrets bubble up. The Revolutionary War still hangs in the air. Fraser’s Ridge itself starts feeling like a pressure cooker.

For Skelton, though, this final stretch gave Brianna something she hadn’t fully had before: confidence. “When we came onto this, we knew these characters had a lot of growth based on the books,” she says. “Even when we auditioned, we had sides from season four, which obviously wasn’t written yet. So I kind of knew that I had to give Brianna somewhere to go.”

Back then, Brianna arrived as somebody younger, unsure of herself, still trying to understand who she was inside this impossible world her parents had dropped her into. Season eight finds her standing differently. “This is probably my favorite version of Brianna,” Skelton says. “I feel like she’s finally come into her own.”

Roger’s journey has been even stranger, which is saying something on a show where people routinely fall through rocks into different centuries. But Roger’s real struggle was never just survival. It was purpose. “He’s always been trying to find his place and where he belongs and how he fits,” Rankin explains. “I think he knows he fits with his family wherever he is. But he’s always looking to be as much use as he can be in any given time.”

Which becomes a complicated existential problem when you’re literally a historian who accidentally becomes part of history. “His thing was history,” Rankin says. “And then once he became part of history, things became a bit more challenging in terms of what his purpose was.”

What’s kept Outlander going for this long, beyond the romance and battle scenes and aggressively attractive Scottish scenery, is the way the characters evolve under pressure. Nobody stays frozen in place. Trauma leaves dents. Love changes shape. Faith gets questioned. People age emotionally even when the wigs occasionally refuse to cooperate.

And after nearly ten years together, the cast itself seems to have gone through a similar transformation. “The cast became much closer in the last year or two,” Rankin says. “That made it a little more difficult to say goodbye.”

Skelton jumps in immediately when asked what Rankin will miss most. “Me.”

That lands exactly like you’d hope after a decade of playing one television’s most battle-tested couples.

“I mean, she’s not far wrong,” Rankin admits.

The end of a long-running series always comes with the weird balancing act of closure versus possibility. Outlander fans already know there’s another book still coming from Diana Gabaldon, which means “final season” carries a tiny asterisk attached to it. Even the producers are careful not to completely shut the door.

But whatever happens next, season eight feels aware of the weight it’s carrying. Not just wrapping up storylines, but saying goodbye to characters audiences have lived alongside for over a decade.

And maybe that’s the strange trick Outlander pulled off all these years. Beneath the wars, kidnappings, and timeline chaos, it became a show about trying to hold onto the people you love while history keeps dragging everybody somewhere else.

Watch the full interview above and then check out the trailer below.

Brittany Russell is the latest woman with a chance to etch her name into horse racing history.

Two weeks after Cherie DeVaux became the first woman to train a Kentucky Derby winner with Golden Tempo and after Jenna Antonucci won the 2023 Belmont with Arcangelo, Russell has the chance to complete the Triple Crown sweep of female trainers when she saddles Taj Mahal in the 151st running of the Preakness Stakes on Saturday.

“It would sort of feel probably a little fairytale-like," Russell said. "Jena opened the door just a couple years ago with Arcangelo, and Cherie got it done in the Kentucky Derby. The fact that I feel like I have a live one in the Preakness here, look, there’s some pressure and I certainly hope we can do it, but it would mean an awful lot.”

Where the race is taking place and who will be aboard could make it mean even more. The Preakness is being run at Russell's home track, Laurel Park, for the first time, and husband Sheldon is the jockey. They would be the first married couple, at least as trainer and jockey, to win a Triple Crown race.

“The dream, the goal was always to get one that would take us to one of the big races, and he’s sort of taken us there,” Sheldon Russell told The Associated Press. “Just like a normal day, really.”

Most weekends, the Russells take their children to Laurel Park, which is just off I-95 between Baltimore and Washington, D.C., and 6-year-old daughter Edy and 4-year-old son Rye are expected to be in attendance.

They were a little younger when they went to the Breeders' Cup at Del Mar in Southern California, in the fall of 2024 when Post Time, trained by their mother and ridden by their father, finished second in a world championship mile-long dirt race. It was a cross-country introduction to the sport.

“That was a big event for them,” Sheldon Russell said. “They didn’t really understand what we were doing there until we sort of got there. (This time) it’s not like we have to travel.”

And, unlike the usual Maryland-based horses who go into the Preakness as long shots, Taj Mahal is right in the mix of contenders in the wide-open field of 14 that does not include Golden Tempo. He opened at odds of 5-1, just behind morning line favorite Iron Honor.

Taj Mahal is unbeaten in three races, all at Laurel Park, including going wire to wire to win the Federico Tesio Stakes on April 18 by more then eight lengths.

“Immediately everybody started talking, just the way that horse won it,” Maryland Jockey Club president and CEO Bill Knauf said. “To have Brittany as our leading trainer for many years now here, she’s obviously one of the best in the country, and Sheldon has done an unbelievable job.”

Brittany Russell called it a dominant effort, and she hopes the home track advantage could be a major one. Her husband rides most of her horses, and that's another relationship edge they have over everyone else as they watch replays together and discuss strategy.

“Most of the time, it’s great,” Brittany said. "Now, look, does everything go to plan? Is everything always perfect? No, and it can be a little tricky. But at the end of the day, it’s horse racing and some things are out of our control. In this particular instance, I think it’s great. He knows the horse. He’s won on it three times. He knows the racetrack better than anybody. I think it’s a good thing.”

This is Brittany Russell's first Preakness horse in her eighth year of training. It's her husband's fourth chance to ride in the middle leg of the Triple Crown after finishing fifth aboard Chase the Chaos in 2023, sixth aboard Excession in 2020 and 10th aboard Concealed Identity in 2011.

This is different, though Sheldon Russell said he has not pondered the big-picture ramifications. His thoughts keep coming back to the little things, like, “We have a chance.”

“I guess if it happened, it’s going to be something,” he said. "We both know that he has a decent chance of showing up on the big day.”

Democratic voters will decide Tuesday whether to send state Rep. Daniel Grossberg of Louisville back to Frankfort for another term, or chart a new course with one of two primary challengers.

Looming large over the race are the many accusations of sexual harassment and misconduct against Grossberg, which have been documented in nearly two years of coverage from the Lexington Herald-Leader. Those allegations from nine women stretching over two decades have led to many prominent Democratic officials, including Gov. Andy Beshear, calling for him to resign from office and drop out of the race.

Grossberg has denied allegations of wrongdoing, alternately blaming his autism for interactions with women and accusing party officials of antisemetic targeting.

Some Democrats hoping to unseat Grossberg have been concerned about the number of primary candidates in the race, fearing they may split the anti-Grossberg vote and allow him an easier path to reelection.

“That is definitely a concern, and that's something that's worried me the entire race,” said Cassie Lyles, a high school civics teacher who is running for the House District 30 seat in central Jefferson County. “Because more than anything, we need a new representative.”

There were originally three Democratic challengers in the race, though Max Morley dropped out this week after home security video caught him taking a Grossberg campaign ad out of a voter’s mailbox. Now it is down to two, with Lyles and fellow Jefferson County Public Schools educator Mitra Subedi remaining in the race.

Grossberg insists that most voters either don’t believe or don’t care about the sexual misconduct allegations against him, comparing his situation to that of former President Bill Clinton, who survived politically amid infidelity scandals in the 1990s.

“People want to talk about kitchen table issues,” Grossberg said. “They don't want to talk about what's going on in my private life. They want to talk about how I'm delivering for the district, and they are very satisfied with how I've been doing that.”

Lyles counters that voters in the district are sickened by Grossberg and the allegations, wanting someone to represent them who has the values, integrity and work ethic they deserve.

“Nine women publicly coming forward is not an accident,” she said. “We should listen to the women and believe them.”

Lyles has taught civics at Fairdale High School over the past decade, in addition to holding leadership positions with the local teachers union.

Supporting public education and labor rights are at the top of her campaign platform, as she has called for the state to fully fund school districts and mandate raises for their employees, as well as strengthen the ability of workers to collectively bargain.

“I think we need more women, and we need more educators and we need more union members in Frankfort,” Lyles said.

Lyles has also stressed improving affordability and says she would hold regular monthly meetings with constituents.

“I want people to be more connected with the government, being the civics teacher that I am,” she said.

Contrasting herself with Grossberg, Lyles noted that he has been kicked out of the House Democratic caucus and said many constituents feel uncomfortable meeting him because of the allegations.

“We want to make sure that we have a representative who is approachable and is also able to collaborate with the other legislators in Frankfort,” Lyles said.

In the wake of Morley dropping out of the race, Lyles has picked up a slew of prominent endorsements from Democratic officials, including former Congressman John Yarmuth, Lt. Gov. Jacqueline Coleman, U.S. Senate candidate Charles Booker and Louisville state House Reps. Josh Watkins and Sarah Stalker.

Democratic candidate Mitra Subedi is also a JCPS employee, working as a bilingual instructor at Fern Creek High School. He grew up in a Bhutanese refugee camp in Nepal, then immigrated in 2011 to Louisville, where he has had leadership positions with Bhutanese groups.

This is not Subedi’s first time running for office, as he ran against Grossberg in the 2024 primary and came just 50 votes short of winning — months before the allegations of women against the incumbent made their way into media coverage. Grossberg was reelected that fall, as he faced no Republican challenger.

Subedi did not respond to requests for an interview with Kentucky Public Radio, but did respond to a KPR voter guide survey with written answers about his policy priorities.

He wants to fully fund education and make pre-K access free for all Kentuckians, in addition to providing healthcare insurance for every person in the state. Subedi believes the administration of President Donald Trump is violating constitutional rights and “trying to erode the very foundations of this wonderful country.”

Grossberg says voters in his district will give him another term because they care more about what he has been able to deliver as a legislator than what they’ve read in the news about the allegations against him from women.

“I have a proven record of reaching across the aisle to get things done, while never compromising on the values that matter to the people of the 30th,” he said.

Among the allegations against Grossberg are that he was banned for life from a Louisville strip club for threatening and assaulting a dancer in 2023. The Herald-Leader most recently reported the allegations of a college classmate who said he assaulted her in a dorm room two decades ago when she refused to have sex with him. The alleged victim, Christina Ross, did not file criminal charges at the time, but reported Grossberg’s behavior to local police and campus security at Grinnell College in Iowa and documented the incident contemporaneously.

Responding to that latest story, Grossberg said it was the first time he had heard of “these false claims,” adding that he was “disappointed but not surprised by this desperate attempt to discredit me on the eve of my reelection in order to clear the way for my political opponents.”

Grossberg says that voters in his district rarely bring up the allegations against him, “but when it does come up, it's much more with the skepticism of, ‘Why are they doing this to you? Why won't they leave you alone and let you do your job’ much more than ‘What's the truth behind all of these allegations?'”

He added that constituents believe the Democratic “political machine” is behind the attacks, as “they don't know the individual actors as they all connect together, but they sense that there's more to the story than just these allegations.”

As for why he would be targeted in such a way, Grossberg said there was animosity over his defeat of longtime Rep. Tom Burch in the 2022 Democratic primary, but his vocal defense of Israel in the wake of the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas “was the straw that broke the camel’s back.”

He alleges that Democratic leaders in his caucus were driven by antisemitism to target him after he invited the Consul General of Israel to do a security briefing for lawmakers in Frankfort and show footage of the Hamas attack.

Asked if he would be able to overcome the vocal condemnation he’s received from Beshear, a very popular governor among Democrats in Louisville, Grossberg said the Democratic Party “frequently underestimate the intelligence of the average voter, and they can see through it.”

“I don't share the cynical view of the Democratic Party that it should be a top down process where the party elite dictates to the voters what they should think and do,” Grossberg said. “I think the Democratic Party has a lot of growing to do and realizing they should do a lot more listening and responding rather than lecturing.”

The primary is this Tuesday, May 19th.

WFPK Members were recently treated to an incredible concert in our performance studio with the excellent musicianship of Molly Tuttle and the powerhouse vocals of Maggie Rose. Each artist performed three songs then did one together at the end of the show. They received a standing ovation for good reason! They also spoke with WFPK's Laura Shine about their most recent albums, the tour they are currently on, and about their music and lives.

On Saturday, horse racing aficionados will celebrate the Kentucky Derby’s sister race, the Preakness Stakes in Maryland. At the same time, in Louisville, a group of artists from Lexington will focus on the folks who make those races possible.

According to the American Business Immigration Coalition, around 70% of those working in the horse racing industry are immigrants. Artist and educator Gloria Arteaga-Hinton, said she witnessed these men and women dedicate their lives to their work during a visit to the Keeneland stables three years ago.

What began as a day of painting at the race track transformed into a multimedia art project that opens on Saturday in Louisville.

“I want to show the community this other part,” Arteaga-Hinton said. “So I went to these stables, interviewed people, and then I got fascinated and fell in love with all these parts of the industry. [I learned more] about their life, their sacrifice, their love for what they're doing, the way they work with so much talent and work ethic.”

In "Hispanics: The Heartbeat of the Equine Industry," painters, sculptors, poets and musicians document the lives of the men and women who spend their days tending to the needs of hundreds of race horses. Some of the artists said the project embraces working together despite language barriers.

Arteaga-Hinton has spent the three years traveling around Kentucky talking to immigrant equine workers and their families, to bring their stories to life through strokes of paint on canvas and wood. She partnered with poet and Lexington native Georgie Medina Marcano to build the multimedia art project based on their experiences.

“All of those poems come from the heart after seeing, visiting the different farms and seeing the amount of work that each one of them puts in, day in and day out,” Medina Marcano said.

At Mashup Food Hall in NuLu, Arteaga-Hinton and Medina Marcano will show their work along with pieces from sculptor Esmeralda Martin, visual artist Carmen Ruiz-Diego and singer Lucy Becker.

Arteaga-Hinton said some of the works highlight the workers’ cultural differences. Through her interviews, she got to know families from El Salvador, Venezuela, Guatemala and other Central American countries.

She said she wants the gallery to celebrate this diversity.

“The culture, it's so rich, so beautiful, so meaningful,” she said.

Across the United States, the Trump administration continues its immigration crackdown. And in Kentucky, U.S. Customs and Immigration Enforcement arrests and deportations have skyrocketed, according to a report by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

Arteaga Hinton said this gallery represents “the beauty of working together” in a tense political climate.

“We can work together and we both win. This is the message we want to give to the whole United States,” she said. “When you give a message with love, I think people listen better and open their eyes better.”

During the free opening reception on Saturday from 6 to 9 p.m., the duo will also screen three short documentaries in the exhibition space.

As Medina Marcano explains, the films highlight the challenges of working on horse farms and in stables and some of the biggest racing venues in the country.

“[The workers] miss important moments in their lives, like graduation, baptisms,” he said. “Just because they have to be with that horse.”

The films also call attention to horse racing workers’ families and how the industry can affect these relationships.

“It's a pretty interesting relationship,” Arteaga-Hinton said. “[The wives] are very supportive to keep the family together. And another thing that we found in those interviews was they are really concerned about education for their kids and that is the reason [the fathers] are doing all this for the good of their kids.”

Arteaga-Hinton and Medina Marcano collected about 40 interviews while making the short documentaries, and they will be archived at the Louie B. Nunn Center for Oral History at the University of Kentucky.

The two artists also plan to continue to document immigrant families in the equine industry, Arteaga-Hinton said.

All the work in the gallery will include a QR code with English and Spanish descriptions of each piece. The exhibit will remain open through the end of July. The gallery is free and open to the public.

Is it possible to be ubiquitous and behind-the-scenes at the same time? That pretty much sums up Don Was and his long career in the music business.

After co-leading the funky pop-rock band Was (Not Was) in the 1980s, Was went on to win an armful of Grammy awards as a producer. He's worked with Bonnie Raitt, Bob Dylan, The Rolling Stones, Willie Nelson, Elton John, Ringo Starr and Bob Weir, to name just a few. Since 2012, he has been president of the legendary Blue Note Records.

Was is also a son of Detroit. In recent years, he put together a band under his own name for the first time: Don Was and the Pan-Detroit Ensemble. "We are on a mission to promulgate the indigenous sounds of our hometown of Detroit, Michigan," he explains.

This is a tight and powerful group, with an emphasis on the groove, but all eyes and ears are on lead vocalist Steffanie Christi'an. In this Tiny Desk performance, she breathes a very different kind of fire into the Grateful Dead classic "The Music Never Stopped" and smolders on re-working of Hank Williams' "I Ain't Got Nothing But Time." The entire set is a perfect example of how, as the Dead used to say, "the music plays the band."

SET LIST

• "The Music Never Stopped"
• "You Asked, I Came"
• "Midnight Marauders"
• "I Ain't Got Nothin' But Time"
• "Insane"

MUSICIANS

• Don Was: bass
• Steffanie Christi'an: vocals
• Wayne Gerard Milton: guitar
• Luis Resto: keys
• Dave McMurray: tenor sax
• Vincent Chandler: trombone
• John Douglas: trumpet
• Jeff Canady: drums
• Mahindi Masai: percussion 
• Herschel Boone: background vocals 
• Terena Boone: background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Felix Contreras
• Director/Editor: Maia Stern
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Alanté Serene
• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Vanessa Castillo
• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2026 NPR

There’s a point in every Radiohead side project where fans start looking for clues. Thom Yorke does it by twitching toward the apocalypse. Jonny Greenwood does it with orchestras and dread. Ed O’Brien, meanwhile, wanders into the woods and starts talking about Wendell Berry.

Blue Morpho, O’Brien’s second solo record, sounds like somebody trying to reassemble themselves in real time. The Radiohead guitarist made his first solo outing, Earth, right before the world shut down in 2020. Then lockdown hit, schools closed, everybody got weird, and O’Brien found himself in what he repeatedly calls “a dark night of the soul.”

Not in a dramatic rock-star sense either. More like a guy sitting alone with a guitar because there was nowhere else left to run.

“The second lockdown was quite grim,” he says. “I sort of spiraled down and found myself in this dark place, this deep depression. Part of my therapy and part of my way of dealing with it was this daily practice of going to this little room in the house and picking up the guitar and playing with no expectation. Not trying to write songs. Literally as a form of finding some peace.”

That went on for nine months. No grand artistic mission. Just fragments. Voice memos. Guitar motifs. Tiny scraps of melody recorded without judgment. At one point he revisited them and hated all of it.

“I went, ‘What is this? I don’t like this at all.’”

Good thing he ignored himself.

Those scraps eventually became Blue Morpho, an album that feels humid and earthy and half-awake, like it was recorded at the edge of a forest while everybody inside the studio was trying not to disturb something ancient nearby. There are moments that feel almost ceremonial. Not “wellness retreat” ceremonial either. More old-world, half-haunted.

O’Brien traces a lot of that back to Wales and the countryside where he spent much of lockdown. Nature isn’t just scenery on this record. It’s the co-star.

“The planet heals us,” he says. “In Wales where we are, it’s very Celtic and the Celts are very rooted in the earth. Their connection with spirit was very much with the land. You can feel it. It’s almost like there are spells in the land.”

That mood hangs all over the title track, which drifts along like a late-afternoon walk through heat and overgrowth. O’Brien says the song immediately conjured memories of Brazil’s Mata Atlântica and the image of the blue morpho butterfly itself. He talks about songs the way some people talk about dreams or weather patterns, as though they arrive already formed and his job is mostly to stay out of the way.

“It’s not an exercise of the mind,” he explains. “It’s an exercise of, ‘Oh, this is what it is.’”

That looseness comes through in the way he describes working with producer Paul Epworth too. The two originally connected because another dad at school invented a futuristic guitar prototype called the Circle Guitar, which sounds exactly like the kind of sentence that would somehow lead to a Radiohead-adjacent record. The pair spent days experimenting together in Epworth’s studio before realizing they actually liked each other enough to make music together.

“You have to have a personal connection,” O’Brien says. “It’s an emotional journey making a piece of music.”

That emotional openness also bleeds into how he talks about darkness itself. Midway through the conversation, Kentucky's own Wendell Berry enters the picture through the line, “To know the dark, go dark.” O’Brien lights up immediately.

“If you’re not scared of being in that place, if you stop running, there’s a beauty there as well,” he says. “Lockdown forced me. I couldn’t run anywhere anymore.”

Then suddenly he’s referencing Joseph Campbell, Dante, Greek mythology, labyrinths, and St. John of the Cross like the world’s most thoughtful pub philosopher. It never feels pretentious. Maybe because he genuinely sounds like somebody who needed those ideas to survive.

Of course, hovering around all of this is the question nobody can resist asking anymore: Radiohead.

Last year’s reunion tour apparently changed something for him. Not creatively so much as emotionally. O’Brien describes the shows like family reunions.

“It was definitely my favorite ever touring that we’ve ever done,” he says. “My overwhelming sense is love and gratitude.”

Then he launches into a long, hilarious story about Radiohead’s very first gig in 1985, where a broken drum machine forced the band to recruit Philip Selway. There’s something oddly comforting about hearing one of the most important bands of the last 40 years start essentially because a cheap rhythm box died at a birthday party.

Even better is O’Brien admitting that distance has changed how he hears those songs now.

“It was the first time I realized those are Radiohead songs. They’re pretty good, right?” he laughs. “You get some distance on them and go, ‘Oh yeah, that’s a really fucking good song.’”

Forty years later, the guy still sounds surprised any of this worked at all.

Watch the full interview above and then check out the video below.

The Kentucky Resources Council is petitioning the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to hold a hearing challenging the license request made by Global Laser Enrichment to build a first-of-its-kind laser uranium enrichment facility in Paducah.

The petition – filed by KRC on May 5 – urges the NRC to address the legality of the 2016 deal struck between GLE and the U.S. Department of Energy to give the company access to spent nuclear fuel from the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion

Plant site GLE intends to reprocess at the proposed $1.76 billion facility. It also calls into question the NRC's review of potential environmental impacts of the proposed project on the air, land, water resources and communities in western Kentucky, citing a reliance on "generic" – not site-specific – data in pre-licensing regulatory documents from GLE.

In a KRC release, Executive Director Ashley Wilmes asks the agencies for accountability.

"Federal agencies cannot shortcut environmental review requirements for a project involving uranium enrichment and the handling and reprocessing of massive quantities of radioactive material," Wilmes said. "The public deserves a clear answer to the long-standing question of whether DOE even has authority to transfer this material for commercial use, and a legally sufficient, site-specific environmental review of the effects of the handling, transfer, reprocessing, and management of radioactive wastes from the proposed facility."

Global Laser Enrichment has been developing what's called the Paducah Laser Enrichment Facility (PLEF) for more than a decade. The private company – once associated with Hitachi-General Electric – has made major strides with the project in recent years.

GLE struck a land deal with the local government and an economic development group in 2024 to acquire land adjacent to the former Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site in western McCracken County. The NRC accepted GLE's licensing application last August. And, in September, the company reported it had completed "a large-scale enrichment demonstration" at a Wilmington, North Carolina, facility that proved its proprietary technique – which would use lasers to selectively vibrate only the uranium-235 molecules in the tails leftover from the gaseous diffusion process and using a physical method to separate those out from the inert uranium-238 molecules – could work at commercial scale.

Since then, GLE has secured major support from the federal government, the state of Kentucky and McCracken County.

Earlier this year, the DOE awarded the company $28 million to "continue advancing next generation uranium enrichment technology for the nuclear fuel cycle." A few months later, a state release announced GLE would receive just under $99 million in tax and other economic incentives through the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority and the McCracken County government. The lion's share of that is expected to come in the form of county tax breaks.

One of the major issues KRC cites in its petition is the legality of the 2016 deal that's expected to provide the company with its initial feedstock: 200,000 metric tons of depleted uranium "tails" in storage at the former PGDP site, a shuttered uranium enrichment facility that supported national defense efforts in the 1950s before shifting towards the generation of fuel for nuclear power plants and other enrichment sites.

Officials with the U.S. Government Accountability Office have questioned who has the authority to transfer or sell spent nuclear fuel for nearly two decades. Tom FitzGerald, who is of counsel for KRC and the group's former executive director, said the problem has yet to be put to bed.

"The GAO twice has said, 'We think [the DOE's] authority is murky at best and and likely doubtful,' because when the Atomic Energy Act was amended to allow for USEC [the U.S Enrichment Corporation] to engage in enrichment activities and to privatize that activity at Paducah, they amended the law to provide that … the DOE cannot rid itself of this waste – of any uranium or uranium hexafluoride or depleted uranium – unless it has specific authority from Congress. And that authority, we think, is lacking," FitzGerald said.

Also at issue, FitzGerald said, are the contents of GLE's Draft Environmental Impact Statement, an analysis the federal government mandates for most major developments. KRC's release argues that, in failing to use site-specific data to study potential environmental impacts, the NRC's review could be violating the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) – a legal framework designed to assess the impacts of projects, regulations or policies and generally lead them towards the least threatening option.

"We have basically put in a marker there and said, 'Okay, these are issues that we believe should have been part of the Draft Environmental Impact Statement, [that] should have been analyzed more clearly, [that] should have been analyzed using site-specific information rather than relying on a Generic Environmental Impact Statement that was done for nuclear reactors … and we believe that [GLE has] failed to do that to date."

KRC's petition also contends that the agency 'improperly relies on tentative conclusions' from what they characterize as a "draft Generic Environmental Impact Statement" instead of preparing the detailed, finalized site-specific review that's required under federal law.

"The thing that makes the most sense for all of the parties is to let the NRC complete the process in the hope that they will correct some of these missteps," FitzGerald added. "Then we'll see what the Final Environmental Impact Statement does."

Along with KRC, Paducah resident Michael McVicker is a party to the potential hearing regarding GLE's license. In his filing, McVicker – also the lone Democrat running for the Kentucky state House District 3 seat against incumbent GOP Rep. Randy Bridges – said he wanted to take action on behalf of his West Paducah neighbors and for his family.

"As a father raising two young children in this immediate area, I have a vested, urgent interest in ensuring that the introduction of new nuclear infrastructure does not compromise the long-term health, groundwater safety, and emergency response capabilities of our community," McVicker wrote.

In response to KRC's filing, the Atomic Safety and Licensing Board has established a three-judge board – named Wednesday in a Federal Register entry – to preside over this proceeding. According to the NRC's Office of Public Affairs, that board will review KRC's hearing request to determine if it meets requirements – and whether any contentions should be admitted – before issuing a decision.

The panel's first order, issued Tuesday, called for a response from the NRC staff and from GLE by June 1, with the petitioners to reply within a week of that deadline. If the panel awards the hearing, oral arguments would be expected to take place in mid-to-late June.

A GLE representative, when asked for comment on the petition, said the company awaited a decision by the board.

Copyright 2026 WKMS

From an outdoor market to a pug-themed celebration, here are some affordable things to do around Louisville.

Sign up for the free biweekly Arts Culture, Et Cetera newsletter to discover arts news and cultural events around Louisville.

While the Louisville Bats compete against Indianapolis Indians on Saturday, May 16 at 7:15 p.m., attendees have the opportunity to celebrate “a galaxy far, far away.”

During Stars Wars Night, attendees can shop Star Wars-themed jerseys, meet movie characters and watch a drone show after the game.

On Saturday, May 16 and Sunday, May 17 starting at 9 a.m. at the Kentucky Expo Center, it’s all about the pugs.

Bluegrass Pug Fest is an event dedicated to pugs, pug rescue and pug-themed merchandise. Visitors also have an opportunity to check out rescue pugs that are up for adoption, and some of the proceeds will support pug rescue organizations in the region.

Tickets are sold at the door.

According to its organizers, the Derby City Chamber Music Festival* is “where Brahms and bourbon collide.”

The festival returns for its fifth season with three free concerts at Second Presbyterian Church. This spring, the chamber is bringing together an international group of pianists, violinists, violists and cellists alongside members of the Louisville Orchestra.

The audience will hear selections from Brahms, Schubert, Schoenberg and more. Concerts will be on the following dates:

• Sunday May 17 at 3 p.m.
• Tuesday, May 19 at 7:30 p.m.
• Thursday, May 21 at 7:30 p.m.

Organizers recommend attendees reserve seats online.

On Saturday, May 23 from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. one of the largest outdoor markets in Louisville returns to Waterfront Plaza.

Fleur De Flea is a family- and pet-friendly vintage, urban market with more than 200 vendors, food trucks and live music from across the region.

This event is free to attend.

May’s WFPK Waterfront Wednesday will feature singer-songwriter Arlo Parks and local pop trio MODISTE on the Main Stage.

The lawn opens at 5:00 p.m. with local group Bluegrass Jam on the Monarch Living Room Stage.

*The Derby City Chamber Music Festival provides support to Louisville Public Media. In accordance with our ethics policy, funding has no influence on our editorial decisions.

Kentucky and Ohio are neighbors so it's no surprise a collaboration would emerge featuring musicians from both states in the band Barnweaver to great results. The band is based in Cincinnati and part of the jazz and indie scenes there. They worked with Grammy-nominated sound engineer Duane Lundy (Jim James, Sturgill Simpson, Ringo Starr) of Lexington, KY. to mix the album and recorded it at Legacy Soundworks with Eric Sheppard in Cincy. The band features songwriters Kyle Swenson and Bennett Miller along with drummer Andrew Gillum, and Eastern Kentuckian Brandon Scott Coleman on guitar. Brandon used to live in Louisville and now calls Cincinnati his home. He's also written with Kentuckian Ben Sollee and appears on Ben's latest album Time On Hold, as well as other previous albums. Barnweaver describe themselves as “Three jazz cats and an MFA stay-at-home dad with an acoustic guitar who make roots rock”.

The new album Barnweaver was released on May 1, 2026 and is now streaming everywhere. Check out the single "Take Your Time" which is also good advice for listening to the rest of the album. We've also included a video of the band performing Nirvana's "All Apologies" mashed up with The Beatles' "Tomorrow Never Knows".

For the third straight election cycle, state House GOP incumbents in northern Kentucky are facing tough primary challenges from candidates on their right flank who question their conservative credentials.

Reps. Kim Moser of Taylor Mill and Kim Banta of Fort Mitchell have both served multiple terms in their districts that include parts of Kenton County. Both are considered relative moderates among Republicans’ supermajority caucus when it comes to issues related to LGBTQ+ rights.

Moser and Banta now face GOP primary challengers who are highlighting their votes against a 2023 bill to ban all gender-affirming healthcare for transgender youth. Banta is facing her first primary challenge since taking office in 2019, while Moser survived her 2024 primary by just 84 votes against a challenger who used the issue against her.

Northern Kentucky has been dangerous territory for GOP incumbents in recent years, as three House committee chairmen lost their 2022 primary races against challengers from the so-called “liberty” wing of the party, which pushes aggressively to cut government spending, to the point of sometimes bucking House GOP leadership. Moser narrowly survived in 2024, but two other House GOP incumbents in other parts of the state that year lost their primaries to liberty challengers.

Moser and Banta are both receiving substantial financial support from party leadership and political action committees to hold onto their seats this May. This includes more than $100,000 of spending on advertisements attacking each of their opponents — Scott Berger and Cole Cuzick, respectively — who are first-time candidates for public office.

Whereas liberty challengers in past cycles have had success against establishment GOP incumbents in northern Kentucky by contrasting themselves as more fiscally conservative and anti-government regulations, the main challengers this year moved social issues to the forefront — emphasizing their Christian faith and opponents’ votes against anti-transgender bills in past sessions.

This is the first time Banta has faced any Republican primary challenger, and she’s facing two young candidates who prominently emphasize their faith.

Cole Cuzick is a 29 year old former policy staffer for two Christian social conservative groups that lobby in Frankfort. Also running is Seth Winslow Young, a 23 year old will soon turn 24 — the minimum age to be a state House member.

Young’s campaign has not reported raising or spending any money, but Cuzick has spent at least $13,000 and picked up support and advertising spending from two PACs.

Cuzick says the district is very socially conservative and his ads call Banta “Kentucky’s most liberal Republican.” He says voters have told him they are upset with her vote against the bill banning gender-affirming healthcare services for transgender minors.

“That's the main issue that people shake their heads at,” Cuzick said. “If they do know her, they're very familiar with that voting record.”

While Cuzick accuses Banta of supporting transgender surgeries for minors, she says she would have voted for such a bill, but the legislation included too many late provisions that she didn’t have time to read. The bill also banned hormone therapy and stripped a provision to protect gender-affirming mental healthcare services.

“It's a red meat issue, for some reason,” Banta said. “I don't really understand it.”

Cuzick has also criticized Banta for sponsoring bills to ban so-called “conversion therapy” on LGBTQ+ youth and not voting on a 2022 bill to ban transgender women from women’s sports.

“I just keep religion out of my politics,” Banta said. “That's the big difference I see in the two of us. I'm not going to impose my beliefs on other people.”

Moser is facing first-time candidate Scott Berger in her Republican primary, a former railroad worker and army veteran.

Berger says he was first drawn to state politics when he discovered that Moser, his representative, had voted against the ban on transgender care for children.

“I was genuinely shocked, and that's what really got me interested and involved in this state political arena,” Berger said.

He supported GOP candidate Karen Campbell in her 2024 race against Moser, who fell just 84 votes shy of a massive upset, despite being heavily outspent in the race. Campbell leaned into Moser’s speech on the House floor when voting against the transgender bill, in which she said “to the rest of the world who's watching Kentucky: We are not complete Neanderthals."

Moser told Kentucky Public Radio that Berger is distorting her record, as “I’m not for transgender surgery and I’m not fo cross-sex hormones.” She said she voted against the bill because it stripped her provision to protect mental health treatment “for these gender confused children.”

“We’ve got to make sure that children, especially, anyone with a mental health issue, is getting the care that they need,” Moser said. “Human beings are not disposable. We need to actually make sure that they are getting the care that they need.”

Moser voted for the bill to ban transgender women from women’s sports and another to ban transgender hormone treatments for prison inmates and its coverage under Medicaid. She did vote against a broad anti-trans bill in 2023 to prohibit transgender students from using the bathrooms and locker rooms of their gender identity and allow teachers to misgender those students.

Moser said that her constituents care far more about the economy and increased cost of living expenses than any transgender issues.

“People are struggling financially, and they're really paying attention to how the economy is affecting them right now,” Moser said. “So that's more what I'm hearing about.”

Just like in past primary election cycles, party leadership and business-funded PACs are coming to the defense of the more established GOP incumbents with a large amount of spending.

Commonwealth Conservative Coalition is a federal super PAC that has reported spending more than $300,000 in primary races as of this week, with more than $200,000 of that going towards negative ads against Cuzick and Berger. The same group spent more than $1 million in Kentucky House GOP primaries in 2024 in support of establishment candidates.

The latest federal filing of Commonwealth Conservative Coalition shows horse racing and gambling conglomerate Churchill Downs contributing $100,000 to the PAC, along with $50,000 from tobacco giant Phillip Morris and $25,000 each from online casino company VGW Luckyland and short-term rental company AirBNB.

Though its first quarter report did not disclose the contribution, Better Schools Kentucky — the PAC of the Jefferson County teachers union — reported to state elections regulators that it gave Commonwealth Conservative Coalition its largest donation of $200,000 in March.

Cuzick noted that he’s received six negative mailers about himself from the PAC, as well as the House Republican Caucus Campaign Committee that is controlled by party leadership in the chamber. The committee has reported spending at least $31,000 on advertisements supporting Banta.

“I can tell the establishment doesn't want me in there,” Cuzick said. “I'm flattered that they view me as such a threat that you've got to go that negative on me. It has upped my name ID considerably, which I'm not totally upset about. That is the silver lining.”

The ads hitting Cuzick portray him as a baby and say he’s “never had a real job,” while also saying he “attacked” President Donald Trump by a supportive Facebook post that also referred to him as “flawed.”

The PAC ads attacking Berger accuse him of being a fake Republican and a “deadbeat dad.” He said the $100,000 spent against him “just goes to show you how important this race is, and how important it is to the people that think they have a stranglehold on our district and want to keep it.”

The PACs of the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce and the sports betting industry have also spent at least $60,000 on ads supportive of Banta and Moser. The PAC of conservative advocacy group Americans for Prosperity has also reported spending at least $24,000 on pro-Banta ads.

Some groups have come to the aid of Cuzick and Berger. Make Liberty Win — funded by a dark money group spun off from the presidential campaign of Ron Paul — has reported spending $17,000 on positive ads for Cuzick, as well as $12,000 on ones attacking Banta and Moser.

There is also a mysterious group called Kentucky Liberty Alliance that has paid an unknown amount on ads attacking Moser for her voting record on transgender bills, but has not registered with state or federal election agencies, as is required by law.

Moser filed a complaint to state regulators and a lawsuit against the group for using artificial intelligence to distort her appearance in ads. That lawsuit was successful, as Moser got a restraining order against the group from a Kenton County judge, who ruled the ad violated a new state law prohibiting “deepfakes” of candidates without disclosing that such technology was used.

Cuzick also criticized the negative PAC ads — including those from House GOP leadership — for distorting his face, saying it violated the state law. Still, he was confident that he could overcome the lopsided spending in the race, noting that former GOP Rep. Killian Timoney was blown out in his 2024 primary race, despite $400,000 of spending on his behalf and a 10-to-1 advantage over his opponent.

In the background of both Republican primary races are two ongoing battles over the leadership and direction of the party, both in Kentucky and the nation’s capitol.

Voters in northern Kentucky have been barraged by TV ads over the past year in the congressional primary between GOP incumbent Rep. Thomas Massie and Trump-endorsed challenger Ed Gallrein. Attack ads have painted Massie as betraying Trump and the party by opposing him on issues like the Jeffrey Epstein files and the military invasion of Iran, while Massie has insisted that he’s the one staying true to his small government and constitutional principles.

Also in Frankfort is the ongoing power struggle between the leadership of the GOP supermajority and the small but growing faction of lawmakers under the “liberty” banner, who are largely aligned with Massie and often stand up to the leadership on its right flank.

Cuzick fully embraces both the liberty moniker and his support for Massie, who he used to work for in his congressional office. He said efforts to tie him to Massie will work in his favor, as he expects the congressman to do very well there in the primary.

“It's funny, after some of those first mailers came out, people opened the door and said, 'I got this mailer. I don't support President Trump and what he's doing with the Epstein files and the war in Iran. And I'm actually supporting you based on this negative mailer,'” Cuzick said.

The other young GOP candidate challenging Banta who has run a limited campaign is also a strong supporter of Massie. Young, who says he is running to “restore the Covenant” of “the sacred bond between God, the family, the community and the nation,” calls Massie “the most conservative, the most principled and the most constitutionally sound representative we have in all of Congress.”

On the other hand, Berger rejected another notion that his race was a proxy for any other political battles.

“I think this is a unique race,” Berger said. “I don't think this is a liberty (versus) conservative establishment race… I don't believe this is a Thomas Massie race whatsoever.”

Moser also rejected that characterization of the race, saying she gets along with fellow lawmakers in the liberty caucus — who have not endorsed her opponent. However, Moser adds that her experience and ability to work with leadership does matter for her district, noting she was able to bring $220 million in projects back to Kenton County this past session and “there is not a chance that my opponent is going to be able to do that.”

“It takes years to build relationships,” Moser said. “It takes years to really understand and work within the process and make steps in the right direction, as far as bringing business-friendly policies to our state.”

While the incumbents’ votes on transgender legislation have been at the forefront of their opponents’ attacks, they have also taken on Moser and Banta on other issues.

Cuzick said that Republican leadership has been “slow walking” the elimination of the individual income tax, as Kentucky has failed to hit the budget triggers necessary to lower the rate in recent years. He said he is not for eliminating the tax in one fell swoop, but wants to cut state spending even faster in order to ensure budget triggers are met.

“I'm going to be more willing to stand up to very clear pork that is in our budget and that consistently makes it in there, to fight for that elimination,” Cuzick said.

Both Banta and Moser have highlighted their votes for the tax cut trigger mechanism, crediting it for lowering the rate from 6% to 3.5% in recent years.

“We're doing it in a responsible way,” Banta said. “We're trying to cut the fat in the budget. You can't just wave a wand and make it all magically disappear. You have to be a little bit more deliberate.”

Berger has criticized Moser for allegedly being a major roadblock to legislation loosening certificate of need laws for new healthcare facilities — a major priority for northern Kentucky lawmakers in the liberty caucus. He said her opposition has increased healthcare costs in the region and is due to being “backed by Big Pharma and hospital committees.”

Moser, the chair of the House committee that deals with healthcare issues, did not allow the certificate of need bill to receive a hearing and vote in past sessions, but noted that it did clear her committee this past session, along with receiving her vote.

The candidates are very similar on abortion policy, though two different anti-abortion groups have split their endorsements.

Kentucky Right to Life endorsed both Banta and Moser, touting their “100% pro-life voting record.” However, Northern Kentucky Right to Life endorsed Cuzick and Berger.

Cuzick said that the northern Kentucky group likely endorsed him because they “were willing to bring in the issues surrounding gender identity and transgender surgeries for minors they view (are) made in God's image and the sanctity of human life, even outside of the womb.”

Moser said the regional group likely split from the statewide group and endorsed their primary challengers because it “wants to ban or abolish contraception, and that's where I draw the line.” She added that she thinks Northern Kentucky Right to Life supports charging women who have an abortion with criminal penalties.

“Kentucky Right to Life wants to treat women with compassion and support and make sure that we're reducing abortions in that way, not by being punitive,” Moser said.

Berger said he has no policy differences with Moser on abortion, and Cuzick said he is not in favor of criminalizing a woman who seeks an abortion or banning access to contraception.

In far west Louisville, a Metro Council member is facing one of her toughest electoral challenges yet.

Democrat Donna Purvis has five opponents in the primary election, including one who came within 35 votes of defeating her in 2022. Purvis represents District 5, which includes the Shawnee neighborhood and parts of Chickasaw, Russell and Portland.

In the lead-up to the May 19 primary, her opponents have capitalized on a narrative that Purvis has been absent from her district and is not addressing residents’ issues. It’s an accusation Purvis strongly rejects.

“I've been very, very conscientious of the voters' needs,” she told LPM News in a recent interview. “I'm very quiet about what I do, but I'm very effective.”

Purvis pointed to city funding for a new environmental learning center at Shawnee Park and a new science and technology campus for Simmons College, among other things, as evidence she’s helped bring investment into the community.

Since she took office in 2019, Purvis has also sponsored legislation to raise the standards for transitional sober housing programs and require clearboarding of vacant properties to prevent squatting, issues she said are of specific concern to District 5 and the West End.

“I’m also working closely with Metro Parks, getting a list of their programming at these recreational centers, to spread the word about how the kids can participate in these programs,” Purvis said.

Her list of claimed accomplishments, which she provided to LPM News, was apparently not enough to win Purvis the endorsement of the Louisville Democratic Party.

The local party endorsed candidates in the primary election for the first time this year, after the state legislature made the Metro Council and mayoral races nonpartisan. Since candidates won’t have a party affiliation next to their name on the ballot anymore, party leaders said they felt compelled to try and “protect Democratic representation and provide clarity to voters.”

In a surprising move, the Louisville Democratic Party endorsed Aprile Hearn — not Purvis — for Metro Council District 5.

Hearn said she felt the move was an acknowledgement that things needed to change.

“They never endorse a challenger,” Hearn said in a recent interview. “They always endorse the person in the seat, but the trust has been broken and the community has been loud enough in saying, ‘We want somebody else,’ and they see my campaign as the strongest campaign.”

Hearn was also endorsed by the local Democratic Socialists of America chapter.

Purvis has courted some controversy in recent years, which may have contributed to the Democratic Party’s decision.

Last year, Purvis was forced to pay a $10,000 fine for violating numerous campaign finance laws during her last reelection bid in 2022. Purvis has also been sued and had ethics complaints filed against her by constituents.

For her part, Purvis said she doesn’t think it was a good idea for the Democratic Party to endorse in the primary, because it “pit Democrats against Democrats.” Purvis said she's not taking anything for granted this year.

"You know, I could say, 'The quietest person doesn't have a voice,' or whatever, and they'll come out on top,” she said. “I look at everybody, all five of them, as tough competitors."

But Purvis still thinks her record, and the connections she's made over the last eight years, will help her secure a third term.

The other candidates in the District 5 race are:

• Betty Bailey
• Ray Barker
• Dave Duncan
• Wallace Garner III
  

Barker and Duncan did not respond to LPM News’ request for comment. Barker, a retired police officer and anti-violence advocate, narrowly lost the Democratic primary for this seat to Purvis in 2022.

Candidates in this primary race, including Purvis, have pointed to many of the same key challenges facing the district: gun violence, cleaning up neighborhoods and offering more programming and job opportunities for young people.

In recent years, District 5 has had more homicides and nonfatal shootings than any other Metro Council District, according to data from Louisville’s Office of Violence Prevention.

Every candidate LPM News interviewed said they’d like to see a return to community policing, when officers knew their beats and residents knew their local officers.

During a recent interview while door knocking, Hearn said residents she’s talked to have a clear priority: “It's abandoned cars, abandoned houses, stray dogs and things like that, things that we already have ordinances for, but they're just not being enforced.”

Hearn is also promising to bring more positive programming for young people, something she said can help them build confidence and stay off the streets.

“When I was young, there were community centers and we had programming and different opportunities that we could go and participate in,” she said. “We don't have those things anymore.”

Hearn has been a mental health counselor for more than two decades. She said she wants to help bring a sense of community back to District 5.

Another candidate, Wallace Garner III, shared those feelings when he spoke to an LPM News reporter last month.

Driving around the district recently, Garner pulled up to the end of a random alleyway.

“Overhang in the alleys, dumping in the alleys, potholes in the alleys,” he said. “We could sit right here and see it all. And that's just one!”

For Garner, illegal dumping and disrepair are some of the area’s biggest problems. He said residents want more businesses and storefronts, but he thinks that will take some work.

“District 5 is our house, and before you can invite someone to move in with their business, with their groceries, with their restaurants, with their factories, we've got to clean it up, and we've got to invest in it,” he said.

Garner, a U.S. Air Force veteran and a retired public school teacher, is pledging to get the city to fund a summer jobs program for young people, paying them to clean up the streets and alleyways.

Betty Bailey, another District 5 candidate, has proposed creating a similar type of program.

She told LPM News earlier this year that young people need positive, paid opportunities.

“Some of them are responsible for their own shoes and clothes,” Bailey said. “Some of them are responsible for paying their own phone bills. Some of them are even responsible for helping out on the LG&E and rent. That's truly the reality we are living in.”

That interview with Bailey took place before she was indicted in federal court.

Prosecutors allege she inflated her business income in order to defraud the pandemic-era PPP loan program. Bailey has since pleaded not guilty.

Reached by phone on April 20, Bailey said had a different perspective on the case than the one prosecutors laid out, but she declined to comment about specifics on the advice of her lawyer.

If she’s reelected to a third term, Purvis said she would continue to push for increased surveillance in District 5 in order to address the problem of illegal dumping.

“I need motion cameras,” Purvis said. “I need smarter technology to catch these offenders. It is just terrible. I will have an area cleaned up and it seems like they're waiting on them to clean it up and drive off, and they're dumping on it again.”

And when it comes to addressing violent crime, Purvis said she’s focused on rebuilding block watch programs — something Garner is campaigning on, too.

“I am really advocating for more neighborhood involvement,” she said. “I tell people this all the time, we need you to help us … When people know that somebody's watching them, they are less likely to go to those areas and commit crimes.”

The primary election will be held on May 19. Early voting is underway, with in-person, no-excuse absentee voting May 14-16.

For a full list of all 26 early voting locations, or to find your local polling place, visit the Jefferson County Clerk’s website.

U.S. Rep. Thomas Massie defended himself on social media after an alleged former girlfriend publicly accused the congressman of offering her hush money and of being “emotionally abusive” during their relationship.

In a video interview now widely circulating online, Cynthia West, a former congressional aide now running for school board in Florida, says that Massie offered her $5,000 to “walk away” from a formal complaint she filed against Indiana GOP U.S. Rep. Victoria Spartz.

Massie has called the allegations “false and unsubstantiated” and said they are an attempt to sway his Tuesday primary against Trump-backed challenged Ed Gallrein. The candidates and PACs supporting them have spent millions on one of the most high-profile congressional elections in the country.

“All of the claims of inappropriate conduct are false. I’ve never offered anyone money in exchange for their silence. I report all of my farm income, including cash, to the IRS,” Massie wrote in the post. “There are no ethics claims filed against me, nor have there ever been any claims filed against me in my 14 years in office. I have consulted legal counsel and we are considering all options.”

Interviewed by northern Kentucky attorney Marcus Carey, West said Massie started a relationship with her in 2024, after his wife died. She says that Massie got her a job in Spartz’s office.

West said she broke up with Massie “shortly after” she started working for the congresswoman, saying “he wanted me to engage in behavior that I just – I wasn’t comfortable.” Neither her spokesperson nor Carey were able to provide any additional information when reached for comment.

According to Spartz’s office, West “held a temporary 90-day probationary position with our office, and her employment was not extended beyond that period due to unsatisfactory job performance.”

West said she then filed a complaint with the Office of Congressional Workplace Rights. Kentucky Public Radio has not been able to verify or determine the contents of that complaint. However, KPR reviewed a copy of a proposed $60,000 settlement agreement that would have ended the wrongful termination complaint provided by West's spokesperson. It included a nondisclosure agreement that West declined to sign. It did not, however, include any information about the allegations themselves.

In the video, West said she called Massie to inform him that she named him a witness in the complaint, which is when she alleges he offered her money to “just walk away” from the complaint. She says she did not take it.

State Rep. Steven Doan, an attorney from Erlanger and Massie ally, has defended him and said the allegations are not believable. He pointed to previous accusations she made against her children’s father in Florida court, alleging abuse, that were dismissed.

It’s an uphill battle for any Democrat seeking to take over the seat that Sen. Mitch McConnell has held onto since 1985, when he won the office from a Democratic incumbent. A Democrat has not represented Kentucky in the U.S. Senate since Wendell Ford left office in 1999.

And all of the candidates say if there was ever a time for Democrats to win over the U.S. Senate, it’s now. McConnell is not seeking reelection. President Donald Trump’s approval rating is underwater across the country — in Kentucky, where he won by a more than 30 point margin in 2024, Trump is now hovering at about a 51% approval rating, according to data journalist G. Elliott Morris.

It’s a crowded primary, but two familiar faces have dominated the limited polling in the race: former Marine fighter pilot Amy McGrath, who lost to McConnell by almost 20 percentage points in 2020, and former state Rep. Charles Booker, who lost to incumbent Sen. Rand Paul in 2022 by a 23-point margin.

Louisville horse trainer and political newcomer Dale Romans is also making a bid for the seat, as is State Rep. Pamela Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel.

Democratic operatives in the state have said that Gov. Andy Beshear’s successful gubernatorial bid in 2023 is the modern ceiling for what a Democrat can accomplish in the state, when he won by a 5 percentage point margin. But that was in an off election year, with no federal races on the ballot. And the governor, who has found broad support even among Republican Kentuckians, decided not to run for Senate, and instead hinted heavily at a possible presidential run in 2028.

Some Democrats told Kentucky Public Radio they were a bit disappointed by that decision, and that this primary wouldn’t have been the same if Beshear had decided to enter it. At a Democratic forum in Oldham County in late April, Jeff Arth said he was disappointed that Beshear decided not to run.

“I think he would have been an excellent senator. I wish he would have ran,” Arth said. “I think it's gonna be harder for him to get on the national stage, because Kentucky is a small state.”

But the fact that Beshear isn’t on the ballot and has not endorsed anyone hasn’t stopped his name from coming up in the primary.

“We need to take back the Senate. We need to put this president in a box. We're never going to get him impeached, never going to get 60 votes in the Senate,” Romans said at the forum. “So we have to be pragmatic about that, but we can box him in for the next two years until we get Andy Beshear in the White House.”

Another Kentucky Democratic voter, Christia Luckey, told Kentucky Public Radio she wants a candidate that doesn’t just “create a facade for what you think voters want,” but someone genuine about their position. And importantly, she wants a candidate who can win against the Republican nominee.

“Almost like a chess match, because you can like all of them, but based on who is running on the other side, what makes sense?” Luckey said. “And that's the piece that I still need to work out.”

The Republican primary is now largely down to a couple of major candidates, after Lexington businessman Nate Morris dropped out of the race after receiving an unnamed ambassadorship from the president. The GOP primary for the U.S. Senate is now dominated by Trump-endorsed U.S. Rep. Andy Barr and former Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

With Primary Election Day in Kentucky just a week out and early no-excuse voting starting Thursday, here’s what you need to know about the top Democratic candidates running for U.S. Senate.

Booker, who most recently served as the head of Beshear’s Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives, has run for U.S. Senate twice before he threw in his hat for McConnell’s open seat. He lost in the 2020 primary to McGrath and then lost in the 2022 general election to Paul.

But Booker, a former state representative known for his fiery floor speeches, has once again been touring the state and says this is the year to flip the now open Senate seat blue.

“We have pulled people into the coalition that voted for Trump, that voted for Bernie Sanders, that have never voted before,” Booker said. “We have done something that Kentucky has been demanding for years, and we listened to them.”

Booker, endorsed by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth’s PAC and Former U.S. Rep. John Yarmuth, champions progressive causes like Medicare for All, universal income, free public university tuition and federal renter protections.

“I've been able to build such a powerful coalition across Kentucky of regular folks who don't trust politicians, just like I don't, but know that things won't change unless we do it,” Booker said. “Ultimately, by building community, by leaning in and building infrastructure, just like Mitch McConnell did, we can have a base of people that can go to Washington and demand the change we need as well.”

His nonprofit Hood to the Holler, which sought to inform and register voters and organize Kentuckians around a progressive agenda, has been inactive since the end of 2024; Booker said he stepped down from a leadership role in the nonprofit when he joined the Beshear administration in 2023. Since losing to Paul in 2022, Booker said he’s been busy building coalitions and making connections with Kentuckians across the political spectrum. 

“I'm taking notes from Mitch McConnell and some notes from Donald Trump,” Booker said. “Donald Trump ran on draining the swamp. He ran on addressing the needs people face, ending endless war. He led with a bold vision. He just hasn't delivered on it, because, of course, he was B-S-ing.”

Booker said that it’s not enough to solely campaign against Trump and his agenda, and that he’s also paid attention to how Trump ran his campaign. He said he too would want to “drain the swamp,” borrowing a phrase frequently used by Trump to refer to a plan to remove entrenched government bureaucrats and reduce alleged waste and fraud.

“Trump said he was going to stop it, and he's really just profiting off of it,” Booker said.

Booker has raised $508,000, according to the most recent April Federal Election Commission filings, for this campaign. In one of his previous campaign committees, Booker’s campaign still owes significant debt — almost $90,000 — that has budged little since he lost the 2022 race.

According to an April Emerson College poll of likely Democratic primary voters, Booker had a commanding 18 percentage-point lead over McGrath, the next leading candidate, although 38% of polled Kentuckians were undecided at the time.

McGrath has plenty of name recognition to work off of six years after her $90 million failed Senate bid that flooded Kentucky airwaves with advertising. Now, she’s back for another chance to get to the U.S. Senate. Leveraging her military credentials, McGrath said Kentuckians need someone uniquely qualified to understand pressing national security concerns because of Trump’s war in Iran.

“We need somebody who understands the global security crisis that we now face,” McGrath said at an April forum. “This has been my life defending this country, and I look forward to doing that in the United States Senate, to check an unhinged president.”

McGrath is a former fighter pilot and the first woman to fly a combat mission in the Marine Corp. Her first entry into the political arena was an unsuccessful run in 2018 to unseat U.S. Rep. Andy Barr in his Lexington-area district; Barr is now the favorite to win the Republican nomination for McConnell’s Senate seat after receiving Trump’s endorsement. McGrath said she continued working behind the scenes in politics after losing her 2020 bid for the Senate, supporting candidates in Georgia and other the country in tough elections.

When she ran for Senate in 2020, McGrath ran ads that promoted voters who planned to vote for both her and Trump. She says now many Kentuckians feel Trump did not live up to his promises.

“Did you vote for higher taxes in the form of tariffs? No, that's not what they voted for. Did you vote for another war in the Middle East? No, that's not what they voted for. Did you vote for 35 of our rural hospitals to be at risk right now because of these cuts last summer?” she said.

McGrath said rising gas prices because of Trump’s war in Iran have become the main topic of conversation for the Kentucky voters she’s spoken with. She said unless Democrats flip Congress, she fears the U.S. will either enter into an unfavorable agreement with Iran or begin a ground operation. Trump said this week that the current ceasefire with Iran is on “major life support.”

“We need a new Congress that will force this Trump administration into full transparency as to how much we've already lost here in terms of munitions, in terms of our bases and all of that stuff,” McGrath said. “[We need to] force an agreement that ends this energy crisis, okay, and gets our military back into the business of actually defending our country.”

McGrath self-identifies as a “commonsense Kentucky Democrat,” comparing her politics to Beshear’s.

“He has shown us a road map for Democrats to win in a place like Kentucky, and that means you have to, one, talk about the issues that matter to people, and two, be a candidate that cannot only speak to and listen and hear Democrats, but also moderates and independents,” McGrath said. “That's the path to victory.”

She said the first bill she would file should she win would strip congressmen of their pay as long as the government is fully or partially shut down. McGrath has raised more than $2 million as of the most recent FEC filing.

Both Romans and Stevenson are polling in single digits, but are continuing to campaign hard in the final week of the race.

Romans, despite showing little progress in the polls, has raised significant capital for the primary. He has raised $832,000, including nearly a quarter of a million dollars that he loaned himself, according to the most recent FEC filings.

Romans, a horse trainer whose earned career winnings amounting to $127.6 million, has billed himself as a moderate Democrat who wants to get things done in Congress. In an interview with KPR after joining the race, Romans said the country’s “broken” immigration system was one of the top reasons he decided to enter the race as a relative political newcomer.

“We have a broken system that needs to be fixed and overhauled, but until we do that, let's get these people documented,” Romans said. “Let's get them paying taxes. Let's find out where they are. Let's separate them from the bad, and they're productive Americans.”

Romans has described his two political role models as former West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin and current Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear. Romans said in his experience lobbying for the horseracing industry, he learned to work together with people across the aisle.

“I don't talk political rhetoric. I want to talk about what is pragmatic, and go up there and do pragmatic work,” Romans said at an April forum. “I'm tired of the fighting all the time, back and forth. My door will be open to any Republican who wants to come and work. I'll work with them.”

State Rep. Pamela Stevenson, a retired Air Force colonel, was the first Democratic candidate to enter the Senate race, announcing her candidacy shortly after McConnell announced his retirement. While Stevenson has not previously run for federal office, she did unsuccessfully run Kentucky Attorney General in 2023, losing by an 18-point margin.

As minority floor leader in the Kentucky House, Stevenson is known for her passionate floor speeches. She said she is running to protect the “promise of America.”

“We must defend the freedoms that we have. America is no experiment. It works when we work and when we don't engage, we get what we got,” Stevenson said. “So I'm running because that promise is being shredded all across this country.”

As of Wednesday, Stevenson had not filed the last three legally mandated campaign finance reports. When reached for comment, Stevenson’s campaign blamed “processing delays” and said they are working to submit their reports. Their last report was filed in September last year, providing no picture of the financial backing for Stevenson’s campaign in the final stretch of the primary.

Terri Young-Moses was sentenced to prison in late January.

But nearly three months later, he was still in the Adult Detention Center in Indianapolis, waiting for the Indiana Department of Correction to pick him up — with no timeline for when that would happen.

"They haven't estimated anything — haven't even told me what time that I should be leaving, anything," Young-Moses said in an interview on April 14. "I been dealing with this case for quite some time."

While prisons are designed for long-term confinement, jails often are not. Young-Moses said there's little to do — and little access to services like mental health care — leaving him and others to support each other.

"We've got to govern ourselves," said Young-Moses, who was convicted in December for murder and other felonies.

Young-Moses is one of hundreds of people across Indiana who have already been sentenced to prison. Some were promised treatment programs upon arrival at a state facility.

But instead of boarding a transport bus within days, many spend months in county jails waiting for the Indiana Department of Correction to transfer them.

State data shows the number of people awaiting transfer to prison surged through 2024, peaking at nearly 2,000 in October of that year. Throughout 2025, the number fell below 1,200 during only one month. The Indiana Department of Correction said there were 960 inmates awaiting transfer as of early April.

The state pays counties $42 per day to hold someone after sentencing — less than half the $89.56 per day IDOC says it costs to house that same person in a state prison. Sheriffs across Indiana say the gap gives the state little financial reason to move people out of local jails, where overcrowding is worsening and where facilities aren't built for long-term incarceration.

A representative for IDOC Commissioner Lloyd Arnold declined WFYI's request for an interview for this story.

In a statement, the Indiana Department of Correction said that the agency arranges transfers as quickly as possible without sacrificing safety, and is "proud of the strides our team has made to reduce the amount of time inmates spend in county facilities awaiting transfer." The department said the average wait from sentencing to transfer was 60 days in 2025 and has since dropped to a span of 30 to 45 days.

Gov. Mike Braun's office offered a similar response. "Governor Braun is committed to local law enforcement," his office wrote in a statement. "That is why this issue has been tackled head-on, cutting wait times drastically over the last year and ensuring counties were reimbursed for housing inmates under past administrations."

Sheriffs across Indiana say transfer times have improved in recent months. But many said the gains haven't fully eased overcrowding as sentencing rates continue to outpace prison pick-ups in some counties.

"Even though [IDOC] may take 10 out every couple of weeks, they may be sentencing 15, 20. So that backlog just keeps happening," said Tippecanoe County Sheriff Robert Goldsmith.

While Madison County Jail Commander Michelle Sumpter said that transports have started to speed up this year, she still has people waiting in the jail who were sentenced over 60 days ago. Sumpter, who has worked at the jail for 16 years, said that before transports became delayed for longer periods over the past two years, the average wait time was roughly 14 to 30 days.

Even though IDOC said transfer times are improving, Indiana's correctional system remains under mounting pressure from rising prison populations and overcrowded jails. IDOC pointed to the demands of managing a growing prison population driven by tougher sentencing laws for crimes like fentanyl-related offenses, resisting law enforcement and false emergency reports.

Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal said IDOC has blamed longer delays on understaffing and budget shortfalls — the same problems his own agency faces. And the sentencing of people continues to outpace the transfer of them into the state system, he said.

"You're leaving them here," Forestal said. "We can't close the doors here."

The capacity crunch at the Marion County jail has grown more urgent as the facility holds people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, as the Trump administration rapidly increases immigration enforcement.

Just two weeks into this year, the jail reached its operating capacity of 2,400 people, prompting Forestal to announce it would no longer hold ICE detainees longer than 48 hours. While the facility has physical space for about 2,900 people, the Indianapolis City-County Council set a financial cap limiting the jail's population to 2,400, Forestal said.

As of May 8, 240 people are at the center awaiting transport to an IDOC facility. People at the Marion County jail wait an average of 27 days, with some people staying up to 45 days, according to available data from the Marion County Sheriff's Office.

"They need to get the people out of here," Forestal said.

Rick Snyder, president of the Indianapolis Fraternal Order of Police, said in a statement earlier this year that IDOC needs to accelerate the transfer of people convicted of state crimes and for ICE to follow the 48-hour timeline.

"No offender rightly held for further legal proceedings should be released back into our Capital City simply because of dereliction of transfer responsibilities," Snyder wrote.

In 2025, county sheriff offices reported the Indiana Department of Correction had run out of money to pay county jails for holding people sentenced to IDOC. The department owed at least 41 counties over $6 million, but IDOC resumed payments in the fall of 2025.

Steve Luce, executive director of the Indiana Sheriffs Association, said sheriffs and jail staff throughout the state are working to manage their populations and monitor the state's growing prison population.

But even one extra person in a facility can be a huge undertaking, since jails are responsible for everything from food and shelter to education, law books and medical care.

"You're warehousing people — humans. That comes with a lot of risk management," Luce said.

The backlog is straining county jails — stretching budgets, filling beds and forcing facilities built for short-term stays to hold people for months.

"That shouldn't be our responsibility," Goldsmith said.

The financial math gives the state little reason to hurry. IDOC pays counties roughly half what it would cost to house the same person in a state prison.

"It's kind of a savings plan for them," said Goldsmith, the Tippecanoe sheriff, about the nearly $48 difference the state won't pay if a local jail holds the convicted person.

Madison County Jail Commander Michelle Sumpter said that while the jail's capacity is 207 people, its average population last year was 270 people.

At any given time, she said, 30 to 50 of those people are waiting to be transferred to the Indiana Department of Correction — numbers that, if removed, would bring the jail much closer to its intended capacity.

Jails can transfer people to other facilities in the area, but doing so takes time and money — and Madison County still retains custody and must reimburse those jails for housing them.

"You are automatically in the negative," she said.

The backlog also disrupts the treatment, job training and mental health care that judges and prosecutors built into plea agreements — programs people were supposed to start the moment they reached state custody.

"If the agreement's been between a prosecutor and a public defender that they're going to go for this period of time, and we want to get them this program, but then they sit here for another four months — it's hard to sell the next person that example of how they can make their life better, other than just housing them," Marion County Sheriff Kerry Forestal said.

In the 2026 legislative session, the bipartisan Senate Bill 252 would have required IDOC to transport sentenced people from the Marion County Adult Detention Center to a state prison every week. The bill failed. Sen. Aaron Freeman (R-Indianapolis), its author, said he introduced it to prompt swifter transfers.

The bill passed out of a committee chaired by Freeman, Corrections and Criminal Law. Next, it was reassigned to the Appropriations Committee, where it was not called for a hearing.

Freeman said Senate Bill 252 was meant to force a conversation — and he still hasn't gotten a straight answer from IDOC about why the transferring delays persist. He said he plans to return to the issue before the 2027 legislative session, when lawmakers will write the next two-year state budget.

"It's an important topic for me. It's one that I think needs to be addressed. I'm not to the point yet that I can tell you that I have an answer," Freeman said.

For Terri Young-Moses, the wait finally ended with a transfer to the Indiana Department of Correction's Reception Diagnostic Center, where new inmates are processed.

But after waiting 81 days for transfer, the toll was visible all around him, he said.

"I run across somebody, and they just burst out in tears. People are suffering mental breakdowns," he said. "We helping each other cope."

Farrah Anderson is an investigative health reporter with WFYI. You can follow her on X at @farrahsoa or contact her at fanderson@wfyi.org

Copyright 2026 WFYI Public Media

Bill Weyland, founder of Louisville-based Weyland Ventures, said the opportunity to collaborate on transforming the former Colgate-Palmolive property in South Clarksville is “one of those dream projects.”

His firm came onboard with property owner Clarks Landing Enterprise Investments last year, and has spent months working with local officials to hone a vision to bring the former industrial site, which once housed a state prison, back to life.

Plans for “Clockworks,” named after the giant, historic clock on-site, include hotels, a conference center, outdoor food amenities and spaces for youth sports training.

The estimated $400-$500 million project is Weyland’s first in Southern Indiana. He said he was drawn to the potential — more than 50 acres, close to Louisville, with beautiful old buildings steeped in history.

“[It’s] just layers of opportunity that just honestly seemed like it was made for us,” Weyland said this week.

Weyland Ventures is behind major historical renovation projects in Louisville including Whiskey Row Lofts, the Louisville Slugger Museum & Factory, the Henry Clary Building and work in the NuLu neighborhood.

The site’s origins go back to 1847 with Indiana Prison South, one of the state’s first. The property later became a reformatory, then Colgate & Company bought it in 1921. The campus reopened as this new industrial site in 1924, with the iconic clock first illuminated that year.

Colgate ceased operations there in 2008. Clarks Landing took over in 2014.

“The Colgate site has been part of Clarksville for over a Century. Through industry, through change, through the quiet years when the work stopped but the walls stood firm and the clock tower kept watch over a community that never stopped believing something was still possible here,” according to a presentation from Weyland Ventures.

There hasn’t been major movement at the site in years, and previous development efforts by the owner did not come to fruition.

Last year, Clarksville officials settled a drawn-out eminent domain case in federal court , with the agreement including that the property owner was working with Weyland Ventures on the site.

“The reality was that these buildings were incredibly built,” Weyland said. “I've been in far worse, and we've saved far worse. These are actually very solid buildings, and that's a blessing. So I'm excited about where they are and how they can be restored.”

The south side of the campus, including the building with the clock, sits along South Clark Boulevard, and at the top of what’s now Main Street in South Clarksville.Weyland said this puts the Clockworks campus as the northern anchor to Clarksville’s downtown.

Weyland said the project will be driven by private funds, augmented by historic tax credits they’re seeking, as well as working with the town to get additional tax increment financing for the site, which would allow the developer to recoup some future property taxes.

Phase one of the plan includes restoring the building with the clock into a history center, and creating a hotel and mixed-use space with housing and a rooftop deck, parking and an exhibit hall.

The firm has been in talks with SoIN Tourism on plans for a conference center at the western edge of the site. That’s where Weyland said he thinks the bulk of public investment would come in, along with town investment in infrastructure within the site.

Plans also include an open-air market and outdoor eating and gathering amenities, as well as youth sports training facilities, such as soccer fields, basketball courts and volleyball courts.

“This is a 600-foot-long building,” Weyland said, of one of the spaces for sports. “In Louisville, if I plopped it down, it would be a block and-a-half.”

Barry Alberts, project manager for Weyland Ventures, praised the town’s investment in infrastructure.

“What the town has done really well over the past 10 years or so in developing and creating this South Clarksville new downtown is they've incentivized development — private development — by creating TIFs, which is fine, but they've also put in the roads and the public open space first, because you need that in order to have access for a project,” he said.

The main piece of the project is around 40 acres in what was the Colgate plant site. Developing it is estimated to take up to a decade. Weyland said his group has additional plans — a hotel and mixed-use space across South Clark Boulevard, and development north of Montgomery Avenue — that will bring the entire buildout closer to 12-15 years.

Jim Epperson, executive director at SoIN Tourism, said the organization’s board of directors has endorsed the site as the preferred spot for a conference center. A consultant for SoIN Tourism is working with the town, developer and owner on details of what it could look like.

They’re “Still working on what it takes to get this built from a financial standpoint,” Epperson said.

He foresees a tourism advantage to adding a conference center to a property that already has a story.

He said seeing the plans, specifically what the site looks like now compared to what it could be, is the “wow moment” for him.

“I think that's incredible vision for the kind of place that just draws people,” he said. “I love the concepts that are included in that.”

Tammi Gibson, Clarksville’s economic development director, said in an email she’s glad the town has been able to forge a positive relationship coming out of settlement.

“I cannot be happier that Weyland Ventures is working on the development plans,” she said.

She said the team has engaged the town with ideas, plans and development requirements and been clear about their intent to honor the site’s historical aspects.

Weyland said the next steps include working with the town on public improvements and tax increment financing, collaborating with tourism partners, negotiating with prospective tenants and securing historic tax credits.

Gibson said the Clarksville Redevelopment Commission approved a resolution last month supporting funding toward redevelopment, although the development plan itself does not need approval.

Next, Weyland would need to formally request a TIF designation specifically for the project area so that it could request funding for infrastructure. Any part of the project seeking TIF would require town approval.

The Clarksville Town Council also approved a resolution Tuesday night conveying their support for the project, which could help the team secure pre-development funds from the Indiana Economic Development Commission.

Weyland told the council Tuesday he hopes to be able to start phase one in the first quarter of 2027, but hopes they can start site work sooner.

Coverage of Southern Indiana is funded, in part, by Samtec Inc., the Hazel & Walter T. Bales Foundation, and the Caesars Foundation of Floyd County.

Like a lot of artists who play the Tiny Desk, the guys in Foo Fighters carefully curated and worked through their set for weeks leading up to their appearance, even taping out the dimensions of the Desk in a practice space to puzzle-out the close quarters. But once they were in the office, they tossed most of those plans. "If you put instruments in our hands and there are people," Dave Grohl jokes, "it's fun to play!"

For a better part of the last 30 years, Foo Fighters has worn the crown for stadium-sized guitar rock. But for this performance, the band shrinks down that outsized sound to something that fits perfectly behind the Desk, without losing any urgency or oomph. They open big with a banging take on "Spit Shine" from the band's latest album, Your Favorite Toy, followed by "Learn to Fly" from 1999's There is Nothing Left to Lose. They also include the introspective and quieter "Child Actor" (also from the new album), before closing out with "My Hero" and "Everlong," both from 1997's The Colour and the Shape.

SET LIST

• "Spit Shine"
• "Learn to Fly"
• "Child Actor"
• "My Hero"
• "Everlong"

MUSICIANS

• Dave Grohl: vocals, guitar
• Pat Smear: guitar
• Chris Shiflett: guitar, background vocals
• Nate Mendel: bass, background vocals
• Rami Jaffee: keys
• Ilan Rubin: drums, background vocals

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Robin Hilton
• Director/Editor: Maia Stern
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Maia Stern, Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame
• Audio Engineer: Neil Tevault
• Production Assistant: Ashley Pointer
• Photographer: Zayrha Rodriguez
• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2026 NPR

One of the Democratic candidates running for Kentucky House to unseat scandal-plagued Rep. Daniel Grossberg was caught on home security video taking one of his opponent’s campaign mailers out of a constituent’s mailbox and putting it in his back pocket.

Asked if it was him in the video posted by the homeowner on Facebook, Max Morley emailed a statement to Kentucky Public Radio on Tuesday confirming his identity and apologizing.

“While campaigning, I exhibited a lack of judgment,” Morley wrote. “This isn’t acceptable, and it’s something I’m deeply sorry for. I apologize to the homeowner.”

Taking another person’s mail out of their mailbox is against federal law. The piece of mail taken by Morley in the video has Grossberg’s name and face on it.

Morley is one of three Democratic candidates running to unseat Grossberg from the Louisville House district in the primary election next week. Grossberg has been the subject of allegations from nine different women over the past two years who accused him of sexual harassment, misconduct or assault, dating back from college up to his time serving in the Kentucky House.

In addition to allegations that he was banned for life from a Louisville strip club for assaulting a dancer, the Lexington Herald-Leader most recently reported the allegations of a college classmate who said he assaulted her in a dorm two decades ago when she refused to have sex with him. The alleged victim, Christina Ross, did not file criminal charges at the time, but reported Grossberg’s behavior to campus security at Grinnell College in Iowa and documented the incident contemporaneously.

Grossberg has denied all accusations of wrongdoing from the women accusing him of misbehavior, though he has blamed his autism for some of his behavior that made women uncomfortable. Grossberg, who is Jewish, has also blamed antisemitism for some of the allegations.

Grossberg has repeatedly resisted calls from fellow Democratic officials — including Gov. Andy Beshear and the chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party — to withdraw from the race and resign from office. He did not immediately return a request on the video of Morley, or the latest allegations from his college classmate.

In his statement admitting to taking a voter’s mail, Morley added that he wants Grossberg to be unseated.

“I want one thing to remain clear: voters in HD 30 deserve better than their current representative, and I don’t want them to be distracted from the ultimate goal of sending him home,” Morley said.

Morley is a former teacher in Jefferson County Public Schools and has worked as a staffer for several political campaigns.

Also running for the House District 30 seat are Democratic candidates Cassie Lyles and Mitra Subedi.

Lyles is endorsed by the Jefferson County Teachers Association, the union of public school teachers in the district. Subedi narrowly lost to Grossberg in the 2024 Democratic primary, coming just 50 votes short.

The primary is on May 19.

Standing at the end of the 2.5-mile Marion County rail trail on the outskirts of Fairmont, the city’s Planning and Development Director Shae Strait sees nothing but possibility in the Parkersburg to Pittsburg Corridor, better known as the P2P corridor.

"It's the beginning of the amazing opportunity we have here. P2P across its entire length is 238 miles of contiguous rail trail,” he said. “There's only four gaps remaining in all of West Virginia, and the entire city of Fairmont is one of them.”

Most of the P2P corridor in West Virginia, some 180 miles of trail, is already built up between Parkersburg and Morgantown.

The National Road Heritage Corridor and seven local partner organizations have launched a major regional planning effort to unlock the community and economic potential of the P2P. They are leveraging a $145,500 Appalachian Regional Commission grant, combined with $140,000 in matching support from the Just Transition Fund, Claude Worthington Benedum Foundation and the City of Fairmont.

Those promoting the project want to utilize the unified trail for more than its physical attributes.

“I think most people view it as recreation,” Strait said. “There's nothing wrong with that, but we know as professional planners and we need to spread the word … about the larger impacts on health, on economy, on transportation and so forth.”

Strait said Fairmont has already committed to break ground on two miles of new trail to close their gap and make the corridor a reality, and they’re not the only ones.

"The energy is contagious, and everyone sees the benefits of it,” he said.

Amy Camp is the owner of Cycle Forward, a consulting firm working with the West Virginia and Pennsylvania communities on the corridor by creating a plan to draw more benefits from the trail.

"What we're doing right now with that corridor is creating a master plan that will help us to plan for the future of the various trails and how they link together,” she said. “Our vision is for a place that has new thriving businesses and vibrant communities along this interconnected rail trail corridor.”

Public meetings are currently being held in communities up and down the P2P corridor for the master plan, which is estimated to be completed in about a year.

Camp cautioned that creating a vision for economic prosperity is not fast work, but she said diligent planning with public input ensures this ambitious vision will work at its best.

"That contributes to business attraction, resident attraction and retention,” Camp said. “When you do treat a trail as an asset, it helps to create more livable places.”

Two of the corridor’s main gaps are in Harrison County, just south of Marion County.

Kent Spellman, chairman of the nonprofit Harrison Recreational Trails, said they are making similar strides to Fairmont.

"Harrison County Commission recently purchased a section that would go from Wilsonburg into Clarksburg proper,” he said. “We've been working on that since the mid ‘90s. So to have that finally acquired is a really big deal for everybody, and we expect that to be built out relatively soon.”

Spellman said local trail use has seen a surge in recent years, spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. In his almost 40 years of advocacy, he said West Virginia hasn’t reached the true potential for economic and community development driven by trails. But that is actively being corrected.

"Up in the Morgantown area, we did a study just before the pandemic that showed that the rail trail in Morgantown brings about $6 million a year to that local economy,” Spellman said. “And I think we could see that in other places if we were to intentionally develop our communities around those trails.”

The national Rails to Trails Conservancy estimates there are more than 40,000 miles of rail trails across the country. Organizations like the Industrial Heartland Trail Coalition want to add hundreds of miles to create a system that connects Parkersburg to Cleveland, Ohio, and Erie, Pennsylvania, and beyond.

Spellman said that scale is a key factor in driving the economic potential of the trail corridor. A connection to Pittsburgh would mean access to the Great Allegheny Passage, an established long-distance biking trail to Washington, D.C. That trail’s conservancy organization estimates it receives around one million visits every year, driving tens of millions of dollars into the local economy.

Spellman said he wants the same for the P2P.

"When all those gaps are closed and that's a continuous trail, it will be one of the longest trails of its type in the world,” he said. “That makes it a destination for people to come and really spend some time doing long-distance cycling on those trails.”

Central West Virginia is a key part of that vision, and one that seems on the cusp of becoming reality. Spellman foresees someday connecting all of West Virginia via rail trails, stretching down to Charleston with Harrison County as the state’s rail trail hub.

This story was produced by the Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom, a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU, WKMS and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky, and NPR. Sign up for the weekly Porch Light newsletter here for news from around the region.

The model of cargo plane that crashed in Kentucky last fall after an engine fell off a UPS jet as it was taking off resumed flying over the weekend.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it approved Boeing’s proposed fix for the workhorse MD-11s “after extensive review.” And then FedEx started flying them to deliver packages again Sunday.

The UPS plane crashed in November 2025 shortly after taking off once the left engine flew off the wing as the plane rolled down the runway. Three pilots on the plane that was headed for Hawaii loaded with packages and fuel were killed along with 12 more people on the ground near Louisville’s Muhammad Ali International Airport.

Boeing developed a plan to replace a key spherical bearing and step up inspections of the parts that hold the engines to the wings. The National Transportation Safety Board has said that in 2011 Boeing had documented four previous failures of the part that helps secure the MD-11’s engines to the wings on three different planes, but at that point the plane manufacturer “determined it would not result in a safety of flight condition.” These planes were built by McDonnell Douglas, which was later bought by Boeing.

The FAA grounded all MD-11s after the crash because of concerns that the planes might not be safe. Earlier this year, UPS retired its entire fleet of the aircraft, which made up about 9% of its total fleet. But FedEx had remained committed to getting them back in the air even though they only account for about 4% of its fleet. The other package hauler that used MD-11s, Western Global Airlines, has not commented publicly since the crash and didn't respond to an email about the FAA's decision.

FedEx said in a statement that it worked closely with Boeing, the FAA and its own experts to inspect and repair its planes, and the government certified that it had complied with Boeing's recommendations. It owns 46 of these planes though even before the crash it had been storing more than two dozen of them.

“Safety is our highest priority at FedEx,” the company said.

But FedEx does plan to eventually retire its MD-11s and replace them with more efficient models. They had announced that long-term plan even before the crash.

Aviation lawyers who are representing some of the families that have sued over the Louisville crash said they hope the FAA made sure these planes will be safe.

“We hope the FAA does a thorough job of investigating the fixes before the MD-11 fleet is allowed to return to flight,” lawyer Bradley Cosgrove said.

But aviation safety expert Jeff Guzzetti said he’s surprised it took this long to get these planes flying again given how quickly the NTSB identified key concerns that likely contributed to the engine falling off. The NTSB is planning two days of investigative hearings on the UPS crash next week to delve deeper into what happened.

“I’m confident that the solution will work, and I would like to see the MD-11s back up in the air. It will be a safe airplane with regards to its engines after these corrective actions are made,” said Guzzetti, who used to investigate crashes for both the NTSB and FAA.

Some experts speculated after the crash that the MD-11s might never fly again if the repair proved to be more expensive that it was worth in these older planes. But Boeing found a way to address the safety concerns with just replacing the bearing and stepping up inspections.

___

Associated Press writer Jack Dura contributed to this report from Bismarck, North Dakota.

The tickets: $61,497.

The hotel: $24,708.

The experience: “Unforgettable,” said Charlie Rivkin, the chairman and chief executive officer of Motion Pictures Association.

Rivkin was one of Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg’s select guests for this year’s Kentucky Derby. He and others posted photos of their festivities on Instagram — showing scenes inside a jockey locker room and views from a rooftop terrace. In one image, the group poses with members of NSYNC. In another, Rivkin smiles alongside Sen. Mitch McConnell.

As in years past, Greenberg used taxpayer money to treat his guests to the multiday visit to Churchill Downs. This year, the party cost $95,000.

Matt Mudd, the mayor’s spokesman, defended the use of public money in an email. He said Greenberg was honored to host the sports and entertainment executives and the Derby is a “great opportunity to bring in new investments, new events, and expand existing events that energize our community, support local businesses, and boost our economy.”

Mudd said city officials want to bring the 2036 PGA Championship back to Louisville at Valhalla Golf Club.

Derby party price tag details come as Greenberg proposes some cuts in what he said would be a “challenging” city budget for next fiscal year. He wants to slash funding for conservation groups and cut about 50 jobs, according to the Courier Journal.

One of Greenberg’s top challengers in the upcoming mayoral election, Louisville Metro Council Member Shameka Parrish-Wright, a District 3 Democrat, said the cost of Greenberg’s Derby party is a “significant amount to spend right now, especially with proposed cuts elsewhere.”

“I think the focus needs to be on fiscal responsibility,” Parrish-Wright said. “I would not spend our public tax dollars that way. Greenberg and his guest have more than enough money.”

The cost of the mayor’s Derby party this year is cheaper than prior years. In 2023, for instance, LPM News reported Greenberg spent $180,000 hosting executives from LinkedIn, the WNBA and Walt Disney Television, among others.

In addition to Rivkin, this year’s guest list included:

• Susan Tolson, Motion Picture Association
• Terry and Sarah Clark, PGA of America
• Nathan and Eva Charnes, PGA of America
• Danny and Kathi Wimmer, Bourbon & Beyond, Louder than Life
• Josh and Abbey Heird, University of Louisville

Tickets for the group made up the bulk of the cost — 12 seats at tables in the refined Stakes Room for Oaks and Derby cost $61,500, the records show.

Hotel rooms for out-of-town guests cost around $30,000. Last year, officials spent nearly $49,000 housing guests at the artsy 21c Museum and Hotel that Greenberg ran as chief executive before he was mayor. The selection of 21c drew questions from city lawmakers because officials avoided Metro Council scrutiny when they tapped the local tourism agency to make the hotel reservations. City officials promised to open the Derby hotel contract up for competitive bidding after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting revealed 21c got the gig.

This year, the mayor’s guests stayed at Hotel Genevieve in NuLu, where Derby weekend rooms cost $1,400 a night, according to records obtained by KyCIR.

The invites — designed by Louisville-based Relay Design — came to $1,300.

Last year, Greenberg hosted the owners of the Louisville Bats, a pair of Texas philanthropists and a few Hollywood executives. In 2024, the crowd included golf bosses, local business leaders, a whiskey maker, a designer and the chief executive of Impossible Foods.

Before Greenberg, former Mayor Greg Fischer spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on Derby parties with guest lists he fought to keep secret.

In contrast, Greenberg is open about his guests.

He catalogued his time at this year’s Derby on his social media accounts with splashy edits from the track and group photos of the party with his family, friends and celebrities.

In one, he’s in a pastel suit and white sneakers under the gleaming, giant post clock in the revamped paddock. His arm around his wife, Rachel, and his guests flanking each side.

“Until next year,” the caption reads.

This story discusses suicide. If you or someone you know is struggling with suicidal thoughts, you can reach the 988 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline by phone at 988, or online at https://988lifeline.org/.

A directory of mental health providers in Jefferson County is available at mentalhealthlou.com.

The death of Juan Miguel Munoz Penalver in the city jail last February is still under investigation and city officials have said little about the incident.

But a death certificate obtained by the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting reveals for the first time Munoz Penalver’s cause of death – and raises more questions about what happened to him behind bars.

Penalver’s death certificate lists his cause of death as acute psychosis, “due to (or as a consequence of)” dehydration from “willful/self-imposed refusal of hydration, nutrition and medical care.”

The manner of death is listed as suicide.

“It’s a death of dehydration in a first-world country. How can that be?” said Jon Little, an attorney representing Munoz Penalver’s family.

Munoz Penalver is one of twenty-three people who’ve died in the Louisville jail’s custody since 2021, according to the ACLU of Kentucky.

Louisville Metro Police and Louisville Metro Department of Corrections are separately investigating Munoz Penalver’s death. Major Jason Logsdon, a spokesperson for the jail, declined to provide additional comment due to the ongoing investigation. So did Mayor Craig Greenberg’s office.

Louisville Metro Council ordered an audit of Louisville’s jail operations in 2022. The report said key problems included inadequate staffing, a “woefully inadequate antiquated” jail facility, and a need for better coordination between medical staff and corrections officers. The audit also said paying better attention to “basic security protocols, especially going into cells and dorms as required and ensuring that the inmates are well,” may have helped prevent some of the deaths that had happened by then.

A few days before the audit was publicly released, city officials said they would expand access to mental health care in the jail, in part by reworking the intake process. They also decided to contract with a new jail health care provider, although last week the jail announced it plans to switch providers again. Also this year, LMDC Chief Jerry Collins presented a new staffing plan to council members in March.

Little said he knows Louisville jail is understaffed and said it seems Munoz Penalver was forgotten about while he was behind bars.

Records released to KyCIR by Louisville Metro Government say Munoz Penalver attempted suicide and was placed on suicide watch for 24 hours.

After that he was subject to “checks every 30 minutes” by staff while locked in a single cell, according to the records. The documents don’t indicate how long those half-hour checks were meant to last or if they happened on the night he died.

The records also say Munoz Penalver poured out provided water, clogged his toilet with food containers and refused medical help and medication in jail.

Police records say jail video shows that on the night of Feb. 25, Munoz Penalver laid down in front of his cell door and “did not appear to move at all afterwards.” Jail staff found him a little over five hours later, unresponsive. Emergency personnel said he was dead at the scene.

Deaths due to dehydration have happened in other U.S. jails. A 2025 news investigation by The New Yorker and Investigative Reporting Lab at Yale identified “more than fifty cases of individuals who, in recent years, had starved to death, died of dehydration, or lost their lives to related medical crises in county jails.” They found the people typically were incarcerated pretrial, meaning they faced criminal charges but hadn’t been convicted, and had trouble with mental health.

“I wish I could tell you that this is the first time I've ever heard this story, but it's not,” said Craig Haney, a psychology professor at the University of California Santa Cruz who has studied the psychological consequences of confinement in jail and prison for decades.

Mental illness can drive people inward, so they don’t say or do much, he said. They may even stop taking care of themselves.

But Haney said nothing eliminates a jail’s responsibility for ensuring the people in their charge, who have very little control over their day-to-day circumstances, receive sufficient mental health and medical care.

He said Munoz Penalver’s death is an “extreme case.”

“It is still relatively rare for somebody to be allowed to waste away in jail or prison,” he said. But situations like this do happen amid the broader, national crisis that has emerged since U.S. jails and prisons – many of which are chronically understaffed – became the “default placement of the mentally ill” even though they’re “uniquely ill-suited” to treat them.

Munoz Penalver, according to city records and public statements by a family member, experienced mental health problems.

Born in Cuba, Munoz Penalver moved to the United States in 2024. Some of his family lives in Louisville. He worked as a barber, according to the death certificate. His stepmother, Ivelipse Munoz, said in an online post that “he was going through one of his episodes” the day he was arrested.

“Juan Miguel – Miguel, as many knew him – was a young man with dreams, plans, and a future ahead of him,” his stepmother wrote in a Facebook post. “Yes, he struggled with mental health challenges, but that never took away the value of his life.

A judge set his bond at $20,000 for an alleged assault that occurred on February 14. He also was subject to a detainer by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which asks jails to hold immigrants for an extra 48 hours beyond their scheduled release so federal agents can take custody of them.

For several years, Louisville’s jail gave ICE shorter notice before releasing immigrants from lock-up, but Mayor Craig Greenberg changed policy last summer to fully grant the 48-hour requests after President Donald Trump’s administration pressured the city about it.

The ACLU of Kentucky opposed Greenberg’s decision and has consistently advocated for other jail reforms. Executive director Amber Duke said she recently met Munoz Penalver’s family, and they and the ACLU all have questions about whether staff at the jail properly monitored him.

“His mom showed me videos on her phone of him healthy and playing basketball, you know, a week or two before his death,” she said. “It’s heartbreaking to me that a 21-year-old person could die of dehydration when they're under the care and custody of the government.”

The Louisville jail can provide some mental health services to people incarcerated there, but Duke said it isn’t equipped to help people going through a severe mental health crisis.

Since the string of jail deaths started several years ago, Duke said Metro Corrections has made improvements, such as making naloxone medication, which can reverse an opioid overdose, accessible inside the jail and making safety upgrades to cells.

“But the thing that has been persistent over the years of this crisis is that the facility has been grossly overcrowded, and the jail is under capacity in terms of corrections officers,” she said. “It's just a recipe for disaster.”

Metro Corrections can’t fix the overcrowding problem alone, Duke said. Fewer people need to be locked up in the first place. She suggested Louisville Metro Police could issue more citations in lieu of making arrests in some cases, for example, and prosecutors could think twice before asking for an arrest warrant when someone misses their court date.

“We have to decide as a community that we're going to do something differently,” she said.

A former insider to the data center industry says Kentucky needs a moratorium on the industry until state regulations are in place.

Erin Petrey, a Democratic candidate for Congress in central Kentucky, is leading a non-partisan initiative to get legislation filed for the 2027 General Assembly.

Petrey is a former employee of Amazon Web Services, the largest operator of data centers in the world. Much of her work focused on making the industry more sustainable.

Data centers are warehouses filled with many computers that handle internet traffic, whether that's sending emails, streaming a movie, or chatting with an AI agent.

Petrey says data center developers often target poor, rural areas with abundant land and water, and cheaper energy.

As a self-proclaimed sustainability evangelist, Petrey is concerned by what she calls the "unfettered proliferation" of data center projects in the Bluegrass State.

"We are seeing them go county to county trying to dump life-changing sums of money and they're really being predatory on these populations," Petrey told WKU Public Radio. "Every single locality in every county is pretty much being asked to fend for itself in the absence of any other type of meaningful regulation."

Petrey recently addressed the Mercer County Planning and Zoning Commission against a proposed ordinance that would allow a new data center development. No formal re-zoning or site plans have been approved so far.

While developers promise millions of dollars in local tax revenue, Petrey argues that without regulation, data centers also consume massive amounts of energy and water while creating noise and environmental pollution.

As of April, no U.S. state has passed a moratorium on data centers, but several cities and counties have banned new data center projects over the past year. At least a dozen states, including Kentucky, have proposed legislation to pause construction, study energy impacts, and reconsider tax incentives.

Legislation was filed in this year's General Assembly to require data centers to cover their own infrastructure costs and prevent rate hikes for local residents, but the measures stalled.

Petrey is working with state lawmakers to draft a bill next session that would place an indefinite moratorium on data centers in Kentucky until state regulations are in place for profit-driven corporations.

"Their number one driver of being more sustainable, which means being a better steward of critical resources like energy, water, and critical raw materials, is government regulation," added Petrey.

Until then, Petrey is asking federal, state, and local candidates, as well as elected leaders to sign a pledge to support a moratorium, refuse donations from data center developers, and commit to more regulation.

Petry is in a crowded field of Democrats hoping to flip the 6th District congressional seat in central Kentucky. The seat currently belongs to Republican US Rep. Andy Barr who is seeking election to the US Senate.

Former Kentucky House Democratic caucus chair Cherlynn Stevenson, former Lexington council member David Kloiber, and former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo are among the most notable in the seven-way Democratic primary.

Republicans are also lining up to replace Barr. State Rep. Ryan Dotson and Dr. Ralph Alvarado, a former state senator, are the top contenders among five candidates in the GOP primary.

Petrey hopes her statewide efforts are a launch pad for a federal moratorium.

U.S. Senator Rand Paul thinks data center regulation should remain a local issue.

"In one of the counties up near Louisville, they've been protesting they don't want a data center. The neighboring county might be very rural and want a data center because they don't have much business," Paul told WKU Public Radio. "I don't think the federal government should tell you that you have to have a data center, nor should the federal government tell you that you can't have a data center."

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) introduced the Artificial Intelligence (AI) Data Center Moratorium Act in March.

"AI and robotics are creating the most sweeping technological revolution in the history of humanity. Congress is way behind where it should be in understanding the nature of this revolution and its impacts," Sanders said in a news release. "Bottom line: We cannot sit back and allow a handful of billionaire Big Tech oligarchs to make decisions that will reshape our economy, our democracy and the future of humanity."

Absent federal and state safeguards on data center operations, counties are attempting to asset more local control.

A Simpson County ordinance is currently being challenged that would require a data center developer to get a conditional use permit before moving ahead with a project off I-65 in Franklin.

Petrey says local regulations are a good first step, but state regulations are necessary.

"Because one county might not have, frankly, elected officials who want to create those type of ordinances because I don't know what they're getting promised in the background," Petrey said.

Data center developers often ask local leaders to sign non-disclosure agreements, and the lack of transparency is a chief complaint among opponents.

TenKey LandCo, LLC is challenging the ordinance that would give Simpson County more oversight of the proposed data center's operations.

The Franklin Planning and Zoning Commission approved a preliminary development plan in March for a $1.6 billion data center with on-site power generation. Last month, a local citizens group filed a lawsuit challenging the approval process, alleging it was improper.

For now, "all politics is local" when it comes to data centers. Their skeptics are seeking state and federal regulations for inevitable, but responsible growth.

Copyright 2026 WKU Public Radio

GOP Congressman Thomas Massie told a crowd of Republicans in rural Butler, Kentucky, that he agrees with President Donald Trump 90% of the time. But Massie said, when he disagrees with the party, he’s not going to be a rubber stamp.

“We've been in power for 16 months: the House, the Senate and the White House. We've added $2.7 trillion to the deficit, and that goes right on to the debt,” Massie told the crowd. “I'll vote with you, not with them, when they want to do that.”

It’s a fundamental difference between Massie and his Trump-backed challenger. Ed Gallrein touts his Trump endorsement and says he’ll act in lockstep with the president as Massie pledges he will vote in line with his long-held principles — even if it puts him in the president’s crosshairs.

At the Pendleton County Republican Party’s annual dinner, more than 140 Republicans came to hear from candidates who would be on their primary ballot, and Gallrein and Massie’s speeches were the biggest topic of conversation. Several voters told Kentucky Public Radio that they still haven’t decided who they’ll vote for in a race that has garnered national media attention.

Teri Strong, a former public school science teacher whose husband is running for Pendleton County judge/executive, said she doesn’t enjoy all the “mud-slinging” she’s seen coming from both sides and wants some to talk about the issues that matter to her.

“I want someone who will do things that make my life easier,” Strong said.

She said she doesn’t mind that Massie doesn’t always vote with the party or the president — that's how the federal system of checks and balances was set up to function. Strong, like others who spoke to KPR, said the Trump endorsement will not decide her vote.

Lynda Meyer, who runs a small goat farm with her husband, said she wants someone who talks about the issues that matter to her, like supporting veterans and their families. She says she respects Gallrein’s military record as a retired Navy SEAL officer and thinks it might be time for new blood in Congress.

“What are you going to do for our county and our state and our country? I don't care what you think about the other candidate,” Meyer said. “I don't care who backs you. I want to know what you stand for.”

Gallrein proudly described meeting with Trump in the White House, where the president — who is not quiet about his frustration with Massie — convinced him to run for the 4th Congressional district in northern Kentucky. Gallrein, a decorated veteran and farmer, previously ran for a state Senate seat, but lost in the primary.

“He sides with the radical Democrats in the liberal elites against us and our families again and again,” Gallrein said. “President Trump knows this. Our party knows this, and you know this. That's why President Trump asked me to serve again, and has given me his strongest endorsement in this campaign to join him and be your champion in Washington.”

Gallrein said that Massie has “Trump derangement syndrome” and called him a “darling of the mainstream media.” He especially takes issue with a New York Times piece that ran in March and asked whether Massie could overcome Trump’s ire to hold onto his seat.

“The New York Times didn't even talk to me. They spent all the time with him, and they did a loving article on him, because they love him, but his nonsense won't work, because you can see right through it,” Gallrein said.

Kentucky Public Radio has repeatedly reached out for interviews with Gallrein, all of which have been ignored. Gallrein has also faced significant criticism from his opponent for failing to agree to a debate.

Massie has joined Democrats to vote against Trump’s agenda on several high profile bills, most notably the One Big Beautiful Bill, that extended tax cuts and cut Medicaid spending all while adding trillions to the deficit over the next 10 years. But that omnibus bill also defunded Planned Parenthood for one year and provided new tax exemptions for tips, overtime and on loans for American-made cars.

The seven-term congressman said bills packed with a hundred different issues are the problem — not his principles.

“Every omnibus that you vote for or against incriminates you for 100 different things. And so they can run any ad they want against me,” Massie said.

Massie has also become the face of the fight to see FBI files on sex trafficker Jeffrey Epstein released and has pushed back hard against the president’s unilateral tariffs and engagement in foreign conflicts. He’s also championed the “Make America Healthy Again” agenda, questioning the safety and efficacy of the COVID-19 vaccine, pushing back against civil immunity for pesticide companies and advocating for small, local farmers.

Massie says this race has drawn national attention because he represents the part of the Republican tent currently going ignored.

“It's a referendum on whether every Republican in the House and the Senate is going to be a rubber stamp for the executive branch or not,” Massie said. “I vote with a party about 90% of the time, and it's the 10% that's drawn the ire of the President, of [the American Israel Public Affairs Committee]. They want no dissension whatsoever.”

The primary election in Kentucky is Tuesday, May 19. You can find out about candidates that will appear on your ballot at vote.lpm.org.

For the first time this year, the races for Louisville mayor and Metro Council are nonpartisan. Louisville Public Media, the Louisville Urban League and WDRB collaborated last month on a public forum to hear from candidates for mayor.

Unlike in past years, every mayoral candidate will appear on all Jefferson County ballots in a nonpartisan section. The two who receive the most votes will move on to the general election in November.

LPM News has interviewed several of the candidates who want to lead Louisville next.

Kenya Young, LPM’s President and CEO, co-moderated the April 14 event with Gilbert Corsey of WDRB. All active candidates were invited to participate and eight did. Since then, one participant, Jeff Yocum, bowed out of the race. Two other candidates – Bill Wells and JusAustin Lane – previously withdrew.

The candidates introduced themselves to the live audience at Central High School and responded to questions on a number of topics including affordable housing, data centers, police, public safety and business and development. 

Candidates from across the political spectrum attended the forum, and many were united in their criticism of incumbent Democratic Mayor Craig Greenberg, who did not attend.

The full list of candidates who appeared at the forum is below:

• Lisa Holliday Harris
• Tina Burnell
• Matthew Solomon Bailey
• Jeff Yocum (withdrawn)
• Bob DeVore
• Stephen Dattilo
• Jody Hurt
• Shameka Parrish-Wright

Excused absentee in-person voting ends May 13. Early, no-excuse voting will take place May 14-16 and primary election day is May 19.

JADE brings her creative vision to everything she does. The British pop star, a member of the girl group Little Mix, makes her Tiny Desk a "tiny version" of the theatrical stage production that she's been touring for her debut solo album THAT'S SHOWBIZ BABY! As a result, no props were spared: a cardboard proscenium arch and red curtain for the video's introduction, roses for the Desk and angel wings as she performs next to photos of herself as a child.

"Plastic Box," which made NPR Music's best songs of 2025, is a standout here — the stripped down performance lets the pleading lyrics shine. We also get a rocking rendition of "Angel of My Dreams," JADE's colossal first single, which she says represents her complicated relationship with the music industry and ends with her singing sweetly, "I'll always love you."

SET LIST

• "Midnight Cowboy"
• "Fantasy"
• "Silent Disco"
• "Plastic Box"
• "Angel of My Dreams"

MUSICIANS

• Jade Thirlwall: vocals
• Rashaan Brown: piano, keys, guitar
• Leanne Bowes: bass, keys
• Joe Hornby-Patterson: drums 

TINY DESK TEAM

• Producer: Elle Mannion
• Director/Editor: Joshua Bryant
• Audio Director/Mix: Josh Newell
• Host/Series Producer: Bobby Carter
• Videographers: Joshua Bryant, Kara Frame, Catie Dull
• Audio Engineer: Hannah Gluvna
• Production Assistants: Ashley Pointer, Dhanika Pineda, Alina Edwards
• Photographer: Danielle Scruggs 
• Tiny Desk Team: Maia Stern, Felix Contreras
• Series Editor: Lars Gotrich
• Executive Producer: Suraya Mohamed
• Executive Director: Sonali Mehta
• Series Creators: Bob Boilen, Stephen Thompson, Robin Hilton

Copyright 2026 NPR

The magical March Madness cocktail will now include eight more teams, eight more games and more of one other ingredient, too: beer. Maybe wine, too.

The NCAA on Thursday announced a long-expected expansion of its men's and women's basketball tournaments to 76 teams each starting next season, explaining that it made the money part work by opening sponsorship opportunities to a long-restricted alcohol category.

"I would say that expansion would not have happened without that agreement," said Dan Gavitt, the NCAA's senior vice president of basketball.

The new, 76-team brackets will jam eight extra games — for a total of 12 involving 24 teams — into the front half of the first week of each tournament. It will turn what's now known as the First Four into a bigger affair that will now be called the March Madness Opening Round.

The 12 winners will move into the main 64-team bracket that will begin, as usual, on Thursday for the men and Friday for the women. In all, there will now be 120 games across the two tournaments over seven days to set the table for the Sweet 16s.

"Things will look a little different, but feel very, very similar," said Amanda Braun, the women's tournament committee chair.

Because the added games were unlikely to sell themselves, the first expansion of the men's tournament in 15 years — when it was bumped to 68 teams, followed by the women in 2022 — will be bankrolled by around $300 million in extra funding courtesy of new sponsorship opportunities for beer, wine, spirits and hard seltzer that includes more advertising space on CBS, TNT and other partners whose $8.8 billion deal runs through 2032.

The NCAA said it will distribute more than $131 million of the new revenue to schools that make the tournament.

The number of at-large selections will increase from 37 to 44, ESPN reported, most of which are expected to go to teams from the power conferences that were already commanding the lion's share of entries in the bracket. Two years ago, the Southeastern Conference placed a record 14 teams in the men's bracket. Last season, the Big Ten had nine.

In an interview earlier this week, UConn women's coach Geno Auriemma spelled out the bottom line.

"This is strictly a money grab for the Power Four conferences to get teams that finished 6-10 in their conference to get into the tournament," he said.

He also questioned the need to expand the women's bracket. Only seven of 32 round-of-64 games this year were decided by single digits compared to 11 for the men.

The move is a sign of the times, which includes massive expansion — the Atlantic Coast Conference, for instance, has grown from nine to 17 teams since 1996 — and the reality that mid-major schools with talented players will often see them plucked away by programs with bigger budgets and the ability to pay them through revenue sharing. The rich get richer.

Cinderella? There will still be room for those stirring runs in the tournaments, though not a single mid-major advanced past the first weekend of either tournament the last two seasons.

"As someone who has been both David, and won some, and Goliath, and lost some, that's what makes this tournament special," Arkansas coach John Calipari said earlier in the week. "We can't afford to lose that special piece of our sport."

This is not a huge concern of the decision-makers anymore, who will point to TV ratings that traditionally spell out fans' preference for watching the likes of Duke and North Carolina over St. Peter's and San Diego State, especially once the Sweet 16 starts.

"The impact on everyone was considered," said Keith Gill, the men's tournament chairman. "We actually think it's, overall, going to be positive. And we think that's for folks at the autonomy level (Power Four) and folks that are non-autonomy."

Gavitt said none of the 32 conferences in the NCAA objected to the proposal, though it's no secret the power leagues have been pushing this the hardest.

Those schools don't want to see promising teams left out of what remains the best postseason in college sports, especially in favor of lesser conference champions who earn automatic bids.

"You've got some really, really good teams who are going to end up in that 9, 10, 11 (seed) category that I think should be moved" into the 64-team bracket, SEC commissioner Greg Sankey said last year in discussing how he favored expansion.

The new beer and wine money will add to what the NCAA can distribute in "units" that are earned for placing teams in the bracket and then for every round those teams advance. Last year, that amounted to about $350,000 per unit for the men's tournament.

Some of that extra money will go to the small guys, too. This gives all the 16 seeds (and some 15s) a chance to play an evenly matched game in the play-in round, then maybe win that game and the extra "unit" that comes with it.

"Also, as we continue to grow our basketball profile, additional at-large spots positions" are possible, Big Sky Conference commissioner Tom Wistrcill said.

Leaders in the SEC, Big Ten, Big 12 and ACC have all acknowledged that smaller programs help make March Madness what it is, all the while steadily expanding their own power in NCAA decision-making. That brings with it the tacit threat that they could split off and fracture the single thing the NCAA does best — the basketball tournament.

This move might forestall that. What it isn't expected to do is drastically change the TV element, at least not beyond the advertising component.

Gavitt said the new games will likely be part of tripleheaders on Tuesdays and Wednesdays. The NCAA will find a site to join the traditional First Four host, Dayton, Ohio, for some of the games. Then, come Thursday, there will be 64 teams in a bracket and a tournament that looks comfortingly familiar: three weeks of hoops capped off by the Final Four.

Gavitt said it was impossible to predict what might come after the current TV deal expires but that 76 teams is "maxing out the opportunity here."

"Anything's possible, I guess, in 2032 or beyond," he said. "But I can say with confidence that this is the format that will be in place through 2032, and, we think, for a long time after that."

Copyright 2026 NPR

Americans are drinking less, but not at the Indiana Brewers Guild Spring Festival in April.

Just under 1,000 patrons gladly bucked the trend in April. The festival featured more than 100 beverages made by Hoosier brewers, distillers and cider makers.

"They get to sample as many different products as they can, while they're here, in a responsible manner, taste a lot of new beverages, find out what they love," Julia Whitson, guild executive director, said.

The spring festival's attendees might be a biased sample. National surveys show historic lows in alcohol consumption. According to a 2025 Gallup survey, about 54 percent of Americans say they drink alcohol. The rate is lower for young adults, with just half saying they drink.

"I think it's definitely something that is on everyone's mind if you're a brewer, but I think it's a very complex picture," said Matt Wisely, Bloomington Brewing Company's head brewer.

For the first time, the poll found a little over half of Americans say moderate drinking — one or two drinks a day — is unhealthy. For younger adults, about two-thirds say the same.

Along with health concerns, Wisely said people are also tightening their budgets or choosing alternatives, such as THC drinks, seltzers or mocktails. The change has left some breweries scrambling.

"A lot of breweries are sort of frantically grasping at whatever they think the next thing is going to be," Wisely said.

Many in the alcohol business thought growth was a given, especially after a boom during the COVID-19 pandemic. More breweries closed than opened for the second straight year in 2025, according to the Brewers Association.

"If they didn't own their building, for example, or if they had a lot of debt for whatever reason, if that growth isn't there, then their business model is not sustainable," Wisely said.

Today's drinking decline follows decades of momentum, at least in the craft beer world, Wisely said.

He said the Bloomington Brewing Company is going to stay true to what it's been doing for the last 30 years.

"There's no reason to believe that this downward trend is just going to turn into a slope, at least we don't think that's the case," Wisely said.

Gallup's long-term data seems to support a pattern of short-term rises and falls. The '50s, '80s, and '90s saw similar decreases in drinking before the rates bounced back.

Some brewers, like Bobby Mattingly with Moonstone Brewing Company in Whitestown, Ind., think the dip is a small blip in the grand scheme of beer's history. For the Americans that are still drinking today, beer remains the top choice.

"Beer has been around for hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of years — really traditional styles of beer," Mattingly said. "There's always fads. There's always things that go up and down, but again, if you can make really good beer, it's not going to go away again."

But the effect of less drinking stretches beyond breweries.

Restaurants may lose alcohol sales.

Chad Moutray, senior vice president for research at the National Restaurant Association, said most have very slim margins.

"We knowt hat 42 percent of restaurants said to us that they weren't profitable last year," Moutray said. "Profitability is a challenge, and alcohol has always been one of those areas where there's been a little bit of a higher markup."

He said restaurant owners are noticing the downward trend, but they're not sure how long it will last.

"The reality is that people still love the experience of going out to eat, and that has given us that prioritization that I think really has kind of set us apart from some other sectors," Moutray said.

Having a restaurant is working in Moonstone's favor. Mattingly said having quality food and ambiance are other ways to offer something for everyone, including people who don't drink.

"You have to have atop-notch product across the board, and that's what we really focus on," Mattingly said.

Even during today's decline in drinking, Mattingly said Moontown's numbers are up.

"You can't rest on your laurels anymore," Mattingly said. "You really got to look at numbers, look at trends, and find your lane, and do it really, really well."

Copyright 2026 WFIU

The third season of the investigative podcast Dig just landed the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting a national honor from Investigative Reporters and Editors once again.

“Dig: The Girls” is a finalist for an IRE Award for Longform Journalism in Audio.

The latest season follows twin brothers Ronnie and Donnie Stoner who, in the summer of 2025, were indicted on more than 50 charges related to child sex abuse allegations. A group of young women say the abuse stretched back nearly two decades.

Investigative Reporter Jess Clark’s pressed for answers on what took so long.

"We don't often get to hear directly from survivors of alleged educator misconduct, but these women bravely allowed us into their lives to tell their story in all its complexity,” Clark said. “It's a great honor to earn recognition for this work from the industry's leading voice for investigative journalists."

Of the three honorees in the IRE award category, Dig is the only podcast to come from a local media outlet. NPR got the top honor for reporting on the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol, and The Boston Globe’s Spotlight team also got finalist honors for a multimedia approach to reporting on confidential informants.

Dig: The Girls was reported by Clark, produced by Laura Ellis and edited by Jake Ryan.

Reacting to the news this week, Ryan noted the nearly 19 months Clark spent reporting the story.

“She built trust with a group of young women who have every reason to tell a curious reporter to get lost. And she didn't back down when people did tell her to get lost,” he said. “She exemplified our mission throughout - holding powerful people accountable, giving survivors space to own their story, and sparking change.”

Season 3 has had more than 120,000 downloads. The entire podcast is nearing the 1 million downloads mark.

The first season of Dig: Prosecution Declined, reported by Eleanor Klibanoff, produced by Laura Ellis and edited by Kate Howard, won the IRE Award for small radio stations.

KyCIR is a Peabody Award-winning investigative newsroom and part of Louisville Public Media.