As the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting’s health and environment reporter, water pollution became a big focus of my work this year. But I covered other key issues on this beat, too. Here’s some of my best work from 2025.

Water pollution

My water reporting got rolling in early 2025, when the Republican-run Kentucky legislature voted to remove state protections against pollution from many water sources. I dug into how the new law, Senate Bill 89, puts rural drinking water supplies at risk.

In the summer, I used public records to track the amount of forever chemicals – also called PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances – detected in Louisville’s tap water, which is largely sourced from the Ohio River.

I also reported on how the Louisville Water Co. traced a sudden increase in one type of forever chemical up the Ohio River to a factory in West Virginia, although the company that runs the factory disputed the correlation. NPR broadcast a version of that story nationally through a health reporting partnership KyCIR and Louisville Public Media have with NPR and KFF Health News.

The Ohio River became a special focus of my reporting in the back half of the year. I paddled a canoe on the Ohio River Way, which is a stretch of the river that’s a new national water trail, and reported extensively about an ambitious plan to protect the health of waters across the entire Ohio River Basin.

KyCIR also hosted an event in September that brought together environmentalists and community members to discuss the challenges and opportunities facing the river today.

Abortion ban fallout

More than three years after Kentucky outlawed abortion, we’re still covering the impacts at Louisville Public Media and KyCIR.

I spent the end of 2024 and early 2025 reporting out a story on why it’s so hard for patients to get an effective medication to treat a miscarriage in Kentucky.

Mifepristone can legally be used to treat miscarriages, but it also can be used for abortion, which is illegal unless the patient is diagnosed with a life-threatening health risk. I uncovered how a combination of federal regulations, state laws and fear prevents Kentuckians who’ve had a miscarriage from obtaining mifepristone.

In March, I also reported on new changes the Kentucky legislature made to the state’s abortion ban, and how that could impact, and even endanger, patients and their doctors.

Joe Creason Park fight

In the spring, public protests grew over a Louisville Metro Government plan to let a developer build a tennis and pickleball complex on public land at Joe Creason Park.

I obtained public records that revealed how the project, at least at one point, was designed to support Bellarmine University’s tennis programs. I also covered a lively community meeting where neighbors rallied against the proposal, and how citizen backlash pushed Mayor Craig Greenberg to ditch the development.

KyCIR also fought for access to correspondence between city officials and representatives of the nonprofit that wanted to build the pickleball complex.