Special Reports

A group promoting reforestation in Appalachia is seeking more than $422 million to plant trees on mountains that were cleared or leveled for surface mining, a program that could have far-reaching impact on the economy and environment of the region. Read the series

When the Kentucky Association of Counties sent six people to Washington, D.C., in March 2008 to attend a conference and lobby officials, the $31,700 trip included two dinners totaling $4,277 and a $10,000 cancellation fee for hotel rooms that weren't used. That trip was one of the most expensive among dozens of jaunts taken by leaders of KACo, a non-profit group that lobbies for counties and provides them with insurance and financing services. In all, the association's top five executives racked up nearly $600,000 in travel, entertainment and other expenses over the last two years. More than half was charged on the credit card of Executive Director Bob Arnold.
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The Herald-Leader’s examination of the expenses of top officials at the Kentucky League of Cities is the third in a series of stories about how money is spent by quasi-public organizations in our area. The first two were Blue Grass Airport and the Lexington Public Library. Each has a different culture, a different purpose, and different policies for employees spending the entity’s money. But these very distinct groups share one vital element. Much of the money they spend comes from you, the taxpayer.
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Kentucky residents continue to abuse prescription pain killers – and sometimes die from overdosing on illegally obtained narcotics. After the sate enacted a program to track the prescription of powerful pain killers, many people joined together to travel to states like Florida and Michigan, where there is no such program. We call it the pill pipeline.
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Kathleen Imhoff, CEO of the Lexington Public Library, which gets virtually all its funds from taxpayers, spent about $134,000 in five years for travel, meals, library materials and gifts. In addition, 19 other library employees had cards on which they charged about $350,000 in three years. Following the Herald-Leader’s examination, city auditors were dispatched to the library and reforms in library policies were made.
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Blue Grass Airport officials used their credit cards as all-access passes for lavish indulgences and everyday needs. The top five officials, including Executive Director Michael A. Gobb, spent more than $500,000 on travel, meals and toys in about three years. Four of the officials, including Gobb, have resigned since the Herald-Leader’s investigation and a criminal inquiry is ongoing.
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In 1998, the Kentucky State Supreme Court's new chief justice, Joseph E. Lambert, embarked on an ambitious program to build or improve courthouses in all 120 counties in the state. But a decade and $880 million later, has the courtroom boom been worth the cost?
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At 21, Dawn Nicole Smith has three kids she adores, a marriage that's deteriorating and a gut-wrenching addiction to painkillers. In March 2004, she entered Fayette County Drug Court for forging prescriptions. Since then, with her and the court's permission, reporter Mary Meehan and photographer David Stephenson have followed her struggle to stay clean.

At a cost of $1.8 billion, Kentucky's economic-incentive programs have left citizens on the losing side of a high-stakes game with hard-bargaining corporate interests. This series examines Kentucky's incentives and what they have done to attract jobs

An occasional series of backroad adventures in which we visit Kentucky towns with fascinating names.

On Aug. 27, 2006, Comair Flight 5191 took off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport in Lexington, crashing into trees and killing 49 of the 50 people on board. Here you will find coverage of the crash and its aftermath, along with the stories of the victims and the lone survivor.

A three-part series about doctors who received their medical degrees from online schools with no accreditation, and the consequences faced by their patients.