Jessica and Tim Taylor of Martin County, Kentucky collect rainwater to get by when their city water is turned off. That happens too often, they said, and they hope some state or federal agency will come and help during times without water.
BarbiAnn Maynard with the Martin County Water Warriors talks about the lack of reliable water service and clean drinking water in Martin County, Kentucky.
The United Nations recognizes access to clean water as a human right. Three reporters in Eastern Kentucky and Southwestern West Virginia explore whether people who live there have that right.
For many families in Eastern Kentucky and Southern West Virginia, the absence of clean, reliable drinking water has become part of daily life. Now, those residents are Stirring the Waters, demanding that officials fix their long-failing infrastructure.
Eastern KY water districts share similar struggles: lack of trust in water quality, broken or cracked service lines and failure to raise rates. The Martin County crisis made news, but what about the rest of Appalachia?
Reliable access to potable water for drinking and living is not available for many in Eastern Kentucky and West Virginia. Money and a plan could change that. Here are five suggestions to solve the water crisis.
Poor management in Eastern Kentucky and Appalachia mean residents are victims of a water crisis and lack reliable clean water service. One Martin County family collects rainwater in buckets to bathe and wash.
Central Appalachia residents say the water in their districts is unsafe, creates health issues and threatens children’s safety. The EPA lists some Eastern Kentucky districts as serious violators of the Safe Water Drinking Act.
State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, opposes bills that would set minimum staffing requirements for nursing homes because those jobs can be hard to fill. “It’s a job that a lot of folks don’t, frankly, want to do,” Alvarado says.
Wanda Delaplane, former Kentucky assistant attorney general, recounts the story of how she lost her father to nursing home neglect in 2006 and how she now advocates for safety in nursing homes.
Robert Crail Sr. and his wife, Dorothy, recount how their son, Bobby, was found pinned under his motorized wheelchair in a stairwell nine hours after going missing at Woodcrest Nursing Home and Rehabilitation Center in Elsmere.
Sherry Culp, executive director of the Nursing Home Ombudsman Agency of the Bluegrass, describes about how to select a nursing home for a loved one. Brookdale Senior Living resident Becky Walters talks about life in her nursing home.
Nobody discovered the violent death of Bobby Crail at Woodcrest Nursing and Rehabilitation Center until nine hours after he went down the stairs. Two years later, it’s still a dangerous place for vulnerable people to live.
Nearly half of Kentucky’s nursing homes are rated as substandard by the federal government. A big problem is inadequate staffing that puts residents in harm’s way. The legislature’s response: Make it harder to sue nursing homes.
State Sen. Ralph Alvarado, R-Winchester, is a doctor who works at nearly a half-dozen substandard nursing homes in Kentucky while fighting in Frankfort to protect the nursing home industry from lawsuits.
A reservoir that supplies Martin County, Kentucky with drinking water has fallen to a critically low level over the past month, prompting officials to declare a state of emergency.
The 2009 murder of Amanda Ross in Lexington, Ky., by former state Rep. Steve Nunn led to a new law that allows electronic monitoring of some domestic violence perpetrators. Court records show that it is not being used.
According to a lawsuit filed in Harlan County Circuit Court, a former chairman of the county’s Industrial Development Authority and two local businessmen allegedly conspired to transfer a publicly-owned building into private hands.
A former investigator at the Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services who alleged that her superiors wanted her to cover up mistakes made in a horrific child abuse case in Berea has settled her whistleblower lawsuit in exchange for a cash award and a new position.
Jessica and Tim Taylor of Martin County, Kentucky collect rainwater to get by when their city water is turned off. That happens too often, they said, and they hope some state or federal agency will come and help during times without water.
