Joe Sonka
Enterprise Statehouse ReporterJoe Sonka is Kentucky Public Radio’s first enterprise statehouse reporter. He joined the team in October 2023.
Joe has covered Kentucky government and politics for nearly two decades. He grew up in Lexington and moved to Louisville in 2011, covering city and state government at LEO Weekly and then Insider Louisville. He became state government reporter for the Courier Journal in 2019 and was a lead reporter for the newspaper's 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on former Gov. Matt Bevin's controversial pardons just before leaving office.
You can email Joe at jsonka@lpm.org and find him at BlueSky (@joesonka.lpm.org).
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A South Korean company is ending its joint venture with Ford to build batteries for electric vehicles, casting uncertainty on the massive plant in Glendale, Kentucky. -
The president of the American Soybean Association says the $12 billion payments will help farmers, but will not make up for the harms caused by trade wars and increased costs. -
Kentucky lawmakers plan to address data centers in the upcoming session, as utilities seek more power generation to serve them and locals fight new projects. -
Countering a House GOP leader, the Kentucky Senate’s top Republican says he will not push for an income tax cut in the coming session, adhering to budget trigger rules. -
Heckbent, the 501(c)(4) run by Gov. Andy Beshear’s top political strategist, reported raising more than $1.3 million in 2024 — but not the identity of its donors. -
Government contractors, health-related groups and the medical marijuana industry were among hundreds of organizations that spent $9.1 million lobbying Kentucky’s executive branch agencies on policy in the fiscal year ending this summer. -
Kentucky GOP Congressman Thomas Massie has secured the petition signatures needed to force a vote on releasing all Department of Justice files on Jeffrey Epstein. -
Kentucky GOP Sens. Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell are clashing over a provision that opponents say will destroy the growing hemp industry in America. -
An official with the National Transportation Safety Board says the left engine fell off the UPS plane as it was attempting to take off, before crashing just beyond the runway. -
The owner of a truck service shop was next door to the fiery and deadly UPS crash in Louisville on Tuesday, trapped on the property for hours.
