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 non-Twitter apps such as Threads (@joesonkaky) and BlueSky (@joesonka.bsky.social).
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Two of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear’s political committees contributed $510,000 to help elect Pamela Goodwine to the Supreme Court, raising the question of potential conflicts. -
Mayor Craig Greenberg announced that Louisville and federal officials have reached a “historic consent decree agreement” that will shape the path of the city’s police reform efforts for years to come. -
The Kentucky Office of Medical Cannabis deemed a list of applicants for the recently completed dispensary lottery in nine regions to be exempt from open records requests. -
Most of the first 26 businesses to win Kentucky medical cannabis cultivator and processor licenses from its lottery system are tied to marijuana companies based in other states, one of which likely submitted hundreds of applications. -
Louisville’s mayor wouldn’t commit to signing the consent decree with the DOJ before the inauguration of President-elect Donald Trump, whose previous administration avoided such police reform measures. -
Each of the 106 counties and cities in Kentucky with a ballot referendum approved allowing medical cannabis businesses to operate in their jurisdiction. -
Republicans are likely to end up with a nearly identical supermajority in both chambers of the Kentucky General Assembly after the 2024 election. -
Pamela Goodwine defeated Erin Izzo to win a seat on the Kentucky Supreme Court. -
With Election Day closing in, Kentucky Public Radio’s capitol reporters gab about what you need to know before the results start rolling in. -
An independent judicial watchdog group has criticized both Pamela Goodwine and Erin Izzo in the Kentucky Supreme Court race for either accepting or touting partisan endorsements.
