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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McConnell says the bill would close an unintended loophole from his 2018 bill to legalize hemp, but industry leaders fear a ban could decimate the hemp industry. -
The moratorium passed by the Oldham County Fiscal Court halts all data center projects. A top official alleging corruption was also fired for recording a secret meeting on data centers. -
The Kentucky Hospital Association supported the House version of what’s dubbed the “Big Beautiful Bill,” but a top executive says Senate changes would devastate health care and create larger economic fallout. -
The PAC ads attack northern Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie for voting against Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill” and opposing his military strike against Iran. -
Congress is considering major cuts to SNAP food assistance benefits. They could have an outsized impact in Appalachian Kentucky, where more than one in five rely on the benefits. -
Republicans’ “Big Beautiful Bill” is estimated to kick millions of people off Medicaid, causing concern for health care providers in the mountains of eastern Kentucky, a region especially dependent on the federal program. -
Paul says Trump’s criticism will not deter the Kentucky senator from disagreeing with his party’s president on policies such as debt spending and tariffs. -
A company planned to build one of the most powerful data centers in the world on Oldham County farmland, but has switched to much smaller property after local resistance. -
Republicans’ supermajority in the Kentucky Senate grows a bit larger, as longtime Democratic Sen. Robin Webb announced she’s switching parties. -
Oldham County residents are resisting a company’s proposal to build a 2 million square-foot data center complex using 600 megawatts of power on a stretch of rural farm land.
