Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/author/jacobryan/page/3/)
Jacob Ryan joined the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting in December 2017. For three years prior, he worked as a WFPL News reporter. Ryan is originally from Eddyville, Kentucky.
The bedbugs invade DeAnna Malone’s apartment every night. They creep through the vents in her bathroom. They crawl through the sockets on her wall and the cracks along the floor. They climb up her bed to feast. “They bite you, it feels like you’re on fire,” she said. Malone has lived with bedbugs at Dosker Manor for years. Her neighbors at the public housing complex say the whole place is infested.
Heart of Fire was rebuilt through an arson relief program run by the federal government, and now the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has obtained a court order to sell the church.
The winner of the election will fill the vacancy in the 49th House District created by the December 13 death of Dan “Pope” Johnson.
Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer said Wednesday that he will unveil a new city-wide cleanliness initiative this spring that he hopes will address disparities in litter problems.
In an interview Wednesday, Fischer said an assessment is already underway using city data, social media and community input to determine areas that need “concentrated help” to be more “clean and green.”
“Cleanliness sets the tone for a city,” he said. “It’s an emphasis for every part of the city to be clean.”
The announcement follows a Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting story that found areas plagued most by trash often lack public trash bins. A review of city data by KyCIR found that 73 percent of all trash-related complaints
reported to the city’s MetroCall 311 service last year were not within one block of a trash can. And 41 percent of those locations had no trash bin within two blocks. Many of these areas are home to the city’s poorest residents.
Across the city, data shows trash piles up in parts of town with the fewest public trash cans.
This year, the county will run three elections: the special election and the primary and general elections in May and November.
Rebecca Johnson was selected by the Republican Party of Bullitt County to be the GOP nominee in the special election.
The Republican nominee will compete against Democrat Linda Belcher, who served three terms before Johnson beat her in 2016.
The Louisville Metro Police Department is investigating State Rep. Dan Johnson for alleged sexual abuse in his church. Johnson, a freshman lawmaker and pastor of Heart of Fire Church in the Fern Creek neighborhood, allegedly molested a 17-year-old girl on Jan. 1, 2013. Police initially opened an investigation in April 2013, but closed it months later without ever interviewing Johnson, documents show. Johnson, while refusing calls for his resignation from leaders of both political parties, denied the sexual abuse allegation in a press conference Tuesday morning.
Kentucky preacher-turned-politician Danny Ray Johnson calls himself “Pope.” But behind the state lawmaker’s persona — cultivated, built up and fine-tuned over decades — is a web of lies and deception. A mysterious fire. Attempted arson and false testimony. Alleged molestation in the church.