Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/author/ryland-barton/)
Ryland Barton is the Capitol bureau chief for Kentucky Public Radio. He's covered politics and state government for NPR member stations KWBU in Waco and KUT in Austin. He has a bachelor's degree from the University of Chicago and a master's degree in journalism from the University of Texas. He grew up in Lexington.
As friends and family gathered at the Heart of Fire Church in Louisville’s Fern Creek neighborhood, the front lawn became a parking lot to accommodate hundreds of Johnson’s mourners, many of whom rode in on motorcycles.
Kentucky State Rep. Dan Johnson’s suicide following sexual assault allegations has Frankfort reeling.
State Rep. Dan Johnson committed suicide Wednesday evening, two days after the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting published accusations that he sexually assaulted a minor. Johnson was a preacher from Mt. Washington in Bullitt County. He shot himself on a bridge over the Salt River, according to WDRB. Johnson posted a suicide note on Facebook Wednesday evening calling the accusations false and telling conservatives to “take a stand.”
“AMERICA will not survive this type of judge and jury fake news,” Johnson wrote.
A day after both of Kentucky’s major political parties called for Rep. Dan Johnson to resign amid sexual assault allegations, Gov. Matt Bevin says he’s still reviewing the story and hasn’t formed an opinion on the matter.
A Republican state representative from Bullitt County has been accused of sexually abusing a girl in his church, among other misdeeds, in a new investigative report from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and Louisville Public Media.
The ACLU of Kentucky is suing Gov. Matt Bevin for blocking people on Facebook and Twitter, saying the governor is violating the free speech rights of his constituents.
The criminal division of the Attorney General’s office has launched a probe into the University of Louisville Foundation, the nonprofit that manages the public university’s nearly $800 million endowment.
Gov. Bevin falsely claimed that Attorney General Andy Beshear had dropped his defense of a controversial new ultrasound abortion law and that the Courier-Journal falsely reported on the issue.