Author

Liam Niemeyer

Liam Niemeyer

Liam covers government and policy in Kentucky and its impacts throughout the Commonwealth for the Kentucky Lantern. He most recently spent four years reporting award-winning stories for WKMS Public Radio in Murray.

Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, the nation’s largest state-focused nonprofit news organization.

A silver sedan sits at the entrance of Artemis Power Tech's facility.

In a rural Kentucky community, the roar of a suspected crypto ‘mine’ never ends

By: - October 9, 2023

WOLFE COUNTY — She couldn’t see it through the trees on a recent late September morning, but she’s felt its presence for weeks on end.? Up the hill across from her home along the Wolfe-Lee county line, 76-year-old Brenda Campbell can hear through the leaves a constant, high-pitched whirring that rivals the cicada screeches in […]

Kentucky among the most vulnerable states to climate change impacts, according to new research

By: - October 2, 2023

A new index measuring 184 categories of public data across more than 70,000 census tracts in the country shows Kentucky communities, particularly Eastern Kentucky, among the most vulnerable to the impacts of climate change.? The U.S. Climate Vulnerability Index, created in collaboration by researchers at Texas A&M University and the nonprofit advocacy group Environmental Defense […]

An up-close photo of a brown-shaded relict darter.

Wildlife officials downgrade protection status of West Kentucky fish to ‘threatened’

By: - September 26, 2023

A small fish native to a stream system in West Kentucky is having its federal protection status under the Endangered Species Act downgraded from “endangered” to “threatened” in large part due to decades of conservation efforts.? The relict darter, native to the Bayou de Chien stream system that runs through West Kentucky into the Mississippi […]

Auto workers wearing red UAW shirts raise their fists as the union's regional president speaks.

Autoworker in Louisville was ready to strike but Kentucky didn’t get the call

By: - September 22, 2023

LOUISVILLE — Richard Jones remembers when the United Auto Workers made concessions to Ford in 2008 as the automaker avoided a government bailout that General Motors and Chrysler, now Stellantis, took. Ford workers did without raises and cost of living adjustments, he said, to keep Ford in business during the Great Recession.? “All this time […]

Longtime Kentucky labor leader will not seek reelection as state AFL-CIO president

By: - September 21, 2023

A longtime leader of the Kentucky State AFL-CIO, a prominent union federation, is not seeking reelection as president after serving more than two decades in the position.? Kentucky State AFL-CIO President Bill Londrigan — who also served in roles with the Greater Louisville Building and Construction Trades Council and the Greater Louisville Central Labor Council […]

Pike County crypto mining operation approved for electricity discounts with conditions

By: - September 19, 2023

Kentucky’s utility regulator approved last week more than $2.5 million in electricity discounts over several years from utility Kentucky Power to a cryptocurrency mining operation in Pike County.? As? part of its approval, the Kentucky Public Service Commission (PSC) is requiring Kentucky Power follow several conditions to make sure the costs of the discounts given […]

A brown mussel shell with a white end sticks out of the Licking River.

In Kentucky’s rivers, researchers try to understand where the mussels have gone

By: - September 18, 2023

PENDLETON COUNTY — Wendell Haag wades through the cool, moving water of the Licking River, his eyes scanning across the silty bed for the distinctive shells he’s studied for decades.? The river is seemingly paved with the shells of freshwater mussels featuring various sizes, colors and species, buried into the sediment amongst the rocks, crayfish […]

Kentucky ban on collecting some union dues by payroll deduction struck down

By: - September 13, 2023

A Kentucky judge has struck down a new state law that prevents some public-sector unions from collecting dues through payroll deductions. Franklin Circuit Judge Thomas Wingate in an order on Aug. 30 stated that Senate Bill 7 creates “favoritism” for some public sector labor unions exempted from the law — specifically unions representing jail and […]

Kentucky Supreme Court chief justice won’t run for re-election in 2024

By: - September 12, 2023

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice Laurance VanMeter won’t run for reelection in 2024, opening up the field for a new justice to be elected next year to fill his vacancy. VanMeter, who represents the 5th Supreme Court District covering much of central Kentucky, has served in various roles in Kentucky’s judicial branch over nearly three […]

Coal-fired power failures during winter storm come to light months later

By: - September 8, 2023

Last December a mass of arctic air, later unofficially named Winter Storm Elliott, swept through Kentucky plunging temperatures to as low as eight degrees below zero. The frigid weather led to a power supply crunch across the Southeast as households and businesses tried to stay warm.? Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky Utilities, the state’s […]

Union leaders hear from young workers organizing in Louisville

By: - September 1, 2023

LOUISVILLE — It wasn’t until two weeks ago that Troy Plumer joined a union, a local chapter of the United Campus Workers, after working for about a decade as an IT professional at the University of Louisville.? The union, which represents staff and faculty, recently held a rally on campus to protest a new compensation […]

Kentucky fails to meet fiscal trigger to allow for another income tax cut

By: - August 31, 2023

Kentucky Republicans’ goal?of gradually eliminating the state income tax has met an obstacle of their own making. State tax revenues failed to meet a fiscal requirement set by the GOP-controlled legislature in order to consider further income tax cuts during next year’s legislative session, according to a letter?from the state budget director.? The General Assembly […]