Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom
NPR and Member stations in Appalachia and the Mid-South have launched a collaboration aimed at strengthening local news coverage and bringing more stories from this region to the rest of the country. The new Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom is a collaboration between West Virginia Public Broadcasting, WPLN and WUOT in Tennessee, LPM, WEKU-Lexington/Richmond, WKMS-Murray and WKU Public Radio in Kentucky.
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The Tennessee Department of Correction is scheduled to execute Byron Black on Aug. 5, but court challenges regarding the case are still playing out. -
As the 100th anniversary of the Scopes trial is commemorated this week, battles over public education continue in Tennessee and surrounding states amid a new wave of government scrutiny. -
Former Louisville Metro Police Department detective Brett Hankison was convicted of violating Breonna Taylor’s civil rights in a federal trial last year. -
The Office of Kentucky Nature Preserves says they’ve already found hundreds of wild bee species midway through a multi-year project to inventory and protect the pollinators native to the state. -
Appalachian states have had some of the highest overdose rates in the country over the past decade. But officials have been slow to adopt some harm reduction efforts that could save lives. -
In recent years, online gambling has changed how and when people bet. But it's also changed who gambles. -
The “Sacred Harp” is the most popular songbook for music called “shape note singing.” This year, a new edition will be printed with dozens of modern compositions. Singers say this only happens once in a generation and they can’t wait. -
Brood XIV is emerging across Kentucky, Tennessee and West Virginia. While the cicadas are annoying to some, they offer profound meaning to others. -
Ahead of Oscar Smith’s execution Thursday morning for the murder of his wife and two of her children, people close to the case have expressed a wide span of thoughts and emotions leading up to this day. -
Tennessee will execute Oscar Franklin Smith this week, while a lawsuit challenging the state’s new lethal injection protocol makes its way through the court system. -
On Thursday, Tennessee plans to carry out its first execution since 2019 by means of lethal injection. It’s the fourth scheduled execution date since 2020 for Oscar Smith, who was convicted of killing his estranged wife Judith Smith and her two sons Jason Burnett and Chad Burnett in 1989. -
In Tennessee, prosecutors can charge people for crimes committed by another person, even if they weren’t directly responsible. Activist groups are working with state legislators to change that.
