Justin Hicks
Data Reporter, Ohio Valley ReSourceJustin Hicks is the data reporter for the Ohio Valley Resource, Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting and WFPL.
Hicks comes to the region from Indiana Public Broadcasting, where he covered workforce issues for their statewide network. In his role, Hicks balances long-term projects, deep-dive investigations and collaborate with reporters with data-focused stories.
He has a master’s degree from NYU and a bachelor’s in music from Appalachian State University where he played trumpet and developed a love for hiking in Appalachia. He‘s also worked as a music teacher.
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Mine advocates and companies commented in Washington, D.C. this week, expressing lots of different concerns. If passed, the new rules would attempt to keep mine workers, including coal miners in Kentucky, safer while they work. -
Christmas has come and gone, but the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife Resources wants your Christmas tree to create fish habitats.
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Black lung has surged in Appalachia in recent years. Research has tied the epidemic to silica dust, which can burrow deep into miners’ lungs.
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This year’s General Election falls three months after catastrophic flooding destroyed lives and homes in eastern Kentucky. Elected officials and local political groups are worried people won’t turn out to vote.
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Two deadlines are looming for eastern Kentuckians this week, three months after devastating flooding.
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Keith Rose didn't want debris contractors cutting trees on his property in Neon, KY. Police say he threatened workers, so they tased and arrested him. Rose has black lung. His wife says it would have been impossible for him to flee.
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After heavy flooding in eastern Kentucky, locals and officials are frustrated with the federal government’s system for disaster aid. People say the process is confusing, sending some of the most vulnerable through a bureaucratic maze, and sometimes requiring documentation lost during the catastrophe.
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Luke Glaser, city commissioner in Hazard, says eastern Kentucky is frontpage news right now and that’s attracting volunteers. When that attention moves on, he worries the help will too.
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Over the past week, Havanna Thacker has transformed a historic high school in Carr Creek, Kentucky into a supply depot. While her mother whips up trays of food in a tiny cafeteria, she stocks the gym with supplies that people bring by the carload.
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It was already difficult to get an abortion in Kentucky, Ohio and West Virginia, but it’s about to become almost impossible after the U.S. Supreme Court left it up to states to decide reproductive rights.
