Joe Sonka
Enterprise Statehouse ReporterJoe Sonka is Kentucky Public Radio’s first enterprise statehouse reporter. He joined the team in October 2023.
Joe has covered Kentucky government and politics for nearly two decades. He grew up in Lexington and moved to Louisville in 2011, covering city and state government at LEO Weekly and then Insider Louisville. He became state government reporter for the Courier Journal in 2019 and was a lead reporter for the newspaper's 2020 Pulitzer Prize-winning series on former Gov. Matt Bevin's controversial pardons just before leaving office.
You can email Joe at jsonka@lpm.org and find him at BlueSky (@joesonka.lpm.org).
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Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear has joined 23 Democratic attorneys general who are suing the Trump administration over its federal funding freeze. -
The U.S. Senate voted to confirm Tulsi Gabbard as the director of national intelligence on a nearly party-line vote, with Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky being the only Republican to vote against her. -
University of Kentucky President Eli Capilouto said he expects the Trump administration policy will cut tens of millions of dollars annually from its National Institutes of Health funding for research. -
The Kentucky Department of Corrections said last month that 67 state inmates are taking hormones to treat gender dysphoria. A Republican priority bill seeks to deny such medication. -
Kentucky lawmakers hope to follow Tennessee as the second state to ban what they call “geoengineering” — the theoretical concept to counter climate change that some baselessly claim is already happening as “chemtrails.” -
The bill will lower Kentucky’s individual income tax rate from 4% to 3.5% in 2026, a move projected to lower state revenue by $718 million annually. -
The White House memo ordered federal agencies to pause all grants and loans, creating uncertainty for Kentucky recipients. -
Dozens of Kentuckians convicted for crimes committed at the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection received a full pardon from President Donald Trump as one of his first acts in office. -
Rep. Savannah Maddox’s measure would end the practice of bills passing into law in Kentucky without the public seeing a fiscal note detailing its estimated impact on the state budget. -
The bill to cut Kentucky’s individual income tax rate to 3.5% passed the House with bipartisan support and is expected to clear the Senate next month.
