The Courier-Journal (Louisville)
We focus on voter fraud this week and our impact in the community
When I first joined the Courier Journal in March 2021, I immediately identified a goal to reconnect our newsroom to the community we serve, which was especially important because we were still battling the COVID pandemic.
To me that looked like better dialogue and listening to residents in the local cities and communities in Louisville and the surrounding area. Not to suggest that we were not doing that already, but I thought we could do an even better job serving our communities through engagement efforts, like community forums, candidate forums and moderating key conversations about important topics.
Three and a half years later, I won’t go so far as to claim 100% success, but the staff at the Courier Journal has done some amazing work from shopping for children in need, to holding food and toy drives, to staffing our mobile newsroom, to volunteering in the community. So many times, newspapers are hesitant to tout our work and impact. But the volunteer efforts by folks in my newsroom demonstrate how much they care about and are part of this community. There is no mandate, they truly do this because they care and enjoy serving. So, it’s my job to brag! So here are some recent examples that I would like to share with you before I tell you about what’s in today’s newspaper:
● Folks from across the newsroom spent time at Second Stride, a horse retirement farm, in May where they helped clean water buckets, cleaned stalls and more.
● They also volunteered at The Lord’s Kitchen, a soup kitchen serving community members in need, in August.
● They painted benches and picked up litter at Sun Valley Park in southwest Louisville.
Now let’s get to this week’s news! We have heard a lot about election irregularities and volunteer fraud in the past several years. Enterprise reporter Lucas Aulbach closely examines some Kentucky cases to show readers what voter fraud looks like. Lucas travels to one rural county in our state to dig deep into vote-buying in a local race that led to a 40-count indictment and jail time.
Lucas, who has been at the newspaper nearly 10 years, also explains how the state investigates election fraud. Also in today’s newspaper:
● Meet Courier Journal features writer and clerk Gege Reed, who has worked in newsrooms since 1977. As you will see when you read her Q&A, Gege is the backbone of our newsroom.
● Our inspiration page features Major Waltman, a major force behind the preservation of Olmsted Parks, who retired in July.
● From the Archives: A look back at the decades-old Mall St. Matthews, Kentucky’s first indoor shopping center.
● Sports huddle: In a nod to the kickoff of high school football, this week’s cover takes a look at brothers Connor and Cole Hodge, who aim to help Christian Academy win a third consecutive Class 3A football title before heading to East Carolina University.