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More than two months after severe storms, heavy winds, and flash floods ravaged Kentucky, President Donald Trump has cleared millions in FEMA dollars to help communities rebuild. Trump announced Tuesday evening he’s approved $9.1 million in public assistance funding to go toward 20 of the hardest hit counties from two weeks’ worth of severe weather from June 17 to June 30.

Kentucky writer, farmer and activist Wendell Berry died at 92 after decades spent arguing that protecting land, communities and human dignity required more than waiting on institutions to act. Berry opposed the Vietnam War, factory farming and mountaintop removal, and became one of the country’s most influential voices for sustainable agriculture and conservation.

Morgan & Morgan founder John Morgan says employees who want to work from home should expect to be watched — closely. Morgan said his firm uses cameras, keystroke tracking and productivity scores to monitor remote workers, and claimed 23 employees quit in the first week after the camera policy rolled out. Check out the full video at The Iced Coffee Hour podcast.

by Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern August 31, 2026 Kentucky writer and conservationist Wendell Berry once wrote: “Beware the machinery of longevity. When a man’s life is over the decent thing is for him to die. The forest does not withhold itself from death.” A lover of forests, the farmer, author and former English professor died on Monday at his home in Port Royal, according to the New York Times and other media reports. He was 92.

Kentucky Rep. Thomas Massie spoke on the House floor and called out by name more than a dozen of Jeffrey Epstein’s associates who appear in the Epstein files. He called for these individuals to be investigated and prosecuted while criticizing the DOJ for failing to do so. Massie has begun collecting the 218 signatures needed for a discharge petition to bypass committee leadership and force a vote on the Epstein Files Transparency Act II.

In an interview with WDRB+WAVE, Louisville rapper Jack Harlow talks about giving back to his hometown while distributing more than 500 free books at Carmichael’s Bookstore through his nonprofit, the Jack Harlow Foundation.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has awarded a $16.7 million contract to purchase 6,000 pairs of gloves that can deliver painful electric shocks, saying officers would use them to control detainees and protesters who resist. ICE moved forward with the purchase despite opposition from civil rights advocates and Democratic members of Congress, who said ICE officers cannot be trusted to use them appropriately.

Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said the state should reconsider tax incentives for data centers, arguing that some of the companies behind the projects are among “the wealthiest companies in human history” and can afford to build without public subsidies. Beshear also said any new projects should come with transparency, no increase in residents’ electricity rates, no harmful environmental impact and companies paying their fair share in taxes.

Armelle Bondonga has not held her 19-month-old baby or seen her husband in over two weeks. Rep. Morgan McGarvey, a Louisville Democrat, spoke at a public event for Bondonga, who was detained by ICE after being in the country since 2013, much of that time as an asylum seeker from violence in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.

Come to the Kentucky State Fair with Hellbender Newsroom’s political correspondent Olivia Krauth.