Joe Sonka

Joe 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 non-Twitter apps such as Threads (@joesonkaky) and BlueSky (@joesonka.bsky.social).

The new law would allow Kentucky to issue medical cannabis licenses to businesses as early as this summer, increasing the odds that cannabis will be available for patients at dispensaries beginning 2025.
By Joe Sonka
marijuana grow facility
Legislation to amend the Kentucky Open Records Act cleared a Senate committee despite bipartisan criticism that it would undermine government transparency, though a controversial part of the bill was rejected.
By Joe Sonka
State Rep. John Hodgson, a Republican from Fisherville. (Legislative Research Commission photo)
The new law would allow Kentucky to issue medical cannabis licenses to businesses as early as this summer, increasing the odds that cannabis will be available for patients at dispensaries beginning 2025.
By Joe Sonka
marijuana grow facility
Legislation to amend the Kentucky Open Records Act cleared a Senate committee despite bipartisan criticism that it would undermine government transparency, though a controversial part of the bill was rejected.
By Joe Sonka
State Rep. John Hodgson, a Republican from Fisherville. (Legislative Research Commission photo)