Ryan Van Velzer
@ryanvanvelzer
Managing editor of collaboratives at Louisville Public Media: Kentucky Public Radio and the Appalachia+Mid-South Newsroom: 7 NPR stations across Ky., W. Va. and Tenn. Based out of Louisville, Ky. Young Author's Greenhouse Board. Mass shooting survivor
It’s Election Day in Kentucky! Local reporters have been hard at work to give y’all the facts. Here’s a thread of helpful primary information and stories from @kentuckypublicradio.org (Cat for visibility)
Trump, who’s expected to appear in Kentucky later today amid stormy weather, lashes out at Massey this morning and says he loves Kentucky (though it’s been a while since he visited).
Louisville protesters kneeling in a moment of silence outside the ICE building in a moment of silence for Renee Good.
A couple hundred folks out in Louisville tonight to protest the ICE killing of 37-year-old Renee Good, who was shot while trying to drive away from authorities in Minneapolis last night.
John Oliver gave a shoutout to the previous incarnation of our NPR collaborative last night! And hey, WVPB’s still a part of our current collaborative, along with stations across Kentucky and Tennessee: www.lpm.org/tags/appalac...
I know, I know, media is DYING right? But LOCAL media is still out here doing the work, showing up, donning masks to breathe in fewer petroleum fumes and delivering the information our communities need. Allow me to demonstrate.
For about two hours last night, Sabit Aliyev and his co-workers were trapped by flames from the UPS plane crash in Louisville. “It was like really loud. This explosion and flames all over. It was.. [the] heat was so bad, you can feel it from a distance,” he said.
There are confirmed reports of a plane crash in Louisville. It appears to be large. There’s a shelter in place warning for five males around the Muhammad Ali airport
No Kings in Louisville, Kentucky: I reported extensively on the 2020 Breonna Taylor protests and I don't think I've every seen as many people protesting in downtown Louisville as I did today.
Last week @joesonka.lpm.org reported the state was threatening to send more than 1,400 families to debt collection if they did not pay back EBT cards the state inadvertently sent out. This week those parents got this letter in the mail saying they do not have to pay. www.lpm.org/news/2025-08...
Folks are loving this story about native bees from @sylviaruthg.lpm.org. What are your favorite stories from NPR member stations? www.lpm.org/news/2025-07...
Photos from the No Kings protest in Louisville. Easily thousands of people.
Reporter's notebook: Tornado cleanup in London Kentucky www.lpm.org/news/2025-05...
THIS is what America is all about, helping your neighbor while caring for your family. That’s resilience. The more I think about it the more I’m obsessed with this photo from London, Kentucky, by @justinhicks.lpm.org).
I’m reading Octavia Butler’s Parable of the Sower. Check out this sci-fi passage dated March 4, 2025:
Louisville Public Media's Roberto Roldan and Pulitzer-prize winning photographer Jon Cherry spent months working on this project, photographing the people who live at the hotel, and reporting on their lives. Their photos and stories are beautiful, tragic and heartwarming.