Articles and Features
Arkansas Democrat-Gazette
Boozman looks for farm bill input as he prepares to lead Senate’s agriculture committee (Nov. 30, 2024)
In the final weeks of the 118th Congress, federal lawmakers were finalizing legislation to provide economic assistance to farmers dealing with high input costs and low prices. The U.S. Senate and House of Representatives debated this funding as the legislative chambers struggled to approve a new long-term farm bill authorizing nutrition, agriculture and rural development programs.
For this article, I spoke to various agriculture leaders and lawmakers, including Arkansas Republican John Boozman, who became chair of the Senate Agriculture, Nutrition and Forestry Committee in January 2025.
Arkansas Democrats ready for national convention, supporting Harris (Aug. 18, 2024)
As Arkansas Republicans left their national party's convention in Milwaukee energized over Donald Trump’s presidential campaign, President Joe Biden ended his bid for a second term in the White House, passing the torch to Vice President Kamala Harris.
In a story previewing the 2024 Democratic National Convention in Chicago, I spoke to Arkansas Democrats about the pending convention and the renewed energy among Democrats with Harris and Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz leading the party’s ticket.
West Virginia MetroNews
MetroNews Decision 2022: ‘Absolutely, I stand by it’: Looking back on the 2020 election, fraud claims (May 8, 2022)
As Donald Trump cruised to carrying West Virginia’s five electoral votes in the 2020 presidential election, officials across the country were still counting ballots in states that led to Joe Biden’s eventual victory. Trump and his allies — including some of West Virginia’s lawmakers — responded with unsupported claims that election fraud impacted the final outcome
For this piece, I researched how West Virginia’s public officials challenged the 2020 election and spoke to election experts about the consequences of these actions.
Future of ‘Obamacare’ before US Supreme Court on Tuesday (Nov. 9, 2020)
The U.S. Supreme Court scheduled arguments on former President Barack Obama’s health care law for Nov. 10, 2020, a week after Election Day. The consideration of the challenge also followed judicial rulings against “Obamacare” and the death of Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg.
I spoke to lawmakers and experts about the lawsuit and how the Affordable Care Act has affected West Virginians.
Steve Earle and the Dukes (Jacob Blickenstaff/New West Records)