By Srijita Chattopadhyay The walls of faded blue were plastered with posters of bands and TV shows, from Panic at the Disco to Supernatural. The smell of rich sandalwood filled the air inside the room. A heap of colorful stuffed animals were piled in a corner. A small...
Mystery on the Bourbon Trail
By Alexandra Sandefur On a warm late April day in 2018, Sherry Ballard pulls off onto the shoulder of the Bluegrass Parkway in Bardstown, Kentucky. The spot is just past mile marker 13. The strip of land on the other side of the guardrail dips down to a little valley...
A History of Car Safety
By James Humphrey Car crashes remain a leading cause of premature death, with 37,461 people being killed in crashes in the United States in 2016 – 1.18 per 100 million miles traveled. According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), car crashes...
World’s largest cave system battling deadly bat disease
By Sille Veilmark The rocky chamber in the world’s biggest cave system, Mammoth Cave, is dimly lit. The echoing chatter from 107 mouths dies out as the flock approaches a slim man with red beard. He is wearing a stiff park ranger hat, and the glue in his hiking shoes...
Every Day for God: La Luz Del Mundo Church in Bowling Green
By Jennifer King Dozens of cars file in to the parking lot behind La Perlita, a small Mexican grocery next to a taquería, a tortilleria and a church with a dome in Bowling Green, Kentucky. Across the street, on the corner of Clay Street and West 12th Avenue, light...
Lost in a foreign country
By Nicole Ziege Cesky Krumlov was exactly how I had envisioned. It was a little town in the Czech Republic built in the thirteenth century that appeared straight out of a Grimm’s Brothers Fairy Tale. Along the hillside there were cottages close together along the...
Graduating While Black: graduation and retention rates
By Erian Bradley In the fall of 2012, Camille Williams walked onto Western Kentucky’s campus anxious about the future that was ahead of her. There were buildings all around her with cars in the surrounding parking lots, and incoming freshmen waiting in the lobby as...
Burial trends change as Bowling Green cemeteries fill
By Nicole Ziege The evening sun creates golden hues over the tombstones in Fairview Cemetery II as it descends into the west. Soft high-pitched tones from wind chimes ring out throughout the cemetery. The stones are decorated with various kinds of flowers—one with two...
Refugees from Myanmar’s Chin State gather to worship in Bowling Green
By Amelia Brett Long, colorful skirts skimmed the floor as women from Myanmar entered the church room with friends and families. A Chin language, “Hakha,” filled the pages of Bibles and hymn books and could be heard from rows of seats. The quick rhythm of speaking...
From Child Bride to Advocate
By Nicole Ziege Seated at a small table at Fantes Coffee, a quiet coffee shop on Grinstead Drive in Louisville, is Donna Pollard, now 34. Wearing a blouse covered in a pattern of small flowers, with her layered shoulder-length red hair draped over dangling hoop...
Culture and spirituality: Temple provides community for Cambodian Buddhists
By Amelia Brett Thyda Freiberger slipped off her shoes with ease beside the door before entering her family’s temple. A short line of sandals sat next to hers on the front porch. Her black hair hung down her back in a long braid. After walking into the room, she bowed...
Louisville cemetery serves as final resting place for the homeless
By Emma Collins When it rains, the dirt on Dennis Racliff’s grave starts to turn to mud and sink, creating a coffin-shaped depression on top of where the 62-year-old was buried a little over a year ago. Racliff’s grave rests in the left corner of Meadow View Cemetery,...