Ryan Van Velzer
@RyanVanVelzer
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Appalachia + Mid-South Newsroom Managing Editor - a collaboration of 7 NPR stations in Ky., W. Va. and Tenn. @SPJlouisville board. Mass shooting survivor.
Louisville, KY
Joined January 2010
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Some news: I'm Kentucky Public Radio's new managing editor. I’m excited to edit a talented statewide politics team and manage a collaboration of public radio stations that reaches all 120 Kentucky counties.
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Lmpd have arrested Rep. Attica Scott, author of Breonna’s law
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I just went to drop off my colleagues who have been covering the march in the highlands. As I entered 4th St. in downtown Louisville, police asked for ID then threatened to impound my car if I came back with other reporters.
@lmpd
why are you threatening me for doing my job?
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Here’s a member of the First Unitarian Church explaining the motivation for offering sanctuary to Louisville protesters.
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Welcome to Louisville. This used to be our downtown tourist trap.
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This is the Breonna Taylor Memorial in Downtown Louisville today. For the National audience tuning into today, this is the symbolic heart of the protest movement. Protesters carefully manicure and maintain the memorial.
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A moment of silence outside the place where David McAtee was killed.
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Im back in downtown Louisville starting my shift for the night. Seeing protesters headed for the square, a chopper circling overhead, police on nearly every block. Thread.
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Somehow the Breonna Taylor memorial is still intact.
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Ahead of the Kentucky Derby, activists hung a massive Breonna Taylor banner from a Mill beside the I-64 in Louisville overnight. The banner reads “Breonna’s Louisville” with a portrait of Taylor, who was killed by police in her home during an overnight right in March.
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Welp, it’s about to be a very busy week for Andy Beshear.
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A mint julep at the Kentucky Derby costs $22, general admission tickets are $275, there's no direct public transportation to the track and the surrounding neighborhoods are fenced off from it. I love derby season but the event itself is an increasingly exclusionary spectacle.
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Police say they will leave once they finish arrests following the library get set on fire
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In line to park at Louisville’s only voting location at the Kentucky Exposition Center.
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It’s the 100th day of protests in Louisville, Kentucky. This is the center of it all, the memorial for Breonna Taylor, who police shot and killed during a raid in March.
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Back on assignment in Jefferson Square Park. There is a vigil tonight for Taylor, McAtee and Gerth. One speaker says he doesn’t intend on leaving tonight.
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My brother died last night. He fought against substance use disorder for most his adult life. He’s not suffering anymore. Cherish your loved ones, you never know how much time you have with them.
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Inside the church, you can hear Amal group conversations and the sounds of the crowd outside, blue and red lights flash through the stained glass windows.
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The UPS driver who delivered the first shipment of vaccine to UofL Hospital in Louisville says this is his typical route, but the most important shipment he’s ever made, aside from trying to get home safe every night
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Louisville Water Company about to hold a press conference. Looking at a press release that says “your water is safe to drink.” Won’t be live tweeting, but the thrust of this seems to be that there is a plume on its way down the Ohio River from the East Palestine derailment.
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Seems to be some kind of negotiation happening now. Pepper in the air making people cough, not sure from where
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So I interviewed organizer Chris Wells, he said he and Interim Chief Schroeder have negotiated a truce. Once the situation outside the church is resolved, protesters will be able to return to the square, get their cars and stuff and head out, those who stay could face arrest
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The standoff is still going. Mostly protesters yelling at police and poloce flashing their lights in people’s eyes.
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There is a stark contrast between the message Mayor Greg Fischer conveyed this morning welcoming peaceful protesters and the aggressive police tactics LMPD has used throughout the day, long before curfew has gone into effect.
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Organizers are saying protesters will be allowed to walk on the sidewalks and leave the church.
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I don’t know where the shots came from. Two black men shot in the ground that I saw. Did not see any police nearby but they quickly found the men on the ground and started to deliver first aid
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Police say they will leave after the current round of arrests
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Rep. Scott, Ashanti Scott and Parrish-Wright were each charged with first-degree rioting, unlawful assembly and failure to disperse. According to court records, Rep. Scott and her daughter were released on their own recognizance.
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Hey y'all,
I'm reaching out to environmental officials in Louisville and at the state to figure out what they know about this pollution from the chemical disaster in East Palestine, Ohio. If you've got tips, ideas, or want to share your concerns let me know.
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The saga of the Castleman statue has come to and end. The statue has been taken down.
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Three minutes to curfew in Jefferson Square Park. Remaining protesters shout “no justice no peace” the echoes reverberate off the empty streets and buildings.
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Here’s a gif I made of the Breonna Taylor memorial in Louisville as it has morphed over 117 days of protests.
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Police asking media to step back as one lone protester confronts police.
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I've been accepted as one of five fellows for the 2023 MIT Environmental Solutions Initiative
@mit_esi
. I'll still be working at
@WFPLNews
while MIT provides financial and editorial support for me to produce some longform climate journalism in the coming months.
We are pleased to announce our 2023 ESI Journalism Fellows! We look forward to supporting these 5 outstanding reporters as they produce long-form
#climatejournalism
for local newsrooms from New England to the Southwest.
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So I asked for the 911 calls, incident reports and body camera footage from
@LMPD
regarding the mass shooting in Chickasaw Park in part to compare how they treated that shooting to the one at Old National Bank -- Y'all probably know how this is going to go -- thread.
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I'm gonna climb up on the soap box for a second to talk about the value of local journalism. It's been a rough year in a decade of decline for the industry. People are tuning out for myriad reasons. But local news like
@WFPLNews
and has so much to offer. I'll show you🧵
So four of Kentucky's Supreme Court justices didn't file financial disclosures last year, and most only filed this year after
@joesonka
started asking questions.
DID I MENTION state law potentially allows them to be thrown out of office for not doing so.
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Beshear stood in a room of state legislators, the majority of whom belonged to the opposing party, and joked, “Many of you are excited that I will be serving as your governor for the next four years... and the rest are excited that I am now term-limited.”
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I'll tell you this story, and I know you're probably not going to listen to me so this isn't just for you
@cornpopsreturn
. I was there the morning after the tornadoes hit Dawson Springs. I saw Beshear walk in for a press conference...
@RyanVanVelzer
I am sure those people are comforted knowing nepo baby
@GovAndyBeshear
used their suffering as a photo op.
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Hey
@NewYorker
I'm a full-time environment journalist in Kentucky. I too lament the loss of
@jbruggers
(A legend) and the lack of coverage in print. But I'm still here! And I'm not the only one. Hey
@southerlymag
@OVReSRC
@sydneyboles
@schbecca3
let's show what we're about.
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I'm a reporter and I've been covering protests for racial justice in Louisville. I just got tested for COVID-19 for the second time in two weeks. I plan on getting tested regularly so long as I'm attending mass gatherings. Stay safe our there.
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Whatever the outcome of this DOJ investigation into LMPD is... I wish that Chris Wells, Travis Nagdy and Tyler Gerth were here to see this day.
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OK hold up. That’s not right. Beshear didn’t issue the order. The
@KYPSC
did. The commission is composed of three members who made these and many other decisions in their order including deciding NOT to retire two larger coal generating units.
BREAKING: Beshear just allowed the closure of 2 coal fired power plants. PSC held its decision until late last night for political reasons. This is further proof there’s not a dime’s worth of difference between Beshear & Biden.
Ky. regulators approve some LG&E coal unit
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A Kentucky senate committee has voted 16-1 to make fluoride *optional* in state water systems. I can't even.
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So four of Kentucky's Supreme Court justices didn't file financial disclosures last year, and most only filed this year after
@joesonka
started asking questions.
DID I MENTION state law potentially allows them to be thrown out of office for not doing so.
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Last night I won a Kentucky Broadcasters Association Impact Award for enterprise reporting. I won for this story about the town with the state's highest levels of PFAS in their drinking water.
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Good morning I’m at the Broadbent arena at the KY Expo center where Louisville is setting up its first mass vaccination center.
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Just got out of Louisville’s approx. $200 million, 4 mile long waterway protection tunnel, which will begin operating in June. The tunnel will prevent about 92% of sewer overflows into Beargrass Creek and the Ohio River.
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I’m in Downtown Louisville where abortion rights activists are holding a rally outside City Hall. A couple hundred out here I’d estimate.
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One year ago today, my brother committed suicide. I wish he was still here. Sometimes, I think if he had made it through that night, maybe he would be. Maybe if there wasn't a pandemic. Or if he'd never tried heroin. Or if he could have found another way to manage his own grief.
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Council President David James is here one watching events unfold in the square.
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Explain to me how the Kentucky state police can watch protesters armed with AR15s walk around the Capitol but protesters can’t have umbrellas and leaf blowers
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You know it’s the day before Thunder Over Louisville when downtown sounds like an occupied country.
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Louisville Black Lives Matter protests in picture and video: a timeline in images.
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I think that
@LMPD
should explain the discrepancy in transparency. Don't you? What do you think
@LouisvilleMayor
?
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I hope that Kentuckians are paying attention to what’s happening in the Legislature today. If you’re following me, I bet you are paying attention. Make sure to tell someone who isn’t.
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It’s 10 am in Louisville. LMPD has established a perimeter around downtown. They are already stopping and talking to drivers who come through, though they have all been permitted to pass so far. All of this is in anticipation of AG announcement in the Breonna Taylor’s case.
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Almost got arrested on broadway. Several others arrested. Police alternately told us to get down and get up all while throwing pepper balls at us. Eventually I got let go but some police wanted to arrest me
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Lieutenant Josh Judah said LMPD used tear gas only when there was an imminent threat but I have video footage that proves otherwise. i also saw it with my own eyes.
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Either LMPD overcharged Scheffler, or there is a two-tiered system of justice in Louisville. Either way, residents lose. I love this city, but it can break your heart too.
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I appreciate that Kentucky media is not afraid to lift up the good work of other news organizations. Here,
@BGPolitics
amplifies an op-ed from
@KYLantern
about a Kentucky Public Radio story from
@joesonka
. At the end of the day, we’re all working together to inform the public.
Kentucky Lantern: Ky Leg leaders like Senate President Robert Stivers keep passing legislation without funding it, sometimes using secret fiscal notes to hide the costs.
That's not actually conservative, and it's not good government, either. ^JC
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In the final moments of this call, the shooter's mother recognizes there have already been other emergency calls about her son. I cannot imagine the horror of a mother learning that it is already too late to stop her son from committing an unforgiveable act.
"He's non-violent, he's never done anything," the shooter's mother says.
The mother says she's shaking, trying to get into the car.
The dispatcher advises against going to the location, "it's dangerous there" the mother says she's going.
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There is widespread PFAS contamination in the Ohio Valley - I don't think this has sunk in yet. It's been found practically everywhere researchers have looked for it. it's in the Ohio River and 90% of rivers and lakes sampled in Kentucky.
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Local media is here for you. We were here before national news cared and we will be here long after they leave. Supporting local news is part of supporting your community.
@WFPLNews
@courierjournal
@WDRBNews
are three great ways to learn about Louisville.
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Here is the memorial for David McAtee, who was killed by the National Guard in Louisville’s West End during the first days of protests.
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I’m outside the federal courthouse in Kentucky, one of the state’s that has a trigger ban immediately outlawing most abortions. The
@ACLUofKY
is here speaking now.
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And here is the memorial for Tyler Gerth, who was shot in this very spot. He was a photographer capturing the protests who was killed in late June.
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I got married y'all. Then I went on a honeymoon for two weeks in Italy. It was amazing. I feel refreshed, recharged and ready to go to work.
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I'm hearing a lot of complaints of sewer smells throughout Louisville over the last 24 hours. I've seen reports from Germantown to West Buechel. I'm asking
@louisvillemsd
if they know what's going on. Reply if you've got smells in your area. Where and what's it smell like?
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Today I won a regional Edward R. Murrow Award from
@RTDNA
for a series I did last spring on toxic air pollution and inequality in West Louisville. And I just want to bring it up as an opportunity to share the series again.
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Hey
#Louisville
protesters. If you see a reporter at a protest and you want to say something, we will hear you out. Think over what you have to say, and if you see me, I will try to amplify your voice.
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Cars driving by honking in support, it is deafening.
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A dangerous situation is brewing in downtown Louisville at Jefferson Square Park. Armed counter protesters are squaring off against racial justice protesters and there are no police in sight at the moment.
The gun/police protesters and the Black Lives Matter protesters are getting close to eachother
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I’m in Bullitt County this morning where
@lgeku
will present their case to condemn
@BernheimForest
conservation lands to build a natural gas pipeline. No phones in the court room so I won’t be live tweeting but I’ll update later.
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I just got my first dose of the Pfizer vaccine. And as I sit here these 15 minutes waiting, I am genuinely in awe at what humanity is capable of. In less than one year, we developed, tested, authorized and are distributing a vaccine to a previously unknown virus.
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I have heard frustrations among some protesters about
#Loumedia
coverage, but I have got to say that
@courierjournal
@WFPLNews
@KentuckyCIR
are doing some of the best work I've seen from the journalists I know. Support the CJ and become a member of LPM:
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UPDATE: Internet sleuths have helped me track down the source of the attack campaign: a trade association for the coal industry called America's Power. Their "dependable power" campaign looks very similiar in style and messaging to the Kentucky website and blog.
A shadowy blog that claims to be a nonpartisan coalition of business and local leaders has been paying this platform to advertise a blog critical of my reporting. The website has no personal info. It appears pretty well-funded.
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I’m stuck in a bureaucratic debacle, I can’t renew my registration because my address changed. Now I’m stuck at Louisville’s DMV and city employees are not wearing masks. How is the city supposed to set a good example when it’s not following the most basic, important guidance?
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Kentucky
NYT map shows the difference in the number of average daily deaths per 100,000 residents before and after all adults became eligible for vaccines.
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Kentucky’s Republican Party reduces the devastation of the floods and tornadoes that hit Kentucky in ‘21 and ‘22 to “bad weather.” Tell that to the people who lost livelihoods and loved ones.
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