Kentucky Lantern staff honored at regional awards dinner
LOUISVILLE — Kentucky Lantern staff took home six awards at the regional Society of Professional Journalists awards dinner, held Thursday in downtown Louisville.
The awards honored reporting from 2025.
McKenna Horsley, the Lantern’s political reporter, won a second place award in politics and government reporting.
Horsley’s award winning coverage included her reporting on the lack of a public viewing gallery in the temporary statehouse and the lack of prefiled bills in the legislature, which was decried by some advocates as a lack of transparency.
Sarah Ladd, the Lantern’s health and policy reporter, won a second place award in the social justice category, a third place award in health reporting and a third place in feature writing.
Ladd’s stories from last year that won awards include a look back at marriage equality on the 10th anniversary of the landmark Supreme Court decision that legalized same-sex marriage; a look at a Kentucky military mom’s fight against Trump administration book bans; and a dive into the pain care gaps associated with IUD insertion, among others.
Deborah Yetter, a freelancer for the Lantern, won a third place award in the continuing coverage category for her reporting on former Gov. Matt Bevin’s adopted son, Jonah, who is still fighting in court for support from his parents. Jonah Bevin has said he was abused and neglected after the Bevins adopted him at age 5 from Ethiopia, culminating in his abandonment at the Jamaica facility closed in 2024 by child welfare authorities.
Yetter also won a third place award for her coverage of a licensing controversy over optometry.
Nearly 100 attended the annual awards dinner Thursday night, which was held at West Sixth Brewery in Nulu.
The Lantern, which launched on Nov. 30, 2022, is part of the nonprofit States Newsroom network and makes its work free to read and republish under a Creative Commons license.