Launching a new column and blog

I want to get out of the office and go where the stories are.

That’s what I tell people who ask why, after nearly a decade as the Herald-Leader’s managing editor, I wanted to become the metro/state columnist. Beginning today, I’ll write three times a week in the newspaper and daily at The Bluegrass & Beyond, a new blog on Kentucky.com.

It’s fun being managing editor of your hometown newspaper, especially when it’s this newspaper. The Herald-Leader plays a vital role as Kentucky’s daily diary and aggressive watchdog. With new online storytelling tools, we’ve expanded our audience around the world — and around the clock.

I’ve helped the Herald-Leader staff do some terrific journalism. But I miss reporting, writing, taking photos and being out where the stories are.

The most fun I ever had as a journalist was working for the Atlanta Journal-Constitution as a regional reporter in the mid-1980s. I spent four years traveling the upper South, including Kentucky, looking for great stories to tell.

That’s what I plan to do now in Herald-Leader country. In addition to words and pictures in the newspaper, I’ll have the blog, online audio and video to work with. And, as a columnist, I’ll get to add my own perspective and opinions.

Lexington is my home. I was born at Good Samaritan Hospital and grew up across the street, where Wildcat Lodge is now. At age 7, my family moved to what was then “the country” and is now suburbia. I’m a product of Fayette County public schools — Maxwell, Cardinal Valley, Beaumont and Lafayette — and Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green.

Both sides of my family have lived in Kentucky for more than 200 years. The Haddix community in Breathitt County is named for my grandmother’s family. And at the other end of the state, the beautiful old courthouse overlooking the Mississippi River at Hickman was built when my great-grandfather was the county judge.

I moved back to Kentucky in 1998, after 18 years with the Journal-Constitution and Associated Press, because I wanted to do journalism that matters in the place that matters most to me.

Lexington is a great town. Kentucky is a special state. Kentuckians are wonderful people. But I’m frustrated by our divisive politics, our disregard for the environment and our narrow-minded, can’t-do attitudes. We can do better.

My columns on Sundays and Wednesdays will focus on news and issues that people are taking about — or should be. Or they’ll just be good stories. I will seek fresh angles on the news, profile fascinating people and explore ideas that could shape Kentucky’s future. I hope to make you laugh, make you cry — and make you think.

Friday’s columns will feature short items. I’ll also highlight some of the topics we’re discussing on the blog; I hope you’ll join in the conversation. And if you have a good column idea, please send me an email.