John Cheves

A federal judge on Wednesday gave Gov. Steve Beshear an indefinite delay in a court order requiring Kentucky to recognize same-sex marriages legally performed elsewhere.

Reporters John Cheves and Bill Estep tell his story in this multi-part narrative format because his journey is important in understanding the path Appalachia has traveled since its publication. Throughout the series, we'll invite you to discuss Harry Caudill's Night Comes to the Cumberlands: A Biography of a Depressed Area, the changes and progress that have been made over the last half century, and the many challenges that continue to confront Appalachia — and to share your views on potential solutions.

In 2012, having slashed $1.2 billion in state spending during his first term, Gov. Steve Beshear named two dozen people to a "blue-ribbon commission" to study Kentucky's tax code and suggest reforms to help the state budget keep pace with demand for services.

An Eastern Kentucky lawyer has earned $22.7 million in attorney's fees from the Social Security Administration since 2001, in part through a lucrative "scheme" to defraud the agency's disability benefits programs, a U.S. Senate committee said in a report released Monday.

With young children to feed and bills to pay, Ron Conley went to work on Dec. 7, 1981 — the day a small underground coal mine in Knott County, Kentucky blew up, killing eight men less than an hour into their shift. It was the worst mine disaster in the county's history.