Reasons you should subscribe to the Courier Journal

Local journalism matters, and it matters to Louisville.

This is our home, and each day, we try to make a difference. We celebrate the best of Louisville. We hold those in power accountable, and we shine a light on the problems in our community while helping find solutions.

This year is almost half over and we have experienced - with you - events that will shape Louisville for years: The first new mayor in more than a decade; the long-awaited Department of Justice report on the Louisville Metro Police Department; a mass shooting at Old National Bank that left five dead and eight injured.

We also celebrated with you as Mage won Kentucky Derby 149 giving jockey Javier Castellano his first win in 16 attempts in the Run for the Roses.

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With Safer Sidelines, we shined a light on high school athletes dying because of the lack of proper medical equipment, training and protocols. As part of this project, we compiled the first-of-its-kind public database of athlete deaths dating back more than 100 years. We also held a community forum to discuss our findings and share advice from experts about how these tragic deaths can be prevented.

And when 12 horses died in the leadup to and weeks following the Kentucky Derby, we talked with trainers, owners and officials to learn about how and why they happened and how the famed track moves forward.

Local journalism makes a difference. Local journalism has impact.

Our ability to continue creating journalism that creates change and impacts the community only happens with the support of our readers. If you are a subscriber, thank you. If you do not subscribe, we ask that you consider subscribing today to ensure local Louisville journalism continues.

Here's a closer look at some of the stories produced recently by the Courier Journal team:

Safer Sidelines: An in-depth look at sudden death in youth sports and the struggle to assure every athlete has a fighting chance when the worst happens

Sudden death in high school sports is not a rare occurrence.

It happens multiple times across the nation every year. And sudden cardiac arrest, the leading cause of death in high school athletes, happens once every three days during the school year. This isn’t just a Kentucky problem or a Midwest problem. It’s not only a big-city problem or a small-town America problem. And it’s not just a football problem.

A Courier Journal investigation found:

• Most states and thousands of high schools don't have "gold standard" policies in place to protect young athletes;The cost of life-saving equipment, often used as a reason not to implement safeguards, is a tiny fraction of what schools spend on athletics;

• Legislation meant to fix the problem has been routinely defeated or watered down;

• Policies and laws that are in place have little enforcement and are often ignored.

Lawmakers cut ties with reading program after investigation into why Kentucky kids can't read

Our October five-part series “Between the Lines: Why Kentucky kids can’t read and who’s to blame” focused on the commonwealth’s dismal reading scores among school children and dug into the methods being used to teach reading.

Reporter Mandy McLaren spent months poring over state records, analyzing literacy data and interviewing more than 125 children, parents, educators, literacy experts, higher education faculty and government officials. She found that while other states are changing their reading instruction methods to a more phonics-centered approach, much of Kentucky is holding fast to a form of teaching that's being criticized across the nation as potentially harmful to kids' long-term reading abilities. The investigation also showed the Collaborative Center for Literacy Development, which has received at least $60 million in state funding since 2004, isn’t meeting its mandated requirements for supporting teachers, shirking entire portions of its statutory responsibilities.

Soon after the series debuted, lawmakers moved to cut ties with CCLD, headquartered at the University of Kentucky. The state Department of Education agreed with the decision. Also, Jefferson County Public Schools, the state’s largest district, is now reevaluating the way it teaches reading, and Superintendent Marty Pollio said he wants to see more phonics instruction in classrooms by the next school year.

Need more reasons to subscribe? Here are 5 more

1. Apps

The Courier Journal offers several apps that can be personalized to your liking.

• Courier Journal app: Download articles for offline reading, choose your own article display option, and set news alerts.

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2. News alerts for what matters to you

• Through the Courier Journal app, you can personalize notifications so you can know the news right when it happens. You can select alerts for breaking news, news, sports, entertainment, weather, traffic and business. Quiet times for your alerts can be set within the app.

3. Unlimited access

• Great stories don’t stop with great writing. With your subscription, you’ll have unlimited access to every story the Courier Journal writes. Our best journalism is always available to our subscribers as well as videos, photo galleries and interactive data visuals, including a trip through Louisville's secret tunnels.

4. Newsletters

• To keep subscribers informed, we offer a suite of newsletters to keep you up-to-date on the top news, sports, business and things to do stories each week. You can receive the top 5 articles to your inbox each day in the form of the Daily Briefing newsletter, complete with photos and article summaries.

5. E-Edition: A digital replica of the Courier Journal

• Access the print edition daily on your computer, mobile device or tablet by accessing the e-Edition, a digital replica of the print edition. The e-Edition can be accessed on our website or through the Courier Journal Print Edition app.

This article originally appeared on Louisville Courier Journal: Why you should subscribe to the Courier Journal