James Mayse
James Mayse examines how laws, public safety systems, and local government decisions affect people’s daily movements, with a particular emphasis on traffic, roads, and automobiles. He reports for the Messenger-Inquirer on the intersection of transportation, public safety, and city governance, focusing on the practical consequences of policy and infrastructure changes. His coverage blends detailed reporting on specific incidents and systems with clear explanations of how they shape everyday life for drivers and residents.
Traffic and road safety
Automobiles and the roads they use are central to Mayse’s work, but always in the context of safety, regulation, and local decision-making rather than consumer news. In coverage of the speed limit reduction on a former U.S. 60 bypass, he tracks the change from 65 to 55 miles per hour, explaining where the new limit applies and why officials are making the adjustment. He pays attention to the physical details of the roadway, the history of the bypass as a former U.S. route, and the policy rationale behind altering how fast drivers can legally travel there.
His traffic pieces treat speed limits, signage, enforcement, and crash histories as connected elements, giving readers a clear picture of how a specific stretch of road is managed and why changes matter to motorists.
Courts, crime and serious crashes
Mayse’s automobile coverage often runs straight into criminal and civil consequences, and he follows those threads into the courts.
In reporting on a man indicted for murder in connection with a fatal accident, he lays out the charges, the timing of the crash, and the legal theory behind bringing a homicide count in a traffic case. His stories in this area connect the mechanics of a collision - speed, impairment, road conditions - with the resulting law enforcement investigation and prosecutorial decisions.
He treats fatal crashes as both public safety events and legal cases, tracing how a moment on the road turns into a file on a court docket, and what that means for accountability and community concern. Law and security coverage sits alongside his traffic work, giving his automobile beat a strong courts-and-public-safety dimension.
Emergency communications and public preparedness
Beyond individual crashes and traffic changes, Mayse reports on the systems that support emergency response on the roads and in the wider community.
In a piece on Daviess County’s emergency communication system being deemed obsolete, he describes how current radio and dispatch equipment struggles to meet the needs of first responders. He explains the findings of the study, the specific problems responders face in the field, and the implications for coordinated action during accidents, fires, and other emergencies.
His work in this area focuses on infrastructure, technology, and funding choices, showing how behind-the-scenes systems either enable or hinder quick, effective responses when something goes wrong on the road. This systems-level reporting complements his incident coverage and reinforces a consistent interest in practical public safety.
Community events and local institutions
Mayse also covers community life and local institutions when they intersect with public safety and civic infrastructure.
In a feature on fans flocking to the Friday After 5 concert series, he reports on turnout, the setting at a major local venue, and the logistical considerations of managing large crowds. His coverage of addiction treatment access, including the challenges residents face in finding appropriate care, connects health services and policy decisions to the lived experiences of people seeking help. These stories sit alongside his traffic and courts reporting, rounding out a picture of a reporter who treats roads, festivals, treatment centers, and government offices as parts of the same civic fabric.
Even when the subject is entertainment or health care, he keeps an eye on how systems, rules, and resources shape outcomes for the public.
Across these areas, Mayse’s work is distinguished by the way it ties automobiles and road use to broader questions of safety, law, and governance. He does not approach the automobile beat as a consumer or enthusiast topic; instead, he treats vehicles as the setting for policy decisions, criminal cases, and emergency responses.
His stories combine concrete detail - named roads, specific systems, individual cases - with an emphasis on how local structures function or fail, making him a consistent source on traffic-related public safety and the city and county decisions that surround it.
4 more automobile journalists.
Aarian Marshall
Aarian Marshall is a staff writer at WIRED who stands out for covering how cars, software, and policy collide. She writes on transportation systems and cities, from the auto industry to broader mobility systems. Before WIRED, she reported on cities and urban policy for The Atlantic’s CityLab. Her beat runs from electric vehicles, fuel prices, tariffs, and car-buying decisions to autonomous vehicles, robotaxis, and software-defined cars. She reports with a systems view, linking policy shifts, technical failures, and urban life to what happens on streets, in repair shops, and at the pump.
Abby Smith
Abby Smith’s most distinctive work combines motorsports coverage with live digital and radio reporting. She is Digital Director at KRDO13 and covers the Pikes Peak International Hill Climb, including race updates, weather shifts, breaking developments and ways to follow the action. Her beat also includes automotive news, crime, public safety, politics, city government and community life. Notable work includes coverage of homicide arrests, a major drug bust, a presidential address about the war with Iran, a family’s effort to bring Stephen Hubbard home, a state governor candidate and a city security ordinance. She also reports on fitness, school spirit and station staff. Smith writes in a concise, factual style shaped by investigative documentary experience. She turns live events, official announcements and daily developments into clear coverage across digital and radio platforms.
Adele Peters
Adele Peters covers climate solutions and other structural problems as design and policy questions, focusing on what can work in practice. She is a senior writer at Fast Company, where she reports on energy, transportation, housing, materials, agriculture, corporate sustainability, and social impact. Her stories examine climate technologies, grid resilience, electric vehicles, renewable energy, modular construction, homelessness, affordable housing, compostable materials, regenerative agriculture, and ecosystem restoration. She looks at whether projects can scale, their real-world constraints, and their measurable effects. She interviews political and philanthropic leaders, startup founders, and climate tech entrepreneurs, anchoring stories in what is being built and tested. She has written more than 3,000 stories and contributed to Worldchanging: A User’s Guide for the 21st Century and State of Housing Design 2023.
Adrian Leung
Adrian Leung writes engineering-led coverage of Chinese electric vehicles and performance cars for CarNewsChina. He focuses on new energy vehicles, battery systems, powertrains, electric platforms, high-end domestic brands, and track-ready models, and he explains technical details in plain language for non-specialist readers. His reporting treats new models as hardware and systems stories, with precise figures on range, battery capacity, chassis layout, motor outputs, weight, and acceleration. He also covers the Chinese auto industry’s finances and technology roadmap, including sector profits, vehicle volumes, and solid-state battery timelines. His background in Electrical and Computer Engineering shows in the way he writes about vehicle electronics and battery management.