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.
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.
Al Pefley
Al Pefley is a television news reporter for CBS12 News whose work centers on how laws, law enforcement and local decisions shape everyday life for drivers and other residents. He reports in a general assignment role but returns often to transportation, public safety and pocketbook issues, treating driving as a point where policy, disability and policing intersect. His coverage includes driver-focused laws, fuel and tax policy, crime, policing and internal affairs findings, with a consistent focus on accountability and concrete consequences for people’s wallets, safety and trust in institutions. He explains county gas tax debates, campaign positions on teacher pay, property crime and retail theft in short, clear segments. Pefley works primarily on the scene, using live or recorded field reporting and interview-driven pieces to show what happened, why it matters and what comes next.
Aliza Savira
Aliza Savira focuses on the hidden financial costs of owning modern cars, especially how insurance can undermine expected savings. She writes about automobiles for MSN, looking at new technology and electric vehicles through everyday ownership rather than showroom appeal. Her work highlights the gap between promises of cheaper running costs and the full financial picture of owning a vehicle. In electric vehicle coverage, she treats insurance premiums as a key ownership problem that can erode long-term value. She stays close to practical questions drivers face, such as which recurring costs matter most after purchase. She reports on how insurance structures and premium levels interact with new automotive technology. Her beat is consumer-focused automobile reporting, with a clear, utilitarian lens on ownership experience, recurring expenses, and risk, rather than lifestyle or performance.