Kate Grumke
Senior Environmental Reporter, STLPRI report on agriculture and rural issues for Harvest Public Media and am the Senior Environmental Reporter at St. Louis Public Radio, my hometown NPR station.
I started at STLPR as an education reporter, covering late night school board meetings and tagging along on field trips. Before moving back to Missouri, I spent more than five years producing award-winning television in Washington, D.C., most recently at the PBS NewsHour. In that work I climbed to the top of a wind turbine in Iowa, helped plan the environmental section of a presidential debate and produced multiple news-documentaries on energy and the environment.
I graduated from the University of Missouri School of Journalism and hold a certificate in data journalism from Columbia University’s Lede Program.
You can reach me at kgrumke@stlpr.org or follow me on social media @kgrumke.
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Destructive tornadoes have hit states such as Missouri, Illinois, Kentucky and Indiana this season as activity shifts east. Meanwhile, scientists say dry and hot weather in the Great Plains brought on by climate change could be slowing the number of tornadoes there. -
Ameren Missouri has disconnected more than 100,000 households that were behind on their bills in the past year. Advocates say Missouri laws need to change to better protect people in extreme heat. -
Each spring, Midwesterners head to the woods to find morel mushrooms. But some in the region are developing methods to reliably farm the delicacy. -
Missouri lawmakers are making it more difficult to take water out of the state without a permit, after raising concerns about drought and water scarcity in the west. -
AmeriCorps members were working on environmental education and habitat restoration at parks and nature centers in rural areas across the country. Now federal cuts have eliminated many of those positions. -
The Missouri legislature approved a law that would ban the sale of multiple invasive plants, including burning bush and Callery pear. The species choke out native plants and cause issues for ecosystems and landowners. -
The Labadie Energy Center and the Sioux Energy Center in Missouri will have two extra years to limit emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants. -
The new Missouri law allows utilities to charge customers for power plants as they are being built, rather than after they are complete. Consumer and environmental groups say it will make utilities significantly more expensive and worsen climate change. -
The Trump administration wants to rewrite the definition for what counts as protected ‘waters of the United States.' The rule has caused frustration among farmers, but environmental attorneys worry a change could lead to more pollution. -
The demonstration celebrated Trans Day of Visibility, but many people were also there to send a message to lawmakers. President Trump has signed multiple executive orders restricting the rights of transgender people to get health care, passports and participate in school sports.
