Ken Ward Jr. is a reporter for The Charleston Gazette, West Virginia's largest newspaper. A native of Mineral County, West Virginia, Ward has received numerous awards for his coverage of mining, pulp mills, logging, and medical waste incinerators. He is a three-time winner of the Scripps Howard Foundation's Edward Jr. Meeman Award for Environmental Reporting and in 2000 received the prestigious Livingston Award for Young Journalists. Ward runs the Gazette's Coal Tattoo blog, which covers local and national debates over the coal industry.