11/16/05

Jeffrey McMurray named AP Lexington correspondent

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Jeffrey McMurray, a regional reporter for The Associated Press in Washington, D.C., has been named AP correspondent in Lexington.

The announcement was made Nov. 16 by AP Louisville Chief of Bureau Hank Ackerman.

McMurray, a native of Independence, Mo., will succeed Murray Evans as Lexington correspondent covering general news and sports in central Kentucky. Evans, AP Lexington correspondent since 2003, has taken a new assignment covering general news and sports for the AP in Oklahoma.

Since 2000, McMurray has covered issues in Washington related to Alabama and Georgia for AP's national and regional news reports. He developed a national beat on civil rights including primary coverage of the reauthorization of the Voting Rights Act.

A graduate of the University of Missouri's journalism and political science programs in 1997, McMurray started his career as a sports correspondent for the Kansas City Star. He joined the AP in Louisville and worked in AP bureaus in Tallahassee, Fla., and St. Louis, Mo., before his Washington assignment. He also spent a college semester in Washington reporting for the Topeka Capital-Journal.

In Kentucky, McMurray covered the celebration following the University of Kentucky's 1998 basketball championship among other stories. In Florida, he covered the early days of Gov. Jeb Bush's administration. He returned later to assist with coverage of the presidential recount. In St. Louis, he wrote primarily about business, covering such companies as Anheuser-Busch, Trans World Airlines and Rawlings Sporting Goods.

Contact: Jack Stokes, AP Corporate Communications, 212.621.1720