Louisville Gas and Electric’s plan to put a cap made of coal ash on top of a coal ash pond at the Cane Run Power Plant in southwest Louisville has neighborhood residents concerned. But the head of the state’s solid waste branch says the plan is innovative, and he thinks it can be replicated at other power plants.

A new Courier-Journal Bluegrass Poll shows an overwhelming number of Kentuckians favor a constitutional amendment that would allow city residents to vote on whether to raise the state sales tax.

The survey found 72 percent of voters support the proposal, while 19 percent are opposed and another 9 percent are not sure. But legislative leaders from both parties in Frankfort have spoken out against the measure, preferring tax reform or raising other fees for special projects.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer told WFPL the poll shows residents are behind the idea and he will continue to lobby state lawmakers.

"I’ve been talking to legislators in Frankfort along with other mayors and county judges from around the state to show them that there is in fact strong support at the grassroots level and we hope Frankfort will be listening to the people," he says.

In the Victorian era, genteel young ladies were expected to be proficient in those arts considered appropriately feminine , like sketching, singing and dancing. But photography, with its bulky, messy equipment, wasn't thought a suitable hobby for a young lady. Alice Austen (1866-1952) was a bit of a rebel, though. The daughter of a well-t0-do Staten Island family, Austen discovered photography at age 10 and grew up to be one of the groundbreaking American female photographers of the  19th and early 20th century.

Jennifer Lawrence won the Academy Award for Best Actress on Sunday night for her role in Silver Linings Playbook, making her the second-youngest winner in the category and the first Kentucky native to win an acting Oscar since George Clooney in 2006.

With less than a week before the across-the-board-spending cuts go into effect, Republicans and Democrats are sounding off about the sequestration.

"There's easy ways [sic] to cut this money that the American people will never feel," Rep. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., said on Fox News Sunday. "What you hear is an outrage because nobody wants to cut spending ... and it will be somewhat painful, but not cutting spending is going to be disastrous for our country."

Kentucky Auditor Adam Edelen found a dozen issues with the state's cyber security efforts in the 2011-12 fiscal year—and he's vowing to closely monitor the state's measures in that area in the coming months.

The findings were reported in Edelen's statewide audit, in which he gave the state an "unqualified or clean" opinion of the state's finances.

Pope Benedict XVI has given his final blessing before he steps down from the papacy on Thursday.

Here's more from The Associated Press:

"Benedict told the crowd that God is calling him to dedicate himself 'even more to prayer and meditation,' which he will do in a secluded monastery being renovated for him on the grounds behind Vatican City's ancient walls.