Thirty-year-old Alisha Mustafa spent years working at low-paying restaurant jobs. The unemployment rate hovers around 10 percent in her hometown of Bloomington, Ind.

"I've worked it all in this town," she says. "I've worked for so many restaurants, and last year was my year from hell in the industry."

So, she quit and started her own business. Now, she spends most days baking treats like gluten-free strawberry mango pie for her business, Mustafa Pie Co.

The Louisville Free Public Library has a new online resource for students working on term papers, history buffs and people suffering from debilitating holiday vacation boredom.

Archives from local, regional and national newspapers -- reaching as far back as the early 1800s -- are now available on the library's website.

Addressing the Louisville Metro Council, Mayor Greg Fischer said the city needs additional revenue if it wants to remain competitive and that a local sales tax option would give the city more independence from state government.

The mayor has been pushing lawmakers in Frankfort to allow the city to put temporary sales tax increases up for a public vote. He outlined his plan—dubbed Local Investments For Transformation, or LIFT — for council members Thursday.

Moving to withdraw her name from among those being considered to be the next secretary of state, embattled U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice has told President Obama she does not want to be nominated.

The White House just released a statement from the president that says, in part:

The Kentucky Supreme Court is weighing whether actions by an award-winning educator who disciplined an elementary school student constitute “conduct unbecoming a teacher.”

The case stems from a 2009 incident at Cardinal Valley Elementary School in Lexington.

Here's an experiment you can try. But please be the scientist and not the test subject.

Watch people cross the street and note whether they're yakking on the phone, texting or bopping to tunes while they do it. If you're really ambitious, time how long it takes them to cross.

This past summer researchers from the University of Washington did it. They watched more than 1,100 pedestrians at the 20 intersections in Seattle that racked up the most pedestrian injuries over the last three years.

Parts of every city are smelly, occasionally. And in Louisville, several neighborhoods in particular have routinely complained about odors...like some areas of Butchertown near the JBS Swift slaughterhouse, and neighborhoods bordering chemical plants and factories in Rubbertown.

No facilities are expected to close now that Kentucky youth services agencies Bellewood and Brooklawn have merged, but some staff members may lose jobs.

The new entity, called Uspiritus, will provide  foster care, counseling and psychiatric treatment. The agencies are also partnered with Jefferson County Public Schools and offer alternative education programs.