Jefferson County Public Schools is offering families a chance to apply for their school choices online for the first time following the school showcases, which will be held at the end of this month for middle and high schools.

The move is one of several changes to the application process following the school board’s recent approval of the new student assignment plan.

Louisville Metro councilwoman Attica Woodson-Scott will hold her third neighborhood walk tonight to address the problem of violence in West Louisville.

A series of brazen shootings in the Parkland neighborhood earlier this year led Mayor Greg Fischer to create a 37-member Violence Prevention Task Force. Several subcommittees have completed their work and a final report could be sent to Fischer’s office this week.

Scott says her neighborhood walks improve communication between law enforcement and the community.

President Barack Obama and Republican challenger Mitt Romney are preparing for their first debate this week, and observers are eager to see if it will impact the race.

Both campaigns have been complimentary of each other and are trying to lower expectations before the televised debate in Denver, Colorado on Wednesday in order to gain an advantage going in. But experts agree that stakes are higher for Romney, who trails the president according to most polls in battleground states.

Tiffany Dillard-Knox is acting director of the University of Louisville debate team. She says people are excited to watch the first presidential debate, but that the forums are becoming more of a liability.

"I think the debates more likely can make you lose a candidacy more so than win one. You can say the wrong things. I don’t think people are really listening for the right things anymore. But I think people are taking into consideration when the candidates are saying the wrong things," she says.

A federal judge has ruled against environmental groups who wanted a mountain in West Virginia to be returned to the National Register of Historic Places.

The University of Louisville Wings Clinic is consolidating patient care to its downtown Louisville branch. 

Wings is a research and treatment facility for patients with HIV and AIDS, and used to offer patient care one day a week in Jeffersonville, Indiana. Now, University of Louisville spokeswoman Julie Heflin says it makes sense to merge the operations in downtown Louisville.

During a televised debate with Democratic opponent Elizabeth Warren, U.S. Sen. Scott Brown, R-Ma., voiced his displeasure with Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and said he's undecided on voting for him to lead the GOP caucus.

President Obama is leading in Massachusetts by at least 30 points, and Brown is stressing his role as a moderate Republican with a bipartisan record. Asked if he'd support McConnell next year, Brown said he was undecided and voiced disgust with Congress.

Watch (h/t LEO Weekly):

A judge is basically "postponing Pennsylvania's tough new voter identification requirement, ordering that it not be enforced in the presidential election," The Associated Press writes.

The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation announced the recipients of their 'Genius Grants' yesterday, and one of them is a scientist dedicated to studying the dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico. Nancy Rabalais is a marine ecologist and the executive director of the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium.

Big money is being spent this week by the political parties and outside groups in the Indiana Senate contest between Democrat Joe Donnelly and Republican Richard Mourdock.

The Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee has reportedly bought another $439,000 in advertisements for this week and the National Republican Senatorial Committee is following suit. 

For the past week, the conservative super PAC American Crossroads bas been running a nearly $1 million ad buy against Donnelly for his votes in support of President Obama's agenda. But a gang of liberal organizations led by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Majority PAC, announced Tuesday that they are launching a $1 million campaign against Mourdock this week to highlight his opposition to the auto bailout.

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