Actors Theatre of Louisville will open the doors to its costume shop Saturday for a cocktail party hosted by the GO Board, a group of young professionals who raise money and awareness on behalf of the theater. Costumes and Cocktails is the GO Board’s main recruitment event for the year. The GO Board offers networking and exclusive inside-the-production events for the under-45 theatergoing crowd.

"We all kind of have a joint love for the theater and appreciate supporting the theater," says board co-president Emily Lamb.

The Kentucky Arts Council has announced the recipients of this year’s Governor’s Awards in the Arts. Long-time Courier-Journal music writer Jeffrey Lee Puckett is among the honorees.

The Governor’s Awards are the commonwealth’s highest honor in the arts. The annual awards recognize individuals and businesses who have made a significant impact on the Kentucky arts landscape. They’re awarded in nine categories, including media. 

Kentucky's justice cabinet secretary says a 2011 law intended to reduce prison costs in Kentucky is seeing mixed, but encouraging results.

Secretary J. Michael Brown says House Bill 463 helped prompt an immediate reduction of yearly prisoners in Kentucky by 1,000 its first year in action. But the law didn’'t contribute the same reduction in fiscal year 2012.

Brown says there are many reasons for those mixed results, including parole backlogs keeping inmates in prison instead of alternative places.

Indiana House Democrats have voted to replace Rep. Patrick Bauer as their leader amid criticism over how he's handled campaign fundraising and spending heading into the November elections.

Members of the Democratic caucus made the move today during a meeting in Lafayette. Twenty-three members of the 40-member caucus attended the meeting.

Rep. Linda Lawson of Hammond has been chosen to be the new leader.

The Kennedy Memorial Bridge deck replacement project is nearly complete. 

The $18 million repair job began June 21, forcing the closure of two or more lanes of traffic in each direction, shutting down several ramps and causing daily traffic delays.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Andrea Clifford says all lanes and ramps at the bridge are scheduled to be open by next Wednesday, August 1.

Despite accounting mistakes and unforeseen disaster relief expenses, state government is closing the 2012 budget with another surplus.

Originally, the budgetary surplus was 83 million dollars, now it's almost halved to 45 million dollars.

State Budget Director Mary Lassiter informed lawmakers of the surplus at an interim committee meeting today. And she says the remaining surplus will be put into the legislature’s savings account.

Former Democratic Governor  John Y. Brown Jr., is disappointed with President Barack Obama's job performance and is criticizing the national party for "acting like socialists" over free enterprise.

Brown served as Kentucky's governor from 1979 to 1983, and is successful businessman and a revered patriarch among state Democrats past and present.

In an interview with Pure Politics, Brown said Mr. Obama doesn't understand the economy and is more interested in "taking care of people instead of taking care of our Constitution" and getting people back to work.

The unemployment rate in the Louisville metro area increased to 8.3 percent in the month of June, which is a slight uptick, according to the Kentucky Office Of Employment & Training.

The numbers released Thursday show the jobless rate was 8.1 percent in May, but that unemployment is down significantly when compared to the 9.9 percent rate last year. Statistics in the report cover the 13-county metropolitan statistical area that includes surrounding Kentucky counties and Southern Indiana. It shows approximately 53,700 people are unemployed. 

A fourth candidate has filed to run for the Jefferson County school board’s district 7 seat, which includes eastern parts of the county.

Marty Bell recently resigned from his position as chief academic officer with Indiana's Greater Clark County Schools and he spent years in JCPS serving as a deputy superintendent.

Many of Kentucky’s most prominent elected officials are opting to skip this year’s Fancy Farm political picnic.

Governor Steve Beshear and Lt. Gov. Jerry Abramson announced yesterday, that they would skip the picnic. House Speaker Greg Stumbo will speak in Beshear’s place. 

Now, Fancy Farm organizers say U.S. Senator Rand Paul will skip the picnic as well. Kentucky’s other U.S. Senator, Mitch McConnell, has not yet confirmed to speak.