News

A group of southern Kentucky businessmen are pushing to remove the chairman of the state's largest rural electric cooperative and making allegations that he has acted improperly.

Somerset businessman John Tuttle is spearheading the drive to oust Rick Stephens of McCreary County as chairman of the South Kentucky Rural Electric Cooperative. Tuttle says that some people are accusing Stephens of illegal activity, but he believes Stephens has made decisions that "don't pass the smell test."

Louisville is getting a new professional indoor arena football team.

The Kentucky Xtreme will compete in the Continental Indoor Football League, which includes nine teams across the Midwest.

The Xtreme will play a ten game season in 2013, with five home games in Freedom Hall.

The team will be coached by Louisville native Roy McMillen, who played quarterback at Western Kentucky University. He was also an assistant coach for the Louisville Fire arena football team, which folded in 2008.

Jefferson County Public Schools is one of 893 districts that have announced an intent to apply for new federal “Race to the Top” funding.

Kentucky applied for the federal government's competitive Race to the Top grants before, and last year the commonwealth received around $17 million after losing the larger grant it applied for.

A Kentucky Republican lawmaker is attempting to end the pension program for legislators.

State Representative David Floyd says Kentucky’s part-time lawmakers shouldn't get pensions. But currently they do, and some lawmakers are able to fatten their pensions by taking higher-paying jobs elsewhere in government, then collecting a pension for the higher salary after they retire.

The Louisville Free Public Library will reopen its western branch this weekend following a $500,000 remodeling project.

The historic location was built in 1908 and was the first free public library in the nation to be fully staffed by African Americans. Included among the renovation projects is the creation of a new reading room for the African American archives, which the library houses.

The Sierra Club is planning a rally at noon today at the University of Kentucky to protest the ties between the school's athletic department and the coal industry.

UK and the coal industry have a fairly close relationship--the men's basketball dorm is called the Wildcat Coal Lodge, after coal industry contributions, and there have been prominent coal advertisements during some athletic events.

A proposed ban on putting yard waste in plastic bags has won the support of several Louisville residents. The ban was one common element in the 23 written and four spoken comments Louisville’s Waste Management Board received Tuesday evening.

The Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transportation (CART) has filed a new complaint against the Ohio River Bridges Project in federal court. 

"The $2.6 billion Ohio River Bridges Project will provide very little benefit, economic, social, environmental, or otherwise, to the vast majority of residents in the Louisville region and has significant negative economic, social  and environmental impacts on the community as a whole,  and particularly on people living in Louisville’s urban core and west end," says CART in a statement.

A home in Louisville’s Portland neighborhood has been chosen as the first for a restoration project aimed at preserving the city’s iconic shotgun houses.

Shotguns, characterized by a long, rectangular floor plan, are a common sight in Louisville’s older neighborhoods, but many have fallen into disrepair.

Preservation Louisville, Habitat for Humanity and New Directions Housing Corporation are teaming up for a restoration project called Save Our Shotguns.