News

Several residents near the Cane Run Power Station are angry after Louisville Gas & Electric employees walked onto their property without permission to collect dust samples off their homes.

A recent controversy over a Missouri Senate candidate’s comments on rape has not diminished U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell’s outlook for November.

McConnell is hoping to become majority leader next year. Depending on who wins the presidency, he needs either three of four GOP Senate victories this fall to do so. He recently asked Republican Congressman Todd Akin to drop out of his race to give Republicans a better chance in Missouri, but Akin declined.

An updated federal report shows that more than one-third of Indiana is still in at least extreme drought even though recent rainfall has improved conditions for much of the state.

The new U.S. Drought Monitor report released today says about 11 percent of Indiana is in the worst category with exceptional drought. That designation covers much of the state's southwestern corner from around Terre Haute to north of Evansville.

A federal judge has ruled that the Tennessee Valley Authority is responsible for a massive coal ash spill near Knoxville in 2008.

The Kentucky State Fair grand champion country ham fetched $300,000 at a charity auction today.

Since 1964, the top ham has been auctioned at the close of the Kentucky Farm Bureau country ham breakfast.

This year’s top bidder was Louisville optometrist Dr. Mark Lynn.

"Louisville has been very, very good to us, we’ve been very lucky in life. We feel very fortunate. I’ve got four great kids, seven great-grandkids and a wonderful wife and it’s time to give back," Lynn said.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer’s review of Neighborhood Development Fund grants is complete and seven organizations have been called out for not being able to document how they spent taxpayer dollars. 

Fischer made a point to review nearly 200 local organizations last year after it was determined the city was not keeping track of how they were spending the NDF grants. Those organizations stand to loose any future grants including any written into the 2012 fiscal year budget.

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer has unveiled his office's long-planned data tracking system, LouieStat.

LouieStat is meant to be the source for significant data on Metro Government. It's supposed to track everything from pothole locations to release rates at Metro Animal Services to overtime hours of public employees.

Governor Steve Beshear says he will appoint a new chief of staff soon, despite still being saddened by the sudden loss of his former chief of staff, Mike Haydon.

Haydon died suddenly of a heart attack earlier this month. Haydon worked in government for more than three decades, and had been Beshear's chief of staff since 2010.

Beshear called Haydon his “right arm,” but says the position needs to be filled.

Louisville's string of forecasted bad air days continues tomorrow with another Air Quality Alert--for the third consecutive day this week.

Elevated levels of ozone were also predicted yesterday (even though there was no actual ozone exceedence) and there's an Air Quality Alert in effect today. Tomorrow, the Air Quality Index is forecast to be 101, which is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

Agriculture Commissioner James Comer says he is restarting the long-dormant Kentucky Industrial Hemp Commission.

The General Assembly created the commission ten years ago to look into hemp's potential in the commonwealth, but it has never met. This morning, Comer announced that he is reforming the commission and, per state law, he will be the chairman.