News

The Louisville Metro Council is discussing Mayor Greg Fischer's budget proposal, WHAS-11's parent company is bought by The Courier-Journal's and a preview of a new WFPL show. Those topics and more will be discussed todayo n Byline.

ELIZABETHTOWN — Mayor Tim Walker has died at Hardin Memorial Hospital. He was 54.

Walker was in his first term as mayor of the central Kentucky city, having been elected in 2010. He served as a city councilman for more than a decade before his election as mayor.

The hospital say the mayor died at 5:33 a.m. Friday. The cause of death is pending. The hospital says Walker's body was being transferred to the state medical examiner's office for an autopsy.

Funeral arrangements will be handled by Brown Funeral Home.

The University of Louisville and Indiana University baseball teams open play against each other in the College World Series tomorrow in Omaha, Nebraska.

It’s the first-ever trip to the eight-team championship for the Hoosiers.     

First baseman Sam Travis helped them get there with a home run in last weekend’s victory over Florida State.

Officials say the crews responding to Sunday's chemical spill at the DuPont Louisville plant have ended their work, but clean up and an investigation is ongoing.

The spill leaked 400,000 gallons of hydrochloric acid that forced a "Shelter-in-Place" warning to those living within a one-mile radius of the plant. Officials say the leak was due to an equipment malfunction.

According to a release sent out by the city:

Sometimes national news stories are so important that local news organizations devote resources to covering them. We’ve seen this to be true with incidents of extreme violence —9/11, Sandy Hook, Chris Dorner, the DC snipers, Benghazi—but when the topics are a little more sophisticated (and seemingly blessed by bipartisan Beltway consensus) they tend to drop off the local news radar.

The Louisville Metro Council heard from over three-dozen organizations that were cut in Mayor Greg Fischer’s proposed budget.

Speakers representing ministerial foundations, arts groups and other non-profit agencies implored city lawmakers to add needed funding for their programs, which provide various charitable services.

Among those who presented their case before the council was Charles King, who is president and CEO of Project One President, which a summer jobs program for Louisville youth.

Joined by dozens of teenage participants, King says despite passing accredited reviews and receiving $80,000 from the city last year, Fischer’s proposal allocated nothing for the group in his new spending plan.

"The zero funding could not come at a worse time," he says. "Violence is rampant in our communities, and summer jobs represent violence reduction and public safety. Teen unemployment is at 24 percent and in impoverished communities it’s nearing 50 percent."

The University of Louisville Board of Trustees has approved the school’s budget for next year that includes pay raises, tuition increases and no statewide funding cuts.

“The good news is we’re not being cut next year. The bad news is we’re not getting any new money,” says U of L president James Ramsey, adding the school has faced 13 separate budget cuts over a 12 year period.

Kentucky did fund increases in 2005 and 2006, but following the recession the state cut higher education which meant $9 million the current fiscal year.

The Environmental Protection Agency and the Kentucky Department for Environmental Protection plan to remediate all 69 of the contaminated residential sites near the former Black Leaf Chemical Plant.

The University of Kentucky has reached an agreement with GE Appliances to collaborate on research aimed at producing innovations in the appliances business.

UK President Eli Capilouto  joined GE Appliances executives to announce the collaboration today  at the company’s Appliance Park in Louisville.

The agreement also sets terms for the licensing and sharing of jointly developed innovations.

GE Appliances Vice President Kevin Nolan says the partnership will allow the company to tap into the technical expertise of UK scientists and engineers.

Last week, I wrote about emerald ash borers in Louisville, and the toll the pest could take on the city’s tree canopy. So, if you have an ash tree in your yard, what can you do?