Devin Katayama

University of Louisville officials have announced it will extend its "Upward Bound" college prep program to three more Jefferson County public high schools.

U of L will receive two federal grants totaling $3.3 million to serve some 160 high school students over the next five years.

Over the last decade, U of L president James Ramsey says nearly 85 percent of students participating in the Upward Bound program have graduated college.

An engineering committee will review the proposal from a Chicago-based contractor group Monday that was conditionally chosen for Kentucky’s portion of the Ohio River Bridges Project.

Walsh Construction is composed of four independent contractor companies. Its bid this month was the least expensive of three proposals to design and build a new I-65 bridge and rework Spaghetti Junction at $971 million.

Louisville’s 55,000 Degrees initiative will release its second annual progress report Tuesday, and officials say there has been a slight decline in overall education attainment.

The education initiative chaired by Mayor Greg Fischer was created to increase the number of degrees earned by Louisville residents and to promote a college-going culture.

Executive Director Mary Gwen Wheeler says there is some progress in the latest report but not at the rate necessary to reach the group’s 55,000 degree goal by the year 2020.

Louisville’s independent business community is hoping for a year of positive returns as they compete with price-wary shoppers and a market that’s been moving online.

This year, members of the Louisville Independent Business Association--or LIBA--participated in a survey by the group Civic Economics, which has produced small business surveys for other cities.

The survey showed just over half the money spent at independent businesses stayed in the community, which was contrasted with 13 percent of dollars spent at well-known chain stores.

The Louisville Water Company has approved an operating budget for next year which includes an average monthly customer bill increase of 77 cents.

Although the amount of water used in Louisville has decreased, spokeswoman Kelley Dearing Smith says the rate increase is necessary.

“We still have to raise the rates in a very small manner to make sure we still maintain that high quality that customers expect," she says.

Kentucky’s 17-member Child Fatality and Near Fatality Review Panel will meet next week to begin work and a starting point could be the 55 death or near death cases recorded this past fiscal year.

The independent panel was created to provide oversight to the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and to make recommendations for how the cabinet can improve. This follows long-term criticism in the way the CHFS handles its child abuse cases.

The Clarksville Town Council unanimously approved the investment of $10,000 to challenge tolls on the new I-65 bridge that’s part of the Ohio River Bridges Project and others may join the cause soon.

Bi-state officials say tolls are a necessary part of the bridges project, but they’ve been long contested as being cumbersome on regional commuters and businesses.

Mayor Greg Fischer has announced the recipient of Louisville’s 2012 Healthy Hometown grants. 

The grant program has been around for eight years. This year 13 organizations will receive a total of $35,000, which is a slight drop from the year before.

The grants are between $1,000 to $3,000 and will be used for a range of programs and services that all promote healthy lifestyles.

Here are the winners:

Gov. Steve Beshear announced Monday he’ll make a concerted effort to support the Commonwealth Institute for Parent Leadership offered by the Prichard Committee for Academic Excellence.

Prichard has hosted the program for several years, educating and mentoring hundreds of parents to become involved in their child’s education.

At its inception on the late 1990s the organization offered up to six institutes, but it was being supported by national foundations, said Prichard Committee’s Bev Raimondo who helped create the parent institutes.