Phillip M. Bailey

Louisville Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin, D-2, is launching a radio show amid growing scandals over city spending in her office.

The embattled city lawmaker has faced mounting criticism for her actions, including hiring her felon grandson as her legislative aide at a $34,000 annual salary. Shanklin was also questioned about lobbying for a jobs program for ex-convicts that served no former inmates but that she and family members participated in.

Earlier this week, it was reported that $3,000 in taxpayer money has gone to her relatives through funding of a neighborhood association in checks that she personally signed since 2005.

Now Shanklin is teaming up with gospel station WLOU 1350 AM to create "Speakerphone," a weekly radio broadcast that will debut this Saturday at Noon.

Democratic Caucus spokesman Tony Hyatt says Shanklin wants to discuss issues affecting teenagers and young adults in her district, and won’t address those controversies on her show.

"Speakerphone is primarily for young people to talk about what’s on their mind. I don’t see it as being an opportunity for the councilwoman to speak on any particular thing she’s being involved with over the last couple of weeks," he says.

The Supreme Court strengthened its Citizens United case Monday when it struck down a 100-year-old Montana ban on corporate spending in state and local elections.

In a summary reversal that had no oral arguments, justices ruled 5-to-4 against the state along the same lines it did for the controversial 2010 decision that allows for unlimited spending by companies and unions in federal campaigns.

Locally, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., and Congressman John Yarmuth, D-Ky., have sat on opposite sides of this debate.

McConnell issued a statement praising the high court's ruling as a victory for the First Amendment and exaggerated claims of corporate control.

In another important victory for freedom of speech, the Supreme Court has reversed the Montana Supreme Court, upholding First Amendment free speech rights that were set out in Citizens United. As I pointed out in an amicus brief that I filed in the Montana case, a review of Federal Election Commission records of independent spending supporting the eight Republican presidential candidates earlier this year showed only minimal corporate involvement in the 2012 election cycle.

Joined by community leaders, lawmakers and local athletes, Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer announced the return of The Dirt Bowl basketball tournament to Shawnee Park this summer.

The competition has been a West End tradition for over four decades, but has been on hiatus due to a lack of funding and sponsorship. Organizers were able to briefly revive the Dirt Bowl in 2009 and city leaders have been working to resurrect the tournament permanently.

"It was a significant loss for Louisville and a specific loss for western Louisville," says Fischer said. "Generations of families came here to sit on bleachers, to share good times and to watch some serious hoops."

The Dirt Bowl was created by community activist Ben Watkins in 1969 as a way to bring basketball and family-style picnics together. Over the decades, the tournament has hosted local and national basketball stars such as Jim McDaniels, Dan Issel, Wes Unseld, Darryl Griffith and Derek Anderson.

Family members of Louisville Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin, D-2, have received over $3,000 in taxpayer money from a city grant that the lawmaker has personally signed checks for since 2005.

For the past seven years, the Petersburg/Newburg Improvement Association has received $150,000 in city funding, of which Shanklin and several relatives belong to.

From The Courier-Journal:

Among those who benefited were the mother of Shanklin’s grandson, who received $1,700; her son-in-law, $1,325; and Walker, who got $650 for repairing the floor in a small house the city donated to the neighborhood group.

Whether as a hot headed teenager or responsible fatherhood advocate, Louisville author Shawn Gardner has had to struggle against the odds.

Growing up in west Louisville without a father inspired Gardner to found 2NOT1, a non-profit group dedicated to reconnecting men with their families. But that's not how life began for Gardner, who developed a reputation as "Majestyk", a tough street kid who had several run-ins with police over the years.

In his autobiography 'Me v. Me: The Struggle Within', Garnder writes about the personal duel between making the right choices while facing peer pressure and violent challenges.

Louisville Metro Councilman Brent Ackerson, D-26, will return his two percent cost-of-living pay increase to the city’s general fund in upcoming fiscal year.

Each council member is paid approximately $42,500 annually and lawmakers are set to receive a raise of about $850 in the next budget. It's the first cost-of-living increase for non-union Metro employees in two years.

Ackerson says many city workers need a raise as the economy begins to steadily improve, but other costs are still going up.

"I don’t think that I as a council person in my situation need this raise. However, I recognize that our employees do need this raise," he says. "The reality is their two percent raise likely won’t even cover the increase in their health care costs. At the end of the day our city employees will likely take home less dollars to their family than they did last year even with this raise."

The Louisville Metro Council passed a city budget for the upcoming fiscal year Thursday, but not before a contentious debate about the Whiskey Row development.

Mayor Greg Fischer submitted a spending plan that included a $500,000 allocation for private developers—among them philanthropist Christy Brown, the widow of former chairman of the Brown-Forman Corp, Owsley Brown II—to restore the historic string of buildings along West Main Street.

The mayor had proposed using the money to create a revolving fund to help restore historic properties beginning with Whiskey Row, but a bipartisan group of council members argued Metro Government had already provided investors with a $1.5 million forgivable loan for the project.

The budget committee approved language in the ordinance on Wednesday that required developers to reimburse the city $1 million if the Whiskey Row buildings were later sold. But Fischer's office argued it was an unprecedented step by the council that could jeopardize the original agreement.

Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh, D-9, introduced an amendment to take that wording out of the final ordinance, but allow lawmakers to hold the money until Fischer renegotiates the deal.  She says lawmakers unfairly tied the mayor's hands to negotiate.

"I'm asking you to allow the mayor do his job and negotiate a deal, and when he brings it over if you don't like it then don't vote for it," she said. "Let's debate it at that time because we're not doing it tonight. This really isn't about debating the merits of rich folks spending money on preservation or not. If anything, this is a power and money grab by the Metro Council."

The campaign for Republican Senate Richard Mourdock accidently released the Indiana state treasurer's various reactions to the Supreme Court's possible rulings on President Obama's health care law.

The videos were briefly posted to YouTube before the Mourdock campaign yanked them, but not before media outlets were able to repost his different versions to the high court upholding or striking down the Affordable Care Act.

The paternal grandmother of Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes who appeared in TV ads during her granddaughter's successful campaign last year has died.

Thelma Lundergan McHugh died at her home in Jessamine County, surrounded by her children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and loved ones. She was 92.

"My grandmother instilled in me the confidence that I could accomplish anything I put my mind to and taught me by example the importance of being involved in my community," Grimes said in a news release.

Last fall, McHugh filmed a 30-second spot for Grimes during the 2011 general election along with the secretary of state's other maternal grandmother, Elsie Case. Political observers credited the commercial's creativity and positive pitch during an overall negative campaign season.

The Louisville Metro Council's Budget Committee passed a spending plan for the upcoming 2012-13 fiscal year by a unanimous vote.

Mayor Greg Fischer submitted his budget proposal to the council earlier this month, which had been criticized for its lack of funding to external agencies and hammered for cuts to indigent care at University Hospital.

Similar to last year, the council reallocated nearly $3 million in funds and added over $400,000 to non-profit groups for their programing.

City lawmakers were able to come up with those additional funds in part through an agreement with the Parking Authority of River City to make a payment of $300,000 in cash this year with additional payments of $150,000 over the next five fiscal years.

These additional funds were requested by council members who raised questions about a late transfer and payment for the two county parking garages that the city never received. 

The budget also includes money to focus on dealing with the problem of abandoned and vacant properties with close to $40,000 in funds being spent to mow grass at vacant lots throughout the city.