Rick Howlett

Broadcast Managing Editor

Rick has been a member of the WFPL News team since 2001 and has covered numerous beats and events over the years.   Most recently he’s been tracking the Indiana General Assembly and the region’s passion for sports, especially college basketball.

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Local News
12:36 pm
Mon August 6, 2012

Dickson Publicly Sworn In As Indiana Chief Justice

Photo courtesy of Indiana Supreme Court

Longtime Indiana Supreme Court Justice Brent Dickson has been formally sworn in as the state's first new chief justice since 1987.

The 71-year-old Dickson is the longest-serving current member of the five-member Supreme Court and became the acting chief justice when Randall Shepard retired in March. He was sworn as chief justice  by Gov. Mitch Daniels during a Statehouse ceremony today.

Dickson takes over a court in transition. After 10 years of no changes, the court has its third vacancy in the past two years.

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Local News
12:04 am
Mon July 30, 2012

Brownsboro Road Section To Be Closed For Ten Days

The summer road maintenance season continues with the closure of a short stretch of Brownsboro Road for ten days starting later this week.

The stretch will be shut down starting Friday evening to allow for interchange improvements.

"This section is commonly known by people in the area as Old Brownsboro Road, and it’s the section between U.S. 42 and Warrington Way," says Andrea Clifford with the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet

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Local News
10:00 pm
Fri July 27, 2012

Storms Rumble Through Metro Area

UPDATE:  Several hundred LG&E customers were still without service across the Louisville area as of midday today.   Duke Energy says several dozen southern Indiana residents were still without power. 

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Business
3:38 pm
Fri July 27, 2012

Delta Shutting Down Comair Operations

Image from comair.com

Delta Air Lines is sending termination notices to Comair employees, as Delta begins shutting down its shrunken, 35 year old regional carrier and switches to bigger jets.

Comair is down to 290 flights a day. More than 1,000 of the carrier's remaining 1,700 Comair employees are in the Cincinnati and northern Kentucky region, some 700 of those in Kentucky.

Comair has slashed its fleet, flights and workforce in the last seven years.  Delta said the smaller regional planes are expensive to fly because they are not as fuel-efficient and cost more to maintain as the fleet ages.

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Local News
4:00 pm
Thu July 26, 2012

Kennedy Bridge Repair Work Winding Down

The Kennedy Memorial Bridge deck replacement project is nearly complete. 

The $18 million repair job began June 21, forcing the closure of two or more lanes of traffic in each direction, shutting down several ramps and causing daily traffic delays.

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet’s Andrea Clifford says all lanes and ramps at the bridge are scheduled to be open by next Wednesday, August 1.

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Politics
5:36 pm
Wed July 25, 2012

Indiana's Bauer Faces Ouster As House Minority Leader

Photo from Indiana General Assembly

Information for this story also came from Brandon Smith, Indiana Public Broadcasting

Indiana House Minority Leader Patrick Bauer says he won't resign from his leadership post and believes his fellow Democrats will be making a mistake if they try to oust him before the November election.

Bauer held a Statehouse news conference Wednesday amid reports his caucus would meet Thursday in Lafayette to vote to remove him as its leader.

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Local News
3:50 pm
Wed July 25, 2012

More Indiana Counties Under Drought Disaster

Photo courtesy of USDA

The lingering drought has led the U.S. Department of Agriculture to declare a natural disaster in 14 more of Indiana's 92 counties.

The USDA added the north-central Indiana counties today.  Along with adjacent counties, they qualify for low-interest relief loans from the federal government.

Fifty counties earlier had been declared natural disaster areas.  

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Local News
4:57 pm
Tue July 24, 2012

Drought Reveals Remnants of Indiana Town Submerged in '67

Photo from WANE, Fort Wayne, Indiana

The extended drought has brought has given people in northeastern Indiana a glimpse of history. 

Receding waters in the Salamonie Reservoir have revealed the remains of Monument City.   It was one of several small towns bulldozed and submerged to make way for the Army Corps of Engineers flood control project. 

What was left of Monument City had been under water since 1967, but the reservoir is now 14 feet below its regular summer level, revealing stone foundations, roads and the remnants of trees.

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Education
3:14 pm
Tue July 24, 2012

Maker's Mark Helping Raise Funds For U of L Facility

Photo by Rick Howlett

The University of Louisville has begun raising funds for an $8 million academic center for student athletes.  The project is getting a boost from Maker's Mark. 

The bourbon maker is donating proceeds from a commemorative bottle featuring U of L football coach Charlie Strong.

More than 8,000 of the bottles went on sale at retail outlets last Friday and quickly sold out.

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Local News
3:42 pm
Mon July 23, 2012

Indiana Website Offers Immunization Tracking

Photo from Centers for Disease Control and Prevention

Information for this story also came from the Associated Press

The Indiana State Department of Heath has launched a new website aimed at making it easier for parents to keep track of their children’s vaccination records.

The site, paid for with federal stimulus dollars, is called MyVaxIndiana.

Parents can log into the site with a personal identification number provided by their doctor, health department or child’s school.

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