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.
Information for this story also came from the Associated Press
Jockey John Velazquez says he continues to heal from an injury suffered in a spill last month at Churchill Downs and hopes to be racing again later this month.
Velazquez says doctors have cleared him to begin exercising horses next week. He suffered a broken collarbone June 16 when the horse he was riding in the ninth race at Churchill broke down.
Velazquez won the Belmont Stakes aboard Union Rags June 9 and is hoping to ride the colt in the Haskell Invitational on July 29.
The newly-established Kentucky High School Basketball Hall of Fame will induct its first class Saturday.
The inaugural class has 16 members---players and coaches from the 1940s through the 1990s.
The class includes Louisville Male High School’s Darrell Griffith and Seneca’s Wes Unseld, both of whom would go on to play for the University of Louisville and in the NBA.
Rex Chapman of Owensboro Apollo and Richie Farmer of Clay County will be inducted. They both went on to star at the University of Kentucky. Chapman also played in the NBA.
U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky repeated his call today for the repeal of President Obama’s federal health care overhaul upheld last month by the Supreme Court.
In a speech to the Louisville Rotary Club, the Senate Republican Leader called the Affordable Health Care Act “too arrogant and too overreaching.”
A federal appeals court has upheld the conviction of a the woman who tried to extort millions in cash, cars and a house from University of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino.
The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals today found that attorneys for 52-year-old Karen Sypher ``advanced no arguments of merit on appeal.''
In 2010, a jury convicted Sypher of extortion, lying to the FBI and retaliation against a witness. Prosecutors said she sought the money from Pitino to stay quiet about a tryst in a Louisville restaurant.
People of all ages are invited to take part in the annual butterfly count Saturday in Oldham County.
Results will submitted to the North American Butterfly Association for its national census.
The local count has been conducted at University of Louisville’s Horner Wildlife Sanctuary since 1976, led by biology professor emeritus Charles Covell.
Information for this story also came from the Associated Press
Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels is touting state cash reserves he says will send more than $100 to each Indiana taxpayer through automatic tax credits next year.
Daniels said today he expects the state to close its books for the fiscal year with $2 billion in cash reserves.
Roughly $300 million will go to 2013's tax credits and another $300 million will go toward the state's unfunded teacher pension liability.
The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet says a wiring problem caused the navigation lights on the newly rebuilt Eggners Ferry Bridge in western Kentucky to malfunction Sunday night.
Spokesman Keith Todd says the outage was reported by a boater and confirmed by state police.
An electrical crew tracked down the problem this morning.
Motorists who use the Kennedy Memorial Bridge can expect more traffic delays this week as workers continue a major repair project.
Southbound bridge traffic is still down to one lane to allow for some unexpected repair work. It will be expanded to two lanes on the morning of July 4thbut Kentucky Transportation Cabinet spokeswoman Andrea Clifford says they’ll need to shut down an additional northbound lane after that.
