Oh, Kentucky

Hiring at the pen (starting at $14.25 per hour). Seeking someone with "a sincere passion for Henderson and our region."

Locals take over Owensboro's Towne Square Mall. Paducah downtown is amid a makeover (including a possible influx of Louisville investment). I love malls and downtowns, as well as Paducah and Owensboro, so this is all great news by my score.

Lexingtonwise, Sav's No. 2 has opened downtown; Drake's No. 14, in Hamburg.

Garbage goes private in Liberty.

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Central City, Nov. 24; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29;  Greensburg, Guthrie and Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs, Murray, Salem and Sebree, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Clay, Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, Irvine/Ravenna, London, Maysville, Monticello, Pineville, Richmond, Smiths Grove, Stanton and Trenton, Dec. 6; Arlington, Barbourville, Beattyville, Berea, Bloomfield, Bowling Green,  romley/Ludlow, Brownsville, Cadiz, Calvert City, Carlisle, Clinton, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Grayson, Greenville, Hawesville, Henderson, Horse Cave, Inez, Lawrenceburg, Leitchfield, Lexington, Madisonville, Marion, Middlesboro, Morgantown, Munfordville, Murray, Owingsville, Paducah, Rabbit Hash, Raceland, Russell Springs, Salyersville, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Somerset, Trenton, Versailles, Whitley City and Winchester, Dec. 7; Auburn, Georgetown and New Haven, Dec. 8; Augusta, Burkesville, Burnside, Campbellsville, Cave City, Elkton, Franklin, Louisa, Mayfield, Providence, Williamsburg and Woodburn, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

NFL19 Update

While the crew was filming, a Bengals employee noticed that the camera was focused on the sidelines for most of the first quarter and notified the media relations team. https://t.co/04fKDsMNtS

— NewsRadio 840 WHAS (@840WHAS) December 10, 2019

Before he was hired by the long-cheating New England Patriots in 2000, Bill Belichick's career record as an NFL head coach was 36-44. When he was drafted by the Patriots in that same year, Tom Brady was selected with the 199th choice. It would be interesting to know how successful these two might've been without all of the cheating. In an NFL explicitly engineered for parity and razor-thin competitive margins, would Belichick have been closer to the subpar NFL head coach his actual NFL record showed him to be before 2000, or would he have achieved the genius-coach status he has acquired over the last 19 years and the Patriots' multiple instances of exposed cheating and presumably many, many more instances of unexposed cheating? Would Brady have turned out to be the marginal quarterback prospect all of the NFL teams concluded him to be when he left the University of Michigan, or would he have still come to be widely considered as one of the league's absolute all-time greats? For that matter, what might've been made of the careers of the dozens of players and coaches who have excelled in New England but have proven unable to replicate those successes with other teams?

But, of course, we never will know, and that's a shame. What we do know is that cheating is wrong, stupid and no fun and that we don't have to pretend otherwise. So, anyway, this seems like an opportune moment to catch up on the race for the NFL19 championship.

AFC (five or six legitimate teams will qualify for the playoffs)

1. Baltimore Ravens (NFL00, NFL12 champ; NFL11* co-champ) 11-2
2. Buffalo Bills 9-3*
3. Kansas City Chiefs (NFL69 champ) 9-4
4. Pittsburgh Steelers (NFL74, NFL75, NFL78, NFL79, NFL05, NFL08 champ; NFL01*, NFL04* NFL16* co-champ) 8-4*
5. Houston Texans 8-5
6. Tennessee Titans 8-5
7. Cleveland Browns 6-6*
8. Oakland Raiders (NFL76, NFL80, NFL83 champ) 6-7
9. Indianapolis Colts (NFL70, NFL06 champ; NFL03*, NFL14* co-champ) 6-7
10. New York Jets (NFL68 champ) 5-6*
11. Denver Broncos (NFL97, NFL98, NFL15 champ) 5-8
12. San Diego Chargers (NFL07* co-champ)  5-8
13. Jacksonville Jaguars (NFL97*, NFL17* co-champ) 4-9
14. Miami Dolphins (NFL72, NFL73 champ; NFL85* co-champ) 3-9*
15. Cincinnati Bengals 1-12

NFC (six teams will qualify for the playoffs)

1. San Francisco 49ers (NFL81, NFL84, NFL88, NFL89, NFL94 champ) 11-2
2. Green Bay Packers (NFL66, NFL67, NFL10 champ; NFL97* co-champ) 10-3
3. New Orleans Saints (NFL09 champ) 10-3
4. Seattle Seahawks (NFL13 champ, NFL14* co-champ) 10-3
5. Minnesota Vikings 9-4
6. Los Angeles Rams (NFL99, NFL18 champ) 8-5
7. Chicago Bears (NFL85* co-champ) 7-6
8. Dallas Cowboys (NFL71, NFL77, NFL92, NFL93, NFL95 champ) 6-6*
9. Philadelphia Eagles (NFL04*, NFL17* co-champ) 6-6*
10. Tampa Bay Buccaneers (NFL02 champ) 6-7
11. Carolina Panthers (NFL03* co-champ) 5-8
12. Atlanta Falcons (NFL16* co-champ) 4-9
13. Detroit Lions 3-9-1
14. Arizona Cardinals 3-9-1
15. Washington Redskins (NFL82, NFL87, NFL91 champ) 3-9*
16. New York Giants (NFL86, NFL90 champ; NFL07*, NFL11* co-champ) 2-10*

*Losses against cheaters don't count; wins do.

Kentucky stays at number 8 in the AP poll

No change from last week.

Before the end of the month, UK will play Ohio State (currently ranked number 3) and Louisville (currently ranked number 1).  So we'll learn a great deal about the Cats very soon.

Oh, Kentucky

Change is everywhere in Kentucky. Our license-plate letters and numbers will no longer be raised.

The new Democratic governor will give Kentucky's first Republican attorney general in 70 years an early start.

The secretary of Kentucky's justice and public safety cabinet--a Democrat appointed four years ago by the outgoing Republican governor--bows out.

On his last day in office, Gov. Bevin opined on good jobs news from Murray: "Over the past four years, we have made historic strides in improving our business climate, and it’s exciting to see those efforts culminate in transformational job-creating projects. We are grateful that TPG chose Kentucky for its new operation and appreciate the opportunities it will provide to our citizens."

As one who knows next to nothing about law, the whole deal where a governor or president on the way out pardons convicted people is one of the more curious aspects of life in the United States.

The state's anticipated $1.1 billion budget shortfall "is a lot bigger than anything that we anticipated," a Republican state representative tells Joe Sonka and Deborah Yetter of The Courier-Journal. "It's a real train wreck," amplifies a progressive economic-policy group from Berea.

Eleanor Klibanoff of the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting: "A KyCIR investigation shows LMPD brings almost every rape case to a prosecutor to decide whether to make an arrest--sometimes before they’ve done much investigating. If prosecutors decline the case, the police clear it 'by exception.' LMPD cleared three times as many 2017 rape cases 'by exception' than they did by arrest."

The Who's planned concert at NKU in April is historic for greater Cincinnati.

Brand new in Manchester: The Clay We Were.

Congratulations, Ms. McGaha, retiring operator of June's Beauty Shop in Jamestown since 19 and 62.

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Central City, Nov. 24; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29;  Greensburg, Guthrie and Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs, Murray, Salem and Sebree, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Clay, Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, Irvine/Ravenna, London, Maysville, Monticello, Pineville, Richmond, Smiths Grove, Stanton and Trenton, Dec. 6; Arlington, Barbourville, Beattyville, Berea, Bloomfield, Bowling Green, Bromley/Ludlow, Brownsville, Cadiz, Calvert City, Carlisle, Clinton, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Grayson, Hawesville, Henderson, Horse Cave, Inez, Lawrenceburg, Leitchfield, Lexington, Madisonville, Marion, Middlesboro, Morgantown, Munfordville, Murray, Owingsville, Paducah, Rabbit Hash, Raceland, Russell Springs, Salyersville, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Somerset, Trenton, Versailles, Whitley City and Winchester, Dec. 7; Auburn, Georgetown and New Haven, Dec. 8; Augusta, Burkesville, Burnside, Cave City, Elkton, Franklin, Louisa, Mayfield, Providence, Williamsburg and Woodburn, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

Good! Not that it changes much at the HP. But, still, good!

Medals table:

1. Norway 12 gold, 6 silver, 12 bronze
2. Canada 11, 10, 7
3. United States 10, 11, 10
4. Germany 10, 5, 7
5. Netherlands 9, 8, 8
6. Switzerland 8, 1, 2
7. Belarus 5, 1, 1
8. Austria 4, 10, 5
9. China 4, 6, 4
10. France 4, 5, 9
11. Poland 4, 1, 1
12. South Korea 4, 2, 2
13. Slovenia 3, 2, 3
14. Sweden 2, 8, 5
15. Czech Republic 2, 4, 3
16. Latvia 2, 1, 3
17. Japan 1, 4, 4
18. Finland 1, 3, 1
19. Great Britain 1, 1, 3
20. Ukraine 1, 1, 0
21. Slovakia 1, 0, 0
22. Italy 0, 4, 7
23. Australia 0, 2, 1
24. Croatia 0, 1, 0
25. Kazakhstan 0, 0, 1
T26. Bulgaria and 62 others 0, 0, 0

Previous reports:

-- I Olympic Winter Games, Chamonix 1924
-- II Olympic Winter Games, Saint Moritz 1928
-- VIII Olympic Winter Games, Squaw Valley 1960
-- XII Olympic Winter Games, Innsbruck 1976 
-- XVII Olympic Winter Games, Lillehammer 1994

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day a)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 0)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 1)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 2)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 3)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 4)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 5)
-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 6)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 7)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 8)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 9)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 10)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 11)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 12)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 13)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 14)

-- XXII Olympic Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Day 15)

-- XXII Olympics Winter Games, Sochi 2014 (Good!)

-- XXIII Olympic Winter Games, Pyeongchang 2018