KHSAA Boys' State: Quarterfinals

Here are today's quarterfinals (all times Central):

10 A.M.:  (8) Ashland Blazer v. (14) Bowling Green

12:30 P.M.:  (11) S. Oldham v. Jeffersontown

5 P.M.:  N. Laurel v. Montgomery Co.

7:30 P.M.:  (2) Great Crossing v. (9) Cooper

Unfortunately, the UK game will be going on when Great Crossing plays Cooper, so that game will not get the attention it deserves.

Oh, Kentucky

Not the old, old Whaler's Catch, but Paducah's old Whaler's Catch appears headed for new life next year.

Hiring in Dawson Springs, Dixon, Graham, Madisonville, Sebree, etc. Closed for good in Lawrenceburg, Radcliff and Winchester.

Hail to the bus-driver woman, Miss J.

The Kentucky Teachers' Retirement System was in better position again in fiscal 2019, says the state auditor.

It appears it'll be back to biz for Kentucky's apparently former New Hampshire vice-presidential hopeful.

Turning to sports, in Murray, it's rodeo time again. In Elkton, they had "the annual Meet the Rebels. YSE was there and got some of the first pics of the season of this year's team." And rest in peace, Mr. Terrell--he "loved the City of Corbin, he loved the Redhounds and most of all he loved people."

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29; Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs and Murray, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, London, Monticello and Pineville, Dec. 6; Barbourville, Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Calvert City, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Lexington, Madisonville, Owingsville, Paducah, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Trenton, Versailles and Whitley City, Dec. 7; Georgetown, Dec. 8; Cave City, Dec. 10; Burnside, Elkton and Williamsburg, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

Where have all the barn owls gone? Long time passing.

Cat parades: Franklin (Favorite), May 23.

Ebb tide at Newport on the Levee, but, perhaps, flow is afoot.

Kentucky for sale:

Turning to sports, the prospect of Chad Johnson's appearance actually bothers me more than that of Michael Vick's. Also, the Kentucky Derby horse race is reportedly scheduled to take place Saturday at Churchill Downs in Louisville.

Oh, Kentucky

Corbin's proposed, Kentucky Fried Chicken-reminiscent splash park has a new and apparently better home because the local Economy Inn owner "loves Corbin so much and wants to do something great for the community," Erin Cox reports in what in a fantastic Times-Tribune meeting story that has become typical of today's world of spartan community journalism in Kentucky (All Along™).

Hemp sales surge.

Man, oh, man ... everything's complicated (sun edition). 

Well, not everything: The state education minister gave 10 school districts until close-of-biz yesterday to name names. Bullitt County's superintendent, for one, was "still evaluating," per Shepherdsville's Pioneer News.

Rest in peace, John Horace Cox, born in Madisonville shortly after the Maroons' first Sweet Sixteen appearance in 1938, proud member of UK's "Marching 100,"  teacher in every Hopkins County school, Saint Mary's Episcopal organist, organizer of family "caveman suppers" and more.

Oh, Kentucky

Did you know that Northern Kentucky and the @kyanaworks areas led the state in growth of weekly wages from 2010 to 2018? Learn more in the most recent Kentucky Labor Force Update: https://t.co/hkrSVlupN2 #kydata pic.twitter.com/QLRYdgwh8G

— KY Center for Statistics (@kystats) November 20, 2018

 

Good jobs news from Jeffersontown.

A slow the expansion roll at Anton International.

UK has its first Rhodes Scholar since 1955.

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 17; Ashland, Nov. 20; Arlington, Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Columbia, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Paducah (and etc.) and Somerset ("like it or not, for some children, this might be the only positive experience they have this Christmas; we want to make sure to give them a really great experience, a memory that they can hang on to"), Dec. 1; Dawson Springs, Dec. 2; Frankfort (including Moms Demand Action, on gun violence) and Richmond, Dec. 7; Hopkinsville, Dec. 8, La Center, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

Toward improving Corbin appeal.

Billy Kobin of The Courier-Journal, excellent on the good guy with a gun in the Jtown Kroger parking lot and on the locked doors of First Baptist Church.

Beautiful, from Transylvania's prez: "An essential component of a liberal education is to cultivate perceptual skills to see the depth of what is not immediately revealed and the virtue to welcome it. This cultivation is how we continue to pass on the light and resist the darkness that threatens our democracy."

Magoffin County turns out for the president's daughter and the governor.

Kentucky's first-year Airbnb tax revenues doubled projections.

Oh, Kentucky

Record Attendance At 2018 Halloween On The Square

— The Edmonson Voice® (@edmonsonvoice) October 31, 2018

 

Meanwhile, in Owensboro, ... 

And in Louisville ...

And, finally, Shepherdsville ...

"I feel that she's not just the people in Kentucky's hero, but also our hero." (Also, Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 17; Berea, Bowling Green, Lawrenceburg and Paducah, Dec. 1; Richmond, Dec. 7, and Hopkinsville, Dec. 8.) 

Way to go, Bloomfield Elementary fourth-grader Cameron Blair.

Happy retirement from McDonald's, Mr. Gill.

A church brings new life to an old school in La Center.

The agenda for the Nov. 30 Kentucky Creative Industry Summit at Georgetown is compelling: "ensure that artists are thriving with support from every sector ... how to develop their aspirations into an intentional, concrete and strategic foundation for future success ... connecting your financial goals to your creative ones ... ensure you have the tools you need to protect your work, and yourself, in your arts practice ..."

Good jobs news from Paris.

Oh, Kentucky

First Street flooding https://t.co/koi7UwERxY

— The Morehead News (@TheMoreheadNews) September 10, 2018

 

NC2A #smh.

Well, this is terrifying.

Good jobs news from Ghent.

This week, the governor goes to the mountains.

Opines Bardstown's Kentucky Standard: "Rural Kentucky needs direction, plan for reversing economic lag behind cities."

"There's my brother." Nice feature in The Courier-Journal by Darcy Costello on a Georgia woman whose brother's footlocker was discovered in a Jtown school, more than 40 years since his death shortly after Christmas 1977.

The parking precedes the people, says a veteran inner-city Baptist minister, and so that's curtains for a couple of old homes in downtown Dayton. As per usual, Michael Monks brings the great meeting detail in The River City News.

Toward unity in Nicholasville.

Oh, Kentucky

It's news that "Kentucky's two U.S. Senators speak out against separating immigrant children from parents."

"11 states are pulling National Guard troops from the US-Mexico border in a growing protest over Trump's family-separation policy." Kentucky is not one of them.

"Yes, the optics are bad that we're standing there like the black-booted thugs. But we're not. We're just trying to enforce the rules at the Capitol."

"We don't necessarily believe in a heavy hand in trying to reduce crime. That's not how this department works."

"Records, research and interviews with stakeholders in the juvenile justice system show that racial disparity occurs at nearly every decision point in Kentucky’s juvenile justice system. As juvenile detention center populations dwindle and fewer minor offenders are locked up, whites feel the benefit most. Youth lockups are becoming more black and brown." The (indispensable) Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting rolls out its newest series.

That bank robbery in Lewisport is no joking matter ... well, it shouldn't be, anyway.

Newport's "whiskey campus" is coming along, despite Mexican and EU tariffs on bourbon.

They opened a support center for veterans in Glasgow Tuesday, and Melinda J. Overstreet reports in the  Daily Times that nine sought help the very first morning.

Democrats are no longer a majority of Kentucky's registered voters.

I stand with Stansdawg.

EKU is apparently going to still have a marching band, after all.

Rest in peace, Georgetta Earlena Harris-Holloway, Ohio-born First Lady of Second Baptist Church in Fairfield. "She loved the Buckeyes, but she loved Jesus more."

Oh, Kentucky

Christmas parades: Irvington and Owensboro, Nov. 18; Ashland, Nov. 21; Lebanon, Nov. 24; Brownsville and Danville, Nov. 25; Greenup, Nov. 28; Cumberland, London, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 1; Arlington, Barbourville, Beaver Dam, Bowling Green ("traffic impacts are expected"), Cadiz (no promises, but the HP's Kentucky desk may have a live remote from there), Corbin (they're making cards for soldiers), Fordsville, Georgetown, Harlan, Hartford, Henderson (after the 10 a.m. parade, Santa's having an open house in the park), Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Marion, Munfordville, Murray, Paducah, Somerset and Winchester, Dec. 2; Dawson Springs and Evarts, Dec. 3; Mount Sterling, Dec. 4; Lexington, Dec. 5; Bardstown, Dec. 7; Frankfort, Dec. 8; Augusta, Cave City, Elkton, Hanson, Hopkinsville, Paintsville and Salem, Dec. 9, and La Center and Oak Grove, Dec. 16.

Kentucky agriculture is having a better year.

Madisonville is vying to land a training center for helicopter pilots for its airport (really in Anton).

Good jobs news from Jtown.

Oh, Kentucky

Hanson's gain. Madisonville's loss (about $220,000 in tax money, says the mayor, offset by increased revenues from a manufacturer's recent expansion and about $50,000 a year in no longer having to police the joint.

Assessing the state of Kentucky's children.

Gov. Bevin plans to trial his Beshearcare overhaul in certain counties.

WHOP's Facebook post on this story about the Hoptown police department placing stuff like bikes and cellphones around town to "bait" thieves drew 59 comments and replies to comments in its first 14 hours in the Ether.

CNN reports that Williamstown's Noah's Ark replica will have an upscale restaurant.

"If you have been considering a D. Min. degree, now is the time to apply. Lexington Theological Seminary offers a D. Min. in  Leading Congregations in Adaptive Change."

Something I didn't know: Louisville is the home of a fascist neo-Nazi record label: pic.twitter.com/f6Dja6BG7M

— Joe Sonka (@joesonka) June 21, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

A real-estate blog, Movuto, has ranked the top 15 places to live in Kentucky: No. 1 Murray, No. 2 Jeffersontown, No. 3 Burlington and Florence, No. 5 Fort Thomas, No. 6 Fort Knox, No. 6 Fort Campbell North, No. 8 Lyndon, No. 9 Saint Matthews, No. 10 Glasgow, No. 11 Madisonville, No. 12 Lexington-Fayette and Louisville, No. 14 Henderson and No. 15 Owensboro.

Relative to other U.S. states, Kentucky is rather bike-unfriendly, according to The League of American Bicyclists.

Kentucky’s transportation plans and goals for the next 20 years are ready for your review. http://t.co/gt1MbtTk4T pic.twitter.com/gZvikLTMom
— KYTC (@KYTC) May 7, 2014

Per the National Weather Service in Paducah (via the Ledger & Times in Murray), of the 55 most recent winters, 29 were warmer than average; 26, cooler.

Rebuilding (still) in West Liberty.

Kentucky Living shuns the gun industry.

Hopkins County is tightening controls on local pawn shops.

Cynthiana's USA Liquid Nicotene plans to differentiate on domestic sourcing.

Good jobs news from Louisville and Owensboro.

Oh, Kentucky

The Calloway County Lady Lakers (listen live; first pitch scheduled in two minutes!) and Hopkins County Central Storm were among the first-day winners in the double-elimination state softball tournament in Owensboro.

Meanwhile, in great Mike Fields's great look-ahead to next week's baseball tournament, there is a note of William Unseld's hiring as Warren Central High School's new boys' basketball coach. William is one of Wes Unseld's nephews.

Here's the problem.

Good jobs news from Earlington and Winchester.

Episcopals ... rocking Russellville for 175 years.

Basketball coaches at Randall K. Cooper High School in Union, the former coach at J-town and a football player from Lexington who's related to Dirk Minniefield are among those clobbering LeBron James.

Oh, Kentucky

Jamie H. Vaught's report in the Middlesboro Daily News that Jack "Goose" Givens plans to be in Houston this weekend has me feeling very hopeful this, too, is going to turn out to be a year of the 'Cats.

"Big Al" will be there, too!

The first Google Fiber for Communities winner is not Berea, Bowling Green, Glasgow, Jeffersontown, Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro and Russellville. But, hey, we're all in the same gang.

Meanwhile, I love living in another town where breaking ground for construction of a new restaurant is news.

The long-time editor of Madisonville's Messenger says when. In the same week, the paper went to a narrower broadsheet and new headline font.

Now here was a fellow who could've told us a thing or two about the commonwealth.

It's a final from Earlington: 158-107, Wet.

Not done yet: The Courier-Journal reports that Kentucky's "Miss Basketball" recorded five blocks (but no points) in 16 minutes of the McDonald's All American game.

When we last checked in on Kelly and Turner, two bald eagles released last May from the Ballard Wildlife Management Area, they were pursuing separate lives. Kelly appeared to have decided to stick it out around Peoria, Ill., while Turner had moved (roughly) back home--to around Land Between the Lakes. Alas, now Kelly, too, appears headed back to her old Kentucky home! The Heath Post Kentucky Bureau strong endorses Kelly's return to the 270.

One and done: Boys' round of 32

It was a very good last night in Lexington, Morehead, Mount Washington, Owensboro, Pineville and Winchester. Celebration and anticipation commence tonight for nine more Kentucky communities.

Today's games:

First Region, at Murray State University--Paducah Tilghman vs. Marshall County

Second Region, at Hopkinsville High School--Christian County vs. Madisonville-North Hopkins

Fourth Region, at Western Kentucky University--Bowling Green vs. Warren Central

Fifth Region, at Green County High School--Bardstown vs. Elizabethtown

Seventh Region, at Bellarmine University in Louisville--Jeffersontown vs. Louisville Eastern

Eighth Region, at Henry County High School--Oldham County vs. Spencer County

12th Region, at Lincoln County High School--Southwestern vs. Wayne County

14th Region, at Memorial Gym in Hazard--Perry County Central vs. Knott County Central

15th Region, at East Kentucky Expo Center in Pikeville--Pikeville Shelby Valley vs. Pikeville

These regional champions await the March 16 start of the Sweet Sixteen at Rupp Arena at the University of Kentucky in Lexington:

Third Region--Daviess County

Sixth Region--Mount Washington Bullitt East

Ninth Region--Edgewood Dixie Heights

10th Region--Winchester George Rogers Clark

11th Region--Lexington Catholic

13th Region--Bell County

16th Region--Rowan County

One and done: Girls' round of 128

Well, this is going to be a work in progress over the next couple of weeks, but here are tonight's games:

First Region, at Murray State University--Lone Oak vs. Paducah Saint Mary and Calloway County vs. Hickman County

Second Region, at Livingston Central High School--Madisonville-North Hopkins vs. Christian County and Henderson County vs. Lyon County

Third Region--Daviess County at Breckinridge County, McLean County at Grayson County, Butler County at Muhlenberg County and Meade County at Owensboro Catholic

Fourth Region, at Western Kentucky University--Bowling Green vs. Franklin-Simpson, Russell County vs. Glasgow

Fifth Region, at Marion County High School--North Hardin at Marion County, Nelson County vs. Hart County

Seventh Region, at Bellarmine University--Sacred Heart vs. Mercy and Louisville Christian Academy vs. Ballard, Louisville Fern Creek vs. Jeffersontown and DuPont Manual vs. Assumption

Eighth Region, at Gallatin County High School--South Oldham vs. Collins and Walton-Verona at Gallatin County

Ninth Region, at Northern Kentucky University--Boone County vs. Covington Holy Cross and Saint Henry vs. Fort Thomas Highlands

10th Region, at Bourbon County High School--Winchester George Rogers Clark vs. Bishop Brossart and Bracken County - vs. Pendleton County

11th Region, at Eastern Kentucky University--Lexington Lafayette vs. Madison Southern and Scott County vs. Woodford County

12th Region, at Pulaski County High School--Southwestern vs. Burgin and Lincoln County vs. Casey County

13th Region, at Corbin--Knox Central vs. Middlesboro and South Laurel vs. Jackson County

14th Region, at Jenkins--Perry County Central vs. Wolfe County and Estill County vs. Letcher County Central

15th Region, at Pikeville--East Ridge vs. Magoffin County and Betsy Layne vs. Pike County Central

16th Region--Lewis County at Ashland Paul Blazer, Fleming County at East Carter, Boyd County at Greenup County and West Carter at Rowan County

Oh, Kentucky

Cage the Elephant's front man is of ideal pedigree for fronting a band named "Cage the Elephant." I hope Cage seeks out advice from the surviving members of the Hilltoppers, fellow pop superstars from Bowling Green.

Meanwhile, some eastern Kentuckians are taking their shots, too.

Banksy comes to Bullitt County.

Software solves everything.

A virtual visit to Horse Cave.

The Cracker Barrel-to-Bardstown movement gains traction.

Will Madisonville move its library? Will Middlesboro love its?

Good jobs news for Jeffersontown, Louisville and Rubbertown.

The Heath Post is willing, in some instances, to grant equal time.

Barbourville and Harlan get it on in Pineville tonight to see who plays Heath in the All-A Classic state tournament next week in Richmond. As of about noon Central today, by the way, the iHigh.com presentation of the Pirates' Jan. 22 First Region championship victory over Ballard Memorial had been viewed 624 times.

Oh, Kentucky

Time to start planning your 2011 vacations.

Sounds like a former Richmond Model Laboratory School Patriot is about ready for one. Vietnam ... man.

Face, Idaho and Virginia!

Money has been secured to hire a consultant to determine just how historic Paducah's Wallace Park neighborhood is. Hey, it was home to the 1903-06 Paducah Chiefs/Indians, and it was one of the places where Wiley "Iron Man" Piatt, a 24- and 23-game winner with the Philadelphia Phillies before the turn of the century, played out his string. Now, where's my $7,000?

Oh, Kentucky

It appears to me that the KHSAA intends in its football-relignment proposal for the McCracken County Mustangs to eventually play in Class 6A, District 1, along with Daviess County, Henderson County, Marshall County and Muhlenberg County. Losing Reidland, Heath and Lone Oak from the district 1s of classes 2A, 3A and 4A, respectively, would still leave those three brackets with four teams apiece. One of the interesting ramifications of this proposal, which would take effect next season, is that it would preclude Louisville Saint Xavier and Trinity from meeting in the Class 6A championship game, "as they have in five of the past 13 seasons," Jason Frakes reported in The Courier-Journal. "Under this proposal, they would play no later than the quarterfinals."

The record-setting quarterback on Jack Haskins's 2008 Lone Oak team will be playing on ESPN2 tonight.

A sort of homecoming, perhaps, in Radcliff.

For all we know, Berea, Bowling Green, Glasgow, Jeffersontown, Lexington, Louisville, Owensboro and Russellville remain in Google's mix.

The seat belt wasn't the only thing he didn't wear.