Oh, Kentucky

Again, Pikeville's Mountain Top News does just a fantastic job on covering the conversation in Whitesburg ...

"I have an alternate proposal. Suppose both sides of the story are told."

Midway will celebrate Juneteenth, officially.

The Bowling Green-Warren County Coronavirus Workgroup had a happy surprise on its regular conference call Wednesday.

Bardstown and Nelson County roll out another round of small-biz relief.

A weekend Kentucky Headhunters show at the Beaver Dam Amphitheatre delivered a big boost for the Ohio County food pantry.

Gabe's is (almost) gone.

Fancy Farm is happening.

Mercer County might be getting its second solar farm.

Vanceburg police is hiring. So's the forthcoming Oak Grove Racing, Gaming & Hotel.

The #ohky desk's DQ beat is blowing up of late. You might remember yesterday's dispatch from Columbia. Well, there are Blizzards in the forecast for Princeton, too.

Oh, Kentucky

This is a simply terrific piece of journalism ...

#NoMoreNoKnocks, now in Lexington, too.

Toward more teachers of color.

"This cemetery has experienced vandalism for years. It's usually teenagers who get intoxicated ... it's a remote area ... We have other remote cemeteries which also get vandalized. There's no indication this was racially motivated."

The gravesite of an Revolutionary War soldier was threatened, but Loyall rallied. (It's not what you think.)

Smart Southgate, etc.?

Trooper Island Kids' Camp goes virtual.

On second thought, the Maysville Mason County Recreation Park pool will open this summer.

“It definitely is not any fun when you gotta be stuck in the house and you’d rather be outside shooting paint at your buddies.”

Gird yourself, warns the Pennyrile District health department director.

Rest in peace, Lisa K. Jones, Grayson County's homegrown library hero.

Oh, Kentucky

Oh, Kentucky

Oh, Kentucky

There's a lot of stuff going on--wars and refugees, churches and cities, the 1970s and Vietnam, the 1980s and Japan, etc.--in this fascinating Georgetown News-Graphic article by Jackie Anders on the sale of the Cardome to the Catholic Diocese of Lexington. I had to read it a couple of times to take it all in, and I'm glad I did.

Bath County High has a (beautiful) new fine-arts wing. 

The NWSL is coming to Louisville.

"With forward-thinking public officials and involved volunteer groups, the rebirth of downtown Winchester will continue unabated."

"The report brings up many good questions for Danville and Boyle County. How are we doing on being a rural development hub? Are we setting our community up to succeed long-term in a world where everyone thinks rural communities are dying? How are we doing on improving quality of life, particularly for our most vulnerable populations? Are we resisting changes that could have huge impacts because we are risk-averse? Are we putting too much emphasis on old economic development methods and measuring sticks? How well are we working regionally?"

"Too big of a challenge to focus on our differences."

Free Thanksgiving dinner, in Ashland. (And Whitesburg.) (And Wurtland.)

Free Christmas trees, at LBL.

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Central City, Nov. 24; Lebanon and Louisville, Nov. 29; Brownsville, Greensburg, Guthrie, Mayfield and Pikeville, Nov. 30; Boyce, Dawson Springs and Murray, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Fredonia, Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville, London, Monticello, Pineville, Richmond and Trenton, Dec. 6; Barbourville, Berea, Bowling Green, Cadiz, Calvert City, Columbia, Corbin, Cynthiana, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Grayson, Hawesville, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Lexington, Madisonville, Marion, Middlesboro, Morgantown, Murray, Owingsville, Paducah, Rabbit Hash, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Somerset, Trenton, Versailles, Whitley City and Winchester, Dec. 7; Georgetown, Dec. 8; Cave City, Dec. 10; Burkesville, Burnside, Elkton, Providence, Williamsburg, Dec. 14, and Tollesboro, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

On the Babies 'R Us transformation in Florence.

On the Patti's comeback in Grand Rivers.

On the Christmas-decor redo debut in Columbia.

Fiber to the (Princeton) home.

Good jobs news from Berea, Erlanger, Hopkinsville and Maysville. Bad from Ashland and Shelbyville. False hope in Inez.

Turning to sports, Franklin County High's Benny Watkins Field will be under scrutiny Friday night; Martha Layne Collins High celebrates its first Division I hoops signees, and Season 4 for the SoKY Ice Rink is afoot.

Christmas parades: Sharpsburg, Nov. 9; Owensboro, Nov. 23; Boyce, Dawson Springs and Murray, Dec. 1; Bardstown, Dec. 5; Harrodsburg, Hopkinsville and Monticello, Dec. 6; Berea, Bowling Green, Calvert City, Danville, Frankfort, Glasgow, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Lexington, Madisonville, Paducah, Scottsville, Shelbyville, Trenton, Versailles and Whitley City, Dec. 7; Georgetown, Dec. 8; Cave City, Dec. 10, and Burnside, Elkton and Williamsburg, Dec. 14.

Oh, Kentucky

"In Letcher County, 12.6 percent of homeowners are considered severely housing cost-burdened, up from 8.3 percent in 2010. A significant part of that is the cost of energy. ... 'I’ve seen bills as high as $1,400 to $1,600 a month.'" Great, comprehensive report on the impact and future of energy inefficiencies/efficiencies in Appalachia from Sydney Boles of Ohio Valley ReSource and WFPL.

You best slow your roll on I-71 in Oldham County.

Alles Brothers Furniture is back, in Henderson.

"What do you love when you love Jesus? These two questions will guide our exploration into 'The Politics of Jesus,'" next week at Lexington Theological Seminary.

More from the Cartwright/Taylor nuptials: Us Weekly has the 411 on the newlyweds' trip to Drip Rock.

WBKR's pictures from the Matthew's Table worship on the grounds of the Daviess County Detention Center are especially interesting.

Rest in peace, Mr. Hoover, “probably the most civic minded person in the history of Corbin” and the local Pepsi person.

Oh, Kentucky

It's showtime again at Louisa's Garden Theater.

"All of a sudden everybody was excited about recreation in Mayfield and Graves County." Fun, comprehensive report from Shelley Byrne in The Mayfield Messenger. Makes me want to go there.

Picking and bowing all summer long in Floyd County.

Seeking boots-on-the-ground input from southeastern Kentucky's "Promise Neighborhood."

Hiring in Madisonville (595 available jobs as of Friday).

Ah, Paducah:

-- Nate Crawford at Forward Kentucky: "He followed that up with the comment that '… when Paducah enacted that ordinance, the signal was sent out across not just Kentucky, but across the country that this is an LGBT-friendly city.' Which, obviously, he saw as a bad thing."

-- The San Francisco Chronicle: "Paducah council weighing religious liberty, civil rights."

-- The Paducah Sun: "Tebow to visit Paducah for night of worship."

Rest in peace, Jim Burton (1955-2019), Madisonville native, Hilltopper and globetrotting Southern Baptist journalist who didn't "want to be remembered only as that guy with ALS."

Oh, Kentucky

Just a fantastic and inspiring feature in the Lexington Herald-Leader from Will Wright of Report for America: The People, Yes.

More Yes: Lashana Harney has a good one in The Winchester Sun on a retiring Bluegrass Community and Technical College professor and her enjoyment of "the application and then thinking critically, mastering concepts."

Astronomy Day is coming up next month, and the West Kentucky Amateur Astronomers have a full day of interesting free programming planned at LBL, and I'm invited, and so are you. Yes! Yes! YES!

Metcalfe County does not have a jail, but it does have a jailer, and now the jailer has newly approved direction on compensation and responsibilities.

The Section 8 waiting list is being reopened in Lawrence County.

Kentucky for sale:

Oh, Kentucky

Greetings from Kentucky:

Happy 53rd, WKDZ!

On the table on the Hill: Suspending 101 of 380 academic programs (including 45 with no students currently), altering 55, growing 15 and maintaining 209 as they are.

I lived on Griffith Avenue in Owensboro for a little while, but it's gotten a lot hipper since I moved away.

We had family living in Bardstown for several years, but they moved just about the time the community orchestra was getting together.

Taste the Mayfield.

Kelly is getting together for a chat Thursday evening, and there is a lot to talk about.

The most depressing part about this MLive article about the visiting AAU coach who was arrested Saturday and charged with punching out an official at the Paducah Regional Sports Plex are the comments from the Michigan readership about Flint.

Kresge's is (really) gone.

You might hear some shooting today in Stanford, but, thankfully, it's only a drill.

Mine 9 opens Friday in parts of Kentucky and elsewhere, but, this time, it's only a movie.

Hiring in Whitesburg.

Corbin Pediatric Associates remembers that it's National Child Abuse Prevention Month.

There are all kinds of people doing all kinds of neat stuff out there.

Oh, Kentucky

By the way, it turns out "The Fort Campbell Courier has been suspended for an undetermined period to fulfill contractual requirements for the selection of a new service provider."

The First Lady is coming to Toyota; AOC, to a coal mine?

There might be a buyer for TVA's coal-fired Paradise Power Plant.

Charles Bethea's article in The New Yorker on environmental reporting in Kentucky is fantastic.

Kentucky had a record February for home sales.

Bad jobs news from Franklin.

Hiring in Shepherdsville.

It's almost drive-in season again in La Grange.

Covington honors a fast-acting ambulance crew (and Ryan Clark in the Northern Kentucky Tribune delivers a compelling report).

Turning to sports, a 10-year-old Reidland Intermediate School student will be covering MLB19 (but, according to WSIL, he's a West Paducah native).

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

A former Kuttawa city clerk is charged with stealing a bunch of town money and running off to Gatlinburg.

About the "squatters" in Hillview.

No library tax in Hardin County.

An Edgewood thoracic surgeon is to narrate a lung-cancer surgery he performed on a 34-year-old during a live Facebook broadcast Friday.

Good jobs news from Lexington and Pikeville.

"FARMERS NEEDED!" In Lyon County.

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 17; Ashland, Nov. 20; Brownsville, Nov. 24; Cumberland and Fredonia (grandly marshaled by the Faughns, wed 69 years), Nov. 30; Arlington, Berea, Cadiz ("WKDZ 106.5 will broadcast live, and will have live video stream if you just can't make it"), Calvert City (59th annual), Columbia, Jenkins, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Marion, Paducah, Salyersville, Somerset and Whitley City, Dec. 1; Bowling Green (rescheduled from the day before), Dawson Springs, Dec. 2; Lexington, Dec. 4; Greenup, Dec. 6; Frankfort, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 7; Elkton, Eubank, Hopkinsville ("Get ready to text in your favorite float number for the PEOPLES CHOICE AWARD!"), Louisa and Stamping Ground (grandly marshaled by a Scott County sheriff's deputy paralyzed when shot responding to a suspected bank robbery in September), Dec. 8; Whitesburg, Dec. 14; Burnside, La Center and Neon, Dec. 15.

Oh, Kentucky

Helpfully for those of us who are preparing for our Fantasy Legislature drafts, Tom Latek dopes the 2019 General Assembly for the Kentucky Center for Public Service Journalism.

Good jobs news from Shepherdsville.

Ohio Co. Museum annual bean dinner Sept. 14 - https://t.co/Nz3jDTpocL

— Ohio County Monitor (@OCMonitor) September 10, 2018

"Louisville, Not Kentucky"?

About that $215K raise for the governor's old Army buddy, via The Courier-Journal ...

Oh, Kentucky

Good jobs news from Bent Mountain (and elsewhere in Pike and Letcher counties), Florence and Hickman.

Owensboro and most of Daviess County have been without running water, but the local municipal utility says process is being made.

The Versailles First Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) mission team is reportedly stranded in Haiti. "Everyone is safe," says the pastor.

Per Venita Fritz in the Marshall County Tribune-Courier, it's more school resource officers, metal detectors and clear backpacks in the short term and, hopefully, more mental-health counseling in the long term for the local schools.

Mike Farmer in Shepherdsville's Pioneer News hails the Babe Ruth/Cal Ripken baseball leagues for their innovation in tournament formats and suggests they now ought to take a fresh look at their policies and lack thereof around heat index.

A former Highlands High Bluebird and Centre College Colonel has a new focus: "Can I better enable Marines to be better Marines?" Neat Chuck Keller feature in Fort Thomas Matters.

Oh, Kentucky

Glen Drury Week rolls on in Lawrenceburg.

It looked dire for a bunch of kitties at the Estill County Animal Shelter. But then Richmond's WBON TV did a story--adoptions surged, and somebody set up a GoFundMe account.

Here's a creative protest organized by 35 overflow prisoners from Louisville's main jail.

The standoff between Poor Peoples Campaign activists and state police continued Wednesday.

Equipping Kentucky's truckers to blunt human trafficking?

Making Haldeman great again.

Retirement is booming among Kentucky's public employees.

Schools in Hardin County are struggling to hire enough teachers, and "there's not a school district in the state that doesn't haven't the same problem," the local human-resources director tells Katherine Knott of Etown's News-Enterprise.

A cooperative of students in eastern Kentucky has built and is auctioning a bunch of "tiny houses."

Oh, Kentucky

Gov. Bevin's budget proposal for the next two years, per Monica Kast in WKU's College Heights Herald: 6.25-percent reduction in spending, no funding for 70 programs and fully funded state pension. "Something has to give, where does this money come from?"

Here are the 70 programs Bevin is proposing to cut.

Full budget is here:https://t.co/lvDuqR7wpC pic.twitter.com/SccPG4Lh9h

— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) January 17, 2018

Meanwhile, remember the governor's $240,000-a-year "adoption czar" ...? He's gone.

In other news, ... FREDONIA!

Meanwhile, over in Kentucky Transportation Cabinet District 12: "DO NOT GET ON THE ROADS IN THE FOLLOWING COUNTIES: Lawrence, Martin, Johnson, Floyd, Knott, Pike, and Letcher. We don't mean to sound hateful, but conditions out there are seriously bad. ..."

Russellville's News-Democrat & Leader asked its readers to send in pictures of playing in the snow. "We had more than 230 submissions and they were all wonderful."

The Paducah Community Kitchen (and warming shelter) needs donations of winter clothing.

I hope you’re ready for visitors. #hospitalhill pic.twitter.com/U9ZpxUAxwn

— ☃️wxornotBG❄️ (@wxornotBG) January 16, 2018

Mari-Alice Jasper in The Fort Campbell Courier reports on how the hippies in the Warrior Transition Batallion are badgering the rest of the base to recycle. "What's causing other units to not recycle is my question."

Kentucky's overall incarceration rate is up to ninth in the country--and No. 2 for women.

Oh, Kentucky

And about one specific message allegedly from Rep. Comer, ...

A Courier Journal columnist took aim at Rep. Comer over an alleged Twitter message; Comer denied the allegations. https://t.co/7vjZHgh9Sa

— Kentucky New Era (@KentuckyNewEra) January 5, 2018

Good jobs news from Madisonville and Springfield.

"Far from encouraging academic and objective study of the Bible and its historical context or literary value, it is clear that the coursework in these 'Bible Literacy' classes often resembles Sunday school lessons," says the ACLU, about schools in McCracken and other Kentucky counties.

Oh, Kentucky

William Farley in Whitesburg's Mountain Eagle reports that Letcher County's tourism strategy emphasizes sprucing up its existing attractions.

Amanda Manning in La Grange's Oldham Era reports on a Goshen oncologist's compelling reasoning, following his exploration of a remote South Pacific island, behind his 70-percent belief in the fate of Amelia Earhart.

The renovation of Madionsville's city-park playground is huge hyper-local news for the Kentucky desk.

Good jobs news from Calvert City, Frankfort and Owensboro.

Oh, Kentucky

Harness racing today at the Graves County Fair. pic.twitter.com/aqNx0VQLD9

— Ryan Hermens (@ryanhermens) June 7, 2017

Tyler Eschberger in The Middlesboro Daily News has an intriguing story about a man's visit to the local country club to spur investment and interest in making a movie about the town's integrated Little League baseball team in 1953. Ron Schmidt is quoted: "So we make a movie with a Kentucky story, that not only shows kids, but it shows Middlesboro and it shows the beauty and culture of Appalachia…can we all hit a home run? Can you do that? Can you help bring hope to our kids?" Indeed, I would be interested in watching a movie based on Tyler Eschberger's story about Ron Schmidt's 2017 trip to the Middlesboro Country Club to talk about the 1953 story.

Meanwhile, here's a very dark and sad story about demons, healing, sickness, confession, redemption, relapse, justice and everything else in The Casey County News. Prayers for the pastor, the flock, the church, the police, the reporters and everyone around it.

Now back to happy--thanks to Adam Black in Ashland's Daily Independent: "When we first got married, I told her we would never move to Kentucky. Now look, we have opened a restaurant and live right down the road."

NKU's Vegy Vida for kids has been voted among the "Best University Startups 2017."

Appalshop scores among the "100 people, organizations, and movements that are shaping the future of culture."

Louisville comes in at No. 4 among the "Top Ten Worst Trucking Chokepoints in America."

Good jobs news from Bowling Green, Danville and Morganfield ("Leave the emotional garbage at home, you'll get your feelings hurt because we are realist. We are here to work not babysit the emotionally needed folks or put up with excuses. If you've got what it takes, we'd love to talk to you about joining our team.")

Says Kentucky's state climatologist: "For the average person it can be difficult sometimes to see, or maybe to convince yourself, that climate can be changing. But within the scientific community, people that spend their careers studying these things, there’s really a growing consensus that our climate is changing and that human activity is making an impact on that."

The city of Hartford is selling its recycling equipment and tearing down the building where it was used to turn into scrap metal for the practice of student welders. (Also, there will be no movies on the square this summer.)

Madisonville's skate park is open! And it's free to get into our ATV park all year. And we're having a Santa Race next month. So, boom.