Oh, Kentucky

I was in Munfordville and got to pick up the July 11 Hart County News-Herald. My favorite item was the "Buzz Around Bonnieville" column by Linda Watts: "No matter where you call home, we all have the same basic issues facing our communities today; the lack of affordable housing, small businesses struggling to make it, trying to keep prices competitive while making enough to pay the bills and the older population facing loneliness with family members living miles away to pursue their careers." She used that as a springboard to talk about her thankfulness "that we live in a community that offers so many actives and opportunities for fellowship." She mentioned the recent county fair and an upcoming ribbon cutting and grand opening at Barbour's Fresh Produce in Munfordville.

Ryan Van Velzer of Louisville's WFPL lays out how Owenton avoided water contamination downstream from the Jim Beam spill.

A murder in Hazard has a local homeless shelter and the city reviewing its processes and policies. "Somehow we have to be a compassionate city, but we also have to protect our city," a city councilperson says in Katie Kelley's story in The Hazard Herald.

(Refugee) farm to (Hickory & Oak) table, in Bowling Green. Neat Madison Martin report for WBKO.

Ray Hagerman, president of the Madisonville-Hopkins County Economic Development Corporation, in the local Messenger: "Madisonville is at a 15-year record for open jobs, and our employers are struggling mightily to find the talent they need in those positions. Economic development has organized two job fairs in the first half of this year, and both had hundreds more available jobs than they attracted job seekers. Studies show that people with military experience tend to have a high rate of civilian work success, and so we see Fort Campbell as a crucial pipeline of talent for our community's prosperity. And we saw Madisonville Military Day as a great start to tapping into that talent."

The National Association of Agricultural Educators nabbed itself a couple of recruits from Caldwell County High.

Mural reveal! Today at 2 Central in the old Clinton Bank lot.

Turning to sports, forget about live racing at Ellis Park today.

Oh, Kentucky

Flanked by outriders the hearse carrying @johnasher made two laps around @ChurchillDowns on Tuesday morning. Asher died of a heart attack last week. @courierjournal pic.twitter.com/yDdO0jf2Wo

— Michael Clevenger (@MClevenger_CJ) September 4, 2018

Harlan is getting a museum, thanks, in part, to Cawood Ledford.

Jim Beam is expanding in both Boston and Clermont.

Good jobs news from Horse Cave, Pikeville and Roxana.

Gov. Bevin announces more funding for the healing in Draffenville.

Secretary of State Grimes announces the voting is coming to four state veterans centers.

Princeton's WPKY ... still local after all of these years.

One of the Paxtons of Paducah is bringing up to 12 Taco John's restaurants to central Kentucky--the first to be opened in Glasgow. Here's the whole, excellent scoop from Melinda J. Overstreet in the Glasgow Daily Times.

Ghostbusters, obviously the greatest movie of our Class of '86 lives, is classing it up with an Orchestra Kentucky performance in Bowling Green.

Oh, Kentucky

Future seminars, chili suppers and ice-cream socials in Dundee will have a snazzy new home, thanks to First United Bank and Trust.

Meanwhile, the Ohio County Historical Center bean dinner, ...

Henderson County Schools' math emphasis appears to be paying off.

Sweeden Man Kills Copperhead In Grayson School Drop Off Line - https://t.co/4zvqfKoc8t pic.twitter.com/YJj0ZdoBdy

— The Edmonson Voice® (@edmonsonvoice) August 30, 2017

"Mammoth Cave will be the most suitable place to perpetuate the undying memory of the heroes of the world war. No more appropriate spot could be chosen for such a national monument than this gigantic hole which winds for miles under the hills and valley's of God's garden spot — Kentucky."

Meanwhile, how about Lexington Cemetery for Fayette County's Confederate monuments?

In fact, I saw a bald eagle just this past Saturday at Camp Kum-Ba-Ya near Fairdealing. Good for the Kentucky Department of Fish and Wildlife.

For the 40th straight year, the cyclists are headed to their Old Kentucky Home--a little earlier than usual, though.

Oh, Kentucky

Kentucky Monthly with its October issue has opened a series, "The Price of Coal," and the first part by Rod Soodhalter is very, very good. And eBay has a grim picture for sale with the following evocative cutline ...

Kentucky's Jim Beam workers may be going on strike.

WKU moved its Major Redz dance team because of security concerns following its national-anthem protest at the Hilltoppers' Oct. 1 football game.

Silas House is coming home. "The first piece of writing I ever had published was in 1982 when the Olympic torch passed through Laurel County on its way to Los Angeles. Back then they had runners carry the torch all the way across the nation, and people lined up all down US 25 to watch the torch pass. I was so moved by the experience that I went home and wrote a little essay about it and it was published in the Sentinel Echo. They paid me five dollars. I was 11. I spent the money on a Star Wars action figure."

"Special consideration will be given to ornaments featuring Paducah’s history, landmarks, name, etc."

A pretty sunset in Lexington, Kentucky, by @oliverstarks pic.twitter.com/lO0YLsfwNF

— ScenesOfTheBluegrass (@BluegrassScenes) October 13, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

For sale in Madisonville, across old U.S. 41 from the site of one of Gov. Ruby Laffoon's former homes:

This one, from Somerset, is going to get some play nationally.

I was most interested to learn of Main Street Pineville's solar-powered umbrellas and planned "Small Business Christmas Open House" and "Christmas Tour of Churches." (ICYMI: Christmas is just five months away as of Friday.)

Good jobs news from Georgetown (really good) and Louisville.

About a (former) Ashland Daily Independent reporter's bad job news.

Good news for KY: Feds have awarded a $420 mil, 3-yr contract to Fluor Federal Services to transition the #Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant
— Steve Beshear (@GovSteveBeshear) July 22, 2014

Could "carbon capture" be the future of Kentucky coal?

But what's the plan for the Clermont post office?

Will Kroger go Kentucky Proud?

Oh, Kentucky

Danville, indeed, may be getting excited about tomorrow night's debate, but "I predict the Kentucky Proud food and drink will be as memorable as the politics."

Bad cheese news from Austin.

Cool promotion in Reidland.

"A very unusual worship service for western Kentucky," in Mayfield.

Live, from King Tut Video in Irvine: a real McCoy and friends.

Record year already for the Kentucky Bourbon Trail.

"I want the world to see it."

Hear, hear, Chuck Jones. Speaking of which, junior Fred Allen Meyer of Nicholasville West Jessamine ended up beating senior Joey Mayo of Paducah Saint Mary in a sudden-death playoff for the KHSAA boys' golf championship--and leading his Colts to the team title.

Jump, jump, slam, slam ... "Drive for Nine" tips off Friday with Big Blue Madness.

Rest in peace, Mr. Owens, "regarded as the most accomplished amateur golfer in Kentucky history," per Mike Fields in the Herald-Leader.

Oh, Kentucky

Maybe the Science Bowl disqualified Heath Middle from competition after Rusty Clutts and I advanced to the 1982 regional with something we threw together on tanning leather. Maybe the HMS kids can get take it out on the historians in Owensboro.

Given that Union City is within 20 miles of all of them, this is pretty awful jobs news for Clinton, Fulton, Hickman and plenty of other folks in southwestern Kentucky.

The jobs news was happier from Sebree: "Gov. Steve Beshear today visited Rio Tinto Alcan’s aluminum smelter in Sebree to announce a $37 million reinvestment project that will help retain the jobs of nearly 500 employees. The plant, which is one of only a handful of aluminum smelters remaining in the United States, is installing a new bake furnace that will enable the facility to operate at its current capacity for the next 15-20 years. ... Kentucky is one of the top aluminum producing states. The industry employs more than 13,500 Kentuckians and generates $100 million in state and local tax revenue each year. ... The Sebree plant is one of the largest employers in the Henderson County community."

A new Kentucky tourism focus gets a boost, and a newish one shows progress.

I think folks (lots of folks) just love saying the name, "Paducah."

More weird bird news.