Girls' Sweet Sixteen, Thursday

Oh, my ...

Comments flow.

51 Teams Left

Eight big games in the Boys' basketball regionals tonight, including two regional finals.  Some big names were eliminated, including the number-2 team in the Commonwealth.  Here we go:

2d Region Semi-Final (at Madisonville-N. Hopkins):

University Heights 69, Henderson Co. 53

4th Region Championship (at W. Kentucky Univ.):

(T8) Bowling Green 57, Greenwood 49

7th Region Semi-Finals (at Lou. Valley):

(5) Lou. Ballard 79, Lou. Trinity 57

Lou. Manual 68, Lou. Male 62 (Overtime)

9th Region Semi-Finals (at Cov. Holmes):

Conner 71, Dixie Heights 54

Ft. Thomas Highlands 74, (2) Erlanger St. Henry 68

12th Region Semi-Final (at Lincoln Co.):

Boyle Co. 57, E. Jessamine 41

14th Region Championship (at Breathitt Co.):

Knott Co. Cent. 65, Hazard 56

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

About HB46, the effort to "Amend KRS 158.195 to require each public elementary and secondary school to display the national motto in a prominent location in the school." It received first reading in Kentucky's senate yesterday.

Good jobs news from Pike County (involving solar panels, a TEDx event and a Democrat running for governor).

Fourth "sickout" in two weeks for Jefferson County schools.

Who was your favorite teacher, in Henderson County?

Turning to sports, ...

Happy 50th, KFC in Middlesboro!

Oh, Kentucky

PikeCoKY/MingoCoWV line @WYMT @brobwx @KelliWYMT @PaigeWYMT @SpecNewsKY @JimWKYT @Kentuckyweather @ChrisWKYT @JoshFitzWx @AMHQ @SpencerWeather pic.twitter.com/7otizFszIK

— Mary Reed Runyon (@MaryReedRunyon1) October 9, 2018

Good jobs news from Elizabethtown and Louisville.

"One of the busiest bridge-building years in the state’s history" is allegedly afoot, reports Tom Latek of Kentucky Today.

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

Good jobs news from Bowling Green, Erlanger and Lexington.

"If part of your community is doing well and the other part not doing so good then the community can only fail. But if both sides of the community flourish, then the community will rise together and we all win because the sky is the limit."

"Their new group, Co-Heirs with Christ Missions, is different from some churches they attended in Africa. Too often, Frimpong remembered, leaders preached that joining the church would change their lives immediately – that their belief would guarantee prosperity. This tactic brought people to churches, but it only exacerbated the poverty rate, as people started to believe that they didn’t need to look for work."

UK's Kentucky Kernel has a new advisor (second consecutive one from WKU), and the Todd County Standard is on the market.

Sweet Paducah Sun story about a South Carolina man returning to where he and his late wife married in 1955--with helpful bonus material on the history of PJC/PCC/WKTC/WKCTC.

Terrific Bill Estep report in the Lexington Herald-Leader on the impact of drugs on the labor market in eastern Kentucky.

A Hardinsburg barber stars in an Amazon movie that came out yesterday, and it sounds hair-raising!

With the U.S. Senior Open rolling, the USGA took a road trip to Franklin to visit with the defending champ.

Corbin's getting a mural, on Roy Kidd Avenue.

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

Day 2 in Highland Heights ...

Good jobs news from Burlington and Louisville. Bad from Bowling Green.

Corbin's effort to keep its Carnegie Library lurches forward.

One-hundred thirty complaints of sexual harassment by state employees since 2012 (not counting the corrections or juvenile-justice departments, which have not yet fulfilled November records requests from the Kentucky Center for Investigative Journalism).

About the shooter at Marshall County High.

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

A little bit of Christmas magic brings a perfect tree to Fountain Square https://t.co/jMHzbObVSq #somky pic.twitter.com/MsksL6EIww

— Somerset Kentucky (@Somerset_KY) November 21, 2017

 

Christmas parades: Irvington and Owensboro, Nov. 18; Ashland, Nov. 21; Lebanon, Nov. 24; Danville, Nov. 25; Greenup, Nov. 28; Cumberland, London, Monticello and Richmond, Dec. 1; Barbourville, Beaver Dam, Fordsville, Georgetown, Harlan, Hartford, Henderson, Lawrenceburg, Madisonville, Murray, Somerset (when the tree will be lit) 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 and Hopkinsville, Dec. 9, and Oak Grove, Dec. 16.

Kentucky for sale (including Delbert Barker of Frenchburg and then Ohio):

"It's true you can't take the hills out of the boy" (including Charles Manson of Ohio and then Ashland and maybe Mousie, etc.)

Bobcats in Boone County? Not too much of a problem--but keep your house cats inside.

Oh, Kentucky

The history of @moreheadstate, from 1887 to present day, at 9/8 pm on KET. pic.twitter.com/sMD2sb6eYU

— KET (@KET) June 19, 2017

OK, I totally didn't even know there was such a thing as the "Pride In The Counties" Area at the state fair, and, if I was an Edmonson Contain, I'd totally want to do this.

You can't go to an aquarium in Morgantown, so the Newport Aquarium went there.

Knoth's of Grand Rivers: no beans, no potato salad, no more after Saturday.

WHOP reports that the (Frisch's) big (Boy) bucks of Cincinnati have cost the Hopkinsville-Christian County Public Library its director.

The City of Paducah is hiring.

Calvert City continues takeover of the Kentucky Dam State Park Airport.

Todd County's multi-pronged eclipse strategy is outlined.

It appears as though a new Christmas parade might be in the cards for Beaver Dam!

Transitional centers for homeless youth are opening in Breathitt, Floyd, Knott and Pike counties.

Oh, Kentucky

Checking in on the playing and player hating in Louisville, ...

Sen. Bernie Sanders in Louisville, opens up talking about Woody Guthrie union tune "Which Side Are You On?" pic.twitter.com/XGFh3xiWAM

— Ryland Barton (@RylandKY) April 19, 2017

... Frankfort (via Fort Knox, New Hampshire and Denver), ...

Heard there was a whine tasting event for socialists at the Palace Theater tonight in Louisville, hosted by @BernieSanders and @TomPerez...

— Matt Bevin (@MattBevin) April 19, 2017

... Harlan ...

Coal trains in Harlan! More proof we voted wisely for Gov. and President. @jmnemes @realDonaldTrump @GovMattBevin pic.twitter.com/ZSOSQTp9mt

— Russell Alred (@russell_alred) April 19, 2017

... and New York (via New York, Morehouse and Versailles) ...

If O'Reilly is fired from Fox for sexual harassment it'll basically mean the standard for a @FoxNews host is higher than President of the US

— Shaun King (@ShaunKing) April 19, 2017

The Louisville suburbs per Niche.com:

1. Anchorage
2. Indian Hills
3. Hurstbourne Acres
4. Hurstbourne
5. Crestwood
6. Windy Hills
7. Barbourmeade
8. Prospect
9. Pewee Valley
10. Beechwood Village

Some of the Handmade in Hindman classes are full, but you can still get in on the instrument making, spoon carving and iron casting.

If you're on the market for another of the Greatest Generation's institutions to worry about the future of, you might enjoy WKDZ's report on first two nights of the Hopkinsville Rotarian Auction.

Oh, Kentucky

Unfreakingbelievable.

Good jobs news from Erlanger. And though it's not news of new jobs, this is awfully good news for the 8,200 people who have jobs at Toyota in Georgetown.

I am forever accidentally putting my vehicle in drive instead of reverse (or vice versa), so I hate it for this guy who crashed into the post office in Lily.

Rest in peace, Tom Butler, who started at WPSD in 1962, served as Channel 6's "Grammar Phantom," directed music at Paducah's East Baptist Church for 42 years, played a lot of golf at Paxton Park and is one of nine people set to be inducted into the Kentucky Journalism Hall of Fame later this month.

Kentucky High-school Girls' Basketball, Two Teams Left

1920 Paris
1921 Ashland
1922 Ashland
1923 West Louisville
1924 Ashland
1925 Georgetown
1926 Maysville
1927 West Louisville
1928 Ashland
1929 Ashland
1930 Hazard
1931 Woodburn
1932 Woodburn
1975 Louisville Butler Traditional
1976 Louisville Sacred Heart
1977 Laurel County
1978 Laurel County
1979 Laurel County
1980 Louisville Butler
1981 Pulaski County
1982 Marshall County
1983 Bowling Green Warren Central
1984 Marshall County
1985 Whitley County
1986 Oldham County
1987 Laurel County
1988 Louisville Southern
1989 Clay County
1990 Lexington Henry Clay
1991 Laurel County
1992 Louisville Mercy
1993 Nicholas County
1994 Hazard M.C. Napier

1994 KHSAA girls basketball state champions, the M. C. Napier Navajos. #MountainSportsHOF pic.twitter.com/lO5MuHw9xz

— Mountain Sports HOF (@MtnSportsHoF) March 30, 2017

1995 Scott County
1996 Union County
1997 Hazard
1998 Elizabethtown
1999 Lexington Catholic
2000 Olive Hill West Carter
2001 Lexington Catholic
2002 Louisville Sacred Heart
2003 Louisville Sacred Heart
2004 Louisville Sacred Heart
2005 Lexington Catholic
2006 Lexington Catholic
2007 Lexington Catholic
2008 Louisville Butler
2009 Louisville Iroquois
2010 Louisville Mercy
2011 Rockcastle County
2012 Louisville duPont Manual
2013 Marion County
2014 Louisville Butler
2015 Covington Holy Cross
2016 Louisville Butler
2017 ...?

2 p.m. Eastern today, Mercer County Titans (30-6) vs. Franklin County Lady Flyers (33-5)

Kentucky High-school Girls' Basketball, Four Teams Left

Well, I've loved my Google Maps map all week long.

6:30 p.m. Eastern, Murray Lady Tigers (29-5) vs. Mercer County Titans (30-6)

8 p.m., Franklin County Lady Flyers (33-5) vs. Covington Holmes Lady Bulldogs (30-5)

Kentucky High-school Girls' Basketball, Eight Teams Left

Our map is tightening; can Murray and/or Henderson County keep it from turning into a triangle today? Here are today's state-tournament quarterfinals at BB&T Arena at Northern Kentucky University.

Noon Eastern, Louisville Butler Bearettes (34-2) vs. Murray Lady Tigers (28-5)

1:30 p.m., Winchester George Rogers Clark Lady Cardinals (31-4) vs. Mercer County Titans (29-6)

6:30 p.m., Franklin County Lady Flyers (32-5) vs. Independence Simon Kenton Lady Pioneers (29-6)

8 p.m., Covington Holmes Lady Bulldogs (29-5) vs. Henderson County Lady Colonels (29-5)

Here's a printable KHSAA bracket, by the way.

Kentucky High-school Girls' Basketball, 12 Teams Left

Twelve teams remain in play for the state championship, and here are today's four games ...

Noon Eastern, Henderson County Lady Colonels (27-5) vs. Hindman Knott County Central Lady Patriots (28-6)

I've went ahead and tuned in to WSON AM 860 ("Your Teams, Your Town") early this morning, and, before Lady Col-pregame coverage started, I happily heard Them's 1964 "Gloria;" Michael Jackson's 1982 "Beat It;" Chicago's 1988 "I Don't Want To Live Without Your Love;" Boz Scaggs's fantastic 1977 "Lido Shuffle;" Kenny Loggins's 1986 "Danger Zone" (I moved back to Kentucky in 2008, and, seriously, I can't imagine one day has passed since then that I didn't hear this song on some local radio station or supermarket overhead); Harry Chapin's 1974 "Cats in the Cradle" (this one's for you, Go Heath!); Chic's 1977 "Dance, Dance, Dance (Yowsah, Yowsah, Yowsah)," which I thought was going to be Steve Miller Band's (also) 1977 "Swingtown;" the Hall & Oates 1980 version of "You've Lost That Lovin' Feeling," and Bachman-Turner Overdrive's 1974 "You Ain't Seen Nothin' Yet."

1:30 p.m., Russell County Lakers (26-8) vs. Franklin County Lady Flyers (30-5)

6:30 p.m., Independence Simon Kenton Lady Pioneers (27-6) vs. Paintsville Lady Tigers (28-4)

8 p.m., Covington Holmes Lady Bulldogs (27-5) vs. Grayson County Lady Cougars (22-10)

Kentucky High-school Girls' Basketball, 16 Teams Left

Those are the 16 teams who are competing for the 2017 Kentucky High School Athletic Association girls' basketball championship, depicting the routes of the eight with state-tournament games today at BB&T Arena in Newport:

Noon Eastern, Louisville Sacred Heart Valkyries (29-5) vs. Louisville Butler Bearettes (32-2)

1:30 p.m., Murray Lady Tigers (26-5) vs. Nelson County Lady Cards (30-3)

6:30 p.m., Boyd County Lady Lions (26-8) vs. Mercer County Titans (27-6)

8 p.m., Winchester George Rogers Clark Lady Cardinals (29-4) vs. Harlan Lady Dragons (27-8)

You can find all kinds of valuable information at the fabulous KHSAA website, including a program and this handy list of radio stations carrying the network feed.

12 Teams Left

Here are the results from yesterday's quarter-finals.  We are sad for the Williamsburg Yellow Jackets, but we are happy that they made it to Rupp:

(7) Owensboro 55, Collins 38
(8) Hopkinsville 76, (4) Taylor Co. 64
(9) Cov. Catholic 64, Campbell Co. 43
Lou. Doss 56, Williamsburg 50

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

11 A.M.  Johnson Cent. (23-9) v. (1) Lou. Ballard (31-2)
12:30 P.M.  Lex. Catholic (24-8) v. Boyle Co. (26-6)
5:30 P.M.  Bowling Green (28-5) v. Elliott Co. (22-7)
7 P.M.  (3) Knott Co. Cent. (30-2) v. Calloway Co. (29-3)

By the way, yesterday we had a game between the 9th Region and the 10th Region (Cov. Cath v. Campbell Co.).  Today we have a game between the 11th Region and the 12th Region (Lex. Cath v. Boyle Co.).  And tomorrow we have a game between the 2d Region and the 3d Region (Hoptown v. Owensboro).