Oh, Kentucky

A former EKU cheerleader who grew up in Winchester was working at a Las Vegas Hooters, where she met a model. They started dating. Then he got a job as a server at a restaurant featured in a Bravo reality-TV series. Then the guy and the woman from Winchester ended up getting their own Bravo spinoff, and on Saturday they got married at the Kentucky Castle in Versailles. People has exclusive photos and coverage--including details such as that former 'NSYNC performer Lance Bass officiated and that rentals were provided by Bryant's Rent-all of Lexington. "Mr. Vernon Bryant started in the rental business in Lexington, Kentucky in 1953, as a United Rent-All franchise store. His store was located at 531 South Limestone, just opposite the University of Kentucky. This was the first equipment rental store in central Kentucky. The telephone book did not have 'rental' as a heading at the time, so Mr. Bryant was the first business under that heading."

A mechanic decided to shift to law enforcement in 1957. He retired Friday from the Campbell County Sheriff's Office.

Hazard's new police department is an old McDonald's.

The U.S. Postal Service says Louisville's Girard Drive has gone to the dogs, and so they aren't going there for now.

Good jobs news from Wurtland.

World's largest pocketknife, in Radcliff.

"That's OK if you don’t believe in it, but it’s all about everybody being treated fairly." Shamarria Morrison has an interesting feature on Paducah's "safe spaces" for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer or sexual-identity-questioning people.

Christmas parades: Dawson Springs and Murray, Dec. 1; Hopkinsville, Dec. 6, and Henderson and Scottsville, Dec. 7.

Oh, Kentucky

Let's play. Everyone. Even with the thunderstorms. In Madisonville, as of this week.

Kentucky Council of Churches, "Re-claiming Jesus," in Morehead come October.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers put on a community meeting in Loyall to talk about flow issues at the local lagoon, and the resulting Harlan Enterprise staff report is just chock-full of interesting phrases: "top priority," "design flaw," "right of entry," "whether or not equipment would be parked on properties," "drilling for core samples," "attract copperheads to den and feed in the area," "weren’t in favor of signing and left the meeting without doing so" and "did not yet have a formal plan to fix the problems," among them.

"I feel it's like a time capsule that we just opened up." Nice Jeremy D. Wells feature in the Grayson Journal-Enquirer on an intriguing discovery at an old U.S. 60 truck stop in Globe.

"This industry is new — there’s some growing pains along the way, but we’ll get there." Interesting dispatch from the Owensboro front of the fledgling industrial-hemp game, from Katie Pickens in The Owensboro Times.

WPSD's Shamarria Morrison with a crisp, clear anchoring of a good, thorough story with a lot of moving pieces: "The National Fire Protection Association says Paducah needs 62 firefighters. The city has a budget for 59. (Paducah fire chief Steve) Kyle said the department currently employs 54."

Goodbye to Gunny: LMPD's sniper team leader retires after 42 years of service https://t.co/N1qKbnFGba pic.twitter.com/xXXAaUq6CW

— WDRB News (@WDRBNews) May 31, 2019

No. 1 for purchasing power among Kentucky's 120 counties? Oldham. For cost of living? Owsley. For median income? Back to Oldham. So says SmartAsset, "a financial technology company aiming to provide the best personal finance advice on the web."

Kentucky's safest city? Vine Grove, says Safewise, "a resource for safety and security issues."

And the safest college? University of the Cumberlands, per "a new report released by safety experts at Your Local Security."

Hiring in Ledbetter (to operate the water and sewer systems).

Oh, Kentucky

Mark your calendars for this free family-friendly Oktoberfest! pic.twitter.com/xfVX3psdNk

— Boone County Library (@boonelibrary) September 12, 2017

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 18; Barbourville, Georgetown, Madisonville and Winchester, Dec. 2; Lexington, Dec. 6, and Hopkinsville, Dec. 9.

Thomas George came home to Paducah to promote his latest book, and it turns out that he's in a bit of a tiff with Mike Martz.

Good jobs news from Jamestown and Madisonville.

Fiber to the home in Bowling Green.

Shaun King is almost certainly getting my vote for Kentuckian of the Year, but mad props to Rachel Ritchie, too.

Gov. Bevin suggests to post-secondary educators that Kentucky's colleges should cut departments not producing graduates who are in high demand among industry.

Rest in peace, Mr. Leach of Fordsville, Marines rifleman, truck driver and widower/father/grandfather.

Uni

Oh, Kentucky

Also, they're dedicating a butterfly waystation at Barren River Lake State Resort Park on Monday, and you're invited ("refreshments will be served").

Where is Derek Willis now? Larry Vaught reports in Maysville's Ledger-Independent that the Detroit Piston and ex-Bullitt East Charger and UK Wildcat--who is part Southern Arapahoe, Pawnee and Creek--and his fiancee have spent this week in Washington state, doing basketball camps for Native Americans.

The second decade of the Chamber Music Festival of Lexington starts Aug. 24.

Hiring in Madisonville (today ... "IMMEDIATE openings for Machine Operators and Factory Associates on ALL shifts! These positions are HOT AND WON’T LAST LONG!!")

"Like white on rice," Gov. Bevin is pursuing Toyota.

"They promoted some of these people that threatened to kill us and harm us."

Channel 6 delivers some prime Kentucky Board of Barbering 411.

Whitley County Schools rolls out a districtwide, 1-percent raise.

Safest? Safewise says Flatwoods.

Christmas parades: Owensboro, Nov. 18; Georgetown and Madisonville, Dec. 2, and Lexington, Dec. 6.

Oh, Kentucky

Well, if you missed Vine Grove's Mayberry Days, you really missed it.

"How would that make us feel as a community? Could it encourage more residents to beautify their own property? Could that environment even turn into an economic driver for the city and local business?"

Lexington says homelessness in the city is down more than 26 percent since 2014.

As of April, there were fewer people employed by Kentucky mines than at any points since 1898, says a new state report.

Hiring in Elkton.

The United States is the only industrialized nation that does not allow industrial hemp production. https://t.co/vFjjNC896e

— WKU Herald (@wkuherald) May 3, 2016

Oh, Kentucky

Went big and went home to Sonora a Jeopardy record-breaker, baby! Rock on, 12-year-old Skylar Hornback! 

Heath Eric--of Heath and Molly, who are back in Kentucky after playing in the Czech Republic earlier this summer--selected a more lively path than did Heath Me.

The bridge is back, Ledbetter than ever!

A Lawrenceburg-based preview of the 26th edition of the "World's Longest Yard Sale" (yeah, whatevs, U.S. 127) and a Clinton County-and-Shoney's-centric look back of the last five.

Good jobs news from Hickman (hooray for Fulton County!) and Paducah. About the bad there and in and around Fort Knox and Hazard.

Seven relentlessly grim minutes on the pending transition to 10-digit dialing in The 270/364. And an angry two cents from Columbia.

Dispatches from the front lines of the culture wars: About the Hawesville mayor's "inherently exclusionary column that contains explicit references to God and Jesus Christ," about the Gideons' distribution of Bibles in state schools, about the business of birthing in and around Hardin County.

Rest in peace, Mr. Crawford, author of "Pressbox Paragraphs" and imaginer of "Corbin County."

Oh, Kentucky

Paducah's old Kresge is coming down, but, thankfully and gloriously, MP3s of its old overhead background music can be downloaded from OddioOverplay.com (5 stars, highly recommended!).

All the people we used to know

They're an illusion to me now

Some are mathematicians

Some are carpenter's wives

Don't know how it all got started

I don't what they're doing with their lives

This week's #TBT at Kentuckeean.com features downtown Lexington, 1973.

I'd never heard of Rudell Stitch.

"This is a way I can keep it alive and let them know Tollesboro was something."

Reliving the beginnings of the Metcalfe County High marching Hornets.

Could we be at the end for the West Jessamine marching Colts? 

Gov. John Y. Brown opened an economic-development office for Kentucky in Japan in 1983. This guy was the first employee, and now he's retiring.

"Hardin County is sitting on a great series of reports. It has the attention of the state. Things are going well and it’s time now to push ourselves to another level. Don’t be content. Go all in."

Magnolia boom, too.

Louisville's Dizzy Whizz: still going, still reportedly good.

"Where Special People Matter" in Berea.

Battle of the #kyproud wines.

Transylvania's faculty want the university president to go.

UK's coach needs ("respectfully") the shipments to his house to stop.

What was Greg Oden doing in Bowling Green?

The show, which didn't, won't go on in Mayfield.

All systems are go for Frankfort's Funnel Cake 5K, however.

Also, I know we've noted the ongoing 400-mile yard sale across U.S. 68 a few times already this week, but I'm doing so again today just to have an excuse to use the following picture from 400mile.com.

Oh, Kentucky

Rest in peace, Mr. Hall, former Vine Grove councilperson, frequent driver of a 1967 Ford Torino convertible in parades and player of "anything that had a string."

Spike Lee is coming to Murray. Garrison Keillor came a few years ago, and then Dick Vitale came last year. Now Spike Lee. Murray's huge.

Boyle County's fiscal court has decided to stop praying out loud as a group during its meetings.

Channel 6 says Paducah's new mayor says she wants more flights at Barkley Regional, Fountain Avenue and Lowertown revitalization and a new downtown hotel.

KET News Quiz!

The KHSAA is making way for UK.

When I went to WKU in 1986, it was often discussed that Bowling Green had "the second-highest number of  restaurants per capita of any city in the United States, behind Los Angeles." I wonder if that was true. Anyway, a new one is on its way.

Owensboro's Christmas parade is hailed!

Top 10!

Oh, Kentucky

In finishing her darkness-delayed first round this morning, Lydia Gumm of Radcliff North Hardin did, indeed, close significant ground on Calloway County Anna Hack's lead in the KHSAA girls' golf tournament. The 2011 tournament co-runnerup played the last six holes of her first round in 2-under, and that pulls her to even for the tournament and tied for second with Marshall County's Cayce Hendrickson, four strokes behind Miss Hack. The other 2011 co-runnerup, Jackie VanMeter of Bowling Green South Warren, slipped further behind, however, and goes into the second round (scheduled to tee off about now) tied for 10th. 

Season 3 of dodgeball in Paducah.

Season 50 of hoops at Diddle Arena.

Year 50 of Lewis Caveland Lodging at Carter Caves.

Almost 200 pounds or prescription pills collected in Frankfort.

Reassuring jobs news for Calvert City and Madisonville.

Maysville's new music school.

Kuttawa's new show.

Owensboro's new downtown.

Vine Grove's new library.

"Barlow's newest youtube sensation."

Oh, Kentucky

Good jobs news from Georgetown. Great from Winchester.

Ford ramps up, too.

The Baptists retool.

Bell County passes.

"Downtown Louisville ... is well-positioned to continue to be the area’s and the state’s economic engine, officials said."

Western Kentucky tourism ascends.

H&S Charolais Farm near Caneyville reportedly has broken the record at the Mid-Kentucky Livestock Market in Upton, with the auction of a 1,480-pound cow for $1 per pound.

Here's the beef.

Among Kentucky's new "Ones:" Bardstown's Stephen Foster Story, Danville's Great American Dollhouse Museum, Horse Cave's Kentucky Down Under, Lexington's American Saddlebred Museum and Headley-Whitney Museum, Louisville's American Printing House for the Blind and KentuckyShow!, Lynch's Portal 31 Exhibition Mine, Petersburg's Creation Museum, the Pikeville Cut-Through Project and Winchester's Beer Cheese Festival and Ale-8-One.

The Middle Creek Clock invented by Thomas Zane Roberts includes a "Seth Thomas timepiece, a planetarium, a lunarium, and a dial showing the days of the week. ... The planetarium contains an abbreviated model of the solar system, built to scale, and shows the earth’s position relative to Jupiter, Mars and Venus. The orbit of each planet is precisely geared: while Venus gains one degree of arc in 1,656 days, Jupiter loses one degree of arc over 250 years."

Tougher tests.

A new library for New Haven.

Vine Grove, too?

But not Goshen.

Oh, Kentucky

It's morning in Hardin County again.

Some of my wife's family moved from western Kentucky to Detroit during the Great Depression, too.

Paducah Tilghman High product George Wilson, the strong safety of the 4-1 Buffalo Bills, continues to excel.

Meanwhile, a Kentuckian has already qualified for the Puppy Bowl.

The HistoryMobile rolls on. As does the Historical Marker Program. The Kentucky Historical Society gets around.

Not County?

The Hoptown paper has a new editor, new production schedule and new opinion-page focus.

The Kentucky desk will be monitoring the development of the Oak Grove Outlaws.

Oh, Kentucky

I love the nickname "Kuttawa Klipper," which I don't think I'd ever heard. So, thank you, Kevin Patton, a proud Murray State grad.

Good jobs news for Elizabethtown: "Paducah & Louisville Railway officials are set to announce plans to improve rail service on the line that runs between Louisville and western Kentucky and provides service to Fort Knox," reports The Associated Press. "The project in Hardin County will provide some 290 construction-related jobs and, officials say, assure reliable rail service and enhanced public safety." Bad from Maysville: "... This reduction is driven by product moves to other Emerson locations in North America and the need to most efficiently operate for our customers. Based on current business volume, this announcement affects between 100 and 150 hourly employees and a proportionate number of manufacturing salaried employees, whose jobs will be reduced over the next two-to-three years. ..."

Kentucky's flags are at half-staff today, in honor of a different type of fallen hero.

Another tribute.

One more. The Blue Grass League bears more study.

When in Florence, ...

I love it when people go outside conventional systems to do good stuff on the up and up.

Shaker Village is one of the thousands of Kentucky things about which I do not know enough.

I'm guessing the frustration of the Vine Grove folks who had the passion to launch this good idea are, A, lack of bookshelves and, B, folks who are willing to donate books--but only if somebody comes to fetch the from their homes.

Oh, Kentucky

Rest in peace, Stephen Irwin.

Bell County's is not the most uplifting year-end report you're going to read.

Or maybe it is, if you then stop after reading Nelson's. The quote in No. 9 ought to be in a movie: "I didn’t rob anybody, but since you think I did, you should give me the maximum."

Bad jobs news from Ashland, good from Louisville.

Doping Kentucky's political prospects.

What happens when a mine is done?

The National Quilt Museum heads to NoCal for its latest procurement.

Ah, footbah.

New Year's Rockin' Eve, Paducah-style.