Category — Louisville, Kentucky

Two Fort Campbell soldiers were killed during an attack in eastern Afghanistan on Tuesday, according to the military. Sgt. Jonathan J. Richardson, 24, of Bald Knob, Ark., and Pfc. Jason M. Kropat, 25, of White Lake, N.Y., were killed Tuesday.

In response to a request from Sen. Tim Shaughnessy, the state auditor’s office will examine “certain financial activity” among Passport Health Plan, University Medical Center, the University of Louisville and state government.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — The $250,000 annual salary of state Economic Development Secretary Larry Hayes would be cut nearly in half by an obscure provision in the House budget bill.

A bill that passed the Senate on Thursday would force the Breeders’ Cup to commit by Nov. 4 to running its 2011 or 2012 races in Kentucky in order to qualify for a pari-mutuel tax break this year.

A bill to allow Kentucky racetracks to operate an electronic horse racing game — a way to help the financially troubled industry — won approval from a Senate committee Thursday.

A former Iraqi diplomat said key democratic institutions failed in the run-up to his nation’s recent elections, but he found hope in the fact that its people appear to have voted against the religious divisions that raged just a few years ago.

After nearly two years of work, the Louisville Metro Council passed a revised ethics ordinance Thursday that expands the number of people covered by the law and tightens rules on how metro government officers — elected officials and political appointees — interact with government employees.

A bill to expand screening and treatment for colon cancer in Kentucky was approved by the House budget committee Thursday after a lawmaker agreed to withdraw a controversial abortion amendment.

A bill aimed at better protecting victims of domestic violence cleared a Senate committee in revised form Thursday. House Bill 1, called “Amanda’s Bill,” won unanimous approval from the Senate Judiciary Committee and now goes to the full Senate.

Kentucky’s unemployment rate ticked up to 10.7 percent in January as the state’s economy continued to struggle, the Office of Employment and Training reported Thursday.

Staci Eddleman has been named the new principal at Westport Middle School.

Visitors to the Louisville Zoo may soon have to be forgiven if they are left wondering if they’ve just been admitted to the wrong geologic age.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Gov. David Paterson’s administration dropped its support Thursday for a consortium chosen to build and operate up to 4,500 video slot machines at the Aqueduct racetrack, promising to further delay the 8-year-old plan to put a lucrative racino in Queens.

A Cambridge, Mass., firm has been approved to design a large office building at the University of Lousiville’s ShelbyHurst campus, formerly Shelby Campus near Shelbyville Road and Hurstbourne Parkway.

Construction will begin soon on two large parking garages in downtown Louisville, one that will serve activity near the Henry Clay and Fourth and Chestnut streets and the other that will cater to office and tourist traffic near the Glassworks, the ZirMed tower and activity at Ninth and Market streets.

FRANKFORT, Ky. — A House committee advanced a measure Thursday that would allow billboards with religious and other non-commercial messages to be placed along highways without state approval.

JAMESTOWN, Ky. — Federal officials said Thursday they don’t plan to lower the water level at Lake Cumberland while work is halted on a section of the lake’s massive Wolf Creek Dam in south-central Kentucky.

The House Labor and Industry Committee approved a bill Thursday that would give employees of state and local governments and school boards the right to collective bargaining.

Blasting Kenielle Finch for actions that were “selfish and reprehensible,” a Jefferson Circuit Court judge Thursday sentenced Finch to the maximum penalty of life in prison for running over and killing two young girls inJuly 2008 as he was fleeing from police.

Nine students at Jefferson County Traditional Middle School were suspended this week after illegal drugs were discovered at the school, a district spokesman said.

Police say they found more than 100 gallons of whiskey and 500 gallons of mash, from which the alcohol is made.

The questions are getting tougher, and more personal, in Louisville’s mayoral race — in part because on Wednesday the candidates got to ask one of each other.

Kentucky’s method of executing condemned prisoners could be in place again by May after a legislative committee raised no objection to the state’s three-drug lethal injection protocol.

The budget bill the House passed Wednesday would pay to replace eight school buildings that are among the state’s most dilapidated, and all are in the districts of Democrats who voted for a crucial revenue measure last week.

After more than three hours of impassioned debate, the House voted along party lines Wednesday to approve a $17.5 billion state budget that cuts two school days as well as higher education spending but funds a slew of new schools, roads and water and sewer lines.

Despite impending layoffs at Jewish Hospital & St. Mary’s HealthCare and at Humana headquarters, health care continues to grow as a portion of the Louisville-area economy, local economic experts and Mayor Jerry Abramson said Wednesday.

Thirty-four years after a pair of explosions killed 26 miners and mine inspectors, a bronze marker has been unveiled at the site of the Scotia mine disaster in eastern Kentucky.

Louisville Metro Police are investigating the death of a man who was found Tuesday in a University Hospital maintenance room near the campus’ main parking garage after he allegedly jumped from the garage’s top level.

Sound asleep, Cathy Bailey said she never heard the alarm triggered by the early Christmas Day fire that claimed the lives of her two young grandsons.

A bill to clarify laws governing special elections was amended by a Senate committee Wednesday to move Kentucky’s primary elections from May to August and the filing deadline from January to April.