Posted: February 8, 2010 – 6:21 pm
Presented by the Kentucky School of Art along with several other local arts and cultural organizations, the Mayoral Forum on the Arts and Culture is just getting started. It features 11 candidates in the crowded mayoral field and hopes to find out the candidates’ visions for the future of the arts and culture in Louisville.
The recession has hit the arts community hard as of late. In 2008, for instance, Mayor Jerry Abramson cut $1 million in arts funding to fill the projected $20 million budget shortfall. The budget cuts his smaller arts groups especially hard.
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Posted: February 8, 2010 – 2:15 pm
As a practicing omnivore, the rhetoric of PETA can be a little acerbic at times. I think a happy chicken is the tastiest kind of chicken despite how I’d be labeled as a murdering fascist. However, PETA’s proposal to erect a 5 1/2 foot-tall statue of a bloodied, crippled chicken in downtown Louisville makes more sense than it would at, ahem, first bite. Read More »
Posted: February 8, 2010 – 12:52 pm
At Least They Didn’t Use The ‘R’ Word: LMPD officers shot and killed a hammer-wielding, mentally-handicapped man Saturday night in the south end, prompting the usual question of “if an average citizen were to gun down a hammer-wielding, mentally-handicapped dude in the forest, and no one were around to hear it, would that citizens go to jail?” Answer: Yes, because they’re not a cop.
Donuts On Hold For Fraudulent Officer: More bad-LMPD news, courtesy of a fantastic investigative piece scribed by The Courier-Journal… Turns out 13-year Detective Crystal Marlowe falsified perp identifications, arrested a slew of innocent people and made a mockery of the criminal justice system — all the while having a spotless personnel record, including several commendations and the continued ability to wear a uniform. Me thinks Marlowe’s an extreme example of what might be common practice among the LMPD: Turn your head, move along and make sure the numbers satisfy the mayor’s office. (Or, in the words of my favorite character from HBO’s “The Wire”: “Sheeeeeeeeeeeeit.“)
Because Teleprompters Are For Elitist Baby-Hating Liberal Socialist Faggots: Or something. Or maybe Real ‘Mericans just can’t afford teleprompters. (WARNING: Andrea Mitchell Alert! Quaaludes strongly recommended)
Fanfare For The Inky Man: Gov. Steve Beshear is holding a ceremonial bill-signing/ vegan potluck/wet t-shirt contest to commemorate the successful bicameral passage of H.B. 302, which will bring 105 new jobs to Fayette County (which has largely been spared the unemployment crisis, but whatever) by constructing an aircraft hanger via $4 million in borrowed money. But it’s one of the few bills Frankfort has managed to pass and they must be very proud of themselves for it.
New Orleans Saints Win Mega-Ultra-Zenith-Bowl: And there were advertisements on television! And palpable drama! And co-opting the (on-going) tragedy of Hurricane Katrina for feel-good patriotism, on national television! Yay!
An Insulting Weather Report: It’s gonna snow about 2-4 inches tonight — which is probably the same amount you could subtract from your waistline if you would just be honest with yourself.
Posted: February 5, 2010 – 3:46 pm
We heard through the grapevine that Louisville Mojo’s editor Rick Redding has started a media beef with our humble publication over an advertisement found in this week’s edition. The boastful promotional quote in LEO reads:
In today’s world of blogs, vlogs, Tweets and chain e-mails, a printed newspaper may seem a little old-fashioned. And it is. At least in the sense that LEO still produces real quality journalism with–get this–verified sources. Sounds almost quaint, huh?
For some reason he took that message as a personal insult and decided to go all Tupac Shakur on LEO, saying it’s dumb to take “shots at people like us,” and that they have way more readers and “the last word,” in this faux feud.
We were going to poke fun at the blogger-in-chief, that is until we noticed this web advertisement on Mojo, which shows Redding’s (much younger, chiseled) frame standing over 500-feet tall. No way we’re going to mess with him.
Posted: February 5, 2010 – 2:45 pm
We love the internet, but sometimes Google’s AdSense leaves me scratching my head: I mean, I love Sarah Palin and all, but one picture of her face per page should suffice.
Posted: February 5, 2010 – 12:31 pm
End of an Era: After nearly 23 years of providing Kentuckians ample opportunity to vomit neon-blue slushies following a grueling ride on the Starchaser, bankrupt company Six Flags announced yesterday that they would be shuttering Kentucky Kingdom’s doors (perhaps for good), relocating its 40 rides and 50 full-time staffers to other parks around the nation, and forcing reg’lar folk to examine their navels should they ever desire fun in the sun.
Speaking of Shafting the Poor: The Transit Authority of River City is bleeding to death, but don’t worry, it’s part of the city’s deficit-management strategy to prevent low-income workers from going to the jobs they don’t have. And hey, we’re all tightening our belts these days; make sure you do the same so you don’t trip over your pants as you walk 3.2 miles to the unemployment office.
Irish Hill Comes Alive: Broken Sidewalk examines the different proposals to transform the Mad Max-esque brownfield in the Irish Hill neighborhood into something, well, more pre-apocalyptic: “I really recommend checking out the entire exhibit of all 20 entries from around the world at the Urban Design Studio on 3rd Street. Your last chance to see it in person is [tonight] at the Trolley Hop, so mark it on your calendar now.”
Because Nap-Time Is Too Expensive: Jefferson County Public Schools is closing half of its “tuition-based” pre-schools — citing (you guessed it) no fucking money — which will force middle-class families to place their children in ridiculous Montessori schools where the kids will learn how to hug themselves and lose at fights.
Rep. John Yarmuth Pokes Wall St. Bankers in Collective Eyeball With (Labored) Metaphorical Stick: “A few months after they received taxpayer dollars to rescue them from their own recklessness,” said Yarmuth, “it is unconscionable that AIG would so extravagantly reward executives who owe their company’s profitability to the American people. Congress needs to immediately pass comprehensive Wall Street reform legislation to rein in these big banks and corporations and put an end to this irresponsible activity once and for all.” Following this, The Yarm has co-sponsored a bill to tax 50 percent of excessive bonuses, plus a bunch of other neat things, which can be found here.
An Insulting Weather Report: It’s raining, idiot.
Posted: February 5, 2010 – 10:34 am
As a registered independent, I found the comments made by Sen. Julian Carroll, D-Anderson, about voters like myself to be, quite frankly, hilariously stupid.
While I’m sure we all respect Sen. Carroll’s 175 years of service to the commonwealth (did you know he helped Daniel Boone pick out the curtains for the old Capitol?), his logic (or lack of it, evidenced here) regarding America’s glorious and efficient two-party system is troublesome: Instead of trying to change Kentucky’s closed primary system — which has the effect of entrenching corrupt, senile “legislators” whom will remain nameless for the purposes of this post — Carroll suggests that independents should instead seek to create their own party and leave him the hell alone.
We shouldn’t have to break out the Groucho Marx quotations to understand this, but the independent’s raison d’etre precludes party affiliation. Or, to put this in language that Sen. Carroll would understand:
YOU ARE KILLING ‘MERICA NOW GO TO BED YOU SILLY OLD FART.
Posted: February 3, 2010 – 4:44 pm
In this week’s issue of LEO Weekly, you can read Editor Sarah Kelley’s fantastic interview with Metro Louisville’s outgoing “Mayor for Life” Jerry Abramson. However, because I and fellow staff writer Phillip M. Bailey lack the journalistic integrity of Ms. Kelley, we’ve decided to offer the following “alternative” questions that were left out of the actual interview.
After all, the best interview with the mayor is one in which the mayor isn’t really being interviewed. Read More »
Posted: February 3, 2010 – 2:19 pm
Beyond the broad Plexiglas windows that line the Muhammad Ali Center’s 6th floor special events room, the Ohio River winds far into the horizon. If you use your imagination, you can almost see the two new bridges envisioned by the 30-years-in-the making, $4 billion-plus Ohio River Bridges Project — one of them to built downtown, squeezed against the 2nd Street Bridge; another along River Road in the east end (that is if certain “preservationist-minded” interest groups don’t muck things up); plus expansions of I-64, I-65 and Spaghetti Junction.
But imagination was in short supply during the Bi-State Bridges Authority’s first meeting, which convened yesterday for the first time since the authority’s inception six months ago. However, there was plenty of hypocrisy to go around. Read More »
Posted: February 3, 2010 – 9:00 am
Wow. Just when you’ve completely given up hope that the Kentucky state legislature would ever pass a bill that doesn’t involve telling women what they can and cannot do with their vaginas, they go and do a thing like this:
House Bill 70, a proposed constitutional amendment that would restore voting rights more than 186,000 former felons once they’ve served their time, passed out of the House Elections and Constitutional Amendments committee with an unanimous vote of 8-0. While we were expecting to get it passed through this committee with relative ease, we did not expect unanimous support. This bodes well for the bill’s chances as it moves to the floor to await a full vote of the House. One highlight of the hearing was having Janssen Willhoit, a former felon, speak alongside testimony from our allies. [Kentuckians for the Commonwealth]
This marks the first time H.B. 70 has moved this quickly through the House E.C.A. committee — which hopefully suggests the bill’s time has finally come.
