Bridge to somewhere: Metro Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh, D-9, is still fighting for her resolution that asks for more public hearings on the $4.1 billion Ohio River Bridges Project. The resolution was rejected in less than five minutes by the council’s transportation committee last week in favor of the resolution co-sponsored by Councilman Kevin Kramer, R-11, and Council President David Tandy, D-4, which green lights the project by allowing the mayor and governor to appoint Kentucky’s side of the bi-state authority. But Ward-Pugh says a growing number of council members favor public discussion and are drafting amendments to the Kramer-Tandy measure. She says they will deliver them at the full council meeting tonight.
Blame it on the moon: Talk about fitting the Appalachian stereotype: Kentucky State Police found 66-year-old Lee Bray making moonshine in his Leslie County home in eastern Kentucky. Besides finding 28 gallons of illegally produced, home-distilled alcohol, state police found Bray cultivating marijuana and having controlled prescription drugs not in a proper container.
Best vacation ever: An internal audit report on the city’s payroll system revealed that Mayor Jerry Abramson exempted two top administrators — then-Chief Financial Officer Jane Driskell and then-Deputy Mayor Rick Jonhstone — from Metro government’s vacation pay policy. Yesterday the council’s Government Accountability and Oversight Committee questioned adminstration officials about the mayor’s decision and the lack of uniformity in employee policy. “The only problem I see is that I didnt write it down,” said Human Resources Director Bill Hornig. “I should have done that.”
Time to go home: Col. Timothy R. Reese, a senior American military adviser in Baghdad, said in a blunt memo that the Iraqi forces are now capable of protecting their government. It is time “for the U.S. to declare victory and go home.”
City of Jobs: Unemployment rates climbed in all major U.S. metropolitan areas, according to a report issued by the U.S. Labor Department. The department looked at cities with populations of over 1 million and it doesn’t look good. The report lists that Louisville had a 10.5 percent unemployment rate compared to 6.3 percent last year. The city of Detroit had the highest rate of 17.1 percent and the lowest was Oklahoma City, at 6 percent.