Track The Many, Many EPA Enforcements

The Environmental Protection Agency has put out an interactive map that lets you track enforcement actions by location and by type (air, land, water, criminal, federal). You can click here to take a look. In Louisville, the highlights include citations for MSD, a few businesses and an apartment building.

Metro Parks’ Wishlist

Mayor Jerry Abramson outlined his ideas for how Louisville’s parks will look in 2015 in his State of the City address last week. Here is Metro Parks’ reaction to the speech.

And here’s their parks wish list:

at Jefferson Memorial Forest, miles of new trails for hiking, horseback riding and mountain biking, plus a new campground

continued construction of popular recreation amenities, like playgrounds and walking paths

improved arts and nature education programming

restored access to Otter Creek Park through a new operator

a greatly improved clubhouse facility for Charlie Vettiner golf course

a new, state of the art recreation center, replacing or supplementing outdated facilities in the west end

increased citizen involvement through volunteerism and stewardship

Those are some of the park improvements we’re dreaming about. Some of those the city can make happen, while others will require private funding or innovative partnerships. Schedules will be determined, in part, by the pace of economic recovery.

That’s One Way To Pay For A Bridge

Architect Steve Wiser has this idea for using gambling to pay for bridges:

But in all seriousness, here is Wiser’s real bridges plan. (PDF)

Some highlights:

…build two local-access bridges: one parallel to the Clark Memorial Bridge, and the other parallel to the K & I Bridge. These local access bridges will remove resident traffic from the Interstate bridges. Also, Build I-71/I-64

East Downtown-Med Center Access Connector

Connect these two new local-access bridges by an upper-level ‘busway’. This busway will facilitate access for the Medical Center, Arena-Hotels-Downtown, Russell-Portland neighborhoods, New Albany, Clarksville, and Jeffersonville.

The Supreme Court Ruling And Kentucky

If you haven’t seen it yet, there’s a pretty nice writeup in the CJ about the SCOTUS ‘corporate personhood’ ruling and what it means for elections in Kentucky.

Craig Dilger, chairman of the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance, said the ruling conflicts with Kentucky’s Constitution, which prohibits corporations from giving anything of value to a candidate for office. The registry may have to change its rules or seek legislation to comply with the ruling.

Dilger said the state needs to consider requiring corporations that engage in political activity to disclose their activity and determine if it can limit the amount of money that could be spent on behalf of a candidate.

Emily Dennis, general counsel for the registry, said the decision won’t affect the state’s prohibition on corporate contributions directly to campaigns.

Indiana imposes limits on corporate and labor contributions to campaigns and campaign committees, which are not affected by the court’s decision. However, it does not restrict independent corporate expenditures on advertising during campaigns, though such commercials are rare.

[edit]

Kentucky Senate President David Williams, R-Burkesville, said he doesn’t believe the court ruling will make much difference, since corporations and labor unions have in the past been “ignoring” the law by using PACs and “527 groups,” so named because they are organized under Section 527 of the federal tax code.

In Indiana, some expect the court’s decision to open the door to major spending on Indiana’s federal races, especially in Democrat Baron Hill’s 9th Congressional district — which has been hotly contested over the last decade. This year at least three Republicans, Including New Albany businessman Mike Sodrel, plan to seek the party’s nomination to try to unseat Hill.

“This absolutely changes the game,” said former state Democratic Party Chairman Kip Tew, who was a co-chairman of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign in Indiana. “This would mean that Mike Sodrel’s (trucking) company could now do whatever it wanted to help Sodrel get elected.”

Sidewalk Defenders Victorious

Less than a week after CART’s protest, the sidewalk at Bardstown Road and Edgeland Avenue is clear.

Broken Sidewalk reports:

…developer Michael Jones has opened up the sidewalk two and a half weeks ahead of schedule.  CART (Coalition for the Advancement of Regional Transit) held a rally at the site on Monday to draw attention to the city’s sidewalk closure permit process that doesn’t provide pedestrians a viable path around construction sites.

Kudos to Michael Jones of Highland Cleaners and Doric Real Estate as well as Councilman Tom Owen and Public Works for responding quickly to community concerns.  Thanks as well to CART for drawing attention to the needs of pedestrians in Louisville.

Now we can walk by the site and wait for it to turn into this.

The Urban Services Feature

I produced a feature on WFPL about the discrepancy between Urban Services District tax revenue and the cost of urban services. You can listen to the expanded story here. The USD tax doesn’t generate enough money to pay for the services USD residents get, but the argument is over whether all the shared benefits are worth more than $10 million dollars (a small percentage of the city’s total budget) to residents of the old county. Certainly, everyone benefits from dead animal pickup and street cleaning in their neighborhoods, but what’s the value of not having your downtown office building burn down or not having to pass through streets filled with trash when you go to work or come to the old city to eat, shop or hang out?

*To give credit where it’s due I worked with Dan Klepal of the Courier-Journal when researching and conducting interviews.

Meth On The Rise In Kentucky

We’ve reported on meth in Louisville, and statewide, meth production is soaring.

From the Kentucky State Police:

KSP reports that there were 716 meth labs in the Commonwealth last year which is an all time high for the state, increasing sixty percent over the 2008 totals.

The last record was set in 2004, when 600 labs were discovered. The production of meth in Kentucky dropped after a 2005 law went into effect requiring that purchases of pseudoephedrine (PSE) tablets be made at pharmacy counters. This ‘pharmacy log’ statute (KRS 218A.1446) had an immediate effect by substantially reducing meth labs in the state by fifty percent over a three-year period.

Major Joseph Williams, Commander for the KSP Special Enforcement Troop, contributes meth’s popularity to the relatively easy cooking process, the highly addictive nature of the drug and the ease of obtaining pseudoephedrine.

It appears that arrests are still not curbing production, and I wonder if the extra lab busts mean better enforcement or more labs and more amateurs making the drug.

Tandy Releases Policy Statement

At his campaign kickoff today, Democrat David Tandy said this:

You can’t have more good-paying jobs if you don’t have an educated workforce that’s ready to go into those jobs on day one. And you can’t have a good educational system if you have children worrying each and every day how they’re going to find the next meal or have a roof over their head.

Tandy’s plan, if elected, is to try and improve education, homelessness, transportation, employment, etc, as each issue relates to the other. Here is his policy statement. (PDF link)

Your thoughts?

We’re Number 18!

Because we love talking about broadband internet, we couldn’t help but link to this report. It’s a few days old, but we haven’t heard much talk about it.

According to Akamai, the United States ranks 18th in worldwide internet speeds. In fact, speeds have dropped 2.4% since last year. That’s compared to Czech Republic (#10), Ireland (#6) and South Korea (#1), where speed percentages increased by double digits.

LPM’s Haiti Relief Campaign

Louisville Public Media (that’s us) is working with Partners In Health to raise money for Haiti earthquake relief. You can donate here. WFPK Program Director Stacy Owen also has a concert planned:

On Sunday January 31st WFPK will fundraise on-air during jazz programming with a concert by The Harry Pickens—Dick Sisto Duo, live, at 4pm in the performance studio! Listeners are invited to attend this first come, first seated show in our studios for a minimum donation of $10.00.