More Than Major Parties In The Mayor’s Race

LEO has the story of independent candidate for mayor Jackie Green. Green is the most active of the at least three independents running, and he was barred from participating in last week’s debated, sponsored by the Home Builders Association:

“We know where Mr. Green stands on development, and it is strictly focused on the urban area and redevelopment,” says Tara Brinkmoeller, a spokeswoman for Home Builders. “We know that he doesn’t believe new development should occur. And knowing that he speaks directly against what we stand for, we didn’t feel it was a forum that would’ve been appropriate.”

Still, the impassioned independent rode his bicycle to the event to hear his opponents’ remarks. According to Green, however, a Louisville Metro Policeofficer stopped him at the door, saying debate organizers had ordered law enforcement not to allow him on the premises.

“Then I said, ‘Let’s go talk to Charles Kavanaugh (executive director of the Home Builders Association),’ and we had a little discussion. They decided that I could stay, but still couldn’t participate,” says Green. “And I listened to two candidates who had the gall to talk about open and inclusive government, but they willingly participated in a closed and exclusive exercise.”

The day before the event, Brinkmoeller says the real estate group received a string of e-mails from Green’s campaign, which called for his supporters to come out to the event.

Conway Gains One Point In Latest Poll

The latest Rasmussen Poll of the U.S. Senate race continues the trend of the last two, albeit more slowly. After the primary, Republican Rand Paul had a 25-point lead over Democrat Jack Conway, according to the often right-leaning Rasmussen. A subsequent poll gave Paul an 8-point lead, and the latest survey shows no drop for Paul’s numbers, but a one-point increase for Conway: putting the Democrat at 42% to Paul’s 49%.

Small-Town Grocery Stores May Be Endangered

Between 2006 and 2009, 38 percent of the rural and small-town grocery stores in Kansas closed.

The Rural Blog expands on this fact, quoting a source that says large chain stores can present a double-dip challenge to small towns. First, the stores offer lower prices or better selection than smaller markets. Second, if a market closes or is no longer competitive, people are less likely to move to a town with limited access to certain foods.

The post goes on to describe a possible solution:

The Obama administration hopes its Healthy Food Financing Initiative will mitigate the problem. The departments of Treasury, Agriculture and Health and Human Services would spend $400 million a year “to bring grocery stores and other healthy food retailers to underserved urban and rural communities,” Blaney writes, though it isn’t clear yet how the money will be split between urban and rural areas.

Sixth District Seat Interview Summary

Tonight (Wednesday) the Metro Council will elect a new Sixth District councilmember to fill the seat left vacant by the death of George Unseld.

The council interviewed ten candidates for the seat yesterday. LEO has a rundown of the interviews. It’s interesting to see how the council’s questions reflect what they may be looking for in a new member. The LEO summary makes the point that some councilmembers may want someone to continue Unseld’s activism and method of distributing funds.

Kentucky Ranks High For Gun Ownership, Obesity

A report issued today ranked Kentucky the 7th most obese state, among adults and the third most obese for children.

And it’s also been pointed out that Kentucky leads the nation in pre-gun purchase background checks per capita.

These two stats are not related, but they continue to make me want to start another blog and only posts national lists that rank Kentucky near the top or bottom.

Watch The Council Interviews

The Louisville Metro Council today (Tuesday) will interview the 11 remaining people who have filed to fill the 6th District seat, previously held by George Unseld.

You can watch the meeting online starting at 4:30, and the audio and video will be archived.

The council will nominate finalists Wednesday evening. The winner must receive 13 votes.

You can see the applicants’ resumes here and here. And below are the 11 remaining candidates:

1. Neeka L. Parks Thompson
2. Carol Clark
3. Ken Herndon
4. Cassia Herron
5. John P. Albers
6. Phillip T. Baker
7. Keith B. Hunter
8. Deonte Jamar Hollowell
9. Rachel M. Hurst
10. Bobbie D. Powell
11. Kevin L. Dunlap

Fancy Farm Lineup Coming Together, No Word From Conway Or Paul

The lineup for this year’s Fancy Farm Picnic is falling into place…slowly.

The picnic will be held on the 6th and 7th of August. Senator Mitch McConnell and State House Minority Leader Jeff Hoover will both attend, but several other notable politicos have not yet RSVP’d.

Republican Rand Paul and Democrat Attorney General Jack Conway — have still not said whether they will attend Fancy Farm.

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According to information provided by St. Jerome’s 2010 Fancy Farm Picnic organizers, those who have already RSVP’d for the event include Paul and Conways’ former rivals — Democrat Lt. Governor Daniel Mongiardo and Republican Secretary of State Trey Grayson. Grayson was defeated by Paul, a Bowling Green eye surgeon, in May. Conway squeaked out a victory against Mongiardo.

One Republican who has already said he won’t be there is Agriculture Commissioner Richie Farmer, thet former University of Kentucky basketball stand out who has been mentioned as a possible Republican challenger to Democrat Gov. Steve Beshear.

Beshear, Conway, Paul, State Auditor Crit Luallen and State Treasurer Todd Hollenbach have also still not confirmed whether they will appear…

This being an election year, it would be surprising if Conway and Paul didn’t attend. Mayor Jerry Abramson attended last year’s picnic as the freshly-named Lt. Gov. candidate for 2011. It will be interesting to see if he makes the trip this year to boost his name with people outside of Louisville.

Nine Out Of The Running For Vacant Council Seat

Nine of the twenty people who were seeking to replace late Louisville Metro Councilman George Unseld have either withdrawn their candidacies or have been disqualified.

The council will interviews the candidates Tuesday and vote on a successor Wednesday. There will be a special election for the seat in November.

How Broadband Stimulus Dollars Were Spent

The U.S. Government has awarded more than one billion dollars to improve broadband access and service. (PDF report) The money came in the form of loans and grants and went to 68 projects in 31 states, including Kentucky and Indiana.

The projects were of three types:

1. Thirteen last-mile remote projects ($161 million) will provide broadband service to households and other end users located at least 50 miles from the nearest nonrural area. These represent 19 percent of the awards and 15 percent of the total dollars awarded.

2. Forty-nine last-mile non-remote projects ($739 million) will provide broadband service to households and other end users in rural areas located less than 50 miles from the nearest nonrural area. These represent 72 percent of the awards and 69 percent of the total dollars awarded.

3. Six middle-mile projects ($167 million) will provide necessary “backbone” services such as interoffice transport, backhaul, Internet connectivity, or special access to rural areas. These represent 9 percent of the awards and 16 percent of the total dollars awarded.

And here is a chart for how the money was distributed:

Two projects in Indiana and one in Kentucky received funding. In Kentucky, about 80 million dollars (roughly half loan and half grant) will go to Mountain RTCC:

Mountain RTCC will deploy a fiber cable-based broadband network in Morgan, Menifee, Wolfe, and Elliott Counties of Kentucky. This network will provide over 20 Mbps bandwidth to end users. Mountain RTCC will bring affordable broadband access to these counties to enhance economic development and workforce training.

The Rural Utility Service says the projects “will bring broadband service to 529,249 households, 92,754 businesses, and 3,332 anchor institutions across more than 172,000 square miles.”

These community anchors, such as schools, libraries, healthcare providers, colleges, and critical community facilities, provide essential services for the safety, health, education, and well-being of residents. Without the BIP funding, such services would be cost-prohibitive in some communities. These projects also overlap with 19 Tribal lands. Last Mile Middle Total Non-remote Mile

The Round One awards will create approximately 5,000 immediate and direct jobs. Although it is difficult to calculate, the estimated number of jobs that will be created will bring long-term economic development opportunities to each 20 rural community where a broadband project is implemented.

This Week on State of Affairs

This is Laura Ellis with your weekly look at the SoA agenda.

Today we’re talking with Executive Director Bud Schardien to see what’s new at MSD, the Metropolitan Sewer District.  Tomorrow we’ll be investigating the causes, treatment and prevention of headaches and migraines.  On Wednesday – just in time for a break in the heat – we’re going to see what’s new with Metro Parks.

To get us in the right frame of mind for Independence Day, we’re spending Thursday with Ray Raphael, author of Founding Myths: The Stories That Hide Our Patriotic Past.

And of course, we’ll head into the weekend well informed after Friday’s State of the News – an hour of news analysis with the reporters who covered the stories.