A Kentucky Department of Agriculture report says the exact reason for the accident can’t be pinpointed, but the condition of a cable that snapped and the operator’s failure to hit an emergency stop button made the accident more severe than it might have been.
Kaityln Lasitter’s feet were severed last June when cables snapped on the Superman Tower of Power ride at Six Flags Kentucky Kingdom in Louisville.
Doctors were able to reattach Lassiter’s right foot, but not her left.
A Kentucky Kingdom says the park has audited maintenance, training and safety procedures. The Lassiter family is suing the park, alleging that it did not properly maintain the ride.
(Listen to the story here.)
In a warehouse on the Ohio River’s industrial waterfront, Berea Ernst shows off what’s in stock.
“These are some of our inch and a half thick, free-range pork chops, grown in Breckinridge County. This is some of our grass-fed beef.”
Ernst manages Grasshoppers– a new business dreamed up by grassroots organizers from the Community Farm Alliance. The basic idea is to help farmers working around Louisville get their products to bigger urban markets, more efficiently. Grasshoppers sends out one truck to pick up what’s available from the 40 or so farmers who participate. Then it sells those fresh produce, meat and dairy products wholesale, the next day, to institutions and restaurants.
“We find out what the producers have, put it on an availability sheet, send that to our customers. They order from us and then we turn around and buy that amount from the farmers, so we’re not warehousing a lot of product.”
Ernst says many of the farmers who participate wouldn’t otherwise have access to these kinds of markets. She says farming is tough enough. So is marketing your product and finding new customers. Add to that the fact that many farmers are switching from growing tobacco –a crop that had its own markets, its own equipment, its own distribution system. Those don’t necessarily work for growing zucchini or raising sheep.
“So now not only are we switching crops, we have to develop transportation and marketing is a huge curve as well. So it’s putting all those pieces in place. And we feel like Grasshoppers is one of the last links in that chain.”
The city of Louisville wants to strengthen that infrastructure too. City planners have hired consultants to recommend ways to address a growing demand for locally grown food. Consultant Karen Karp says that when it comes to supplying big urban customers, farmers face more hurdles than just getting the product to market.
“Getting the product consolidated, into the kinds of packs and boxes and pallets that can get on a truck, and where is that truck, and who’s running that truck, to get it from a to b.”
Consolidated onto pallets so that big food service operations can buy it. And Karp says even the largest food suppliers and distributors are looking for ways to buy and sell more locally…especially given the astronomical price of diesel. But what about smaller buyers, like you and me…why aren’t we able to walk into a supermarket and find plenty of local food? We know that within a few hours of Louisville, you can find farmers producing everything from goat cheese to maple syrup to squash. Karen Karp says it’s because urban centers have lost touch with their rural surroundings. In other words, our food system is broken.
“The actual communication connections, the brokering of deals, some of those have been broken, and they’re relatively simple to fix – but they’re there, they’re right there, bubbling at the surface.”
Some of the consultants’ proposals for fixing that broken system might include starting a small food distribution company, like Grasshoppers’ model. Or they might include building a large, year-round, indoor farmer’s market. Local food won’t replace everything we buy, but Louisvillians could soon find more opportunities to eat local. And thanks to some other grassroots efforts, that’s including more and more lower income Louisvillians. For them, local food is often too expensive or simply not available.
In the unlikely setting of a downtown parking lot, surrounded by barbed wire and an overflowing dumpster, Timothy Tucker describes his garden.
“We have everything from fresh sage, these are tarragon… fresh, mixed greens, like you would have in a fine dining restaurant.”
This is not a fine dining restaurant. The rows of herbs and salad greens are for the dishes Chef Tucker and his staff prepare every night in the Salvation Army kitchen. Yet another garden around back will produce heirloom tomatoes, beans, and more–all in the shadow of noisy I-65 in downtown Louisville. It’s about as local as food can get.
But to feed hundreds of people a night, Tucker needs more than his gardens. So he’s woven together a network of providers and donors – many of which offer local food. One donor paid for a share in a community farm, which delivers a box of fresh produce once a week. Another donor bought an acre of land, hired a farmer, and promised to send everything he produces to Tucker. Sitting in the dining room, Tucker says that when he actually has to buy food, it’s painful.
“Sitting down with a local supplier a few weeks ago, he informed me that a lot of items went up 30% in the last year.”
Fuel and food prices are driving up costs everywhere. And that’s even tougher on the residents of neighborhoods like West Louisville, where many of his clients come from. But he says his clients have come to appreciate the fresh food he serves, and his bosses have come to appreciate lower food bills. But still, Tucker’s is just one small effort. He says he hopes all of the local food projects underway here will start to coalesce, so that everyone can have a taste.
After 25 years, the Ann Gotlib case is still unsolved and open.
The 12-year-old Gotlib disappeared from Bashford Manner Mall on June 1, 1983, prompting a massive but unsuccessful search. Local police have been working with the FBI since then to find out what happened to the girl.
Major Dave Wood is the commander of the Louisville Metro Police Criminal Investigation Section. He says the case will remain open indefinitely.
“Well it’s not closed obviously because we don’t know where Ann Gotlib is,” says Wood. “Obviously until we physically have a body or somebody tells us where she is or she walks in the door right now and says, ‘Here I am’ it’s going to be an open case.”
Wood says the LMPD continues to receive occasional tips about the case.
Catholic Charities of Louisville and other Kentucky organizations will share a $240,000 federal grant to combat human trafficking.
It’s one of five national awards from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services to find solutions to the trafficking problem, which commonly involves people who are brought into this country and forced into prostitution or slave labor.
Catholic Charities spokesperson Bart Weigel says the money will be shared with agencies in Lexington, Covington, Frankfort and elsewhere.
“Its purpose is to go ahead and provide resources to assist in outreach as far as public awareness in identifying victims of this crime, also support and training for those types of communities that would be working with those victims,” Weigel said.
Weigel adds that it’s difficult to determine how many human trafficking victims there are in Kentucky because of its secretive nature.
The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops estimates that as many as 17,000 men, women and children are trafficked into this country each year and subjected to modern-day slavery.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Publishing Your First Book
Maybe you’ve browsed through some less-than-spectacular selections in your local bookstore and thought, “I could do better.” Or perhaps your first novel has been sitting, neglected and dusty, in your bottom desk drawer. When you want to publish a book, it can be tough knowing where to start. Should you self-publish? Should you use a literary agent? Will you need a lawyer to look over the paperwork before you sign a contract? And what does it feel like when your book is finally in print and you’re holding a copy in your hands? Join us this Friday for a conversation on publishing your first book.
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This page features some additional content gathered while producing and researching the feature on the city car fleet.
Here is part one my full interview with Mayor Jerry Abramson about the city take-home car program:
Here’s part two:
The following elected and appointed officials have vehicles provided by the city:
Jerry Abramson – Mayor
Robert White – LMPD Chief
Neal Richmond – EMS Director
Doug Hamilton – EMA Director
Tom Campbell – Corrections Director
Clarence White – Youth Detention Director
Ted Pullen – Public Works & Assets Director
Giles Miloche – Animal Services Director
Charles Cash – Planning & Design Director
William Schreck – IPL Director
Mike Heitz – Parks Director
John Walczak – Zoo Director
Ron Holmes – Coroner
David Stengle – Commonwealth Attorney
Everyone listed above pays $30 a month for their cars. The city pays for gas and maintenance.
Not all of those vehicles are technically for all day use, but this list of city vehicle purchases from 2004 to present shows that, among others, Parks Director Mike Heitz is always on call and can use his city provided Ford Escape Hybrid for personal use.
Column E of the fleet list explains how the cars can be used:
A vehicles are permanently assigned to a job slot for 24 hour use.
B vehicles are permanently assigned to a job slot for working hours, including travel to and from work.
C vehicles are permanently assigned to an agency/department for use during work hours only.
D vehicles are permanently assigned to elected officials.
Yellow marks unavailable data and red indicates classified information.
On Thursday afternoon the Louisville Metro Council got its first look at Mayor Jerry Abramson’s proposed budget for the next fiscal year.
The budget is based on the assumption that the local economy will grow by just 2.9 percent, the weakest growth in five years.
In an address to the council, the mayor said he’s not recommending cuts to public safety departments
“The balanced budget I present to you today does not eliminate police or fire classes as the Lexington mayor recently proposed wherein he’s facing a $10 million structural imbalance in his budget,” said Abramson.
Republican Councilman Kelly Downard says he’s eager to get a closer look at the spending plan.
“I’m confused that we’re showing 2.9% increase yet everything sounds like it’s going even or going down and so, where’s the money being spent,” he said. “We have to dig into it.”
Also in the budget is the construction of a new library and new animal shelter, and the purchase of lands for the Center City downtown development project.
