Red Cross officials are blaming the economy for a poor showing at this week’s Donorama blood drive.
The Donorama was held Monday and Tuesday at the Executive West Hotel. The Red Cross hoped to collect 15 hundred units of blood, but came up more than 400 units short of the goal.
Red Cross spokesperson Loni White says fewer people are willing to make the trip to donate blood, and workplace drives have also stopped.
“Just in the last month or so, we have seen where businesses that once were thriving, where we had blood drives, are no longer doing that,” she says. “They are either cutting staff or cutting shifts or they have just closed anyway.”
The Red Cross will hold a recovery drive next Wednesday at its downtown offices. The agency hopes to gather at least 200 units of blood.
A Kentucky House lawmaker from Brandenburg wants to require adult supervision for minors under the age of 14 who want to do roadside fundraising.
Democrat Jeff Greer is sponsoring the legislation. The measure would require supervision for youngsters who stand on the roadside and collect money in buckets. Greer says he tried to get the legislation passed last year, but it didn’t make it out of the Transportation Committee.
“They often felt like this should be something done on a local level, but I certainly feel like it’s something we should look at on a statewide level,” says Greer.
Greer says since then, he’s talked with members of the committee and House leadership to try to get the bill a hearing on the floor.
The 2009 General Assembly convenes January 6th.
Louisville’s mayor says it’s been a tough year for the city – and he expects 2009 may be even tougher.
Louisville was hit by one of the worst snowfalls in decades early in the year, and later experienced the largest power outage in its history, caused by a windstorm on the eve of the Ryder Cup.
Mayor Jerry Abramson says those events, coupled with the economic downturn, made it a difficult year for the city. He’s hopeful a federal stimulus package in 2009 will help create jobs and build infrastructure.
“I think 2009 could be the year when you see a lot of those kinds of investments and jobs being created, and then the silver lining will be that 2010 is next,” says Abramson.
The mayor says he expects more government belt-tightening is on the way in 2009, but hopes the economy will turn around by 2010.
Thousands of Louisville-area residents have submitted requests for tickets to the presidential Inauguration.
Third District U.S. Congressman John Yarmuth’s office is responsible for distributing his allotment of tickets, but says demand far outweighs supply.
“I think it’s approaching 7,000 requests that we’ve had for tickets,” he says. “And we were allocated 198, so unfortunately a lot of people are not going to be happy about that.”
The inauguration is January 20th. Yarmuth has no official role in the ceremony.
Louisville’s Interfaith Paths to Peace organization will host a special New Year’s Day service.
Executive Director Terry Taylor says the main purpose of the ceremony at St. William Catholic
Church is to offer prayers for peace in the world in 2009.
“Those who are joining us at 10:00am are representatives of a number of the world’s great
religions, not only Roman Catholics, but representatives of our Tibetan Buddhist community…a local sufi from the Islamic community, representatives of the Jewish community, the Unitarians, Unity, Quakers and others,” Taylor said.
The service is open to the public. St. William Church is located at 13th and Oak Streets.
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Tech Talk
The holidays are over and you finally got that new cell phone, e-reader, digital camera, or new computer you’ve been dreaming about. With great excitement you took it out of its packaging, savoring that new-electronics smell, plugged it in, turned it on, and… hmm, that’s strange. It’s not working like you thought it would. Never fear, just tune in on New Year’s Eve for another edition of our biannual tech talk show! Call us with your questions and our techie gurus will have your gadgets going by the time it’s 2009.
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For the third year, a bill has been filed in the Kentucky General Assembly that would require girls to be vaccinated against a virus that is the source of almost all cervical cancer. WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer reports.
In 2006, the federal government approved a vaccine that immunizes females against the human papillomavirus or HPV, which is sexually transmitted. Since then,
Rep. David Watkins of Henderson has filled three bills that would require girls to receive the vaccine. It also allows parents to decline immunization for their children and file statements with state government. Some people believe immunizing girls is a act that encourages promiscuity.
The bill failed to pass the Senate in the last two General Assemblies. Still, Watkins is trying again, even though he knows that not all of his constituents who have daughters would have them immunized.
“I have a few people that don’t want their daughters to have the vaccine,” Watkins says. “And I think that’s perfectly acceptable as long as they understand that this could possibly keep their children from contacting cervical cancer. I would like to see our state to move forward and become a progressive state though.”
Watkins says the vaccine is a breakthrough in cancer prevention that can benefit a state that is consistently ranked as one of the country’s unhealthiest.
“This vaccine, basically, stands a chance of protecting young ladies from cervical cancer about 70 percent of the time,” he says. “So, it’s really a miracle vaccine because it’s the first vaccine that we have out that actually stands a chance of preventing cancer.”
Watkins says the federal government would cover the cost of the program.
