A group behind a new international film festival in Louisville reviewed more than 250 films submitted to choose those in that festival that starts tomorrow . WFPL’s Elizabeth Kramer has more.
Conrad Bachmann has worked as an actor for decades since leaving Louisville for Hollywood. Four years ago, he began working on what has become Louisville’s International Festival of Film. This weekend it will show 80 films.
Bachmann says he wanted to launch the festival to give back to his hometown and create a venue for filmmakers.
“It’s for independent filmmakers from around the world — we are an international festival — to give that independent filmmaker another opportunity to demonstrate his filmmaking, to create an opportunity for him to find distribution for his film,” Bachmann says. And it’s also to bring people to Kentucky.”
Bachmann says he worked with dozens of people to choose the films in the festival.
“I had directors and writers and actors and producers and development executives — they made the first and second cuts,” he says. “And then we have a jury of really professional people who understand filmmaking who are picking the winners.”
He says he created an organization called the Louisville Film Arts Institute to produce the festival and to raise funds for film education programs at local schools.
An ethics tip line for reporting alleged wrongdoing in Metro Government goes online tomorrow Thursday.
The toll-free line is operated by a third party, which maintains anonymity and files regular reports to Metro Government.
The tip line cost about 25 thousand dollars to set up and will cost about 20 thousand dollars each year to maintain. It’s the result of one of the two reform ordinances passed by the Metro Council in April. The other was e-transparency legislation to put city documents and spending reports online.
Metro Councilman Kevin Kramer sponsored the tip line legislation. He says Mayor Jerry Abramson’s office fought him on the ordinance at first.
“We were told by the administration that this really wasn’t necessary,” says Kramer. “We insisted on moving forward with it, pointed out the problems with the opportunities that supposedly people could’ve called in the information and pointed to times when the tip line would’ve been effective.”
Kramer says his next goal is to pass a revised ethics code for government employees.
“We still need to do some work, truthfully, on the ethics ordinance itself so that the public is more aware of what the expectation is of those who are elected and those who work for city government,” he says.
Republican Metro Councilman Ken Fleming is currently working on an ethics ordinance.
The tip line’s number is 1-888-226-2264.
Previously on WFPL: Group starts alternative tip line
From Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh.
Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear says he has no choice but to continue fundraising for his 2011 re-election bid. The fundraising allegedly drew criticism from Lt. Gov. Dan Mongiardo, who’s also beating the bushes for cash to support his Democratic bid for the U-S Senate. Beshear says no harm intended.
“There’s never a good time for a governor to raise money for his re-election because there’s always other elections going on,” he says. “But, all of them have to sort of coexist at the same time, and we’re going to try to do our fundraising in a steady fashion over the course of the next year or so, so that we don’t unduly interfere with any other elections that are going on.”
Beshear continues to question the authenticity of the comments allegedly made by Mongiardo. The governor says he hasn’t heard the audio, anonymously posted on the Internet, but firmly believes it was doctored.
“You know, you can make something out of anything if you’re good enough,” says Beshear. “And the ingenuity of folks these days is unparalleled, in terms of what you can do. So, I’m not concerned about it and I’ve told him that and we’re just gonna move on.”
Spokespersons for Mongiardo agree and say the governor continues to have Mongiardo’s strong support.
Kentucky Educational Television’s main channel will broadcast exclusively in HD starting Thursday, completing its digital transition.
KET spokesperson Tim Bischoff says the network wanted to go HD in April, when it turned off its analog signals, but didn’t have the technology to do so.
“We didn’t have all of the equipment in house that we required to be able to broadcast 24/7,” he says.
But now, KET-1 will broadcast in high-definition signals all day. Bischoff says the switch is the last large-scale update for some time.
“I’m not sure what the step beyond it would even be. I’m sure one day somebody will invent 3-d or smell-o-vision or something like that, but we’re not to that point,” he says.
KET had previously broadcast HD programs during prime time on its KET-HD channel. It will now become the Kentucky Channel 24-hours-a-day and broadcast only locally-produced programs.
Wednesday, September 30, 2009
Recovering Undersea Artifacts
Archeological excavations are challenging under the best of circumstances – it’s a delicate endeavor to unearth tiny pieces of artifacts without damaging them, and in a way that maintains the integrity and context of the site. So just imagine how those challenges are magnified when the entire operation takes place at the bottom of the ocean. This Wednesday we’ll learn about the recovery process for undersea artifacts, and the most famous underwater excavation – the Titanic.
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The Jefferson County Commission on Racial Fairness is conducting a new survey, this one about the everyday workings of the county judicial system.
The commission was created in 2001 to investigate claims of racial bias in Jefferson Circuit Court. Panel chair and Court of Appeals Judge Denise Clayton says since then, the commission has conducted a series of studies on various race-related aspects of the local court system.
“The other areas where we have reports were on sentencing, the setting of bail, jury selection and now we’re looking at courtroom environment,” she said.
A new 26 question survey will be available on selected business days through October 12 at the Jefferson County Judicial Center and the Hall of Justice. It can be completed by citizens, attorneys, police officers, social workers and others, plus will be available to jail inmates. Participants are not required to reveal their identities.
From Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh
Two major power utilities in Kentucky are establishing separate accounts to recoup damage costs associated with last January’s debilitating ice storm.
Fifty-one percent of LG&E’s customers, mostly in Jefferson County, lost power during the ice storm. Forty-percent of Kentucky Utilities’ customers were impacted, but damage to KU’s system was more severe, since most of the outages were in hard-hit Western Kentucky.
KU wants to recoup $62 million in damage repair costs. LG&E wants $45 million.
The Public Service Commission is allowing each to establish separate accounts in those amounts, which the companies will try to recover through future rate increases. But the accounts are no guarantee of recovery. Both utilities must file rate cases with the PSC and seek approval for the recovery costs.
Both utilities also established separate accounts to recoup losses suffered last year from the remnants of Hurricane Ike. Combined, the utilities now have $134 million in deferred storm-related costs.
