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Constables provide extra law enforcement officers and can be a significant help to law enforcement, despite a state report that calls the office "irrelevant," argues the president of the Kentucky Constable Association.

Constables are elected officials in Kentucky. Every county has a few, depending on the county's number of magisterial districts. Jefferson County has three.

Upon taking office, constables are given law enforcement powers akin to sheriffs. They can make arrests, perform traffic stops. But, the report notes, they do not have specific duties outlined in the constitution. The report also said that constables perform about .02 percent of recorded law enforcement activities in the state.

Beth Boehm has been appointed the new dean of the University of Louisville's School of Graduate and Interdisciplinary Studies -- a role she's filled on an interim basis since September 2009, the university announced.

She's the first permanent dean of the school, which in 2008 replaced the old Graduate School.

Actor, storyteller and friend of Byline Stephen Tobolowsky is on the air this month with four all-new, hour-long storytelling radio specials modeled around his new book, The Dangerous Animals Club. 

WFPL was one of the first stations in the country to broadcast The Tobolowsky Files, and we'll bring this new four-part series every Thursday at nine pm, beginning November 8th.

A Red Cross volunteer from Kentucky has been helping residents of northeastern West Virginia recover from the massive snowfall caused by superstorm Sandy last week.

Ron Shipman has been preparing food at shelters in the communities of Beverly and Kingwood. Sandy dropped two feet of snow on Beverly. Shipman says the biggest issue facing most residents was the loss of electricity and some residents chose to spend money on fuel over food.

A major whiskey company has relocated its new global services center in downtown Louisville. 

Beam Incorporated announced Thursday it has already employed 30 regional employees and begun training for the new center that will conduct the company's financial and human resources services.

In the next 12 months, there will be around 60 employees working in the new Fourth Street Live space, which is located above the Gordon Biersch restaurant.

The winner of a northern Kentucky city council seat may be decided by the flip of a coin.

One of the six seats for the Walton City Council is undetermined after two people on the ballot tied for sixth place.

Robert McDonald and Olivia Ballou both received 669 votes. McDonald tells the Kentucky Enquirer that one person who feels bad about the outcome is his wife, who didn’t vote Tuesday.

The ethics hearing for Louisville Metro Councilwoman Barbara Shanklin has closed with another dramatic exit by the embattled lawmaker.

Unlike yesterday, today Shanklin answered some questions from prosecutors. She told the ethics commission she was unaware her grandson was incarcerated at the time she signed his timesheet.

But when questions were directed toward her about discretionary spending practices, she—again—walked out at the request of her attorney Aubrey Williams.

Shanklin cites her Fifth Amendment privilege against self-incrimination.

Louisville Gas and Electric says it doesn’t expect customer bills to increase as much as the company predicted last year.

With the election season finally over, you may have stumbled upon a few phrases a  few (or a thousand) times. One of those is America being called or compared to “The City on a Hill.”

But where exactly does this phrase come from? And how has it woven itself so powerfully into our political rhetoric?

Dr. Richard Gamble of Hillsdale College  sought to answer these new questions in his new book, “In Search of the City on a Hill: The Making and Unmaking of an American Myth.”

The New York Times has experts in several fields weighing in this morning on what they say should be President Obama's priorities for the next four years. Two of them spoke about energy and the environment, and both are worth a read in their entirety.