News

After closing its doors last year, the Parkland Boys and Girls Club will hold its grand reopening Monday.

Parkland and three other local Boys and Girls Clubs operated by the Salvation Army were closed last year due to financial cuts. The Boys and Girls Clubs of Kentuckiana, which also operates clubs in the area, reopened the closed Newberg club earlier this year and at the time president Jennifer Helgeson said the organization would also try to reopen the Parkland club.

The 2012 Kentucky Historic Preservation Conference begins this week in the western Kentucky community of Princeton.

The two-day conference will include sessions on selling historic properties, best practices for preserving endangered historic sites and converting schools and other public buildings into affordable housing.

Diane Comer with the Kentucky Heritage Council says this is the first year the biennial conference will be held away from a major metropolitan area.

The  Kentucky Theatre in downtown Lexington is preparing to celebrate its 90th birthday and a group of local volunteers is working to raise up to $1.5 million for renovations to the movie house.

A majority of Kentucky voters approve of the jobs that Republican U.S. Senators Mitch McConnell and Rand Paul are doing in Washington, according to a new Bluegrass Poll.

The poll shows McConnell, who is running for re-election in two years, holding a 51 percent job approval rating among likely voters with 42 percent disapproving of the GOP leader's performance. Similarly, Paul has a 53 percent approval but a slightly lower disapproval rating at 38 percent almost two years after being elected.

As The Courier-Journal's James Carroll reports, political observers argue that this bodes well for both lawmakers when considering the historic low numbers for Congress overall.

From The Courier-J:

The poll numbers for McConnell and Paul indicate no potential re-election problems, said Jennifer Duffy, a Senate analyst with the nonpartisan Cook Political Report.

The actual Idea Festival starts on Wednesday. But on Tuesday, there’s a day of lectures and discussions all relating to water.

Speakers will run the gamut, from Greg Heitzman of Louisville Water to Gregory Luhan, architecture professor and associate dean of research at the University of Kentucky College of Design.

Actors Theatre opened the “Dracula” crypt Friday for its 18th consecutive Halloween season run. Directed and adapted by William McNulty, the play is based on Bram Stoker’s classic horror novel about a mysterious count from Transylvania who terrorizes a seaside town in England.

There’s a new push on for healthier school food across the country, in the form of a new law called the Healthy, Hunger-Free Kids Act of 2010, aimed at updating nutrition standards in the National School Lunch Program. Those new guidelines start taking effect this year. Will they have the desired result?

Republican Brooks Wicker is running for Kentucky's Third Congressional District seat against three-term Democratic incumbent John Yarmuth.

You may not have heard of Wicker's candidacy, which is mainly because he was struggled to raise enough funds to get his message out to voters. Thus far he has raised just $5,000, but the Louisville accountant promises he will have enough to hold Yarmuth accountable.

The Western Kentucky Hilltoppers defeated the Kentucky Wildcats 32-31 tonight in overtime at Commonwealth Stadium in Lexington.

Western won the game with a trick pass play on a two-point conversion.

The Wildcats sent the game into overtime with a touchdown pass play with 24 seconds left in regulation. 

UK scored the first touchdown in overtime, but the Hilltoppers answered with a touchdown and the two-point conversion.

Kentucky falls to 1 and 2 on the season.  Western is 2 and 1.  

The Louisville Cardinals survived a second-half surge by North Carolina to defeat the Tar Heels 39-34 today at Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium.

The game appeared to be all but over at halftime with U of L leading 36-7, but North Carolina came roaring back in the second half, outscoring the Cards 27-3.

UNC had a chance to score the go-ahead touchdown late in the fourth quarter, but the 19th ranked Cards broke up a pass play with less than two minutes remaining.