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.

An economic development official from Houston has been selected as the new president and CEO of Greater Louisville Inc., the metro’s chamber of commerce.

Craig Richard will lead the business group starting January 7.

He’s been chief economic development officer of the Greater Houston Partnership since 2008, and has held similar positions in Dallas and Arlington, Texas and in Virginia.

Richard succeeds Joe Reagan, who left GLI at the beginning of the year to lead the St. Louis Regional Chamber and Growth Association.

A new report by Kentucky's Justice Cabinet advocates the elimination or limiting of Kentucky's constable offices.

The office is established  in the Kentucky Constitution, but the report said constables no longer help law enforcement -- performing but .02 percent of all recorded law enforcement in the state --  and are often liabilities to counties.

“For the most part, constables perform security guard functions, direct traffic at events or serve civil process," the report said.

President Obama's re-election and the retention of a Democratic majority in the Senate means the likelihood of a repeal of the Affordable Care Act has receded.

So what now?

"The law is here and we should at this point expect it to still be here Jan. 1, 2014," says Alan Weil, executive director of the nonpartisan National Academy for State Health Policy.

Shall we dance?

That's the key question for Congress now that another budget crisis is near. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev, today said he's ready to do a little two-stepping with Republicans to twirl away from the edge of the so-called fiscal cliff.

"It's better to dance than to fight," the former amateur boxer told reporters at a press conference. "Everything doesn't have to be a fight."

There were 355,000 first-time claims for unemployment insurance last week, down by 8,000 from the week before, the Employment and Training Administration says.

But a measure designed to show the trend edged up: "The 4-week moving average was 370,500, an increase of 3,250 from the previous week's unrevised average of 367,250."

Of the 114,265 votes cast for Jefferson County’s three school board seats, nearly 30 percent went to candidates who strongly support some form of neighborhood schools.  

Half of the 14 candidates that vied to serve the Jefferson County Board of Education supported reverting back to neighborhood schools. Currently, Jefferson County Public Schools bases assignment on criteria including race, income and educational attainment to meet diversity guidelines set by the board.

In the end, none of the candidates supporting neighborhood schools won a seat.

This week on our audio diary series "The Big Break," Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks gets a nice surprise during her last public performance. Actors Theatre apprentice Samantha Beach closes "Dracula" without ever going on for the role she understudied, but she already knows she'll take the stage in "A Christmas Story" during student matinees. In "Cinderella," Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond learns there's no such thing as a small role. 

Kentucky Democrats successfully defended their control of the state House -- but they're now stranded on a political island.

It appears that Republicans will take control of the Arkansas House of Representatives, leaving Kentucky as the only southern state with a Democratic-controlled House.

And that will make Kentucky House Democrats a big blue target in future years.

For the past four years, officials in Kentucky’s coal industry have fought President Obama’s steps to further regulate emissions from coal plants and pollution from coal mining. Now that the president has won re-election, they wonder if anything will change in a second term.

President Obama’s administration has put into motion numerous regulations that affect the coal industry. But many of these aren’t actually in effect yet…they’re still moving through the rule making process, or are tied up in court.