Joseph Lord

A Kentucky lawmaker is questioning if African-Americans should continue to patronize Fourth Street Live in the wake of a former University of Louisville basketball player’s arrest.

As WFPL reported this week, 38-year-old Jason Osborne was arrested by Metro Police on Sunday outside of Sully's restaurant. He has been charged with criminal trespassing and resisting arrest, and a hearing is scheduled for May 24.

Osborne is a former Mr. Basketball who played for the Louisville Cardinals in the early 1990s.

Several African-American elected officials from the Metro Council and General Assembly were present at Osborne’s arraignment, and at least one lawmaker is now telling black residents to avoid the entertainment district until these mattes are settled.

"All of us have received complaints of perceived harassment and disrespect at Fourth Street Live. I might go down for lunch during the day, but I don’t go down there after 5 o’clock. You run a risk," says state Rep. Darryl Owens, D-Louisville. "The record is clear and my mama told me where there’s smoke there is fire. There’s a whole lot of smoke coming out of Fourth Street Live as it relates to African-Americans."

A national bicycling advocacy group has ranked the 50 states for cyclist friendliness.

Their determination: Kentucky is not so bicycle-friendly. 

Kentucky ranked 47th in the U.S., according to the League of American Bicyclists. 

That's better than North Dakota, Alabama and New Mexico. (And worse than the rest.)

Several African-American lawmakers are concerned about a potential "pattern of discrimination" at Fourth Street Live after a former Louisville Cardinals basketball star was arrested at the entertainment district.

Jason Osborne, 38, was arrested Sunday night on Muhammad Ali Boulevard at Fourth Street Live after an altercation at Sully's with security, an arrest report says. Another person, Jacquelynn N. Russell, 32, arrested at the entertainment district. Charges for both include  criminal trespassing and resisting arrest.

The first reporter hired to the new Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting has more than 30 years of experience covering issues in Louisville and other parts of Kentucky.

R. G. Dunlop previously wrote for The Courier-Journal, serving in roles including state enterprise reporter, legal affairs reporter and city editor. Since joining The C-J in 1977, Dunlop has worked on two teams that won the George Polk Award and on three teams that were Pulitzer Prize finalists. He's reported on topics ranging from prescription drug abuse to the corruption in politics.

A leading Kentucky charter schools advocate says he’s hopeful the state House leadership will choose a new chairman for the House education committee who is open to charter schools.

The chairmanship became vacant last week when Democratic state Rep. Carl Rollins resigned to lead the Kentucky Higher Education Assistance Authority and the CEO of the Kentucky Higher Education Student Loan Corporation.

Each week, members of the WFPL News team spotlight interesting stories we've read and enjoyed, for your weekend reading pleasure:

The grandstands of Cardinal Stadium—the old one—have deteriorated to a point where repairs aren't cost effective, the Kentucky Fair & Exposition Center announced Friday.

Because of this, the free concerts for this year's Kentucky State Fair will be moved entirely to the field.

"Without that repair, it just simply wouldn't be in our best interest to have people in the grandstands in the future," said Rip Rippetoe, president and chief executive of the Kentucky State Fair Board.

Louisville Cardinals men's basketball coach Rick Pitino promised that he'd get a celebratory tattoo if his team won 2013 national championship.

They did. 

And so Pitino has carried through with the promise. He got his body art Friday morning at Tattoo Salvation, 1421 Bardstown Road, by artist Adam Potts, University of Louisville athletics says.

Misery loves company, after all.

Kentuckians are the third most stressed out people in the U.S., trailing only West Virginians and Rhode Islanders, says a new poll from Gallup.

In 2012, 44.8 percent of Kentuckians told Gallup that they'd experienced stress the previous day.

Kentuckians also are the second least likely to experience enjoyment. Rhode Island topped that list.

The Louisville-based team behind the traveling Big Lebowski celebration were among the many unsuspecting victims of the Federal Aviation Administration's air-traffic control furloughs because of the automatic federal budget cuts that went into effect earlier this year.

The FAA had 1,200 flight delays that Monday. There are a lot of stories of frustrated travelers. This is one of them.