Rick has been a member of the WFPL News team since 2001 and has covered numerous beats and events over the years. Most recently he’s been tracking the Indiana General Assembly and the region’s passion for sports, especially college basketball.
The Kentucky State Fair grand champion country ham fetched $300,000 at a charity auction today.
Since 1964, the top ham has been auctioned at the close of the Kentucky Farm Bureau country ham breakfast.
This year’s top bidder was Louisville optometrist Dr. Mark Lynn.
"Louisville has been very, very good to us, we’ve been very lucky in life. We feel very fortunate. I’ve got four great kids, seven great-grandkids and a wonderful wife and it’s time to give back," Lynn said.
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky will deliver a speech a speech at this month’s Republican National Convention.
McConnell’s office confirmed to the congressional newspaper The Hill that McConnell will speak on August 29, the third night of the convention in Tampa.
The Republican National Committee previously announced that Kentucky junior Senator Rand Paul will speak on the convention’s opening night August 27.
More than eight thousand Indiana public school students have been awarded vouchers allowing them to use public funds to attend private schools this academic year.
That’s more than double the number awarded last year.
Adam Baker with the Indiana Department of Education says the program approved by the Republican-led General Assembly in 2011 allows for 15,ooo vouchers this year.
"Next year, there’s actually no cap on the number of vouchers available, so we’re hoping that we continue to see this number rise year by year," he said.
This fall marks the 150th anniversary of Kentucky’s largest Civil War battle. Planning is well underway for the October re-enactment of the Battle of Perryville.
It was one of the bloodiest battles of the entire Civil War, with more than seven thousand casualties. It also marked a strategic tipping point for the Union, which would control Kentucky for the rest of the war.
University of Louisville football coach Charlie Strong brought his team to the downtown Marriott Hotel today to greet a sold-out crowd at the Cards’ annual kickoff luncheon.
There are high expectations for Strong’s third Cardinal team, which is favored by many to win the Big East Conference title.U of L tied for the conference crown last year and earned its second consecutive bowl appearance.
Strong says he wants to bring consistency to a program that has won only seven conference titles going into its 94th season.
A meeting is set for tomorrow night to hear input about the design of Louisville’s new Veterans Affairs Medical Center to be built starting in 2014.
The public meeting is from 6:00-8:00pm at the Clifton Center. The new 110-bed hospital will replace the VA's current 60-year-old medical center in Louisville and is to be finished in 2018.
The federal government recently paid $12.9 million for property at Brownsboro Road and Interstate 264—known as the Midlands--for the hospital.
A Louisville-based agency that provides drug and alcohol recovery services for the homeless has launched a campaign to raise $1 million by the end of year.
The Healing Place founder Jay Davidson says the money is needed to help avoid cutting some of its support services.
Former Indiana Supreme Court Justice Randall Shepard will lead a task force looking into the state of legal education across America.
The panel was appointed by the American Bar Association. Shepard says it will examine the way schools prepare their students to practice law, and the economic state of the profession.
