Friday and Saturday are going to be enjoyable but Sunday is gonna get weird. It’s going to be warmer, more moist (they said it, not us) and a little stormy. Guess we can’t have great weather all the time. P.S. WXOrNot folks have an app now if you want weather push notifications that aren’t absolutely horrible like WBKO and WNKY (we said that part, not them.) So go find it in your app store. [WXorNot & YouTube]
We tend to loathe law enforcement puppies and rainbows hype stories like this but it’s a good one. Or at least legitimately good for the law enforcement involved. What’s not good is that Churchill Downs Inc. couldn’t be bothered to fully fund this hospice patient’s goal to hit a milestone before his life ends. Instead, the mega-billionaire corporation that pays no property tax relied upon underfunded, overworked troopers to make it happen. Feels like some intentional CD whitewashing to help minimize the reality that it cost local Louisville restaurants hundreds of millions last weekend by forcing them to close. [WTVQ]
If you’re wondering why nothing ever changes or improves in Kentucky, go take a look at this story and pay close attention. It’s essentially a list of candidates for elected office in the Paducah area. Check out how many of them face no opposition. [WPSD]
The Warren County Fiscal Court wrapped up its 2050 strategic plan last Thursday and shared results of the project that began in summer of 2023. It’s a lot of fluff to make people who spent taxpayer dollars on it feel good. At least that’s what your writer assumes because, you know, we live in the reality-based world. Here’s hoping there’s more focus on brain drain and an end to the lack of awareness that immigration is the primary driver of population growth here, business development and economic mobility for longtime locals. [WBKO & The Report (PDF)]
Universal pre-K is a necessity for most of the Commonwealth and there’s no denying that. But playing fast and loose with workforce development funding and using this as a tool to prop up an ailing (though unannounced) presidential campaign is problematic. After years of promoting universal pre-k, Gov. Andy Beshear is launching a pilot program, much to the chagrin of Kentucky’s top Republican legislators. [Courier-Journal]
Surely there are better, more exciting things to be petty about? Gravel is not this interesting or worth that much effort. Warren County Sixth District Magistrate Ron Cummings has denied wrongdoing in an incident where he was alleged to have attempted an assault on a Warren County man after a discussion surrounding the condition of a county road leading to a small neighborhood got out of hand. [BG Daily News]
Andy Beshear loves to tout decreases in overdose deaths in Kentucky and no one in their right mind can deny that it’s a good thing. But let’s really talk about that for a minute. Those drops they hype up in Frankfort as if they’re massive? They’re a drop in the bucket and while any survival is great, it’s misleading and cruel to politicize that sort of thing. According to the Commonwealth’s own data, 1,110 people died in Kentucky from an overdose last year. [Press Release]
Warren County opened the door for potential data center construction when the planning commission amended its zoning regulations on March 19. Data center developers are using rural Kentucky communities as a blueprint for their nationwide expansion, reaching into counties across the Commonwealth — some just 25 minutes down the road. [WKU Herald]
The Kentucky Historical Society has announced the opening of Revolution to Statehood: Kentucky’s Founding in History and Memory on Saturday, May 9 at the Thomas D. Clark Center for Kentucky History in Frankfort. Coinciding with the nationwide celebration of America’s 250th birthday, the exhibition examines familiar frontier images of Kentucky’s founding, such as the coonskin cap, the frontier fort and the lone pioneer, while uncovering the complex, often violent story behind Kentucky’s founding. Visitors will engage with early Kentuckians—some familiar, others less well known—including settlers, soldiers, enslaved people, indigenous leaders and frontier women whose lives reveal a far richer story than legend allows. [Press Release & KHS]
The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service has designated several rivers and creeks in Kentucky as “critical habitat” areas for endangered species that play an important role in water quality. Seems like an opportunity for us to hype this up locally and to potentially turn it into a money-making tourism thing. Particularly with the Green River being a focus. [Herald-Leader]
The Kentucky Education and Labor Cabinet has released adjusted (read: cooked a little, sugar-coated, flavored for your enjoyment) March 2026 unemployment numbers and contrary to the state narrative, the puppies aren’t puppying and the rainbows aren’t exactly rainbowing. The seasonally adjusted preliminary unemployment rate was 4.2%. The civilian labor force was 2,103,495 in March 2026, a decrease of 5,171 individuals from February. Nearly 5,200 in a MONTH! But somehow the unemployment rate is unchanged? Sure, sure. The number of people employed in March was 2,015,492, a decline of 4,344 from February. The number of unemployed was 88,003, a decrease of 827 from February. This means thousands have also stopped looking for work or have exhausted unemployment benefits. Kentucky’s trade, transportation and utilities sector had 3,200 fewer jobs than a year ago. The information sector was down 700. Mining and logging was down 500. Manufacturing lost another 4,300. Durable goods manufacturing posted its largest monthly decline since 2023 but the Cabinet won’t share those specifics. [Press Release]
Y’all keeping up with the local political drama or are you ignoring us every time we bring it up? Here’s more on that gravel situation. A Warren County citizen is pushing for changes to the county’s code of ethics after his complaint against a magistrate was dismissed. On Feb. 17, Warren County Magistrate Ron Cummings and citizen Gary Ausbrooks reportedly got into a physical altercation, according to the Bowling Green Police Department. [WBKO]
State government spent hundreds of thousands of dollars of taxpayer funds developing and promoting a list of… 18 establishments. For the entire state. The only one from Bowling Green on the list is Spencer’s Coffee and that’s solely because it’s (quite literally) in an old building. Please tell us we aren’t that crazy for rolling our eyes at this mess. That said, go grab a coffee at the Fountain Square location. We’re big fans of what Roy Justin Shepherd is doing. [Historic Dining Guide]
The Joint City-County Planning Commission approved a change to Cave City planning and zoning guidelines regarding data processing centers Thursday. The key change was to add regulations regarding data processing centers within the city. The Cave City City Council must still vote on any changes before they become enforceable. At present, there are no regulations regarding where data centers could locate within the city. [WCLU]
A Simpson County judge denied two key motions Monday in an ongoing lawsuit over a proposed data center, allowing the case to move forward as both sides prepare for the next phase. The case, filed by TenKey LandCo I, LLC against the Simpson County Fiscal Court, centers on whether the county has the authority to regulate a proposed data center project located within the City of Franklin. During a status hearing, Circuit Judge Mark A. Thurmond denied TenKey’s motion to disqualify the county’s legal counsel, finding no conflict of interest based on prior legal work. [WNKY]
The Kentucky State Fair is set to return for its 122nd year at the end of August and now, it is officially accepting entries for its various competitions. The 2026 iteration of the fair will feature America250-themed competitions as a way to celebrate the Commonwealth’s role in the story of the United States. So hop to it and stop letting people from Indiana and Ohio win some of those categories! [WAVE3 & State Fair]
Like we’ve said all along, Andy Barr is set to be the next U.S. Senator from the Commonwealth of Kentucky. No, your writer is not a fan of him or his decades of shameful and sometimes drunken antics. But that’s political reality. Even Nate Morris knows that because he dropped out and endorsed him after wasting tens of millions of dollars that could have changed the world for most Kentuckians. No, Charles Booker and Amy McGrath aren’t serious contenders. [Twitter/X Endorsement]
What Bowling Green is already doing right and what we owe the kids we trained. College Commitment Day, May 1st, has passed. Every senior in America had to put a deposit down by midnight. Read Kentucky’s data side by side and the picture you get is of six universities not really competing for the same students anymore. [BLBG]
No word on whether any of that memorabilia will include the time he had a federal indictment for an insurance pay-to-play scheme that funded the KDP buried. You could own a piece of Kentucky history, though. The lifetime collection of Senator Wendell Ford and his wife Ruby is going up for sale in Owensboro. The estate sale includes hundreds of personal items owned by the Fords, including rare political memorabilia, furniture, clothing and vintage Kentucky Derby ticket stubs. [WFIE]