Tuesday November 18, 2025
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SubscribeAre you ready to start paying to cross the Ohio River between Louisville and Southern Indiana?
The $2.3B Ohio River Bridges Project will result in tolls for drivers crossing the Kennedy Bridge – which will be turned into a southbound-only route, the new downtown bridge next to the Kennedy, and a new upriver Prospect bridge that connects with Utica, Indiana. Drivers won’t start paying tolls until 2016, but transportation officials are ready to choose a toll operator this week to begin implementing the new system.
Rather than manned tollbooths, the automated system will use in-car transponders to pay tolls from a pre-paid toll account. Cameras with license plate recognition will be used to mail toll bills to drivers without an account.
The six finalists managing the toll operations include the 3M Company, Portuguese-based Brisa Inovacao e Tecnologia, S.A., Austrian Kapsch TrafficCom IVHS Inc. – which was selected earlier this year to provide transponders for the toll system, French Sanef Operations America Inc., TransCore LP of Nashville, and Xerox State & Local Solutions, Inc.
The result of this selection process would be a move toward final selection of the operator, who would oversee camera installation, violation processing and managing the toll-operations center. The recommended operator would then need to be approved by the Indiana Finance Authority.
It might be hard to believe with the relatively cooler weather that Louisville has been enjoying, but the Kentucky State Fair is upon us.
The 2014 Kentucky State Fair runs from August 14 through August 24. Gates open at 7 a.m. with exhibits opening at 9 a.m. The midway and tents will close at midnight while exhibit halls close at 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and at 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Admission at the gate is $10 for adults and $6 for children and seniors (55+) with several special discount days including half price admission for active duty and veteran military members and their family on Military Monday (August 18), and $1 admission for patrons 55 years of age and older on Humana Seniors’ Discount Day (August 19).
Popular events include concerts (see schedule below) with performers including Billy Currington, Styx, Foreigner, Joan Jett, and locals Plain White T’s. There are also Civil War and War of 1812 exhibits and an exhibition celebrating the 50th anniversary of the US Congress’s recognition of Kentucky’s favorite spirit, Bourbon, as a distinctive product of the United States. See the full daily schedule here.
While at the fair, visitors can use the Kentucky State Fair mobile site for easier navigation of fair information.
Parking is available at the Kentucky Exposition Center, with room for 19,000 vehicles, at a cost of $8 per vehicle. Access Fair gates 1-6 from Phillips Lane, Crittenden Drive and Preston Highway. Free off-site parking is also available both weekends of the fair starting at 4:00 p.m. in lots B, C and D of the Papa John’s Cardinal Stadium green lot off of Floyd Street. A free shuttle is available with purchase of gate admission or presentation of advance tickets.
Given the large number of Fair visitors from around the state and beyond combined with local construction projects, be sure to keep an eye on the Louisville Dispatch Traffic page for live traffic conditions and drive times.
The Kentucky State Fair begins tomorrow; visit Louisville Dispatch and follow us on Facebook and Twitter for highlights from the 2014 State Fair. Continue reading
Republican US Senate Race
| MITCH MCCONNELL | 205,006 | 60% |
| MATT BEVIN | 122,037 | 36% |
| SHAWNA STERLING | 6,934 | 2% |
| CHRIS PAYNE | 5,164 | 2% |
| BRAD COPAS | 2,622 | 1% |
Democrat US Senate Race
| ALISON LUNDERGAN GRIMES | 298,740 | 76% |
| GREGORY LEICHTY | 31,902 | 8% |
| BURREL FARNSLEY | 31,461 | 8% |
| TOM RECKTENWALD | 29,030 | 7% |
Kentucky is known for a lot of things. Thoroughbred horses. Fried Chicken. Abraham Lincoln. Cassius Clay. The Kentucky Derby. And sweet, sweet bourbon.
Although the popular myth that bourbon has to be made in Kentucky is not true, it might as well be. More than 95% of the world’s bourbon comes from Kentucky. In fact, we have more barrels of bourbon aging here in the Commonwealth (nearly five million) than we have Kentucky residents! Kentucky bourbon is so good for the same reason that our horses are so good: the low-iron, high-calcium water that is filtered through our ubiquitous limestone.
So, if it is not being made in Kentucky, what makes bourbon bourbon? According to US law (27 C.F.R. S5.22), bourbon has to meet several requirements. It must be:
- Produced in the United States
- Made from a grain mixture that is at least 51% corn
- Aged in new, charred oak barrels
- Distilled to no more than 160 proof (80% alcohol by volume)
- Barreled for aging at no more than 125 proof (62.5% ABV)
- Bottled at 80 proof or more (40% ABV)
Knowing a few random facts about bourbon is nice, but it does not tell the whole story. The Kentucky Bourbon Trail, stretching across the central Bluegrass State, offers opportunities to tour the distilleries to learn about bourbon’s history, watch the production process, breath in a portion of the Angel’s Share and, if you’re over 21, even try out a few sips of the amber-colored treasure.
Credit: LMPD
Louisville Metro Government has updated their online crime map to now show crimes that take place within the city’s parks.
Previously, crimes committed within parks were reported with the location given by GPS coordinates. Unfortunately, however, the crime map accepted only physical address. As a result of this map limitation, crimes in parks were displayed as having occurred in a parking lot at 5th and Liberty streets, the geographic coordinate for “The City of Louisville.”
According to the Metro Government’s news release, this change stems from questions that arose after the recent crimes that started in Waterfront Park and moved into parts of downtown. The city’s maps show Part I FBI crimes — the most serious charges that includes homicides, auto theft, assaults, vandalism and robbery. Although the map now displays crime locations more accurately than they were before upgrade, due to the large area covered by the parks, crimes will show as a single pin at the park’s address. To see all crimes from a given park, users should click on the pin within that park.
The Metro Crime Maps page is here.
