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Louisville Metro Council President Jim King died at age 63 late Wednesday night after battling an undisclosed illness since last November.
King was just re-elected to his fifth term last week, during a Council meeting which he missed. Council Spokesman Tony Hyatt said that this is the first time that such a situation has occurred, so it is unclear at this point who will succeed King at the helm of the Metro Council.
King was first elected to serve as Councilman for District 10 in November, 2004 and took his oath of office in January, 2005 and was first elected President of the Council in 2008. He was also Chair of the Committee on Committees and the Committee of the Whole and, as President, he served as an ex-officio member of all Metro Council Committees.
King was also head of King Southern Bank as well as the father of 30th District Court judge Katie King.
Funeral arrangements are pending.
Former Louisville Mayor Resigns as Lt. Gov. to Fill Federal Position – Luallen to Fill Second-in-Command Role
Jerry Abramson is stepping down from his position as Kentucky’s Lieutenant Governor after Barack Obama tapped the democrat for the role of White House Liason to Staet and Local Government. Abramson earned the nickname of Louisville’s “mayor for life” after occupying the office for 21 years – the longest tenure in the position’s history.
One of Abramson’s duties in his new role will be to help coordinate with states on Obamacare’s upcoming second open enrollment period which begins on November 15 and lasts for three months. Abramson was tapped, in part, due to his experience as chairman of Kentucky’s health care initiative, one of the more successful state exchanges under Obamacare with more than 400,000 people enrolled. This announcement comes at an interesting time, as John Boehner and Mitch McConnell renew efforts to repeal the Obamacare law following the “shellacking” suffered by democrats in the midterm elections.
Additional duties for Abramson include work on education and economic issues, including work toward raising the minimum wage in states and cities as Congress rejects Obama’s call for a national increase.
The appointment, not subject to Senate confirmation, sees Abramson replace departing David Agnew. The position reports to Obama consigliere, Valerie Jarrett. Former state auditor Crit Luallen will step up to fill the state’s vacated second-in-command role. Luallen has also served in various positions in the Commonwealth, including state budget director, secretary of the Governor’s Executive Cabinet, secretary of the Finance and Administration Cabinet and secretary of the Tourism Cabinet.
Abramson’s resignation will be effective November 13 and he will begin his new position the following day, one day before the open enrollment period begins.
Residents Ordered to Shelter in Place as Thick Black Smoke Fills Area
Liberty Tire Recycling, in the 14000 block of Bohannon Dr in southwest Jefferson County, is the site of a large fire that is engulfing the area in thick, black smoke.
At around 11:20AM, area residents who have signed up for CodeRed Alert notifications received a call from PRP Fire Department advising them to shelter in place due to the large fire and billowing smoke. The message further advised to turn off HVAC systems and avoid going outside, especially for those with respiratory problems.
Louisville Dispatch was able to get some photos of the area before being turned back by LMPD personnel who are controlling access to the affected area, which is approximately two miles south of Gene Snyder at Dixie Highway. At last word, only one fire truck is on scene pumping water onto the large pile of burning shredded tires.
Citizens are urged to call 311 if they need information or to report issues regarding the fire and to only dial 911 in the case of actual, immediate emergencies. Air monitoring is in place in the area and residents are being told not to travel or evacuate unless told to do so. Officials say that the fire may burn for two days as extinguishing efforts are complicated by the fire burning from the bottom up.
More information will be posted on LouisvilleDispatch.com, as well as our Facebook and Twitter feeds, as it becomes available.
Are 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.
Young woman with local connections among the 298 victims aboard downed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17
Karlijn Keijzer, a 25 year old Indiana University graduate student from Amsterdam was aboard MH17 when it was shot down over eastern Ukraine Thursday. Keijzer was working toward her doctorate in the chemistry department at the southern Indiana university.
IU president McRobbie described Keijzer, a Dutch Citizen, in a press release as “an outstanding student and a talented athlete, and her passing is a loss to the campus and the university,” referring to her membership on the university’s successful 2011 varsity rowing team. McRobbie offered condolences to Keijzer’s family on behalf of the Indiana University community and went on to say that “Our hearts also go out to the families of all the victims of this senseless act.”
IU’s head rowing coach, Steve Peterson had kind words about the “stroke” rower of the Varsity 8 boat: “Academically, she was straight A student, so she was outstanding there. But her biggest strength was her personality on the team. Any picture she you see of her, she was always smiling or happy or joking around with someone. She was extremely supportive of her teammates and had a tremendous enthusiasm. She was exactly the type of student-athlete any coach would want on their team.”
In the chemistry department, Keijzer was part of a research team that uses large-scale computer simulations to study small-molecule reactions involving certain metals. She was co-author of a research article published this year in the Journal of the American Chemistry Association […] She also served as an associate instructor in the chemistry department, teaching introductory organic chemistry as well as 400-level courses in biochemistry and biosynthesis.
Other comments from the IU community included those from executive dean of the College of Arts and Sciences, who called Karlijn “a bright star in the IU constellation, a gifted student and athlete, and a talented researcher with a passion for making the world better through science.” Keijzer’s doctoral advisor, Mu-Hyun Baik described her as a “bright, talented doctoral student, a diligent researcher and a dear friend to all of us who worked with her in our research group” who “inspired us all with her optimism about how science will make Earth a better place.”
The Kentucky Department for Public Health (DPH) has received lab results confirming the first case of the mosquito-borne chikungunya virus, also called CHIKV, in an Anderson County resident who recently traveled to Haiti. Results for nine possible cases in other individuals who recently traveled to the same region are still pending, but are expected to be positive.
“We have been testing our first potential cases of chikungunya virus in Kentucky residents who recently traveled to areas where the disease is present, and have received confirmation of one positive result so far,” said Dr. Kraig Humbaugh, state epidemiologist and DPH deputy commissioner. “This is not a concern for most Kentuckians at this time because the risk is only to those traveling to foreign countries where the disease is present. However, it’s always good to remember to wear protection against mosquitoes, both here at home and when traveling abroad, to protect against all mosquito-borne illnesses.”
The CHIKV illness is routinely found in mosquitoes in the Caribbean, Africa and Asia, but is not yet carried by mosquitoes in Kentucky. CHIKV is only transmitted to humans by the bite of infected mosquitoes, and does not spread person-to-person. The period of time between when an infected mosquito bites a person and when the person develops signs and symptoms of the illness is typically 3-7 days.
With illness onset, the person develops high fever, chills, and joint pain, followed in some by a rash on the trunk, limbs and face lasting 3-4 days. Muscle and joint pain last about one week. Joint pain is often severe and in some people lasts longer, up to several months. CHIKV is usually not fatal. There is no vaccine Continue reading
WANTED in connection to June 7 shooting on I-265/Smyrna. WANTED JASMIN OSMANOVIC. Pease contact 574-LMPD with any information.
