Good Night to Buy a Horse: If you've always wanted one of those Gallopalooza horses for your veranda, shimmy on down to the Seelbach tonight for the big auction event. Or wait until they sell about 50 of them online. They've been moving the ponies around here at the Mellwood Arts Center all week.
off to Boston: Say so long to WHAS-TV's Kyle Draper tonight at a party at Prime Lounge. Just mention Kyle and they'll let you in free.
Oh No Oprah: WHAS-TV execs have about 10 months to figure out how they'll replace afternoon ratings queen Oprah Winfrey's talk show. She announced in Chicago today that she'll give it up Sept. 9, 2011.
At Least They Can Afford It: A Bullitt County woman who won a $6 million judgment against McDonald's will get the money after all. A Kentucky appeals court said Louise Ogburn should be compensated by McDonald's after she followed the orders of someone who called in posing as a cop and told her, over the phone, to take her clothes off. And she did. I'm no fan of Mickey D's, but it seems a ridiculous award.
Gov Speaks on Hunger: Governor Beshear does a weekly video. This week it's about how bad the problems of hunger and homelessness are in Kentucky.
They're Still Playing: The next episode in the downfall of Steve Kragthorpe comes tomorrow at Noon in Tampa. Our own prognosticator, Paul Najjar, sees both the Cards and cats losing close ones tomorrow.
Pakistanis Playing in Town: Check out my story on former U of L president John Shumaker, who's convinced his current employer, the federally-funded Academy for Educational Development, to finance a trip for a 16-member Pakistani entourage to visit several American universities. He happened to squeeze U of L on the list, which will coincidentally honor him by naming a building for him Monday.
I'm going to see The Blind Side tonight, because I read Michael Lewis' book and want to see how good Sandra Bullock's performance is.
We'll be posting over the weekend, so spend some of your free time on Mojo.
Monday is the day the University of Louisville plans to rename a building on campus in honor of former president John Shumaker.
The new Belknap Research Center will be renamed the Shumaker Research Building in a ceremony at 2 p.m.
Sure, Shumaker is being credited for some good things he did during his tenure here from 1995-2002. But perhaps his lasting legacy in the minds of some is the way he left.
Shumaker is infamous in some circles for his free spending ways with university money, his failed efforts to establish far-flung campuses in the Middle East, and for marrying a local woman, Lucy Steilberg, shortly after his arrival. He then ended the marriage when he got a new job at Tennessee, resulting in juicy revelations in his divorce case.
Oh, yeah, and he's even better remembered for his failed tenure at Tennessee that ended poorly in 2003, where inquiries into his spending of University money prompted an examination of what he did at Louisville.
Still, U of L seems to have a thing for naming buildings after former presidents. Maybe Jim Ramsey wants to make sure the tradition continues when he leaves.
"It seems appropriate to have a building on our campus named in honor of John Shumaker," said Ramsey. "He boosted UofL's national reputation for academic excellence and was one of Kentucky's most enthusiastic supporters for higher education reform."
Anyway, sources tell me Shumaker has been living in Pakistan - and even has acquired a new Pakistani wife - doing some sort of consulting work. No one at U of L seems willing to say what a lot of people are thinking -- that Shumaker's reputation is permanently stained thanks to the shenanigans uncovered during his time at Tennessee. But what the heck -- that Belknap name isn't doing anyone any good on the new building.
You can bet that no structures in Knoxville will ever carry his name.
He's bringing some Pakistani associates with him to U of L for a symposium focused entitled: "Importance of Higher Education in the Stabilization of Democracy."
In fact, the 16-member delegation has a busy couple of days in town. Funded by the State Department, the Pakistanis will be meeting with several U of L groups and take in some racing at Churchill Downs. Shumaker works for an organization called the Academy of Educational Development, which is sponsoring his delegation's travel to several universities in the States. That figures, since Shumaker has wrangled free travel at every career stop.
When U of L audited Shumaker's spending, the C-J reported that "it found that Shumaker placed nearly $36,000 in personal charges on the U of L Foundation's credit card between January 1999 and June 2002. Of that amount, Shumaker regularly repaid all but about $2,000, the audit found. Noting that university auditors had urged the practice be stopped in 1998, the U of L audit issued last month recommended that current U of L President James R. Ramsey not use the credit card for personal expenses."
Maybe this is all about Shumaker's legacy, and it'll do his ego good to see his name on that new building. Somebody at U of L must owe him something. With the passage of time, maybe people around U of L will remember Shumaker more for his accomplishments than for all the controversy he stirred up.
A few months back,when it looked like the field was set for the Mayor's race, it seemed like Metro Councilman Jim King was in the driver's seat.
He had/still has the most money. Compared with David Tandy, Greg Fischer and Tyler Allen, his most visible primary opponents, he has higher name recognition. And he has a history of winning controversial elections, including the one he orchestrated for daughter Katie in 2008.
But King keeps tripping over his own feet. Today, as reported in LEO, King has drawn the ire of some St. Xavier High School alumni, who are pissed that King sent a fundraiser invitation to their members touting him as "a son of St. X and our next Mayor."
A St. X spokesman, Micahel Littel, told LEO he didn't know how King got the alumni mailing list and that the school is conducting an investigation.
After LEO's story was published this morning, King tried to backtrack, canceling the Dec. 2 fundraiser (at Skybar in St. Matthews) and calling the St. X president to apologize. It also sent regrets to the mailing list that got the original flyer.
From the King campaign: As you may know, Jim has the utmost respect, admiration and affection for the school that he feels changed his life. He has spoken to school leadership and apologized for any inconvenience.
Because of the confusion, the campaign has cancelled the fundraiser and issued the following notice via email to those alumni who may have inadvertently received the invitation which was meant to be distributed to friends, classmates and supporters of St. X alums on the campaign.
“The Jim King for Mayor campaign sent you an evite to a fundraiser. Our intention was to send this communication only to friends and supporters. It was not our intention to imply that St. X endorsed the event. This evite and the distribution was not approved by St. X. To avoid confusion that this event is related to St. X it will be cancelled. We apologize for any inconvenience we may have caused.”
Sound familiar? King made a similar apology after he attempted to have his divorce records sealed from public view. He only pulled back after the Courier-Journal took him to court on it.
King's also been in hot water because of activist Ed Springston's efforts to have him held accountable for breaking campaign finance laws in Katie's 2008 campaign, for which the attorney general's office has appointed a special prosecutor.
He's also attracting the only negative campaigning of the race, thus far, from Republican Chris Thieneman, who has posted yard signs in King's district that read: "We Need a Mayor, Not a King."
Can King survive all this and still make a successful run at the city's highest office? It's starting to look less likely, but remember no one thought Katie had a chance after a firestorm of negative media attention in 2008.
This is only the first of many transgressions of Mr. King during this campaign. If the past is any indicator, King has a certain moral ambiguity when it comes to rules regarding campaigns.
Louisville attorney David Mour has spent years fighting the city's parking enforcement, and this week filed a motion for "injunctive relief" against the city.
He's already filed a lawsuit fighting Metro Government's parking enforcement policies, and he's lined up 11 plaintiffs who have been innocent victims of the city's new boot policy.
Mour's have lodged complaints about the city's new parking enforcement policy, which allows the city to put a "boot" on legally parked vehicles if it finds the vehicles have two parking tickets pending against them.
Mour's 39-page motion argues that the enforcement is unconstitutional under state law, and has been granted a hearing in Circuit Court Jan. 8.
His case includes an affidavit from a citizen, Anthony Cotton, who relates a troubling story of government power against him.
Cotton's sworn affidavit reveals a nightmare. He purchased a 1996 Honda in January of 2009. On the afternoon of October 5, he parked in a legal space and put money in the meter near Third and Liberty.
When he returned to his car an hour later, it was booted, the result of the city's stepped up policy that is attempting to collect what it claims are $6.5 million in unpaid citations. The new policy, implemented Oct. 1, allows PARC meter maids to boot cars, even those parked legally, if they have two outstanding tickets.
So Cotton went to PARC and learned that the previous owner of his Honda, Katherine Blodgett, had racked up 27 parking tickets before selling the car. And that he was expected to pay the $755 in tickets if he wanted his car back.
Of course, PARC officials have heard these stories, and demanded that Cotton prove he wasn't dating Blodgett. He was told he would have to get affidavits from the Jefferson County Clerk proving he didn't own the Honda or three other vehicles to which Blodgett's tickets were attached.
The city towed the Honda the next day to its impound lot.
Cotton went to the impound lot, with the affidavit on his Honda, and was told he still needed to prove he didn't own the other three cars in Blodgett's name that had parking violations outstanding. Cotton continued his argument with PARC officials.
Finally, 28 hours after he'd put money in the meter, he paid a $115 fee to the impound lot and got his car back. During the previous eight months, he says he'd received no notices from the city about the tickets.
Stories like this one make up the bulk of Mour's complaint. He claims the city doesn't follow state guidelines by notifying owners of their rights and of outstanding tickets.
The complaint requests a temporary injunction preventing the city from booting and towing vehicles.
cars
homes
jobs
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Louisville at night 3
Good Night to Buy a Horse: If you've always wanted one of those 
Monday is the day the University of Louisville plans to rename a building on campus in honor of former president John Shumaker. 
A few months back,when it looked like the field was set for the Mayor's race, it seemed like Metro Councilman Jim King was in the driver's seat.
Louisville attorney David Mour has spent years fighting the city's parking enforcement, and this week filed a motion for "injunctive relief" against the city. 
Rick Redding