Congressman John Yarmuth now has official competition for next fall's congressional election. Today in Tyler Park in the Highlands, Republican Todd Lally announced he'll be seeking Yarmuth's seat from the Kentucky 3rd, becoming the first opposition candidate to join the race.
“People are ready for a course correction,” said Lally, a 21-year Air Force veteran who served in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
In his speech to about 50 people, Lally referenced health care reform and cap-and-trade legislation, calling them part of an “ambitious government takeover” that he planned to stop.
“I will challenge John Yarmuth to explain his failed policies and I will demand his straight answers,” he said.
Lally was less stern when asked about his ability to compete with Yarmuth (who just last week had a fund-raiser with former Democratic National Committee chairman Howard Dean) when it comes to passing the hat.
All he'd say was that he received substantial encouragement when considering entering the race and has had “phenomenal success” since.
Lally was introduced by state senator Dan Seum, who himself is in a fight for his seat against Yarmuth district representative Marty Meyer.
Seam argued that cap-and-trade would be devastating to coal-reliant Kentucky, and said Yarmuth was "totally and completely out of touch."
Lally is the first Republican to officially announce his candidacy. Marilyn Parker is said she intends to run, but hasn't formally announced, and businessman Larry Hausman is still exploring the idea of running.
Congressional candidate Todd Lally (center) makes his announcement with his wife Heather and state senator Dan Seum.
The next person that says we need to get government out of the way of business should be punched in the nose by the nearest bystander.
I said the same thing after the S&L crisis. It's 1,000 times more true today.
Get off that old, flea-bitten laissez faire horse and realize that reasonable regulations protect everyday people, protect our economy, our climate and ultimately create a level playing field for businesses of all sorts.
Ever wish you could see the expression on your loved one's face when she hears the voice of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino on the other end of her cell phone, wishing her a happy birthday?
I know, right—who hasn't wished that?
Enter a new business called CelebritiesCallYou.com. The site, started by Louisvillian Chris Webb, has a stable of 30 celebrity callers that is growing. “We thought it would be nice for celebrities to be able to communicate with their fans for special occasions,” Webb said, “and we found there is a huge demand in the marketplace."
Not that different from a mad lib, the celebrity of your choice delivers an audio message of general goodwill, peppered with a few specifics of your choosing. You enter your loved one's phone number, pay $3.99, and the site calls with the recording.
For instance, with the Pitino example, the coach calls with well wishes for a special occasion (birthday, graduation, secretary's day, etc.), and says to celebrate by eating a favorite food (like Italian food—maybe at Porcini's), watching a favorite show (again, numerous options), and spending time with loved ones in the callee's home state. He ends with a word of encouragement to live each day to the fullest and a shout out to one of two Bluegrass basketball teams.
The specifics of the call vary from celebrity to celebrity. For instance, Ice T's call has only a handful of choices for the special occasion, but includes options for both food AND drink (and yes, Hennessy is on the list).
Webb said the site is trying to provide a celebrity option for every possible demographic. “If a kid plays baseball, we want to have his favorite player be able to call and give advice on his little league game,” he said.
The celebrities are paid a percentage of each call they “make,” and several of them donate their proceeds to charity. Webb wouldn't say which celebrity has had the most call requests, only that “it would definitely surprise you.”
It needs to be said that the term “celebrity” should definitely be used loosely with some of your options—Paul Sr. from American Choppers and top-40 DJ Rick Dees are both seriously pushing it, and 13 of the 30 celebs are pro wrestlers.
But at $4 a call, the service can make for a unique gift at a pretty low price.
“This truly is a once-in-a-lifetime type of experience, and something that your friends and family will always remember,” Webb said.
For 4 bucks, this guy will call you or your loved ones with well-wishes. No guarantee on his attire, though.
The Kentucky Author Forum has a long and deserved reputation for bringing together subjects and interviewers to talk about relevant, timely issues.
The series' latest season began last night at the Kentucky Center with two marquee names—Dr. Howard Dean, the former presidential candidate who ran on a platform that spotlighted health care reform, and Dr. Harold Varmus, the former director of the National Institutes of Health and a Nobel Prize winner in medicine.
Dean, whose Prescription for Real HealthCare Reform was reviewed in the Courier two weeks ago, interviewed Varmus, whose The Art and Politics of Science was reviewed on the same page. Dean wanted to talk about Varmus' past as an English major in college, then about his views on the state of the Science in the world.
Dean asked about stem cell research and cloning and what it's like to give hat-in-hand testimony before a congressional committee (as Varmus had to do after an internal screw-up at the NIH) with a Nobel Prize to your name.
He wanted to talk about how cells divide to reproduce and how cells can be coaxed to develop a certain way in the body and if cancer is rooted in genetic code. Dean asked why interest in science is so low when, in his words, it “has always been the way of opening new worlds.”
He asked about how to give a Nobel Acceptance speech (Varmus recited part of Beowulf at his).
But he didn't once ask him about health care reform. In fact, it only came up once in the whole hour-plus, when Varmus tacked on a blurb about universal coverage to an answer of his; “Soon everyone will have health care,” he said. The remark drew applause, and Dean said, “Well, that one's next,” seeming to indicate he'd bring up the issue. But he never did.
I don't think I was the only person there wondering when Dean would raise the subject. It didn't take long—three questions from the audience—for health care reform to be asked about in the Q&A session that followed the taping (from which Dean had to excuse himself for a meeting; he wasn't in the room for the health care question).
Maybe he's tired of talking about it. Maybe he felt like he had given the Louisville area enough health care talking points during his chat with the Courier's editorial board yesterday. Maybe he didn't want to date the show (it's airing at the end of December on KET). Regardless of why, Dean did the live audience last night and the TV audiences of the future a disservice in not teasing the subject out.
In late 1968, five prominent members of Louisville's black community and one activist who had come here from Washington, D.C. were arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiring to blow up private property in the city. They became known as the “Black Six,” and their case became one of the most significant milestones in Louisville's civil rights history.
Last night, almost exactly 41 years after their arrest, a panel convened at Bellarmine to tell a story that's not as well-known as it should be.
About half of the 85 or so in attendance (including the guy writing this) appeared to be too young to remember the events of the late 1960's.
Cate Fosl, the director of the social-justice-oriented Braden Institute at U of L (who co-sponsored the event with many other organizations, including the Society of Professional Journalists), said that one of the panel's goal was to help educate the younger generation about the case.
The details of just what happened in May 1968—when the saga really began—are fuzzy to this day. An evening rally protesting the re-instatement of a white policeman who had allegedly beaten a young black man turned into a riot when police showed up. The Kentucky National Guard descended on the West End by the afternoon of the next day.
“It was a major lockdown on our community,” said Bill Allison, an attorney who defended the Black Six and one of the panel members.
By the beginning of June 1968, the police had arrested three men—James Cortez, Bob Sims, and Sam Hawkins—and were holding them on accusations (but not charges) of conspiring to blow up the Ashland oil refinery on Algonquin Parkway.
By the end of October, one grand jury hadn't brought charges against them, so a new grand jury met and handed down an indictment against Cortez, Sims, Hawkins, and three more black Louisvillians—Manfred Reid, Pete Cosby, and Ruth Bryant—accusing them of conspiring to blow up the same refinery. (Though she never got to make her case, Bryant had the best defense: the Ashland refinery was at the end of the street where she lived, and the bombing would have taken place on her daughter's birthday.)
The only witness for the prosecution was a policeman who said he heard them talking about the plot, and, after the case was temporarily (and illegally) moved to Hart County (the prosecution asked for a change of venue, which isn't how the justice system is supposed to work), a Louisville judge decided that no reasonable person could believe the charges against the Six.
The case was important in Louisville, Allison said last night, because of who was charged in the case. Reid was a realtor, Cosby was a minister, and Bryant was the wife of a prominent doctor; all were respected middle-class blacks.
“It was meant really to stop the protests in Louisville against segregations, discrimination, and police brutality,” he said. “It was a message to 'shut your mouth up.'”
In the end, the spread of information about the details of the case from non-establishment publications (like the Southern Conference Educational Fund, represented on last night's panel by two members who were jailed at the time) and the public outcry that ensued, “galvanized the civil rights community,” Allison said.
“The authorities eventually realized they had a tiger by the tail,” he said.
A newspaper photo showing one of the "Free The Black Six" marches.
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sent Thu Nov 19 @ 10:15 PM
Congressman John Yarmuth now has official competition for next fall's congressional election. Today in Tyler Park in the Highlands, Republican Todd Lally announced he'll be seeking Yarmuth's seat from the Kentucky 3rd, becoming the first opposition candidate to join the race.
Ever wish you could see the expression on your loved one's face when she hears the voice of Louisville basketball coach Rick Pitino on the other end of her cell phone, wishing her a happy birthday?
The Kentucky Author Forum has a long and deserved reputation for bringing together subjects and interviewers to talk about relevant, timely issues.
In late 1968, five prominent members of Louisville's black community and one activist who had come here from Washington, D.C. were arrested on trumped-up charges of conspiring to blow up private property in the city. They became known as the “Black Six,” and their case became one of the most significant milestones in Louisville's civil rights history.
John LaFollette