Groundhogged in Louisville

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Up in Punxsatawny, Phil the Groundhog did not see his shadow this morning, so you can count on an early spring.  Yippee!

Haven't we done this before?

Sometimes it seems like I’m in that Groundhog Day movie with Bill Murray, because every year I go to the same party and they show the movie and all the same people are there. Just kidding. I do have plans to attend the 33rd Annual Groundhog’s Day Celebration, hosted by my cousin Julie Ryan and her husband Kevin, who own the most extensive collection of Groundhog crap this side of Punxsatawny. Fortunately, the location changes every year, and this time it’s at the St. Matthews Community Center.

This year, of course, they’re calling it the Groundhog Day Snowstorm, and it’s making all the local weather folks jealous. It just missed us. But the effect here — canceled flights at the airport. We can all appreciate this fact — in Chicago, schools are canceled for the first time since 1999. We should recruit our new JCPS superintendent from there.

Beshear’s Message: Read Al Mayo’s account of the Governor’s speech last night. He got all fired up telling the regulators in D.C. to get off the backs of the coal industry.

Bring Down Those Walls: Preservationists are pissed that the Mayor wimped out and made a deal with Todd Blue on the Iron Quarter buildings on Main Street.  Let’s see: the city gets to not get sued by the developer. And Blue gets to tear down the buildings and up to $450K from the city to preserve the facades. Read Cindy Lamb’s account of the debacle. There’s an even more skeptical view critical of Fischer at LEO.

Careful in Haiti, Angie: This morning Angie Fenton of the Voice-Tribune got on a plane headed to Haiti, where she’ll do some reporting on conditions there just over a year after the massive earthquake. You can see her reports on WHAS-TV and in the Voice.

Gone Green at C-J: I think the best change in the C-J’s new look is the deletion of that awful green color, but if you watch the Ric Manning video on the changes (being revealed today), the new C-J site will be a lot easier to use. Thumbs up (another new feature).

Fischer Live: From here on out, when Mayor Fischer holds a press conference, you can watch it live on the city’s site — LouisvilleKY.gov.

Fly on Censors: If I weren’t so dedicated to tonight’s Groundhog event, I might go here what attorney Jon Fleischaker has to say about censorship tonight. He will speak in New Albany at Destinations Booksellers. The event is presented by the SPJ, starts at 7.

A J-town Suggestion:  The reaction to my story pointing out that the new J-town mayor has hired Ruckriegel relatives for jobs in his administration — criticism for doing the story from council members Carol Pike and Ray Perkins, along with loads of encouragement from everybody else and suggestions for similar stories. My solution — how about a Council member offer up an anti-nepotism measure at the next Council meeting?