What’s In the Weeklies? Week of May 21

Welcome, once again, to another installment of What’s In the Weeklies?, where we take a look at Louisville’s two major weekly newspapers, so you don’t have to. 

LEO Weekly, May 21, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: Summer Fun Guide — My own private Kentucky 2 points (sort of a puff piece, was hoping for more insight as to why Kentucky’s state parks are bleeding money)
• Cover Art: 3 points
• Additional News: Developer pulls Irish Hill plan 3 points
• Additional Features: What a Week, Gannett Watch, Festivalz for the rest-of-y’allz: Summer Festival Guide, Ear to the ground: The best of summer concerts here and beyond, More indie than Indy: Yes, there’s stuff for you art-house types too, Return to Santa Claus, The dog ate my gas can 10 points (pretty decent summer guide)
• Opinion: Let there be light, Freedom of speech in Louisville?, Representin‘ 5 points
• Music Coverage: Live previews, B-Sides on Circle X 8 points (Circle X coverage? nice!)
• Food/Drink Coverage: Market Street Fish House, The Bar Belle 5 points
• Number of times the phrase “Metro Council” appears: 2

Overall Score: 38 points

Velocity Weekly, May 21, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: Feeling like a cosmopolitan 0 points (OMG, LOL, a cover story on how some women like “Sex and the City” — seriously, how is this a story? “[Viewers] liked getting a peek into life in New York” WRONG — there is not a writer — much less a columnist! — in New York who can afford that many Manolo Blahniks, people)
• Cover Art: 0 points (given that there wasn’t much to work with concept-wise, this still sure is boring)
• Additional News: N/A 0 points
• Additional Features: Q&A: Lauren Weisberger 2 points (”Sex and the City” and The Devil Wears Prada in the same issue? snoooooooze. Ps. again, nobody in New York lives like people do in either show/book/whatever)
• Opinion: This Week’s Winners and Losers, Instead of judging Miley… 5 points (wow, the second piece on the unrealistic way we as society approach adolescent sexuality is actually pretty good!)
• Music Coverage: Ike Reilly profile, Backstage at SNL with My Morning Jacket, Pokey LaFarge profile 10 points (decent music coverage this week)
• Food/Drink Coverage: Felice Vineyards in the Bar Hopper 5 points 
• Number of times the phrase “Metro Council” appears: 0

Overall Score: 22 points

Even with LEO publishing their Summer Fun Guide, which by definition is going to be pretty ephemeral, Velocity was stomped this week. We suppose that this may not come as a shock to some (since we have a pretty dude-centric perspective, being dudes and all), but somehow we still have a hard time understanding the “Sex and the City” phenomenon. It wasn’t that good of a TV show even as fantasy, but we’re constantly flummoxed by fans who claim it has something — anything — to do with “real life” in New York City. Much like the apartment in “Friends” or the apparent joblessness of the characters in “Seinfeld,” “Sex and the City” doesn’t have much in common with the life we — or any of our numerous friends — lived in the Big Apple. It’s fine to enjoy it as a sort of “zany” look at dating or whatever, but people, please stop pretending this show — or really any sitcom on television — has anything to do with reality. You want reality? Watch “Frontline.”

Okay, rant over! As always, please feel free to comment! Especially as regards stuff we don’t cover in the weeklies, such as theater and film coverage.

What’s In the Weeklies? Week of May 14

Welcome, once again, to another installment of What’s In the Weeklies?, where we take a look at Louisville’s two major weekly newspapers, so you don’t have to. Last week Velocity pulled off a surprising upset, but can they repeat? Read on, dear reader!

Velocity Weekly, May 14, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: Left of the Dial 8 points (for reasons way too complicated to go into here, we’ll say that while we agree with major points of Peter Berkowitz’s take on WFPK’s bland playlist, we’re still sort of ambivalent about it — that said, this is the type of cultural criticism that should be in any decent weekly paper)
• Cover Art: -1 (bearded “hipster” — check. metrosexual — check. black dude — check. “cool mom” — check. this cover couldn’t be any worse if it tried)
• Additional News: N/A 0 points
• Additional Features: Rich, thin women have it all; Howard Fineman Q&A 2 points (if the Fineman Q&A isn’t particularly insightful, Lauren Titus’s column is downright insipid)
• Opinion: This Week’s Winners and Losers 2 points (more My Morning Jacket boosterism — as if they need it)
• Additional Music Coverage: Tantric profile 5 points (we couldn’t care less about this band, but that said, this is a well-written, if unrevealing, profile)
• Food/Drink Coverage: The Grape Leaf review, Shenanigan’s in the Bar Hopper 5 points (it doesn’t make a lot of sense to tout a restaurant as providing “two [dinners] for $30″ on your cover, then bury the caveat that “If you want to stay under $30, you need to work as a team or choose from a few menu items, mostly vegetarian” in your review)

Overall Score: 21 points

LEO Weekly, May 14, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: LEO’s Primary Election Selection Section 2008 10 points (good coverage of both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama’s recent visits to Louisville, as well as analysis of the Democratic primary for Kentucky’s U.S. Senate seat currently occupied by Mitch McConnell)
• Cover Art: 2 points (eh, it’ll do)
• Additional News: 3rd District Republican Primary, Metro Council Primary, Open and Shut, Presidential Candidate Scorecard, Cop block 10 points (excellent, timely coverage)
• Additional Features: What a Week, Gannett Watch 2 points
• Opinion: LEO endorses Obama, Chairman Wao, Who commands the Commandments? 2 points
• Music Coverage: Patty Larkin, Liam Finn, Laura Veirs, Ralph Stanley, Metal Mayhem, K.T. Tunstall, North Mississippi All-Stars preview, Tommy Emmanuel in B-Sides 5 points (lotsa coverage this week)
• Food/Drink Coverage: The Cottage Inn and Industry Standard (new column?), Mug Shots 5 points

Overall Score: 36 points

There you have it, LEO triumphs yet again, though Velocity’s cover story was at least a good effort. However, considering Kentucky’s primary is next Tuesday and — more importantly — it actually matters this year, the lack of any political coverage in Velocity besides a rather weak Q&A with Newsweek writer Howard Fineman was disappointing (though not surprising given Velocity’s primary role as an ad revenue generator).

As always, please feel free to comment! Especially as regards stuff we don’t cover in the weeklies, such as theater and film coverage.

Final Cardinals Baseball Homestand Begins Tonight

The final homestand for the University of Louisville Cardinals baseball team begins tonight at Jim Patterson Stadium at 6 PM. Our Cardinals (34-18, with a 14-10 record in the Big East) take on the Ball State Cardinals tonight, then finish out the season against conference rivals the Scarlet Knights of Rutgers on Thursday, Friday and Saturday (all games except Saturday start at 6 PM; Saturday’s game begins at 1 PM). All games are of course free to the public, so this will be the last chance for the fans to catch the baseball team before the Big East tournament, which begins on the 20th in Clearwater, Florida.

In additional not-quite-baseball-but-still-really-cool news, the Louisville Cardinals softball team is once again heading to the NCAA tournament (from the Courier-Journal):

The University of Louisville softball team earned its fifth consecutive NCAA Tournament bid yesterday.

The Cardinals (30-21) will travel to Knoxville, Tenn., and play Virginia Tech (44-15) on Friday. Tennessee (47-14) will face Winthrop (36-17) in the regional’s other first-round game. Times have not been determined.

Congratulations, Cardinals!

Moody’s & Fitch: Kentucky Outlook “Negative”

Generally, bond ratings don’t make much of a splash news-wise, mainly because most people — even financially-savvy ones — don’t quite understand them. What does it mean, exactly, that a bond has gone from AAA to AA? And what’s with those weird grades anyway?

Well, don’t expect us to explain bond ratings to you, dear reader (we understand them, but understanding and being able to explain something are two different things). Just take (no) solace in the fact that two of the three major bond-rating agencies, Moody’s and Fitch, downgraded their outlook of Kentucky bonds (but not the bond ratings themselves) last month (from the Courier-Journal) (warning: our sarcasm is at an all-time high with this post):

Two credit-rating services have lowered their outlook on Kentucky bonds, steps that could delay some state-funded construction projects and lead to higher borrowing costs.

Late last month, Fitch Ratings and Moody’s Investor’s Service revised the outlook for Kentucky’s state-supported bonds from “stable” to “negative.”

Gov. Steve Beshear yesterday attributed the moves to the 2008 General Assembly’s failure to raise new revenue or pass legislation to address the $26 billion shortfall in the state pension systems. [our emphasis]

“Moody’s and Fitch expressed concern because of the current economic situation, the structural imbalance in the final budget, the draining of the state’s Rainy Day fund, the failure to pass meaningful pension reform and the continued use of one-time measures …to ‘balance’ the budget for the next two years,” Beshear said.

So as you can read above, the reason for the downgrade is Beshear’s first-term ineptitude. Great. Well, at least he’s contrite about it:

“Continued inaction in addressing pension reform and new revenue sources will bring only more bad financial news for the people of Kentucky,” Beshear said.

Thanks, Steve! So what does this all mean? Well here’s some crap to read that might explain it:

Finance Secretary Jonathan Miller said it’s impossible to say how a cautious approach might affect some of the $1.6 billion in bonds authorized by the legislature this year.

“We’re simply going to have to look at each project carefully,” Miller said. “We’re going to try to work within our means to do as much as we’re capable of doing, but we have to have this long-term outlook in mind to make sure we don’t endanger our finances and get a full downgrade.”

Moody’s and Fitch did not change their ratings of Kentucky bonds. Moody’s continues to rate Kentucky at Aa3, and Fitch rates it AA-.

These ratings are “very good,” according to Tom Howard, executive director of Kentucky’s Office of Financial Management.

But he noted that the third major rating agency, Standard & Poor’s, already rates Kentucky bonds lower, in the single-A category.

And the revisions could be a precursor to downgrades by Moody’s and Fitch if Kentucky’s financial condition does not improve, officials said.

“A one-notch rating downgrade would have significant impact on the state’s cost of borrowing money to fund state projects,” Beshear said.

If Moody’s and Fitch lowered Kentucky’s rating, it could increase the interest the state must pay on its bonds by as much as 33 one-hundredths of a percentage point in the current market, the governor’s statement said. That would result in an increase of about $58 million in debt-service payments for the state over the 20-year life of the bonds authorized during the 2008 session.

In somewhat-related local bond news, some Bermuda outfit called Assured Guaranty (boy, that’s a reassuring name) reached a deal with the Louisville Arena Authority to insure construction bonds for the downtown arena (also from the C-J):

Bermuda-based Assured Guaranty will insure construction bonds for the planned downtown arena under a preliminary deal reached yesterday with the Louisville Arena Authority.

The authority now plans to sell $360 million in bonds, through the Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority, next month. The sale would include $280 million in variable-rate bonds, with the remainder carrying a fixed interest rate.

Officials said total interest costs on the debt, paid off over more than three decades, would be roughly $602 million — about $60 million less than estimates from earlier this year but more than the $573 million projected by bond underwriter Goldman Sachs when it was hired in January 2007.

“I’m fairly confident that we’re going to end up with a transaction that makes sense,” said Metro Council President Jim King, a banker and nonvoting arena authority member.

The bonds will be backed by a mix of arena revenues, future tax growth in Louisville and a Metro Council pledge. But the bonds aren’t considered state debt and therefore aren’t affected by yesterday’s move by two financial ratings services to lower the outlook for Kentucky bonds from “stable” to “negative.”

Whew! Thank goodness Gov. Beshear’s mistakes didn’t get in the way of Louisville building an arena it doesn’t need! But wait, here’s more details behind the deal:

Goldman Sachs would guarantee an interest-rate swap, which would insulate the authority from dramatic rate swings, according to arena officials. The authority would be at risk mainly if credit raters reduce Assured Guaranty’s rating or Goldman Sachs files for bankruptcy, they say.

“Certainly I would prefer to have fixed-rate debt just like everyone likes to have fixed-rate mortgages … but in this case I believe we’re getting the city the best deal we can get,” King said.

At yesterday’s meeting, King raised concerns about market conditions driving up interest rates before the bonds are sold. In that case, Host said, the deal would be sent back to arena authority members for review.

The arena authority would pay Assured as much as $18 million to insure the bonds. That’s higher than the $11.4 million the authority was prepared to pay Ambac Financial Group, Goldman Sachs’ original choice as insurer.

Host said the Assured Guaranty cost includes insuring the arena’s debt-service reserve fund.

The bonds were supposed to have been sold last fall but were delayed because of difficulties in the credit markets and increased pressure on bond insurers. In January, for example, Fitch Ratings downgraded Ambac’s top-tier ratings.

Tom Rousakis, a Goldman Sachs vice president, said Assured is one of two bond insurers that still has a top-flight AAA credit rating. Others have been downgraded after being hurt by the subprime-mortgage crisis.

Awesome! Way to go, Goldman Sachs! I have every confidence in your confidence in Assured Guaranty now!

</sarcasm>

It’s Bike to Work Week in Louisville!

You probably didn’t know this — we didn’t until just a few minutes ago — but this week marks Bike to Work Week in Louisville (above photo by James Calvert, Active Living by Design). Weirdly enough, last week Bicycling Magazine named Louisville one of three “most improved” cities (the others are Washington, D.C. and New York City).

We don’t want to rain on anyone’s bike parade (and we’ll be biking to work most every day this week — except probably Wednesday when it is forecasted to rain), but it seems a little strange that the Mayor’s Office didn’t seem to mention Bike to Work Week 2008 when touting the “most improved” distinction from Bicycling Magazine. As we’ve noted elsewhere, that recognition came on the heels of the news about a bike-riding Louisville citizen being killed by an off-duty police officer, which shows that as a city we’ve got a long ride ahead of us.

Fiddlin’ While the Big Four Burns

We missed the big story yesterday — at the time we were either posting a Wendell Berry essay or we were cleaning up the house to have friends over for burgers — about the Big Four bridge catching fire in the afternoon (above photo from the Courier-Journal). What’s notable about the fire on the soon-to-be pedestrian bridge and landmark is that the blaze was battled from the Ohio River itself, due to its remote nature:

Flames shot from the Big Four Bridge yesterday as firefighters grappled with how to extinguish a blaze 70 to 80 feet above the Ohio River and a quarter-mile from the Louisville shore.

Because the wood crossties of the bridge have been rickety for years, Louisville Fire & Rescue Chief Greg Frederick decided not to put firefighters on the bridge.

So firefighters attacked the fire from the water, using a fire boat from the Harrods Creek Fire Department. The craft can create a stream of water that can reach the bridge timbers, something Louisville’s fire boat cannot match.

Of course, this isn’t the first time the bridge has caught fire. Back in the misty recesses of my brain I remembered there being some sort of fire on the bridge, back when back-then heavy rock radio station LRS 102 had both a sign and annual Christmas decorations on the bridge (see a photo from those days by D. Barlow here). Sure enough, the C-J article mentions that, as well as some more history of the bridge:

In 1987, a short in the wiring of Christmas lights started a blaze. Firefighters had to use more than 2,000 feet of hose and climb onto the bridge to extinguish the fire, [Chief] Frederick said…

The Big Four was built in 1895 and abandoned in 1969, after which the approaches in Louisville and Jeffersonville were dismantled.

Plans have been in the works to develop the bridge into a pedestrian walkway and bicycle path that connects Louisville to Southern Indiana.

On the Kentucky side, site work around the bridge is nearing completion and $4.4 million worth of steel for a spiral ramp leading to the bridge is soon to be ordered.

What’s In the Weeklies? Week of May 7

It’s been a few weeks since we’ve gotten a chance to post one, but it is also Wednesday, so it’s time for another installment of What’s In the Weeklies?

LEO Weekly, May 7, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: Identity Politics 4 points (eh, a non-Derby story this week’s gonna be a tough sell, even if this is an okay profile of some Louisville-centric artists)
• Cover Art: 5 points (we like the Air Devils Inn!)
• Additional News: No parking zone, New report dumps carbon capture 3 points
• Additional Features: What a Week, Gannett Watch 2 points
• Opinion: Billy Reed on the casino bill’s failure, Kevin Phillips interview, Cary Stemle on Rev. Jeremiah Wright 5 points
• Music Coverage: Tori Sparks interview, the Swell Season profile 3 points (zzzzz…)
• Food/Drink Coverage: New York delis in Louisville, The Bar Belle 5 points 

Overall Score: 27 points

Velocity Weekly, May 7, 2008 issue:

• Cover Story: 24-page Derby coverage (mostly photos) 5 points (not available online)
• Cover Art: 5 points (nice action shot of Big Brown)
• Additional News: N/A 0 points
• Additional Features: On Derby Day (poem by Erin Keane) 5 points (poetry in Velocity?!?)
• Opinion: This Week’s Winners and Losers, House of Ruth volunteers, Why does gas cost more?, Kevin Phillips interview 10 points (not bad for the week after Derby!)
• Music Coverage: 0 points (nothing this week)
• Food/Drink Coverage: Flanagan’s Ale House in the Bar Hopper 3 points (zzzzz…)

Overall Score: 28 points

Velocity pulls out the surprise win this week! Granted, it’s gotta be tough for any editor in Louisville to put together a paper the week after the Derby, when not much happens. And Velocity’s Derby coverage was pretty vapid, to be sure (which is fine — we’re not looking for anything too serious when it comes to, say, Barnstable-Brown stories and photos). But the prospect of a thin paper led to some “risky” editorial choices that, while not de riguer for Velocity, actually seemed to work! Like a full two-page poem, we gotta like that. And a decent interview with Kevin Phillips, and a piece on House of Ruth, “a local organization that provides financial and social support to people with AIDS and HIV.” So perhaps Velocity should take more chances in the future.

As always, please feel free to comment! Especially as regards stuff we don’t cover in the weeklies, such as theater and film coverage.

Primary Day is May 20th…

Do you know where your polling place is? Uh oh… (from the Courier-Journal):

The Jefferson County Board of Elections has moved more than a dozen voting sites for the May 20 primary, affecting thousands of people.

Some of the locations had accessibility problems, some of the owners of the buildings were no longer able to lease their premises and a church, Hill Street Missionary Baptist on Dixie Highway, was heavily damaged by a storm.

One site, the United Auto Workers Union Hall on Chamberlain Lane, can’t be used May 20 because the union is holding its own elections that day.

More than 12,000 people are registered to vote in the 13 precincts and were recently sent notices of their new places to vote, said elections spokesman Nore Ghibaudy.

Here’s a look at voting changes for the primary:

E-172: From Episcopal Church Home, 7504 Westport Road, to Lyndon Christian Church, 8125 La Grange Road.

F-172: From Watkins United Methodist Church, 9800 Westport Road, to Zachary Taylor Elementary School, 9620 Westport Road.

K-107, K-108 and K-121: From Hill Street Missionary Baptist, 2203 Dixie Highway, to Antioch Missionary Baptist Church, 3315 Dixie Highway.

L-104: From Louisville Urban League, 1535 W. Broadway, to Roosevelt-Perry Elementary, 1606 Magazine St.

S-146: From Watkins United Methodist Church, 9800 Westport Road, to Zachary Taylor Elementary, 9620 Westport Road.

S-151, S-155, S-158, S-159: From UAW hall, 2702 Chamberlain Lane, to Basketball Academy, 2401 Stanley Gault Parkway.

T-103, T-104: From Chancey Elementary, 4301 Murphy Lane, to Green Castle Baptist Church, 4970 Murphy Lane.

In addition, Ghibaudy said three other precincts were split and that some of their voters will be going to new polling places. He said he didn’t know how many voters are affected, but added that election officials split each of the precincts because they have a large number of voters and officials wanted to avoid lines.

Precinct E-175 was split from E-172 and will vote at Episcopal Church Home, 7504 Westport Road. F-175 was split from F-101 and will vote at Watkins United Methodist Church, 9800 Westport Road. And S-161 was split from S-140 and will vote at Springdale Community Church, 4601 Springdale Road.

For election-related information, call 574-6100.

While the reasons for the changes are outlined in the article above, we can’t deny we’re a little suspicious as to why the Jefferson County Board of Elections (overseen by Bobbie Holsclaw (above), Jefferson County’s Republican County Clerk) waited so long to announce the venue changes — especially with the timing coming right after the Derby (when most people aren’t paying attention), and especially given the slowness of the USPS.

The race for the Democratic presidential nomination might end tonight with the Indiana and North Carolina primaries, but still — Kentucky’s primary is only two weeks away! Given that we’re also Obama supporters, and that he has stronger support in Jefferson than in most of the rest of the state, we wonder how these venue changes will affect turnout in Kentucky’s most populous county. Neither have we seen any other blog question the timing and tenor of these changes — so either we’re being paranoid, or nobody’s paying attention.

Happy Thanksgiving! With Hiatus…

Happy Thanksgiving to our readers, and apologies for the dearth of posts in the past week or so. Actually, meant to post something earlier, but I’m in New York for the rest of the month, and so not as able to update daily as I’d like. Sporadic posts will appear, but regular posting won’t resume until Monday, December 3rd.