Kentucky State Climatologist, Stuart Foster has retired. He held the position from August 2000 through June of this year. In Today’s Interview, Samantha Morrill talked to Foster about what a climatologist does, who uses the information they generate and how Kentucky’s climate has –and continues to– change.

On Monday, Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear held a COVID-19 news conference as cases continue to spread across the commonwealth. 

Beshear said the Delta variant is “spreading like wildfire.” During the conference, Beshear said twice that the state would not mandate COVID-19 vaccines for state employees. 

The federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention eviction moratorium ended this past weekend.  Deputy Director of Housing for the Kentucky Housing Corporation Wendy Smith said eviction dockets are sizeable in certain communities. 

Construction work along a north-south interstate in Kentucky continues this week.  Traffic tie-ups are certainly possible, since the road is a key pipeline to the south and vacation spots.

Even with ever-increasing cases of the COVID Delta variant across the Commonwealth, this remains a prime-time vacation period.  State transportation officials say intermittent lane closures for just over 11 miles along I-75 southbound will occur this week in Whitley County. 

Early on a rainy March morning in Jackson, Kentucky, Yolanda Goff found herself abandoning her trailer on Quicksand Road forever.  She didn’t think the floodwater would crest so high, but when she woke that morning, it was in the yard and rising fast. She had a few minutes to salvage everything she could, get her sons into the car, and get out. The trailer filled with water behind her. Suddenly, she was homeless.

Now and then along comes a memoir that is about so much more than the person. “Changing the Game: My Career in Sports Marketing” chronicles not only the life, aspirations and entrepreneurial accomplishments of Jim Host, but also the origins or such Blue Grass icons as Rupp Arena and the Kentucky Horse Park. Host is credited with creating college sports marketing. But this man who says he “can’t sleep fast enough” has also been a key player in Kentucky politics and government. We spend the hour with Jim Host. Hang on. It’s quite a ride.

  Contact: Tom Martin at es@eku.edu or leave voicemail at 859-622-9358

Ray Larson, who served as a prosecutor for almost four decades and much of it as Fayette Commonwealth’s Attorney, died Sunday morning.   Current Commonwealth’s Attorney Lou Anna Red Corn began her time in the prosecutor’s office in 1987, working almost three decades with Larson.

Word out of Washington last week was that a deal had been reached on the one-trillion-dollar infrastructure bill.  Congressional passage of the measure, which covers everything from roads and bridges, to broadband, to the electric grid, to water systems, remains on the table.  State transportation officials are monitoring the federal legislative process.