Greg Fischer will announce just how large the city’s deficit is today. Massive cuts will take place. Meanwhile, he’s still hiring friends at $100,000 a pop and doling out cash left and right. [C-J/AKN]

Why should you buy Girl Scout Cookies this year? Because a bunch of psychjobs are freaking out that Girl Scouts of America don’t discriminate against transgendered kids. [Click the Clicky for Some Crazy]

Today’s memorial service will feature Republican Ben Chandler and Lexington Mayor Jim Gray. Should be a really nice service. [H-L]

Honestly asking: Was Greg Fischer’s day trip to Detroit truly “productive” or was he just there to keep up appearances? [FOX41]

Don’t forget that Greg Fischer will give his State of the City address today at noon. He plans to focus on all of his “accomplishments” of his first year in office. If you’re at the Downtown Rotary today, be sure to ask him about the mountains of failures that he will certainly ignore. And maybe ask him about that crazy interview he gave on the radio last week. [Deep Mayoral Thoughts]

You still don’t believe the Ohio River Bridges Debacle is a debacle? David Williams is now knocking the division of the two-bridge project. Guess he, like all of Louisville, knows that the only thing that will ever get built is whatever Indiana is solely responsible for. [C-J/AKN]

Your life sucks, the economy sucks, your husband probably has a boyfriend on the side. So you should probably go see American Psycho this Friday night to take your mind off of it. [Consuming Louisville]

Here’s more on the TARC press conference we told you about yesterday. $1 million from the feds to continue service on popular routes. [WFPL]

Go listen to the audio and read the transcripts of Cecil New’s confession. It’ll make your skin crawl. [WAVE3]

GE Appliances is partnering with an energy company in Georgia to test smart appliances. Could be good news for the Louisville plant. [Business First]

Go watch this story about the charter schools discussion getting heated yesterday. And don’t worry, it’s not happening in Kentucky this year. [WHAS11]

Will the new board members at Kentucky Farm Bureau continue the organization’s history of being ignorant and homophobic or have the times changed? [H-L]

You know you shed a tear when Sexytime Herman Cain suspended his presidential campaign so he has more time for sexytime. [HuffPo]

A date has been set for the Kentucky Supreme Court to hear the Jefferson County Public Schools student assignment case. [FOX41]

You can save 10% if you do some holiday shopping at the Frazier Museum during your lunch hour. You can also just skip a few hours of work and tour the place. [Consuming Louisville]

A pretty white girl is still missing and the media cannot stop talking about it. A young gay boy’s body has never been recovered and we’ll never hear another thing about it. Countless non-white people go missing every day and we also never hear about that. [WAVE3]

Heaven Hill lost 6,400 gallons of its alcohol this weekend. Losing that much bourbon is enough to cause any bourbon lover to have a heart attack. [Business First]

Greg Fischer is set to name the new interim chief of police this week. [WHAS11]

And the officers who frequent LMPD.com are none too happy with the way things are being handled. We can’t blame them in the least, as they’ve largely been shut out and their voices haven’t been heard by Fischer. [LMPD.com & More LMPD.com]

The families of 1996 murder victim Tyrone Camp and accused killer Kerry Porter united for a vigil Saturday night to call for Porter’s release on a wrongful conviction, and to continue the search for the real killer. [WLKY]

According to a new report, youth asthma hospitalizations continue to rise in Jefferson County. And we continue to pollute like crazy. [WFPL]

How shocked are you that the editorial board is shilling – again – for merger, which everybody knows has been a failure? Are you even less shocked that they’re personally attacking Darryl Owens? [C-J/AKN]

Turns out that Oklahoma’s meth registry doesn’t work. Funny how Frankfort won’t bother dealing with the truth. [Page One]

Kentucky unveiled 19 additional low-achieving schools and five of them are in Jefferson County. [WFPL]

The community is beginning to weigh in on the controversial University of Louisville Hospital merger. [FOX41]

Guess we really do need to point out that the Democrats did the same thing in 2008. Now they’re accusing Republicans of doing it and the mainstream is essentially ignoring the hypocrisy. [Page One]

How is it Joe Gerth can write a two-page article about the anti-Beshear ads and the Moore-Wingate controversy without bothering to mention that the Democrats did this very same thing in 2008 and the KREF backed them up? [C-J/AKN]

Because the Herald-Leader’s Beth Musgrave certainly made it a point to mention it. And she wasn’t even writing about the scandal in 2008 that we recall. [H-L]

With contractors finalizing details for Sherman Minton bridge repairs, the city seems to be calming down a bit. Will you feel as calm during rush hour traffic? [WAVE3]

This is clearly the most important story in the city, right? Something about Joe Biden telling a reporter to suck it? Yeah, nothing else going on in Louisville of import. [84WHAS]

The Speed Art Museum raised $42.5 million for the quiet phase of its capital campaign. [Business First]

Everybody is freaking out about the five new middle schools added to Kentucky’s lowest-achieving schools list. [WLKY]

When homophobes like these run for office in the metro area, the entire region loses out. It’s a real shame. [NA Confidential]

Home of the Innocents definitely needs donations. But you don’t have to go to Amazon to buy them. You can go to local retailers – that both need your business and are more likely to cut deals and help, as well – and take the items to the charity yourself. Support your local businesses and they’ll support you. [WHAS11]

How much money, exactly, did Ed Hart waste lobbying in Frankfort while trying to get Kentucky Kingdom reopened? Maybe he wouldn’t be getting the short end of the stick if he had bothered to get people on board instead of ignoring the people who could actually help him. Typical business arrogance – folks think their way is always best and ignore political reality. [FOX41]

Papaw Beshear made A8 in a photo op with the President. Meme Sweets got an award for ruining the city and she made B3. Greg Fischer got nil. Oops. [No Photo Op For Greg]

Does New Albany always try to taint and ruin everything good within a 500 mile radius? [News and Tribune]

Really? Yet another rally on a Saturday downtown? When no one is there to see it? Yeah, that’ll be a total success. [C-J/AKN]

Yep, that’s right, everybody is emailing us 24/7 about River Fields winning an award for obstructing everything good in this city. Yes, we’re aware that both groups share legal counsel. And we’re aware that… it’s flipping stupid to care that Meme Sweets won some award. [WAVE3]

You should definitely go see this traveling exhibit from the Holocaust Museum that’ll be at the University of Louisville through November 28. It’s all about Nazi persecution of the gays. [Consuming Louisville]

Who will take Judy Green’s place until 2014? Predictions? Thoughts? [WHAS11]

70 percent of Kentucky’s 120 counties have housing vacancies above ten percent. [Business First]

This YouTube video-Louisville Metro Police situation is causing everybody to freak out. [WLKY]

Ever wondered if Steve Beshear was as transparent as he and folks like Jonathan Miller have tried to claim for four years? Haha, well… about that. [Page One]

Because they were afraid of not be allowed entry to the State Fair?

Haha, well… here we are several years later, Eklof has resolved everything on his own and Fairness is finally (!) doing something.

From a press release (the annual press release is their “ongoing effort”):

In an ongoing effort to raise public awareness of the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s anti-Fairness policies, the Fairness Campaign will unveil “larger-than-life” petitions requesting the company’s removal of the policies on opening day of the Kentucky State Fair. Fairness supporters will deliver the large petitions to the Kentucky Farm Bureau booth at the State Fair one week later on the official “Kentucky Farm Bureau Day,” Thursday, August 25. The petition unveiling will take place at 10:30 a.m. Thursday, August 18 at the Fairness booth in the Kentucky State Fair and Exposition Center, South Wing C, Row X, booths 165-166.

More than a dozen organizations have signed on to oppose one or more of the Kentucky Farm Bureau’s anti-Fairness policies, which are printed annually in the “Kentucky Farm Bureau Policies” manual that is automatically distributed to legislators, but not Kentucky Farm Bureau insurance policy holders. Those organizations include: American Civil Liberties Union of Kentucky (ACLU-KY), Fairness Campaign, Fellowship of Reconciliation, Jefferson County Chapter of Kentuckians for the Commonwealth, Kentucky Alliance Against Racist and Political Repressrion, Kentucky Coalition to Abolish the Death Penalty, Kentucky Fairness Alliance, Kentucky Jobs With Justice, Kentucky Psychological Association, Lexington Fairness, Metropolitan Community Church, Sienna, W.E.N.C.H., and Women In Transition (WIT).

The Kentucky Farm Bureau’s anti-Fairness policies came to light following their firing of Reverend Todd Eklof, who made statements in support of marriage equality after Kentucky’s 2004 passage of a constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage. Kentucky Farm Bureau settled out of court with Rev. Eklof in June, 2010 for an undisclosed amount.

We’re glad Fairness lightly complains about Farm Bureau once a year.

Maybe one of these years something will change and this won’t just be a momentary blip on the news cycle radar.

Yesterday marked the 69th day of Jack Conway’s refusal to deal with the scandal involving his brother and Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson questioned him: “Jack Conway continues to strike out in the judgment department,” said Robertson. “I cannot understand why this man finds it beneath him to admit what he knew, when he knew it and why he failed to publicly report a compromised drug investigation.” [Press Release]

Food deserts? If you build it, they may not come. A shortage of healthy food is not the only problem. [The Economist]

WFPL has yet another new reporter. At least one organization in town isn’t dying from being horrible. [More WFPL]

The University of Louisville is continuing its westward push with a new recreation center. [Broken Sidewalk]

So this happened and it sucked for a lot of people yesterday. Dang. Of all days for that to occur – when it was hotter and stickier than balls. [WHAS11]

Everybody freaked out and 75,000 people were without water. It was crazy. [WAVE3 Here, Here & Here]

Jefferson County Public Schools approved its contract with new Superintendent Donna Hargens. Here’s hoping she’s absolutely nothing like Sheldon Berman, who admitted to being on boards so they could profit off of JCPS. (You never heard the C-J write about that, did you?) [FOX41]

This isn’t exactly what we think of when it comes to East Market Street but it’s still an interesting place. [Consuming Louisville]

Discount tickets to the Kentucky State Fair are apparently no on sale. [84WHAS]

We’re all loosely shocked at the epically bad decisions Republican candidate for Commissioner of Agriculture Jamie Comer has made over the past week. To think he was the darling of everybody – including the Democrats – just a week ago. [Page One]

We’ll believe the Fairness Campaign is “working hard to implement a statewide anti-discrimination fairness law” when they bother trying to work with Republicans and Democrats who oppose them in order to get something accomplished. Until then, we’ll continue to tell readers that Fairness is doing the opposite of working toward real equality in Frankfort.

They believe they’re working toward equality, and, uh, playing pat-a-cake with Kathy Stein and Meemaw Mary Lou is fine and dandy – but nothing more than that.

The organization’s director and board members have repeatedly refused to try working with the opposition. Remember Senate Bill 16? That didn’t die because of Fairness and all the director could do was sit in Heine Brothers making excuses.

As stories like this one illustrate, it’s going to take more than liberal allies in a super-conservative state like this Commonwealth to get something as simple as an anti-discrimination policy put into place.

We don’t dislike Fairness and try to support the organization whenever possible. We don’t doubt their actual dedication and hopes for Kentucky. It’s just a shame to watch them ignore and shun resources at their fingertips merely because they’re questioned or criticized… and then constantly hitting up against brick (stone?) walls.

Every time we read this story about Judy Green asking Hal Heiner to lobby on her behalf, we pee a little. [C-J/AKN]

Republican Party of Kentucky Chairman Steve Robertson questioned Jack Conway for the 49th day in a row: “Today was a terrible day for the Democrat ticket,” said Robertson. “The Democrat candidate for Agriculture Commissioner exposed his extremely poor judgment, so he now keeps good company with Jack Conway, who we all know suffers from the same affliction.” [Press Release]

Here’s a major duh moment: a study links mountaintop removal mining to birth defects. [WFPL]

Yes, Berea should do the right thing by enacting a fairness ordinance. But shouldn’t the entire Commonwealth have a fairness ordinance? [H-L]

There is some kind of farmers market thingy going on at Rainbow Blossom this weekend. [Consuming Louisville]

Watch out! Pseudo-hipsters within 75 miles are about to start freaking out because Urban Outfitters might come to Bardstown Road. [Broken Sidewalk]

The Kentucky State Fair Board is looking for workers because the state fair is soon. You excited? Need a job? [FOX41]

Three area high schools are ranked among the top in the nation. Dispute the ranking system or not, that’s pretty good news after months of bad. [WAVE3]

You know how the Kentucky Democratic Party claims to be all grassroots and man of the people? Haha, right, about that. [Page One]

An evangelist pleaded guilty to swindling church-goers out of more than $700,000. [WHAS11]

Reading this story about the massive cuts taking place across the board for Gannett made us raise an eyebrow. Isn’t it interesting that the local paper would lead us to believe everything economically is all puppies and rainbows – particularly when it comes to support a few elected officials – but axes 50 people because the local economy hasn’t rebounded? [Gannett Blog]

Looks like “Tan Lines” is getting lots of national attention. Thank goodness folks are filming movies in Kentucky. [indieWIRE]

Sounds like a typical evening at Fourth Street Live in Louisville. [NPR]

Humana and the state of Illinois are in a giant cat fight over state employees’ health coverage. [Reuters]

Does this sound remotely familiar? Industrial transition in cities still causes a stink. [Broken Sidewalk]

We need to get this damn vacant housing thing in check in Louisville ASAP. [C-J/AKN]

Lexington is finally working to make its streets safer for cyclists. [H-L]

The United Nations has endorsed gay rights for the first time. But Democrats in Kentucky still fear the gays. [Slate]

The father of missing IU student Lauren Spierer spoke one-on-one with FOX41. [FOX41]

Don’t expect your gubernatorial candidates to address the real problems facing this state. Remember when Steve Beshear promised gambling and refused to offer any other alternative solution? Expect the same hogwash from all candidates – not just him. [Ronnie Ellis]

Habitat for Humanity gave a new home to a family in Louisville. [WAVE3]

The Republican Party of Kentucky may be hitting Jerry Abramson over the head with his $180,000 slush fund scandal but locals are used to his shenanigans. [Page One]

Jason Stinson plans to return to coaching this fall. So get ready for a lot of people to foam at the mouth. [WHAS11]