That includes Alexandria police officer James Sticklen and FBI special agent Timothy Briggs, both of whom died last year.

Beshear is set to speak at a memorial ceremony Tuesday at 11 a.m. EDT at the Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial on the campus of Eastern Kentucky University in Richmond.

The ceremony also will honor 14 Kentucky officers who died in the line of duty between 1869 and 1964 but whose names were not added to the national memorial until recently.

Only officers whose names are on the National Law Enforcement Memorial can be added to the Kentucky Law Enforcement Memorial.
 

The previous warmest start to spring for the first 75 days was 58.1 degrees in 2007. 

Our extended forecast calls for more well above average temperatures, so we'll have a good chance of ending up with this being the warmest spring on record.

With that said, we have yet to hit 90 degrees.  Our hottest day so far was 89 degrees on May 2nd.  The earliest we've ever hit 90 was on April 10th of last year.  We normally hit our first 90 degree day in early June.  We have no 90s in the forecast for at least the next 7 days.

Here is a look at your 24 hour rainfall totals. Most of the heavy rain fell south of the Ohio River with some locations getting over 2"!

Light drizzle will carry over into the day tomorrow as the area of low pressure is slow to move out. Look for some sunshine by tomorrow afternoon with a mostly sunny sky by Tuesday. A quiet weather pattern will settle into the area through next weekend!

The Kentucky Transportation Cabinet (KYTC) bridge engineers completed their inspection and recommended that the bridge post a three ton weight limit.  

The bridge was closed late Friday evening by law enforcement on both sides of the river after calls regarding safety concerns on the bridge were received through the Madison, Ind. 911 system. 

Motorists reported seeing metal falling off the bridge.  An initial review did not show anything out of the ordinary. 

Police said they received a call around 7:20 a.m. about a possible drowning of a man in his mid 20's in the 100 block of Indian Hills Trail. 

The victim was transported to Baptist Hospital where he is still being treated.

It appears that the man was a guest of the residence and police will not disclose the location of where he was found.

Police are still investigating the incident.

 

"This is just another opportunity for him to be able to lead and to inspire all of Metro Council to go ahead with this effort, which I feel just happened here today," Brown said.  "It's really, really thrilling."

"I don't feel the pressure," Fischer said, having been pulled into the WHAS11 interview by Brown, "because we have so much acceptance of the project.  This is a great 'leveragable' project when you can get so much private money.  Asking the city to help out either through public or private sources is the least we can do, so we're dedicated to getting this job done."

The city is in a budget crunch.  Fischer has called for $6.8 million in cuts across city departments and agencies.

"There's a lot of moving parts in the budget right now," Fischer told reporters.  "Councilman (Jim) King and I have talked about this.  We're not taking anything off the table.  We're committed to getting the million dollars regardless of what the source is."

"We have confidence that this challenge grant will be met and we will have sufficient funds to finish this project," Greenberg said.

Fischer would not comment on whether the city may issue bonds to pay their end of the challenge grant, an idea floated to WHAS11 last week by Councilman David Tandy.

"I've already talked to some council members who are both committed to the challenge grant and to utilizing to whatever extent they need some of their neighborhood development funds and capital infrastructure funds that are in the budget," said King, the Metro Council President.  "So, we will find a way."

King said the council would want to minimize the amount of funds that have to come out of this year's budget, but "we're not going to miss this opportunity."

Council members Tina Ward-Pugh and Tandy also attended the news conference and echoed their endorsements of the financing plan.

"We're talking about real tax dollars being generated in our community," Tandy said, emphasizing that jobs will be created by both the preservation work and permanent jobs when businesses operate in the buildings.

The plan calls for five buildings to be saved.  Only the facades of two others will remain, with the interiors reconstructed.

Largely abandoned for decades, the cast-iron and brick buildings were constructed between 1852 and 1905, mainly to house operations for Louisville's booming bourbon industry.

Today, some window openings are filled with plywood, some remain open to the elements.  The Main Street sidewalk below has been covered with a construction walkway to prevent pedestrians from being stuck by falling debris.

Several buildings on the western end of the block adjacent to the KFC Yum! Center have already been developed, the first floors housing restaurants and upper floors with loft condominiums.  The renovated properties offer a stark contrast to the neglected remainder of the block.  

Fischer said that NCAA officials asked "what's going on with that row, that block?" during a review of men's basketball tournament games at the KFC Yum! Center.

With the financial plan agreement, Greenberg said stabilization workers are expected to be on site by the end of May.

After the first deal ended up several million dollars short, Greenberg was asked if the news conference truly marked a turning point for Whiskey Row.

"I think all of us up here are very confident or we wouldn't be up here," Greenberg replied.

"The million dollar challenge grant we heartily accept," Fischer said.  He explained that he hoped to recruit more private investors.

The city contribution would not go to private investors but into a new non-profit historic preservation fund for Louisville projects.  

"It's first investment will be Whiskey Row," explained Valle Jones, a veteran Main Street developer and member of the Whiskey Row development team.  "But in the future it will be available to finance many other downtown historic preservation developments."

The Heritage Conservation Fund was created with $3.5 million of private contributions, Jones said.  It is a first of its kind partnership with the Washington D.C. based National Trust for Historic Preservation and is intended to be a case study for a new national model of equity financing for historic preservation.

"It speaks to a larger sense of community in terms of the partnerships that are required, the creative thinking that is required to get things done in today's fiscally restrained environment," Fischer said.

The Futurecast map below is Sunday morning and showing the rainfall spreading in from the southwest.  The next map shows the rain widespread over the area during the afternoon.  Most of this will be just plain rain, however a few thunderstorms will be possible.  Severe weather is not expected at this time.  The last map is Saturday afternoon, showing a small chance of a few showers, mainly over the southern sections.

Click here for PDF public comments on Brownsboro Road Diet.

"Public notification using signs along the entire length of Brownsboro Road should have, and still should be done before any further movement," reads one comment.

Impatient supporters implore Mayor Greg Fischer to approve the plan, immedidately.

A supporter writes -- "Whatever small inconvenience to motorists might result is in my opinion greatly outweighed by the major enhancement for pedestrians."

157 comments were registered in favor of the controversial road plan.  221 opposing comments were submitted.  11 other comments did not specify a preference in the WHAS11 review

Fischer has yet to review the comments, he told WHAS11 on Thursday, also insisting that he had not yet decided whether to allow the road narrowing plan to advance.

"We wanted to have this 30 day period in case something new came up," Fischer said.  "Obviously, this process started in the previous administration, so it's been going on a long time.  I want to make sure the process has been followed, no new data has surfaced or anything like that.  So, we'll be coming to that decision in the next couple of weeks."

The road diet aims to slow traffic by reducing about one half mile of the road from two lanes each direction to one lane each direction with a center turn lane.

A sidewalk would be added to the cliff side of Brownsboro Road.

"We would have said something sooner if we had seen road diet coming out in a public notice," explained Jim Dahlem with save42.org, a coalition of Brownsboro Road business owners opposed to the plan.

"The people who show up are the ones who make the decisions," said Councilwoman Tina Ward-Pugh, who has spearheaded the project for some six years.

"Do you want me to stop this project dead still for another three years just so they can attend a series of meetings they didn't attend before?" Ward-Pugh (D) said.

Ward-Pugh says she is "baffled" by the recent backlash to the project which she says resolves or greatly diminishes dangerous conditions for pedestrians, cyclists and drivers.

"My constituents can boot me out of office tomorrow for it but I know that this is the right thing to do," Ward-Pugh said. "It is the direction that our community should head, we should be recreating more, we should be riding bikes more, walking more, shopping locally."

"If you're going to take traffic off this road you're going to take customers off this road," Dahlem said.

Dahlem said he is speaking out only now because - until recently - property owners had no idea that the sidewalk project would narrow the heavily traveled U.S. Highway.

When Ward-Pugh first announced public meetings in 2007, the project was described as a "pedestrian access project" to improve "Brownsboro Road for pedestrians and traffic flow."

A May, 2008 notice described a neighborhood meeting as the "Final Discussion of the Brownsboro Road Pedestrian Access/sidewalk project."

It wasn't until 2011 - last year - that a Ward Pugh newsletter used the words "road diet" and that the project would reduce traffic lanes.

An opponent writes --

"... the way this propoal has transpired was one which was not responsible to our neighborhood, and one wonders who is behind it."

Ward-Pugh said the city and her council office "absolutely" did a good enough job of informing the public.

"I am 110 percent confident that our office and public works and the neighborhood associations did everything we always do and more," Ward-Pugh said, dismissing a question whether the public notices were ambiguously worded so as not to attract opposition.

"Oh never," Ward-Pugh responded.

"My job is not to create a perfect system so that everybody feels good at the end of what we do," Ward-Pugh added.  "That's not what drives what I do."

Though Ward-Pugh said she was not blaming any of the "road diet" opponents for not being aware of the project, she criticized Dahlem's stance on the issue.

"I don't think it's fair for him or them to blame the process when in fact they all at some point knew of this project but chose not to get involved," Ward-Pugh said.

Dahlem argued that business owners chose not to participate in a January public meeting on the project because Ward-Pugh, in a December 21 letter Dahlem shared with WHAS11 News, made clear that the plans were already set.

"While I have agreed to have a Community Forum meeting which includes another update on the Brownsboro Road Diet, I was very clear at that meeting that this project would continue moving forward and that I had no intentions of slowing it down," Ward-Pugh wrote to Dahlem. 

The letter also dismissed information introduced by the businesses as already having been discussed and processed.

In a December 29 e-mail to "road diet" supporters, Ward-Pugh's legislative assistant emphasized that the meeting "will not change the plans of the project and the project is moving forward."

"The only negative thing that we can even come up with is that people in a car or SUV or vehicle might be delayed 10 to 20

seconds per trip wherever they're going," Ward-Pugh told WHAS11.  "I would ask you, is that not a small price to pay for all those other things that we're accomplishing?"

"We're not against mobility, we're not against sidewalks," Dahlem said.  "but we think a narrowing of Brownsboro Road is too far reaching."

"I'm confident that what we're going to do will be better for their business," Ward-Pugh said.  "I think it's just change."

"It is very important for busy East end lawyers and other important people to have easy access to downtown from the comfort of their palatial, hermetically sealed McMansions. But the on-ramp to I-71 does not start at Brownsboro Road."
 

Calvin Borel thought he had Take Charge Indy on a rail trip to roses but suddenly the colt struck a sour note at the three eighths pole.  Indy took a deep breath and almost stopped. He would jog across the finish line in 19th place. Calvin Borel will save a horse when the race is lost.

By Sunday, x-rays revealed a bone chip in the left front ankle that will mean surgery instead of the Preakness. Trainer Pat Byrne says Indy will be off sixty days but surgery for a thoroughbred is always risky. You never know if they will return at the same level.

The Kentucky Derby can be a blessing, but the Derby can also be cruel. A mile and a quarter is test of fitness, bone strength and lung capacity. For some horses it is the beginning of greatness, for others the end.

In Derby 138, California was gold.

Three of the top five finishers prepped for the Derby from barns on the west coast, including I'll Have Another, who used the Santa Anita dirt as his road to roses.

At least I had the good sense to name I'll Have Another as a good long shot and described him as better than 12-1.  Actually, the non-believers let him float to 15-1 before his stretch run made us all true believers in a colt by Flower Alley.

And he beat a horse that ran a spectacular Derby. Bodemeister set fractions of .22.3  45.3 1:09.8 and 1:35.19 for the mile. When he pulled away at the top of the stretch, I thought he was gone, But I'll Have Another had the kick and Dullahan wasn't far behind. Went The Day Well and Creative Cause were fourth and fifth and gave notice that they will have more to say in the Triple Crown races. But a serious contender like Union Rags, the favorite, found nothing but another troubled trip. Also missing in action were Hansen, El Padrino, Gemologist and Alpha. The East Coast contingent at Derby 138 simply did not fire. Even the West Coast also-ran like Liaison (6th) and Rousing Sermon (8th)  ran decent races.

So, now it's on to Baltimore, where Bodemeister should be the 2-1 favorite if Baffert decides to run. And another group of trainers is planning to skip the Preakness and hide in the weeds, waiting for the Belmont. By that time, I'm thinking Dullahan is getting a lot of support.

I'll Have Another is the only horse who can win the Triple Crown, but another year of three different winners seems very possible.

And that is my Derby lament. A Derby pick, an unlucky chip, and oh yes, a last minute exacta bet, 19 over all.

Kidding aside, the last spring freeze on record is tomorrow, May 10th.  It dropped to 31 degrees on May 10th, 1966.  From here on out for the rest of spring and summer, there's never been a temperature colder than that.

The next time we see record lows at or below freezing is on October 3rd.  Happy planting!

Calvin Borel thought he had Take Charge Indy on a rail trip to roses but suddenly the colt struck a sour note at the three eighths pole.  Indy took a deep breath and almost stopped. He would jog across the finish line in 19th place. Calvin Borel will save a horse when the race is lost.

By Sunday, x-rays revealed a bone chip in the left front ankle that will mean surgery instead of the Preakness. Trainer Pat Byrne says Indy will be off sixty days but surgery for a thoroughbred is always risky. You never know if they will return at the same level.

The Kentucky Derby can be a blessing, but the Derby can also be cruel. A mile and a quarter is test of fitness, bone strength and lung capacity. For some horses it is the beginning of greatness, for others the end.

In Derby 138, California was gold.

Three of the top five finishers prepped for the Derby from barns on the west coast, including I'll Have Another, who used the Santa Anita dirt as his road to roses.

At least I had the good sense to name I'll Have Another as a good long shot and described him as better than 12-1.  Actually, the non-believers let him float to 15-1 before his stretch run made us all true believers in a colt by Flower Alley.

And he beat a horse that ran a spectacular Derby. Bodemeister set fractions of .22.3  45.3 1:09.8 and 1:35.19 for the mile. When he pulled away at the top of the stretch, I thought he was gone, But I'll Have Another had the kick and Dullahan wasn't far behind. Went The Day Well and Creative Cause were fourth and fifth and gave notice that they will have more to say in the Triple Crown races. But a serious contender like Union Rags, the favorite, found nothing but another troubled trip. Also missing in action were Hansen, El Padrino, Gemologist and Alpha. The East Coast contingent at Derby 138 simply did not fire. Even the West Coast also-ran like Liaison (6th) and Rousing Sermon (8th)  ran decent races.

So, now it's on to Baltimore, where Bodemeister should be the 2-1 favorite if Baffert decides to run. And another group of trainers is planning to skip the Preakness and hide in the weeds, waiting for the Belmont. By that time, I'm thinking Dullahan is getting a lot of support.

I'll Have Another is the only horse who can win the Triple Crown, but another year of three different winners seems very possible.

And that is my Derby lament. A Derby pick, an unlucky chip, and oh yes, a last minute exacta bet, 19 over all.

Young defeated U.S. Rep. Baron Hill (D) in 2010 in his first bid for Congress.

With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Yoder had garnered 12933 votes, or 47% of the vote.  Former Congressman Lee Hamiltion aide Robert Winningham attracted fewer than half as many votes, 5538 or 20%.  Jonathan George was third at 17%, John Tilford and
John Miller both recorded about 8% of the vote.

Yoder entered the race 90 days ago.

"(We will) keep reaching out to folks and making sure that they have an opportunity to feel like they have a choice to choose a representative that will truly stand for their interests as working families," Yoder said.

Young was quick to link Yoder to President Barack Obama.

"Ultimately, this race will come down to deciding whether we chart a new course for this country that leads to job creation, limits the reach of our federal government and gives Hoosiers more freedom--as I have fought for in my first year in Congress--or whether we continue to embrace the failed Washington-knows-best approach advocated by President Obama and Shelli Yoder," Young said in his statement.

"I am a Democrat, and so of course I am somebody who is going to vote Democrat in my President," Yoder said.  "But who I am going to be endorsing for this coming November, I am going to be endorsing the farmers, our labor workers, our teachers, our single moms, our working dads, nurses, those people who are in the trenches, our veterans.  That's who I am going to be endorsing and that's what I am going to be focused on throughout this campaign."

The Ninth Congressional District is a traditional battleground and has been home to tight elections that have attracted the interest of national party support.

Yoder said she she hopes her campaign will receive similar support by the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, yet emphasized local concerns.

"What this campaign is going to be about are the people of the Ninth District," Yoder told WHAS11.  "And we are going to continue with that message that this isn't about Washington.  This is about people in the Ninth District of Indiana feeling like they once again are going to be able to be heard, listened to and seen and have someone fighting for them in Washington."