Kentucky Kingdom will reopen
A new lease agreement was approved by the Kentucky State Fair Board on Thursday. With this agreement, once the Kentucky Kingdom LLLP investors have $25 million in private loans the park will reopen, an event that could be as early as spring 2014. The park has been closed since 2009, but last year Kentucky issued a request for proposals to reopen it. The plan for the new park has all but one of the old rides reopening and adds two new rides as well as increasing the size of the water park.
Companies plan to mine asteroids
Deep Space Industries announced last Tuesday its plans to launch two space probes in 2015 for the purpose of mining asteroids, making it the second private company with plans to do so. Last April, Planetary Resources announced their own plans to search for resources in nearby asteroids. Both of these businesses are unaffiliated with NASA or any government entity. These probes would look for minerals such as iron and gold in asteroids, before being followed by larger space-crafts that would mine the minerals and return to Earth.
Kentucky unemployment rates drop
Between December of 2011 and December 2012, the unemployment rates in 97 Kentucky counties dropped, according to the Kentucky Office of Employment and Training. 21 counties in the commonwealth increased or remained the same, with Woodford County having the lowest rate at 5.4 percent, and Magofinn County the highest at 16.9 percent. Jefferson County’s unemployment rate saw a drop from 9.2 percent in 2011 to 7.9 percent in Dec. 2012.
New Star Wars director announced
J. J. Abrams will direct the next Star Wars movie, according to a statement released Friday by Disney, which Lucasfilm and Disney have set to launch in 2015. The movie will be the seventh Star Wars movie and the first of the re-launch of the franchise by Disney. This will not be the first science-fiction movie for Abrams, as he directed the re-boot of the Star Trek series, including the movie “Star Trek Into Darkness” due out May 17th.
Couple arrested for protesting
A Baptist minister and his partner were arrested Jan. 22nd after staging a peaceful sit-in of the Jefferson County clerk’s office once they were denied a marriage license. After marching in front of the courthouse for an hour along with other protestors, the two men, Rev. Maurice Blanchard and Dominique James, applied for a marriage license, but as gay marriage is illegal in Kentucky, they were denied. When they refused to leave the office even after it closed, they were arrested on trespassing charges and declined an offer to be cited instead of arrested.
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Photo: courtesy of insiderlouisville.com
