On December 30, Governor Beshear announced that he was rejecting the merger to protect taxpayer property. “University Hospital is a public asset with an important public mission,” the governor said. If the merger were to take place, “the public would have only indirect and minority influence,” he said.

While F. Scott Fitzgerald once said “There are no second acts in American lives,” in US politics and public opinions it sometimes seems there’s nothing but second acts. I am old enough to have seen Richard Nixon go from “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore” to his election as president as a “New Nixon” in 1968.

The last few weeks, I have seen a few articles about two individuals making their personal pleas and tours for redemption/second acts.

Tomorrow is election day in several states and municipalities around the country. In three states control of the state legislature hangs in the balance. Here is a preview of what is worth watching.

An epic portrait of one community’s long-time battle to take on Massey Energy lawlessness and their Big Coal sycophants in the Coal River Valley of West Virginia, The Last Mountain just might be one of the most timely and game-changing films in years. Beautifully filmed, at once provocative and disquieting, The Last Mountain wonderfully captures the inspiring resistance and indefatigable campaigns of coal mining families — and their outside supporters — to stand up and defend their land and lives.

Living in fear is a terrible thing. Sen. Mitch “Box-Turtle” McConnell might not being living in fear but he sure wants his constituents to do so. He is drumming up fear of a couple of terrors suspects from Kentucky and demanding that they be sent to Guantanamo Bay.

Kentuckians must be so proud of their governor allowing forty million dollars in tax breaks for this enterprise’s religious propaganda theme park. It really stands for 21st century family values, after all.

Today’s issue of Louisville, Kentucky’s Courier-Journal has a front page article that helpfully explains many jobs in the area must be filled by illegal immigrants because no American has applied for them.

Rand Paul’s grasp of economic theory leans toward the fantastic these days.

Kentucky’s 6th District was one of the closest House contests this year. The official re-canvasing left incumbent Democrat Ben Chandler with a 648-vote lead over his Republican opponent, Andy Barr. The re-canvasing resulted in the net gain of a single vote for Chandler

After seeing the result of the re-canvasing, Barr decided to concede.

If the rest of the country looks like Indiana tonight, Democrats might as well just go to bed early and duck.

At the beginning of the day, Democrats held 5 House seats in Indiana, and Republicans held 3. At the moment, Democrats are only ahead in one, the Indianapolis-area seat held by Andre Carson. And even that is only a 53.5-43.2 lead at this point. Baron Hill, Joe Donnelly and Peter Visclosky are all down, though Visclosky’s seat is extremely early and I assume Gary is not in. In addition, the open seat vacated by Brad Ellsworth looks like a Republican win at this point as well.