WAVE 3 Editorials - wave3.com-Louisville News, Weather & Sports

"I believe that my children shouldn't have to travel across town in order to get a good education, I believe that JCPS has a duty to treat all districts equally, so that my children can learn and succeed in their own neighborhoods."

There is plenty to cheer about this week. 

"How was your day at school?" has taken on new meaning in our country.

It is encouraging to see several women running for seats in the Kentucky Legislature this year. That body could use more diversity.

We have some accolades to shout out today.

Recently, Audubon Park adopted a resolution reinforcing Metro Louisville's resolution showing a desire for an NBA team and encouraging all incorporated cities within Louisville to follow suit. By broadening this into a social movement throughout the city and state, we can show solidarity, aiding an attempt to lure an NBA franchise to Louisville. 

More than 13% of Kentucky's children have an incarcerated parent. That's higher than any other state.

Thank you. Two simple words we don’t say often enough. Seems appropriate this week to act on using them more.

Attracting sporting events to your area can be a difference maker - particularly if you have a facility neighboring states don't have and there is a demand for its use.

Metro United Way celebrates 100 years of making our community better this year. During that time, individuals and businesses in Jefferson, Bullitt, Oldham, and Shelby counties in Kentucky, and Clark, Floyd, and Harrison in Indiana, have contributed nearly $1 billion to the effort. 

Our carriage agreement with DIRECTV has been temporarily extended, ensuring our local DIRECTV subscribers will continue to receive WAVE 3 News through Tuesday, September 5. 

We applaud the newly created Louisville Regional Airlift Development group of business, community, and government leaders aimed at bringing new, nonstop air service to Louisville International Airport. ?

More than 90,000 Kentuckians who are eligible to expunge their felony conviction criminal records have not done so in the past year since Kentucky's new expungement law took effect.

Students preparing to begin classes next month at the University of Louisville won't be confronted with higher tuition bills. It will be the first time in 16 years tuition didn't increase - and that is despite financial challenges facing UofL, including a $48 million shortfall. 

We encourage the Jefferson County School Board to approve the proposed "Males of Color Academy" at their board meeting Tuesday.

Muhammad Ali famously once said, “Service to others is the rent you pay for your room here on earth." As our community joins together to celebrate the ongoing I AM ALI Festival - focused this week on his core principle of giving - the Champ's message of service and giving back still rings true today, perhaps more than ever.  

Our "Freedom of the Press" editorial didn't sit well with you. Facebook lit up with contrarian opinions.

Like many of you, every night I get my children ready for bed. I help them brush their teeth, read them a story and tuck them in. I simply can’t imagine having to fear my children being shot by a stray bullet in our own home. But that unfathomable fear is the reality for too many families in our city and was the reality for 7-year-old Dequante Hobbs, Jr. when he was shot in the head in his kitchen on the evening of May 22. 

Post-season play began this week with Kentucky ranked 7th nationally and Louisville ranked 5th. 

Cheers to Active Heroes on their plans to open a second military family community center next week - this one in New Albany

Tonight,we offer cheers to Linkin' Bridge, the Honorary Grand Marshals for the Republic Bank Pegasus Parade, and to many more in WAVE Country for their accomplishments.

Kentucky's legislature accomplished plenty during their 30-day session. 

Acts of hatred and intolerance must be condemned in Louisville and anywhere else in our country and nation. 

Louisville may be challenged when it comes to healthy air but is the best when it comes to water.

There's been lots of focus this month on executive orders from the President. It is worth noting one extraordinarily important executive order as we honor the great contributions of African Americans throughout our history this month.

The cliché is very real: our children are our future. How we treat them speaks volumes about who we are and what matters to us. In the Commonwealth of Kentucky, we must do a better job of protecting our children from abuse and neglect.

This week, the major national hub for refugee settlements expected 45 refugees from Nepal, Sudan and Somalia but no refugees from anywhere will be coming to our country for four months now, and none from Syria indefinitely, following an executive order from President Trump.

The scramble to collect pertinent tax material begins in earnest this week - at least for those who want to file tax returns well before the April 15 deadline in hopes of getting a refund check as early as possible. This hopefully will be the year that a permanent fix to the tax code is made.

Louisville's attractiveness spawns many areas and now includes being one of the best places to work according to an online jobs platform.

Kentucky's legislative session is underway, with Republicans in full control for the first time in nearly a century. But even though their agenda has been decades in the making, this year's session is short – so Republicans have to choose their priorities carefully.

The names for the newest Ohio River bridges are certainly spot on.

Our community certainly received a holiday gift when Louisville Orchestra conductor and music director Teddy Abrams committed to stay with the orchestra through August of 2020.  Let's hope the musicians follow suit.

Thanksgiving's murders in Louisville continued a pattern this year - each week at least two people on average have been killed in the Commonwealth’s largest city. It is the bloodiest year on record.

During each WAVE 3 News Editorial, we ask for your comments. Here is some feedback you've given us on recent editorials.

Maybe it will turn out to be blessing in disguise - the Walmart that won't be built now in the West End of Louisville that would have employed perhaps 300 people and brought retail services to an area needing it. Instead of placing blame on why the project stalled for three years after Walmart blessed it, focus energy into how to finally get the former home of the Phillip Morris cigarette factory productive again.

Philanthropy remains alive and well in our challenging world environment.

There are impressive positives to celebrate in education and sports this week.

Audiences apparently want celebrities to be transparent and have been questioning their authenticity. We question an intensifying pushback to transparency from several institutions and others.

Medicaid is projected to consume every new General Fund dollar coming into the Commonwealth for the next two years.

Does Louisville need more than 100 boards and commissions? Are they making the impact they could be when at times this year there were hundreds of open seats and expired terms on dozens of boards, commissions, and panels?

Character is the most important predictor of health, wealth, and happiness in adulthood. Building character starts with humility.

It is often said some things never change. Our longest tenured employee here at WAVE 3 News, a 43-year veteran, shared with me an editorial our station aired 36 years ago this week.

Election season sharpens our focus on what is good, bad, and indifferent about how we elect people and what happens after they get elected.

There are currently more than 4,500 administrative regulations in Kentucky. Of those 4,500 regulations, about 15% have not been reviewed since 1974.  What happens to regulations that become obsolete, or when different regulations conflict, or when a regulation simply is not needed anymore?

As a dad to a young black man, I just don't know what to tell him. Frankly, I worry about his safety. 

It is estimated that for every billion dollars in regulatory costs, more than 8,000 jobs are lost. That explains in part why in the past eight years more than 180,000 coal mining jobs have been lost nationwide

Wait until your father gets home is a phrase many of us didn't want to hear when we were young. The sad part is for many, there is no father in the home to even worry about offering discipline.

Ali will always be an international presence, and will always be one of us.

The year isn’t even half over and Louisville has 47 homicides, triple the number from the first five months two years ago and double the number last year. 

A potentially game changing summer awaits for 1,200 soon to be kindergarten students in Louisville, thanks to Jefferson County Public Schools, the Archdiocese of Louisville and several other community partners and foundations.

Affordable housing is a major problem right now in Louisville. There is an unmet need of nearly 60,000 affordable housing units in Louisville and more than 200,000 people have an income below what is need to afford rent and utilities.

Vacant and abandoned properties hurt neighborhoods, lower property values, and frustrate folks who want their streets safe. Two of the homes in the Shawnee neighborhood have been vacant for four years. Some of the other 2,500 lots and 5,000 buildings vacant and abandoned in Louisville have been abandoned longer.

The unemployment rate right now in our country for people with a college degree is less than 3%. That is one of the big reasons why an education movement in Louisville to attain 55,000 degrees by 2020 was launched.

The J.B. Speed Art Museum reopens to the public Saturday and admittance is free for a 30-hour celebration of visual art.

Recent editorials have brought plenty of feedback. 

We encourage Metro Council to pass a measure allowing the company to negotiate only one franchise agreement rather than one with each of the 80 small cities in Jefferson County, to expedite the process.

Black History month takes on an intense focus locally this week as two icons are laid to rest.

Transparency took a hit in the Indiana House this week. House representatives passed Bill 1019 that changed the rules about who has access to police body cam and dash cam video.

Community activism is alive and well in Louisville and that only makes a community better.

We certainly should try to eat less and exercise more this year. It would also help to be more patient with others, and that includes on the roadways.

In a guest editorial earlier this week, Scott Whitehouse of the Oldham County Expanded Alcohol Sales Committee urged the voters of Oldham County to expand alcohol sales. Once again, we are being told that in order to provide greater business opportunities and economic development, expanding the availability of alcohol is necessary. This was the same argument made by the Chamber of Commerce in 2004 when voters approved limited sales of alcohol.

A lighter Super Duty truck will be launched here in the back half of next year, and with it the company plans to hire 2,000 employees and invest $1.3 billion in upgrades.

We certainly have much to be thankful for as a community this year.