The Bluegrass and Beyond

Who comes out for cross-country day at the Rolex Kentucky Three Day Event?

Mostly horse people — thousands and thousands of horse people, from across the country and around the world. Many of them are serious horse people.

You can tell the serious international horse people because they converse in French or German, or have accents as British as the Rolex’s play-by-play announcer. Some are impressively overdressed, but they seem not to mind as temperatures on a sun-splashed Saturday rise well into the 80s.

You can tell other serious horse people because their less-impressive clothing contains the logos of Rolexes past, other major horse events or their local riding club. They carefully mark notes in the program and comment to one another about each rider’s performance and technique.

Others may be dressed normally, except for a telling accessory. Take, for example, the woman in the white sun dress, straw hat and knee-high Gore-Tex and leather riding boots. This was not a day for waterproof boots. My guess is that she bought them from the Irish vendor and thought they were easier to wear than carry.

The Rolex trade fair in one corner of the Kentucky Horse Park is its own little world of temptation for serious horse people. In addition to waterproof boots from Ireland, there is everything from made-to-measure saddles and English riding apparel to handy gadgets like the Jiffy Steamer hay storage device.

A growing number of horse people come armed with expensive cameras and long, heavy lenses. Others seem just as happy with the results from their little point-and-shoots. The wonders of digital photography and auto focus have made it easy to capture the magic of a beautiful animal and a skilled rider as they thunder down the course and glide over a jump.

A major Rolex demographic is little girls who love horses and older girls who are getting good at riding them. They are accompanied by camera-toting fathers, and mothers, many of whom used to be those little girls.

Johnny Smith was there with his daughter Jordan, 19, who has been riding since she was 8 and has always wanted to come to Rolex. They decided just last Wednesday to make the trip up from Dallas, Texas. They drove all day Friday and were having a great time.

“I hope to do eventing someday,” Jordan Smith said. “I want to be here someday.” Her father talked about how many camera memory cards he had filled up.

Between the competitors’ rides, the little girls give constant loving to the outriders’ horses. Some are veterans, such as Safari, a 14-year-old draft cross who was working his ninth Rolex with owner Maureen O’Daniel of Lexington in the saddle in formal (and hot) riding attire. Others are new, such as Lil’ Mo, a 5-year-old retired thoroughbred racehorse who has found a new career as a hunter-jumper for Lei Ruckle of St. Louis.

The little girls’ younger brothers seem more interested in the funnel cakes in the food area, not to mention the Kettle Korn and deep-fried Oreos. The littlest siblings just want to play in the muddy creek that runs through the course.

There are many people here who would like to be horse people, if only they had more money or time or land.

Karen and Paul Lehman, who moved to Scott County from Florida last year, hope to have horses someday. At the moment, they’re busy with 7-month-old Brandon and another baby on the way. “We’re just getting into the whole horse thing,” she said.

I also suspect many of the 40,600 people who came out Saturday are like me — they don’t own horses or ride horses or even really know much about them. Rolex, like Keeneland, is one of those bonuses you get for living here. It’s a good excuse to get out and walk around on a beautiful day in a beautiful place and see some of the world’s best horses and riders do amazing things.

In 516 days, the Alltech FEI World Equestrian Games will begin its 16-day run at the Kentucky Horse Park, bringing together the world’s best athletes in eight equine disciplines. Hundreds of thousands of horse people will be here, including many of the world’s most serious horse people. Tickets go on sale Sept. 25.

But Games organizers also want to make sure they leave room for average, local people who just want to come out to see some horses and riders do amazing things. That’s why some general admission tickets will be available. (Prices will be announced late this summer.)

“Our event will be as much for the Lexington resident as for the international horse person,” Games spokeswoman Amy Walker said. “We want people to come out and enjoy this once-in-a-lifetime event.”

Think of it as one of the bonuses of living here.

Click on each photo to enlarge it.

Ron Eller, a noted authority on modern Appalachian history who teaches at the University of Kentucky, caused a stir at the East Kentucky Leadership Conference in Hazard on Thursday night by calling for an end to surface mining in the mountains.  Click here to listen to a three-minute excerpt from his speech.

House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Prestonsburg Democrat who sits on the board of a coal company, responded in a speech to the conference the next day.  He said that rather than abolishing surface mining, local officials and regulators should work with land owners to determine the “highest and best” use of land after mining and plan before mining begins to make sure that happens.  Click here to listen to a three-minute excerpt from his speech.

HAZARD — The keynote speaker at the 22nd annual East Kentucky Leadership Conference was Ron Eller, a leading authority on the history of modern Appalachia.

The University of Kentucky history professor also was given the East Kentucky Leadership Foundation’s annual “private individual” award, which comes with a beautiful, handmade wooden chair.

By the time Eller finished speaking Thursday evening, I suspect many in the audience of 250 were ready to break the chair over his head.

Eller, an eighth-generation Appalachian who was the first member of his family to go to college, said the region will never catch up with the rest of the nation economically as long as it is defined by industries that abusively extract natural resources, especially the dwindling supply of coal.

“We must begin, I think, by abolishing surface mining, including the radically destructive practice of mountaintop removal,” Eller said. “Mountaintop removal isn’t necessary to the region or to the national economy. It’s just cheaper.

“We can continue to mine coal, gas and other mineral resources. But the impact of extraction on the land, on our water resources, on our forest resources and other sensitive ecosystems must be strictly regulated and enforced. In the long run, we will have to move away from an extractive economy, especially one based upon coal.”

The final speaker of the two-day conference at Hazard Community and Technical College was House Speaker Greg Stumbo, a Prestonsburg Democrat who serves on the board of a coal company. He revised his planned remarks to respond to Eller.

Some of what Stumbo said was defensive: Why do people who no longer live in the mountains think they know what’s best for them? Subdivisions built on Lexington farmland are just as bad for the environment as surface mining in the mountains.

Some of it was matter of fact: We must move beyond coal, which will eventually be gone. We also must understand that coal produces half the nation’s electricity — and more than 90 percent of Kentucky’s electricity — and nothing can change that anytime soon.

And some of what Stumbo said was new and interesting: Rather than abolish surface mining, which he said isn’t economically practical, leaders in Eastern Kentucky must become more creative and demanding about how mined land is reclaimed and reused.

Stumbo cited several examples where mined land has been turned into airports, subdivisions, parks, golf courses and commercial development. But he also acknowledge that much other mined land has been poorly reclaimed as useless “pasture.”

Stumbo said he has begun talking with Gov. Steve Beshear about creating a state master plan for engaging landowners, regulators and community leaders to require better plans for post-mining use before land can be mined. If done properly, he said, more mined land could become an asset for the region instead of a liability.

I’ve been attending the East Kentucky Leadership Conference off and on since 1998, and it gets more interesting every year. That’s because the people who come seem more willing to discuss controversial subjects, question the way things have always been done and embrace new ideas.

A growing theme of the conference has been entrepreneurship and how digital technology could be harnessed to reduce the region’s economic isolation. More leaders in Eastern Kentucky now understand that their economy won’t be fixed by attracting big, outside employers so much as by educating and enabling creative, hard-working locals.

Jerry Rickett of the Kentucky Highlands Investment Corp., one of the oldest and most successful organizations working to develop home-grown businesses, noted that there are more than 82,000 “micro enterprises” in Kentucky’s Appalachian counties. Imagine, he said, how many jobs could be created if some of those businesses could grow enough to hire just one more person?

Entrepreneurship and a more diverse economy are vital to Eastern Kentucky’s future. But another key will be the willingness of the region’s people to better manage their bittersweet, century-old relationship with the coal industry.

Kentuckians must find ways to make the coal industry a better environmental steward, community partner and contributor to the quality of life in the mountains — either by Eller’s way, Stumbo’s way or intelligent combinations of both.

On my way home from the office this evening, I heard an interesting commentary on WUKY-FM about the controversial decision by the board of the Kentucky Community and Technical College System to eliminate tenure for future faculty members.  The commentary is by Cara Richards, a retired sociology and anthropology professor at Transylvania University.  Listen to it here. What do you think?

When I moved back to Lexington in 1998 after 22 years of living elsewhere, I realized how much had changed — and how much I never knew about the city where I was born and raised.

So I applied to become a member of the Leadership Lexington class of 2000. The program, sponsored by Commerce Lexington, is marking its 30th year and has begun taking applications for the 2009 class.

I learned a lot in Leadership Lexington, and I’m not the only one.

“It was an eye-opening experience,” said Kevin Stinnett, another Lexington native who left town only long enough to attend Centre College in Danville.

Stinnett was in Leadership Lexington the year after I was, and it helped inspire him to run for the Urban County Council. He’s now in his third term representing the 6th District.

“It has been one of the most valuable things I’ve done in terms of networking and building lasting friendships,” Stinnett said. “It helps individuals to get out of their comfort zones and appreciate all of the things going on in our community.”

Mahendran Naidu, a member of Leadership Lexington’s 2002 class, had a similar experience. Unlike us local boys, though, Naidu was born and raised in India.

The software engineer lived in a half-dozen major cities around the world — from Chicago and San Francisco to Taipei and Singapore — before conducting a search for the perfect American “small town” in which to settle down and raise a family. That search led him and his wife to Lexington in 1998.

“Leadership Lexington was awesome,” said Naidu, who owns Techdomain, Inc., a technology services company. He was inspired by his Leadership Lexington experience to start Educare, a non-profit organization that helps the Fayette County Public Schools teach students life skills.

More than 1,000 people have gone through Leadership Lexington in the past three decades, including many public officials and top executives in local companies, non-profit organizations and law firms.

Here’s the way Leadership Lexington works: A steering committee of 20 graduates reviews applications and selects a class of about 40 people. (I’m in my second term on the steering committee.)

After an orientation retreat in August, the class meets one day each month for the next nine months. Each day focuses on a different aspect of Lexington: media, growth and preservation, government, education, diversity, health and human services, public safety, arts and quality of life and economics and workforce development.

On each of those days, the class travels to various locations around town and meets with leaders in that field. Then, on graduation day in June, class members discuss leadership development and how they plan to put their experience to use in the community.

“You have very good speakers who educate you about what’s going on, and about the problems of the community and what needs to be done,” Naidu said.

Since 2002, each Leadership Lexington class has organized and executed a community service project. One of those was to create the Leadership Lexington Youth Program, which provides a similar experience for local high school students.

Another service project was to help the East End neighborhood launch the effort to build the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden to memorialize the famous African American jockey and help revitalize the neighborhood. That project has since been taken up by the Bluegrass Community Foundation’s Legacy Center.

“It’s almost like a mini-MBA program,” Naidu said of Leadership Lexington. “Every year, I forward the applications to my friends and strongly urge them to apply.”

For more information, go to www.leadershiplexington.com, or call Linda Stampf, Commerce Lexington’s vice president for leadership development, at (859) 226-1610.

Isaac Murphy event

Speaking of the Isaac Murphy Memorial Art Garden, there will be a community event at the location, Third Street at Midland Avenue, Thursday from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m. to raise public awareness of the project.

Chris McCarron, the famous jockey and founder of Lexington’s North American Racing Academy, will be at the free family-oriented event, which also will include food, music and children’s activities.

John Calipari is an excellent basketball coach. He seems capable of attracting top talent. He has handled his first public appearances as spiritual leader of the Wildcat Nation with aplomb.

So why the public grumbling about his eight-year, $31.65 million contract to coach the University of Kentucky’s men’s basketball team?

Tuition for UK students has skyrocketed as faculty and staff salaries have stagnated. Academic programs and services are being cut. The General Assembly charged UK with becoming a Top 20 research university, but has refused to provide the money to make it happen.

In this atmosphere, there’s only one word for Calipari’s compensation: Obscene.

I’m not blaming Calipari or Athletic Director Mitch Barnhart. I’m also not blaming their colleagues around the nation who spend ever-more obscene sums to create winning college basketball and football programs. They’re just playing in the sandboxes that state legislatures, university presidents and boards of trustees have given them.

The problem is that universities and the people who oversee them have lost sight of the reason college athletics exist. They are there to further the educational mission of the university, not to become entertainment empires unto themselves.

A recent Herald-Leader editorial helped put things into perspective. It recalled how, 21 years ago, then-UK President David Roselle dealt with tough times by getting the university’s athletics association to pay $2.5 million to support general education. The figure dropped to $1.5 million the next year, then to $1.2 million each year after that.

Since 1988, tuition has risen almost 500 percent and UK’s athletics budget has grown 389 percent, from $13.7 million to $67 million. Athletics’ financial contribution to the larger university has remained flat at $1.2 million, which goes to scholarships for non-athletes.

The editorial prompted an interesting letter to the editor from Joe Peek, UK’s Gatton Endowed Chair in International Banking and Financial Economics.

Peek noted that UK’s “self-supporting” athletic program doesn’t account for facilities, utilities, maintenance and other services the university provides to athletics. And because UK athletics wouldn’t exist without UK, he suggested that the university charge athletics a “franchise fee.”

I would suggest another approach. It’s an older form of accounting that would put into proper perspective the relationship between the university and its athletics machine: the Biblical tithe.

I’m not trying to mix church and state, although many would argue that basketball is Kentucky’s secular religion. The Bible, the Koran and other ancient religious texts offer many tried-and-true approaches to life that believers and non-believers alike can find valuable. They are, after all, the wisdom of the ages.

University athletic programs operate on a modern American ethic best described as this: “I bring in the money, so it’s mine.”

Based on this ethic, big-revenue college sports spend lavishly on coaches, facilities and perks. Sharing resources with non-revenue sports or the larger university is seen more as an act of charity than an obligation.

The tithe is based on the concept that man owes 10 percent of his “increase” to God, because without God there would be no man — just as without the University of Kentucky there would be no Wildcat basketball or football.

This approach would have UK Athletics contribute $6.7 million this year to other university purposes, rather than $1.2 million. As the success of athletics programs increased, so would the “tithe.”

I can already hear the wailing and gnashing of teeth from the high priests of our secular religion. Successful sports teams provide many benefits to a university, these people will say. Of course they do; that’s why they should get to keep 90 percent of their revenue.

How could UK possibly do this unless other National Collegiate Athletic Association programs did, too? It would put Big Blue at a competitive disadvantage with other universities.

Actually, what it might do is start a much-needed national conversation about the proper relationship between universities and the athletic industrial complex they and the television networks have created.

Kentucky officials like to think of themselves as leaders in education reform. Here’s an opportunity for reform. Go lead.

Journalists love anniversaries; they provide a flimsy but convenient excuse for writing about things we find interesting.

This week marks two important anniversaries for people who love good writing.

Today is the 50th anniversary of the publication of The Elements of Style, my favorite guide to good writing.

E.B. White, best known for his children’s book Charlotte’s Web, updated a writing manual used by his Cornell University professor, William Strunk. With simple commandments — Be clear. Omit needless words. — the book is a beacon in a world of blather.  National Public Radio has a piece about the book that’s worth hearing.

Reviewing The Elements of Style for Esquire magazine in 1959, Dorothy Parker wrote this piece of classic Dorothy Parker wit:  “If you have any young friends who aspire to become writers, the second greatest favor you can do them is to present them with copies of The Elements of Style. The first greatest, of course, is to shoot them now, while they’re happy.”

White’s essays for The New Yorker remain classics. Two of my favorites are Here is New York, which captures the energy of the 1940s city, and The World of Tomorrow, which describes the New York World’s Fair of 1939 and man’s hubris.

Monday marked the 100th birthday of the late Eudora Welty, the Mississippi author and photographer.

Her novel The Optimist’s Daughter won the Pulitzer Prize. Her many stories, such as The Petrified Man and Why I live at the P.O., are great studies in human nature and Southern culture.

White and Welty were great literary stylists. Strunk would have been proud of them both.

A couple hundred leaders from academia, politics and business gathered Thursday in Lexington to talk about energy and Kentucky — where we are, where we need to be and how we might get there.

It was the third Energizing Kentucky conference, organized by the universities of Kentucky and Louisville and Centre and Berea colleges. The keynote speaker was Carol Browner, President Obama’s assistant for energy and climate change.

First, some bad news:

Coal provides 92 percent of Kentucky’s electricity, at some of the nation’s cheapest rates. But dealing with coal’s environmental problems could raise those costs dramatically, turning a big asset into a big liability.

Rising power rates will hurt Kentucky, the nation’s fourth-poorest state. Kentucky ranks 6th nationally in gross state product from manufacturing, much of which depends on cheap power. We’re the nation’s third-largest automaker. We produce 40 percent of the nation’s aluminum and 30 percent of its stainless steel.

Kentuckians waste a lot of electricity. We have the nation’s fifth-lowest power rates, but 20 other states have lower average monthly bills.

Since America first became alarmed about its dependence on foreign oil in the 1970s, that dependence has nearly doubled. Gasoline prices will shoot back up as the global economy recovers and demand increases.

Now, some good news:

Everyone at the conference seemed to be singing from the same songbook, more or less. Nobody was saying the solution to our energy challenges is “drill baby, drill” — or “dig Bubba, dig.” That’s a significant change.

Recent announcements about the state’s new role in developing high-tech automobile batteries had everyone in a hopeful mood.

Both Rocky Adkins, a legislative leader who works for a coal company, and Tom Fitzgerald, one of Kentucky’s most ardent environmental activists, had mostly good things to say about how state leaders are now approaching energy issues.

Gov. Steve Beshear’s state energy plan, announced last November, is a progressive document. The first three of its seven points note the need for more conservation and renewable energy. The next three deal with developing more environmentally friendly ways to use coal.

The last point in the state plan suggests reconsideration of Kentucky’s ban on nuclear energy, which remains controversial. (To read the energy plan, go to: www.governor.ky.gov and click on the Energy Independence tab.)

“It is, on balance, a sound and thoughtful plan,” said Fitzgerald, director of the Kentucky Resources Council. “But we have our work cut out for us.”

The reality is that Kentucky must continue to rely on coal for many years to come. While the state is investing heavily in research for commercial carbon capture and “clean coal” technologies, they are now more dream than reality.

Interesting work is being done by Alltech and other Kentucky companies on bio-fuels. And there’s a lot of potential for small-scale solar power, especially for such things as home water heating. Kentucky’s rivers could produce a lot more hydro power.

Browner said the keys to energy independence will be developing new technologies and using energy more wisely to create both a strong economy and a clean environment.

“If you look at our history, you can see that we can have both,” said Browner, whose previous federal job was heading the Environmental Protection Agency during the Clinton Administration.

One creative approach is a new public-private partnership called Kentucky’s Clean Energy Corps, which state Treasurer Jonathan Miller described as “weatherization on steroids.”

The program will use federal stimulus money to create jobs and improve energy efficiency in the homes of 10,000 modest-income Kentuckians. It also will try to engage young people in energy efficiency and conservation efforts.

In a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency, where the conference was held, there were a couple of dozen exhibits of energy-related projects by Kentucky students.

On one side of the room were displays of high-tech research by university students. On the other side were school science projects. Students from Russell High School in Greenup County showed photos of their school’s solar collectors. Excited first graders from Hannah McClure Elementary in Winchester told about their recycling campaign.

My favorite was a project from Chenoweth Elementary in Louisville. It was a box lined with aluminum foil and covered with plastic wrap. On a sunny day, the solar-powered oven can cook a s’more in about 15 minutes.

OK, so a solar-powered s’more oven won’t do much to solve Kentucky’s energy challenges. But the kind of creativity those two fifth-grade girls put into it just might.

Like many journalists, I’ve always dreamed of writing the great American novel.

I have an idea for one. I even have a title: All That Glitters.

Here’s the plot: A real estate developer announces plans to build a massive tower in the center of town. He touts it as an economic boon. He calls it DazzlePointe, with the extra “e” on the end to add some class.

Some of this developer’s previous projects have been successful; others haven’t been. For various reasons, some people in town don’t trust him. But most of the city’s powers that be are, well, dazzled by his proposal.

Think of it as The Music Man without the music.

The developer has been secretly working on DazzlePointe for a couple of years. But when he unveils the renderings, they show a generic tower that looks as if it was designed in a couple of weeks.

The developer’s business plan is suspect. It’s straight out of the fast-buck days of a real estate bubble that’s getting ready to pop: A luxury hotel, nearly 100 million-dollar condos, upscale shops and restaurants.

Where’s the money for DazzlePointe coming from? It’s all cash, the developer says, but it’s coming from a foreign investor whose identity he can’t disclose.

The developer says he needs government help, in the form of tax-increment financing, to make the project truly special. Unless, that is, people want to ask too many questions; then he can build it on his own, but it will be much less special.

The money is in place, the developer says. He’s ready to go. Except for one thing: The block contains some very old buildings that his silent partner has let crumble for years while city officials looked the other way.

Many good architects say some of the old buildings are special. They say they could be incorporated into a beautiful contemporary structure that would be better for the city and still accomplish the developer’s financial goals. But the developer scoffs. The old buildings must go! City officials snap to attention, and the bulldozers roll in.

With the DazzlePointe site now cleared and ready for construction, everyone waits. And waits. Months go by. Then, city officials are told that the mysterious investor died. Months ago. Without leaving a will. But don’t worry, the developer says. Everything will be fine.

How will the novel end? I’ve thought about several possibilities.

The developer might find the money and build his tower, only to see it fail within a few years (perhaps after he has sold it and pocketed a handsome fee). The real estate bubble has burst, taking much of the economy with it. The tower’s business plan makes less and less sense with each passing day.

Another ending could be that the developer doesn’t really have the money to build DazzlePointe. But now, with the block cleared, he and his partner have more flexibility to build something else there. Except for the loss of the old buildings, things work out fine, because the new project makes more long-term sense than DazzlePointe ever did.

Of course, a third ending could be that DazzlePointe is built and is a long-term success, defying all of the skeptics — and all of the nation’s economic trends. But it has been years since I read many fairy tales, so I doubt I could write a good fairy-tale ending.

The part of this plot where I’m stuck isn’t the end; it’s the middle. I’m to the point where the DazzlePointe site is a big hole, the mysterious investor is dead and nothing seems to be happening.

How do the powers that be react? Do they continue taking everything the developer says as gospel? Or do they finally begin asking tough questions and demanding answers?

Here are some of the questions they might ask: When did the mysterious investor die? When did the developer find out? How long did he know it before telling government officials? Was it before the block was cleared? Was it before application for tax-increment financing was made or approved? Are there legal issues here that authorities should investigate?

As I said, this is the part of the novel where I’m stuck. How the powers that be react at this point could have a big effect on how the end of this story is written.

On second thought, maybe I should just stick to journalism. I probably wouldn’t make a good novelist. After all, this plot is so implausible, who would ever believe it?

This could be huge.

In fact, an industry consortium’s selection of Kentucky to become the research, development and manufacturing center for the next generation of high-tech automobile batteries could be the most important news for this state’s economy in a generation.

At the announcement Monday in Frankfort, Gov. Steve Beshear and other officials compared it to Toyota’s decision more than two decades ago to base its U.S. operations in Kentucky.

The comparison seems appropriate. Maybe even be an understatement.

Toyota did much more than build a high-tech assembly plant and other facilities that now employ 8,300 people. It created synergies with other nearby auto plants that attracted more than 100 suppliers and created a big part of Kentucky’s advanced manufacturing economy.

More than 80,000 people in Kentucky now work at making the current generation of petroleum-fueled vehicles. It’s clear, though, that the vehicles of the future will run partially, if not completely, on batteries.

Lithium-ion batteries, with their small size and long life, have enabled big advances in consumer electronics. The next big thing in automobile manufacturing will be figuring out how to make batteries that can efficiently run vehicles.

President Obama has pledged $2 billion toward figuring out how to put more energy-efficient hybrid vehicles on the road.

The National Alliance for Advanced Transportation Batteries, a consortium of more than 50 battery-making companies and related groups, is seeking some of that federal money to build a $600 million advanced battery manufacturing facility in Hardin County.

Construction would create 1,500 jobs, and the facility would eventually employ 2,000. And, like with Toyota, the possibilities for suppliers and associated manufacturers could create many thousand more jobs.

The battery plant will have close ties to the nation’s first high-tech battery research and development laboratory in Lexington, which Beshear announced last week. The lab is a joint venture of the University of Kentucky, the University of Louisville and the Argonne National Laboratory in Chicago.

In describing the significance of this project Monday, the Toyota comparison wasn’t the only one officials used.

They likened what the battery industry wants to do in Kentucky to what the semiconductor industry did in Austin, Texas, beginning in the late 1980s.

Like the battery industry now, the American semiconductor industry then was losing its edge to Asian competitors. The industry formed the SEMATECH consortium to focus research, development and manufacturing efforts. SEMATECH was a big success, and it did wonders for Austin’s economy and high-tech image.

Battery innovation and development isn’t just key to the future of automobile manufacturing, said Kris Kimel, president of the non-profit Kentucky Science and Technology Corp. There’s an urgent need for better batteries to store energy from all kinds of sources for all kinds of uses.

“Battery technology and the quest to develop better batteries is a key aspect of the whole emerging alternative energy market,” Kimel said. “It’s an excellent place for Kentucky to play.”

The history of economic development in Kentucky has often been one of missed opportunities, of selling the state short. Rarely have Kentucky’s leaders recognized the next big thing and successfully gone after it.

That’s why former Gov. Martha Layne Collins’ pursuit of Toyota two decades ago was such a milestone, and why Beshear’s pursuit of this deal could be another.

This effort puts Kentucky at the center of research, innovation and development for an entire industry trying to solve one of technology’s biggest challenges.

For a state hoping to be a player in the 21st century economy, this could be huge.

Theo Edmonds spent the first 15 years of his adult life chasing traditional success.

From his native Breathitt County, he moved to Lexington and earned an art and theater degree from Transylvania University.

Then he went to New Orleans, where he earned a master’s degree in health care administration and a law degree from Tulane University. He was admitted to the Louisiana Bar and had good jobs in corporate America.

Then, one day, it hit him: “I realized I was doing something that wasn’t making me happy on any level. I knew I needed to be creative. So I called in one morning and quit.”

He returned to Lexington, where he spent much of the past two years in a rented industrial building on Manchester Street writing poetry, painting and creating large mixed-media pieces of art.

Edmonds, 39, is now finding a new kind of success with his art, thanks to talent, hard work and a generous patron. For the past five months, he has been living and working in New York City, where he opens a two-week show Thursday in rented space in Manhattan’s trendy SoHo district.

After the show, Edmonds will move to France and create work for a solo show in September in Deauville, Lexington’s sister city, during its annual American Film Festival. After that, another show of his work is planned in Dublin, Ireland.

Edmonds was having modest success as an artist in Lexington, where he said the contemporary art scene has begun to blossom. “Lexington has immense potential,” he said. “It’s an amazing place; you never know what’s going to happen.”

But living and working in Harlem has been a whole ‘nother world.

“The influence and energy in New York has been incredible,” he said. “My work has fundamentally changed and evolved since I’ve been here. It has become much more varied. I have more confidence in my work. I feel very blessed; I don’t know how else to say it.”

Many of Edmonds’ pieces are a combination of paint and castoff items that tell stories, often Appalachian stories.

“The idea of things having a second life is authentic to me, and very Appalachian,” said Edmonds, whose father, Teddy Edmonds, represents Breathitt, Lee and Estill counties in the General Assembly.

Since moving to New York, Edmonds also has spent a lot of time in art museums. He has studied the work of fellow abstract expressionists such as Jackson Pollock and Willem de Kooning, and he has developed a new appreciation for the old masters.

“If you don’t know where you came from, you don’t know where you might be able to go,” he said.

Edmonds’ show is built around three themes: Appalachian storytelling pieces he created in Lexington; a series called Gabba Gabba Hey, inspired by New York street culture; and a series called Circus Maximus, which uses circus characters to tell universal human stories.

Edmonds’ work in New York and France is being made possible by patron Martine Head, who comes from a French horse-breeding family and now lives in Lexington.

Head said she met Edmonds last May at a show of his work in Lexington and was impressed. “I think that Theo has got depth,” she said. “He’s a true artist … a profound soul.”

Lexington has always embraced traditional art. Since moving to Lexington, Head has noticed a growing appreciation for contemporary art. Still, many fine local artists receive little recognition.

Head remembered the first time she visited Tuska Studio, which exhibits the work of the late Lexington sculptor John Tuska in his former home near downtown. “I walked into that house and thought, Wow! There is this gem in Lexington and nobody knows it’s here,” she said.

Head thought that living and working in New York and Europe would allow Edmonds to develop his artistic talent and receive more exposure.

While Edmonds has spent most of his time in New York painting, he also has been writing poetry. On April 5, three Kentucky poets flew up and joined him in a performance at the Bowery Poetry Club.

The opening reception for Edmonds’ show in SoHo will have a decidedly Kentucky flavor: Acoustic music, country ham hors d’oeuvres, bourbon and Ale 8 One.

Edmonds said he is proud of his Appalachian roots, and is surprised by how many other proud Kentuckians he has met in New York.

“It’s a city of people like me who have a burning desire to say something through their art,” he said. “But hopes and fears and joys are the same in New York as they are in Breathitt County.”

Many people at the University of Kentucky were surprised — and not especially pleased — when officials Tuesday announced a new $15 fee and registration program for bicycles parked on campus.

With student tuition rising and employee pay stagnant — not to mention all of those millions going to the new basketball coach — it seems like an odd time to be adding another fee, even if it is a small, one-time assessment that wouldn’t take effect until 2010.

Besides, if you’re wanting to encourage bicycling as an alternative form of transportation, is it a good idea to start charging for it?

After a couple of articles in the Kentucky Kernel student newspaper, officials might be reconsidering the fee. But the rest of the program seems like a good idea, for many reasons, not the least of which is that it’s another sign that UK is taking bicycles seriously.

The plan would require bikes parked on campus to be registered and bear a sticker, beginning in July. The sticker would help with recovery of lost or stolen bikes and make it easier for bicycle owners to get insurance.

Money from the fee would be earmarked for upkeep of bicycle racks and, more importantly, bicycle education.

Whether or not the fee remains — and I wouldn’t be surprised to see it scrapped — UK officials should press forward with the education piece. I see a lot of students riding bicycles around campus who don’t seem to know the rules of the road or some basic safety practices. It’s dangerous for the cyclists, and it just makes drivers angry.

Yellow bikes update

Yellow bikes will begin reappearing on Lexington streets later this month. It’s the third year for the program that provides free loaner bicycles for short trips around downtown.

But the program, which was started by private donors and administered by the Downtown Lexington Corp., could be much better next year.

The city will find out this fall whether it will get a $206,000 federal grant to provide high-tech bike racks and other support for the yellow bike program. The grant would need to be matched by $51,500 in local funding, probably private, in-kind contributions.

“If we get that support, we’ll be able to do a world-class shared bike program,” said Phil Holoubek, a downtown developer who helped start the yellow bike program.

That would include 12 to 15 solar-powered racks where bicycles could be borrowed with the swipe of a credit card and returned to another rack at the end of a ride. The racks would be concentrated downtown, around the UK and Transylvania University campuses and at the Kentucky Horse Park at the end of the Legacy Trail, which is now under construction between downtown and the park, said Kenzie Gleason, the city’s bikeway/pedestrian coordinator.

The rack vendor would be chosen by competitive bidding. But one major player in the business is Bcycle (bicycle with no “i”), a three-company partnership that includes Louisville-based Humana. To see how its racks work, go to Bcycle’s Web site.

But this year, like last year, about 60 yellow bikes will be available for checkout from several downtown locations, mostly retailers, and must be returned to the same location, preferably on the same day. Yellow bikes will be out through October.

There’s a $10 one-time fee to join the program, and people who have signed up before don’t need to re-register.

Bike Lexington plans

The annual Bike Lexington event has been moved from the third Saturday in May to Memorial Day, May 25, to better coordinate with the Bluegrass Cycling Club’s annual Horsey Hundred ride that Saturday and Sunday.

The Horsey Hundred attracts nearly 2,000 cyclists — many of whom come from as far away as Florida and Michigan — to the countryside around Lexington, Georgetown and Versailles.

The event is based at Georgetown College, but Gleason said shuttle buses will bring riders into Lexington that Saturday evening for food and a live band at Cheapside. “Lexington wanted to bring them into town and show them a good time,” she said.

Bike Lexington on Monday will be at the Courthouse Plaza at Main Street and Limestone and will include a 10-mile family fun ride and other activities for cyclists, walkers and families.

More information on Bike Lexington will be available next week at www.bikelexington.com. For information about the Horsey Hundred, go to www.bgcycling.org.

In other bicycle news: Mayor Jim Newberry and the Mayor’s Bicycle Task Force will have a Community Bike Forum on Tuesday, May 5, at 6:30 p.m. at a location still to be determined. The public forum will include updates on various bicycle-related activities and organizations around town.

“We’re hoping people will come, find out what is happening in Lexington and tell us what they would like to see,” Gleason said.

Also, people interested in bicycle commuting can attend free seminars at the Courthouse Plaza on three Wednesday nights next month — May 6, 13 and 27 — from 6 p.m. to 8 p.m.

The seminars, conducted by trainers certified by the League of American Bicyclists, will cover such commuting basics as how to change a flat tire, and choosing the right bike, clothing and route.

I’m not much of a gambler, but I don’t have anything against it.

I’ll probably lose a few dollars at Keeneland this month, and a few more dollars at Churchill Downs on Derby Day, and have fun doing it. Plus, I’ll know I did my small part to keep beautiful horses grazing in bluegrass fields.

I buy a lottery ticket every now and then — when the jackpot gets really big — even though I know I probably have a better chance of being struck by lightning than cashing the ticket.

With the economy hurting and state government revenues far below the budget, the governor is likely to call legislators back to Frankfort this summer to consider tax reform. I hope they create real reform, because we badly need a tax system that produces enough reliable revenue to meet Kentucky’s needs.

Odds are, the discussion will lead to more talk about expanded gambling. The drumbeat for slot machines at racetracks and casinos has been getting louder for years, and this economy is causing more people to listen.

I wish I knew the answer to the big question: Would more options for gambling be good or bad for Kentucky?

Let’s look at the pros and cons. We won’t get bogged down in numbers, because I think most of the numbers thrown around are little more than wild guesses. It’s like many forms of economic forecasting: They make weather forecasting look like exact science and voodoo almost seem respectable.

First, let’s take an easy argument: Slot machines or casinos would keep many Kentuckians from driving across the Ohio River to gamble. That’s probably true.

Here’s another argument: Expanded gambling would bring a lot of additional revenue to state government, perhaps reducing other tax burdens. That may be true, although I suspect it would generate a lot less money than supporters claim.

The trouble is that the extra revenue reflects only one side of the ledger. For each million of gambling revenue that comes into state coffers, how many million more must be shifted from the pockets of Kentucky gamblers into the pockets of the gambling industry?

What’s the social cost of expanded gambling? In other words, how many children will go unfed? How much rent and child support will go unpaid? Sure, some of that new state revenue will go to offset gambling’s collateral damage, but it probably won’t be enough. When has Kentucky ever adequately funded social services?

Will expanded gambling grow Kentucky’s economy? We will keep many of our current gamblers from taking their money across the Ohio River. We may even lure some gamblers to Kentucky from neighboring states.

But we won’t be making Kentucky’s economic pie much bigger; we’ll just be slicing it differently. For the most part, new money spent on gambling would be money now spent on something else in Kentucky.

For all of those reasons, I’ve never thought government-assisted gambling was good public policy. Besides, gambling sends taxpayers the same unrealistic message it sends gamblers: You don’t need to work for the success you want, you just need to have Lady Luck on your side every now and then.

The best argument I’ve seen for expanded gambling in Kentucky is that it would help keep those pretty horses in bluegrass fields — and all of the jobs and economic activity they create. Not to mention the positive image the horse industry gives Kentucky. Horses are our international brand — and a good one, at that.

Kentucky’s thoroughbred industry wants racetracks to be allowed to have slot machines to provide more money for higher race purses and breeder incentives. That’s because other states with expanded gambling are doing that, threatening Kentucky’s preeminence.

Anyone who has been the parent of a teenager is suspicious of the “but everyone else is doing it” argument. In this case, though, the problem seems legitimate, even if the proposed solution is, at best, a short-term fix.

For one thing, I think it’s naïve to think Kentucky’s thoroughbred industry will be able to keep gambling to itself. There’s just too much money at stake. Other powerful interests will want slot machines, or full casinos, or some of the gambling money the horse industry hopes to keep for race purses and breeder incentives.

Besides, what’s the long-term future of any industry that depends on something else to prop it up? If thoroughbred racing hopes to survive and thrive in the long term, it must create more fans. Other tracks must cater to fans the way Keeneland and Churchill Downs do. Racing must find a way to support itself, not find something else to support it.

Of course, all of that is easier said than done. And if it can be done, it won’t happen quickly. Racing, like the economy, is where it is. So what should we do now?

Would more options for gambling be good or bad for Kentucky?

It’s a question we all need to ask ourselves, ask each other and ask our elected leaders. Because if there were ever a year it could happen, I’ll bet this is it.

She was a bright girl of 12, but on the day she was to take the entrance exam for secondary school, her father chained her to a window frame in her bedroom.

He had other plans for his daughter: an arranged marriage to a much older man, who would make her his third or fourth wife.

The girl escaped and sought refuge with a small group of Roman Catholic nuns, who begged the father to let her go to school.

The story has a happy ending: The father relented, and the girl now lives with the nuns and attends school.

Flaget Nally got to know the girl and the nuns during the three years she spent as a lay missionary in Tanzania. But there were many other girls she knew in that East African nation — and thousands more she could never know — whose fates are much different.

“Girls there are at great risk for rape, for early marriage, for HIV infection,” Nally said.

Only 5 percent of Tanzanian girls ever attend secondary school. But Nally, who is from Bardstown, and the Missionary Sisters of Mary, who are from Uganda, hope to change that.

Since she returned to Kentucky last summer, Nally has been raising money to help the nuns build an English-language boarding school for as many as 800 girls of all faiths in the Tanzanian town of Bukoba.

“They’re hoping it will be a safe haven for these girls,” she said.

Giant Steps for African Girls, a 3k walk/run, is planned April 26 at the University of Kentucky’s Commonwealth Stadium to raise money for the school.

So far, with a similar event in Bardstown and many private donations, Nally has raised $80,000 — enough to buy seven acres of land and an old building that will soon be renovated into the first school building. To make the entire school a reality, perhaps ten-times that amount will be needed.

All money donated will go towards the school, said Nally, whose living expenses are being covered by local friends and church members.

Nally was an occupational therapist in Louisville when the Catholic faith of her childhood began calling her back. “I said, ‘God, do whatever you want to do with me,’ and my life has been nuts ever since,” she said.

In 1994, she became a volunteer with Mother Teresa’s Missionaries of Charity in New York City. Then she went to Selma, Ala., to work with Edmundite Mission Corps, helping at-risk African American children.

Then, after earning a master’s degree from the Franciscan School of Theology in Berkeley, Calif., and working several years in the Bay area, she felt God’s call to Africa.

After months of preparation and Swahili language training, Nally spent three years with Franciscan Mission Service in Tanzania, mostly working in a home for “abandoned” people with leprosy, HIV or mental illness. She was the only Westerner.

She loved Tanzania and its people, but was appalled by the culture’s treatment of women. Boys go to school; girls go to work. Women not only cook for men, but they must serve the food while walking on their knees.

“I saw women beaten for not having the meal done exactly when the husband wanted it,” she said. “It’s extremely sad to watch.”

Tanzania is less advanced than some other African countries because it has united its tribes with Swahili rather than English, and educational materials in the language are limited. The nuns from Uganda, where English is an official language, hope education will improve the lives and treatment of Tanzania’s women.

The nuns kept asking Nally to go back to America and raise money for their school. After much prayer, she agreed.

In addition to English and traditional subjects, the nuns hope to teach the girls self-respect, practical skills they can use to help support their families and values they can pass on to their children.

“To educate a girl in Africa is to educate a family,” Nally said. “What the Sisters want to do is create leadership among women, to empower them and improve their lives.”

Another Africa project

Carol Holzhausen Hunt, Kentucky’s 2007 Carnegie Foundation professor of the year, also felt the tug of African children when she accompanied a Kenyan collegue on a trip home in 2005.

Hunt, who retired last year after more than two decades teaching women’s studies and literature at Bluegrass Community and Technical College, has been raising money since then to support schools in the Okela village of Kenya’s Nyanza province.

When she visited the school, she was shocked: “The science lab had nothing. No tables, no equipment. I didn’t even see any textbooks. Most of the children are orphans. It’s an area hit hard by HIV.”

“The principal said, ‘Can you help us?’ The kids were so sweet and so smart and so friendly, I thought there must be something I can do,” she said.

Hunt decided to raise money for the school. Five former students — Melissa Adkins, Veronica Heacox, Erin Wellman, Molly Hukle and Chrissy Herren — embraced the project and have kept it going.

So far, they have raised about $10,000 for the school. They also send $300 every two months to a village women’s group that makes school uniforms for the children and earns money for the village.

Hunt’s non-profit group, Okela School Charities, will have a fund-raising sale and silent auction Saturday, April 14, at BCTC. This year’s goal is to finish raising $5,000 to buy a water purification system for the village.

If you go

Giant Steps for African Girls 3K Walk/Run

When: Sunday, April 26. Registration 3 p.m., walk 4 p.m.

Where: UK Commonwealth Stadium

More information, registration and pledge forms: www.educateafricangirls.org

Donations: St. Joseph/Giant Steps, P.O. Box 21813, Lexington, Ky., 40522-1813

Okela School Charities sale, silent auction

When: Tuesday, April 14, 9 a.m. - 5 p.m.

Where: BCTC Oswald Building lobby

More information: www.okelaproject.org

Donations: Carol Hunt, 1046 Diamond Brook Dr., Richmond, Ky., 40478

Before the sun is up, horses are on the track.

Riders in thick jackets and leather chaps ease them up the stretch and gallop them back down, around the turn.

Hooves pound. Steam puffs from big nostrils. The grandstand casts a giant shadow holding winter’s last chill.

Behind the rail, rows of green benches wait to be straightened. Their only occupants are the last fat drops of an overnight rain.

Men and women with rags carefully wipe each grandstand seat. Mop the floor. Hang the bunting. Above them, birds dart in and out, looking for a perch.

Down by the racing office, people stand with steaming cups of coffee. Many wear caps embroidered with the names of famous farms and recent champions. Three Chimneys. Big Brown.

Conversations are spiced with accents from down the road — and New York, and Ireland. Warming up yet, John? How have you been? Two exercise riders chat in French. Hot walkers speak Spanish. Between two owners, whispers in Japanese.

Some stare off into the distance, closely watching one of a dozen horses breezing by. Others pace with cell phones, telling someone far off that their horse looks good, is exercising well, will be ready to race. You should be here. Man, it is so pretty!

The rising sun casts a soft glow on flowering white trees and limestone walls. Freshly mown grass rolls out like an emerald carpet, rippled with the shadows of fences and trees. The track’s edge is a patchwork of budding green, flowering pink, forsythia yellow.

The stone-framed tote board and video screen forms a dark wall in the infield, waiting for a big jolt of electricity to bring it to life. Soon, it will chronicle the rise and fall of afternoon fortunes.

Out back, crunchy fine gravel leads to white block stables beneath severely trimmed trees. The remaining limbs reach skyward like arthritic fingers, waiting for leaves to hide their ice-inflicted wounds.

Outside the stables, grooms with white buckets of warm water carefully wash each tired horse. Steam rises from silky coats of chestnut brown and dappled gray. Ankles are carefully felt.

Many cars and pickup trucks are parked outside the stables, New York and Florida plates scattered among the Kentuckys. Old bicycles that were pedaled out Versailles Road in the dark stand propped against trees.

The track kitchen is alive with clattering plates and conversation. I’ll take the special. Sausage or bacon? Apples or grits? Coffee in a thick stone mug. That’ll be $5.26. Customers gaze at framed photographs of champions on the walls — and dream.

By mid-morning, sunshine reaches into the paddock and touches the big, white sycamore tree. Raindrops begin to dry off neatly trimmed boxwoods along the rail. A man with a leaf blower sweeps grass clippings from soft pavers.

A beer truck and an ice truck release their cargo. Kegs are stacked by concession stands and boxes beside rows of betting windows in the dim underneath of General Admission. Men with yellow ladders move from one rafter-mounted TV screen to another, pulling off fabric covers.

White metal tables, each with five chairs, stand beside pansies freshly planted in green washtubs. The sound of a sweeping broom echoes from a stone corridor that leads to the clubhouse. In a gift shop window, colorful Derby hats wait for just the right pretty head.

Soon there will be people; lots of people. Colorful dresses, navy blazers, khakis and bright ties. White parasols along the grandstand balcony. A sea of sunglasses and sunburns below.

Burgoo and beer. Crab cakes, fried green tomatoes and bread pudding bathed in sweet bourbon sauce.

It must be spring. It must be Keeneland.

Click here to watch a video of the sights and sounds of Keeneland by Herald-Leader photojournalist David Stephenson

Click on photos below to enlarge.