Developers of the 111 Whiskey Row complex on West Main Street are close to signing the first tenant lease, according to project officials and Mayor Greg Fischer, who gave an update yesterday on progress there. Plans call for four or five lower-level restaurants, 13,000 square feet of second-level offices, and a dozen apartments on the upper floors, The Courier-Journal says. Brown-Forman and the other developers hope to finish work by next summer.
A news summary, focused on 10 big employers; updated 4:23 p.m.
HUMANA: A group of high-profile U.S. Senate Democrats yesterday urged the Justice Department to block the proposed Aetna-Humana and Anthem-Cigna mergers, which would shrink the number of national health insurers to three from five. In a letter, they argued the pending tie-ups would threaten jobs, raise premiums, and reduce the quality of care. The letter was signed by Al Franken of Minnesota, Elizabeth Warren of Massachusetts, Sherrod Brown of Ohio, Edward J. Markey of Massachusetts, Dianne Feinstein of California, Mazie K. Hirono of Hawaii — and Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, in whose state both Aetna and Cigna are headquartered (Business Insurance). Aetna officials have said they expect the $37 billion merger with Humana will close in this year’s second half.
AMAZON: The FAA has proposed fining Amazon another $130,000 for twice shipping hazardous packages in 2014 without warning labels or emergency response information. In one, the retailer offered UPS a box with a 19-ounce container of Simple Air EZ Green HVAC Cleaner. The flammable gas was discovered by UPS workers in Kentucky; the second incident involved FedEx. The proposed penalty comes two weeks after the FAA fined Amazon $350,000 over a similar incident that caused injuries to several UPS workers (CIO). Also, a San Francisco Bay area woman learned the hard way that Amazon can, indeed, ban you for good if you return too many orders — although she eventually got a reprieve (NBC). Amazon employs 6,000 at two distribution centers near Louisville.
PAPA JOHN’S: Researcher Nomura yesterday downgraded Papa John’s stock to neutral from buy, partly because of concerns traffic accidents involving delivery drivers could push up insurance costs. Among the examples cited: A jury in DeKalb County, Ga., awarded $11 million to a woman who suffered long-term brain damage after an incident involving a Papa John’s driver. “While this award likely will be appealed (if it hasn’t already),” Nomura told clients, “it does highlight what appears to us to be the growing risks.” The firm also downgraded Domino’s shares for the same reason (MarketWatch). Wall Street was unfazed: Papa John’s shares closed today at $67.79, up 2.3%.
BROWN-FORMAN is launching a global scavenger hunt to celebrate the 150th anniversary of its flagship Jack Daniel’s Distillery. Starting July 1 through September, the distiller will provide clues via its Facebook page to 150 hidden whiskey barrels around the world and give fans the opportunity to find and win prizes. The barrels will be hidden at airports in Amsterdam, Frankfurt, Heathrow, Milan, Paris, Singapore, Los Angeles and Sydney, plus cultural and historic sites (Frontier Magazine and Travel Retail Business).
FORD and the other two big U.S. automakers collectively outperformed import brands for just the second time in 30 years in this year’s closely watched J.D. Power Initial Quality Study. Still, Ford finished No. 11; Kia was No. 1 (Detroit Free Press). The automaker employs nearly 10,000 workers at its auto and truck factories in Louisville.
UPS: A Idaho woman is praising a UPS driver after he likely saved her and her sons from what could have been a deadly house fire last month (East Idaho News). UPS is Louisville’s single-biggest employer, with about 22,000 workers its Worldport hub at Louisville International Airport, the biggest fully automated package handling facility in the world.
TACO BELL: A viral video of a teenager’s arrest for allegedly brandishing a knife at a Taco Bell employee in Wisconsin has sparked protests and an internal police inquiry (The Root).
In other news, Texas Roadhouse shares closed at $46.55, up 3% — another record closing high — after setting an earlier intraday high of $46.60. And Churchill Downs shares closed at $127.60 up 63 cents as nearly two million shares changed hands — 10 times average volume. Standard & Poor’s announced the Louisville company would replace Fortune Brands Home & Security in the S&P MidCap 400 after the close of trading today (RTT News).
It may have been the swinging ’60s somewhere in Louisville, but you wouldn’t have known it from a Courier-Journal advertisement for some seriously sober women’s attire on June 23, 1966. Stewart’s department store at 4th and Walnut (now Muhammad Ali Boulevard) was offering a “trans-season costume” from the Quaker Lady company for $14.98*.
“You’ll look your ladylike best all through summer and into fall in this town costume of polyester and combed cotton,” Stewart’s promised. “So easy-care, it’s a wash and wear, requires little or no ironing! Dress is freshly and femininely styled with jewel neckline, slenderizing straight skirt. Jacket has stylish notch collar, tab pocket trim effect, ¾-sleeves. Sizes 12 to 20, 12½ to 22½. Blue, green or wineberry plaid.”
* That $14.98 would be equivalent to $111 in 2016 dollars, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics’ inflation calculator.
Here’s what the store looked like in 1923, when it was known as Stewart’s Dry Goods, in a photo from the University of Louisville Photographic Archives. The building now houses a 304-room Embassy Suites Hotel that opened in April 2015.
Stewart’s continued as a separate nameplate until early 1986, when parent Associated Dry Goods sold most of the stores to Ben Snyder’s. By 1992, the last surviving former Stewart’s — the L.S. Ayres location in Evansville, Ind. — closed amid the Associated Dry Goods merger with the May Co. of St. Louis.
Related: Read a short history of Louisville department stores.
The Julius Friedman: Fifty Year Retrospective opening Friday will feature some of the Louisville artist’s most iconic posters, including “Toe on Egg” (left), his famous Louisville Ballet poster of a dancer’s shoe balanced on an egg. In all, the exhibit will include more than 200 works.
Friedman’s work has been exhibited at the Museum of Modern Art, the American Institute of Graphic Arts, and in other institutions across North America, Asia and Europe.
The exhibition runs through Oct. 9. More about the artist.
The Frazier is at 829 W. Main St. on Museum Row at the corner of Ninth and Main streets. It’s open Monday through Saturday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., and Sunday, noon to 5 p.m. Adult tickets are $12. More ticket information.
Boulevard reviews the latest media coverage of the Oscar-winning Louisville native in our exclusive Jennifer Lawrence Diary™. Today’s news, rated on a scale of 1-5 stars:
Bidding on one of Lawrence’s newest projects — about disgraced Silicon Valley medical lab entrepreneur Elizabeth Holmes — went nuts last night as nine companies offered $3 million to $4 million for director Adam McKay‘s screenplay, according to Deadline. The film, so far called “Bad Blood,” has a budget of $40 million to $50 million.
The trade site says the movie has “all the requisites for the big packages studios are responding to right now: hot-button subject matter, McKay coming off his Oscar for “Big Short” and Oscar winner Lawrence, 25, who usually finds herself in the Academy Awards mix on prestige projects, most recently ‘Joy.'”
Holmes, 32, launched Theranos in 2003, with claims it could test blood with only a pinprick vs. the traditional method of drawing blood by injection. That pumped up the company’s valuation to $9 billion as recently as two years ago, according to Deadline. The company has since come under investigation over claims of inaccurate testing. And Holmes’ own worth — at one point valued at $4.5 billion for her 50% stake — has fallen to a fraction of that.
She’s one of Hollywood’s box-office queens, Continue reading “Bidding hits fever pitch for $20M Lawrence’s ‘Bad Blood’ biopic about disgraced startup techie Holmes”
The five films in the July 24-29 festival include “Bear with Us, Kentucky,” an oddball comedy about a vicious bear derailing an otherwise romantic marriage proposal. Louisvillians will recognize hometown actor and Walden Theatre alumnus Collin Smith.
The festival will host events at the Kentucky Center, Speed Cinema, Baxter Avenue Theaters and Copper & Kings, according to WFPL. All-access passes are $45; details here.
Why’s it called “flyover”? Maybe because of this.
Boulevard 