Tuesday News

- Earlier this month at the UAW National Ford Council Meeting, UAW Vice President Bob King vowed to strike the Ford Motor Company over product commitments for the Louisville Assembly and Michigan Truck plants if the company does not make good on its promise of new work. The new product commitments for the plants were negotiated and approved by the membership as per the 2007 and 2009 contracts. Ford is still building the Explorer at the Louisville Assembly Plant on Fern Valley Road and is expected to wrap up production of that vehicle in November. As of this writing, Ford has not officially announced any future product for Louisville Assembly, although media speculation has been mainly focused on the Kuga crossover vehicle currently built for Europeans.

- Just one month after the introduction of the federally-funded "Energy Star" appliance rebate program, the state has announced the $4 million has been spent. [Business First]

- There's another huge retail development going up in Fern Creek at the Bardstown Road/Gene Snyder interchange. The development will be nearly 400,000 square feet on 43.5 acres and will include "a big-box retailer, movie theaters, restaurants, a coffee house and clothing and electronics retailers." Meanwhile, folks in Southwest Louisville continue to wish for a big-box retailer, movie theaters, restaurants, a coffee house and clothing and electronics retailers.