Government

 At the same time that LaRue County Fiscal Court received a thank you card from some residents of Cissal Hill for the recent paving done there, second district magistrate Ricky Whitlock received a complaint that some teens and young adults had stopped traffic on the steep, winding hill to race Hot Wheels down it.

Sen. Brandon Smith, R-Hazard, has been chosen by his fellow Republicans to be the majority whip in the Kentucky Senate.

He replaces Sen. Carroll Gibson, R-Leitchfield, who represents District 5 which includes LaRue, Breckinridge, Grayson, Hancock, Hart and Meade Counties. Gibson opted out of the position.

Sen. Jimmy Higdon, R-Lebanon, who had also been a candidate for the leadership position, was the other candidate for whip.

 The zoning ordinance approved by LaRue County Fiscal Court at its meeting Nov. 14 will allow existing advertising signs on Lincoln Parkway to remain, but will prohibit new signs to be erected along the viewshed areas on Lincoln Parkway and U.S. 31-E.

“The main concern is on Lincoln Parkway,” said Bud Ireland, county administrator for Land of Lincoln Planning and Zoning. “What we don’t want is a bunch of billboards in a 20-acre field near the road.”

 U.S. Senator Mitch McConnell was unanimously re-elected by his colleagues on Wednesday to serve as Republican Leader for the 113th Congress. Senator McConnell is only the second Kentuckian to lead his party in the U.S. Senate. The other Senator from Kentucky to serve as his party’s leader was Alben Barkley.