• "Earlier this month, just as the Kentucky Senate moved to crack down on illegal immigration, Thoroughbred trainers were reminded just how dependent their sport is on foreign labor. A federal immigration agent came to the Fair Grounds in New Orleans on Jan. 3 to chat with horse trainers, many of whom also race in Kentucky. The officer said he was there, in suit and tie, on a friendly visit to urge trainers to enroll in the federal E-Verify employment database and check to make sure all backside workers are legally qualified to work in the United States. But there was also a more ominous undertone: the implication that the next visit might not be so cordial." [Bluegrass Politics]
• "Projections that 1.6 million people a year will visit Ark Encounter — the proposed Biblical theme park in Northern Kentucky to be financed in part with Kentucky tax incentives — are wildly optimistic, according to a half-dozen theme-park experts." [Courier-Journal]

Photo: Courtesy The Official Website of the Nobel Prize