LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) - It was a send-off befitting The Greatest. And the world watched the drama play out in Muhammad Ali’s hometown, where admirers lined streets to toss cascades of flowers onto his hearse, and a star-studded lineup memorialized him inside an arena.
The death of Louisville’s favorite son, evoking memories of his remarkable life as a three-time heavyweight boxing champion and humanitarian, has been voted Kentucky’s top news story of 2016 in the annual Associated Press poll of editors, news directors and reporters.
Ali died in June at age 74 after a long battle with Parkinson’s disease.
The boxing great might have “belonged to the world” but had only one hometown, Mayor Greg Fischer said, as thousands made pilgrimages to Louisville to pay respects. After days of tributes and the kinds of ceremonies usually reserved for heads of state, Ali was laid to rest in Cave Hill Cemetery.
“The seven days between the passing of Muhammad Ali and his funeral were as unforgettable as ’The Champ’ himself,” Fischer said recently. “We knew from the start that we needed to set the right tone, and give this native son of our city the send-off he deserved.”
The public memorial, attended by celebrities, athletes and politicians, was a mix of humor, politics and seriousness. Comedian Billy Crystal referred to Ali as “a tremendous bolt of lightning, created by Mother Nature out of thin air, a fantastic combination of power and beauty.”
Ali also was remembered for renouncing his “slave name” Cassius Clay, converting to Islam and risking his career by evading the draft during the Vietnam War. The message of peace and reconciliation he promoted on his global humanitarian journeys seemed poignant in a year when his hometown suffered a surge in the homicide rate and a rough presidential campaign that divided the nation.
Kentucky’s No. 2 story dealt with fundamental political change - the Republican takeover of the Kentucky House of Representatives in the November election after nearly a century of Democratic control.
Riding Donald Trump’s popularity, the GOP unseated House Speaker Greg Stumbo and other longtime Democratic incumbents, winning a commanding 64-36 House majority in the incoming legislature. Flipping House control cemented the GOP’s control of every Southern state legislature, and gives Republicans vast power in Kentucky, with an overwhelming Senate majority as well as Matt Bevin as governor.
Newly emboldened House Republicans are expected to push long-stalled priorities including an anti-union “right-to-work” bill and anti-abortion legislation.
The state’s No. 3 story was the legal feud between Bevin and Democratic Attorney General Andy Beshear.
Beshear sued the governor multiple times, seeking to block Bevin’s efforts to enact mid-year budget cuts on public colleges and universities and to abolish and replace the boards at the University of Louisville and the Kentucky Retirement Systems.
Bevin, in turn, criticized his predecessor, former Democratic Gov. Steve Beshear, who is Andy Beshear’s father.
Bevin’s first year in the governor’s office also claimed other spots on the top-ten list.
His formal submission of his Medicaid overhaul plan to federal regulators came in at No. 5. Bevin would change the federal-state health plan for low-income and disabled Kentuckians by requiring consumers to pay a higher share of their bills, a move he said would promote personal responsibility for cost-containment.
Bevin also made the list in No. 6, when the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled he can’t cut college budgets without legislative approval.
Higher education also came in as No. 4 in the list, with the resignation of University of Louisville President James Ramsey, whose long tenure was ultimately dogged by scandal. Ramsey, a former state budget director, was credited with raising academic standards and boosting the school from a commuter campus to a distinguished research institution. But his leadership was challenged by embezzlement scandals and other embarrassments, including an FBI investigation of top university officials for alleged misuse of federal money.
The University of Kentucky also made the list, at No. 10, by suing its student newspaper after the attorney general’s office said withholding documents regarding a professor’s sexual harassment investigation violates the state’s public records law.
Some of the 2016’s top stories were bad: Wildfires burned thousands of acres in eastern Kentucky as drought conditions caused the state’s worst fall fire season in about a decade; and former high-ranking state government official Tim Longmeyer was sentenced to nearly six years in prison for orchestrating a kickback scheme that netted him more than $200,000.
But some were good: Louisville quarterback Lamar Jackson won the Heisman Trophy, capping the sophomore’s 51-touchdown season.
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