With a new president at the helm, the University of Kentucky will pay a Chicago-based consulting firm $285,000 to re-examine the school's long-term goals — set during rosier financial times — and suggest efficiencies. Results from the study conducted by Huron Consulting Group will be considered during a UK Board of Trustees retreat with new president Eli Capilouto in October.

When cities and counties around Kentucky passed budgets just before July 1, many blamed the cost of the state pension system for cuts to services and personnel. Legislators anticipate reform of the Kentucky Retirement System will emerge as the top issue once the legislative redistricting is completed in the next session of the General Assembly.

The inaugural Quaker State 400 brought mixed results for businesses near the Kentucky Speedway, with some saying their business was up while others were left wondering why the expected windfall fell short.

Rep. Leonard Boswell (D-IA) "scuffled with an armed intruder at his southern Iowa farmhouse late Saturday night before his grandson pointed a gun at the intruder, who then fled," The Des Moines Register writes, citing aides to the congressman and the local sheriff's office.

The newspaper adds that "no arrests had been reported by Sunday evening."

Catching up on the scandal that doesn't stop in the U.K.:

"An intensifying voicemail hacking and police bribery scandal cut closer than ever to Rupert Murdoch and Scotland Yard on Sunday with the arrest of the media magnate's former British newspaper chief and the resignation of London's police commissioner.

As many as 30 people may have died in Homs, Syria over the weekend. The AP cites one Syrian dissident group that says initially three victims died in apparent sectarian violence - a troubling new development in the mostly secular uprising against the rule of Syrian leader Bashir al-Assad.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Monday called for an emergency session of parliament to brief lawmakers on a spreading phone hacking scandal, trying to gain control of a crisis that is threatening Rupert Murdoch's media empire, the upper echelons of London's police force and the country's leader himself.

Much like The Rapture that didn't happen on May 21, the much-publicized "carmageddon" in Los Angeles over this past weekend seems to been much ado about nothing.

We know for sure that negotiations continue between the White House and the Republican leadership in Congress over how to extend the federal debt ceiling, trim federal deficits and start reducing (or at least stop its explosive growth) the $14+ trillion federal debt.

At this year's Indiana State Fair, concessionaires Dennis and Cheryl Reas have a product for the whole family: deep fried Kool-Aid balls. They tell the Indianapolis Star the snack looks like a red hush puppy.