Henderson, CO

UNION CO., Ky. (WFIE) - Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear was in the Tri-State on Wednesday.

In Union County, Gov. Beshear was joined by Morganfield Mayor Randy Greenwell, Sturgis Mayor Kent Sayle, Uniontown Mayor LaDonna Tapp, Waverly Mayor Cris Payne, and Director of Tourism Paul Monsour.

The Governor presented funding to improve infrastructure, promote tourism, support local nonprofit organizations, and renovate the local area vocational education center.

Here’s the full event in Union County.

After that, he traveled to Henderson County to present similar funding.

He was joined by Henderson County Judge/Executive Brad Schneider, Corydon Mayor Ronda Smith, Henderson Mayor Brad Staton, Executive Director of Henderson County Tourist Commission Abby Dixon, and Henderson County Water District Superintendent Pete Conrad.

14 News spoke with people from the Sandefur Center, which is going to be receiving $100,000 from the state.

The organization is a non-profit that works with people with disabilities to provide job support. Sandra Kaiser was present and said she’s about to start working for Arby’s. Kaiser said she’s most excited to start receiving paychecks.

Sandefur Center Executive Director Julie Wischer said the money will help more people have outcomes like Kaiser.

“This money is going to invest in our infrastructure – our human infrastructure – to ensure that we can grow for the future so that we can find more people jobs like Sandra got her job at Arby’s,” she said.

In total for both counties, Gov. Beshear presented more than $16 million.

The Governor presented $8,582,500 to Union County Public Schools to support renovations at the district’s vocational education center.

Renovations include updating portions of the building that do not meet Americans with Disabilities Act requirements; welding exhaust system renovations; adding a sprinkler system; and renovating emergency lighting and fire alarms.

He also awarded $155,663 to the Henderson County Tourist Commission and $14,455 to Union County Fiscal Court to support travel marketing and promotion.

The Governor awarded $100,000 to the West Kentucky Brewery Hop Trail, a collaborative tourism project with a focus on craft breweries, to support multicounty collaborative destination marketing.

He also announced $1.5 million in funding to the City of Morganfield, in Union County, to replace the outdated sanitary sewer system at the Earle C. Clements Job Corps Center.

Gov. Beshear announced $641,000 in funding to the Union County Fiscal Court to install a new elevator in the Union County Courthouse.

He also announced the commitment of $830,258 in funds for utilities in Union County and $2.7 million in funding for utilities in Henderson County.

Gov. Beshear announced the commitment of funds for the following projects in Union County:

He announced the commitment of funds for the following projects in Henderson County:

The Governor awarded $484,343.11 to nine nonprofits in Union County and $1,220,842.90 to 20 nonprofits in Henderson County.

The awards come from the Nonprofit Assistance Fund, which is helping organizations across Kentucky recover from the effects of the pandemic.

In Union County, Gov. Beshear presented:

In Henderson County, Gov. Beshear presented:

Copyright 2023 WFIE. All rights reserved.

Image Credits: firstminute partnership 2023

Despite some typically British (or, more accurately, English) doom-mongering about the UK’s VC ecosystem lately, there’s no denying its capability for reinvention. Witness Moonfire’s recent new $115 million fund, IQ Capital’s $200 million fund, and Seedcamp’s new $180 million fund. And there is fresh good news on the horizon in the shape of firstminute capital’s new early-stage venture fund.

Founded by Brent Hoberman CBE and Spencer Crawley in 2017, the new generalist fund — which has raised $100 million so far with a final close to come later this year — will invest in early-stage startups in the UK and Europe. New investors in the latest fund include Slack co-founder Cal Henderson and Sir Richard Branson from Virgin Group.

Back in November 2020, firstminute raised its second early-stage venture fund which ended up being $160m. So let’s breakdown the fund to date.

• FMC Fund I: £73m fund I ($91m in today’s dollars) • FMC Fund II: £132.3m fund II ($160m) • FMC Fund III initial close – with final close expected later this year: £80m ($100m) • SPVs: £32m ($40m)

Firstminute says the fund is backed by 130 unicorn founders, including co-founders of Palantir, Ocado, Supercell, MongoDB, Check Point, Wayfair and Zalando. Also participating are institutions such as Mubadala Capital and half a dozen U.S. multistage firms, alongside a number of global CEOs. You can see a bunch more previous and current LPs here.

In a statement, co-founder of the fund, Hoberman said: “One of our superpowers is leveraging our network to help support our founders — whether it’s for business development or bringing on star LPs to invest alongside us as angels.” This is hardly a surprise – Hoberman hosts the elite, invite-only “Founders Forum” event every year, which is literally a who’s-who of tech in the U.S. and Europe.

The fund’s portfolio has notable startups, such as A.Team, Storyblok, Robocorp, Engflow, Wayve, Klang, Clockwork Labs, Ramp, Element) and Generation Home.

Many have gone on to raise from the likes of Sequoia, Andreessen Horowitz, Atomico, Index, Benchmark, Coatue, Softbank, Tiger, General Catalyst, Northzone, Mubadala Capital, NFX, Balderton, D1, Felicis, Bain Capital and Tencent.

With this latest raise, firstminute now says it has an an AUM of $400 million and a team of 20 (eight investors, eight on the platform side and four part-time venture partners) based in London, Berlin and Nice.

Firstminute will have to compete with many other early stage VC funds of course, of which there are many in London, and far more than any other capital in Europe. These include, Index Ventures. Accel Partners, Balderton Capital, Ascension, MMC Ventures, Octopus Ventures, LocalGlobe, Connect Ventures, Downing Ventures, Passion Capital, Notion Capital, Playfair Capital, Fuel Ventures and Beringea, to name just a few.

For Jordan Henderson and co, maybe money doesn't always make the football world go round.

The ex- Liverpool captain was one of the most high-profile stars to be lured to Saudi Arabia in the summer, accepting an offer to reunited with former teammate Steven Gerrard at Al-Ettifaq. The England player has since denied he's earning the reported £700,00-a-week wages, but the move has still proved controversial given his previous support for LGBTQ+ rights.

But Henderson was hardly alone. The likes of Fabinho, N'Golo Kante, and Aymeric Laporte all upped and left the Premier League, whilst iconic names like Neymar and Karim Benzema headed to Saudi from PSG and Real Madrid respectively.

However, despite being lined with star power, the Saudi league is not enjoying the increase in crowd numbers to accompany the rise in publicity. And according to the Sun, a number of new players are 'hating every minute' of their new career experience.

And yet, many could find themselves tied down for two or three-year periods. Regardless of regrets, the prospect of the Saudi Pro League allowing their investments to head home prematurely seems a distant one.

Indeed, venue support for games has been scarce. Henderson's new side only drew in a crowd of 9,827 when they were beaten by Al-Fateh last Thursday, just a month after a mere 976 people saw them win 3-1 at Abha Club.

HAVE YOUR SAY! Will the Saudi revolution last? Comment below.

The report also claimed that 11 of the clubs currently average under 5,000 in 2023, and two of them under 2,000. It's a far cry from the exhilarating atmospheres and sell-out crowds that many of the new stars have been used to in Europe.

However, Saudi is now strongly fancied to host the 2034 World Cup following developments this month. Bidding for that tournament will only be open to countries from the Asian Football Confederation and Oceania Football Confederation after it was confirmed the 2030 version would be spread across three continents.

Saudi have already announced their intention to submit a bid, with Cristiano Ronaldo set to be an ambassador for the venture. Henderson himself has backed proposals, insisting it would be the opportunity to further grow the sport across the world.

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Just 976 fans turned up to watch Jordan Henderson’s Al-Ettifaq side play in their Saudi Pro League fixture.

The former Liverpool captain joined Al-Ettifaq this summer, ending his 12-year career with the Reds. He signed a deal worth £350,000 until 2026 to reunite with Liverpool legend Steven Gerrard, who currently manages the side.

Henderson, 33, sparked controversy with the transfer and even claimed his decision was not financially motivated. But the Englishman’s recent matches demonstrate barely a fraction of the passion and support he experienced at Anfield.

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Al-Ettifaq beat Al-Ta’ee 4-3 on Thursday to record their fifth win of the season. Their previous game was a 3-1 win over Abha in front of a measly 976 spectators at Prince Sultan bin Abdulaziz Sports City Stadium.

That number sent shockwaves through football Twitter as fans realised it was fewer than the turnout at National League games - and even some games lower in the English pyramid. The stadium was only 3.9% full despite the star quality on show with Henderson, Moussa Dembele and Demarai Gray all featuring.

Do you think Henderson made the right call to leave Liverpool? Let us know in the comments section below

It comes as little shock, however, given that Al-Ettifaq's home attendance has been around 6,804 this season. Even that number is skewed thanks to the 13,930 who came to watch Cristiano Ronaldo when he visited with Al-Nassr.

Henderson is yet to play in front of more fans in any of his five games in Saudi Arabia thus far. A close second was the away clash at Al-Hilal, which drew 13,656 supporters.

Henderson’s other two outings saw crowds of fewer than 5,000 spectators turn up, with 4,200 in the stands for a home clash with Al-Khaleej and 2,281 for the visit of Damac.

It marks a huge difference to Anfield’s season-high attendance of 50,109 this season. Liverpool’s only other home fixture this term drew in 49,699.

St John founders Fergus Henderson and Trevor Gulliver could have won this lifetime achievement award years ago, but the indefatigable pair continue to make their mark on Britain’s – and the world’s - food scene today, most recently with the opening of a St John restaurant in Marylebone in 2022​​.

To understand the impact this pair has had on the British dining scene you need to go much further back, all the way to 1994 when they opened their debut restaurant St.John in Smithfield​​. Back then, British food was still largely maligned by the rest of the world and serious restaurants tended to follow a more traditional dining model. St John changed all that.

Prior to the launch, Henderson cooked with his wife Margot above The French House​​ in Soho while Gulliver had opened The Fire Station in Waterloo. The pair decided to join forces to open St John in a rundown former smoke house combining Henderson’s nose famous nose-to-tail approach to cooking with Gulliver’s stripped back design aesthetic that is a relevant today as it was 30 years ago.

Like many ground-breaking occurrences it wasn’t an instant success, a factor which probably contributed to St John’s enduring appeal today, with the pair having to work hard to spread the gospel of this bold new approach to British cooking. But spread it they did, and today Henderson’s nose-to-tail is practiced across the Western culinary landscape.

Their journey to this point has been colourful and not without its challenges. In 1998 Henderson was diagnosed with Parkinson’s but remained in the kitchen, a year later publishing his debut cookbook Nose to Tail Eating (he has since published a number of other books).

In 2003 they launched St John Bread & Wine in Spitalfields to equal acclaim and in 2009 St John finally won a Michelin star. A year later the pair opened the St John Bakery in a railway arch in Bermondsey, later adding a second standalone bakery in Borough​​, and supplies numerous London restaurants with is bread.

St John has made many appearances on the list of the UK’s top 100 Restaurants and on the World’s 50 Best Restaurants list and Henderson has become one of the world’s most recognised chefs. In 2005 he received an MBE for services to gastronomy.

The pair continue to champion British food and its restaurant scene across the world through teaching and campaigning. UK chefs and restaurateurs have much to thank them for.

The Lifetime Achievement Award is sponsored by Nespresso Professional​.​