Papa John’s founder John Schnatter and his wife are giving $1 million to the Louisville Zoo to fund the zoo’s Glacier Run project that will feature polar bears and other arctic critters. All right for doling out the skrilla when the state can’t afford it. We’re sure it’s a drop in the bucket because the guy has a $2 million bronze and gold statue of two bald eagles fighting in his foyer. It’s two stories tall and rotates on a base of marble. You reading this, other rich folk? Pony up for your community like John Schnatter routinely does. Build your legacy. [Business First]

We’ve long been a fan of Cincinnati’s City Beat, but this makes us love it even more: The Kentucky Enquirer reported today that local rich man Bill Yung has purchased the Jillian’s entertainment complex in Covington for $7 million and has hopes of transforming it into Northern Kentucky’s first casino. The purchase — which is well in advance of potential legislation that would allow gaming in the state — is one in a long line of moves that Yung has made that coincides with the state’s “F Ohio in the B” revenue plan. Last year Yung contributed $1 million to an independent campaign called “F Fletcher in the B” to help defeat incumbent governor and anti-casino guy Ernie Fletcher. Yung is now preparing for a backlash from Indiana’s long-running “F Kentucky and Ohio in the B at the Same Time” campaign, which he expects will try to derail Kentucky gaming legislation. [City Beat]

Firings, Laura the Librarian and more after the jump…

The Beshear administration fired a Fletcher staffer, Eric Landis, who was on active duty with the Air National Guard. The Beshear crew is taking issue with whether or not he was on active duty while training and we, as Democrats, are left wondering WTF planet these fools are from. Seriously, firing a dude who is flipping training in the military? HELLO? AARP Crew, are you there? Do you remember that it’s, you know, illegal to do that shit? And morally bankrupt? Ugh. [PolWatchers]

Laura Bush will be in the Bluegrass next Tuesday for the Abraham Lincoln Bicentennial’s opening ceremonies. Hodgenville, get ready. We wish we could go because we heart Lincoln-era history. We’d rather slowly pull off a toenail than hear her husband speak but she isn’t so bad. Besides, how often does one get to meet a woman (other than Heather French Henry) who isn’t in prison for running someone over with her car? [The Arena]

Is Louisville’s Republican Party (KY-03) crumbling before our very eyes? Some seem to think so. Especially after Chris Thieneman’s awesomely controversial appearance on Francene last week and after Louisville’s GOP Chairman Jack Richardson issued a statement that tried to set the record straight. It’s just like watching the Democrats eat their own. [General Sense of Outrage]