Gov. Ernie Fletcher announced the appointments yesterday of three members to the Kentucky Horse Park Commission. They are Lexington residents Lisa Sharp, vice president of Ball Homes Inc.

, and Meg N. Jewett-Leavitt, a horse breeder and owner of L.V.

Harkness Co.; and Sherry L. Hempfling of Hebron, executive director of the Boone Conservancy.

The commission is made up of 17 members, 15 of whom are gubernatorial appointees. The secretaries of the Cabinet for Economic Development and the Commerce Cabinet round out the commission, which provides management expertise and direction in the operation of the park -- off Interstate 75 north of Lexington -- and to represent the interests of the Kentucky horse industry.
Ford Motor Co.

's two Louisville plants have hired as many as 500 temporary workers since permanent workers began accepting buyouts and leaving their jobs earlier this year, a union official said. The temporary workers earn 70 percent of the typical full-time union wage, or almost $19 an hour for an assembly worker, Rocky Comito, president of the United Auto Workers Local 862, told The Courier-Journal. The temporary employees pay full union dues and are allowed to vote on union issues but don't receive a pension and other benefits, he said.

Ford spokeswoman Marcey Evans declined to comment on the number of temporary workers in Louisville or for the company as a whole. She said the temporary workers also don't receive health insurance or accrue seniority, and there are no plans to offer any of them full-time jobs.
Univision, a Spanish-language channel, is joining the Insight Communications cable lineup today.

Univision will be on Channel 70. ICN-70, which currently offers local programming on Channel 70, will move to Channel 17. Univision will be available to customers purchasing the Insight Classic lineup.

PLANNING TO DIG? CALL 811 BEFORE YOU START
Kentucky residents planning to dig on their property are being asked to call 811 so that utility companies can help them avoid striking underground lines. The three-digit number, a federal government initiative, will replace toll-free numbers promoted by individual states, according to a state Public Service Commission news release.

The Appalachian News-Express named Jeff Vanderbeck as publisher, effective yesterday. Vanderbeck, general manager since 2003, replaces Marty Backus, who resigned Tuesday after serving as publisher of the Eastern Kentucky newspaper since August 1990. Vanderbeck previously was general manager for the Mountain Bargain Hunter in Pikeville.

Backus has been recovering from heart surgery he had in late February. The News-Express is published five days a week and is part of the Alabama-based Lancaster Management Group.
The current market-based system is the best way to regulate the trillion-dollar hedge fund industry although improvements can be made, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said yesterday.

Bernanke, speaking to a conference on global economics in New York City, said that the current system is superior to increased government regulation, a view at odds with critics who say large failures in recent years highlight the need for greater supervision. "To be clear, market discipline does not prevent hedge funds from taking risks, suffering losses or even failing -- nor should it," Bernanke said. "If hedge funds did not take risks, their social benefits -- the provision of market liquidity, improved risk-sharing and support for financial and economic innovation, among others -- would largely disappear," he said.

Tex-Mex chain Moe's Southwest Grill LLC is being sold to Focus Brands, operator of Schlotzsky's and Cinnabon shops, Moe's parent company said yesterday. Atlanta-based Raving Brands, which is privately held, said a definitive agreement was signed last weekend with Focus Brands, which is completing the deal through a subsidiary. A purchase price was not announced.

Atlanta-based Focus Brands Inc. is the franchiser and operator of more than 1,750 ice cream stores, bakeries, sandwich shops and cafes in the United States, the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and 33 foreign countries.
The chief financial officer of Menu Foods sold about half his shares in the company just three weeks before a massive recall of its pet food products, Canadian insider trading reports show.

CFO Mark Wiens sold 14,000 shares for $89,900 on Feb. 26 and 27. The shares would be worth $54,000 today.

"He feels just awful that this link has been made," company spokesman Sam Bornstein said yesterday. But Bornstein said Wiens faced a restricted window in which he could sell his shares.
MGM has become the latest major film studio to offer downloadable movies on Apple's iTunes Store.

The Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Studios Inc. deal, announced yesterday, builds the iTunes catalog to more than 500 movies. The studio is offering classic movies such as Dances With Wolves, Mad Max and Rocky, and will add other titles to iTunes in coming weeks, the two companies said.

The Cupertino, Calif.-based company launched the service initially with films from Walt Disney Co. studios but has since signed deals with other major studios, including Paramount Pictures and Lionsgate Entertainment Corp.

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