I'm Laura Rogers with managing editor of the Bowling Green Daily News.

West, Why Tech and West want to talk to you about a few of the stories that you all have been covering lately, including the topic of towing the Bowling Green City Commission, voting to change its ordinance concerning towing.

And now a lawsuit has also been filed.

Tell us the latest on this situation.

Yeah, towing has been a big issue in Bowling Green for a couple of years now.

What happened is we used to have a lot of private parking lots that basically were free game for people to park.

And then a couple of years ago, some of these companies started coming in and privatizing the lots, basically charging for towing after hours.

And to enforce that, they've used pretty aggressive towing.

So a lot of people who have been used to parking anywhere downtown, they wanted to for free for years and years and years are finding they're coming out of events or restaurants and the car is gone.

And so towing has been a contentious issue, particularly with one towing company that has been getting a lot of complaints online and to city officials called Van Square Towing.

The city decided that they would reduce the amount that the, towing companies could charge quite substantially.

They talk about, going from $175 to even, $50.

In response to the owners of found, Square Towing sued the city, saying, basically, you're not able to, enforce or charge or tell us what we can charge for towing vehicles.

So it's currently a lawsuit.

The city commission went ahead yesterday and did have a first vote on an ordinance to lower the amount, although they didn't go all the way down to the 50 or $75, they did reduce the amount of various fees that the towing companies could charge.

The courts are going to have to hear this lawsuit around whether the city can even, do this.

The city says they can, and they're just looking out for people who have been complaining, as well as a lot of downtown businesses are saying that they're seeing a reduced number of, people coming because they're afraid of getting towed.

People have complained this is predatory behavior from the towing companies, but their side is, hey, these private companies are hiring us to monitor their parking lots and the tow vehicle.

So, yeah, we'll have to see how that plays out in the courts for sure.

And then moving to the Warren County Sheriff's Office, there is now a case about a deputy who was suspended, and he is challenging that.

And he's also challenging and running against the current Warren County Sheriff, Brett Hightower.

Tell us more.

This is a case that you all have been following.

Sure.

Yeah.

The the, and I'm sure I'm not going to say this correctly, but his name is Mark Hyung's, and he's a deputy with the Warren County Sheriff's Department for a few years now.

And he got some notoriety.

I want to say, last summer there was a video that went viral.

There was a man here in Bowling Green sitting on his front porch, and he was selling items kind of like a yard sale, but the items were new.

They were in like original packaging.

The deputy stopped there and was kind of asking the questions about it.

The idea was that maybe these items had been stolen.

And so he was kind of looking into it, and the interaction went on for quite a while.

It turns out that this man was apparently, using and his girlfriend were using coupons to buy things at a discount and then reselling them on, on their front porch.

And really, the issue was that this deputy, basically stayed on the porch for quite a while investigating this.

Even when the, person asked them to leave.

And the idea was that maybe there was a violation there of this, this person's rights.

But also there were several other incidences that the sheriff's department alleges shows that he was not doing his job correctly, making mistakes and things like that.

So they suspended him with the idea that they would fire him.

This deputy has, asked for a hearing for which a lot of this evidence was presented, and it went back and forth.

And he of course, claims that he made a few mistakes, but not something that rose to the level of being terminated.

And no ruling was made on that.

So his fate is up in the air still.

But what makes it, as you said, kind of interesting is he filed a run for sheriff against the incumbent, Brett Hightower.

Of course, the sheriff's department say, you know, that has nothing to do with the fact that we're moving with this disciplinary hearings against him.

It was his job performance.

And, they know that, you know, a lot of these things happened before he decided to run for sheriff.

And then moving from the Warren County Sheriff's Office to the Warren County Regional Jail, showing their support for legislation that's been filed this session by a local lawmaker, Oakland's state representative, Michael Meredith.

Tell us why the jail is in support of House Bill 557 under law.

State law.

The local jails are required to house state inmates, people who are arrested on state charges.

The issue is, how much do they get reimbursed by the state for housing these inmates?

Now, according to most local jailers, including the one here in Warren County, the amount that they get from the state is doesn't come close to the cost it actually takes to, incarcerate somebody in terms of feeding them and providing, you know, transportation if needed, to court, or whatever the case may be.

So this, this bill would basically make sure that local jails are compensated, increase the compensation that they're getting for housing these state inmates so that they're not losing money every time they have a state inmate basically passing the cost on to local taxpayers.

Where's my tag?

Managing editor of the Bowling Green Daily News.

Appreciate your time so much.

Thank you.

Thank you so much.