LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - Dollar General seems to be the new Starbucks with new stores popping up on every street corner. The company recently opened store number 10,000 with 625 more planned for construction.

Unlike the Starbucks chain, customers won't spend high prices on coffee or anything else in the stores including top brand items recently added along with coolers to now sell milk and eggs and other basic need perishables.

Tawn Earnest is Senior Director of Corporate Communications at Dollar General. She says the economy has been a driving force for new customers to the store.  

"Saving money never goes out of style," Earnest said. "Our company has built a model more relevant than others because we focused on keeping prices low."

She says even though stores are small, Dollar General has more retail locations across the country than any other retailer in America.

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - A new treatment for patient with severe asthma is helping them to breath a lot easier without medications.

It's called Bronchial Thermoplasty and Dr. Mark Esterle with Louisville Pulmonary Care is performing the procedure at Baptist Hospital East.

It's a first of its kind treatment of the patient's airways. Dr. Esterle calls it a potential "game-changer" for patients with severe asthma. Using a catheter to access the airways, the procedure uses radio frequency to emit heat. "It actually thins the muscle around the airways, the smooth muscle" said Dr. Esterle.

It's the area that becomes inflamed when triggered by irritants and when it closes down, it allows more air to flow through.

"It does not cure asthma" said Esterle, "they still would have a reaction to their triggers, they just don't have the ability to react in the same fashion as they would before."

LOUISVILLE, KY (WAVE) - The date of May 11, 2013 will be an exciting one for those who love amusement parks. That is the date set for the opening of Bluegrass Boardwalk.

The new amusement park will occupy the former site of Kentucky Kingdom, which has sat vacant since closing in February 2010.

The park will be operated by the Koch family, owners of Holiday World in Santa Claus, IN, and will employ 800 seasonal workers.

Like Holiday World, Bluegrass Boardwalk will also feature free soft drinks, free sunscreen and free use of inner tubes at its water park.

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