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.

CARROLLTON, KY (WAVE) - It's been 24 years since a drunk driver crashed into a bus full of kids on I-71 killing dozens.

In 1988, Larry Mahoney drove his pickup truck the wrong way up the stretch of the interstate from Carrollton and hit the bus from The First Assembly of God in Radcliff.

It was full of children and chaperones returning from a trip to King's Island.

27 people died and 30 others were seriously hurt. Mahoney served time for the crash and has since been released.

Since then, sweeping safety changes have been made on school buses because of the crash and the fire afterward.

Copyright 2012 WAVE News. All rights reserved.

ELIZABETHTOWN, KY – Two more Hardin County Schools preschool classrooms have earned the Classroom of Excellence distinction from the Kentucky Department of Education. 

GC Burkhead Elementary School’s preschool classroom and Lincoln Trail Elementary School’s preschool classroom are now among the state’s elite. 

“I am so very proud of the staff at these schools,” HCS Director of Early Childhood Education Carlena Sheeran said.  “Earning this distinction is not an easy process.  These preschool classrooms have proven that they are among the best classrooms in the state.”

Two other HCS preschool classrooms, New Highland Elementary and Heartland Elementary, earned Classroom of Excellence status earlier this school year in October 2011.

Erin McPherson, Sheila Fonda and Trina Woodrum manage the preschool classroom at Lincoln Trail and Zola Walker, Laurie Briggs and Dawn Yates handle preschool activities at GC Burkhead. 

“These