Cole Industries sells its cabinets to casino companies all over the United States and is preparing to open a 200-thousand square foot manufacturing plant in Simpson County, according to state Sen. Richie Sanders. Sanders says the Cole plant is expected to employ more than 100 people.

The news of the Cole company plant coming to Kentucky popped up in a Senate Judiciary Committee meeting last week. An amendment was tacked on to a bill about internet sex predators that would allow the manufacture of gambling machines in Kentucky as long as they weren't used here. Kind of like Indiana allowing the sale of fireworks but not the use of them in Indiana. Sen. Sanders asked for the amendment because he says Cole had some problems with law enforcement in another state where it had a manufacturing plant but slot machines are illegal. Sanders did seem to realize the irony of a company making items for casinos in a state that won't legalize the gambling joints. You can't make this stuff up.

A spokesperson for the Cabinet for Economic Development says no state incentives have been approved for the project. A call to Simpson County economic development director Danny Griffith was not returned.