Sports
10:55 am
Wed June 12, 2013

The Best Kentucky and Indiana Basketball Players Square Off Friday in Louisville

Kentucky's 2013 Mr. Basketball, Dominique Hawkins of Madison Central

The annual showdown between the best boy’s and girl’s high school basketball players in Kentucky and Indiana is set for this Friday night.

Both games are at Freedom Hall in Louisville, with the girl’s game starting at 5:30 p.m. eastern, and the boy’s following at 7:30. The four teams then play again the following night in Indianapolis.

The Kentucky boy’s team is led by the state’s Mr. Basketball winner, Dominique Hawkins of Madison Central. Members of the team from our listening area include Devonte Grundy from Bardstown and Jordan Majors of Hopkinsville.

University of Kentucky signee Derek Willis of Bullitt East is also on the team.

The Kentucky girl’s team is filled with players from our listening area, including this year’s Miss Basketball, Makayla Epps of Marion County. Her Marion County teammates Kyvin Goodin-Rogers and Logan Powell are also on the squad, along with Becca Greenwell of Owensboro Catholic, Jessica Hardin of Wayne County, and Michaela Hunter of Rockcastle County.

The Indiana boys are led by Mr. Basketball Zak Irvin, and Indiana University recruit. He's joined by fellow future Hoosiers Devin Davis and Collin Hartman. The Indiana girls feature Miss Basketball Stephanie Mavunga.

Read more

This American Life

Built around the innovative personal vision of host Ira Glass, This American Life pioneered a new kind of radio storytelling. The weekly program explores a theme — fiascos, conventions, the job that takes over your life — through a playful mix of radio monologues, mini-documentaries, "found tape," short fiction and unusual music. 

Visit the show's website.

Fresh Air Weekend

Fresh Air (heard weekdays at 11am C.T. and 7pm C.T.) opens the window on contemporary arts and issues with guests from worlds as diverse as literature and economics. Terry Gross hosts this multi-award-winning daily interview and features program. The veteran public radio interviewer is known for her extraordinary ability to engage guests of all dispositions. 

Fresh Air Weekend collects the best cultural segments from the week's programs and crafts them together for great weekend listening.

Visit the show's website.

TED Radio Hour

TED Radio Hour is a journey through fascinating ideas, astonishing inventions and new ways to think and create.

Each episode includes riveting excerpts from the renowned TED stage where some of the world's deepest thinkers and innovators are invited to give the 18-minute "talk of their lives." The TED Radio Hour team takes the most compelling talks and organizes them around a common theme.

In addition, host Guy Raz interviews the guests, delving deeper, dissecting the speaker's ideas and posing probing questions you’d like to hear answered.

Visit the show's website.

Regional
6:47 am
Wed June 12, 2013

In Butler County, A New Marker Tells Story of Union Army Officer

A historical marker that tells about a Union Army officer who led a mass prison escape will be dedicated Saturday in Morgantown, where he was murdered in 1895.

The marker tells the story of Maj. Andrew Graff Hamilton of Pennsylvania. The Kentucky Historical Society says Hamilton joined Company A of the 12th Kentucky Cavalry in 1862 and was captured at Jonesboro, Tenn., a year later and sent to Libby Prison in Richmond, Va.

Hamilton and Col. Thomas Rose led the escape of 109 Union officers in 1864, but Rose and 47 others were recaptured.

Read more

I'm a reporter with Harvest Public Media based at KUNC, covering the wide range of agricultural stories in Colorado.

I came to KUNC in March 2013, after spending about two years as a reporter with Aspen Public Radio in Aspen, Colorado.

During my time in Aspen, I was recognized by the Colorado Broadcasters Association and Public Radio News Directors, Inc. for my reporting and production work. My reports have been featured on NPR's Morning Edition, All Things Considered, and Weekend Edition.

I'm the product of two farm families in central Illinois, which is where I spent most of my formative years. Before moving to Colorado I spent a year covering local and state government for Illinois Public Radio and WUIS in the state's capital. I have a Master's degree in Public Affairs Reporting from the University of Illinois Springfield, the same place where I completed a Bachelor of Arts in Communication.

Sara Hossaini is a reporter for Wyoming Public Radio. She holds a bachelor's degree in broadcast journalism from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. She brings a blend of documentary journalism and public interest communications experience developed through her work as a nonprofit multimedia consultant and Associate Producer on national PBS documentary films through groups such as the Center for Asian American Media, Fenton Communications and The Working Group. She likes to travel, to get her hands in the dirt and to explore her creative side through music, crafts and dance.

Credit Gabriella Demczuk / NPR

Ailsa Chang is a Congressional reporter on NPR's Washington Desk.

Since joining NPR in September 2012, Chang has covered the first major gun control legislation to reach Capitol Hill in two decades, recovery efforts after the devastation of Superstorm Sandy and a multitude of law enforcement issues, including reforms by the overstretched and underfunded police department in Camden, NJ.

Chang spent six years as a lawyer before becoming a journalist. Prior to coming to NPR, Chang was an investigative reporter at NPR member station WNYC from 2009 to 2012 in New York City where she covered criminal justice and other legal issues.

Chang has received numerous national awards for her investigative reporting. In 2012, she was honored with the Alfred I. duPont-Columbia University Silver Baton for her two-part investigative series on the New York City Police Department's "stop-and-frisk" policy and allegations of unlawful marijuana arrests by officers. The reports also earned honors from Investigative Reporters and Editors and the Society of Professional Journalists.

She was also the recipient of the Daniel Schorr Journalism Award, a National Headliner Award, and an honor from Investigative Reporters and Editors for her investigation on how Detroit's broken public defender system leaves lawyers with insufficient resources to effectively represent their clients.

In 2011, the New York State Associated Press Broadcasters Association named Chang as the winner of the Art Athens Award for General Excellence in Individual Reporting for radio.

Chang graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Stanford University where she received her bachelor's degree. She earned a law degree with distinction from Stanford Law School and has two masters degrees, one in media law from Oxford University where she was a Fulbright Scholar and one in journalism from Columbia University.

She also served as a law clerk on the United States Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit in the chambers of Judge John T. Noonan, Jr.

Chang was a Kroc fellow at NPR from 2008 to 2009. She has also been a reporter and producer for NPR member station KQED in San Francisco.

Chang grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area.

Regional
2:51 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

NWS Confirms EF2 Tornado in South Central Kentucky

Credit Michael Cook

Surveyors from the National Weather Service were in Logan County Tuesday, assessing damage from a tornado that touched down on Highway 96 Monday.  An EF2 tornado was confirmed with wind speeds up to 135 miles per hour. 

According to Terry Cole, deputy emergency management director for Logan County,  seven homes are in ruins.

"One of the families was in Florida when their home was totally destroyed," says Cole.  I haven't been able to talk to them, but I talked to some of their kinfolk, and they're on their way back."

Several grain bins and barns were destroyed, as well as some tobacco and corn crops. 

Cole says only two people were sent to the hospital and their injuries were minor.

Read more
Agriculture
1:12 pm
Tue June 11, 2013

Beshear Writes Letter to President, Asking for Help with Hemp Issue

Hemp was once legally grown throughout the U.S.

Governor Steve Beshear sent a letter to President Obama this week asking for help in identifying economic opportunities for industrial hemp production.

In the letter, Beshear asked the U.S. Attorney General, Agriculture Secretary, D.E.A., and others to look for ways hemp could eventually be grown and marketed that don’t negatively impact Kentucky’s drug eradication efforts.

In April, Kentucky Agriculture Commissioner James Comer led a bipartisan delegation to Washington to lobby lawmakers and White House officials to legalize industrial hemp. Kentucky lawmakers this year passed a bill that would set up the regulatory framework for growing and marketing hemp if the crop is removed from the federal government’s list of banned substances.

Read more

Pages