Officials from USA Basketball will visit Louisville this week to hear the city’s pitch to become the organization’s new home.
USA Basketball is the governing body of men’s and women’s basketball in this country. It oversees the National Basketball Association and the N-C-A-A, among others, and fields teams for international competitions.
Louisville Arena Authority Chairman Jim Host has been helping the city’s sports commission put together its presentation. He says it will be delivered Wednesday.
“If we were successful, that would be as big a signature for this community and for this state as you can imagine, to have the center of U.S. basketball, and then obviously FIBA, the Federation of International Basketball, focused here,” Host said.
Louisville is one of four cities under consideration to be the home of USA Basketball. The others are Indianapolis, Glendale, Arizona and the organization’s current home, Colorado Springs. A decision is expected by this summer.
Monday, March 31, 2008
Memoirs
Maybe you’ve read “Angela’s Ashes” by Frank McCourt, or “Running with Scissors” by Augusten Burroughs or even the controversial “A Million Little Pieces” by James Frey. All three are famous memoirs of non-famous people. The genre of the “nobody” memoir has exploded in the past few years and it seems everyone has a story to tell. Do you? Join us on Monday when we talk about the memoir – who is reading them, who is writing them and why are they so popular. Because this is a special Spring Membership Drive edition of the State of Affairs, we won’t be taking calls this hour. To become a member of WFPL, call 814-6565.
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Time is running out on Kentucky House and Senate budget negotiations, which resumed this morning.
This is day seven of the budget negotiations, which began last Tuesday. Senate President David Williams said Sunday the talks are at a sensitive point and the budget conferees are keenly aware of the time limitations they’re facing.
“As we said early, we require and the House agreed to us, that we’re going to have to have a budget without forgoing the opportunity to override any vetoes. We’re not going to do that again,” Williams said.
One of two veto override days in April could be moved forward to this week, but that still doesn’t leave budget conferees much time to reach a final agreement. This is day 57 of session, which by law cannot exceed 60 days.
Many other major issues, like ethics and pension reform, are also awaiting final action.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell will deliver a speech in Louisville this week.
Powell will deliver an address to the World Affairs Council of Kentucky and Southern Indiana Thursday evening. Council Executive Director Ben Jones says the topic is Diplomacy: Persuasion, Trust and Values.
“I think he’s going to talk about the importance of working with allies. I think he’s going to talk about the importance of trying to achieve consensus in the international community on how to deal with problems. And about the limits as well as the potential of American power,” Jones said.
Powell’s address will be at the Kentucky International Convention Center. It’s part of the World Affairs Council’s Global Issues Forum.
The Kentucky Board of Education holds is regular meeting this week in Frankfort.
Spokesperson Lisa Gross says the agenda includes a review of end-of-course exams for high school students and funding for the state’s preschool programs.
“They’re also going to hear reports from the Christian County and Jefferson County school districts. Those two districts have some chronically low-performing schools. So the board is interested to hear the kinds of things those districts are doing to improve student achievement,” said Gross.
Gross says both districts have received assistance from the department to help improve those schools. She says the board could decide to bolster those efforts if necessary. The Board meets Wednesday and Thursday.
HomeGrown takes a look this week at philanthropy from the garden, whether in the form of feeding our v
egetable and fruit bounty to hunger relief efforts, or donating excess plant material to Habitat for Humanity’s ReStore. Plus, Marion Jackson of IUS discusses the meticulously detailed and beautiful book he edited, “The Natural Heritage of Indiana.”
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This week I interviewed Nancy Isenberg. She’s a visiting professor at U of L and she wrote the Aaron Burr biography Fallen Founder. I first heard of Burr when I was in elementary school through this commercial:
And that’s about as much as most books discuss Burr, too. He’s basically become a footnote in early American history, and that was one reason why Isenberg wrote about him.
Burr did a lot more than fatally wound the Secretary of the Treasury. He was a noted soldier, senator and he was almost the third president. Not to mention the fact that he helped lay the groundwork for Manifest Destiny, an idea that would dominate American politics for most of the 19th century.
And Burr’s story relates to modern times, too. While he was no saint, his reputation was nearly destroyed by his rivals, who were powerful and used their positions to spread unfavorable rumors about him. So maybe Burr’s contributions would be more celebrated today if he’d had better PR.
Tune in to Studio 619 this week to hear Isenberg talk about Burr’s role in American history.
