By Tony McVeigh, Kentucky Public Radio
Kentucky House leaders worked over the weekend to try to put the finishing touches on the state budget.
After meeting with university presidents Friday, Speaker Greg Stumbo said House leaders would try to find more money for higher education. In the House budget outline released 10-days ago, university budgets were cut two percent the first year and flat-lined the second.
“We’re hoping to put money back in both of those years. It’s harder the second year because there is more money, but we’re going to try to do something,” Stumbo said.
Stumbo says a budget bill should be ready in the next day or two, and he still hopes the House can vote on the spending plan sometime next week. There are 23 days remaining in the 2010 session.
How to grow native grasses – and creating the perfect “Welcome Home” effect for your front 
door – are the horticultural kindred spirits on HomeGrown this week. Randy Seymour of Roundstone Native Seeds in Upton, Kentucky, has the warm-season grass seeds and plugs to create a large or small prairie, and Seattle-based writer and landscaper Andrew Schulman has practical tips on plantings for your mailbox, gate, garage and porch to give your home a distinct and inviting appearance. Downloadable MP3
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by Stephanie Crosby
The final three games of the University of Louisville men’s basketball team’s regular season are this week. The 18-and-ten Cardinals face the 17-and-eleven Connecticut Huskies this afternoon.
Senior guard Edgar Sosa says both teams are looking to finish their seasons strong, so they can make it to the NCAA Tournament.
“There’s going to be a lot of desperation,” says Sosa. “Both teams desperately need this win. It’s going to be two teams just playing their hearts out. It’s going to come down to execution, rebounding, playing defense… it’s really just going to come down to who plays the better overall game.”
Coach Rick Pitino has told the team they need to win two of their last three games to secure a spot in the NCAA Tournament.
After Connecticut, they’ll travel to Marquette on Tuesday and finish their season with a home game against Syracuse on Saturday.
By Rick Howlett
A public comment period is underway on the latest revisions proposed for the so-called bible of pyschiatry, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, published by the American Psychiatric Association,
The fifth edition of the directory is tentatively scheduled for publication in 2013, but University of Louisville Department of Psychiatry Chairman Dr. Allan Tasman says it could be delayed.
“I think it’s more important to get it right than to rush – that’s what people have been saying about health care reform – and I think that’s a target deadline but that’s not necessarily the final deadline if there’s serious, controversy,” he said.
Tasman, a former APA president, says the group wants to make sure it reaches what he calls “a reasonable consensus” on some of the more controversial revisions.
One of them comes in response to a sharp increase in the number children treated for bi-polar disorder. It would create a new diagnosis for some cases.
By Tony McVeigh, Kentucky Public Radio
The 2010 session of the Kentucky General Assembly is entering its ninth week, with hundreds of bills still awaiting final action.
Amanda’s Bill on domestic violence cleared the Kentucky House on January 12th. Since then, it’s been lodged in the Senate Judiciary Committee where it’s had a couple of hearings, but still awaits a committee vote.
“If there was any attempt to kill the bill, it just wouldn’t be heard. I think that they’re doing a great job. There’s been some tremendous hearings. And I think there will be a good piece of legislation that will emerge,” said Senate President David Williams.
Amanda’s Bill would require electronic tracking of some individuals in domestic violence cases. It’s named for Amanda Ross, who was gunned down outside her Lexington townhouse last September. Accused of her murder is her ex-fiancé, former Rep. Steve Nunn of Glasgow. Nunn awaits trial and has pleaded no guilty.
