Kiki Petrosino is poet to watch. In her early 30s, she's already published a highly-acclaimed first collection, "Fort Red Border" (Sarabande) and a chapbook, "The Dark is Here" (Forkift Ink).

A professor the University of Louisville, her poems have appeared, or are forthcoming, in The New York Times, Tin House, Jubilat, Gulf Coast, Harvard Review, and elsewhere. Her latest collection of poems will be released from Sarabande in 2013.

She spoke about the art of poetry — reading it, writing it, loving it — with WFPL's Jonathan Bastian.

Rep. Joni Jenkins, D-44, is crafting legislation that could hold back third grade students who aren’t at reading level, but Education Commissioner Terry Holliday says the department won’t support it.

Jenkins acknowledges the bill may not be popular, saying some educators argue it’s traumatic to hold back students and the cost of interventions built into the law could be burdensome.   

“I think the school systems are going to say, yeah that’s great but who is going to pay for interventions,” Jenkins told WFPL.

A group working to establish a botanical garden across from Waterfront Park is making progress. Efforts have sped up over the past year and non-profit Botanica now has a draft agreement with Metro Government for the site.

The organization has a vision of a 22-acre botanical garden, with different themed gardens and a conservatory for indoor plants. Botanica board president Brian Voelker says the outdoor gardens will be designed to maximize the usable space.

When it convenes next week, the Indiana General Assembly could take the next step toward amending the state Constitution to ban gay marriage.

An amendment defining marriage as being the union of a man and a woman that would also prohibit civil unions between same-sex couples passed the 2011 legislature, but must also be approved this year or next in order for it to be presented to Indiana voters.

Indiana already has a state law banning gay marriage but amendment supporters say it needs to be codified by voters to make it more difficult for the courts to overturn.

(Scroll down for updates.)

Well, here we are. It's New Year's Eve and with just hours to go before the end of the year and the arrival of the so-called fiscal cliff, Democrats and Republicans in Washington are still trying to strike a deal that heads off automatic increases in taxes, automatic deep spending cuts in a variety of programs and the automatic expiration of some jobless benefits.

Louisville’s Pandora Productions will produce a staged reading of Academy Award-winning writer Dustin Lance Black’s marriage equality docu-drama “8” this week. 

Black wrote “8” using trial transcripts, interviews with participants and first-hand observations of the 2010 Federal District Court trial that overturned California’s Proposition 8, a ballot initiative that stripped California residents of their right to same-sex marriage. The playwright won an Oscar in 2009 for his screenplay “Milk,” about the life and assassination of San Francisco activist politician Harvey Milk.

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has been admitted to a hospital for a blood clot "stemming from" a concussion earlier this month, Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines says. In a statement, Reines says doctors found the clot during a follow-up exam on Sunday.

"She is being treated with anti-coagulants and is at New York-Presbyterian Hospital so that they can monitor the medication over the next 48 hours," he says.