Over the past several months, there have been worries that two big aluminum smelters in western Kentucky will shut down. Rio Tinto-Alcan has a plant in Sebree (Webster County) and Century Aluminum has a plant in Hawesville (Hancock County).

This week on our new audio diary series “The Big Break,” Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks experiences her first full production, while Actors Theatre apprentice Samantha Beach tries to figure out how to set good artistic habits for her future. Kentucky Opera studio artist Brad Raymond reflects on his most recent show, "The Prodigal Son."

Learn more about our audio diarists, who report in every Thursday about what it's like to work in a professional performing arts company.

Louisville’s solid waste board is set to vote on the city’s five-year plan at the end of this month. If it passes, residents could see changes in how their trash is handled and recycled.

The plan includes three big ideas: banning plastic bags for use with yard waste, allowing citizens to place food scraps at the curb for composting and setting hard limits on how much trash can be thrown out—and charging extra for more trash.

Gwenda Bond’s debut young adult novel “Blackwood” (Strange Chemistry) revisits one of America’s most enduring mysteries. On modern-day Roanoke Island, 114 people disappear – the same number that vanished from the island's lost colony in the 16th century. Two misfit teens, Miranda (daughter of the town drunk) and Phillips (who hears the voices of the dead) team up to solve both mysteries in order to bring back their missing neighbors.

The annual Writer's Block Festival is Saturday, with workshops, panel discussions and readings for writers and readers scheduled in and around the Green Building (732 E. Market St.) and the Cressman Center (100 E. Main St.). Produced by Louisville Literary Arts, the event also features a print fair in the Green Building (through 4 p.m.) with exhibits by local and regional small presses and literary journals. 

MSNBC's award-winning prison documentary series "Lockup" is making its season premiere this Saturday with footage from the Louisville Metro Corrections Jail.

The series began filming at the city facility earlier this year, and features repeat offender Brian Voltz along with local inmates discussing their workout routines. The show is a ratings magnet for the cable news network that highlights sometimes violent footage of inmates in maximum security state prisons.

Metro Corrections Director Mark Bolton says the show’s producers approached the department to see if they were interested, but that his staff urged him to participate.

"What I did is I engaged our entire staff and I put it out to a vote to them," he says. "And overwhelmingly they came back and said 'yeah, this might be an opportunity for us to showcase what we do and show the country a little bit about Louisville Metro and how we do things.'"

Check it out:

Indiana University students who graduate within four years could pay less tuition than those who take longer under a plan unveiled this week by President Michael McRobbie.

The on-time completion award program will freeze tuition for students after their sophomore year if they are on track to graduate in four years.

The program takes effect next fall. It will provide eligible students financial awards equal to any increase in tuition and fees that they would otherwise incur during their final two years at IU.

The Huffington Post asks Kentucky readers to submit local photos this week: 

Foreclosure filings are up more than 10 percent in Jefferson County, Ky., from this time last year. And there are so many abandoned houses in Louisville that the state's attorney general recently earmarked more than $3 million to deal with the glut of vacant property.

In case you missed his recent talk at the Brown Theater, This American Life host Ira Glass is on Reddit for an Ask Me Anything.