State of the News 12/02/11

We started out the weekly news round up with Kentucky Governor Steve Beshear's pledge that casino gambling will be on the agenda for next year’s legislative session; Phillip Bailey reviewed Beshear's remarks yesterday at the Kentucky Farm Bureau meeting. The commissioner of the Kentucky Department for Natural Resources has been fired, and Erica Peterson explained the implications. Devin Katayama brought us up to date on the flurry of recent changes in the fireworks regulations of Metro Louisville. A recent study says city-county government merger did not result in job growth or cost efficiencies as proponents had promised; Phillip Bailey fleshed out the details. Finally, Erica Peterson explained the current status of the Director of Sustainability position being created by Mayor Fischer.In segment two, we had a quick review of the 2012 Grawemeyer Awards that were announced this week, with short excerpts of interviews with the winners in the categories of Music Composition, Psychology, and World Order, as well as a full-length feature with the winner in the Religion category.  Then we shifted gears and took a look back at the Immigrant Entrepreneurs series that has aired on WFPL over the past few weeks, along with a public forum with the subjects that was held in our Performance Studio on Tuesday.One of the members of the so-called Cornbread Mafia was pardoned this week. Kentucky native Les Berry, Jr. had served three years after being imprisoned for playing a bit part in what federal prosecutors described as one of the largest domestic marijuana syndicates in the country. We spoke with writer Jim Higdon about the story.  Finally, we took a look ahead to college bowl season and the nascent college basketball season and some key weekend games, with the Courier-Journal’s Eric Crawford.