Here is the rundown for this edition of Byline:At the top - School safety funding in Kentucky used to hover around $10 million a year through most of the 2000s. But in 2009 and since, that funding fell by roughly 60%. Tom Loftus from the Courier-Journal joins us to discuss the reasons and what might change.9:30 - There was a school safety situation earlier this week in Paducah involving the threat of gun violence, but it stemmed at least in part from confusion and misunderstanding at a time when schools are on edge about gun violence. WFPL's Joseph Lord explains.12:20 - WFPL’s Devin Katayama tells us about new businesses springing up on south Fourth Street, a start to what officials hope will be a revival of the corridor between the Seelbach and Brown Hotels. City leaders are calling the district "SoFo."16:30 - State political news with Kentucky Public Radio's Kenny Colston. The primary topics are Gov. Steve Beshear's priorities for 2013, and Medicaid expansion.21:15 - Turns out the world did not end today. The Mayan Apocalypse is one of many, many end of world theories to catch Americans' attention. And as Nate DiMeo explains in this edition of The Memory Palace, it certainly wasn't the most glamorous.25:30 - Just about everyone celebrating this season has a favorite holiday cartoon or special. Maybe it's Charlie Brown, or Rudolph. Apparently, many Scandinavians have a special fondness for....Donald Duck.28:50 - If you bought any gifts online this year, you were faced with a hard decision: how to ship? Next day, same day, five day? But even the free shipping is pretty speedy compared to how mail used to get from one place to another. We hear a feature from Backstory, with the American History Guys, about myths and legends behind the Pony Express.38:40 - Kiki Petrosino is a poet on the rise. Born in 1979, she’s already published her first book of poems, called, “Fort Red Border,” and has another book of poems on the way in August of 2013. A professor of creative writing at the University of Louisville, Petrosino speaks with WFPL’s Jonathan Bastian about her early life: growing up with an Italian-American father and African-American mother, and how her family heritage influenced her writing.
