The Front Page [01.21.10]

A weekly on-air/online magazine from WKMS News.

The Q&A – the Jackson Purchase during the Civil War 

The Jackson Purchase Historical Society holds its first meeting of 2011 Saturday at Wrather Museum on Murray State’s campus. And in honor of the U.S. Civil War Sesquicentennial, the speaker will be MSU history professor, Civil War historian, and Fulbright scholar Dr. William Mulligan. He sits down with us first to talk about the war’s relevance and the role the Jackson Purchase played in the conflict.

Department of Energy Reaches Out on PGDP Site’s Future 

During a pair of US Department of Energy public information events this week in Paducah, Energy and environmental cleanup contractor officials talked to many area residents about the future of the Paducah Gaseous Diffusion Plant site. DOE Site Leader Reinhard Knerr walks Reporter Chris Taylor through the mass of details.

Agriculture Business Changes as Area Farmers Grow Older 

Kentucky has 124-thousand farmers, the sixth largest number in the nation. But the number of farm operators has been declining steadily; the U. S. Census Bureau reports in the past decade 4,000 Kentucky farms went out of business. Fewer people are farming the Commonwealth’s land, and those still on the farm are growing gray, literally. The average age of the western Kentucky farmer is 57 . . . and getting older.

Beshear’s Plan to Balance the Medicaid Budget Garners Mixed Reviews 

Gov. Steve Beshear’s plan for balancing Kentucky’s Medicaid budget is getting mixed reviews in Frankfort. Kentucky Public Radio’s Tony McVeigh looks at the proposal, its backers, and biggest critic.

Conversation with Jacklyn Marceau, author of Stripped 

Jacklyn Marceau teaches at Stephens College for women in central Missouri. She’s also a stripper, a mother, a feminist, and a product of Murray State University’s Master of Fine Arts Program in Creative Writing. Louisville’s Typecast Publishing has picked up her memoir Stripped, about her life as an exotic dancer. Marceau sat down with Jacque Day in our studios to discuss her book and the many concurrent paths of her life.

Movie Review: “The King’s Speech” 

Some people, and you may be one of them, have difficulties speaking in public. But just imagine the anxiety you’d have if you had to speak to an entire nation…and had a stammer. An Englishman called Bertie found himself in just that predicament when he became King George VI in 1936. The new film The King’s Speech is the story of how he overcame that hurdle with the help of unorthodox Australian speech therapist Lionel Logue. Larry Thomas brings us this review.

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