Show-biz celebrities just gravitate toward someplace in Washington: Capitol Hill, the White House, certain restaurants. But on Thursday, Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert showed up at the Federal Election Commission, which was weighing his bid to launch a political action committee.

TV camera crews turned out, Colbert tweeted, and a crowd gathered. And along the way, the FEC made two significant decisions that could affect players in the 2012 elections.

'We Won! I Am A SuperPAC, And So Can You'

Anytime they're talking about your town on the Colbert Report, 9 times out of 10 it's not for a good reason. Wednesday evening, the host cited a new study by Men's Health Magazine declaring Lexington, Kentucky as the most sedentary city in the United States. Men's Health deputy editor Matt Marion says numerous factors were considered.

Kentucky’s Republican senators are joining forces with the rest of their conference and are planning to force a vote on a balanced budget amendment. Freshman Kentucky Senator Rand Paul says the nation’s more than fourteen trillion dollars in debt poses more of a risk to the U-S than terrorists.

Today on the US Senate floor, a lawmaker accused Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell of hypocrisy. As WEKU’s Matt Laslo reports, the Senate Minority leader was accused of giving special tax treatment to the thoroughbred industry.

The typical speakers bureau can get a celebrity, a politician or a media pundit to address your group for a few thousand, or maybe tens of thousands of dollars. But one speakers bureau made up of men and women who have been homeless will provide someone for only $40.

And the speech could be just as compelling as one given by high-priced talent.

What is it about The Tree of Life, director Terrence Malick's movie that Fresh Air reviewer David Edelstein says is "part creation epic, part Oedipal family drama," that has a small number of confused and sometimes angry theater-goers walking out early around the nation?

The American-led fight in Afghanistan is changing. The toughest fighting is shifting from the south — Helmand and Kandahar provinces — to the east. There, high, craggy mountains offer shelter to Taliban fighters.

And it's one group of fighters in particular that American and Afghan forces are battling: a branch of the Taliban known as the Haqqani network.

A 'Cavalry Fight' In Hostile Country

For years, the outgoing president at the University of Kentucky has urged faculty to launch "start-up" businesses.  Lee Todd believes those efforts are paying off. Todd says ‘seed money’ along with commercialization centers where new businesses are nurtured helped set the stage for start ups.  Then, he says an angel network of investors has helped fund such firms.   As a result, Todd says recent rankings put U-K first in creating start ups among similar schools.

In a press conference this morning, Secretary of State Hilary Clinton said the United Sates has had contact with the Muslim Brotherhood.

The New York Daily News reports:

In the witch's brew of gases and particles that make up smog in most cities, nitrogen oxides are a plentiful ingredient. The pollutants also help create ground-level ozone, a nasty irritant for lungs, and bothersome fine particles.

The family of chemicals, called NOx in shorthand, can inflame people's airways and trigger asthma attacks, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.