Laura Lorson worked for NPR in Washington throughout most of the 1990s as a director, producer, and editor for Talk of the Nation, All Things Considered, and the former NPR show Anthem.

Ohio Gov. John Kasich probably isn't going to upset too many Clevelanders, or Ohioans for that matter, with a resolution meant to stick it to NBA superstar LeBron James of the vanquished Miami Heat, there being no love lost between Ohioans and the basketball player who they feel abandoned them.

A resolution signed by Kasich that honors the Dallas Mavericks for beating the Heat to win the NBA championship included the following:

Bitcoin is a "virtual currency"-- a form of money that you can use to buy stuff online. It's not backed by any government.

We're working on a bitcoin podcast, but I wanted to post something now, because the exchange rate between dollars and bitcoins has been going haywire lately.

If you bought bitcoins a couple weeks ago and sold them last week, you would have tripled your money. If you bought bitcoins at the beginning of the year and sold them last week, you would have had a tenfold gain.

Here's a chart:

It took a while to notice, but this season of Treme has set up another parallel between the chef Janette and the ranks of musicians. When her chef at Le Bernardin — an actual restaurant, played by Eric Ripert, the actual chef — senses her unhappiness, he points it out. She once had her own kitchen, where she learned to "express yourself" — now, she's working at her "craftsmanship" on another's vision.

President Obama's push to get the economy back on track has hit significant roadblocks in the institution where he once served: the U.S. Senate. True, it's still controlled by Democrats. But Republicans, by simply threatening a filibuster, can block presidential nominees for key economic posts — and that's exactly what they've done.

Three months ago, for example, the president announced he was nominating Commerce Secretary Gary Locke to be the next U.S. ambassador to China. Days later, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell convened a news conference at the Capitol.

On Tuesday night, the Berea City Council will hold the second and final public hearing on an ordinance that would protect gay and transgender individuals from discrimination.  After the forum, the council will decide whether or not they will take a vote on the ordinance. The Fairness Campaign has been working for months to see the measure passed. Chris Hartman is the group’s president.

In the rich and novel Galilean relationship between experiments and theories, physical theorizing is meant to provide intelligibility of phenomena as well as predictability: one first observes and measures, then the theory should produce a prediction capable of confirming it.

A former campaign volunteer for U.S. Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., entered an Alford Plea in the case that he assaulted a liberal activist during last year’s general election. Bourbon County resident Tim Profitt was accused of wrestling MoveOn.org activist Lauren Valle to the ground before stepping on her neck and head outside the Kentucky Educational Television studios. Profitt said he thought the 23-year-old activist was trying to attack then-candidate Paul, who was headed to a debate with Attorney General Jack Conway.

New statewide, end-of-course, assessment exams begin this coming school year for Kentucky high school students.   The tests were authorized in education reforms approved by Kentucky lawmakers in 2009.  The statewide tests measure student achievement in graduation-required courses of English, Algebra, Biology and U.S. History.