The Kentucky Economic Development Finance Authority on Thursday approved three $500,000 economic development bond grants to Harrodsburg to aid a trio of companies expanding there. The companies — Corning, Hitachi Automotive Systems America and Wausau Paper — will be required to hire nearly 300 new workers overall as part of their expansions to receive the grants. All three have also been granted other tax incentives in recent months.

The Republican field for the 2012 presidential race may soon include the governor of Texas.

"I'm going to think about it," Gov. Rick Perry said today, according to the Austin American-Statesman's Postcards blog.

Guest host Allison Keyes and NPR's Eyder Peralta comb through Tell Me More's listeners feedback and provide some important news updates. This week, they discuss listeners' responses to a conversation on using midwives or doctors to deliver children. Plus, NBA's first Asian American general manager, Rich Cho of the Portland Trail Blazers, is fired after less than a year on the job.

Morris Kaunda Michael was only five-years-old when his family fled war-torn Sudan for a refugee camp in Kenya. He braved the camp, came to the U.S. and got accepted at Columbia University. Michael, who recently completed his degree in biomedical engineering, shares his journey from refugee to graduate.

Medicare has been the hot issue this week, as the Republican plan to overhaul Medicare failed in the Senate and Democrat Kathy Hochul won a disputed seat in New York's 26th Congressional District, campaigning against a House Republican plan to overhaul Medicare. Mary Kate Cary, columnist and blogger for U.S. News and World Report , and Cynthia Tucker of The Atlanta Journal Constitution give their analysis on the health and budgets debates on Capitol Hill.

A U.S. District Court judge in Virginia "has ruled that the campaign finance law banning corporations from making [direct] contributions to federal candidates is unconstitutional," The Associated Press reports.

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, which appears to have had the story first, adds that the case "is likely to end up before the U.S. Supreme Court." The decision would only affect cases in the Alexandria, Va.-based district.

Everyone agrees the big news this week was the Dems' victory in the GOP stronghold of New York's 26th District. But not everyone agrees on what was responsible for it. Plus: Tim Pawlenty is in, Mitch Daniels is out, and no one seems to know what Sarah Palin will do, but everyone has an opinion.

A 2-year-old child killed Wednesday in a lawn mower accident had been riding on the mower with her father and brother when she fell off, Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn said. Ginn said Adelaide McReynolds died from multiple blunt-force and sharp-force trauma at the family farm in Lexington. Ginn said McReynolds had a history of letting his children ride on the mower with him.

Mitt Romney's choice of a place called Bittersweet Farm as the site to make his campaign for the 2012 GOP presidential nomination official next Thursday might at first strike as odd since the farm's name doesn't seem especially propitious.

But not to worry if you're a Romney supporter. The farm is apparently a popular stop for the national Republican establishment.

From Seacoastonline.com, a New Hampshire news outlet:

Since Osama bin Laden was killed earlier this month by U.S. Navy SEALs not far from Pakistan's capital, Islamabad, there has been a wave of retaliatory attacks on various installations in Pakistan. That has raised concerns about the safety of the country's nuclear weapons.

One of the most brazen of the recent attacks happened last weekend, when armed militants scaled the wall of the heavily guarded Mehran navy base near the southern city of Karachi. They fought off Pakistan's military, including commandos, for 17 hours.