Brenna Angel (KPR)

Two blue-blood basketball teams take the court tonight for a shot at the NCAA title. Brenna Angel reports on what two seniors for Kansas and Kentucky have to say about the matchup.

Senior guard Tyshawn Taylor knows his Kansas Jayhawks are the underdogs in tonight’s championship game with Kentucky, but that hasn’t hurt their confidence.

“I mean in 40 minutes, anybody can get beat. Like T-Rob [Thomas Robinson] said, there’s no Supermans over there. So we can come out and play and we can be a better team for 40 minutes, even though on paper they’re better.”

The Governor’s office announced Tuesday that Kentucky will sign an agreement with the National Association of Boards of Pharmacy to join the InterConnect, a network of prescription monitoring programs across the country. The Commonwealth joins 20 other states taking part in the InterConnect.

“Indiana, Ohio, and Virginia are up and running and sharing, and West Virginia is very soon to come on board. Which means that four of border states, hopefully we’ll be sharing data with very soon.”

Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer presented his Lexington counterpart with a bottle of Woodford Reserve Bourbon today as part of a friendly wager on who will win the Final Four matchup between U of L and UK.

Fischer says Lexington Mayor Jim Gray needs to brace himself for a loss in New Orleans.

“I think later this week you all need to be focused on starting to medicate yourself because there’s going to be a huge disappointment in Catland come Saturday.”

Parents of children who committed suicide after being bullied at school testified before the Kentucky House Education committee Tuesday, advocating a bill that they say would strengthen the state’s current bullying law. The measure would prohibit harassing behavior and communication based on a student’s race, ethnicity, religion, physical or mental disability, gender, and sexual orientation.  Representative Ben Waide, a Republican from Hopkins County, said he opposed the bill because it would provide special rights to certain people. 

Historians and genealogists now have digitized Confederate Army Pension Applications to comb through to aid their research. The Kentucky Department for Libraries and Archives have them all available online. . State archivist Barbara Teague says the pension program was open to indigent veterans and their widows.

“They had to prove that they had less than $300 income per year and own less than $2,500 worth of property. So you had to prove that you really didn’t have any money and you needed this pension, which may have been $15 to $25 a month.”

Projects to improve roads and forest trails in rural Kentucky counties are facing their last round of funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The agency announced Friday that more than $307 million will be distributed to states with national forest lands, marking the final payment under the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act. Kentucky, which is home to Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area and the Daniel Boone National Forest, will get a final check for $1.8 million.

Governor Steve Beshear is urging state lawmakers to approve a budget proposal that would raise the income eligibility level for public preschool to 160 percent of the federal poverty rate. Preschool in Kentucky is currently offered to 4-year-olds whose family income is 150 percent of the federal poverty level or less. Children with developmental delays or disabilities are also eligible. Beshear says more kids need to get an early start in school:

Governor Steve Beshear told business leaders today Kentucky needs to develop more revenue to dig out of the economic recession. He says one way to do that is by passing expanded gambling.

Beshear isn't giving up on an effort to get the public to vote on a constitutional amendment that would allow casinos at Kentucky horse tracks. Now that the filing deadline has passed for state legislative elections, Beshear expects the bill to be introduced in the next few days.

Kentucky’s share of the nationwide foreclosure settlement with five major banks is nearly $59 million. Attorney General Jack Conway announced yesterday how that money will be used to help borrowers struggling with high mortgage payments or who have already been through foreclosure. Some of the funds will go toward paying down principal balances for consumers who owe more than their home is worth. Conway says,