Front Page Episodes

Balanced budgets are tough to come by these days at the national, state and local level. Murray’s City Council is dealing with a half million dollar deficit, but what about it’s doppelganger in Mississippi? How twins can be so different on Front Page Sunday from WKMS News.

Every community in the country has been impacted by the down economy.  Many, like Murray, Kentucky, have had a rough time of it, coping with shrinking resources and growing budget shortfalls.  Other cities, including one almost identical to Murray, have fared better with their finances.  We’ll talk about why, and what lessons cities like Murray could learn, with the mayor of that parallel community, today on Front Page P.M. from WKMS News.

 La Nina is over, according to the National Weather Service.  The weather pattern based on central Pacific Ocean temperatures has been to blame for some of the unseasonable weather we’ve had over the course of a few years.  We’ve gone from the wettest April’s on record in 2011 to a very dry April this year.  To discuss some of our weather pattern oddities Chad Lampe  spoke with Warning Coordination Meteorologist Rick Shanklin.

The city of Murray faces an all-too-common problem these days: a steady demand for services while facing the necessity of budget cuts. For other communities in the country, the outlook isn’t quite so grim. And what they’ve done, or not done, could be instructive. So, we looked for a city similar to Murray and came up with Oxford, Mississippi, home of the University of Mississippi. Both cover 10 square miles; they were incorporated within seven years of each other; and both are located in counties south of another county named Marshall.

Murray’s Ken Winters is a lifelong educator and spent the last 8 years as a State Senator. He’s retiring. We speak with Senator Winters, and look at  horse racing technology ahead of this weekend’s Kentucky Derby on Front Page A.M. from WKMS News.