Kevin Willis

The WKU men’s basketball team is preparing for a tough three-game stretch away from home, starting this Sunday afternoon at longtime rival Murray State. WKU has had the week off for final exams, but some major tests are still ahead for the men’s basketball team.

The Tops will hit the road for Murray to take on the 7-1 Racers Sunday, in a game that will be televised on the Hiltopper Sports Satellite Network. It will be the 150th time the two in-state rivals have played.

Next Tuesday, WKU travels to Richmond, Virginia, to take on Virginia Commonwealth. The VCU Rams are one of the top mid-major programs in the country, and are battle-tested already this young season, with a win against Memphis, and losses to Duke and Missouri.

WKU freshman Kendall Noble will miss the remainder of the 2012-13 season after suffering a torn right anterior cruciate ligament (ACL) in Sunday’s game at Kent State. A full recovery is expected back in time for the 2013-14 campaign.

“Any coach does not want to hear that about their players,” said WKU head coach Michelle Clark-Heard. “I am really sad that the fans did not get to see Kendall Noble this year. The greatest thing about that is we will have her for four more years and everyone will have the chance to see how special she is. She came back in the Morehead State game and had a really good game and then this happens. She is an unbelievable young lady from an unbelievable family.”

WKU Public Radio reported on ACL injuries earlier this year, in a profile of WKU senior wide receiver Marcus Vasquez, who tore a knee ligament in a 2011 game.

The New York Times has this story looking at WKU's hiring of Bobby Petrino as the school's next head football coach. The Times says Monday's hiring of Petrino began a discussion over  whether "Western Kentucky had made a Faustian decision to trade its morality for the possibility of on-field success."

As WKU Public Radio reported Monday, athletic director Todd Stewart said Petrino was the number one name on the school's wish list when the head coaching job opened up.

All this took place after Willie Taggart left WKU Friday to become the next head coach at the University of South Florida.

WKU has announced that despite the hiring of Petrino, WKU defensive coordinator Lance Guidry will coach the team Dec. 26 in the Little Caesar's Bowl vs. Central Michigan.

One of the big issues Kentucky lawmakers are expected to take up in the next legislative session is an overhaul of the state tax code. It's something that the commonwealth's bourbon distillers will have their collective eyes on, because a provision under consideration would create a new tax credit for manufacturers designed to offset a longstanding barrel tax.

"We pay a tax on every barrel that is aging in the commonwealth, as long as it sits in one of our warehouses. So if you're drinking a bottle of 18-year- old bourbon, it's been taxed 18 times," says Eric Gregory, president of the Kentucky Distillers Association. "That makes Kentucky non-competitive in the global marketplace. We are the only alcohol manufacturer in the world that pays such a tax."

Tax legislation designed to help Kentucky's bourbon distillers has previously passed in the Senate, but has never made it out of the House. Gregory says distillers are sensing a renewed seriousness on the part of many lawmakers to get a tax code overhaul passed next year, either in the regular session that begins January 8, or during a special session.

Members of the sixth class of the Louie B. Nunn Kentucky Teacher Hall of Fame have been announced—and all three inductees have strong connections to the listening area of WKU Public Radio. The Teacher Hall of Fame was established in 2000, and is housed on the campus of Western Kentucky University.

Here's information on the three women who will be inducted next February:

Eloise Hadden

A native of Raywood, Texas, Eloise W. Hadden taught Home Economics for 33 years in Logan and Simpson counties.

She taught at Auburn High School from 1954 to 1982, Logan County High School from 1982 to 1985, Logan County High School Homebound Teacher from 1985 to 1987, and Martha Layne Collins Pilot Project Career Ladder in Franklin in 1987. She received her bachelor’s degree in 1956 from WKU.