Given tea's rap today as both a popular pick-me-up and a health elixir, it's hard to imagine that sipping tea was once thought of as a reckless, suspicious act, linked to revolutionary feminism.

For Louisvillians, the top domestic travel destination next year should be Fairbanks, Alaska, says Lonely Planet, the big travel guide publisher.

For everyone else, go to Louisville.

Lonely Planet cites the food and drink on NuLu, the shopping on Bardstown Road and the gobs and gobs of available bourbon in putting Louisville atop its 2013 list of top U.S. travel destinations. 

The longtime spokeswoman for the Kentucky Department of Education is retiring.

Members of the Board of Education gave Lisa Gross a standing ovation Wednesday at their meeting in Frankfort.

Board chairman David Karem said Gross, whose title is director of the division of communications, has been with the department for 27 years.

Her last day will be Dec. 19.

Karem praised Gross for her years of helping the board of education get its message out to the public.

A replacement was not announced.

A report released this week by the U.S. News Short List include Centre College in the top 10 colleges with the highest percentage of college graduates that financially support their alma maters.

Centre College is seventh on the list that is “dominated by National Liberal Arts Colleges,” which emphasize undergraduate education and award at least half of their degrees in the liberal arts fields of study, according to U.S. News.

Lexington firefighters say three people have been found dead inside a burning home.

WLEX-TV reported the fire broke out before dawn Wednesday in the Clays Mill area of the city.

Fayette County Coroner Gary Ginn told the Lexington Herald-Leader that the victims appear to be an older couple and their son, all of whom lived at the address. He declined to release names until the victims could be positively identified.

Ginn told WKYT-TV that all the victims were oxygen-dependent, and oxygen tanks could have accelerated the blaze.

 Update: Louisville Cardinals football coach Charlie Strong turned down an offer from the Tennessee Volunteers and is staying at UofL, according to a report from Sports Illustrated's Pete Thamel.

Citing an unnamed source, Thamel reported that Strong is negotiating a contract extension with Louisville.

The Republican plan to avert the "fiscal cliff" that the White House rejected Monday includes at least one element that's likely to produce controversy: a proposal that would, among other things, affect the cost of living adjustment for Social Security.

Hundreds of thousands of veterans have returned from Iraq and Afghanistan in recent years, eager to get an education under the new post-Sept. 11 GI Bill.

Many vets looking for a school find they are inundated by sales pitches from institutions hungry for their government benefits. Now, lawmakers are looking for ways to protect vets without narrowing their education choices.

A new study showing a major increase in Tennessee babies born addicted to drugs has prompted the state Health Department to require hospitals to report that information. A health department working group found the number of babies born with Neonatal Abstinence Syndrome, or NAS, has increased ten-fold over the past decade. NAS can result from a mother’s drug use, including alcohol and withdrawal drugs like methadone. Henry County Medical Center's Rhonda Carnell says it’s important for healthcare providers to know the signs.

A draft of Louisville’s comprehensive sustainability plan is finished.

Louisville Director of Sustainability Maria Koetter was placed in charge of the plan when she began her job in January. The draft hasn’t been released to the media or public yet, but it’s been submitted to Mayor Greg Fischer for his review.

Mayor’s spokesman Chris Poynter says the final plan will include measures big and small the city can undertake to improve sustainability.