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Louisville will block off parts of Bardstown Road and Baxter Avenue from Broadway to the Douglass Loop on one Sunday in October to encourage walking and biking.

When she was a child, Cynthia Lowen was painfully shy. She avoided clubs and sports, to her parents’ disappointment. She was most comfortable around books and horses—maybe most comfortable sitting quietly by herself reading books about horses. Lowen spent her childhood and teen years at a farm, mucking out stables and riding horses. The horses didn’t call her “giraffe neck,” she says, like her peers did.

Nikky Finney established herself as one of America's preeminent poets after winning the National Book Award last year and delivering a rousing speech that paid tributes to her forebears. (Watch it here, read it here)

When the organizers for IdeaFestival said that most events were sold out, they truly meant it. All of Thursday’s presentations were standing-room only.

Some highlights:

Peter Sims—Little Bets

When Kris Kimel introduced Sims, a best-selling author and entrepreneur, he said, “[Sims has] used the words ‘cool’ and ‘I love it’ and ‘awesome’ hundreds of times since he arrived in Louisville.” And indeed, Sims led his presentation with a discussion of Wednesday night’s dinner at Smoketown USA with Kevin Colleran, formerly of Facebook.

The Indiana Department of Health is again offering a monetary incentive for smokers and other tobacco users to kick the habit.

The Quit Now Contest challenges users to give up tobacco during the month of October, making them eligible for cash prizes of up to $2,500

Danese Pease with the Harrison County Tobacco Prevention Consortium says participants will have to prove they abided by the rules.

Two large-scale, site-specific art installations by the Seattle-based art trio SuttonBeresCuller are opening at IdeaFestival. The artists created “Trailer Park,” a mobile city park traveling Main Street during the Festival and "Small Moons," an installation opening at Land of Tomorrow gallery on Broadway tomorrow.

Indiana is bringing unmanned drones to the state for testing, as a part of a plan to market the state’s defense operations more aggressively throughout the U.S.

Indiana’s National Center for Complex Operation, which was established at the beginning of this year,uses the state’s military bases to test military equipment and technology that before it is put into practice.

The University of Louisville Medical Center is going to take more time searching for a new business partner.

The UMC put out a request for proposals for a new partner earlier this year, with a goal to finish the deal by the end of this month. But today (Thursday), officials released a statement saying they need more time. They stress that talks have been productive, but say it may take until the end of the year to secure a deal.

A progressive economic group says Kentucky should expand Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act based on recently release Census data.

The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy points to data that shows the percentage of Kentuckians without insurance dropped last year based on early elements of the health care law.

The drop was mainly attributed to a large number of young adults who are staying on their parents’ insurance thanks to one of the law’s provision.

U.S. Department of Education officials are in Fayette County Thursday as part of a national back-to-school bus tour called "Education Drives America."

Deputy Secretary of Education Tony Miller is visiting Picadome Elementary School to discuss ways to improve foreign language learning in schools.

In Fayette County around 60 percent of their public schools offer some kind of foreign language program, said Thomas Sauer, Fayette County Public Schools world language specialist.