This week on our audio diary series "The Big Break," Actors Theatre of Louisville apprentice Samantha Beach tackles an unfamiliar role in "A Christmas Story," while Louisville Ballet trainee Claire Horrocks prepares for "The Nutcracker." The Kentucky Opera studio artists are on hiatus until January, but Brad Raymond finds he still has plenty to keep him busy over his break.  

The Birmingham News reported Wednesday night that Louisville Cardinals head football coach Charlie Strong interviewed for the same position at Auburn University, but Strong denied through other media outlets that any such interview ever took place.

The Birmingham paper's story said Strong interviewed within the past couple of days, perhaps by telephone. The story cited an unnamed source, "someone familiar with the process."

A Finnish author and education reformer has won the University of Louisville's 2013 Grawemeyer Award for education.

Pasi Sahlberg directs Finland’s Centre for International Mobility and Cooperation and is also author of "Finnish Lessons: What Can the World Learn from Educational Change in Finland?"

The book explains how reforms that began in the 1970s led to the current success the public school system is experiencing. Finland was once poorly ranked educationally and had large inequalities among its students.

Joining Indiana Ninth District Congressman Todd Young, U.S. Sen. Dan Coats, R-In., has introduced a bill to help redevelopment at a former military installation in Jeffersonville.

Under Base Realignment and Closure (BRAC) guidelines, the old Indiana Army Ammunition Plant now operates as the River Ridge Commerce Center. According to Coats's office, the southern portion of the plant is reserved for economic development by the state and county, but it is not guaranteed legal protections.

The measure would ensure that all property owners of land formerly used as a military installation at the commerce center are compensated by the defense department.

From Sen. Coats's office:

"River Ridge is a promising economic development opportunity that could help boost the local economy and create jobs in southern Indiana,” said Coats. “This bill will provide potential job creators at locations like River Ridge the same insurance protections granted to developers and businesses on all other closed military installations. I am pleased to join Rep. Young in this effort and will work with my colleagues to get the legislation approved in the Senate.”

In an episode from the fifth season of Mad Men the show's main character, advertising executive Don Draper, is asked by his client, the cologne company Chevalier Blanc, to supply a Beatles song for a television commercial. The year is 1966, and the 40-year-old Draper doesn't have his finger on the rapidly rising pulse of popular music. So he calls in a team of younger, hipper copy writers, including his wife Megan.

"When did music become so important?" he asks her.

The federal government has given four mines—including one in Kentucky—a warning that if they don’t make strides in health and safety, they could be put on a “pattern of violations” status.

Once a mine is marked as having a pattern of violations, any significant and substantial violations that are found by regulators would require that section of the mine to be temporarily shut down.

The Kentucky Opera is on the list of Kentucky artists and organizations receiving grants from the National Endowment for the Arts for the next fiscal year. The opera will receive $12,500 to help fund the development of a new one-act opera by composer Paul Moravec and librettist Terry Teachout through its innovative composer workshop. 

Republican advocates of industrial hemp in Kentucky are getting some across the aisle help.

Rep. John Yarmuth, a Louisville Democrat, supports efforts to legalize the plant in Kentucky, his spokesman said. U.S. Senator Rand Paul and Agriculture Commissioner James Comer are the two leading advocates for the move.

They want legalization to take advantage of the many goods that hemp can produce to create jobs.

Whooping cough went on a tear in California back in 2010.

There were more than 9,000 pertussis infections in the state, a 60-year high. In recent years, there has been a resurgence of the disease across the country.

Why?