Studio 619 for December 16, 2007

Kentucky's New Governor The Commonwealth of Kentucky has a new leader as of last week. Steve Beshear became Kentucky’s 61st Governor Tuesday. Eighty marching bands and 150 horses helped to usher him into office in an inaugural parade, which was following by his first public speech as governor. Here’s that address in its entirety. Refugees in LouisvilleLouisville does a good job of welcoming refugees, according to a Washington official who visited the city in early December. Assistant U.S. Secretary of State Ellen Sauerbrey met with refugees and toured Kentucky Refugee Ministries and Catholic Charities.She thinks the way both groups operate is terrific. Sauerbrey also gleaned an idea about a national service that she said she will bring back to the Capital. She spoke with WFPL’s Heidi Caravan.Inside Greek UIn the mid-1980’s, University of Kentucky professor Alan DeSantis was a student at James Madison University and a fraternity member. Little did he know at the time fraternities and sororities would become a focus of his adult life. This year DeSantis published his first book, Inside Greek U: Fraternities, Sororities, and the Pursuit of Pleasure, Power and Prestige. WFPL’s Robin Fisher talks with DeSantis about fraternities and sororities and how belonging to a Greek Organization affects the lives of the students involved.Grawemeyer Award Peter Lieberson is the 2007 Grawemeyer Award winner in Music Composition for his Neruda Songs. This setting of love sonnets by Pablo Neruda was composed for his wife, the late Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, a world-famous mezzo-soprano who succumbed to cancer in July of 2006. Peter Lieberson’s winning composition is his most personal and powerful work, expressing his deepest emotions in what would be a final gift for his wife. He spoke with Daniel Gilliam of Classical 90.5. Listen to the show.