Bluegrass Blastoff: A consortium of Kentucky universities is partnering with NASA to launch the commonwealth’s very first satellite into space, which is totally awesome. Dubbed KySat-1, the camera-equipped satellite will orbit the earth and provide a direct feed of images into K-12 classrooms across the state. (Extra credit will be given to students who can successfully locate Jesus/John Wall in the exosphere)

Bedtime for Bid-riggers: The defense rests in the Leonard Lawson-Bill Nighbert trial, as the two men charged with engineering kick back-friendly road construction contracts await a jury’s verdict. Star witnesses in the trial have included Gov. Steve Beshear and a cavalcade of experts and government bureaucrats. Will justice prevail? Is Bonnie and Leonard Lawson’s 12,500 sq. foot home really “too big?” Or is this just the recession talking?

If Filthy Liberal Oregonians Can Do it, Why Not Us? Pick your reasons-why, but Pacific Coast hippie freaks in Oregon have passed a ballot initiative that taxes the wealthiest of their citizens — including large corporations — and successfully plugs a $1 billion budgetary gap without raising levies on over 97 percent of all taxpayers, including 93 percent of small businesses. I seem to recall a similar solution to a similar problem here in Kentucky, but thankfully quarter slots at Churchill Downs will make such tax-reform completely unnecessary.

There was a State of the Union Last Night… and Hope 2.0 is now available for a free download. President Obama spent the vast majority of his first SOTU talking about economy, which will be fixed by 2011 and  require no more Keynesian spending policies, or so he hopes. Plus: Talk of student debt forgiveness, big bank taxes, $30 billion for small banks, eliminating the capital gains tax and rainbow machines for every citizen by 2012. Other highlights included: Snarky comments from SCOTUS Justice Samuel “Sponsored by Microsoft Internet Explorer” Alito, sleeping racist person Harry Reid, a creepy cutaway-shot of Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner (who looks like Michael Keaton and The Joker at the same time) and a weirdly funny meta-moment wherein Obama commented on all of the clapping that Congress loves to do, which elicited even more clapping. Also: Chris Matthews said a dumb thing.

Mystery Men: A second dead body has been found in the Portland/Shawnee neighborhoods in less than 24 hours. Louisville Metro Police ain’t sure if this latest body —  discovered at 4300 Bank Street, this morning — has any relation to another found even earlier today in an alley located within the 200 block of N 39th Street. As can be expected, The C-J’s online comments section provides a comprehensive dialogue on racial stereotyping and the West End’s “revolving door of death.”