Known by some as "America's Nile," the Colorado River stretches about 1,450 miles across seven states and two countries — and photographer Peter McBride has traveled the entire thing, shooting photos for his new book, The Colorado River: Flowing Through Conflict.

McBride explains the conflict in an interview with All Things Considered host Michele Norris. The delta, which was once a vast, lush ecosystem, has all but dried up. "It shows what happens when you ask too much of a limited resource: It disappears," he says.

Louisville is among five cities chosen to receive money and assistance from the philanthropic arm of the Bloomberg company.  Bloomberg Philanthropies is giving a total of $24 million to Louisville, Atlanta, Chicago, Memphis and New Orleans. The money will essentially pay for brain power, through what the charity is calling innovation teams. They’ll work with local governments to address pressing issues identified by city leaders.

A television drama set mainly in Harlan and Lexington, Kentucky is in the running for a number of Emmy awards. The nominations were revealed early Thursday morning. Timothy Olyphant, who stars as U.S. Marshal Raylan Givins in the critically acclaimed FX series Justified, has received a best lead actor nomination. Margo Martindale, who last season portrayed the criminal matriarch Mags Bennett, got a best supporting actress nod, and Walton Goggins, who plays Givins' frenemy Boyd Crowder, is up for a supporting actor award.

In a reversal, Rupert Murdoch and his son James said they would testify before a British Parliamentary panel next week. The panel is looking into the phone hacking scandal that has the Murdoch media empire in disarray.

Speaking on the Senate floor Thursday, Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., delivered an ultimatum to congressional leaders and the American people when he stressed the far-fetched idea to pass a “Balanced Budget Amendment” to the U.S. Constitution in order to address the nation’s growing debt. The White House has already rejected the Tea Party-backed idea as part of debt ceiling negotiations, but McConnell pitched it as the only way to ensure the federal government has fiscal order.

For the past few years, American Electric Power has been working on a carbon capture and sequestration project at their Mountaineer Power Plant in New Haven, West Virginia. The plant used a chilled ammonia process to remove the carbon dioxide from the gas emitted from the plant, then the carbon was injected underground for storage in porous rock. Here’s a documentary I produced while at West Virginia Public Broadcasting, which describes the technology at Mountaineer.

An open records ruling from the attorney general’s office says Kentucky State Police must turn over photos from the Beverly Hills Supper Club fire even if they are in possession of a former employee. Attorney General Jack Conway‘s office said KSP, which refused to give copies of photos of the deadly 1977 fire in northern Kentucky to a survivor of the blaze, must comply. David Brock, 52 of Florence, who was an 18-year-old busboy at the supper club the night of the fire, made the request. Brock wants to see the photos because he says he believes they will show the fire was caused by arson.

Newly released jobs numbers show thousands of Kentucky’s construction workers may have to hang up their tool belts unless Congress can find more money for road construction. If the House passed budget becomes law, the Federal Highway Administration says nearly eight thousand construction workers in Kentucky would lose their jobs. Kentucky Republican Congressman Brett Guthrie says Democrats tried to create jobs with their $787-billion stimulus package and proved government spending cannot salvage an economy.

Colombian police have made arrests to break up what officials say is a circle of crooks who stole some $568 million from the directorate of taxes and customs, according to the AP.

According to multiple media reports, an official from the rating agency Standard & Poor's told lawmakers and business officials that the agency could downgrade the United State's credit rating if the country misses any payments — including Social Security checks.

The Wall Street Journal reports: