Bruce Schreiner

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Shadowbox with a silhouetted Muhammad Ali. Grab a bat and take a few swings in a batting cage at the Louisville Slugger Museum. Dig into a Hot Brown at the place where the savory sandwich was created. Sip Kentucky bourbons at a hotel where Al Capone played blackjack.

EAST BERNSTADT, Ky. -- The stories from tornado survivors across the South and Midwest were remarkable: schoolchildren took cover under desks, people hunkered down in a church basement or hid out in a bank vault. One family even piled on top of one another for protection.

One of the most remarkable survivors was a toddler found alone in a field near her Indiana home. Her four immediate family members were among at least 36 people killed by tornadoes that scarred communities scattered across hundreds of miles of the nation's midsection from Alabama to Indiana.

LOUISVILLE, Ky. -- Long before his dazzling footwork and punching prowess made him a three-time world heavyweight boxing champion known as Muhammad Ali, a young Cassius Clay honed his skills by sparring with neighborhood friends and running alongside the bus on the way to school.

The man who became the world's most recognizable athlete was a baby sitter, a jokester and a dreamer in the predominantly black West End neighborhood of Louisville where he grew up and forged lasting friendships while beginning his ascent toward greatness.

Now, as the iconic boxer slowed by Parkinson's disease prepares to turn 70 next week, he's coming home for a birthday bash at the downtown cultural center and museum that bears his name. The private party Saturday night will double as a fundraiser for the 6-year-old Muhammad Ali Center, which promotes ideals of tolerance, respect and individual achievement. The birthday party will highlight a weeklong extended tribute to the city's favorite son whose name and face emblazon buildings and street signs.

Ali turns 70 on Jan. 17, three days after the party.

SHELBYVILLE, Ky. -- A Kentucky truck driver who was wheeled into surgery for a simple circumcision but awoke without part of his penis lost his multimillion-dollar lawsuit Wednesday against the urologist who lopped off a cancer-riddled section of the organ.

A six-man, six-woman jury deliberated briefly before saying it didn't agree with 64-year-old Phillip Seaton and his wife, Deborah, that Dr. John Patterson had failed to exercise proper care. Seaton also sued because he said he hadn't consented to the amputation.

MIDWAY, Ky. -- As star-struck visitors approached a lush green paddock at Three Chimneys Farm, the stately thoroughbred Big Brown was right on cue. The Kentucky Derby and Preakness winner ambled up to the plank fence and calmly posed like a movie star on the red carpet.

Jennifer Riggle stretched her arm, camera in hand, and clicked photos of the celebrity horse. Riggle, a high school senior from Huntington, Ind., spent spring break in Kentucky horse country with her mother and a teenage friend.