Pegasus Podcast

After the passage of the 2018 Farm Bill, everything looked up for Kentucky's hemp industry. With promise of being the next great Kentucky crop, farmers set out to plant and sell as much hemp as they could to make as many products as they could. Unfortunately, years later, the FDA has failed to clear the way for farmers to get their products to the market. Inaction on their part on a clear regulatory framework has left the indus...

The newest conspiracy theory being embraced by the mainstream? President Trump is deliberated undermining and destroying the postal service in an effort to rig - or at least tamper with - the 2020 election. The United States Postal Service has real problems. Systemic problems that will not be solved with a $25 Billion bailout. Problems that were not caused by President Trump. On today's podcast we try to answer all your quest...

Republicans and Democrats have continued to struggled to find common ground on what should be in the next round of coronavirus relief. More for schools? For state and local governments? The negotiations have seemed to stall for now, but one thing legislators must stay away from as they aim for a final draft is price controls. Price controls, or benchmarking, would be a disaster for America's healthcare industry. Rural hospitals...

As we get closer to the beginning of the fall semester, it seems increasingly likely that multiple school districts will be closed for in-person teaching. Despite recommendations to reopen from the Director of the CDC and the American Academy of Pediatrics, teacher unions and more have taken strong opposition to reopening schools. So where does that leave families? On today's podcast Kentucky Senator Rand Paul joins us to discu...

What would be the implications of not reopening our schools this fall? On today's podcast Dr. Gary Houchens, a Pegasus Institute Senior Fellow, and Professor of Educational Administration, joins us to discuss the seriousness of making sure we take the steps to get our kids back into the classroom. A spring semester showed the shortcomings of virtual learning, and another year of this threatens us with losing out on too many at ...

Does Kentucky's Governor have too much power when it comes to emergency declarations? Frankly, it is a question that many have asked over the last few months. While most emergency declarations are short lived, and tend to focus on droughts or extreme weather, the coronavirus has put Kentucky's emergency powers to the test. With huge changes in policy taking place through just one of Kentucky's branches, it has legislato...

The last few months presented America’s justice system with many unprecedented challenges. As our public safety officials worked to balance both the safety or their communities, and the need to keep prisons, jails, courts, and more COVID19 free, we saw new issues and new successes. Cities across the country worked to safely reduce jail population, transfer non-violent offenders into treatment programs, or back into the workforce. ...

For many years, America's largest cities saw decreasing crime rates. Places that once suffered from thousands of homicides, like New York City, saw decreases down into the low hundreds. Major cities like Los Angeles and Boston saw significant reductions in violent crime. Unfortunately, in the last decade, as pundits have celebrated low violence numbers on the aggregate, many cities, and specifically a very select few neighborho...

Cities across the country are seeing unprecedented violent crime surges over the last few weeks. Louisville, which saw its most violent year in 2016, and has been trending in the wrong direction for years, is on pace to see its most violent year ever. Cities like NYC and Los Angeles which have consistently decreased violent crime for years are now seeing record breaking shootings and homicides. With more calls to "Defund the Po...

The Boston Tea Party aka that cold December night a bunch of Massholes sparked a revolution. On this year's special Fourth of July podcast, Professor Nathan Coleman returns to take us through the one of the most infamous nights of the American revolution. What led to a bunch of Bostonians throwing tea in the harbor? Why is so much of what happened that night so secret? We discuss all of this and more on this week's podcast!...

In the last few weeks, many of us have realized it is past time to make change in America. The issues with race in America permeate far too many areas of our life. From education, to healthcare and many things in between, policy makers are focused on rectifying these long standing issues. For Dr. OJ Oleka, starting the Anti-Racism Kentucky coalition was just the first step in sparking change. Hear from Dr. Oleka about his personal ...

Is a property tax hike in Jefferson County the solution to its education problems? Despite unprecedented unemployment, the JCPS school board seems to think it is a good time to raise taxes on Louisvillians in order to pump more money into the school system. But are there are ways forward? Theresa Camoriano, Resa, believes this is the wrong time, and wrong solution to JCPS's problems. Why is she so passionate about this issue? H...

As people and politicians around the country become more comfortable attacking the value of higher education - the evidence could not be more clear: they are wrong. Here in Kentucky, the Council on Post Secondary Education has produced a report to dispel the many myths on the affordability, invest, and returns for not just students but the entire state of Kentucky. College may just be the most effective anti-poverty, anti-welfare p...

What has to happen before we can trust Kentuckians to feel safe going back to work? What can we do to make sure businesses have a smooth transition reopening? These questions, and many more will the biggest questions as we move away from the economic shutdown and backs towards our new normal. With new rules in place, lawmakers must work to preserve the most important functions of government while letting the free market do what it ...

The healthcare sector in America is a wildly over-regulated market. With limits on where, who, and what licensed doctors can practice, we limit the capacity of our system. The coronavirus pandemic has shown us just how many silly, and useless rules exist that limit our economy. Restaurants could not serve alcohol to go. Trucker could not ship booze and food in the same truck. And licensed doctors could not cross a border and practi...

On today's episode of the Pegasus Podcast Dr. Emily Bonistall Postel of Marsy's Law Kentucky, and Dorislee Gilbert of The Mary Byron project, join the show to talk about one of the more unnoticed parts of the COVID-19 shutdown, how it effects victims and survivors. For domestic violence victims, they may not be stuck in a home with their abuser. For families who lose loved ones, they may not be able to have traditional fune...