11.16.25

Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the reading of the Lexington Herald Leader. Today
is Sunday, November sixteenth, twenty twenty five, and your reader
is Roger Hamperion. As a reminder, Radio I is a
reading service intended for people who are blind or have
other disabilities that make it difficult to read printed material.

(00:20):
We'll start with the seven day forecast, brought to you
by Acuweather. The weather Sunday will be cooler, with a
high of fifty eight degrees and a low of thirty three.
Monday will be partly sunny with a high of fifty
seven and a low of forty seven. Tuesday we'll see
periods of rain with a high of fifty seven and

(00:42):
a low of forty one. Wednesday will have periods of
sun with a high of fifty four and a low
of forty six. Thursday we'll have some brightening with a
high of sixty two and a low of fifty five.
Friday will be cloudy with times of rain, with a
high of sixty three and a low of forty three.

(01:05):
Saturday we'll have a little morning rain and clouds with
a high of fifty four and low forty four. In
the weather Almanac, the high temperature is sixty with a
low of thirty six. Normal high fifty seven, normal low
thirty seven. Last year's high sixty four, last year's low

(01:26):
forty two. Record high was seventy eight in nineteen fifty five,
record low twelve and twenty nineteen. Thursday's precipitation was zero
month to date point six seven. Normal month to date
one point three seven. Year to date fifty five point

(01:47):
zero nine. Normal year to date forty three point six four.
Last year to date forty three point three three. Record
for the date one point five in nine nineteen ninety three.
There is no pollen count today. Sunrise today will be
at seven twenty am. Sunset tonight five twenty six pm.

(02:12):
Moon rise today two fifty seven am. Moonset today three
o two pm. Moon phases. New moon will be November twentieth,
first quarter November twenty eighth, full moon December fourth, and
last quarter December eleventh. Now we will read the headlines

(02:33):
from the front page of today's edition. A whole new
life across Kentucky. Public governments, private groups, and nonprofits are
joining efforts to achieve one thing, help inmates stay out
of prison after they've done their time. They want to
offer new skills and new opportunities that lead to new lives.

(02:54):
How's it working so far, so good? And gut punch
new federal change may upend Kentucky hemp businesses. The first
article from today's edition is titled a whole New Outlook
on Life. These Kentucky groups help people not return to

(03:14):
prison by Taylor six and Piper Hanson. Kathy Stewart was
imprisoned at the state and local level for a drunk
driving crash she caused that severely injured a man and
his son in twenty eighteen. The forty seven year old
was previously in and out of rehab, on the run,
and pregnant before she ended up in the Franklin County

(03:36):
Detention Center. She held her young daughter for the first
time inside the facility as part of a Wanda Joyce
Robinson Foundation program. It was the only time during her
five and a half years behind bars she touched her baby.
When she was transferred to prison, the COVID nineteen pandemic
shut down all in person visitation. It's just as important

(04:00):
for the kids and the mothers to get help, Stuart said.
It was the only time in five and a half
years that I got to see her, and it was
the only connection I had with my kids. The Wanda
Joyce Robinson Foundation is one of Kentucky's many organizations striving
to prevent people from returning to prison. Across the Commonwealth,

(04:21):
public governments, private groups, and nonprofits are joining efforts to
achieve one thing, help inmates stay out of prison after
they've done their time. They want to offer new skills
and new opportunities that lead to new lives. By working
to restore relationships between incarcerated Kentuckians and their families and

(04:42):
connecting them to resources even before they re enter society,
the groups are trying to drive down the state's rate
of repeat offenders. The Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation helps parents
in jail maintain family ties. It allowed Stuart to give
Christmas gifts to her earl older children while she faced
twenty years in prison and went up for parole three times.

(05:06):
Stuart's goal was to get the most out of programming
before her release in twenty twenty three, Stuart was confronted
with sobering statistics about the low chances she had to
make something of her life after prison. I thought this
is not going to be my life and this is
not the end, she said. I'm not going to be pitiful.

(05:26):
I want to beat this and come out above this
because there has to be a way. Family reunification, financial literacy,
youth violence prevention, and workforce development programs have kept formerly
incarcerated Kentuckians like Stuart out of prison. It's even inspired
those enrolled in programs to give back to the nonprofits

(05:48):
that helped them. Since twenty twenty two, of the nearly
thirteen thousand people released from state custody, eighty nine hundred
and thirty have not returned. According to the state's Justice
and Public Safety Cabinet, nearly seventy percent of people released
over the past two years have not returned to prison.
Determining a national rate of reincarceration is challenging due to

(06:12):
the wide range in reporting from the states. In two
thousand eight, the Bureau of Justice Statistics examined a cohort
of people released in twenty four states and found sixty
six percent of them were re arrested within three years,
forty eight percent had an arrest that led to a conviction,
and forty nine percent returned to prison. For Kentucky inmates,

(06:35):
the recidivism rate or percentage of those who relapse into
criminal behavior after being imprisoned for a previous crime, is
thirty point eight percent, two percentage points lower than in
twenty twenty one. In twenty twenty, Kentucky recorded its lowest
recidivism rate at twenty seven point two percent. On average,

(06:56):
Kentucky invests about five million per year in state uns,
supplemented by federal grants on expanding and improving re entry services.
Each of Kentucky's fourteen state prisons have re entry centers,
and last October, an executive order established the Governor's Council
of Second Chance Employers to promote second chance hiring. A

(07:18):
low recidivism rate is crucial for states to achieve, since
ninety five percent of the state's jail population will be
released and it's costly to keep them there. In twenty fifteen,
the state spent an average of sixteen thousand, six hundred
eighty dollars per inmate. According to the Vera Institute of Justice.
Founded in nineteen sixty one, the Vera Institute is a

(07:42):
national nonprofit research and policy organization focused on reforming criminal
justice and immigration systems. Thousands of people will be released
from prison every year, and by investing in their success,
our children are safer, our communities are stronger, and taxpayer's
money is saved, said Kentucky Governor Andy Basheer. Kentucky is

(08:04):
a place where people can realize their hopes and dreams,
and we are working to ensure that is true for
every one of our citizens. Family Reunification based in Frankfort,
The Wanda Joyce Foundation was founded in twenty eighteen and
named after the mother of co founder Dale Robinson. The
nonprofit serves children and families through mentorship and community Amy Snow,

(08:28):
director of the foundation, said people often think of re
entry as such tangible items as a driver's license or
finding a place to live. Yes, it's those things, she said,
but re entry often goes well beyond those basic needs.
Building relationships, for instance, is essential. That's because it helps

(08:48):
those coming out of prison create a new sense of
self different from who they were before prison. We are
looking forward to seeing the families that are in this
program building their relationship and having that foundation for when
the parent is released to the community. Snow said. It
is about building relationships with people, and maybe they are

(09:08):
just starting with their kids or their family who are
in jail. Fifteen percent of Kentucky's kids have had an
incarcerated parent, a rate two times higher than the national
average and the highest percentage in the nation. More than
sixty percent of incarcerated women are mothers. Their children, according
to an anti E. Casey Foundation study, are five times

(09:31):
more likely to enter foster care than if their father
was incarcerated. Based in Baltimore, the Casey Foundation is a
private national foundation that formed in nineteen forty eight to
improve the lives of children and families facing poverty and disadvantage.
Those who keep contact with their families while doing time

(09:51):
have one less barrier to navigate once released. When a
mother is reunited with her family, a George Mason University
study found they are less likely to return to prison
and more likely to have secure employment opportunities and health
care for substance abuse disorders. Starting a new career behind bars.

(10:12):
When she was released in twenty twenty three, Stuart had
nothing but the clothes she was wearing when she arrived
at the jail and a newfound direction. She was going
to help incarcerated women. While waiting for her driver's license
to be reinstated, she took rides to find work in Frankfort.
My past hurt people's lives directly or indirectly. My recovery

(10:36):
is directly or indirectly helping people. Stuart said, I have
a whole new outlook on life. I am sorry for
what I did. The only way I can make up
for it is by trying to do something right now.
Stuart is the first in Kentucky to provide Peer Support
Specialist certification classes at the Franklin County Regional Jail. Previously

(10:58):
with only a ninth grade education and later at GED,
She's now enrolled in college classes on her way to
becoming a social worker, and Stewart is an office assistant
at the Wanda Joyce Robinson Foundation, the same organization that
gave her the opportunity to connect with her family while
behind bars. Others have thrived through job opportunities that were

(11:21):
available in prisons and jails. Manuel Patten, fifty one, designed
his own clothing brand while serving a fifteen year federal
sentence for drug and firearms charges. While incarcerated, Patten worked
with Unicorp, a government corporation operating prison industry programs, designing patents,
when a vision came to him to start his own

(11:44):
clothing line. In December twenty fifteen. He worked from seven
am until three thirty pm in the federal prison and
spent the rest of his time in the law library
or in his cell designing clothes. He spoke with his
family over the phone to trade mark his business. Life
is no rehearsal. Shortly after release in twenty twenty one,

(12:06):
his logo was trademarked. He sells clothes he's designed out
of the trunk of his car, works at the University
of Kentucky, and is a licensed painter. On every piece
of clothing he sells, a card on the inside tells
his story. Do the best to make the best decision
with your life every day, because we only get to

(12:26):
come through here one time. There are no do overs.
Financial literacy over fear. Patten said a mindset change was
essential to shedding his previous life and starting anew after prison.
He also credits being on home incarceration as a way
he was better able to integrate into society. Mindset is everything,

(12:49):
he said. The people that you hang around means everything.
If you are on something different and your friends are
on something different, you have to want something better for
your life. When you change your mindset, everything changes, Pattens,
said Dale Morgan, a Lexington financial analyst who speaks to
men in prison, helped him get his finances in order.

(13:12):
Morgan said mindset is a major hurdle he sees inmates
struggling to overcome, but so is fear. They are scared
about how they are going to be able to adjust
when they come out of prison. Morgan said, They've got
three kids and the wife needs this. How are they
going to support them? Some have programs and some are
released to figure it out. Those are the ones who

(13:34):
get returned to prison life. The state releases more than
three hundred thousand people from state and local jails combined
each year. About thirty three percent of individuals released in
twenty ten remain jobless four years post release. According to
the Prison Policy Initiative, limited assets, restricted public benefits, and

(13:56):
system underfunding can perpetuate poverty and recidivis. Some risk workforce
development new economic opportunities In Lexington, a job training and
social reintegration program is giving inmates at the Fayette County
Detention Center. Another opportunity this summer, Second Chance Academy began

(14:17):
its third year running a seven week life and career
readiness course led by local nonprofit Jubilee Jobs in partnership
with the city and the County Detention Center. Program applicants
spend an hour each week with re entry coordinators, learning
and putting those lessons into practice. By the end, participants

(14:38):
have built a new resume and tried out different workplace
simulations on a virtual reality headset. Other sessions during the
course teach skills in interviewing, conflict resolution, and parenting. Second
Chance Academy was Lexington's Director of Business Engagement, Amy Klascock's
first project when she moved to working for city government

(15:00):
in April twenty twenty three. After almost two decades in
workforce services at the Bluegrass Area Development District. Her job
now falls under the city's Economic Development Department, and it's
sometimes a point of confusion, but she said, there can
be no economic development without workforce development. Sometimes people can

(15:21):
do a job, that's not the problem. It's keeping the
job and then dealing with all the other things in
their life and how to handle those things that help
them maintain that employment. Glascock said, So we really want
to work on all those things as well. After release,
participants are on the receiving end of more personalized support

(15:42):
for at least a year while they look for and
hold down a job. In twenty twenty four, Jubilee Jobs
help more than six hundred people in Fayette County get employed.
Of the Academy's graduates, less than ten percent thirteen of
one hundred and seventy five returned to jail or refuse
to participate in the program after release. Inmates who got

(16:05):
a job while in prison or right after release are
twenty four percent less likely to return, according to the
US Bureau of Justice statistics. Among those who keep a
job for at least one year after release, only sixteen
percent return. We've never felt like training was just good enough,
said Kevin Atkins, the City of Lexington's Chief Development Officer.

(16:28):
His department's workforce development partners, he said, are engaged once
they can do employment placement too, So if they're going
to train somebody, you darn well better be able to
get them in a job. The goal, obviously, and especially
with that program, Second Chance Academy, is that when somebody
gets actively engaged in a job, they are less likely

(16:50):
to re offend, he said. During the first class at
the academy, the women's cohort went around the room quietly
introducing themselves to one another, sharing through tears why they
showed up. Show us your sincerity and this will work
for you, said Jubilee Jobs re entry counselor Todd Stone
to the group of about a dozen women. Scrawled across

(17:13):
the back wall of the room is a ligned from Proverbs.
Where there is no vision, the people perish. It says
in blue script. The only reason you want to participate
is because you believe that you're ready for something different,
and you believe that having somebody in your corner helping
support your journey to re entry is going to actually
help you long term. Mason King, the CEO of Jubilee Jobs, said,

(17:37):
in an interview with The Herald Leader, if the dollar
per hour is the only reason that you're going to
work eventually, it's not going to be enough. He said.
You have to have a why beyond the paycheck. For
a long time, Lashonda said she hasn't put in the
effort to solve the root of problems she's dealt with.
Her last name and the last names of other female

(17:59):
Academy participants, as well as their criminal offenses, have been
omitted per the Academy's policy and to protect their privacy.
So far in her life, Lashonda said the path she's
taken hasn't always led her to the right destination. I
have to constantly be reminded that I'm somebody, she said.
Lashonda has ambitions to help others through addiction recovery after release,

(18:24):
but I can't pick you up if I'm crawling too,
she said. While incarcerated, Lashonda said she's had to feel pain.
I'm now me, she said, and that person is who
showed up to class and who wants something different. Another participant, Destiny,
said she was in class to find out who she
wants to be, to figure out what different looks like.

(18:46):
The woman sitting next to her at the Fade County
Detention Center, Chastity, had a similar story. I want something
different because I am worth it, Chastity said. Several participants
said their being in the program hinges on a of
the unknowns that come with being released from prison and
trying to start over. Several women said they know what

(19:07):
it's like when things start to slip, and in explaining
why they showed up to class, they said they felt
lucky to have an extra helping hand in a second chance.
Another woman, also named Lashonda, said this is my time.
I'm willing to go a mile to get it, and
I am so grateful someone got me and said come
to class. Youth Violence Prevention. Gerald G. O. Gibson was

(19:32):
serving his third stint inside a Kentucky prison when he
decided to make a change. On New Year's Eve nineteen
ninety nine. A fear of the end of the world
at the cusp of a new Millennia made Gibson ask
what has my life been to this point? He found
himself on his knees, vowing to leave a life in
and out of prison, gangs, and addiction to find purpose. Gibson,

(19:56):
fifty three and a father of three children, started developing
a program to divert young people from violence while in prison.
After his release, he was working at a gas station
when a Lexington Police Department officer stopped in. Gibson was
compelled to share the program idea with the officer as
he was at the checkout counter. Operation Make a Change,

(20:19):
the program Gibson conceived on the eve of y two
k in prison is now run as an extension of
the Lexington Police Department inside the Charles Young Center in
the city's East End. The organization provides mentorship, coaching, and
support to teens and young adults. It enhances their self
awareness skills in order to equip them with the tools

(20:41):
to stop problem behavior and make sustainable behavior change. Well
implemented programs with behavioral and family involvement have continued to
produce reductions in national recidivism rates. According to a research
study on the Crime Prevention Program, new perspectives with delinquent
behavior patterns are at risk of developing a chronic criminal

(21:03):
career trajectory that can be costly to society and are
in need of early preventative care. For Gibson, the program
is meeting youth where they are and when they have
a changed mindset to jump on the opportunity to offer resources.
The program also introduces participants to environments they may not
have experienced, field trips to the arboretum and going on

(21:27):
college tours. In sessions held in Lexington neighborhoods or during
after school clubs, Gibson has the kids share the best
thing about their day. If someone is facing a challenge,
the group talks through their emotions and potential solutions to
the problem. I work with a lot of kids right
now who are in the court system, in the streets

(21:49):
dealing with gangs and drugs, gun violence and stuff like that.
Gibson said, I'm trying to help them. I can't change them,
but I am trying to advise them and say here
is my life. In preventive care and other re entry programs,
the issues are layered. Without a job after release, money
for rent and bus passes to and from work can

(22:11):
be tight, if not impossible. Some former prisoners are in
treatment programs, and there are few transitional housing options, but
nonprofit work and investment from local governments has been successful
in reducing the state's recidivism rate so far. I'm just
really proud of that because there's a human piece of

(22:32):
your life matters, said King, the CEO of Jubilee Jobs.
And just because you've made mistakes, and just because you've
made bad decisions, does not mean that you're not worthy
of a second chance. The next article from the front
page of today's edition is titled gut Punch. New federal
change may upend Kentucky hemp businesses. The federal government might

(22:55):
be ready to reopen its doors, but the deal to
do so has one Kentucky hemp business owner on edge,
Mitch McConnell just destroyed our business. Jim Higden, co founder
and chief communications officer of Cornbread Hemp, told The Herald Leader,
the government just destroyed our business and that shouldn't happen.

(23:16):
As part of the bill to fund the federal government
after the longest shutdown in US history, a relatively small
provision will ban the sale of hemp derived products that
include more than four tenths milligrams of THC, usually sold
as Delta eight and Delta nine, beginning in November twenty
twenty six. Longtime Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell championed the language

(23:40):
he said would close a loophole in the twenty eighteen
Farm Bill that made the products legal. Senator Ran Paul
opposed the language, as did Republican Representatives James Comer, Thomas Massey,
Andy Barr, and Democratic Representative Morgan McGarvey. Comber and Barr
voted for the bill, while c and McGarvey voted no.

(24:02):
Higden projected he'd make forty five million dollars in revenue
this year from about sixty acres of hemp, a variety
of the cannabis plant that has low levels of THCHC,
the psychoactive compound in marijuana, making it distinct in many places.
Cornbread Hemp sells THCHC and CBD infused gummies, drinks, and

(24:23):
sleep products to roughly two hundred and fifty thousand customers worldwide.
CBD is a compound in cannabis and hemp plants that
doesn't produce the high typically associated with marijuana. Higden, who
founded the business in twenty nineteen with his cousin, said
hemp related policy often follows market pressure and the economy.

(24:44):
He understands that and has rolled with the punches, but
this time it feels like big government at its worst,
he said. In February, Cornbread Hemp said it would expand
its Louisville operation with a one million dollar investment that
would add another fifty jobs. The hope was in addition
to manufacturing and selling more products, Cornbread Hemp would open

(25:06):
a tourism destination, giving visitors a behind the scenes look
at the industry that employs more than three thousand people
across the Commonwealth and contributes hundreds of millions of dollars
to the state's economy. The Kentucky Development Finance Authority approved
a ten year incentive agreement under the Kentucky Business Investment
Program for up to seven hundred thousand dollars in tax

(25:29):
incentives given cornbread HEMP create the promised jobs with an
average hourly wage of twenty six dollars and fifty six
cents now, Higden said he has three hundred and sixty
five days to get new federal policy on the books
before he is forced to go out of business. The
perfect hail Mary would be a signal from Congress that

(25:49):
the HEMP language might be reversed. Higden and others in
the industry hope it may come from Kentucky's US Representative,
Brett Guthrie and his powerful House Committe on Energy and Commerce.
The group's Health subcommittee is where legislation to reverse course
to rewrite what is considered HEMP would likely originate. Higden said,

(26:11):
it's a gut punch and it's been hard. Higden said
there is that silver lining in future legislation, but it
does feel like a death sentence. It's up to us
to fix it. Kentucky Normal executive director Matthew Bratcher, who
heads the state affiliate chapter of the national organization, for
the reform of marijuana laws. Acknowledged the immediate blow to

(26:33):
the industry from the deal to open the government seems
bad right now, but he thinks the federal government has
a plan. Bratcher said everyone was surprised hemp took off
the way it did, and from a regulatory perspective, that
might be cause for concern. He said. One might see
there's too much money in the industry, that infused drinks
can be sold out of liquor stores, and product packaging

(26:56):
have no rules or bounds. You can't hold all the
space and the vices, Bracher said, referring to the bourbon
industry's influence in Kentucky. Eventually things will change. The hemp industry,
Higden said, isn't opposed to being regulated. Business owners just
want a seat at the table. He said, Time and
time again, American farmers have proven resilient and hemp is

(27:20):
no different, said ken Meyer, South Dakota based Complete Hemp
Processing co owner and co chair of US Hemp Roundtable's
Farmer Advisory Council, and a statement the twenty eighteen Farm
Bill gave us a chance to embrace innovation and invest
in a profitable crop. Our focus now is education of
Congress and building a path that secures hemp for future

(27:43):
generations and keeps farmers in business. On Thursday, during his
weekly update, Governor Andy Basheer said he hadn't reviewed the
hemp provision closely. Hemp is an important industry in Kentucky,
he said, we should have appropriate safety regulations around it,
but we should make those regulations here in Kentucky, talking
to the industry and making sure that we get that

(28:06):
balance right. I think that we can protect our kids.
I think we can do the right thing to protect
all of our people while not handicapping an industry that
supports a lot of people, he said. And now, after
a short pause, I hope you'll rejoin us for a
continuation of the reading of the Lexington Herald Leader for today.

(28:26):
Thank you for listening, and now please stay tuned for
more news right here on RADIOI. Now we will continue
reading from the Lexington Herald Leader for Sunday, November sixteenth,
twenty twenty five. Your reader is Roger Hamperion. We will
start with the obituaries. We read only the name, age

(28:47):
and location. If you would like further information on any
of the obituaries, please see their website or call us
during the weekdays at eight five nine four two two
six three nine zero, and we will be glad to
read the entire obituary for you. I will repeat that
number at the end of the listings. Today's obituaries are

(29:09):
as follows. Elizabeth Prewitt, Dabney Brown ninety four of Louisville,
Gypsy Grauert ninety of Petaluma, Irma Sue Lawson Osborne eighty
one of Knoxville, William Welsh eighty six of Lexington, Joanna
Wilkerson fifty eight of Lexington. If you would like any

(29:32):
further information about any of the listings today, please visit
the following website www dot legacy dot com slash obituaries
slash Kentucky. Again, that site is Legacy dot com slash
obituaries slash Kentucky. You can also call us at our
RADIOI studios at eight five nine four two two six

(29:55):
three nine zero and we will try to read them
to you over the phone. Now, at the request of
our listeners, we'll read Paul Prather's weekly column. It is
entitled how to Sow Peace during a period of Hatred.
My instinct is to begin a column with a too
long justification of the reasons I'm writing it, but not today.

(30:19):
For reference, just look at the recent tentatively solved shutdown
of the federal government, the longest in US history. Or heck,
peruse the news on any given day. Seemingly two halves
of the nation despise each other. They're so angry they
literally can no longer think straight. Common sense has fled

(30:39):
our shores. Of course, going back to Adam and Eve's family,
there's been plenty of bitterness at the local and household level,
most of which has nothing to do with politics. For millennia,
there have been wars on rumors of wars on every
inhabited continent too. Among humanity. The opportunities for as are endless.

(31:01):
But if you don't want to get trapped in this
habit of spreading bile, you don't have to. You might
choose another approach. You could become truly countercultural, by which
I mean you might decide to sow love and mercy
instead of fury and mistrust. It is really a choice
each of us gets to make. Here are some suggestions

(31:22):
for pushing back against the present winds of darkness. Remind
yourself regularly of the mistakes you've made. How about that
stint in college when you decided communism was the only
viable economic theory. What about that lazy abuse of crank
you married the first time around? Was that a good choice?
Do you have any regrets about neglecting your mom as

(31:44):
she was dying because you were still mad over the
cars she gave your sister instead of you. Anybody who's
lived beyond oh adolescence has done a whole tanker truckload
of stupid things. They'd just as soon forget, but it's
good to remember them. Taking a long look at your
own failings leaves you more tender toward the foibles of others.

(32:07):
Memorize these lyrics by singer songwriter Paul Thorn. Whatever you believe,
you might be wrong. The world is absolutely full of
things you don't know. You don't know the full set
of circumstances that have brought anybody else to their current
situation in life. You don't know how your own life
will turn out ten years from now. You might be

(32:28):
comfortably on top now and sucking when by next month. Hey,
after you die, you even might discover God isn't a
Southern Baptist like you? What if God's a hindoo, I mean,
you think you know. We've all got our theories. Mine
is that Jesus is a Pentecostal preacher, but nobody knows

(32:49):
for sure. In short, you can either choose to be
humble or life will humble you. Anyway, try to look
at other people as fully rounded, three dimensional children of God,
not as cardboard cutouts. Nobody is just one thing. Maybe
you're a Democrat and your neighbor is a mega hat
wearing Christian nationalist who has seventeen don't tread on Me

(33:12):
flags flying from the roof of his house. This may
annoy you to no end, but your neighbor is not
just that guy. He's also the guy who came over
unasked and cut your grass four weeks in a row
when you were recovering from bypass surgery. He's the guy
who umpires Little League games at the local park. He's

(33:32):
the guy still grieving the teenage son he lost in
a car wreck. He is not a demon. He's a
human being, fearfully and wonderfully made in God's image, and
he needs to remember the same about you. Consider that
surly irrational people quite often are acting from their own pain.
As TV Bible teacher Joyce Meyer has said, hurt people,

(33:56):
hurt people. Maybe if you'd been through what your nemesis
had been through, you'd be way meaner than she is.
Give her the benefit of the doubt, Extend mercy, practice
greeting everybody, even those you detest, with a smile, Speak softly,
and despite what Teddy Roosevelt said, don't whack anybody over

(34:16):
the head with a big stick. There are exceptions to
every rule, of course, but generally people of every stripe
respond better to kindness and respect than to fury and condescension.
Just be nice. Listen to those you disagree with. Don't
listen merely to formulate a sharper comeback or put down.

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Actually listen, Try to hear what they're trying to tell you,
even if you still end up still disagreeing. People rarely
believe anything in a vacuum. They believe it for reasons
They've had different experiences than you have. Listening helps you
understand where your adversary is coming from, but it also

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opens you up. It gives you fresh wa seeing the world.
It can give you a bit more compassion. Remember, we're
all just muddling through every last one of us. Pray
for your enemies instead of cursing them. If you've tried
all the steps above and you still think they're vile, pitiless,
and movable morons, then maybe it's time to recognize that

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you're out of your depth. Opening their eyes to your
truth is way beyond your abilities. But there is one
who really can open blind eyes and soften hearts of granite.
Ask the Lord to visit your adversary with his overwhelming
love and grace and transform her heart. Ask the Lord
to transform you while he's at it. The next article

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from today's edition of The Herald Leader is titled Experts
say SNAP food budget doesn't match how people eat, by
Megan McCarron, New Times News Service. The government shut down
crisis may be coming to an end, but for SNAP recipients,
the end inadequacies of the programme still persist and may

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get worse. The US Department of Agriculture has long used
an esoteric formula to determine how much people on the
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program get to spend on groceries each month.
Experts say the calculations, which are based on a subsistence
level diet, rely on unrealistic and out of date ideas

(36:23):
of how Americans eat, and recipients typically end up using
eighty percent of their benefits in the first half of
each month. Chris Adler, a single mother of two in
Los Angeles who was laid off a year ago, said
she feels that she struggles to feed her family. It's
just barely enough. We have to be really careful, she said.

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Toward the end of the month, it starts to get scary.
Adler sometimes skips meals when food gets short. I need
to make sure the kids have their food, she said,
And I would rather just not eat and make sure
they have what they need. Fifty years of thrift. Since
the mid nineteen seventies, a formula called the Thrifty Food

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Plan has determined the amount of benefits the millions of
Americans on SNAP receive for just as long. Advocates for
the program have argued that the formula, which is meant
to provide a nutritious, practical, cost effective diet, is deeply insufficient.
As far back as nineteen seventy five, it does not

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meet that test, said Ronald Pollock, the director of the
Food Research and Action Center, a nonprofit that supports anti
hunger programs, and for more than forty five years afterward,
the plan remained more or less unchanged, even as culinary
and social developments like the proliferation of microwave ovens or
the vast increase in households with two working parents changed

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the way Americans ate, cooked and used their time. In
twenty twenty one, the monthly value of the thrifty Food
Plan was adjusted for the first time in its history.
The revision, which allowed changes like substituting canned beans for
dried raised the benefit by twenty one percent to about
one hundred ninety dollars a person per month, or about

(38:12):
six dollars and thirty cents a day. There was also
a provision for the plan to be updated every five
years to reflect changing food budgets, but now that single
update may be frozen in amber again as part of
a much bigger series of cuts to SNAP in the
Big Beautiful Bill passed in July. The legislation cuts about

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thirty seven billion dollars in spending from the program's total
budget millions affected. SNAP is by far the largest food
relief effort in the United States. About forty two million
people were receiving SNAP benefits as of May, according to
Drew de Silver, a senior writer at the Pew Research Center,

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more than the entire population of California. In twenty twenty three,
the latest year for which demographic data is available, recipients
included twenty three million adults, of whom six point two
million were steadily employed, often in sectors such as food service, childcare,
or the gig economy. About forty percent of the recipients

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are children younger than eighteen. According to Pew's analysis of
the twenty twenty three data, SNAP recipients are a diverse group.
About forty four percent of adult users are non Hispanic White,
about twenty seven percent are Black, and about twenty two
percent are Hispanic. If you asked me to design from

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scratch the optimal anti hunger program for the United States,
it would be SNAP, only better, said Lauren Bauer, a
fellow and economic studies at the Brookings Institution. Now, she's
concerned about what will happen in the wake of the
budget cuts. She said. The cuts in President Donald Trump's
signature policy legislation could be the end of this national policy.

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Experts say the cuts threatened snap's status as what economists
call an automatic stabilizer for Americans whose incomes fall below
a certain threshold, its payments easily accessible to those in
need and spent in their local communities. The suspension of
future updates to the Thrifty Food Plan could keep SNAP
recipients stuck in time once again, as they were before

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the twenty twenty one revisions. Even after the update, eating
with the Thrifty Food Plan still requires cooking from scratch
and nutritional no house skills that have a trophy over
the past decades. In the United States. Some of those
knowledge gaps were addressed by a national education program for
SNAP recipients called SNAP ED. The Trump legislation cut that

(40:47):
program entirely. The next article from today's edition of The
Herald Leader is titled Bozeman to get posthumous Hollywood star
from US Weekly. Chadwick Boseman is being on honored posthumously
with a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame later
this month. The Hollywood Chamber of Commerce is deeply honored

(41:08):
to celebrate Chadwick Boseman's extraordinary legacy with a star on
a Hollywood Walk of Fame. Hollywood Walk of Fame producer
Anna Martinez shared in a statement on Wednesday. His powerful
performances and enduring impact, both on and off screen, continue
to inspire generations around the world. Boseman's star will be

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located at sixty nine oh four Hollywood Boulevard in Los Angeles,
and his wife, Simone Ledward Boseman is set to accept
the honour on November twentieth. Boseman's Ma Rainey's Black Bottom
co star Viola Davis is expected to speak alongside Black
Panther director Ryan Kugler. The honour comes five years after

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Boseman died at age forty three in August twenty twenty,
following a private battle with colon cancer. Months after his death,
Bozeman received a posthumous Academy Award nomination in twenty twenty
one for his role as Levy Green in Ma Rainey's
Black Bottom. He lost to Anthony Hopkins, who played Anthony

(42:11):
Evans in The Father. Prior to his acting career, Bozeman
taught drama at the Schomberg Junior Scholars Program at the
Schomberg Center for Research in Black Culture in New York City.
The next article from today's edition of The Herrowd Leader
is titled Memo Blessing Boat strikes said to rely on
cartel claims by Charlie Savage and Julian E. Barnes from

(42:36):
the New York Times News Service. A secret Justice Department
memo blessing President Donald Trump's boat strikes as lawful hangs
on the idea that the United States and its allies
are legally in a state of armed conflict with drug cartels,
a premise that derives heavily from assertions that the White
House itself has put forward. According to people who have

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read it, the memo, from the Department's Office of Legal Counsel,
which is said to be more than forty pages long,
signed off on a military campaign that has now killed
eighty people in the Caribbean Sea and Eastern Pacific Ocean.
It said such extraditional killings of people suspected of running
drugs were lawful as a matter of Trump's wartime powers.

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In reaching that conclusion, the memo contradicts a broad range
of critics who have rejected the idea that there is
any armed conflict and have accused Trump of illegally ordering
the military to commit murders. The administration has insisted that
Trump has the authority to lawfully order the strikes under
the laws of war, but it has provided scant public

(43:44):
details about its legal analysis to buttress that conclusion. The
accounts of the memo offer a window into how Executive
Branch lawyers signed off on Trump's desired course of action,
including appearing to have accepted at face value. The White
House's version of the memo, which was completed in late summer,

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is said to open with a lengthy recitation of claims
submitted by the White House, including that drug cartels are
intentionally trying to kill Americans and destabilize the Western hemisphere.
The groups are presented not as unscrupulous businesses trying to
profit from drug trafficking, but as terrorists who sell narcotics

(44:24):
as a means of financing violence. Based on such claims,
the memo states that Trump has legitimate authority to determine
that the United States and its allies are legally in
a formal state of armed conflict with narco terrorists drug cartels.
According to the people who read the document, the rest
of the memo's reasoning is based on that premise. The

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people who described the memo did so on the condition
of anonymity to discuss a sensitive document. Asked for comment.
The White House said in a statement that Trump directed
the strikes under his constitutional powers and that they comply
with the law of armed conflict. Columbia is fighting a
Marxist rebel group known as the National Liberation Army or ELN,

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which traffics in drugs to finance its purchases of weapons,
but is not traditionally considered a drug cartel. One of
the nineteen strikes to date, announced on October nineteen, targeted
a boat that the Trump administration said was carrying a
shipment linked to ELN, but Columbia's president has demanded that
the United States stop striking boats, calling them murders. The

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memo is said to treat as significant the fact that
the United States government has designated a range of Latin
American drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. The Trump administration
itself did that a few months ago at Trump's direction.
Applying that label to ordinary drug cartels and criminal gangs

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was unprecedented and contested, since terrorists are ideologically or religiously
motivated violent groups like Al Qaeda. By that standard, the ELN,
which was designated a terrorist group in nineteen ninety seven, qualifies,
but groups that are traditionally understood as drug cartels do not.
The next article from today's edition of The Herald Leader

(46:15):
is titled former head of UK equine testing lab drops
defamation lawsuits by Monica Caste. The fired director of the
University of Kentucky equine Testing Laboratory has withdrawn two lawsuits
alleging defamation by university employees and horse racing organizations. According
to court documents, Scott Stanley, the former director of the

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Equine Analytical Chemistry Lab at UK, alleged multiple UK employees,
the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unity, and its parent organization,
the Horse Racing Integrity and Safety Authority, work together to
carry out the defamation and false light injuries, resulting in
his firing from UK and the room removal of his tenure.

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A separate lawsuit filed last year alleged the assistant director
of the lab made false statements to UK and the
horse racing groups to damage his reputation. Both lawsuits were
voluntarily withdrawn by Stanley and dismissed by the Fayette Circuit
Court this month. According to court records, Stanley was removed
as the director of the lab in March twenty twenty

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four after an investigation into his practices in the lab.
UK's investigations said Stanley had falsified and misrepresented test results
and demonstrated a lack of internal controls in the lab.
The university also accused him of having conflicts of interest
and improper hiring practices. This September, UK fired Stanley from

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his role as a professor and revoked his tenure status,
a rare move in higher education, citing violations of ethical
standards and university and industry regulations. After a careful consideration
to doctor Stanley has elected to withdraw his claims for
reasons unrelated to their merits, said Christina Keith, Stanley's lawyer.

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The decisive factor is the substantial long term financial commitment
required to litigate a case of this complexity. At this time,
he is choosing to conserve resources and focus on other priorities.
Stanley has filed the first lawsuit in twenty twenty four
against Cecily Wood, who was the assistant director of the lab,

(48:28):
alleged defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. In that suit,
Stanley said Wood knowingly made false statements to Stanley's supervisor
at uk HISA and Hiwu for no purpose other than
to tarnish doctor Stanley's professional reputation. A second lawsuit filed

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earlier this year included fifteen people and organizations, including multiple
employees of UK's Internal Audit Office and legal counsel, Nancy Cox,
the former dean of the College of Agriculture, Food and Environment,
the Horse Racing Integrity and Welfare Unit, and several employees
of Drug Free Sport and the Horse Racing Integrity and

(49:10):
Safety Authority. The lawsuits said the investigation and audit released
by UK included findings that they knew were either false
or intentionally misleading, resulting in damage to his professional reputation.
At the time of his tenure removal Hearing, Stanley said
in a statement through his lawyer, the process was deeply

(49:30):
flawed and fundamentally unfair. UK investigated Stanley and laboratory. Stanley
has denied the allegations against him, calling them baseless in
a statement made through his lawyer last year. Under HISA,
the private anti doping regulatory agency created in twenty twenty
by Congress, racing has moved toward uniform standards in drug

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testing across the country. UK's lab was one of six
in the US A credited by HISA to test drug
samples for horses. UK tested samples for HISA for eight months,
from May twenty second, twenty twenty three, to February twenty
twenty four. In all, HISA sent the university between eight

(50:17):
thousand and nine thousand samples from Kentucky and Florida. But
in March twenty twenty four, the same month Stanley was
removed from his administrative role at the university, the National
Racing Authority dropped UK's testing lab from its accredited list,
meaning drug tests could no longer be performed there for
state regulators. The audit from UK found that in at

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least one case, Stanley told HISA that his lab had
found no erythropointin, a hormone that stimulates red blood cell production,
and a sample received on November ninth, twenty twenty three,
but the lab had not tested for the substance. His
UK lab wasn't equipped to do that kind of work,
according to the audit. It is unclear what state or

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horse was involved. According to UK, in four cases, all
of which were used in racing investigations, the samples lacked
results documentation, meaning no results were recorded in the university's system.
Even though in two of the cases Stanley emailed results
to racing officials. The audit could not substantiate any additional falsifications,

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but found that the lab's internal systems were inadequately controlled
and that there were numerous opportunities in the lab's standard
workflow that could potentially allow for sample tampering or records
to be changed, including unfettered access by Stanley to samples
and to records. Earlier this year, UK announced it had
sold the Equine Analytical Chemistry Lab to Egle Diagnostics, renamed

(51:50):
it Equine Integrity and Anti Doping Science Labs, and appointed
a new director. The next article from today's edition of
The Herald Leader is titled Kentucky man charged with DUI
vehicular homicide after fatal crash with motorcycle by Christopher Leech.
A Kentucky man has been charged with DUI and vehicular

(52:12):
homicide after a fatal collision with a motorcycle Wednesday in
Franklin County. According to court documents, the crash happened just
before four pm on US one, twenty seven, near the
BP gas station by Steel Branch Road. Denny Stivers, fifty six,
was driving a Ford F one fifty and hit Jeremy Manns,

(52:32):
fifty two, who was riding a motorcycle. According to court documents,
Mans was taken to a hospital, where he was later
pronounced dead. A Franklin County Sheriff's deputy observed Stivers with red,
glossy eyes at the scene of the crash. Court documents
say Stivers admitted to having about one beer about three
hours before the collision and had a point eight seven

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blood alcohol concentration. Stivers also performed multiple field sobriety tests
and showed signs of impairment, according to court documents. He
was arrested and consented to a blood test, which is pending.
Stuivers is being held at the Franklin County Detention Center.
According to jail records. It is Stuivers's first time being

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charged with a DUI. But nearly two weeks before the collision,
Stivers was caught speeding more than twenty miles per hour
over the speed limit and not wearing a seat belt
in Franklin County. According to court records, he was fined
two hundred and nine dollars. About four hours later, Stivers
was caught speeding again, this time more than twenty two

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miles per hour over the speed limit on Kentucky fifty
five in Henry County. He was fined two hundred and
three dollars, according to court records. The next article from
today's edition of The Herald Leader is titled Kentucky Distillery
joins parent company in bankruptcy sale planned by Janet Patten.

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Luca Mariano Distillery is joining its parent company in bankruptcy.
The Danville Distillery filed for Chapter eleven protection November twelfth,
and requested the cases be administered jointly to facilitate a sale.
According to court records filed in Michigan, the sole member
of both entities is founder of Francesco Viola. Both have

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hired David Baker of Aurora Management Partners as chief restructuring Officer.
A hearing on the bankruptcy petition and next steps is
scheduled for two pm Friday, November fourteenth. The distillery said
it has between ten million dollars and fifty million dollars
in estimated assets and between ten million dollars and fifty

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million dollars in liabilities. Luca Mariano Distillery's parent company, LMD Holdings,
filed for Chapter eleven bankruptcy protection on July seventeenth, twenty
twenty five, with between one million dollars and ten million
dollars in debts. LMD Holding's top creditor, Summit Bridge, is
owed more than twenty five million dollars and there are

(55:00):
millions in leans from the distillery's construction. LMD Holdings owns
the real estate upon which the distillery operates. According to
a court document, the debtors operate on a five hundred
twenty nine acre estate of historical significance in Danville, Kentucky.
The whiskey campus features a traditional seventeen thousand, five hundred

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barrel American whiskey distillery and an eleven thousand barrel rick
house currently housing six six hundred ten barrels of premium whiskey.
The distillery can produce approximately seventy two thousand bushels of
corn and wheat annually, which can yield approximately five hundred
barrels of a state whiskey annually, offering seamless vertical integration.

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According to the filing, The distillery and its parent filed
the bankruptcy cases with the goal of consummating the sale
of all their assets and business operations as a going concern.
To that end, summit Bridge has agreed to provide up
to one point five million dollars in debtor in possession financing.
According to the filing, the financing would allow the distillery

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to pay various mortgages and employees, continue operating and stave
off liquidation. According to the filing, although Luca Mariano was
touted as a step in the napification of Central Kentucky's
bourbon industry, it is one of several distilleries that have
struggled financially in the last year. This concludes the reading

(56:28):
of the Lexington Herald Leader for today Sunday, November sixteenth,
twenty twenty five. Your reader has been Roger Hamperion. Thank
you for listening and please stay tuned for sports news
here on RADIOI