LEO Weekly Dec 7, 2022

GOV. BESHEAR’S GAMBLE ON MEDICAL MARIJUANA

By Scott Recker | srecker@leoweekly.com

THERE are a lot of lingering questions surrounding Gov. Andy Beshear’s recent executive order on medical marijuana — about guidance for law enforcement, about qualifying documentation, about whether it will draw a legal challenge — but if you zoom all the way out, the overarching one is: Will his gamble on an issue the state has been glacially slow on pay off, or could a clunky rollout create a convoluted mess?

His executive order — which will effectively legalize medical marijuana through pardon power for Kentuckians diagnosed with 21 medical conditions (although it must be lawfully purchased from another state) — goes into effect on Jan. 1, but, for being only a few weeks away, there are definitely clarity issues.

In this week’s cover story, LEO staff writer Josh Wood and I reported on the loose ends and various perspectives surrounding the governor’s order.

In our reporting, a Louisville hemp shop said they have been getting daily calls asking if they sell marijuana — something that obviously won’t be allowed under the order. Government officials from neighboring states told us that Beshear’s office had not been in contact with them. A Democratic state representative we interviewed — an advocate for marijuana decriminalization — said, “On a practical level, how is somebody supposed to navigate this?” A statement from Beshear’s office said they were currently “working on language for the ‘palm card’ for law enforcement,” as of Dec. 5. So, 28 days before a monumental executive order wades the state into uncharted territory and no direction for law enforcement was available? Will a tight communication timeframe lead to confusion and unexpected arrests?

But that’s not to say all of the reactions were negative. In a state where a few Republican dinosaurs are holding up any sort of progress on marijuana, anything can feel like a win. It’s not perfect, but it’s something.

It’s a step forward. It creates a conversation. And I really, really hope everything shakes out, it succeeds, legislative action happens during the upcoming General Assembly and it further advances medical marijuana in Kentucky. Because we need it. Our friends and family with medical conditions need it.

Personally, I’m 100% for legalizing recreational marijuana, decriminalizing minor possession of all drugs and expungement and pardons ramping up for previous convictions. No one’s life should be ruined from a bag they carried in their pocket. With Beshear’s order, it’s nice to see something done, and it could possibly move the needle on legislative action, but it’s hard to look at the order and not see its flaws and shortcomings.

Even Beshear framed his executive order as a pathway to a more concrete action.

At a Nov. 15 press conference, he said that he planned to work with the state legislature during the upcoming session in January.

“It’s about the people,” Beshear said. “It’s about people that are suffering. And I hope that we can provide them this form of relief, if they qualify, until legislation is passed. But I would anticipate legislation will provide relief to more individuals than the executive order. Here you still have to travel; you still have to meet certain conditions.

Politically, this executive order is going to make him more popular. Procedurally, things could be a lot more tricky. •

MARC MURPHY

HOSPITAL TOWN

By Dan Canon | leo@leoweekly.com

IN the little-discussed sister city to my hometown, located in a lesser-known republic on an obscure continent, the number of hospitals has become a problem. Not because there are too few, but because there are too many. So many, in fact, that nearly every building on every street is now owned and operated by the republic’s massive medical-industrial complex.

It was not always so. Like most cities, this one started with a single, modest hospital. When the city’s population surged to 100,000, two more hospitals were built — one in the east and one in the west, so as to stay just within the recommended beds-topeople ratio. And all was well for a while.

What city officials did not account for was the toll that the population boom would take on the water system. More and more people, especially new immigrants and tourists, became seriously ill from drinking (or bathing in) the city’s practically untreated water.

The mayor promised a quick solution. But mayors only have so much power in that lesser-known republic. The city council came to an intractable disagreement, at first on the methods and means to treat the water, and later as to whether the water should even be treated at all.

The one thing everyone could agree upon was that more hospital beds were needed for all those made sick by the tainted water. Twenty new hospitals were commissioned and built within a month, with plans to build 20 more in the following decade, in anticipation of continued population growth and ever-more-frequent hospitalizations.

And so black sludge continued to run from the faucets of our sister city. Residents adjusted to this new way of life: they boiled, they imported, they avoided. Newcomers and passers-through were advised to do the same. As a result, the number of hospitalizations due to poisoned water decreased over time instead of increasing as the city had expected.

This presented the city council with a new problem: The hospitals were not full enough. Imagine the embarrassment at having set up so many beds, at such great expense, and having practically all of them empty! But rather than repurposing the surplus hospitals, or halting construction on the new ones, elected officials passed

ordinances mandating extended hospitalization in the case of serious illness or injury, whether it was warranted or not, and short hospital stays for even the most minor of scrapes and bruises. Paper cuts, for example, were rebranded “cellulose fiber lacerations,” and added to the schedule of wounds for which hospitalization was required.

In just a few weeks, the hospitals were so full that the city council commissioned another one hundred medical buildings to be constructed before the end of the year, with another one hundred planned for the following year. The city began using public properties adjacent to existing hospitals to increase bed capacity, so the parks, the schools, the clerk’s offices, the courthouses and even the jails were eventually part-whatever-they-alreadywere, part-hospital. Medical facilities spilled into the private sector as well, as churches became rehab services during the week, restaurants doubled as dialysis centers and so on. resulted in considerable con-

fusion. To make matters worse, a noise ordinance to quell the incessant monitorial beeping, formerly heard on every street corner at all hours of the day and night, resulted in a total ban on windows for all medical facilities, so that one could not tell what was just another hospital and what was something else. This was nice for a while; if one is not sick, one would rather not have to see or hear or think about sick people. But soon the creep of infirmaries

possible response. Residents would visit the emergency room to resolve tax liens, set up a new TV or sew a missing button on a jacket.

The most remarkable thing about the problem of too many hospitals is that it is no longer seen as a problem at all. After a generation or two, no one noticed anything strange about existing in a place where hospitalization was the go-to solution to every ailment, real or perceived, of any quality or

Dan Canon is a civil rights lawyer and law professor. His book “Pleading Out: How Plea Bargaining Creates a Permanent Criminal Class” is available wherever you get your books.

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Image: Detail of JOB (Cigarette papers), 1896 Color lithograph 26¼ × 18¼ in.

© Mucha Trust 2022

Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Visionary is organized by the Mucha Foundation, Prague. The exhibition is curated by Tomoko Sato.

Media sponsorship from:

october 21, 2022 – january 22, 2023

Czech-born Alphonse Mucha (1860 – 1939) was one of the most celebrated artists in Paris at the turn of the 20th century. As an influential force behind the Art Nouveau movement, he created sumptuous posters and advertising—promoting such everyday products as cigarette papers and tea biscuits—that transformed the streets of Paris into open-air art exhibitions.

Alphonse Mucha: Art Nouveau Visionary celebrates the Mucha Trust Collection’s first major U.S. tour in 20 years, featuring a vast array of posters, illustrations, ornamental objects, and rarely seen sculpture, photographs, and self-portraits.

Exhibition season sponsored by: Debra and Ronald Murphy

Arthur J. and Mary Celeste Lerman

Charitable Foundation

The Sociable Weaver Foundation

KEEP YOUR HIGH HEELS READY: THE CLUB Q ATTACK

By Alicia B. Fireel | leo@leoweekly.com

I don’t know what to say. It’s not that I don’t have anything to say about Club Q shooting in Colorado Springs. I have too much to say, and there are too many people I want to say it to.

But I’ll try.

I’ll start with straight readers. Think back to your teens and 20s. If you’re in your mid-40s like I am, even your 30s have started to feel like a faraway land. Now, remember that one place. That one shop. That one store, that one diner — maybe it was a beloved Louisville landmark like ear X-tacy, or maybe it was a late-night place like Steak and Shake — unremarkable except for the friends you spent time with there, talking and bullshitting into the wee hours of the morning. How did it smell? How did it look? What sort of music is usually played there? No matter how old you are, I bet you still remember that time in your life when there was only one place you felt like you belonged. Now, just to twist the knife, imagine that it was also the only place where people didn’t yell insults at you. The one place where it was safe to tell someone you had a crush on them without the fear that they might beat the shit out of you. And if you were in love already, this was the one place you could safely be in love. Think about that one place, picture it, put yourself there, feel loved, feel accepted, feel safe. Now picture someone who hates you walks in and starts shooting people.

Long before any of the churches in the country started accepting us, the queer community had places like Club Q. In my 20s, I lived in Dayton, Ohio, and there was only one queer club, one place where my roommate and I felt safe dancing. We literally called it church. He’d ask, “Are we going to church tonight?”

To the queer community, I want to say, our churches have been invaded and attacked before.

Like marginalized and persecuted minorities across history, when we are attacked, we take the energy created by violence, and we turn it into fuel for our independence. Picture Marsha P. Johnson rising up, kicking off the Stonewall riots after the New York City police broke into the Stonewall Inn and

assaulted us in one of the few places where we felt safe. It kicked off the modern fight for queer rights.

We can take this attack and use it to fuel the fight for safety, justice and equity. In Colorado Springs, the world discovered that the mythical “good guy with a gun,” isn’t some cis-het, square-jawed action hero. It’s two pissedoff people with nothing but their fists and high heels launching into action to protect their chosen family, because they knew they coudn’t wait for someone else to save them. They knew their safe and sacred space was worth fighting for.

I’ve been contemplating why I find this shooting so hard to move past, why it is still sitting on me. And I think what’s making it so impossible to grapple with or even articulate how it feels, is the amount of time I’ve spent in the last few years trying to make spaces feel safe for queer people.

Queer people from all walks of life work hard to kick down doors and erase barriers, making the world safe for our chosen families, and for the generation of queer people that comes next. I have trans friends who’ve fought public battles with chicken joints and sued nursing schools.

I’ve seen artists work behind the scenes to encourage queer representation onstage — drag queens reading books to kids and performing during brunch. Queer athletes, queer writers, queer middle management, queer Shakespearians, queer baristas, queer DJs, queer business owners, queer artistic directors, all working to make places feel safe for queer people. I try to do my part.

I put a lot of queer performers onstage in the last five years. I’ve tried to make make

my classrooms a space where queer kids can feel safe, and have room to bring their identity to their work.

When I woke up on Nov. 20, and read that a hate-filled, white, male terrorist named named Anderson Lee Aldrich had opened fire in one of my community’s safe spaces, walked into one of our churches and killed five people, injuring many more, it felt like I had failed.

I’m not alone in that, either. Many of my queer friends also feel like we’ve failed.

But we haven’t. We just haven’t won yet. And while I haven’t been able to shake that feeling of failing, I’ve been remind-

ing myself of our victories, and reminding myself that those victories add up. I think about all the queer couples legally married, queer families able to adopt, queer kids that I teach and all the cities in Kentucky that have passed fairness ordinances. The terrorist act in Colorado Springs at Club Q isn’t a sign we failed, it’s a reminder that we need to keep fighting. This isn’t our failure. It’s one more battle in a war.

So keep fighting, keep working to make safe spaces and keep your bricks and your high heels close by. •

Writer Alicia B. Fireel re ects on the safe space of LGBT+ clubs in the shadow of the Club Q shooting. | PHOTO BY FIREEL.

KENTUCKY TORNADO SURVIVORS LIVING IN LIMBO

WAITING FOR HOUSING ALMOST A YEAR AFTER TORNADO LAID

WASTE TO MAYFIELD

By Liam Niemeyer | Kentucky Lantern

This story is by the Kentucky Lantern, which is part of States Newsroom, a network of news bureaus supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. More of Kentucky Lantern’s work can be found at kentuckylantern.com. Follow them on Facebook and Twitter.

MAYFIELD — Makayla Puckett didn’t feel comfortable with talking about what happened until recently. She would speak about that December 2021 night and have to sometimes stop herself, the trauma too much to recollect.

The 25-year-old mother of two kids remembers squeezing into a small closet of their Mayfield home with her partner, the train-like roar of an EF-4 tornado tearing through their small Western Kentucky community. The wind blew underneath the closet door as Puckett screamed for God to protect her family; she had never been religious up until that night when her town changed forever.

“A couple of months after it happened, I drove down there again, and I just completely bawled, just crying as I went by,” Puckett said. “That whole street is wiped out.”

Puckett’s sister, Stacey, was one of the first people to arrive at their damaged 11th Street two-bedroom home. She took Puckett’s older daughter, 6-year-old Delilah, to her home on the other side of town that was untouched by the storm the morning after, the sunrise showing the damage that had been done.

“She was the first person that had taken my daughter and made sure that she did not see anything,” Puckett said, her voice choking. “She is the one that has cooked us homemade meals and made sure that we were safe and warm.”

After the tornado, Puckett’s family had to move from their two-bedroom rental, the cold seeping inside because of a lack of electricity. The four of them eventually decided to move into

Stacey’s home on West Willow Drive, sharing a single bedroom for several months. It’s where Puckett’s youngest, 18-month-old Khaleesi, first learned to crawl. But they eventually decided they needed their own space, especially with a recent ADHD diagnosis for Delilah.

They found that space at Camp Graves, a nonprofit formed in the wake of the disaster to provide transitional housing for those displaced. They’ve lived in one of a row of travel trailers the past two months, the small home filled with clothing and baby pictures.

“We’ve gotten blessings left and right since we’ve been here,” Puckett said. “Everyone needs to be looking at the next couple of years for everybody that has been affected. Because it’s going to take that long to be able to recover from this, and I don’t think we’ll ever recover mentally from it.”

The Puckett family’s housing challenges almost a year after a violent tornado outbreak tore through Western Kentucky reflect a reality faced by many other survivors in Mayfield, a city of about 10,000 that is trying to keep its residents, businesses and community together.

The Western Kentucky region saw

a sprawling trail of devastation from the December 2021 outbreak, including one that stayed on the ground for over 165 miles. The toll from that tornado, starting in Tennessee before reaching Mayfield, included 57 deaths and more than 500 injuries, also damaging and destroying thousands of homes.

Some survivors who lost their homes who were living in state park lodges and hotels are now in a housing limbo — living in trailers, crowded in the homes of friends or family, in their cars — waiting for a permanent home they can call their own to arrive. That day may be years away.

A SURGICAL STRIKE ON RENTAL HOUSING

Mayfield was an economically depressed community before the storm, with an estimated 35% of the city in poverty — three times the national average — according to the U.S. Census Bureau. The median household income sits at a little over $36,000, around the income limit set for a family of four in Kentucky to qualify for food stamps.

Tom Waldrop, who’s been a realtor

THORNS & ROSES

THE WORST, BEST & MOST ABSURD

THORN: LMPD STILL NOT COOPERATING WITH INSPECTOR GENERAL

More than two months after LEO Weekly reported about how LMPD was not cooperating with the inspector general’s o ce created to provide civilian oversight, Inspector General Ed Harness says that lack of cooperation is continuing, bringing his o ce’s investigations into alleged police misconduct to a standstill. “You know, initially I thought it was because we were new and it was oversight and this was something that we were kind of a a scary monster,” Harness told local station WLKY recently. “But recently I’ve come to the conclusion that they’re an organization that’s acting like they have something to hide.”

ABSURD: SATTERFIELD SWITCHES TEAMS

Less than two weeks before UofL’s football team was set to take on the University of Cincinnati in the inaugural Wasabi Fenway Bowl, UofL coach Scott Satter eld announced he was taking over to join UC, starting immediately. Super awkward.

ROSE: THE KENTUCKY LANTERN

News is essential, and Kentucky just got a new non-pro t news outlet: The Kentucky Lantern. If you’re reading this in print, Thorns and Roses is sharing the page with some of the Lantern’s excellent reporting on the aftermath of the 2020 tornado that ripped through Western Kentucky. At a time when other outlets are shedding sta , good journalism is needed now more than ever in our Commonwealth and in our country.

ROSE: THE RETURN OF RAILBIRD

After “taking a pause” in 2022 following some complaints about the year before, the Lexington music festival Railbird is returning, this time to The In eld at Red Mile on June 3-4. The lineup features Tyler Childers, Weezer, The Head And The Heart and more acts. We’re just happy to see the festival recover.

Damage left from the December 2021 tornado can still be seen in downtown May eld, Friday, November 18, 2022 in Graves County, Kentucky. | PHOTO BY JULIA RENDLEMAN FOR KENTUCKY LANTERN

in Mayfield for over four decades, said while some neighborhoods were spared by the tornado, the majority of homes hit were lowincome rentals.

“The swath of the tornado as it came through Mayfield was almost a surgical strike,” Waldrop said. “I’ve heard numbers north of 75% of the property that was destroyed — the 400 units that were destroyed — were rental housing.”

In the initial days after the tornado, community landmarks were disfigured beyond recognition, historic downtown churches reduced to a pile of strewn bricks, the county courthouse steeple sheared off while gaping holes of shattered glass scarred storefronts. Many of those landmarks have since been torn down, leaving empty space, some still strewn with rubble, that expands across the central part of town. Other residential streets remain untouched by the disaster including the local schools, conveying a sense of normalcy in a community that’s experienced anything but.

Waldrop serves as the co-chair for a committee focused on housing, part of a local volunteer group gathering feedback and planning the community’s recovery. He said some landlords weren’t insured and many that were didn’t receive enough insurance funding to rebuild; the higher costs of home rebuilding due to supply chain bottlenecks and federal interest rate hikes make it more prohibitive.

Landlords may be repairing some of their rental housing, he said, but not all. Several of the federally-subsidized apartment complexes in town were hit, too.

The Eloise Fuller Apartments, formerly a hospital in downtown Mayfield that was turned into 61 apartments meant for the elderly, is being torn down and replaced with just 15 apartments. Windhaven Apartments, which had more than 50 units, hasn’t moved in any former tenants because electric lines and transformers are still being installed, according to a secretary for the company that owns the complex. The Mayfield Housing Authority has long waiting lists for its apartments; there are more than 700 requests for one-bedroom units.

“We’ve got to have housing, we got to have scale, and we’ve got to have it quick,” Waldrop said. “Because these people that are living with a brother-in-law, are living in a FEMA trailer, living in a hotel room in a surrounding community — it’s my belief that if they see sawdust and they see shingles and they see progress, they’ll hang on. But if they don’t see progress at scale, they’re gonna try to find other places to live.”

Sonny Gibson, a local landlord who owns more than 100 properties in the city, said he’s heard from other landlords that are raising monthly rents for some of their apartments to make up for repair costs after the tornado. He said he probably will raise rents on some of his properties, but by no more than 10% because of the economic situations of some of his tenants.

“So many people are on fixed incomes,” Gibson said. “You can only get so much blood out of that turnip and the turnip dies. So you have to be mindful of where people are economically.”

O ce manager Cassy Basham stands outside of container homes Friday, November 18, 2022 at Camp Graves, which provides transitional housing for those in need, in Graves County, Kentucky. | PHOTO BY JULIA RENDLEMAN FOR KENTUCKY LANTERN

FINDING SHELTER

The depleted rental stock forced at least one Mayfield couple to look almost an hour outside of the community for a place. Ashley Prince and her boyfriend Dylan had moved to Eddyville in Lyon County after the tornado demolished their three-bedroom rental on West Walnut Street in Mayfield.

The storm ripped through the early-20thcentury home’s walls and buried Ashley, 26, in her crawl space underneath debris. The tornado toppled the water tower next to her home, a cascade of water pushing her out of the rubble. She tore a ligament and broke a bone in her leg, injuries that she still deals with.

Their rental in Mayfield had issues — mainly water leaks — but it was affordable at less than $500 a month. She said the three-bedroom rental in Lyon County — where the median gross rent is a little over $600, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — was going to be $1,200 a month, something they could only manage with rental assistance. But they were evicted from the place because she never received the assistance.

“Landlords are taking advantage of it, that people need housing,” Prince said, adding that “$1,200 a month for a threebedroom house is outrageous.”

The two were forced for a few weeks to live in their vehicle, a 2002 Dodge Caravan, something they could only afford with the $1,800 they received from the Federal Emergency Management Agency.

It was her family that ultimately helped her find some temporary stability: They

moved into her mother’s place just north of Mayfield. They’ve lived there for about six months with her mother and father along with her brother and his wife who were also displaced by the tornado.

“My mom’s like, ‘If you don’t move back in here, I’m gonna come and get you,’” Prince said. “She’s pretty much the only person we’ve really had to lean on.”

The couple recently applied to live in transitional housing in Camp Graves, the nonprofit in southern Graves County, to have their own place for themselves and her two kids.

“I know several people who lived on the same block as me who are living with family members right now, and to have something available to live in while you’re waiting for a more permanent solution is everything. Not having to feel like you’re a burden to your family is everything,” Prince said. “I hate having to stay with my parents, especially since I’m getting up near 30 years old and I have kids. It makes me feel like I’m burdening them. They never say anything, and they don’t make me feel like I’m a burden. I just feel that way.”

SLOW PROGRESS

A number of nonprofits — local and international — have tried to fill in needs for both temporary, transitional housing and more permanent housing in Mayfield, but the ultimate goal of those efforts could be a long road.

Samaritan’s Purse, an evangelical Christian humanitarian aid organization, is build-

Dakota Moore sits in the front seat of his car that he’s slept inside some nights this year. On those nights, he would push the car seat down and use blankets to keep warm. | PHOTO BY LIAM NIEMEYER FOR THE KENTUCKY LANTERN

BESHEAR’S PRESCRIPTION FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA

By Josh Wood and Scott Recker | leo@leoweekly.com

EVERY couple of months for the last few years, Julie Cantwell departs her Hardin County home for a fivehour drive out of state to obtain marijuana to treat her 22-year-old son’s drug-resistant epilepsy that once saw him suffer up to 200 seizures per day. By bringing the drug back to Kentucky — one of just 13 states where not even medical marijuana is legal — she was breaking the law and risking criminal charges. But marijuana was the only thing that stopped his seizures.

“To me, the benefit is greater than the risk,” said Cantwell. “He’s broken his nose having seizures. He’s been knocked unconscious several times having seizures. It’s just a better quality of life for him. So we have to do what we have to do.”

Since her son started using marijuana in 2019, he hasn’t had a seizure, Cantwell said. With the end of seizures, he recently got his driver’s license and is going to start working in a volunteer position.

“Medical marijuana has given him a life where he previously did

not have one,” said Cantwell.

According to Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear, people like Cantwell and her son will no longer have to worry about criminal charges in Kentucky come Jan. 1, 2023 thanks to a Nov. 15 executive order that automatically pardons Kentuckians with 21 medical conditions, including epilepsy, who obtain up to eight ounces of marijuana out of Kentucky and bring it back to the Commonwealth (provided they have documentation of their medical condition and keep the receipt for the marijuana).

Beshear’s executive order sidestepped a Republican-dominated legislature that has continuously blocked medical marijuana bills, quickly leading to attacks from his political opponents that he was abusing his power. To marijuana legalization advocates, the move was seen as an important first step — albeit one that has a muted impact by requiring patients to take lengthy and expensive trips out of state.

“It’s a great step forward in lieu of legislative action. You give a little peace of mind to those out there that there is at least some protections in place to those already self medicating,” said Mathew Bratcher, the executive director of the Kentucky chapter of the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws. “However, I think the expense and travel time required to purchase out of state legal cannabis is quite high and the executive order will only benefit those who can afford to make the trip.”

With just over three weeks left until the executive order goes into effect, basic details about how it will function — like what kind of documentation patients will need to qualify — remain unclear. That lack of clarity has serious ramifications, as a misunderstanding of the law or not having the correct documents while bringing medical marijuana back to Kentucky could still lead to arrest and prosecution.

State Rep. Nima Kulkarni, a Louisville Democrat, called the executive

order a “modest step forward” but said she has concerns about unclear aspects such as how the pardons would work, what documentation would be necessary and how compliance with the order would be enforced.

“On a practical level, how is somebody supposed to navigate this?” she said.

And to many patients, access to legal medical marijuana remains inaccessible under the executive order; of Kentucky’s neighbors, as of the time of writing, Illinois appears to be the only one where Kentucky patients can go on Jan. 1, representing a quick hop across the border for patients in Paducah, but a full day’s drive for somebody in the hills of Eastern Kentucky.

“This is a first step in the right direction, but I’m worried it won’t have the biggest impact on those who are marginalized or need it the most,” said Shameka Parrish-Wright, the executive director of VOCALKY, an organization that focuses its work on trying to end the war on drugs, mass incarceration, homelessness and AIDS.

LINGERING UNCERTAINTY

In announcing the executive order on Nov. 15, Beshear tried to address a burning question that those who want to access medical marijuana would likely have: Where can you get it?

“So it’s state-by-state, but there are states that allow for medical marijuana that you can make purchases if you are from another state,” he said. “Again, that’s another thing that people need to look at, right? Where are you traveling? What are their rules and regulations? And we’ll put those up too.”

He added: “You can purchase from a state that is recreational, but only — again if it’s legal there — if it’s under eight ounces and you have the certification from a doctor about your condition. So the purchase is allowed in both types of states, but you still have to meet all those same specifications.”

What Beshear failed to mention was that, out of the Commonwealth’s neighbors, it appears that Illinois is the only neighboring state that will allow Kentuckians to legally buy marijuana when the executive order goes into effect on Jan. 1.

Of Kentucky’s neighbors, two have complete prohibitions on marijuana (Tennessee and Indiana), four have medical marijuana dispensaries but no recreational dispensaries, and one, Illinois, has legal recreational weed with dispensaries up and running.

Ohio is the closest state with medical marijuana to Kentucky’s largest population centers of Louisville and Lexington. However, Ohio Board of Pharmacy Director of Policy and Communications Cameron McNamee told LEO Weekly on Dec. 2 that “it does not appear that Ohio can enter into a reciprocity agreement with Kentucky” as the Commonwealth lacks its own medical marijuana pro-

gram, which is required by Ohio law for a reciprocity agreement.

“Additionally, there is still a federal prohibition on the transfer of marijuana across state lines, which adds further complexity to the announcement,” McNamee added.

Other neighboring states with only medical marijuana dispensaries cast similar doubts about the prospect of Kentuckians coming across their borders for cannabis.

“The West Virginia Office of Medical Cannabis has not had contact with Kentucky regarding a reciprocity agreement for terminally ill patients,” said Alison Adler, Director of Communications for the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources, on Dec. 2.

Virginia, which shares a border with southeastern Kentucky, also looks like a no-go.

“Virginia does not currently allow the dispensing of medical cannabis

State Rep. Jason Nemes. | OFFICIAL HEADSHOT.

products to individuals that do not reside, either permanently, or temporarily, in Virginia,” said Diane Powers, Director of Communications for the Virginia Department of Health Professions, on Dec. 2, pointing LEO to Virginia’s applicable medical cannabis law. “Please know this information has been shared with the Kentucky Board of Pharmacy.”

In a Dec. 5 email to LEO Weekly, Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services Communications Director Lisa Cox said that Missouri had not had any talks with Kentucky yet about access to marijuana. However, she pointed out that a Nov. 8 ballot measure that legalized recreational marijuana in Missouri also had a provision whereby out-of-state patients who produce a “substantially equivalent identification card or authorization issued by another state or political subdivision of another state” shall be allowed to purchase medical marijuana in Missouri.

The catch is that so far, Kentucky has said nothing about issuing formal medical marijuana cards — ubiquitous in other states that have medical marijuana — as part of the executive order.

While Missouri legalized recreational marijuana last month, sales are not slated to begin until at least February, according to St. Louis Public Radio. Recreational use has also been legalized in Virginia, but sales are not set to begin until at least 2024 at the earliest.

Out of Kentucky’s neighbors, that leaves Illinois as the one state where recreational marijuana is legal — and sold in dispensaries — when Beshear’s executive order goes into effect on New Year’s Day. The closest Illinois dispensary to Louisville is in Harrisburg, Illinois, about a three hour drive away.

In a brief Dec. 5 statement to LEO Weekly, Beshear’s Director of Communications Crystal Staley said: “We are in discussions with border states regarding reciprocity.”

With just weeks to go until Beshear’s order takes effect, it also

remains unclear how law enforcement agencies will handle the executive order, which falls short of decriminalization by serving instead as a proactive pardon for what would be misdemeanor-level marijuana charges. In announcing the executive order, Beshear said guidance to law enforcement agencies would be forthcoming; However, as of the time of writing, no guidance has been publicly referenced by the Beshear administration.

A spokesperson for the Kentucky State Police, which is responsible for patrolling the state’s highways and in many places would be the most likely entity to stop a vehicle carrying marijuana purchased out of state, did not respond to a request for comment.

In an email to LEO on Dec. 5, Staley, the Beshear spokesperson, said: “We are working on language for the ‘palm card’ for law enforcement.”

One person concerned about potential arrests is Republican state Rep. Jason Nemes, a longtime advocate for legalizing medical marijuana, but a legislator who has been critical of Beshear’s use of an executive order to do so. Speaking to LEO Weekly, Nemes said he worried both that arrests for marijuana possession would occur in the state and that courts would overlook the pardons issued by Beshear in his executive order.

“There’s going to be good people, really good people, who just want to be better, who just want to feel better, that just want to have their spouse, their child or someone else that they love feel better, and they’re going to rely on the governor’s executive order in good faith. They’re going to go to Illinois, and do what the governor said they can go, and they’re going to come back to Kentucky and they’re going to get prosecuted,” said Nemes. “And then I assume they’re going to say they’re pardoned, and the court is going to throw the pardon out because it’s junk. It’s not legal and he knows it. So it’s going to be good people, operating in good faith from the governor’s executive order, are going to be criminals.”

DISTILLERY

SKITTLES

Meet Skittles! She is a petite and adorable seven-year-old kitty who weighs just 8.5 pounds. Skittles lived with the same family for six years after she was found as a stray at eight months old. They named her Skittles because she's skittish and hesitant around new people, but she loved her family, especially the mom and daughters, and liked to sleep in bed with one of them at night. Skittles was surrendered because she was very stressed around other cats and got into fights with the other cats in the home. Because of this, Skittles is looking for a home without other felines. She also prefers a home without dogs. One of Skittle's favorite things to do is to lay in her comfy cat bed and take nice long naps. If you come to meet her and find that she is sleeping please don't let that deter you! Once she is awake and has been introduced to you, you'll find that Skittles is a very sweet and affectionate cat. Skittles is spayed, micro-chipped and up-to-date on vaccinations. If you are looking for a sweet, quiet cat to be your one and only animal companion, come meet Skittles at our Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive, or learn more at www.kyhumane.org/adopt/cats/!

Meet the incredible, Ollie! This handsome, five-year-old Shepherd mix is 71 pounds of pure fun, excitement and love. Ollie found himself at the Kentucky Humane Society when he wasn't getting along with cats in his home. Now that Ollie is at KHS, he's ready to make you fall in love with him! It shouldn't be hard to do either. Between his good looks, charming personality and deep love for belly rubs- he's already got the KHS staff wrapped around his paws. He is not a fan of cats, so a cat-free home would be ideal for him. He has met other dogs before and did well, but would love to meet any potential dog siblings so please bring them by to meet Ollie to make sure they'll be best buds!

If Ollie sounds like he could be your dream pup, come meet him at our Main Campus, 241 Steedly Drive, today or learn more at www.kyhumane.org/adopt/dogs/. Ollie is neutered, micro-chipped, up-to-date on vaccines, and ready to go home with you!

OLLIE

There is also the issue of educating the public about what the law actually says, which was lost on some people amid the celebratory tone of Beshear’s announcement.

Dee Dee Taylor, co-founder of the East Louisville store 502 Hemp, said since the executive order was issued she has received telephone calls “almost every day” from customers asking if the store sells actual marijuana.

“Most people don’t understand it. They’re like: ‘Well, he said it was legal.’ I’m like: ‘No, he didn’t,’” said Taylor, who was also on Beshear’s Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee. “It’s tough for people that aren’t in the know.”

Kentuckians who obtain and use marijuana but do not meet the requirements of the executive order will still be subject to criminal charges, meaning a slight misunderstanding of the law (i.e. “Weed is legal, you just have to get it out of state”) could have disastrous consequences.

And with 24 days remaining until the executive order goes into effect, it remains unknown how exactly Kentuckians are to meet the requirements — most notably, what kind of paperwork documenting their medical condition they will be required to have to be in compliance with the executive order.

IN THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY

State Rep. Nemes has been a vocal advocate for medical marijuana at the state level. And during Kentucky’s last two legislative sessions, he has managed to get an extremely restrictive medical marijuana bill through the House, before it died both times in the Senate.

But the Republican who represents Kentucky’s 33rd district that covers parts of Jefferson, Oldham and Shelby counties was upset with Beshear’s order.

Shortly after the governor announced the plan, Nemes took to Twitter to express his disdain with it.

“As much as I support his effort to bring medical marijuana to Kentucky,

this unprecedented power grab cannot stand,” he tweeted. “Rather than sidestep the policy-making branch and violate the Constitution, I invite him to work with us to develop a legal medical marijuana program.”

Speaking to LEO, Nemes said that his Twitter reaction might have come off harsher than he wanted it to, but that he stands by what he wrote.

“That was a little more negative than I wanted it to be, but I said exactly what I believe and I still believe everything I mentioned,” Nemes said in an early December phone interview. “I want to be very supportive of the issue, because I believe very deeply about the issue. I believe we need to have medical marijuana in Kentucky because it’s the right thing to do.”

“But, as a legislator and a lawyer, I also know you have to do things the legal way, and this isn’t even close. The governor knows it’s not legal, but he’s doing it anyway for politics,” he continued.

Nemes argues that “the governor can’t just wave his hands and knock away or change or totally rewrite entire chapters of the penal code.”

During the last legislative session, Nemes sponsored House Bill 136, a restrictive, 138-page piece of legislation that would allow medical marijuana only for certain conditions, including cancer, chronic pain, epilepsy and multiple sclerosis. It also would not have allowed “the use or consumption of marijuana by smoking.” The Republicans have a supermajority in both chambers, but after the bill passed through the House 59-34, it never saw a vote in the Senate.

Although the bill ultimately failed, Nemes achieved some smaller victories.

Sen. Whitney Westerfield, a Republican from Hopkinsville, who is the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee, was against the medical marijuana bill Nemes filed during the 2020 session. That year, Westerfield

told the Courier Journal, “I know it won’t get a hearing until I’m OK with it, and for sure I’ve still got questions right now.”

But during the last session, Westerfield came out in support of HB136 after several conversations with Nemes.

“I continue to have concerns about the risk of increased access to marijuana, particularly among youth and young adults for whom it remains a recreational and gateway drug,” Westerfield wrote on Twitter shortly after announcing his support. “However, I’ve heard too many stories, in my district and out, from those long suffering and their loved ones left behind, that marijuana brought comfort and relief when nothing else worked.”

Two of the most powerful members of the Kentucky Senate, the chamber’s president, Robert Stivers, and

Floor

Thayer, have both been opposed to medical marijuana. Stivers said that he wants to see more research on the effects of marijuana, and he also supported a bill that would create the Kentucky Center for Cannabis Research at the University of Kentucky. Before the last session, Thayer called medical marijuana a “slippery slope for recreational marijuana, which I’m not for.”

In early January, during a televised preview of the 2022 session on Kentucky Tonight, Thayer said that he didn’t care whether or not the people who live in his district supported medical marijuana.

“I’ve been hearing about it for years,” he said. “I know my constituents are for it, but this is a Republican… you know, they elect us to go to Frankfort and make decisions on their behalf, and if they don’t like it, they can take it out on me in the next

Leader Damon

State Rep. Nima Kulkarni. | OFFICIAL HEADSHOT.

election.”

Nemes said that he likely won’t be filing a medical marijuana during the upcoming session in the House, because “it needs to go through the Senate first.” He told LEO that he does anticipate a bill similar to HB 136 to be filed in the Senate though.

In April, about a month after the 2022 General Assembly ended, Beshear released a four-step plan he said aimed to move the state toward legalizing medical marijuana — a precursor to the executive order.

As part of the plan, he said he reached out to his general counsel, who would analyze the options that he had to take executive action on legalizing medical marijuana. It also saw the formation of the governor’s Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee, who traveled the state to get feedback from the public about medical marijuana.

Although Nemes questions the legality of the executive order, he praised the committee and the work they have done.

“They’ve obtained really good stories and very good data,” Nemes said. “They can be very helpful to the argument, to the effort to pass it legislatively, and pass it in a way that is correct, that is legal and that will protect people.”

Nemes said he hopes to work with the governor during the upcoming session, because he believes passing medical marijuana should be “all hands on deck.”

THE PROSPECT OF DECRIMINALIZATION

Kulkarni, the Louisville Democrat, also filed two bills concerning marijuana during the last session.

One, which she called a short-term solution, would vanquish criminal penalties for possessing, cultivating and selling a “personal use quantity” of marijuana. The other — a “permanent fix” — would allow Kentuckians to vote on a constitutional amendment that would let state residents older than 21 to possess, use, buy or sell up to one ounce of marijuana without

criminal penalties and to own up to five marijuana plants for personal use. Neither bill was assigned to a committee in the House.

Kulkarni said the order doesn’t address the decriminalization framework that she would like to see accomplished.

“I know that the governor is focused on medical cannabis specifically because polling is great, right — 90% of Kentuckians support it — and that’s fine, but moving forward only with a legalization framework for medical cannabis still does not address prior convictions, it does not address convictions for paraphernalia, it does not address expungement issues,” Kulkarni said. “And so all of those things are still not addressed in this current executive order.”

She also said the argument surrounding the order could stall progress on updating marijuana laws in Kentucky.

“It has already kind of been challenged on, ‘Is this something we can do?’ ‘Is this constitutional?’ And that is distracting from the conversation that we need to be having, which is: ‘How much can we do to decriminalize cannabis and therefore make sure that people can get the help that they need, even if it falls outside of these specific conditions that are listed.”

Al Cross, a political commentator and editor-publisher of Kentucky Health News, framed the executive order as a politically savvy move by Beshear.

“I think Beshear’s executive order on marijuana is one of his smarter political moves,” he told LEO via email. “It accomplishes something that is favored by a solid majority of voters and a voting issue for a vocal slice of the electorate, and forces the legislature to decide whether to do anything about it. Going against him on this would be politically unpopular, and authorizing medical marijuana by law would allow him to take credit a second time, so at this point my guess is that they will do nothing. The more interesting question is the course of

[Kentucky Attorney General] Daniel

Cameron, who has to decide whether to challenge it in court or just use it as another example of Beshear’s power grabbing. But with an issue as popular as this one, I expect he will also do little with it.”

WILL THE ORDER STAND?

Attorney General Cameron — who is also running for governor against Beshear in 2023 — released a statement the day that the executive order was announced that claimed the action bypassed “the policy-making authority of the General Assembly,” and that his office was looking into “next steps.” As of the time of writing, Cameron’s office has not filed a legal challenge to the executive order.

“As always, he seems to relish ruling by decree instead of by the law,” Cameron said in the statement. “Kentucky’s General Assembly is the sole and final policy-making body of this state and they must be allowed to have their say. We are reviewing these executive orders to determine next steps.”

During a Nov. 17 press conference, Beshear said he was confident that there were no grounds for a lawsuit challenging his executive order.

He added: “If they want to file a lawsuit, I know how to handle those.”

In 2019, civil rights lawyer, law

professor and regular LEO contributor Dan Canon brought a challenge under the state constitution to Kentucky’s possession laws on behalf of plaintiffs who had been prescribed medical marijuana in other states. Canon said Beshear’s order wades into uncharted territory, and, if challenged, could end up in the Supreme Court.

“We are really on terra incognita here,” Canon said in an email. “To my knowledge, no other state has decriminalized cannabis via executive order — mainly because they haven’t needed to, because their legislatures aren’t packed with apathetic monsters. Not only that, but this order constitutes a blanket, prospective pardon for people who are accused — not convicted — of violating a single statute. It’s not totally clear that Beshear can exercise his pardon powers in that way.”

Canon continued: “If Cameron challenges it, it will ultimately be up to the Supreme Court of Kentucky to decide whether to read a limitation into the Constitution that doesn’t exist. It would be wrong for them to do so, in my view, but that doesn’t mean they won’t do it.”

FOR MARIJUANA ADVOCATES, MORE WORK TO BE DONE

Advocates for marijuana legalization have largely viewed Beshear’s

Skymint, a dispensary in Detroit, Michigan, where recreational marijuana is legal. | PHOTO BY LEE DEVITO.

Catering

move as a step in the right direction, though an imperfect one that serves as a small measure of relief as efforts towards broader legalization continue.

“I felt like the governor went above and beyond our expectations,” said Kristin Wilcox, a co-founder of Kentucky Moms for Medical Cannabis, a medical marijuana advocacy group and a member of Beshear’s Medical Cannabis Advisory Committee. “We kind of just expected that he would maybe work with another Democrat in the House or Senate to put in a bill that he agreed with, but this was truly a giant step.”

But Wilcox said her group will continue to advocate for broader legalization to make it easier for patients in Kentucky to access marijuana.

Cantwell, the mother who travels out of state to get cannabis to treat her son’s epilepsy, is also a member of Kentucky Moms for Medical Cannabis and was also on the governor’s medical marijuana advisory board. She said those trips can end up costing a few thousand dollars between the cost of the marijuana, gas and a hotel. Those costs — in addition to the time and distance involved in going out of state — will act as a barrier to those seeking medical marijuana.

“A lot of people don’t have the

luxury to travel out of the state, especially a lot of these people out here in the country,” said Cantwell. “The people that need this are the sickest people. They just can’t up and leave the state. So we still have a lot of work to do to right here in the state of Kentucky to get this legal here.”

To Bratcher, the Kentucky NORML executive director, the executive order represented the limits of what Beshear could do himself on medical marijuana.

“There’s only so much he can do. He couldn’t do a blanket decrim[inalization], that’s a legislative issue. So I think he did what he could do, which isn’t much, it’s just enough to give a little peace of mind and put some things in place,” he said. “But more than anything, I think it sets the stage for the legislature to really step up to the plate and get this across the finish line as far as a medical cannabis program goes.”

Jim Higdon, the co-founder of Cornbread Hemp, a Kentucky company that manufactures CBD products, said it was “frustrating and disappointing” that Beshear’s executive order did not include pardons for past marijuana offenses. He pointed out that Oregon — a state with roughly the same population as Kentucky — recently pardoned 47,000 past mari-

502 Hemp, a shop in Middletown. | PHOTO BY CAROLYN BROWN.

juana convictions following a move by President Joe Biden to pardon federal marijuana offenses.

“It’s frustrating that the steps taken were so modest and conservative,” said Higdon. “If this is what counts for leadership on this issue, then we have a long way to go.”

Higdon is interested in offering higher-THC cannabis products, he said his company is built around following what federal law will allow — and that even as slow as the federal marijuana legalization process has

been, he anticipates it will outpace Kentucky’s progress.

Taylor, the 502 Hemp co-founder, worries that there will be a challenge to the executive order from Cameron. But if it stands, she thinks it could move the needle on broader legalization efforts.

“I think it’s going to force the legislators to bring it up for a vote,” said Taylor. “Because why would you send all that money out of state when Kentucky could be making here on it on the taxes?” •

QUALIFICATIONS FOR MEDICAL MARIJUANA AFTER JAN. �

Under Gov. Andy Beshear’s executive order, Kentuckians with qualifying medical conditions can possess and use small amounts of medical marijuana starting on Jan. 1, 2023. However, there are some important caveats:

Patients have one of the following �� conditions

Cancer, ALS/Lou Gehrig’s disease, epilepsy, intractable seizures, Parkinson’s disease, Crohn’s disease, multiple sclerosis, sickle cell anemia, severe and chronic pain, post traumatic stress disorder, cachexia/wasting syndrome, neuropathies, severe arthritis, hepatitis C, fibromyalgia, intractable pain, Huntington’s disease, HIV or AIDS, glaucoma and terminal illness.

You’ll have to go out of state to get it.

The executive order states that medical marijuana must be legally purchased in a state that is not the Commonwealth of Kentucky. That means that there aren’t going to be any dispensaries here yet and that Kentuckians will most likely have to drive to states where recreational

marijuana is legal to get medical weed.

You have to keep your receipt.

When the budtender at the outof-Kentucky dispensary asks “do you want a receipt?” Kentuckians should say “yes” and make sure they keep it to remain in compliance with the executive order.

No more than � oz.

If you have more than 8 ounces of marijuana, it will go back to being a crime.

Written documentation of qualifying medical condition

The patient or their caregiver will have to have written certification from a healthcare provider that shows the person has at least one of 21 qualifying medical conditions. Under the executive order, the healthcare provider who provides such certification must be a doctor, meaning a therapist likely won’t cut it.

HERE’S WHAT WE SAW AT THE WET LEG AND FAUX REAL CONCERT

Photos by Nik Vechery | leo@leoweekly.com

THERE are a bunch of reasons why it’s fun to watch scrappy young art rock bands blow up and find wild amounts of success, but my personal favorite is when they realize their dream is coming true in real time. And that was the experience watching Wet Leg perform at Headliners Music Hall on Sunday night. Joy radiated from the stage and put positive punctuation on the songs from the Grammy-nominated band’s debut record. The concert had been sold out for many months, and, as everyone I talked to at Headliners said, “We’ll never see them in a venue this size again.” That was was definitely part of the charm of the show, but they absolutely delivered on the promise of it being a special experience. As all of us packed into a preCOVID I-can’t-move-without-elbowing-someone crowd, Wet Leg established themselves as a new band putting on a veteran performance. They’re touring as a five-piece, which allows them to replicate the rich aspects of the record, and the sound and energy they brought on Sunday night was mesmerizing. They were dialed in. The next time we see them in Kentucky, they’ll probably be on the second or third line of a festival lineup. And if you have a chance to see the pop duo Faux Real, who opened the show, do it: they put on one of the most vibrant shows you’ll ever see. —Scott Recker

FAUX REAL

WET LEG

STAFF PICKS

THURSDAY, DEC. 8

Power Exchange

Louisville Free Public Library | 301 York St. | lfpl.org | Free | 7 p.m.

FRIDAY, DEC. 9

Queer Kentucky Magazine Launch Party

Play Louisville | 1101 E. Washington St. | queerkentucky.com | Free-$15 donation | 6-9 p.m.

PRIDE

Want to be a leader whose team wouldn’t dream of “quiet quitting?” Take a lesson—or several, actually—from the man who was at the helm for setting up the masterful grassroots e orts of Barack Obama’s presidential campaign. And who’s now publishing Louisville Magazine and can pull in Mayor Fischer for a public chat at the Library’s Main Branch. The man is Matthew Barzun, and his book containing the lessons is “The Power of Giving Away Power: How the Best Leaders Learn to Let Go.” Barzun knows his way around entrepreneurial, political and diplomatic worlds, and speaks authoritatively to the pitfalls of both top-down and bottom-up processes. What alternatives does he advocate? Think of constellations, for a start—but there’s much more, to the bene t of all members of most any team endeavor. Register for this book talk/meeting-of-the-minds at the events page of the Library website.—T.E. Lyons

LEADERS

THURSDAY, DEC. 8

South 4th Night Market

Between Guthrie and W. Chestnut St. | Search Facebook | No cover | 4-8 p.m.

Join the crew of Queer Kentucky as they celebrate the launch of their publication dedicated to the health equity, lives, issues and topics important to members of the LGBTQ+ community. There will be free food catered by Naive and free cocktails and mocktails. The publication is available locally at Old Louisville Co ee Co-op; Wine Shop in Southern Indiana; and the UofL Center for Engaged Learning and the UofL LGBTQ+ Center. —Erica Rucker

SATURDAY, DEC. 10

Wild Hunt Art Show

Aurora Gallery and Boutique | 1264 S. Shelby St. | auroragallerylouisville.com | Free | 6 p.m.

WILD

Shop with local vendors, enjoy live music, eat food, drink beer and be merry at this holiday market, where part of downtown will be closed to cars.—Carolyn Brown

NIGHT

This woman-owned and operated gallery gave nine artists ve feet of space each with the instructions to do what they wanted. The show will show how the artists used it. Artists in the show include: Alexandra Rumsey, Chloe Lee, Erich Neitzke, Gabrielle Kays, Kayla Lewis, Mia Farrugia, Ryan Rumsey, S Fisher Williams and Tanya Gadbaw-Neitzke. —Erica Rucker

DEC. 10

Murder Mystery With Dinner At The Pepin Mansion

The Pepin Mansion Historic Bed & Breakfast | 1003 E. Main Street, New Albany | Search Facebook | $85 - $199 | 6:30 p.m. Get dinner and an immersive show at this murder mystery that revolves around a killer lurking around the set of a horror movie. You’ll have a three-course meal in a pre-Civil War Victorian home surrounded by live theater — it’s a nice way to mix up your standard entertainment options. —Scott Recker

MONDAY, DEC. 19

A Festivus For The Rest

Of Us: Round 4

‘90S TV

WEDNESDAY, DEC. 14

Unhinged Speed Dating

Planet of the Tapes | 640 Barret Ave. | planetofthetapes.biz/shows | $7 | 8 p.m.

WHODUNNIT FAST LOVE

The course of true love never did run smooth, as Shakespeare once said, and this comedy/speed dating event will certainly prove it. Hosts June Dempsey and Hillary Boston will start o the night with a standup set, then the night will transition into the speed dating itself. Rather than the typical talk-about-yourself-forsix-minutes prompts, there’ll be games for the whole group, plus fun question prompts for participants — “draw the other person as a bird,” for example. Oh, and… some of the participants will be characters or “disruptors” played by other comedians. “The goal of the ‘unhinged’ aspect is to allow people to lower their guards in a genuine way, while also add a level of surprise and unexpected fun to the show,” Dempsey told LEO. “We def want it to function as speed dating, where people can meet others to make friends and/or date/fall in love, but we also want it to be silly and weird and fun.” You can also use the code “LEO” at checkout for a discounted ticket. — Carolyn Brown

The Merryweather | 1101 Lydia St. | Search Facebook | No cover | 7 p.m. It’s a nostalgic time of year, and the beloved Germantown dive bar The Merryweather is once again leaning in with its Seinfeld-themed holiday party, A Festivus for the Rest of Us. Shelley Anderson, Matt Pope, Charles Rivera, and JC Denison will host Seinfeld trivia. There will be an airing of grievances. And, of course, there will be a pole. —Scott Recker

THROUGH DEC. 24

‘Life Is Weird’

By Robyn Gibson

WheelHouse Art | 2650 Frankfort Ave. | wheelhouse.art | Free It’s not often you nd art that’s inspired by boxing. Coupled with larger-than-life lines and gures, the art of Robyn Gibson conveys presence and power. In her debut solo show, the Brooklyn artist’s 24 works re ect her boxing movements (she’s been practicing the sport since 2016). Also a poet, Gibson writes, “I am here and therefore I belong. I will not apologize for the space I require. For the space I inhabit. For the space I take up. I am here. Because I belong.” — Jo Anne Triplett

WEIRD

‘Pineapple Vessel Body’ by Robyn Gibson. Charcoal on canvas.

STAFF PICKS THROUGH JAN. 3 ‘Winter Wonderland’

Revelry Boutique + Gallery | 742 E. Market St. | revelrygallery.com | Free

When it snowed in November, I thought winter was here.

WINTER

Revelry Gallery has reinforced that feeling because it is now showing its annual homage to the winter holidays. Its ornament show, the gallery’s fth outing, features the work of 18 local artists in various media, including acrylic, wood and crochet.

—Jo Anne Triplett

THROUGH JAN. 22

‘Natureish/Nurtureish’

By Monica Stewart

KMAC Museum | 715 W. Main St. | kmacmuseum.org | Prices Vary

The nature vs. nurture debate has been a discussion point for assorted topics (I recently came across it in a book regarding sociopaths). In her solo show, local paper and ber artist Monica Stewart imagines how humans and their environment might cooperate if given the right circumstances. This symbiosis, and the resulting art, was inspired by fairy tales and folk art. Stewart is giving an artist talk on Saturday, Dec. 10 at 1:30 p.m. She is also leading paper art workshops on Dec. 30 and Jan. 5 and is participating in KMAC’s Winter Family Fun Day on Jan. 14. —Jo Anne Triplett

ART

‘Christmas Cryptids’ by Irene Mudd. Original illustrations made into moveable ornaments.

‘Tender Hooks’ by Monica Stewart. Wood, acrylic and cut paper.

MUSIC

MUST GET STONED STONER BANDS DISCUSS GOVERNOR BESHEAR’S EXECUTIVE ORDER

By Je�f Polk | leo@leoweekly.com

OF the many music genres associated with the consumption of cannabis, one directly pulls its moniker from the action.

The stoner bands generally find themselves the children of the acid generation, often playing slow, sludgy, heavy guitar with a bass groove perfect for a deep headheavy indica or breaking out into the extended intricasies of psychedelia, perfect for a sparkling sativa.

In light of Governor Beshear’s executive order decriminalizing the possession and use of medical marijuana for qualifying individuals who legally purchase from other states starting in January, LEO thought it would be interesting to get the reactions of a few local stoner rock/stoner metal/doom bands. Certainly, not all individuals in the genre consume cannabis, but being in a band influenced by the celebration of the plant certainly gives the bands a perspective. Local and regional bands — The Glasspack, Batwizard, Baptiste, Shi-死 and StormToker — had plenty to say about the possibilities of weed in Kentucky.

“First off, the wrong word, ‘legalization,’ is being incorrectly used regarding the governor’s executive order,” says “Dirty” Dave Johnson, vocalist/guitarist of The Glasspack and a Kentuckylicensed attorney. “The correct term here is ‘decriminalization’, because the governor has issued an order to his subordinates to pardon and not treat possession of marijuana as a crime, but possession is still illegal under the applicable Commonwealth and federal laws.” Johnson continues: “He has done about all he can do regarding medical marijuana. He, like me, is also an attorney and knows the limits of his reach pursuant to the legal doctrines of federalism and separation of powers. If you think hard about this stuff, though, all he has really done with this order is lessen the burden on his law enforcement agents and prosecutors regarding folks driving through Kentucky with medical marijuana purchased legally under another state’s laws. This is good, but it is a far cry from ‘legaliza-

tion,’ even of medical marijuana.”

Formed by Johnson in 1999, to date The Glasspack have released four full-lengths and two EPs, in addition to numerous splits and countless compilation appearances. The band has been on hiatus since 2011; however, 2023 will see the release of a new album titled Moon Patrol, one 40-minute-long single-track split into eleven segments. A vinyl seveninch single to be released by Better Days Records is also in the works.

The Glasspack facebook.com/theGlasspack theglasspack.bandcamp.com

Regarding the order, Batwizard drummer Adam Colvin states: “I personally feel Kentucky missed a huge opportunity to be at the forefront of this movement with the state’s extensive history with the plant and the legalization movement. But this is a start. That said, having to travel to a state where you can legally purchase marijuana involves you potentially driving through a state or an area where it is probably still illegal on some level, which could present legal problems for the buyer. So I like it, but I don’t love it. With what has been going on in Colorado, California, etc., I think it’s fair to say that it is beyond time for it to be legalized federally, with a possible subsidy to be given for hemp production due to its vast potential. But I am happy Kentucky is beginning to take the right steps here.”

Formed in 2014, Batwizard plays “a sound steeped in a unique mix of stoner metal and doom with a big dose of hardcore and thrash metal.” Releases include the full-length album Medustritch in 2018 followed by two EPs; Voidfiend in 2020 and Infest Harvest in 2022. Batwizard facebook.com/batwizard batwizard.bandcamp.com

“We shouldn’t be outlawing plants that grow naturally in the ground in the first place,

especially plants that humans have been utilizing for thousands of years before someone decided they were ‘bad,’” said Baptise vocalist and guitarist Stephen Casciato. “It also seems pretty hypocritical for Kentucky to be a holdout regarding cannabis legalization when we’re the largest bourbon producer in the world! I personally am a big fan of alcohol in all its forms, but I’m also not going to pretend it hasn’t done far more damage to people than weed has. Hopefully, this is the first step toward Kentucky representatives realizing what their constituents really want and supporting them with updated lawmaking. After that, we need to get everyone locked up for marijuana offenses out of incarceration. Imagine being arrested and imprisoned for having a dried up plant that makes music sound good. Especially when just a few miles away, over an imaginary line, it’s completely legal. Bonkers.”

Baptise formed in 2019 with the intent of combining the hard-driving rock and roll of bands like Motörhead, the dark speed metal of Venom, the heavy riffing of Black Sabbath, and the sleaziness of early Mötley Crüe and W.A.S.P. Look for their debut full-length album in 2023!

Baptise facebook.com/profile. php?id=100062962554721 instagram.com/baptiseky

“We don’t really have much specific as far as feedback on this front beyond simply agreeing that this is a small step forward towards an end goal of total legalization that we support” is the collective response we received from Louisville stoner doom, sludge metal band Shi - 死. Since forming in 2015, Shi - 死 “have been honing their brew of doom for distribution to a dive bar near you.” To date the band has released 6 EPs and 2 full-length albums, including their latest Basement Wizard.

Shi - 死 https://linktr.ee/ShiLouisville

Although not a local band per se, it just

Shi-死

Stormtoker.

seemed wrong to do this article and not include Lexington’s StormToker. When asked about his thoughts on the matter, vocalist/ guitarist Anthony Grigsby had this to say: “As far as the governor is concerned, I know his hands are tied and there’s not much he can do, but good job on him for pushing the order through. I would love to see recreational in our state. I would love to see the hollers of Eastern Kentucky full of marijuana plants to help the struggling people out there. The one thing that scares me about legalization in our state is if a couple greedy corporations come in and control all the growth. I think our weed should be grown by our people and sold to everyone, just like we do our bourbon. I think economically it would benefit everyone that lives here, and if you don’t like it, then don’t smoke it. It’s not for you, it’s for us. I think the pros out weight the cons. I don’t think you should have to pay to have a ‘card.’ Open it up for everyone just like alcohol and over-the-counter meds.” Self-described as “sludge/stoner/groove metal trio from Lexington. Three vocalists. Loud AF. Bring the ear plugs!” StormToker formed in 2017 and have released 2 EPs, a fulllength album and a handful of cover songs to date. Their latest release is a cover of CKY’s “96 Quite Bitter Beings”, in addition to their first full-length album, The Mother Tree, released in August of this year.

StormToker

stormtoker.bandcamp.com/

Read more about Beshear’s executive order here: https://governor.ky.gov/attachments/20221115_Executive-Order_2022-798_ Medical-Cannabis.pdf and in our feature story this week by Josh Wood and Scott Recker. •

Batwizard.

Glasspack.

MUSIC SONIC BREAKDOWN BRET BERRY TALKS ‘DUST IN LIGHT’

By Tyrel Kessinger | leo@leoweekly.com

SOMETIMES friends need to be told how important they are to someone, which is exactly what Bret Berry set out to do with their album Gestures, even if, at the time, they didn’t know it. Each song, they says—including “Dust In Light”—is named in honor of someone who has been a positive or uplifting force in his life over the years.

“With Gestures, I held each composition to two parameters,” Berry said. “One, each piece had to be short, one minute or less, and two, I didn’t work on any one piece for very long. Aside from that, anything goes. Another conceptual aspect is that many of the pieces on Gestures are love letters to friends, former partners, or artists who have been long-time inspirations. ‘Dust In Light’ was originally ‘Gesture 9.’ I sent it to a friend of mine, Dustin, who’s also the creator of the tape label Obsolete Staircases and he made a specific mention of ‘Gesture 9’ as being one he liked, which inspired me to dedicate it to him. It was the impetus for giving each piece its own title as homages to meaningful people.”

For a short piece, “Dust In Light” packs quite a punch of emotional resonance. At only 55 seconds, it masterfully mimics its own ethereal aesthetic: a brief passage of time, haunted by a sparse yet melancholy piano melody hovering like a ghost over the muttered rhythm of a skittering metal-ish drumbeat.

“I make things to keep myself happy, balanced, and feeling ‘alive,’” Berry said. Conceptualization is an inevitable part of the creative process, but the sequential relationship between

concept and content is never fixed. It just so happens that, in this case, the thing was composed and shared. In that sharing, its meaning was revealed. Does the song kindle your sense of curiosity in any way? Does it inspire a sharpening of attention or incite inquiry? Does it make you want to create something yourself, or to be more intentional with your life? If it does any of these things, it has succeeded.

If Berry’s music seems like great background music, excellent for periods of meditation and meditation or just to fill the background void of our lived experience, there’s a reason for that. After the release of Gestures, Berry made their way out west to “pursue a life of monasticism,” complete with plenty of opportunities in which to meditate.

“The whole album is kind of goodbye,” Berry says. “The title of the final piece on the tape, ‘All Good Wishes,’ which is the closing salutation on emails from the monk whom I was in contact with when making my plans to move out there to the monastery, was both a goodbye to my life in Louisville a musical practice as well as a salutation to where I was headed next and also to the people and world I was leaving. Regardless of what a particular composition might mean, though, the underpinning of all of my creative work is simply this: expressing thanks to those who have loved, supported, and inspired me and, in turn, releasing something into the world as thanks, as tribute; something that may be of love, support, or inspiration to someone else.” •

By Robin Garr | LouisvilleHotBytes.com

WITHIN less than a mile of each other on Poplar Level Road, two splendid new bakeries beckon the hungry pilgrim. Neither is a traditional Louisville bakery with its echoes of 19th century German immigrants, and that’s all right.

One — Maya Bagel Express — is turning out the best Louisville-made bagels I’ve tasted yet. The other — Smør Nordic Bakeri — offers a warm sense of Scandinavian hygge to surround its Nordic treats. We found our way to both on the same day last week, and I came home with a happy carbohydrate buzz that lasted for hours.

If you go — and I recommend that you do — both places are open only for breakfast and lunch; Maya opens every day, while Smør serves every day but Sunday and Monday.

MAYA BAGEL EXPRESS

Located in a small shopping center adjacent to Norton Audubon Hospital, Maya Bagel Express is local and independent. It looks a lot like a corporate operation, though, in its slick and colorful logos and attractive lighted menu on the wall. I wouldn’t be surprised if owner and founder Murad Islamov — who came here from New Hampshire to bring us serious bagels — has

expansion in mind.

Fine with me. If he opened a branch a little closer to my home, I’d be in there daily. Louisville has struggled to emulate quality New York City-style bagels, and, in my opinion ,Maya is first to fully crack the code. Fresh-baked, they show off the dark, shiny-glazed and blistered, crackly crust and gently chewy, faintly tangy interior that marks the real thing.

The menu is essentially all bagels, all the time, plus coffee, but there’s plenty of choice in the bagel department: eight breakfast bagel sandwiches and seven combos for lunch. Most cost $9, with a few departures from that norm for fancy ingredients like nova lox ($12). Bagels ($2) come in a dozen flavors including just about all of the NYC bagel-shop fa,vorites.

We went with tradition and enjoyed a nova lox bagel sandwich ($12) and cream cheese on an onion bagel ($4.50).

The lox bagel came loaded with goodies. Both halves of the bagel were prepared with a schmear of plain cream cheese studded with mild red onion and capers, then sandwiched with two thick slices of very fresh lox and a couple of tomato slices. We chose a tasty everything bagel

What could be more traditional than an everything bagel with lox and cream cheese? The model at Maya is large and delicious, a breakfast on a bun. | PHOTOS BY ROBIN GARR.

What else is traditional at a bagel shop? A simple onion bagel with a “schmear” of soft, rich cream cheese. Yum!

The bagel with cream cheese ($4.50) was excellent. A fine onion bagel was generously spread with soft cheese, and that simple approach was plenty to make me happy. A poppy seed bagel ($2) to take home for later was just as good heated in the toaster oven the next morning and simply spread with butter. (Pro tip: Fresh bagels don’t benefit from toasting, but it’s a great way to bring life back into day-old items.)

Peet’s coffee ($3.10) lived up to its reputation: strong and fresh, slightly tangy and no more bitter than good black coffee should be.

door to its sibling eatery, Oskar’s Slider Bar, into a large room upstairs with access around the corner on the Trevilian Way side.

From its open spaces and gentle pastel colors to a grouping of comfortable armchairs and coffee tables around a picture window, to, of course, its display of Scandinavian-style pastries and dark Nordic rye and wheat loaves, Smør breathes hygge and feels relaxing.

Selections vary from day to day but generally include a good selection of 15 Scandinavian pastries. Quite a few of them are knots, a Swedish pastry made from thin strands of dough rolled together and twisted into a knot-like bun that bakes with a light and tender crumb.

SMØR NORDIC BAKERI

Hygge, a Danish word, is defined as a quality of coziness and comfortable conviviality that engenders a feeling of contentment or well-being. Danes do it. We should, too. Smør Nordic Bakeri offers a good place to start.

Smør (the word is Swedish for “butter”) moved just last month from small quarters next

A hazel-knot ($4) pastry was scented with cardamom, a spice that’s hard to describe but easy to recognize if you think of it as “the way Danish pastries smell.” This delicious item was fresh from the oven, soft and tender, layered with chopped hazelnuts and little pockets of dark chocolate, finished on top with a hazelnut-sugar streusel. Washed with egg and baked, it comes out a beautiful dark golden-brown.

Kringla ($3) is a soft and tender almondscented pastry formed in an “S” shape. Remarkably light and airy, it almost seems to disappear in your mouth, leaving behind a distinct almond scent. •

SMØR

Two tasty Scandinavian pastries from Smør: A chocolate-hazelnut cardamom pastry, akin to a Danish (left) and a light-as-air, almond-scented kringla cookie.

FROM LOUISVILLE TO L.A., ABIGAIL FIERCE TALKS TO LEO ABOUT ‘FANTASY FOOTBALL’ AND MORE

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

WHATEVER is in the water of Louisville, maybe the limestone, breeds very talented people. Don’t believe me? Check out LEO’s list of the 27 most famous Louisvillians. We’re a town of singers, actors, dancers, writers…you name it, we do it here and well.

Even though, young Abigail Fierce, aka Abigail Killmeier, left Louisville and moved to Los Angeles, her talent is homegrown, and we’re happy to have connected with her to share news about her new film with Paramount+/Nickelodeon, “Fantasy Football.” She will be appearing in the film with “Black-ish” star Marsai Martin and Kelly Rowland from Destiny’s Child.

Fierce isn’t just an actress; she’s also an accomplished singer and songwriter, and LEO caught up with her to talk about her new projects, getting started and her feelings about the recent Colorado shooting as a member of the LGBT+ community.

HOW DID YOU GET STARTED IN ACTING/SINGING?

As a kid, I had a big imagination. I loved to play and make up scenarios and write skits to perform in my room. Eventually, I persuaded my mom to take me out to LA. She wasn’t too keen on the idea at first, though. When I told her I wanted to be an actor, she said ‘No, honey, it’s pronounced ‘doctor.’’ As for singing, I was homeschooled in high school so I could focus on my acting career. I ended up having a lot of time on my hands, so I taught myself guitar and started writing more as a hobby. It quickly became something I loved to do more than anything.

WHEN DID YOU DECIDE TO MOVE FROM LOUISVILLE TO L.A.?

I started going out to LA in 2014 after I signed with a manager. I’d say I officially moved there full time around 2016.

FAVORITE EXPERIENCE IN SHOW BUSINESS?

One of my biggest roles to date was playing Wendy on Hulu’s “Love, Victor.” My character got left at the dance for another girl. Seeing the fans’ reaction to my character was so much fun. They drew fanart

of her (that was just the coolest thing!) and sent me all these sweet messages on social media.

Another favorite experience was being on the NBC show “This Is Us.” My whole family and extended family watches that show, so that was a really fun moment.

My favorite experience as a singersongwriter was quite recent: I just reached 108,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, under my artist name Abigail Fierce. I write all of my songs and play all of the instruments on my tracks except for drums, so each song is like my baby.

NOT-SO-FAVORITE EXPERIENCE?

When I first moved to LA, I was 13, and my mom and I lived in an apartment with no washing machine, no microwave and lots of cockroaches. It was definitely a characterbuilding experience and I’m thankful for every opportunity I’ve worked for to better my life since then. It’s a tough business; there are going to be times when you just have to grow some thick skin and realize that other people’s opinions of you do not define you. Especially their opinions of how

you look.

When I went to acting classes, most of the other kids would view me as competition instead of a person or a friend. I was alone a lot as a teenager, but in the end I think it made me a better person because I had a lot of time to focus on myself and find who I was as a person. I feel a lot stronger because of it.

DO YOU HAVE THOUGHTS ON THE RECENT EVENTS IN COLORADO AND VIOLENCE AGAINST YOUR COMMUNITY?

All I can say is that I am completely heartbroken. My heart goes out to all of the victims’ loved ones. My wish is for peace and love to be on the forefront of everyone’s mind.

ANY NEW MUSIC OR OTHER PROJECTS COMING UP AFTER “FANTASY FOOTBALL?” ALSO, WHAT IS YOUR ROLE IN THE FILM?

A little background about the movie: “Fantasy Football” is about Callie, a teen girl who discovers she can magically control

the performance of her football-playing father through her gaming console. I play the character of Margot, who is Callie’s friend and a total tomboy. Callie is extremely intelligent, so Margot and the rest of the team recruit Callie to be on the robotics team with them. The movie stars Marsai Martin (from ABC’s “Black-ish”), Kelly Rowland (from the band Destiny’s Child), Omari Hardwick and Rome Flynn.

My character is an aggressive tough girl with a sarcastic sense of humor, which was a fun departure from some of the adorkable “girl-next-door” type roles I’ve played before. It’s one of the cutest films I’ve ever seen – there’s truly something in it for people of all ages and genders. It has family values, romance, humor, football, video games, robotics, girls in STEM.

As for new projects, I’m currently putting the finishing touches on 2 songs to be released in early 2023. Be sure to follow Abigail Fierce on Spotify to be the first to hear them, and follow @akfierce on Instagram and TikTok for more updates. •

“Fantasy Football” is currently on Paramount+, so be sure to check it out!

Actress Abigail Fierce attends the premiere of her new lm, “Fantasy Football,” out on Paramount+. | PHOTO PROVIDED BY FIERCE

MARK ANTHONY MULLIGAN, LOCAL ARTIST, SONGWRITER AND HIGHLANDS FIXTURE DIES

By Erica Rucker | erucker@leoweekly.com

“WOOD would just collapse when a wind storm comes,” said Mark Anthony Mulligan as he drew a brick building in the documentary “Peacelands/Mark Anthony Mulligan.”

If there was a song to be sung, a smile to be shared and people to listen, Mark Anthony Mulligan, Louisville folk artist, songwriter, and inspirator, was enthusiastically willing to join. Monday, Nov. 28, Mulligan, a fixture on Bard-

stown Road, passed away at the age of 59. He was in care at the Wedgewood Healthcare Center in Clarksville, a facility for short-term recovery, rehabilitation and senior care.

Mulligan was born in Louisville and spent much of his adult life in and out of care facilities and hospitals or on the streets. Mulligan had various diagnoses that added to his challenges, but he was a spirited individual who gained a loyal

following of fans and friends over the years. For sure, if you lived near the Highlands or Bardstown Road area, you at some point, had an encounter with Mulligan. With his characteristic wide grin, bright eyes and waving arms, Mulligan made wherever he was more colorful — more kind.

MULLIGAN THE ARTIST

In the early ‘00s, Mulligan brought

his artwork to gallery owner Chuck Swanson, who then helped Mulligan find exhibitions for his work. Swanson represented Mulligan through his gallery for more than 10 years, according to artist Al Gorman in the “Peacelands/ Mark Anthony Mulligan” documentary. Gorman worked with Swanson at the time. Before finding representation with Swanson, many galleries in Louisville turned Mulligan away.

Mark Anthony Mulligan in the Highlands circa ‘92/93 | PHOTO BY MICHAEL TACKETT

Mulligan’s most well-known artworks share dense cityscapes that illustrated his keen ability to observe and interpret his environment both as it was and as he needed it to be for conveying his message. Deeply religious and wildly humorous, he often added elements of his own personality to his drawings. Street and business names in his pieces frequently were invented and conveyed his sensibilities. His works, though displaying a definite folkiness, offered a level of skill and conceptualization much like that of renowned artist Jacob Lawrence or fellow Kentuckian Helen LaFrance. Like LaFrance, Mulligan’s work often blurred the boundary of ‘folk’ with strong interpretive elements.

His work sometimes expanded into portraits, poems and games, too.

In 2021, Mulligan was diagnosed with COVID and placed on a ventilator. He recovered from the ventilator but remained missing from his usual

spaces along Bardstown. Mulligan spent his final days at Wedgewood. He is survived by several siblings, nieces and nephews and a city full of folks who knew him and will feel his absence.

Upon hearing about his passing — even before it was confirmed — well-wishes and stories of Mulligan spread throughout social media.

Some of these can be seen on the LEO website in our tribute to Mulligan.

“Well, the key to life is keep on living, and try your best to help out and keep on giving. Whatever you do, stay alive. Help others to, to survive.” -Mark Anthony Mulligan from Peacelands/ Mark Anthony Mulligan. •

1386 LEXINGTON ROAD LOUISVILLE KENTUCKY

music hall

SATURDAY,

“City of Copy Cat Ridge” by Mark Anthony Mulligan | PHOTO PROVIDED BY MODERNISTICON.COM

ON THE HUNT

BY EMET OZAR | EDITED BY WILL SHORTZ No. 0501

ACROSS

1 What flowers eventually do 5 Children’s character who sings ‘‘I Love Trash’’ 10 Ending with bald or bold 14 Issa of ‘‘The Lovebirds’’ 17 On the drink 18 Must pay back 19 Gross-sounding plant? 20 Toll maker 21 List from 1 to . . . 22 Overhead lights? 23 Spirit of a culture 24 Shoots the breeze 25 One might help with a connection 27 Apt facial hair for a teacher? 30 ‘‘Excuse me . . . ’’ 32 Rumrunner, e.g. 33 Lime-A-____ (alcoholic beverage) 34 Daughter of Polonius, in Shakespeare 37 Admitted it, with ‘‘up’’ 38 ¥ 39 Bob Marley and the Wailers, for one 41 Passionate (about) 42 Chills 46 Button often denoted by a right arrow 47 China makes up much of it 50 Big brass 51 Like almost all prime numbers 52 Lay down, in a way 54 Word before shot and after hot 55 Spiritual object 56 Words with ‘‘with words’’ 57 It ‘‘lifts the veil from the hidden beauty of the world, and makes familiar objects be as if they were not familiar,’’ per Percy Bysshe Shelley 60 Bea Arthur was one before her acting career 61 Church minister 64 Breakfast brand tagline 65 Taking Rx drugs 66 People in a long line, perhaps 67 Covered in long, soft hair 68 Jupiter and Mars 69 It’s spineless 70 Private aid grp. 71 ‘‘Vital’’ things 73 Stock paper, for short? 76 Orchestral prelude to an opera 78 Fairy-tale sibling 80 Beer ____, drinking/running event 81 Deems right 82 Apt name for a landscaper? 83 ‘‘On the other hand, I could be wrong’’ 86 Crony

One of a pair of kitchen tools

Like anomalies

Chrysler offering of the 1980s

Wrestling duos

Over-the-counter seller

Engaged in some circular reasoning

Put on

First line in a news story 103 Congas and bongos 104 ____ room 106 Name that rhymes with ‘‘edgy’’ 107 You are: Sp.

Essays 109 Attack tactic

Dragon-roll ingredients

Foreign exchange abbr.

Big name in skate shoes

Cartomancy medium

Broadway musical centered on two girls in love, with ‘‘The’’

Golfer Aoki

Help out

‘‘How fancy!’’

Big star

Many, many

The ‘‘R’’ of Edward R. Murrow

Kicked the ball between the legs of, in soccer slang

What Beatles music did at Abbey Road, famously

Clean extensively

Undergo a chemical change

A Greek letter?

Something ____

Goes off on

Things that might get written down on sticky notes

Something intricately detailed and impressive

Without

Expecting, in slang

Most valued card in the deck

Rock type

Big name in chicken

Dream idly

Chinese qipao, e.g.

Jazz pianist Blake who composed ‘‘Shuffle Along’’

Unrivaled

The Evian Championship is one of its majors: Abbr.

festivities

pick?

Absolute beaut

Resident of the capital of Manitoba

Plod perseveringly

Ballet jump

Maker of Ding Dongs and Twinkies

Puts up

Cooking ahead of time, say

Chickpeas and peanuts, for two

1/1 ’til present: Abbr.

‘‘La’’ place in L.A.

Actress Anna of ‘‘True Bloods’’

News updates, with ‘‘the’’

‘‘Othello’’ character who quips, ‘‘They are all but stomachs, and we all but food’’

Beer parties

Granted through a treaty

Land in Rome

On the wagon

Continued from Page 10

other entities build new homes.

“It takes a while for money to flow from the federal government or the state government,” Drane said. “Especially when you’re talking about new construction, then it takes a while to build something.”

WAITING FOR A FUTURE

Tim Cottrell, who manages the construction of the subdivision for Samaritan’s Purse, said those homes will take time.

“We’re just trying to build as fast as we can,” Cottrell said. “We’re going to be here probably two years.”

Gov. Andy Beshear allocated $16 million from the state’s tornado relief fund to support nonprofits building permanent homes, including the local nonprofit Homes and Hope for Kentucky, which has built at least 14 homes for former homeowners who were displaced in the tornado.

The local long-term recovery group has also started an effort to repair and renovate 25 vacant homes by Christmas for former renters, an effort that the group’s executive director, Ryan Drane, calls “an extremely aggressive goal.”

“As long as there are survivors that want to become homeowners and can prove that it’s financially sustainable for them, and that we can continue to get funding and have volunteers come in, we’re going to continue this program,” Drane said. “Having people become homeowners, they really become a part of the fabric of the community and enables them to put down roots in the community, and that’s one of the main things that we need.”

The long-term recovery group plans to have displaced survivors pay rent based on their income for a year, then give them the home at a discounted rate. The survivors will also take classes in finance and home ownership, with the group offering survivors an opportunity to buy the home at the end of that year of renting.

Drane said he appreciates that the state legislature had allocated $200 million earlier this year to rebuild infrastructure, repair schools and bolster the budgets of local governments in Western Kentucky, but he wishes there was more flexibility with the funds to better meet the specific needs of each impacted community.

He also realizes that the home rebuilding process is a long one. The Kentucky Department for Local Government is allocating nearly $75 million in federal funds through new programs, with a planned launch this spring, to incentivize landlords to repair their rentals and to help homeowners and

But until these permanent homes are repaired and rebuilt, displaced tornado survivors in Mayfield remain in housing limbo waiting for their future.

A group of local churches in Graves County has built 20 tiny homes that are almost all occupied, filled with families and the elderly. The few travel trailers at Camp Graves also are serving as transitional housing, and the nonprofit is still seeking funding to build more tiny homes of its own.

Dakota Moore, 21, a tornado survivor, recently moved into a trailer at Camp Graves. He was working the night of the tornado at Mayfield Consumer Products, a local candle factory, when it collapsed on top of him. He was able to pull himself out of the rubble and help pull out more than a dozen of his fellow coworkers. Nine people died in the factory collapse.

“I had about an inch and a half length of glass in my arm,” Moore said. “I didn’t realize it until one of the people that were helping me pull people out, because I gave him a flashlight, is like, ‘Hey dude, you’re bleeding.”

The candle factory is expanding a facility north of Mayfield to hire workers previously laid off because of the disaster, but is also facing charges of federal workplace safety violations along with allegations by former employees that they were retaliated against for cooperating with the workplace safety investigation. Mayfield Consumer Products denies the allegations and is contesting the federal charges.

Moore soon learned that the duplex rental that he and a friend lived in on Sixth Street was destroyed. His friend’s mom gave him a car, a Toyota Corolla, that she was given after the tornado. He used that car to couch surf with people he knew around the region, sometimes staying the night in the car.

“I don’t like staying in places too long because I felt like a burden,” Moore said. “I was staying with my ex for a little because she’s the only person that I actually talk to.”

For him, having a place at Camp Graves is a relief from that burden. When he leaves his job at a nearby Dollar General, he returns to a home where he can plan a future.

CLASSIFIED LISTINGS

LEGAL

Public Notice of intent to obtain a new clear title. Clear of all prior liens unless the the owner or lienholder objects in writing. Vehicle: 2019 Honda Ridgeline. Vin# 5FPYK3F18KB046752. Registered Owner: Darryl Robertson, 729 Dearborn Ave., Louisville, KY 40211. First Lienholder: American Honda Finance Corporation, PO Box 997518, Sacramento, CA 95899. Second Lienholder: Sonny's Body Shop, 3902 So. 7th Street Road, Louisville, KY 40216. 502-448-2277.

SERVICES

Take part in an online study to look at emotional and mental well-being of Je erson County Public Schools employees. It can be done at home, and people who complete the full study will receive up to $200.

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