The Rusty Satellite Show went on the road this week to talk about one of Louisville’s greatest cultural events, the St. James Court Art Show. And then I talked with Mose Putney over beers at the Village Anchor about how screwed up state government is in restricting Kentucky’s best hope for a healthy agricultural economy with hemp.
In between, I took on the Courier-Journal’s failure to cover dramatic personnel changes at Greater Louisville Inc., (covered in depth by Insider Louisville), blamed the Republicans for the government shutdown (with a nod to Jon Stewart), and discussed Kentucky’s unfortunate turn to the right in the area of abortion rights, as told in detail this week in LEO Weekly.
Margue Esrock, executive director for St. James, told me that the crowd is estimated to be more than 200,000 during the weekend, many of them teachers who get the day off from school to attend the annual event. It starts today, Friday, and features hundreds of artists who must apply to get in to the juried event that turns 57 this year. It started, simply, as a way to raise money to keep the beautiful fountain going.
Mose Putney tells me that it really makes no sense that hemp is illegal in Kentucky, because it’s very low in the property (THC) that gets you high, and can’t be grown next to marijuana. But it’s the topic that could dominate the next governor’s race, and one in which the Democrats, and Jack Conway, could be on the wrong side. Ag Commissioner Jamie Comer has taken the lead in pushing the issue, and politicians pushing hemp include Rand Paul and Mitch McConnell.
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