On Track

This past Monday was Martin Luther King, Jr. Day, and in Louisville, that means the annual Hope Breakfast. It’s a fundraiser for the Alpha Lambda Chapter of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and the Alpha Lambda Education Foundation.

Today on “In Conversation,” we bring you highlights from the event (which was held remotely this year):

• Former State Representative Charles Booker, founder of Hood to the Holler
• Pastor Tyler McKenzie from Northeast Christian Church
• Cynthia Knapek, President of the Leadership Louisville Center
• Reverend David Snardon from Joshua Tabernacle Missionary Baptist Church

Tweeting a link to the Facebook post about the TikTok video they saw while scrolling through Instagram is how many people get—and share—information these days.

And even if you get your news from traditional and reliable sources, like WFPL, you probably still recognize how social media is shaping conversations and influencing events.

Is President Donald Trump’s ban from twitter a violation of his right to free speech, like some people say? What role did his Trump’s online rhetoric play in inciting the violent breech of the U.S. Capitol last week?

On this week’s “In Conversation,” we break down First Amendment rights as they apply to social media, and discuss how digital platforms should respond when online speech creates real-world danger.

As the old saying goes, this week, we have more news than the law allows — at a local, state, and national level.

On this week’s “In Conversation,” we discuss Louisville's new chief of police, the former chief of Atlanta who stepped down in June following the police shooting of Rayshard Brooks. We'll talk with WFPL's Amina Elahi about what we know about the new chief, and how the community is responding.

Capitol reporter Ryland Barton joins us to discuss the start of the new Kentucky legislative session, where a bill would curb Gov. Andy Beshear's powers to close businesses and schools, as part of combating the spread of COVID-19. And we look at Beshear's proposed new spending plan.

We check in with Congressman John Yarmuth, who was in D.C. on Wednesday when pro-Trump extremists stormed the U.S. Capitol. Yarmuth has joined other lawmakers in calling for Trump's removal from office.

And University of Louisville Political Science Professor Dewey Clayton helps us put this week's events into historical context.

Vaccines, vaccines, vaccines!

As COVID-19 vaccines hit Louisville and the rest of the country this week it’s the topic everywhere you turn. The first light at the end of a still long and dark tunnel brings as many questions as it does hope.

On this week’s “In Conversation” we have experts answering your questions about distribution, access and reliability. Also, we talk about who is skeptical about receiving the vaccines and the timeline of what a new normal may look like in 2021.

Already, health care workers in the area are receiving the Pfizer vaccines with the first 38,000 doses of the Pfizer vaccine arriving in Louisville on Sunday. So we’ll talk about what it is like to receive one and what happens next as the country has lost more than 300,000 lives this year to COVID-19.

Racial integration by school assignment has been a large part of the public school system struggle in America since the days of legal segregation.

Louisville’s public school system is part of that history.

For decades, Jefferson County Public Schools has assigned students from Louisville’s majority Black and low-income West End to schools in whiter suburbs. It’s how the district has maintained relatively integrated schools.

But now, JCPS wants families in west Louisville to have more options close to home – a choice families say they want too. This week, WFPL’s Jess Clark hosts a five-part series looking at the history and future of student assignment and racial segregation in Louisville’s schools.

On this show we talk with Clark about what her reporting discovered. JCPS superintendent Marty Pollio joins us to explain how he envisions the new plan working, and we check in with parents and community leaders about their concerns.

Coronavirus cases continue to surge around the country and here in the commonwealth, and we're all starting to come to terms with how different our holiday celebrations will have to look this year.

On Wednesday, Governor Andy Beshear said Thanksgiving gatherings in Kentucky shouldn't include more than eight people, coming from only two different households. But what if you have family members who still think it's a good idea to gather? How will you communicate with them about why you won't be there?

This week, we're talking about adapting our celebrations to the times we're living in. Childhood development expert Deborah Farmer Kris shares some ideas about making the holidays feel festive for the children in your life, and how to explain to them why things have to be different this year.

Even in the best of years, holidays can turn up the pressure on relationships. So marriage and family therapist Eric Sharp joins us to talk about navigating tricky interpersonal dynamics.

We talk about how to defend against this year's unique flavor of holiday stress, and which harmful coping strategies we should be trying to avoid. More people than usual may be experiencing grief this year, and the holidays can make even old losses feel fresh again. So we look at healthy ways to process those challenging feelings — both for adults and children.

And even though the holidays are weird, we still gotta eat. Lexington Chef Samantha Fore of Tuk Tuk Sri Lankan Bites has some advice for what to put on the table this season. She talks about how to scale down some traditional holiday meals for smaller groups, and shares non-traditional dish ideas for these non-traditional times.

Last week, the Louisville Metro Council approved a new police union contract. The vote was divided 16 to 10 and many consider the contract controversial.

For example, opponents question whether it provides sufficient accountability and transparency when officers are under investigation. The contract also raises the starting salaries of police officers from about $35,000 to $45,000.

It’s a three-year contract that is retroactive to the date the last contract ended — July 1, 2018. This new contract is in effect through June 30, 2021, at a cost of $390 million over the next three fiscal years.

Breonna Taylor’s killing and the continuous racial justice protests that have taken place since May have placed local policing in the spotlight, here and nationally.

On today's show, we talk about the contract and its provisions and implications. Our guests include a representative from the local Fraternal Order of Police and Louisville Metro Council President David James.

With COVID-19 as a backdrop, the 2020 general election had Americans voting in record numbers. Because of the pandemic, voters across the country and here in Kentucky and Indiana cast their ballots through early voting, drop-off voting, mail-in voting, and traditionally, in person on Election Day.

Some answers we had right away, such as Republican incumbent Mitch McConnell beating Democratic challenger Amy McGrath soundly for a seat in the U.S. Senate.

Some answers have taken a more circuitous route, with ballots for President Donald Trump and Former Vice President Joe Biden being counted throughout the week by several states to determine which candidate won the Electoral College.

On this week’s show, Rick Howlett talks with a social scientist about polling and how unusual this week is, with Secretary of State Michael Adams to see how the Kentucky election process went, with political reporter Ryland Barton, and with Jefferson County Public Schools Superintendent Marty Pollio about the tax initiative on the ballot.

Thousands of Kentuckians are voting every day, and about three-fourths of absentee ballots in Kentucky have been returned.

With this Friday’s “In Conversation” we're just four days from Election Day 2020. COVID-19 has turned voting on its head, with more than 60 million Americans having already voted.

What do all these numbers mean? What do professionals who follow and cover politics think? What do they predict? Is the current climate too unprecedented to calculate? Are there still undecided voters still, and if so, what will sway them?

Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear announced this week that the state had the highest number of new COVID-19 cases on a Monday and Tuesday since the pandemic started. The positivity rate is the highest in two months.

Like most states, Kentucky is experiencing a dramatic spike in cases, with experts worrying about how much worse the spread will be as we head into holidays and flu season.

On this week’s “In Conversation” experts talk about why cases are spiking, the strain on hospitals, how the growing numbers can be flattened, and what might happen next.