The Andrew Cooperrider Show

Kentucky is losing farmland—and Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Shell says the problem has reached an emergency level nationally.
I sat down with Commissioner Shell to discuss the growing loss of farmland, including the impact of data centers and solar farms, the recent Fair Board showdown with Beshear, and how recent federal actions have affected Kentucky’s farming community—both good and bad.

Millions in contracts were issued this month, including a few to nonprofit organizations with questionable expenses.

Beshear has become not just a hindrance but is actively sabotaging the Legislature’s plans to get Kentucky to a 0% income tax.

This has manifested itself in state policies and insane decisions like destroying whole fraud departments out of welfare programs under the guise of “cutting costs.” I go into just what the Legislature needs to do in order to fight this.

The Kentucky Association of School Superintendents has listed regulating homeschoolers as its number two priority this year in lobbying the Legislature.

Perhaps they should worry about getting their own education institutions in order before they start trying to regulate away one of the few quality schooling options left to most families.

A WKYT investigation leads to questions as it discovers the Lexington FLOCK system is searched 1 million times a month, and 99% of those searches are by outside agencies.

I’ll discuss what LPD’s excuses were and why they don’t hold water. I’ll also ask why Lexington should keep footing the bill for all these other agencies.

Also, it’s school taxing season, which means it’s time to argue about whether a tax increase is actually a tax increase.

In Kentucky's 6th Congressional District, Republicans have historically won the district with over 60% of the vote. The last close election was in 2018, and since then, the district has been redistricted to be more friendly to Republicans.
Despite this, albeit slightly flawed, polling has the race between Republican Dr. Ralph Alvarado and Democrat Zach Dembo as neck and neck.
I'll talk about some of the issues at play in the election and how Republican leadership in the state has to learn from their struggles, or it's going to keep getting worse.

🚩Kentucky's Senate President, Robert Stivers, writes an op-ed in support of data centers. Leaving me to ask only one question: Why would he do that?
Beshear is coming out with meaningless executive orders trying to backtrack his prior comments and actions in light of new polling showing what a hot-button issue data centers are becoming.
Instead of taking a route to outmaneuver Beshear and call him on his vapid actions, Senator Stivers decides it's a politically smart move for Republicans in Kentucky to come out supporting data centers.
Regardless of how you may feel about data centers, from a sheer political tactics standpoint, right before a general election was the wrong time to start trying to sell the public on unpopular ideas.
Instead, Republicans should do the following on data centers:
- Draft legislation that protects electric ratepayers by requiring large data centers to generate their own power, protects natural resources, limits data center developers to industrial areas, ends all tax breaks, and solidifies local control over accepting projects.
- Demand Beshear call a special session to pass the legislation.
This is a win-win for Republicans going into the midterms.
If Beshear relents and calls the special session, then not only will you deliver legislation that actually represents addressing the concerns of your constituents, Republicans also won't let Democrats have a win on the issue.
If Beshear refuses, you can call him out for the phony he is, and it still helps Republicans in November.
I wish all politicians just did the right thing for their constituents because it is the right thing. In the real world, what drives 99% of politicians is simply getting elected, staying elected, and getting elected to higher office.
It's so head-scratching that elected state-level Republicans haven't thought through their policy positions a little more on this issue. The Democrats are at least aware enough to lie about it, hoping people forget what they were saying just a few months ago.

"White allies need help overcoming ambivalence in their anti-racism commitments" - Dr. Yara Mekawi University of Louisville Color Lab Professor
Despite Kentucky law banning DEI in public colleges and universities, the University of Louisville still has a Color Lab. An associate professor from this Color Lab, Dr. Yara Mekawi, was recorded by an undercover journalist from Accuracy in Media (AIM) giving a presentation on Beyond Fragility at the American Psychological Association (APA) conference on moving beyond white fragility.
In it, Yara Mekawi talks about using psychology to help white people overcome their guilt and the mental issues they develop from being white and how to become a better white ally.
The University of Louisville receives $134 million a year in state taxpayer funds, and Mekawi is a government employee.
It is wrong to push ideas that treat people differently based upon their skin color. It is wrong to tell people they should feel guilty, oppressed, or emotional just because of the color of their skin. It is wrong to use taxpayer funds to push these ideas.
The Legislature needs to put some real teeth in their DEI law, otherwise it was all just performative nonsense.

- Products were manufactured for no one in order to keep billions in taxpayer funds, with some spontaneously catching fire and requiring forklifts to move flaming pallets into water dunk tanks.

-Mold stalagmites are growing in an abandoned building that hundreds of millions in taxpayer funds were spent constructing just a few years ago.

These are just some of the issues at the now-shuttered and currently being refitted Ford battery plant in Glendale, Kentucky.

The state of Kentucky gave Ford $350 million in taxpayer funds to build these plants in the form of free land, taxpayer-funded training, and a $250 million forgivable loan. The federal government gave them billions more. However, in order to keep these funds, Ford had to hit certain job targets. This led to the manufacturing of batteries for no one, with these fire hazards simply being stored on site.

Whistleblower Thomas Walling, a former member of the Emergency Response Team at the plant, is speaking out about the concerns all Kentuckians should have and the waste of taxpayer funds that has occurred.

He believes the plant may bounce back, but the question remains: how much of our tax dollars has been wasted chasing the EV pipe dream in Kentucky?

Beshear struggles with the concept that not everything is about him, as he suggests that pre-K for all hasn’t passed in Kentucky because it’s his idea—not because it is an expensive, bad idea. I discuss the real reasons why it hasn't (and shouldn’t) pass.
Rocky Adkins declares he is running for governor—a relic of a bygone Democrat era trying to hold on, despite how much modern Democrats would take issue with his past behaviors.
Tax dollars are being used to push data centers in Kentucky despite their controversial nature. If our government was really meant to represent us, you’d think they would stop spending our money on projects a significant number of people don’t agree with—and that the vast majority do not want in their backyards.

Beshear lied from the podium at a press conference while claiming State Representative Bivens is spreading "misinformation" and should be ashamed.

The state Supreme Court ruled that Beshear regained the power to control the Fair Board and the Executive Ethics Commission.

Outside of the absurdity that the commissions and boards the legislature created by statute can now no longer be changed by the legislature, the ruling had another impact.

When Beshear regained power over the board, he immediately appointed new commissioners and fired the Fair Board CEO weeks before the state fair. He also removed agriculture from the mission statement.

When asked about the change in the mission statement and the removal of agriculture from it, Beshear lied. He claimed he didn’t even know if the Fair Board’s website was the Fair Board’s website and that they hadn’t changed anything—which, of course, is false.

Also, the JCPS audit is out. I’ll give you a quick summary of the findings before I dig deeper into the audit next week.