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October is Domestic Violence Awareness Month. Please join the Center for Women and Families in its Love in a New Light campaign to raise awareness of domestic and intimate partner violence and work to end it. Please light your building, business, spaces or home purple, follow the Center on social media and share its posts all month long, hang a purple heart on your door, window, at your office, wrap trees with purple strands of lights and join the Center as a peer-to-peer fundraiser the week of October 19.
To get help now, call the Center’s 24/7 Crisis Line at: 1-844-237-2331. You are not alone.
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I want to clear up any confusion about amendments made last week (9/30) to the legislation Councilwoman Jessica Green (D-1) and I filed in August limiting police use of force. The headlines can be misleading. For example, “Metro Council removes restrictions on tear gas in use of force ordinance” makes it sound like the council changed the law to allow the Louisville Metro Police Department to use tear gas against peaceful protesters, which couldn’t be further from the truth or the sponsors’ intent! What actually happened is the Public Safety Committee, which is still debating the bill, struck the codification of what was essentially LMPD’s new (June) policy on using tear gas because the members thought it should stay an administrative regulation. I disagree – primarily because Standard Operating Procedure 12.6.5 Use of Crowd Control Devices, which governs the use of tear gas, carves out an exception to use pepper balls to move or control crowds that are merely refusing to disperse, but do not present a specific danger. I think no chemical agent should be used against non-violent protesters, period. I am meeting with Interim Police Chief Yvette Gentry this week to ask her to change the SOP accordingly and support the legislation, which would enact all of the 8 Can’t Wait recommendations into Louisville law.
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There is a good chance that you – yes, you! – are entitled or eligible to receive thousands or even tens of thousands of dollars to help relieve the financial stress COVID-19 is causing on your family or business.
The IRS has determined there are 1,075 “non-filer” taxpayers in zip codes 40204 and 40205 who are eligible for the IRS Economic Impact Payment (stimulus check) but who have not yet received it. The deadline to apply is November 21. Get your payment and check on the status of it here! If you have any questions, the Legal Aid Society can be reached at: (502) 584-1254 and service is always free.
Louisville Forward still has $5,864,357 that must be spent through its Small Business COVID-19 Relief Grant Program by December 30, 2020. That means at least 117 more local independent businesses may receive grants up to $50,000 – grants, not loans – based on demonstrated impact from COVID-19. The entire application and approval process is online, via email and phone. So, what are you waiting for!? Learn more at the link.
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Finally, just a reminder about our Give Every Day campaign. There are now 86 days left in the year 2020. If one or more of the items on this list is a good fit for your family, business or organization, then please contact me so we can count you in and coordinate action. The response so far has been great. Thank you.
For breaking news and information, please follow me on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram. If you have a question or comment, please call me at: (502) 574-1108 or email: brandon.coan@louisvilleky.gov (and copy jasmine.weatherby@louisvilleky.gov). If you have a service request, please call Metro 311 or visit Metro 311 online. Visit the District 8 Strategic Plan page here.
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