August 2021, Week 2

KY agrees to pay $16 million per year to let Baptists discriminate against LGBTQ community; Ark Encounter attendance is below 2018 and 2019 numbers despite Ken Ham's claims of setting records; Creationist Kent Hovind charged with domestic assault; Supreme Court to take case on taxpayer funding of religious schools. https://www.kentuckytoday.com/stories/sunrise-and-chfs-sign-contract-agreement-for-upcoming-year,33186 https://religionnews.com/2021/08/05/kent-hovind-controversial-creationist-preacher-known-as-dr-dino-arrested-in-domestic-assault-case/ https://www.npr.org/2021/07/02/1012586995/the-supreme-court-will-hear-a-case-on-the-funding-of-religious-schools By Dan Daniel Phelps. Ark June 2021 attendance In spite of Ken Ham recently claiming that attendance has returned to pre-CoVid levels, my Open Records request for the Safety Tax the Ark Encounter pays indicates that this isn't true for June 2021. In June 2021, the Ark Encounter sold 109,694 tickets. This number is lower than June 2018 and 2019, but far higher than June 2020. Of course Ham claims all attendance numbers are far higher due to children under 10 and lifetime pass holders. It is entirely possible that July 2021 will be far higher (Ham keeps claiming record days), but the information will not be available for several weeks. August 2021 may be far higher because of 40 day long music festival at the Ark, but this also remains to be seen. 2017: July: 142,626 (Safety Fee amount: $71,313.00) August: 106,161 ($53,080.50) September: 83,330 ($41,665.00) October: 93,659 ($46,829.50) November: 51,914 ($25,957.00) December: 36,472 ($18,236.00) 2018: January: 13,250 ($6,625.00) February: 17,961 ($8,980.50) March: 62,251 ($31,125.50) April: 67,613 ($33,806.50) May: 73,353 ($36,676.50) June: 113,901 ($56,950.50) July: 135,922 ($67,961.00) August: 98,106 ($49,053.00) September: 69,207 ($34,603.50) October: 89,434 ($44,717.00) November: 40,193 ($20,096.50) December: 46,400 ($24,200.00) 2019: January: 14,885 ($7,442.50) February: 16,328 ($8,164.00) March 2019: 70,466 ($35,233.00) April 2019: 79,908 ($39,554.00) May 2019: 90,803 ($45,401.50) June 2019: 124,230 ($62,115.00) July 2019: 160,124 ($80,062.00) August 2019: 104,350 ($52,175) September 2019: 73,541 ($36,770.50) October 2019: 86,998 ($43,494.00) November 2019: 37,686 ($18,881) December 2019: 37,880 ($18,940) 2020: January 2020: 15,790 ($7,895.00) February 2020: 17,290 ($8,645.00) March 2020: 15,145($7572.50) April 2020: 0 ($0) May 2020: 2,047 ($1,023.50) June 2020: 40,434 ($20,217.00) July 2020: 57,632 ($28,816.00) August 2020: 46,562 ($23,281.00) September 2020: 44,571 ($22,285.50) October 2020: 49,835 ($24,917.50) November 2020: 24,105 ($12,052.50) December 2020: 34,273 ($17,136.50) 2021 January 2021: 11,354 ($5,677) February 2021: 11,577 ($5,788.50) March 2021: 57, 801 ($28,900.50) April 2021: 64,479 ($32,239.50) May 2021: 76,089 ($38,044.50) June 2021: 109,694 ($54,847) Our intro and outro music is Crescents by Ketsa, https://freemusicarchive.org/music/Ketsa/Raising_Frequecy/Crescents