What I think is Andy Bashir went on television and lied to conduct his what a letter says about transgender surgery in Kentucky.

This is the largest single construction project for manufacturing in Kentucky's history.

Take a tour of the future, home of Kentucky's big new battery plant.

First and foremost, I want to take this opportunity to apologize for last night.

The Jefferson County School superintendent calls the first day of school a disaster after some students are stuck on busses until almost 10 p.m..

If you use a little more elbow, that will help.

So you're not a step so down, left, right.

And some tips to help you conduct a symphony orchestra.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition on this Thursday, August 10th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Thursday night with us.

There is renewed debate about a controversial bill passed by the Kentucky General Assembly earlier this year.

Senate Bill 150 bans, among other things, reassignment surgery and puberty blockers for youth under age 18.

The bill became law after the general Assembly overrode Governor Andy Bashir's veto in recent weeks.

Governor Bashir put out a new ad saying reassignment surgeries are not happening in Kentucky.

I've never supported gender reassignment surgery for kids, and those procedures don't happen here in Kentucky.

Now, a letter from the University of Kentucky has surfaced.

It was sent to State Representative James Tipton on March the second.

We've reached out to him for comment and haven't heard back.

The letter says Transform Health, which is part of UK health care.

Quote, has in recent years performed a small number of non genital gender reassignment surgeries on minors, such as mastectomies for older adolescents, end quote.

Republican candidate for Governor Andy.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron is accusing Governor Bashir of lying about gender reassignment surgeries for minors.

He discussed this issue at a press conference this morning.

What I think is Andy Bashir went on television and lied to Kentuckians and said that these procedures aren't happening here in Kentucky.

And there is a report, a letter from the University of Kentucky directly refuting that.

And that is an issue that we've seen with Andy Beshear.

There's a pattern, whether, as I pointed to earlier, it's the number of homicides that have occurred here in Kentucky, whether it's the jobs numbers and now gender reassignment surgery.

Again, at the end of the day, as I've talked about earlier, you know, there's two Andy Beshear.

There's two.

Andy, he lies to you about jobs.

The economy lies to you about his record on various things.

And then there's Frankfort.

Andy, who vetoes tax cuts.

He protects transgender surgeries for kids.

He vetoes legislation that would have banned biological males from playing in women's sports.

Even though we spent decades trying to protect women's sports.

That is the real Andy Beshear.

And I think Kentuckians on November 7th will send the real Andy Beshear home.

Governor Beshear, who says Daniel Cameron is dragging the governor's race into the gutter and that other issues deserve more attention.

The governor says he did not know about the operations mentioned in the letter to State Representative James Tipton.

That letter was new to me, though, apparently had been sent to somebody else months earlier, which raises questions on its own.

But at the end of the day, I mean, how is this race go on here?

I mean, Daniel Cameron is taking this race to the gutter in a way that I have never seen.

I mean, right now, I think if you ask him about climate change, he'll say it's caused by children and gender reassignment surgeries.

I mean, this race is supposed to be about the issues that impact our families the most.

So is my job good enough to provide opportunities for my family?

Can I afford to take my parents and my kids to a doctor when they're sick?

I just don't think that this is what Kentuckians want to see.

I mean, the fact that every single thing that comes out from a campaign, from a person who wants to lead the entire state is obsessing over our kids bodies, is is I mean, I believe we've reached the gross point.

Let's talk about the other issues that impact the commonwealth of Kentucky.

Today, we spoke with groups representing the LGBTQ community.

Rebecca Blankenship, who heads banned conversion therapy, Kentucky is calling for more legislative transparency.

Now, what we have learned since the letter came out this week is that it appears the last mastectomy that was done on a 16 or 17 year old was in May of 2021.

So our statement that this was not happening at the time of the legislative session remains accurate.

This is not something that has been a common practice in the state of Kentucky ever.

What I think is that we will hopefully see some more responsible efforts to run the democracy in the future, because I hope that there's a lesson learned that you can't treat public policy as solely a political instrument, as has consistently been done with this bill.

So let's just be clear to make sure our viewers understand.

Banned conversion therapy.

Kentucky did not know that U.K. health care was performing even the procedure that it owns up to performing.

You didn't know that during the legislative session?

No.

We had heard that there had been some done in the past, but it was our impression, and I think that's validated by the information I just shared, that that was not happening during the time of the legislative session.

So the question does remain, though, Rebecca, that many people will ask that even though it's not specifically gender reassignment, but that it is a significant, perhaps irreversible surgery, that and procedure that could have some life altering consequences.

Does it cross any ethical guidelines?

What what has happened here with these mastectomies performed on minors perhaps as late as May of 2021?

So it is within the ethical boundaries and guidelines of care that are prescribed by the World Professional Association for Trans Health, which is the authoritative body on these questions.

From a public policy perspective, ban conversion therapy is accepted.

The possibility that we should do reasonable regulation of trans health care.

The principle that we've used to guide that is reversibility, which is why we have consistently stood up for fully reversible puberty blockers and largely reversible cross-sex hormone therapy.

In his news conference this morning, Daniel Cameron said Governor Bashir was getting his information from the fairness campaign.

So today I asked that group's leader if he misled the governor.

Absolutely not.

This is a politically manufactured story.

The reality is that our position has never changed.

We've never supported gender affirming surgery under the age of 18, and that's been the governor's position as well.

I find this letter suspicious and politically convenient that they sat on it for nearly half a year when they said that surgeries were happening in Kentucky.

And we said not to our knowledge show as proof.

Never once did any state lawmaker present to us this supposed proof that some gender affirming surgeries were happening.

But regardless about whether they happened or not, we've never supported them.

They're not within the best care standards.

And it doesn't change the governor's position either.

So the letter says that they owned up U.K. health care, owned up to the fact that they do these surgeries that are like mastectomies.

Right.

Does the fairness campaign believe that that is appropriate?

Does that cross the ethical lines?

Yes.

Again, this is outside the international standards of care, the best practices for gender affirming care come from W path.

And the W path standards have never recommended any type of surgical intervention under the age of 18.

That's been our position from the beginning.

Again, we were wholly unaware the U.K. had done a nominal amount of these surgeries, regardless of how many they've done.

It's not something we've ever supported.

In fact, we repeatedly told Kentucky state lawmakers in the majority party that they could ban gender affirming surgery under the age of 18 and we would not oppose it.

We have always cared predominantly about access to puberty, regulating drugs and hormone replacement therapy.

That is what saves trans kids lives.

University of Kentucky Health Care put out a statement about all this.

Here's part of it.

Quote, We have never performed any of these surgeries on minors as young as 14.

With the passage of SB 150, Transform Health no longer provides any services that support a gender transition in minors, end quote.

Now to other news.

The governor has made economic development the centerpiece of his campaign.

Yesterday, he was in Hardin County, the home of two plants that will produce batteries for electric vehicles.

Our Laura Rogers takes us to Glendale for a progress report on the construction.

Governor Andy Beshear on Wednesday toured the site of a blue oval f k Battery Park.

He was joined by the plant manager, human resources director and state and local officials.

They say the project is moving along right on schedule.

It is nothing short of incredible.

Let me say as governor.

This is our game changer.

Progress is being made at Blue Obelisk, an electric vehicle, Battery Park that sits on 1500 acres in Glendale.

I used to fish on this property.

My brother and I did.

We ran around in this area.

And to come back to Kentucky after 27 years and to see this transformation, it's amazing.

A couple thousand people are working on site iron and sheet metal workers building a massive facility that is the largest of its kind.

What an impressive tour.

Thank you so much for bringing ASC here and for giving us the tour today.

It was very impressive and I'm looking forward to seeing new things happen here and continue to grow with the facility.

This size comes questions about accommodating the growth in a rural area.

Governor Beshear acknowledged that growth will come with challenges and says the project will require cooperation from both the public and private sector on issues like housing and infrastructure needs.

We love what this is bringing to Hardin County, but it's truly going to impact a 20 or a 30 county region.

Our county is going to grow a lot.

I feel the pressures and in the weight of supplying the services to the people in our county and those that are about to move here.

And but I'm very excited about it.

It's a big challenge.

Human Resources says many employees have already been hired, including the leadership team and engineers, as well as some hourly workers like operators and maintenance technicians.

It's a really interesting experience for manufacturing.

It's a little bit different than the traditional manufacturing, but it's a really great environment.

Training and workforce planning teams are already in place and underway.

The equipment that will fill this space is set to arrive by the end of the year.

These are some of the bigger buildings, I believe, by square footage in the United States of America.

It's got to rival anything else that at least I'm aware of that's ever been built.

Blue Oval will employ 5000 people.

They will be trained at the Ekedc Training Center, located on site.

Production on future batteries for Ford and Lincoln Vehicles is expected to begin in 2025.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you so much, Laura.

Blue oval ask says starting pay will begin at $21 an hour and it goes up based on position.

Applications are now being accepted online.

A new poll shows Governor Bashir with an eight point lead over Daniel Cameron in the governor's race.

The poll is from Public Policy Polling.

A Democrat affiliated polling firm.

It shows the governor ahead 49 to 41%.

The same poll shows Governor Bush's approval rating at 56%.

Daniel Cameron's is at 42%, a disaster.

That's how Jefferson County School Superintendent Marty Polio describes massive bussing delays on the first day of school and Jefferson County yesterday.

The Courier Journal reports that because of delays, some students didn't get home from school until almost 10 p.m..

Superintendent Polio canceled school for today and tomorrow and put out a video statement about the problems and what's being done about them.

First and foremost, I want to take this opportunity to apologize for last night.

First, I want to apologize to our students.

I know many of you had to wait on busses or wait in your school for several hours.

And I truly apologize for that.

I know how unnerving and unsettling that must have been for even our youngest students, but all of our students.

And we truly apologize to you.

I apologize to our families, our parents.

I know as a dad what that must have been like.

How unnerving that must have been waiting for your child to get home and not knowing exactly where they are or were.

And I truly apologize for that.

Our bus drivers, I know you're working so hard.

I apologize to our bus drivers.

We've put a lot on you in this change process.

I know you are working hard.

We apologize to you for the difficulties and challenges you faced yesterday.

And finally, our school personnel for having to stay with our kids for multiple hours after school to make sure that they got home and trying to answer questions the best you could.

I apologized to all of you for that.

Polio says school won't resume until the problems are fixed.

So here's what we're going to do over the next four days.

Working around the clock.

First and foremost, we are going to be reviewing all bus routes and all bus stops over the next four days for efficiency, making sure that we get all students to and from school efficiently.

Second of all, we're going to be having our bus drivers have extra days.

We're going to pay them extra days to practice their new routes, which is a big challenge, I understand, for them.

But they need more practice with this.

We're going to be improving our communication structures between families and schools and us.

And finally, we are going to dramatically increase our call center 485 ride over the next four days so that we can answer all questions for families and do the best we can to solidify all bus stops and make sure that when we come back to school we are efficient and safe and getting our students home safely.

I appreciate your patience.

Thank you so much.

And once again, I apologize for the challenges.

Polio says this was not the fault of bus drivers.

He says he and his team take responsibility for what happened yesterday.

In response, bicameral group of lawmakers representing Jefferson County is calling for sweeping change in the district.

In a letter to JCP, parents, teachers and students, 12 Republican state lawmakers outlined a four part plan.

It includes refiling a bill to give students the right to attend their neighborhood schools, establishing a commission to consider splitting up the state's largest school district, Jefferson County, and putting a school choice amendment on the ballot in 2024.

Also in Louisville, the police chief says she has fired seven police officers, disciplined others and launched dozens of investigations after a Department of Justice report about police misconduct.

In March, the DOJ released a 90 page report describing more than 60 examples of abusive and discriminatory behavior by Louisville police, including the use of excessive force.

Chief Jacqueline Gwen Barela well says she's also launched 32 investigations unrelated to the DOJ report.

She says it's all part of an effort to create a transparent police department that serves everyone.

I want to tell you today, this is your LAPD.

LAPD is commitment to implementing reform efforts while protecting the people who live, work and visit.

Louisville remains unwavering.

This includes a robust evaluation of policy and procedures, training and supervision and accountability.

Our focus now is on improving, improving on our future by implementing systems and processes to prevent the errors seen in our past.

The Chief and Mayor, Greg Greenburg, also announced that the city had released about 50 hours of police body cam video from some of the incidents described in the DOJ report.

You can see that by going to Louisville hyphen Police dot org.

Click on DOJ Community Resources.

Now in other news, the US Mine Safety and Health Administration held a public hearing today on a newly proposed regulation for coal mines.

It would set new exposure limits for silica dust, a harmful mineral commonly found in coal mines, and one of the primary causes of black long.

During today's hearing, a minor discussed some of the issues he's seen in his decades of experience and how much appeal is in it for having the same genius samples is what we need to stuff before we can stop it.

We save someone like me.

It's too late for me at 30 years old.

Not like these young people realize they need to in black lung often leads to long impairment, disability and premature death.

According to the CDC, there has recently been an increase in cases, and this new rule aims to protect minors from extended exposure to these dangerous dust.

Still, some have concerns that the new law will lack teeth, and it should also include anti retaliation provisions.

People when they go to workplace, they signed a job application to provide their their labor, not their life, not their limbs.

And no one should have to fear retaliation for being able to stand up for what's right and what's wrong.

Right now, for mines that violate the rule, there are no regular sampling requirements for silica levels in mines.

There is no financial penalty for mines that do not comply, and there are no mandatory protections for miners working in mines with elevated exposure levels.

Additionally, coal mining operations self-report silica dust levels, making it easier to skirt MSHA regulations.

The state says tax revenue in July topped $1 billion.

It's the 11th consecutive month it was more than 1 billion.

It was 1.1 billion, up more than 7% from July of 2022.

Kentucky's drought picture continues to improve.

Let's look at the newest map from the U.S. drought monitor.

The state is almost drought free now.

There is a tiny section of the state under drought conditions and the southeastern part of the state in Harlan and Bell Counties and a tiny part of Union and Henderson counties in the western part of Kentucky.

Other than that, the rest of the state is now normal.

Back to education news.

School districts across Kentucky have received Esser funding through the federal American Rescue Plan Act in response to the coronavirus pandemic to curb the spread.

Now SRO stands for the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

Mercer County schools receive funds to expand health services in an effort to keep students healthy and ready to learn.

The Kentucky Department of Education, along with local school districts, have always been concerned about the whole child.

So that means what do we need to do in order to put that child each and every child in each and every student in the best place possible for learning.

So we want them to physically feel great.

You know, we don't want them to be sick.

We want them to be mentally prepared to learn.

And we want their social and emotional needs to be taken care of.

We've focused on that for a long time, but I think the if there is a silver lining and it's hard to even say there's a silver lining with COVID, but it has kind of given more visibility to school health.

It's had us focus a little bit more on it.

Congress began a series of appropriations of funding for states to assist states with the coronavirus pandemic and the primary funding appropriation that has come to states to support K-12 education and is known as the Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief Fund.

And for shorthand, we call it Esser.

Mercer County is going to use those funds for additional health care services, and they're using that to kind of beef up their health care services internally in their school.

And that gives them all kinds of benefits, you know, the benefits of having a school nurse or someone affiliated with health care services in their school allows for, of course, students to be seen onsite.

So that's wonderful.

We don't have to take our students out of school and they lose the time in the classroom that they would otherwise be there.

And this is for, you know, minor illnesses, of course.

So as a parent, you're thinking, I don't I have to go to school, pick my child up, take them to the doctor or get them back and all that instruction time that would be lost.

Additionally, you know, for for families and parents, that means that the families and parents or guardians are having to take off work.

So that helps them stay in the workforce and do what they need to do while their child's being taken care of at school.

But I think the Esser funds have really allowed a lot of districts to explore and do things that they wouldn't have otherwise had the ability to do.

So there's just lots of things health care services, just one little piece of what the funds can be used for.

And every district gets to decide and choose.

What is the most important priorities for their district?

The Kentucky Department of Education received more than $2 billion in Esser funding, and 90% of it was distributed among the districts.

Question for you Have you ever wanted to conduct a symphony orchestra?

Teddy Abrams, music director of the Louisville Orchestra.

I gave our Kelcey Starks a crash course.

First thing you got to do, you get to put in your your right hand kind of hold it, and then you're going to, you know, think about what it is you're trying to convey at the most basic one up time on any subtlety here you are conveying information about how fast the music is going, how loud the music is going.

Obviously, if you move your hands faster, the tempo will go faster.

If you conduct bigger, people will play louder.

Most music goes in groups of two beats, three beats or four beats.

So if you keep your arm up, you go down and basically imagine a table like it's an invisible glass table.

When you hit that table, which should be just kind of like navel level.

Then you're baton is going to bounce out to the right.

Then you go back the way you came.

So it's like you're kind of making an L, and that little bounce is called the excuse.

That is the beat down with a click, but don't bounce get then go to the right with a click, then back to the middle again.

That's one, two, three, one, two.

And then four beats are very, very common.

So let's do four.

This is the last thing we'll learn.

We go down, then to the left, then to the right and back up the way we came.

So down, left, right, up with always a click down, click left, click right up down.

Yeah.

And if you use a little more elbow, that will help.

So you're not a step.

So down, left, right.

This is the most common pattern.

The vast majority of music is in four.

Yeah.

So this is what you'll, you'll, you'll see all the time connectors.

It's a very natural thing when you're conducting a, you know, like a very large band in school.

You might just do this to help get everybody in line.

But when you're connecting a great orchestra, they don't need this.

In fact, they barely even need any of that kind of conducting.

What they need is expression.

Are you keeping a long line?

Do you want things really short?

Do you want them accented but harsh?

Do you want them accented but maybe firm with a little squishiness?

I imagine they feed off your energy though the energy is a big part of it.

Yeah.

Yes.

That's that's a little bit, you know, like the coach running around yelling and screaming and trying to get everybody riled up.

Yeah, but there's also only so much you can do once the players are on the field, Right?

And I have to rely on them translating it.

I don't play any notes.

Remember?

Looks like Kelsey got the hang of it.

She has a lot more with Teddy Abramson.

Learn about him and his life on inside Louisville this Sunday at noon Eastern, 11 a.m. Central right here on KCET.

The farm bill is set to expire at the end of September as lawmakers in Washington work to pass a new version.

We talked to a Kentucky farmer about why it's crucial legislation for all of us.

At the end of the day, keeping family farmers on the land is not only good for family farmers or the state of Kentucky, it's good for consumers.

How the farm bill affects getting food to your table, plus conservation efforts and other areas of concern.

That's tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, which we hope you'll join us for at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our weekly email newsletter.

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Thank you so much for watching.

I'll be off for a few days, but I'll see you next week and have a great weekend to come.