♪ >> I would say to everybody he won't appeal field.

>> Governor Andy Beshear says FEMA is saying no to too many Kentucky flood victims.

With 3 and happened down the wild Turkey.

>> Every 2 days taking about 13 different medication.

I was miserable one day that I woke up to that and want to put my head.

>> And this veteran says there's an answer out there for Kentucky ends in pain.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION for this Thursday.

August 11th, I'm Renee Shaw.

>> Thank you for spending some of your evening with us.

>> Eastern Kentucky's official flooding death toll remains at 38.

The Lexington Herald-Leader is now reporting the death of a man missing since the floods.

71 year-old Dennis Stacy disappeared when water rushed away.

His trailer in Perry County.

His body was found today 8 miles from his home.

And the funeral was today for 18 year-old Aaron Crawford nickname Mic.

He not central student who died of cardiac arrest days after helping flood victims.

He was a football player and wrestler.

His obituary notes that he was an organ donor.

So he's still giving.

Governor Andy Beshear's again, criticizing FEMA for turning down too many eastern Kentucky flood victims as they request help.

He says too many flood victims lacked the paperwork.

They need to get help because of the floods.

He says that's not fair.

>> Too many people are being denied.

Not enough.

People are being approved and this is the time the team has got to get it right.

To change.

What has been a history of denying too many people and not providing enough dollars and to get it right here.

I'm hearing from the very top levels.

Fully agree and from the people on the ground, I was talking to him yesterday.

They want to provide help.

Something in the middle is problematic and I'm gonna continue to advocate and push as hard as I can to get the changes that we need so people can get their dollars.

Talk to somebody who's 82 year-old grandmother was told the site visit that everything was OK. All the documents were there only to get tonight later that night through an email.

It's not right.

We'll KET running this down and you can bet both myself and Kentucky emergency management are talking every single day about this.

>> In addition to the 38, Kentuckians who died, 2 women are still missing.

Both are from Breathitt County.

The governor also says rain yesterday cause some minor problems, but it was not catastrophic as some feared it would be.

He says that with storm system now over eastern Kentucky can now move from emergency mode to stabilization mode.

Donations are pouring in for the flood victims from all over.

Someone has to organize it all.

We caught up with some of those hardworking volunteers at United Methodist Mountain Mission in Jackson.

This is my grandparents.

House.

>> It literally on the tick hours like just a few hours to go from Bandar Bice meant to as having to worry about if it was going to get upstairs had been having to evacuate.

>> If you lose everything, you have no bad, you have nothing.

No clothes is just out the door.

It's hard to imagine.

But this is the worst we've seen.

>> And that's item on pay.

Nick, you.

You don't know what to grab the side, seeing your loved ones.

You know.

I laugh so much.

We all did.

>> It's heartbreaking to see people.

And worked their whole lives to have what they have, which in some cases as much.

That was their staff and pretty much their whole lives are gone and they have to rebuild from the start.

>> 60 plus years that the method is not nation has been in operation and we're still going strong to that.

Yahoo.

And then mail and in times of crosses by and needs for the county, we've been a staple as to, you know, here to help people.

>> We had 7 stores across the region that donated items that are $56.

So that single mother can come into our store.

And provide for her kids.

We've always help people with clothes and items that they need for nature.

But during this time, we're concentrating on food and we're concentrating on cleaning supplies.

>> And he's been amazing.

The generosity of the people and not just an error tan from different states, different churches.

So we didn't have anything like this happens.

One of the only places in Jackson that has a warehouse, this big and has the capability.

The infrastructure already set up.

So our plan for this flood was bring the clothes donations here.

>> Well, sort of send him to the store.

Anybody that's affected by the flood can go and get whatever they need.

Just grab it.

We've had a lot of pay for it to make out nationwide down night and flood back its clients applause.

>> That's been such a big payout.

>> Yesterday we took a load out to a community that was flooded and to drop off some staff where they can get to.

Maybe they can't get into Jackson to get by it.

What we need first to fall is to get all the men get the thing.

Their houses cleaned out with their drought was cut off to where the water level Cain.

We need to get that cleaned up.

First.

The problem is we have all sorts of food that they have nowhere to store their food.

7 people are in.

Can't miss those people.

We try to feed a Li Wei have had so I mean, >> they put craze together and the specialty court and they put crews together and they've been the ones helping make Klain out.

This bison we took was down.

>> It's going to be a long battle.

If you lose everything, you can imagine how you would really feel.

This is the second week we've been helping.

And you can tell a people are more hopeful.

We've had so many groups come in and help so many people.

>> A lot of them want to tailgate.

You.

What happened to him?

What happened to their family?

Put it into their neighbor.

And we're here to listen.

We pray with family and fame with craft with it.

>> It was just so much and now.

It was just traumatic.

>> Thank goodness for the helpers on Monday.

While in Kentucky, President Biden said climate change was a factor in the floods that devastated eastern Kentucky.

The U.S. Senate has passed and the House is considering the bill would invest 370 billion dollars to reduce greenhouse gas emissions a few days ago on the U.S. Senate floor, Senator Mitch McConnell called that a waste of money at a time when Americans are more concerned about other things.

>> American families have been hemorrhaging actually for working people and barely tread water.

And the Democrats focus.

It's Green New Deal on some of that.

Only 3% of the country wants prioritized.

Big subsidies to help rich people buy luxury cars and use Taxpayer funding for environmental protesters.

A huge have a lot of would not.

But the debt global emissions.

Well, countries like China continue doing that more and more.

>> Senator McConnell and Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky voted against that bill.

You'll hear from Congressman John Yarmouth, the Democrat from Louisville about the inflation sections of the bill and just a few minutes.

A recent piece in the publication Inside Climate News raises the question of whether strip mining played a role in the devastating floods in eastern Kentucky.

Yesterday I talked with the writer of that article, Jim Brothers, a long time, energy and environment reporter formally of the Courier Journal and USA Today about the questions that even former state and federal mining regulators say should be investigated.

Jim Brothers with inside Climate News, thank you so very much for a few minutes of your time today.

Thanks for having me.

So I do want to ask you about your reporting.

Many are familiar with your Beilein because the road for many years for the Courier Journal and now you are.

>> Working for inside climate news and many are asking questions about how much of an impact could climate change be making on these weather related natural disasters such as the flooding in eastern Kentucky.

What has your reporting helped you learn about that and even potential impacts of surface mining on exacerbating flooding in the Appalachian region.

>> Yeah, Renee, those are 2 great questions of first.

I want to just say my heart really goes out to everyone in eastern Kentucky who was affected by these these floods.

And I just hope to get all the help they need.

>> I mean, the extreme weather is happening all over the world right now.

It's just an even the very week that we have the big blood son.

>> In eastern Kentucky, that same weather system just drenched St. Louis and a record way.

And I mean, there's really no question that climate change is supercharging are storms.

scientists will will tell me tell everybody else that warmer atmosphere holds more moisture.

And that's one of the key factors here.

>> And you've talked to a pretty renowned expert about this in your reporting, correct?

Can you tell us about him and and what kind of questions he's still asking are trying to understand and how there's connections between climate change and these natural disasters and even the impact of surface mining.

>> I think you're referring to Jack Sparrow, is that right?

Yes, that's correct.

Jack is Jack will be as they will be familiar to people in eastern Kentucky.

He was he's investigator of mine disasters for decades and he actually lost his job with the federal government for what he would describe as being a whistleblower for the mountain.

The Martin coal slurry spill that that still your that that caused so much damage was like 30 times worse than the Exxon built these.

And so since then, you know, he spent a lot of time investigating flooding events as they relate to mountaintop removal.

Mine other types of surface mining and they won cases in the past and they have found examples of we're hydrologists have have shown that the runoff is as much as 1000 times greater after mining then would have occurred if there hadn't been any mining.

And one of the big reasons to that is it just you think about it?

You take all the trees away and you you end up with some pretty hard pack soil.

Rockets left.

Then it just kind of runs off.

The one caveat I would add is there has been some research that shows that these valley fills can act like a sponge I'm I'm told that that research really is is based on kind of normal rainfall.

And what we had recently is not normal rainfall.

All right.

>> So what are the questions yet to be explored and what the experts are even asking themselves and looking into that?

The answer seems somewhat elusive at this point.

>> Yeah, well, one of them is like what specifically was the role to that surface mining may have played in making the flooding worse.

There could be other factors that play into it as well.

And there's been so so much damage just across Appalachia, just hundreds 100's of square miles of damage.

And so so what is that?

What role has that could that have played in this particular flood and then what's the condition of these of these mines that are there right now?

And then I think the key question that is probably more difficult to to get a handle line.

Is that given climate change and these more intense rain falls, the mining standards and reclamation standards need to be upgraded or improved.

So these are questions that these experts are saying, you know, deserve some answers and the rain is not going to go away and it's going probably get worse.

you know, we still have this ongoing problem with surface mines across the eastern part of the state.

>> Well, Jim Brothers, I thank you for these points in talking to these experts.

And even if there are some unanswered questions, at least there's conversation about getting to some answers.

So I appreciate your reporting and your time today.

>> Thank you very much.

>> Kentucky's drought picture continues to improve as the state gets more and more rain.

Here's the map from last week.

You can see the drought problem in the western part of the state with a small section of red, mainly in Callaway County.

Red means extreme drought.

Let's look at the new map out today.

Now this was finished August the night that you can see there's no red at all on this map as the areas of the state with drought conditions continue to improve.

♪ Congressman John Yarmouth of Louisville, the only Democrat in Kentucky's congressional delegation is speaking out in favor of the inflation bill.

Now before the U.S. House Yarmouth rejects the Republican claim that the spending in the bill will make inflation worse.

>> We're proposing to spend of this bill.

400 billion dollars over 10 years.

That's on average.

40 billion dollars a year.

That is 0.2% of the 20 trillion dollar budget and that the 20 to $20 bills national product which is going to be increasing.

So it'll be even a small percentage.

It defies logic devices.

Every economic theory that that small amount of spending and massive economy, it's going to affect inflation any measurable?

What?

>> Norma says the provisions in the bill fighting climate change and lowering healthcare costs are overwhelmingly popular with Americans, which is why the bill he says scares Republicans.

Jefferson County election officers.

You're getting a raise.

The county board of elections says officer pay will go from $200 to 300 for the November.

General election poll workers will get $40 for a 2 and a half hour training session.

Then $260 for their election day work.

Jefferson County Clerk Bobbie Holsclaw says election workers are the frontline of democracy and their help is critical to make sure everyone's voice is heard.

Stover drives will expand in Maysville.

The company makes gear units and drives for the aerospace car packaging and food processing industries sober will spend 5 million dollars double the size of its maysville facility and higher.

35 more people taking its work force there to 159 people.

Have you ever seeing someone driving the wrong direction on the state will spend more than 5 million dollars to detect and stop wrong-way drivers.

That money will buy video processing technology that will alert police and other drivers.

If someone is driving the wrong way, the money is from the U.S. Department of Transportation.

Kentucky Supreme Court chief Justice says the state is facing a mental health crisis in the court system to meet these needs.

The state Supreme Court is creating a new commission to improve the judicial system's response to those with mental health substance use and intellectual disabilities.

Our Casey Parker Bell cover the unveiling of the new initiative.

For Far too long.

>> People have believed that seeking mental health assistance as a weakness.

It's not.

And today the Kentucky Supreme Court has joined with so many others.

I think to say it's OK not to be okay with mental health substance use and intellectual disabilities impacting so many people in the court system.

>> The Kentucky Supreme Court is set up a new commission to help improve the judicial system's response to the mental health crisis.

>> For courts in our justice system.

This prevalence has a disproportionate impact.

As our justice system.

Has become the default system.

For addressing the needs of those with behavioral and mental health issues.

Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton called the state's prison system.

The largest provider of mental health services in the state and Kentucky Supreme Court Justice Debra Hembree.

Lambert will chair the commission.

>> She's a certified suicide prevention trainer and former drug court judge.

>> We have not lost it.

>> And we see these cases and are touched by the needs of our fellow citizens.

>> And our community members and we want to see system that properly reacts and administers justice and a way that is efficient and timely.

>> Justice Lambert says the commission will be made up of a diverse group of people, mental health professionals, business leaders, judges and legislators will be included.

But leaders at today's press conference say the state still has a long way to go.

>> Proving the lives of Kentuckians who are affected by mental illness or substance use disorders or election disabilities and who are involved in the justice system demands complex, interdisciplinary Inter branch cooperation and solutions that we've never even thought of before.

>> We have come so far and recognizing.

Health care is a basic human right.

We still have a long way to go to make sure that mental health is treated as physical health.

That the services are there.

And that the stigma it's gone.

For Kentucky edition.

I'm Casey Parker Bell.

♪ >> Earlier in the broadcast, you heard from Governor Beshear on the flooding in eastern Kentucky during that briefing.

Beshear also talked about continuing efforts to legalize medical cannabis in Kentucky.

He says public meetings around the state prove that Kentuckians overwhelmingly want legal medical marijuana.

>> Stories of gone from examples is our stories.

These people have gotten up and share their pain.

Mothers whose child children have seizures.

veterans dealing with PTSD.

>> Jared Van Valen Falmouth is one of those veterans.

He talked to us about why medical marijuana is the answer for him and other Kentucky ends in pain.

>> In 2007, I deployed to Iraq.

And it was a kind of a rough time over there.

When I came back, things just weren't the same.

I went to a doctor.

I got put on a PTSD medication.

I started going through a little bit of counseling.

Things were OK, but more medications getting put on top of that.

And then I get a short-notice deployment for a year to Afghanistan.

Come back to the states.

Things were going well, man.

Lakers started.

I was drinking in half a gallon while Turkey every 2 days taking about 13 different medications.

I was miserable there.

One day that I woke up that I didn't want to put a bullet in my head.

I'm working one day and I'm not doing well.

And this guy looks at me is that my look site.

You need to.

>> You smoke a little weed.

I'm like what?

Get out your mind.

And I don't just want to get stone is like not trust.

You've got to just try.

So I tried it.

I said now I took one Puff Mound, one little puff and this feeling of calm came over me.

I felt like I couldn't breathe for once.

I ended up moving to a state that had a medicinal marijuana program and the difference was night and day.

I mean, I dropped every single medication.

I was on.

My mother looked at me.

She says.

We've got life back here to us.

I've lost track of how many people work with and dealt with that are still drinking every night.

Taking pills every night.

And not very happy.

I'm hoping that my story can allow people to see that there is another side of things.

This is about life.

And well being of the side effects from pharmaceuticals are just hands down.

Absolutely.

Some of the worst that you can even imagine.

Hannah Miss when used correctly.

It doesn't have any of those side effects.

We've turned medicine into a business.

I don't see anything in the Constitution or our Declaration of independence.

That states a government should be over to control my health.

Anything can be abused.

But to make a law where?

Things can't be used in a positive way to help somebody is just counter intuitive to what this nation and our country was founded upon.

I really don't want Kentucky to turn this into just trying to get a ton of tax dollars.

I want to focus on patients.

They need to make it affordable.

The taxes have to remain low.

They need to allow a patient to be able to grow a certain amount of plans to do that.

You might have to 15, 20 bucks and stuff versus going to the storm paying $1000 to somebody that.

Is just trying to make money.

It shouldn't be any different than any other agriculture crop for an individual if they allow individual cultivation that proved to me that they care about medical patients.

♪ >> And our final story tonight at one Louisville coffee shop.

You may leave with more than just a cup of Joe.

You may be taking home a forever friend as well.

You'll see why in tonight's Kentucky Life segment.

>> Cats are unique because they are extremely loyal to the people in their family.

Once you make a bond with your cat, it is it is unbreakable.

And it's amazing to me and we see that happen every single time when a catwalk steppens shoes is that person and you go well, she got adopt.

That cap now >> one of my favorite parts of this concept is how much outreach the Kentucky Humane Society has been able really supply us with cats if they're coming from across the the whole state, there's over.

37 different shelters.

It speeds.

So the need was very, very great.

But one of the areas that has been a challenge for them is what they asked to call the retail piece of it, which is being able to get the keys in the homes.

That's what a cat cafe.

That's where a cat cafe comes in.

>> We are really, really proud of how free they are.

And our concept of this cat cafes cut ul's, not cages.

We can give them plenty of space and exercise and free food.

They can run up and down the stairs during adult cats season.

If they want to stay away, they can get up on the shelf and have a little alone time.

>> And so part of the process here is even if you're not looking to adopt, you can spend time in this lounge in this nice, big space and play with the cats come with the cats, help them trust people.

And that's really, really important.

>> This location both here in Louisville and in coming to Kentucky.

The wonderful thing about it, it's become a draw.

It is actually a big tourist kind of thing to do now with people that are animal lovers.

>> Every single cup of coffee or event you attend.

Not just coming in here to enjoy the kiddies in the Kitty Lounge.

It all goes to help the Kentucky Humane Society and to help us KET this place warm and cozy and well supplied for cats just over the past 2 years, we started receiving kitties from hazard from far, far Western Kentucky all the way past Paducah, all the way in far Eastern Kentucky and normally that would be unheard of.

And we have actually heard back from the Kentucky Humane Society that shelters have contacted them to say we no longer have to euthanize because of the work we're able to do here at the Cat Cafe because technically when you adopt a cat, you're saving 2 because you're sending one to the home.

But you're opening up the shelter for another one to get transferred in.

So we're really, really proud of our exclusive partnership with the Kentucky Humane Society.

>> I love that this is a business with a purpose.

And what I love is that.

>> All of our team here is just so coordinated around that same mission.

And this can be such a job that gives back to me as much as I'm able to get back to it.

And I guess the most rewarding piece of that is that our hearts, her efforts and everything that we have put into.

This is a team.

It's being so well supported by the community around us.

>> We know we are making a difference in not just the cats lives.

We're also making a difference in people's lives.

>> Perfect way to end our program tonight.

It's the oldest rule.

Public settlements school in the United States.

And it was hit hard by the Eastern Kentucky floods.

You'll see that heartbreaking damage, including 19 century books, caked in mud and hear about efforts to preserve what's left as we head to Heineman and not county.

That's tomorrow on Kentucky edition.

And we do hope you'll join us again tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky edition where we inform connect and inspire.

You're welcome to subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition, e-mail news letter and watch full episodes Akt Dot Org.

You can also find Kentucky Edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

>> We follow KET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for watching.

Take really good care and I'll see you right back here tomorrow night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪