People can reach out to police via our e911 the call takers 311 call.

You have options to help keep yourself safe from dangerous heat.

Anything that requires a winner and a loser.

Emotions go up.

People aren't just yelling at the ump anymore.

What one community is doing to prevent unsportsmanlike conduct from the stands We're looking at taking the curriculum from being like a mile wide to looking at taking the curriculum and making it a mouthpiece.

It's a new and improved way to teach students how to read well, when Twitter starts here and there is a little bit of everything at the Kentucky State Fair.

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 Monday, August the 21st.

It's a hot one out there.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Monday with us.

And speaking of the heat, after a few days of milder weather, the heat is back with a vengeance.

It's more unpleasant.

It's dangerous.

As the heat index soars past 100 degrees in many parts of Kentucky, the National Weather Service has put Anderson Fayette, Franklin, Harrison, Jessamine Mercer, Scott, Washington and Woodford Counties under a heat advisory.

Lexington has put Phase one of its heat plan into effect.

That means the Office of Homeless Prevention will expand cooling shelter services and less strand will offer free rides on routes to those shelters.

Manager Jeff Herron says it's an important first step to help keep people safe.

Sometimes these resources don't always get heavily utilized.

These resources typically are not going to be activated until we reach phase two of the heat plan.

This week were kind of being a little bit more proactive and just going ahead and getting this up and running at the start of the week until instead of waiting until we had that phase two activation, when we potentially do hit that threshold later this week, there are some other things that would occur under that.

Such as?

Typically in phase two, there would also be some discounted admissions for public balls operated by Parks and Recreation, but also, you know, just things like the fact that this information is going to be disseminated to different entities within city government so people can reach out to police via our e911 the call takers, 311, let's call.

They'll all be equipped with the information under this plan so that they can provide that to any resident who would reach out and be in need.

Now, going to western Kentucky, they're bracing for a heat index topping 105 degrees for five or six consecutive days.

There are concerns the heat index could reach 120 degrees at times.

Other parts of Kentucky, including Jefferson County, are under a heat watch.

It's been almost two weeks since wildfires devastated the Hawaiian city of Maui.

The death toll from the fires remains at 114.

Another 850 remain missing.

A dozen volunteers from the American Red Cross and Kentucky are currently in Hawaii assisting with the relief efforts.

We spoke to the CEO of the American Red Cross Kentucky region about the deployment and the devastation.

The first thing that we do is sheltering there right now.

So they are trained to operate a shelter.

There are folks that are helping with feeding.

There are also some folks that are helping with long term housing needs that they have.

When a disaster like this happens.

Mental health is also a very, very important part of what we're dealing with.

And you've seen the footage.

You've seen the footage of the fear of folks that have been forced from their homes and literally have have run for their lives through this fire.

And there's a lot of trauma there.

So we actually have mental health teams that are on the ground right now.

There are a few of those folks from Kentucky.

And we also have spiritual counselors.

So if somebody chooses to do that, we'll also have folks available to help.

There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty with what people are experiencing right now.

And what we try to do is go in there and try to provide a little certainty, Try to provide.

Okay.

What is your next move?

Where do you need to go?

How do you need to go ahead and start your recovery?

I think they need they need a few things.

First, they need shelter.

So shelter is going to be a long term need for those folks.

We are providing them shelter, which started out in in a group shelter in a group situation.

We are transitioning out those folks to hotel based sheltering.

We still manage that from the Red Cross.

But now where are those folks going to go for the next six months?

The next year and in some cases on a permanent basis, because they are not going to rebuild their homes.

So that is is very, very important.

They also need some help with processing the situation that they've just been through.

And, you know, there is post-traumatic stress.

And we see that in every disaster that we're in.

And they need they need some of that help.

You know, I think they also need hope.

And, you know, hope is kind of hard to find in these situations.

But hope happens when you have the little wins for folks that are affected by something like this.

Hope happens when they may find something that they thought was destroyed in their home.

Hope finds some hope goes when they find a temporary place to live for the next six months.

Hope happens when they get their car replaced.

So all of these things are winds that add up for them.

Steve Cunanan tells us the American Red Cross is currently responding to 23 active disasters in the U.S. and is averaging one new disaster every 12 days.

Well, kids benefit from playing sports.

They get exercise, learn teamwork and good sportsmanship.

But increasingly, it's the spectators at the game who may need to learn a few lessons in civility.

As our Laura Rogers reports in Warren County, special measures are being taken to keep the peace at youth sports games as young athletes learn to take a swing.

There are concerns that some parents want to take a swing at officials.

We've had a couple of different acts of parent behavior being not so great.

We are a culture that's conditioned on winning anything that requires a winner and a loser.

Emotions go up across the country.

Cases are on the rise of hostile situations at youth sports games.

Earlier this year, we had a shooting here at Michael Buchanan Park.

Several weeks ago, we had another incident with weapons.

And then throughout the year, we've had increased occurrences with parent disruptions during games.

When we start assaulting refs and parents verbally assaulting kids, we got a problem.

This pattern of behavior led more in county Parks and Recreation to request the presence of law enforcement.

The only time I usually step in is if it runs from a simple rules and infractions situation to a criminal action.

Come on.

Plus, coaches say the mere presence of a sheriff's deputy helps deter bad behavior.

When they see law enforcement, they have a more reserve and a more way of like, I need to think about this because that badge, you're going to jail over a basketball game.

All right.

Hey, common trigger for an outburst.

A parent or coach disagreeing with a call made on the field or caught off guard.

Each year, it seems like there's a little bit more hostility toward the referees.

Officers are going to make mistakes.

I make mistakes every time I step out on the court.

Doesn't mean I'd do it on purpose, doesn't mean that we do it on purpose.

Damian Wheeler has been officiating games for seven years.

He has concerns it will continue to become more difficult to hire officials.

Yeah, there's been less officials to officiate basketball games.

There have been less umpires to to call baseball games.

It's tough.

Warren County Parks and Recreation is taking special measures to avoid what it calls unsportsmanlike, disorderly and harassing behavior.

People have a hard time with their temperament and people have a hard time realizing that, you know, youth sports is about the kids.

It's not about the adults.

We're asking the public to help us control their emotion.

They have a plan called the Threat Matrix to assess potentially disruptive situations based on crowd size.

Previous incidents and fights and other factors to mitigate the risks.

We're trying to be very proactive in how we're dealing with that so that the kids can have a fun place to play.

They've also secured funding to purchase 40 steel crowd control barricades for youth football games here at Basil Griffin Park.

They say it will provide more stability for large crowds and more separation between spectators and the playing field.

A little bit of distance can go a long way.

Moved six seven Coaches say their athletes devote a lot of time and dedication to their sport.

These guys work really hard and when I say they work really hard, they work really hard and they deserve a respectful crowd of spectators to cheer them on.

My advice to prepare to go to the games, enjoy your child, and be proud of the fact that your child is healthy and able to play a sport and just use it as an activity to help those children grow spiritually and to learn teamwork.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

New this fall sports season, Warren County Parks and Recreation is asking coaches to address their teen crowd.

If those fans become disruptive.

They say umpires and officials can forfeit cancel a game perhaps, if the behavior doesn't stop.

A hostile environment at youth sports events is leading to a national shortage of officials and scorekeepers here in the commonwealth.

The Kentucky High School Athletic Association says the shortage is leading to many games being postponed or even canceled.

We've been preaching to our member schools probably for the last six or seven years that the number of officials is declining.

And even before COVID, it started and then COVID hit.

And now we've got some that just aren't coming back.

And what we found in report surveys and National Association of Sports Officials did a survey.

Even feedback from our own officials is the reason why we're losing them is the way they're being treated, while they're being treated by parents, fans, the coaches, the participants, and in some cases, administration, too, as well.

It's just that what they're having to put up with, they're not they're tired of it.

The organization says the shortage of officials and impacting every sport in every region of the state.

It's all over.

We're having non bars, two games canceled and even varsity games canceled.

We've had last year we had to move some playoff football games on Friday night to Thursday or Saturday just because of the volume of games and getting those contests covered.

So it's affecting all sports.

We play a large number of games on the regular season, so the schools we provide the students a lot of opportunity to be on the field.

But when your numbers are declining and you're not replacing those, it creates issues.

But Cope says he is working to attract and educate a younger demographic through a junior officials program.

Teens ages 14 through 17 can become licensed officials and work middle school games alongside a seasoned official.

It is a record for Kentucky's flagship university.

It's the first day of classes at the University of Kentucky with a record first year class that tops 6400 students.

It's part of an overall student body of more than 33,000.

UCS president Eli CAPELOUTO reflected on the first day of classes and what today means to him.

Well, first, I'm grateful to all the people that make possible what I believe is more and more individuals and families that make the University of Kentucky your first choice.

So why do they come here?

It's because of what our people collectively provide faculty staff and what fellow students provide.

And when you listen carefully to our students, you recognize the different perspectives and experiences that are coming together here.

Students from all 120 counties, 50 states, 100 countries, and what you get to learn about others and what you get to share with others about your lived experience I think enriches us all.

President CAPELOUTO is also proud of UC's graduation rate.

He says it's among the top 100 among more than 4000 colleges and universities in the U.S. as students settle into a new school year across Kentucky.

Many younger students will be learning to read in a different way.

Legislation passed last year requires schools to lean into a comprehensive reading program based on what's known as, quote, the science of reading.

Over the summer, nearly 3000 Jefferson County teachers were trained on a new K through eight language arts curriculum.

MOORE And tonight's Education Matters segment takes teachers are taking part in a K through eight L.A. training districtwide to ensure that we are ready for literacy going into next year and that we have a tier one ah common curriculum as we approach 2324.

L.A. is English language arts and that is most commonly people would refer to that as your phonics, phonemic awareness, your comprehension, your reading vocabulary and fluency.

We're looking at taking the curriculum from being like a mile wide to looking at taking the curriculum and making it about the so that all students have access to a authentic curriculum that students struggle with, which is what we want them to do.

They call it grappling in L We've always called it the productive struggle, but I think as they do that, it's really going to help students to deepen their understanding of things where they're not just at a surface level, but now they're evaluating them.

Before we had over 150 different curricula or different programs that were being used, we never had a common language or consistent expectations across all grade levels.

So for the first time, we're able to speak a common language, have a common focus on literacy, address some of those foundational skill gaps that we've seen for so many years, but never had the chance to build momentum to address.

And you'll find teachers here for the first time get to collaborate across schools, not just in their school teams, which is really exciting.

When we look at the Council of Great City Schools, which were a part of, we also noticed that most of them were using a Tier one or core curriculum.

So we are now much more on pace with other districts our size to address those Tier one supports, which means all students are getting a Common Core curriculum at L.A.. We are such a huge district and we're very transient too.

So students go from one school to another, so a child might go from high school to Joshua School and soon it might get lost.

But now with this new curriculum, if a student goes from my school, the Joshua School, or any school in the district, students are going to have that common language and they're going to be able to understand what they're doing.

And that is just monumental for our district.

So we've also encouraged subs to get train.

We're going to have another sub day for them to ensure that they're able to meet the needs of our kids.

We're also going to have additional virtual training for any new teachers that are hired.

So the goal is everyone will have access to high quality instructional resources to support literacy.

I felt like I was tiptoeing when I came in, but today I kind of feel like I put the whole thing in the water and we're ready to go for day one.

You can learn more about the science of reading and the impact it could have on Kentucky classrooms by watching early literacy, a forum that comes on next Monday night at eight Eastern.

Seven central and state of Kentucky tonight right here on Katie.

Education is also the focus of tonight's episode of Kentucky tonight.

Two lawmakers, two superintendents and two education advocates will talk about K through 12 education issues in the state.

We'll touch on everything from school transportation funding and issues, new school policies impacting trans youth and the Bashir and Cameron proposals for education.

We want to hear your questions and comments, so join us tonight at eight Eastern, seven Central four Kentucky tonight right here on KCET.

The Medicaid renewal process has restarted after being suspended during the COVID 19 pandemic.

It's estimated hundreds of thousands of Kentuckians risk losing their health coverage if they don't take the right steps to renew.

But some are finding help and unexpected place.

The Kentucky State Fair starting in May.

Our the renewal process for Kentucky kicked back in.

And so individuals that are receiving Medicaid will go back through the redetermination process to see if they are still eligible.

The State Department of Medicaid Services is actively reaching out to all Medicaid recipients, letting them know about the redetermination process and if they need to take action.

I can say that based on the data that our state has provided there, they are projecting around 230,000 individuals that could be impacted.

We want individuals to respond and we want to make sure no one loses coverage or falls through the gaps.

So we are using this opportunity at the Kentucky State Fair to educate the community on redeterminations, because we know it can be confusing.

We are actively educating them on what to expect, what do their renewal notices look like?

What are those next steps and connecting them with individuals that can directly assist them in the process.

Currently, we can actively walk them through this process, but we also want to make sure they know they can go to their local department of community based services.

They can go to connect dot, Change.gov or they can actually go online if they already have access to their Medicaid accounts and submit that process through the FIND website.

We do outreach like this at the Kentucky State Fair, and we work with local community based organizations to make sure that those individual roles that are impacted by the Medicaid renewals have that support in place and that wraparound service to make sure they don't lose coverage.

The Kentucky State Fair opened up last week in Louisville.

There is something for everyone, whether it's rides, games, livestock or entertainment.

You'll find it all at the Commonwealth's 119 state fair.

So step right up, take in the sights and sounds of the Kentucky State Fair.

Well, keep winner winner Tye Sheridan, who gets a chance to get his small part right from five over 00005.

Something for everyone, kids of all ages.

The state fair runs through August 27th at the Kentucky Exposition Center in Louisville, Kentucky.

You can brag about hosting the world's largest water balloon fight.

Our Toby Gibbs has that and more in tonight's Look at this week in Kentucky history.

August 27th, 1854, was a deadly day in Louisville as a tornado estimated to be an F two hit the city, killing 25 people.

18 of those were at the Third Presbyterian Church.

The tornado was on the ground for two miles and was about 800 yards in width.

Cumberland Falls, known as the Niagara of the South, became a state park on August 21st, 1931.

It's the second largest waterfall east of the Rocky Mountains at 68 feet tall and 125 feet wide.

3600 cubic feet of water flow over the edge every second.

Happy birthday to a pair of popular singers from Kentucky.

Jackie DeShannon was born August 21st, 1941, in Calloway County.

She's best known for the songs.

What the World Needs Now Is Love and put a little love in your heart.

And Billy Ray Cyrus, known for the country music hit Achy Breaky Heart, was born in Flat Woods in Greenup County on August 25th, 1961.

Almost 9000 people took part in the biggest water balloon fight ever recorded at the Christian Science Fellowship on the University of Kentucky campus on August 27th, 2011.

The participants through more than 175,000 water balloons during the fight.

And that's a look back at this week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby.

We could use some water balloons right now in this heat, right?

Well, we hope you stay cool and join us tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Thank you for watching tonight.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Until I see you again, take really good care.