♪ >> So the new record-breaking country high of 13.5 million, 10.5, 2, 9, $500,000.

I'm so.

>> Who's taking home this pricey for a look back at this wind field tradition.

>> I'm so proud of the employees that we have here and all the effort that they put into making sure that we've got a great state for.

>> Well, Jonathan Shell says he focused on while landing his first day fair as Kentucky's AG commissioner.

There's a lot of other things.

It can look like a white flaky thing attached to her hair.

>> What does the CDC say about school?

Sending home kids with lice?

We speak to a pediatrician to find out.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good Evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Thursday.

The TWENTY-SECOND of August.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for tuning in with us tonight.

Kentucky's highest court today provided an explanation and a path forward after its earlier ruling against a state representative whose primary when was challenged in court.

Nima Kulkarni is a Democrat from Louisville.

She won her may primary and the 40th district of the House easily.

past opponent dentist or lander said one can car Kulkarni filed to run.

One of the 2 Ko signers of her paperwork was a Republican.

The law requires 2 people of the candidates.

Same party or lender said that made her ineligible to run a lower court sided with Kulkarni.

An appeals court reversed that decision.

And in June, the state Supreme Court backed the appeals court.

The court provided more details today and based on that Kentucky secretary of state Michael Adams says he will certify that a vacancy exists and that a new election is needed with the 2 parties nominating candidates.

Kulkarni is attorney told the Courier Journal that Kulkarni is eligible to seek the Democratic nomination for a special election and we'll do so.

Pricey.

Pork is the name of the game at the annual Hambrick Faceapp the Kentucky State.

Fair and again, the winner shelled out some hefty record-breaking cash to at auction for this wine.

>> So the new record-breaking country high of 13.5 million, 10.5, 2, 9, $500,000 so all around the ball.

>> That's a lot of bacon right there.

Joe and Kelly Craft who you see right there nab the prize hand for the 4th year in a row.

Kelly Kraft is course a former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations and she ran for governor during last year's Republican primary.

Her husband is president of Alliance Resource Partners, a major coal producer.

The 10.5 million dollars will go to charities of their choice.

>> A ham came from Broadbent Bnb in Lyon County in western Kentucky.

It's also the 4th year for Broadbent to be selected as the best ham producer.

As you see there missed Kentucky Chapel.

Talk to me.

Us of Bowling Green presented the ham alongside a brought to life.

>> Freddie Farm Bureau, the 60th country Ham breakfast brought together politicians, college ball coaches and plenty of people who care about the state of farming in Kentucky, speakers addressed the challenges.

Farmers face.

>> On the farm, I understand the hard work in the tight-knit communities that farming builds.

But there are challenges today as Mr. Milne talked about we have market challenges.

We have global pressures.

We have a lot of things better in Arab culture, depending on what commodity that you're in.

Currently, you may have had a really good year.

You may have had an OK year.

You may be struggling in my early in the state.

We've been in drought for a while.

We've gotten a few rain, but we need more in other parts of the state.

We've been too much rain or just enough rain.

And so depending on where you are in the state, one commodity that you deal with is whether or not you've got a big smile on your face is morning are a little smile on your face is more but an agriculture.

What we do is we persevere.

We move on for that next generation.

We tried to attack those challenges every best way that we can.

When I was due in part about leadership time, I was doing one of the 4 leaders.

It was not from New York and California.

>> Our friends on the other side of become very urban.

>> Oriented.

They're not many Democratic elected officials as well.

In small-town and many American and how that impacts with an issue like the they're just not particularly interested just.

Going out the Democratic leader of the Senate.

And Democrat leaving the House both live in the same neighborhood.

There's still a long way from And so when they started lining up their priority.

♪ It comes out very low down.

>> The >> Kentucky Farm Bureau that host the country Ham breakfast says Kentucky is losing too much of its farmland.

According to them, Kentucky has lost 17,000 farmers and more than 1 million acres of farmland in the last 2 decades to combat that Kentucky Farm Bureau stated the Kentucky Farm Land transition or they started rather the Kentucky Farm Land Transition Initiative.

It's meant to help retiring farmers give their land to those who still want it.

Whether that's keeping it in the family or selling it to the next generation of growers and ranchers you can learn more about that program online on-demand at KET Dot Org.

Just search farmland initiative.

The country ham breakfast has a long and interesting history.

And we will tell you more about that in just a few minutes here on Kentucky EDITION.

Now in politics, Senator JD Vance, the Republican nominee for vice president will be and Kentucky on Monday.

The Courier Journal reports Vance will be in Pike full for reception and fundraiser.

That will include Joanne Kelly Craft and Congressman Andy Barr of the 6th Kentucky Congressional District tickets begin at $2500 per person or 5,000.

A couple with photo ops available for 15,000 couple.

Kentucky's attorney general's office is trying to clarify how schools and teachers can and cannot talk about a proposed school Choice Amendment.

Constitutional amendment.

Number 2 on the ballot in November.

Ask voters if the Kentucky General Assembly should be allowed to authorize public money for private school education during a committee meeting held at the Kentucky State Fair today.

The attorney general's office repeated that school districts can not advocate one way or another regarding the ballot measure.

That was in response to online post made earlier this month by Pulaski County Public Schools.

Democratic State lawmaker asked if there's any leeway that would allow folks to teach not preach on the issue.

>> I know I'm getting a lot of questions about a minute to I know a lot of folks in our school system are getting a lot of questions about amendment to its impact on those schools.

>> I didn't hear you say anything about statutes are about your opinion.

That would limit school professionals.

>> When they're asked about the impact of amendment 2 on their school system from providing evidence backs based answers to those questions so long as they are then advocating for a partisan position.

Is that correct?

>> What is?

Fact based evidence versus what is advocating for that line may at times be hard to draw.

I think, you know, again, most contacts that this really a problem with it.

If you're a school board meeting, absolutely.

School board members and members of the public during the public comment period, you can present whatever evidence and one of the arguments they want.

>> You know, I think, you know, you're going.

That all stopped there.

So.

>> While schools and districts can't weigh in, teachers unions can and are making their case on amendment 2.

The Jefferson County Teachers Association has spent $640,000 to defeat the proposed ballot measure.

That's according to open secrets, DOT Org.

And tonight's business beat.

We begin with the jobs numbers.

Unemployment went up in 119 of Kentucky's 120 counties from July of 2023 to July of this year.

The state says it went down in just one county.

That's Lee the overall jobless rate for Kentucky was 4.7% in July.

The lowest unemployment rate was in Cumberland County at 3.8% and the highest was in Magoffin County at 11.3%.

A new high tech equipment designed to reduce wrong-way crashes will soon be put to the test in Kentucky.

The state transportation cabinet plans to put the first system in place in Lexington.

It will be on the off-ramp from I-75 northbound at exit 99 near the Fayette, Madison County line.

That ramp will be closed Monday and Tuesday while crews prep the site for installation Governor Andy Beshear announced the pilot project back in February and explained how to work.

>> Get a Utley do full word things.

One, it will detect W*** Wei incidents in real time.

To whom it will deter wrong-way drivers by activating warnings.

3 new alert travelers driving in the correct direction of the detective wrong-way driver and also alert first responders of the location of the detected wrong-way driver and 4th.

It will monitor safety concerns like debris, disabled vehicles and pedestrians.

This is really good news.

>> We lost some Kentucky INS to these types of incidents.

And this is us trying to use technology and to be innovative to better protect our families when they are transporting their most precious cargo, our kids and our citizens.

>> The pilot project is expected to last 3 Matson.

The goal is to install more systems in Fayette and Jefferson counties later this year.

The project is project is being funded by a 5 million dollar federal grant with matching funds from the state.

Speaking off traffic catching drivers with a heavy foot could soon get easier.

In Kentucky.

A company called Via Tron It Machine Vision presented its automated speed enforcement technology to the interim Transportation Committee on Tuesday.

The company says its equipment uses lasers and cameras to catch drivers who are speeding.

The technology has billed as making the roads safer for drivers, construction workers and police officers.

Some walkers, some lawmakers rather see this is a way to help out understaffed police departments.

>> How do you feel like this state knowledge is going to add to these a gun and, you know, will it will it help their force out and, you know, sort of act as a multiplier.

What what your thoughts on that yet?

What we've seen in all the programs that we have been part of since 2007, by the way, when we started with traffic enforcement in the United States.

Is that this does work as a force multiplier simply because it will take duties that the police are doing today, for example, in speed enforcement.

Away from them in this and the say on the roadside as a type of it and it lets them redeploy their scarce resources in areas where they can do more good.

For example, community outreach or essentially making sure that they are seen in a different way than what they might be today.

And just to put that number into perspective, when we did the demo for Indiana and July last year, they wanted us to be at work.

I believe it had 4 lanes we the day said be there for 10 hours.

We set the speed limit was 60.

We set the limit to 72 in accordance with what the DOT want us to do.

We caught over 16,000 speeders in those 10 hours.

So clearly people do not respect speed limits in work zones.

>> This isn't the first time lawmakers have considered using such technology, a bill that would have created a pilot program for automated speed enforcement in Kentucky's highway work zones was introduced during the 2024 legislative session but was never taken up for a vote.

♪ ♪ ♪ Back to politics.

U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is concerned that airport screeners are singling out people because of their politics.

Senator Paul sent a letter yesterday to the TSA administrator.

He says testimony from whistleblowers indicates the TSA is adding people to the terror watch list because of their political views.

Here's part of Senator Paul's letter says, quote, recent disclosures from whistleblowers raise serious concerns that these mechanisms may have been improperly employed to target individuals based on their political views and participation and constitutionally protected activities rather than legitimate security threat, unquote.

♪ ♪ Earlier you heard AG Commissioner Jonathan Shell talk about Kentucky's drought.

Well, things have improved in recent weeks.

This is the new map from the U.S. Drought monitor.

Only a small part of Kentucky is in the moderate drought category.

That's the light orange you see in the area of Lawrence and Boyd counties in the northeastern part of the state, the yellow areas are considered abnormally dry.

This drought map was completed Tuesday and released today.

This is the 100 and 20th year of the Kentucky State Fair.

But Jonathan shelves first as Kentucky's AG commissioner.

We spoke to him about efforts to make sure all 120 counties felt represented at this year's fair and why he thinks one of the state's oldest events is a lot like a family reunion.

>> You know, I think it's a legacy and tradition that people have from all 120 whenever you've got good weather and good food to see the sights and the smiles and and to be a part of something, it's it's really special to 100 20th State fire and that we have 120 counties represented here were unveiling a lot of things and that coordination trying to focus on all 120 counties with 100 20th Kentucky State Fair.

I'm so proud of the employees that we have here and all the effort that they put into making sure that we've got a great state.

We've had a great marketing program from the State Fair Board.

All the folks that work here at this at the fairgrounds and the board really put out marketing across the state of Kentucky to try to involve multiple media outlets to get the information out everywhere.

>> And then also as we were promoting our county fairs across the state, we're also promoting the state fair's well, we've got a lot of great exhibitions that are out there.

A lot of great exhibitors that are here.

And there's something for everybody at this at the state fair.

If you come up this year, we also done some educational things with AG Land.

I asked them and the employees to think of how we could create a non farm experience at the state fair.

And so it will look a little bit different than what it has in the past.

You can go in and there's an obstacle course to kind of feel like you've been on the farm and then we've got a make shift petting zoo there so that people can read some information about animals.

And then we've got a farmers market that you can go and look at.

And we're also promoting the commodity tent that's outside.

But given a little bit of a discount with kda books for kids that go through there last year, I think was the first year that a commissioner of our culture candidate at the time put in a large pumpkin for the giant pumpkin contest and the most proud a place that ever got.

So this year can participate.

But we grew a pumpkin at the Department of Agriculture and we're going to have a commissioner's challenge.

So if you've brought a giant pumpkin and you're participating in that the contest.

If you beat me and my weight, we're going to get a little extra prize money and maybe a T-shirt that says I weigh more than the commissioner and try to make it fun.

Yeah, my favorite thing that I've been coming to for over a decade now is the Kentuck am breakfast.

That's always a really great event where you get people from all over the state of Kentucky.

It's kind of like a family reunion for Kentucky or culture and it's a showcase of some of the best things that we have this morning.

>> Tomorrow you'll hear from shell about the youth programs highlighted at the fair and how they're helping to ensure the future of agriculture.

Earlier in our program, we heard from him at the annual country Ham breakfast at the Kentucky State Fair.

It turned 60 this year since 1964, Kentucky swine herds have been able to put their hands up for the charity auction while the winning hams make headlines for selling millions now the first winner of the contest sold for a mere $124.

Kentucky edition caught up with the Kentucky Farm Bureau for a closer look at the insurance provider's signature event.

>> We started in 1960, forward Country Ham is kind of a breakfast food.

So they started a breakfast to year, but we're going to have country hey, I'm for sure.

And then we'll have we'll have AIDS and biscuits and the honey.

>> And they'll be probably watermelon, tomatoes.

They're also be Sarno, middle be on the table.

So if people want some sort of molasses that will be there also.

And it's kind of become a political of and that all of our elected officials are people that are running for office.

They love to come to the breakfast that made folks and and maybe do a little campaigning and and talk about the what's important to them.

And and what's important to agriculture in our organization.

People want to enjoy that, it's a fun day can have a little fun.

And and, you know, there might be a few political punches that are thrown during the day, but that's a that's normal in the world we live in.

And that's OK, you know, leader McConnell has probably been or ham breakfast, probably than any elected official that we have right now.

I don't know if he's ever missed a ham breakfast that he's been a great partner for Kentucky Farm Bureau and Kentucky agriculture in his time in the Senate, we tell the grand champion Ham at the Kentucky State Fair?

Yeah.

I had a number of winners over the years.

>> But all in all, it's that over the 60 years it's brought almost 34 million dollars to charities here in Kentucky.

So we're really excited to continue that tradition on.

And last year was a record that brought 10 million dollars.

It was split between central bank in Luther dating Luther date and does their bidding for Central bite.

And then also Joe and Kelly Craft.

So they split that they decided that they would they would share in that and they both gave 5 million dollars each.

And so that was our record.

So the person that buys a ham gets that pick the charities of their choice, that they would like to give it to.

And so we always let them pick their charities and they get the recognition of by the hammer.

Not only will not go to other parts of the state.

Other our other parts of the country and other farm bureau laters or agriculture laters.

Most people have heard about the Hambrick bus and they hear about the price that a country ham brings.

The nobody believes that and they want to know the story.

How does it do it?

Other others, farm bureau folks that like to come in Kentuckyian want to come.

And so what we do, how do you sell a country?

I am for 10 million dollars.

It's it's one of the largest farm city advance for sure that we do as an organization where it brings rural Kentuckyian urban Kentucky together and we can come into one room and we can talk about things that are important, agriculture and let them know of the issues that we're facing out on the farm and talk about some of those issues and that they can understand better of where there, food, fuel and and fiber comes from because that's what we do.

And agriculture is that we we provide food, we provide fuel.

And we provide fiber for clothing.

So agriculture, something that none of us can do without.

And we're glad to bring our and folks in our and our rule, folks together.

for a day of fun.

>> Taking the last 57 years into account, the auction brings in an average price of nearly $573,000 per ham.

♪ We there's lots on a kid's mind when they go back to school.

But what happens if one of them is a lice?

We spoke to a pediatrician from Norton Children's Hospital about what the CDC guidance says about sending kids home from school and to debunk common myths about the pesky parasite.

More of that in tonight's medical news.

Head lice or nits a little mouse is a parasitic link.

>> The >> that infest.

>> Near the hair follicle also, they really only live within.

There certainly are 2 of the scalp and most commonly occurs in the preschool to grade school age the kind of 3 to 12.

>> Your old age group, there's a lot of minutes about head lice.

>> people are particularly concerned that it's going to jump to them and that head lice to not jump, they can get spread by direct contact to really to get lice from another person we're talking about like our heads touching.

>> There is risk, although not that I'm Russ, but there is some risk >> of transmission.

And I like sharing things that other people's heads have ties to thinking like has here.

Russia is Combs.

A lot of schools who have like what's called a no net policy that essentially of someone that sees something that looks like in it, which is like a little white.

>> and casing that's like attached to a single hair.

I think it has to be excluded from school until those are gone.

That's 10 recommendation from the American Academy of Pediatrics that no new policies should not be effective at schools.

>> Typically, the concern is it.

One kids are getting singled out an embarrassed.

By being sent home.

And 2, there's a lot of misdiagnosis.

So you know that you think that little white freaky thing attached to O'Hare.

There's a lot of other things that can look like a white flaky thing attached to a hair.

So Andrus dry scalp can be misdiagnosed.

If you go to the CDC's Web site about lies, there is a box that says our guidance has not changed.

So it's been a long standing policy that children who have lice should not get sent home from school.

Their parents should be learned that someone see something that looks like lace.

They should start treatment that day.

And then once they've started treatment, they can return to school.

Head lice is is very common.

You know, a lot of kids are going to get it and trying to minimize, you know, kind of the shame and embarrassment.

I think another common misconception that we didn't mention earlier is that they can to get nicer are dirty in some way.

And that's just not true.

And so, you know, having lice doesn't mean that that kid is not getting a shower or a bath or that they are otherwise dirty.

And it's just a very common problem to see among children.

♪ ♪ >> It's a long time tradition that weaves a story of necessity and creativity, several counties in South Central Kentucky make up the White Oak basket making region today.

The Kentucky Museum at Western Kentucky University hosted the White gathering.

It brings together basket makers from across the southeast, including Bill and Mary and Smith who live in North Carolina.

They believe White oak baskets and prepare materials from trees they built or split for more than 25 years.

They've also taught classes at various arts, crafts and folk schools.

Marianne says baskets for what's crucial to everyday life.

>> I'm very much a traditionalist.

I like our that is usable bill and I are not of an age to KET going out into the woods and because you're cutting that tree down and hauling it out on your shoulder.

And, you know, there comes a point as just to art for you today.

So my dream is always been that some younger people will pick it up and KET it going.

It's not something that's necessary for us anymore.

We have other things to take the place of baskets.

But to me, the tradition is necessary that people don't lose touch with.

Have their ancestors, did things and what nature has to offer you.

If you just look around and say.

>> Marianne estimates she's made thousands of baskets and says some of them take 100 hours of work.

White oak baskets are part of a new exhibition in the Kentucky Museums Folklife Gallery.

The Louisville Nature Center says someone has taken 2 of its turtles.

This is a picture of one of them named chocolate.

The center says last weekend someone broke into the center's outdoor box and took the turtles.

Chocolate is a turtle found wandering several years ago.

The center says he's not able to retreat into a shell and he cannot live on his own.

The other turtle is named Jack.

The center is asking for the turtles to be returned and nobody will get in trouble.

Students are back at the University of Kentucky campus that includes nursing students and they're kicking off the semester by giving back to the Lexington community.

We'll tell you how they're doing that Friday.

Tomorrow on Kentucky EDITION, which we hope that you'll join us for 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central where we inform connect and inspire some great political news will dive into tomorrow on inside Kentucky.

Politics and more.

I'll see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take good care.

♪