But Andy Beshear robbed our kids of that for nearly two years when he shut down our schools.

Candidate for Governor Daniel Cameron on how learning can make a difference in children's lives and how he would handle education.

She may have dyslexia, but that doesn't define her.

The science of literacy and how it's helping kids learn how to read.

I'm probably drinking about a gallon of water a day quite a bit.

With heat advisories in effect this week.

Many of us seek the cold comfort of air conditioning.

But what about those who don't have that option?

And what would you pay for this ham?

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 the 24th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your evening with us.

Two and a half months.

That's what the time is before the November 7th election.

And you can find politics just about everywhere these days, including the Kentucky State Fair.

And yesterday, the fairgrounds hosted more than just thrill rides, sweet treats and livestock expos.

The Jefferson County GOP hosted its annual Lincoln Day dinner at the Kentucky Expo Center yesterday with all the Republican candidates for state wide office in attendance, Kentucky's junior senator Rand Paul and UK alumna and swimmer Riley Gaines opened the political fund raiser with speeches focusing on transgender athletes and Governor Bashir's handling of the COVID 19 pandemic.

It's the changing of the language that we use.

Have you noticed we call ourselves biological females.

It's so subconscious, right?

It doesn't seem like a big deal because it is true.

Technically, we are biological females, but that's them controlling our language.

That's as if there's an alternative to a biological female.

Is there an unbiased, logical female?

No, it's no longer right versus wrong or good versus bad.

This really is moral versus evil.

We found out that perhaps disease is even worse than war, with getting people fearful and ginning up hysteria and people clamoring say, please take my liberty, take my liberty.

And you had people like DWP drunk with power.

Andy Beshear, who grabbed that power, who had what I call is an impulse to authoritarianism.

And so the governor ruled by edict.

He told you how many people could go to a restaurant, whether a hotel could be open, whether a gym could be open.

He virtually bankrupted it, did bankrupt businesses.

He closed the schools.

He mandated masks which don't work, and no evidence that they did work.

The legislature did and boldly went forward and said these edicts will end.

They expire after 30 days unless approved by the governor, and this will happen from now forward.

They neutered Governor Beshear and thank God they did.

Attorney general and Republican gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron took jabs also at Governor Beshear, but also discussed his own policy proposals.

He focused on what he deemed Kentucky's three most important pillars public safety, family values and education.

We know that education is a way, a pathway for a lot of kids to get out of a lot of difficult situations.

We know that.

We know that the relationship between a teacher and the connection that teachers make with their students is so incredibly important.

But Andy Beshear robbed our kids of that for nearly two years when he shut down our schools.

The Democratic Party's policies when it comes to education have failed our kids have failed our families.

It's meant two years of lockdowns.

It's meant disastrous bussing policies here in Louisville.

And it's meant a Kentucky commissioner at the Kentucky Department of Education who has been openly hostile to our hardworking teachers.

The Republican Party, under my leadership, is going to support our public teachers and our public education system.

Although it was not part of his speech last night, Cameron has publicly voiced support for school choice and voucher programs, which use public tax dollars for private education.

Pork was the word of the day at the Kentucky State Fair this morning, as Kentucky Farm Bureau held its 59th annual Country Ham Breakfast auction.

This year's winner, an £18 ham from Ronnie and Beth Drennan, A Broad Broadbent, B and B Farms sold for a record smashing $10 million, a fitting end to a celebration of all things pork.

Everyone here to see our award winning ham auctioned off just a little later and enjoy a delicious Kentucky breakfast while discussing topics important to our state's agriculture.

Your community.

We have 25,000 exhibits.

The barns are full of livestock, 2000 horses, and over 1000 country hams on display.

And when you see a thousand country hams, you hear a few ham speeches from our foragers.

And as a guy who's been here for eight years, I've heard a few hams speeches, and the best one I'd ever heard was my ten year old forager from Washington County.

He said, Commissioner, there's four ways to cook a country ham.

You can bake it, you can broil it, you can fry it.

Or my favorite way to cook it is to have someone else do it for you.

Sounds like a plan.

The winning bid for this year's Ham came from Kelly and Joe Kraft and Central Bank.

With each party paying $5 million apiece, the money from the bid will be donated to various charities.

More on today's Breakfast tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

Also at the fair, Kentucky Right to Life Today announced a new scholarship be her future pregnant and parenting scholarship will assist high school and college age women who face unplanned pregnancies.

What can we do for Kentucky women and girls?

What do we know?

Statistically, we're all more than a statistic.

But studies have shown that pregnancy and birth are considered are significant contributors to high school dropout rates.

We know that mothers who conceive at a high school or college, they have a chance at only 50% of them will continue and pass high school.

But by the time they're 22, we know that one in five women in college are unmarried mothers expecting a child.

We know there is a need.

No woman should or girl should ever have to choose between the life of her child and her education.

The her future scholarship is aimed at covering costs of everything from tuition to diapers for young mothers dealing with unplanned pregnancies.

Now to weather and parts of Kentucky.

The heat index is again topping 110 sweltering degrees.

Its hottest and the western part of the state, Paducah is heat index was at 111 at one point today.

And this heat isn't going anywhere soon.

It's going to last a little longer than expected.

Remember, at the beginning of the week, we said it was going to be hot, so hot that there was a heat warning.

Originally, we thought that this would go through Thursday.

It's now going through Friday and Friday.

It's going to be dangerously hot as well.

We have survived tornadoes and flooding and windstorms and ice storms and a polar plunge and thus far, the hottest summer on record.

We want everybody to survive this, too.

Be careful over the next couple of days.

Stay inside, drink lots of water if you are outside.

Some workers in Bowling Green are taking that advice to heart.

Their livelihood depends on them working outside in the elements.

Our Laura Rogers explains how they're taking precautions against the heat.

More breaks, Drink more water.

Public works crews are getting the job done in the sun, making sure that everybody's got water, everybody's got liquids with them.

Jay Daugherty is putting sweat equity into Bowling Green Parks.

It's the same in the wintertime.

It's cold in the summer.

It's hot.

It's what we do.

But the extreme heat does take a toll.

And he's staying hydrated to avoid sickness.

Geez, I don't know.

I'm probably drinking about a gallon of water a day quite a bit.

You know, all through the day working.

And then even after I go home at night, I'm drinking a lot of water.

The weather plays a huge factor in working outside no matter what time of the year.

But, yes, summer does seem to wear on you a little bit harder.

The Heat public works crews keep things running smoothly in the city and there's always a task on the to do list.

When we have contractors working building projects, we're out with our contractors all day.

This crew is providing maintenance on a storm drain.

Guys, managers are checking in, dropping off water and sports drinks and reminding them to take frequent breaks.

It's hard to work in the heat.

It wears on your body really quick.

We're doing something real strenuous.

We kind of look out for each other, see if we're showing any signs of, like, heat stress or something.

Public works employees may also choose to adjust to their hours.

It seems to be the afternoon hours that are the hottest.

So they can come in earlier in the morning when it's a lot cooler.

Teams may also work for ten hour days for a longer weekend of rest.

Right now, workers say they're looking forward to fall.

I like leaf season.

It's obviously a lot cooler for some relief from the heat sweat a lot.

So that's probably the worst.

Just hot for Kentucky edition.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you so much, Laura.

And as our weather expert who often shares with us tomorrow is also going to be a sweaty Betty.

You can expect the heat to leave tomorrow.

Perhaps it could be the peak of the heat wave on Friday.

The Kentucky maisonette tells us much of the western and northern parts of Kentucky are under an excessive heat warning.

This and this means heat indices could rise to 109 degrees or higher in the afternoon.

So please take precautions.

It's hard to believe, but reading is a biologically secondary skill, meaning it needs to be taught.

Our brains aren't designed to innately decipher text the way we are designed to decipher spoken language up until the end of third grade.

Most children are learning to read.

It's something most families take for granted.

But for those students who struggle in those early years, it can have a profound impact on their educational and lifelong success.

Our Kristi Dalton introduces us to the Jones family from Jefferson County and their daughter, Myla.

And tonight's education matters.

Myla is in third grade.

She's eight years old and she's making great strides academically, learning to read and thriving in school.

But that wasn't always the case.

There was a time when things were a lot harder.

Describe some of the clues that you got.

Those first clues that she might have some learning differences.

So, you know, I think we wondered about it early and then she's left handed whether that really means anything or not.

We don't really know.

But some of the teachers thought that maybe she was mirroring.

So she would write things backwards because she was mirroring what they were doing.

And so we kind of were watching, but we weren't kind of being all that aware to whether it was dyslexia or not until really until she went into first grade.

And there, you know, she came home and just her attitude started changing.

She was not thrilled to go to school anymore.

She knew that she wasn't picking up on everything as quickly as some of the other students.

And so when she was in the first grade, she brought home this book that she made, and that was a bit of an aha moment.

Tell us that story.

So she had come home from school and they make a book where you write, you know, a script at the bottom and there's a picture.

And she was very proud that she had done that.

And so she came home from school and said, Mommy, I want to show you this book that I made.

So she got it out and then she wasn't able to read it.

And she was extremely frustrated because she had written it and then couldn't read the book at all.

So when you reached out for that diagnosis.

Tell us how that came about and how that felt.

I honestly wasn't expecting a dyslexia diagnosis when we got her tested.

They said that she was seeing hieroglyphs that, you know, reading it was not at all.

There was no phonetic awareness in terms of seeing a letter and knowing what sound that makes.

And to know that your kiddo has been sitting in a classroom and seeing hieroglyphs and understanding that her peers are able to do things and understand things that she wasn't able to do was extremely overwhelming and sad.

So in the first grade, she moved from public elementary school to the departure school, which does specialize in in children and students that learn differently.

What kind of difference is that made for her that you said night and day?

I mean, within a week of her being here, she was back to being happy and new and wanted to go to school and to go to school.

Confidence.

So confidence.

And she's always had a lot of confidence and then understood that she may have dyslexia, but that doesn't define her.

And if anything, it's her superpower.

She's been given this wonderful gift of being incredibly creative.

And no matter how quickly you learned or read or how fast you can read, does not at all have any correlation with your intelligence.

So, you know, we're very thankful for for the school here at DePaul and the differences in that they the way that they're able to teach differently here to meet to meet the children where they are.

It's just it's been it's like having our kid back and her she can read I mean which is amazing.

You'll learn more about the science of reading and how Kentucky teachers are starting to implement that in the classroom.

And a panel discussion that we're having next week.

And we'll focus on some policy changes from the state legislature to help focus on teaching teachers to teach reading the programs called Early literacy.

Forum.

It's hosted by our own Kelsey Starks.

It airs Monday night at eight Eastern, seven Central right here on KCET.

A utility case that could shape how Kentucky's future energy needs are met began this week.

Algae and and K, you have proposed retiring nearly a third of their coal fired generators and replacing them with natural gas plants, solar generation and a battery storage facility.

On Tuesday, several people spoke out against the proposal during a public meeting of the Kentucky Public Service Commission.

Today, I spoke with Ryan Van Belzer, an energy and environment reporter for Louisville Public Media, about this consequential case.

Ryan Van Belzer, thank you so very much for speaking with us about the work you're doing and covering this case before the PSC that involves coal fired power plants and the desire for companies like LG and CU to retire their coal fired power plants in the near future.

What's going on with the case that's being heard now and where does it stand?

This is a really important case.

It's the first case of its kind since the passage of SB four.

That was a bill passed by or sponsored by Senator Rob Mills of Henderson, who's now running for lieutenant governor with Daniel Cameron in the November governor's race.

He sponsored a bill that passed that makes it makes it harder to retire coal fired power plants.

It's now up to the commissioners at the public service Commission, the three utility commissioners there to make a decision in the case of Louisville Gas and Electric and Kentucky utilities, LG and CU wants to retire a fair amount of coal generation and replace it with a combination of natural gas, solar and battery storage.

And for the first time, they have to overcome the utility has to overcome several new hurdles because of this legislation that makes it harder to retire.

Coal fired power plants.

So what does this mean for the end user here, The consumer and the ratepayer, which would be the most cost efficient way for them?

You know, that's a great question and that's something that has come up in this case.

I should specify that this case is actually different than a rate case.

That's when rates are set.

That would come after this.

This is entirely about building the new generation and retiring the old generation.

That said, LG executives have said during this case that they anticipate rates would go up as a result of building this new power generation.

They also said it's less than it would go up if they went with an all renewable portfolio.

They looked at an all renewable portfolio instead of doing this combination that I've been talking about.

But they claimed that that all renewable portfolio would cost $2 billion more than their current plan.

Wow.

So Senator Rob Mills, who you just mentioned a moment ago, who is on the ticket with Republican gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron.

Mills is the lieutenant governor candidate.

Is is he present for these meetings?

You know, here I haven't seen him at the meetings themselves, but he did appear in a public comment period, a meeting last week.

I forget which one it was.

But he spoke about the need for the continued need for coal generation.

His argument is that it provides affordable, reliable electricity.

We did hear some other interesting facts in this case, though.

There was that storm, winter storm, winter storm, Eliot, that happened in late December and actually came out LG.

Q Executives were saying that so the coal generation actually went offline during that storm and was less reliable than it has been purported to be.

So people are curious about Wood having more of a hybrid portfolio for Kentucky's energy portfolio.

Would that be good for the stability, the reliable body of energy in Kentucky?

What does your research and reporting tell you about that?

Energy experts I've spoken with say a diverse portfolio is a reliable portfolio.

Increasing diversity is important to the energy mix and important to reliability.

But there are issues with all of these forms of generation when it comes to reliability.

When we looked at this winter storm that happened last year, it caused a huge problem for natural gas plants.

The freezing temperatures caused a valve to freeze, which caused natural gas to go offline for something like seven power plants around the region.

Coal had its own problems where where a lot of coal generation had parts that froze in and of itself.

Actually, some of the most reliable generation came from wind generation generated in the Midwest that was brought over through regional transmission organizations.

So that's why having a healthy, a diverse energy mix is important, but it's also important that these utilities start reducing their carbon emissions.

It's important, of course, because climate change is happening and it's something this is the way that we have to take care of it by ending our reliance on fossil fuels.

But it's also important, an important financial decision, because these coal fired power plants are getting increasingly expensive, especially with the new pollution controls that are being put on them, which also improve people's health.

Yeah.

A lot to take stock of.

And we thank you, Ryan, for being the one who's doing it so deftly.

We appreciate your reporting and your commitment to this energy issue.

Thank you so much.

Thank you.

The Public Service Commission hearing is expected to last through tomorrow.

A final decision, though, won't be rendered until November.

On the jobs front, unemployment was up in 98 of Kentucky's 120 counties from July of 2022 to July of this year.

It was down in 17 counties and the same.

And five Woodford County has the lowest jobless rate in Kentucky at 3.5%.

Martin County had the highest at ten and a half percent.

Here's more economic news.

August is black business model a time to lift up and support black owned businesses?

Our Kelcey Starks sits down with Dr. Angelique Johnson, an entrepreneur and leader in Louisville small business community.

Dr. Angelique Johnson is a business expert, entrepreneur and an inventor who has in fact helped thousands of entrepreneurs and business owners pursue their passion, particularly black owned businesses.

Tell us about your focus there.

Oh, awesome.

You know, as black entrepreneurs, there's often a lot of systemic issues against us in terms of funding resources, not having generational wealth.

And sometimes there's some generational knowledge that comes in that in forming a business.

And, you know, when I started my tech startup, it was doing medical devices.

It was called medicine, and it was lonely.

I was the only black female in my space across the nation doing it.

And I wanted to create visionary so that no one else would have that lonely experience.

So tell us about visionary and this coaching and how you help people really realize their vision.

Yeah, so visionary.

And we're basically what we call tech enabled the business consulting.

So we have a tech platform, we work with that with clients and we work with incubators, and with that we're coaching them on how to execute on their business, set goals, actions.

We connect them to resources.

Maybe it's a lawyer, maybe it's an accountant, maybe it's branding, marketing that they need.

And one of the biggest elements of visionary is that we also work on the whole entrepreneur.

And so we incorporate faith elements.

We have a subset of visionary that's focused on entrepreneurs of faith, as we call it.

And talk a little bit more about that.

I know you host every Monday and coffee and prayer session for anybody who wants to join and how faith plays a big part in your own business.

And then those who code.

Yeah.

So a visionary.

And by the way, visionary AM stands for Vision Rich and we say you may not be a millionaire yet, but you certainly vision there.

And so with faith, we say all entrepreneurs are entrepreneurs of faith.

They're building something that does not exist with money.

They don't get half for people that haven't yet come.

And but particularly, we deal with entrepreneurs that have a faith system founded in Christ.

But entrepreneurs of all faiths really come to us because they're building their business, but they also want to incorporate faith inside of it.

In fact, the Federal Reserve did a report and they found that the majority of black female entrepreneurs use faith as a primary way to make business decisions.

And then the Harvard Business Review reported a study that the majority of entrepreneurs overall are more religious and tend to pray more often than non entrepreneurs, regardless of their faith background.

Wow, that's interesting.

So if people want to work with you or find out more, how can they get in touch?

Absolutely.

So black coffee.

There's a nice, wonderful coffee shop, new and beautiful over on the West End doing some amazing work there.

They can join in for coffee and prayer.

Right.

That's just to get your motivation going.

But really you can reach out to our website WW w visionary and dot com where you can connect for business coaching consulting to get access to our tech platform.

And lastly, we are looking for partners, particularly on our faith based initiatives.

If someone is a church and they want to connect in with that, if somebody is, you know, just out in the community and cares about entrepreneurs of faith and wants to develop programing, we're looking for partnerships now and we're open to it because we believe it takes more than a Google business coaching.

It really takes a village to build up a business and to build up an entrepreneur and support it.

Absolutely.

Well, you can always find Dr. Johnson at Coffee and Prayer at Black Coffee.

That's 1219 Jefferson Street in Louisville.

It's from 8 to 10 a.m. every Monday morning to you.

Thank you.

Kelsey Dr. Johnson serves on the board for the federal government's Fund for Business Innovation and the Kentucky Cabinet for Economic Development Technology Fund.

Could a trip to the Kentucky State Fair save your life?

There's more than animals, rides, food and fun.

How you can combine a good time with good health.

That's tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, which we hope you'll join us for.

Again at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our weekly or bi weekly email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET dot org Look for us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

Send us a story idea at Public Affairs at KET dot org Finally, follow us on Facebook.

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Thanks so much for joining us tonight.

I'm Renee Shaw and I'll see you right back here for Friday, Kentucky edition.

Take good care.