Kentucky's most closely watched U.S.

House race.

Governor Beshear calls for ending tax breaks for companies that want to build data centers.

Kentucky would receive $358 million in a proposed settlement with tech giant meta.

Remembering Dolly Parton's Kentucky connections, kindness and influence.

Heading into the last weekend of August, comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Sylvia Goodman, Capitol reporter for Kentucky Public Radio, Lucas Aulbach chief politics reporter for the Courier-Journal.

And joining us remotely is Russ Cassidy, regional editor of Appalachian Newspapers.

We have a lot to discuss tonight.

Let's start with politics.

The Kentucky Ham breakfast at the State Fair raised money for charity, and politicians also made the scene.

The ham went for $10 million, with Joe and Kelly Kraft partnering with central Bank once again for charity.

>> And then we write a story about the ham this year and where Joe and I are investing with with the proceeds.

And we're in that way.

People understand that every bite is helping another person.

>> So Sylvia, the Farm Bureau, the Kentucky Farm Bureau, sponsors.

The event comes during a challenging time for farmers this year.

>> Right.

Really quickly, I do want to mention that at least I learned this year that the bidding is based on previous years or the the donations that they've made up to that point in the calendar year.

So it's, it's a kind of summation of all their charitable giving for the year.

>> Total donation.

>> Yeah, exactly.

But also, you know, you're right that this is a celebration of agriculture in the state and an undercurrent this year and in many years, to be frank, is the challenges that farmers are facing right now.

Farmers are facing some unique challenges under the Trump administration, especially with tariffs hurting, especially soybean farmers because of retaliatory tariff, trade, war sort of business.

And then also cattlemen are facing some really unique challenges right now that I think we'll get into later.

But it's definitely a challenging time.

And that was an undercurrent of this year's event.

>> Yeah, there weren't a whole lot of political speakers this year.

>> No.

>> It was really it was not Fancy Farm again, right.

>> No, it was not.

Governor Beshear didn't come.

Neither of our senators attended.

So it was it was a little sparse on that front.

Agriculture Commissioner Shell did give a speech.

We heard from Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg, and we also heard, of course, from the Farm Bureau president.

But you're right, it was a little light on the political speaking.

So, of course, all the journalists.

But we also had all of the candidates that are running on the ballot this year and a few that are running next year.

So we definitely had a rich crowd to chat with afterwards.

>> No doubt in the sixth district U.S.

House race in Central Kentucky, Democrat Zach Dembo faces Republican Ralph Alvarado this week.

Dimbo went on the offense, saying he would be dedicated to fighting corruption.

>> When we have tariffs that are crushing Kentucky industries, all the while, while we've got millionaires and billionaires setting policy in D.C.

while we have an administration getting rich and members of Congress getting rich.

That's the corruption I'm talking about.

>> Lucas Dimbo claims he left his job as a federal prosecutor in protest, and says that he would push for tighter restrictions on members of Congress.

>> Yeah, and it's not the first time we've heard him talk about corruption during his campaign.

I know at the Jefferson County Democrat dinner a couple of weeks ago here in town, he the cost of corruption, I think, was his speech there.

But so it's kind of been baked into his campaign from the start.

But yeah, his plan this week, he rolled it out.

It has, you know, banned stock trading for congressional representatives, several measures banning former congressional representatives from lobbying, probably an uphill climb for things like term limits to get passed.

But but it's been a part of his campaign since he got in.

And, you know, clearly he's leaning into it and leaning into his background as a prosecutor and somebody who can fight these things as we enter the stretch run.

>> Also this week, NBC news was first to report that Alvarado has removed mentions and images of President Trump from his website.

Trump carried the sixth district by double digits in 2024, but Alvarado has shifted his emphasis away from Trump and refers to himself as independent.

Lucas seems to be a stark shift here just before the September sprint.

>> Yeah, right.

And it's, you know, after the primary where a Trump endorsement can really be that golden ticket.

We saw that in the Senate race.

You know, it's I does that endorsement help you as much in a general election, especially in a district like the sixth that is not, you know, super far left, super far right.

So, you know, it polls have shown that this is going to be a close race.

And I think that kind of indicates that.

>> Yeah, I think it's worth noting here.

Like Lucas was saying, the sixth district is seen as one of the more purple districts in the state.

It used to be more purple when Senator excuse me, representative Barr won the district, you know, several years ago.

But it has become more red leaning through.

But I think that what we're kind of picking up is picking up on, at least, is that this is a suburban district.

It has a lot of suburbs in it.

It's got Lexington in it.

He's got to appeal to a wider base than maybe the most hardcore Trump supporters, or maybe some people who are more skeptical of President Trump than they were in the in the election.

>> And, you know, Barr is going to do whatever he can to keep that district red and make sure that he doesn't lose that district while he runs for Senate.

So it's that's definitely the one to watch coming to these last couple of months.

>> And it is such an interesting district.

As you point out, it is Lexington.

It is the larger towns that are growing around Lexington, Richmond and Nicholasville and Georgetown and so on.

And then some.

>> Rural, rural.

Agricultural areas, things like that.

So it's a very diverse district in that sense.

And so you have to appeal to all of those people at the same time.

>> Yeah.

Well, fifth District Republican Congressman Hal Rogers is already the longest serving House member in Washington, and he's seeking another term.

He faces Democrat Ned Pillersdorf, who is a well known Eastern Kentucky lawyer.

And, Russ, we know that Rogers has been traveling the district, making some announcements about federal funding.

Is that difficult to compete with if you are pillars dwarf.

Even as he tries to criticize Rogers for some of the federal cuts and the impacts some of that could have on the district.

>> Well, yeah.

I mean, we've seen a noticeable uptick in the number of press releases coming from the congressman's office.

And of course, we're seeing him a lot more in the fifth district, something we've not seen in a little bit as far as the impact of those check presentations and things of that nature go.

I don't know that they have the impact that they once had.

You know, at one point that was a very big part of it.

But now it's kind of like everybody's kind of looking at the cumulative impacts of all the funding coming together and is it making things better?

I think people are starting to question it a little more, you know?

And as Pillersdorf himself pointed out in one of his social media posts, you know, the congressman did vote against legislation that allocated some of the funding he celebrating bringing to the district.

So there's a lot of maybe kind of a disconnect there.

You know, I don't know if it's going to be that that's going to be as much of a factor as it is going to be the shift of the district.

So far.

Reed over the past, you know, four, six years as actually being the factor that that turns out to be the one that decides that race.

>> Russ, what are you seeing in that race as you watch it from your perch there in Pikeville?

>> Well, I mean, to be honest with you, it's kind of quiet and that doesn't surprise me.

The federal aside from president, the federal offices don't always bring out a lot of interest in our region.

It's I think there's kind of a feeling that, you know, what happens in Washington happens in Washington.

And I'm going to worry about the judge executive race and the state representative race.

More than that.

So, you know, I don't know that it's as on as people's minds as much as it is.

For example, in the sixth district, where it's obviously a big deal and big news.

>> All right.

We will keep track of it, though.

Nevertheless.

Well, sixth District Congressman Andy Barr is the Republican U.S.

Senate nominee.

Barr's campaign remains firmly joined to President Trump on most of his policies, somewhat in contrast to the move by Alvarado, we talked about, president Trump is featured in Barr's social media and other communications.

Lucas Barr appears to see some currency in President Trump's support and political stands here in the Commonwealth.

>> Got him this far right.

You know, I think he emphasized that Trump relationship once or twice during the primary.

So he's also running statewide.

I think it's important to note he's not running in this purple district like Ralph Alvarado is.

He's running in a Republican heavy, full state.

So, you know, I think he it's he's a little safer leaning into that relationship.

And, you know, even when he seems to disagree or have some distance between him and the president, he kind of couches it a different way.

Like when he was talking about beef tariffs this week, he basically said, I think we need a better long term solution.

But I like this as a short term solution.

Whereas, you know, some other people we spoke with, Representative Comer, for instance, were pretty clear that like, hey, I disagree with the president on this one.

And I've voiced that to, you know, as agriculture secretary and people like that.

>> Yeah.

And I also think it's worth noting that the way that Barr is talking about his relationship with the president now, that especially he is appealing to the full state, he's not running in a primary.

He's really talking up his connections within the Trump administration.

He's saying, look at the things that I can get you.

I can bring in secretaries to the state.

He's bringing in a couple next week.

I can talk to the president and tell him your point of view.

I can get them to talk to Kentuckians and hear your point of view.

So he's pushing that as he has an in with this administration.

They'll listen to him.

And will you get the same from a Democrat?

>> Well, Senator McConnell was known for for his connections to the white House throughout much of his tenure.

>> Wheeling and dealing.

>> That's right.

And bringing, you know, spending to Kentucky.

Well, Barr faces Democrat Charles Booker, who says despite what those prediction maps are showing, there could be an upset.

Booker says he believes a lot of voters are open to his message.

Lucas, I interviewed Booker this week, and he was unapologetically for Medicare for all, enlarging the U.S.

Supreme Court, spending federal dollars to tackle the country's housing shortage.

And he acknowledged that Kentucky has a conservative tilt.

But he says he thinks this year is different and people are more receptive.

>> Well, that's who he always is.

First of all, you know, you always know where Charles Booker stands on the issue, even whether or not it's going to be popular with voters.

He is very clear that he is progressive and very clear on his stances.

And, you know, some of these progressive candidates have had success in other races around the country.

You look at Michigan, Maine, you know, I think I saw somebody at maybe Punchbowl or somebody said earlier today that Senate candidate, I believe from Florida, Alex Vindman, was going to send Booker some money.

So, I mean, it's a message that is resonating with some people outside the state.

We'll see what happens on Election Day if it resonates with enough people in the state.

I think he's a clear underdog.

But we'll see.

>> Yeah.

And they are set for a debate in October.

Well the data center issue is here to stay.

It looks like, at least for now, Governor Beshear is now calling for an end to state tax incentives for the centers.

>> I don't think data centers need incentives.

I don't think we should be providing them.

And so I would certainly support rolling back any of that.

These are some of the wealthiest companies in human history.

They can afford the construction, and some of them that are currently talking with communities, those that are doing it transparently seem to be moving away from from even applying for them.

>> So, Sylvia, lawmakers approved tax incentives for data centers statewide in 2025 is fairly recent.

And now Beshear wants to eliminate the state tax breaks.

>> Wright in 2024, they opened up this kind of world of tax incentives just for Louisville.

And then the next year, they expanded it.

And then we saw this explosion all over the state.

It feels like I'm constantly chasing down new data center projects.

So it's certainly a big topic in a lot of communities.

I don't think we've seen any actual project B approved for tax incentive yet, but we know obviously they're going to go for it.

We've seen some pretty crazy estimates about how much those tax incentives would mean for just a few of those data center projects.

It's a total exemption from sales and use tax for I think it's 50 years.

And, you know, I think it's a huge issue in the entire country.

It's definitely an issue in Kentucky, and it's both in urban and rural areas.

It's really a connector.

>> A good point.

So Russ, you know, it seems we have gotten to that point that the mention of a potential data center brings out crowds, whether it's in an urban area or a rural area, and people come with their questions and criticism.

>> Yeah, absolutely.

And I think a lot of it has to do with the uncertainty where the state has not put into, although the governor has, but where the legislature is not put into place, these protections regarding, you know, power usage and who's going to pay for that?

And it's kind of been up to the local communities case by case basis.

And then some of these projects are happening, as the governor mentioned, transparently, but some of them have come in kind of under the radar.

And the ones that have come in under the radar are obviously bringing the most heat, because, I mean, people are just distrustful of these projects in general, because we don't know.

We've seen some data centers and quite a few, but we've not seen in mass what that's going to mean for the communities, especially here in rural areas like Eastern Kentucky.

>> Well, especially, as you said, when they come in under the radar, that that breeds suspicion, right?

>> Absolutely, absolutely.

And those officials who have done that, or even given the appearance of doing that, it has gone very badly for the the opposition to these projects is massive.

>> Lucas.

Louisville just approved an expansion for a data center.

>> Yeah, it was a data center that was approved right before soon before they passed the six month moratorium on new projects that will last into February unless new regulations are passed in that time.

This is a big one in southwest Louisville.

It's not comparatively to the size of the entire project, a very big expansion.

So I think planning officials, my colleague Killian Barr had a good story on this.

I think planning officials basically said, we don't usually hold big public hearings for relatively minor expansions like this, but it did kick up some dust just because of the pushback we see to data centers.

And, you know, the whole it's the biggest talking point you hear on the campaign trail these days.

>> And a relatively minor expansion to a project this big is actually a pretty big expansion.

>> Yeah.

Right.

Yeah.

>> And Sylvia, this, you know, seems to have everybody's attention heading toward the legislative session as well.

The election first, then the session.

But there are so many different perspectives on data centers and what economic opportunity they might bring to regions.

How might that discussion play out?

>> Right.

I think we're seeing Democrat's kind of coalescing around this idea that either we need some very strong protections against data centers, or we need to just block them outright.

So we hear both sides.

On the Democratic side, I think it's a much broader array among Republicans.

Some Republicans, like Senate President Robert Stivers.

He was the real champion, the architect of these original tax incentives.

He's been pretty clear that he thinks that data centers will be a huge economic Boone.

They'll bring in tax revenue to localities.

Meanwhile, some Republicans example, Josh Bray was the one who proposed data center protections in the last session that didn't end up going through they stalled out in the Senate.

But we've already heard a few Republicans at least hinting, if not outright calling for an end or or massive changes to those tax incentives.

So I think it's going to be a very interesting interparty debate here in this Republican super majority come January.

>> It's a 30 day session.

>> So they don't get a.

>> Lot a.

>> Whole lot.

>> Of.

>> Time discussing it now.

>> And they are obviously.

>> Yeah.

Oh yeah.

>> Well, another issue dominating city halls across the state right now flock cameras.

And this week in Jefferson County, Shively police officer was accused of using the department's flock camera system to track and harass a woman.

What happened here?

The department learned of this alleged misconduct.

>> It was an internal audit or an external auditing tool, I should say, that.

Found it.

Yeah.

One of the officers had run thousands of searches on on a woman.

And this story really went national.

You know, I think Rand Paul was even talking about it saying this was pretty clear.

Fourth amendment violation right here.

If you are following somebody location for several months, that is an illegal search.

So I think Shively police are going to announce on Monday, have a press conference going over new safeguards and policy changes as a result.

So expect that's one to watch.

>> And so this feeds into conversations happening all over the bluegrass state right now.

Several Northern Kentucky cities, Hartford and Western Kentucky, Cynthiana, ending their agreements with flock.

>> Yeah, Erlanger just did it.

I think that this is feeding also not just into statewide conversation, a national conversation about privacy, the use of police tools, AI to expand surveillance networks on citizens.

So it's not surprising to me that Senator Rand Paul is is ramping up his discussions about this.

I mean, the question is, where is your line, right?

Where is your line for when it's you need a search warrant for something.

Do you need it for if you're tracking someone for seven days, do you need it if you need one for one hour?

And so this person was tracking this woman for five months before it was caught.

And he was now facing charges 2000, 2048 searches, something like that over five months.

That's a lot of searching of one person with no oversight.

It would appear until now and no search warrant.

>> It took Rand Paul's attention away from Anthony Fauci for a few minutes, which is no easy feat.

>> Just a few minutes.

>> Just for a few.

>> President Trump's decision to allow imported beef into the U.S.

over the next 90 days, getting some pushback here in Kentucky.

You referenced that earlier, Lucas, and you covered that story this week.

>> Yeah, it's an issue.

Farmers or cattle farmers around the state.

Kentucky is the biggest.

I didn't know this until Thomas Massie was talking about it recently.

Kentucky is the biggest cattle state east of the Mississippi.

So this is an important industry here.

And people say if we're importing beef with lower tariffs, that's taking money out of our pockets.

I think this kind of stems, I've been told to a supply issue of cattle domestically.

And, you know, I think people like Congressman Comer, agricultural agriculture commissioner, that's a mouthful.

Shell have said we need to focus on upping local Kentucky national supply of cattle instead of, you know, lowering tariffs on these imported beef from out of the country.

>> Right.

But it's also, I mean, the president is trying to deliver on his promise to lower prices.

I think that's what this comes down to ahead of the midterms.

He wants to be able to deliver some sort of lower consumer prices.

And that's part of his deal here.

This they're basically removing the out of quota tariffs for I think it's 300 000 tons of metric tons of beef and a lot of meat.

And, and so essentially this this could hurt farmers in the short term.

They say they're making decisions for years in the future.

Right now it's hurting beef futures right now.

Will they decide to build up their herd when right now they don't have a lot of extra cash.

>> Yeah.

Well we know that.

It's been a busy week.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman announced a proposed settlement in a lawsuit against meta.

Kentucky is one of the states involved in the tentative settlement.

The top $17 billion.

Kentucky would receive $358 million under the terms.

>> While meta is certainly paying for what it did to our kids, this was never just about the money kids deserve a childhood that isn't measured in likes and followers.

This settlement will bring a generational change that will make the internet safer for Kentucky families.

>> All right, so Sylvia Coleman says the lawsuit that was its intention is to make social media safer for kids.

>> Right.

And this has been an important point in his entire term as attorney general.

He's really he's filed several lawsuits against social media companies.

This was a national one.

He's filed several in state court against TikTok, against Roblox.

And he's really focused on this idea that these companies are targeting kids.

They're using them for ad revenue.

And part of that plan is to addict kids, to social media, according to Russell Coleman.

And so he's saying that this money will be helpful in fighting social media's effects on kids.

And then also, you know, making sure that it's safer moving forward.

>> And Russ, Republican State Senator Lindsay Tichenor said in a statement.

Parents have the primary responsibility for guiding their children, but companies should not be allowed to target them.

She's also been holding some hearings as a committee chair about limiting screen time for school children.

It seems this is going to be a continuing area of emphasis in the legislature.

>> Well, it should be.

I mean, anytime we have one of these settlements, I mean, we can see it in the opioid settlement, the implementation of any program or any organization that receives the funding, how they use it is going to be vital because, I mean, a settlement on its own isn't much, but how it's implemented is what matters.

And this screen time issue is going to become more and more prevalent.

I mean, we just had the Floyd County Board of Education discuss just this week about limiting screen time in the classroom.

And I'm not talking about kids on Facebook in class.

I'm talking about what they're actually using it for learning.

So we've just seen the beginning of this.

I think this is going to be a long, ongoing conversation, require a lot of attention.

>> There's a childhood brain cancer Dipg that's been showing up in concerning numbers in southeastern Kentucky.

The Kentucky Department for Public Health is looking into it.

Congressman Rogers now says the CDC is looking into this apparent cluster of cases.

>> Yeah, it is really concerning, especially when a particular kind of cancer emerges in a very specific area over a short period of time.

You know, there's been a lot of talk over the years in Eastern Kentucky about the impacts of mining and other industrial activities that have gone on here.

Does that tie into it or but at any rate, you know, they this is something that deserves full attention because, you know, no child should ever suffer, die because of a environmental factor that can be affected or changed.

So I think you're going to see a lot of people kind of pushing for this as we move forward to really look into this and try to find out what's going on.

>> Well, Dolly Parton's death this week brought back memories for people all around the world.

They talked about her music and her movies, but very much about her kindness.

Here in Kentucky, people remembered concerts they attended over Dolly's more than 60 years in showbiz, many young Kentuckians benefited from Dolly's kindness, including her Imagination library.

That program dedicated to Dolly's dad, has distributed millions of books in Kentucky since it was extended to the Bluegrass State in 2001.

Russ, we all have our memories.

I had the opportunity to interview her, was so pleased that she was as kind and authentic as I hoped she would be.

And lots of folks talking about this representation of Appalachia that that Dolly embodied.

>> Well, yeah.

I mean, my own seven year old, now seven year old, was an Imagination Library child.

He received those books and loves Dolly as much as anybody.

You know, there are certain aspects of the people of the mountains that we like to exemplify or broadcast to the world, you know, talent, ingenuity, caring, faith, you know, all these different aspects.

And one of the things that we've tried over generations is to let the world know what's actually going on here.

You know, Dolly's from not far from where I'm at right now, but Dolly Parton exemplified those aspects, all those positive aspects, and broadcast those to the world in such a way.

I mean, it was hard.

You know, I saw where the Royal Band in in London played her song, you know, I mean, things that she had such a beautiful impact, you know?

And may it last forever, I hope.

>> Well said.

And we all have been playing deep tracks and shed some tears this week.

Certainly.

Thursday marked the 20th anniversary of a deadly plane crash in Lexington that took 49 lives.

On August 27th, 2006, Carroll Air Flight 5191 took off from the wrong runway at Blue Grass Airport Thursday.

There was a memorial event at the Arboretum in Lexington for those who lost their lives, and certainly lots of memories, recounted.

Kentucky's teacher retirement system is reporting double digit gains for a fourth consecutive year, a news release says.

The Retirement Annuity Trust Fund earned just over 15% over the last year.

The health insurance trust gained more than 16%, and it comes as the legislature has been fully funding the retirement fund and adding additional money as well from the state Budget Reserve trust fund.

That's comment.

Have a good week ahead.

>> Almost like you've done this before.

>> Well.

>> Excellent Dolly tribute.

>> Oh nice job.

It was all I could do to jam everything in as you saw.

And we had to leave some of i