We had the least written history and possibly the best oral history of any place.

How a Kentucky community is Keeping history alive by writing it down on paper with heroin and they're all smiles ready for their first day.

They've got their whole backpack.

It is great.

Everyone is getting ready to head back to school, including Kentucky's bus drivers on International Cat Day.

How many felines call Kentucky home?

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 Tuesday, August the eighth.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Tuesday with us.

A new Kentucky law that restricts classroom discussions about gender identity, sexual orientation, student preferred pronoun and bathroom use goes into effect this school year.

The state's largest school district has been wrestling with how to implement Senate Bill 150.

The sweeping measure passed by lawmakers last spring that many assail as anti-trans.

Last night, on a 5 to 2 vote, the Jefferson County Board of Education adopted a policy that, quote, reluctantly complies with the new law.

Louisville Public Media Education and Learning reporter Jess Clark spoke with me earlier today about the board's decision.

Well, the decision is that they passed a policy version that essentially complies with Senate Bill 150, but it just kind of pushed the boundaries of the law a little bit.

So attorneys did try to build in some protections for transgender students.

And so was this a surprise action by the board?

Was it thought that perhaps the board was going to reject it altogether?

What was the conventional thinking going in?

Well, so previously the board had considered to two policy responses.

One would have openly defied Senate Bill 150, which requires schools to pass policies that ban transgender students from bathrooms and locker rooms that match their identity.

Another version of the policy would have reluctantly complied.

And so initially, the district board members had had indicated that they might wait until later this fall when we get some guidance from the federal government as to whether SB 150 is is legal under Title nine.

But their board attorney advised them that if they do wait that long and they don't meet an August 15th guideline or deadline to pass the policy, they could have faced impeachment.

And so they decided to move forward with a policy that that does comply.

But like I said, it has some exemptions for transgender students that we don't see in a lot of the other policies from other school districts that comply with Senate Bill 151.

One of those exemptions is that it allows students who have a gender dysphoria, diagnose diagnosis and whose diagnosis is determined to be a disability.

They could get access to restrooms that match their gender under federal disabilities law.

So but they have to have a diagnosis right by a physician, pediatrician to prove that, correct?

Right.

It requires a lot of documentation and it would require an individualized education plan, which is requires a lot of documentation.

You have to get that doctor's diagnosis.

Then you have to meet with a committee of school administrators and teachers and kind of convince them that your child needs this specific accommodation to help them manage their their disability.

Yeah.

And so it has been described by some who wanted the school board not to comply as kind of putting putting access to bathrooms behind a paywall for transgender kids.

Interesting.

Well, we'll keep following this because maybe the federal guidance could cause a reversal or a change of course here and other school districts as well.

Jess Clark, thank you for being on top of this and for your in-depth reporting about this overnight.

So thank you so much.

Thank you so much, Renee.

With school starting tomorrow and Jefferson County students, parents and teachers are getting ready, and so are the bus drivers.

They have new routes this year and they practice those routes last week.

Here is Connie Blessed, a driver starting her seventh year behind the wheel.

We are stimulating all around.

We all have new rounds this year.

So it's taking a little we're getting used to have all the confidence in the world that everything but that second week of school, everything is going to be slow.

Just have a little patience, patience and understanding.

Like it's all new for every one of us.

None of us have done this before.

All of us need little patience for making sure we know where we're going, where our stops are.

The best way to get there and the safest spot to pick up our kids.

I'm really excited.

I can't wait.

I can't wait.

When they get on and they're all smiles ready for their first day, they got their little backpack.

It is great.

I love my job.

My husband.

When I started driving, he said, You are actually happy in what you do.

I am.

I love what I do.

And her love shows for certain students and parents are also adjusting to make the most efficient use of bus drivers.

The school system has changed.

Start times at a majority of Jefferson County schools.

On the subject of busses, Wolf County is now home to the state's first electric school bus delivered yesterday.

This is part of the EPA's clean school bus program.

School districts applied and were picked through a lottery.

This is one of about 60 electric busses headed to ten school districts in Kentucky this year.

It's all part of a national $5 billion program to replace existing school busses with low or zero emission models.

As we told you last week, parts of far western Kentucky received another on needed downpour.

Our Toby Gibbs has an update on that and more.

And our regular Tuesday look at headlines around Kentucky.

Western Kentucky was hit with flash flooding last week, triggering mudslides in several areas.

The west Kentucky star report streets in downtown Hickman were closed because of mudslides.

The National Weather Service said Hickman received about ten inches of rain in 24 hours.

Kentucky farmers could face a hay shortage this season.

That's according to Moorhead State Public Radio.

It reports for most livestock in the area.

Some are hay is their only food source during the colder months.

And officials are warning there could be fewer harvests this year.

Farmers are being told to start planning ahead for hay needs.

This winter.

Jefferson County Public Schools cut the ribbon on the first school that is built in Louisville's West Side in 23 years.

The Dr. William H. Perry Elementary School will serve 650 students and connects to the YMCA, where students will have access to the pool and gym.

The chair of the Jefferson County Board of Education tells Louisville Public Media, quote, It is hurtful that it has taken this long to get where we are, but we're going in the right direction now.

So I think we can feel more positive as we move forward and quote.

More than 1700 Franklin County students will be able to access free or low cost programs throughout the community, including dance, sports, art and music.

With the expansion of the Yes Card program.

That's according to the State Journal.

The Yes card is offered by the Franklin County Health Department's Just Say Yes program that is designed to engage kids in positive out of school activities that support their physical and mental health needs.

The State Journal said the program recently received a national award for demonstrating an exemplary response to local public health needs with headlines around Kentucky.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby Gibbs and other news.

The state says 2022 was their best year ever for Kentucky tourism.

Governor Andy Beshear was in Lexington this morning announcing that tourism had an economic impact of almost $13 billion last year, accounting for more than 91,000 jobs.

The number of visitors to Kentucky was almost 76 million last year, which is higher than pre-pandemic levels.

Tax revenue for the state was $937 million.

Also a record today, the 8th of August is an important day in Kentucky history.

Many western Kentucky communities celebrate emancipation from chattel slavery on August 8th.

And there are different theories about why.

Some say it's because future President Andrew Johnson freed the people he owned on August eight, 1863.

Others say news of the Emancipation Proclamation didn't reach enslaved people in western Kentucky until that day.

And Paducah, The claim is that the date celebrates the day enslaved people in Haiti took back their freedom.

While there is disagreement about what prompted today's observances, there is agreement about why the day needs to be remembered.

The enslavement is a part of American history.

It's not black history.

It's American history.

Not a very fine part of American history.

It doesn't make us feel all warm and comfortable.

We come together to celebrate the freedom and the sacrifice of so many African-Americans and so many other people to end slavery and to bring people together.

This show, everybody, that the important thing is that we get along these people.

Paducah, Hopkinsville, Russellville and Allens Ville are among the Kentucky communities that observe the 8th of August.

The deadline is ticking for veterans to apply for the largest expansion of benefits in decades.

The law is commonly known as the PACT Act.

It expands disability benefits and health care coverage for veterans, particularly those who are exposed to toxic burn pits.

Any veteran who files for benefits by the end of tomorrow or just indicates their intention to file can have their compensation backdated by a full year.

Kentucky's commissioner of Veterans Affairs says it's important that every eligible veteran apply.

Number one, they deserve the benefits.

And in two, if they've been exposed in combat and in training over the years and they do have the many illnesses, cancer or other related rubbish, respiratory illness, you want to be covered.

You want to enjoy the free health care that the VA provides.

You want the pension or the compensation so that your family will have something to take care of you as you get older and sicker and unable to take care of yourself.

And once again, bottom line is something that you deserve.

According to the U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs, there are more than 270,000 veterans in Kentucky.

As of last month, less than 12,000 have applied for the new benefits.

The PACT Act does more than expand benefits.

It's also helping the VA open more than 30 new facilities, including one in Elizabeth Town.

U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky is questioning the health of a neighboring governor who plans to run for the U.S. Senate.

Governor Jim Justice of West Virginia is a Republican candidate for the Senate seat now held by Senator Joe Manchin, a Democrat.

Republican leaders recruited Justice to run.

But Senator Paul says the 72 year old justice is overweight, has mobility problems, had recent gallbladder surgery and had a serious case of COVID in 2022.

Paul is questioning justices ability to serve.

Paul backs another Republican in the race, Congressman Alex Mooney.

Whooping cough has recently seen an increase in central Kentucky, despite being a vaccine preventable disease.

On tonight's look at medical news, Dr. Kris Bryant shares why this is happening and why keeping up to date on vaccines is important.

Recently in Kentucky, we have seen an increase in whooping cough cases.

Four counties have reported a total of 18 cases in recent weeks.

Most of those cases have been in kids who are not up to date on their pertussis vaccines.

Whooping cough, also known as pertussis, is a bacterial illness that causes a prolonged cough illness.

The Chinese call pertussis of 100 days because people who have pertussis can cough for months.

Now, this can be really uncomfortable for school age children and adults.

Sometimes adults will come off so hard they'll break a rib.

But for young children, pertussis can be life threatening.

It can cause babies to stop breathing.

And so it's especially important to make sure that infants get their pertussis vaccines.

And everyone who's around an infant is immunized against pertussis.

Unfortunately, we our kids are falling behind on their immunizations.

Earlier this year, the CDC released a report that looked at immunization rates of kids entering kindergarten.

And MMR vaccination coverage, for example, all in Kentucky, kids entering kindergarten was among the lowest in the nation early on in the pandemic.

Some kids got behind and they just never gotten caught up with their routine vaccines over the course of the pandemic.

We also know that there was a lot of discussion about vaccination, and some parents have questions that maybe they didn't have in the past.

It's okay to have questions about vaccine.

We have vaccines that are safe and effective for children that have been thoroughly studied.

And when we have high rates of immunization in a community that prevents diseases from spreading.

Vaccinating children is a way to keep kids healthy, keep them in school, and doing the things that they love to do.

Boyle, Fayette, Garrard and Jessamine counties have reported whooping cough cases in recent weeks.

Eastern Kentucky carries a long tradition of oral history and storytelling.

Nearly a decade ago, a group formed in Lecture County and its surrounding communities started to take those word of mouth stories and put them down on paper.

I heard a fellow who used to be Kentucky poet laureate named Gurney Norman make the statement that he'd told all over the country and of all the places he had lived and got to know people.

We had the least written history and possibly the best oral history of any place he'd been.

This area right here in West Letcher County.

And we we got together in and decided that we'd try to make a list of some things that we probably ought to address that had never been written down.

They included midwives, our veterans, famous tragedies of various kinds, fluids, for instance, and various other things.

And we've managed to put together probably 12 to 15 and going estimate books or booklets.

They were all found downstairs here in the library.

And of course, the flood of July 28, 2022 took them out of here.

So we're kind of back to scratch.

I have several death certificates for coal mine deaths, as well as Spanish flu deaths.

All of those things that I had saved in my computer.

And thankfully we were not hurt during the floods.

So I have those and I have already got the veterans and some of those articles in binders.

So when the library's opened back up, we will get them all back down here again.

Resiliency, as we've seen, demonstrated in many of our neighbors in rebuilding homes or moving to another home or whatever their ability to bounce back, I think complied some in area two, we bit the bullet and went back to work when we got a place to meet our children and got to know any of this.

If we don't record it, their children on down the line each generation is going to lose a little bit.

So hopefully what we have dug up and put together will help future generations to realize, you know what, how their parents and grandparents, etc., lived down through time because many of our ancestors back in time, they did not have it easy.

They were resilient and they did it.

And that's the only reason we're here today is because they were tough and they hung on through thick and thin.

During a recent meeting, the West Ledger Oral History Society discussed documenting the stories of survival and perseverance from last year's historic floods.

The City of Bowling Green has published a free online resource detailing its response to the 2021 tornadoes that took life and property.

It includes personal accounts and stories that many may not have ever heard.

Our Laura Rogers has more on how it may help other cities experience a similar tragedy.

Debra West worked as a journalist for 28 years.

This is one of the most important stories that I've ever told.

That story is called The Greatest Challenge.

West is now the public information officer for the city of Bowling Green, where she was raised and went to school.

These are my people.

These are my friends.

These are my colleagues.

I wanted to make sure that we told their story.

She spent a year compiling, writing and editing a digital book about the city's tornado response and recovery.

The tornadoes were just unprecedented in the destruction and in the number of deaths that occurred as a result of them.

Bowling Green faced its worst natural disaster in modern history when three tornadoes tore through town in December 2021.

This is really important to let people know this is how your city pulled it together and this is what we did.

It would take the cooperation of numerous agencies, first responders, elected officials, schools, utilities and hospitals to help the city recover.

Many of their personal stories are included in the book.

All of these other entities played a role in the recovery of our community.

So we wanted to make sure that their voices were also included in this story.

West says the book is aimed to help other cities who may face a similar crisis.

She used an example from Joplin, Missouri, and her own efforts.

I wanted to do ours a little differently and did because there were so many stories that were missed that people didn't know happened.

Among the biggest lessons learned the importance of being financially prepared for a natural disaster so that cleanup can begin right away.

Have an account set aside that you don't use, that you don't earmark, that you don't spend until you absolutely need it.

FEMA dollars don't just come in.

They don't come out and say, here's a check.

Start cleaning up your community.

You have to be ready for that.

City officials also had to make quick and efficient plans, including how to manage and store the truckloads of donations that arrived.

Our city manager was making decisions.

It seemed like every 5 minutes on what to do, where the book is dedicated to the 17 people on Bowling Green who died as a result of the storms.

We all came together at that time and in the months after for the better of our community.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

You can find the book The Greatest Challenge on the city's website.

Big k. Y dot org.

They also encourage residents to share their own tornado stories by emailing tornado book at Big k y dot org.

The University of Kentucky officially opened the James Beam Institute for Kentucky's Spirits, which university leaders said is the largest teaching distillery in the world.

The new facilities include a research distillery building and the Boswell Family Barrel Warehouse.

One The Beam Institute, came about as a result of thinking about what do we need to elevate the next generation.

And a lot of discussion with with Freddie, who really pushed us to make this as big and as impactful as possible to make sure we're training job ready students in this not just one degree path that leads to a career in the distilled spirits industry.

And it could be in maturation.

Science could be making staves and barrels, and it could be in large or small distilleries.

And you've got brand house supply chain and you've got a lot of different facets, and that's a lot of different skills.

So when we were coming up the classes, oftentimes we were talking to the Kentucky Distillers Association and Eric about the sort of jobs that were needed in the industry.

So we actually partnered not just with the College of Agriculture, Film Environment, the College of Engineering Arts and Sciences, and the College of Business and Economics.

So you've got full pi there.

And then there's certificates 680 degree major and gives you a specialization.

We fully expect this to inspire like warehouse ready, you know, and not only not only know like how to handle but kind of the science behind the barrels the science about the maturation what they expect from the barrels flavor wise or, you know texture aroma wise to have this opportunity where students come in and train on site, get their hands on the equipment and work and understand it, and they come out here, job ready is perfect for what we need.

But Freddie's exactly right.

Now, you don't have to be a distiller to work in a distillery.

There's about 150 other jobs.

You can do everything from being a tour guide to a brand ambassador and so forth.

If you think about it being a functional craft distillery where you have a fully a classroom that can go linking with Bardstown or Lincoln, Japan or Edinburgh, you have full connectivity with the world through that classroom and teaching laboratory there that is unparalleled for food science and the entire craft distillery where you can go and simulate a problem, solve the problem, and then ultimately create the ideal scenarios for students learning.

Cheers to the James Beam Institute and the University of Kentucky here.

Cheers.

The institute began in 2019 and partnered with Beam Suntory, which owns Jim Beam and Independent Stave Company, to ensure the success of the spirits industry in Kentucky.

Well, today, if you didn't know, is International Cat Day cat owners.

You have plenty of company worldwide.

It's estimated that across the globe, people own 370 million cats as pets.

Nationally, Americans own about 58 million cats, according to numbers from the American Veterinary Medical Association.

The World Population Review says in Kentucky, about 32% of households have a cat.

That compares to about 46% who own dogs.

And all of those picks are there.

Of those furry felines are courtesy of family members.

Pretty good looking group, a bunch of cats right there.

We've talked a lot about the teacher shortage affecting schools across America and in Kentucky.

Seneca High School in Louisville was home to the oldest Marine junior ROTC program in the nation.

I say was because that program is going away all because of the teacher shortage.

More on that tomorrow night, which we hope to see you for Kentucky Edition, 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

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Thank you so much for watching.

I'm Renee Shaw.

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