Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments here in Kentucky so far this week with Raylan Barton, a Kentucky based editor with NPR National Public Radio.

Good to see you, sir.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

So let's talk about the first item.

There is a nonprofit organization called Empathy and Action.

They filed a lawsuit against companies that we call Gray machines.

And I want you to remind us what those are.

And they're invoking a law back from the late 1700s that proved successful a few years ago as the grounds for this.

Take us through this.

Yeah, So gray machines are basically it's those slot machine type machines that you see in gas stations or convenience stores around the states that we've seen pop up over the last few years.

They operate in this legal gray area that because gambling machines aren't legal in Kentucky, at least in places like that, you know, we do have these historical horse racing machines that you'll see at a few of the, you know, casino type places called race Cenotes around the state.

But these so these are like that.

And some of the machinery is like that.

But they they try to operate in this legal loophole to still be legal.

Lawmakers have passed laws to try and tamp down the proliferation of them across the state.

And you may have seen there are times where gas stations that used to have them would then shutter them.

They'd be bottleneck over, you know, they'd be all turned off.

But now they think they've found a new workaround.

And so they've been starting to pop up again.

So this this group is suing.

And this is according to reporting from Kentucky Public Radio's Joe Saka.

This group is suing to to recoup money that people have lost in these green machines.

And actually, there's a little bit of precedent to this.

It's similar possibly, but back during the Steve Beshear administration, the state actually sued an online poker company for losses on Kentucky's behalf.

And ultimately, in 2021, the state won a $300 million judgment.

So this group is trying to get a similar result here.

It's not the state, but it's this nonprofit group to try and recoup some of that money.

And again, this is just interesting because the lawmakers keep on playing this game of cat and mouse with these green machines trying to try and shut them down.

But the industry keeps on finding new ways to to make them happy.

Yeah.

So in 2023, they did pass a law to ban them, but there were no guidelines.

They just outright ban them.

So like you said, it made room for these things still to proliferate in some way.

So we'll see if lawmakers try to address this further in 2025.

Maybe they will, maybe they won't.

In the meantime, we have an election, of course, just under 30 days away and some state House races in Kentucky are fairly interesting.

And one is in eastern Kentucky.

It's Floyd and part of Pike Counties.

It's currently held by Democrat Ashley Tackett.

Lafferty and she is facing a former Democrat, now Republican Brandon Spencer, in this race.

Tell us about that.

Yeah, this seat is the only seat outside of Metro Louisville Metro Lexington metro, northern Kentucky that Democrats hold in the in the legislature.

So this is you know, eastern Kentucky used to be this this real stronghold for Democratic seats and actually talk about for this seat is is one of the last remaining, if I remember right, this actually used to be former Democratic House Speaker Greg Stumbo seat, Preston's Byrd based.

And it's really just shows you I mean, again this is this little blue island in the middle of a sea of red in eastern Kentucky and just and all of rural Kentucky.

And Democrats have just done very poorly in these areas.

So.

Anyway, Kentucky Public Radio's Sylvia Goodwin did a great profile of this race.

You're taking a look at a little bit of Parker Lafferty's record, which shows that if she does end up still voting for some conservative bills along with Republicans, but so say the House Bill five, the big anti-crime bill that passed out of the legislature this year.

But then, you know, she's also voting in favor, voting against, say, the so-called school choice measures.

He says that some of the actions against teacher pensions are why she ultimately decided to run three terms ago.

So she's she's being challenged by Brandon Spencer, a Republican who held the seat briefly about two decades ago.

And and Brian Spencer actually even used to be a Democrat, which again, showing you this change in Kentucky politics.

But he he's now calling himself a Trump Republican.

And yet we'll see, especially in this presidential election year, when everybody's attention is at the top of the ticket, it's hard for Democrats, Democrats, to really get their message out there or for really for anybody to pay attention to how people are campaigning farther down the ticket.

Republicans are hoping to finally pick off that seat and Democrats are trying to defend like really their last rural, you know, you could say like their last rural district in the state house.

Final issue, firearms misuse.

There was a northern Kentucky Republican, Ken Banta, who is expected to file legislation during the next session in 2025, related to possibly holding parents liable for kids under 18 who misuse firearms, holding them civilly accountable.

And she's teaming up with a Democrat in Louisville on this effort.

Tell us more about this.

Yeah, it's it's pretty rare for a Republican to file a bill dealing with gun safety or trying to expand any sort of gun safety provision.

What she's trying to do with this one is expand other parental negligence laws where, say, a parent would be held responsible for the children's actions.

And we've we've seen we've seen examples of this under current law around the country.

So earlier this year in Michigan, parents of a school shooter were ultimately convicted of negligently allowing their their child to have a firearm, even though he had, you know, exhibited that he might be a danger to himself or others.

And also in Georgia, after the school shooting a little bit earlier this year, the father in that of that alleged school shooter has been charged with murder charges or for providing his gun to giving his kid a gun on Christmas, even after law enforcement had come to check in on him after the after the kid had made some disturbing comments.

So this is you know, this is a little bit of a movement happening right now, again, under current law.

But, you know, under Representative Vance's proposal, it would be an expansion of, you know, really giving prosecutors a little bit more of a guidance and tools to go after parents like this.

Yeah, a.

Lot to keep our eyes on between now and November 5th and even beyond when they go back into legislative session in Kentucky.

Well, thank you, Eileen, for always breaking it down for us.

Good to see you.

Thanks, Renee.