Is there that willingness to really drive change?

Because if you're going to drive change, it means you're going to shake up the status quo and you're going to make some folks uncomfortable.

Louisville's police chief has some advice for the person taking over her job as the mayor elect makes his first major hiring decision.

My goal is to keep the department focused.

Made Louisville's new interim police chief.

We had structure fires.

We had people trapped.

We had medical calls and Mayfield first responders on the night that changed their city and the lives of everyone in it forever.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KCET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press, Endowment for Public Affairs and the KCET Millennium Fund.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition on this Friday, December the ninth.

I'm Rene Shaw.

Thank you for starting off your weekend with us.

The city of Louisville has a new person running its police department.

Today, Mayor elect Craig Greenburg named Lmpd deputy chief Jacqueline Gwen Belanger, well, as the interim chief of police.

She's currently the second in command at Lmpd, a position she's held for nearly two years prior to moving to Louisville.

Gwen Blackwell spent 24 years with Atlanta police.

Today, she and Mayor elect Greensburg discussed the transition.

Jackson believes engaging with the community leaders across our entire city, having a strong community presence for Lmpd, focusing on preventing crime and reducing the amount of gun violence.

My goal is to keep the department focused and to serve the city of Louisville with the highest standards.

My top priorities is to remain focused on driving down this violent crime in which has touched my family.

My other priority is, is to make sure that we rebuild the relationships here in the city of Louisville.

And then the next priority is, is to make sure the reforms that we've already implemented, that we keep focus and we continue to put those in place.

Gwen Blackwell is taking over for chief Erica Shields, who is resigning on January 2nd.

Shield says she was asked to resign by the incoming mayor after less than two years on the job.

During that time, violent crime is down 17% and shootings are down 30%.

And part two of our discussion with Chief Fields, the chief tells Kentucky Edition's Kelsey Starks that she was just getting started.

One of the things that you, I know wanted to do as chief was create a jeeps police department or work on safety within the schools.

Where does that stand and why do you think that's so important that the police department get involved?

So let me be clear.

I never wanted Lmpd to be in the schools ever.

Being a school resource officer is completely different than being a a streetcar.

That being said, I did feel and I still feel as though JCP absolutely needs its own police department with school resource officers.

And the reason I say that is one of the things that I did is I created a youth advisory council.

Ages 13 to 21.

I want to hear from that key audience.

And one of the first questions I posed to them is, what do you want to see out of school safety?

You tell me.

And they brainstorm for about an hour and they came up with a police force.

And the reason is they know they're there.

Their peers have guns.

They want to be safe.

It is not We know these kids are taking guns into these schools.

We know that they're in gang activity.

We know that they're committing violence.

So if you know all of that, it's not reasonable to ask your teachers to deal with it.

It's not it's not fair to them.

So it's not a matter of arresting kids.

I don't I don't want to arrest kids that does nothing.

But by the same token, if kids are bringing guns to school and committing acts of violence and you're doing nothing about it other than putting your head in the sand and think it's just going to miraculously go away.

You tell me, how are you?

How are you really helping those communities that are already at risk?

Don't tell me that you are your you know that you care about black people when simultaneously you're making no effort to invest in their education because you cannot learn in an environment of chaos.

You cannot learn in an environment where your your your classmates have guns.

So own the problem and then you can work on fixing it.

And I don't see that willingness to own the problem.

What do you think?

There's so many challenges.

What do you think is the biggest challenge for the incoming chief, whoever that may be?

I think that I think, you know, it's really interesting.

One of the things that's really nice about Louisville is it's it's a smaller city and there's a lot of like history here and folks that know its history and really have roots here.

And I really, really like that.

The obstacle that I see is you can articulate challenges and and have full agreement from the people you're speaking with.

But is there that willingness to really drive change?

Because if you're going to drive change, it means you're going to shake up the status quo and you're going to make some folks uncomfortable.

And I think that that that has been difficult to overcome, especially because the same ten people are the ones making noise and the wider the the your wider audience, quite honestly, they're just they're just living their lives.

They're not writing opinion pieces of the paper.

They're not going to city council, you know, they're not calling the mayor.

They're just living.

And so you may have the majority for your support base, but they're not the ones being heard.

And when you're really trying to drive difficult change, you've really got to have that support mechanism in place.

And looking back.

Hindsight is 2020.

Anything you wish you would have done differently now?

You know what?

I don't expend energy on regrets.

Regrets change, nothing.

And I for me, it's all about I feel really blessed to have had a chance to come here.

I've met so many wonderful people, the men and women of the police department have been fantastic.

And I really it's made me a stronger chief because I've had to navigate a train where I knew nobody and I would.

I'm just really appreciative that I had this opportunity.

And as far as the incoming chief, when Greenburg says he's looking for somebody who's respected by the entire community, invested in transparency and believes in fighting crime through many strategies such as addressing poverty.

What qualities do you think the new chief needs to have?

Well, realistically, do you think anybody can ever be supported by any part of every community?

I mean, I'm sorry, but that was never mind police.

So I think the main thing is you've got to have someone that comes in that I would say is a proven leader, has dealt with big city issues.

And above all, is that their integrity, integrity is what drives them because you have to be willing and able to stand up to the the political pressures that are inherent with the job.

And you just at the end of the day, you just you have to do the correct thing.

Mayor elect Greenburg says a national search for a permanent Lmpd chief will begin after his inauguration on January 2nd.

If you want to see part one of Kelsey's interview with Chief Shields, go to yesterday's Kentucky Edition episode.

That's on our website on demand at CNET dot org.

Tomorrow marks one year since the deadly and historic tornado outbreak in western Kentucky.

81 people lost their lives when two powerful tornadoes hit Kentucky.

This is video of one of the tornadoes taken near Muhlenberg County.

According to the National Weather Service, this violent EF four tornado started in Tennessee and tracked across 11 counties in western Kentucky.

The tornado's path was more than 165 miles long, the longest for a tornado in U.S. history.

And it cut right through the cit We recently sat down with the city's fire chief and police chief who talked about living through and responding to one of the worst natural disasters in the state's history the morning of December the 10th.

Yeah, I was driving through town and there was just a kind of an ominous feeling.

The skies didn't look great.

And and I called into the station and I said, Hey, just just in case.

Let's call in a few extra people tonight.

So I was I was just watching the television.

And so when the storm track looked like it was going to impact the city of Mayfield, I just started in to started in to work.

One of my firefighters and I, we we stepped out the front door of the building and and we looked back towards the west and we could see lightning.

And then we started hearing a little rumble, some hail started coming down, and then the wind started picking up.

And in that lightning, that was just normal as a normal looking lightning.

But it kind of turned green.

Something I'd never seen before.

We gathered everybody and we took shelter within the building and saw that that's where we we rode out the storm.

Probably the scariest 2 minutes of my life within 30 seconds of the storm passing over.

We started getting this getting dispatched out to calls.

One of those being the candle factory.

We had structure fires.

We had people trapped.

We had medical calls.

By the time I had got into the city, the storm had gone through.

I couldn't make it all the way to the city hall campus because of the debris.

So I parked and walked in.

And when I got close to the campus, the only light on was at the fire department.

We had a generator.

We were really the only light in town at that point.

It was total darkness, with the exception of our building.

And so as people were coming out of their homes, crawling out of debris, they started walking towards us.

The first thing that I saw was the paramedics were triaging the wounded that had made their way to that same light.

We had school busses brought in from the county schools.

We we triage patients in Station one.

Some we sent to the hospital by bus.

Others we sent to a shelter at Mayfield High School and the gym.

But we just we had hundreds of people that just that walked to station one that not because they were just walking towards any lot that they could that they could find.

Every single officer had come in to town to work.

Some of some of the city police department went out to the candle factory to assist the other first responders and the rest of us just divided into the quadrants of the city to provide patrol within an hour, hour and a half of the tornado.

I had every member of my departm for about the next 36 to 48 hours, nobody left.

Nobody wanted to come out of the field to take a break.

They they wanted to keep looking.

They wanted to go move on to the next house.

They wanted to go through another section of the candle factory debris.

That level of dedication.

I've never seen anything like it.

It was very proud of them.

The people that would come to help the citizens in a time of disaster.

They were unilaterally damaged themselves.

Our public works facility was adjacent to the candle factory, so all the heavy equipment that we would utilize in a situation like that to begin to clear the roadway and that machinery was pushed together like matchbox cars.

The courthouse was destroyed.

City Hall.

The fire department, the police department.

Mayfield Electric and Water.

And then for good measure, the wastewater treatment plant was destroyed on the way out of town.

So it passed the community into such layers of trauma.

Fire station was destroyed.

It was tough.

Station one that my first day at work with this department was was in that building.

We took a lot of pride in that building.

And, you know, the night of that storm, it it kept us alive.

The days after the storm, the police department, we didn't police in a traditional sense.

We just pivoted to what the citizens needed from us in that moment.

So we we moved a lot of supplies to distribution points and then something that I may not have appreciated before the storm, but the police department was integral in getting people prescription medicine that they couldn't get to the pharmacy to get.

You know, in the months after, we were just trying to get back to some sense of normalcy, get back into our day to day routine.

The biggest challenge was debris removal after the storm.

You can't rebuild until it's all gone.

But we we got it done.

And now we have that that blank canvas to work with.

And so now we have to we have to bring people back.

Recovery from the storm a year later is still ongoing.

And Mayfield alone, more than 250 structures were destroyed, nearly 400 more suffered major damage.

Mayfield Mayor Cathy Johnson says many homes have been rebuilt.

But, she adds there is still a lot of rebuilding to do.

In June, the city voted to withhold issuing new building permits for the downtown area in Mayfield so that zoning issues could be addressed before rebuilding began.

Mayor onand says she expects building to really ramp up beginning in January.

Attendance is down at many eastern Kentucky schools, according to WVXU Radio in Richmond.

The July flooding and respiratory illnesses are blamed.

Superintendent say attendance as a percentage is lingering in the upper seventies to lower eighties.

Flags at Kentucky State buildings are at half staff today for a private first class Robert Wright of Whiteville.

Wright was killed during the Korean War in July of 1950.

He was 18 years old.

His remains were identified in August.

Time now for our end of week review Inside Kentucky Politics with a dynamic duo of Partizans who are going to break some things down for us today.

We've got Beth Thorp, a Democratic digital strategist joining us.

And and Tyler Morgan, an attorney and member of the McBrayer Law and Government Solutions firm.

We thank you both ladies, for being with us.

So let's talk about we are we're closer to a Christmas than they are a legislative session.

But many of us, we've already passed the holidays and gone right to January 3rd, which is a big day when the Kentucky General Assembly convenes for the 2023 legislative session.

A lot of new members and Tyler, 25, in the House and six in the Senate.

Talk about the dynamics of having fresh new faces to the Kentucky General Assembly.

Absolutely, Renee.

Well, of course, the Republicans are thrilled to have so many members, but it is a lot to handle.

There will be a steep learning curve not only for these new members, but also for the legislative leadership as they learn the personalities and dynamics of how these new leaders will actually legislate.

Yes, Beth Thorpe, same.

I mean, when you think about fresh faces and sometimes people come in with set ideas that they want to push across, but, you know, this is not a budget year.

There seems to be some normalcy may be restored to what we used to know for these organizational parts of the session.

The first four days is supposed to be just for committee and leadership and that kind of organizational stuff, but they do pass legislation and they have the past few sessions.

Yes.

You know, I think what's going to be most interesting on the Democratic side, I'm not as versed on the Republican, but how much younger is there going to be?

And I think that there's that's going to bring some interesting things in that they want to do if they possibly can.

I mean, you're looking at Rachel Roberts, who is the youngest, I think, ever state representative.

She's 25 years old.

But they're just in general with, you know, retiring of Mary Lou MAHTESIAN and, you know, and Joni Jenkins.

You know, it's just there's just a lot of younger people that are going to be state representatives.

So that'll be interesting.

Mm hmm.

You know how that how they'll what they'll bring to the table.

And I think it is going to be a big learning curve because it's like all of our all of our leadership pretty much has changed over.

So everybody's going have to learn everybody on our side.

Well, and I'm going to get to that point, Beth.

But for and Tyler, you know, the Senate and the House majority caucuses have already set all this in place of who is going to lead what.

And so any one particular standout for you and what you think might indicate a particular policy direction?

Absolutely.

Renee, my particular industry, we're really excited to see a split of the Health and Family Services Committee in the House and the Health and Welfare committee in the Senate into two distinct committees in each chamber, one dealing with family services and one dealing with health services, which should give both of those committees and each chamber a real opportunity to delve into more policy.

This is obviously showing the Legislature's real focus on Kentuckians health and how that health care is delivered.

But one standout in that area in the Senate, you're losing Senator Alvarado as he takes a job in Tennessee, which is quite a big change to the health care policy structure in Frankfort.

And then I'll point out that just spoke about the youth in, I would say, both parties in each chamber.

And one stand out here is Representative Samara Heaven taking over the Family Services Committee for the House, which shows the House's openness to leadership at a really young and dynamic level.

Can you give us a rundown, Beth Thorpe, of the policy priorities of Democrats?

What will be their strategy this upcoming session?

You know, I am not as clear this cycle as some, but I mean, I think there's always the standards, right?

You know, we we are looking to have good jobs and schools and teachers, you know, you know, public education.

Those are all things that there are things that Democrats support.

I think, you know, as we talked before, as like loyal opposition probably about certain things.

You know, I mean, I think I think that a lot of Democrats would probably really like to get medical marijuana through.

I mean, it is just constant to push, you know, And I would hope that Republicans would jump in on that.

It's really super popular and it's frustrating that it's constantly held up.

I think that would be one that on our side they'd really like to have done well.

And.

Tyler Yeah.

And Tyler, you know about this issue very well.

Representative Jason Amos, who's now going to be whip House majority whip, and he's the one who has tried to whip the votes on that particular issue before.

Do you think that perhaps it gets more movement?

I mean, the House has passed it, but it's always stalled in the Senate.

Do you think that now's the time that issue might get pushed across the finish line?

Renee, I don't think you can expect to see that get through the Senate at this session.

I think the Senate has expressed its desire to keep this what we could call a traditional short session.

In the last six years, we haven't seen what many would consider to be a traditional short session.

And there's been a lot accomplished in those sessions, as well as the budget sessions.

But the Senate leadership has expressed that they consider this to to be kind of a calmer session ahead.

And I don't think that they'll take on an issue like medical marijuana and pass it if they haven't in the past.

We do think there will be some address of House Bill eight, which was the measure that triggered the reduction in the income tax.

So we know that we met the revenue markers and expenditure markers to get us down to a half percent reduction and then another reduction is expected to come in a few months after that.

So we know that there could be some tweaks to that bill.

Real quickly, Antelope.

Yes, Renee, I think that's one of the general Assembly's proudest accomplishments, of course, of last session is passing tax reform, keeps us competitive with our neighboring states and really puts us at an advantage in recruiting companies to come in, as we've seen lately.

So this first marker is a really pivotal point for us to get to the finish line on income tax reduction and ultimately elimination.

Well, we never have enough time, but we do thank you both for being with us.

Beth Thorp, a Democratic strategist, an attorney and member of McBrayer, and Tyler Morgan.

Thank you so very much.

We appreciate your time.

Good to see you, Renee.

Turning now to medical news.

The new COVID map is out now and it shows 12 counties in the red, meaning high COVID levels.

Last week, the number was ten.

Yesterday, Governor Andy Beshear said he believes Kentucky is going through an after Thanksgiving increase in case numbers.

Here's the good news, though.

It is nowhere near what we saw after each of these holidays the last couple of years.

This means COVID has fundamentally changed and our highs are going to be a lot lower.

And and that's a very good thing for all of us.

You know, we still look like we're out of general plateau, though.

We may see it tick up for a couple of weeks and then back down.

But this is what a plateau looks like up and down, up and down.

Governor Andy Beshear says hospital numbers are also up, but he says that increase is much smaller than increases in the past.

Kentucky is tied for second nationally in improvements to its six year college completion rate.

New numbers show the rate in Kentucky improved by 1.1%.

Only five states had an increase of more than 1%, according to the Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education.

A national report praises Kentucky's colleges and leaders for their dedication to making sure all Kentuckians have access to college, regardless of their background or income.

The University of Louisville has its new football coach.

Jeff Brahm is a former U of L quarterback and coach at Western Kentucky University and Purdue.

He will replace Scott Satterfield, who is moving on to the University of Cincinnati.

Before you play on your weekend, here are some suggestions from our Toby Gibbs about what's happening around the Commonwealth.

It's Halloween meets Christmas at the Fright Nights before Christmas special in Lexington this weekend.

See all your favorite wintertime characters come to life with a visit from Krampus himself.

Award winning and chart topping country singer Sara Evans is in Florence this Sunday as part of her Christmas tour with hit songs like Born to Fly and a little bit Longer.

This is sure to be a rocking evening.

Join hypnotherapist and magician Ron Diamond in Covington this Saturday for his Before Your Very Eyes magic show.

With 32 years of experience and over 22,000 shows under his belt, Ryan will have you amazed and asking How did he do that?

Combine old world charm with 21st century vibes at the Covington Christ Candle mark this Sunday.

Stroll down Main Strasse as you enjoy a traditional open air artisan market to help finish up that holiday shopping.

Take a shot at winning the perfect holiday tree with the Woodford Festival of Trees wrapping up this weekend.

View over 24 trees throughout the county and try your luck at winning your favorite.

All proceeds go to both shop with a cop and young life.

Travel back in Time during the Christmas candlelight tour in Bowling Green this Saturday.

Learn about Victorian Christmas traditions as you journey to the Hobson house filled with the lights of candles and beautiful antique lamps.

See some of Nelson County's private historic homes during the candlelight Christmas tour of homes this Saturday.

This December tradition includes houses from the early 1800s as well as several newly constructed homes, all showing off the holiday season like never before.

Experience the Christmas story in a whole new way at the Bethlehem Experience at Blackhorse Farm, starting next Wednesday, featuring a beautiful nativity live animals and fun for all.

This will remind you of the true meaning of Christmas, and that's what's going on around the Commonwealth.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby Gibbs.

Republicans take over the U.S. House in January.

That means Congressman James Karma of Kentucky's first District will become chairman of the House Oversight Committee.

The committee that heads up investigations.

Monday on Kentucky edition, we talked to him about what his committee will be doing the next two years.

And it's not just Hunter Biden.

My personal opinion is if a company wants to be woke, that's their business.

But if a government agency and government policies are forcing them to be woke and make what I consider very bad policy decisions, then I have a problem with that.

Hear more from Congressman Moore and take a ride on a bowling green trolley.

That's Monday night at 630 Eastern.

530 Central right here on Kentucky Edition.

Thank you so very much for watching.

Have a great weekend to come.

And I'll see you Monday night.