>> So we think this is the logical next step.

>> Is Kentucky moving toward its own school for veterinarians?

>> Aerospace is big business in Kentuckyian there's a push to make it even bigger.

♪ ♪ >> What made this Kentucky production of frozen?

So special.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KU Team Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION for this Wednesday, February, the 7th, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Wednesday night with us.

>> A Kentucky college in the western part of the state is wanting to offer a new doctorate program to help shore up the shortage of veterinarians and the state.

>> Our Joe Gibbs tells us how a proposition 50 years in the making is being received in Frankfort by state lawmakers.

That story begins tonight's legislative update.

>> Almost three-quarters of the state like veterinarians.

Murray State University officials offered a plan to a legislative panel today to help fill the gap.

>> First and foremost, we have more prevent students in that tech students than any other college universe in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

We had for about 458.

And so we're going to surpass everyone else in regard to the assets that we have in place.

The best birthday that Marion Center that we have in Hopkinsville, which is an animal diagnostic laboratory.

So that asset is doing animal diagnostic work and a lot of research in veterinary in space.

But also we have so many students who come to Murray State because of the quality of the Hudson School of Agriculture.

and so it's the right place where we have the farmland.

We have the we have the livestock.

We have the animals.

We have the assets already there.

And so we think this is the logical next step.

>> There's not a vet school in Kentucky.

There are 33 elsewhere across the country.

The university has a school of agriculture that currently serves about 1400 students.

University officials say Murray already has about 1600 acres of farmland available and a 4.2 million Dollar Endowment to support students studying vet medicine.

What they need is a facility to get the school going, which is anticipated because 90 million dollars, not all stakeholders share the excitement for a vet school in Kentucky.

>> We currently have an excellent contract space program with Auburn and to ski, high-quality institutions, which is produced many of the state's veterinarians over the past 70 years.

The cave EMA wants to ensure that any new scenario that might replace the current system would produce equal a highly qualified veterinarians.

>> Some lawmakers on the panel also expressed their doubts.

>> I think we need.

More detailed package of how you're going to run.

Is how much staff it's going to take him.

A nice tie off members.

It will take to do the research.

All of those things.

I know your comment.

89 90 million dollars to build a building.

I know we've discussed 15 million dollars to run it.

I just don't think that's feasible to run.

It think we need to have a longer talk and conversation about the academic rigor of everybody has a dream.

They want to be a vet, but not everybody is qualified to get their academically.

Matt Cooks, one of those people.

>> We really need to face that before we go and more spots and don't miss out.

Everybody can live their dream.

Are we giving them the tools before they ever get there to achieve that dream?

I'm very concerned about the long-term economic impacts of what we're going to do if we go down this road and the conflict that will enable you come up when we hit a economic recession and we have to choose between continuing to fund.

>> I KET that Marion School at Murray State or continuing our 70 year relationship with Auburn.

>> The House Agriculture Committee Advanced House Bill 400 with 14.

Yes to know.

And 4 pass votes.

It doesn't have an appropriation tied to it.

But the plan could be heard by the budget Committee before advances to the full House for Kentucky edition.

I'm told the >> Thank you, Toby and other legislative news today.

A House committee passed a resolution to create a task force to address the state's housing crisis.

The state is currently short.

78,000 rentals and has seen a 16% drop in the number of houses available for sale.

According to the sponsor of the resolution, Republican Representative Randy Bridges of Paducah Bridges, who chairs the House.

Local government committee says the task force would focus on rentals and affordable housing to help solve the housing crisis.

>> It's like a ladder or set of stamps if you can open up one one opening in that latter.

Then the step below can step up and feel that like with home sales, if we don't have the inventory, we can't feel the homes of people want to buy.

So they are taking a parental units that could be available for for that market.

And if we can open that up, then each level rises up and we want to look at, you know, ways out of homeless is all the way to retirees moving at a house.

Is that they no longer need.

And in moving in the smaller unit so that each one of those levels could open up.

So it's a comprehensive approach to content into identify what roadblocks in every different department or or could be preventing us from in and cause of this problem.

>> One way, the task force hopes to increase the housing inventory is by incentivizing developers to build more affordable homes.

Well, shortly after that meeting over 65 lawmakers met with members of Kentucky's homeless population who shared their stories and raise their voices against House Bill 5, the Safer Kentucky Act, an anti-crime bill which includes criminal penalties for what's called unlawful camping.

Ginny Ramsey of the Catholic Action Center also shared results of a new survey on the criminalization of homelessness.

>> I'm here because we fight against House Bill 5.

I'm here because there's no reason why there should be a criminalization for people can not.

It's not your all's issue is the city is the state.

Wow, we not putting money are we have 4 billion dollars million estate B as in boy billion dollars.

Why are we not putting money for resources and housing so that we won't lock up people almost camps in isolated areas, not street camping like they talked about.

>> 81% of the people.

I don't see that it's a threat to public safety because House Bill 5 is about public safety.

So we want.

To hear what the people citizens of Kentucky thought.

>> As long as I've been a lawyer of the law, you know, 50 years almost we've never thought the homes of crime.

We don't need to adopt this delicious.

Put him in jail added to the 2 because they don't have a place to live.

So I think that particular section of House Bill 5, we need to re-evaluate.

It wasn't just a stunt.

>> This is not easy to be on it has life and a lot of my takes >> We do reach out for help and nobody that is the We got to buy the actually reach out to say I need We Baidu 6 months and not come out of rehab.

Well, what what about those 3 want house and good job of what has lost upon a homeless person's mind being given when given up on itself.

So we don't send it to give up We sit vote goals.

>> so drug addiction is also sometimes connected to homelessness.

And today was recovery advocacy day at the state Capitol.

People in recovery and their advocates said more needs to be done to fight addiction.

>> Kentucky now has more treatment beds per capita than any state in the entire country.

Thanks to some great legislation.

We establish recovery ready.

Community is now counties and cities competing to get that designation to provide all the services that are needed for their people.

And our goal is to have so many more.

>> The company adds these crucial because it brings attention to the importance of supporting individuals are overcoming addiction.

It's about raising awareness, fighting stigma and promoting policies that help people like U.S. access treatment of support.

>> In September, we announced that 6 more counties.

Were certified recovery ready.

And today we get to add to that number.

These 10 counties are spread across the Commonwealth, which means that free treatment resources are not only available, but they are in reach for more Kentuckians than ever before.

Is about community.

>> It's about coming together to support and uplift one another and celebrate each other's successes.

We're building a stronger, more compassionate society where everyone has the opportunity to try it.

>> Research specialists at the Freedom Center, an addiction treatment center in Maryland, right, Kentucky as the 7th best in the Nation for drug rehabilitation.

Was a busy day and Frankfort.

It was also nonprofit day that was celebrated in Frankfort as well as advocate advocates for nonprofit organizations rallied at the Capitol to celebrate successes last year and push for legislation to make it easier to fund those charities who help others.

Nonprofits include the American Cancer Society, the American Heart Association and the Salvation Army among others, advocates say Grant and contract reform would mean less red tape and faster delivery of money.

>> We're trying to streamline this process to say that when you get a contract, you reap a profit.

You'll be playing in the paper, work around to streamline that.

I understand that we did not meet these.

Oprah has Asians have to go into their personal finances or go to control our money to fulfill what we've already granted the money for it with rent money stream on the process with the money out does not function.

>> Without a partnership, a nonprofit.

>> There are so services that we're statutorily obligated to provide it.

>> services, Kentucky, is that our Amy and without it, I absolutely.

>> Nonprofits employ more Kentuckians than you might think.

The Kentucky nonprofit network says one out of every 10 workers in the private sector work for a nonprofit.

Could the legislature limit the governor's ability to respond to a disaster House Bill?

2.62 allows the governor to immediately spend 75 million dollars during a disaster or emergency.

But when he goes over, 75 million, he'd have to call lawmakers into special session to get their approval.

Representative Jason Petri, the House budget chair explains the thinking behind the bill.

>> So what we've got to do is just set a reasonable cap that if you look through the history, you had some to that the history of the expenditure in that category for several years had some to that and then set a reasonable cap that way as we plan what's coming up in the next 2 for 6 years.

We know that cap would be the maximum that we would have to account for unless there is some act of God.

So, for instance, if you look at the tornadoes for the flooding west and >> Yes, we could have a big city that we would have exceeded those gaps in the east of the flooding.

>> It's going to be depending on whether or not we're in session.

>> Sometimes we are sometimes we're not.

But if we were to hit such a large event, it would probably like we did in East Kentuckyian have to come in for a special session to make sure we addressed it anyway.

And as you know, we did this with the East, Kentuckyian the West, Kentucky siphons.

>> Fortunately for the tornadoes in the West, we come back into session.

>> And the East, a special session and it was necessary if we have something else pop up the special session before going to approach that captured something cataclysmic.

We need to be putting all hands on deck and our brains and gear.

>> So on Monday night, our Kentucky tonight panel discuss the merits of House Bill 2.62 and whether it's a good idea to give lawmakers a bigger role and how emergency money is spent or whether it's dangerous to limit the governor's ability to deal with a fast changing crisis.

>> The ball to have all of us drive in for a special session which takes days to get together.

While people are sleeping outdoors, right?

People have lost their children in a fight between 2002 1002, only Oklahoma had more billion-dollar disasters in Kentucky.

More are coming.

The governor, the executive elected by everyone in the state needs to be prepared.

>> You certainly do not want to hamstring the executive branch to rapidly respond to immediately respond to natural disasters.

It sounds like to me that if there creating some cushion for that than that would allow for an immediate response but I'm calling a special session after that for the branch of government that has the power of the purse.

>> So House Bill 2.62 has passed the House and now it's waiting for consideration by the Senate.

What you heard right there from those 2 was part of a full hour-long conversation about the state budget on Monday night.

You can see that in its entirety and it's a good conversation online on demand at K E T Dot Org Slash K why tonight?

Year after year, Kentucky's largest export is aerospace and aviation products, parts and pieces for planes and jets.

The aerospace industry is vital to the state's economy.

Senate bill hopes to attract more talent to the Commonwealth Senate Bill.

One 27 took flight today as lawmakers gave the measure a stamp of approval.

>> Kentucky has more than 650 businesses employing 100,000 employees in the commonwealth that directly feet in the 20 billion dollars of exports in this industry.

Geographically speaking, we can be to a 3rd of 3 quarters of the nation's population within an hour and a half Senate bill.

One, 27 is vital and critical, too.

Education and infrastructure in the state.

>> We're looking for a broad spectrum of workers, pilot sheet metal beyond mechanics power plant near for mechanics picks based operation management financial years.

Many others.

>> Senate Bill one, 27 creates a workforce development fund that will be financed by a mix of state dollars and money from private businesses who want more workers.

The money will be used to fund scholarships to college aviation programs and to pay for faculty and equipment.

Updates.

The bill passed out of the Senate with unanimous support that now heads to the Kentucky House for consideration there.

♪ ♪ ♪ We told you Monday about plans for a major Kentucky company to leave its office building in downtown Louisville.

>> Our Laura Rogers spoke with NPR's Rylan Barden about that plus legislation affecting young people and social media and a potential constitutional amendment.

>> Hello to your island and thank you for joining us.

I'm Laura.

We'll start with some big news in Mobile this week since you're based in Louisville.

I'm sure you're hearing a lot of conversation about Humana announcing they'll be consolidating their office space moving out of the game in a tower and downtown mobile.

So what's the chatter that you're hearing about that that's getting a lot of attention this week?

>> Yeah, this is huge news and will or it's really the latest on a lot of signs of questions.

About 2 minutes presence and will grant it.

They will be staying in Louisville's headquarters for the company, which is one of the largest companies in the nation, its number.

42 on the Fortune 500 list.

And the only company and will it on the Fortune 500 or 2 to KET the court and 500 list.

So they announced they will be clearing out their large downtown skyscraper and moving their employees to a building that they already own a further east in town really undercut.

So a lot of what's a year-long hopes for downtown are rebuilding back after the pandemic.

The company is cited repeatedly since the pandemic saying that folks that really haven't returned to work in person that's still the leading into their hybrid work environment.

But also there's a few other parts going to this like that.

Top executives at Humana have been given the option to live either in full or in in their campus.

And the DC area in recent years.

Other their incoming is, you know, it's also been given that option is the first time that that's happened.

You know, they normally really just been trying to invest in and stay committed to their to their tower, their presence here.

So a lot of about what that's going to look like going You know, who's going to occupy that tower if anybody, city leaders, leaders so little air current green Bird says that, you know, they're still saying Humana still committed to their presence here.

there's still a lot of questions going forward about who's going to fill that space.

If anybody.

you know, a lot of hopes for what what could come.

But this isn't it's not really a great sign for downtown Louisville building back at this point.

>> Yeah, I think about the impact that could have been other downtown businesses like restaurants and retail that depend on that downtown work in business.

Crowd and Bulls tax base to our that represents about 7% of of office space in downtown was going to be taken and was already been struggling with that last year, there was not some of those about 20% of of a downtown office space was vacant.

And this is just adding on to that.

So some changes to come here than in the next.

I think they said what 18 to 24 months will be that transition of moving out of it.

>> The Humana Tower.

And then we will move to Frankfort and some legislation there.

There has been a bill filed that concerns miners and their social media news.

Tell us more about that.

>> Yeah, there's a lot of bills like that have been advancing across the country.

And this is just been introduced in the Kentucky Legislature hasn't moved of further than that, but he would require parents to sign off on on kids.

You having social media accounts but also requires a social media organizations to verify the ages of their users.

There's a lot of questions on how social media companies but really even be able to pull this off you know, requiring everybody to to authenticate their ages.

And there's been some legal troubles for bills that passed like this.

Previously.

Arkansas had a similar bill that passed last year and was struck down by federal court.

But I said before, there's a lot of different states that are pushing legislation like this.

Florida's another big one right now.

And Florida Governor Ron DeSantis has said that, you know, they're looking to find some compromise version of that.

I'm wondering if if some of that compromise language might end up in Kentucky's bills because a lot of conservative lawmakers are really trying to push for this.

you know, tech companies and others have been pushing back against a >> and also House Speaker David Osborne filing that constitutional amendment that could let the state legislature to call itself and especially special session or give them a few more days, 12 days of early session.

Now, this is going to be familiar to a lot of people because it was on the ballot in 2022, it failed that time.

So what's different this time?

>> You have voters might remember it.

Was that really long a proposal that they had to weigh in on back in 2022?

And a lot of people were confused.

What exactly this would do they ultimately rejected that turn that referendum in 2022.

Speaker Osborne says that he wants to make sure that this version of it has to be simplified.

Dollar question that voters can understand a little bit better and what this will do.

So with a lot to get lawmakers, some So when the end dates are from legislative session.

So right now, sessions, right or 30 days or 60 days, if lawmakers vote to do away with the other day, they can then move those session days a little bit around throughout the year and then also with the agreement of the House Speaker and Senate president could also asked to call themselves in for a special legislative session at any point during the year, which is a power that's currently reserved just for the governor.

So this would give a lot more power to lawmakers to pass laws whenever they want.

Because right now, that's something that's only allowed, you know, in these first months of the but also they could pass of the Legislature, Kentucky into once again get the chance to weigh in on this during a referendum on Election Day in November.

>> But when we appreciate it so much, thank you as always, for the information and insight, things are.

>> A lot of you parents out there have seen the Disney film Frozen.

Probably a lot of times, but not everyone has seen the Broadway musical version.

The United States of Frozen Competition awarded just one high school from every state with the rights to put on the Broadway show.

Paul Laurence Dunbar High School in Lexington, One for the state of Kentucky.

So bundle up as we enter the frosty world.

The frozen for this week's look at Parks and culture, we call tapestry.

♪ ♪ >> When I found out that I was on a I was like my freaking out.

I get to play on.

It was the most exciting moment I think of my life so which always been our goal is have like a really inclusive giant program to have somebody recognize that we're achieving.

That was like really incredible.

And the kids are so proud of ♪ >> They did a big announcement where the original Broadway cast >> Frozen announced who got to win this.

I was in math class and they made an announcement for us to come down to the theater.

And I was like, no, I need to finish my calculus note.

And then I came and there's like this countdown and the big picture of frozen.

They counted down and we are name was on the list.

It was.

>> All screaming and I blew out my voice because I screamed so much.

And those crying too.

It was crazy.

So surreal.

We found over the years that it's been difficult.

>> To have as big of cast after school.

And so we started musical theater class to really be able to make representative of our whole school and so that anybody can be in a musical, no matter like what the circumstance is in their And I think that's really reflected on the stage.

And we've been able to have a lot of kids in the show who otherwise might not have been able to do it.

♪ >> We like to take kids from the elementary schools around the area and bring them here >> just to be exposed to the arts, a young age because a lot of the time elementary schools don't have programs for that.

And that's really unfortunate.

I think.

And getting them to see what we do here in high school might make them want to do that when they're a little bit older, too.

>> It's been just amazing to we bring the show to Kentucky because a lot of the time he utters so expensive ordinarily that some people can't afford to go and see it.

So it's been really, really cool to be able to put this incredible production on on a high school stage for.

Everyone to come see at such an affordable cost.

So that's been really cool.

Kids love it.

They love every single second of it.

♪ ♪ Well, it's more art.

The world will always need more and more creativity and the more young people that see these shows.

>> The better because that's spreading creativity into that.

>> What a high quality performance.

The cast was also featured on Good Morning America alongside the other chosen schools with an achievement like that.

I hope those kids will never let it go.

Also out, say it not sitting at 10.

You'll be glad about that.

Well, we do hope that you'll saying when you join us tomorrow at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky Edition, we inform connect and inspire.

You can subscribe to our email newsletters 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 that public affairs at KET Dot Org and of course.

>> Follow KET on Facebook X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Lots of great stuff coming from Frankfort tomorrow.

You will get it all really bring it to you tomorrow night.

Thanks for watching tonight.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Take good care.

See you tomorrow night.

♪ ♪ ♪