>> But we haven't done enough from a state policy standpoint to invest in those one before they make that decision.

And after that.

>> Kentucky state senator says there's more to being pro life than just opposing abortion.

Could Kentucky statewide elections move from odd numbered years to even?

>> When the idea popped into my head, I started researching and I was kind of shocked that there.

It didn't already exist.

>> And this Kentucky business is building a one of a kind experience brick by brick.

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

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Wednesday, January, the 10th, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

An anti-abortion Republican lawmaker is proposing sweeping investments in the state's social safety net state.

Senator Whitney Westerfield says the Pro Life movement should be about more than just birth and should also advocate for supports for struggling families.

Our June Leffler has more in tonight's Legislative update.

>> They're my time working with the current crisis brings us Aaron, my hometown.

I met a number of women spoken to them.

>> He's heard from pregnant people that they worry about their economic and general well-being.

If they were to have a child now, I can have a child and get this car that I need to get to work.

I can't go to work and have a job and be a mom.

I can't go to school and be a mom.

>> And those fears are rational.

Women are worse for wear if they want an abortion and can't get one, according to the lead researcher of the Turn Away study.

>> We compared people who wanted abortion, those who are able to get an abortion to those who are turned away.

Women were denied abortions were more likely to well below the federal poverty level.

I'm not have enough money for basic living needs not have enough resources to take care of the children.

They already have.

they really were more likely to rely on public assistance.

But it wasn't enough to KET the family from being poor.

>> Westerfield says the same government that took away abortion as an option can and should curb the negative outcomes of unintended pregnancies.

>> I've co-sponsored a sponsored bills appear that are aimed at stopping abortion, which I disagree with.

And I believe.

And properly and horrific Lee terminates the life.

It kills a life that I believe should be protected.

But we haven't done enough from a state policy standpoint to invest and those women before they make that decision.

And after.

>> Senator Westerfield introduce the advancing lives for pregnancy and Healthy Alternatives or Alpha Act to make those investments which could cost the state half a billion dollars over the next 2 years.

Most of that money would pay for child care for low-income families.

The bill also hopes to expand free college health insurance enrollment options and rental assistance for low-income families.

It wants to ease the process for people to get and KET public benefits.

And the bill calls for more supportive housing for those with intellectual disabilities.

>> Just like we invest in pensions and infrastructure.

Income, tax reduction.

This is something we need to be focusing on.

>> Advocates on either side of the abortion debate are back in this bill.

What can we do with for moms to help them continue their education help them along, give them a and a leg up so to speak.

Opted say not teach, not give someone official the time to teach and fish so that they're improving their lives and the lives of their children and their families.

>> The provisions in the bill are really good and long overdue, but they don't really address maternal health.

But there is no provisions for birth control for.

You know, accessing comprehensive sex education for STI screenings.

However, this would be a great step for Kentucky families who need access to education who need access to it.

>> The social services are desperately needed.

I hope to see this bill forward.

>> Westerfield, Senate Bill 34 currently sits in the Senate's Appropriations and Revenue Committee for Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thank you.

June we discussed the Alpha Act Monday on Kentucky tonight as well as Hadley's law.

A bill that would alter Kentucky's current abortion ban by allowing exceptions for rape and incest.

Senate President Robert Stivers talked about how a woman in that situation could benefit from the Alpha Act.

>> I haven't seen Senate Bill 34 so I'm not sure about the details.

If you're talking about wraparound services for that young woman.

It may be older woman, but the woman those services need to be provided assistance.

This is a tough time.

Half a billion dollars again over the next 2 services in the in the in the qualification of the numbers.

I haven't seen him didn't know he was going to foul.

That was just filed.

Haven't read through it.

>> The for leaders of the Kentucky General Assembly talked about a wide variety of topics, including the budget, education and public safety.

You can see the full conversation online on-demand at K E T Dot Org.

Slash K why tonight?

We have reaction today to House Bill 5.

Better known as the Safer Kentucky Act filed yesterday in Frankfort.

The broad anti-crime bill has undergone a lot of changes since it was first introduced last summer and bill sponsor, Republican Representative Jared Bowman of Louisville says it's possible more changes could be made.

>> I definitely think there will be some challenges and where and what we're looking forward to to be honest, that's sometimes where we learned the most from from those that want to challenge our way of thinking.

So I look forward to those challenges and hope that it helps us put forward the most effective policy for our state.

>> One provision that hasn't changed is a 3 strikes rule.

It would mean life without parole for anyone convicted of a 3rd of violent felony with very few exceptions.

Speaking at a news conference yesterday, the House Majority Whip Representative Miss suggested the 3 strikes language reflects the overarching goal of combating violent crime in Kentucky.

>> This bill is about but identifying those are going to commit violence against us.

Finding them and putting him in jail for a long time.

>> Dozens of House members have quickly signed on as co-sponsors of House Bill 5 with more expected to follow.

The bill would also create a stand-alone carjacking law, increasing penalties for several crimes, cracking down on drive-by shootings and limiting bail payments by charitable organizations to less than $5,000.

The ACLU of Kentucky spoke against the bill yesterday pointing to the state's already high incarceration rates.

>> And over the last 10 years, here's what we know that the General Assembly has done.

They passed.

A lot.

A lot of that increase penalties and created new crimes.

I'm Liz Ation penalties.

Don't make us safe.

We need to invest in mental health substance use disorder, affordable housing, transportation and education.

All of those things make us a safer place.

>> Kentucky has significantly increased the number of drug treatment.

Brett bags trying to talk on underlying cause for crime.

Representative May miss as more efforts to address drug addiction could be forthcoming.

What if Kentucky were to elect its governor the same year as the president, some state lawmakers think that's a good idea.

Our Clayton Dalton reports on a bill that advanced out of committee today.

>> Kentucky is one of just 5 states that hold statewide elections in odd-numbered years.

Kentucky Lex, its governor, Lieutenant Governor at all constitutional officers in the year preceding the presidential election.

But a new Senate bill in the State General Assembly aims to change that.

>> This bill Senate Bill 10 moves constitutional elections to even numbered year starting in 2032, what this will do is dramatically increase the number of voters who participate in a constitutional election year and also save the Commonwealth.

Nearly 2 million dollars in counties over 15 million dollars.

This would not be the first time the legislature approved moving Kentucky elections in the late 90's, Kentucky moved local elections to align with federal elections.

Republican Sen Jay Williams who served in the state House and Senate in the 90's.

Remember passing that legislation?

He says he supports a similar move for statewide elections.

Moving 6 officers to this even year presidential year is not going to significantly increase the confusion, but it will.

I believe, significantly increased participation and the cost savings their major agreement that everybody agreed on most cost savings wide.

Oui for 6 offices.

Go through the entire process having an election and just is not cost-effective, wasn't cost effective for the county offices.

It's not cost-effective for just 6 offices.

>> Statewide.

>> Louisville, Democrat Kasey Chambers, Armstrong was the bills.

So critic she cited concerns about nationalizing Kentucky elections.

>> Nowadays with national division with presidential elections lasting for years and heating up the airwaves.

I think it's really important that the people of Kentucky have space to a focus on Kentucky issues and the issues that impact us here in the Commonwealth.

>> Some Republicans took the opposite approach claiming statewide elections coinciding with presidential elections will get Kentuckians involved in the political process.

>> People are getting less and less interested in our statewide races.

Turnout was down over 8% this year.

It in 2023 that it wasn't in 2019.

They're just not interested.

And I think one way to get them interested is put these races on the ballot when probably 20% more of them are already coming to vote.

What better way to get them focused on state issues.

Then put the races in a year where they are already interested in already coming to vote.

>> The reality is we need to improve the participation in our democracy and Senate Bill 10 will do exactly that.

Senate Bill 10 passed out of committee by a vote of 7 to one for Kentucky edition.

I'm Clayton Dalton.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Speaking of voting, one lawmaker wants you to pick members of the Kentucky Board of education Senate Bill 8 from Senate Majority Whip Mike Bowling Green.

What led voters pick the board's 14 members, voters in each of the state's 7 Supreme Court districts would pick 2 board members.

Right now.

The governor picks all 14 Wilson says it's time citizens have the authority to pick the people who control almost half of the state budget.

Today, Governor Andy Beshear declared a state of emergency for the city of Fleming may on and Letcher County in eastern Kentucky.

The city is running low on fresh water.

22 pallets of drinking water were deployed last week.

Mayor Rick Bourke says more drinking water is needed.

Today's declaration by the governor, Maine's Kentucky emergency management can begin coordinating relief efforts and the Kentucky National Guard can be mobilized to help as needed.

♪ ♪ Time now for midweek check and a pretty much all things Frankfort with our good friend Roland Barton, who is a senior editor with in PR states 10, good to see you for me.

It happy New Year to you cause I haven't seen a few weeks.

So it's good to lay eyes on him.

It's been a minute.

Has that glad you're doing well and glad you're still with us.

That's the most important thing.

So let's talk about some of the action, Frankfort so far this week when we spoke a school choice has a measure of there has been filed a proposed constitutional amendment that would allow for the state to help nonpublic education.

Tell us about this.

And you know how fast this could get going.

>> This is one thing Republican lawmakers said that they, you know, we're definitely going to bring up the session, but people said it was going to be priority for the money comes after.

A lawsuit over a so-called school choice law in There's a lot of the past couple years ago that would've allowed people too and corporations to contribute to scholarship funds for private schools and get a and get a tax break for that deal to write off on your taxes.

This ended up.

Bailey in A judge has struck down saying that it would have you diverted public funds that are meant to go to public and really allow them to go to nonpublic schools.

There's a provision in the state constitution that prevents money that's dedicated to vote common schools from being spent on other things without a voter's specific approval.

So of lawmakers are trying to undo that provision.

The state constitution, too, provide some flexibility of of how these edge Haitian dollars can be spent.

They say there's a lot of support among Kentuckians something like this one don't allow, you know, kind of more support.

Well, look, support for educational institutions outside of the normal public K 12 system.

But this is something it's been really hard politically to even get out of the lab.

See the past of making a really narrow margins the times of the past.

It's really unclear what would if if this didn't end up asking the Legislature is then voters would have to approve or deny it during a referendum to take place in November of this year.

Turn a general election and some of Republican sponsored prostitution amendments just haven't had the success.

supporters have thought that they would have had in recent years.

But a lot of different topics where we've been talking about abortion, providing legislature of more powers.

This is a whole different talking.

We're talking public education, whether and how those public education dollars should be spent.

So be interesting to see if they can get past the legislature and then if Kentucky voters but ultimately even approve it.

>> Yeah.

House Speaker David Osborne, he was here in the studio on Monday night said he believes, of course he has a super duper majority.

But in you said it been razor thin margins before, but he believes he's got 60 votes.

They're which would be higher than how it's done on how it's gone in previous session.

So we will.

We'll see about that.

Speaking of abortion, there been a couple of abortion-related measures that have been filed this week.

Let's start with the Senate Minority Whip David Yates of Louisville, who has filed what's called Hadley's law.

And that name will be familiar to a lot of our viewers.

>> Yes, so this is a Democratic proposal to add exceptions to Kentucky's near total ban on abortion.

That would be exceptions allowing people to get worse in some cases of rape and incest and of the sponsor and one supporters of his having the ball was featured in a really powerful political ad of Governor Beshear's last year to Israel calling out Republicans and Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron for not supporting exceptions to rape or incest.

You've been sexually assaulted when she was when she was a child by stepfather and and was criticizing, you know, why politicians wouldn't support allowing abortions in these really, really I'm critical of situations.

So they're pushing for this others.

There's Democratic support for it.

You know, Democrats only have 20% of the seats in the legislature right now.

The really need a lot more Republican in order for that past.

It's something Republicans, some Republicans at least have said that they were willing to consider, but you know, that movement has really yet to materialize and that in the state legislature and during the session this year, and it's unclear if Republicans are going to get on board and get the majority of votes needed to pass something like that politically, I think it's still very raw for Republicans.

They're worried about getting primary being challenged by Republicans are more conservative than men on that issue.

So again, another we'll wait and see you know, this also comes as Senate Judiciary chair with the Western feels a propose his own.

It's not an abortion-related measure, but it is focused on trying to and with-with You know, after once when Spitzer board, there's a lot of criticism on that side that if if Republicans are are you pro-life?

They need to be pro life after birth as well and need to kind of bolsters state service in sport.

Kids in your family's 2 of, you know, have trouble raising kids.

It's a big expensive And so I think there's some support for it.

you know, a lot of discussions during this budget writing and how to spend state money and we'll That's one that gets any more support.

>> Yeah.

A half a billion dollar price tag.

551 Million.

To be exact on that Alpha Act as it's called short hand.

Last item real quickly and about 45 seconds.

Governor Andy Beshear is raising his national bona fides, even higher by establishing creating a PAC, a political action committee.

Why and what's it for and doesn't even help him?

>> Yeah, this is one of those hints any this year is trying to elevate his national profile.

This federal act allows him to raise money and also invest in other campaigns are in the country.

He said that he would be looking to any candidate that he believes in it for the right reasons.

So pretty broad.

But he said he would be and shouldn't supporting said the Democrat running for North Carolina governor of this year and also a legislative races around the country and possibly even races in Kentucky.

So just another one of those moments after he won reelection last year.

A lot of folks have is to have their eyes on him, seeing how he's going to and present himself to the national stage.

I was going try Bill does provide across the country.

>> To KET our eyes on there, we can't even get through with one election before are talking about the next right.

But that's just how it works here in Kentucky.

Thank you, Ryan.

It's always good to see you.

Take good care and see you next week.

>> Good to see you today.

♪ ♪ >> A new partnership will let hospitals and recovery programs join forces to help Kentuckians recover from substance abuse.

It includes Saint Claire Healthcare Mountain Comprehensive Care Center and revived Recovery after Tuesday's announcement.

Those in active addiction checked out a recovery Resource Expo.

Here's the story.

>> So the people of the mountains and hills, the ship >> Today, the times you get who they are.

In place.

That is what he did.

It.

>> This is Saint Clair coming together amount.

Comprehensive the by program and so many others to bring more treatment services to this community, to better connect up the moment someone might come to a hospital suffering from addiction to bring the best medical treatment as well as the best pure support specialist.

Altogether, this is been a game-changer over the last 8 years to say all communities come out, not with judgment, but with love with empathy and with support for our treatment providers, recovery is just such a huge part of what's You know.

>> People are struggling with because of and >> you know, things like that were just want to open up those avenues of much sooner than a lot of people have the opportunity if they're the chance to you know, recovery is possible and stay clean.

It.

Having a lot of outside of substance use something that they can.

>> We are starting to really gain ground more treatment beds per capita in Kentucky than any other state more recovery services that we have ever had.

And now that our second chance employment that we've ever seen.

>> We're going to see this edition.

We want to make sure that the attack, the problem that we know we had every community.

>> The stigmas that around and there they are so detrimental.

Chief on the recovery.

That they just they just be passed just they're just they're just people trying to find compassion and love it.

>> More than a dozen recovery programs and businesses participated in the Expo.

♪ ♪ We take you now to northern Kentucky, Newport on the levee has a new cafe that just opened, but food and drinks aren't the only things on the menu, the brick or a cafe in play offers a chance to build and play with Legos who didn't want to do that.

And the owner says it's only it is one of the only of its kind in the country.

See how this business is building up creativity in this week's Arts and culture segment, we call Tapestry.

>> The typical user journey into the stories first, what the heck is this place?

And I give them the and because from confusion to excitement about the concept.

And we are a lot of times, you know, like I haven't played with Legos since I was.

Such-and-such age.

and then they're like, you know, maybe I want to see if this is still forming.

That's that was exactly the idea as well as 2 to provide a place people have access and to KET the barrier to entry as low as possible as well.

It's not just for kids, it's for everyone.

We have people of all ages coming in the Some people come and their families, maybe there thinking their kids are going to go.

But all of a sudden you see them start to pick up Lego bricks and start building as well.

Which is exactly what we want.

It.

And then we also have couples coming here for date nights.

We have older folks come in as well.

And it's it's for everyone's for the young and the young at heart.

We have 3 determine sets that we have for renting.

We haven't broken down the small medium and large.

We also have it broken up by estimated completion time.

So whatever time you think you might have to be able to check and see, OK, what?

Maybe we can do a medium build.

When you look at the media menu and we have over 20 sets available currently, they can rent from every single thing you can think of with reply go.

We've handed over to you and you're not renting the time you're just running the set.

So as long as it takes you, we'd love to have you hang out with you.

Hang out with us for as long as you buy.

You just hand it back to us.

When you're done building, we would then take it apart and running up the next person.

When the idea popped into my head, I started researching and I was kind of shocked that there.

It didn't already exist.

And so that really spurred me on to pursue it because it was the kind of thing I was like.

I just can't believe it doesn't exist.

I think other people might feel the same way.

And so part of the process to for us was thinking about here's a high quality product and this really high quality experience in the home.

And we were just thinking, how can we bring that again?

That high quality experience out into a social setting.

We're looking to have a positive impact on the community.

We love that.

We see so many families come in.

We've gotten such great feedback or people are saying, you know, we just sat for 2 hours and built with our kids and just talk to them.

You know, instead of going to a movie and just sitting next to each other side only for a couple of hours.

We just spent the whole time talking and doing something with their hands and it was amazing.

And so just just hearing about that experience that people are having.

We love that it's having a positive impact on the community.

You will hear a lot of people that are adult fans of Lego.

That will tell you, you know, they can find a therapeutic where it's just this experience, that it's really kind of unrivaled in today's society where, you know, you have something in your hands for a couple of hours.

That's not your cell phone and you're staring at something for a couple of hours.

It's not a screen and it's just this this amazing process.

We always go from this order.

The order we start with a pile of bricks, raining bricks and then you end up with something that's really cool.

Really beautiful.

And it's just amazing because every time it's just the same bricks the possibilities are endless.

So we just really hoping that people find something that they enjoy and then maybe they find out that yeah.

I love like I was a kid, but it turns out I still doubt.

>> Good for kids of all ages.

And that place was packed.

Johnson says with the abundant positive response to the store in Newport, he's thinking of expanding throughout the region.

Good for him.

January is human trafficking Awareness Month and one Kentucky nonprofit is trying to make it safer.

Survivors.

>> It's going to be home for these girls is not a facility.

It's not that it's a an actual home for them.

>> This home will be the first of its kind in the state will learn more about redeeming Hope and its founder tomorrow on Kentucky edition, which we hope will see you 4 at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central more we inform connect and inspire.

And you can connect with us all the ways you see on your screen there and subscribe to our Kentucky Edition.

Email newsletters watch full episodes and clips at K E T Dot Org.

>> You can find us on the Kentucky edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV and send us a story idea to public affairs at K E T and of course, follow KET on Facebook X, formerly Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

We'll KET you in the loop again tomorrow.

If you join us at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, Central.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thanks for watching tonight.

Take good care.

And I'll see you right back here again tomorrow night.

♪ ♪ ♪