♪ >> Kentucky schools expected to fall short on funding this academic year.

Why one student group says the state is to blame.

>> So we've been working with NASA on Heat shield for about 14 years now.

University.

>> How University of Kentucky researchers are helping NASA make sure its next mission takes flight.

>> The art is just as much intentional and that is the functionality.

>> And a Lexington man is starring creativity with some very special spoons.

>> 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 22nd, I'm Renee Shaw and we thank you for winding down your Wednesday with U.S.. Kentucky schools are expected to be out millions in state funding for the 2024.

25 school year more as we take a look at our education news and education matters.

The Kentucky Department of Education estimates the supporting education excellence in Kentucky or seek fund well have a 40 million dollar shortfall.

And a letter released Tuesday Education Commissioner Robbie Fletcher announced after reviewing preliminary data.

The department is predicting a 12 million dollar shortfall for funding to public school districts provided in Kentucky statutes and another 28 million in available funds.

Seek funding is determined by a formula that includes a base per pupil funding allocation along with additional funding for transportation or resources like special education, free or reduced lunch and English language assistance.

Fletcher says there has been a seeks shortfall 4 times in the last 14 years.

Last week, the student group, Kentucky Student Voice team filed a lawsuit against the state claiming eroding states financial support for school districts has widened the inequality gap.

The group released a statement on the predicted seek for shortfall.

It reads in part, quote, While the recent school funding shortfall is disappointing, it pales in comparison to the years of unconstitutional under investment that have left our public school struggling without the resources needed to provide a quality and equitable education to all Kentucky students end quote.

More education news.

Now as we look at education matters, state lawmakers are being asked to consider adding more non-traditional instruction or NTI days for school districts.

The current limit is 10 education.

Commissioner Fletcher tells the Herald leader newspaper he has spoken with lawmakers about increasing that limit.

He says some Kentucky school districts are almost out of NTI days because of recent winter storms.

Fletcher tells the paper lawmakers have been receptive but no decisions have been made yet.

Kentucky's largest power companies are asking customers to cut back on their energy use as temperatures plummet and the state, Louisville, gas and electric company and Kentucky utilities companies say energy demands are higher with the extremely cold temperatures and they want to prevent a strain on the energy grid.

Some of the ways they're asking customers to conserve energy just the time.

But its star must act to the lowest, comfortable setting, turn off all unnecessary lights and appliances and open curtains or blinds of the daytime to lead in the sun's heat and close at midnight to KET the heat in.

2 Americans are now free following a prisoner swap with the Taliban.

One of those Americans, Ryan Corbett has connections to Kentucky Corbett was detained by the Taliban in 2022.

While on a business trip, his parents live in Louisville.

They along with his wife and children, met with Republican U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell and Democrat U.S. Representative Morgan McGarvey last year as the government worked to free him.

Corbett was released this week in a statement the family said the news ends, quote, What has been the most challenging and uncertain 894 days of our lives, unquote.

They also thanked both President Trump and former President Joe Biden.

A longtime leader and Bowling Green's city government has passed away.

Patsy Sloan died Tuesday at the age of 85.

She served on the city commission and the 1970's and 80's.

And as the city's first female mayor from 1988, to 1991, Sloan taught high school social studies for more than 30 years.

In a statement, the city of Bowling Green called Sloan a, quote, trailblazer for women in local politics.

Governor Andy Beshear posted that she made an impact on her community and women's history through years of service.

A judge response to a request from the lawyers of a sheriff accused of murder and a Western Kentucky fire Department accuses other fire departments of going out of bounds and is planning to sue.

Our Toby Gibbs has details on those stories and more in our look at headlines around Kentucky.

♪ >> Attorneys for the farmer Letcher County sheriff accused of murdering a district judge are asking for a mental evaluation for their client.

Mickey Stines is charged with the murder of District Judge Kevin Mullins in September.

Stein's attorneys made the request of the status hearing last week.

WKU reports the judge did not rule, but he did say he believes Stein's does qualify for funding.

That allows the defense to use public funds to pay for expert witnesses for evaluations.

The Kentucky Department of Public Health is close to ending its investigation into a human deaths from rabies.

The Kentucky Lantern reports 3 weeks after the department announced the death more than 400 people with possible exposure have been contacted a Cabinet for health and Family Services spokesperson tells The Lantern Public health officials recommended.

26 people receive rabies.

Vaccine treatments.

The death was the first confirmed case of rabies infection in a human being in Kentucky since 1996 is still unknown.

How the victim from northern Kentucky got rabies.

Western Kentucky Fire District is suing 3 other departments accusing them of encroaching on their district.

The Paducah Sun reports the Gilbert's Mill Fire Protection District while the lawsuit against the districts to ensure its original boundaries established in 1981, are upheld.

It also wants any residents have been taxed incorrectly for service to get refunds.

The attorney for the fire department tells the Paducah Sun once the district's boundaries established another one that takes away from that can't be established.

He goes on to say his client's goal is not to cause strife between the departments but simply to define the boundaries and correct the flow of tax revenue.

The Children's Hospital at Pikeville Medical Center now has go-karts the Appalachian News expresses the medical center announced the arrival of several gamers outreach carts also known as go carts, which are portable medical grade gaming systems designed to provide entertainment, distraction and therapeutic play with children undergoing medical treatment in hospitals.

The hospital tells the newspaper the carts are, quote, a game changer for our pediatric patients on, quote, and serve as valuable tools for healing, providing children with a sense of normalcy and fun during their medical journey.

With headlines around Kentucky, I'm told begins.

♪ >> Time now to check in on some major political news so far this week with Roy Lynn Barton, who is an editor with NPR National Public Radio.

Good to see your island.

>> In a 60 run, it.

>> Let's start about a story that broke a recently about open government advocates are really praising a bill by Savannah, Maddox, State Representative Savannah, Maddox.

We're following a bill that requires a fiscal impact statement, which is a fancy way of saying we want to know how much this is going to cost the state budget and making that publicly available.

Why is this such a big deal and why are open government advocates praising it?

>> Yeah, I think a lot of people were surprised to know where to find out that not every bill or at least not every bill that spends money actually does have a financial impact statement on it.

That is doesn't have that estimate of how much it's going to affect the state budget.

According to this investigation by Kentucky Public Radio's Joe Soco last year, he discovered that there's this really secret practice in the Legislature were were lawmakers would attach a confidential fiscal notes to certain bills where they would actually run that analysis or legislative staff run that analysis of how much a bill that cost, but then it wouldn't be publicly released, which obviously for me to open government perspective, that's one of the most important things that the Legislature is doing.

There.

They're passing bills that spend money and they are exposed to KET an eye on how much that's going to cost.

So under this bill, and that's mostly sharing that with the public's in the public and, you know, hold lawmakers accountable and also know what the work that they're doing.

So under this bill from Republican Representative Savannah, Maddox, every bill would be required to have that at least once it went up for a vote in the full House or Senate.

So they could still have that confidential element as isn't working for the in the bill writing in the and the committee stage.

But then once it got to that stage of actually, you know, moving at more advanced through the legislature should have that statement.

Republican leaders of the Legislature had defended the current practice, which, by the way, is really out of step with how a lot of other state about most of their state legislatures operate.

But they defended it saying that it and that a lot of these fiscal impact statements are estimates that they don't actually give a better account of how much some of these bills are actually in across.

And they say that it would get in the way of the lawmaking process and the current way works fine.

So they have this bill it at them at the moment doesn't have a whole lot of support.

Democrats even are still say that they're studying it.

But I think that this is something that the public because as you point out, open government advocates are really hoping that the legislature will get the heart.

>> Yeah, and open government advocates are also advocating for this next topic.

Want to talk about on the Safer Kentucky Act.

They also want to know how much it was going to cost right when this was debated.

And the General Assembly last session, this particular measure House Bill 5, the Kentucky Safer Act that went into law last year, a sweeping anti crime measure that really addressed a host of criminal justice statutes.

But it contained an outdoor camping, unlawful outdoor camping provision which pertain to the homeless to sleep outdoors and recently, of course, ltm it helped with a story about a woman who was going into labor who was sleeping outdoors.

The same woman is now asking the court to dismiss the citation for her being outside while she was going into labor.

>> And now her and her lawyer are actually suing the state to try and block that law saying that it's unconstitutional, which should give its we have these laws or it's a big trend right now in state legislatures to pass these anti camping bans.

There's a big U.S. Supreme Court case over this last year over a case out of Oregon that really when the Supreme Court ruled in favor of this city, an organ to be able to enact a camping, that it really opened the door and emboldened a lot of states and cities to build the camping bans.

And, you know, think the advocates are worried about many other versions of of of this camping been rolling out that this this particular case is just one of the most extreme in disturbing cases of this logging this law being manifested.

And yet to your point about the cost of this, that's something we still just don't know is the full rollout of this.

A Jefferson County alone has created a full docket itself for 4 in the city to be able to to be able to handle this influx of camping ban cases that are moving through the system.

>> And recently, we should note that the new LMPD Police Chief Paul Humphrey acknowledged in hindsight that it was an error to cite this pregnant woman who was going into labor for a UN.

>> But also said that officers get lied to every day and that, you know, it was sound reasoning to assume heard that she was acting, but that she could have been staking this medical emergency.

She said that as well.

>> Last item, I think for our dime, among the many pardons that outgoing President Joe Biden issued right before he left office.

One is of particular note, we're the this to Kentuckyian perhaps a name Jerry Lundergan who perhaps many had heard and maybe have forgotten Lexington businessman was watched chair of the Kentucky Democratic Party.

He was convicted on federal campaign finance charges in 2019.

This relates to his daughter, former Kentucky Secretary of State Alison Lundergan Grimes who made an unsuccessful bid for U.S. Senate against Mitch McConnell in 2014.

Tell us about this.

>> Yeah.

Lundergan spending, Kentucky political weaken technical the world for a long, long time is the chair of the Democratic.

It's like a Democratic Party had a couple different points in history.

But yes, he was a convicted in orchestrating a a steam to to send more than $200,000 to his daughter's campaign against the recall in 2014, he was eventually sentenced sentence that in 2020 and he spent some time in jail or in prison which were later released.

But yeah, it's one of the flurry historic flurry of a pardon says present the ice for President Biden made out of office.

He was one of the island against you.

Well connected to Democratic circles.

He's very, very close to the questions and, you know, he had made this request and Biden issued saying that the he'd done his time and that, you know, said that the be an opportunity to help the community by if they were part of.

So yeah, of one of the big part is that happened on Biden's way out of >> Well, there's a lot to still KET our eyes on as a new president takes a foothold in the White And we'll be following that.

I know you will be for NPR and we'll be connecting with you again next week.

Thanks so much for island.

♪ >> The Commonwealth is saying some of the highest rates of viral infections in the country with the flu.

COVID RSV Peak RSV and the highly contagious norovirus on the rise.

Doctors at UK Health Care Hospital offer ways to avoid infection.

More about that in today's medical >> it's a Kia has been hard hit for a little while.

And I think part of it is just different waves.

A different virus of common.

We've seen a lot more flu in the last several weeks as well as other respiratory viruses in the common cold type virus is that we don't have, you know, test for routine.

Where is commonly as a test for flu RSV and COVID when somebody presents one of arbors Parmenter Clinton?

It's I think it's been kind of a >> stop.

Perfect storm of different waves hitting Kentucky that have kept the levels high as opposed to other states.

We've been seeing an uptick in GIs or systemic virus.

This across the nation this winter, we've seen a pretty significant uptick in once particular virus called norovirus, which is made this season even worse from both the rest for perspective.

And a lot of people getting G I m so that's kind of where we are.

We in infection control at the University of Kentucky track all these infections for the ones that we test for specifically COVID flu and RSV in adults.

We have seen pretty consistent and significant rise, especially in flu cases.

And even in our U.S. the adults COVID has remained on the higher and in the winter season which we expected pursing somewhere between 10 to 20 patients each day in the children's hospital needed mission.

>> That's a significant amount when they stay for a few days and then they get better.

>> Normally and get discharged.

So we're seeing high volumes.

We are encouraging families to help us help prevent these infections.

Good hand washing, trying to stay home, KET your kids home when they're sick and have a fever and really vaccinations.

It's the best way that we can prevent these infections.

>> We do actually have another tool in our tool box.

>> Which is an RSV antibody kind of boost.

The immune system of brand-new newborns and infants in their first season of RSV.

It helps protect them really that full first year.

We also have a vaccination for pregnant patients.

So patients can go to their OB and asked for protection in this way, said their brand new infant after deliveries protected and prevention is the key.

If we could really emphasize anything good, hand washing staying at home when you're sick.

And vaccinations.

It is our best.

>> Cool to help prevent infections.

>> I think in pediatrics, particularly this is a key for us.

So go get good information was into your your physicians and and have a good interchange.

there's a lot of information out there that's confusing.

So please go and talk to your pediatricians are primary care.

Doctors about what is real and what is factual.

We can prevent a lot of these infections for children.

>> According to doctors, parents and guardians should monitor the breathing of any child that has contracted RSV.

♪ >> In December, NASA announced it's sending a second Artemis rocket into space aiding in its mission.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky, they've been working to improve the durability of the rockets, heat shield.

But this isn't a new mission for students and professors at UK's Department of Mechanical and Aerospace Engineering.

>> So we've been working with NASA on he chill for about 14 years now university.

So we've always been very involved into modeling.

He chill testing them, testing new concept and trying to get that are heat shield.

Heat shields, provide protection for capsules coming back from space.

And there's 2 different types of he chills.

There are ones that don't damage when they come in to think about like a space shuttle tile that can be reused.

And then there are a blade of he chills, which are the ones that that we're looking at.

A blade of heat shields have a material in them that a form gases as they heat up and those gases pushed back out and that provide some additional protection so they can provide protection for higher temperatures and therefore higher velocity spacecraft for Artemis one.

There was an issue with cracking in.

So we were asked to look at those materials to try to provide data that could help them understand what was causing that issue.

So we look at these materials in their original form and then after they've been used and the gases have have been burned out of them in their final form.

We look at them in various stages and so in in my experimental rid we take small pieces of the material and we see lit and push gases through it and look at what pressures are required to get gas to flow through through the material.

So when gases are formed in these during the ablation process, the gas has to get out and that can build up a lot of pressure and lead to cracking.

And so it's that pressure build up the primarily interested in measuring.

I've been doing this as a faculty for 5 years.

But in my graduate route, I was working and he chances outside Bean.

>> In this heat shield, modeling slash experiments for over 15 years.

Now.

And so my work in a lot of aging.

So we used is really powerful microscopes to get a full picture of how the my the much it looks like locally.

And once we understand how it looks, we can kind a try to explain why it's behaving the way to be a big, big part of a fraud at the fact of the is meant to ship and workforce development.

So, you know, you're preventing his students to go out there and the work for the same company that played out the best in the water right in.

I was really nice with this partnership is that they go for internships and then it translates into a job even before, you know, they're graduating.

>> The crewed mission is set for April 2026.

NASA is planning a 3rd Artemis flight in 2027.

♪ >> In Lexington artist David Napier is life was forever changed by an unusual request.

>> His wife asked him to make her a spoon.

The musician soon found himself swapping guitar strings for woodworking tools and he's honed his craft making a lab rat and functional wooden spoons.

Tonight's Tapestry, our weekly Arts and Culture segment takes you into the Happy Spooning Workshop.

>> My wife and to my office one day and I was the ad.

I was a full-time music teacher during the pandemic that said there.

And of I am sitting here talking a couple of students online blogs pretty bored.

She walked into the mountains and mainly a spoon.

Well, my cool made this time and those who KET him.

And she posted that on my on my whole living.

He's been if this man, you know, where was I was in a van for 10 years and you know, I went from starving artist to artist, but I'm I'm about 80% self titan and 20% comes from.

>> Influence from all over the place.

So really the big thing is >> just eat pizza would kind of tells the story.

You know, the grain has the rakes and that let you know when you look at the cloud may see a cloud looks like about him for something like that of see the same kinds of things and wood.

>> And then the grain and then the movement of that would.

And so I try to KET it structurally sound while also letting the grain dictate how you see the movement of this man.

The the functionality comes from.

I've actually worked with a lot of people that have had like a hand disabilities and things like that.

I'm always trying to be cognizant of how it feels if you're cooking with it.

But at the same time I get them from a lot of people that they actually just put there's room for mayor.

Well.

>> And so I now try focus on both of them.

So our intent is just the art is just as much intentional as it is.

The functionality.

I want to look pretty.

And and last a long time them got some spoons that are.

Foot long.

I've got a stabs that 6 foot some Cajun.

So some of those will take 20 hours.

got some of their guitars moon, some of the tough.

And there's been some that are oarfish shapes.

>> Just whatever comes off the top of my head that can see with the peace would try to create it.

I grew up sitting in the house with a mother that was a seamstress of singer, a songwriter.

>> She did a little bit of everything.

So if you think that I have a lot of Steph.

You should see my mom.

>> This is my creative source right here.

Anything that I wanted to do.

My mother was there to just bag.

We have and see it.

She never stopped me from wanting to be like it may create a 13 to 5.

For me.

Art is just training.

>> One outlet for another.

I'm saying the same things in my in woodworking that I would with music.

>> I'm trying to have that same kind of conversation, acceptance and diversity and inclusiveness.

And in just about every way, it's it's all about just just put my feelings down somewhere.

Whether or not you're drawing or writing a song or, you know, carbon some would like I'm going to try to go into a different place in the time doing any kind of work.

>> Gotta >> love his energy.

Maybe or takes happy spooning to various craft shows in the region.

You can also find a spoons for sale online.

Groundbreaking research in Kentucky that could help ease the minds of dementia patients and their families.

>> We have very few medicines that actually can allow someone to maintain their quality of life.

And yet experience.

Comfort rather than education.

>> Tomorrow on Kentucky Edition while University of Kentucky researchers believe medical marijuana could play a role in managing symptoms of late-stage dementia.

You don't want to miss that story and so much more right here.

Tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central on Kentucky EDITION.

We're we inform connect and inspire.

We hope that you subscribe to our Kentucky Edition, e-mail newsletters and watch full episodes and clips online on demand at KET Dot Org.

You can also find Kentucky Edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

>> And we welcome you to send us a story idea by email to public affairs at KET Dot Org.

And of course you can follow KET on Facebook X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

More great stories coming back to tomorrow night.

And we don't want you to miss a one.

So we hope to see you again right back here again tomorrow night.

Until then, I'm Renee Shaw and take good care.

Thank you for watching.

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