♪ >> The >> capital is no stranger to visits from school kids.

These 250 students were in Frankfort for a special reason.

When the mercury drops.

So do blood donations.

But you can help reverse the trend.

>> I went through probably.

35 one pounds games of yarn, at least.

>> And what kind of art project takes this much?

You are find out.

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

♪ ♪ Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Wednesday on a rainy Wednesday.

It is January the 24th.

>> I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your time tonight with us last year, 150 people were shot and killed in Louisville.

Hundreds more were shot.

But >> survived.

One couple knows all too well.

The pain gun violence can cause a family.

Krista and Nevada.

Gwen lost their 19 year-old son Christian to a drive-by shooter in 2019 and their daughter survived a shooting just 2 years later, Kentucky additions June Leffler asked this family how they feel about stiffer penalties for violent offenders as outlined in the proposed House Bill.

5 also known as the Safer Kentucky at their thoughts and feelings as we begin tonight's Legislative update.

>> At a recent event at Louisville's Metro Hall, anti-violence advocates shared their stories of loss.

Krista Gwynn can relate.

>> My son received a gunshot wound from a drab, a shooting we eventually 8 months it was later got a rest for.

But not to.

I'm liking the zoning doing 10 years for the killing of a sun, which we feel is not just what they can also fly, at least it's something he's not walking free like some of these murder as a door.

We feel as though that if the laws have been different.

That the time my son was murdered, a shot that the young man that shot my son would not have been walking the streets.

Court records show that young man had already pleaded guilty to more than one felony as a teen.

>> That's why the Glen Support House Bill 5, which would put people who have committed their 3rd violent offense away behind bars for life.

It would also stretch out sentences for the first or second violent offense.

>> We need things like for Kentucky at.

It will make these people the pretty looking about picking up a good boy, even come eat.

And then next pilot-y when walking out the front door because let's be honest here.

Half of the people that's committing these heinous crimes have already probably felony probation, probably had some type of misdemeanor probation throughout childhood things like that.

>> The grants have worked with Commonwealth.

Prosecutors.

They've set in the courthouse as they've heard their sons assailant except to manslaughter plea.

Having been through that, they say the justice system needs to change.

The Glen say investigations and trials should not drag on what's going to convict somebody.

We need to have them in.

We need to get a >> we need to get solid evidence and we need to commit such a conviction.

>> House Bill 5 may not speed up the judicial process, but it would impact what happens to alleged offenders as they await trial House Bill.

5 limits charitable funds that bell people out.

The bill bans these funds from pain more than $5,000 for a single person or assisting alleged violent.

It enters.

We don't need to buy those things.

Don't need to be structured around anybody that commits murder.

>> Assaults anything that.

I would say would hurt someone's loved one.

>> Christian was 19 working as a security guard when he was shot in the neighborhood park.

>> These are children killing children.

He's not grown.

People defend and they houses the finan a Cardiff and their spouses.

These are children killing children.

>> And Louisville, last year, most people who died by a bullet were under 34 years old for Kentucky edition of June Leffler.

>> Thank you, June for Kentucky Act is waiting for a full vote on the full House floor.

Today was children's advocacy day at the state Capitol Governor Andy Beshear and members of the Kentucky General Assembly join students and advocates for a rally on behalf of children in the state.

They spoke about the importance of youth advocacy and what the Legislature can do to improve the lives of Kentucky's children.

>> I believe it's our responsibility to make sure every child, especially the most marginalized, have an opportunity to realize their full potential and at a time when we're creating good jobs for everyone, we can get healthy enough trained enough, an educated enough to fill.

This is our chance to invest in our kids to create better futures and interest generational change.

I don't know about you.

I'm tired of being 40th and anything.

It's time to be in the top 10 and how we treat our kids in every fact.

>> At the age of 4, I went into the foster system because of my page drug issues in group in the system and surrounded by kids in the system.

I was blessed with good foster parents is OK, foster experience, but many others were not as fortunate.

I saw my brother gets it from home to home and so many other children go through similar struggles throughout this.

They have caseworkers a lawyer speaking for them, not being able to voice their struggles in concerns for themselves in seeing and hearing about this.

I came to the realization that this not only occurs in the foster system, but also in situations in schools, homes and so many other places.

I decided I want to be the change both in my family's vicious drug cycle.

And also to make myself available to listen to others and help to be their voice, motivate them to use >> What what I need to tell you today is I've already done several media interviews and it would not surprise folks in the General Assembly or the governor that some of them begin by saying the way Frankfort is, can you get anything done?

And my answer is consistent because I need to tell you that when it comes to kids.

I find.

Senator Givens Senator Carol, Senator Westerfield, other leaders in the Senate, folks in the House and the sheer administration on a consistent basis find common ground.

With common sense for common.

Good.

>> Today's program in Raleigh also honored 9 state lawmakers and juvenile justice champions for their work on behalf of children in Kentucky.

Legislation to prevent cities such as Louisville and Lexington from forcing a property owner to accept Section 8 housing vouchers is gaining traction.

And the Kentucky General Assembly Bourbon County, Republican senator and real estate attorney Stephen West is the sponsor of Senate bill.

25 that also seeks to ensure that state law overrides local ordinances on Section 8 when they conflict.

Democratic senators from Louisville and Lexington sought to make their case against the bill arguing in part that the bill seeks to fix a problem that doesn't exist.

>> I also think it's important to say that this bill doesn't solve the problems that the senator from Bourbon says it does.

There is no city advocating that every landlord be required to take Section 8 for every single unit, no matter what.

And a law requiring that.

But most certainly violate federal law.

>> Why is the currency?

For Section 8 tenants worth less.

The other forms of currency.

What's the concern here was the real of what's the real hitting agenda behind this bad.

All we're trying to do is get people trying to get a leg up.

>> As with Section 8 does is a federal program has been around.

>> Since 1965 the housing development.

This is we want to get people who can afford a place to lay up a decent place to live.

>> Now proponents of the bill say it's designed to protect personal property rights and that it's not an attack on Section 8 housing but rather the strings that are attached to the program.

>> You know, the opponents of the bill are making this into something.

It's not.

First of all, what the senator from bourbon is attempting to do here is to protect rights that have been long enshrined in our Constitution as it relates to purple.

A personal property rights.

These are some of the very basic tenets upon which our country was founded.

And if a landlord is forced by the government to take Section 8 payments that is in the it's an absolute insult to those rights enshrined in the Constitution.

>> All the landlords I know.

Are more than happy to accept cash in many different forms, including vouchers.

The streams that would be a tax to section 8.

Our additional inspections above and beyond city inspections.

Repairs needed.

If it's not up to come up to the specific section 8 standards, not city standards, Section 8 standards.

And there are rent guidelines.

>> Senator Stephen West Senate bill, 25 advance from the Senate this afternoon on a vote of 30 to 6.

It now heads to the House for consideration there.

Now, while that's happening in Frankfort, Lexington is a step closer to an ordinance that goes in the opposite direction.

Lexington's propose ordinance would require landlords to accept renters housing.

Vouchers and other types of payment.

According to the Lexington Herald-Leader, the Urban County Council's social services and general government committee voted 73 yesterday in favor of the requirement.

Now it's not on the books yet.

The full council is expected to deal with it January.

The 30th, if it passes there, it would become law March first and the ordinance says it will not conflict with state or federal laws.

Now lawmakers and Frankfort have long considered making changes to the state's certificate of made requirement.

And if you're wondering, water certificate of need requirement is you are not alone.

It is a complicated law that regulates the health care industry and it can be very difficult to understand how it works.

Our Clayton Dalton, though he sat down with Sarah Ladd Health and policy reporter to get some understanding it to break it all down.

>> Significant need is one of those issues that it is affecting a lot of people, whether or not they know it.

But and it this is something lawmakers have been talking about.

I mean, they spent for the past 4 years.

There's been at least one bill in the General Assembly that seeks to reform, assertive, good neighbor con as some people say and last year there was a task force that spent 6 months studying.

And at the end result was we need to study it more because it's that complicated.

>> Certificate of need sometimes referred to as Con is a government mechanism designed to limit competition between health care facilities.

Some describe it as a permission slip required by law for medical facilities that want to expand their services.

Its ultimate goal is to ensure hospitals and vital health care services remain open and accessible to patients.

Sarah Ladd Health and policy reporter uses a simplified analogy to break it down.

>> Let's say that I want to open a lemonade stand in front of my house now.

My neighbor Susan has been selling lemonade in front of her house for years and people like her lemonade.

That's fine.

But I just wanted to sell it to.

And that Susan is worried that if I opened a lemonade stand.

My driver out of business may be because there's more competition now she might not be able to KET our prices or why they are.

Maybe she can't afford to KET her stand.

So she's losing.

She might lose that.

And so I can't get permission from our local government to open my stand because they need to protect her and service.

It provides no.

That type or simplified.

And the person that you're not hearing from this conversation is the neighbor across the street who wants options on where he buys his lemonade.

You know.

>> There are fears that intense reforms to district if a kid need mechanism could hurt the state overall, existing hospitals have voiced concern that without Caron new hospitals would be able to cherry pick patients for expensive services, leaving old hospitals with patients on public assistance.

>> And so essentially the hospitals on we lose the income they would get on elective surgeries or sayings that are a more lucrative for them.

So that in itself what they need, the income that itself could drive them to a point of closing some services like really limiting what they offer and then could eventually lead to closure.

Is the argument there?

And that's a very serious concern in a state where we have tremendous shortages in primary care and others fields.

>> Freestanding birthing centers which are specialized stand-alone facilities for low-risk births.

Our effectively prohibited in Kentucky under the certificate of need requirement.

But a Senate and House bill aims to change that.

Northern Kentucky Senator Shelley Funky from Meyer has introduced Senate bill while Surrey.

>> She's essentially trying to remove the Connor requirement just before freestanding birth center so that they can come to Kentucky is like opening Kentucky.

This is something that there is a companion bill, if you will, in the House of Representatives on Amos has filed that.

So there's there's a theme of lawmakers coming together and warning that part of it was formed for sure.

>> Senator Shelley Funky from Iris Bill Senate bill 103, and representative Jason, the misses Bill House Bill.

One.

99 have both been assigned to committee and await vote.

There.

For Kentucky edition.

I'm Clayton Dalton.

>> Thank you so much.

Clayton Bills about freestanding.

Birthing centers are not new to the Kentucky General Assembly.

Republican Representative Jason May miss sponsored House Bill one.

29 in the 2023 Legislative session, which is identical to his bill this year.

Now being summoned for jury duty would pay more.

>> Under a bill that advanced out of the House committee today.

Representative Patrick Flannery's House Bill one, 76 6 to raised from $5 a day to a whopping $25 a day, though, the bill unanimously passed the House Judiciary Committee this morning.

Several lawmakers suggested raising the rate to $100 a day.

Representative Flannery a Republican noted his bill doesn't restrict local courts from providing jurors with additional compensation House Bill.

One, 76 now heads to the full House for consideration by the full membership.

♪ ♪ There are other measures under discussion and Frankfort this week from teacher misconduct, a possible voter ID changes to dei debates.

Our Laura Rogers spoke with NPR's Rylan Barton about those items and this midweek check in on the state's political news.

Laura.

>> Thank you so much, Renee.

And hello to your island, Mr. We'll go straight, of course, to Frankfort and some legislation that is advancing through the state legislature.

Let's talk about this bill concerning teacher sex abuse from what I understand require some thorough background checks.

Also.

>> Preventing schools from that making students sign an NDA.

Tell us more about that.

>> Yeah, this comes after a lot of from the Lexington Herald leader of the last couple years that show some teachers who had been accused of sexual were able to leave jobs at one school and find a job in a different school any of these Coming up, this would require schools to conduct more thorough background checks of teachers were when they're applying for jobs.

I would also require investigations involving abuse of students to remain on their files for longer.

and then also, as you said, that schools from entering into non-disclosure agreements with students, which is this is something that happens.

A lot some of these cases of teachers being on the hop from one school to another, a similar bill like this, a path that was advanced last year.

It passed unanimously and the House passed the Senate committee but was never taking on the Senate.

The bill Representative James Tipton said that there were some concerns from some advocates are worried about about due process and whether or not teachers, you have actually been convicted of anything whether this will remain under current records longer.

There's some language to address some of those concerns.

it does have a lot of support to be moving with.

It was just see if it's enough to come to convince those people who are misrepresented you know, do want to pass it last year.

>> And was any time you're talking about student safety, taking care of kids in schools.

A lot of emotions attached to that.

A lot of concern over Another bill, this one also concerning education post secondary education.

Understand it would ban race-based scholarships.

What you know about that one.

>> Yeah.

This is part of a effort in the state legislature and legislatures across the country that are targeting It's the diversity, equity and inclusion programs in higher This would even go so far as to target classes that include topics related to diversity, equity, inclusion and would also universities to go through and look at all positions since 2019 never created involving DNR.

but, yes, it's going to start preparing and addresses a diversity scholarships.

A lot of this comes after the U.S. Supreme You start down affirmative action programs in higher education.

So this is something that seems to be a priority for the website.

You could do a lot of bills filed over this.

But this particular one Representative Jennifer Decker appears to be moving in in the House.

you know, we'll have to see which one is it succeeding?

>> And then other legislation here also concerning college students.

This actually has to do with their identification when they go to the polls to vote.

I understand there's some new developments today, a bill that would prevent a college ID from being an acceptable form of ID at the polls.

>> Yeah.

This bill Senate bill Senator Adrienne Southworth with with been student ID's recounting of the polls back in 2022 legislature passed voter requirements requires people to to show voters that photo identification on the women vote that used to include the student But this under this bill would ban that was actually passed out of committee today.

It's raising concerns from a Republican secretary of state Michael Adams, his communications director issued a statement saying that that this could actually vote or a D O all at that by by not allowing student ID's to qualify as a as a photo ID but also resent politically, this would also, you know, Republicans should be thinking and worrying about the leading area making younger voters that are hoping to attract and or even KET within the Republican Party.

So interesting that there's some internal party differences over how how to move forward with this bill.

It is just taking the first step in the process here.

But but this significant wanted to pass on this committee.

So we'll see.

Our part makes.

>> Ron, we sure appreciate you as always giving us these updates from Frankfort.

And thank you so much for your time.

>> Thanks, Lar.

>> And thank you both Laura and Rylan.

Now turning to medical news, the Kentucky Blood Center is again dealing with a blood shortage caused this time by the recent cold and snow.

It's a good week to give blood.

You can talk and czar the big blue slam is underway it last through Friday.

It's a competition between the Kentucky Blood Center and the Blood Center in Florida.

After day to yesterday, Kentucky leads 523 donations to Florida's 515.

So it is a nail biter.

Kentucky's a blood donor centers are open from 09:00AM to 06:00PM every day.

And mobile drives are planned around the state donors become eligible to win tickets to the January 31st.

Kentucky, Florida basketball game and Rob Arena in Lexington.

♪ ♪ >> Newport artist Bailey Schmidt is recreating her childhood home and they continuing art piece called 306, West Church street.

She's weaving these memories of her past into the present through the art of Crochet.

So join us as we unravel the threads of memory and this week's Arts and Culture segment we appropriately call today Tapestry.

>> do work.

So I primarily work with yarn.

Some a fiber artist.

so far I've been working a lot installations of rooms from my childhood home.

I started out as a painter and I was doing a lot of vintage interiors.

I'm really focusing on how we exist and environment.

And I was always interested in ideas of home.

And now how did I become like this?

And there's all these different elements to kind of contribute to a person.

And so those are the kinds of ideas that I was focused on now is making the 306, Lester Street installation.

And I just decided to start with the kitchen.

I've got big plans to do every room that possibly can.

But I decided to start their I primarily dues, acrylic yarn as a synthetic fiber with synthetic dyes.

Bugs won't need it.

It's very colorful past.

It's very durable.

And for me when I suspend things, I need those stitches to kind of bounce back and natural fibers like cotton and wool.

They stretch and they stay stretched.

But acrylic kind of bounce back and hold its shape a little bit better.

I went through probably.

35 1 pound skeins of yarn, at least and I have no idea what the yardage is because you just go through it and you go through and you go through it.

>> Meeting is to needles, which is why it's much harder to kind in any direction like with one count on the directional, you can go anywhere you want like right here.

I could turn around right now just our crushing this way.

You can get anything with her say there are so many across areas that are making incredible things that you couldn't even fathom.

>> How to make that state I do feel really limited by other aspects of.

Media except for like physicality of it.

Because we kind of picture crochet being a very solitary activity.

That's it.

Dunn sitting down.

It's very small.

It's very relaxing but when you're coaching for long periods of time, we stretch in order to avoid injury like carpal tunnel or just like repeated stress injuries to certain joints and ligaments.

>> Traditionally, what you would do is we've every single one of these strands back in 2 the corresponding color so that they become invisible.

But conceptually and visually they kind of served as a reinforcement of gravity.

As I suspend these pieces, they kind of sagging.

They kind of yearning for the floor.

These strings are hanging down.

Help them do that.

Fiber arts are kind of behind and the art cannon in terms of the hierarchy of what we consider to be valuable historically or culturally.

A lot of that has to do with the idea of it being a hobby.

>> For its women's work and it's a little less release.

It's perceived to be a little less magical as like painting or drawing where you're sick.

Translating an image to something physical.

But 5 rights have come a long way to being recognized in the fine arts community.

I follow some money, beautiful fiber artists on Instagram and everyone's making such unique things.

>> It's really it's just a unstoppable medium.

>> Unique, indeed.

Schmitz art will be on exhibit around the country as she works to complete more rooms and eventually the entire home.

Now, she's the young woman who shared her personal pain and a very public way.

>> I've always search for somebody who was sharing their voice or being a strong influence who had a similar story to mine.

One day I was like, I'll just become that.

>> Sit down with Hadley Deval the Owensboro native, whose name is now attached to legislation that would expand abortion access.

Hear directly from her tomorrow night on Kentucky edition, which we hope will see you for again tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central really inform connect and inspire.

Connect with us all the ways you see on your screen there, Facebook X and Instagram, stun the support.

A story idea to public affairs at KET DOT Org.

Check this out from the PBS video app.

>> Thanks so much for watching tonight.

I will see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Hopefully and take really good care.

Have a great night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪ ♪