♪ >> About 4 out of every $10 we spend of the state budget for federal dollars.

Everything's President.

Donald Trump backs off his order to freeze spending.

But what would have freeze main for Kentucky?

>> The word to use in say obviously carry weight depending on how somebody perceives that emotional.

>> Do the words we use to describe our emotions matter.

A worldwide team of scientists say yes.

>> And family is sitting on the edge of the ditch that they dug themselves with a gun behind their head.

You don't in the words to know what happened.

>> And the Louisville Ballet tells the stories of Holocaust survivors through dance.

>> 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 29th, I'm Renee Shaw.

We thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

The White House has now rescinded a memo about a federal freeze on grants and loans announced late Monday night.

A federal judge had already blocked it temporarily.

The freeze involved trillions of dollars and left lawmakers and the public confused about what was and wasn't affected this afternoon the White House said President Donald Trump's underlying executive orders targeting federal spending in areas like diversity, equity and inclusion and climate change remains in place.

Governor Andy Beshear was critical of the spending freeze and he had this after it was rescinded.

>> Well, I'm happy there was that they were sending it because it was illegal and it was poor lady written and it would have been from anywhere from detrimental to destructive and virtually every single state people of the graph on our budget.

I just give you an idea this was written so broad.

It basically just said there are, you know, 2 things in the beginning that we're going to be included.

I think it was Medicare and Social Security that left almost everything else on the table.

And when you look at at the amount we received in federal grant funding.

And obviously this is a big definition.

It's about 22 billion dollars.

And so you look at some portion of that.

That does things like funding head start that that funds Medicaid, which we were locked out of for almost an entire day.

There is no world health care in Kentucky without Medicaid.

>> Congressman Morgan McGarvey of Louisville, the only Democrat in Kentucky's federal delegation reacted with this.

Quote, This is welcome news.

But Louisville Younes does are more than a 2 line explanation about why Donald Trump tried to freeze Medicaid, SNAP grants to hospitals and law enforcement and other vital programs.

Our community depends on end quote.

Before the freeze was rescinded.

Republicans including Congressman Hal Rogers of Kentucky's 5th district defended it while also acknowledging his office received many questions about the potential impacts he put out this statement yesterday, quote, Americans endured costly extreme policies over the last 4 years under the Biden administration that led to skyrocketing inflation and President Trump has effectively pulled the emergency brake on all of it.

His temporary pause strictly applies to grants and loans that promote dei the Green New Deal and funds for organizations that undermine national interest, end quote, We reached out to Congressman Rogers's Office for an updated statement.

They reemphasize that the President's executive order targeting federal spending remains in place.

How would Kentucky be affected if there is a federal spending freeze in the future?

Kentucky Edition spoke to the left leading Kentucky center for economic policy to find out.

>> A lot of folks view federal funding is just impacting lower-income Kentucky ends.

But it supports.

I'm jobs in the state.

It supports.

For water and air quality and supports our education systems.

Our health care systems, our transportation systems, and so, you know, I think it's really important right now to just acknowledge a lot of the ways that the federal government benefits Kentucky INS across the board, particularly as Congress right now is considering pretty large scale counts to the federal government through the budget You know, there's sort of 2 things happening at once here.

But I think each informs the other and we should really appreciate the ways that Kentucky, which per capita receives the 5th largest amount of federal funding in the country.

I really benefits from this about 4 out of every $10 we spend of the state budget for federal dollars.

We actually spend more in federal dollars as a state that we bring in tax revenue.

So it's a very significant portion of the way we care for the commonwealth and the people who are most likely to be harmed by this are the most vulnerable and sensitive populations.

We have the average her son is directly impacted by things like Medicaid and snap.

I mean, if you work at a grocery store, a significant portion of your revenue comes from step participants.

You know, we have round one in 7 Kentuckians who are participating in the program.

They're using it to buy their groceries and of that falls off and that that's a real problem.

You know, we have one in 3, Kentuckyian to utilize Medicaid for their health coverage that Medicaid stops making payments, whole hospitals could shut down.

And that means that, you know, healthcare capacity for the entire community dries up.

We already have a doctor shortage your title, one funds are federal funds that go to schools and particularly rural another low income parts of the state.

Those funds are currently supporting positions in those schools that that offer extra supports to students, things like intervention services.

So if your child is getting, you know, help with their reading or their math right now, a title one school and that money dries up.

Then then you're going to be out a lot.

We also have about 4 and a half billion dollars on top of what we spend through the state budget in ongoing infrastructure and energy projects throughout the state.

The Brent Spence Bridge is a great example of that.

One.

Now that 250 million in federal funding that's going toward the Brent Spence Bridge isn't the entirety of funding that's going to that project.

But certainly without those federal funds that they would grind to a crawl at the minimum.

>> The Kentucky Center for Economic Policy says Kentucky's federal grants for 2025.

Total.

22 billion dollars.

Earlier today.

I caught up with NPR's Rylan Barton and our new Louisville studio to discuss these latest developments from the White House.

>> Robin Barton, it's good to have you.

Thank you for being here on a Louisville studio.

It's great to be here.

yeah, we got a lot to talk about particularly on the Washington front.

May know that there's been a dizzying pace of executive orders and other actions coming out of the Trump administration causing a lot of confusion and widespread worry about these federal funding freezes on grants and loans.

Where does that stand now?

>> It's still in a pretty confusing place.

But the latest that we know is that the White House is actually rescinded that memo that caused so much consternation not only conservation that give a lot of state and local governments, other places that are receiving funding federal funding.

We're starting to experience problems receiving funding there.

It's been using that money to be spent on the programs that they that they run.

So everything from university, state governments and city governments, nonprofits, this is a big you know, this is part of this kind of wave of executive orders that the president has enacted over the over the last week since his inauguration.

And this one specifically focused on federal spending that the that President Trump didn't necessarily agree with.

That's a real new thing.

A lot of presidents that have not really done that at least in recent memory.

There's there's a law against it was passed in 1974, the federal I think that's the title of is the Federal Impoundment Act impoundment as went to a president decides differently how to spend money than Congress intends to spend it.

Congress, of course, is supposed to be the the body that's in charge of the purse that decides how money gets spent.

So the president says taking a year and action here to to kind of say this is how government should work.

So initially a court blocked that yesterday, but now the White House said they've gone ahead and rescinded that memo to try and avoid any confusion.

They're blaming the media for causing that confusion.

But really the proof is in the pudding because there was actual confusion happening among government agencies and beyond over.

Where is the money?

So >> the executive order still stands.

That's at least what the press is that his press secretary saying at the moment.

But >> the freeze for now should be off.

Now.

We'll see where this goes.

He's also said that, you know, it's apparent that the White House's intends to challenge that that impoundment law to try.

And yeah, I'm trying to really change how American government works.

>> This is going to be a real test of Congress, right to see how if they're going to show their mettle and their lawmaking authority.

And if they actually get into this to this for a it is and, you know, comes right after President Trump has signed his first piece of legislation.

The Laken Riley Act intended to.

>> You know, combat illegal immigration and violence and yeah, that was something that actually you that passed very easily through Congress.

And but now that now it's kind of it's getting to this whole other fundamental separation of powers issue.

Very quick.

>> Yeah.

Article one.

Nothing already addressed that and perhaps we'll see how how all this plays out in on the immigration front.

A lot of immigration news and that's also been one of the big things that he's really tackled his first few days in office.

The refugee resettlement tell us about what's happening there.

And what's the fear and this refusal So the president's put a pause on refugee resettlement in the United States.

This is something the United States is there.

>> Taking part in for decades and decades and decades as being a safe harbor for people trying to escape dangerous situations, especially war-torn countries.

You know, there's yet.

Terrifying stories of people being trapped in dangerous situations, especially in Afghanistan.

Folks who are helping the United States during the protracted war and United and in there and they words they've just been and they had everything planned for them to be able to come here.

And now there are left in limbo in dangerous situations for some people feel like they're being hunted down in Kentucky.

Kentucky's actually pretty prolific spot for refugees to resettle in the United States.

Kentucky's actually the 3rd highest per capita in the country for for refugee resettlement.

It's done.

It's it's just a place for folks to be able to find community, be able to find jobs.

Kentucky, I think had their specific 2000 people slated to be coming here between January and September.

That's according to a story.

It's off from Kentucky.

Public Radio and that's and so that's all on pause right now.

Credits in the cycle of being reviewed every 90 days.

So right now it's taking a 90 day pause, but it's really every 90 days to decide what to do with it.

You know, the president, the president took similar actions in Grady, didn't just pause everything during his first term.

A lot of that was halting at those the so-called Muslim ban, that kind of banning refugees from resettling from majority.

That's from a handful majority Muslim population countries and yeah, it's it's really just a bigger.

It's a bigger version of that right now in part of this.

Again, this this huge package of of really trying to implement his agenda and a lot, frankly, a lot of his campaign promises very quickly.

And this new term unprecedented pace in which they are operating right now.

>> The dissent agree that Louisville had agreed to now the the new D the Trop Department of Justice now has course reversing some of this.

And this is affecting possibly what Louisville does.

Are they backtracking now?

They dialing back.

Are they going to stay committed to the consent degree?

>> Louisville says are going to be committed to committed to implementing this police reforms or at least put police reforms graded the whole part of it consent decree.

It's really it's an agreement between the city and the Department of Justice and overseen by federal courts to make sure that the city implements changes to its police policing least.

That's the way that was the agreement with Louisville.

Yeah, of course, is the state's back to the mean the Department of Justice investigation, but also years of of a lot of problems in the Louisville Police Department and documented incidents of civil rights violations and also kind of going into the protests in twenty-twenty that there's just this huge long list of problems that the that the city of Louisville need to trust to do to work on this police department.

And, yeah, one of the things that the Trump White House did was pause or say they're going to review those any recent consent decrees made within the last 90 days before inauguration, which includes a couple a couple big ones, which is Louisville and Minneapolis.

Really the right hubs of the of a lot of the racial justice protests in 2020 and anger and frustration over their police departments.

So Louisville will be a u N they they say they're going to still be implementing this.

But again, it's going to if that ends up happening, it's going to really remove that important factor of what a consent decree is, which is those teeth for the federal government be able to have oversight over the city.

And I'm certain the community as we approach the five-year anniversary of the death of Breonna Taylor that happened in March of 2020.

>> A lot of eyes will be on what a lot of concern.

A lot of hope that something will continue to happen.

Yeah, thank you all about and we always appreciate it.

Thanks for that.

♪ >> Alarming and deeply concerning.

That's how Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball is describing a new report detailing foster children sleeping and state offices.

The preliminary investigation was completed by the Commonwealth Office of the Ombudsman.

Findings include 49 children spend time and the Cabinet for Health and Family Services office buildings from June through October of last year, the average stay was 4 days.

6 children spent 10 or more days in office buildings with at least one child spending.

35 days and half-a-dozen kids under the age of 10, including a one year old.

These children were house in multiple counties, including Davis warned Henderson can Harden and Jefferson.

In a statement, auditor Ball said, quote, systemic failures need urgent action.

Therefore, I advise launching a more thorough investigation to find innovative solutions to build a brighter future for foster children across the commonwealth, unquote.

Speaking off, Kentucky's children and their welfare.

The state's new upstream academy will educate and empower Kentuckians to prevent child abuse.

The legislature approved funding for the program minutes last budget, which the governor also supported the program will teach the latest evidence based strategies to at least one person in each county.

>> They will receive a stipend.

All expenses will be paid and our.

>> Our hope our our goal is that then each one of those >> trained individuals will conduct training means and will train at least 50 people within a 12 month period.

So you can see the ripple effect that it will have this kind of work.

He's going to build a coalition of folks across the state who are more educated, who are more aware and Europe are able to be more helpful in situations where we can help to prevent child abuse in Kentucky.

>> Anyone interested in joining the Upstream Academy can apply at prevent Child Abuse.

Kentucky's website that's PC.

A K why DOT org?

The deadline for applications is February 28th.

♪ >> An investigation is under way following an alleged crime at a historic Kentucky site.

The National Park Service says someone vandalized and stole citing from a barn at Mill Springs Battlefield National Monument both acts are considered a federal crime.

The battlefield in Pulaski County was where the U.S. had its first decisive victory during the American Civil War.

The Park Service says it will now have 24 hour surveillance of the property.

Now Kentucky now leads Florida and this year's big Blue Slam.

But it's close.

The big Blue slam as an annual blood drive hitting Kentucky against Florida.

Kentucky fell behind Monday but took the lead Tuesday.

As of today, Kentucky leads 493 donations to 489.

This competition ends Friday.

You can give it an a Kentucky Blood center location gives and get a big blue slam T-shirt.

Kentucky leads this series 10 to 6 and is on a four-year winning streak.

The blood center says it wants to be ready for Kentuckians health care needs the remainder of the winter season.

In the past research on how our emotions work has then fragmented or out of date.

But thanks to researchers from around the world the way we understand and talk about our feelings is becoming more universal.

One of those researchers is University of Louisville professor Dr Brendan to Pew.

He says studying the nuances of emotions across different cultures is key to understanding the human brain.

>> Some of the very first kind of categorical understanding of the motion was based on facial expression, especially that these facial expressions were all based and on occasion, middle aged Americans as opposed to understanding it from a greater kind of cultural perspective.

And it was a great start.

But now we're understanding you know, that categorical representation might need to be brought in.

So the human effect him project is a conglomeration of over 100 international researchers that looked to classify motions in categorical ways and to understand how our linguistic representation of them is kind of categorize.

So one of the interesting things and a good example about how are language influences our emotion or vice a versa.

It's easy to see when we get emotional.

We might our our pitch me different process of the look over there for says look over there and so understanding and perceiving how somebody might say something.

Definitely our interpretation of affects our own emotion.

I was on the fear team because a lot of my research examines fear and anxiety.

And so my role was basically looking at the functional neuro imaging.

Research that lies behind fear and looking at it from different rodent models, different human models and kind of put some consensus together as how it's represented in the brain.

So some of the results of this project, how linguistics basically represents different emotional categories and especially how this.

Cuts across cultural and societal lines in different cultures and different societies.

We talk about maybe things like a friendship or being embarrassed which might differ somewhat from culture to culture.

But looking at things that are also shared across culture and society looks like things like fear, sadness and or things like that are kind of more of these basic emotions that cut across cultural lines.

It's very interesting to to understand through this linguistic approach that the word to use and say obviously carry weight depending on how somebody perceives that emotional.

And so it gives a great understanding for further research to be done in just a deeper understanding of of the human psyche.

>> Drd Pugh was one of 2 Kentucky ends on the human effect on project which included 173 scientists from 24 different countries.

♪ >> The Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky opera are presenting a time remembered with that.

So cases a ballet called light the Holocaust Humanity Project and an opera.

Another sunrise.

>> These 2 productions are about the lives of 2 Holocaust survivors.

Naomi Warren and Christine us of Asca.

We sat down with the creator of Light to hear why it's important to KET sharing their stories.

80 years after the liberation of Auschwitz, more and our Arts and Culture segment, we call tapestry but started.

>> With me after having made a work for about 20 years after the events of 9.11, and trying to find a more relevant reason to do what I do.

It seemed very superficial given where we were in that moment in American history.

And so I went on a search and I met a Holocaust survivor who shared her story and the project developed out of that.

The survivors mean it was sitting on the war.

And and Naomi was a member of the Holocaust survivor community in Houston.

And that's where the matter.

She had been a survivor of 3 camps.

I'm sure it's Birkenau Robbins broke and Bergen-Belsen and when she was liberated from Bergen-Belsen, she became a displaced person in England and then eventually settled in Houston.

I get to play the elder Naomi War and being a part of this production.

Is it extraordinarily on?

>> It's an honor.

It is.

It is a huge honor to be a part of this.

This pieces.

One of the most important allies that has ever crossed my path.

We've just had, you know, Holocaust remembrance.

>> The 80th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz.

>> And there's a reason why we continue to talk about >> this history.

And that's because people understand that if and you don't learn from the certainly racism, Anti-Semitism and other than of people.

>> But I think the the most important lesson we need to learn right now is the way in which propaganda was used because right now misinformation and disinformation is at an all-time high.

so it's almost more dangerous.

Now lying seems to be an easy thing to do, right.

And with no consequently little to no consequence.

And people don't value truth in some ways.

So I think that's one of the biggest lesson said 10 more recently trying to be able to put myself in the mindset of what it might have been like.

>> It's not an easy place to get too emotionally, but as I have it's about the dancers had that it's not our fight and to their >> What they went through is that we are still telling their stories truthfully.

>> You know, as you as you study the history.

The most valuable information comes out of photography and and film that was documented.

There are no words.

But you know, when when a family is sitting on the edge of a ditch that they dug themselves with a gun behind their head.

You don't need words to know what happened.

So the idea of metaphor that is so powerful and dance is something that I think.

I tried to use to good effect.

And I think I think the dancers interpret those things very well.

>> The Louisville Ballet and the Kentucky Opera will be showcasing these 2 stories this Saturday and Sunday at Whitney Hall and Louisville.

It's no secret that Kentucky's cancer rates are some of the worst in the country.

And the situation is only more dire in our eastern most counties.

>> All over the community.

It just seemed like it was constantly someone telling you about their cancer diagnosis or, you know, someone was passing from cancer because they had sought the help that they needed were they just didn't have the access is.

>> 8 students out of eastern Kentucky who are studying oncology at the University of Kentucky in hopes of improving the lives of their families and neighbors back home.

That story and much more tomorrow night on Kentucky EDITION, which we hope you'll join us for at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central where we inform connect and inspire.

Connect with us all the ways you see on your screen.

Facebook X, formerly Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

I'm Renee Shaw, thank you so much for watching this evening and I'll see you right back here again tomorrow night.

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♪