♪ Well, listen, it's flattering when people mention your name and something like that.

>> Governor Andy Beshear on the suggestion he could go from the statehouse to the White House.

>> Nearly 71 million people nationwide travel, Lee.

And that will include a more than 810,000 Kentuckians.

>> What you need to know if you're hitting the road this 4th of July holiday.

So you're looking at.

>> Hughley out what is 6 times lower incarceration rate in the United Kingdom.

That in Kentucky.

>> And how Kentucky stacks up against other states and other countries in putting people behind bars.

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

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Monday, July.

First, starting off a new month.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for spending some of your Monday night with us.

The U.S. Supreme Court says presidents are in Moon from their official actions as president, but not from their unofficial actions.

>> The vote was 63 with all 6 Republican appointees backing the decision and all 3 Democratic appointees dissenting the case deals with accusations.

Former President Donald Trump plotted to overturn his 2020 election loss as part of today's ruling.

The court sent the case against Trump back to a lower court.

That means it's unlikely to go to trial before the November 5th presidential election.

This does not affect Trump's recent conviction and New York State for falsifying business records related to the Stormy Daniels, hush fund payments or a jury's guilty verdict in the EJ and Carol sexual assault case.

I'll talk to constitutional law professor Josh Douglas at the University of Kentucky about today's presidential immunity ruling and what it all means that will be tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

Since last Thursday's debate.

Some pundits, newspapers and magazines have called for President Joe Biden to step aside as the presumptive Democratic nominee for president.

Many Democrats have been suggested as replacements for President Biden.

Some have mentioned Governor Andy Beshear, a Democrat elected twice in a state that's been trending Republican today.

Governor Beshear was asked about the possibility of a presidential run in 2024.

>> Well, listen, it's flattering when people mention your name and something like that.

But I think it's a reflection of all the good things going on in Kentucky that that's compared to the rest of the country.

The temperatures been turned down here.

Democrats and Republicans all excited about the jobs we're creating the investment that we're seeing record low unemployment record low or set of decreases in our overdose deaths.

Those are all really good things like the rest of the country turns to us and says how can a Democratic governor, Republican General Assembly create really good results.

And I think the answer to that is everything is not partisan.

People are tired of of of the clashes day in and day out.

So when they look at what we have done in Kentucky, they see a better future that you on some of the back and worked.

What we see on the federal level.

>> Governor Beshear also said President Biden's debate performance was Rauf, calling it, quote, a really bad night for the president.

But he added he will continue to support Biden as long as he's in the race.

Last week, we told you about another Supreme Court ruling allowing bans on homeless people sleeping outdoors.

The ruling clears the way for the Safer Kentucky Act, which among other things makes on lawful camping in public spaces, a crime over the weekend.

Some groups advocating for Kentucky's homeless population marched in Washington, D.C., they joined the Poor People's Campaign calling for fair wages.

George Eklund is with Louisville's coalition for the homeless.

He says research suggests criminalizing homelessness.

It's not the answer.

>> The first is a proven approach.

Has an first works for me.

It works for you.

It works for everyone because everybody needs a place to call home that foundation stone to come and build your life upon.

It's where you get ready for work.

It's where you get ready for school.

And when we put the clients in housing, first approach is here in Louisville, we see a 97% success rate of keeping them House consistently for more than 2 years.

And so we see great promise in you know, it's important to note that when we put people in housing, it doesn't just mean repeat putting people there and leaving them there on their own.

It comes with case management.

It comes with supports.

That comes with levels of accountability.

The same as anybody who's renting in the private market.

What we need here in across the country like first and foremost, we need more rental housing for those that are earning very low wages.

Right now, everyone knows everyone feels that that rent is too high.

We see the rent prices going up.

We see housing costs going up and at different segments of our house and We see the market freezing and those that are earning a lease are the ones that are going to lose that game of musical chairs, trying to find a place that they can afford in a place that they can call them.

But we need to do in Kentucky is increase the number of of units to try and close the gap that Kentucky sees of those very low income affordable units for people.

But we also need to expand shelter and we need to increase resources so that people have the option to go in right now in Louisville, we have 1600 people that are almost each night.

We only have roughly 850 shelter beds that we can put people in.

So by default, we have by 6, 7, 100 people that are always going to be homeless because they don't have anywhere to go right now.

Rent is too high and the shelters are full every day.

>> The Safer Kentucky Act, that law will go into effect 2 weeks from today.

On Friday, a Jefferson County Circuit Court judge tossed out a case challenging Kentucky's abortion law on religious grounds.

3 Jewish women sued in 2022.

Saying they each wanted to have at least one more child but said Kentucky's law created obstacles to the in-vitro fertilization process.

They say the law violates the Jewish understanding of when life begins Judge Brian Edwards ruled that because the 3 women are not pregnant.

Now and since the case was based on, quote, hypothetical future harm, they had no standing to file the suit.

Kentucky Attorney General Russel Coleman, a Republican, praised the judge's decision.

Also on Friday, a judge ruled in favor of Kentucky's ban on so-called gray machines and 2023.

The Kentucky General Assembly ban the slot style video gambling machines that let people back on past horse races.

Critics of the machines called them games of chance, making them illegal under Kentucky law that backers say there's a skill involved, meaning they're not games of Chance.

Friday.

Judge Phillip Shepherd of the Franklin Circuit Court rejected arguments that the law violated free speech rights and the Kentucky Constitution.

Shepard wrote the General Assembly has the power to regulate gambling.

The machines are known as gray machines because of the past disagreements over their legal status.

We now have the funeral and visitation plans for Rhonda Massey, the wife of Congressman Thomas Massie who died last Thursday.

Funeral services for Missus, Massey will be private.

Visitation is from 05:00PM until 08:00PM tomorrow, July second at Globe Family Funeral Chapel on Dudley Avenue and heiress and that St. Louis County.

She was 51 years old.

No cause of death has been announced.

If you're traveling this 4th of July weekend.

Well, you'll have plenty of company Triple A predicts 71 million Americans will be on the move this week.

That's on the ground and in the air about one in 5 Americans will drive at least 50 miles triple A says many of them have already hit the road.

>> Time Saturday, June 29th and will go on through July 7.

Nearly 71 million people nationwide traveling and that will include more than 810,000 Kentuckians.

So if you are going to be hitting the road, but you can expect a lot of traffic congestion.

Lot of folks will be I know I've traveled that I just locally over the weekend and found the interstate to be very busy so that for the July travel is under way.

You want to be sure that when you leave, if at all possible leave early in the day, that usually will help you to avoid the worst of the traffic.

The worst of the traffic congestion zone earlier in the day that you can travel regardless of what you are leaving the better and also reminding folks to make sure that they have a people.

Emergency kit in their car.

That means that not only the things that we KET year-round like the jumper cables and the flyers and then a flash flood it with fresh batteries, those sorts of things.

But we also want to add some water, make sure that you have a bottle of water for you.

If you get the family dog the line, make sure that you don't forgive him or her and have water for them in a bowl to drink on it as well.

And I've been reminding people because there are so many people on the road you need.

I say this every time we have one of these travel holidays, be sure that you pack your patience.

>> That's probably the best advice.

Triple A says, July 3rd and July 7th will be the busiest travel days for the upcoming holiday.

So make sure to plan accordingly.

♪ ♪ >> Report out last month.

The show some startling statistics when it comes to how many folks are behind bars in Kentucky and analysis from the nonprofit nonpartisan Prison Policy Initiative finds that if Kentucky were a country, it's incarceration rate would rank among the top 10 in the world.

Why are so many Kentuckians behind bars?

Last week I talked to the communications director of the Prison Policy Initiative about the group's report and key findings.

>> Mike Wesler communications director with the Prison Policy Initiative.

It's a pleasure to connect with you today, sir.

You to think your home town.

So let's talk about this report and put into context for us.

Kentucky's overall incarceration rate and how that compares to other states in the nation and perhaps even to other countries developed Democratic countries.

Absolutely.

You know, I think most people now recognize that United States is unique.

>> In the number of people that locks up, we recognize we walk up and have fought for 40 years, walked up huge number of folks.

What I think is often missing now is kind of the global context of where the United States falls in there and I think once you have that context, you realize how big the mass incarceration crisis news in America.

So we did was we looked at that conservation rates for all 50 states to treat them as if they were a country and compared them to all the country across the board to see what incarceration to our what we found was there are the 10 states that have the second highest incarceration rate in the in the world.

Only after else out, which is a country that has been essentially run as a police state and wants to be so in America the land of the free the highest incarceration rates are among the highest incarceration rates in the entire globe.

And I think it really shows just how out of whack American policies are in certain states.

Policies are with regard to incarceration where places are tackling the underlying causes of incarceration and said simply locking people up.

That's that they're easy solution.

Yeah.

>> And Kentucky.

Where does Kentucky stand?

Kentucky has a incarceration rate of 889.

>> People per 100,000.

That's now the context.

The U.S. is incarceration rate is 680 people per 100,000 residents the lowest state in the country for incarceration rate is Massachusetts.

But the new cars ration rate of 251 per 100,000 distance.

Now, I think it's important to kind of think about our peer countries.

You know, we often think of the pier country says those countries, our Congress of NATO.

And the next highest after the United States for incarceration rates is the United Kingdom with 144 per 100,000 residents.

So you're looking at nearly out what is 6 times lower incarceration rate in the United Kingdom.

Dan in Kentucky.

>> So Mister Ressler, tell us how many Kentuckians are locked up and where are they locked up?

>> So in Kentucky, there's 37,000 people behind bars on any given day.

But that only really tells part of the story because about 15,000 of those are in prisons.

The rest of them are in jails.

But what happens with jails?

Because there smaller facilities where people come for a shorter stint.

You end up seeing many times more people who go through the doors and jails every single year on average in Kentucky, there's 209,000 man her released from jails every single year about 81,000 women who are released from jails every single year.

So it the law, it's helpful to look at kind of snapshot in time and see that there's 37,000 people behind bars.

It's important to remember that that team packs of mass incarceration in this country reach far beyond those 37,000 >> And as the report points out, the rates of and prison might have grown dramatically over the last 40 years.

What are those factors?

What's driving those higher incarceration rates?

>> Yeah, I think there's a number of things that are driving, you know, the one that you that is in its capable is the role that race place and Reese's.

And he's kind of built into the criminal legal system in this country.

Communities of color, particularly black and brown communities.

Our over policed, they're over incarcerated once their progress to they're less likely to have access to private attorneys that will help them be charges.

They're less likely to have access to diversion programs.

So I think it's always important start by talking about the role that race plays in the criminal.

Now, beyond that, I think there's a couple of factors playing yeah, one, he's implementation of so-called tough on crime policies.

These are policies that kind of throw the book at people who are convicted of crimes, sometimes even to relatively minor crimes.

They can spend decades behind bars now in the early 90's, we particularly saw a lot of these laws implemented in take effect and then an honest decade or so.

We've seen some states start to recognize, but that didn't make communities safer and they started to repeal some of this.

unfortunately, many of those states have started to turn back to those tough on crime policies said had failed in the 90's because of this notion that crime is increasing are now out.

The data doesn't support that crime is at near 60 year lows.

It's just the perception.

I think many politicians have.

Jane, a lot it's an it's by stoking fears about crime.

I think that's what we're seeing now.

So I think the tough on crime policies play one part of it.

I think the other part that's important to know is the failure to invest in treating mental health issues in this country.

The failure to address substance use disorder in this country.

The failure to address the need for housing in this country.

You know about people who are experiencing homelessness search dramatically more likely to end up behind bars.

So I think those are the factors that kind of combine to create to mass incarceration crisis that's in Kentuckyian across the country.

>> Lastly, I want to talk to about pretrial incarceration numbers, which maybe that's not even the right word.

The said these people have not been yet convicted of a crime, but they're being hailed a being held for bail.

Talk to us about the impact of those numbers alone on the overall incarceration rates.

Yeah, 44% of people who are behind bars on any given day in Kentucky.

>> Are their pretrial.

And that means that they are legally insane not to convicted of any crime.

Now some of them are there awaiting their initial court appearance where bail can be set.

But a lot of them, the majority of them are there simply because they're too poor to afford bail.

You know, that the average person can was incarcerate the average, a man who's incarcerated in this country in jail, awaiting trial has an annual income before they're incarcerated of $14,000.

The annual income of a woman who is awaiting trial is 11,000.

The median bail in this country is $10,000.

So it's most the majority of people who are in jail before conviction.

Are there just because they're too poor to get out it's not because they're good thing that they're arrested for present some threatened to seek to have a community.

It's not because there are a flight risk.

You know, most of these folks struggle to put gas in their car every single day.

So they're certainly not going to.

Get on a plane and fly to another country to avoid trial.

So it's we're incarcerating folks in jails simply because they're too poor and that has collateral consequences as well.

Short jail stand could cost somebody their job.

It can cost them their home.

It can cost them custody of their children.

So had a massive collateral consequences.

And it's all because they're just too poor to afford bail.

But that's not making communities safer.

Mister Mike Wesler communications director for the Prison Policy Initiative.

Thank you for your time.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Could the bluegrass become the new tensile town?

A new state-of-the-art film and production studio located in Lexington, along with the state's film and TV tax incentive could give Kentucky.

It's shot at the big time.

>> So we're we're trying to bring the LA to Lexington are.

In other words, we're trying to bring lax to Lex is the Wrigley who is the the owner of L*** Studios and Wrigley Media Group.

She was the producer of this a courtroom show called relative justice and the confined space.

Big enough 2 to do the show and build the set so they can and they figured this.

They took over this.

It was a abandon for 10 years as a movie fear that was sitting for 10 years.

And she, you know, put money and and rehabbed it and build built out a 3rd of this per facility and they did 2 seasons of the show COVID kind of a put that show on hold and a year later, they decided to build out the rest of the facility, which is now.

52,000 Square feet.

We have 3 stages.

We have almost 30 offices.

It's very versatile is actually designed to actually not only.

Build sets in, but also be a set.

So our reception area can be the entrance of any corporate building in New York City.

The crew that's in here right now has turned some of our offices in 2, you know, a cop shops.

You know, this is a courtroom.

They built a morgue the other day, you know, the jail cell.

There was a feature here that turned this whole place in the hospital.

So it's very versatile.

But the stage is themselves.

They're they're suited for game, shows their suit.

I suited talk shows stuff like ridiculousness.

It would be ideal type size show that would be found on like these have stages.

It's it's it's kind of like one-stop shop here.

You can get anything at LAX.

And the great thing about Lexington and and is that.

It's very easy to film here.

Everyone's really agreeable to me.

The ball and the people are just a great and they they encourage film and they they love just to be around the production.

Whereas LA is done it so long, their jaded and they're just that interested in, you know, production vehicles and for their house like studios, going to be great for Lexington.

It's going to be great for the state because it brings jobs.

It brings, you know, enthusiasm.

It attracts other productions to come to Louisville or shoot in other areas of the state.

And it's all just kind of will feed off each other.

Eventually.

So in 5 years, I I'm hoping, you know, this whole state is just busy with protection.

And then all that all that money spent is just goes back in to the community.

So the incentive program is is designed to attract, you know, big budget Hollywood type productions to states like Kentucky and Kentucky gives them 30% of what they spend that qualifies for this incentive.

You know, they get back to the production.

So if it helps the production.

Actually spend more money in the state are justified coming here because it helps reduce the overall cost.

Another big driving force.

And that word interested in is.

Educating.

College kids that are interested in getting into the film business and being almost like like.

Next level kind of training course.

So that, you know, we're we're creating programs so that they can get college should like fast track certificates, you know, in production, I call the productions that I bring in here.

I'm always encouraging these productions to let interns comment and shadow and just get hands-on experience so that hopefully we will build enthusiasm.

So by bringing productions here, we're just creating more opportunity for these people to.

Stick around.

We get to experience working on in LA based production that's filming here.

Because and then going out to LA with some serious experience under your belt.

You entity of stick around for 2 or 3 years or you might just decide you want to stay here.

>> The Kentucky Entertainment incentive program through the Kentucky Department of Economic Development provides up to 75 million dollars in tax credits for film and television projects.

So far this year, it's approved almost 39 million in tax credits for productions in the state.

♪ >> As we look ahead to the 4th of July holiday, we're looking back at how Kentucky INS observed Independence Day in the past and the Simpson County line has an unusual shape.

Our Toby Gibbs explains it as we take a look at this week in Kentucky history.

♪ >> Lexington and celebrated America's 12 birthday and Thomas Young's Tavern on July 4th, 18 88.

Colonel William Price.

A Revolutionary War veteran posted 40 veterans for a 4th of July dinner in Jessamine County in 17.

94 one of the first significant celebrations west of the Alleghenies.

On July 4th, 1924.

Frankfort dedicated a monument honoring 25,000 black Americans who served in the Union Army during the Civil War.

President James Monroe and General Andrew Jackson, a future president visited Lexington on July.

Second, 18, 19 President Monroe spoke at Transylvania University and was honored at a banquet at Missus.

Kean's Tavern.

Former President Richard Nixon visited Hyden on July.

First 1978 for the dedication of a building named in his honor.

It was Nixon's first public appearance since his resignation from the presidency 4 years earlier.

The state created the Kentucky State Police on July.

First 1948.

What's up with this indentation in Sampson County in 17, 79 because of cloud cover that made astronomical observations.

Difficult to the surveyors wandered off course while marking the Tennessee Kentucky border after another survey on July 6, 18, 59 a second serving teen recommended leaving the so-called Middleton offset the way it was.

And that's tonight's look back at this week in Kentucky history.

I'm told he gives.

>> We always learn something with Toby Gibbs and Eastern Kentucky school system is hitting the road.

The boss isn't going to school.

The bus is a school.

Floyd County's new preschool classroom on wheels is open for business.

It's a state-of-the-art mobile classroom that brings early education directly to students and will take you for a spin.

>> That's tomorrow on Kentucky EDITION, which we hope you'll join us for again at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central.

We inform connect and inspire subscribe to our Kentucky Edition, e-mail newsletters and watch full episodes and clips it.

KET Dot Org.

Look for some.

The PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

We always welcome you to send us a story idea to the e-mail public affairs at UT Dot Org and of course, follow KET on Facebook, X and Instagram to stay in the loop.

>> Thanks so much for watching.

Hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take the test.

♪ ♪