Sitting here and doing nothing and in watching the problem continue to grow is not is not an option.

How Kentucky is paving the way for more truck drivers.

Remember, folks, turn around, don't drown with heavy rain.

Cause in your area, why Kentuckians need to pay attention to floods right now in the northeast.

Do we print it?

We mount it.

We add it to the wall and learn how this art exhibit has found a way to feature art from anyone.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Wednesday, July 12th.

We're midway through the work week.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some time with us tonight.

We began with a weather warning from the state.

Expect rounds of thunderstorms starting today and continuing through Saturday.

Some of those storms could be severe.

Rainfall amounts will vary from place to place and flash flooding is possible.

Hail and an isolated tornado are also possible, but the state believes straight line winds are the main hazard.

Rain and floods have hit the northeastern portion of the U.S. and in a few minutes, we'll tell you if you should expect anything like that.

In Kentucky.

Another Kentuckian faces charges after the January six, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

The Department of Justice says the FBI arrested 46 year old William Stover of Elizabeth Town on Monday.

He's accused of civil disorder entering and remaining in our restricted area and disorderly and disruptive conduct.

Prosecutors say he helped rioters fight police near an entrance to the US Capitol building.

The U.S. attorney for the District of Columbia says Stover was identified using surveillance video and police body camera video since January 6th.

Authorities have arrested more than 1000 people for crimes related to the breach of the U.S. Capitol.

A Bowling Green police officer shot several times during a call is making progress.

The Bowling Green Police Department says Officer Matt Davis is improving each day.

His surgeries so far have been successful.

Someone shot Officer Davis on Thursday, July 6th.

Police say the man involved in the shooting died.

The shooting is still under investigation.

We told you yesterday about the shooting death of an Oldham County teacher and coach in Washington, D.C.. Police have now arrested a suspect.

The Courier Journal reports that Maxwell Emerson, a social studies teacher and assistant wrestling coach, was in Washington for a professional development workshop when he was robbed and shot last Wednesday.

The body was found later near Catholic University.

Police say they have now arrested and charged a 22 year old man with first degree murder.

Seven Republican state legislators from Jefferson County are questioning a race for Jefferson County Public School Superintendent Marty Polio.

The Board of Education gave polio a $75,000 a year raise after a positive performance review that takes your salary to around $350,000 a year.

The seven lawmakers put out a statement criticizing the raise at a time of staff shortages.

They say that money should go to teachers, bus drivers, cafeteria workers and other staff.

Now, turning now to economic news.

It's been said truck drivers keep America moving.

We depend on them to deliver everything from food to furniture to clothing and computers.

But there are fewer drivers making those deliveries.

According to the American Trucking Association, the U.S. has almost 80,000 drivers short.

And that number is expected to double over the next decade.

Here in Kentucky, industry leaders, lawmakers and educators are working to get more truckers behind the big wheels.

Pretty much anything that you have in your house at some point in time, a truck delivered it.

The trucking industry in Kentucky moves 85.5% of all manufactured tonnage.

89 over 89% of communities depend solely on trucking companies to deliver their goods.

For companies, it's a constant.

It's a constant process of trying to hire qualified drivers.

Per month, we average 15 to 16 students depending on, you know, class size for that month.

Our program is designed for students who have absolutely no experience in the steel industry.

You've never had to have been in a truck.

You don't have to know how to drive a stick shift.

We will teach all of those things.

So if you have experience, that's great.

If you don't, it's absolutely not necessary.

The road is dry.

Visibility is good.

And you should keep at least the length seconds of space ahead.

And one they learn how to what they need to know to pass their permit test.

They get their temporary license and then they learn how to do a pre-trip inspection.

They learn how to do maneuvers.

They learn how to drive a ten speed truck.

And they learn what they need to know to pass their state test.

You will have a commercial driver's license.

Kdl a at this point with no restrictions.

I've been in the CDL program for four weeks now.

I decided to do it because my employer wanted me to come and get a kdl.

But I was also interested in driving a truck because it's just a good thing to have, you know?

With the shortage of truckers in the world and everything like that, I figured if nothing else, it's good.

It's a good thing to have around so that if you know, anything does happen down the road, you always have a backup plan.

So the deficit nationwide for professional truck drivers right now is 78,000.

But over the next ten years, we need an additional 1.2 million drivers in order to meet the supply chain demand and to replace some drivers that will be retiring during that time as well.

Sitting here and do nothing.

And in watching the problem continue to grow, it's not it's not an option on the federal level.

We have we have several several items that are out there, including the Safe Driver Partnership program that passed last year.

And we also have the Draft Safe Integrity Act that's currently out there.

You can drive intrastate as an 18 to 20 year old in like 49 other states, but you can't operate interstate going across state lines.

So these two pieces of legislation that's they set up an apprenticeship program where they would have had adequate training in cab training by an experienced driver.

HB 328 makes it a little bit easier for a driver to to come and test if they've got if they live, you know, obviously on the border of the state and they've they've done their training in their home state, but they want to take that skills test.

Gateway being one of the CDL programs, we put a lot of emphasis and I feel like the system as a whole does a great job feeding into that pipeline.

And we're looking every day to find ways to expand and make this available to more and more folks.

So it's a great career for some people.

The disadvantages is losing out on home time.

The advantage is you're going to make great pay and you're going to have great benefits.

It's a life changing experience to see someone go from nothing to having $100,000 a year job.

House Bill 320, which was mentioned in the story, was passed during the last legislative session.

The bill was sponsored by Republican State Representative Chris Freelander or Friedland of Benton, and signed into law by Governor Bashir in March.

The trucker shortage comes at a time when technology is making it possible for cars and trucks to drive themselves.

That was part of our discussion about artificial intelligence A.I.

Monday night on Kentucky tonight.

Our panel talked about the safety concerns and how self-driving or autonomous cars and trucks could be regulated.

But when you look at in the transportation sector, we're down to 80,000 truckers nationwide.

And, you know, you look at what's going on in Texas right now, they've got automated programs where they're delivering freight.

They've been doing it for about a year now.

No issues.

We look at farmers in western Kentucky.

They're planning their crops or harvesting their crops, and it's all automated.

You know, people don't think about that, but their tractors, their planters, their combines, all of that's done with GPS and it's just automated.

And so the technologies there, it's absolutely safe.

We cannot simply look at one small piece and say, this looks great and it's going to save some money for somebody.

I think that we have to look at the broader implications of all of this technology.

And I think that's why states like New York and New Jersey have created task forces and pilot programs and monitoring programs where a human is involved.

Because until we get to that point, I don't know that we as policymakers have enough of an understanding or enough information, enough data for ourselves on this technology to understand how to use it safely and how to make sure that we transition into use on a broad scope to the best way that we can for our communities.

The Kentucky General Assembly passed an autonomous vehicle bill earlier this year.

Governor Andy Beshear vetoed it and lawmakers did not override that veto.

Representative Josh Bray says it was a new idea that sounded strange to a lot of people.

He says he will file the bill again.

You can see more of that discussion about self-driving cars and trucks and artificial intelligence online on demand.

And Kate Daugaard, why tonight?

Now, coming up this coming Monday, we've got a look at Kentucky's energy needs.

We hope you'll join us for that discussion.

The state is giving Bradford County more than $1,000,000 to help with flood recovery improvements to the courthouse and the buying of new playground equipment.

Some of the flood recovery money will go to the Jackson Federal Place apartment complex.

The courtroom will get an elevator and it will get a ramp and restrooms that comply with the Americans with Disabilities Act.

Jackson will get $50,000 to pay for new playground equipment last month and a 6 to 3 decision.

The US Supreme Court ruled that race can't be used as a factor in determining college admissions.

The move was denounced by civil rights advocates, saying it would hurt minority access to higher education.

Yesterday on the U.S. Senate floor, Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky praised the court's ruling.

The chief justice wrote for the majority, quote, Institutional history does not tolerate the choice of race over merit.

Most Americans already knew this to be true.

More than half of our nation's history has been a steady march toward more fully ensuring the promise of the 14th Amendment equal protection under the law.

Along the way, millions of hard working and ambitious students have no shame on their academic qualifications, not the color of their skin.

Last month's ruling marked an overdue and historic step.

Racial discrimination has no place in college admissions.

Thanks to the courts, more bright young Americans will get a shot at writing their American dreams.

Senator McConnell is also denouncing white nationalism after remarks from Senator Tommy Tuberville of Alabama Monday on CNN.

Tuberville said he thinks white nationalists should be called Americans.

He said the term white nationalist is a buzzword used by many liberals to demonize their political opponents.

According to the Hill website, Senator McConnell said white supremacy is simply, quote, unacceptable.

Today, after McConnell's comments, Tuberville said white nationalists are racists.

Time now for a midweek check in of some major political news so far this week with Rylan Barton, managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

So let's hit it right off the bat.

The governor's race, I mean, it is heating up like the summertime temperatures.

Let's begin with what started these last few days.

The I call them the odd couple of political alliances.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron is the Republican nominee for governor and the fourth place finisher in the primary.

Eric Dieter is from northern Kentucky.

He has this infamous freedom fest that happens in September.

Daniel Cameron said he was going to go and now he says he's not.

Break this down for us.

Yeah, and probably the odd couple no more because Cameron has announced that he's not going to join Eric Dieter's big freedom fest that's supposed to take place this fall.

Donald Trump Jr is supposed to be there.

He says that Donald Trump is scheduled to attend, but I don't think anybody really believes that that's confirmed yet.

Anyway, Cameron said that he's not going to attend that rally after initially it was some pressure from from Thomas Massie, the fourth district congressman in northern Kentucky, who is really questioning why would Cameron go to this event?

Eric Dieter's, you know, he's he's said that he, you know, voted for Hillary Clinton in the past.

So there's all these he's questioning his Republican credentials.

Also realizing this week that Dieter's has also made several racist comments in his online YouTube videos and also just said that he is like he has a long list of legal troubles.

He's a these are suspended.

His law license was suspended a few years ago.

He's currently still battling charges related to harassing his nephew.

It's.

So there's a long list of reasons that Cameron, you know, wouldn't want to attend that fest.

But he simply issued a statement saying that as it turns out, he's going to be going to some other campaign events that day, decided to not attend.

So this is just a little bit of a strange political flare up for a while, showing some of that Republican infighting.

As you know, Republican is some fallout from the primary election still.

And Cameron just kind of wanting to, you know, not go down that particular road.

It's I think it's politically interesting, too, because northern Kentucky is a, you know, politically critical area of Kentucky.

It was it was a real area that swung for Andy Beshear during the during the last governor's race.

And I think it's going to be critical for, you know, for Cameron if he's going to want to win the general election this year to to lock down that vote.

So but not going to freedom fest up there.

Yeah.

Has some interesting implications for it.

It may not cost him any northern Kentucky votes because he doesn't go to the Eric Dieter's event.

And it's interesting that you talk about all the litany of issues that Eric Peters has.

I mean, his homophobic and racist rants didn't just start right.

Those have been reported on for a long time.

So the fact that Daniel Cameron had said he would go and then back out, you know, and he has this scheduling conflict now, just a little bizarre, but he hasn't denounced what Dieter has said outright.

Right.

He has a know that believe the Herald-Leader.

Reporter Austin horn asked him a couple of times, a couple of different ways to whether he would denounce eric peters racist and homophobic remarks and and he would.

And yes, these have been around for a while and you know, it's only it's only now kind of that it's only suddenly becoming an issue.

But, you know, he's not really wanting to stick his neck out on that issue and condemning it for him.

Condemning him for it.

Yeah.

So the second place or the runner up in the May primary, the Republican gubernatorial primary, Ryan Quarles, is back in the news again.

And so we're all of us are asking will or won't he will he be the lieutenant governor candidate for Cameron or does he have other aspirations?

And he said, stay tuned.

Yeah, he's still saying stay tuned.

He's teasing that out for a while.

My colleagues in Bowling Green at Western Kentucky University Public Radio, Lisa Autry, she talked to Ryan Quarrels yesterday and really just asking some of those questions.

What's the what's the future hold?

And, you know, there's some rumors that one, that he could be on the that he could be Daniel Cameron's running mate if he were to select him.

Cameron has until August 8th to make that decision.

So there's a little bit of time, a lot of expectations that that will happen before Fancy Farm, though, which is earlier in August.

And but also some questions of whether or not he might be selected to be the new KCTCS president, the new president of the statewide community of community and technical college system of of Orals has a long list of degrees attached to his name, including, I believe it's a Ph.D. in education.

And and and, you know, these I would be qualified for that job.

He did say that he will the one thing he did tease is that he will be in public service in some in some way.

So he's not quite leaving the public eye yet, but it's still in this wait and see mode as to what exactly that job is going to be.

Yeah, well, hopefully we'll get that answer next week.

And then finally, Governor Bashir was joined by the Kentucky Horse Racing Commission and state lawmakers just a couple of days ago.

And they made the big announcement that the first ever sports betting could take place just in time for football season.

Yeah, just in time for football season, September 7th.

That's the the beginning of the first NFL regular season game.

I believe that's when the 14 different racetracks who can who are eligible to have sports betting licenses will be allowed to start bringing in people for sports betting a little bit later in the month.

Will mobile sports betting can begin.

But yeah it was this interesting that sports betting bill was a big bipartisan moment during this year's legislative session.

So there's a lot of Republicans and Democrats are behind getting that passed.

And Beshear is really trying to put that as a feather in his cap to show that he can work across the aisle.

But, yeah, I think there's there's a lot of folks in Kentucky excited for for sports betting to get started.

And the projected revenue for that is like $23 million.

But there's a lot of folks saying it could be a whole lot more than that.

So we'll see.

Right.

And there's been a whole lot of people going across the river to do a lot of that betting in Indiana already.

So Kentucky's hoping to claw some of that back.

Yeah.

So we'll see how that turns out.

Well, thank you so much, Ryan Barton, for breaking it down for us.

Good to see you.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

Turning now to weather, are parts of the northeastern U.S. have experienced catastrophic flooding over the last few days.

Are these floods a warning sign for things to come?

Kentucky, Our Christy Dutton finds the answer.

New York and Vermont, where some of the hardest hit areas and communities they're receiving almost two months of rain in two days.

John Gordon, meteorologist with the National Weather Service here in Louisville, is joining us.

John, how does all that flooding in the New England states relate to Kentucky?

Oh, my gosh.

What's the big problem in eastern Kentucky?

It's flooding anywhere in Kentucky.

We get a lot of heavy rainfall.

We are in elevated areas and you can get cataclysmic flooding.

Then the famous governor in a state of Kentucky, Bertie County, he was killed by crossing flash flood waters, the frozen creek flood of the thirties, the giant floods of 2010 and Bowling Green, we got 12 inches of rain.

Remember, folks, turn around, don't drown with heavy rain, cause in your area and it seems like we're seeing a lot more heavy rain events.

Just the intensity of these heavy rain and flooding events in Kentucky seem to just keep coming.

Right.

The number one question I get everywhere is about climate change.

One thing is a fact.

We are getting an increase in temperature right now worldwide.

Okay.

So we are.

So what happens when you're increasing temperature?

You have more rain, more water vapor that can hold up in the atmosphere.

You get more water vapor and when it falls, there's much more that comes out of the sky and it can can become those frog stranglers where it goes from clear to all that heavy rain in a matter of moments.

Some of those places that you just mentioned in New York, we got nine inches in 3 hours.

There is no land on the earth that can absorb that much rain that quick and that causes flash flooding.

Now, explain to us what flash flooding is, how it's different than river flooding or just flooding.

That's a great question.

So you get this very heavy rainfall in a very short period of time.

You get this rapid rise of water where the ground the ground cannot hold it anymore.

You get excess of runoff and the creeks can't hold up with it.

The streams can't hold up with it.

And it only takes six inches, folks, to six inches in your car to lose all control from heavy rain.

Never, ever, ever drive through a flooded stretch of road in Kentucky.

And we say that all the time because that's how most flood fatalities occur.

Right?

Yep.

Number one killer, not counting temperature.

You know, flash flooding kills more than tornadoes worldwide in general.

And please, folks, don't ever.

Worst thing you can do if you listen to nothing on this interview, never drive around a barricade or something that's been put up.

More and more people drive around unnecessarily barricades and then lose their life and then their family suffers for years to come.

Just don't do it.

It's good advice.

Thank you so much, John.

Thanks, Christi.

John always has the answers.

National Weather Service data shows that in recent years, a larger percentage of precipitation has come in the form of intense single day events.

This increases the risk of flash flooding in both rural and urban areas while creating the intentions, actions, outcomes.

Art Exhibit The University of Kentucky Art Museum's director wanted a way to involve the viewer to not only be a participant in art, but an artist in the exhibit themselves.

He did this by adapting a previous art collection called Learning to Love You More.

See how, in our weekly Arts and Culture segment we call Tapestry.

So I was aware of learning to love you more as a web based project.

I knew the artists.

I'm a big fan of it.

Learning to Love You More was a series of assignments that Harold Fletcher and Miranda July issued through their website that asked people to answer the assignments.

I love the democratization of, you know, letting people participate in art things.

And so when I was conceiving of this exhibit, I thought, wow, they would be perfect in this.

I reached out to them.

They reminded me that their website, all of the assignments, all of the contributions to it were purchased, the entire thing purchased by the San Francisco Museum of Art.

And so I reached out to the museum to see whether in a way they would loan us the idea of presenting two of these assignments to be re-activated with our community.

And they were happy to do it.

So we sent out a message about the project with the two assignments and the kind of rules of how to participate.

The two together.

Take a picture of the sun.

Take a picture of your parents kissing.

Seems romantic, generous in a way.

One of them would logically be a landscape.

The parents kissing is a figurative thinking of nature and the figure that just seemed like it would be a good pair.

And actually seeing them on the wall together, I kind of do like the way they play with each other.

I mean, I think people are surprised whenever you reach out to them and ask somebody to participate, they're usually happy and maybe confused about how to do it.

This is really simple.

These two assignments are issued.

We give you how to participate, Send us your name, send us the place where you took the picture.

Send us the name of the people kissing.

We print it, we mount it, we add it to the wall.

Done.

It's really just meant as an offering.

And we're showing the results very clear.

We put it out there.

Here's what we got.

And we're not judging.

It's not like we're saying, Oh, my God, we don't like your sunset picture.

It's included.

So it's it's, you know, like a big embrace.

A lot of the work in this show and I think learning to Love you more was about giving people permission to feel like they can do these things.

They don't have to be trained in a certain way.

They don't have to be super informed about these legacies.

And sometimes it's confusing and sometimes you don't get it.

But that's like a lot of things.

And the more you engage, the more you get.

You don't have to like everything.

And so we have this first installation.

We wanted some submissions to be visible when we opened the rest of the exhibit and will do continued calls through the run of the show to keep soliciting more participants.

So the more kisses and the more sunsets that get accumulated and added to the exhibit just makes even more people be a part of it.

The exhibit will remain and grow at the UK Art Museum through November 18th, alongside the rest of the intentions, actions, Outcomes show.

Thank you so much for joining our program tonight.

We hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform Connect and Inspire.

We hope you'll connect with us all the ways you see there on your screen through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Send us a story idea at Public Affairs at KET.org and download the PBS video app to watch us online on demand any time.

Thanks again for watching.

I'm Renee Shaw.

We hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

See you then.