I fully condemn each of these statements as individual made.

Eric Dieter is a former candidate for the state's top job as the talk of the governor's race.

I think the biggest barriers were in my own mind, You know, what would people think?

How would this affect my ability to practice?

Up at Duke, a surgeon on physician burnout.

If one kid changes their lifestyle or one kid changes some habits that they have, then we will call it a success.

And how Christmas in July can be the gift that keeps on giving.

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 Thursday, July the 13th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Thursday with us.

Eric Deters is not the Republican nominee for governor, but his words are now front and center in the governor's race with one candidate speaking out about him and the other being asked to speak out.

Daters are former attorney from northern Kentucky came in fourth in the May Republican primary.

In the past, daters has made racist remarks and even used the N-word on a social media platform.

Here's a sample of his past comments.

13% of the population.

Dirty blacks are 13% of the population.

And it's not about equality.

They want to control the minority.

Don't want equality.

They want to take over.

Data says he stands by his remarks.

Governor Andy Beshear, in his news conference today denounced dieters.

There is no place for these types of comments in Kentucky.

They are horrific.

They spur hatred and division and they violate everything that my faith teaches me on Sunday.

And I'm supposed to practice every other day of the week.

I fully condemn each of these statements.

This individual made, and I call on every other elected official to do so.

The way we root out hate and end it is to make sure that we call it out when it's there.

No matter who is saying that, we give it no space and no oxygen.

And every single individual out there in a leadership position fully condemns it.

That's the very least we should do.

That's what leadership requires.

The governor did not mention his Republican opponent, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, by name.

Cameron agreed to appear at Dieter's Freedom Fest rally in northern Kentucky in September, but then Cameron withdrew, citing a scheduling conflict.

Cameron has not denounced Dieter's comments.

At his news conference, the governor also talked about Kentucky's three digit suicide prevention hotline, 988 that began one year ago this upcoming Sunday.

He says since it began, nearly 22,000 people have called it.

The FDA announced today that it has approved the first over-the-counter birth control pill.

Starting next year, women will be able to purchase the contraceptive medication Opal without a doctor's prescription.

Opal is a once a day hormone based pill.

Dr. Kristen Reeve, an OB-GYN with Norton Health Care in Louisville, says hormone based pills are a commonly prescribed form of birth control and typically safe.

But she thinks it's still important for women to talk to their doctor before using it.

I think that one of the benefits of this medication is that it doesn't require a doctor's visit or a prescription or or waiting in line the pharmacy to get that medication.

But I still think it's very important that people have that relationship and communication with their provider to make sure that it's a good choice for them.

I think from a medical perspective, it's not it's not that surprising that it's available just because the safety profile is generally very good for this medication.

I think, you know, with the politics of reproductive health in our country, I think that's been the bigger barrier for it, to be honest, rather than the actual safety profile of the medication itself.

Over-the-counter medications are not typically covered by insurance.

The maker of Opal has not said how much it will cost.

It's among the most stressful careers.

Being a doctor means the stakes are high, as they often hold the life of a patient in their hands.

Our Laura Rogers has more on a new bill signed into law this year protecting doctors, seeking treatment for stress, depression and even burnout.

Dr. Sean Jones has been practicing medicine for 30 years.

But filling a childhood dream.

From the earliest times I can remember, my parents even said before I can recall that I wanted to be a physician.

So and that never really changed.

Jones is a head and neck surgeon at Baptist Health, Paducah.

It was his wife who first noticed her husband wasn't acting like himself.

Burnout is very disorienting.

It's very difficult.

It becomes this emotional numbness.

You might feel more negative.

You might feel like, hey, everything is stacked up against me.

Dr. Jones was so unfamiliar with the feeling he feared he had a brain tumor when his CT scan was normal.

He would come to realize the root of the problem.

I was overworked.

I was very busy.

And instead of trying to control that or mitigate against sadness and to some degree or another, I just allowed it to get out of control to the point where I was working much more than I should have been working.

Doctors are at high risk for work, stress and fatigue in terms of health care workers in general.

One in five individuals are thinking about leaving the practice of health care entirely.

It's also complicated by the fact that much of being a doctor isn't just face to face patient care.

The things that are more challenging tend to be administrative in nature and primarily are not the reasons that most people go into medicine.

The reason why we all got into medicine was to take care of our patients and with the way the health care system is currently shaking out, it's becoming harder and harder to take care of the patient in front of you because the way the health care system places these additional burdens, particularly from insurance companies.

Doctors are often hesitant about seeking mental health treatment.

Concerned about how it could impact their practice.

Because of the support of my family and particularly my wife, I was able to to work through most of that and get over my fears and realize that my best way out was through Senate Bill 12.

Signed into law this year protects the confidentiality of doctors who seek counseling, coaching or other resources for work related fatigue or depression became very evident that I needed some help.

So I actually took six weeks off and underwent outpatient intensive psychotherapy for post-traumatic disorder related depression.

He would go on to write about the experience, also part of his healing journey and hopes that it would help other physicians going through the same thing.

Your wound can become your why.

So my experience with burnout became a passion for me in trying to help other physicians.

Both doctors say they are hopeful Senate Bill 12 will promote a culture of wellness in the medical community.

I'm hoping this will also remove that stigma within the culture of medicine that it is okay to take a day for yourself, that it is okay to talk about these traumas, talk about these issues that we've all been feeling.

I think it's a tremendous step forward and treating physicians like human beings where they have the capacity to have privacy, they need to seek help when they need it.

And I think if anything, it's going to be even more impactful on protecting the public by having a physician workforce that's able to get the help they need when they need it and not worry about the consequences of just getting help for Kentucky addiction.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

The new law does not preclude physicians from reporting any condition that impairs their judgment or their ability to practice medicine in a competent, ethical and professional manner.

Well, parts of western Kentucky are drier than they were a week ago.

Now, this is the U.S. drought Monitor map finished July 4th.

The brown is moderate drought and the yellow is abnormally dry.

Now let's switch to the new map.

Finished July 11th and released today.

Notice parts of western Kentucky now have an orange color, which means severe drought.

Another problem this time of year, kids in cars.

Most child deaths from overheated vehicles are caused by parents forgetting the child is there.

Our Christy Dutton discusses how caregivers can change their thought process.

On average, nearly 40 children die in hot cars every year, and it's the summer temperatures rise.

So does that threat.

Joining us is Amber Rollins, the director of Kids and Car Safety.

Amber, every parent says there's no way I would leave my child in a hot car.

So how does this happen?

Well, you're absolutely right.

This can happen to any loving, responsible parent.

And what happens is we've got this part of our brain that controls our habit, memories.

So that's the basal ganglia.

And the basal ganglia is what allows you to drive from home to work without a conscious thought.

And then your hippocampus is what controls what's happening here and now.

And when people are overwhelmed, extra tired and have a lot going on, that basal ganglia is a survival mechanism in our brain takes over.

And the problem with that is that your basal ganglia cannot account for changes in routine.

So if you don't have day care, is your normal drop off or you've switched your routine.

You know, any little change in your normal routine that basal ganglia isn't able to account for it because it's suppressed the hippocampus and taken over.

So that's how this can happen.

You know, it's not about forgetting your child.

It's about losing awareness there in the backseat.

Yeah, a change of routine added stress to that can make a huge difference.

So how do we bypass this?

What are some ways to prevent this?

So we want people to create a reminder item like a big stuffed animal.

Keep it in the backseat.

Any time you buckle your child and you move that up to the front seat as a visual cue, that your child is with you.

I know this sounds crazy, but before children started writing in the back seat, they were writing up front and cards were virtually nonexistent.

Then.

So this truly is a function of losing awareness, not of bad parenting or anything like that.

So create that reminder item.

Look, before you lock, check the backseat every time you leave your vehicle and ask your child care provider to call immediately if your child doesn't show up as scheduled.

Those are great tips.

Okay.

Let's say that we're a bystander and we see a child in a hot vehicle.

What do we do?

Get them out immediately.

If they're in distress or unresponsive, call 911.

They're going to be able to talk you through what to do.

But the whole idea is you need to get them out quickly, break a window if you have to, and begin to cool their body temperature by any means possible.

Okay.

Amber Rollins from Kids and Car Safety, thank you so much.

Thank you.

Well, thank you, Christi Newton, for that.

And important information, kids and car safety says about a quarter of child deaths from overheated vehicles are caused by children crawling into unlocked cars without their parents knowing if a child disappears as check nearby vehicles first.

Researchers at the University of Louisville are testing wastewater in some parts of the city to see what back to area toxins and viruses may be there.

They hope it will shed light on the health conditions of Louisville since the first began this in February of 2021.

And for 87 weeks, we were looking at sequencing the complete genome of SARS-CoV-2 that was found in 17 different catchment areas in Jefferson County, Kentucky.

Near the end, we focus more on just the larger water quality treatment plants, and there are five of those that we have been sequencing in about a year ago we focused to going from sequencing just SARS-CoV-2 to sequencing other viruses and pathogens of interest that are in the wastewater as well as bacteria that are there.

We're looking at the community level.

So this is really more a public health approach, which is if we identify an area that's got high levels of a particular metal or other toxic chemical in it, we can put extra effort into mapping exactly where it's coming from.

So you could put efforts into mitigating the release of those chemicals, but you can also have public health education efforts in that area to educate the people on what they might be able to do about it.

We have a serious line of research here at the University of Louisville that is focused on the role, the environment plays in our health.

And it is very difficult to know what people are exposed to.

You know, we have lots of tests in medicine to understand how your body is functioning today.

We don't have lots of information about perhaps where you've been, what you've eaten, what you breathe.

And it turns out that all that information is very important.

We saw high levels of lead in the wastewater in certain areas, and that would suggest that there's a possibility that the lead is being leached in the water pipes feeding the households in that area, similar to what happened in Flint.

Right.

And so that's something that you can then investigate further and localize it and then maybe take efforts to remediate the lead pipes.

You know, for example, we are heading into seasonal flu.

We'll be able to see flu arrive in Louisville six weeks before the health care system will be able to make the same call.

And in that six weeks, a lot of people are getting a lot of other people sick.

And so that really does give us a special opportunity to take some of these dividends from the pandemic and apply it to a regular public health problem in our community.

With the flu season approaching, the researchers will be working with Jefferson County Public Schools to track trends in flu cases, which can aid in vaccination efforts.

On July 8th, Midway Museum debuted the second volume of their African American Heritage Series.

It chronicles the untold history of black Kentuckians that lived, worked and contributed to the city and communities of Midway.

This book is a compilation of history, past and present.

There are people in the book that have passed away and generations of people, but yet there are people in this book that are living today, but they're still a part of history.

My grandfather was lived here, my father lived here, and they had a business and I grew up here and I would not change anything living here.

And there's just as growing up here, I heard so many stories and we just there was not a whole lot of pictures or documentation about these stories.

And it was just we need to get these stories out to tell the black story.

We've all heard them sitting on the corner, but we wanted.

That was my inspiration to bring these stories to life, to share with the rest of the community, not just the black community, but the whole Midwest community in a in a whole.

When you look at the history books, they leave out a lot of stuff.

So the community of Midway and the museum board have the vision to tell the stories and to bring them to the forefront because they realize that it is important and everybody's a part of the community.

So everybody's story should be told and that's what the museum is doing.

Telling the story of Midway, not just one section of Midway, but the entire community as this one took two years and a lot of work.

We involved a lot of the community, a lot of questions, a lot of answers, a lot of late nights, a lot of text groups.

As the first book was 200 pages, this was 400.

There's more detail.

There is more detail.

And we can only tell so much at this point from maybe the African-Americans perspective.

When you don't see people that look like you that have accomplished things, you might have a tendency to feel like you're less than.

And I believe that that's kind of what's been going on in the world.

But I feel like that this book is going to help young people see that they did come from greatness and that they have greatness in them and they can do even better things and greater things.

And I think it's important for all the kids black, white, yellow, green, purple, whatever color they are, to see that everybody matters.

The books can be found at the Midway Museum for free.

A Louisville businessman was recently named an entrepreneur of the Year by Ernst and Young.

Dan Oliver is the creator of Danos Seasoning, what started as a small startup with $8,000 in the bank is now a multi-million dollar brand sold in 30,000 grocery stores.

On this week's Inside Louisville.

Kelsey Starks talks to Dan Oliver about his success, his setbacks and his loyalty to Louisville.

We always want to focus on owning our backyard.

This is where basically everybody in the business, we're all born and raised here in Louisville.

And, you know, we love our community.

We love that.

We're the one thing that I've been saying lately is Kentucky.

Kentucky is known for bourbon, the Kentucky Derby and Dano's.

That's what that's how we want to make it.

We want to be like when people think Kentucky, they think about Dano's.

That's wonderful.

Is there anything, particularly about Louisville that is helpful for these kind of start up businesses?

I mean, have you found it to be a good place to start a business and why?

Well, I'll be honest with you, where I first started doing my flea markets, anybody that's going to start a packaged good product like this, go to the flea markets, spend $130.

At least that's what it was when I was doing it.

And you're exposed to maybe 10,000 people walking by.

And if you have a good product and you're good at selling it, you can start right there.

Just how I did it.

And they have these flea markets like I think there's like five of them a year.

If you want to see if you can do something like what I did, I would say 100% packaged the product, take it to the flea market.

If you can have success the way I did, you might be on to something.

Yeah, and you learn a lot from that, I would imagine.

Absolutely.

Well, yeah, And me originally, like my first shows that I ever did, were a little farmer's market, and that's when I figured out, like, I need to get something more like this and get away from my farmer's market looking product.

So it was kind of the first farmers market I did to help me get to where I was in the right position to take this to the flea markets.

Then I was exposed to tens of thousands of people and then that's where I really saw the vision where I could take it.

There's one thing that I always tell people, like, What's it take to be successful?

And I tell people that I wasn't I wasn't the best student ever.

Like, I really didn't like school much.

But if you can learn how to be resourceful and figure things out, that's the number one attribute you can have is learn how to figure things out.

If you want to start your own business, especially consumer packaged good, it's not really that hard.

It's just doing it.

If I went back and started all over again, knowing what I know now, that's what I like to share how to do deal with people.

I make videos about how to do it.

I mean, I think that you could do it in a matter of a couple of months.

I just didn't know what I was doing and I was working at the time, so I was just trying to figure it out as I went.

So it took me a little extra time.

But learn how to be resourceful, figure things out, and it's not that hard.

You just got to do it.

You just got to do it.

He says.

Startup businesses make up more than 90% of all companies in Kentucky, according to Amplify Louisville.

In fact, more than half of Kentucky's workforce is employed by small businesses.

Now you can see Dan Oliver's full interview with Kelsie Starks on her brand new show inside Louisville this Sunday at 12 noon, 11 a.m. Central right here on Katie.

Don't miss it.

Between social media and video games, there is a whole lot keeping kids indoors during the summer.

Well, Frankfort police wanted to see that change, so they put out the call for outdoor toys and had their very own Christmas in July.

We started preparing only a few weeks ago, so we jumped on it.

We thought we didn't want to delay it until next year.

Why not right now?

So we had over 1500 dollars in toys that were donated from different community members.

Hope took part in it as well.

Some organizations did a monetary donations and we actually went out and did the shopping.

We went to places around town, some of our local businesses, and just bought everything that we could.

Within that dollar amount, we got chalk.

We've got bubble and bubble machines, we got water guns, we've got balls, basketballs, different things like that, and a few other different various types of toys that really promote getting outside.

Just show up and grab one that that's what we're here for.

We didn't do any kind of application process or anything like that.

We just went, got the toys and are here just giving them away to any kid that shows up.

You got to think back a couple of years ago we had COVID and all these kids were just cooped up inside.

Parks are closed, schools are closed.

I think it caused you know, a lot of kids have a sense of maybe loneliness or maybe isolation and we wanted to do something to help break that.

We wanted to get these kids outdoors.

We wanted to provide them a bunch of safe toys that they can play with that are specifically geared toward summertime activities to get them out of the house.

We want we want these kids to get out of the house, to have fun, to be healthier.

And we had 150 chicken sandwiches handed out by Chick-Fil-A to donate.

And so everybody that gets a toy also gets a chicken sandwich to go with it.

We have partnered with sweet, sweet guys, ice cream trucks here today to hand out a free scoop ice cream for for all the kids present.

You know, the Chick-Fil-A kind of helps in that for kids that maybe not also get those meals during the summer, you know, and why not reward them as well for taking part in the program with us and have a have a scoop of ice cream on us as well?

We're still going to be accepting donations through the month of July.

If people want to donate, they can either donate, you know, a cash value and we'll go out and buy the toys or they can bring the toys by pickup location.

And what we're going to do, we're going to take these toys into the lower income areas and distribute those to the kids in those areas.

So we're going to keep this going through the entire month.

Now, here's the deal.

We'll accept any time of the year.

So let's say you do a garage clean out in September and you want to give away a bunch of toys, bring on us.

We'll find kids that'll play with hope.

If one kid changes their lifestyle or one kid changes some habits that they have, then we will call it a success.

But I've got a feeling, looking around right now with the smile on the faces, and I think we're very made a huge hit here today.

That's why there are heroes.

Frankfort PD says next year will be even bigger and they hope to continue the event for many years to come.

Tomorrow, a Kentuckian who has seen atomic bombs blast firsthand hear about on their steel mill in Illinois.

We want your bottom line.

When you see involved there.

It's pretty impressive.

Just hope I never have to use them.

Here, here.

Meet one of America's atomic veterans.

That's tomorrow, Friday on Kentucky Edition, which we hope you'll join us for again tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET.org You can also find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV, and we encourage you to send us a story idea at Public Affairs at KET.org and follow us all the way as you see on your screen there.

Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We'll have a wrap up of the political news of the week tomorrow as well with all those other great stories that come your way at the end of the week, including around the commonwealth.

Toby Gibbs.

Until I see you again.

Have a really wonderful Thursday night and I will see you right back here again tomorrow.