>> Kentucky Democrat, you can run, but you cannot hide from the National Democrat Party agenda.

Kentucky Republicans talk about why they've taken the lead in voter registration.

>> It took 20 years but getting through part of Kentucky's is now a lot easier.

I went from like Billboards, too.

A model gets raped and at a nightclub.

The highs and lows of modeling from the Kentuckyian who's been there.

>> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION for this Thursday, July 21st, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending part of your Thursday evening with us on the day we learned President Joe Biden has COVID with mild symptoms.

Kentucky's attorney general was in federal court.

>> Arguing against the Biden administration policy on COVID Attorney General Daniel Cameron and his team are in the U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals in Cincinnati arguing against to Biden, White House policies.

He tweeted about it afterwards.

Cameron argued against the federal vaccine requirement for federal contractors to receive COVID vaccines.

Ohio and Tennessee are also part of that lawsuit.

And Cameron argued against the policy that prevents states from using COVID relief money in order to cut taxes.

No word on when the court could rule on those cases.

For the first time ever registered Republicans outnumber Democrats in Kentucky as we told you last week the GOP pulled ahead in June.

Each party has around 1.6 million voters today and Frankfort, Republican leaders said their party has moved ahead because voters like what they see.

>> We took the majority.

We pledge to the people of Kentucky.

We're going to make Kentucky a better place to do business, a better place to raise a family, a better place to work and live.

We hold true to that promise.

This is about policy.

This is about making Kentucky that.

And those policies that we put in place along with the Senate since 2016 17 truly transform Kentucky.

They believe we are passing good policy.

Therefore, it is followed by good politics.

>> And we have super majorities in both chambers.

Kentucky voters got to see what it looks like when Republicans make policy in state government.

Policies that outlasting the governor.

Governors coming go.

The legislature is the institution of state government here in Frankfort.

>> We said it over and over.

We said it many different ways on many different issues.

Kentucky Democrat, you can run, but you cannot hide from the National Democrat Party agenda.

>> We know they are PK that we can't rest on our laurels.

There is a lot of work to be done.

And after literally centuries.

Of democratic what?

We're looking to put Kentucky on the right right.

By advocating common sense conservative principles.

>> Governor Andy Beshear was asked today about the new voter registration numbers.

He said 2 parties of equal strength have to work together.

>> I think what that says we need to get along.

We should be out there flexing talking about who's dominant.

Don't be trying to get a loan.

I'm tired of team Democratic team Republican.

I just want to be part of Team Kentucky and pulling to the left or to the right.

We should all be moving.

Former look at all these announcements that we make the clean drinking water.

They were all not partisan in a bipartisan way.

So I hope that we spend less time thinking about being a good Democrat or a good Republican and just focus on the good people.

>> The governor also announced a new record low unemployment rate of 3.7% in June.

It's the 3rd consecutive record low.

The governor says he will endorse Charles Booker's candidacy for the U.S. Senate at a time of Booker's choosing.

And the governor announced 30 million dollars for 29 water projects.

He says that will mean clean drinking water for more than 1200 Kentucky households.

Kentucky's drought picture is better in some places and worse and others.

First, let's look at the U.S. drought monitor map from last week.

Notice the large area of yellow and southern Kentucky with that means abnormally dry.

Brown is moderate drought.

The 2 small sections of orange mean severe drought.

Now, let's switch to the map completed 2 days ago, July 19th thanks to some rain, the yellow area and southern Kentucky is much smaller.

The moderate drought area is also smaller.

But the orange manning, severe drought is now much bigger and western Kentucky.

After 20 years and 220 million dollars, a new stretch of Kentucky Highway 30 is now finished.

This is a drone view of the road from Boonville to London.

The state says the drive time from those 2 towns will now be cut in half.

The road will connect Owsley Jackson and Laurel counties to interstate 75 Governor Beshear and Congressman Hal Rogers were there to celebrate the end of the project.

Part of the road in Jackson County will be named after former state Representative Marie Rater.

Amazon has announced a new partnership that will allow its employees to get a free education at one Kentucky University, northern Kentucky University was selected as one of Amazon's partners and its career choice program.

Under the Career Choice program, full-time employees are eligible for up to $5,250 in tuition.

Part-time employees are eligible for up to $2625 in tuition.

Employees can attend classes in person online or a combination of both.

We spoke to Carmen Hickerson of northern Kentucky University who worked with Amazon on the partnership.

She said it's not just Amazon employees who will benefit but the state as well.

The Amazon career choice benefits available to Amazon employees across the country.

>> And they do not have to necessarily live in the region where they decide to go.

We offer many online options.

So while we obviously very much wanting to attract folks who work at the facilities in our someone from any facility in Amazon.

So it could actually end up taking classes at Nku.

They chose the online auction.

This is something is available to Amazon employees after they've been employed for 90 days, which is actually very generous as well.

Many many companies will make it.

Employees wait a year before they can access these education benefits.

But Amazon is put in place after 90 days.

Amazon does not have any restrictions other than it has to be a credit bearing class.

So it can't be just for a certificate or something like that.

It has to be undergraduate education, but they don't put any restrictions and all that type of degree the student might be doing it because it's something they want to pursue as a career or it might be something to enhance their career with Amazon or in some cases, it might just be something that they want to take for personal enrichment.

We pursue these types of education partnerships many companies and industries here in northern Kentucky because we want to be able to the most flexible and the most accessible of the most affordable opportunities for their employees.

Obviously, Amazon has a huge footprint here in northern Kentuckyian southern Ohio.

And so to be able to be selected as a career choice partner, which we, many of the people who work at Amazon probably would left unattended K you or maybe even are already attending into you.

And now this makes that connection possible for them to have part of their education paid for by the company.

It's a very competitive market.

Is for this type of worker in northern Kentucky, particularly because we have a very high percentage of people can be employed who are in place.

I think Amazon sees this is a real opportunity to differentiate themselves from other players and a way for them to use as a recruitment strategy as well as a retention strategy.

The university has set up a website specifically for Amazon employees to enroll, qualified Amazon employees camp again attending classes at Northern Kentucky University.

>> This fall.

There are 89,000 nurses licensed in the state, but according to the Kentucky Nurses Association, that's still up to 20% less than what's needed to care for patients.

It's not just nurses, labor force retention is a huge problem across the healthcare industry.

A legislative panel heard about those struggles from hospital in long-term care facility association leaders who testified that the lack of workers will have significant impacts on care.

>> The bottom line for hospitals is that our costs are skyrocketing.

Healthcare workers are returning in large numbers and not enough.

People are entering into health professions to meet the growing need.

And so the crisis, as you all know, has been in the making for a while.

COVID-19 exacerbated it.

And of course, there's no quick fix.

Our hospitals continue to rely on travel nurses to staff hospital units.

And as we said in previous testimony, those come in the national rate of pay.

And that's because there's a national nursing shortage in Kentucky.

Hospitals are competing with other wealthier states for the same labor pool.

The amount of money our hospitals are spending on travel, nurses and premium pay, which is higher wages paid to your existing staff.

It's growing exponentially and its jaw dropping.

We just did a survivor hospitals and we found that in 2019 Kentucky hospital spent 88 million on nursing contract labor.

And in just the first 6 months of 2022, that number has skyrocketed to 489 Million.

That's 400 million dollars.

More being paid for travel nurses just from January through June.

That's an increase of 455%.

Further.

More than 18% of Haas.

Little nurses are expected to retire over the next 10 years.

And that number is even higher for psych nurse is the percent is 36% are in recovery nurses, nearly 28%.

With more experienced nurses are retiring.

If you are entering the workforce, we have an aging population.

The stress on the healthcare system is going to demand creative solutions just as Kentucky hospitals face a more than 5,000 worker deficit and registered and licensed practical nurses.

>> Long-term care facilities are feeling the pinch as well.

Betsey Johnson, president of the Kentucky Association of Health Care Facilities echoed similar workforce woes due to burnout retirements.

Childcare issues and direct competition with employers offering remote jobs.

>> There's been a significant decline and nursing home employees.

We have lost 4,347 jobs since the beginning of the pandemic of March 2020.

In the entire that just don't know.

She was a lazy entire long-term care industry, which in Kentucky has also assisted living and personal care.

There's been a job loss of 5,505 jobs.

We are according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the only sector in health care that has not recovered at all.

And our workforce.

>> Winchester, Senate, Republican and Doctor Ralph Alvarado said the strain of the worker shortage is evident and he says it has dire consequences.

>> And it's not dependent on how many physical beds people talk about health care being right.

They think it's talking about a better idea to healthcare's ultimately professionals and people with knowledge and skills.

We don't necessarily have the right to someone else's labor if they're not mean we fight a war over that issue is a lot of people out there that have these abilities that are saying I'm done.

I've had enough.

The time is coming very soon.

If you start seeing everybody exiting quickly and more than we have coming in where if you have a surgery, Don procedure done something done.

Replacement of a loved one.

You know, I can trust, you know, I can't take care of somebody at home and to have a facility for him to go to those days are coming quickly to an end.

>> Last week a new collaborative was announced between colleges, universities, the health care industry and even the K through 12 education system to engage students early in pathways to health care professions to help build the workforce.

State lawmakers allocated 10 million dollars that Kentucky received from federal pandemic relief funds to establish that initiative.

Kentucky food trucks are feeling the effects of high gas prices.

Inflation and the summer heat.

Patrick and his wife Lori Own and operate South cow based in Warren County.

♪ >> We do Philly cheese That's kind of what got us started.

A lot of other items.

But as a food truck, you have to be quick.

You have to be fish and you can have waste.

I can find a good filly around here.

So I created the amazing Philly.

>> I see the Red Tide owes which was a hit from the beginning.

We were handcuffed, knows we found.

I finally.

There's not like a singular platform to get on to it.

I say you're going to schedule an event.

You want to try to see who you know, if you're going to be the only one doing one, there's not really a platform to be able to see that on like it.

Single sailor Ty Platform.

So it's really easy to have an event and then look up.

And there's an event.

Exactly like the one you're having right Street.

Everybody is going to try to do something like this.

OK, first, you've got to go through Kentucky.

One stop the best on website.

Now get your business together.

As far as permits ordinances.

All of that, you pretty much need to reach out to the health department.

You call the city this year in so city of Bowling Green, the city's Musgrove, the Glasgow, and actually just speak to someone in the city council and asking questions in the beginning.

They sent me an e-mail with about 15 or 20 different phone numbers and said here just call them all.

So I called everybody was like, hey, it is what I'm doing, what I need to do and I've been with a lot of corporate businesses.

So I see the ups and downs We're going to be OK, but this year's definitely a struggle, especially with the heat.

It's so hot.

Sometimes people just don't want to come out I know that there's days that I would rather just eat a bologna sandwich on my couch versus happen to get out the house because it's been so hot.

I talk about gas prices.

I don't like we can't help it.

But when it affects people's spending habits, then affects us course.

And gas prices are affecting us as we drive daily.

The generator cause gastar truck cars gassed spas of cars gassed our vendors have raised prices because of gas.

So it's all affecting us.

I think everybody's feeling at this year's little.

It's not not soaring like it was, but that's okay.

We can always win.

>> Bowling Green woman who has modeled for some of the biggest names in fashion is helping others on their journey to sobriety, discovered as a young teen.

Amber Milam has appeared in the likes of Vogue and walked the runway for many high profile designers.

But she says the glamorous lifestyle did com with its pitfalls today.

Amber is a wife mother, real estate agent and full-time student and also an advocate for those battling addiction.

>> I actually New York London, Milan, Paris from the time that I was about 14 to the time that I was 19.

So I would fly from New York, London, Milan, Paris, Australian, New York, Kentucky, Tennessee, everywhere.

It didn't hit me until after I got sober.

I didn't realize, I guess at the time, Hugh, I was and what I was doing because I was just so caught up Even now looking for those magazines are like, wow.

I've actually got quite a history.

I went from like Billboards, too.

A model gets raped and at a nightclub kind of coping with that, spend me into work spiral.

There was really no clicking point.

I KET I wanted help.

But I didn't care if I got it.

I had kind of in my mind are the side of that that I was going to be good at.

25.

That's where I want I was invited to go to church and these women KET that I was not sober.

These women.

I will never forget it.

They showed me love like I had never been shown before.

They didn't judge me.

They didn't care about me being high at the time.

You know, they just wanted me to know Jesus.

And they just wanted me to be lived.

And so that actually was my transition point.

And that's also why and so open about we have to love everyone because you don't know what life you're going to say.

I have never for a really long time since I was in high school, I KET her back in her modeling days and >> I'm Amber reached out to us to see what we offered here at the health department and what we can provide for our community to help people that are still in active addiction.

The health Department offers this program that is a completely 100% safe space.

>> It's a way for you to receive help if you need it.

It's things they have needle exchange.

They where that testing KET where you can test your drugs basically to make sure there's not fentanyl in it.

They also have Narcan.

>> There's a lot of misinformation about fentanyl going around and we're just trying to educate people that it's it's even laced with marijuana and people are putting and cocaine and other drugs that, you know, they're not used to funnel being an so a lot of people are overdosing, which is really scary.

>> I'm super big and super big on 11.

The addict.

I'm also super big on like prison reform and things like that.

>> A lot of people know Amber and she's very involved to it.

The community and people that are still in active addiction or there's in recovery now, it's great to have a voice because people like her that are in recovery show other people that it is possible too.

Come back from an overdose and age.

Have a great, successful life.

I went through what I went through to be a better person and it shifted in Amman.

You know what?

I don't want to leave.

>> This world not having changed it in some way.

>> And even if it's small.

Well, my children, I am constantly preaching to them that we have to love everybody, even the Addicks.

And that's, you know, every day I look at them.

That's the legacy that I'm going to leave behind.

What can they do?

What can I instill in them?

What can I teach?

And then >> to change the world for when I'm gone.

♪ >> She certainly now the best model of all a role model.

What ago, Amber?

>> One of the most extensive Muhammad Ali collections in the world is now up for auction.

Choi Cannon has been collecting items from the biggest sports hero for decades.

He spoke with us recently about the items in the collection.

Why he's finally letting it go and who he hopes ends up with it.

>> I don't know of any other professional athletes that was as giving loves fans as much as the homily that the one story that was a common thread, whether that be a person that into the 60's are met him in the 90's.

If you asked any think he did everything in his power to to give you what you want, if you asked him for his role with taking off his back, if you want is glove as you get into.

If you want to be a lot of graph, you be happy to oblige.

She was just constantly constantly getting themselves in 1988.

I was looking to become a real serious collector, but the market was very mature at the time.

Very pricey they can afford.

It was a large on a graph showing the Chicago land area that the show was Mickey Mantle.

Joe DiMaggio.

The 3rd guy was was Muhammad Ali came up to him and I had a photograph that one sign that he got up to the started pointing me and my buddies and you want to fight us.

We asked us to come behind a table and put his arm around me and took a picture was still on the Batman of the greatest and just warm and open it and it is magical.

He loved his fans.

>> You want to give his time and you want to give you a good experience.

At that moment, the delay Baldwin office and I want to focus on my collection of Muhammad Ali want to get stuff that was person to his career.

So I want all the authentic stuff.

That was the touch him, you know, I want to wear or the other to fight warning that training stuff.

It's the stuff the Mohammed Ali actually wore field.

That was all part of the issue.

Does the party there, you know, added to the to the victor, the feet of Obama as career autographs.

Of course, you know, early examples we use cash.

Clay all the way through Muhammad Ali, as I was starting late in starting a career, I just kept putting stuff in storage.

When I finally got my house.

And up ahead, a designated spot for the alley question was going to goal.

I took the stuff out of storage after 30 years.

I didn't realize how much stuff that actually accumulated.

And as I was hang in the photos and the like posters on the walls and putting that the rules and that the gloves and display cases.

I was quickly as a rule.

And as I looked at and thought long and hard about this and I just can't do this collection, justice and I decided to work with charities, Heritage Auctions to so this entire collection.

I wanted the casual fan events fan a museum.

Anybody that sees the value Mohammed Ali's legacy to enjoy the collection.

Just as I did.

The auction is currently lives were accepting bids that ends Saturday, July 23rd and it's that heritage auctions dot com or AJ dot com.

This is really the people's questions.

I'm hoping that as many different people in the world see this collection and I hope everybody can find something that will help them.

Remember the life and legacy of Muhammad Ali.

>> Our final story tonight, Oscar-winning actress Patricia Neal was born in Packer, Kentucky and 1926.

A small coal-mining community located in Whitley County near the Tennessee border.

But when the coal company disappeared, so did the town.

But as you'll see in this Kentucky life story, what hasn't disappeared is the legacy of one of Hollywoods and Kentucky's most estate and remarkable talents.

>> Though, still.

Patricia Neal was born in 1926.

And Packard Kentucky.

This was a largely coal mining town.

And it doesn't exist anymore.

It hasn't been there for decades.

She really comes from working class, blue collar roots.

That rule perhaps upbringing that hardscrabble life that may have been given to are forced upon her by her family.

>> Does show up often in her film.

>> I face in the crowd is terrific all the way around.

And it's often remembered ads.

This star-making vehicle for And it certainly is.

But it's Patricia Neal, that makes that movie.

>> They arrived at the smaller.

You make me feel.

You take Betty Lou.

>> I kind of explain.

I think you issue a public.

Well wrapped up with yellow ribbon to the one cute little package.

She's a logical combination of the great 20th century love affair between Nettleton wrote in his mask.

So be it.

>> Breakfast at Tiffany's is probably the film that.

She is most famous for simply because it's the most famous film in her entire repertoire.

What are you doing?

>> Writing a check.

Looks a little bit.

Show me.

And that is the writing checks The order for a check.

One of that.

Take it away somewhere for a week.

Entitled to a vacation with pay.

>> In breakfast at Tiffany's Week in recognize that Patricia Nail doesn't need to be the star.

Traditional can play the back character.

This the the secondary role at with as much vigor empowers you might.

>> And the lead >> I do believe in love was found and hiding.

>> And Patricia nails, Oscar-winning performance in HUD.

She plays Alma.

The cook slash housekeeper for a family, a ranching family in taxes.

And classes.

So important to her performance here.

But Allman is interesting because she's not just a part of this family.

She is the help.

And so her class is even lower than the sort of middle-class family that sinking.

As the story goes on ♪ >> would you ever ask?

>> They haven't asked a little fun as much time.

>> I bring it to pound box of candy and by the perfume from the book.

So it.

>> Kentucky has several artists, actors and writers.

I don't know if there's something in the bluegrass and that air at the anti anti says the brain cells to adapt toward some sort of creativity or not.

But 8 minutes with that.

Without a doubt.

>> The January 6 committee continues its work tonight.

You can see the last scheduled hearing as lawmakers investigate the attack on the U.S. Capitol.

That's tonight at 8 Eastern 7 central on K E T we hope to see you right back here tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky edition where we inform connect and inspire subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition, e-mail news letter and watch full episodes at KET Dot Org.

Thanks again for watching.

Take really good care.

And I will see you tomorrow night.

♪ ♪ ♪