A health scare today for Senator Mitch McConnell as he freezes during a news conference.

It's just unbelievable that it wasn't deadly enough that we have to add something else to it.

Right now, it's the deadliest of Kentucky's deadly drugs.

What can be done about fentanyl?

We lost a cowboy in that automobile accident.

Ladies and gentlemen, this rodeo has been established in his honor.

And see how this rodeo is doing more than just bull riding.

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.

On this Wednesday, July the 26th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Wednesday night with us.

We begin tonight with health news concerning us Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.

Senator McConnell froze in mid-sentence while talking to reporters at the nation's capitol.

He was let away by some of his fellow Republicans.

Here's the video.

We're on a path to finishing the Indiana.

We've been good bipartisan cooperation in a string of dimensions.

It's time to say good bye to it.

Was anything else to address.

And as you just saw, Senator McConnell was led away by Senator John Barrasso of Wyoming, an orthopedic surgeon.

McConnell later returned to the news conference, as you see, and said he was fine and took some questions from reporters.

Now, it's not clear yet what happened to Senator McConnell.

He is age 81.

You'll recall he fell and hit his head and was out of the Senate for several weeks earlier this year, less than two weeks before the start of school in Jefferson County.

And the school system still hasn't made a decision on its policy for implementing Senate Bill 150.

That's the new law that prevents schools from teaching about sexual orientation or gender identity and delays.

When students could learn about reproductive body parts.

The Jefferson County School system is considering two different policies.

One includes a statement of concern about the potential harm caused by the law.

The other includes a stronger condemnation, saying the law violates the US Constitution.

According to the Courier Journal, the Jefferson County School Board voted on the second option last night.

The vote was 3 to 3.

The board did not vote on the first option.

Instead, the board postponed action on that federal funding that helped prop up the child care industry during the COVID pandemic is about to end.

And that means the state will have to make difficult decisions about what programs to continue and what to cut.

And 2021 Kentucky received $470 million through the American Rescue Plan Act, also known as ARPA for sustainability payments.

Those payments covered operational costs like payroll expenses and potential revenue losses.

Those funds are set to end in September at the interim Joint committee on Families and Children's Meeting on Tuesday.

Representative Samara Heffron of Litchfield asked if the Cabinet for Health and Family Services planned to fund the sustainability payments once they run out.

She added that she is not sold on the idea of the General Assembly funding the payments.

But there's going to be a bleed somewhere and I think a lot of us here in the General Assembly are still trying to figure out is that government in place to help with those sustainability payments?

Because if it's a broken system, how do we need to revamp that to help child care owners be able to to fix that?

You know, what can we do?

Because I'm not settled on continuing the sustainability payments.

So one thing I can say is that the start up grants that we offered, there was a requirement for those individuals to go through a strengthening business practices, training to really think about marketing, budgeting, making sure you've for family, childcare, you've paid yourself, you know, what your overhead, all those things besides just I'm going to care for children, but you know, all those other things that they need to do.

So we have been focusing on that, especially with the startup grants we have, again, the Trainers Academy that we did for director Skills Budgeting is included in that to where that's a statewide effort that we have because that we heard that as well.

The business acumen was not there.

I can also tell you that child care continues to be on everyone's radar.

The state also received $293 million for one time Child Care and Development BLOCK grants, which funded startup grants, tuition support and facility updates.

That is set to end next year.

Drug overdoses killed more than 2100 people in Kentucky in 2022.

Now that's down 5% from the year before the first decrease since 2018.

But it's still a big number.

And most of these people, more than 1500, died from fentanyl.

It's about 72% of all drug related deaths.

That was one of the topics Monday night during disrupting addiction acute form.

And there is another problem along with fentanyl.

They did their job in anger in addition to the deadly fentanyl news, we gave the numbers there.

We don't have a heroin problem anymore.

Well, and that was that was a problem.

And that wasn't is what I was seeing is an animal tranquilizer.

It's not a controlled substance.

So some occasions it's being put on the drugs south of the border, the cartels.

But in some cases it's being added here in the United States.

It's really going to redouble our calls to redouble our efforts and look for new ways.

There are obviously test strips.

We'll be looking at those.

But I can't believe it's just unbelievable that federal wasn't deadly enough that we have to add something else to it.

Some people end up taking fentanyl without knowing it.

And after the live program is over during a question and answer session with our live studio audience, we talked about the value of what's called fentanyl testing strips.

They alert people when fentanyl is present in a drug.

Yes, house Bill 353 was known as the Fentanyl Test strip bill, and the goal of that was simply to allow individuals to test for the presence of fentanyl in their product.

It also decriminalized the fentanyl test strips.

It pulled that out of the the paraphernalia statute.

And so, you know, really the goal is to allow individuals to test their drugs for the presence of deadly fentanyl and it also implemented an education and awareness campaign.

And so it's it really focuses on the immediate presence of fentanyl and hopefully changing behaviors.

We know that if if an individual is going to take is going to pause long enough to think about what they're ingesting, then they are perhaps on the road to thinking about treatment and their drug use.

Yes, it's a really important piece.

So thank you.

You're welcome.

When we saw we saw some years where we were really doing some impressive work on bringing overdose deaths down.

And then fentanyl hit and and now you can see 89, 90% of overdose deaths somewhere in that neighborhood involve fentanyl and folks who may not even know that they're taking it.

So that test strip piece, which used to be a paraphernalia issue, is really important and I think is going to impact survival rates long term.

You can see the full program Disrupting Addiction Acuity Forum online on demand at Katie dot org.

Seven major automakers say they will join forces to build an electric vehicle charging network that were nearly double drivers charging capacity in the US and Canada.

It's a multi-billion dollar investment.

Here in Kentucky, the Transportation Department has ambitious plans to expand electric vehicle infrastructure as this new technology becomes more and more popular.

We recognize that it's a chicken and egg situation.

Folks are reluctant to get electric vehicles because they're not sure that there are any places to charge.

And therefore, the folks that want to put chargers in are reluctant because there aren't very many electric vehicles.

So the two are going to have to kind of grow together.

Things are in pretty good shape in the big cities, but the rural areas are wanting seriously.

We'd love to see more activity going on out in the rural communities so that this electric vehicle movement really will take root and and prosper.

We're on an ambitious, aggressive, but very doable schedule to implement our electric vehicle, charging stations across the state of Kentucky.

Every interstate, every parkway, it's 11 interstates and eight parkways are going to have charging stations every 50 miles.

And at every 50 miles there will be stations with four ports.

And these ports then will be accessible by our traveling public.

We really do need to advance on two fronts what we call the level two chargers, which are places like libraries or a coffee shop, someplace where you're going to spend an hour or two and you'll get a chance to top off a charge, not completely charge.

And then the Chargers that we need out on the highways.

These vehicles will typically go 200 plus miles on a single charge.

But going down to Pikeville, we're not going be able to get down there and back on a single charge.

So we need to have some fast chargers out there.

And that's those are the kind of chargers that the federal government is offering to put in.

Phase one of the project is the parkways and the interstates and so forth.

As it relates to eastern Kentucky.

That would include 64, Interstate 64, the Hal Rogers Parkway and the Mountain Parkway.

So that's within phase one, which is the next two years.

Then we'd be looking at phase two, which would represent a buildout of other of our roadways and other destinations as well.

With the two major plants in Kentucky being built today in Elizabethtown outside of is planned course in Glendale and in Bowling Green.

The two battery manufacturing plants, electric battery manufacturing plants, with those allowing Kentucky to really claim being the electric battery manufacturing capital of the United States.

When we get our own implementation of our electric vehicle charging stations in place and we do a good job at that.

Then, you know, there's a lot of enthusiasm associated with that because we are becoming first in class, best of class, and that's a big deal.

According to Secretary Gray, the number of electric vehicle owners in Kentucky has more than doubled in the last two years, growing to over 7000.

Time now to get a midweek check in of some major political news in Kentucky so far this week with our good friend Rylan Barden, who's managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, Roland.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

A lot of things happening.

And let's just start with the polls and the governor's race.

So we'll start there.

Governor Andy Beshear looking pretty good.

And the latest polls, there was a morning consult poll.

There was a poll last week showing he has a pretty sizable lead over his Republican challenger at this particular point, Daniel Cameron.

Yeah, it's almost a story in itself of like how many polls we're getting during this race.

A lot of times we can we really don't know exactly where we're at in the race.

And if there's one thing we can learn from that, it's that it's probably pretty close.

But so one poll that came out this week was another all kind of reaffirming Governor Bush's job approval rate, which is consistently poll pretty high.

This one in the morning console poll showed him with a 64% approval rate, which is one of the highest in the nation.

He also, very interestingly, has the highest offer, a Democratic governor among Republican constituents.

49% of Republicans, according to that morning consult poll, support Bashir's job performance, which is a big deal for a Democratic governor in a by most measurements, a pretty Republican state running for reelection.

There were a couple other polls just in a head to head matchup between Beshear and Daniel Cameron.

One one that was conducted in late June showed Beshear with a 10.10 percentage point lead over Cameron.

A Republican sponsored poll showed that a much tighter race.

And it was also the survey was done in July.

It showed Cameron with about a four percentage point behind Beshear by about four percentage points, which Republicans are saying, hey, listen, this is within the, you know, close to the margin of error.

And it shows that Daniel Cameron's within striking distance.

That is really the closest we've seen so far in any of these head to head polls.

So I think that, you know, Biden, by most accounts, zero Kentuckians can expect that it is a pretty close race.

The question is whether it's getting tighter over time and if it will continue to get tighter as we approach the fall campaign season.

Yeah, And if Fancy Farm would be a pivot point to things intensifying even more so, we'll see how the candidates do on that stage.

And of course, we'll see really the lieutenant governor pick for Daniel Cameron be on the stage.

He has not been on before.

So that could fancy for him, we say doesn't win you an election, but can really cost you some points there.

And so if they can navigate the gantlet there and this will also be the first time that the Beshear and Cameron will be sharing a stage that fancy this campaign.

It'll be at Fancy Farm.

So there should be a few more occasions for that as we get closer to the election.

But Betsy Farmer will be the first time.

Yeah, we hope there will be at least one more time that they'll be together at least.

Let's talk also about some what has been called exaggerated numbers when it comes to the violent crime rates diminishing like there seems to be some confusion about which numbers have been applied and really what the overall picture is.

Can you straighten this out for us?

Yeah, So viewers might remember earlier this month, the Governor Beshear held a press conference touting a lower reduced homicide rate in Kentucky over the course of his administration.

I guess it's really over between 2021 and 2022.

This week, the Herald-Leader reported that there's that that reduction actually isn't as big as the governor and the Kentucky State police were saying, because it didn't include some homicides that took place in Louisville.

And it sounds like this is a bit of a reporting discrepancy, but the difference is a difference of about 164.

The report, there's actually a they initially said that it went down 647, but actually the total is about 531.

So, you know, that is still a drop, but it's there isn't a question if some of the numbers that Beshear or any other elected officials like to throw out about some change in in results over the course of their administration or their time in office, a lot of times it's really hard to actually connect policies to statistics like that.

And it can be a little bit of a statistically dangerous thing to do and definitely got caught up in that.

Also, Beshear kind of went on the defense when it comes to some claims about him in these ads about transgender issues.

So he came out with another out of his own right.

I've never supported gender reassignment surgery for kids.

And those procedures don't happen here in Kentucky.

I thought it was a very bold move.

A lot of times there's not a, you know, an ad of kind of governor or candidate releasing an ad refuting a specific point that that a different political ad is making.

But, you know, this all goes back to S.B.

150, this big omnibus anti-trans bill that passed out of the legislature this year.

One of the provisions in that bill was to ban banned minors from getting gender reassignment surgery, which is not a thing that takes place in Kentucky already.

Governor Beshear did veto that bill.

He's now saying in this ad, like, you know, yes, there are other parts of this bill that he was not in favor of, even though that bill also included this gender reassignment surgery provision.

And so he's he's just kind of trying to clarify his stance on that record.

Republicans aren't letting him, you know, really get away with it that easy.

Again, pointing out that he vetoed that bill.

But, you know, I think he'll be able to kind of confidently say on the debate stage or now in TV ads, wherever it is, that, no, this is where he kind of draws the line.

Yeah, good point.

So we'll have to see how that all shakes out.

Rolland Barton, thank you.

It's always good to see you.

Good to.

A chef in residence at the University of Kentucky is working with humanity in Deep Space, a project exploring the challenges of space travel, including food preparation.

Chef Bob Perry is hoping his research and knowledge helps to improve meals for astronauts on missions, specifically a nearly three year journey to Mars.

All societies coalesced around the table.

Even the earliest archeological digs, they always found food.

They found a table.

People sat together.

And that's something the astronauts would tell you was very important to them.

Mealtime is the height is the highlight of their day when they get to sit together, just like you do your family.

At the end of the day, you all sit.

You talk about what happened that day, things that you're going to do the next day and enjoy a meal together.

That's very important for the astronauts.

I'm working with humanity in deep space to look at feeding astronauts on Mars mission, which will be almost three years through the lens of neuro gastronomy.

So we're looking not just at the food, but everything about eating the surroundings, the temperature, the color, dividing, the sound.

Anything that we can do to enhance the astronauts mealtime is a big plus.

Neuro gastronomy is the study of taste, and you have to separate taste from flavor.

So the way to think about it is all foods have flavors and we can quantify those flavors.

We know what makes things taste like they are.

We can you know, analyze the chemical makeup, all the different things.

Taste, however, is created in the brain.

So you and I eat exactly the same thing.

And we can measure exactly what we're eating.

You love?

I hate it.

That's in our minds.

It's not in the city, but we take that aspect of their gastronomy and apply it to eating in space.

It really gets interesting because you're you're looking at an enclosed space.

The astronauts sense of taste is altered because you get fluid in your head.

Plus, they say it smells really bad.

So all of this affects the astronauts eating and of course, they have to eat to maintain health.

You have to have to consume the right foods to keep your body functioning.

And we know, for instance, that certain foods have big effects on the liver.

Certain foods have effects on the brain.

So we look at fat, too, and try to design menus for space.

The difference in what we're looking at for the Mars mission is nobody's ever been in space longer than three weeks without being resupplied.

So what they have been eating now will not necessarily work on long distance to Mars.

If you it's a it's a long time.

And without being resupplied, you have to take everything off for a shot.

So that is a huge problem in and of itself.

But generally, the astronauts, now that we've got international astronauts, you look back at what they were eating and people like to bring food from their own culture.

Again, it's a very cultural thing to be.

The Russians like certain foods that Indian, certain food, the Japanese, they want certain foods.

Everybody wants their own foods.

It's a sense of home.

So again, it's thinking about how how much taste and nutrition can we really pack into a smaller package as possible.

So we get the biggest bang when they eat it.

Chef Perry says it's their job to make sure our astronauts have the healthiest food possible, but they also enjoy it.

A rodeo and Owen County is doing more than just roping competition, lions and bull riding.

It's giving back to the community through scholarships, all in honor of one boy, Wyatt Cole.

They call it wide open, no fear.

Find out more in our weekly arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.

We lost a cowboy in that automobile accident.

Ladies and gentlemen, this rodeo has been established in his honor.

And in an effort to further fund the scholarships, we host the Juan Cole Memorial Rodeo each and every year.

He broke wide open, no fear throughout his amazing life.

So in February the 10th of 2019, my son Wyatt, who was 20 years old, passed away in a car accident.

He was a sophomore at the University of Tennessee.

Martin.

He had he was on the rodeo team.

He'd steer, wrestled in team ropes, and rodeo was his passion from kindergarten through high school into college.

So in lieu of flowers, I start.

We asked for donations for a scholarship.

And then the community here in Owen County wanted to support Wyatt's passion of rodeo.

And so with the help of other people, we were able to start this rodeo and put it together.

And it has grown into what it is today.

When Wyatt and I met, I believe I was about ten years old and he was a year or two younger than me.

But then once we met, I started going to his house and I really started roping there.

And from then on, we were best friends.

You were nearly every day.

We had many disagreements, but the memories are unbelievable.

It's not like you just revive the when friends aren't to the arena floor.

The rodeo really moving here tonight to pay tribute to our cowboy after he passed is just a way to honor his legacy and what he started.

And great opportunities to raise money to pass on to other younger students that kind of have the same dreams and maybe help them.

When I want to move on to college, the goal and the purpose of this rodeo is to raise scholarship money and we give out scholarships to Owen County, Kentucky High School Rodeo Association, Indiana High School Rodeo Association and the University of Tennessee.

Martin Rodeo Team.

To date, we have given out $49,000 worth of scholarships.

It seems to me like the public has really taken this and pushed it every single year, and it just seems to grow and grow, which is great.

I love it.

I think he would love it.

I know it would.

You know, the just the whole atmosphere of it and the town coming together and being able to hang out afterwards and have a great time.

And it's just awesome.

And then the coals will also be holding the Wyatt Cole Memorial roping competition at the University of Tennessee.

MARTIN In February of next year.

Tomorrow, we begin coverage of the one year anniversary of the flooding in eastern Kentucky.

Members of a volunteer fire department on the front lines during flooding talk about rescuing neighbors and rebuilding their community.

We do hope you'll join us for those stories and more tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central on Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

We hope you'll subscribe to our weekly email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET dot org You can also find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV and send us a story idea at Public Affairs at KET dot org.

And of course, follow us all the ways you see on your screen through Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Take care.

Have a good night.