The latest ahead from Bowling Green after the shooting of a police officer.

Democrats are endangered species in western Kentucky.

Governor Beshear is committed to fancy farm, but will it help his campaign?

They don't have a higher budget when the kids are home in the summers, but this would help them make them meet that need for a good, nutritious meal for their children.

Until the Department of Education is filling the food gap that happens when school lets out for summer 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 Friday, July 7th.

I'm Laura Rogers, filling in for Renee Shaw.

Thank you for joining us.

A Bowling Green police officer is in critical but stable condition after being shot several times yesterday afternoon.

Police say the shooting was around 525 Central Time and authorities say another man involved in the shooting is dead.

The police chief identifies the officer as Matt Davis.

Davis has been with the department for 18 years and has also served in the Kentucky Army National Guard.

Police say he was flown to a trauma center, but no other details have been released about the shooting or the investigation.

The Blue Grass Army depot in Madison County has destroyed its last remaining chemical weapons.

Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky announced the milestone today.

It concludes a decades long campaign to eliminate thousands of rockets filled with sarin nerve gas.

An international treaty required them to be destroyed by September 30th.

In a statement, McConnell said, quote, Today is a historic day for the Commonwealth of Kentucky, but also for the entire nation.

The people of Madison County can finally breathe a sigh of relief.

No longer in proximity to chemical weapons.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron says Kentucky's school districts should enforce Senate Bill 150.

Based on its intentions, the Kentucky Department of Education says the use of the word or in the bill gives school districts options.

They can either ban instruction on human sexuality to students in grade five or below, or they can ban instruction on gender identity and sexual orientation to students in all grades.

Supporters of Senate Bill 150, including Cameron, say that is a misinterpretation of the law and that both are banned part of Main Street and US Highway 27 and Nicholas Ville is now known as the Tom Buford Memorial Highway.

The road honors the memory of State Senator Tom Buford, who served the SEC, the 22nd District, for more than 30 years.

His district included Garrett Jessamine Mercer and Washington Counties and part of Fayette.

Senator Buford passed away July 6th, 20, 21.

Yesterday's renaming ceremony came on the second anniversary of his death.

Signs will go up along the road in the coming days.

It's time for our end of the week.

Check in on some of the biggest political news in Kentucky.

I'm K.C.

Parker Bell.

With me today are Iris Wilber Glick, a Republican strategist and an analyst at McCarthy Strategic Solutions.

And Will Carley, a Democratic strategist and president of Alpine Strategies.

Well, Iris, thank you both for being here.

Thanks for having us.

I'm sure everyone will be shocked, but we're going to start this week with the Kentucky governor's race and some of the big news is on Fancy Farm.

Fancy Farm is going to be a big deal this year, in part because Governor Andy Beshear has said that he will attend.

There was a little bit of a question of whether or not he would as he hadn't been there the past two years because of COVID and then because of the floods in eastern Kentucky.

So, will will this give Governor Bashir's campaign a chance to hammer down some of that support in the western part of the state?

Yes, I think, again, Governor Beshear, as I've previously said on this program, is universally well-liked right now around the commonwealth in Kentucky, especially down in western Kentucky.

I think the numbers are actually improving for him.

I think that's a testament to the fact that during the tornadoes and some of the other natural disasters that have happened, he was there and was a steadfast reminder that, you know, he puts Kentucky first over politics.

And also, I think some of the investments are going to be having happening because of the Blue Marble City project in Glendale that will filter down there to have ancillary jobs created for those industries.

I think is another piece of what the governor will talk about and how he's kept us safe during this tumultuous time.

Yeah, Iris, this cuts both ways for the Cameron campaign.

Of course, he won't get the stage to himself, but he will have an opportunity to knock Beshear while he's there with him.

So is this a positive for the Cameron campaign or something else that this year will be there?

Sure.

No, I'm looking forward to this fancy farm.

Listen, Casey, like this is going to be a homecoming not only for Daniel Cameron, but Republicans up and down the ticket.

Democrats are endangered species in western Kentucky.

There's not a single Democrat in the legislature in the Central Time Zone.

And so the last four years, it's sort of been the Beshear one man band kind of show where, you know, will mention the popularity and we'll see how effective that really is, because, you know, in order to be governor, you have to advance an agenda.

And I have not seen Beshear, you know, really show up to either build a bench for Kentucky Democrats to campaign for Kentucky Democrats in the legislature, of which you need friendly allies in order to advance an agenda.

Really can't do that as a governor solely.

You need the other the other leg of the stool, and that is the General Assembly.

In television ads for Kentucky's governor's race are already on commercial stations, and many believe they set the tone and the agenda for the campaign.

And this week, a group aligned with the Republican Governors Association released an ad attacking Governor Andy Beshear.

And here's part of that ad Beshear supports making it easier for children to get abortions without telling their parents.

He supports allowing schools to refer children to psychological treatment without putting parents.

Iris.

A big part of this campaign has already been social issues.

Is this what the Cameron campaign wants to focus on for the rest of this through November?

You cannot deny the types of issues that are important to Kentucky families.

They've spoken out time and time again in every part of the state that when it comes to parental rights, when it comes to, you know, family based values, those are top of mind.

And we expect to be so.

Come November.

And so you'll see the camera campaign talk about a bunch of different issues and how they impact families and how, you know, his vision will be a positive one towards economic opportunities for all, how we need to grow and retain jobs.

Well, you mentioned some of the Beshear administration's economic accomplishments, and Governor Beshear spent a lot of time talking about them.

But how can he turn the table to focus on those as opposed social issues or turn it into whatever he wants it to be?

I think that's a great question and one we're going to see throughout the debates that'll happen throughout the advertisements that are going to be run.

I will say this, though, that is a gross ad that very much takes out of context the governor's position on these issues.

One thing I will say, though, is we have a legislature that has created more overreaching laws to make decisions for families, make decisions for individuals than we've ever seen.

It's probably the largest big government overreach by a legislative body in Kentucky history about what you can do with your body, what access to health care you have there, trying to control pharmaceuticals, possibly prophylactics.

It has been just an incredible, incredible crossover from small government Republican Party that we used to know.

Iris.

Well, Kentucky politics never stops.

Thank you both for taking some time.

Thank you.

Thanks.

Case.

The steepening cost of health care doesn't escape Kentucky.

Hospitals, especially ones in rural areas.

One of the bills that became law during the most recent legislative session is House Bill 75 that financially props up facilities at risk of closing.

The bill expands the Medicaid hospital rate improvement program, often referred to as strip to include outpatient and inpatient care.

A trip allows Kentucky to draw federal funds to pay a supplemental Medicaid payment to hospitals to reduce payment gaps between Medicaid reimbursements and what would be paid by private health insurance.

Hospitals like Pikeville Medical Center say the relief measure has been a saving grace.

At the height of the COVID pandemic, Pikeville Medical lost $10 million a month, according to CEO Donovan Blackburn.

It was one of ten hospitals to get the Pfizer vaccine for COVID 19 back in 2020.

Renee Shah spoke with Blackburn about the hospital's financial recovery and the new law to get them back in the black.

$10 million a month.

Yes.

That you lost.

Have you recovered from that?

You know, it's been slow.

And, you know, one of the things that I commend this administration on and it is administrations because it's monetary function and certainly the legislators also because, you know, during the last session they passed for a trip, which is the advance Medicare payment without that hospital.

So I Kentucky, no doubt in my mind, you know, I sit on the executive committee for a study hospital association on the board of directors.

So I get the opportunity to speak to most every large hospital state on a monthly basis.

And I knew their financial position was no different than ours during the pandemic, especially during the time that we were administering the vaccine.

We were chosen as one of the ten hospitals in the state that got the vaccine first.

That really set the way because of our regional outreach.

So we played a huge role being the first and really only Kentucky hospital to time to get into different aspects of how we were dealing with COVID.

So it was it was interesting.

But, you know, we made it through it and it made us better.

We made a lot of relationships along the way.

And, you know, certainly our people benefited from it.

So the way we rebounded in essence, was a it Kopitar us be a little sharper with our pencil.

So we were able to really make changes that really needed to be made as an organization.

And then on top of that, with the subsidies and then a trip came into play.

So the at the inpatient April 1st, you know, we were a little bit unique and different.

When you look at Eastern Kentucky specifically, unfortunately, we lead the nation in pulmonary heart cancer, about every disease you can think of, and we have the poorest counties in the nation.

So my payor mix is 77% government paid.

So, you know, to get federal government state government dictates in essence, 70% percent of my income.

So when the trip in piece went into play, it allowed enough revenue to sustain us.

Now, with the outpatient piece, we're finally able to start catching up because we've had, you know, we have named our health care workers and they've been phenomenal health care heroes.

But the problem is that they have also sacrificed because a lot of them did not get pay raises along the time.

So we're catching up on a little of those things, as well as making additional investments in infrastructure leverage with a lot of grants and federal assistance as well.

So we're now at the point where we're back out of the red, not not a great deal, but we are stable.

But there's certainly a lot of work that needs to be done.

So let's do by the numbers because let's get the stats on how vast this medical complex is.

Tell us about that.

Piper Medical Center is a huge organization.

We have about 2 million square feet of space.

We're the only level two trauma center in a district, I'm sorry, in Kentucky, there's two level wants a difference between the level one and level two is we're not an educational facility.

So if we were like a UK, we would be a level one.

We have nine centers of excellence.

So when you talk about orthopedics and cancer and heart vascular, all of those are separately branded.

I mentioned earlier we have over 45 facilities, really, if you want to count the outbuildings, where it's 52, I think is what we're up to.

When you look at our staff, we have 3100 employees that recruit that's represented in four different counties, three in Kentucky.

We serve 450,000 people and a diameter of there.

Again, basic needs and more advanced needs.

We have a four clinic.

We have an 11 story clinic that has about every specialty and subspecialty that you can think of.

You know, sounds like a pick on you.

Can you get these are good friends of mine that we serve on the same board together, but pretty much we offer almost every service that you can or you avail offers outside of.

We don't have a burn unit and we don't do transplant.

But outside of that, you know, there are more advanced cases that a university has to do.

But for the most part, we have the technology, the ability to be able to do that.

So we do about 400 I'm sorry, 503 rounded up a thousand encounters a year as an organization.

So, you know, if you rank us by size in the state, we rank around a 10th from the standpoint of size hospital out of 120.

So and there's a lot of you know, obviously a lot of system hospitals that do a phenomenal job.

So we're we're we're the largest employer, single employer in eastern Kentucky.

We represent, as I mentioned, a significant amount of the tax base.

So it really is about access to care.

You know, I mentioned earlier, we have the first children's hospital that we opened up in eastern Kentucky, the Metro Children's Hospital, named after a dear friend who's a board member who's been in pediatrics during that, too.

And then on top of that, we've made a significant investment in pediatric care as well.

And that's been my passion.

We opened up the ABA Center, which is the first ABA center in eastern Kentucky, and has a near and dear to me because my my granddaughter is on the spectrum and it was named after her at UVA.

Currently, we have 570 kids are waiting list.

There's a huge national shortage for Backblaze or the clinical component, but that's the problem throughout the entire state of Kentucky.

So I'm working with higher Ed to see if we can open up more opportunities and what is VBA is a behavioral analysis.

What in essence, what they do is they're the ones that actually put together the health plan for a therapy for a child on the spectrum, but it's outside even the ABA Center.

And we opened a satellite in Preston's burg last year also.

So we're going to have by the end of this year about 130 learners in our program.

Wow.

Which is phenomenal.

But we also have done things like we were the first pediatric ready hospital.

So you could like with our ED with Autism certified, we opened up an Ed Ward for for pediatric specifically we launched our Telehealth Healthier School initiative that put telehealth in every single by county school system.

We offered them to these Asian counties as well.

So now access to care.

So a child that's in school giving them access is extremely important.

So when you look at Pike County's largest geographic county, you know, you look at you know, we're Phelps is it's almost an hour away drive time.

So you give a child at Phelps the opportunity they want to have any regular cold.

I can give them a a physician or a nurse on telehealth that gets them care so allows the parent to can you working without having to miss work.

And so it does a lot of other things to kind of bring the community and the region together as well.

So our Nick you we just graduated to a level two advanced nick you two years ago.

The beauty of that is is because of the type of specialties that we have here and the services that we have, we're able to take care of babies at a lower birth rate or that are premature to our for years and years that travel is flown away and separated from its mother or family.

And that doesn't have to happen Now.

There are rare occasions where we have to do that, and you can see Rene's full interview with Pikeville Medical Center CEO Donovan Blackburn online at Ket dot org.

Many children rely on their school cafeteria to eat lunch every day, but when summer break hits, some families can struggle to fill that gap.

The summer food service program administered by the Kentucky Board of Education, aims to fill that gap.

From now until August, there will be 1800 food sites providing meals to children who are from low income families.

The meal sites are any where children gather that's safe and where children are.

So a lot of our meal sites are at schools, in school cafeterias.

They could be on a football field at a school or at a pool at a park like this.

Oftentimes, where the sites are set up, they're set up in areas where there is a higher concentration of families that need meals.

Sometimes that's based on the school free or reduced percentage in that area.

But eligibility for a child that comes to an open site, which is a site like this, is kids just show up.

They don't have to bring any kind of proof of income.

It's just a site open to any child.

Food chain is a summer feeding food service sponsor.

So we work with the state to provide the meals here in Fayette County for a bunch of different site programs for receiving a free summer lunch through this program.

You have to be between the ages of one and 18 or students who are 19 to 21 who have a physical or mental disability and are still enrolled in school, can come to the site and get lunches.

Those are who the main portion of the meals is intended to serve, and they can show up to any of the sites and receive a meal if needed.

However, if there's any X-rays or anything, we want to make sure that food security is provided for anyone.

We know that parents are hungry too.

So if there are leftovers, parents and others can receive the extra meals.

Each local organization that is involved.

For the most part, prepare their own meals.

They have a commercial kitchen.

They prepare the meals, They follow a meal pattern that's required from USDA, and then they get those meals out to the local meal sites and they're served either by their employees.

Occasionally, they'll have volunteers.

We employ high schoolers through the Lexington Summer Youth Employment Program.

So all of those are high schoolers who are out of school for the summer and are able to come and earn $15 an hour helping us with their summer meals.

So they're the ones who are in charge of counting mouths, counting food, getting each site set up, helping load sites, cars and things like that.

In 2019, our average number of meals a day was between 50 and maxed out at like 80.

And now this year, on average, every day we're doing between 530 and 590 lunches alone.

In recent years, the need has not only increased, but in recent months, the growth of need has been astronomical.

That food chain experience is so food chain is working really hard to try to keep up with that need while finding new and diverse ways to be able to support those big, big changes.

Our children are growing and developing and they need that good nutrition year round.

You know, a child that's had poor nutrition during the summer doesn't come back to school as ready to learn as they might have if they'd been well nourished.

So I think it helps meet the gaps in the summer months that could occur even if a family had access to SNAP funds or quick funds and if their children are getting free or reduced school meals during the school year, they don't have a higher budget when the kids are home in the summer.

So it could just be their marginally struggling.

But this would help them make that meet that need for a good nutritious meal for their children and to find a food site near you, you can call the USDA Hunger Hotline or text food or COMIDA to 304304 when the new school year starts next month, Jefferson County Public Schools will undergo some major changes from New Start times to a new student assignment plan and district wide changes in curriculum.

J CPS superintendent Dr. Marty Polio says it's the biggest overhaul in JCPenney since bussing was mandated in 1975.

Kelsey Starks talked to him about what the new Year will look like.

Some of the changes are needed just out of urgency.

And so I'll give an example.

You know, one of the ones we've focused on is increasing student learning time.

So right now, you know, this summer we've been in our Backpack league, which is getting kids into summer learning.

But we've had a goal for a long time, which is we've got to prove attendance for kids.

Kids need to be in school if they're going to learn.

I mean, that's just a simple formula right there.

And so we're looking at ways to improve attendance.

Research is clear that moving start times back an hour for adolescents improves student attendance.

I mean, states like California and even Florida are passing laws that say middle school and high school can't start before 8 a.m. or 8:30 a.m. even.

And so we've been wanting to do that.

But changing start times also is a necessity because our shortage of bus drivers.

And so right now, well, at the end of the last school year, we had about 725 bus routes, but only 650 bus drivers.

So we were short 75 drivers every single day, which means we had to double and triple our runs.

And it meant students were coming late to school.

And so the necessity was we got to change, start times to increase the start times and we've reduced our routes to 600 bus routes.

So now we have the bus drivers at the same time is making sure we move back that start time for middle and high school students, you know, and so that was a necessity.

And so on top of that, though, a year ago, June 1st, 2022, we passed the new student assignment plan.

And I would like to say we could wait longer to do all of these things where it's not at the same time.

But I don't think that's right for kids.

And ethically, we had to say, you know, what is right for the students of JCPenney's?

We have been living in this current student assignment plan that we are now transitioning away from for 40 years.

And I think really it's one of the most racially inequitable things that we've done in this community for or in a community for many, many years.

And so it was just a necessity to make these massive changes as quickly as we can.

We've got to do it so we can execute properly.

But it's what's right for kids.

And you can see Kelsey's full interview with Dr. Polio on inside Louisville this August.

The new program premieres this Sunday at noon Eastern, 11 Central right here on KCET.

The 4th of July is behind us, but the music, fireworks, food and fun aren't going anywhere.

Toby Gibbs tells us more in tonight's Around the Commonwealth.

If your affection for more fireworks this weekend, Harrington Lake Marina in Lancaster has got you covered.

Tomorrow night is its Independence Day firework extravaganza.

Head on down for great food, live music games and a lakeside view of a great fireworks display.

Starting this Thursday in Somerset is the Master Musicians Festival.

This year's artists include the Louisville Orchestra.

Ian No.

Abby Hamilton and one on a Judd.

From blues to bluegrass and rock and roll to jazz.

This festival has something for everyone.

Kicking off this Monday is the Jessamine County Fair.

Head on down to Nicholas Ville this week for pageants, tractor pulls, petting zoos, livestock shows and more.

It's a classic summer event, so grab the whole family and come on out.

Happening tomorrow in Bowling Green is the fifth annual Big wine fest.

Grab your corkscrews and head to the historic rail park and train museum to hear live music, great food and, of course, sample from Kentucky's best wineries.

Pioneer Playhouse in Danville just kicked off its second show, and it's one you won't want to miss.

Force of nature introduces us to the realm in a fishing lodge in the Ozarks that's turned upside down at the arrival of a bungling cop on witness protection duty and a string of other surprise guests.

It's a roller coaster ride of a comedy, and it runs Tuesday through Fridays until July 22nd.

Bigger and better than ever.

Get ready for the tri state barbecue brawl this weekend in Roseland.

Come taste, boast worthy barbecue.

Enjoy live music and check out craft vendors.

There will even be live animals to pet and ride.

So cut out the kids and have a great time.

Reptiles are coming to Rough River Dam State Resort Park Marina in falls of rough tomorrow.

The Kentucky Reptile Zoo is bringing its fun and educational program for kids and adults alike to enjoy spending the day in the park and learning about those scaly scalawags is a great way to spend a Saturday.

And that's what's happening around the Commonwealth.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby.

So much summer fun still to be had this weekend.

And the FDA has approved use of a new Alzheimer's drug.

It is the first drug that slows progress of the disease instead of just treating the symptoms.

The University of Kentucky played a major role in the creation of the drug.

We'll tell you all about that Monday on Kentucky Edition.

We hope that you will join us again Monday 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 dot org.

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Thank you for joining us.

Take good care.

We'll see you back here on Monday.