What the heck is going on?

Why so many deaths?

I racetracks.

Our panel of thoroughbred racing experts talk about the state of horse racing in Kentucky.

And this has become our way to celebrate being women in agriculture and also pay tribute to all of those people who came before us and paved the way in agriculture as well.

How a mom and daughter team doctors start a special type of farm.

What they grow might surprise you.

We're dealing with a family that is having to choose between written groceries.

Vehicle maintenance is not on that list.

Meet the good Samaritans who are helping low income families get car repairs.

And made a Kentuckian who not only plays the flute, he makes them.

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 Tuesday, June 13th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

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

Madison County schools have settled a racial harassment case with the U.S. Justice Department after an investigation found black and multiracial students heard slurs and other racially charged comments from other students.

This is all according to a story in the Lexington Herald-Leader.

And the DOJ investigation concluded the school district didn't deal with the harassment in a consistent or reasonable way.

The school system says it fully cooperated with the investigation and it will make some changes.

The school district will create a position to process racial discrimination complaints.

Update its racial harassment policies, trained staff, and how to recognize and respond to racial harassment complaints and inform students and parents about how to report complaints.

State police say a shooting left an Olive Hill police officer hurt.

Early reports that a suspect shot the officer yesterday afternoon.

And Carter County state police now say the bullet hit a police cruiser window and the broken glass injured the officer.

It's not considered life threatening.

The Lexington Herald-Leader reports a SWAT team found and arrested a suspect early this morning.

This comes three weeks after the murder of Scott County Deputy Caleb Conley, shot during a traffic stop on I-75.

And it's been about two months since Officer Nicholas Wilt was shot in the head while responding to the old national bank mass shooting in Louisville.

He continues his recovery.

Well, horse racing safety has been on the minds of racing fans and people who work in the industry.

This is after 12 horses died in the weeks before the Kentucky Derby on May 6th.

That prompted Churchill Downs to move its spring meat to Alice Park in Henderson.

While it figures out what's happening to cause so many fatal injuries to horses, there were also deaths around the time of the Preakness and Belmont Stakes.

We discussed horse racing safety on Kentucky tonight last night right here on Katie.

Senator Damon Thayer, a Republican from Georgetown with close ties to the industry, told us that while Churchill Downs took the high road by moving, it's made to Alice Park in Henderson.

He doesn't think they had to do it.

I don't think there's anything wrong.

From what I can tell.

I've talked to trainers and jockeys and participants across the spectrum and they believe that it's it's safe.

And your viewers should know that here in Kentucky, we have the best of the industry leading protocols and rules and regulations, many of which have been adopted on a federal basis by Heisser.

Churchill Downs has one of the best safety records of any racetrack in the country.

I think what we've experienced is a statistical anomaly in the last four years with the safety protocols being implemented across the country.

In most states, places like Kentucky, California leading the way.

The horse industry has cut back substantially.

If you look at the Jockey Club injury database, they measure it based on the number of fatal injuries per 1000 starts in four years.

That average was two equine fatalities per 1000 starts.

That number is down to 1.25%.

So that number has been cut almost in half.

The steps we are taking, even before Hazel was formed on a state by state basis, in many cases are leading to better safety protocols for horses.

There's been times in the past in in New York and California, where these statistical anomalies that Senator Thayer is talking about, that they've happened, but they get to a level of 21 or 21 catastrophic breakdowns, 30 catastrophic breakdowns.

I think what Senator Thayer said is absolutely true.

Kentucky should really be the benchmark at what you compare everything else in horse racing to.

We have the infrastructure here that really no one has, and now we have, because of actions of the general Assembly.

The most profitable business plan here for horse racing in North America.

But beyond that, though, we have a response ability.

Every single one of us that is involved in employed in racing have had our phones burn up and people that are not involved in racing ask us what the heck is going on.

And so I think that it was responsible.

There's very few tracks anywhere that are able to move their operations on something that generally takes three weeks to get another track prepared in the span of 5 to 6 days.

And I think that it was a responsible move.

So you heard those panelists talk about Heiser.

That's the horse racing Integrity and Safety Authority.

It's a national organization created to enforce a uniform set of rules for thoroughbred tracks throughout the country.

Now, we had a wide ranging discussion about whether hisA is constitutional and whether racing is safer now than it used to be and other issues.

You can see all of that by watching Monday night's show for the full hour online on demand at K at Morgan k, Y. Tonight, former President Donald Trump was in court today in Miami for arraignment after his indictment last week on 37 counts related to classified documents found in his Florida home.

U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell said nothing last week after that indictment.

Today, reporters asked McConnell could he still support Trump if he becomes the nominee, even if he's convicted?

Well, look, the Republican campaign for the nomination is more it has been going on for six months.

It's going to be going over a year longer.

And I'm just simply not going to comment on the candidates.

We've got a bunch of them.

And I'm just simply going to stay out of it.

Senator McConnell is also urging continued support for Ukraine as it launches a counteroffensive against its Russian invaders.

On the Senate floor, McConnell praised the Ukrainians for their bravery and said the U.S. is right to continue its support.

He says by helping Ukraine, we are helping ourselves in a variety of ways.

American support for Ukraine has grown much more than sustained air defense.

As I've said repeatedly, sending lethal Western volunteers to the front lines has been a direct investment in our own security in a number of concrete ways.

First, equipping our friends on the front line to defend themselves is a far, far cheaper way in both dollars in American lives to degrade Russia's ability to threaten the United States.

So I think Ukraine's its natural defense of the surgery is teaching us lessons about how to improve the defenses of partners.

We're running by China.

McConnell also says U.S. support for Ukraine helps our own military.

He says as we send military equipment to Ukraine.

The U.S. gets new modern replacement equipment, and that's good, he says, for the businesses who make that equipment.

Convicted drunk drivers in Kentucky will have to pay child support to their victims.

That's after the passage of Senate Bill 268 during the Kentucky General Assembly earlier this year.

Yesterday, Governor Andy Beshear took part in the ceremonial signing of that bill, also known as Melanie's Law.

It's name for Melanie Hall, a woman disabled and an East Louisville crash in July of 2022.

Her mother and her son, Nolan, were there for yesterday's ceremonial signing.

Under the new law, a person convicted of DUI could be ordered to pay child support for a crash victims, children or dependents until they graduate high school.

Some other states have similar bills.

Kentucky tax revenue was down from May of 2022 to May of this year, but the state is still on track to have a $1 billion surplus this fiscal year.

Budget director John Hicks says income tax revenue went down by $148 million because of the income tax cut that went into effect.

But he says sales taxes were up by $40 million.

The fiscal year ends June 30th, and Hicks says the state should have its third consecutive surplus of more than $1,000,000,000.

Work is underway to plug abandoned oil and gas wells and part of Kentucky.

And a Kentucky lawyer is praised for his work helping people keep their Social Security benefits.

More in our Tuesday look at headlines around Kentucky.

Federal government is boosting efforts to plug the more than 100 abandoned oil and gas wells sites and the Daniel Boone National Forest.

The Kentucky Lantern reports more than $63 million from the bipartisan infrastructure law will go toward plugging the orphan wells that often leak methane, a potent heat trapping greenhouse gas, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

There are more than 14,000 orphan wells across the state.

The Manchester Enterprise is reporting that Black Diamond Coal Company and one of its employees have been sentenced for violating Mine Safety and Health Administration regulations requiring accurate coal dust sampling in underground coal mines.

The newspaper says abnormally low dust sample results led to an inspection at Black Diamond Number one mine in Floyd County.

The Manchester Enterprise says investigators found a dust monitor that should have been placed on a miner working underground was instead placed in a trailer on the surface.

An eastern Kentucky attorney is being honored for helping people who faced losing Social Security disability benefits after the largest disability scam in U.S. history.

The Murray Ledger reports.

Preston's Bourke based attorney, Ned Pillar's Dorf, is receiving the American Bar Association's pro bono publico award this year.

The award honors outstanding commitment to volunteer legal services for low income and disadvantaged persons.

Pillars Dorf recruited 140 volunteers to handle hearings and court cases around the country, preserving benefits for many former clients of Eric C Kohn.

After being derailed by the COVID pandemic, Thomas the Tank Engine is back at the Kentucky Railway Museum in Nelson County for two weekends.

The museum tells the news Enterprise they were selling 200 tickets a day for a day out with Thomas.

A day out with Thomas has been an annual event at the Kentucky Railway Museum for at least 20 years with headlines around Kentucky.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

It's always the right time to give blood, but there's some things special about tomorrow.

More in tonight's look at health news.

Wednesday is World Blood Donor Day.

And the Kentucky Blood Center is urging eligible donors to give the center supplies, blood to more than 70 hospitals in Kentucky.

And it needs 400 donors daily.

Donations can often slow during the summer months.

The center says there's a big need right now for O-negative, a negative and a B negative blood.

There are eight donor centers in Kentucky.

$1 million in state money is headed to West Louisville to renovate the adult Day health center at Elder Serve.

The money will help install new windows and doors, plus flooring and ceilings.

It will pay for upgrades to heating and air conditioning systems, plumbing and handicapped, accessible restrooms.

When the renovation is over, the space will be used for memory care services and recreational activities.

The federal government will help 33 rural broadband projects across the U.S. and three of them are in Kentucky, the Kentucky Lantern reports.

As a $714 million project from the U.S. Department of Agriculture and Kentucky, the People's Rural Telephone Cooperative based in Jackson County, will get a loan of more than $9 million and a grant also of 9 million.

Many of us know many parts of eastern Kentucky.

I've been left behind when it comes to a lot of things, and good broadband is one of them.

And, you know, there are some counties that have great broadband in Kentucky, but many have really, really bad anybody that can get a fiber optic network.

It's going to allow those folks to have a better opportunity for work, better opportunities for education, better opportunities for health care or telehealth.

And it's going to level the playing field for folks in eastern Kentucky.

In the Duo County Telephone Cooperative will get a grant of $25 million.

That's an Internet service provider in Brooksville and northern Kentucky.

Nonprofit is tackling barriers to transportation by helping low income families with car repairs.

The Samaritan Car Care Clinic in Covington works on a referral basis to conduct shared cost repairs.

Their goal?

Helping families get to their jobs and keeping them on the path to self-sufficiency.

We spoke to clinic director Bruce Kettner and single mom Jaime Harrison to learn more about the clinic and how it's impacting the community.

What the Samaritan Car Care Clinic does is we address transportation barriers to self-sufficiency.

One Shared costs car repair at a time.

We work on a referral basis with an awful lot of repair shops.

When we can't handle ourselves and we work on a referral basis for inbound referrals.

With a lot of our social service agency partners, 100% of the people referred to the Samaritan Car Care Clinic are low to no income.

We're dealing with a family that is having to choose between written groceries.

Vehicle maintenance is not on that list.

Repairs are a lot and a lot of people just have to let their cars run down and then they're left without one.

Bruce gives you the opportunity to pay that back and small amounts so that it's easier for you.

I have quite a few who they send $25 a month, $50 a month to slowly whittle away at those repair bills.

We don't charge interest or anything like that.

The whole idea is how do we keep that lady getting to her job so that we can keep her on that path to self-sufficiency?

I need a break in roaders.

They did place my transmission fluid.

Didn't oil change spark plugs?

They did something with their technician.

Other things that I didn't know were wrong with it.

I'm in school.

And then also I have to work around my children's day care schedule and their school schedule.

I also work part time at the Brighton Center.

So all that combined with I'm just not able to work a full time job and I still have rent and all my other bills I need to pay.

It almost seems like impossible for single parents.

We have tapped into this incredibly unmet need.

The agencies we work with here in northern Kentucky, they help with housing, child care, medical care, drug addiction treatment, job training.

No one exists to help with transportation.

The single greatest fear that I hear time and time again is transportation.

When we're able to sponsor a shared cost repair, it's immediately transformative.

I have four kids and they're all in car seats.

I don't know anybody else with a van to get them to and from wherever they need to go.

Doctor's appointments, school care and the clinics provide me the opportunity to keep my van up and running so that I can get them to and from daycare and get myself to and from work.

I don't know where I would be without the car care clinic and I'm extremely thankful for this program.

What a great service.

Kettner says the clinic helped 315 low income families last year.

Of those 70% were single moms.

Ten years ago, a mother daughter duo in southeastern Kentucky embarked on a journey to grow lavender on their family farm.

What started as just a few plants has now blossomed into a thriving agritourism adventure.

When we kind of decided to put our roots here, it became very important to me to have my hands in the same dirt that my grandparents had their hands in and to kind of use the land as a way to pay tribute to a rich agricultural history.

So lavender was just sort of the byproduct of that.

When we first started growing lavender, we had no business plan.

We just thought it was a smell good.

And we liked the purple.

And so we started with 50 plants.

But the next year we added some more plants, and then the next year we had an event here on the farm.

And that's when we looked at each other and said, you know, maybe we've got something here.

It actually needs very rocky, very poor soil, unlike what we traditionally have in Kentucky, which is rich soil.

We definitely learned pretty quickly that we were doing a lot of things wrong, but we grew very slowly.

And here we are ten years later with a thriving agritourism business and lavender product business.

This year we have a butterfly house.

We have a food truck.

We have private tours.

And we have a lot of special events.

We have 14 different varieties of lavender and they each behave a little bit different.

Some have long stems, some have short stems and are more fragrant.

And we think that part of our mission is to educate people about the types of lavender, how they act in with Kentucky weather and what you can do with the plants.

So when people come, they always leave with smiles and they always leave with a bouquet of lavender.

So when we are harvesting a plant, we'll take just a few stems.

We'll use what we call a sickle, and we will just twist and sell here.

So we will do this until the entire plant has been harvested and cut.

We will just take rubber bands.

We will band the bundle together and we'll hang it upside down just like this.

We'll let it dry out for a couple of weeks and then we will take it back down.

We'll bring it in the barn will do, but it will clean it and then we'll use it.

What we do doesn't look like traditional farming, but it is farming just the same.

We are out there.

We are with our we have our hands in the dirt.

We are shoveling rock, We are planting plants, we are harvesting plants.

We are caring for what we grow, which is essentially what a farmer does.

So I think we look a little bit different than your traditional farmers do, and I think our farm looks a little different than traditional agriculture might in Kentucky, but it's still just as important.

And I think one of the reasons it is important is because we can celebrate being women in agriculture and doing things just a little bit differently.

And we also have a lot of women and a lot of children who come out here to see what we're doing.

So I think it shows them that you don't have to be boxed in in agriculture.

We just take it a year at a time.

We grow a little bit at a time.

We enjoy what we're doing.

And if that ever stops, then we'll take a different direction if we need to.

But for now, we'll keep enjoying the sweet smell of lavender.

Love that sweet smell of lavender.

Woodstock.

Lavender.

A company's 10th anniversary celebration is this Saturday with live music, lavender infused tastings, tours and much more.

And a bittersweet moment for the University of Kentucky baseball team.

The Cats saw their season end Sunday after a loss to LSU in the super regional despite three solo home runs.

It was the Cats second time reaching the super regional and the program's history.

Governor Andy Beshear accepted a friendly wager with Louisiana Governor John Bel Edwards before the series, Since the Cats Lost.

Governor Bashir will be sending some Kentucky bourbon to the bayous state and Lawrenceburg.

One man is keeping an old tradition alive through his yellow knife.

Navajo flutes.

He makes each flute by hand, and the result is a unique and beautiful sounding instrument.

And we introduce ourselves, as Dinesh said, meaning we are Navajos, meaning that we are the people, we are tularemia occurs, pottery makers, rugs, and well, I'm a flute.

Flute Make her now.

I just picked it up and it has always been in my heart.

Oh, playing and hearing it.

I fell into a depression and and I had to move away from the reservation.

And one day I was sitting outside on the porch and my cousin brought out a flute, and all of a sudden I heard this beautiful sound.

It was just so beautiful and it just touched me inside.

An ideologue I was is looking down and I heard him play.

And then afterwards about a minute and I looked at him and he was playing a Native American flute.

And ever since then, it just stuck with me.

When I started making flutes, I went through all the trials of different wood, softwood hardwood, exotic wood, and I went back to because all the other wood, they all have different sound, like a hardwood.

That's like a really solid.

I don't I can't explain it, but it's like a hard, solid sound, exotic wood.

It has more.

It fluctuates up and down a different sound, like high and low.

But cedar is the traditional wood for us back home.

Being out here in Kentucky, the condensation builds up in the flute like in the hardwood.

It'll come and say, and then the sound will go away.

But with cedar, the condensation will build up.

But it won't water out.

It won't lose his voice.

And it has a very nice crispy.

And within that you can bake with the flute.

I only use a table for, you know, a router because from from the head to the toe, when you blow in and it comes out to the end, you want it a really nice, smooth, clean sound.

I won't bore now and then I'll let the two pieces put together and now I glue it now and clamp it and I leave it for about a day.

And then after that I take the clamps off, I throw my holes and I what I needed to be in them on berm to hold water needs to go.

And then after that I carved out with a utility knife.

I try to leave it traditionally, and then when I tune it, I use the fire, I heat up the iron, I burn my holes to tune it where it needs to be.

My journey right now is to play more of the grandfather flutes that are not to because if it's not tuned and you make your own song, that's what makes it more beautiful.

I think the flute is a very special instrument from God, from the Creator and for Mother Earth, because we go out and we get the wood and we bring that to life and we pass it on and helped others feel better.

It's good medicine.

Good medicine, indeed.

It's a hobby that's fun and practical glassblowing.

And you can learn how to do it and even have a drink afterwards, all in the same place.

We'll show you where tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, which we hope to see you for at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for being with us tonight.

And I hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Keep in touch with us all the ways you can on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter to stay in the loop.

Have a great night.

See you again soon.