Andy Beshear on opioid numbers and Daniel Cameron on compassion.

As we catch up with both candidates for governor, meet some young Kentuckians learning more than just music.

And it.

And what do you do when you have too much brush?

Call in the GOP's 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 Thursday, June 15th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Thursday with us 2135.

That's how many Kentuckians died of drug overdoses in 2022, according to a new report out today.

Most of them died from opioids, but that is down 5% from 2021, the first decline in Kentucky since 2018.

Today, Governor Andy Beshear said it's proof that Kentucky's hard work is starting to pay off.

I want to thank everybody out there from law enforcement that recently was was able to intercept enough fentanyl just in the last seven months to kill 28.9 million people.

To all our treatment providers, to everyone who works in recovery now seeing our first decrease in overdose deaths and being one of the few states, despite the fact that the nation is up in overdose deaths, means we have a whole lot of people working incredibly hard, doing selfless, amazing work.

And to see this decrease at a time when the drugs are more potent than ever before and can cause overdoses that much easier means our Kentuckians out there trying to help one another are going above and beyond really incredible work.

More about opioids later on Kentucky Edition tonight, as we look at a new way to predict where and when overdose surges could occur.

Attorney General Daniel Cameron talked about compassion and whether Governor Bashir has it during a restaurant campaign stop today in Winchester.

Cameron made his rounds greeting supporters and speaking to the crowd.

And although many have described Governor Andy Beshear as compassionate, often referencing his handling of COVID and two big natural disasters, Attorney General Cameron offered a different opinion.

You know, we hear a lot about a governor that is compassionate.

But let me tell you, there is nothing compassionate about a governor who tells kids to stay home from two years.

And we have that learning loss because of it.

There's nothing compassionate about a governor when we need it most, tells churches and tells folks that they have to stay home and those churches are closed down.

There's nothing compassionate about a governor who tells big business that they can stay open but shuts down countless small businesses because he wanted to pick winners and losers.

That's not compassionate and that's not Kentucky values.

Cameron heads to Somerset tomorrow for another campaign stop.

Ronnie Goldie Jr can practice law again.

Goldie is the former Commonwealth's attorney for the 21st Judicial District who resigned and was then impeached for helping an inmate in exchange for nude photos of her.

The Kentucky Supreme Court suspended his law license, but now they say since he isn't a Commonwealth's attorney anymore, he is no longer a threat to the public.

The state Supreme Court also ruled another former Commonwealth attorney will be suspended from practicing law in Kentucky for five years.

Eric BOLLING resigned in February before impeachment proceedings began.

BOLLING recommended former Governor Matt Bevin pardon a man involved in sexually assaulting a teenager.

The suspect sentence was commuted, but he was later convicted on federal charges for the same incident.

The debate over book bans is intensifying as challenges to materials in schools and public libraries have doubled nationwide.

But in Kentucky, book challenges have tripled since 2021.

Andrew Adler, president of the Kentucky Library Association, and spoke with me earlier this week about the recent surge and how librarians are responding.

So let's talk about the surge and book challenge, James.

We know that nationally there seems to be a trend where that is happening.

Is that also the case in Kentucky?

We're starting to see more of that in the state, especially recently.

A lot of public libraries have reported having to go through their boards with some challenges.

There was probably the most well-known case recently that I know of is out in Clark County where a book was challenged and eventually was removed from their public library.

So we are starting to see as all with the national trends, where 2022 saw the most book challenges ever seen by the American Library Association.

So we are seeing that starting to come to the state of Kentucky.

So you talk about that in terms of just public libraries.

I was thinking more in terms of just school libraries, but let's go back to that.

The fact that they're being challenged in public libraries that are for all ages.

Right.

And not in a school setting, but there is a process by which those can be removed from the shelves.

Yes.

So it's going to depend upon the various county, whatever policies they have in place.

But typically, a challenge comes in usually to the library Director.

Library director answers to the library boards, which, as you may know from the last Senate and legislative sessions, are now more appointed by county judge executives rather than the way they had been in the past.

And so depends upon how those processes work.

And so what we are expecting to see is that they may increase challenges, may increase in school libraries, too, with the recent passage of Senate Bill five.

So let's talk about that.

This is a bill that the governor allowed to go into law without his signature.

It was sponsored by a senator and Murray, Kentucky, mandating that school districts have to have a process in place by which these challenges materials have to go through.

Why does that sound like a bad idea?

Well, one of the things that we as the Kentucky Library Association, we came out very forcefully against the passage of that bill because, as we said, it was a problem in search of us or a solution in search of a problem, because every every district in the state except two already had policies on the books and the two that didn't, or two very there were two that had more general policies.

And so we were always looking at the possibility as well, why are we looking at this?

And then if you look at the bill and you look at what the and how they are trying to find things harmful to minors, there are no clear definitions to that.

It's very vague of recently it has gotten back into the news as well because the Kentucky Department of Education is saying the word or it allows for some of that vagaries.

And so we as the association is, especially me as a librarian, we were very concerned about what this policy and what this new law would do, because in some ways it took the power out of the hands of the school librarians and very much placed it in the hands of principals that may not necessarily be content experts or have the training and the professional knowledge that school librarians have.

Some are.

There are certain titles, certain subjects in a book that are being challenged more than others.

So we are increasingly seeing more and more things challenged that feature LGBTQ characters, minority characters, more diverse titles that are seen, major challenges.

The books that I mentioned of for Clark County, that book title was Gender Queer, and that's become one of the ones, you know, ALA keeps a very good record of what has been challenged in recent years and that that title has become, I believe, the number one title challenged across the country.

Yeah.

So what are you talking about with your peers and the community now that this is happening?

What can you do about it, if anything?

So we have been having a lot of conversation and again, with the library association across and across all the library, all librarians of all types of how we can advocate more and using our voices, our platforms to get our message out there that, you know, we want people to be able to make their own choices.

We want people to have access to the information that they need and that they desire to help them understand the world around them.

Not to silence voices, but make things more inclusive, not only again, for, you know, various groups, but to build empathy and understanding across all groups.

Because books help all of us.

You know, a lot of times this narrative becomes about children, but it definitely helps all of us books, help all of us understand complex and hard to grasp messages because it's a way for us to build empathy and understanding.

Do you think or do any of your colleagues think that there are some books with material that is more advanced or sophisticated than certain groups of children should be exposed to at a tender age?

So I do think that if you went around and you asked some librarians, they would definitely say yes to that question.

But my thing is, is that those librarians, they are professional in the same way that teachers are professional, in that they can understand that developmentally, developmentally, there are certain books and materials that students should get at certain times.

And so I think the idea of being able to trust the professionals and being able to trust those of us who have had that training is vitally important.

Well, Andrew Adler, thank you.

With the Kentucky Library Association.

We appreciate you dropping by our studio.

Thank you for inviting me.

Earlier this week, Illinois passed a ban on book bans, making it the first state in the nation to do so.

The bill signed by Governor J.B. Pritzker, would make public libraries that restrict or ban materials for partizan political reasons become ineligible for state funding starting next year when the law takes effect there.

The Southern Baptist Convention has refused to welcome two churches back into its fold, including one in Kentucky.

The group rejected an appeal by Foreign Creek Baptist of Louisville for having female pastors.

Reverend Linda Barnes, Popcom, has served as pastor at the church for 30 years.

The statement of faith for the nation's largest Protestant denomination asserts that only qualified men can serve as pastors.

Kentucky's drought is getting worse in many places now.

Here's the newest map.

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

Our Christy Dalton talks with our state climatologist about the latest drought status.

The U.S. Drought Monitor has released their drought updated map this morning and it looks like parts of Kentucky are getting a little bit drier.

Joining us now is Jerry Brodsky is our state climatologist and the director of the Kentucky Basin Net.

Thank you for being with us, Jerry.

Thank you, Christine.

Okay.

So tell us, what are the differences?

We just have the updated map this morning.

Is it getting worse and what parts Right where you are kind of in the summer mode now where we are drying out.

But with the rains last Sunday and then the somewhat promising forecasts coming in, we are drying out.

We have seen some areas of the state remain quite dry.

If you go back through May 1st to now statewide, we're about two and a half inches below normal for the month of June.

We're about a an inch below normal for the state.

Now, the further west you go, the drier it is.

If you look again in western Kentucky, we're several inches below normal.

If you go to eastern Kentucky Now, they've had quite a few rain over the last week.

So they're they're not as dry.

But you look at the drought map, the center part of the state is very dry.

The streams are running and rivers are running pretty low, especially for this time of year.

So but we do expect that will improve going ahead.

And I also noticed in far western Kentucky, southwestern Kentucky, they've been added to that moderate drought status, too, and and also expanded in some parts of northern Kentucky.

I know that Kentucky measurement sites also measure soil moisture.

Have you seen that?

I keep going down with the drier weather.

Right.

We have seen that at least the topsoil layers really start to dry out, especially with the summer heat kicking in and the the the drier extended periods of dryness.

And so we do see the two inches, four inches really drying out, especially with the daytime heating.

But unfortunately, so far, the lower deaths are still fairly barely moist.

Okay.

Well, that's good news.

A real fast.

We see any relief in sight, any rain in the forecast next week?

Looks like it should bring some showers around and what they call an upper level low.

Well, it should sit over Kentucky for next week.

All right.

Well, thank you so much for talking with us, Jerry.

Thank you.

Thank you, Christy.

And as Jerry said, there is rain in the forecast next week and the rainfall outlook for the rest of the month is forecast to be above normal.

You heard, as I mentioned earlier, about opioid deaths in Kentucky.

Researchers at the University of Kentucky are using artificial intelligence A.I.

to predict where and when spikes in overdoses could happen across the state.

They hope this new system will help save lives.

We kind of wrote this grant to say, Let's take all this data, put it into one spot first and then try to make it really timely.

And so the timely piece comes from we're using the APIs to actually do predictions.

So if we have data that's one week old as our most recent data we can use.

And that comes from the EMS system, emergency medical services.

So ambulance calls basically that data we get every week.

So what can we do with that data combined with all the other data sets that may be older?

We put them into a model and then predict what's going to happen next week.

And the beauty of these models that are deep learning models is that you can take very large datasets and we've got data going back in many years and then use that as a training dataset, train the model to predict something in the next week or the next two weeks or the next month.

And so that's kind of what we're trying to do.

And what we want is for those state agencies, local communities, to be able to take that data and use the data to help make decisions about how to respond to the opioid crisis.

You know, we're going to have this data from, let's say, police seizures.

And so if the seizure data shows that there's new, new, new batch of fentanyl in some county or some region, we're able to do these hotspot analysis to say, okay, we can we can alert our community partners, whether it be in law enforcement or in health care to say there's going to be a potential outbreak happen in the next two weeks or the next month so that they can be in the community, maybe give out more naloxone, maybe go and intervene in certain ways and hopefully try to prevent those things.

So, again, we want them to have that data and that knowledge of what's going to happen so that they can try to prevent it.

I mean, the goal here was to reduce death.

And I think that's that's always in the back of our mind.

If we can do anything to prevent one death, then then that's, you know, then another and another.

And that's what we're really after in this is to help the state make better decisions and allocating their resources so that we can reduce the number of people who die.

The university received a three year, $3.1 million grant from the National Institute on Drug Abuse to implement the first part of the project.

Medical implants can help people dealing with hearing loss, paralysis and spinal pain.

M STEM is a Louisville based startup using 3D printing to advance the development of these implants and enhance the lives of people who need them.

Angelique Johnson is founder and CEO of M STEM that produces implantable electronics to treat neurological disorders.

What it is, is the body.

Everything we sense, we feel we do is controlled by our nervous system.

Mm hmm.

Well, the nervous system is just electrical information is the one huge computer.

If I can hack sort of say, into that electrical computer and put artificial stimulation in there, then the electrical signals are used to tell you how to hear.

Well, they no longer work.

So I'm going to put a chip in there.

And that chip is going to now create electrical signals and you will hear sound perception and speech.

Now, that is not as good as the way God created our bodies, but as well enough as an assistive device.

This technology is really implants like pacemaker, like devices that you put in different parts of the body that treat and restore things that we never thought was possible, like implants that go in the eye.

Now, we're not in all these spaces, but that's a general space that we're playing, and it's what we actually work on at men's team is we do research and development on a disruptive technology, which is going to change the way that those devices are manufactured so that you can put them in smaller spaces in the body, so that you can put them in spaces that move and flex so that they won't tear because right now they're made by hand.

Right.

And that that decreases a lifetime.

So if it's made by hand, people literally taking wires that are quarter that eye emitter of a strand of human hair and welding them under a microscope.

Well, we're using 3D printers to create the same technology.

And so it's very flexible, very thin.

It could be artificial skin.

It could be artificial nerves.

So in many ways, you could use what we're producing.

We're on that road to get it there, though, Right.

Because it's a moonshot is highly innovative what we're doing.

But but I'm very invigorated and passionate about seeing what people could do with it one day.

And you can see my full interview with Dr. Angelique Johnson Sunday on Connections at 12 noon Eastern, 11 a.m. Central right here on CNET.

We talk about the future of tech in medicine, leadership, women in STEM fields, science, technology, engineering and math, and finding your life's mission.

It's a wide ranging interview.

So you want to tune into that Sunday at noon to learn more.

Oxford Circle in Lexington is plagued by an invasive bush, hindering the growth of native plants around the stream bank.

When simply pulling weeds wasn't enough, Paula Singer started a unique project that's good for the environment and the community.

Several years ago, I tried restoring this stream bank by eliminating the invasive Bush honeysuckle plant, using herbicides and pesticides and manual labor and heavy equipment.

And it didn't work.

It didn't engage the community.

And I couldn't get enough community involvement.

So I thought, everyone loves goats and goats or heads up browsers.

And the difference is grazing grass or browsing brush.

Right about that browsing brush is goats specialty.

They would much prefer bush honeysuckle or poison ivy than they would grass.

But honeysuckle does not allow more beneficial plants such as native plants and shrubs and trees from establishing this stream back.

And so it creates a really poisonous environment for the stream.

But if you take those leaves off, then the plant can't get through.

Convert Chlorophyl into carbohydrates.

So the plant gets pretty hungry, right?

Well, if you do that once, they'll come back.

But if you do it in a couple of stages, especially if you do it right before winter and then let them go through a winter and whatever's left over in the spring, you feed the goats, which is a good thing.

You starve the plants, which is a good thing.

The goats will be here for three weeks.

They'll come back in the fall of this year and they'll come back again in the spring of 2024.

When people come to visit the goats.

They should know that we have a very hot electric fence that goes around the area.

And we also want people to know that there's no feeding of the goats, there's no petting of the goats, no reaching over the fence because these goats are working and hot.

And we brought 40 or 50 goats, which we could have, that they were cleaned up pretty quick.

They would have done the same job in terms of clearing the brush, but we wouldn't have gotten the same impact.

Community impact.

We chose this area in particular because it's a neglected area of the city and it has a great deal of potential.

So we would like to see a passive environment along the stream banks for where people can picnic or otherwise enjoy the serenity of this area.

And then we'd also like to see that developers take a look and say, well, this is a pretty nice area and maybe these folks could use a grocery store.

So we're trying.

There are 15 goats in total and volunteers count them daily, as well as pick up trash and inform passersby about the project.

For more information or to volunteer, check out the GOAT Project on Facebook.

From Goats to Music.

A Louisville man is using beets to build community.

Eric Granger decided to start the Louisville Drumline Academy to give young people interested in music a place to belong.

And he thinks the young adults in his academy have learned more than just music.

It's been a good thing for them and being something, you know, positive for them.

They love it.

They can't wait to rehearsal, can't wait to practice, can't wait to just have fun and join each other's company.

And it's like a family to them being in a group of people who love music.

And we're going out and performing our talent and, you know, showing people this is what we really love and it's, you know, it's bringing people together.

People who like music and stuff like that is just it's just a great feeling to be in a group like this.

These members of this group is awesome.

They dedicated, they're loyal.

They have no problems being our when we got a we got an emergency performance.

Let's go get it.

Okay, let's go to work.

So they were sitting, jumping, ready to rock.

So and that's the one thing I love about them.

And they are just absolutely awesome.

They are amazing.

It really shows like, you know, how to be on time and you have to practice.

You can't just come to practice and play and then go on and you had to go home and practice so you can get better in case you one move to a different instrument or something like that.

It's really more so like dedication and communication and having independence and leadership with that to our community gave us a sense of hope and resilience and sincerity.

Just hoping that people see music as a way out in terms of being angry.

You know, Jones is very therapeutic as a tool to use when frustration is I use it, you know, you know, it works.

It works tremendously.

Everything negative, negative in your life.

Can you use and turn into a sense of music and hope and, oh, yeah, people in the community who realize that music can be an expression set of turning towards anger and violence and hate and negativity.

Turn it into some positive.

You can catch the Louisville Drumline Academy this upcoming Monday afternoon at Shawnee Park for the Juneteenth Unity Parade.

Teachers are now the students at a series of Kentucky Farm Bureau workshops.

The goal is to work agriculture into math, social studies, science and even English classes.

How it works?

Well, we'll tell you tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, which we hope that you'll join us for at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

We hope you'll subscribe to our weekly email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at Ket.o Find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

Send us a story, ideas and public affairs at Ket.org, and follow us all the way.

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We got Bob Babbitt and Trey Grayson here for Inside Kentucky Politics on Fridays edition of Kentucky Edition.

I'll see you then.

Have a good night.