Abortion rights advocates moved to dismiss a lawsuit challenging Kentucky's ban on abortion.

What that means for abortion access going forward.

In Lexington, what we are seeing is you wouldn't believe it's unfathomable the access that they have to high powered firearms.

What one initiative in Lexington is doing to prevent violent crime and how the state legislature can help.

I mean, I work with the migrants and particularly in Tijuana and picking celery.

And that's a hard job.

Former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloan reflects on his life and how he came to serve the city.

Fortunately, I have a skill that I can make a real contribution to this effort and see how this blacksmith is forging for a cause.

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, June 21st.

The First day of Summer.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some time with us this evening.

Abortion rights groups are moving to dismiss their lawsuit challenging Kentucky's near-total abortion ban, but they say the legal fight is far from over.

The lawsuit brought by two Louisville abortion providers revolves around Kentucky's near-total trigger law ban and a separate six week ban, both passed by the Kentucky General Assembly.

Abortion providers challenge the ban on the premise that it violated patient's constitutional rights.

But the state's high court ruled the providers lacked, quote, third party standing to do so.

Last year, Kentucky voters rejected a ballot measure that would have denied any constitutional protections for abortion.

Handing a victory to abortion rights supporters.

Kentucky Attorney General Daniel Cameron's office has defended the bans and a statement.

Cameron, Kentucky's Republican candidate for governor, said, quote, As a result of our efforts, I am proud to say that the elective abortion industry is out of business in Kentucky and their inhumane practice remains illegal in our Commonwealth, end quote.

Abortion rights advocates say their strategy will now focus on having a legal challenge come from a pregnant woman being denied abortion services in an effort to help restore access to the procedure in Kentucky.

Kentucky Secretary of State Michael Adams says the state will renew its membership with the Electronic Registration Information Center shorthand known as Eric.

But Adams says his office is also beginning to look for alternatives.

Eric is a nonprofit organization that helps states remove dead voters from voting rolls, correct addresses, and reach out to potential voters who aren't registered.

But many conservatives dislike the organization.

They say it helps Democrats.

Seven states have already left or planned to leave the program.

In a statement, Secretary Adams says it would be irresponsible to quit Eric without having a backup plan.

Yet he also says it would be irresponsible to stay in Eric permanently.

Instead, he says Kentucky will remain in Eric for another year while he reviews other options.

Major metropolitan areas throughout the country have seen a rise in violent crime since the beginning of the COVID 19 pandemic.

And Lexington is no different.

The city set a record for murders last year.

The One Lexington Initiative is trying to combat the rise in violent crime.

And yesterday, members of the state legislature heard testimony about the initiative, the progress it's making and what can be done to help similar initiatives across the state.

Our Kacey Parker Bell reports on yesterday's legislative hearing.

The way that we characterized prevention is how do we stop gun violence before it happens?

Divine Crum leads the One Lexington Initiative.

The group is working to stop violent crime in Kentucky's second biggest city.

And the state legislature wants to know how the process works.

We engage in a weekly mentoring session, and I lean on weekly because anything less than weekly is just a photo op that makes people feel good.

These kids are most underserved.

Kids need consistency.

Koroma says.

One.

Lexington focuses on topics schoolteachers don't have time for in classrooms.

They discuss topics like substance use, disorder, conflict resolution and the impact of social media with at risk youth.

He says the goal is to stop gun violence before it happens, and that many of the reasons for gun violence are the same reasons people were protesting in 2020.

The metronome of everything that we are doing right now seems to be mental health and trauma.

When we talk about the destruction of the family structure, these are all some of the root causes that lead to the gun violence that we are seeing.

Legislators were curious how the state could build and help programs like one Lexington.

What do the youth of Kentucky most need, in your opinion?

Whether it's in our urban and bigger city environments or in a rural environment?

Yeah, I think I kind of touched on this a little bit earlier.

I think the biggest thing is trauma informed care approaches and access to affordable mental health.

While Koroma says one, Lexington is making progress.

He noted the number of guns on Lexington streets.

It's different.

What we are seeing in the streets right now, and I realize it may be different depending on where you are in Kentucky.

But in Lexington, what we are seeing is you wouldn't believe it.

It's unfathomable the access that they have to high powered firearms and how many are in possession.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Casey Parker.

Belle.

Now that same legislative committee also heard about a new report that shows persistent racial disparities in Kentucky's juvenile justice system.

More about that coming up in our weekly chat with public radio journalist Rylan Barton.

People living in Appalachia are more likely to get and die from cancer compared to the rest of Kentucky and the nation.

That's according to a new study by the University of Kentucky Marquee Cancer Center.

One researcher says that Eastern Kentucky has long suffered from high cancer rates, and the gap between the region and the rest of the country keeps widening.

More on that in today's health news.

No other state in the US has a worse cancer problem than does Kentucky.

Kentucky continues to rank first in the nation in overall cancer incidence, mortality rates and it's driven really by a very significant cancer burden in eastern Kentucky.

So the 54 counties that are in Appalachian Kentucky have significantly higher levels of cancer overall.

Kentucky has sort of a perfect storm, a variety of different factors that drive these rates from very high tobacco use, high rates of obesity, high rates of low poverty, which influence lower access to health care, higher levels of low education attainment, which influence health literacy and health behaviors that sort of drive the high rates of cancer in Kentucky.

The five cancers that we looked at, including lung, colorectal cancer and others, are much higher rates in Appalachian Kentucky versus the rest of Kentucky.

So those cancers we looked at specifically because they're they're known interventions that could be you know, there's known screenings available for these types of cancers and other behavioral modifications that could be done that could help address these high rates of cancers.

And so we you know, we expected these to be higher in Kentucky, in Appalachia, Kentucky, in general.

And we know that there are things such as screening that could be done in other targeted interventions that could help lower the rates of these cancers to help, you know, address these disparities.

I think, you know, Eastern Kentucky needs more access to cancer related health care.

And we need, you know, more cancer education opportunities for people to increase their cancer literacy, health literacy in terms of understanding cancer, the health behaviors that put them at risk for getting cancer.

You know, information about screening when they should get screened, how they should get screened, and then how to engage in cancer care.

You know, if and when a person gets cancer, you know how to really access the care that they really need.

Researchers say the results of the study should be a call to action to increase cancer education in the Appalachian region.

A committee is recommending some big changes to Louisville Mayor Greg Greenberg's proposed budget.

The Louisville Metro Council Budget Committee voted unanimously to add more than three and a half million dollars toward homeless resources.

They're also adding nearly 10 million to address infrastructure, including sidewalk repairs and improving alleys.

And another 10 million would be set aside for Parks and Recreation.

The 2024 budget will be considered by the full Metro Council tomorrow.

In a statement, Mayor Greenburg said he fully supports the amendments and he's encouraging the full council to pass the budget on Thursday.

Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments in the news this week with Rylan Barton, managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, Rylan.

Good to see you, too, Renee.

So let's start with some news about the campaign trail.

On the campaign trail.

There was $200,000 in campaign contributions that Tom Loftus, who's working now for the Kentucky land turn, has reported this week that the Beshear campaign and the Kentucky Democratic Party are returning.

So tell us about this and why did they have to do that?

Did they have to do it?

Yeah.

So this comes after Tom Loftus reported that a story I think about a month ago, pointing out that there is this a whole lot of contributions coming from the London mayor, Randall Weddle and his family and also some other people associated in that circle.

That all went to Governor Bashir's campaign and also the Kentucky Democratic Party.

It is not illegal in Kentucky for, you know, lots of people to be, you of a certain circle to be contributing to a particular candidate.

But you're not allowed to, you know, basically give somebody to give to to to to donate and, you know, come or compensate them for donating in exchange for that.

I think the thing that ended up raising the Bashir campaign's said that the concern of them and why they ultimately returned the money is that a lot of the contributions were coming from the same credit card ultimately.

So this is a, you know, 200,000 $202,000 is a lot of money in the in the state political world.

So I'm sure that the campaign is not happy about having to do that.

Yeah.

So now let's talk about the ACLU of Kentucky and Planned Parenthood have moved to drop a lawsuit on that.

Kentucky's near-total abortion ban.

This was filed after the decision on reversing Roe v Wade.

So why are they doing this now?

What's the reason?

So this comes after the state Supreme Court ruled earlier this year that that M.W.

and Planned Parenthood, the two former only abortion providers in Kentucky, didn't have standing to bring this lawsuit.

They said that and didn't have standing to bring it on behalf of of women who would be seeking an abortion.

So there was there was a bit of a deadline that just passed for them to find a plaintiff like that.

A woman in Kentucky was trying to seek an abortion.

That is obviously a very complicated and difficult thing to do.

A lot of people don't want to have their face be the, you know, be so prominent in this really divisive argument.

But they do intend to.

It sounds like they do intend to bring another lawsuit forward.

And really to ultimately answer this question, does the Kentucky Constitution guarantee or protect an individual's right to an abortion, which is that's what these abortion providers were arguing last year in the first place.

Again, the Supreme Court kind of avoided answering that question, saying they didn't bring the lawsuit in the right manner at all.

So it sounds like a lot of this process is starting over and they're trying to find a new tactic at bring challenging this abortion ban.

So more possibly to come on this issue, an action from Planned Parenthood and ACLU of Kentucky.

So now let's talk about a legislative hearing that happened on Tuesday.

It was a joint meeting with the Commission on Race and Opportunity and the Juvenile Justice Oversight Council.

And there were some folks from the Kentucky Youth Advocates, which is the largest state advocacy group for children in the state, who presented some statistics and disparities about criminal complaints, detention, diversion and youthful offender referrals and the juvenile justice system.

What did lawmakers make of this and what do you think could possibly come from this type of conversation?

Yeah, Kentucky has for a long time had a large disparity in the number of black kids in Kentucky's juvenile justice system compared to white kids and Hispanic kids.

One of the findings that Kentucky youth advocates was presenting is that that's even gotten worse over the years.

The overall number of of kids in the system has actually gone down since some reforms were implemented in 2014.

But that disparity, that racial disparity, has only gotten deeper.

This, of course, a lot of the conversation comes as you know, there's been a real crisis in the juvenile justice system over the last year.

A lot of high profile scandals like riots, just rampant understaffing of assaults taking place in the system.

A lot of what the legislature did to try and address that this year is really to boost security at at some of the juvenile justice facilities, also boost staffing there.

But there's, you know, there are a lot of other issues at play here.

And really, this is you know, this kind of starts with the, you know, how we're how the state is charging and bringing kids into the system in the first place.

And whether those kids end up having to who ends up staying in the system versus being released on a kind of home release to their parents.

This report kind of affirms what's been happening for a long time, which is that it's predominantly black kids.

And one of the things that that juvenile justice bill did that the legislators passed earlier this year was creating a mandatory a a mandatory process that kids have to be incarcerated for up to 48 hours when they're being charged with certain violent crimes.

And that includes things like robbery and assault and burglary, burglary.

And so there's really just many more opportunities for for kids to be behind bars in Kentucky.

Yeah.

So we'll follow that to see how that is addressed or even if that part is addressed in the upcoming legislative session.

Juneteenth, real quickly, in about 35, 40 seconds.

We know that we celebrated that on Monday, June 19th, as the day 1865, when the last enslaved people learned of their freedom.

And it is a federal holiday and it's a state holiday in several states, but not in Kentucky.

Why?

And what is the big deal about why it is or why it's not?

Yeah, I am really befuddled as to why this bill doesn't ever get past.

It's proposed every year to make Kentucky a make Juneteenth an official state holiday in Kentucky.

And it really doesn't advance in the legislature.

I think this is especially concerning considering that there is still an official state holiday of Jefferson Davis day in Kentucky.

It's not a day when state workers get get the day off, but Kentucky is one of a handful of states that still has that on the books.

There's also bills to try and repeal that that do not advance in the legislature.

So it's it's a little bit beyond me.

So the politics of that, why that hasn't gotten more momentum, but it's a it's another reminder that it is still not a state holiday or Juneteenth.

It's still not an official state holiday in Kentucky.

Yeah, we'll see if that changes and the upcoming legislative session as well.

A lot to follow.

Thank you all on Barton, for doing the same.

We appreciate you.

Thanks, Renee.

A new book out from former Louisville Mayor Harvey Sloan captures his life story of adventure and public service.

Our Chip Polston sat down with Dr. Sloan to find out how it all came about.

Harvey Sloan was Louisville's mayor during a tumultuous times in the 1970s, which saw everything from a tornado ripped through the heart of the community to the desegregation of the school system.

So how did this adventurous spirit from a farm in Virginia end up as Louisville mayor?

That's just one of the areas covered in Sloan's new book, Riding the Rails My Unexpected Adventures in Medicine, City Hall and Public Service.

Dr. Sloan, thanks so much for being with us.

Great to be here, Jeff.

So you went to Yale and as the title of your book says, after reading The Grapes of Wrath, you decided you thought it would be fun to jump on boxcars and take you around to see what you could see.

Where did that sense of adventure for you really come from?

Well, first of all, I read The Grapes of Wrath, as you mentioned, and I just thought, I don't know what's going on in this country.

I don't know what's going on, you know, in my cooking outside my cocoon.

I went to an all male, all white prep school, and then Yale was all male, all white.

It was only when I got into medical school in Case Western Reserve in Cleveland that we had a few girls around.

So I needed just to be liberated and to go on these hitchhiking and then end up in a community and get a job, which was, you know, it was an adventure that allowed me to sort of expand my universe, appreciate other people.

I mean, I work with the migrants and particularly in Tijuana and picking celery and that's a hard job.

You got to squat all day.

You can have exercise or anything, and then you sleep with them and they're lousy places to sleep and eat, what have you.

So I got a view of many people who were working, who were migrants, who were making things just made for their families.

After you graduated, you went into public health.

You landed in Louisville to help set up the park Duvall Community Health Center, which still to this day exists.

54 years.

When you came to Louisville, Dr. Sloane, at what point did you have one seminal moment where you looked around and thought, I'd like to lead this community?

What was it that made you want to do that in Louisville?

Well, I. I was in eastern Kentucky from 64 to 66, and I made a couple of trips here.

And I liked everybody I met and made some friends.

And then when we got the community health center started and I ran it for a while, I said, you know, this is where I want to be.

So you were elected mayor in your late thirties.

And within the first 18 months of your administration to really of the the seminal moments in Louisville, the 1970s occurred the the April 4th tornado that wiped out a significant part of certain portions of the city, as well as the court ordered desegregation.

What did you learn about being a leader from having those two events happen so close to each other?

Well, I think the first event helped.

In the second event.

I mean, I didn't know much of anything was April when I got in in the first December, but I knew I had to be out there and working with the neighborhoods because I wanted them to stay in Louisville and not leave.

And so we wanted to make sure that they were looking forward to staying here, even though some of their neighborhoods were devastated.

But the bus scene was another story.

It was tough.

It was tough.

But Kathy and I saw that this was coming.

My wife and there was a U.S. Conference of Mayors in Boston and we went up there and talked to Mayor Kevin White, good mayor, and also Tom Winship, who is the editor of The Boston Globe and what can we do to have a better experience?

And they did.

Well, two, three things.

First of all, train the police and have a strong police presence.

Second of all, encouraged the judge, Judge Gordon, from Owensboro to be as firm about the order as possible because Judge Garrity in Boston would say, well, let them have a little demonstration, maybe light a fire.

Well, then it all got blown up.

And thirdly, have a rumor control.

So I came back and I met with Derrick Bingham JR at the Courier Journal, and he immediately got together all the printed media and all the electronic media.

We didn't have any social media that day.

And got everybody to agree to have a common broadcast of what had happened every day in the desegregation.

So there were rumors that black student was white girl and what have you.

And that helped immensely.

It really did.

Fascinating.

Coming up tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, Chip talks with Dr. Sloan about lessons he learned that can apply to Louisville.

Today, a Louisville blacksmith is forging a new path for his city, partnering with a local group of churches and gun safety activists.

They're hoping to steer the city away from gun violence and towards healing, peace and even gardening.

MOORE And our midweek arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.

This is a barrel of a rifle that I'm going to be turning into a little hand hoe.

And I've been using them in my garden and they're absolutely terrific guns.

The garden is a subcommittee of gun violence prevention team that takes the guns and forges them into garden tools and other kinds of hard work.

Right now, it's people who no longer want the guns.

Some of the guns may have been suicide.

Some of them have been inherited.

The guns that people no longer want to own, nor do they want them being going back on the street.

It's hard to get rid of a gun in in Kentucky, the state laws are such that if you do want to give turn over a gun to law enforcement, they're required by state law to sell that gun at auction.

So then it's bought by a gun dealer who then turns it around and resells it to someone else.

And so there's no way to know what that person's intentions are for that gun.

And this is a way to just stop that cycle.

Well, you know, it's very you want to make something out of the guns and, you know, the biblical passage of turning swords into plowshares.

So this is a this is a religious metaphor for turning guns, which is, you would say, the modern day equivalent of swords and little hoes or like plowshares that we're making we have out of control gun violence.

You can't be sure of going to the theater or going through a shopping mall or parade and not be afraid of of gun violence.

I don't want to sit around and do nothing.

And fortunately I have a skill that I can make a real contribution to this effort.

We host events of surrender events.

The guns are brought to the group.

And while the the owner is there, the guns are cut up right on the site.

So they're no longer a weapon anymore.

They're no longer going to hurt anyone else for some people, that is an amazing healing process to go through.

And we collected 28 weapons the first time last December.

This time we had a little fewer weapons, 20 but more people were coming.

So it's small in number perhaps, but it's big to us because we know that it's that many less guns that are out there in the world that potentially could harm someone.

Plans for a third surrender event this fall are underway.

A date and location have not yet been chosen.

Well, we hope you join us and choose to join us tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, again, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our weekly 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 and public affairs at ket dot org and of course follow us on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so much for watching this evening.

I'm Renee Shaw and I hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take good care.