States that have stronger gun laws, have lower homicides and lower suicides.

That is a fact.

Demanding action while honoring victims of gun violence.

Why Kentucky is joining a lawsuit over FEMA's new program it claims will save homeowners money on flood insurance.

Adult people should be allowed to choose for themselves what they go see.

Second, and the community speaks out after funding is court for a Davis County venue that hosts drag shows.

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 Monday, June the fifth.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Monday with us.

They want to bring attention to gun violence and are calling for action to stop it.

Moms demand action for gun sense in America is a grassroots organization that promotes stronger gun laws and responsible firearm ownership.

Over the weekend, the local chapter held an event honoring gun violence survivors.

Orange is the color of safety so people know when they're hunting that we don't shoot in that direction.

So we wear orange for our loved ones that we've lost to gun violence.

So today's event is just about supporting survivors.

Survivors are going to be getting up and telling their stories.

It's a way for them to let the information that they want to tell about their loved one be told.

They are able to tell stories.

They're able to just talk about and feel the love from people around them.

It's also where we can come together as survivors and love on each other because our group is growing, unfortunately, and there's still a lot of people that doesn't know that we have these kind of groups that they can come and be a part of and have someone who knows what they're feeling or what they're going through.

There have been 17,959 gun violence deaths in the year 2023, and we are in June.

I started writing this speech a week ago today when I originally wrote the statistic.

It was 17,160.

That is 799 deaths this week.

I started working with this group in 2019.

My son Sean Howard was murdered in 2017, August 5th.

And I took some time to grieve.

And a very, very, very dear friend of mine, Anita Franklin, reached out and said, You need to be a part of something.

And helped me get out of the house and get into something.

She introduced me to the ladies of moms.

She introduced me to a lot of people that could help in that step.

And moms has been a big support for me, my family, a lot of survivors in Lexington, they attend a lot of events, peace walks and are a big support and backers to help say, hey, if we don't have a voice alone, we have a big one together.

So it's basically a lot of loving and caring people who came together and decided, Hey, we're losing too many people.

Here's my plea to you.

If you want to make a difference now, you vote matters.

If you vote matters who you vote for matters.

And we support in her family and her friends and all the survivors that are part of this unfortunate group that we have.

It's not a group that we invite anybody into and we don't want to.

Little reality is our invitation as our child or our family member's death certificate.

That's our invitation to this group.

So we try to bring awareness to keep anybody else from joining this group.

The police, first responders, emergency room doctors, the clergy, they all have the same feeling that guns down.

We cannot be nuns and violence.

We must.

Hopefully, we will be able to send the message that we're here if you need us.

There's plenty of places to plug you in and get you involved in, but mostly just to make the public aware that, hey, you know, gun violence is becoming such a big epidemic that we've got to do something because we're losing so many people and it may not have affected one person's family here.

Other than as survivors.

But you don't know what's going to happen tomorrow.

And that's the scary part.

Moms Demand Action will be marching in the Lexington 4th of July parade.

They invite other survivors to come with pictures and posters of gun violence victims and join them in the parade.

Almost two months after the old National Bank shooting in Louisville will be discussing gun laws on Kentucky tonight, This evening, we've got people on all sides of the issue, including a victim of gun violence.

Hear from our panel and send us your questions and comments on Kentucky tonight.

That's tonight at eight storms, seven Central right here on KCET.

Excuse me.

Kentucky is one of ten states suing to stop a sharp jump in national flood insurance rates.

The rate increases will be phased in under the Federal Emergency Management Agency's new formula for calculating national flood premiums.

FEMA said under the new formula, those who own lower cost homes will not have to subsidize flood costs for pricier waterfront properties.

But the lawsuit says while some homeowners will see a small change in premiums, others will face a huge increase and some cases more than 1,000%.

The lawsuit also argues the new formula does not give enough consideration to flood mitigation efforts by local governments and property owners.

The story we told you Friday about Churchill Downs decision to move the current spring summer mate from Louisville to Ellis Park in Henderson.

And here's more details about that timetable today.

Churchill says the suspension will begin tomorrow.

The first races at Ellis Park will be this Saturday, June 10th.

The move will let Churchill examine its safety measures.

That's after 12 horses died at the track starting in late April.

The track says no single factor has been identified as a cause of the deaths and no pattern has been detected.

The spring summer meet will end July 3rd.

And politics now.

Kentucky attorney general and Republican candidate for governor Daniel Cameron was on the campaign trail today.

It included a stop in Bowling Green.

Several Republican state lawmakers who represent Warren County were there to show support.

Cameron says the county will be critical for winning the governor's seat in November.

Governor Andy Beshear led Warren County by 1100 votes in 2019.

Cameron also says he wants to appeal to teachers, many of whom supported Beshear in the last election.

We certainly believe that teachers have a home within the Republican Party and want to make sure that we do everything we possibly can to let them know that.

It's why we put out a framework for an education plan here in Kentucky, one in which we want to increase starting pay for teachers.

We want to remove some of the bureaucracy that they have to deal with and some of the paperwork that they have to deal with as well.

And then on top of that, you're going to have a governor who is not hostile to teachers who haven't bought in to the gender ideology curriculum, for example.

Cameron also made appearances today in Elizabethtown and Owensboro.

We'll have more from today's Bowling Green visit tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition on what would have been the 30th birthday of Breonna Taylor.

A national social justice group announced it's launching a statewide campaign to oppose Daniel Cameron's campaign for governor.

United Freedom made the announcement today in Louisville during a ceremony honoring Taylor, the woman shot to death by police in her Louisville apartment in 2020.

The group was joined by Taylor's mother.

But what I won't be put on is that is we didn't decide that, Daniel Cameron, that we decided that he he decided that really didn't deserve justice.

He decided that.

So not only did he decide, he continuously has told us right or wrong, he will always back these people who are killing us.

And that's unacceptable.

Some of Cameron's critics say he mishandled the case against three police officers who raided Taylor's apartment.

She was shot to death, but no charges were filed against the three officers.

Cameron was asked about the campaign opposing his bid for governor during his stop in Bowling Green.

Oh, look what happened to Miss Taylor.

I haven't heard of a person in Kentucky who does not describe what happened as a tragedy.

My responsibilities as attorney general is to defend the laws and apply the laws that exist here in the Commonwealth of Kentucky.

I've often told people I'm going to do my job without fear or favor.

Until Freedom said its campaign will focus on registering new voters.

The group plans to open offices in Louisville and Lexington River Park Center and Owensboro.

All said it's focused on fundraising after the county cut funding for the venue last Thursday, the Davis County Fiscal Court approved the county budget, but it left out funding for the center.

The center has drawn controversy for its monthly adults only drag shows.

According to WQ Public Radio, the performing arts venue received more than $12,000 in the current budget.

River Park Center executive director Rich Jawn told WQ the drag shows do not violate state law and that they will continue at the venue.

Community members, both for and against the show, spoke at Thursday night's fiscal court meeting.

I really enjoy River Park Center.

I enjoy the activities that they have and I have been very glad that they have been inclusive of everyone.

And I'm sorry that such a small amount of money could not be allocated to them to continue to serve our community and all the people in our community with all the different activities that they have.

Understand that there is not intensity to the budget shift, but what it does is continue a trend that people like me are seeing across the country, and it shows a willingness to kick out a community you are not a member of, you are not involved with, and it is simply shameful.

Ted Nugent came here either last year or the year before.

Ted Nugent is nothing but a bag of obscenity and nobody said cut the budget for the parks in or over that Nobody is forced to go to a drag show.

Nobody's forced to go anywhere that they have to see something that they don't want to.

Adult people should be allowed to choose for themselves what they go see.

And some small group of bigots shouldn't be interfering with that.

Davis County is the better for this decision.

The idea of an age appropriate drag show is a red herring and a canard.

The idea that adult behavior does not flow downstream.

In effect, our use is laughable.

It is an indefensible position.

It is not the state's business to do what the church does.

God might say one thing, but that's not your job.

So in the future, I hope that you base your decisions on freedom and on the Constitution and people's rights.

The River Park Center plans to host a Pride night featuring drag performances and comedians on June the ninth.

The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics estimates a large need for engineers over the next ten years.

That's due to job growth in the field and replacing those leaving the workforce.

A new GE Appliances and University of Louisville initiative targeting students in Bullitt County is looking to help fill this gap.

And our look at education news.

Our Chip Polston spoke with GE Appliances representatives about the program designed to increase educational opportunities for Bullitt County students.

For nearly 100 years, the J.B.

Speed School of Engineering at U of EL has been producing engineering graduates, and in a time when they are needed more than ever, the college is collaborating with GE Appliances and the Bullet County School System to ease the transition into engineering school.

Here to talk about the initiative is Katina Whitlock, senior manager of Community Engagement and GE Appliances.

Thanks so much for being with us today.

Thanks for having me.

So this is not a new connection for GE with the Bullet County School system.

You all have been working with them for some time.

Correct?

We have.

We've been working with Bullitt County Public School System for over five years.

I work in community engagement.

It's part of our corporate communications team.

But our engineers are committed to the places where they grew up.

Right.

So we are here in Louisville, Kentucky, where it's our US headquarters.

And we had an engineer that grew up in Boulder County.

That's where his kids go to school.

So he said, You know, I really want to expose the opportunities that we have available as a company to the kids who are right outside of Jefferson County.

So that was a question that I also had about kind of what that connection was back to Boulder County.

I didn't know if it was proximity to the park, but it really is as simple as an engineer who grew up there and had kids in the system that wanted to give back into that community.

True.

That's our strategy.

We know that as a major employer in this community, it's our obligation and our desire to actually grow our our own.

And so Mike Abundant, who leads that program.

He is a person from Kentucky, grew up in that area.

His kids go to Butler County Public Schools.

He's a speed school graduate and he's one of our lead engineers.

And so it's an opportunity for us as a business to fully invest in what he was already doing and expand that beyond just our partnership with Jefferson County Public Schools.

That's really cool.

So based on the response you had from working with the kids in Bulloch County, at some point you all look at that and say, What could we do to help get these kids into engineering school at U of L and then bring them into the fold at GE Appliances?

What does that program look like now?

So what that looks like, it started out as just teaching them engineering basics, right?

So like, what is the concept of engineering?

And so for a lot of those kids, it was the first time they fully understood what an engineer was.

And we believe that all of us are engineers at some point from creation to innovation.

And so it was giving them those tools and that language.

A lot of those students may go into trade programs.

We need people in trade programs.

But then some of them said, I really wanted to be the innovators.

I want to create those appliances that people are using in their homes.

And so we have an excellent relationship with the University of Louisville, and it's made School of Engineering, which is a national nationally known engineering school.

And so we use the opportunity to say these are kids that we know can make the curriculum.

They can be competitive in that environment because we've already invested in them from middle school all the way through high school.

And speed is not an easy school to get into.

I mean, it's competitive to get in there.

But I just think it's interesting that you all have been able to put this together to make it easier for those kids at a bullet county to go to speed and get that education, that that in your all's view, they really need to be part of the GE Appliances family.

Absolutely.

I think it speaks to the quality of the programs that we offer.

So when you think about a lot of like after school programs or even during school programs, we have engineers on our team who are developing curriculum.

So we have a very similar program at Dallas High School here in Louisville, where we actually built the manufacturing center at Dallas High School.

And so what Mike has done with Bullitt County Public Schools is he's developed an engineering curriculum.

So students are familiar when they are applying to speed school.

They are aware of what that will look like.

They understand how calculus and all the math and the science that goes into becoming an engineer.

They fully have an understanding of what that looks like.

How badly do you all need engineers at this point?

Is it really kind of critical mass for you all needing to get people into these roles?

And is that part of the reason why you want to establish that pipeline?

There is a critical mass for engineers and people who work in stem across our country and we think about like what happens next, right?

We know that so much of that will be based upon technology and innovation.

So as a business that's based here in Louisville, Kentucky, we want to make sure that we give that opportunity to people who live in this community first.

And so when you think about where those opportunities usually come from, rural communities are often left behind.

And so for us, it's a very targeted effort to make sure that we're including people of color in those programs.

We're including women, and then people who are coming from rural communities.

So it's a really interesting Programable look forward to seeing how everything comes together with a Katina Whitlock, senior manager of Community Engagement and GE Appliances.

Thanks so much for being with us.

Thanks to you.

Renee, back to you.

Thank you, Chip.

The first group of Bully County students participating in the program should enter speed school in the fall of 2025 and would complete their graduate degrees by the year 2030.

More education news now.

Kentucky's first virtual computer science career academy is expand after the state legislature passed a new law.

Our Kelcey Starks has an update on the pilot program that's now scaling statewide.

I lead academy is part of the U.S. Department of Education's Rural Tech Challenge, and Alisha Selz is the director of innovation for OVAC.

The Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative.

Here to explain what this is all about, what is Computer Science Academy?

Who is this for?

Okay, so in 2020, the US Department of Education had a rural tech challenge and asked for ideas to expand access for rural students to computer science.

We proposed that I lead creating a virtual academy so our teacher teaches students in their home high schools, computer science classes.

And we were chosen as one of five in the nation with the most innovative ideas.

The General Assembly realized that we were on to something, and in 2022 passed House Bill 680 to scale the innovation statewide.

And so you piloted this program, which is five high schools.

You can already tell.

What were the results of that?

We did.

So we've had 26 students in total.

Ten finished their second year this year.

All ten earned 6 hours of college credit this year in digital literacy and computational thinking.

And nine of them earned industry certification and actually three digital literacy.

All of them have a resumé.

They have done job interviews, they have a LinkedIn presence, and they've all done virtual job shadowing.

And it's just priceless, that kind of education.

And so now why and how is it expanding?

So the General Assembly felt like that was an important strategy for economic development in Kentucky.

There are 4500 computer science jobs open with an average salary of just under $75,000, compared to $42,000, which is the average salary for all Kentucky jobs.

And the General Assembly said we need to build this workforce pipeline.

Let's do it statewide.

And so Senator David Gibbons and then Representative Ed Massey passed House Bill 680 to make this an opportunity that will be available to all Kentucky students starting in the 24, 25 school year.

So all Kentucky students in some of those areas that, you know, can you imagine making that kind of money out of at a school?

I know.

It's absolutely amazing.

And a lot of them can do this work from home.

These are some of these are virtual jobs.

So imagine living in GREENE County, where Senator Gibbons is from.

And being a contributing member of that community to $75,000 a year job is just can be transformational for the rural economies as well.

Sure.

So important to keep those students here.

Is it the first of its kind in the country?

It is the first of its kind in the country, and we're so proud of that.

I mean, to think that we started Benefit Aid in just a small, smart, small rural communities.

And so Kentucky's really going to make the nation proud as we get this off the ground.

This is fantastic.

And so it's not just in the educational world, though.

Explain how it's a partnership with employers and colleges and really the entire community.

So our initial thought was that we might try to scale this 71 because we're in the northern Kentucky southern zone.

So we got involved with a group called the Inner Alliance of Greater Cincinnati, and it's a group of the largest tech employers in the northern Kentucky and Cincinnati region, Proctor and Gamble, Kroger, Fifth Third Bank.

And those employers have been absolutely phenomenal.

They've engaged with our students in job interviews.

They've helped students develop resumes.

They've taught them at about GitHub and LinkedIn.

They have just been absolutely amazing and they really started about ten years ago with the intent of working with high schools and colleges to build that workforce pipeline.

And they are looking for more businesses to get involved in that pipeline as well.

So you can contact them to find out more information about that.

Back to you.

Thank you, Kelsey.

The Ohio Valley Educational Cooperative is a consortium of 15 school districts serving more than 155,000 students in north central Kentucky.

Eastern Kentucky native Willie Edward Taylor Carver Junior was the 2022 Kentucky Teacher of the Year as an English teacher.

Literature was a part of his daily life, now an author himself.

His new book, Gay Poems for Red States, reveals the relationships that formed his identity and his experience as an LGBTQ person growing up in Appalachia.

You know, I had this I had this thought I was really feeling my Appalachian.

That's when I wrote this and I said, Not that Appalachians don't know poetry or can't do poetry, because obviously we have we have beautiful poets.

But I said, What if we had invented poetry, our own poetry that mimics the way we use language in beautiful ways.

And I really wanted to do that.

And so that meant telling stories, and that meant flourishes and that meant long sentences that didn't even necessarily want to go anywhere with the way my mom talks to my my uncle and aunts talk.

So I really wanted to do that.

But it also really pricks that emotion and it takes you to a place where you can envision a young willy being with his mom right at a store.

And so, I mean, it really does kind of chronicle your life experiences and it shows us Appalachia in a way that maybe we don't always see.

Yeah, you know, there was I asked a lot of questions to myself about what it means to have an inner child or like what that is.

Because when I wrote, there were some times that I would say, Oh, that that's a bit too emotional or This sentence is too much.

And I would go to a write it and I could feel this kid say, Town of Rice, Me, you know.

He said So many people tried to and I rice myself to get you here so Donna rice me so I would not address it and how cathartic is that for you?

Beautiful.

And I think specifically, it's nice to know not just to let go of things, but to know that that kids are still there somewhere.

You know, whatever yearnings he had, whatever hopes he had, he can still get those.

And yeah, he got me here.

So I'll let him do what he wants to do now.

Yeah, I'm writing for my people and for whatever a complicated world that we're in.

My people are in red states, good people.

Kentucky is brimming with good, caring, loving people.

And if you want to know what love looks like, go to Eastern Kentucky at Christmas and you will see there is not a man or a woman or child who is not making sure that everyone is covered.

That's the love that I want to see extend to all people.

So I wanted to write to them and I wanted to write about them.

I wanted to celebrate people who might not know to celebrate me yet.

Hmm.

You can see the full conversation with Willie Carver online on demand at Ted Dawgs Slash Connections.

We talk more about his book as well as his time in the classroom and his advocacy for LGBTQ youth.

And in that same episode, a conversation with Lexington's native and Tony nominated actor Colton Ryan.

Check it out Online.

Two horse racing legends and a hatchet wielding anti liquor crusader say that three times fast.

All have Kentucky connections.

Our Toby Gibbs has more in this.

Look at this week in Kentucky history.

The Kentucky Historical Society calls June 7th Boone Day.

It commemorates Daniel Boone's arrival at Red Lake and Still County in 1769.

It was the headquarters for Boone and his party for several weeks.

America's most famous temperance crusader hailed from Kentucky.

Carrie Nation was born in Garrett County in 1846.

She eventually moved to Missouri, Texas and later Kansas.

On June 5th, 1900, she says God appeared to her in a vision and told her to smash saloons.

She used rocks to destroy the liquor at three different saloons in Kansas.

She later started using a hatchet, inspiring the nickname Hatchet Granny.

June eight, 1918.

Two Army airmen left Dayton, Ohio, in the first long distance flight with Kentucky as the destination.

The two flew to Madison County, Kentucky, gassed up, then flew on to Louisville.

A total distance of 175 miles.

One of the world's most famous race horses, Man of War, made his racing debut at Belmont Park on June six, 1919, winning by six lengths.

Man of War was followed at Nursery stud in Lexington and won 20 of 21 races during his career.

The Associated Press, ESPN and Sports Illustrated all named him the greatest racehorse of the 20th century.

Sir Barton won the Belmont Stakes on June 11th, 1919.

He was the first horse to win the Kentucky Derby, the Preakness and the Belmont in the same year.

The term Triple Crown wasn't in use at the time, and that's a look back at this week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, Toby Gibbs.

We always learn a lot with you.

And we will see you right back here again tomorrow night.

For more great stories and information you can use.

630 Eastern, 530 Central four Kentucky Edition.

Thank you so much for watching tonight.

And I'll see you right back here tomorrow.