>> Ice is not okay.

Deportation is not okay.

>> Some Louisville students leave class to send a message about Ice.

>> It's not personal, but I believe we need America first.

Members of Congress.

>> U.S.

Representative Andy Barr on pulling ahead in the polls, and which Kentucky Republican he wants to see join him in Congress.

[MUSIC] And did Lexington turn down State help to clear off snowy streets?

[MUSIC] What the mayor says.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

[MUSIC] .

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Friday, February the 6th, I'm Renee Shaw and we thank you for jumpstarting your weekend with us.

We've seen ice protests across America, especially after the shooting deaths of two people in Minnesota today in Louisville.

Middle and high schoolers at the J. Graham Brown School walked out to protest federal immigration enforcement, and some of them talked to KET about why they felt the need to speak out.

>> Ice is not okay, deportation is not okay, and everybody deserves to have their home and it's no one's home on stolen land.

>> Yes, ma'am.

It.

>> And I am here because Ice is not deporting illegal criminals or whatever they want to say.

They are here to get power and hurt our country.

And that is not okay at all.

>> Ice is such a big problem because there are so many dead, and many people tried to defend their families.

Two year olds are getting pepper sprayed out here and this is not okay.

>> Today we put this together to let our voices be heard, that we don't support the unreasonable and unjust detainment, deportation, or violence against anybody in the United States.

>> I'm just glad that we're a part of the community where we can do things like this protest with the support of the people around us, and feel safe to convey our emotions and our thoughts towards political issues like this.

>> The Brown School is a public K through 12 school in Louisville, serving kids from every ZIP code in Jefferson County.

Now, another independent poll shows a tight race for the U.S.

Senate in Kentucky.

On the Republican side, the poll from Quintus Insights shows Congressman Andy Barr with 28% of the vote, former Attorney General Daniel Cameron with 27%, and businessman Nate Morris at 17%.

8.5% say they are for someone else, and about 19% say they're undecided.

A poll released yesterday from Emerson College and Fox, 56, in Lexington showed Barr leading Cameron 27 to 24, with Morris at 14.

Congressman Barr talked about those poll results and why he thinks he's ahead during a stop for his U.S.

Senate campaign today in Louisville.

>> I know I'm winning not just by the polls, but by the trajectory of the polls.

I'm the only candidate that's rising in the polls consistently since the beginning.

Every poll independent otherwise is showing me moving in the in the right direction.

And now I've taken a lead.

I've taken a lead in two independent polls, because people outside of my district are starting to understand that I'm the best candidate to keep the seat in Republican hands.

The best candidate who has an authentic record of supporting President Trump.

Not someone who says that they support President Trump but gives thousands of dollars to President Trump's primary opponent in 2024.

But the real chairman of his campaign.

That's why we're surging in the polls.

>> At the campaign stop, Barr also announced his endorsement for Republican Gallrein in the fourth Congressional District race.

Gallrein is running against U.S.

Republican Representative Thomas Massie and has received President Trump's endorsement.

Trump has openly feuded with Massie for pushing back against him on several issues, and has called for Massie to be ousted from Congress.

Barr says his decision to back Gallrein was not based on Trump's endorsement, but on which candidate will support the president and his agenda.

>> It's an honest disagreement that I have on both substance, substance and policy and on tactics with Mr.

Massie.

It's not personal, but I believe we need America first, members of Congress who will stand by their word and be for President Trump's agenda.

This was a decision I made on my own.

I I've gotten to know Ed.

I knew Ed before he even decided that he was going to run for Congress.

He and I had been talking recently about how he met me, I think, during my second term of Congress, and I learned that he was a Navy Seal, and I thanked him for his service.

And I've really been an admirer of his service and patriotism to the country for a long time.

And I have confidence that Ed Gallrein will not only be a strong advocate for President Trump and be and work with me shoulder to shoulder with President Trump, but also that he will he will be a team player who will focus on voting with Republicans to advance President Trump's agenda, as opposed to opposing President Trump's agenda and voting with Democrats.

And that's what we need.

We have a thin majority in the U.S.

House of Representatives.

This is my last term in the U.S.

House of Representatives, but I care about having a majority, and we need a majority in the House of Representatives.

Where where members of the House Republican Conference are voting with President Trump, not against President Trump, and they are voting with the speaker and with other Republicans, as opposed to collaborating with Democrats.

>> Barr was asked if he thinks President Trump will endorse him in the U.S.

Senate contest.

Barr says he does because Trump knows that Barr will continue to be someone who will fight for the president's agenda.

Now, housing demand has outpaced supply.

You've heard it a lot.

With the state being 200,000 plus housing units short of what's needed.

It's a challenge that state lawmakers on the Kentucky Housing Task Force have been tackling for well over a year.

One of the recommendations from the task force passed the House today.

House Bill 333 would allow religious institutions to turn existing properties into affordable housing in response to concerns about the new housing disrupting communities.

There are restrictions in the bill to keep the housing modest.

For example, the church owned housing cannot exceed 24 units.

>> Development is limited to property owned by religious institutions.

Prior to January 1st, 2026, preventing land acquisitions for new or expanded projects.

The bill includes cumulative limits on units located on contiguous parcels or nearby properties owned by the same institution, to prevent clustering or large scale development.

>> On Monday's episode of Kentucky Tonight, we spoke to George Eklund from the coalition for the homeless.

He supports the bill and sees it as one way to start increasing the supply of housing in the state.

>> And most likely, this is about a church who has an old school school building that's been closed down.

And rather than let that that building be just demolished by neglect, let's make it an asset.

Let's make it a place where seniors can live in close proximity to their house of worship.

Let's make it a place that can be more about building a community, not just an eyesore that that sits there.

>> House Bill 333 also requires the housing to be priced affordably for a minimum of 15 years.

It passed the house this morning and now heads to the Senate for consideration there.

The mother of a missing Kentucky woman is calling on lawmakers to help protect the integrity of the state's judicial system.

More in our look back at legislative stories we haven't yet reported on from the week that we call PostScript.

Crystal Rogers disappeared in Bardstown in 2015.

Three men were convicted in connection with her death last year.

During the murder investigation, officials found one of the suspects and his family secretly recorded grand jury proceedings.

But no one was charged because the statute of limitations had expired.

House Bill 302, also known as the Crystal Rogers Act, would expand the statute of limitations from 1 to 10 years for recorded testimony this week, Rogers's mother urged lawmakers to pass the bill.

>> Knott help my family, but hopefully it will help another family and they will not feel the pain that my family has had to go through.

>> Representative Candy Massironi of Bardstown sponsored the bill.

It was unanimously passed out of committee this week and is now headed to the full House for consideration by the entire membership in the chamber.

Fluoride in water.

Should it be removed or kept in?

Well, that's a question that lawmakers have been pondering for a few years now.

A bill to give authority to local water boards made its way out of the House yesterday, and you might soon have some new neighbors.

We're not talking about people, but chickens.

As another house Bill looks to allow backyard chickens in Kentucky our Emily Sisk continues our legislative update.

PostScript.

[MUSIC] >> Out of 50 states, there's only one other state that has worse oral health than we do.

>> Northern Kentucky.

State representative Mark Hart says that data shows the state's water fluoridation system is not working, and it's why he sponsored House Bill 103 to give local water districts the decision making authority to keep or remove fluoride.

House Bill 103 removes the statewide mandate, but water will continue to have fluoride until a local governing body votes otherwise.

The legislation also provides legal immunity for public water employees, meaning they can't be held liable based on their decision.

>> House Bill 103 does not say that you have to take fluoride out, so I would encourage those that would be opposed to this bill.

Go and make your pitch to the individual local governments as they're deciding whether or not to put it in their local water supply.

>> Many Democratic lawmakers strongly opposed the bill, pointing to positive health outcomes linked to water fluoridation and the potential increased cost of health care if fluoride is removed.

>> The CDC has identified community water fluoridation as one of the top ten great public health achievements of the 20th century, due to its widespread and equitable reduction in tooth decay.

>> This is a preventative health treatment.

This has significant fiscal impact to our state.

With the Department of Medicaid, the Medicaid program would spend an additional $250 per child in a county that ceases to fluoridate its water for every 10% of Kentucky's child population that no longer has fluoridated water, the Medicaid program will spend an additional $17 million annually.

>> The bill sponsor argued there are studies that show too much fluoride can cause decreased brain development in children.

Ultimately, Representative Hart said he wants the authority to be at the local level.

House Bill 103 passed the House with a vote of 67 to 29, with some Republicans joining Democrats in opposition.

Another bill passed in the lower chambers would prevent pedestrians from hanging out in areas not meant for foot traffic, like medians and exit ramps.

This only applies to state maintained roads, and bill sponsor Representative Kevin Jackson said it doesn't impact designated pedestrian areas like crosswalks.

The Bowling Green Republican gave his rationale for the bill.

>> When pedestrians are present in those travel corridors, it creates dangerous and unprecedented situations that risk the public safety of both drivers and pedestrians.

>> A Northern Kentucky Democrat shared his grievances with the legislation.

>> I'm worried that this is a tool that could be used to unfairly target people who are either homeless or protesting.

>> The bill heard no other opposition and was approved on an 80 to 11 vote.

Another noteworthy measure that cleared the House this week Representative Steve Jones backyard Chickens bill.

It allows residents to keep six or fewer domesticated hens on their property.

The chickens may only be kept for personal use.

The sale of eggs is prohibited.

One House minority representative expressed her criticism of the bill.

>> What I am most concerned about is why this body is so concerned about housing for chickens and not housing for our people.

So I hope we can address that soon.

>> The Backyard Chickens legislation advanced out of the house with a 72 to 22 confirmation.

These bills now head to the Senate for consideration.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Emily Sisk.

>> Time now for our Reporter's Notebook segment, where we're talking about some of the major public education legislation that's moving through the Kentucky General Assembly with Jess Clark, who is the education reporter for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

Good to see you, Jess.

Thank you for your time.

>> Hey, Renee.

>> You know, I don't maybe I'm over characterizing this, but it seems like we're a third of the way into this legislative session of 60 days.

And a lot of the concentration, particularly from Senate Republicans, has been on public education legislation.

In fact, some of their top priority bills, the first ten half of them deal with education and some manner.

So let's talk about what their agenda is.

Overall arching picture.

What is it they're trying to get at with the measures they're putting forth this session?

>> I think there's a lot of focus on accountability and transparency in school districts, and also in the financial area.

Both of Kentucky's two largest school systems are facing budget shortfalls.

And, you know, in many ways, those shortfalls were predicted because of the end of Covid relief funding running out and expiring in 2024.

And so districts were anticipating having to tighten their belts.

But I think there is still some concern among constituents and definitely among state lawmakers, that that those budgeting decisions were not handled as well as they could have been or should have been.

And so a lot of the focus is this session on, you know, how do we prevent this from happening in the future?

You know, what are some transparency measures we can have around that?

You know, there's a lot of interest in kind of the growth in administrator funding for administrators and how that's kind of grown over the pandemic.

So there's some there's a measure targeted at administrator salaries.

And then, of course, the perennial issue in education, lawmakers tend to want to look at Jefferson County public schools, in particular for changes and intervention.

So that is also on their docket.

>> Well, let's pick up right where you left off right there.

Senate Bill one does just that.

This is by Senate pro tem David Givens of Greenburg.

And this measure would give more authority to the superintendent when it comes to day to day operations.

Why is that such a big deal?

And is this signaling some mistrust or lack of trust in the Jefferson County School Board?

>> Yes.

So I think yes, I think it is signaling a lack of trust in the school board.

That is a long standing kind of tension between state lawmakers and Frankfort Frankfort, who have been Republican and a Democratic, largely Democratic board in Jefferson County, even though it's nonpartisan, you know, voters in Jefferson County and the people they elect tend to lean towards more liberal or progressive ideas.

And so you often have a tension between the school board in Jefferson County and Republican state lawmakers in Frankfort.

I think it's fair to say that this issue goes back to that long standing tension that kind of came to a head in 2021, when the school board was making decisions about masking and remote learning, that lawmakers in Frankfort were very unhappy with.

And so they passed this measure, SB one, back then to move more authority away from the board and give it to the superintendent.

That measure was challenged in court.

And actually, after several years of litigation, was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court last year.

So this measure is actually that exact same law that was passed that was overturned by the Kentucky Supreme Court.

The only difference is that Givens has included a number of statements that are, you know, reasons why the lawmakers believe that this legislation should go forward.

And his argument is that when the court overturned SB one last year, they left the door open for it to be legal.

If lawmakers could articulate why they were specifically targeting Jefferson County in this way and that it was an arbitrary.

>> Right, because they said it was unreasonable in how they had approached it before.

And I think Senator Givens has said, I've got 40 something reasons now why, right, that they have outlined.

Yeah.

So let's talk about the you had mentioned earlier about a measure.

We know there's some financial fiscal accounting measures that would require some school finances to be posted on websites.

That was Senate Bill three by Senator Lindsey Tichenor.

That really didn't have much opposition, not Partizan divide.

But there was some discussion about the whole superintendent pay increases not outpacing that of teachers.

Talk to us about that a little bit more.

>> Sure.

That's SB two.

That is a bill from Senator Julie Adams.

And that measure would restrict boards from giving raises to administrators and superintendents that are above and beyond what the teachers would receive in a given year.

And so Raque Adams says this is necessary because she believes that resources need to be focused on those who are closest to the classroom.

Being classroom teachers.

And, you know, I think a lot of it also has to do with kind of a general discomfort among lawmakers with how much administrator salaries have grown in recent years.

There was a lot of pushback when Jefferson County gave former Superintendent Marty Pollio a significant raise.

I think he was making over $350,000 at some point.

And so this measure would just say, so if a teacher's got a 3% raise in a year, that is the raise that that is kind of the Max raise that the board could give principals or counselors or administrators or the superintendent, there is an exemption.

So if the district wanted to give the superintendent a 20% raise, they could go to KDE and request that exemption.

And that could take in order for them to turn that around at KDE and KDE and process that exemption could take 30 to 60 days, according to lawmakers.

>> Well, Jess Clark, thank you.

There's never enough time.

You do a fabulous job covering education.

Look forward to reading you as often as you write.

And so thank you for giving us a few minutes of your time on a busy week.

>> Thank you Renee, I really appreciate it.

>> In other news, Lexington's mayor denies the city refused the state's help to clear roads after snow and ice hit on the weekend of January 24th.

Since then, there's been a lot of criticism of the city's response.

Fayette County Public Schools have been closed since the storm hit because of snow and ice on many side roads.

Governor Andy Beshear said Lexington's response was disappointing, and he also said this during his news conference yesterday.

>> We helped and have helped, and then we're told for a period of time that our help wasn't needed.

We have asked and it has been accepted to help some more.

>> Mayor Linda Gordon said there was a misunderstanding between city employees and the state transportation cabinet.

The mayor said this in a statement, quote, I will never instruct any employee to refuse any kind of help from the state, especially help with clearing our roads.

End quote.

An update from a story we brought you earlier this week.

There is still no decision on a proposed data center in Simpson County.

Franklin Planning and Zoning Commission met last night for further conversation on the project.

That includes whether local services like water, sewer and power are sufficient for the development.

The commission voted to table the matter once again.

Attorneys for the developer say they need approval to move ahead with more studies to answer more questions.

The developer has sued Simpson County Fiscal Court over a conditional use permit ordinance.

Kentucky's iconic Four Roses bourbon is being sold, the Lexington Herald leader reports.

Japan's Kirin has agreed to sell the brand to E and J Gallo for up to $775 million.

That could make it the highest priced distillery sale in Kentucky history, Reuters reports.

Gallo doesn't plan to make any changes to Four Roses operations, production or distribution.

[MUSIC] Some better weather is on the way.

Hallelujah.

Next week, so take advantage by enjoying some of the great activities planned all around the state.

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

>> It's time to ready set Glow at the Kentucky Science Center.

It's a day focused on light, electricity and glowing science.

Activities include bioluminescence, exploration and electricity show and hands on projects.

Additional demonstrations are scheduled throughout the day.

Hears stories of freedom that began on the battlefield as the Kentucky Military History Museum presents Freedom Fighters.

The museum tour shows how 20,000 Kentuckians serving in the Union Army to escape slavery played a key role in the Civil War, as they fought for America and freedom.

The tour runs through the month of February.

Get the chills while indoors this weekend at Carter Caves State Resort Park as it hosts the haunted Winter expedition.

[MUSIC] Go along on a guided paranormal investigation inside the historic Lewis Cavern Lodge, a site known for eerie ghost stories and unexplained encounters.

[MUSIC] Explore active investigation areas, learn about the lodges haunted past, and get hands on with the tools used in real paranormal research.

The experience happens this Saturday.

They're stitching together tradition and creativity at the 2026 Quilt Show at the Kentucky Music Hall of Fame.

The show features handmade, machine sewn and recycled quilted pieces, with visitors getting their chance to vote for their favorite.

The event is free.

This fair is all about what your neighbors can make.

The Corbin Creators Fair brings together artists and makers from across the community, showcasing their handiwork, ranging from jewelry and fiber art to metal and woodwork.

The fair takes place this Saturday.

If it happens outside, you'll find it at the Western Kentucky Outdoor Expo happening in Owensboro this weekend.

The two day, family friendly event focuses on camping, hiking, hunting, and outdoor recreation.

[MUSIC] The expo draws exhibitors and enthusiasts from across the region, creating a broad look at outdoor interests in one setting.

Get a mid-week break by taking a hike with Bernheim Forest and Arboretum's midweek Nature stroll.

Hike up Inspiration Knob with volunteer naturalists as they highlight early infrastructure and lesser known features of the arboretum.

[MUSIC] Blending natural scenery with local history, the hike is next Wednesday.

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

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you Toby.

Lots to do.

Well, that'll do it for us this week.

Thank you so much for being with us, and we hope you'll join us again on Monday night at 630 eastern, 530 central on Kentucky edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

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Have a great weekend and I will see you again Monday night.