music >> I think we're all disappointed by the the city's response.

>> Governor Andy Beshear talks about how Lexington is handling snow and ice from ten days ago, and what needs to change.

[MUSIC] Three months before the May primary.

A new poll shows the state of the U.S.

Senate race in Kentucky.

[MUSIC] >> We know that more often than not, families fleeing for their lives don't have much more than the clothes on their backs.

Yeah.

>> And what you can do to help those affected by domestic violence, production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

[MUSIC] .

[MUSIC] Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Thursday, February 5th.

I'm Christy Dutton filling in tonight for Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Well, Senate Republicans hope to shake up Kentucky's school systems this year.

Today, senators passed two measures that could change how school principals and superintendents are trained and paid in the state.

Our June Leffler has more.

In tonight's legislative update.

>> So the purpose of Senate Bill two is to ensure that when school districts consider pay raises, that classroom teachers are not left behind.

>> Administrator pay raises could not exceed teacher pay raises by percentage points.

>> And it reflects the value of classroom instruction in district level decision making.

>> Senate Bill two does not impact contracts for new superintendents or other administrators, but salary changes after that would need some review.

>> So I would take it.

Given what you said, that this bill would not not prevent a school board from renegotiating a salary for a superintendent if that superintendent was being sought after by other, other communities.

Am I right about that?

>> If that district wants to maintain that superintendent and they feel that a funding decision is important in that retention, then they have that waiver option within this bill to make that decision.

But that decision will be transparent and everyone will know that that's what's happening.

>> That process worries a rural Republican.

>> You know, if in a rural community, you know, you may be losing an award winning principal to a larger school system because more money, can that decision be made on a short term and will the waiver, will it be acted upon in a very short term, because folks aren't going to wait around to do that.

>> Despite that, Senator Stephen Meredith and others passed Senate Bill two unanimously.

The Senate Education Committee also took up Senate Bill four, which would create a five year training and mentorship program for school principals.

>> And the ultimate goal is to have the premiere principal leadership program in the United States.

>> Senator Stephen West says the state would piggyback on an existing program run by the Kentucky Chamber of Commerce.

This Western Kentucky superintendent went through the program.

>> To help them learn about what their triggers are, what their strengths are, what their success scripts are, any biases they might have.

It's life changing.

>> The largest pro-business advocacy group would partner with the state to fund a scaled up version of that program.

>> And so what we would be looking at is a private investment from the Chamber of Commerce through local Kentucky businesses of around $864,000 a year.

That is what we raise now.

We are going to raise this in perpetuity.

We will continue to raise that money from the private investments in the business community to pour into their local school principals and then the state match to be able to train 150 school principals a year would be a little bit about $1.8 million.

>> Your five I would envision a stipend so each principal would receive a stipend to pay for the education that they choose off off of that approved list.

And so as you can see, the goal, the goal is to put our money where our mouth is.

>> Those dollars aren't yet spelled out in the bill, but senators say the program is a worthwhile investment.

The committee passed the bill unanimously for Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Kentucky is a step closer to becoming a food is medicine state.

House Joint resolution 25 passed out of committee today.

It would direct state agencies to focus on the role nutrition plays in public health issues.

Our McKinsey Spink tells us about the proposal and the food as medicine initiatives already happening around the state.

>> The goal of the Food is Medicine initiative is to make Kentuckians healthier by connecting the health care industry with the agriculture industry.

Addressing issues like food insecurity and chronic disease management.

>> This resolution aligns state agencies around a clear direction, integrating nutrition into care and public health, and intentionally connecting that work to Kentucky grown products.

Secondly, it strengthens health outcomes through practical, measurable action.

>> According to KFF, formerly the Kaiser Family Foundation, 43% of Kentuckians have high blood pressure, 40% are obese, and 11% have diabetes.

Supporters of this resolution say diet and nutrition are critically important to improving our state's health outcomes.

>> Kentucky is carrying a heavy chronic disease burden, conditions like diabetes and heart disease that are deeply connected to diet and access.

Our hospitals see the downstream effects of this every day.

They also know we cannot outspend a chronic disease crisis with treatment alone.

Food is medicine.

Interventions like program like produce prescriptions and medically tailored meals for high risk populations are designed to improve outcomes and reduce avoidable costs.

This resolution directs agencies to coordinate with the Kentucky Hospital Association and kDa and other partners to advance these pilots, and, importantly, to evaluate results so we can measure, impact and make smart policy decisions going forward.

>> The Food is Medicine initiative is already underway in some parts of the state.

According to Agriculture Commissioner Jonathan Schell, the Department of Agriculture and the Kentucky Hospital Association partnered together in 2024 to start initiatives like medically tailored meals, using local ingredients and hosting farmers markets and hospital parking lots.

>> We're finding that now patients are scheduling their procedures, their intake, their checkups on the days that the farmers markets are there so that they can not only get their health care taken care of, but also participate in the farmer's market to get their food brought back to the house.

>> The food is medicine resolution passed.

The House Health Services Committee unanimously and will next head to the full chamber for consideration there.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Makenzie Spink.

>> In a similar vein, Senate Bill five passed unanimously in the upper chamber today.

That bill would allow schools to purchase Kentucky grown food for their students.

Well, child care is top of mind for one Western Kentucky lawmaker.

Research from the Kentucky Chamber says a stronger child care system could generate more than $1 billion in new wages and tax revenue for the state.

As our Emily Sisk reports, one Republican legislator says her sweeping bill would modernize the child care system.

>> You know, this bill probably should have been done 5 to 7 years ago, but we weren't to that point.

>> State Representative Samira Heavrin of Litchfield says she believes the Kentucky General Assembly is now to the point of modernizing and restructuring its child care system after unsuccessful attempts to do so in past sessions.

>> In 2024 budget session, there was no there was really no agreement of what we needed to do to fix child care in Kentucky.

Now, this is a national problem, but really, what we could do to help make this more affordable, accessible and create quality child care in Kentucky.

>> So the Kentucky Collaborative on Child Care was formed in 2024.

Founded by the Kentucky Chamber with the goal of assessing the state of child care and what future policies could be made.

>> This was a combination of far right, far left, in the middle, everywhere in between of ways that we could help make child care better in the Commonwealth.

They've worked diligently for the last 18 months to come up with House Bill six.

Nothing went in the findings and recommendations that wasn't agreed upon by everybody.

And that's a lot of agreement for 40 people.

>> House Bill six, in its nearly 40 pages, looks for ways to slash red tape for child care business owners and ensure education standards remain high.

The bill establishes the state's first child Care Micro Center program.

These are facilities that care for 4 to 24 children.

Heavrin says they're ideal for areas where traditional facilities aren't viable.

The legislation also looks to modernize the early care and education rating system.

Right now, that system is known as the All Stars program.

It was established a decade ago and evaluates child care providers on things like classroom quality, family engagement, and more.

House Bill six also requires child care.

Workers receive training to support children with special needs, and House Joint Resolution 50 calls for an independent third party audit of all current child care regulations and policies.

Heavrin further explained the establishment of child care micro centers.

>> It's a specific type of licensure and actually Indiana does this.

What this would do is create allow Kentucky to create ten micro centers.

And so this would mean they're a little more flexible in their licensure requirements.

We still have all the same regulations but allows for more innovation.

>> Child care micro centers would not be required to provide meals or transportation to enrolled children.

As another part of House Bill six, the cabinet for Health and Family Services would establish a database for any child care provider to register as a faith based program.

>> If you're a faith based organization, then you can share that.

And if families want a specific faith based denomination, they can go to that list and see what would be available for their family.

>> Heavrin says child care is one of the greatest priorities of the House Majority Caucus, but she says her legislation appeals to those on both sides of the aisle.

>> Whether it affects you or not, whether you have children or not, or whether your children are now aged out of child care.

It's an important issue for everybody in Kentucky, and I think it's a great bipartisan measure to make sure that we're helping families, whether you're in rural Kentucky or urban Kentucky.

>> For Kentucky Edition, I'm Emily Sisk.

>> Under House Bill six, the cabinet for Health and Family Services would begin accepting applications for child care centers on July 1st, 2027.

No more than two micro centers would be allowed in a single county.

Well, turning now to weather news.

The death toll is now 22 after the snow, ice and bitter cold that hit starting January 23rd.

That's up from 16 on Monday.

Kentuckians have died in these counties you see here.

Governor Andy Beshear says the state is now reporting new deaths in Hart, Madison, Hardin, Grayson, Floyd and Leslie counties.

Some people in Lexington have been critical of the city's response to the snow and ice that have now been on the roads almost two weeks.

A reporter asked the governor for his reaction to that criticism.

And if the state can do anything to help.

>> I think we're all disappointed by the the city's response to this ice and snow event.

This is second one in a row that we we should have seen better results.

And I think the mayor has said that and has taken responsibility.

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.

Now, what we're also going to do is provide any guidance that's requested or that we can offer to update and change.

Lexington snow and ice removal plan.

I mean, after after two times like this, where it's taken them longer than similar or even smaller cities to get their roads cleaned, we simply have to to do better.

So you will see KY trucks back in Lexington trying to speed this thing up.

>> Mayor Linda Gordon's office put out a statement in response to the governor's remarks about Lexington's snow removal efforts.

Quote, we appreciate the support being offered by the state.

We have State trucks, construction equipment and city trucks on our streets clearing the roads.

We pretreated the roads before the storm began.

We will conduct an after action review to find out what went right, what went wrong, and to put together a new plan going forward.

End quote.

The governor also warned people that more snow is expected tomorrow.

He says it's not expected to be heavy, but it could complicate driving on roads that still have snow and ice.

Well, a new poll shows a tight Republican race for the U.S.

Senate in Kentucky.

The poll is from Emerson College in KY.

Fox 56, in Lexington.

On the Republican side, Congressman Andy Barr leads with 24% of the vote.

Former Attorney General Daniel Cameron has 21%, and businessman Nate Morse has 14%.

4% backed other candidates and 38% of Republican primary voters surveyed are undecided.

Now, among the Democrats, Charles Charles Booker leads with 30% support.

Amy McGrath is second with 19%.

Both are past U.S.

Senate candidates.

Pamela Stephenson, the state House minority floor leader, is third with 4%.

All other candidates combined have 4% and 43% are undecided.

The poll also looked at President Donald Trump's popularity in Kentucky.

His approval rating is 53%, with 39% disapproving and 8% neutral.

Governor Andy Beshear his approval rating is 52%, with 31% disapproving and 17% neutral.

Two of the candidates for the U.S.

House in Kentucky's fourth district are raising big money, and most of it from out of state, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Congressman Thomas Massie raised $1.23 million in individual donations in the first nine months of 2025, but only 4.3% of that was from Kentucky, his primary opponent.

Ed Gallrein raised 1.2 million, but only 2.6% of that came from Kentuckians.

Massie has opposed President Donald Trump on some budget and foreign policy matters, and he led the effort to release the Jeffrey Epstein Files.

Trump has criticized Massie on social media and has endorsed Gallrein candidacy.

[MUSIC] Police in Arizona continue to investigate the disappearance of Nancy Guthrie, mother of Today Show co-host Savannah Guthrie.

Today, investigators said they think she is still out there, but they don't have any suspects yet or a person of interest.

Nancy Guthrie has several ties to Kentucky.

Her maiden name is Nancy Long, and she grew up in Fort Wright.

That's just south of Covington in northern Kentucky.

She attended the Notre Dame Academy in Park Hills.

The University of Kentucky student newspaper, The Kentucky Kernel, says Guthrie attended UK and was a staff member and society editor at the newspaper in the early 1960s.

Some students in Wolfe County lose their school to a fire, and a Kentucky community is again dealing with water problems.

Our Toby Gibbs tells us more in this look at headlines around Kentucky.

>> Angelica Capital Trust, based in the Bahamas, says addiction recovery care owes it $8 million.

Angelica filed a federal lawsuit in New York.

The Kentucky Lantern reports Angelica advanced AAC $8 million.

It now says AAC hasn't repaid the money and is wrongfully withholding it.

Angelica wants the court to freeze that money.

Addiction Recovery Care is Kentucky's largest provider of addiction treatment.

AAC is asking the court not to freeze the money, saying it would disrupt crucial health care services it provides to patients.

The Crittendon Livingston Water District says its system is recovering from a major water line break.

The Herald Ledger says that break drained a key tank supplying much of Marion and the surrounding area.

The water system planned on rolling outages to deal with the break, but the district superintendent says the outages were canceled as tank levels rose.

Marion has been dealing with water problems since a levee breach on Lake George in 2022.

[MUSIC] Fire destroyed the Dessie Scott School in Wolfe County last week.

[MUSIC] Weku radio quotes Principal Robert Creech, who says students were not in the school when it caught fire, but the loss of the school is taking a toll.

Creech says the school campus is working on converting another building on campus into a classroom.

The cause of the fire is still under investigation.

[MUSIC] You don't need to visit Pennsylvania to enjoy Groundhog Day.

[MUSIC] People in Knox County gathered to see if Groundhog Barbourville Baxter, as portrayed by Willie Carr, saw his shadow.

[MUSIC] The Mountain Advocate says he did not, meaning an early spring, Punxsutawney Phil saw his shadow, which means six more weeks of winter.

[MUSIC] With headlines around Kentucky.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you Toby.

Unlike most cancers, cervical cancer is now considered nearly entirely preventable by a vaccine.

However, those vaccine guidelines recently changed.

I spoke with a gynecologic oncologist about the new vaccine recommendations and the medical breakthroughs that hope to one day eliminate cervical cancer altogether.

More in tonight's medical news.

Well.

>> Fortunately, in the United States, thanks to things like pap smears and HPV vaccines, cervical cancer is technically a rare cancer.

But over 8000 women in the U.S.

will be diagnosed each year.

From a global perspective, though, cervical cancer is actually one of the most common malignancies.

>> Really?

Okay, well what causes cervical cancer.

>> So about 99% of all cervical cancers are caused by exposure to the HPV virus.

>> Okay.

What is that virus.

How do we get it.

How do we keep from getting it.

>> Well that's a great question.

So HPV stands for human papillomavirus.

And it's actually a family of viruses.

There are over 100 different strains.

Not all strains actually cause cervical cancers or pre-cancers.

Some will cause things like common warts.

Some will cause things like genital warts.

But there are some high risk strains that will cause things like cervical cancers, vulvar vaginal cancers, and even some head and neck cancers.

But exposure to HPV is very common.

Actually, about 80% of sexually active adults have been exposed to HPV at some point in their lifetime.

>> That means that they have the virus in their body.

So do they know how does it how do we get rid of it?

>> That's a great question.

So fortunately for most of our patients and for most people, they'll never know that they have HPV.

And actually the body does a really great job of clearing HPV virus in a majority of people.

However, there are a subset of people that will go on to develop some of these pre-cancers and cancers because of exposure to that virus.

And some people even have periods where that virus goes dormant and we can't detect it, but it can show up ten, 20, 30 years later.

So that's why it's so important to stay to stay current on pap pap smears.

Unfortunately, there's little to do to prevent exposure to HPV short of being completely abstinent.

But what I always remind people is HPV is contracted from skin to skin exposure.

So and again it's super common things that we can do to help decrease risk from those exposures would be things like getting HPV vaccines.

And of course staying up to date on cervical cancer screening.

So if something's happening in someone we can detect it early when it's still a pre-cancer and we can intervene.

>> Okay.

And detecting HPV, the main cause for cervical cancer that involves what?

How do you detect it.

>> So there is a test for HPV itself.

It's typically done with a swab.

We actually in our office will run it with the pap smear.

>> That will be part of that Well-woman exam.

Correct.

>> It will be.

There are some changes in how the frequency of pap smear and HPV testing.

About 20 years ago, people were getting pap smears every year.

And then we found that because fortunately, HPV changes in progression of cervical cancer is a slow process that happens over years to decades.

We've actually safely been able to space the interval when people need pap smears and HPV testing to 3 to 5 years for most people.

>> Okay, now going back to the vaccine.

The vaccine for HPV is for adolescents.

And before it was two doses or sometimes three depending on age.

But starting this month, the CDC has now gone down to one dose.

What are your thoughts on that?

>> So what I always tell people is that if we had a choice and you could only get one dose, great.

That does offer some protection.

However, we know from the development of vaccines and the reason we have that 2 or 3 dose recommendation is because we know that depending on age, either that 2 or 3 dose series gets you far more protection than a single dose would.

>> Okay, this is all great information, doctor.

Thank you so much for being here with us.

>> Thank you for having me.

>> An annual event to collect donations for survivors of domestic violence and their families will take place this weekend.

Kroger and a few other stores are participating in the Shop and Share event on Saturday.

Girl Scouts from different parts of the state will be helping collect items.

>> As First Lady, my number one goal is to make our Commonwealth safe for all of our families.

Sadly, in Kentucky, more than 45% of women and 35% of men experience some form of domestic violence in their lifetime.

These are not just numbers, they are our neighbors from every community in our state.

>> Domestic violence affects both men and women, and if one person in our state fears for their safety and their own home, that is one too many as governor, but more important as the dad of two young kids.

I want our people not just to be safe, but to feel safe at all times.

>> In 2025, Kentucky's domestic violence shelters housed more than 2300 people.

Through shop and share, we can ensure these survivors and their families, when they arrive at a shelter, have everyday essentials because we know that more often than not, families fleeing for their lives don't have much more than the clothes on their backs.

Many survivors in.

>> Our services have had to make the courageous decision to start anew, in many cases leaving behind a jobs, schools, communities and homes to pursue futures free from abuse for themselves and their families.

When you shop for yourself and share an item with your local domestic violence program this Saturday, you give survivors and their children what they need to heal.

Even simple things like snacks, shampoo, and diapers make a big difference.

Your donations help us pack lunches for kids and shelters, provide diapers for mothers starting over, and support survivors who have left everything behind.

>> I want to remind everyone that this happens everywhere throughout the Commonwealth.

There is somebody in your area, maybe even someone in your neighborhood, that needs help.

They might be that person who has to leave in the middle of the night, arrives at one of these domestic violence shelters.

And what you put in your cart this coming Saturday, what you donated could be the difference in how they feel when they walk in.

>> Your shop and share.

Donations are a way of letting survivors know that their courage is met with the support not only of the shelters that serve them, but also the communities that believe them.

>> None of us can replace everything these survivors have lost, but each of us can provide at least one thing they need, one thing that will help them to know there is a future.

>> Since the event was started in 2008, more than $6 million have been donated.

We hope that you will join us again tomorrow night at 630 eastern and 530 central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

And you can subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch our full episodes and clips at ket.org.

You can connect to us through social media all the ways you see there on your screen.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Have a good evening.