(music) >> He loved to farm.

He even raised his first garden this summer.

[MUSIC] He loved sports with kids, and he coached Little League baseball.

[MUSIC] >> A friend remembers a fallen state trooper.

Not just as a police officer, but as a person.

>> This is awesome.

If you had to describe it as a Star Trek spaceship, this would be the new enterprise.

[MUSIC] >> The military community celebrates a new addition to Southcentral Kentucky.

[MUSIC] >> There most likely will be regulations coming down the pike in the future.

>> Regulations of e-bikes and e-scooters.

That is what kind of new rules could be on the way for this modern brand of transportation?

>> Kentucky about 14 of every 1000 kids are identified as victims of abuse and neglect.

>> But there's a new tool available to help people spot that abuse.

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

[MUSIC] >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for Wednesday, September 30th.

I'm Marvin Bartlett.

Thanks for being with us.

Funeral plans are now set for Trooper Hayden Phillips, who was shot to death during a traffic stop Monday in Warren County.

State police announced last night that a vigil honoring Phillips has planned for 630 Central Time tomorrow night at KSP.

Post 15 in Columbia.

A visitation is set for Saturday, October 3rd from 10 to 6 central time at living Hope Baptist Church in Bowling Green, and the funeral will be Sunday at noon Central Time at Diddle Arena on the Western Kentucky University campus.

Yesterday we caught up with Trooper Caitlin Parker, spokesperson for KSP post three in Bowling Green.

He talked about Hayden Phillips, not just as a trooper, but as a person.

>> In Hayden, I mean, he was he was devoted to serving others outside of uniform.

He was a person with.

He was a person with the family, a big personality, a big sense of humor, interests and memories that will stay with those who knew him.

When it comes to Hayden, we'd like to remember him by the things that makes him unique.

For instance, he loved the outdoors and in turkey hunting.

He loved to farm.

He even raised his first garden this summer.

He loved sports with kids, and he coached Little League baseball.

He loved riding horses.

He loved going to church with his family and always had family dinner on Sundays.

He was very passionate about his family.

He also loved Diet Coke and watching The Sandlot.

And his favorite music was classic rock.

He was a good man.

>> A memorial honoring Trooper Phillips is now set up outside Kentucky State Police.

Post number three.

Yesterday, we talked with Governor Andy Beshear, who offered his thoughts about Trooper Phillips murder.

>> But what's happened is an absolute tragedy.

The murder of a Kentucky state trooper who was just trying to do his job had pulled somebody over on a routine traffic stop and should still be here today.

He leaves behind a young wife, three small kids.

The main thing I'm focused on is, is wrapping our arms around that family, making sure that people know they can go to the Kentucky State Police Foundation to support them.

These are three kids that are going to need all of our Kentucky community as they grow, and a family that's going to need a lot of healing.

Well, they're hurting.

I mean, here's a wife who's lost a person that she wanted to be her life partner right before his 29th birthday, and now has to think about raising these three kids without them.

It shouldn't happen.

And but for the violent act of one individual, it wouldn't have happened.

I know what it's like to lose somebody very close to you, to a really violent act.

And what they're going through right now is really hard.

That means we've got to show a lot of love.

That's the only way you push through all that grief.

>> The man accused of killing Trooper Phillips in Monte Branch is seen here in court yesterday in Warren County.

He is in the orange jumpsuit, sitting in a wheelchair.

Police say he was not in a wheelchair because of anything that happened during his arrest.

He pleaded not guilty to murdering a first responder.

Governor Beshear has ordered flags at state buildings lowered to half staff in honor of Trooper Phillips.

That will last until sunset on Sunday.

Phillips was from Glasgow.

He had been in the State police for three years.

It's official.

A skilled nursing facility for veterans is ready to open in Bowling Green.

It's been decades in the making, and officials cut the ribbon yesterday to celebrate.

Our Laura Rogers has more from Warren County.

>> Gave proof through the night.

>> Today is a dream come true.

It's a dream that has taken almost 30 years, maybe a little over 30 years, to come to fruition.

[MUSIC] >> That dream is the official opening of the Robert E Spiller Bowling Green Veterans Center.

>> It's a story of hope, faith, hard work, perseverance through a whole lot of obstacles.

>> State Representative Michael Meredith of Oakland has championed this project for many years, but the origins of it date back to the 1990s, when Colonel Robert E Spiller began advocating for a veterans nursing home in Bowling Green.

>> We have a lot of veterans in Warren County, and of course, surrounding counties.

>> It's a testament to what can be achieved when all levels of government federal, state and local work with community partners and set partizanship aside for the greater good.

>> That includes navigating a budget shortfall of $16.63 million.

Meredith's House Bill two and 2023, signed by Governor Andy Beshear, closed that funding gap.

>> The veterans deserve the very best in this community, and I'm glad that after a lot of work, we delivered.

>> This is awesome.

If you had to describe it as a Star Trek spaceship, this would be the new enterprise.

>> The $53 million facility has 60 private suites and 152 employees.

>> I have some amazing people.

Team members.

We're going to live out that mission, which is to care for our veterans and who deserves it more than our veterans.

>> The center's first hire was Administrator Jason Gum, who's operated long term care facilities for 30 years.

>> We're using ratios like our ratio would be 6 to 1 patients in the private sector.

You might see ten or 12 to 1.

So we're probably going to have more people, more staff to be able to provide the quality service that we're looking for.

>> It is beautiful inside.

There's going to be so much dignity living here.

All, everything modern that you would want in a facility to make sure it can provide for everyone's medical needs.

>> Those needs include rehabilitation and physical therapy, but also recreation and social engagement.

>> It's more than community.

It's family.

It's family.

>> We asked the commissioner about the importance of long term care for the military community.

>> Our veterans serve, you know, three years, 30 years.

The years of combat peacekeeping, mission and training really takes a toll on the body.

And many of them come back and serve in their community and live full lives.

But then there's a point in life where Mama, sisters, friends can't take care of grandpa anymore.

>> They're excited that if the time comes when they need this level of service, that their loved ones are going to be close by, and that's what we should be delivering.

>> The center will accept private pay, Medicare and Medicaid.

And once 20 veterans are admitted, they can become VA certified.

>> This is a promise made and a promise kept to the veterans of South Central Kentucky.

>> The Robert E Spiller Veterans Center will begin admitting its first residents in the next couple of weeks.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

>> Along with this one, Kentucky now has five skilled nursing facilities for veterans.

The others are located in Hanson, hazard, Radcliff and Wilmore.

A nationally prominent political forecaster says there's been some movement toward Zach Dembo in the sixth District congressional race, but Ralph Alvarado still leads.

Larry Sabato runs the University of Virginia Center for politics, and he forecasts the likely outcome of all U.S.

House and Senate races.

He just moved the sixth district race from likely Republican category to leans Republican, meaning Alvarado is still the favorite.

But Dembos chances for an upset have improved.

Be sure to watch KET Kentucky tonight.

Throughout the month of October for a series of candidate conversations as we get you ready for the midterm elections on November 3rd.

Next week, our focus is on the U.S.

Senate race.

Join host Laura Rogers and send us your questions and comments.

That's next Monday at 8:00 eastern seven central here on KET.

Federal money is is headed to Kentucky to help pay for a Pulaski County road project.

Congressman Hal Rogers says $85 million will help pay for construction of the Northern Bypass.

He calls it the third largest federal transportation grant in Kentucky history.

Rogers says this means total federal spending on the eight mile bypass is now $167 million.

Leaders from Kentucky's colleges and universities met in Owensboro this week to discuss the future of higher education in a constantly changing world.

It was an opportunity to celebrate progress, particularly the increase in college graduation rates.

But there are more conversations to have and more problems to solve.

Here's more from Kentucky.

Clayton Dalton.

>> Kentucky Council on Postsecondary Education, or CPE, has an ambitious goal for the state that 60% of the population will have a college degree by the year 2030.

CPE President Aaron Thompson said.

Kentucky's gains over the past five years have been remarkable.

>> Kentucky's been number one or number two in the nation on enrollment gains, persistence, gains, retention, gains, graduation, graduation rate gains, completion gains.

I'll get the word out sooner or later.

And we're proud of that, right?

We're now above national average on all of those markers.

>> Over the past decade, the number of Kentucky adults with a college credential has jumped by over 10%, and Thompson said affordability is a central focus.

>> So now 61% of all of our students graduating from our public institutions are graduating with no debt.

Of those that have debt, we reduced debt by 34%.

>> But not everyone is convinced that college is a worthwhile investment.

A recent Gallup poll shows that only 38% of Americans have a great deal of confidence in colleges and universities.

Kctcs President Ryan Quarles said he believes community colleges are uniquely positioned to boost public confidence.

>> A lot of people are questioning the role of higher education, especially the cost.

Right now we are affordable.

We are the lowest price point in Kentucky.

And we're also open access, meaning if you apply, you get in with us.

And so we take that role very seriously, especially as people somewhat criticize higher education right now.

And so for us, we are really focused on workforce outcomes.

And if you want to gain trust in the public, it's about telling the positive story.

We have, highlighting the student success we have, and also reminding the taxpayers that their investment with us leads towards job creation.

>> In light of the progress Kentucky has made to increase the number of college graduates, accessibility and messaging to low income students is still an area of concern.

>> Although we've done great with affordability outcomes, we have a much farther way to travel in letting people know that that's the case.

They're truly are people that can't afford to go to college, and we need to be focused on that.

But we also have a significant amount of our population, especially our low income population, that believe that they can't afford to go to college.

So we have to combat that.

>> The data is clear that people with a college credential make more money over their lifetime, and are less likely to go to prison or need welfare assistance.

Things that point to a good life.

But Thompson said personal success stories are what really move people.

>> People need to feel it emotionally.

I'm a first generation high school student.

Father was illiterate.

Mother, eighth grade education.

We were sharecroppers.

We had no money.

The house we stayed on, sharecroppers farm had a dirt floor.

But higher education has changed my world and all of my kids world.

You know, you can go from that place of poverty, poverty with not a lot of educational background in your family to leading higher education for a state.

So it's combating that idea that higher education isn't important, because we can tell you how it is important.

>> Experts agree there's no one size fits all solution to make more Kentuckians see college as a positive investment, and one that's affordable and feels accessible.

But Thompson said it looks like changing our mindset from students being college ready to colleges, being student, ready for Kentucky edition.

I'm Clayton Dalton.

>> Now, according to the Council on Postsecondary Education, every tax dollar invested in higher education returns four and a half dollars to the state and $17 to local communities.

>> It's time now for our reporter's notebook segment.

I'm Emily Prince, and I am joined by Kenton Hornbeck, the Boone County reporter for Lincoln, KY.

Kenton, thank you so much.

It's so good to see you again.

>> Thanks for having me.

>> Yeah, we're glad to.

So let's talk about we're going to discuss a couple different topics going on in Boone County and Northern Kentucky.

The biggest one that's been taking a lot of the news lately is everything going on with bikes and scooters and concerns over safety.

So before we really get into the concerns, can tell us for people who don't know what are e-bikes and e-scooters?

>> Right.

So there's kind of this umbrella term that's being used called micromobility devices.

That's what a lot of local officials use to describe e-bikes, e-scooters.

But really e-scooters and e-bikes are personal electric vehicles powered by rechargeable batteries that are charged at these little hubs at people's houses.

They're kind of cheap.

Usually worth $500 or less at some stores that you probably recognize, like Costco, they're pretty easy to get their hands on, and they're very popular among teenagers.

>> We'll get into that more, too.

But tell us about what are the safety concerns that people are bringing up?

I know you were at a Boone County fiscal court meeting just last week, and there was a lot of chatter about it.

So what is going on and why are people so concerned about their usage?

>> I think people are mainly concerned about how teenagers use these bikes and scooters on a regular basis, and are impacting local traffic and really quality of life type concerns, whether that be disrupting pedestrians on sidewalks or running into vehicles because they aren't paying attention or looking at their phones.

And I don't mean to blanket demonize teenagers that ride these things.

Of course, this is just what the common theme of the criticisms are.

But really, when it comes down to safety concerns, there's been numerous documented events that show teenagers writing these e-bikes, e-scooters have been running into cars or being hit by cars, running into pedestrians.

These have caused EMS to be called multiple times.

Actually, there's a statistic that was shared at the Boone County Fiscal Court meeting, where two drivers of these vehicles as young as seven, were hit and they had the EMS services caught, called.

So it's really becoming a community wide concern where people maybe they don't want the outright ban of e-bikes, but they certainly want more safety regulations in place.

>> And of course, maybe it's an obvious thing to note, but because they're electric, I'm sure they can go so much faster.

Right?

And that probably leads to a lot of these accidents because they're the speed that they can get up on these things is, is pretty intense.

And like you said.

So how many are we mostly seeing teenagers or are they people, teenagers who don't even have their driver's license yet?

Do we know like stats on kind of the demographic of who is driving, who's riding these?

>> I would say it skews primarily toward teenagers and young adults.

So anywhere between 13 to 17 people are using them to get around through their neighborhoods, to hang out with their friends, to meet up with their friends.

And that's generally the demographic of people who use them the most.

But there is also a subsection of people who use these as an affordable way of transportation to get to and from work.

You certainly see that here in Covington, where people use e-bikes to go to and from their jobs.

E-scooters as well.

There's certainly a lot of that out in Boone County because it's just so much cheaper on gas, on upfront costs.

So while it's primarily teenagers, there are adults who also use these vehicles.

>> And that also brought up a good point that I was going to ask you, you know, this seems really kind of specific to Northern Kentucky and Boone County especially, has been having a lot of discussion.

Do you feel like is that a fair thing to say?

Is it kind of specific to the region?

And if so, why is that?

>> Well, I think and I don't want to speak for Lexington and Louisville, but maybe they do have some of that as well.

But up here in Northern Kentucky, it's not just the Boone County thing.

It's Kenton Boone and Campbell County.

And I think what it comes down to is the suburbanization of the Northern Kentucky communities that these e-bikes are in.

So Fort Thomas is a bedroom community in Campbell County.

You know, if you're in Fort Thomas, you can see downtown Cincinnati probably from your house or through the city.

That's a popular place for these bikes and scooters, where kids will go around through the streets.

They live in close proximity to one another.

Same thing without End Union, where it's been a prevalent issue.

Union is a very suburbanized community where people, especially kids, have to use these bikes in a way to get back and forth, maybe between school or to their friends houses, or to go play basketball at the park.

So when you look at the overall problem here or quote unquote problem, it's really comes down to suburban communities, of which there are many in Northern Kentucky.

I think out in more rural areas, you're not going to see people using these vehicles as much.

They might rely on cars or other modes of transportation to get back and forth, but there's really not a close proximity use case for a lot of these micro mobility devices out in more rural areas.

>> Right?

And just to make sure we hit on this, I know that the Boone County Fiscal Court did not take any necessary action last week, but what regulations could they consider about these bikes and scooters?

>> Right.

And it's important to note that there most likely will be regulations coming down the pike in the future.

Last week's meeting focused primarily on the overall presentation of data that a specific group of county officials compiled when they were researching the issue to present before the fiscal court.

With that being said, some of the regulations that I think might be coming down, coming in the future, specifically regarding safety regulations on helmets and speed, I think also roadway regulations could be coming.

Maybe you can't ride your bikes and scooters on certain roads.

Those are really the crux of what I believe the regulations will be in Boone County, specifically.

>> Gotcha.

We will certainly keep an eye out to see what regulations fall into place and how that might impact other counties and other municipalities, even in northern Kentucky.

>> Thank you.

We'll have more with Emily and Kenton tomorrow night on Kentucky edition as they discuss some of the biggest political races in Northern Kentucky.

And what does the future hold for current Congressman Thomas Massie?

Tune in tomorrow night for part two of our reporter's notebook.

[MUSIC] In an effort to protect and advocate for children, the nonprofit Kosair for kids Facet Movement started ten four day in 2019 to raise awareness about child abuse and a tool used to identify bruising on children that could be a result of neglect.

We spoke with an official from Kentucky Youth Advocates about child abuse in Kentucky and the importance of raising awareness.

>> 1040 is a day that brings awareness to the ten four faces p bruising rule, which is basically a medical clinical decision that especially medical professionals use to identify whether or not bruising is a result of abuse and neglect or a result of just typical kids.

Accidental injuries or kids being clumsy.

So ten four is an acronym, ten is torso, ears and neck.

And then four is for children four and under.

And then the other faces P acronym points out specifically areas of the head, neck and torso to look out for.

What we know is that babies, especially, you know, are most vulnerable kids under the age of one are at a greater risk of physical abuse compared to their older peers.

And we also know that right now in Kentucky, about 14 of every 1000 kids are identified as victims of abuse and neglect.

So oftentimes what we see is little kids that cannot communicate, and especially during times of a lot of crying, whether it's a baby that is colicky or maybe a child who is teething, or sometimes we see it with toddlers who are potty training, it causes a lot of stress and frustration for parents and caregivers who don't really know how to deal with the frustration and kind of incessant crying that can be really triggering to to adults.

Abuse can happen in any type of home.

It doesn't have to be a family who's struggling financially.

There are well-off families who also, unfortunately, maltreat their children.

So it's not something that you can make an assumption about.

If you see a child struggling because the family is well off or well resourced, it's it's knowing and understanding, especially changes to a child's behavior that could indicate that something's going on.

If you are a neighbor or a family member of a parent who has a new baby, the first and most protective thing that somebody can do is just check in on them and see if they need any support, if they need someone to talk to.

There's a lot of little ways and big ways that we can prevent abuse from ever happening, and a lot of that has to do with recognizing that a parent may be struggling and may not feel comfortable asking for help, but you offering that as an adult can be incredibly important to both the parent and the child.

>> Free training is available to anyone interested in learning more about pediatric abusive head trauma prevention and the bruising rule.

[MUSIC] Kentucky has a plan to promote the state's many kinds of music.

We'll tell you about that on Thursday.

Plus, the nation's leading business lobby just took a tour of Kentucky.

>> Hoping to help spread the word about what we can do and what policymakers can do to really improve business conditions here and across the country.

>> From workforce challenges to employee owned operations here, what Kentucky businesses say Washington needs to know.

Hop on the bus with the U.S.

Chamber of Commerce tomorrow on Kentucky edition.

We invite you to join us each weeknight at 630 eastern, 530 central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

Subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletters and watch full episodes and clips at ket.org.

[MUSIC] You can also find Kentucky Edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device, and smart TV.

And we want to hear from you.

You can send us story ideas at PublicAffairs at ket.org.

Also, you can follow us at Facebook and Instagram.

Thanks for joining us.

I'm Marvin Bartlett.

Make the rest of your evening a good one.