[music] Should Democrats be doing more, not only here in Kentucky, but nationally, to engage with people of faith?

Oh, I think so.

I mean, think about the lessons the Bible.

>> Governor Andy Beshear, on how the Democrats can improve their message by 2028.

And will he be a candidate for president.

[MUSIC] >> This is a government that runs the post office.

You want them involved with dictating how AI is developed.

[MUSIC] >> Senator Rand Paul talks about why it's too early to create an AI kill switch.

>> Watch what you wish for, because we are actually turning away business.

Whatever we're doing, we're doing it right.

>> Why?

Movie stars are shooting for the moon right here in Kentucky.

[MUSIC] >> Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Monday, September the 21st.

I'm Kristi Dutton in our KET Studios in Louisville.

Thank you so much for joining us.

Well, drivers are feeling the pinch at the pump as the average price for a gallon of gas continues to climb, due in large part to the war between the U.S.

and Iran.

According to triple A, Kentuckians are currently paying an average of $4.19 per gallon for regular gas.

This time last year, it was 286 a gallon.

Nationwide, the average is 448, compared to a little more than $3 a year ago.

Diesel is currently at a record high.

National average of 6.51 per gallon.

That's almost double the price per gallon compared to last year.

In Kentucky, diesel is averaging 638 a gallon.

Triple A at the bluegrass says high diesel prices mean the gas pump won't be the only place consumers will be getting hit in the pocketbook.

>> We're seeing those diesel prices higher.

And of course, that doesn't just impact someone who has a vehicle that uses diesel fuel.

It impacts our entire economy because the trucking industry, as well as the agriculture industry, rely very heavily on diesel as a fuel.

And so that affects what you pay at the grocery store.

And it affects your cost of all goods.

That would be transported.

Whether by train, which also those engines running on diesel or truck.

The cost of getting those goods to you is, is going to increase.

And therefore you can expect that to get passed along.

And so diesel prices also are having an impact.

And so that's something also that kind of goes into the mix when we talk about, you know, how people are impacted and what we can expect going forward.

>> Historically, the highest average for a gallon of gas in Kentucky for 79, according to triple A, that happened back in June of 2022, which was the start of the war between Russia and Ukraine.

Well, money is heading to Kentucky on more than one front.

Attorney General Russell Coleman says Kentucky consumers are getting about $10 million in debt relief after a nationwide settlement with the credit Acceptance Corporation or CAC.

40 states and the District of Columbia were part of the negotiations.

The states say CAC sold predatory loans to customers, even though it knew those customers couldn't afford them, and Governor Andy Beshear says the state is getting 17 million in federal funding to support mental health and addiction services.

The money will go to 988 crisis service, youth, mental health and addiction recovery.

Well, Governor Beshear continues to get national media attention as he considers a run for president in 2028.

Beshear was profiled over the weekend on CBS Sunday Morning.

He was asked how the Democrats nationally need to rethink their message to voters.

>> Should Democrats be doing more?

Not only here in Kentucky, but nationally to engage with people of faith?

Oh, I think so.

I mean, think about the lessons the Bible teaches, the miracle of the fishes and loaves is one of the only miracles in the first four books of the New Testament, in a place of scarcity.

Jesus makes sure that everybody has enough.

Democrats are fighting to make sure there is food assistance for all of America's children, that kids don't go to school hungry, that seniors don't go to bed hungry.

And look at what Donald Trump tried to do.

He tried to cut Snap benefits during a shutdown for the first time in history to use starving Americans as leverage.

That's not Christian.

It's not the right thing to do.

>> You say Democrats have to do a better job of speaking, as you put it, normal.

>> Yes.

>> What does that mean?

>> We got to sound like normal human beings.

I think that it's it was advocacy speak that was meant for the right things.

It was meant to reduce stigma.

But I don't I don't think you reduce stigma by changing words.

You reduce stigma by by changing hearts.

You think about the term food insecurity.

>> You don't like that.

>> No, because it doesn't convey what that person is going through.

It doesn't convey your compassion for trying to make sure everyone has enough to eat.

Like the word hunger does.

>> Trump has won big in.

>> The governor told CBS that after the midterm elections are over, he will then consider his political future.

U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky, a Republican, says we need to be careful as we think about regulating AI.

Senator John Kennedy of Louisiana proposed all AI companies have a kill switch in case AI goes too far.

He compared AI to the Terminator.

Senator Paul appeared on the Fox Business Channel last week to say, we need to take our time before we take such extreme action.

He says people have always been afraid of new technology.

>> The guys who carried the the stones in a bag on their on their back were opposed to the wheel.

When the loom came, the automated loom.

The hand weavers and seamstresses were opposed to it.

The Luddites took axes and hammers and broke up the looms.

The candlestick makers rioted against electricity.

But the one thing that's consistent with our history is there's never, ever in our history been a technology that was developed that caused permanent unemployment or that people didn't adapt to and create new jobs and create actually prosperity that allowed humans to have more ease.

I'm not saying we never look at regulating AI.

I'm just saying to do it haphazardly by one person going to the floor and popping off about the Terminator is probably not the best way to write laws.

I would think hearings, hearing from both sides, hearing from those involved.

I would actually want to hear from people who actually write the code that is leading to what is AI.

But the bill that was being considered by unanimous consent without any debate could already affect things that we already have out there.

The one AI I use every day now is a search engine.

I push on the AI assistant.

It's amazing how much better the search engines are.

Do we want to regulate every one of those already and have somebody going off with a Terminator or kill switch or something?

So we're on the cusp of doing things with development of new drugs, with developing better drug regimens for how we treat patients.

And I don't want the, you know, this is the government that runs the post office.

You want them involved with dictating how AI is developed.

So I think it's a little early to be.

>> Successfully blocked.

Kennedy's AI kill switch bill.

The midterm elections are just six weeks away.

Come November, Third Kentucky will send a new U.S.

senator to Washington.

It's also a guarantee that Kentucky's sixth Congressional District will have new representation.

The race between Republican Ralph Alvarado and Democrat Zach Dembo has gained national attention in recent weeks.

That was one of the topics host Bill Bryant and his guests discussed Friday on comment on Kentucky.

>> Governor Andy Beshear, political action committee and a PAC that's connected to President Trump's political operation, announced they're getting involved in the sixth district race.

And the ads are underway.

>> Bevin's running mate, Ralph Alvarado, stood side by side with Bevin.

>> Doctor Ralph Alvaro spent years watching it and got sick of it.

So he's running.

>> So Hannah.

Obviously now this race is on the national radar.

Interesting that Governor Beshear is opening up his operations wallet to try to help Democrat Dembo.

>> He is Beshear is investing significant time and money into this race.

I remember I want to say it was a couple months back when there was sort of this campaign launch for Dembo for the general election.

He was there as well, as, you know, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman, Rocky Atkins, you know, notable Democrats in the state.

And I think for Beshear, targeting this race makes sense in two different ways.

One is that this race, as you said, has been targeted by national figures like the D, triple C has identified as one of the districts they're hoping to flip from red to blue.

You know, the district involves includes more Democratic voters as well as more moderates and independents as well.

So I think Democrats see this as a chance, a good chance to flip it, but also, I think potentially a Dembo win could help Beshear should he decide to run in 2028 for President Bashir.

You know, throughout this past year has sort of been saying this message across the country of I am a Democrat who can win in a red state.

And I think if Beshear can say, look at me, I helped another Democrat win in a deep red state like Kentucky, that sort of just adds another thing to his resume as he's trying to sway voters.

He's a viable candidate here.

>> McKenna, do Republicans see a threat with President Trump's political operation putting in over $635,000 into the race to try to help Alvarado?

>> I think both of those PACs spending show that both parties really want to invest in keeping this or keeping or gaining the seat, depending on which party it is.

You know, I think Republicans that I'm talking to in the sixth district feel like this district is historically held by Republicans.

Andy Barr has held the seat since 2012.

That election, and they feel like some of those rural counties can counteract a high Democratic vote in Lexington.

>> And then you see the 70, almost 70,000 independent voters in the sixth district.

You said that's 12.5%.

>> About 12.5% as of August.

Numbers.

>> That's hard to ignore these days, right?

>> Yeah.

And I think that you, as we're talking about like nationally, President Trump's approval ratings being pretty bad, I think there's a sense of maybe those independent voters are, you know, they're always up for grabs, right?

Because they're registered independents, but maybe they're more up for grabs for the Democrats.

And maybe we have to put more money into the ads on the Republican side to try to make sure that, you know, they don't snag them.

>> There will also be first time voters in this race, this election cycle, because we have closed primaries.

So they weren't able to vote for any Republicans or Democrats a few months ago.

>> And I think that, you know, both candidates are recognizing the significance of this rise of independent voters.

I mean, first year of Denver, who we have not seen, sort of lean more into kind of the progressive policies, like, let's say, that Booker has in Senate campaign.

And then you have Alvarado, who has removed some Trump Trump, you know, things from his website.

So I think both candidates are, in a way, trying to appeal to those moderate voters.

And I don't know, they could be that independent block, could be the deciding factor here in the upcoming election.

We just don't know.

>> Interesting discussion.

You can catch more of it.

Just look for comment on Kentucky on ket.org.

It's not just the stars creating bright lights over the bluegrass.

State lawmakers have set the stage for more movies to be made here, meaning Hollywood stars are also finding their way to Kentucky.

Laura Rogers has more from Lexington's Lex Studios.

>> We have these space suits that were fabricated in Los Angeles.

You kind of forget how cool your job is, and you take a step back and you're like, whoa!

>> Costume designer Grace Welsh has traveled all over Kentucky the past three years to make movies.

>> I am so grateful that we get to shoot so many films here.

>> Because it's the bluegrass.

I mean, we have so much to offer and it's so beautiful.

>> Natural landscapes, quaint communities, and unique attractions are all drawing filmmakers here to tell their stories, along with southern hospitality.

>> You come here and you feel like you're at home and you're greeted with so much warmth and compassion and empathy.

>> It's been wonderful.

People are so accommodating, welcoming.

And, you know, the town is so easy to get around.

>> The word is.

>> Spreading that Hollywood is here and locals are often eager to get a glimpse of the action.

>> I'm hearing stories about the whole town showing up in Paris to be extras for a Christmas movie.

That's just exciting.

That's not a common occurrence.

That's very unique to Kentucky.

>> The General Assembly has also created a welcoming environment for filmmakers and movie crews with a film tax credit bill.

>> These days, a lot of movies travel to where the tax incentives are, and Lexington and Kentucky has a great tax incentive right now for film.

So you're going to be seeing a lot of films start to be filmed here or made here.

So that's going to be a benefit.

A lot of the local economy.

>> The incentive is 3,030% for out-of-state crew.

35% for local and 30% for qualified spends.

And then now it's 30% on fringes, which means anything union related, including SAG and fringes.

We get 30% of that back.

>> And that means more money to spend on the production.

While area businesses benefit from local spending.

>> We build a grid and then we share this grid and things are coming and going.

Like now I have cars coming and going today.

Made a deal with hotels.

I get a pretty solid discount with the local hotels here and.

>> Give me a fist bump.

>> Come on.

Just everyone willing to help that environment.

I think it's going to put Lexington on the map.

>> April Campion is the line producer on Moon People shooting in Lexington for three weeks.

>> It's not every day you get to build the moon.

Say, I'm going to the moon today, build a space station and go find caves.

I mean, it's been the coolest, surreal experience I've ever had.

>> That's all happening here at Lex Studios, a former movie theater converted into a soundstage boasting more than 50,000ft█!S of production space, all under one roof.

>> It's exciting as an actor to be able to really see some of the things come to life and then know post-production is going to have a huge, huge part of it as well.

>> I've worked with Apple TV, I've worked on the Sony lot, and I'm so impressed because I feel like I'm at home in California as the way they renovated this entire old movie theater.

I mean, it kept the legacy of the history of Lexington and allowed it to be modern with where filmmaking is headed.

>> Last year, the state legislature also passed a bill establishing the Kentucky Film Office.

>> Just recently, they hired Meg Fister, who's the head of the film office for the state, and she's doing a terrific job in a great benefit, a much needed asset that's really helping shape things.

>> Making space for more filmmaking opportunities across the Commonwealth.

>> Just knowing there's going to be a lot of great films shot here.

I think that's an exciting thing for Kentucky and bring more movies here.

>> For Kentucky Edition.

>> It's been interesting.

>> I'm Laura Rogers.

>> On and off, but.

>> We'll have much more about the Kentucky film industry this evening on Kentucky tonight, host Marvin Bartlett talks with a panel of movie makers and state leaders about the money Kentucky brings in and the efforts to lure even more movie business to the Bluegrass State.

Join us for that at eight eastern, seven central right here on KET.

[MUSIC] If you've driven down highway 15 in Breathitt County, you may have seen the sign for the Fort Ancient Village.

This site is where prehistoric Native American groups lived.

Nearly 3000 years ago.

The village was first discovered in the 1980s and is now under the stewardship of the Craig John historic preservation nonprofit.

Last week, construction began on the Craig John Fort Ancient Village Learning Center, where students and Eastern Kentucky will be able to learn more about the first inhabitants of Breathitt County.

>> The excavations were done here in 86 and 87, 1986, 87, and they.

They excavated 3000 artifacts from the different building areas and so forth that were here.

So this is a very ancient property.

People were living here in the early woodland period, which is 1000 B.C.

the later era, Fort Ancient was there were farmers, hunter gatherers.

They grew corn, beans and squash.

The three sisters.

So they they were farmers and they lived here until about 1400 A.D.

and then they vanished.

The fort.

Ancient culture just left without anyone and left no descendants.

According to records, they left no descendants.

The closest lineal tribe is probably the Shawnee.

>> You know, the land is so important here because it was it was sacred.

It was home to generations of first inhabitants here in eastern Kentucky.

And over the years, so much of that history had been erased or simply ignored.

This is an important site for us to embrace what was here long before the first Europeans came here.

And this site is important that we preserve it, and more importantly, that we interpret it for our current generation and for future generations.

>> This will be a building that we will get started.

We will equip the inside with digital wall displays going back 8000 years.

We'll have a lot of things in the building artifacts, all the artifacts that were at Web Museum in Lexington that were excavated from here.

We're bringing them back.

We have a letter from them that we get those artifacts back for display here in the series.

We're calling the Craig and Learning Center.

Instead of a museum.

Museums, you go in, you can't touch things here.

You'll be able to pick up a piece of flint and touch it and feel and learn what it was.

So we proud to be called a Craig and Learning center.

>> So many other sites similar to this have been destroyed through the generations.

So this is a unique opportunity for us to not only preserve what's here, but more importantly, to bring in school children, to bring in people from the community, to bring in people from Eastern Kentucky, to see and to understand and to feel and to learn.

You learn so much by walking in the footsteps of those that have come before us.

And here you get an opportunity to go down into the village, what's left of the village, on the riverbank, and to walk around where we know 8000, 2000, 2000, 500 years ago, there were native tribes living here, loving here and spending time here as families.

>> The name Craig is a combination of the name Cannard Ragan, an industrialist who opened the Olin Chemical Company in the area in the early 20th century, providing hundreds of jobs for the community.

At the time named the area Craig in honor of him.

Well, you are not forgotten.

That's a phrase used to honor the Americans who served their country and became prisoners of war or are missing in action.

Last Friday, September 18th, was POWMIA recognition day and Kentuckians came together to recognize locals who never returned home.

[MUSIC] >> Who Wheeler my father.

[MUSIC] >> Captain Calvin Kenneth Kearns, United States Marine Corps, Korea missing in action July 3rd.

>> Birthdays and holidays passed, and for families still waiting for answers that weight can last a lifetime.

Today, more than 80,000 Americans remain unaccounted for from conflicts dating back to World War Two.

>> It started a few years ago.

The Woodford County Library started this program to honor POWs and MIAs of Woodford County, including Midway and Versailles.

And it's just a great way to remember the things that are really important.

Sometimes I think we kind of think of that as very distant.

You know, these were people in other states or other cities, but they were right here among us many, many years ago.

They were brothers, husbands, sons, daughters, mothers.

They were, you know, important members of their community who went off to war.

And they never made it back.

Whether they were held prisoner and they didn't make it back, or whether they were held prisoner and never did make it back, or whether they were missing in action.

And we don't we still don't know where exactly they were.

It just reminds us of an incredible sacrifice people made.

And the sadness their families feel about that lack of closure, about what actually happened to them.

So we do this so that we never forget.

And so we we mean those four words.

They talk about that, you know, you are not forgotten.

>> If we don't tell these stories, if we don't remind Americans, the the sacrifice that is necessary to maintain our freedom to fight tyranny around the world.

Those those stories get lost.

And the whole purpose of our Republic and why we were founded.

It's important that we tell those stories.

We.

We let people understand the sacrifices, the tremendous perseverance, a sense of duty and honor that these service members.

That in particular, the ones that were taken captive and endured in as POWS and the tremendous hardships that they endured.

And then, of course, many of them died either in captivity or.

In battle.

And their remains were never recovered.

So their families have nothing more than a cold granite monument to remember them by.

>> We are still looking all these years later.

Americans are still working to find them, bring them home, and give their families answers.

And that brings us back to the four simple words on the POWMIA flag.

You are not forgotten.

Perhaps those words aren't simply a statement.

They're a promise.

And today, here at home in midway, we have a small part in keeping that promise.

A good friend of mine.

I've gotten to know him over.

>> The years.

The U.S.

Department of Defense continues to look for missing servicemen and women around the world.

[MUSIC] Louisville beat SMU this weekend, and Kentucky beat Texas A and M. So let's look back at another coach getting an important win.

Our Toby Gibbs has that and more as he looks back at this week in Kentucky history.

>> The skirmish at Snow's Pond was one of two Civil War battles in Boone County during the fighting on September 25th, 1862, Confederates captured 65 Union prisoners as they tried to slow a Union advance moving south.

[MUSIC] Happy birthday to Kentucky's 61st governor, Steve Beshear.

Born in Dawson Springs on September 21st, 1944, he was governor from 2007 to 2015 and is the father of the current governor, coach Paul Bear.

Bryant won his first game as the University of Kentucky football coach, beating Ole Miss 20 to 6 on September 21st, 1946.

[MUSIC] He would coach UK for eight seasons, then move on to Texas A and M and later Alabama Bluegrass Music.

Great and Kentucky native Bill Monroe and his band, the Bluegrass Boys, released the song Blue Moon of Kentucky on September 23rd, 1947.

[MUSIC] It would become Kentucky's official bluegrass song in 1988.

Reporters, Treasury officials, and a few members of Congress toured the Gold Vault at Fort Knox, Kentucky, on September 23rd, 1974, and finally, Kentucky Educational Television first signed on the air September 23rd, 1968.

That's a look back at the big events this week in Kentucky history.

[MUSIC] I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Kentucky's all in on AG Education Week is here.

Taking students outside the confines of the classroom for hands on learning.

>> I want them to go into these tractors that are behind me in the field, and I want them to see all the buttons and see all the levers and be really fascinated by what this work actually looks like.

>> It's an eastern, western and Northern Kentucky students from across the state will learn about agriculture and farm safety this week, and we're going to bring you more from the kickoff event in my hometown, Jessamine County.

Tomorrow on Kentucky edition.

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

You can subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletters, and watch full episodes and clips@ket.org.

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That's all the time we have for tonight.

Thank you so much for joining us.