♪ >> To >> be very cautious and be very cognizant of what is going to be just like they're on the permanent bases as we move forward.

>> All statues going open old wounds who should decide whether they stay or go.

The state says there's a vaccination you need and that's not for COVID or the flu.

>> We have a lot of 50's in the country and this would be a way to help them to make their life better.

>> Plus, a robotic hand isn't science fiction?

It's science fact right here in Kentucky.

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

♪ ♪ Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition on this first day of March.

It's Friday.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for starting your weekend off with us.

>> Public protests helped bring down a Confederate statue in Kentucky Statehouse in 2020 today, lawmakers said they should be the ones to decide what monuments and art can be installed or removed from Capitol grounds.

Kentucky additions June Leffler has more as we begin tonight's Legislative update.

>> Currently a commission appointed by the governor overseas art at the state Capitol.

A state House Republican wants to change that.

>> I just feel like that.

We have an obligation to to our constituents, to our citizens, to be very cautious and be very cognizant of what is going to be despite there on a permanent basis as we move forward.

>> Democrats say this is one more attempt to undermine Democratic Governor Andy Beshear's power.

>> I'm just concerned about the direction that we're taking.

And I'm concerned about the fact of the matter that elections.

Have consequences.

>> And the governor.

>> As lead us over the last 4 years and into his second term.

>> He has appointed people that are well qualified for this commission.

>> In a partisan vote, Republicans passed House Bill 5.13.

>> You know, we fought a revolutionary war on representation of taxes of the people that this body here is part of revenue.

Place them to get money from the taxpayer.

Or should be responsible for that.

So I will vote yes on this because of that.

>> The bill now goes to the Senate, a Louisville Democrat asked how the General Assembly would weigh in on representations of more controversial historical figures.

>> Sponsor, can you put my mind at ease by telling me how much confidence you have that this body?

Would restore a statue of a racist slavery.

And secession is like Jefferson Davis, someone equally reprehensible.

>> The questions that were later from Jefferson.

As lady from Fayette.

75 for its mission will not exceed one minute.

>> Yes, sir.

Thank you.

It is absolutely not out of order to ask what our intent is and whether or not there is any kind of plan to restore a statute that has recently been removed from the Rotunda.

Thank you.

>> In 2020, the historic Properties Advisory Commission voted to remove a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis from the Rotunda that came well after people protested the statue and Governor Beshear and then Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron said it should go for Kentucky edition.

I'm John Leffler.

>> Thank you.

June at the Jefferson Davis statue is still in Kentuckyian on display at the Jefferson Davis State historic site in Fairview.

Not too far from where Davis was born.

And Alabama Supreme Court cases prompting action in Kentucky more and our Kentucky Edition Post Scripts as we look back at some of the interesting developments over the past week in Frankfort.

Senator Cassidy Chambers, Armstrong, a Democrat from Louisville, is the sponsor of Senate bill 301.

The bill seeks to clarify Kentucky law by affirming IVF or invitro fertilization as a legal procedure in the Commonwealth last week, the Alabama Supreme Court ruled that frozen embryos have the same rights as children creating more questions for IVF providers.

The House has okayed a bill focused on early childhood education.

House Bill 5.61 calls for making the certified Child Care Community designation program permanent.

It's currently a pilot project.

The bill sponsor, Republican State Representative Samara have run, says the goal of the program is to increase the number of child care and early childhood education services by encouraging local governments to reform their local zoning regulations.

Kentucky is a step closer to getting its first level to research university State Representative Michael Meredith, a district 19, which includes Bowling Green sponsored House Bill 603, which would allow Western Kentucky University to add up to 5 research doctorate degrees.

Every state surrounding Kentucky has at least one level to research University on Thursday, House Bill 603 was unanimously approved by the full House.

So it now goes on to the Senate.

And the House also passed House Bill 3.78 to make Cole Kentucky's State rock now right now, it's the state's official mineral, but state representative Al Gentry, a Democrat and a geologist says Cole is technically a rocket, not a mineral.

The bill would also make council council get the official mineral of Kentuckyian a better way to say that.

Also, Frankfort needs a change in leadership.

That was the message heard repeatedly during a rally this week held by Kentuckians for the Commonwealth.

The group says divisive bills being considered this session approved the general assembly.

Super majority does not have Kentucky's best interests at heart.

♪ ♪ Let the action.

>> It's how we say this place up.

this is going house.

>> It belongs to you.

And although they may not always see the humanity in this place, make your voice heard.

Yeah.

And don't be discouraged because I know.

But the work is long.

It may feel like the changes will never happen.

That's why we Abbas or a box.

>> Comes to racing school.

>> Teacher should be educated on that.

About a slavery unit and be as kind of slavery make you feel.

How do you think you may be too?

I think it makes me feel The assault was not happening to you anymore.

So why?

Why do you care?

It happens.

People around me happen to my family.

I'm here right now because of it.

>> That's something that hasn't been or born get the people that are not here 100 years from now.

Look at this pace right here at site.

Yes, you right now.

Thank you.

>> The speakers at that rally urged everyone to take part in next Tuesday's Frankfort March, recreating the civil rights March that was held 60 years ago and 1964.

In Frankfort.

Some western Kentucky tornado survivors have a new place to call home.

Governor Andy Beshear was in Mayfield today to dedicate homes to 8 families who lost theirs and the 2021 tornado outbreak.

All of the homes dedicated today were built by nonprofits.

The governor's office says 130 new homes have been built in Graves County since the tornado.

Kentucky's top doctor is urging Kentuckians to get measles vaccinations if they haven't already.

Doctor Steven Stack Kentucky's commissioner for public Health says 15 states have reported measles cases.

A Kentucky isn't one of them, but he says someone from Ohio with measles passed through the Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky airport in February.

Yesterday, doctor Stat described what the measles is like for someone who's been vaccinated and someone who hasn't.

>> If you are vaccinated, you almost certainly will get no symptoms from measles.

In fact, the vaccine is so effective.

You won't get sick at all and you don't transmit the virus if you're unvaccinated and the days before the vaccine was approved, which is in 1971, the symptoms were cough congestion and fever, enough, a low grade fever, like the common cold like that, really bad flu fever, 104 degrees to feel miserable in a rash or rash.

That was all over your entire body.

Red blotchy spots all over your body.

In the unlucky ones.

The complications are pneumonia, diarrhea, ear infections, and even sometimes brain swelling that can lead to things like seizures, developmental disabilities and other permanent brain damage.

In the unvaccinated population.

Pretty consistently.

More than one in 5 are hospitalized.

One in 20 develop pneumonia, which is the most common cause of death.

The most common age of death is under 5.

Those are the individuals hurt the most by this disease.

If you're unvaccinated.

>> Doctor Stack says getting to measles vaccinations when you're a child means there's a 97% chance you will be measles free for life.

♪ >> Some major political developments in Kentucky this week.

And we have a great duo with OSS.

We have will.

Carly, who you see on screen left.

>> He's a Democratic strategist and he's the founder of Opine Strategies.

Good to see you.

Well, and then here with us in the studio was Rebecca Heart.

So who is the senior political director?

All of senior policy director got got mixed up.

Bats go found good to see you in person.

So let's start before we start talking about Frankfort staff, the big big news of the week, of course, was that Mitch McConnell's decision to say he would not seek Republican leader after the November election.

Talk to us about how this possibly even punctuates even further the ideological shift in the Republican Party from the Reagan conservative era to now the populace Donald Trump era and let you go first, Rebecca.

And so am I definitely think we've seen a shift leader.

McConnell acknowledged that in his comments on the floor when he he said, but don't don't think I don't understand politics and I'm there are many things that I have flaws in but not a misunderstanding >> he definitely sees the But how that sort of reverberates we're going to see this this next and Kentucky stood still and and really did set in national politics.

And he has been he's the longest serving leader of a party in the Extraordinary career.

Lots of legacy there.

Whether it comes to the Supreme just the institutional pass hours that he's always valued and he strengthened certainly.

I mean, he's he's got a strong legacy and that money is speech.

Citizens United, that that's also another that that he's made such an impact.

So, yeah, how do you see it will Carly and and is this a time where Democrats can get an extra?

>> A bit of all here Mitch McConnell who has been the Democratic Party's nemesis for so being diminished power in a few months.

>> So I do think this is a passing of the torch Chamber of Commerce Country club Republicans.

There are more corporatist to a rising wave of that is much hateful and spiteful and they are productive members of the political system.

And I think Mitch McConnell to his credit, though, has been the glue that has been holding that loose coalition between the 2 together for many years.

Now.

And I think he's really going to be missed from the country.

Whether I agree with him politically or not.

I do think it's it's going to be a problem going forward or actually getting things done in Washington.

As far as Democrats I mean, I think we're not going to miss But at the same time, I'm going to be curious to see what that actually means.

Sometimes for Democratic fundraising and Mitch McConnell runs because we have always ended up with very high cash, some races and a national stage because people tried so hard to beat him.

And I hope that we don't like behind some of those numbers and people continue to be interested in Kentucky.

it is a concern.

I think that the party needs to be aware of.

All right.

>> And yes, that's a that's a good point there.

Well, and the presents that Kentucky has on the national stage with Rand Paul and with James Comer and Mitch McConnell.

When you lose one of the what does that do to our presence and influence on the national stage?

Welcome to you.

As always punched above its weight on the federal level on a national level and losing him is certainly not a win for us and this role and he still looking at rain.

I think in an immense level of even in his even in the chamber, despite not being not being the leader, but you know, I we've got a really strong GOP leaders.

I mean, just in the state, I mean, and they continue to rise.

I think Senator Paul's going continue to rise in the rankings.

I think we've got our >> congressional folks doing the same.

And so it will be a it will be amazing to watch this and also who comes behind that move intially if he chooses not to seek re-election we've got a stable full of candidates wanting to take that role here in the UK.

So all I have to wait and see what happens.

That's right.

So a day after the senior senators announcement that he was not going to be seeking >> re-election as Republican there was some activity there in the state Capitol.

There was a Bill House Bill 6.22.

>> That does some things about filling a possible U.S. Senate vacancy.

What does it tell us?

We're back up and House Bill 6.22, filed by and the majority floor leader, the GOP before majority floor leader.

Stephen Rudy.

>> Would make the U.S. Senate vacancy a special election instead of something that could be appointed by the governor, which has historically been so the norm across the So it's an interesting move.

As soon as this announcement that the bill is filed following the announcement that he did come out, saying that it wasn't anything against Senator McConnell, but this is something that he believes in.

So and it would be a definite and taking away another potential power away from the That's what I was just going to say to Carly.

Just another blow to the governor's power and authority to make appointments.

>> I yeah, this is another attempt by the Republican super majority in the legislature to a strip.

The governor of his constitutional powers granted to them by the people of Kentucky.

This is not the first time in the last time we're going to see this kind of out of control for people that are trying to consolidate power from the one place that they haven't been able to win lately in the last 2 elections.

And that's the governor's >> OK, real quickly, 20 seconds each.

What are you looking for next week where 2 thirds through this session, only 2 bills have been delivered to the governor.

I do.

Some people would question the the actual out of this Kentucky General Assembly.

Rebecca, what are you got your eyes on?

Well, we're on day to day with day 43 of 60.

And so 17 days left that really and truly, I say 15 because I want to come back for veto override.

So.

>> I expect we'll see a the most important and pressing can say that there will be one of I'm also watching sort of and then really, you know, high up Bill Senate Bill, best President Stivers about creating endowment fund for regional to do research.

That's extraordinary to see and what what the impact going to be there.

That's what we'll be watching.

Those 20 bills about constitutional only for can make it onto the ballot.

So which one of these are only going to make It's it's been wild to watch the event.

Franklin kind of we'll see.

We'll see what ends up happening.

Well, what do you got your eyes on?

>> To be honest, because it's so hard for has been a non productive I'm actually watching a lot of these bills that the legislature continues to pursue that are just absolutely ridiculous.

So many issues are based on trans and marginalize and trans people in targeting trans people about how they can live their lives, what they're allowed to do definitions about them.

That actually creates a sense of them being others.

And we just saw Governor Beshear win an election where this is a hot issue for some reason and he stuck by the trans community as he should have.

And now we're trying to do this again.

It's a waste of taxpayer dollars and eventually we hope the legislature will come back of the eye on the ball and do the people work of the people of Kentucky by working on kitchen table issues, working to improve our infrastructure, our health care access to reproductive health, women and continuing to actually function like adults.

>> I believe that who are so good to see you both.

Have a great While Kentucky's agricultural production is growing its number of farms shrinking.

>> Those are 2 key facts from the just-released 2022.

Agricultural Census.

Kentucky Edition asked the experts, what are the challenges Kentucky farms face?

>> There's nothing terribly surprising.

You know, we.

We had some inclination that sales are going to continue to increase in the state >> even if you considered inflation mean expensive.

We're going to continue to increase.

We KET that storm sizes on average.

We're going to be larger we KET that the number of farms we're going to go down.

So there's nothing terribly surprising about what came out.

It was just it had been so long since we've seen data that it was just useful to have something to work with.

>> As we have seen that we've had a decline in the numbers, farmers and farm land that we haven't had an increase in productivity.

And so moving up 40% to a billion dollars in economic impact for agriculture in the state of I think we also have another positive that we saw that the increase in the age ever.

JJ former was not as high as what was expected.

And we've got several programs or the department that I think we're partly to help with that.

Our getting on our new in Nguyen, beginning Farmer Loan program.

We've had a lot of participation that over the last 4 years and that's getting a lot of younger farmers back on the farm to invest back into the operation.

We've got the next generation farmer programs.

Are that development funds well and use their culture incentive that we that we minister administer the department.

It's just kind of a.

>> A structural shift and agriculture that we have news from kind of the medium sized family farm and we're moving more into larger commercial.

Either family are not family enterprises.

And so it just strange changes the shift of what we think of in farming all the effort to unite, try to get new farmers in in the sector.

It doesn't appear to be that we're making significant headway and that causes a lot of concerns for the future as these farmers decide that, you know, it's time for them to retire and they may not have folks in the family to take over.

That creates a lot of concern.

You know, right now.

>> The most profitable thing that you can do on the farm or so.

And we've got to change that.

We we have the opportunity to really create a new narrative around this with their culture is economic development and we've got to protect prime farmland.

We've got to get workforce back and we've got to be able to get our young people back in the farm and make it possible for older farmers to KET farm.

♪ ♪ >> Imagine having a robotic arm controlled by a user's brain waves that's becoming a reality at Northern Kentucky University.

We talked with professor is working on the project.

They say the cutting edge research could give amputees and option that costs less.

>> And works better than what they have now.

>> We have a lot of amputees in the country rights.

We have people who have more the side of the accidents.

We have soldiers who lost their arm incumbent and this would be a way to help them to make their life better.

This new arm with the mind control is so much more accurate and can help them to get back into normal life.

Even if you lose a limb.

So for these projects, only time I was pen and kill.

Those are all depend on to those palm.

So, you know, the most in court on teams that people ended up in a petition to, quote, hold on this page and tell us King does so they sought to and months.

So they time temperature human been sitting on the venues that to somebody a specific.

Come out and go to specific a patient like these and then a comment them to come outside.

See the action and all.

So we have put to customize each week.

Top Soviet team came to some electrodes into us something to support the top, which is easier want to use a friend of the Israelis, cutting U.S. research because it combines.

The human brain basically with computers but computers.

So it's a computer brain, a machine into face.

And the other thing is that not only working on the research year, but also how you can get this out into the business, how you can commercialize this product because that's the next step, right?

The arms that exist, right?

And also the prosthetic arms that exist right now.

They are quite expensive.

So if you want to purchase of Miami, um, so yea, to pay something between a pause on the U.S. to up to 100 cars and all that.

project is for that matter on his customized about so the time is ice on tape.

A specific theme.

What are you what project is company saying?

It may seem so we don't have any money cut.

Pass to Joey Session.

You have never done something like this.

Thank you.

Before this is something we KET.

And also when you look at the market, this is something really new as well.

There you have percent because you're a person becomes that they can react to signal.

But but the uses the nor signal from the left a few arm.

But this is not as precise as what you get from reading the brain base.

Interesting.

>> Over the last 3 years, 5 students have worked on the project.

The research team hopes to add sensory feedback to the arm so users can experience touch pressure and temperature.

♪ >> If you like theater or year and antiques, Bob, we have some options that you'll be interested in this weekend.

Our Toby Gibbs explains in tonight's look at what's happening around the Commonwealth.

♪ >> If you saw the wicked trailer during the big game, you may be craving some Wizard of Oz content to hold you over until the movie comes out.

market House theater in Paducah has you covered the Wizard of Oz Youth Edition Open last night.

And it has shows running through March 10 Joint, Dorothy and Company as they follow the yellow brick road all the way to the Emerald City on their journey for friendship and happiness.

It's been one year if the town opened in Williamstown and he's throwing a big party to celebrate if he is a curious, optimistic bunny character created by Dutch artist D*** grown over 60 years ago.

And if the town has been giving visitors a chance to explore, imagine and play in her world since 2023 tomorrow, maybe herself will be at the shop for hugs and pictures coming out from Ickes.

A one-year anniversary in Kentucky.

The most dangerous plan the world is coming to the southern Kentucky Performing Arts Center tomorrow evening.

The little shop of horrors musical is a Broadway sensation with music from Disney collaborators.

Alan Menken and Howard Ashman.

This darkly charming show will dazzle you with its public carrying and using numbers.

You don't want to miss it.

our head and takes an artisan market kicked off today, but don't worry.

It picks up again tomorrow at 09:00AM this annual event features collectibles artisan items and takes and more for you to shop for.

>> Whether you're on the hunt for the perfect gift for someone are looking for that unique piece to liven up a room.

This market is sure to have what your looking for.

>> The spark places of innovation exhibit has been touring Kentucky since last summer and starting tomorrow, it will be at Shaker Village of Pleasant Hill in partnership with the Smithsonian Institution is exhibit features photos and videos and interactive explore innovation and invention in rural communities.

This is the last stop of the tour.

Be sure to check it out.

The Kentucky bandage festival is back in Gray line station in Lexington this weekend.

Grab your friends and a big shopping bag to check out the 50 plus sellers and the event routes to records vintage clothing and jewelry, home goods and more.

There will be food drinks and live entertainment as well.

The perfect combination for a great weekend and that's what's happening around the commonwealth until begins.

>> Thank you as always.

Toby Monday on Kentucky Edition, a place bringing peace of mind to parents and caregivers.

>> Usually it starts with a phone call and a long conversation.

They just need to be heard for a minute about all their concerns and all their fears for their kid and all their hopes that.

>> It's busy a beehive at this clubhouse and south Central Kentucky helping those with a few extra challenges be all they can be.

We'll tell you all about that on Monday when you join us at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky Edition we have connect and inspire.

Thanks so much for watching.

Connect with us.

All the ways you see on the screen, too.

>> And we hope you have a great weekend and see you right back here on Monday night.

Take care.

♪