>> But it does seem like those winds just KET going along.

Great with the harder it gets.

>> The cleanup continues into a new week after damaging winds sweep across the state.

We should have a say when it comes to education, policy and decision-making.

And Kentucky students say they want a seat at the decision-making table.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions.

The owner Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Monday, March 6.

>> After a rough start to the weekend.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Monday night with OSS.

>> There is a state of emergency in Kentucky after Friday.

Severe weather brought damage destruction and power outages.

5 Kentuckians were killed in the storms.

Our Laura Rogers takes a look at the impact of high winds which demolished property all across South Central Kentucky.

>> The win was just terrible and it was a big tree.

It's been here forever.

Tracy Lacy has lived at Countryside, Village, Mobile Home park in Bowling Green for 8 years.

One of my neighbors come to my workplace and tell me my home had been hit hard.

So I left work and this is what often.

Not in a million years.

I thought I'd come home to not have him home.

Lacey, who lives here with her 2 year-old grandson now forced to find another place to stay >> I think get past the kitchen because it's collapsed and it's uncertain what should be able to salvage.

I don't think furnitures coming out.

>> A lot of armed here in the local area.

That's it.

That Sheetz blow it off.

>> Friday's damaging winds also affecting Kentucky farmers like cold innocent.

>> The biggest thing I guess is we lost this green health.

It just push it over in all the bowls.

And just to totally, really it.

>> Denise's family farm also operates a roadside market 7 months out of the year.

He estimates up to $40,000 in damage.

>> I could probably couldn't have been at a worse being full of flowers.

>> The Kentucky Mesonet confirms winds were recorded higher than 70 miles per hour across Kentucky on Friday.

That's approaching hurricane strength and unlike any tennis and has witnessed before.

>> I soon be 69 years, though, and I've never seen goods to win.

As severe as this was without being involved in a big thunderstorm of some cat.

>> So straight line winds toppling trees and leaving hundreds of thousands without power.

Utility crews working around the clock to get it restored.

The damage widespread.

>> I know what 3 barns that the are there on the ground and probably within 2 or 3 miles of here.

>> Cleanup and repairs will likely take months heading into the spring season.

That's time.

Those in the farming community don't always have.

>> We've got a helpful now.

I mean, this guy to be a busy time of the year for us here on our farm.

And I guess it is most often.

>> Busy, indeed, as the farm includes a tobacco crops, livestock and fruits and vegetables.

>> With this guy had to start all over.

Start from the ground and go up.

There's one of those things I look at it like it could always be worse.

>> Lacey also starting over with a new living arrangements.

She says in spite of the circumstances, she is grateful.

>> He's proved a lot more thankful for everything you've got because I made it 30.

For Kentucky.

Addition on Laura Rogers.

>> Thank you, Laura Friday, severe weather also included tornadoes and historic flooding EF 2 tornado touched down in McCracken County's Fremont community and an F one near Hanover, Indiana, a large area of north and western Kentucky saw more than 3 inches of rain within 24 hours.

Here are some of the damage in central Kentucky, including a flipped airplane on top of another airplane at the Georgetown Scott County Airport.

There was also damage at Ashland, the Henry Clay Estate in Lexington, plus, downed power lines and traffic lights throughout the area, including Pulaski and Montgomery counties.

Kentucky Utilities has a staging area at the Kentucky Horse Park in Fayette County.

We asked Daniel Lowery of KU how this power outage compares to other outages in the past.

>> This wind storm that hit us on Friday.

Is now the 3rd most significant outage event that we've had on our system and the last 20 years so this is a historic, the event.

It ranks up there with the ice storm in 2009 Hurricane Ike in 2008.

So it ranks up there with those really big storms and big outage events that we've had for LG E and KU.

>> Lowery says KU hopes to have all power back by Wednesday at 11:00PM Eastern Time.

Senate Bill 4, if past is supposed to protect Kentucky's electric grid and also help the coal industry.

The bill from state Sen Robby Mills of Henderson would prohibit the public service commission from allowing utilities to retire.

Coal-fired fired power plants and less several conditions are met.

Details in Tonights legislative update.

Now, here are those conditions.

First, the utility must replace the retired unit with new electric generating capacity.

Second rate payers wouldn't have to pay for the new unit.

And finally retiring a unit can't be the result of financial incentives from the federal government.

Senator Mills spoke about the need for this bill on the Senate floor last week.

>> This bill is a statement by the policymakers of the Kentucky legislature that, quote, unquote temporary service interruptions or, quote, unquote, blackouts.

>> Are not acceptable.

And that Kentucky is going to do all we can to do within our powers to make sure that we have reliable, resilient and affordable electricity in our state.

>> A winter storm in December led to widespread power outages in the Commonwealth.

Major utility companies in the state resorted to rolling blackouts to try to KET pace with the demand.

Shortly before the storm LG and E and KU announced a plan to retire for coal-fired units and replace them with a pair of natural gas facilities.

State Senator Phillip Wheeler from Bible says his region has been devastated by policies from Washington speaking in the favor of the bill.

He said.

>> My region, my home has lived through the devastation wrought.

By Washington on rural America through their insatiable.

Efforts to go green as they fly around and their corporate jets, these limousine liberals lecturing to the rest of us about how we need to get clean, how we need to put more coal miners in my district out of work.

You know, I sit there and wonder, you know what reality these folks actually live in.

>> State Senator David Yates, a Democrat from Louisville, says sometimes it would cost customers more to stick with called.

>> Ladies and gentlemen, somebody has to pay for it.

Not to my constituents.

They can afford it.

They cannot afford another hit and utilities.

That difference 7, 8%, increase.

Because what we do here, whatever that number is because I'm looking in, you're talking about scrubbing.

And that cost about 600 million dollars.

>> The bill passed the Senate.

25 to 8 last week and it's now headed to the House floor consideration there.

State Senator Danny Carroll says nuclear energy is the way of the future pays the sponsor of Senate Joint Resolution.

79, which would establish the nuclear Energy Development working Group.

The group's goal would be to determine the barriers to nuclear power generation in Kentucky to submit a report to the governor and the lrc by the end of the year and to help create a permanent nuclear Energy Commission.

The resolution passed the full Senate unanimously last week and is now waiting on action from the House.

Thousands of electronic slot like games or in the back rooms of truck stops, bars and restaurants and a Lexington Republican says they're illegal and he believes they should be banned.

But legislation that appeared to be on the fast track to do that was derailed on Friday.

A fellow Republican lawmaker from are lying or exacted a parliamentary move to block a House floor vote Friday on House Bill 5.94. that would outlaw gray machines, Lexington, Republican.

Killian Timoney is the bill sponsor.

>> Kentucky has always done an excellent job of regulating gaming.

And we want to continue that effort now by outlawing illegal gaming machines.

And explicitly saying what is not gambling and what is not and what devices and machines are gaming machines and which ones are not.

>> Under House Bill 5.94 civil penalties for operating gray machines include a $25,000 fine.

That would go to the counties where the games are located.

Exceptions in the bill include charitable gaming, esports and skill base contests and our lines are Republican with a competing bill said House members are only given the option to ban gray machines and not consider his choice to regulate and tax them.

Here's freshman lawmaker Steve >> the regulation and taxation, a skill game.

2 bills have been filed in this chamber that would do exactly that.

They've not been heard.

And our top economy, many Kentucky, small businesses.

Have found a way to offer entertainment to their patrons while creating a much needed revenue stream through legal skill games.

When COVID-19 decimated our restaurants and bars.

Many people lost not only their jobs but their livelihoods.

They lost everything they had worked for.

Their entire life to accumulate.

This ban on skill games only serves to punish those Kentuckians for innovating after COVID-19 close their businesses.

Only one built has been given the chance to move through the legislative process.

But there is another way.

Mister Speaker.

I move that this legislation be laid on the table so this body can consider a 3rd option of taxing and regulating skill games.

>> The motion to table or postpone consideration of House Bill 5.94 was approved.

It still could be acted on in the coming days.

You may not have noticed, but a couple of extra 10 A's were added to the gas tax last week.

Governor Andy Beshear tweeted on March first that because state lawmakers failed to act.

The gas tax went up $0.2.

You may remember that last summer amid soaring prices at the pump, Beshear issued an executive action to freeze it.

I talked with Andrew McNeil, a former deputy state budget director and senior fellow with Bluegrass Institute for Public Policy Solutions.

He says the generals, chimps, Embley should enact an 18 month freeze on the gas tax.

Providing time he says for what he calls the Broken Road fund formula to be overhauled.

>> Andrew McNeil with Bnp's as we call it for short hand.

Thank you for a few minutes of your time to talk about the gas tax freeze.

The governor, Andy Beshear headed by executive issued this freeze.

That would KET this $0.2 from going up.

But that time has lapsed.

Can the Kentucky General Assembly still act?

>> There is time for the General Assembly, the accident.

It's going to take an action by the General Assembly to give Kentucky uncertainty.

The gas tax isn't going to increase, sell them.

It has increased already to this point, according to the governors, the social media, by virtue of Rene, a broken road funding formula.

The has certain mechanisms in their 42.

And just as you said, the governor use executive action to suspend the gas tax increase that would have happened in July that that executive order has expired.

It appears as the governor announced last night on his social media accounts that the gas tax has gone up by >> So when he did that, of course, gas prices were much higher.

Then they are right now.

Many will say it's just too sense.

Does it really matter what say you?

>> Well, I certainly think that matters.

The U.S. taxes have been raised on Kentucky INS in this way.

This really infant formula is decades old.

It is so good >> tax.

A tax increase has this happens without a vote of the legislature without of the signature of all the governor on a bill >> it's only $0.2, but >> You know, we could see gas prices spike again this summer we did see the U.S. Kentucky answer again, a at the pump prices.

The U.S. are troubling.

And I simply think that the U.S. a better way to approach this is to freeze the gas tax statutorily.

And temporarily so that the Legislature can begin examining this broken road to formula and bring forward recommendations on how to fix it in the other come indoors, the 2024 session.

>> And that's a good point that Mister McVeigh, because I was just going to say all the bills have been filed.

We do know there are several shell bills where the can be used as vehicles for legislation to do what you suggested.

Are you optimistic that it even happened this session?

And 23?

>> It can happen if the Legislature has the will to follow through with taking this step, to protect their This is a revenue measure there are often, as you know, are day of cleanup measures that go through the session.

But near the end of the session.

But where they make some tweaks to tax policies.

This can find a home inappropriate Bill.

It's a very short provision.

Could be refunded the sons or 2. the General Assembly wants to do this.

There's no reason why they cannot.

>> So final we hear a lot from groups like Kentuckians for Better Transportation who complained about the governor's executive action back in the summer because this does affect, as you alluded to the road funding, which goes to fine, you know, our roads and our bridges.

And if we don't like potholes, etc.

So what is the long-term solution to making sure that we have enough money and the road fund and those coffers to make sure our highways and byways are safe for travelers and motorists.

>> Well, the General Assembly has appropriated a record in bouts of dollars in resources towards infrastructure transportation over the last 3 to 4 years.

there is a lot of construction activity going on.

But in the state, there's a lot in the pipeline to continue with those projects, the long-term solution.

And that's the reason why we're pulling for only a temporary freeze of this formula is to take advantage of some time to look at this formula to discuss the future of funding for infrastructure and transportation in the states to look at what could be a goals to look at possibly vehicle Miles traveled, but do it in a way this summer in the interim so that the various stakeholders can come to the table so that the time players can be part of a transparent process.

What they're going to for motor fuels tax.

And so a temporary freeze word is interim there is a need for a long-term solution, but let's do it out in the open less, not have taxpayers pay more simply because of the broken road from formula that has led to this automatic tax increase.

All Kentucky INS.

>> Well, thank you, Andrew McNeil for your time and your perspective.

>> Thank you for that.

♪ ♪ >> Now on to education, Kentucky.

Students want to say and the state's education system, 3 different bills in the Kentucky General Assembly.

What Ed student members to school boards, higher education boards of trustees and the Kentucky Board of Education.

Last week the Kentucky student Voice team was in Frankfort push in the Legislature to consider the bills that would give students a say in education policy.

Our Casey Parker Bell spoke to 2 members of the student voice team about measures and how they would impact education across the Commonwealth.

>> So I know there are a handful of bills talking about giving students more representation on boards, giving students a voice.

So why is it important for students to have this voice >> it's very students are the primary stakeholders in our education system.

And we directly experience a lot of, you legislation surrounding education.

We we are the ones who experience and learn from that in the classroom.

And therefore, we should have a say when it comes to education, policy and decision-making because, you know, at the end of the day, this the system is to serve students and us to better everybody.

Student body.

>> What would it mean for students to have that voice?

Representative Timoney, he's one of the co-sponsors of House Bill.

One.

61.

>> Said you're not going to be an actor culture board without a farm area not to make a police board without a police officer.

And so, you solely on edge since students are the primary stakeholders of our education.

It's critical that we're in the rooms when education policy decisions are being made.

>> So you have experience on board this first one in What type of conversations that lead to and how did it change the conversations work that's happening.

>> It led to very important conversations.

You I was able to express concerns whether relating to students and students needs.

And, you know, board members would, you know, just the conversation accordingly.

And, you know, we would have very just empathetic and I'm understanding talks in the boardroom.

And, you know, I can confidently say that whether something I had to bring up or what this current board member Jude had to brought up directly, change the outlook of most board which then turns into policy.

And so those conversations are very important.

>> And there are a lot of topics that prep students want to lend voice to.

They're getting heard right now.

What types of things you think students have perspective on their curious about that might have been talked to might not be talked about by adults right now.

>> Well, there are a lot of issues that are being talked about by adults right now that you still need students in the conversation like we're seeing a lot of anti LGBTQ legislation being brought out.

And it's so important that we have students who are in positions of power, who able to speak on those issues so their opinions can be considered in education policy decisions.

>> A survey that student voice that showed that over half of school districts were open to having students, prospective students on boards.

But of course not many of them do.

How do you think that you all can push people to include student voices on the different boards?

It's really just >> telling them that this opportunity exists like my superintendent actually filled out that survey and I was looking through his responses and really he just had a lot of questions about having a student board member on the position like the legality of it.

And it is legal students can Mets, GM board member.

It's just not required at the moment.

And so showing the superintendents and school board members that this possibility exists and the students can serve all these positions and that we're capable of serving on these positions.

Then 3rd, I think they're going to be a lot more inclined to include us.

We have people.

>> House Bill one 36 would add additional voting student members to higher education boards or trustees House bill.

One 61 would add non-voting student members to every school board and Senate bill.

22 would give voting rights to the student member on the Kentucky Board of Education.

All 3 bills have yet to be heard by a committee.

♪ >> Kentucky's unemployment rate for 2022.

Was 3.9%.

The lowest ever recorded.

The state says that's down from 4.4% in 2021.

10 years ago in 2012, the state unemployment rate was 8.2% as the U.S. but still emerging from the great recession of 20.

0, 8, the national jobless rate in 2022.

Was 3.6%.

Kentucky State Representative La Main swan held a press conference today to push legislation he says would take a step toward ending housing discrimination House Bill 4.37.

Was stop landlords from refusing to accept government assistance and child support as an com Representative Swan says the practice is called source income discrimination.

>> This disproportionately affects renters of color.

Women, persons with disabilities and source of income didn't discrimination contribute is to continue what he should of recently said Sigrid communities in neighborhoods concentrate the improv poverty.

>> Representative Swan was joined by members of the group of Kentucky tenants House Bill 4.37.

Has not been given a committee assignment.

Both small and members of Kentucky tenants called for Lexington's Urban County Council to address the issue as well.

>> Imagine this a different way to spell the word Kentucky to be gives has that and more in tonight's look at this week.

And Kentucky history.

♪ >> Jim Bowie and better of the Bowie Knife was one of the famous Americans along with William Travis and Davy Crockett killed during the siege at the Alamo on March 6, 18.

36 during the war for Texas independence and movie was a Kentuckyian a native of Logan County.

12 years later, March 6, 18.

48 Lexington received its first telegraph message from Louisville.

Camp Nelson in Jessamine County began taking black soldiers to fight in the Union Army on March 10th 18.

64 eventually 57% of eligible military aged black men from Kentucky would join the Army.

>> The highest percentage of any state.

The University of Kentucky men's basketball team beat LSU.

63 to 56 on March 9, 1954.

To go a perfect 25 on the season the team chose not to play in the NCAA tournament because 3 players were in graduate school and were ruled ineligible to play.

March 6, 1967, the American Basketball Association granted a franchise to Louisville, Kentucky.

Colonels play for 9 years until the ABA folded in 1976.

The spelling of Kentucky changed on March 7th 17 89 Kentucky was a Virginia territory and had been spelled with an E E on the end until the Virginia General Assembly decided to replace the need with the wine.

And that's a look at what happened this week in Kentucky.

History.

>> I'm told, begins.

>> You always learn something new with Big Ed's and we hope you'll join us tomorrow night to learn even more new things at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky edition where we inform connect and inspire.

I'm Renee Shaw, thank you so much for joining us tonight.

I will see you right back here again tomorrow night.

Take good care.

♪