I understand it was something that involved something 30 years ago, but I'm honored to have President Trump's endorsement.

Three Republican candidates for governor react to yesterday's verdict on former President Donald Trump.

This could very well do away with the blackouts that we observed on Christmas Eve morning.

So cold and pictures were down.

Why Their future is bright.

And one southern Kentucky county.

La, la la.

Hi.

How are you guys doing?

And he'd be a dummy if you didn't visit the world's only museum of ventriloquism.

And it's in Kentucky.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Well, good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition on this Wednesday, May 10th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

Kentucky's primary election is now less than a week away.

Three candidates vying for the Republican nomination for governor shared their message with a TV audience last night.

And what could end up being the final debate before the election.

Candidates Daniel Cameron, Eric Dieter's and Ryan Corales participated in the debate hosted by W why they were asked about their stances on education.

The state's economy, crime and more.

But the debate started with each candidate being asked about a jury finding former President Donald Trump liable for sexually assaulting a journalist and advice columnist near 30 years ago.

Well, I don't know the specifics of the civil complaint.

I understand it was something that involved something 30 years ago.

But I'm honored to have President Trump's endorsement.

I do know that Alvin Bragg in New York has weaponized the political system in the judicial system to try to destroy President Trump.

But he has endorsed my campaign for governor.

He is a fighter and I'm a fighter and going to continue to fight for the working men and women of this commonwealth.

I'm not basing my campaign for governor off of the endorsement of President Trump.

I'm basing my campaign off the endorsement of over 230 elected Republican officials, including over one fourth our judge executives, 20 plus members of the legislature and hundreds of magistrates.

I'm proud to be endorsed by Kentuckians in this race because I'm the grassroots candidate.

I believe the verdict is a bunch of balderdash.

I believe the woman is lying.

I believe it is contrived.

And the verdict itself is inconsistent.

She said she was raped.

They found her not guilty of rape, but sexual assault.

It makes no sense.

I'm the only one who has defended Donald Trump.

And as you're witnessing tonight, the only one that will continue to defend Donald Trump, he saved this country and I look forward to him being president in 2024.

Kelly Craft was invited to last night's debate, but did wd okay.

Why is that?

Her campaign declined the invitation.

Coming up in a few minutes, our regular Wednesday conversation with Rylan Barton of Kentucky public radio to break all that down.

We'll talk about the governor's race, the candidates reaction to yesterday's Trump court verdict, and Kelly Kraft's remarks about transgender youth.

That's coming up in a few minutes.

We will have full primary night coverage next Tuesday, May 16th.

The night before, though.

We'll preview the primaries in Kentucky tonight with a panel of experts to handicap all the races.

You can see that on Monday at eight Eastern, seven Central right here on Katie.

U.S. House Republicans continue to investigate President Joe Biden and his family's finance sources.

And now a Kentucky Republican says more information has come to light.

Kentucky Congressman James Comer is the chairman of the powerful House Oversight Committee that has subpoena power.

Comer has used that to obtain financial records that he says show the president's son, Hunter Biden, was involved in financial transactions with foreign entities.

I want to be clear.

This committee is investigating President Biden and his family's shady business deals that capitalize on Joe Biden's public office and risked our country's national security.

Today's press conference about the new findings, Comer said the president is using the White House to cover up a scandal.

He says the investigation into President Biden and his family is ongoing and that it will eventually result in legislation.

This is also not normal.

It is not ethical and this is why we need legislative solutions.

Our purpose here is to provide legislative solutions to prevent this unethical behavior from ever happening again.

This investigation is about investigating allegations of corruption and fraud at the highest levels of the federal government.

This should be a bipartisan issue.

This committee is considering legislation that would ensure these sorts of business practices do not continue for Democrats or Republicans.

The White House has continually dismissed the investigation and called it a political stunt.

A White House spokesperson released this statement.

Congressman Comer has a history of playing fast and loose with the facts and spreading baseless innuendo while refusing to conduct his so-called investigation with legitimacy.

Comber says the oversight committee will continue to subpoena bank records and release future findings.

President Joe Biden and congressional leaders met yesterday at the White House to discuss raising the debt ceiling.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Senate minority leader, was part of that group.

There are concerns the U.S. could run out of money by June 1st if the ceiling isn't raised.

Just before that meeting, Senator McConnell spoke on the U.S. Senate floor.

He rejected President Biden's argument that the U.S. should raise the debt ceiling without tying it to spending cuts.

Seven of the last ten debt limit increases were attached to bipartisan government spending deals.

All three of the debt limit increases in 2017 through 2020 were attached to bipartisan government spending deals.

So there's no reason why our country should be drifting toward crisis.

The solution is clear.

It's been clear for months.

President Biden needs to negotiate on spending with Speaker McCarthy.

President Biden called the meeting productive, but no agreement was reached.

Another meeting is planned for Friday.

Senator McConnell says the U.S. will not default.

Lexington is a step closer to passing a ban on hair based discrimination.

A Lexington Urban County Council committee passed a so called Crown Ordinance yesterday.

The Lexington Herald-Leader says a vote by the full committee could come later this month.

Crown laws ban discrimination of people based on their hairstyles and types.

Louisville, Frankfort and Covington already have similar laws.

The Kentucky General Assembly has considered a statewide law, but it's never passed.

The Jefferson County Board of Education is moving forward with a plan to put a weapon detection system in high school and middle schools.

The system uses artificial intelligence to find concealed weapons.

Last night, board members and the community weighed in on the $17 million plan.

Our children do not feel safe.

Gunfire is everywhere and those in power have done nothing to stop the flow of guns nor address the root causes of violence.

Instead, we're making our schools into fortresses with an AI weapons detection system and police.

LAPD is untrustworthy in this community.

We have a DOJ with 90 pages that talk about how they treat citizens, and we do not want that in the schools.

And though the Evolv lobbyists insist that this system will not profile or discriminate, lmpd or other law enforcement will be called in every time a gun is suspected.

And we know that they do some kids are bearing guns in schools because they are afraid and we're going to criminalize their fear.

And that is completely unacceptable.

We do not want children criminalized.

We do not want children prosecuted.

We want children helped.

I really want students to be able to come to school and learn, not be worried about whether they're going to get shot.

It's not a solution.

It's not perfect.

But we need to work together to try to get to perfect.

In my mind, there is no excuse for bringing a firearm on school property.

We've had 26 guns this year.

If we don't put something in place to help us screen these out, it will just increase.

Doing nothing to me is not an option.

I'm just not sure what rational basis we have based upon the information that we've currently been given to have any faith or confidence that this will actually improve safety.

You know, if we're going to spend a large sum of money on this, it seems like we should have at least a modicum of evidence that it will do what we hope it will do and we just don't.

We have seen this weapons detection in person.

I've seen it, the team seen it.

I think it can be effective.

And I think if this is something that is not effective, we can take away.

We have to be respectful of our staff, our students.

And I have heard people say, do something.

I have heard mothers, fathers, grandparents say, I want my children to be safe.

And I've heard the same from our staff.

So this may not be the end all, be all.

It may not be the best.

But to do nothing, I'm worried about that.

Jefferson County Public Schools is demonstrating the equipment for board members and the media tomorrow at Butler High School.

We'll be there and we'll bring you a report about that on Friday.

Time now for a midweek check in of some major political developments in Kentucky with our good friend Ryland Barton, who's managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, Rollin.

It's tyranny.

So the sand is coming out of that hourglass, right, in terms of getting to the May 16th primary.

Less than a week to go.

The candidates, some of the candidates appeared to make their last TV appearance on a stage jointly to gather a debate last night.

So let's talk about is this the end of debate season or are there more to come?

And how did the candidates do last night and who was a no show?

Yeah, it's definitely the end of of the primary debate season, unless there's some surprise televised appearance that's going to happen later this week, which I don't think it's going to happen.

But there is a you know, we had both a debate on Monday and Tuesday.

Kelly Kraft declined to appear at either of them, even though she was invited.

Daniel Cameron didn't appear at the on the first one, but did appear at the one on Fox 56 on Tuesday.

Brian Corales is that both Mike Harmon was at the first and not the second, but Eric Peters was.

So, you know, there's kind of a smattering on the farther down in this crowded race of Republicans vying for the chance to challenge Andy Beshear here.

These were much less combative debates than the one that we saw last week on KCET.

That part of it, I think, would be because those two frontrunners were not together on stage at the same time, kind of attacking each other.

There were more more issues focused.

And I think that also candidates were it was just another opportunity where there wasn't a whole lot of daylight between candidates on a lot of the issues.

There were some little moments.

Eric Peters, the suspended northern Kentucky attorney, he continues to kind of provide different positions than the than a little bit of the more establishment Republican candidates that he said he wants to eliminate the income tax right now, whereas the other candidates say, well, the legislature already has a plan in place that they're rolling out to kind of to get rid of the income tax over the coming years.

So, yeah, there wasn't a lot of setting apart here.

But I think that once again, you know, say Ryan Corales is trying to bid trying to make that position of not joining in the mudslinging that has been going on between Daniel Cameron and Kelly Kraft, which a lot of that mudslinging has just been taking to the commercial TV airwaves at this point.

So we heard earlier in our program about the Trump verdict and when the candidates were asked about that last night, they seem still to stand by their man, right?

Particularly daters who seems to do that, But they all seem to kind of already dodged the question entirely.

That's right.

And of course, Daniel Cameron was endorsed by by former President Trump and was asked explicitly, does this change anything?

He says no.

Both he and Quarles kind of demurred, saying that, you know, they're still waiting to see.

Some of the details of the verdict are unclear.

But then leaders, yes, as you said, just kind of explicitly affirmed his support of them.

So let's talk about Kelly Craft, who was not on the debate stage this week, but she did make some news as she's maybe sent some conflicting remarks or messages about anti-trans or transgender issues and we know that she's tried to clarify that and walk back some of those statements.

And we put up a full screen right now of what her campaign communications director has said about how she's not really trying to blast transgender students.

She's for children altogether, but just the woke ideologies.

Yeah, this is during that Monday debate.

Kelly Kraft held her own independent town hall where people were supposedly calling in with questions and asking them, although really somebody from her campaign was reading the questions to her.

But at one point, she she said of a very extreme thing a couple of times.

In one case, she said, we will not have transgenders in our school system if she were elected governor.

And she later said that we will not have transgender was kind of an incomplete sentence.

But it was it sounded as if it was some sort of talking point that she was trying to make and not really executing in that.

And that's in that moment.

One of her campaign people, Westlund Lloyd, sent out a statement that that you're showing kind of walking back a little bit, trying to explain that she was referring to these woke ideologies, not explicitly just on trans people, but this is I don't know, I think it's a problem when a candidate is trying to explain a discrete issue and says something that ends up being way more extreme and not really sure walking it back.

But, you know, that's a that's a pretty hurtful thing to say, not have transgenders in our school system.

These are other citizens of our state and trying to enjoy a public school system.

So, yeah, that was that was definitely a big moment in these this last week before the before the primary election.

Yeah.

So let's talk about speaking of transgender issues.

And the ACLU did what we had expected to do in the time that we last spoke with you.

And they had filed a lawsuit against a portion of Senate Bill 150 that sweeping anti transgender youth measure.

And talk to us about what's at stake here and where it goes from this point on.

Right.

They're just focused on the part of the bill that banned hormone therapy and puberty blockers for minors.

Again, yeah, this is a big bill that also blocks surgery for minors trans a gender affirming surgery for minors, which is something that doesn't really happen in Kentucky right now anyway.

There's also a lot of rules dealing with schools.

The ACLU is not going after that.

They're going after this one part.

And I actually I think it's really interesting that they're going after this one part, not only because this is, you know, a much more readily used thing for minors going through gender dysphoria, puberty blockers and hormone therapy, but also that this is really where the line was among Republicans in the legislature when they were pushing for this bill.

There were some who didn't want to go this far.

They didn't want to block this because there were, you know, some lawmakers who just kind of realized that that would be a step too far.

And the ACLU is honed in on this one part.

So it'll be interesting to see how this goes forward.

Yeah.

And final comments as we have about 20 seconds remaining about these final days into the primary season.

And we've got these campaigners out in full force in everything from the fight for the Commonwealth to the The Red Truck tour.

Tell us about these doors.

But Kelly Craft will be out there with Ted Cruz bringing in a big national figure.

But is the last chance for these candidates to get their message out there.

Yeah.

So we'll see how it all shapes up.

I think you're going to be joining us on Tuesday night, primary election night.

So our coverage on K ET starts at 7 p.m. Eastern Time and goes until we have some results.

And of course, you'll see Rayland along the way.

We thank you in the meantime and see you next week.

Thank you.

See you.

Kentucky is about to get a new state veterinarian.

He's Dr. Stephen Velasco, the third.

He comes from Corpus Christi, Texas, and has been regional director of the Texas Animal Health Commission since 2020.

He was the unanimous choice of the Kentucky State Board of Agriculture.

Velasco will replace Dr. Katy Flynn.

He is expected to take over in mid-June.

Plans are in the works to build a new solar farm in southern Kentucky.

The goal is to lower utility bills and prevent blackouts and bitterly cold weather.

Our Laura Rogers takes us to Simpson County.

A solar farm will soon be built in Franklin on Highway 100 near Drakes Creek, just a couple of miles from downtown.

The idea is, is to help supplement energy cost to the local utility, which is owned by the city.

By doing so, can offer a benefit to the end user custom.

Silicon Ranch based in Nashville, purchased the former grain farm valued at more than $2 million.

They got a substantial investment not only in the farm and the equipment, but in the land.

So they're in it to win it.

Monday says that investment is part of what made the idea attractive to city leaders, as well as the fact that solar energy can help keep homes powered during times of extreme temperatures.

This could very well do away with the blackouts that we observed on Christmas Eve morning when it was so cold and temperatures were down.

This would be enough supplement to protect those Franklin Electric plant.

More customers that observe the blackouts.

Interest in solar energy is growing as the United States tries to lessen its dependance on fossil fuels and move toward renewable energy.

I think it's a good thing to be as a supplement.

I don't think it would carry the load.

The fossil fuels has always carried forward for years.

I don't think it's a substitute.

He says the project also brings a larger advantage to Simpson County.

It can become a magnet to other industry.

We get new industry in.

They start talking and solar farms are mentioned.

We understand you've got solar farms coming in.

He says the city also wanted to be certain taxpayer dollars would not be at risk.

Their number one concern was, was the taxpayer going to be protected in case something happened and the company went out of business and we're stuck with 150 acres worth of solar panels.

If that did happen, Silicon Ranch would be responsible for the cost of removal.

Monday says he's been working on regulations for the conditional use permit for the past three years, and now the project is moving ahead and the approval and application process for Kentucky Edition.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

The Planning and Zoning Commission is expected to give the project final approval when it meets on June the sixth.

Earlier, we showed you Senator Mitch McConnell's remarks about the debt ceiling.

Senator McConnell also spoke today about the passing of Coach Denny Crum of the University of Louisville.

Crum died yesterday at his home at the age of 86.

Crum led the Cardinals men's basketball team to national championships in 1980 and 1986.

He retired in 2001.

30 years coach Crum helmed my alma mater as basketball squad and lost the Cardinals to unprecedented success.

Denny Revolution announced the program and transformed the team into a spectacle.

All Kentuckians were eager to tune in to.

He was a true legend.

Unique among coaches at that time, Denny Shaw could play the toughest teams in the country early in the season, knowing that those hard fought match ups would prepare the cards better than anything else for postseason success.

That bowl playbook earned the coach nicknames like Cool Hand Luke and for always keeping his eye on the big dance.

March.

Mr. March!

McConnell also praised Graham for his work as a fundraiser, helping raise money for scholarships and academic programs at the University of Louisville.

The Vent Haven Museum in northern Kentucky is the world's only museum dedicated to ventriloquism.

Its displays range from Charlie McCarthy dummies to many of Jeff Dunham's iconic characters.

Here's more in tonight's Tapestry, our weekly segment dedicated to arts and culture.

Puppetry in all forms has been around for centuries.

Ventriloquism isn't as old as the general art form.

You have to go more into the late 18th century to see that.

But it has been a way of doing basically comedy team performances, but done by one person.

So it's it's kind of parallels with comedic duos when you when you look at its history.

When our founder, W.S.

Berger, died in 1972, he had about 500 dummies and puppets in the collection.

And today we have more than 1100 just sitting by itself.

A doll needs its story told a puppet needs a story told.

And we use the ephemera, the photograph, playbills scripts, recordings, posters, all of that to help enhance that storytelling.

We have dummies that are the Sambo character, let's say, that was used to make fun of and ridicule black people directly.

They're absolutely offensive.

Absolutely offensive.

And we don't shy away from that.

Here we have an entire policy and are willing to discuss these items at any level that the visitor is comfortable talking about.

We can talk about those subtleties that exist today in how people of all nationalities and all races, genders, all of that, how it how is diversity represented today in a way that is either less offensive or still remnants of that type of offensive representation?

It's basically a chronological pass through time where we'll start with vaudeville and talk about the the popular artists of that time moving quickly into the American renaissance of ventriloquism.

We have several special exhibits that feature artists of different eras and then a television gallery where you see the artists that were on Ed Sullivan and other television shows and ending with the modern ventriloquist like D'Arcy Lynn and Jeff Dunham.

But when when someone thinks of a traditional ventriloquism piece, you're going to have a slot jar that moves up and down, oftentimes eyes that move left and right.

Some of the pieces here are even more complicated, where they have eyebrows that move or ears that wiggle.

But the standard dummy is a wood carved head on a hollowed wood body with a head stick in the back.

And a simple mechanism there that the ventriloquist the ventriloquist excuse me, would just have to push a lever or pull a string to get that mouth to operate.

Yeah, we have a sense of what's called the uncanny valley, and we perceive life in things that look like humans, and that's just a natural reaction.

But if we're just a little bit off, then we become frightened.

So all of the dolls here that seem frozen, that's an unnatural human behavior.

We're all subtly moving all the time and we make eye contact in order to communicate that we're safe with one another.

And they're just not acting.

Right.

Right.

Are they going to speak to me or are they not going to speak to me?

So there's that anticipation of life and that's what produces that effect.

The whole point of ventriloquism is that you will believe that that dummy is alive.

And if you don't believe it, then what's the purpose of the act?

And so the figure makers are contributing to that illusion of life by creating these very lifelike characters.

Hi.

How are you guys doing?

What I hope for when people visit the museum is that they have an appreciation for the history in the art form and that they also have a direct connection emotionally to some piece somewhere in time at this place.

Hmm.

Tours of the Vent Haven Museum are by appointment only.

So if you're interested, be sure to schedule your tour in advance on its website or over the phone.

The COVID public health emergency officially ends tomorrow, May 11th.

So what does that really mean for your day to day life?

And does anything significant change for you?

We'll talk to doctors about the state of COVID now and in the future.

That's tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, which we hope will see you four at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET.org Find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV and connect with us on the way as you see on the screen, through our email, through Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Until I see you tomorrow, take really good care and have a great night.