♪ ♪ >> We're trying to take what we know and apply it to all the different delivery hospitals across the state of Kentucky.

>> A 5 year plan to save more moms.

>> I've seen maybe.

4 or 5 of them in the last 40 years from here.

>> Last Friday night, you may or may not have noticed the northern lights gracing Kentucky skies.

>> People have one symptoms and don't know what.

The difficulties of living with Lyme disease from a family that's lived through it.

Argyle in every one of those community action agencies is really to help families to reach economic stability.

And a milestone anniversary for an organization that has had an impact on families in every county in Kentucky.

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

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION for this Monday.

May 13th.

I'm Kelsey Starks in for Renee Shaw this evening.

On the last day of the 2024 legislative session, state lawmakers passed a bipartisan maternal health bill known as omnibus bill.

The bill grants up how the state reviews maternal deaths and increases opportunities for women to get health insurance as soon as they become pregnant.

Doctors at the University of Kentucky are doing their part too.

As Kentucky additions June LaFleur reports of federal grant will help hospitals better care for pregnant patients.

>> When a woman in Kentucky dies before or shortly after giving birth the Kentucky maternal Morbidity and Mortality Task Force asks Why?

>> The causes of maternal mortality can be attributed to pregnancy-related complications.

Or they can be related to other complications such as accidents, homicides and even overdoses.

And when we look at the causes of death in our state, more commonly they're coming from that latter group that consists of accidents and overdoses and homicides than they are being related to obstetrical complications.

>> Kentucky's women fare worse than most.

The state has the second highest rate of maternal deaths.

But the state says most of these deaths are preventable.

If a woman's experience with intimate partner, violence or substance use can be addressed.

>> I think there are already so many stressors out there used.

>> Individuals are facing and not just I mean, with all be that eggs.

But for >> Especially for someone who has a substance use disorder.

There are a lot of barriers out there and being able to speak from experience being able to share that with them.

I think I'm really makes a difference.

Bethany Wilson works with pregnant people outside of the patient room.

She says her last pregnancy was a turning point.

She enrolled in a program at UK health care specifically for pregnant people.

But substance use disorder.

>> I ended up engaging in the program and that's really what I got sober.

Now.

I've been sober for a over 8 years.

>> With the 5.2 million dollar federal Grant, UK doctors will lift up maternal care across the state.

>> We are not just researching and trying to find new ways to treat pregnancy.

We're trying to take what we know and apply it to all the different delivery hospitals across the state of Kentucky.

>> No one has to reinvent the wheel.

The federal government has developed best practices to make birth safer and improve outcomes for moms and babies.

>> Group of guidelines that are advocated by several important professional societies.

And those are called bundles and bundles are targeting particular adverse pregnancy outcomes such as bleeding, such as infection, such as substance use disorder.

And bundles break down the care that's being provided to ensure quality and reduce the frequency of of some of those worst cases.

>> The state maternal Health Innovation program will span 5 years.

Doctor John O'Brien says ideally fewer maternal, serious complications and deaths will be evident from state and federal data in the near future for Kentucky edition.

I'm John Leffler.

>> Some of that work will happen outside of Haas calls to that Kentucky maternal morbidity and Mortality at Task Force welcomes grassroots groups to join the project.

If you're interested in helping out, you can contact UK.

Former prosecutor in eastern Kentucky has pleaded guilty to a federal charge.

Scott Blair is charged with honest services, wire fraud he was arrested by the FBI last month and later resigned as the commonwealth's attorney for Perry County.

Blair is accused of doing favors for criminal defendants in exchange for sex and math.

The last Commonwealth's attorney to be arrested by the FBI in Kentucky was impeached by the Kentucky State Senate last year.

It was the body's first impeachment hearing and trial and 135 years.

Kentucky has joined a coalition of states suing the Environmental Protection Agency over a new rule aimed at limiting greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants.

The EPA rule requires coal-fired power plants to cut or capture 90% of their carbon dioxide emissions by 2032.

If they plan to say stay open past 2039, those that don't will need to shut down.

It marks the first time the federal government has restricted carbon dioxide emissions from existing coal-fired power plants.

Kentucky Attorney General Russel Coleman, along with 24 other Republican attorneys general accused the agency of exceeding its authority by forcing coal powered plants to install technology.

They call experimental and costly to meet the new benchmarks.

10 families have a new place to call home after losing theirs when tornadoes tore through Mayfield in 2021.

Governor Andy Beshear was on hand as the families were given the keys to their new homes on Friday.

The homes were built by the nonprofit.

The Hope Initiative and 1 million dollars from the team.

Western Kentucky Tornado Relief Fund the Hope Initiative and its partners have built 42 homes for tornado survivors.

It says there are 12 more homes currently being built.

Major plans are in the works to tackle mental health and drug abuse and South Central Kentucky.

This legislative session, the General Assembly included 20 million dollars in the budget for that anchor project.

It will fund an intake center with trained staff to help people in crisis.

Several community leaders and organizations are involved, including life skills.

The Barron River Area Development District and the Department of Behavioral Health.

It aims to help people get the treatment they need instead of being arrested.

Here's the thing.

We decriminalize mental health years ago.

But yet we're still transporting people in cruisers were still handcuffing people.

>> Who are a danger to themselves or others because of the law.

And so then the police get to sit with them for.

Maybe hours, depending on their physical health before evaluation and that doesn't help them.

That doesn't help someone in a mental health crisis.

So this is designed to be a drop-off center specifically for police, not only for the community but for police officers to drop them off so they don't have to sit with them.

The police don't escalate our clients and they're back on the street working and that's where they should be.

And the clients are getting the help they need.

>> Bowling Green City leaders say the intake center will also alleviate stress on local jails, hospitals and health departments.

>> In all of those agencies are going to have a place when they come across folks that are that are having a mental health crisis or substance abuse crisis to actually take these folks and get them real help for mental health professionals.

Every agency does a good job with the cars they're handed.

But this is a new deck of cards.

This isn't new way to handle this situation and hopefully proactively prevent folks from spiraling into life of homelessness or desperation or continue with substance abuse.

>> This is real help from real mental health professionals at the beginning.

And so we're pretty excited about it.

>> The goal is for the facility to be up and running by July of next year.

It will serve at least 10 area counties in the Bowling Green area.

Kentucky Edition will continue to follow the project's development and progress.

>> Well, it was a rare experience over the weekend.

The largest solar storm in nearly 2 decades hit Earth's atmosphere.

This kind of storm can cause issues for certain communication systems and elect trickle grids.

Fortunately, though, that didn't happen.

Instead, millions of people were treated to a dazzling light show.

That's typically only viewable, far north from here.

>> Aurora resident phenomena, which can be seen in norm more places on the earth on a regular basis.

But we don't normally see it here.

And, you know, both of solar wind.

Particles ejected by the sun a few days earlier, a puff of soul and arrived to the vicinity of the earth.

And made its way down through their respective.

It feel to the upper atmosphere lit up the upper atmosphere.

And I've created the phenomenon known as the northern lights really or else which was seen in many places where it's not normally saying.

They included can talk it as these particles.

A little crash into molecules in the upper atmosphere of heroes.

Each time a particles from the sun and clouds with the law to enter judges of molecule in the molecule then responds by moving a somewhat this far south.

We don't get the roar's very often at all.

I've seen maybe.

>> Or 5 of them in the last 40 years.

From here.

Because it's got to be quite a whack from the sun in order to push the auroras this far south.

Typically they're much further north.

So I was ready with my set up in my backyard just in case and maybe quarter after 10 at night, all h*** broke loose in the sky.

And by that, I mean, not only were there or as in the north, but there were roars in the West and even aurora's on the southern horizon on the southern horizon from Kentucky that like confirmed to billions and billions of molecules in the upper atmosphere of the earth that is visible as kind of a veil.

>> Her current of light casino that's seen years.

Actually, the it turns out that that the physical phenomenon that occurs in the upper atmosphere to create the aurora borealis >> is not unlike the fiscal from a little personal floor, sunlight Bull.

I saw pictures of Aurora's spotted in Puerto Rico.

>> And even pictures of aurora's from Mazatlan in Mexico.

So the auroras pushed much further south than the experts thought they would, even though they KET the strength of the auroras.

But it exceeded even that.

This is probably one of the top 5 are rural events in the last couple of 100 years.

At least.

>> Wow.

Some incredible pictures there.

If you're curious about what these storms, solar storms due to the sun, don't worry about it.

Professor troll and says the sun is still very healthy and that it is expected to live on for another 5 or 6 billion years.

♪ ♪ >> Well, summer is approaching and the days are getting warmer, which often means more time.

>> Outdoors.

And that also means more exposure to ticks and tick borne diseases.

In today's medical news tips on avoiding tick bites and what to do if you are but not.

>> Tax season here in Kentucky is generally between the months of May and June, but ticks are active all year round in the state of Kentucky.

It's really important to emphasize that any day above freezing people could encounter takes in the Bluegrass State.

We have the blacklegged deer tick which is feared for its association with Lyme disease.

We have the lone star tick which is associated with the red meat allergy and then we have the American dog tick.

Also in the state, it seems like too much becoming more and more common in Kentucky takes or disease in the state of Kentucky been mosquitoes do so they really are.

One of our big public health menace is people are going outside.

They may enter take habitat or ticks may be brought into their habitat by wild animals or pets tax.

They'd like to live in kind of long grassy areas, kind of unkempt areas, places with brush.

They don't want to live necessarily in the middle of your yard or in the middle of a cow pasture.

They don't like the sun.

So they want to be in these kind of hidden out of the way areas where there's also lots of hosts like my son to run dogs and things that run through.

So if you enter that habitat, you're going camping or fishing for doing a lot of weed eating or something in your landscape.

It's good to wear insect repellent on your skin.

These are things like DEET, oil of Lemon, Eucalyptus prepared and I are 3, 5, 3, 5.

There's lots of different ones available.

DEET is kind of the old standby and it works really to cost.

Box on your body are kind of your lower legs up into your groin area around your waist and your belly button.

Up in your our pets and then in and around your hair on the nape of your neck.

We encourage people to do take checks whenever you come in from any outdoor activity.

So checking those take hot spots, you could ask a friend or a partner to help us really important to look and find them before they buy most pathogens that are vector by tax.

There is a kind of waiting time before it leaves the tax body and there's the human.

>> I would think about looking at the site and figuring out if you can get a pair of tweezers, very close to your skin and gripping the tech by its head and then pulling straight up.

You don't want to we're going to take out.

You don't want to kind of grip it and rip it.

You don't want to break pieces of the tick off a new, but if you can pour steadily out, it will pop out.

It will have resistance there.

But you can do it on.

Plug it from you and then KET it.

Watch.

The bite wound a sight to see if there's rashes that appear around it or if you feel strange, you should be able to take the take with you to the doctor.

They should be able to identify or pass it on to somebody who can to figure out what pathogens you may have been exposed to ticks are a problem for pets.

We really encourage people to get Flynn took medicine for their dogs and for their cats and to check them periodically and kind of comb through their hair, especially if they've been rolling around out in the wild.

It's good to take a close look at your pets.

Dogs can acquire Lyme disease.

Cats can pick up various The symptoms would look a little different.

But by and large, it would be you might notice some sluggishness with your pet and then you take it to your vet and things will kind of go from there.

>> May not only marks the start of peak tick season, not coincidentally.

It is also Lyme Disease awareness Month.

Those suffering with Lyme disease often find the journey to a diagnosis and treatment can be long and frustrating.

It's something one Bardstown woman and her family know all too well.

>> To know where we started.

It's hard to say because people have Lyme symptoms and don't know what my husband was symptoms back in the 90's.

And as soon as we move and he wanted to clear the woods, he kept getting bit by ticks.

He took them off when he got in the shower and he never told me well, he started having all the strange symptoms.

And line is known.

The symptoms come and go.

And they move around the body so you could have done just digestive issues.

One week and then the next week have.

Have a frozen shoulder or something like that.

And, you know, doctors are completely clear this.

And when you have symptoms like that, they don't think line we still didn't know what was on it.

It was when our son.

Started getting sick.

They tried to.

I know some what Ms. Another one was a less because he had exactly like a less symptoms.

He couldn't swallow.

His eyes were burning.

He couldn't even come out of his room.

Because it bright light were just killed.

His eyes.

>> He could no longer walk, had to use a wheelchair.

So we take them out every day and that will charity get them outside.

Then it became he was so out of it, you can even get a wheelchair.

We pretty much.

Last summer.

He couldn't speak to us anymore.

He could try to text us.

He couldn't any are so he can even get water.

So then I started investigating even further.

I found out you have to see a line doctor.

But I thought should be infectious disease doctor with the better.

It wasn't.

They don't know a lot of it all.

So he was getting very violent and stuff.

And psychologist doctor, I said something's wrong.

And he says I know what it is.

And so he called in some and a box for Martin L a and within a few days it was gone.

And then my daughter started having a slowly started having little symptoms.

I said, let's get you tested.

She came back.

CDC positive.

She's the only one that tested positive.

Even Joe 9 as sick as we were.

We never tested positive.

So it take.

8 years.

And 5 different test before Brian finally got a positive line test.

We we've got better and we reached remission, but it takes a lot of times.

It takes like several years.

And there's a lot to it because lime it affects your hormones, affect your sleep.

It affects your thyroid.

It can affect any organ in your body.

It can get into any tissue and it can affect any system in your body.

My doctors have to learn a lot and have to figure everything out.

What's causing your symptoms.

Symptoms overlap with all the co infections, so they have to be.

real medical detective to figure that out.

>> The Kentucky Lyme Disease Association works to connect to those with Lyme disease with doctors who specialize in the disease and helps sponsor treatments which can cost up to $10,000.

♪ >> It's a nonprofit that got its start in 1964, as part of President Lyndon b Johnson's war on poverty this year.

Community action agencies.

>> Across the country, including all 120 here in Kentucky are celebrating their 60th anniversary.

Kentucky Edition spoke to community action members from Hazard to Covington to reflect on the impact their work.

>> There are 23 separate community action agencies that make up community action.

Kentucky.

So community action covers every single county in the state of Kentuckyian Argyle in every one of those community action agencies really to help families to reach economic stability, age of those community action agencies goes into the community and it says is what do we need to?

We need more early chatted education is that housing?

Is it income?

A lineman is, is it more job development?

And then we bring and those particular programs to support those families.

Willie, to build the bridges, to help them to reach their goals as individuals and also as communities.

So we do it on an individual level will work within that region with local governments with business to try to create those pathways again for the families and for those communities to thrive.

>> A lot of people think that the clients that come into our don't work, base layer and and they they they drop che and that and that is not the case at all or after work.

And they just don't make enough to make ends meet.

They don't make enough money.

To be able to make a living wage.

And, you know, a lot of these folks are working 2 jobs.

>> So W Iowa is the Workforce.

Innovation and Opportunity We help individuals with education and we also help with employment to help people become self-sufficient.

I didn't know what I was going to want to call it off.

>> I didn't know what was coming next or have me go back to school to get my Co and my lineman program tonight, you may laugh and each put me in a great direction that's going to hit me in the future is going to help my kids a whole lot.

>> If we didn't have okay, okay here.

We didn't have all the other resources.

Then I don't know how we would have made it or have we would have 8 even have gotten to remain in our homes and communities when your homes flooded and you don't have flood insurance.

What you did.

Basically Lk O P came in with the disaster case mean jurors, the Perry County long-term disaster recovery group and, you know, we filled out paperwork that all those but they've got us back in our home.

They helped with cleanup.

They helped with getting appliances that we needed.

Furniture.

You name it.

>> We don't look to me and try to be everything.

Where every community there's something already in the community like a food pantry or or a shelter or whatever the case may be.

We look to try to.

Support them.

Resident replace that fed.

>> My son is actually autistic.

And I was looking into something that would benefit healing I looked into head start and you KET that they were able to work with children with disabilities so I can sign him up.

And that's one of our learned that they actually needed teachers.

And I started out as a teacher assistant.

I'll work with not only the children, but also work with the families I helped with different needs that they have.

I help with housing and help with transportation.

And I help getting referrals for anything that you children might need.

And that also helped to screenings at the head.

Start.

>> It is so rewarding to know at the end of the day that we are truly making a difference in somebodys life that we are helping them be able to afford better lives and being able to afford.

>> Families, we help provide those basic needs.

And then a springboard to that next level.

So you don't have to KET coming back for food support.

So you don't have to KET coming back for emergency services.

Nobody wants to do that.

People do not want to ask for help.

They want to find solutions to help them to move forward, to help them to get to where they want to be with their family.

>> To find out more about your own counties, branch of community action.

Kentucky visit their website.

♪ Kentucky gets its first governor holds the first Kentucky Derby and broadcast the famous race on radio for the first time.

Toby gives has more on some important firsts that happened this week in Kentucky.

History.

♪ >> Masterson Station hosted the First Methodist Conference west of the Allegheny Mountains on May 15, 17, 19.

It took place.

The current site of Lexington's Federal on May 15, 17 92 Kentucky electors picked Isaac Shelby to be Kentucky's first Governor Kentucky became a state on June first and Shelby was sworn in as governor on June 4th.

>> Fire destroyed 17 buildings, including the Phoenix Hotel in downtown Lexington on May 15, 18.

76.

>> The Marquis de Lafayette visited Lexington on May 16th 18.

25 Lafayette was a French nobleman who fought alongside the columnist during the Revolutionary War is the namesake for Fayette County.

The Kentucky Derby wasn't always the first Saturday in May.

The first Derby was on Monday.

May 17, 18.

75 at the Louisville Jockey Club.

About 10,000 people watched as era Staties won't be.

I love that W*** race in 2 minutes.

And 37 seconds.

>> Flying and anyone the 51st Kentucky Derby on May 16 1925.

>> It was the first Derby broadcast live on radio about WHA Esten Louisville at WGN in Chicago.

It's also believed to be the first Derby referred to as the run for the Roses and those are a few of the big events this week in Kentucky history, I'm told, begins.

>> We hope you'll join us again tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky edition here where we inform connect and inspire.

You can subscribe to a Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips it.

KET Dot Org.

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

Send us a story idea at public affairs at K E T Dot Org.

You can follow KET on Facebook X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram.

So you can stay in the loop with all the stories across Kentucky.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Have a great night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪