Hello, my name is Virginia.

The RGA in a more important Kentucky, loses a key crusader for the deaf and hard of hearing who became an unexpected celebrity.

It's literally a dream come true for all of us.

We take you to Churchill Downs on the first Saturday in May for Kentucky Derby.

149.

This is absolutely the most positive thing that I've had feedback on.

And it's just not local feedback.

And Vandenberg's Veterans tribute is winning praise from Beyond 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.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition on this Monday, May eight.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for starting off your workweek with us.

She became a familiar face to Kentuckians and beyond during Governor Andy Beshear has covered briefings.

Virginia more.

A sign language interpreter died Saturday.

She worked at the Kentucky Commission on the Deaf and Hard of Hearing since 1995.

The Courier-Journal says both of Moore's parents and two of her four siblings were deaf.

Moore felt passionate about broadening inclusion of the deaf community and hearing health.

When we interviewed Moore in September of 2022, she said hearing loss is a bigger problem in Kentucky than you might think.

As she says, it's a problem that's only going to get worse.

Hearing health is very important.

Before you even think about getting a hearing aid, you must see an audiologist, someone who will evaluate your hearing.

Do you need tubes?

Do you have fluid on the ears that the tendonitis is that hearing aid is going to help, that if you have tendonitis veterans coming back.

Their number one and number two disability is hearing loss.

Hearing loss is number one.

Number two is tendinitis.

I think we need to really understand that hearing loss is really a growing problem.

Kids who put earbuds in there to hear the music, you know, you can't tell them to turn it down because as soon as you do, they're turning it back up.

I mean, I sat next to a kid in an airport one time and I could hear it was three seats over.

I could hear it telling him to turn it down.

I thought I pulled out my business card.

I said.

Contact us when you need us.

We just need to think about what's happening right now in the environmental noise.

Farmers, construction workers.

People who go hunting.

Protect your hearing.

Use earplugs.

Make sure you understand mowing grass.

I mean, that's one of the loudest noises right there.

People don't think so.

Chainsaws.

Oh, that's horrible.

Hearing protection is so important.

Protect it for yourself, because as you get older, things just start to fall apart on us.

Governor Beshear commented on Virginia Moore's passing.

He said in part, quote, Virginia was a rock of stability and grace during the pandemic.

She helped bring us all together at our most challenging times.

So I hope you'll join Brittany and me today and praying for all who loved her.

I will miss her greatly.

But as a Virginia would remind us in our grief, we will get through this.

We will get through this together.

And quote and 2020, Moore announced she had uterine cancer.

She had a hysterectomy and returned to work about a month later.

Funeral plans have not been announced.

Moore became such a celebrity because of her work as a sign language interpreter.

She even inspired her own bobblehead like you see on the screen.

We're going to miss her.

Turning to politics, just eight days to go before the May 16th primary.

The race getting the most attention, of course, the Republican race for governor.

We haven't seen a public poll in a few weeks, but the last one showed a tight race with Attorney General Daniel Cameron narrowing, narrowly leading, rather, a former ambassador, Kelly Craft and ad commissioner Ryan Quarrels was coming in third in that Emerson College y poll.

20% of Republicans surveyed were undecided.

Our candidate conversations conclude tonight with Secretary of State Michael Adams, who met our criteria to appear on the program.

We hope you'll join us for that conversation at eight Eastern.

Seven Central right here on Katie.

A judge Friday sentenced a Kentucky man to 14 years in prison for attacking police officers during the January six, 2021, insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.

It's the longest sentence yet.

Peter Schwartz is a welder from Owensboro.

Although he was working in Pennsylvania prior to his arrest.

Schwartz and his wife are part of the group that stormed the Capitol, angry over what they saw as president.

Joe Biden's fraudulent win and the 2020 presidential election.

And December, a jury convicted Schwartz and two other people of assault and other felony charges.

He attacked police with pepper spray and a chair.

And court Friday, Schwartz said he was sorry about the damage that January six caused to so many people.

But the judge criticized Schwartz for a lack of remorse made to win the Kentucky Derby on Saturday, but not before a deadly week and a half at Churchill Downs.

Seven horses died at the track between April 27th and the Derby on May 6th.

Four died of leg injuries.

One died from a neck injury.

Two more died from causes still unknown on May 22nd, two days after the Preakness.

The horse racing industry will adopt new anti-doping rules.

Anti-inflammatories and supplements will be banned on race day and the 48 hours before race horses can only be given water, hay and oats.

There are punishments in place and illegal substances are detected in a horse.

Punishments that range from suspensions to lifetime bans.

It also creates uniform rules that will be consistent across the country.

Congressman Andy Barr of Kentucky's sixth District co-sponsored the legislation to create the new rules.

Here's what he said about them as the bill was debated in 2020.

I've always believed that the future prosperity of this sport depends on uniformity of the rules of racing and currently has been noted, regulated by 38 separate racing jurisdictions.

The thoroughbred horse racing industry labors under a patchwork of conflicting and inconsistent state based rules governing prohibited substances, lab accreditation, testing and penalties for violations.

This lack of uniformity has impeded interstate commerce.

It has compromised the international competitiveness of the industry.

It has undermined public confidence in the safety and integrity of the sport.

And the industry is in desperate need of certainty.

As a conservative who believes in federalism and state's rights, I nevertheless understand that the Constitution gives Congress the power to regulate interstate commerce precisely for the purpose of eliminating these kinds of impediments to interstate exchange.

And as I've said many times, as a limited government conservative, this legislative effort is not about more regulation.

It is about creating a single nationwide set of rules that will result in smarter, more effective and streamlined regulation for the industry.

Because the rules are being implemented two days after the Preakness, they will be in place in time for the third leg of the Triple Crown, the Belmont Stakes on June the 10th.

Some 150,000 people packed Churchill Downs for the Derby, the track reported.

Betting on the Derby broke a new record.

Our Laura Rogers takes us to the sights and sounds of the greatest 2 minutes in sports.

It's remarkable that a tradition running 149 years continues to be filled with firsts.

There's nothing greater than being at Churchill Downs on the first Saturday of May.

The Edge family from Owensboro, longtime Derby fans.

I've been coming to the Derby since I was 12 years old, but this is their first time having some skin in the game where the number four confidence game.

Being here is literally a dream come true with the Derby horse that he's not my horse, he's my brother's horse.

But I keep calling him my nephew, my four legged nephew, another first jockey, Kazuki Kimura's, first time to race at Churchill Downs.

I've got a couple of horses that have a little bit of a better shot here.

This is, you know, best race in North America.

And I'm trying to just enjoy the place.

Camera on Japan bred Mandarin hero after two other horses scratched.

So far, great weather and the great people in the big day.

I'm enjoying it.

The day starting with some breaking news for the 4 to 1 favorite to win the Kentucky Derby scratched from the race due to a foot injury.

The state horse Racing Commission veterinarian making that decision Saturday morning.

I'm not a big gambler in terms of horse racing, but you always look at the favorites.

Sports fan Tom netting from the Washington, D.C. area, calling the Kentucky Derby a bucket list item.

We've been hitting the top 500 before.

We've been to Daytona.

We've been to a U.S. Open.

We've done a number of different things, but we've never done any of the horse racing.

And where better to do it than in Kentucky at Churchill Downs?

Not his first time, but the 28 for the official bugler of Churchill Downs and to the Kentucky Derby.

Steve Borman I feel good, but I mean, I always get nervous before the Derby because, I mean, you can't help but, you know, realize that this is the biggest race of the whole year.

Emotional when he considers the magnitude of this historic day.

When I turn around and see all of this and the twin spires and everybody having a great time, I just think, God, what did I do to deserve to be that guy?

And I just say, thank you, God, and please help me not screw up.

It's also not lost on Kamura that he's taking part in the world's most famous horse race.

This is special.

I'm always watching from the TV, and I was thinking like, one day I'm going to be here.

And today, the day.

So yeah, I'm so happy for that.

The horses take center stage, but also getting a lot of attention.

The fashion Kentucky Derby, it's all about the hat.

So I love iconic movie hats, and Rose is one I've always wanted to try to replicate.

Got my heart of the ocean cowl, went back down and got it for me.

And there are some head turners.

Hey, nice suit.

Yeah, I'm working on it for about three weeks.

20 minutes at a time to let the glue dry and just had some fun with it.

And, Joe, this guy's thirsty.

Some lucky ticket holders have a front row seat to the action.

Sitting mere feet from the dirt track.

I love it.

I mean, you can't be better than here.

And the horses come by you here.

Stop by.

Especially the derby.

When that comes by.

And it's a level you can just feel the wind come through.

You can feel that the thunder rumbling a little bit and they share their betting strategy with us.

And I've won three, one and three because I played the names.

I got the pen.

I got the looking at the the odds that are up and live coming in and seeing how we're doing, cross the numbers out.

And really, at the end of the day, just kind of whoever you like and got that gut feeling, you just go for it.

I'm most looking forward to picking that right horse.

You know, I really think that today's my day, major, just taking the lead.

It turned out to be the day for mage who came from behind to win by a late stage digs down deep down to the wire.

It does not matter where you are in the world.

My mom has said you better stop and watch the Kentucky Derby.

I don't care where you are with this.

Race Matters for Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

2023 also marks the 50th anniversary of Secretariat's Triple Crown, when the thoroughbred still holds the record for the fastest time in all three races.

Last Thursday, a student at Louisville, Seneca High School, organized a forum to discuss the topic of mental health.

Several speakers took part in the event, which covered a range of topics concerning student led activism.

More on that forum and a reminder that May is Mental Health Awareness Month.

We just brought you all here today to talk about how mental health really affects, especially the youth.

As a kid, I've seen many traumatic things from seeing Mom getting used to sleeping in our car, to not knowing when the next time food was going to come in.

I was never the average boy or amount that she would see, and I was different and I couldn't see my work at the time.

I would get picked on and bullied and didn't know how to handle it.

It got to a point where I didn't want to live anymore.

I never liked people to knew where I came from.

I never like people to know my struggle because I was embarrassed.

But I had to get to a point where my struggle could help someone else.

And give them that push that they may have needed to keep going in life.

The excused absences for Student Mental Health Days that was really organized by students.

That was an idea for legislation that came to me by way of high school students.

To hear these students talk about their mental health, to advocate for mental health, to ask such deep questions about mental health.

None of this is surprising, but it is inspiring to see kids grappling with difficult issues.

Public policy can help mental health.

Public policy can also be a threat to mental health.

When we're moving in the wrong direction.

And we saw a lot of that in this past legislative session with with bills, with legislation specifically targeting LGBTQ kids, trans kids in particular, being a target of very damaging legislation.

As a member of LGBTQ community, a lot of LGBTQ youth feel alone and they just feel like they have no one to talk to.

It kind of makes me scared just for the future of our country, for the future of kids like me.

Just because I feel like the bills that are getting passed will cause more suicides in LGBTQ youth.

It means everything just to show people that they're not alone and to show people that they can speak out and that they don't have to feel like they have no one to talk to.

It means everything to me because I would have I would have given my all less than five years ago to be able to sit in that audience and hear my peers say, You're not alone.

I've always been a kid who wanted to make change in this world and give kids what I didn't get to have.

And, you know, I've seen a lot of people and a lot of staff, and I was like, Well, let's try a student led or event.

Let's try to see that if other kids are seeing their peers doing something like this and maybe this will inspire them to do something as well.

Student organizer Cameron Austin, who you just saw there, has put together several other events at the school.

It's Teacher Appreciation Week.

And today Kentucky's teachers received a video.

Thank you from Education Commissioner Jason Glass.

More in tonight's Education Matters.

Teachers are the backbone of our education system and they play a vital role in shaping the future of our commonwealth.

Our educators are responsible for preparing students for success, both academically and in life.

They inspire our children to learn, think critically and be creative, and they provide a safe and supportive learning environment for children to grow and develop.

And they help our children discover their passions and guide them toward their goals.

Teaching is not just a job, it's a calling, Kentucky's teachers answered that call every day with dedication, passion and commitment in higher education.

News Over 4000 graduates cross the stage this weekend at the University of Kentucky.

But Tamara, Vet's journey to graduation stands out from the crowd.

She entered Duke as a freshman, having just aged out of foster care.

Now she has her master's degree.

Something that I think is really misunderstood about foster care is that a lot of people will come into it thinking that children have been in foster care because they've been bad or they have other issues, and that's actually not the case.

Most kids will go into care due to abuse or neglect or no fault of their own.

I grew up in a home first with a single parent and he passed away when I was nine.

So I went to live with a relative.

And when I was growing up in that placement, I experienced a lot of abuse and neglect and a lack of support.

And then I went into the foster care system and I experienced an instability of placements throughout that time as well.

And I aged out of foster care at the age of 18.

I noticed a lot of things as a young adult just trying to navigate college and adulthood.

Life.

You know, you don't have that support that you would have if you had two parents or even one parent.

You know, things such as housing stability, financial support, emotional support, mental health support, health insurance and things like that.

So those are a lot of the needs that I saw.

I actually first started as a political science major, and I failed my entire first year.

I was one of those young people who left foster care, who did not have a lot of support.

And I started noticing that if I was somebody who faced these challenges because of being in foster care, that there was probably so many more that were facing challenges because of things that were out of their control.

And so I wanted to go into a field that would help those types of populations, not just people in foster care.

So that's kind of how I landed in social work and why I stuck with it.

And apparently I loved it so much that I decided to master it.

10% of foster alumni will try to pursue higher education, and 3% will graduate with a bachelor's degree.

These young people are coming right out of foster care and they don't have experience with jobs there.

They don't have experience balancing a job and school.

And so they can't pay for their bills at home and they can't pay for college at the same time.

So it's just really difficult to cross that financial barrier.

When I was on the voices of the Commonwealth as a co-chair, my chairperson and I work together to expand.

They foster an adopted tuition waiver for young people who come out of foster care or have been adopted in Kentucky, and that is for any public school in the state, up to 150 credit hours.

So we really expanded it so that young people had the flexibility to get bachelor's degrees or to get any other type of degree that they wanted.

And it also now includes graduate tuition.

So I was able to get my master's fully covered by that waiver as well.

If you're looking for support, advocate for that, because that's something that I did.

And actually I'm going through an adult adoption right now at 26 years old.

A lot of people don't know that that exists, but it does so and that happened because I advocated for myself as an adult.

That was something that I always wanted, was that that permanency of a family.

So.

So just making sure that you're owning your experience and advocating for your needs because that lands you where you need to be.

Good for her.

Tamara works as a policy and advocacy analyst for Kentucky Youth advocates in Louisville, helping to shape our state's child welfare programs.

She hopes to one day run for office.

The city of Vandenberg held a special military Banner's dedication ceremony on Saturday as part of its Rivertown fair.

More than 100 banners were hung around the town to honor those connected with Lewis County, who have served over the years.

We're here today to celebrate mainly the veterans.

We've hung 113 banners.

We've got 50 some more to hang.

There's a couple that people that has ties to Vandenberg.

They didn't actually live in Vandenberg.

And there's veterans from all the way back to the Civil War, World War one of Korea.

They're living in some of the veterans are living some of the see, some were killed in action.

We've not restricted it at all.

Anybody that wanted to want to participate, we let them.

Carl Logan?

No.

Logan.

Jack Lykins about a year ago or so.

The city wanted to do something with the Vietnam veterans.

Their kids killed in action.

So I volunteered to come down and help seek out these families that don't live here anymore or they're deceased.

And we said, we've got to carry this project on because Louis County is very rich with veterans of all war.

So we thought it's a must that we carry this on.

They could just be a veteran or they could be a war veteran, but they're usually somewhere in a conflict from the 162 banners.

They represent 18 wars or conflicts.

Three Pearl Harbor survivors, three veterans who served in three different wars, three veterans who were P.O.W.s, 14 veterans who were killed in the Vietnam War, two veterans who were killed in action in World War Two and one killed in action in Korea.

I've been in office a little over four years.

This is absolutely the most positive thing that I've had feedback on.

And it's just not local feedback.

It's from different county states, even.

And we've had family that come as far as Florida.

They came from all over to see the banners.

I'm hoping that they realize what veterans means to our county and our city.

And if we're going to do what we can do to show them our appreciation here, we have request at all times about can you put my dad and my brother on the same pole?

Can you do this or that?

So we've actually got a grandfather, a grandson, and a great grandson on the same pole.

On that pole that I'm on.

I have a brother and he's very ill.

He's a veteran and he's he's actually bad fast.

And it makes me feel good that they brought him in an ambulance to that POW and he could see Flag Day, no doubt.

That's really what it means to go there and say, wow, what a special tribute.

Families are still able to purchase the banners.

The mayor says they plan to keep the banners up as long as possible and hopes to have more than 200 hung by the 4th of July.

Darby first Supreme Court justice from Kentucky and a memorable comedian, Toby Gibbs, has all three and more in tonight's look at this week in Kentucky History.

The U.S. issued a patent to Murray native Nathan B Stubblefield for his so-called wireless telephone on May 12, 1908.

It was called that because the word radio wasn't in widespread use at the time.

Regret won the 41st Kentucky Derby on May 8th, 1915.

She was the first filly to win the Derby.

Because of that, the race received more publicity than usual.

Churchill Downs President Matt Wynn even said regrets.

Wynn is what made the Derby an American institution.

The U.S. Senate confirmed Robert Trimble to the U.S. Supreme Court on May 9th, 1826.

Tremble was born in Virginia, but moved with his family to Clark County, Kentucky.

He opened a law office in Paris, became a state representative and a federal judge before being named to the Supreme Court.

He wasn't there long.

He died after just two years.

Happy birthday to Gunnery Blair, a Franklin County native born May 10th, 1813, who became Abraham Lincoln's postmaster general.

He pushed for uniform postal rates, free mail delivery in cities and the use of money orders in order to cut down on postal robberies.

And happy birthday to comedian Foster Brooks.

Born in 1912 in Louisville, Brooks Drunk Act became a staple of TV variety shows of the 1960s and seventies, including the Dean Martin roasts.

And that's a look back at this Week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, as always.

Toby Gibbs, a man with Kentucky ties, will be at the controls during a mission to the International Space Station.

Axiom SpaceX's Dragon capsule is set to blast off this month.

Its axioms second privately funded mission to the space station.

We'll talk to the pilot and tell you more about the mission tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition, which we hope will see you four at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, connect and Inspire.

We hope you all subscribe to our weekly email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at Ket, dawg.

You can also find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV, and you can send us a story idea to public affairs at npr.org.

And of course, you're welcome to follow us all the way as you see on your screen, Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

And you can follow me on Twitter at Renee.

Katy, thank you so much for watching tonight.

Tune in at 8:00 for Kentucky tonight.

And we'll have more great stories lined up for you tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition.

Thanks again for watching.

Take good care and I'll see you in a bit.