>> And Kentucky COVID is on the decline.

But the flu is making a comeback.

>> We hope that time the Tigers will be able to shed light on how the Galaxy creates and distributes matter.

We are going to say.

>> How northern Kentucky University is helping to explore the mysteries of the universe >> I feel like the scale is a fitting.

>> For his greatness, you know, he deserves something that is large in scale.

>> And how one artist is making sure Secretariat remains a towering figure in horse racing.

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

Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Wednesday, November.

The second, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Wednesday night with us.

The flu season is underway and it's affecting Kentucky schools.

2 school systems have closed because of it.

Powell and Wayne counties, the Lexington Herald-Leader says they will stay closed the rest of the week.

Clark County school leaders say they are open for now, but watching the numbers closely, here are some of the numbers showing how flu levels have increased in Kentucky the week of October.

2nd to there were 42 cases now that jumped to 106 cases the following week.

Then from October 16th and 22nd.

That number more than tripled to 392 cases.

We spoke today to Sarah Wasson, the Powell County superintendent.

She told us that as the flu spread in Powell County, her school system just couldn't continue having classes.

Well, it and it was getting lower last week.

At the end of last week.

We were kind of hoping over the weekend that it might Monday.

It was.

>> Not good.

And so brought kids back Tuesday in our staff was getting lower.

We were having and staff that had to either stay home because they were ill or staff that had to stay home because there's their children were ill. And then we sent several students home yesterday.

So it was just getting to a level where we needed to protect the health and safety of our our staff and our students and make sure that everybody's is on track to get well.

>> Watson also told us that attendance was around 74% yesterday and she thinks that number might have been lower than that.

She says most of the illnesses involved flu type A.

There's also been some RSV and other illnesses.

The sole school system is not using the in T I system Wasson says students are so well.

They don't feel like working from home.

Flood-related debris removal is coming to an end in eastern Kentucky, according to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet, crews have removed more than 400,000 tons of debris from the counties affected by the flooding.

Crews will spend the next 2 weeks conducting its last debris pickup in Breathitt Clay Floyd, not let your Perry and Pike counties.

>> In order to wrap this up in a timely manner.

We had to set a timeline for.

For folks to get to bring out to the the right away.

So that we can begin what we call our last past.

that day is November.

1st.

And we've started what that does is allows our.

Our crews too.

Make one more pass along all around Sunday and affected areas too.

Collect one more.

One more collection of debris before we.

We call that mission accomplished.

>> The cabinet said those who missed the deadline must contact their fiscal court to find out how to remove debris from their property.

CVS and Walgreens are planning to pay 10 billion dollars to state and local governments that have sued over the mishandling of opioids.

And CNN reports that Wal-Mart is also Paul planning to pay 3 billion dollars based on similar lawsuits.

It's not clear yet how Kentucky might be affected by this.

Kentucky received more than 450 million dollars when several pharmaceutical companies settled lawsuits several months ago.

Emerald Energy says it will move its headquarters to Sawyer's Ville and mud.

Often county alongside the New Mountain Parkway expansion.

The company will invest 1.4 million dollars and create 25 full-time jobs enrolled says the Mountain Parkway expansion clinch the decision and we will build a 10,000 square-foot facility on 5 Acres and the Gifford Road Industrial Park.

Bowling Green is getting a new veterans center.

Governor Andy Beshear and Senator Rand Paul were among those there for today's groundbreaking.

It's a 50 million dollar investment to build at 80,000 Square foot facility that will have 60 beds.

The governor said this is part of a 10 year effort to locate a state veterans home in Bowling Green.

When the center is complete, it will mean 120 jobs.

More on today's groundbreaking tomorrow night on Kentucky EDITION.

A historic pay raise for Kentucky troopers is paying off in November.

Governor Andy Beshear propose giving every Kentucky State Police trooper a $15,000 raise.

The Republican controlled legislature agreed and included money for the Rays in the states to your budget.

Ksp Commissioner Colonel Philip Burnett said the Rays boosted ksp from the 74th lowest paid police agency in Kentucky to one of the top 5 speaking to lawmakers in Frankfort this morning.

He said the race is having a major impact on employee retention.

When I was here before.

>> We were down in the 700, which was the lowest that we've been in over 30 years.

Our high point was in 2006 when we had 1000 that troopers.

Today.

What I can say is that we have 896 troopers.

What that is that includes 65 trooper.

Ours that have come back.

Which is the most we've had in history in our agency and that also includes 38 could dates that are scheduled to graduate November.

The 18th.

When we were here before we were many raise my sons.

Many retirements.

And that's where we're really concerned.

But since the the pay increase like France's in 2022.

Fiscal year.

We had 37 retirements.

In 2021, we have 38.

But for the first for the 1st quarter fiscal year 2023, we've only had 2 retirements.

Which is phenomenal.

I've never seen that in my career.

That low numbers.

And direct result of the pie.

The pie race.

>> The commissioner also said that like so many employers around the country, it's been hard recently to recruit new employees, but he's added that K S P's recruitment numbers are often 2 to 3 times better than similar agencies in neighboring states.

If you drive the Sherman Minton Bridge and Louisville, you need to hear this.

The interstate 64 eastbound lanes will close on November 28th and stay closed for 9 days until December.

The 7th long-term renovation work is planned, including some demolition.

Transportation officials say the work when finished will add up to 30 years to the life of the 59 year-old bridge, which connects Louisville to New Albany, Indiana, as expected the Federal Reserve Board raised its key rate by three-quarters of a percentage point in an effort to fight inflation on Kentucky.

Tonight on Monday night, a panel of economists talked about the Fed's efforts to fight inflation and cool down the economy, even if it means higher unemployment.

From Palin's basically said.

>> We're going to raise interest rates until the unemployment rate starts to rise because as people lose their job, they're spending will go down in the demand for goods and service to go down relieving inflation.

It's a very blunt instrument to bring down inflation.

You're talking about raising interest rates.

So we've already starting to see a slowing in the jobs reports the last couple of months we haven't seen declines, but we see the rate of growth has slowed substantially.

And at some point, I think we'll see the it's going to start to Plateau box.

You start to see an uptick in unemployment rate right?

That's a short term issue.

The long-term issue is going to be we are going to have enough labor force in Kentucky.

Our labor force is going to continue to grow more slowly than the rest of the country in the long term, not having enough workers is going to be our biggest challenge in Kentucky.

>> You can see more of that discussion about inflation and the economy on K E T DOT Org.

Slash K watch tonight on demand.

We'll preview the November 8th election on next Monday's Kentucky tonight.

See that at 8 Eastern 7 central right here on KET.

♪ Now for a midweek check in on election related developments with public radio journalists Rylan Barton, managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio and Ohio Valley Resource.

Good to see you.

>> They seem to rename.

>> So it seems like this election cycle's a little bit on the sleep beside right, just not as robust as we're used to in Kentucky.

Let's start off talking about one of the amendments that's getting a lot of attention that we've talked about before.

And that's Constitution amendment number 2 on abortion.

There's been some extra for Baa city surrounding this in recent days, right?

>> Yeah.

And so this really might be the one really competitive thing on the ballot this year that all Kentuckians will weigh in on this proposed amendment to the Constitution to add language saying there's nothing in the constitution that would guarantee the right to an abortion.

This comes, you know, the the Dobbs decision that struck down federal abortion protections.

And so now these arguments are moving to state Bunch of state legislators, Republican state legislators hold a press conference last week saying that opponents to this amendment were misinforming voters by calling it an abortion ban.

And while it's true that this language is does not outright ban abortion in Kentucky, legislators have almost totally banned abortion in the state and really what this amendment would do is ensure that courts would not be able to undercut those bands that so abortion rights supporters are.

This point is suing in state court to try and see if there is some a constitutional protection to abortion.

Just as there was a federally under Roe v Wade saying that under no privacy rights, that there's a protection to abortion.

But so lawmakers are have proposed this amendment for voters to weigh in on a saying that there should be no such protection.

So, yes, it might not be an outright ban, but it certainly what what this amendment would do is allow for these bands to continue to proceed in Kentucky.

>> And when we had this discussion on Kentucky tonight, a couple of weeks ago, it was said by The Advocate for Kentucky right to life that there could be discussions about protections at the General Assembly, codifies for rape and incest, although it's been pointed out many times, they had that opportunity in 2022.

And bad amendment didn't even get through on the House floor and wasn't brought up in the Senate.

>> I mean, that's a discussion that comes up every year or every time.

At least that lawmakers have proposed a new abortion ban, which has been and just about every year over the you know, 6 or 7.

So this is yeah.

But lawmakers have had an opportunity to to add those protections and the time and time again refused to add protections in cases of rape and incest.

In most cases, they do or health and safety of the mother of all, though, with the total ban, the trigger ban on Kentucky, that does include that.

Other doctors have said that those protections are so vague that they're not exactly sure what to do with it.

And they're worried about, you know, how to proceed in those in those kinds of a gray area cases.

>> So let's talk about a one particular state legislative race that's gotten some attention.

And this is the House district number.

31, there is a su foster who is the Democrat Susan Tyler Whitten, who is the Republican and it's Miss Witton who's had some recent issues.

But now she's clear right to be on the ballot and can be voted for on November 8.

>> That's right.

That so there will be a Republican and a Democrat in this race.

House district.

31 just kind on the east side of Louisville, extending from Bowman field out to Jefferson Town.

A judge or a late.

>> Sometime last had ruled that Susan Tyler within the Republican candidate would not appear on the ballot because she was not technically living in the district at the time that signed up to 2 run for it.

That is, of course, because of the legislature was in the middle of the redistricting session.

So these districts look a little a judge this week or last week it came in and ruled that actually know she can run where a candidate lives is not dependent on the number of the district, rather the geographical area.

So once the district was drawn, she technically lived in that area.

And so she will end up appearing on the ballot at this point in the Court of Appeals ended up ruling in favor of that.

>> And the ballots were already printed, correct?

So.

>> They're already printed.

So it's just a matter of, but a matter of whether or not that that election would counter whether it's just the contested race for the Democrat.

But we'll see.

This could be a competitive race.

Republicans redrew this to try and make it more rip off competitive for Republicans.

I think that there's some thinking that it will the Democrat, the Democratic candidate, and we want to winning this because it isn't of, you know, part of Louisville that would favor them.

But we'll see that they were trying to make it more competitive.

>> So let's talk about another contest.

This isn't as a state Supreme Court northern Kentucky area.

This is a Supreme Court district.

Number 6, Joe Fisher, the state representative up against Justice Michelle color.

Tell about the latest developments here.

>> Yeah, another one of these political saga is over the course of this election season Representative Fisher who's running for this judicial race.

He had filed a lawsuit in a in a federal court in northern Kentucky, calling for them to t the state's Judicial Conduct Commission from investigating whether his campaign was participating in a legal speech during during this campaign because he is so He's been identified himself as a conservative Republican using an elephant on his and his campaign logos.

These are things that are really supposed to be happening in these non-partisan elections.

that commission that threaten to start looking into that Fisher sued to KET that from happening now, an appeals court has said know your novel.

The the commission is not allowed to go into investigating whether that is allowed speech at this But we could see if there are further developments on down the road.

>> And just a reminder, as we leave early voting November 3rd through the 5th.

That's Thursday.

Friday and Saturday.

And then of course, the polls open 06:00AM through 06:00PM on November 8.

>> That's right.

Across the state.

Every county there there are senators for places where people can go vote early this Thursday, Friday and Saturday.

You can look up at a bow vote K why dot com?

That's the secretary of state's website where each county some centralized voting locations for early voting.

>> Well, thank you always for Island, Barton, for giving us that midweek break down.

We appreciate it.

See you next week.

♪ >> Northern Kentucky University is joining forces with NASA, the Trans Iron Galactic element recorder on the International Space Station, also known as Tigris 6 to discover what elements and matter or out in space and how our galaxy creates and distributes them.

We talked with Doctor Scot, not her.

A professor of physics at Nku to learn about the project and K use role and the incredible to provide to students.

>> Tigers is the latest project that's funded through NASA's astrophysics.

Pioneers Program.

The universe is 90% hydrogen and about 8% helium and the 2% that we are very familiar with.

Carbon oxygen.

I earned the things that are necessary for life.

Are actually rare within within the universe.

Our galaxy even more rare are the elements that are heavier than iron.

And Tigris is going to focus on.

The number of those elements and cosmic rays from outside the solar system and try to.

Make some conclusions about how those new elements are created and how they spread out.

We hope that time the Tigers will be able to shed light on how the galaxy creates and distributes matter in our in our Galaxy.

This is a very exciting project.

Anytime you have an opportunity to launch an send an instrument to the space station.

You say yes.

>> On the inside.

>> In the past, students have made tremendous contributions to projects that I've been involved with.

NASA and they've gotten experiences that they've been able to turn into jobs out in the real world.

Students could participate in a number of different ways from the simple to the more complex, depending on their skill level and interest level.

This is really a unique possibility for students to the forefront of knowledge getting pushed back.

>> And who knows what it will lead to.

>> Will be launched on a rocket to the International Space Station.

We hope and about for years and will spend the year.

Hopefully more taking data.

In the meantime, we have a large number of that are trying to finish the design and then the fabrication and the testing.

And after the launch, the analysis of the data from Tigers.

One thing about science is usually for every question that you answer, you get 3 new ones that you didn't know even to ask beforehand.

>> NASA has promised to provide 20 million dollars over the next 5 years for the Tigers project, the students will be paid for being part of the team and there's a chance the project could continue after 5 years, depending on its success.

It's often referred to as store bread racing's most prestigious international event.

The Breeders Cup world championships are this weekend.

Some 45,000 guests are expected at Cayman for 2 days of racing today.

We asked Ports Castor Kenny rise to put this event into some perspective.

>> And he says there's one horse that the whole world is watching.

>> Basic thing about the breeders Cup.

It's the Olympics for horse racing except every 4 years it's held every year.

That's only because the age, of course, is horses.

Can't wait 3 or 4 years and come back and run this very rare that they would do that.

It's set up for all distances grass surface dirt service, male and female.

Of course, sometimes the males and females run against each other.

And most of the time it settles the championship of each division and there's 14 races over 2 days.

And if you like horse racing or if you're just curious, it's something to see.

I think people never thought it would be in Lexington for many years because it was until 2015.

And one reason would it be big enough to host it?

Because at one time it was like either Belmont Park Santa need out in California, although there were some exceptions, they went to Canada.

One time they went to Texas one time where they had small venues and the Churchill Downs, of course, with the kind of the size they have, they can easily host one of this magnitude but came and held it in 15.

Everything went perfect.

They show that they could handle 40 5,000 plus and then even in the COVID year in Twenty-twenty, they showed again that with all all the things that were restricted because of that, they could still put on a good show.

And given the fact that this is where most of the breeding of any significance takes place and most of the horses that won Breeders Cup races have Kentucky ties just.

>> You know, sometimes it sounds cliche.

But really all 14 races are competitive because at this stage of the season, some of the horses that were sidelined with injuries.

Some of the horses that just didn't pan out.

Donald going to be here.

Now 3, they're healthy again or they've gotten better since the summer or this spring.

I don't.

And so I think that's going to be the big thing is all 14 races are competitive.

It's not a hype.

They just really are in the classic.

There's a horse named Flight line that is just been spectacular.

He's doing things that no one is seen in a long time.

Fair or unfair.

There's a tendency to get excited when compare every great fortune comes along to Secretary.

I don't want to jump the gun on that, but he's incredible horse.

I think people really want to see him much like they want to see American Pharoah here.

The Triple Crown winner in 2015 compete here and win the Grand Slam as they call it by winning the classic.

It's a special moment.

We see it again.

Who knows?

Thank you.

Kenny rise, our Breeders Cup coverage continues tomorrow.

You'll hear from the organization's executive vice president.

>> About bringing the event back to Lexington for 3rd time.

♪ Now, speaking of secretary and he's getting a larger than life tribute courtesy to one artist.

The canvas, a building in downtown Paris and tapestry.

Our weekly look at arts and culture artist explains why a 3 story Merle is fitting for this horse racing legend.

>> started drawing horses when I was a little girl.

I always loved horses I couldn't have a horse when I was little.

So I started drawing them and and sort of never stop.

Then I finally got ride horses.

So the passion was was really kind of it continued to be ignited by of my ability to ride the words and then started doing for friends of their horses and it just sort of organically evolved as a as a career in equine art.

I met Chris Poynter and he was at that time thinking about a mural and he KET that I had done some era work in the past and of course, I'm quine centered and he wanted the mural to be of Secretariat and luckily had just completed a large mural, 9 new.

How did again and you know, not to be completely intimidated by the scale of this.

Secretariat is so strong here and in Paris and I have always, of course, I thought he was the greatest racehorse.

I think people still absolutely look to him as an inspiration and just to kind of an icon of greatness.

>> People are very excited and and have even been traveling here to see it in progress.

We decided on the pose.

So that was kind of the first step figure out what pose what images we wanted to put on the Once we decided that I had to kind of do a scale, a smaller print out on which I overlaid a series of grid once that was laid out, we just went share with Williams and use their highest grade exterior.

House paint.

This mural is the tallest painting I've ever done.

I have done other mural projects that are perhaps surface area was somewhat larger.

But this is certainly that Hollis and I feel like the scale is a fitting for his greatness.

You know, he deserves something that is large in scale.

He is a legend.

He is almost like painting Elvis or someone extremely famous and has accomplish things that we may never see again.

And the horse racing world.

You know, I'm honored to be able to paint him and kind of to to give him this large scale immortals ation.

Secretary its history.

It's primarily centered here in Paris.

Fans from around the world actually donating.

And it's going to be something so much bigger than just one mural.

I think it's going to be a place where people come to kind of remember and pay homage to him and amazing feats on the racetrack.

Fascinating work indeed.

Awesome.

>> Jamie Court expects to complete the mural by the end of the month.

Can't wait to see that.

Yesterday.

We brought you Senator Rand Paul as he campaigned in Georgetown tomorrow.

We catch up with his opponent, Democrat Charles Booker.

As Booker cast his vote early in Louisville.

The latest on the campaign for the U.S. Senate just a few days before Election Day.

That's tomorrow night on Kentucky edition, which we hope to see you for at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central where we inform connect and inspire.

We hope you'll subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition, e-mail news letter and watch full episodes at KET Dot Org.

You can also find Kentucky Edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV and follow KET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

Thank you so very much for watching.

Can't wait to see you again tomorrow night at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central for Kentucky Edition have a great night.

♪ ♪