>> I think it's time that we respect Kentucky women and not to let them make a decision.

>> Ahead, a personal conversation about a contentious public issue.

We'll never be sorry.

So just said yes.

And take a leap of faith.

A family's international outreach leading to accolades in our nation's capital.

>> The power and the blessing of being able to share a meal with loved ones.

And with neighbors is such an important piece of Thanksgiving.

>> And Kentucky ends pitch in to KET their neighbors from going hungry on a holiday.

>> 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.

Addition for Tuesday, November.

21st, I'm Kelsey Starks in for Renee Shaw this evening.

Thanks for joining us.

>> Jefferson County's bus problems are getting national attention.

Louisville, public media reports the U.S. Attorney's office for Western Kentucky is looking at how much learning time students are losing because of delays getting students to school superintendent Doctor Marty Pollio estimates students missed more than 13 minutes of class time per day.

For the first 21 days of the school year.

Louisville, public media also reports JCPS hasn't been able to provide all the data on missed learning time that the U.S. Attorney's office has requested.

Jefferson County schools were a topic on last night's Kentucky.

Tonight, a panel of 4 Kentucky lawmakers discussed potential topics for the 2024 Kentucky General Assembly which convenes January 2nd.

Among those topics, abortion will the Republican led House and Senate pass a bill adding exemptions for rape and incest to Kentucky's near total abortion ban.

But I'm also only one member of the 31 member caucus and so to say that we have very diverse opinions on what the right approach is on this very sensitive You know, I think you could say that we probably have 31 approaches to this topic.

>> We're going to go into our caucus retreat and I have a feeling that this is going to be one of those robust conversations where, you know, we see if there's if there's any cohesion about maybe where we're Is there something that we all agree on?

Is there something we don't agree on?

But those are those are conversations that I think, you know, I'm I'm looking forward to because we need to have them.

>> 2 of the lawmakers on last night's panel.

This sensitive topic hits, especially close to home.

>> I'm one of those women who who was forced to make a choice that I was not going to live with my son and I've been there and had to make but says Jen and I made it, you know.

A lot of my colleagues, but I do want to make it to church from I didn't perform moment with I got so.

And he's he's one of the lives of my life.

But I've been there in that room and shoes and it's very impactful.

And that's a decision be made when your life is on the line and you have other life's a you're responsible for, it's it's a pretty heavy thing to Senator, I thank you for your courage to share that because I think if >> how we were all so bold that would realize this is not really a marginal issue.

>> Just last year during the election cycle, I had a pregnancy that involved a futile and for Melody.

And I lost a child.

And I don't want anybody in the general something making that decision for me.

And I think the people of Kentucky deserve better.

Then what we have.

And I think it's time that we respect Kentucky women enough to let them make a decision.

Is only going to impact them and their family because not a single member of the General Assembly comes to my home to weigh in on how I raise my family and I had to do what I had to do to protect my other child.

You can see more of that discussion online on-demand, akt dot org Slash K why tonight?

>> In 1958 Fayette County created an urban services boundary outside of it.

Development is restricted.

>> Recently, the Lexington, Urban County Council voted to expand the boundary allowing more land to be developed.

This has people asking will adding more land for development, provide more affordable housing options.

We spoke with 2 organizations won in favor of the expansion and one opposed to help us understand both sides of the decision.

>> So we're advocate for expansion and the obvious reason once we wanted to be the organization, they had more of a common sense approach to create inclusive conversation for everyone to be involved and how we grow, how the city grow specifically and not create an atmosphere.

We pitted communities against each other.

The plan before this plan was enacted was for that to be re re infill development, which would triple, you know, the inside the boundary and what that did was pit neighborhoods against neighborhoods.

People didn't want developments want developed necessarily inside of their neighborhoods.

So we want to create a conversation around.

Where could we grow?

Our medium housing has risen over the last 10 years.

100%.

So that median housing that was $322,000, which you can imagine.

It's very hard for create a lot of affordability issues.

So we need to create housing in all of the housing prices that you can think of specifically in the $200,000 House we have not built any new housing.

Now we build about 550 houses a year and likes and we need to build 1500 houses the year to KET pace in all prices of housing by painting their urban service boundary with a broad brush as the solution to equity and affordability.

Challenges.

>> I think it is a solution, if you will.

We have to say what kind of housing does our community need?

What kind of housing can we build at the price points and the levels that we need.

>> And so all of these questions have to be factored in to the way that we grow.

A study was done in 2017 by the University of Kentucky and that study asked what is the impact of the urban service boundary on the cost of housing?

The University of Kentucky economists found that where the urban service boundary to be expanded.

There'd be little to no effect on the cost of housing in Fayette County.

I think that's incredibly significant.

So we have to ask then why is expansion of the urban service boundary by a certain amount of acres being touted as a solution?

When there's no correlation proved by research that that is going to create affordable housing.

So when you talk about equity, >> you focus just on infill development.

You're basically putting yourself in a situation where people who are currently living in neighborhoods because of the lack of growth will be gentrified out of those neighborhoods.

So it's not very applicable.

This is just common sense crow to the quarters where we can grow.

There's some obvious areas where growth is permissible.

So if you create more opportunities, maybe we can decrease those costs and create more housing.

We're going to be allocating.

>> A significant amount of resources outside of our existing city.

We're going to be looking at spending hundreds of millions of taxpayer dollars on building infrastructure, sewer systems, roads, schools, fire and police in by allocating resources outside of existing community.

We also have to recognize that pulls away from the resources that are going to be allocated within our community.

And so are we willing as a community to put policies in place that ensure affordable housing that ensure housing is built, price points that are working.

Families can a Ford.

The market doesn't do that.

Policy does.

And so moving forward, it's going to take all of us working together to really U.S. make policies that enable housing to be improved.

That enable economic growth and that enables the success of our communities.

>> The Lexington Planning Commission recently approved a map that adds 2000 acres to that urban services boundary.

>> Praise for the Pikeville Fire Department after a Martin County building collapse and there's a new effort to stop opioid addiction in infants are Toby Gibbs tells us more in this.

Look at headlines around Kentucky.

♪ ♪ >> A new partnership aims to improve care for Kentuckyian friends have been exposed to opioids W Nky reports the Louisville based company nurse and received a $750,000 Grant from the Kentucky Association of Health Plans to train hospitals on how to care for babies suffering from neonatal abstinence syndrome without relying too much on opioids.

It's not clear which hospitals will participate in the training, but an official with the company said it hopes to train 5 hospitals as early as January.

Warnock and boxes are going up in Kentucky.

The Kentucky Standard reports the Lincoln Trail District Health Department at the Nelson County Addiction response effort placed a community Narcan box at the first Christian church in Bardstown.

Narcan is used for emergency treatment after an opioid overdose.

The box as other resources for those who may be interested in substance use treatment or recovery support the health Department serves Harden LaRue.

Marion made Nelson and Washington counties.

Plans are under way involving grade to build additional tornado shelters in the city.

Deborah Highland West, the public information officer for the city of Bowling Green told WKU Public Radio that FEMA proved a disaster recovery grant to find additional tornado.

Shelters develop 5 more shelters spanning 3 parks.

This comes in the wake of the 2021 tornadoes that hit western Kentucky West tells WKU Public Radio.

The construction of the shelters will begin next year.

The project is expected to cost 3 million dollars with 90% of that cost covered by the FEMA grant.

Several members of the Pikeville Fire Department were recognized by the Pikeville City Commission last week for their rapid response to the coal plant collapse in Martin County on October 31st.

Pikeville Fire Chief Johnny Cole told the Appalachian News Express his department is one of 3 departments in the eastern region that are trained in building collapse and that, quote, there are first responders that didn't want to go into a collapse without our guys going and end quote.

2 workers were killed in the building that was being prepped for demolition collapsed.

Both men were problem.

Pike County.

With headlines across Kentucky.

I'm Toby gives.

♪ >> Well, November is national Adoption Month.

The U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell recently recognized the bowling Green woman who is an adoption advocate.

She and her husband adopted 2 daughters from China.

>> Our Laura Rogers spent some time with the family.

>> Bill and toss a new lens interest in adoption began in the year 2000 when they started following another family's journey to China.

>> MetLife Idaho process.

And I just KET that was something one day.

But I wanted to do was to go to China to adopt a little girl.

There.

>> That day finally came in 2010 with baby Emma Lunn.

She and try by the little girls had been traveling on a bus for about 3 hours from the orphanage and they brought them all into the hotel to make their new adoptive families.

It was a profound experience for taja grateful to give her daughter a better life.

They're just babies everywhere now.

And you just look around.

There's just no mommy and daddy's.

It's it's heartbreaking to see that situation.

Adoption.

We can help little kids who don't deserve.

>> Not having families be able to have a family to thank you for the story.

But up a few years later, well into Taja adopted from China.

Again, this time a 2 year-old named Isley and Mary Pratt that they chose >> And this glad that we were the ones chosen.

They are so grateful for family.

The girls recently discovering more family taking a DNA test that would reveal a remarkable surprise.

You call me back and she fed Emmeline Nuland.

If long cut.

I mean it but not to something Milan learning.

She has a biological cousin, also adopted from China, living 10 minutes away.

She really funny and nice like around my age.

Shes advocacy extends beyond being an adoptive parent.

She's also a contract worker for adoption assistance, conducting home studies and offering birth mother counseling and hospitals and pregnancy centers.

We help families prepare for adoption.

We have to birth mother.

>> And then we're also there in the and to go back into the home and made sure that the child is Everybody survived and and that everything's going well for work.

Getting the attention of U.S..

Senator Mitch McConnell recognizing Taja as an angel and adoption.

>> That just went above and beyond tonight coming.

But they're really special.

That really was an honor to be recognized back outside.

We had a really great trip.

>> They do really get what they do.

They both work hard so they deserve the award.

>> Wright was sound.

The UN's hope their family story inspires others to consider adoption to look at my all the time and that they had me not said yes, we could have missed it.

We couldn't mask all the joy.

I think its great cause.

Well, just because I have a lot of sand grains for Kentucky edition and he's glad we got to a home.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Angels in adoption is a public awareness campaign by the Congressional Coalition on Adoption Institute.

>> Each year members of Congress can nominate constituents who are helping to improve the lives of children in need of a loving family.

♪ >> A Thanksgiving by product is being turned into a biofuel.

Thanks to an event put on each year by the University of Kentucky.

The annual gobble Greece toss collects hundreds of gallons of cooking oil and keeps it out of drains.

We caught up with one of the researchers behind the project.

>> Our main goal is to transform different fall forms of mask or other starting materials to as the name implies sustainable and alternative fuels.

The double Greece toss.

It's a pretty exciting partnership.

Folks in the community can take their used cooking oil and dispose of it The rental property school collects it and on the Monday after Thanksgiving, they bring it here.

We KET a sample for our research purposes and the remainder goes to Kellie Greene, Bio Fuels Chase, a bio fuels producer that ensure that the entirety of the used cooking oil collected is converted to a renewable fuel.

What we really want to impress upon people is that pouring it down.

The drain is not a good idea.

This will hurt the pipes in your house.

And any bid that makes it to the sewer system can clog the sewer system and you can use your imagination.

This is this is not a good thing.

>> The annual the annual gobble Greece toss will be this Friday from that 10:00AM to 02:00PM at Redwood Cooperative School in Lexington N. >> Well, get ready to cram the cruiser today begins the state Wide food drive with help from the Kentucky State Police.

The food drive lasts 2 weeks ending December 4th.

There's a place to donate in every town with a Kentucky State police post.

Anyone can donate by dropping off canned goods, pasta, water other non-perishable items at nearby grocery stores last year they ksp collected more than 200,000 pounds of food post 16 and Henderson alone collected more than half of those donations last year.

The folks from God's pantry have been packing food boxes in Morehead, London and Lexington.

Now with the Thanksgiving just 2 days away.

It's time to start handing them out.

>> This process actually started last February when we ordered turkeys and began ordering all of the food that we are distributing today.

2 weeks ago in London and Morehead, we assembled baskets for some of the outlying counties.

And last week we assemble baskets here in Lexington.

And today we're matching up all of those nonperishable goods with Turkey with potatoes, with butter with eggs and with onions so that folks can prepare a full Thanksgiving meal.

I'm out here because it feels great to be able to be part of something that is so >> generously given back to the community.

And, you know, it gives Mitt well part of a big smile.

The fees that faces to be able to be a recipient of something like this.

And for me to be part of it and just all the more beautiful for me when we see an uptick in awareness for food insecurity during the holidays, when people are trying to take those scarce budgets.

>> And be able to do something around the holidays for family and for loved one.

And oftentimes what suffers that is their food budget.

And so during the holidays is a time when those who are experiencing hunger, those who are food, insecure are really struggling to make ends meet the community I live in is Cardinal Valley.

And I know.

How many that are so lacking in food.

Being part of this experience here?

Maybe maybe generate ad deal to some of the people.

>> and over, want to get out and help the food insecurities because the so the such a drastic need for it.

>> What we're seeing right now is a pretty dramatic increase in food insecurity across central and eastern Kentucky, including here in Fayette County, the data that we have says that there's about 220,000 people across central and eastern Kentucky who are food insecure in Fayette County.

It's 30,000.

Now is the time to really think about those who might need nourishment in order to thrive.

People tell us that if it wasn't for this distribution, they would not be able to gather around the table for a meal and the power and the blessing of being able to share a meal with loved ones.

And with neighbors is such an important piece of Thanksgiving.

This work is so much more about the food.

It's about the relationships.

It's about delivering help.

It's about helping find that journey that they're looking for in their lives.

And what we hear from our volunteers is the blessing of getting back to the community.

And helping those who need nutrition to get some nutrition.

And they often tell us about the stories and the conversations that they have with those who are experiencing 100 when they take the food out to the car.

It's just the heartwarming experience for everybody involved.

>> God's pantry will hand out about 4200 Thanksgiving meals in Lexington alone.

♪ ♪ >> Well, the Kentucky Center for the Performing Arts in Louisville is celebrating its 40th anniversary now called Kentucky Performing Arts.

The organization now includes.

>> The Brown Theater and Old foresters Paris town hall on Sunday's episode of Inside Love.

I got a sneak peek behind the scenes at Whitney Hall.

Take a look.

♪ >> I've been here for this will be 35 years.

We've seen a single on started out.

You know, when I started in a as a calling employee in the theater, our campuses, the Kentucky Center, the Brown Theater forces Paris townhome.

And I'm over the engineering production, housekeeping and security departments across the campus were well equipped facility very well maintained and that, again, this art center, it Wilton 83 open.

An 83 was really put together in a way accommodate particularly the Whitney Hall, a touring show.

So the size of the hall, we the construction, the layout was really to accommodate the shows.

And we have I again, I think we're if not the biggest, the largest.

The facility as far as lay out to be able to accommodate those as a number of newer facilities out now that compare.

But I think that with the top of the layout of the same for the theater.

It's undergone a number of changes throughout the history of the last 40 The acoustical clouds have been resurfaced.

We've had we've gone from.

Getting getting kind of deeper into rigging systems to changed over motor driven rather than hydraulic, which was a big change for us.

Those are big things that being 40 years old.

We were trying to move in to the next, you know, generation and equipment and updates because we are 40.

So things are reaching the end of their life.

So we have request we have projects underway and requests and for the state to improve and change those pieces out, you know, led lights like the camera has updates to our reading systems, theatrical system, sound systems.

And change is constant.

And so we're we're examining who we are and how to serve.

>> Our region the best way possible.

One of the pools for me is really the that the fly rail in this theater.

>> When Broadway shows come through, they tend to most of them will a trace that they've been here.

And it's a little piece of art that we've collected over the last 40 years upon the fire.

And I think that's when the neatest things shows rail cars doing right now.

We're right outside of the state to stay dry fly room.

>> And let me go through the door will on stage, right?

Fly real area.

But right outside here and actually inside as tours, come through, they have a designated.

The artists speak that has left their mark from being here on the tour.

And as you can these go back a number of years.

And each most every tour comes in and leaves there a mark on on our on our stage and outside the room here.

This is the flyer else and this is the fly systems counterweights system.

A number of them are But the majority are.

>> Just straightforward counterweight These are the locks.

When you want to move the pipe when the scene was going to move.

You would take the ring off the market and move the roper.

To move the same.

>> So this is directions for the for particular piece.

And as I said, is choreographed, unscripted and we chose the time.

What is the queue?

What line said is that that's being used.

What is the piece?

What direction is that he's moving in or out in or out?

What is the spike mark?

The ropes themselves will have spikes on when to start or stop.

Who is pulling the rope.

And probably there's up to 4 fun and on this particular show in specific note about that move rigging in general came ships and sailing.

a lot of the techniques all came to theater There's a lot of you know this about you don't whistle on stage signals on for instruction we're in And so you don't want to confuse and ask someone to do something about this.

>> You can see that entire episode of Inside Louisville online.

It's Okay.

E T Dot org slash inside at Louisville.

And coming up this Sunday, we explore the history and future expansion of Louisville's Waterfront Park.

That's this Sunday at noon 11 Central on K E T. Well, here's something you don't see or hear every day on a typical Kentucky street.

This Lexington man typing away for passersby on Main Street.

But why you'll find out tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

We hope you will join us again tomorrow night at 6.30, East, earn 5.30, central for Kentucky Edition where we inform.

>> Connect and inspire.

You can subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips a K E T Dot Org.

And Don't forget to follow KET on Facebook X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram.

So you can stay in the late.

Thank you for joining us.

Have a good night.

♪ ♪ ♪ ♪