♪ >> Made for seconds to show them that they could have a state government that was not run in political way.

>> Remembering former Governor John why Brown junior has memorial services are set.

>> I'm going to come back.

A better man, a better person.

>> How this father and former inmate is working with a Kentucky jail to try to break the cycle of incarceration.

Well, farmers face a lot of challenges, including rising into the car.

>> Most everything and that we use on the farm has increased in price.

Challenges for Kentucky farmers leading to statewide efforts that focus on their mental health.

>> Our goal is to grow the food in the community for the community, by the community, thereby uplift in the communities where we operate.

>> And Kompany is on a mission in coming to Kentucky.

We take you inside 80 acres.

Farms.

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

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

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Monday, November 28th, I'm Renee Shaw.

Glad to be back with you and thank you for winding down your Monday night with us.

Funeral arrangements are this week for former Kentucky Governor John, why Brown junior?

He will lie in state in the Capitol Rotunda tomorrow from 10:00AM to 07:00PM.

The public is invited.

Brown's family will host a public visitation and the rotunda beginning tomorrow at 03:00PM Eastern Time.

A private memorial service will be held on Wednesday.

And KET, he will air it right here.

Brown was the 55th governor of Kentucky serving from 1979 to 1983.

He passed away at his home a week ago today.

John, why Brown junior was 88 years old.

All across is a longtime journalist who covered John.

Why Brown's 1979 campaign and his time in office.

He says Brown deserves credit for ushering in a new way of doing politics in Kentucky.

>> He was a breath of fresh air to people who were dissatisfied with a sot of say government.

There were a number of investigations going on.

The current administration had a a candidate was not getting traction because of that.

And the Democratic Party was beginning to break and he says are no longer along.

We'll factional lines.

So here comes Brown is the exciting and new candidate and he didn't really sell himself as a reformer in so many words.

But that's exactly what he was.

He says we're going to change the way the state does business.

We're around the state like a business, not politics.

And I will be a salesman for the state.

Of course, he had a great reputation as a salesman all the way from Hawking encyclopedias as a college student to making Kentucky Fried Chicken.

An international brand.

You have to get past the flash and look at the substance, you know, John Wind chills, it was always a glitz and celebrity and glamour and sex appeal.

Frankly, that I think made for Kentuckians to show them that they could have a state government.

It was not run in the old political way.

Unfortunately, he try to campaign on That when he ran in 1987, and Kentucky's will end up electing another millionaire businessman who practice politics way most Wilkinson.

In reaction to that, they looked at Burton Jones, another millionaire businessman who really ran as a reformer and some ways Brown was a 4 runner for Jones under whom we've got a succession of governor's campaign finance reform, various reforms and the contracting appointments.

And so on.

they pretty much cut from the same cloth that front.

>> Governor Andy Beshear has ordered flags at all state office buildings to be lowered to half-staff and Browns honor.

As we mentioned, a private memorial service is planned for Wednesday.

The service will air live on KET and online at KET Dot Org.

We will also have coverage right here on Kentucky EDITION.

>> A state senator is taking a new job in Tennessee State Senator Ralph Alvarado has been named Tennessee's new health commissioner.

He earned his undergraduate and medical degrees from Loma Linda University and completed his residency in internal medicine and pediatrics at the University of Kentucky.

Alvarado has served in the state Senate since 2015 and is currently chair of the Health and Welfare Committee.

In a statement he said, quote, the opportunity presented to me by Governor Lee is a chance to have an even more significant impact on public policy.

The Republican represents Kentucky's 28 Senate district, which covers Bath Clark Menifee and Montgomery counties and a part of Fayette County State Senate President Robert Stivers says Alvarado will continue to represent his district in the 2023 legislative session until he resigns or takes his oath of office.

Alvarado was set to take over as commissioner for Tennessee's Department of Health on January.

16th.

Meanwhile, a state representative is seeking a higher office Representative Pamela Stephenson, a Democrat from Louisville, has filed to run for Kentucky Attorney general.

She is an attorney and a retired colonel in the U.S. Air Force Stevenson would become the first black woman to be Kentucky's attorney general if elected.

Current attorney General Daniel Cameron became the first black attorney general and Kentucky.

He's now running for the Republican nomination for governor, former U.S. attorney Russell Coleman is so far the only Republican looking to replace Cameron.

Part of the attorney general's job is to monitor election law violations.

That includes randomly selecting counties for a post election audit.

Those 12 counties were selected today and they are Jefferson Webster, Shelby Rao, an Laurel, the rue Owen Anderson, Christian Davis and breath of counties.

The attorney General's Department of Criminal Investigations will look to see if there were any irregularities in these counties during the November general election.

The findings will be presented to the grand jury and chief circuit judge of each county.

One in 10 children in Kentucky has had a parent incarcerated.

That's according to Kentucky Youth Advocates.

The consequences of this separation can have lasting impacts on a child's development and well being.

But some Kentucky jails are working to KET incarcerated parents and their children connected.

Among those the Franklin County Regional Jail.

Our partnership with an organization founded by a formerly incarcerated parent is helping to nurture those bonds.

>> The most important thing is to break the cycle.

I actually in the started selling drugs which led to me going to prison, but not once the first time the fire is got out.

2005.

By this time I had 2 boys.

I got a lot of makeup and 2007 to see my kids tears in the eyes when I told I would be gone.

But he KET it was probably one of the worst days.

But light was actually one of the best days for him because I KET it.

I'm going to get Come back.

A better man, a better father, a better person for my community.

I love starting to want to just Robinson Foundation inside a Starbucks in 2018, the September.

>> We have probably 20 to 30 parents that are involved in a lot of Robinson Foundation there.

Incarcerate right now with determination.

We have mothers and fathers day contact visits Christmas contact visits every year.

The Christmas, for example, we have a living room setting with the table, a tree, a couch and all the kids presents under the tree in there and separate little living rooms.

And so they get to open a present some further parent have dinner with them and things like that.

>> They got to spend several hours with their children.

That is very outside the box of what we do.

But, you know, if you want things to change, you have to be willing to step outside the box and do something different and watch one individual that I've dealt with my whole career time to rest.

This individual.

Oh, how the times of that with him in this jail.

I watched that that person change.

It was one of the most inspirational moments in my career.

Prior to last year's Christmas function.

He didn't care.

You know, it was his didn't care.

And now, you know, he's he's a part of his kids lives still today when I was in the federal system like this big to see my kids love them.

>> You know, and talk to them face to face, made a big difference.

You know, I grew to believe that's what my kids, they go down that route because I was to have the opportunity to be honest with them.

>> If their parents are incarcerated, the foundation give so many resources that we can give to parents, but also for the child.

>> We have a crush program which is called kids rise and up to support him, which we get kids.

Once we figure out that they have a parent incarcerated, we get them in our program from okay.

Are we to 12?

So they get treatment and healing, you know, and just community, you know, that of other people like them, other kids like them and to benefit and more people then.

>> I can count of seen it change.

You have seen it start to break that cycle.

So the kids don't repeat with the parents of done.

>> It doesn't have to be the same thing that you're producing your parents.

Do you have the opportunity to change?

And that's why I feel like the ones that Robinson and this is a cornerstone to teach those kids like you could be something different.

You have to give you our special and that's what we do.

>> Dale Robinson says one of the future goals of the Wanda joins Robinson Foundation is the creation of a bill of rights for children with incarcerated parents.

Little Sandy Correctional Complex is getting bigger today.

Department of Corrections leaders along with Governor Andy Beshear's, senior adviser Rocky Adkins broke ground on the expansion of the prison in Sandy Hook.

The goal is to transition inmates from the Kentucky State Reformatory in LaGrange to the newly expanded facility.

The state says it plans to close the Kentucky State Reformatory due to aging infrastructure and staffing challenges.

In today's health news, Kentucky is seeing an uptick in the spread of COVID-19.

>> 3 counties are now in the red meaning high community spread and 15 counties are now yellow or medium.

10 days ago.

Know Kentucky County was read and only 10 counties where yellow.

Flu cases are also on the rise.

The Kentucky Department for Public Health reported nearly 3500 confirmed flu cases during the week of November 14th.

Doctors say it's not too late to get the flu vaccine.

♪ They put food on our table and clothes on our back, talked to a farmer and you will quickly learn they have up.

>> Passion for what they do.

However, factors like high expenses, extreme weather and a labor shortage can take a mental toll.

There are statewide efforts to help Kentucky farmers manage stress, anxiety and even depression.

>> As farmers, we spend our lives producing food.

For this country and the world.

It requires us to put it in pretty much our whole life into what we do.

>> The world is changing so fast.

And we're is an occupation that requires a massive amount of investment.

It's much easier to make a big mistake.

In a management decision or in a purchase for the piece of equipment.

>> There are so many things about farming that we have no control.

We have no control of the weather.

We have no control of our market prices and we really have no control over the input costs.

>> For new farmer starting today with incredibly high inputs, very uncertain markets.

You know, if if prop and and livestock prices were to collapse like they did in the 1980's, it could get really ugly on the farm and hers.

>> Compared to the other, the general population.

Farmers are about 3 times more likely to commit suicide.

It's one of the high suicide rates of any occupation that we have.

>> For a lot of people, today's worry and the wings in the market.

It could be quite emotional for some people.

Racing hope is a collaborative effort.

>> And there's many entities associated with this throughout the state.

The whole effort is to raise hope for farmers to buy reduce depression and suicide among the foreign population.

>> Trying to manage my perspective in that perspective includes not just the business side, but also the emotional side and the mental side keeping things that are most important.

First like family and faith.

Anything you can do that builds family.

And relationships and community is a plus for mental health on any level in any occupation.

>> I think the consumer 2, 3 generations now removed from the farm, do not understand what farmers do and the practices that we use and why we do that.

We have 75,000.

>> Plus, farmers in Kentucky.

We don't appreciate some calm.

So those are the people that give us our food.

Our fiber and feed so many people in the world.

>> I would encourage consumers to talk to their farmers, to talk to those people, to ask them why they did what they did.

>> If a farmer is stressed and and they are and suffering from depression and they're in a rural area.

We know there's a stigma associated with mental health.

We know that we have limited health care providers cent address mental health issues and even in rural areas, we want to make sure that those professionals are trained, educated to identify the farmers that are in crisis.

>> Farming is always uncertainty.

We've always had weather events.

We've always had uncertain market.

You're going to have peaks and valleys.

And that's the nature of farming.

>> Farming is difficult work.

>> Farming is a difficult way of life and it is something that requires a passion and a commitment.

>> As long as is we're going to have something to wear and something that enables us to travel and something to eat.

It starts on the farm.

And so I think it's it's a positive outlook.

>> When we have food to eat and the health that we have in the United States, we should always thank a farmer.

>> And thank a farmer.

Hundreds of doctors, nurses, social workers and counselors have completed an online continuing education course focusing on farmers and mental health at WKU.

The Farmer Cultural Awareness Project collected and shared personal stories from 19 farmers in 10 counties.

Farmers can find resources online at raising Hope.

K why dot com?

♪ >> We have likely heard of App Harvest the Agra Tech farm based in Morehead is expanding throughout Kentucky.

But there is another farm you may know last about 80 acres.

Farms is based in Ohio.

The company is opening a new facility in northern Kentucky.

The 200,000 Square-foot farm will grow leafy greens, tomatoes, and more.

We spoke with the co-founder and CEO to find out why 80 acres chose Boone County, Kentucky for its next location.

>> 80 acres is a high tech vertical farming company.

We essentially take the field stack on top of the field on the top of the field in the top of the field and create a perfect environment to grow any crop any time of the year.

365 days a year we have been oversold from this current farm and we've got so much customer demand that we want to move to where our customers and consumers are.

So Kentucky.

Is our first major expansion.

Georgia is next.

And we're thrilled to be in Kentucky.

We've been operating in Alabama and Arkansas, North Carolina, but Kentucky is very important to us because Kentucky is the largest farm that we're building right now.

The Kentucky farm will produce about 4 times the amount of product that we're producing here enough.

So that behind us will grow variety of leafy greens, culinary herbs, micro greens, and we will be following that up with fruiting crops like tomatoes, cucumbers and strawberries super follow.

Make sure we actually started seeding just last week and we're going to be harvesting from phase one in December.

Our goal is to grow the food in the community for the community, by the community, thereby uplift in the communities where we operate.

We're very excited to bring that to Kentucky.

COVID has demonstrated the problems with supply chains and those problems have hit a lot of the communities that are not in the biggest house in America.

We can get food to those communities, but we have not been able to get high quality, nutritious produce the communities and that's we're trying to fix.

Kentucky seems to really understand.

What we're calling to 4 agricultural technology and technology applied to every culture to grow better faster, higher quality produce.

We've had phenomenal support of the state level.

We fed greater actually, universities had greater action.

A lot of different community organizations.

We're very focused on getting this farm bill to him and built right and providing the freshest cleanest tasty us produce to well, consumers in the present Kentucky.

>> 80 acres currently has 8 farms in operation with construction on another facility currently underway in Georgia.

That facility will begin operations in 2023.

A big name in the bourbon industry is making a historic investment in Kentucky Louisville bases.

Iraq is spending 600 million dollars in Laurel County.

The governor's office says this is the largest distilled spirits related investment in the state's history.

Sazerac plans to build 20 new barrel storage warehouses and the Rolling Acres industrial park in Laurel County work is expected to begin in the coming weeks.

The first 7 warehouses should be complete in the spring of 2025. since the wreck owns Buffalo, Trace and Barton, 17 92 among other brands.

♪ >> Pigeon Racing is a centuries-old sportsman being kept alive by enthusiasts right here in Kentucky.

We checked out one club in Lexington that has been training and racing these wing-back cleats for almost 100 years.

>> Around the turn of the century, pigeon racing was becoming more and more popular, so became a hobby in the sport a little more than 100 years ago.

And there's enough people in Lexington, the had a common interest and want to try that.

The pitches have been domesticated for thousands of years.

They were really important for communication with the Telegraph comes along and then they don't need the pigeons anymore.

So what happens to all the pigeons and all the people that kept patients and all the people that trained pigeons?

Well.

>> They brought them home with them and they continued their loved ones and they began forming races.

>> Racing pigeons are built for.

And selected for bread for their athleticism.

They look different stronger and bigger.

The more streamlined.

They're more durable.

They're built for racing.

>> I was wanted to say, why can't I go get chicks from under the bridge and train and the difference is that those patients have lived.

A rustic.

Wildlife foraging for food for their life.

Where is most, if not all of the patients that we have have been raced one red because they're winners over years generations.

So they're already the best of the gene pool.

I guess you could say if you're going to race with pigeons, you need to train them.

How to do that.

>> And that really starts when they're very young.

It starts at the very incremental phase.

So the very first thing you're doing with the pigeon is to train it to come to you when it's feeding time.

The second thing you need to train them.

How to do come inside the law and then the next step is to let them out of the loft and be free.

Once they start disappear a little bit when you let them out to fly they're out checking the city out there, seeing how far they can go.

They've if they're starting to do that, they know where the loft is.

They know or home is in every few minutes they'll fly back over, you know, and make sure that they're not lost in the club were competing against each other.

We drive the birds down altogether to certain what we call liberation point.

So what we do is we take GPS locations of the Liberation point.

We take individual locations of the >> home loft.

And we know the very specific distance that the bird flew to get home.

And so we know how much time it took them to get home.

And we know the distance.

>> We can do some simple math to determine how fast they flew.

>> The best part of the racing hands down is that moment you see your birds coming.

When they pop of trees, Rove or whatever, it may be to see them coming.

>> Your heart pounding hearts racing, you know their home.

I think it's just they have this.

>> Overpowering desire to get home.

It's really fascinating to me that, you know, you have this bird that you can pick off the perch and candle and let it out the door and it will be back in and out.

When I was racing or not at this club cease to exist, I would still have my patients and I would still love my pigeons.

And I was to let them out and watch them fly.

>> And they would still right around my shoulder Loftus like that.

And they would still KET you company.

They would still be a very good distraction for me and that if there as well.

>> Pigeon racing is rising in popularity around the world, particularly in China where a pigeon sold for a record-breaking 1.9 million dollars in 2020, making it the most that a racing pigeon has ever been sold for.

2 birthdays.

The tobacco war, basketball and chicken.

Toby Gibbs has all this and more with our look back at this week in Kentucky history.

♪ >> 2 prominent Kentuckyian celebrate birthdays.

November 29th.

Happy birthday to Governor Andy Beshear.

The state's 63rd governor born in 1977.

In Louisville.

It's also the birthday of singer and songwriter, Merle Travis.

Born in 1917, in Muhlenberg County.

Travis often wrote about working people and their struggles.

He wrote the coal mining anthem.

16 tons and recorded it in 1946, 9 years before Tennessee.

Ernie Ford.

November, 30th at 19.

0, 6, 200 hooded man rode into Princeton, disarm.

The police set fire to 2 tobacco warehouses and destroyed.

75 tons of tobacco.

It was all part of the Black Patch War.

>> A fight over tobacco prices between the American Tobacco company and the Planters Protective Association.

UK men's basketball Wildcats played their first game at Memorial Coliseum on December.

First 1950, defeating the West Texas State Bulldogs.

The Coliseum was built to honor Kentuckians killed in World War.

One World War 2 and the Korean War, which had just started a few months earlier lighter, the names of the Vietnam War dead were also at it.

And Rick Pitino coached his first UK game November.

28 1989 as the Cats defeated Cincinnati.

Colonel Harland Sanders appeared on the CBS Game Show.

What's My line on December?

First, 1963.

He was not yet a household name.

And the panel couldn't guess his occupation as someone who cooked and sold fried chicken with this week in Kentucky history.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> Thank you so much, Toby.

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

You can subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition, e-mail news letter and watch full episodes Akt Dot Org.

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

I'm smart TV and follow KET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

We also welcome to follow me on Twitter at Renee KET.

Thank you so much for watching tonight.

Take really good care.

Now, see tomorrow.

♪ ♪