>> A tragic cargo plane crash in Louisville, leaves more than a dozen dead and lots of questions.

Kentucky remembers Governor Martha Layne Collins, the only woman ever elected to the state's highest office.

Kentuckians try to help each other as the federal government shut down drags on.

The filing window opens.

Canada start to officially enter those 2026 races.

Looks like we'll get a little winter preview on this November weekend, and comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky, a look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are John Cheeves, reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

McKenna Horsley politics reporter for the Kentucky Lantern, and Mario Anderson, anchor and host of InFocus Kentucky on Spectrum News one.

Also tonight, remembering Barry Peele, a frequent guest in the early days of Comment on Kentucky.

Let's begin with the tragic crash of a UPS cargo plane in Louisville.

The images and the video are horrifying, and in the aftermath, the death toll has climbed to 14.

That's a new number just announced this evening.

Governor Beshear and others hurried to that scene.

>> As governor, I've seen a lot.

I've had to order freezer trucks in a pandemic.

I've walked the line of an EF4 tornado through my dad's hometown.

I've seen towns hit by flooding we only describe as biblical.

And what this scene is, is violent.

>> What we just saw at the crash site is devastating beyond words.

The impact and intensity of the wreckage of the charred wreckage is unlike anything I've ever seen before, and certainly nothing that I ever want to see again.

>> Mario.

We all knew it would be a major disaster when we saw the initial images coming in, but you see these officials really struggling for the words to describe.

>> That's exactly right.

And a lot of them shared that.

It was like a scene out of a movie.

A they refer to it like Terminator, just how intense seeing the images up close and personal were.

Congressman Morgan McGarvey, who also represents Louisville and Jefferson County.

He was there at that press conference that we had those soundbites from, and he said it looked like an apocalyptic hell hole, hell space.

That's a direct quote, very shocking for many people to hear about it, see it on your phone or on television.

But when you're actually seeing it in person and walking through the trail of the aftermath definitely tugs at your heart.

And then to know that there are still people missing, lives lost, and a major impact.

A sad situation for the tragedy.

>> By all accounts, the response to it was amazing.

The airport, of course, was closed for a time, but there was just so much to contend with.

>> There was in the NTSB, you know, they came and had boots on the ground and started their investigation.

And it's a long process to look at every single piece of debris that's left behind, using drones to be able to capture the various images, but then also just literally tracking down who is missing and where do they come from?

Were they in a business?

Were they a part of a living in the neighborhood, nearby neighborhood, or were they just passing through?

And so they are.

It's a very detailed process.

And again, it makes it more difficult since what's left behind, some of it's unrecognizable.

You don't even know if it's from a vehicle or from a person's home.

So a lot to take in for sure.

>> McKenna, you live there in Louisville.

What was it like to to because you were under a shelter in place order, right?

Yes.

And people were trying to just figure out what was going on.

>> Yeah.

You know, there was a lot of evolving information, especially in that early part.

Immediately after the crash, a lot of people received news alerts on their phone, emergency alerts telling them that they were in shelter in place, where the shelter in place was, and how that changed throughout the evening.

As the evening went on, that range got smaller and smaller, but the next day schools were closed because there are a few schools near the airport and things like that.

But I believe by the next morning that shelter in place had been very narrow near the airport.

>> Are there lingering concerns about environmental issues, the impact in other ways?

Mario?

>> I think they're still monitoring it each day.

But, you know, at its height, they were checking on air quality issues.

The water in the nearby vicinity vicinity, there's a quarter mile radius from where the crash site was, where there were several issues of concern, but a lot of those have been tamped down in the recent days.

>> John, this is the worst air disaster in Kentucky since the 2006 Comair crash in Lexington.

There is a lot to figure out here.

Investigators looking at all aspects, because everybody hopes that there are some lessons learned.

>> Yeah, the National Transportation Safety Board says it's investigating everything, including the full maintenance history of this plane.

There was a major overhaul of the plane for inspection and any necessary repairs not long ago, just in September and October when the plane was in San Antonio, Texas, UPS says no maintenance was done on the plane immediately before takeoff on Tuesday.

So what caused the left engine to detach from the plane as it was taking off?

We already have seen a federal lawsuit filed Thursday, a Louisville woman and two Louisville businesses who say they suffered damages as a result of the crash are suing UPS, which owned the plane.

Boeing, which made the plane, and General Electric, which made the engine.

>> McKenna.

Just as we were sitting down to do the program, we learned of this 14th fatality that Governor Beshear confirmed, right.

>> You know, there's still, I believe, some search going on.

There are people still missing and also people in the hospital as well.

We haven't had a lot of details about the names of the victims, besides those that that were part of the crew.

So a lot of that, those details will be coming probably soon.

>> And Mario, in the midst of this, there have been efforts to help people cope.

There have been efforts to to help some who are impacted in some way by the by the crash.

>> That's right.

It's been a big push on sharing mental health resources that are available for people just seeing those images on their screens or coming across it on social media.

But again, the people directly impacted families, people who have lost loved ones.

But then also there's been some community events, public vigils that have been hosted in the Louisville area and then beyond.

But then the governor declared a state of emergency and basically made an amendment to the team, Kentucky Emergency Relief Fund, so that money can be able to be used to cover the expenses of funerals for people that were lost during this tragedy.

So kind of all hands on deck, but obviously centered in Louisville, but has grown across the state with people looking to try to support and help out where they can.

>> Again, the time frame for the investigation, maybe preliminary report in a month or so.

>> Potentially, but there's a lot to comb through.

So it could be extended to a little bit later after that.

But they've already have access to the black box and the recorder from the the plane.

So that's going to help them a lot with those final moments.

But then they've got a wide range of things they're checking on during the investigation.

>> All right.

And we were told maybe a year or so before there's a final report, we will of course be following up.

Well, Kentucky is remembering Governor Martha Layne Collins, the first and only woman elected to lead the Commonwealth.

She was governor from 1983 to 1987 and was a champion for education and economic development.

Collins was considered for the vice presidential nomination by the Democrats, and chaired the Democratic National Convention in 1984.

She died last Saturday at the age of 88.

During her time in office and after, she was an icon on the Kentucky stage.

>> And stick with the priorities I had when I was there 20 years ago.

Education and economic development, because I think they're the key to everything.

>> I would suggest that there are three things that are basic to leadership strength of self, strength of heart, and strength of vision.

Leadership doesn't always have to be found in bold headlines, or someone out carrying a placard, or someone screaming and yelling.

Leadership is often given in very quiet ways, but in ways that are very effective.

>> Being a woman school teacher, I felt like education was very important and I did try to start an educational reform.

>> It's time we open our eyes and we recognize it.

We can't afford business as usual in our schools any longer.

Now, I'm not here to claim that better schools will magically turn everything around overnight.

It's going to take some time, but I tell you, and I mean this most sincerely, we have got to get serious about our future.

We've got to get serious about it now.

>> Governor Collins, always very aspirational for Kentucky.

And John, she was a teacher turned political leader and had an impact on Kentucky in so many ways.

>> She she did.

Governor Collins obviously is synonymous now with the word Toyota.

She helped negotiate the Toyota manufacturing plant in Georgetown, just north of here in Lexington in 1986.

Since then, in 40 years, Toyota has invested 11 billion with a B dollars in Kentucky, tens of thousands of people have been employed there directly or indirectly.

In in all of the offshoots, Kentucky has now become a passenger vehicle production hub.

It's become a key part of our economy, far more than tobacco or coal, which have faded away.

It's become so important to what we do.

Scott County alone had 25,000 people in it.

When she got the Toyota plant here today, it has 63,000 people.

You can just see in central Kentucky all of the effects of what she did.

And every governor who has followed Governor Collins has come in and said, please let me get a Toyota.

>> Right.

Well, it was a game changer.

No question about that.

>> Yes.

She was also very passionate about education.

What you saw that in a lot of those clips that we just heard while she was governor, she backed a lot of education legislation, particularly in 1985, she unveiled a package that raised teacher salaries, reduced class sizes, funded construction projects and more.

And you know, that sounds very familiar, I think, to Kentucky Democratic politics today.

>> Clashed with the legislature sometimes.

Yes, that's true.

Funds were limited in those days, right?

>> Yes.

So, you know, it was a very tough battle to get those through.

But she persevered and backed those policies.

>> And some said really paved the way for the Kentucky Education Reform Act.

That would come a few years after she left office.

>> Right?

Yes.

And she continued to be involved in education, particularly after she left office as well.

>> Mario, there were other places that wanted the Toyota plant, obviously, but she dazzled those Japanese executives who came on a visit to Kentucky.

Huge welcome at the Capitol and a big event that apparently made the difference.

>> That's right.

And she had her personal touch of being able to just to communicate, as we've heard in those soundbites and being able to showcase why Kentucky is what it is, very special place, and especially in Georgetown in central Kentucky.

And as John was mentioning, you know, current present day Toyota has an $11 billion investment.

But back then they were projecting it to be only about $400 million investment.

And at that time, back in the early 80s, about 3000 workers, they were projecting.

Well, they've got now about 9000 workers across the world.

So a lot of visionary kind of things going on there, especially again, she was from Baghdad, Kentucky, and Shelby County and but had far wider reaching appeal.

>> Yeah.

And the spinoff plants that supply Toyota and so on.

Also major employers.

McKenna some observers wanted to make it clear this week that it was not Collins fault that she has been the only woman governor of Kentucky, because she handled the job well.

Others have run, but she was the only one to reach that that pinnacle of power.

>> Right.

And, you know, I think a lot of women in Kentucky politics kind of view her as a trailblazer for them.

And, you know, she had an influence not just here in Kentucky, but nationally as well.

When she was elected governor, she was the third woman in the country to be elected governor in U.S.

history.

So paving the way there nationally.

She had some influence in Democratic politics nationally.

And, you know, I think it's important to note that two days, a few days after she died this weekend, there were two female Democratic governors elected on Tuesday as well.

>> Which was a first for at least in Virginia.

>> It was first in Virginia.

>> Right, John.

So we note this image that Governor Collins had in Kentucky.

She, when she ran for governor, said, you know, I have been in all 120 counties.

That was a line, she would say, in each county.

She liked to travel.

She was well known in the state.

But, as McKenna notes, also with that being considered for the vice presidential slot on the 84 ticket and chairing the national convention, she was an image for Kentucky beyond our borders.

>> Yeah.

Walter Mondale apparently came very close to picking her as the first woman to be nominated vice president by a major party.

He went with Geraldine Ferraro instead, as we know.

Maybe if he'd picked Governor Collins, he would have beaten Ronald Reagan in 1984.

Who knows?

Probably not.

But, you know, we'll never know.

>> Governor Collins will lie in state at the old state Capitol in Frankfort on Sunday afternoon until 3:00.

So noon until three, and then there will be a funeral service for her there at 430.

KET will provide live coverage again, that is Sunday at 430 eastern time.

330 central on KET for Governor Collins funeral services on Sunday.

Kentucky's filing window has opened for candidates this week, and some have already signed up for the 2026 races and started speculation or ended speculation.

McKenna the top races to watch, of course, in Kentucky for the U.S.

Senate and the congressional seats.

But we have legislative races.

Local races, mayors and county judges.

This is going to be a busy 2026 cycle.

>> Yes.

All those people that were hoping to vote this week in Kentucky, as Secretary Adams said, will be very excited for next year, I'm sure.

>> Give folks on that.

When we had Election Day around the nation, Secretary Adams kept getting calls.

Why are the polls not open?

Right.

>> And people were very eager to vote in Kentucky, but they will be able to next year.

Of course, the only federal candidate that filed that first day on Wednesday was Republican US Rep Hal Rogers in the fifth Congressional District.

But, you know, we'll definitely see a lot of these people who have been launching campaigns in the past few months go in and file.

They have until January to do it.

So there's definitely time to do it.

We did see US rep Andy Barr make an appearance today at the Secretary of State's office to file for the Senate race, but this is also kind of an interesting time, because candidates aren't going to the Capitol like they normally do to file with the secretary of state, because the Capitol is closed for renovation.

So they are going to another place in Frankfort, the temporary office as well.

So it's definitely adding a bit of a new element to.

>> This and limited space and Barr.

Yet today Mario made an event of it.

>> He sure did.

I was in Frankfort there to watch the filing process of the first high profile candidate and Andy Barr.

Before he even showed up, he had about 30 supporters outside with rain on the way, ready with signs.

But then, as he was preparing to do his filing, he had a campaign event with his supporters in the room and he was giving some of his top priorities if he was elected and winning that primary.

But he was talking to an audience at the temporary office of the Secretary of State.

And this does usually turn into turn into an event.

And I anticipate it only growing as more candidates start showing up, especially all in the same day.

Turning into a big news event for Kentucky.

>> Yeah, and it doesn't end with those.

There will be judicial races as well.

John, I think an appeals court race in.

>> Central Kentucky, Fayette Circuit Judge Lucy Van Meter is running for the Kentucky Court of Appeals represent central Kentucky.

That's true.

>> So there will be a whole lot to watch in the campaign in 2026.

Well, the federal government shutdown is dragging on.

It's now the longest in US history.

The number of flights around the country being reduced to efforts are springing up to help those federal workers who are missing those paychecks.

We did get word, McKenna, just before air time, that the U.S.

Department of Agriculture apparently will fund Snap benefits for November, right.

>> The USDA told states earlier today that it will be releasing the full November Snap benefits funding.

And it they said that that funds will be sent to states starting tomorrow.

Trump.

President Trump is still appealing, though, this lawsuit that centers around this in court.

But because of the judge's order saying that the government must comply and produce this funding, they have to do that until or if another judge overrules that.

>> John, you know, this is now unprecedented, as we said, the longest shutdown ever.

And lots of people are truly casualties of Washington political fallout.

Right?

>> There are in Kentucky, there are about 24,000 people who work for the federal government.

And that's not counting soldiers or federal contractors.

And so for all this time, their livelihood, their paychecks have been in limbo.

That's a population of a town the size of Radcliffe.

There are 600,000 people in Kentucky who need Snap benefits to buy food.

For the past week.

They haven't had them.

Now, apparently the money is flowing again, so hooray!

But that's a week now that they've been going without, the FAA is reducing air traffic by 10%, and it may go up at 40 airports across the country because we've not been paying the air traffic controllers.

Louisville and Cincinnati, Northern Kentucky are two of those airports.

You know, for a little while you can close the federal government, and most people don't feel it.

I think now we're all starting to feel it.

>> And you think about those employees whose backs are to the wall, who are having to call their mortgage companies and see if they can get some delay and maybe credit card payments and so on.

>> Right.

I have only a few times in my life had to go without a paycheck.

I didn't enjoy it.

I don't think anybody does.

>> Mario, another casualty of the shutdown.

The Veterans Day event at Camp Nelson National Cemetery canceled.

>> Yeah, canceled.

And they say they're citing it due to a lapse in funding federal appropriations.

They were counting on money to be able to pay the volunteers and staff and the big production that goes on to execute that event.

And for the first time that many of us are aware, this won't be happening in Nicholasville and Jessamine County on Veterans Day.

>> We are getting more hints about the issues coming up before the Kentucky Legislature in 2026, just a few weeks away, state Senator Jimmy Higdon is retiring after this term, but he wants to do something about distracted driving before he leaves Frankfort.

>> Every time I hear a traffic fatality, either a head on collision, road departure, motorcycle hit by a vehicle, pedestrian hit by a vehicle, or bicyclist hit by a vehicle, I ask myself the question, could this been caused by distracted driver?

And I believe a majority of the times that's what caused the accident is the driver was distracted.

>> McKenna, what is Senator Higdon proposing to do?

>> So he is in that clip.

He was presenting the phone down Kentucky act, which is kind of his way of building off some of those laws that ban texting while driving before he leaves office.

If enacted, the proposal would require drivers to use more hands free technology rather than using their cell phones directly.

A copy of the draft that I read says that drivers cannot hold mobile devices while they're driving, read or write any kind of messages, you know, so not just text messages, but an email per se.

And they cannot watch moving images like watching videos or playing games or something like that.

So the legislation does have some exemptions for people who are first responders and the performing official duties and things of that nature.

But the committee did have some questions about fine tuning, how this looks and how it could be enforced as well.

So we might see some changes before the next legislative session.

>> Would it put Kentucky in line with most states?

>> There are some other states that have this legislation.

I think Senator Higdon said that all the states bordering us have some kind of similar legislation, so this would be on par with them.

>> Other issues you see coming up.

>> You know, one issue that came up this week, the Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice, Deborah Lambert, she gave her state of the judiciary, which is common for the chief justice to do.

This was her first one.

And she outlined a lot of funding priorities that she hopes the legislature takes up, particularly a 15% pay increase for all judicial branch employees, which would put them in line with other states, more on par with their executive branch counterparts.

And this is a budget session for the legislature.

So this is definitely a time for them to talk about that.

>> All right.

Child care.

We hear that.

Lots of discussions ahead.

No question.

Attorney General Russell Coleman is keeping an eye on artificial intelligence.

He says it can bring tremendous benefits.

But he also told me this week he has concerns about those who use it to scam others.

>> This is how we see AI used in a way that's dangerous.

We hear people that get phone calls with their grandchild's voice.

An AI is used.

This is very sophisticated stuff.

>> AI concerns you.

>> It concerns me greatly.

AI concerns me greatly because I see it how I see how it is done for harm.

We see how criminals are using it, and certainly it does.

Now.

There are positive uses for AI.

We use it for evidence review.

We use it in a law enforcement context, but it's a double edged sword.

Most certainly Mario.

>> We all see it coming and is in use right now in many ways, but our regulations keeping up with AI development.

>> That's something that the state legislature and lawmakers, there's a Kentucky AI task force.

They're monitoring this.

They've been meeting for about a year.

There's a lot to take in.

They've got a lot of priorities that they're trying to keep eyes on.

They also shared that they are waiting on the federal government to take action.

But whether it's addressing child predators who are using social media or there's texting, messaging scams, but then also deepfakes and election integrity, but then also there's chatbots out there that school systems are utilizing for mental health resources, but making sure that the AI is set up and set up in a way that it's actually helping kids and not sending them down a different path.

So it's a wide ranging and an evolving discussion they're going to be continuing to have for quite a while.

>> Voice cloning is another issue.

The US District Court for Eastern Kentucky will cease its operations in Pikeville at the end of the year.

Those cases will then be transferred to London or Ashland.

John.

This was approved by the Judicial Council of the Sixth Circuit.

It will be a change for the legal community and for those involved in criminal or civil cases in eastern Kentucky.

>> It will.

I don't think a federal judge has sat in Pikeville full time in many years.

They just visited when they needed to, but it was convenient for people at that far end of the state to be able to conduct federal court business in Pike County, rather than have to drive two hours north to Ashland or two hours west to London.

And that's just not going to be an option for them anymore.

>> Imagine it might have an economic impact as well on a city where there's such a legal community.

>> Frankly, I spent a week attending a trial at that courthouse in Pikeville, and I know I spent a week buying restaurant meals and staying in the hotel.

And, you know, other people did as well.

So that's that's gone now.

>> Coal mining, new employment has come down to the lowest number that it has been a record low.

EKU citing some state numbers that show that coal mining employment dropped below 3800 for the first time on record back in the year 2000, there were 15,000 employed in coal mining statewide.

What a change that is in that industry.

>> Very big change, and we'll continue to see those numbers unfortunately, probably dip over the next several years to go.

>> Here at KET, we are remembering Barry Peel, who is a frequent panelist on comment on Kentucky.

And in its early days and even early in this century, he was on it for decades.

Peel was a historian at heart who knew how we got here.

He covered state, government and politics for more than 30 years for Lexington TV stations KET and Wtvq.

Barry was known for his integrity as a reporter and his ability to explain complex issues in simple terms.

He would eagerly hit the road for fancy farm or other political gatherings, and truly enjoyed his friendship with others in the press corps.

He was always a fun storyteller who could also cut to the chase in his reporting.

Barry Peel was 80 years old.

That's comin on Kentucky have a good week ahead.