Surprise.

Workers at the Ford truck plant in Louisville are off the assembly line and on the picket line.

Schools, crime and taxes.

Hear from the candidates for governor as they took the stage in Paducah.

We don't want our culture to die.

It's kind of our job to step up and expose it to everyone.

And a special new program is planting seeds in Perry County.

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

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

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for Thursday, October 12th.

I'm Casey Parker Bell filling in for Renee Shaw.

Thank you for joining us.

The National United Auto Workers strike hadn't directly affected Louisville until last night in a surprise move.

Workers from the Kentucky Ford truck plant joined the strike.

About 8700 workers walked off the job.

UAW President John Fain hopes this move makes a statement to Ford and gets the company to finally meet worker demands on higher pay.

That's exactly what picketers told us.

So when back what we what was taken from us back in 2008 just to keep the company afloat at a rough time, we let go of a lot of our benefits and we're just trying to win it back, specially cola and our pension.

I think those are the biggest things that we really want to see back.

Members of the UAW said they will be in front of the plant 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

Governor Andy Beshear put out a statement about Louisville workers joining the UAW strike.

The governor said, quote, The UAW represents thousands of our hardworking families and Ford is an important employer in Kentucky.

We need both a strong UAW and Ford.

My hope is that they can reach an agreement quickly, one that works for both sides and moves everyone forward.

Unquote.

Governor Bashir's opponent, Attorney General Daniel Cameron, put out this statement, quote, Not even the members of the United Auto Workers can withstand the effects of by nomics.

I hope the UAW and Ford can reach a swift resolution.

But Biden nomics is responsible for driving up costs, which drives down household income in Kentucky.

Instead of ending Biden nomics.

Andy Beshear pledged his support for four more years of it yesterday, unquote.

The United Auto Workers Union has endorsed Governor Beshear in the Kentucky governor's race.

A group of Democratic state lawmakers also commented on the Louisville workers joining the strike.

The Kentucky House Democratic Caucus says it supports Kentucky truck plant workers and says they deserve their share of Ford's economic growth.

Both candidates were in western Kentucky today for a Chamber of Commerce debate.

Paducah broadcast on WPC.

Here are the candidates on the topics of education, crime and the state income tax.

We cannot have a strong secondary school and community college system if we do not have a strong K-through-12 system.

And this governor shut down our schools for nearly two years, and because of it, we have significant learning loss, so much so that our kids are behind in all of the indicators for success.

This attorney general's also put out an education plan that supports vouchers that would take tens of millions of dollars away from our public schools and send them to fancy private schools in some big cities.

It would absolutely devastate K-through-12 education.

Well, I'm proud to be a governor that leads the Kentucky State Police and now has it at the healthiest level it has been in over a decade.

I worked hard to secure $15,000 raises, the largest one we have ever seen.

And for the first time in a long time, our numbers of troopers are going up.

We have more applications than we have seen in years, and that means communities like this will be safer.

And if the governor wanted to give me the Kentucky State Police, I would gladly take them.

But this governor is responsible for the Kentucky State Police and is not doing what he can to make sure we tamp down violent crime.

And that's why the Kentucky Fraternal Order of Police has endorsed this campaign.

I certainly will be the governor who eliminates Kentucky's income tax.

Again, Andy Beshear, who has just yesterday, two days ago endorsed Joe Biden, has endorsed the Biden economy.

Which has made it, again, more difficult for you to buy groceries, gas and secure that child care.

And so we need leadership in this state that acknowledges that and is going to do everything he can to make sure we give more of your hard earned money back to you.

This plan is Kansas plan.

It would crater our economy.

He'd cut education, he'd cut health care, and all of these major infrastructure projects would stop.

It happened in Kansas.

You can't do it in four years.

You have to do it responsibly.

And you'll see the candidates for governor right here on Katie on Monday, October 23rd.

Governor Andy Beshear and Attorney General Daniel Cameron will be our guests on Kentucky tonight.

And you'll be able to send us your questions and comments.

That's at 8 p.m. Eastern, seven Central here on Katie.

Governor Beshear was in Lexington yesterday talking to the Chamber of Commerce.

One of the topics expanding the state's labor force here in central Kentucky.

You know, the biggest issue that we hear is that labor force is a challenge.

And we're really looking to hear what he's what his priorities are going to be on business, climate.

Talent attraction and the issues that are important to making this region more competitive.

We need to make sure we don't lose one graduating senior.

When we look at our workforce challenges and by the way, their opportunities, if we just look at the the nursing shortage, which yes, is a health care crisis, but also a chance to put 3000 of our people into really good paying jobs in the communities that they love.

And they're from.

That's making sure that we have options and opportunity for higher education and the dollars that are needed.

But it's also directly working with our employers from the high school level at at all of our ctcs and beyond, to make sure that those who want to go directly in the workforce have a job before graduating.

We've got to get everybody healthy enough and educated to fill a job, but we're going to need more people moving to Kentucky this year.

Your organization and two others came with the proposal that we're using.

It splits a $15 million pool between the state to do an overall, you know, come to Kentucky.

Now, this is what's going on.

This is why it's so great to live here, but also provides the regional chamber direct dollars to do targeted recruitment for the industries that need it the most.

Daniel Cameron spoke at this same event in August.

Cameron recently joined our Renee Shaw for an in-studio interview.

You'll see part of that tomorrow on Kentucky edition.

New details emerge today regarding the state's youth detention centers.

As we've reported, there have been a number of issues at some of the facilities, including riots, attacks and sexual assaults.

Testifying before a state legislative investigation committee today.

We heard new allegations about the conditions at the Adair Youth Detention Center prior to a riot there last November.

According to Scott West with the Department of Public Advocacy, some youth at the facility were kept in isolation for weeks at a time.

West says he was compelled to speak up today after reading the Legislative Research Commission's July report about the factors leading up to last year's riot.

But when you look at what is purported to be the causes there, there's incomplete information there.

You're talking about days of isolation that led up to this week's 21 days, in some instances of isolation, not behavioral isolation.

You're talking about a situation where there's no regular mental counseling.

It creates a crucible.

Justice and public Safety Secretary Kerry Harvey said this was the first time he's heard such allegations.

He also acknowledged that there were times when, for a variety of reasons, youth were isolated for extended periods of time.

We'll have more on this story coming up tomorrow right here on Kentucky Edition.

Secretary Harvey also said there are some youth with severe mental health issues and putting them in jail isn't helping them.

That can be true in jails for adults as well.

Last year, the Kentucky Supreme Court established the Kentucky Judicial Commission on Mental Health.

Renee Shaw recently sat down with Deputy Chief Justice Debra Lambert about the commission, its goal and why it's needed.

The commission is about 76 members.

We have been formed by our former chief justice, John Manton, and it was through his vision and a part of the national vision to make courts more understanding of how we interface with issues surrounding substance use disorder, mental illness and intellectual disabilities and disorders.

So that's what we're focusing on.

How can we improve those court touches, right?

So is it is it correct to assume that those who suffer from mental health or substance use disorder or who deal with some type of disability, developmental or otherwise, are they interfacing more with the criminal justice system and legal system than others?

Is it disproportionate in some way?

Well, that's information we probably don't yet have, But when they do interface with us, we want to make that as positive and proper and experience as possible.

But we are, of course, part of our process.

And any process these days is to gather data.

So we will be gathering that data.

We were very pleased that we were able to put on a very large summit last summer in Louisville and even with short notice, we were able to gather over 1100 people in attendance at that summit and cross-train them as to all those three topics and had a wonderful summit to train that 1100 Kentuckians right?

It was it was a wonderful experience.

So now you've been taking on these town hall meetings and you have a full list still yet to go.

What's the purpose of that and what are you hearing that has become quite informative?

Well, when we got home from the from the town hall, we were hearing good things about that.

The town hall attendees, though, were basically insiders, even though they were not just it was not just court personnel, it was police officers.

It was school superintendents.

People outside our own judicial system were coming in to train with us and we were being trained by them as well.

But but still, it was the insiders, if you will, of the systems.

So we felt it was important for us to hear what is what are the roadblocks for the consumer, what are the roadblocks for our citizens in Kentucky?

Why is this issue so I'll say personally important to you, not just as your role as a deputy chief justice, but the personal significance it has for you.

Well, to give just a brief a little bit of background for me.

I'm a former family court judge and a former drug court judge.

And also, just as a person who has lost people, friends and legal colleagues to suicide.

A few years ago, I was inspired to do something and actually take on the project of becoming a trained suicide prevention, a certified trained suicide prevention trainer.

And I did that through an organization called QPR.

QUESTION Persuade and refer.

And so for several years now, I've conducted free suicide prevention training.

So when former Chief Justice John Minton asked me if I would be willing to take on this task of leading the commission, it felt like a perfect fit.

It's mental health is a passion of mine and has been for quite some time.

What is the ultimate goal of the Mental Health Commission and the next steps that will come after these series of town halls that are dotted throughout the state?

Well, I think we we have a lot of goals, but I think we will take the data that we have gathered through this town hall.

We are gathering our data.

Again, data is a very important thing to us as a as a large organization.

We will take the data and put that in a usable format.

And I'm not a data person, so I'm going down a road I'm not that comfortable with.

But we'll take we'll use that data to analyze our current systems for improvement.

Our 76 member commission has subcommittee IIS that work in different facets juvenile court, adult court, civil and criminal.

The projects that they're working on are based on the identified roadblocks.

So all that data will be shared with the proper committees.

So one of the things that they will be working on is where are the legislative changes needed?

At one of our early meetings, we discovered that a lady needed help with getting her driver's license restored after having had some mental health issues.

So that's one of the things that we learned.

And it was a particular quirk that we would have never heard about or thought of had we not had that town hall meeting.

So, you know, just being there and listening sometimes is so very important.

One of the one of the things that we're going to also do is create a position of spokesman because really with a judicial system, with our judicial ethics rules, which are necessary, you can't just call up a judge or a judge's office and talk with either the judge or the judge or staff about a case.

So if we create an Ireland's ombudsman within the mental health Commission, that person can help navigate the system a little bit better and might have been able to help the lady with a driver's license issue.

The commission is hosting a series of town halls around the state.

The next is scheduled for October 25th in Paducah.

You can learn more about the town halls at K Why courts.

Dot gov.

It's not clear when the US House will vote on a new speaker.

The House ousted speaker Kevin McCarthy last week, Tuesday night.

House Republicans voted privately to support House Majority Leader Steve Scalise over Congressman Jim Jordan.

But not all House Republicans are signing off on Scalise.

Congressman Thomas Massie of the fourth Congressional District in Northern Kentucky posted this yesterday on ECS, formerly known as Twitter.

Quote, Surprises are for little kids at birthday parties, not Congress.

So I let Cleese know in person that he doesn't have my vote on the floor because he is not articulated.

A viable plan for avoiding an omnibus unquote.

An omnibus refers to a spending bill that ties together spending proposals for mini government programs.

Many conservatives feel lumping spending together in one bill makes it hard to reduce government spending.

More than a million Kentuckians are getting a raise.

Social Security benefits are set to increase by 3.2% next year, according to AARP.

That translates to an extra $59 for the average recipient.

The increase reflects easing inflation.

This year, Social Security increase was more than 8% because of higher than usual inflation.

But as inflation has gone down, so has the Social Security rate hike.

The federal government says that as of December of 2020, slightly more than a million Kentuckians received Social Security payments.

In 1985, Congress directed the US Army to destroy our country's chemical weapons stockpile on July 7th this year.

That promise was completed here at the Bluegrass Army Depot near Richmond when the last weapon in the national stockpile was destroyed.

Yesterday, state officials and those who worked on the project gathered to celebrate this historic milestone.

Today, we achieved what once seemed unimaginable.

July 7th, 20, 23 of this year, you made history.

The last chemical weapon, sarin gas filled rocket was destroyed.

And I'm honored to be here to say that we had met our commitment and we completed it before the treaty commitment date of 30 September of 2023.

I am so proud of the Kentuckians that have worked each and every day for years right here to better protect this entire country.

And today is such a celebration of what hard work and working together can do for this nation and for this commonwealth for many Americans.

The international ban on chemical weapons may seem distant from their daily lives, but for the people of Kentucky, especially right here in Madison County, this commitment has been deeply personal.

Unlike most remote storage and disposal sites, Kentucky's chemical munitions sit within spitting distance of thousands of families and young children.

In 1996, I introduced a bill creating the assembled Chemical Weapons Alternatives Program, an organization tasked with identifying and demonstrating alternate views to on site incineration.

Thanks to this assessment, we finally had viable options to safely destroy these weapons without endangering families in Madison County.

I remember the days 30 years ago or so often when folks said, as was mentioned, it was said, let's burn this stuff.

I remember when the city just rose up and said, No, don't burn that stuff and put it into our air.

As mayor of the city of Richmond, to have is only a couple of miles away.

I have this removed.

My immediate presence is personally also monumental for us.

It's been a long haul.

As the senator mentioned, he and I have been at this for almost 40 years.

And to say that we're proud of having accomplished this, particularly with no injuries, no environmental degradation to the community, it's a miraculous effort that's taken place by all the people who you heard about.

There are a number of companies that are interested in occupying some space at the depot in support of the military.

There are a number that are also interested in expanding or coming to Madison County because of the extremely highly skilled and unique workforce that's going to gradually be declining.

It's been one of the great honors of my career to lead this charge at the federal level.

And together.

Now, Madison County celebrates the triumph at close of this chapter in American history.

According to Governor Beshear, the Army has determined that there are 14 development options for the current site of the plant.

The closure process will take 3 to 4 years.

Perry County students are the first in the Commonwealth to take part in the Food Corps program.

The nonprofit works to teach nourishing food related skills like gardening and schools.

More in tonight's Education Matters.

This is the first Food Corps program in Kentucky here in Perry County.

Food is important because it nourishes our body, but it also is celebratory and it creates a sense of culture in a community in Food Corps service schools, they do hands on food education, they do taste test, and they do gardening and planting.

So that looks like trying local vegetables, planting and growing local food and learning about their food and the culture of their food locally.

I actually went to grad school for about three years.

Preschool through first grade.

Monday and Tuesday I'm leading lessons and we can either go out to the garden box after that.

The week in the cafeteria with my second or third and fourth, and talk to them about how lunch was the day and kind of getting their feedback and how they like the food.

You know, schools now are more than just the education.

Schools focus on emotional, physical, providing all kinds of needs and being able to take needs that, you know, with food that they can take from here.

Look at career goals with this.

Maybe they want to go with or a career future with farming or just being able to go home and show mom and dad how to raise this.

We have a lot of connections with farmers.

So for example, today I sourced apples and better at squash for for our Food Corps members so they can come to me with a request and I can find a forum.

And thankfully we have a farm to school grants of $1,000 that enables us to purchase those.

Those fruits or vegetables, whatever they might be from the farmers.

Right now we have lettuce, mustard and collard greens also are going to be growing carrots and broccoli right now for the cold.

And then hopefully eventually I want to grow Tommy Toes and maybe even a cabbage or something like that.

But I like to see it grow from a bucket to having a full fledged, maybe a long term or high total.

That way we can grow all year long.

There is a really rich culture of gardening and farming and growing food and being sustainable within your family and community here.

And so it's really sweet to get to continue this tradition with the next generation.

We don't want our culture to die.

So, you know, it's really we people like me that are being exposed to it.

It's kind of our job to step up and expose it to everyone, you know, but to continue on the way in life around here, this can make a tremendous impact because we you know, food insecurity is a big issue with a lot of our students here.

And we do have a food pantry, a resource center has a backpack program to make sure kids are fed in the evenings, on the weekends.

Being able to incorporate nutritious food that's grown here that can ensure that, you know, not only are the kids getting fed, you know, healthy, nutritious foods here, but that they can go home and receive that same type of food on the weekends on the breaks just in time.

They're not with us.

I hope that we are teaching the next generation of farmers because that's what's going to take like you can't you don't have a country without farming.

I think that we need to we need to be sharing that knowledge with our children so that they'll be feeding us, you know, 30, 40 years down the road.

Any crops harvested by Food Corps will be shared among friends and family of the students, provided their gardens grow large enough that produce will be shared with the community as well.

Space buffs get ready to look up this Saturday, weather permitting, Kentuckians will be able to see a partial eclipse of the sun Saturday morning and afternoon.

The full eclipse is not visible here, but the moon will block between 50 and 60% of the sun in western Kentucky and 40 to 50% of the sun in the rest of the state.

The eclipse will begin at 11:42 a.m. Eastern time on Saturday and end at 2:34 p.m. Eastern time.

A group of University of Kentucky scientists are studying tomorrow's eclipse as they prepare for the fall eclipse of the sun visible in Kentucky in April of 2024.

Tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, more from Renee Sit down Interview with Republican candidate for Governor Daniel Cameron.

And we'll review the week's political news in our Friday look inside Kentucky politics and how Kentucky's cities are redesigning roads to make them safer.

That's all tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

So join us tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 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.

at ket dot org You can also find Kentucky edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and Smart TV.

Send us a story idea at Public Affairs at KET dot org Do you follow KET on Facebook?

X, formerly known as Twitter and Instagram.

Stay in the loop.

I'm Casey Parker Bell.

Thank you for joining us.

Take care and have a great night.