>> If you're not healthy, you cannot work if you cannot work, you will not be held.

>> The new plan to end that vicious cycle in Kentucky.

My background is in virtual acoustic.

So the ideas that I want to try to make it sound like you're in a space when you're not actually present in this space.

It's a high-tech hearing task that really feels like the real thing.

Oh, my gosh.

What what I do had the best political job in the Kentucky has been the mayor of Louisville.

>> So what's next for Louisville Mayor Greg Fischer?

He takes a look back on his 12 years leading Metro government.

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

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

♪ ♪ >> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Thursday, October, the 20th, I'm Renee Shaw.

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

>> Jobs and good health.

They're linked.

And Governor Andy Beshear says too many people can't work because they're not healthy enough.

He announced today he's expanding Kentucky's Medicaid program to provide more people with access to vision, herring and dental care.

The governor and supporters of this new plan provided details today at the state Capitol.

>> This applies 2, the nearly 900,000 adults that are enrolled in the state Medicaid program.

These are individuals who make less than $18,700 per year.

If their individual we're less than $38,000 for a family of 4.

There are individuals that without Medicaid couldn't afford health care and certainly can't afford these other services.

What this will allow us to do.

Beginning January one of next year as expand to the adult population services under Medicaid that we already provide to our children.

And the goal here is to get folks to work to ultimately get them off Medicaid.

But again.

You can say and you don't have the the access to resources to get the vision care you need.

It doesn't happen.

It's an impediment we have to push through the social drivers of health are what are particularly important.

>> And maybe the most important social driver of all is to have a job.

Is to be able to be employed to be able to make a living for your family to get your family in a healthy economic position.

All of the data shows that when you work, you've got a much better chance of having good health.

>> You do know that over 700,000 deaf and hard of hearing people live in the state of Kentucky.

And with and rest.

Hearing loss on a dress.

That means knowing that you have a hearing loss getting hearing aids for addressing it.

Can lead you to early onset of dementia.

Mental health issues.

A lot of issues can come up.

If you don't have good here in our good health care with you're hearing it.

>> The governor says the federal government will pay for most of this expansion.

So the impact on Kentucky's budget will be minor.

We have more ahead on Herring health.

There's a new method for testing people's hearing that puts patients in real world situations.

That's coming up a little later tonight on Kentucky Edition.

The governor says this Medicaid expansion will help people get jobs at a time when Kentucky businesses are still struggling to find workers wallet hub says Kentucky is 4th in the percentage of job openings.

Only Alaska, Wyoming, Montana, have more.

So why is this happening?

Wallet?

Hub says nationally too many people lack the necessary skills with all the job openings.

People are more selective about the jobs they take.

And with gas prices higher than average, some people don't want to commute long distances for a job.

This morning, Republican leaders blasted Governor Andy Beshear for not working to reduce gas prices.

They want the governor to reach out to President Joe Biden and demand immediate action to reduce energy costs for Kentucky families.

This is after state Senator Brandon Smith wrote an open letter to the governor requesting the administration released permits for the coal oil and gas industries.

Smith says energy costs are hurting eastern Kentuckians ability to recover after flooding earlier this year.

>> So I'm and these districts and already see the snap benefits going out people's groceries because of inflation have just about gun in the double digits and more and now at the pump.

When you go through and you see a bag on those palms, it's not because a pompous torn up is because there's no fuel and because the federal government under the Biden administration's reckless policy.

Destroyed the energy market.

And now as it trickles back down to Kentucky, which I cannot change with the Biden administration to do, but we can change what happens that state policy.

>> Now, given the amount of energy that the governor expands daily with check presentations and updates before any camera rolling and an endless stream of press releases.

Does he not have any time to call President Joe Biden asked for relief to Kentucky residents.

>> Governor Beshear responded.

He says Republicans have an exaggerated view of what a president or governor can do about gas prices.

And he says Kentucky is doing better than most states.

>> If you look at gas prices in Kentucky, first of all, they've been going down in the last couple days.

We're always 40 something plus sense.

If you look at that right at $0.40 below the national average.

If a governor can have an impact on gas prices.

We have the 11th lowest gas prices in the country.

And I hope that they acknowledge that if they believe the governor can impact those prices.

That's what's happening is it's the middle of October and there's an election coming up and people are engaged in the silly stuff.

>> Also in Frankfort, there's talk about new penalties for hazing on college campuses.

The proposal is called Lofton's law named after Thomas Lofton Hazelwood who died a year ago after he was found unresponsive at a fraternity house.

His family testified to a legislative committee today about their experience and how the Kentucky General Assembly can help prevent future tragedies.

Our Casey Parker Bell was there and filed this report.

>> Facing is out of control throughout this country.

>> A year ago, University of Kentucky freshman Lofton Hazelwood was found unresponsive after drinking at a farmhouse fraternity.

He later died at UK Hospital.

Now his mother is working to prevent tragedies.

The result from hazing.

>> I believe in my heart that if somebody had stay with Lofton that night, he'd still be here today.

Upon closing today, a big that you please consider this bill.

We need lofton's law in place as soon as possible.

It's not going to bring my son back, but it might save somebody else's said.

>> The result of that work is Loftus law.

The bill would make hazing that results in serious injury or death, a Class D felony.

Probably mills sponsor of the proposed legislation says it would make Kentucky the 14th State to hasten law.

>> We believe that intentional one tent and reckless participation in the act of hazing needs to be stopped in Kentucky.

And the only way for organizations and people who operate.

These organizations to understand the severity of hazing is to attach a crime to this behavior in Kentucky.

>> Legislators expressed support for the bill, but Representative John Bryant said the bill's wording may need to be adjusted.

>> My actual reading of your definition here of hazing.

>> It's it's.

It's just not clear whether or not this could pertain to law enforcement training and or military training and we all have learned that our intent may be one thing, but the courts may interpret that differently.

So we want to be very crystal clear.

Boynton said he didn't want to derail the bill.

Just make it clear for Kentucky edition.

I'm Casey Parker Bell one.

>> Currently Kentucky law leaves it up to colleges to set policies regarding hazing.

So Senator Robby Mills will present lofton's law during the 2023 session of the Kentucky General Assembly.

Kentucky Supreme Court Chief Justice John Minton delivered his final state of the Judiciary address today.

Speaking before a legislative panel of the chief justice.

Look back at some of the challenges the court system faced under his leadership.

They also discussed some of the accomplishments.

He looked ahead to what he considers to be some of the biggest challenges to come.

>> Mister Chairman, I want to acknowledge those whose vision, hard work and collaboration have made our progress possible.

I am deeply grateful.

The General Assembly.

For the valuable partnership that we have nurtured over the 14 years that I've been coming versions of this committee.

Together, we position the court system for Brighton viable future through honest, open communication.

And a relationship based on mutual trust.

And a say that in most and Sarah t. >> The chief justice has been the head of the judicial branch for more than 14 years.

That makes him the second longest serving chief justice in Kentucky's modern court system.

You'll hear more from Chief Justice men next week on Kentucky EDITION.

And medical News.

Women account for 99% of b***** cancer cases.

That means there's room for the disease to impact man.

And that's exactly what happened to Andrew Martin known by many as skipper.

He spent decades serving the commonwealth and state and local government and was a key adviser to former Governor Paul Patton.

And he's also a b***** cancer survivor.

>> For those that think, man, don't get b***** cancer.

Well, give me a call because men do get b***** cancer.

Now the odds are tremendously small compared to a woman.

But when I got this 10 years was about 100,000 to one where the odds of a man getting b***** cancer.

So I'm anoushah are a dish.

You want to know we do.

Washington also like to but Sisson under my right n***** was a little piece as Well, I KET for some reason that man don't get b***** cancer.

So don't worry about it.

And so when I went to the doctor, he looked a story about 100,000 want.

OK, next time out when he said, well, let's get it looked at.

So I got sent to the doctors to the hospital to have a mammogram.

And it was interesting because I went into the room with 5 women and I'm the only man sitting there.

One lady said, sir, you in the right Hall.

Yeah, yeah.

So I took it.

I got my mammogram that was interesting.

so it came out that it was cancers I have a great doctor.

Beth Riley is with that.

Cancer center in Louisville and a Brown Cancer Center.

Louisville, which is U of L and she is a researcher at cancer doctors.

She sent the little small thing California to be analyzed and it sturgeon produced.

Now a lot of Evan estrogen, have estrogen produced tumors right?

So I'm taking the same pill as a woman.

♪ ♪ ♪ >> Now on information about the drought, Kentucky is too dry and things are getting worse.

This is last week's map from the U.S. Drought Monitor.

Now let's switch to the new map just out today.

Notice the light orange area has grown.

That's a moderate drought and it now covers half the state, the darker orange and western Kentucky is also bigger that severe drought.

46 counties are now under a burn ban.

According to the Kentucky Division of Forestry.

♪ Before he was elected mayor of Louisville, Greg Fischer was an entrepreneur and businessman with no prior experience in elected office.

And part 2 of our one-on-one interview.

We first brought you last night.

He tells our Kelsey Starks how that created a metro government.

He calls, quote, weakness, oriented.

>> I mean, the biggest difference for the business person in the political person.

When you have a problem in business, you say okay, how we can solve the problem when you have a problem in public life is like okay, who were going to blame and that so counterproductive right is especially because I bought a culture into city hall of what I call weakness, orientation.

So when we measure how we're doing, let's say we're 95% on-time.

I want to know about the 5% late and then how we can get rid of that.

So people weren't used to that kind of weakness in terms of the public officials.

And here's where we need to improve because I'm interested on everybody being happy.

So that's a big difference.

And we've got to drop the partisanship and sometimes within your own party that people are being critical and focus on what's important.

That is making sure that we meet the needs of our residents.

Our citizens feel their the customers and a business perspective.

But running the government is different than running a business, you know, businesses about bottom line.

Certainly the community but running the government, not everybody is treated equally because some people need more help than other folks because of the situation that they might be and through no fault of their own.

So the question is how to use the platform.

Let's say in this case of being a mayor so that everybody's full human potential is realize their greatness is realized.

>> In there is that that Department of Justice investigation right now into LMPD.

Any thoughts the necessity of that?

And when you think that maybe coming out and what you think it might include.

>> so I started my time in office.

But on a day, every department.

Because I want to know what's not working.

Well.

And then for the department's where there's a national credit hated body weast, we saw that national accreditation because I want to make sure they were operating at the highest levels, even in those departments where we have national accreditation problems take place.

And when you have a billion dollar revenue operation about 5,000 employees, problems are going to happen.

Just like that happen in a family or accompanying anywhere.

So I think what you need to be judged on is what do you do when a problem manifest itself to run away from it to try to hide it or do you lean into it?

So for instance, after Breonna Taylor tragedy, I ordered a top to bottom review of the police department that came on several others that done in the prior years.

It said we had a good police department, but the Hill and Hines report said here's all the areas we can improve.

That's good.

So we know that we can address those weaknesses.

So the Department of Justice after George Floyd in Minneapolis and we're going to come in investigation there.

And after Breonna here, same thing in Louisville.

I welcome that.

Now some people say why would you welcome the Department of Justice?

Well, because they're going to identify areas that we can improve.

And just because you don't identify areas doesn't mean those improvement areas.

Don't go away, right?

So the more people with more eyes on any organization to me, that's a good thing so that you can increase accountability and improvement.

We've done all that already.

We've had some 150 improvements under way or complete with our police department in anticipation of just we need to be better.

And so the Department of Justice, you know, they say their average investigation takes 13 to 18 months were toward the latter part of that right now.

So I would expect sometime in the coming months, weeks, hopefully that they'll be saying here's what we found.

And then there will be a negotiation with the Department of Justice in terms of exactly what's going to take place.

Bottom line, that's going to make a better police department.

And I can tell you our police officers are excited about improvement.

Erika Shields is our chief of police.

I heard hired her because she's a reform minded chief.

She's excited about as well so it can take us to a better place.

Is a city and I hope redefine what policing looks like in the 21st century.

>> This that term limit change hadn't happened.

Would you run again?

>> Haha.

That's one of things I liked about term limits.

I didn't have to think about But you know, when I think about where the city was and where we are and where we're going to go and kind of platform that's been late on that.

I mean, I'm super excited about that.

We've got a great strong economic platform right now.

We've come a long way as the city and the clusters that we compete in were much closer to be invest in the world.

If we're not already.

>> When you think about our promise scholarships, that's a huge thing.

The growth of our form board community will be one of the biggest issues and people look back on these last 12 years.

They are responsible for most of the growth that we have in our community.

How about 80,000 folks right now?

So lower 10% of our community.

They'll double again in the next 5 years.

Our kids need to grow up in a city that looks like the world because they will be global citizens.

And with our foreign born and immigrants, a second generation immigrants stay there higher with entrepreneurship, educational attainment.

So this is a really exciting thing that's taken in our city.

>> Would you want to build on that?

And pull future in politics?

Oh, my gosh.

>> But what I do had the best political job in the Kentucky has been the mayor of Louisville.

So has been all about trying to help other people reached the full human potential.

I like that.

I did that as a business person.

And that's why I ran for mayor was to see.

Could you use the mayor's office is a platform for people to achieve more greatness.

We've done that with housing, education, health care, jobs.

So it's been really fulfilling.

I'm really grateful for the opportunity.

So anyway, I can do more that I will I don't see any type of elected office for me doing that.

But who knows?

>> Who knows is right.

Thank you so much for your time.

We appreciate it.

And thank you for your service.

Is mayor of the city is so high?

I love to thank you, Renay.

Back to you.

>> Thank you.

Can say Democrat Craig Greenberg and Republican bill Dera for running to be the next mayor of Louisville voters will decide that on November.

The 8th.

♪ I'm hearing aid can drastically improve the quality of life for those suffering from hearing loss, but testing a hearing aid in different environments can be difficult.

3 researchers at the University of Look at of Louisville are looking to change that they've developed virtual reality technology to help patients find the right fit before they leave the audiologist office.

>> When you fit a hearing aid, you do it in a quiet clinic.

Quite clinics are not the problem areas.

It's when you go out into noisy restaurants river.

Brent churches, you know, these are the places where people have problems where we created is an audio visual virtual reality system.

So that while you're still in that clinic without even leaving, we can put up a visual of and the restaurant or a river bring church or whatever setting is the most difficult for you.

And then the ideas that you're wearing hearing it as well.

So the ideology just can make changes.

And that hearing aid and directly ask you.

>> How does that sound was that better?

We're able to simulate sounds coming from any direction, not just the directions where you have loudspeaker set up around your living room when you, you know, listen to movies and so forth.

So.

>> So this is much better.

It's much more accurate.

It takes into account the way that the head and the external years all act acoustically on the listing situations that we experience, what Matthews done is to now in the great in what the hearing aid also does acoustically in the listening situation, my background is in virtual acoustics of the ideas that I want to try to make it sound like you're in a space when you're not actually present in this space.

>> You can do this by surrounding some of the bunch of loudspeakers.

But you can also do this more simply by just using a pair of headphones.

We have sort of 2 versions that were working on a one which most people think about instantly is over a virtual reality headset.

So you can wear a VR headset and you have some hearing aids and headphones that provide the audio of that room that you're supposed to be sitting in.

So it's a or some version.

We have another version that actually just uses 3 external screen.

It's not quite as immersive, but it still gives you a visual of I'm sitting in a restaurant.

There's a talker there and there's another talker there that I want to hear.

If I can demonstrate to an audiologist the benefits of feature a B and C they will then know how to properly tune.

Those features for all 100 of their clinic patients that come in during this month.

So that way they can use the expertise and be the expert and better recommend the solutions and more confidently recommend them to their patients over there.

>> I just hear church.

>> The team was recently selected for the National Science Foundation.

Innovation Corps Program which provides $50,000 to develop new technology back start UPS and training on how to market their product.

♪ The zombies are coming and they've got some killer dance moves.

Daniel thriller parade is Saturday Night on Main Street in downtown Lexington.

It's all part of Lexington Parks and Recreation's annual Halloween festival.

More than 350 zombies will follow multiple Michael Jacksons down Main Street performing the dance from the revolutionary thriller Music video.

What started out as a fun idea between friends has become not only an award-winning festival, but a large tourist attraction for Lexington.

Started 20 years ago as a wee little flash It was one of those things.

We sit around with friends and go.

>> Hey, want to be funny.

We did this thing and then we decided to try it was wildly popular and people kept calling back here after this up.

We're going to do it.

So it's continued ever since we started with about 50 people.

And it was kind of a very homegrown project.

We pooled our money to close the streets and everything.

And we did that for several years couldn't studio alone.

And then finally, parks and recreation saw how popular it wasn't.

So they started partnering with us this year.

We've got about 350 plus It's a little bit smaller than it used to be.

But since COVID happened, we have a high bounce back up, but it's great as always.

We have this year raising and they make up for some reason.

We don't have.

♪ >> I've been a huge Michael Jackson in just a Jackson's fan in general.

All of my life has started to ask what you can.

2008, 10, every year, the night and the people that I mean, she got a check of the car parade, made an effort to get out and come see the pray for myself.

I think it was 2011 and then I just KET at that moment watching in 2011 and had to be back and just heading in the event for 2012 and the Michael Jackson, who's coming out of the Kentucky Theater.

This is my 10th year participating as a lead in the event.

>> So we decided to have multiple Michael's come out at the same time doing what the future might cause because of the route being so large.

They wanted to stagger it such that every kind of bystanders spectator had the opportunity to see Michael Jackson in to see them being followed by their trip of a loyal zombies.

>> They they turn Michael into a zombie and then they do the dance and then they continue at parade style down the street into the dance a few more times.

The great thing is that, you know, for those who are who are impersonating zombies, you know, obviously is on these aren't very well coordinated, right?

So with that being said, we're not looking for professionalism or are the distinguished who are, you know, dancer when it comes those who are portraying that part is really easy to do.

>> all ages friendly and it's a lot of fun.

So if you've never danced, it doesn't matter because it's open to everybody.

>> You know, it really is about community really is about having fun, bringing to the thousands of people in this house and spectators that we do for the event year-over-year.

It just is a really great way to get back to your community and to really support this businesses that are in the heart of downtown Lexington.

>> What a fun time that's going to be Mecca, Dance studio partners with Lexington Parks and Rec DOT the U R FL Radio and cricket pressed to put on the event sign-ups begin in late September of every year with rehearsals throughout the month of October, dedicated.

Plenty coming up your way tomorrow on Kentucky.

Addition more reaction to this week's Kentucky school test scores.

Our political experts discuss the week's news in Kentucky.

Politics and we'll visit a learning hub for Honduran students.

That's right here in Kentucky.

And we'll look at the weekend activities, including the thriller parade happening around the Commonwealth.

That's all tomorrow night on Kentucky EDITION where we inform connect and inspire at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central right here every single night.

We hope you'll subscribe to our weekly Kentucky Edition email newsletter and watch full episodes at KET Dot Org.

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

>> And we hope you'll follow KET on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop.

An invitation to also follow me on Twitter at Renee KET as well.

Thanks very much for watching.

We will see you right back here again tomorrow night at 6.30, for Kentucky.

Addition.

Take really good care.

♪