government shutdown.

Congressional candidates talk issues in the race to replace Andy Barr, who is running for the U.S.

Senate.

More hints emerge about the 2020 race for Kentucky governor.

The state's two largest school districts deal with financial challenges and audits from the state.

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Good ev.

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 Liam Niemeyer, reporter for the Kentucky Lantern.

Jess Clark, education reporter for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, and Austin Horn, senior political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

Also tonight, what Senator Rand Paul has to say about possibly running for president in 2028.

And Kentucky issues a statewide health alert about West Nile virus.

But first, Kentuckians deal with the federal government shutdown.

More than 23,000 federal civilian employees work here in Kentucky, and some programs and services are uncertain at the moment.

Governor Andy Beshear had this to say.

>> You never want to see a government shutdown.

And we are thinking about and we should be checking on all those Kentucky families that work for the federal government that are currently furloughed and not receiving their salaries.

It is going to be really difficult on them.

Most programs that come through Kentucky will continue.

We've done it before.

'ldo S tre ia ewrotongt d tda t everybody seems to thinke bmea this is no way to run the federal government.

>> Yeah, I mean, it's absolutely a blame game.

And what we know from the early polling is that a slight plurality, I don't think a majority, but a plurality of voters tend to blame the Republican Party and President Trump.

That could shift.

This is a narrative game where everybody's kind of taking their their side on this.

But this is just not the normal appropriations process.

Even before we were on continuing resolutions, and that's what was debated before we went into this shutdown, was another continuing resolution.

Usually there are 12 separate appropriations bills filed, and those have just been stalled.

>> Liam, as we noted, Democrats are demanding action on health care costs.

Republicans say that can be handled later and that this is just being thrown into the discussion when it need not be.

What is the health insurance issue?

And that could cause some to pay more?

>> It you know, a big line of contention is this subsidy for Affordable Care Act health care plans called Advanced Premium Tax Credits, which is basically, you know, they they were enhanced through the American Rescue Plan back in 2021.

Basically, for example, if you're a person with an income of 100 to 150% of the poverty line, you can get potentially $0 on a premium for specific plans.

And it also the cap for premiums were lowered for for all sorts of plans through this enhancement.

And basically without, you know, without any action by Congress to extend these subsidies, they could expire.

And, you know, there's been analyzes done by the Congressional Budget Office, the progressive think tank in Kentucky.

Kentucky Center for Economic Policy has done an analysis stating that tens of thousands of Kentuckians could see significant increases in their health insurance cost.

And that's also coming on the heels of provisions and the One Big Beautiful Bill act that that put, I guess, you know, depending on who you talk to, you know, barriers on specific plans in the Affordable Care Act.

And again, as you said, Republicans say, you know, this doesn't need to be debated.

Now, the government can be funded through a continuing resolution, and Democrats are trying to put a line in the sand that we need to address.

>> This now seems to be where we are.

Yes, we're all trying to figure out the impact of this shutdown on Kentucky.

A lot of school districts were on fall break this week, but could there be some impacts on schools if this shutdown continues.

>> Right now?

No.

Most of the federal funding that comes to Kentucky schools was made available in July for the year.

There is, however, a question about the child nutrition program.

That's what provides school lunches to kids.

That is kind of a reimbursement based program.

So they already are reimbursed for they'll get reimbursed for September.

But once districts try to reimburse for for the state tries to reimburse for October, that could be an issue if the shutdown has continued.

So bottom line is, if it goes on a month, there could be some issues.

But for now, there's not.

>> Some programs that are ancillary maybe to schools.

But we know health departments indicate they could fall behind in their programs.

>> Right.

There are some health departments that rely on federal grants.

And so there could be a delay in those funds coming down.

The other issue in terms of, you know, health and food, is that Snap benefits those.

Also, if the if the shutdown extends longer than a month, then those Snap benefits could, you know, come into question whether we can get reimbursed for those.

>> And, you know, this early in the shutdown, it sort of remains to be seen.

You know, how significant the effects could be.

It seems to be pretty limited in the first few days.

You know, I mean, take, for example, national parks, Mammoth Cave National Park still open.

It has limited services.

And there's been concerns from, you know, the union representing park employees of staffing levels and being able to provide maintenance to parks, especially with understaffing and and limited staffing amid the shutdown.

But as of now, I mean, things such as that they're still operating.

>> Yeah.

Austin, as we all try to figure out how this eventually ends, members of Congress still get paid.

But Democratic Congressman Morgan McGarvey and Republican Brett Guthrie are asking that their pay be withheld.

>> Yeah, this is generally a good political move, you know, to to express somewhat of solidarity with federal workers.

And it just goes to show all the different kind of smaller facets that that the shutdown really affects.

Senator McConnell just sent a letter to Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth, and he even wrote out in all caps with two exclamation points, urgent about two football programs.

That's Fort Campbell and Fort Knox who can't hold football practices or games.

I believe their game tonight was canceled and it was homecoming for McLean County.

So it just this affects a lot of areas that we might not suspect it.

>> Yeah.

Yet to be seen as as Liam was saying, we have talked a lot about Governor Andy Beshear potentially running for president, but I interviewed Senator Rand Paul this week.

He made it clear that he is keeping that door open to running for president in 2028.

>> I think there need to be voices like mine who think that deficits are wrong, no matter which party is in power.

I will continue to vote to have international trade.

I think international trade has made us rich as a country and has made the world a better place.

And I think there needs to be a voice for that in the Republican Party.

And I feel that the tide has been going the other way.

ana norheredey.hether that Ati cldhe bar rtnlbeefitawan whal, as he said, would push for robust international trade?

>> I think so, and I think what he's doing right now, you could really see it as savvy.

A lot of potential political contenders try to read The Room as it is right now.

And in the Republican Party, that is loyalty to Trump in every way, shape or form.

But what Paul is doing here, as I see it, is a little bit more reading the tea leaves and kind of carving out this, I told you so sort of lane, because you can imagine a future, you know, there's a possibility that we're in a recession.

Trump is about the same age at this point in his term as Joe Biden was in his last term.

So maybe there are similar questions around old age and competency that pop up.

And, you know, if his approval rating is underwater, we're in a recession.

You could really see somebody like Rand Paul who is not tied to the administration in the way that the current vice president or the current secretary of state is present himself as a legitimate alternative.

>> When Paul ran for reelection and for president in 2016, the Republicans had to hold a caucus because he could not be on the ballot twice.

That situation would be likely again.

>> Remains to be seen.

I think he's indicated that he'd try to make both happen in the same way.

That could happen via the Republican Party as it did last time.

Or it could happen.

You know, the General Assembly could pass a law.

They've passed plenty of laws at the request of Mitch McConnell, and they could very well do one at the request of Paul.

>> So what says the pan, ndaubo i t re r e ssily.

Wll s.mn,he'sefity nar tc MonllwhisPa wld n cosafae reri nt ar.

He told me that he is unlikely to endorse a candidate.

>> Yeah, I think he's playing it safe at this point.

You know, all three candidates, in my view, have a real lane to this.

As of this point in the race, Paul has been connected in the past more so to Maurice and Cameron.

Maurice was somebody who opened up his Rolodex to Rand Paul when he was running for president in 2016.

He was a key ally because he had all his contacts from raising a bunch of money for his business, Rubicon.

At the same time, Paul campaigned a good amount with Cameron in 2023, and PACs affiliated with Paul helped him out.

But now you know the PAC club for growth, or at least their own affiliate PAC, which is very much tied to the Rand Paul network, is going against Andy Barr, the third candidate here.

So you kind of you get the sense that he might support Cameron or Maurice and maybe not Barr.

I don't want to speak for him, but that's kind of where we stand at now.

>> Well, the Democrats may potentially be getting another Senate candidate.

We're hearing.

>> Yeah, I mean, this is a crowded field already.

There are three very legitimate US Senate candidates running right now.

We know that.

Or at least I've heard from people that Amy McGrath is seriously considering the race.

We reported that we can change ago.

Don't think anything has changed.

She's somebody who is very familiar to the state through her past couple runs.

And it also seems like we might get sort of an outsider candidate from Louisville in in Dale Romans, who's a sort of a famous in the industry horse trainer who I think he's won his horses have won $125 million.

He he could sort of play this outsider businessman role who maybe wouldn't have to play by the same kind of party rules as, as some other people would.

>> And the Republican race just continues, along with the heated ads and the the candidates trying to become better known.

>> Yeah.

And both Andy Barr and Nate Morris have a lot of money at their at their dispense.

And they can they can make a bunch of noise on TV.

That said, Daniel Cameron has very high name ID, so it's going to be tough to chip away at at a politician that voters already know.

>> All right.

The Republican candidates for the US House in the sixth district appeared together this week.

Ryan Dodson and Deanna Gordon are state representatives.

Former state senator Ralph Alvarado.

They went before the college Republicans at UK.

How did they distinguish themselves?

>> Yeah, I would say the way to think about it right now is Alvarado is trying to cast himself as the favorite.

I think, given his past experience, it's probably fair to say that at this point in the race, he is he's somebody who we know is going toai a o n eaerwe.oua t know, he knows what to say to the base, and he's casting himself as the most conservative, which we know is usually a pretty good tactic.

>> Particularly on cultural issues.

>> Yes.

You know, he's he's really beat the drum on anti-LGBTQ issues, things like that that are really hot in the Republican Party.

And then you've got Dana Gordon, the representative from Richmond, who is sort of playing a similar playbook when it comes to being tied to Trump, tied to MAGA, but is also kind of adding this extra wrinkle of I'm somebody who's relatable to maybe a more moderate voter, not necessarily calling herself moderate, but somebody who could be more relatable.

And the weird thing about this district, I think, is there are a lot of registered Republicans in Lexington who haven't really bothered to change their registration.

There will be a contingent of legitimately moderate voters out there.

I don't think that's as true in a statewide race, but in this district, that's a group that is out there that's up for grabs when everybody else is singing from the Trump hymnal.

>> All right.

The Democrats have a crowded primary.

Former state representative Sherilyn Stevenson, Aaron Petrie, former federal prosecutor Zach Dembo and former Lexington Council member David Kloiber round out that field.

You think there may be a favorite?

>> I think so, I think it's fair at this point to call Sherilyn Stevenson the favorite.

Similar to Ralph Alvarado, she's the most connected in the party.

She got the endorsement from Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman.

But at the same time, we know Zach Dembo is out there raising a bunch of money.

He's a talented speaker.

Erin Petrie made a splash with her entry as sort of a bourbon oriented candidate.

It was a cool video that she made, and David Kloiber is somebody who has name ID in the district and we know has resources to spend.

>> All right.

We will get back to some politics, but let's talk education and schools.

Jess, an agreement has been made between the University of Kentucky and the federal Department of Education after the department said UK violated the federal Civil Rights Act, and the president has released a letter in response.

>> Yes.

So the US Department of Education found that UK violated the Civil Rights Act because it participated in this program called the PhD project, and this was a nonprofit that helps underrepresented students, minorities get into postgraduate business school.

And the department decided that because it made its decisions, gave opportunities to students based on their race, that it violated the Civil Rights Act and the University of Kentucky, you know, agreed with the the federal government to stop its ties with this program and then also agreed to cut ties with any other similar programs.

And so it has, I think, 60 days to find any other programs that consider race in, in, in any way and to cut ties with those programs as well.

>> Kentucky's two largest school districts are facing audits.

In Fayette County, there's a $16 million deficit, and auditor Alison Ball says she wants to know how it happened and how a similar scenario can be avoided in the future.

Your goal, then, is what you're saying here is to give them a corrective plan.

>> Yes, that is exactly right.

So we're going to get in there.

We're doing a penny by penny.

We're going to review it thoroughly, figure out how we got to the spot that we're in, and then what needs to be done to fix it, because my goal is to get them in good footing for the future.

So one of the nice things about our ability as enfyg obmsr atat we're not jus aitf e PS, and thatinyo tlsnday could come soon.

And then she's just beginning her look at Fayette County.

>> Right.

Both of these districts are facing some budget problems.

As you mentioned, Fayette County Public Schools has a $16 million deficit.

There's a lot of community argument over how that happened and why.

The Herald-Leader did some great reporting this week about lavish spending by top executives.

JCPS has $188 million shortfall.

That kind of ballooned suddenly.

And so ball is looking into both of those school districts.

And so it'll be really interesting to see what she finds.

Both those districts are also pursuing external audits on their own as well.

>> And she also told me she's getting more tips and more questions about other school districts now that there's so much news about the largest two districts.

>> Yeah, I'm not surprised.

I mean, both of these districts, one of the issues appears to be that all this hundreds of millions of dollars in Esser funding and federal pandemic relief funding was was used to fund positions that were then kind of looped into the general fund, even though there may not have been actually the funds to continue to pay for them year after year after year.

And so if it's happening and both of these districts, I wouldn't be surprised if it was happening in other districts as well.

>> Kentucky school districts are considering moral dea w w tt oves Rhto this law basically outlines a process so that an applicant in Kentucky, it's generally been this company called Lifewise that applies to the school board and says, hey, we're going to come to your school.

We're going to pick your kids up and take them to an off site location and give them an hour of Bible study.

And so school districts under the state law have the ability to either approve that application or not approve it.

And different school districts have been doing different things across the state.

>> All right, back to some politics.

We'll try to do some more education.

David Yates is the current state Senate minority whip, and one of six Democrats in the Kentucky Senate will be the new interim Jefferson County clerk, replacing Bobbie Holsclaw, who passed away September 10th.

He says he feels prepared for the job based on past experience.

>> As I look back on my path from Assistant Attorney general, the UAW legal, the Metro Council to Metro Council president, the State Senate, the state Senate leadership, all while being a litigator for Lm Yesiler uilve that his l thneleiofocotyclkn .

aslrdyruine is the choice of the mayor of Louisville, correct?

>> Yeah.

The mayor will vote.

Craig Greenberg also appointed interim county sheriff as well.

And it leaves the Democrats in the Senate with only five remaining Democrats until Beshear comes and sets a special election.

And, you know, it remains to be seen.

You know who will replace Yates.

Yates was asked about it, and he told a media outlet in Louisville that, you know, it would be up to the Louisville Democratic Party, each respective parties to put up a candidate for the special election.

So, yeah, we'll see.

>> And the governor will call that.

And presumably it will be before the session.

The 2027 governor's race moving into view now, this week's Wendell Ford dinner in Montgomery County may have offered some clues about the Democratic side.

Austin Democrats headed toward a Rocky Adkins versus Jacqueline Coleman primary.

>> All signs point to yes.

Rocky Adkins.

I think he delivered a 19 20 minute speech, and he had that crowd rocking puntde Iue.

And, you know, he just has this kind of old timey political stump feel to him that he's still got that, said Jacqueline Coleman, at the same time, has raised her name ID significantly as lieutenant governor, has been an effective politician.

As lieutenant governor, she's she's going to, you know, all the events that one would expect of a potential future governor candidate.

The question to me is, do they decide to run a campaign where they throw barbs at each other, or do they not, because Rocky Adkins noted in his speech that he and Beshear, when they ran in 2019, notably did not hit each other.

That came from Adam Edelen and them to Adam Edelen.

Now, do they have some kind of agreement where they agree to work together in the general election?

If they if one of them wins and the other loses, I don't know.

>> Are the Republicans headed toward a James Comer versus Michael Adams primary?

>> Potentially.

I hear Stan Cave is a name that's thrown out there, but a blast from the past.

But but he's somebody who might also be thinking of this.

James Comer has really assiduously worked to get the power structure of the Republican Party in a bunch of different localities on his side.

But Michael Adams also has his own sort of lane that he's worked to carve out.

He got the most votes, as he frequently reminds people in 2023, so things could get interesting.

>> All right.

Well, this is interesting.

Out of southeastern Kentucky, a special circuit judge, David Williams, ruled this week that the City council in London improperly impeached Mayor Randall Whittle.

The city council, which was unanimous in its effort to remove Whittle, is now appealing.

After returning to office.

Whittle said this.

>> The greatest coup that we've seen, I think, in southeast Kentucky has happened.

A judges overturned their decision, and when you have individuals that does not have any real idea of fiscal responsibility, and they just want to keep wasting taxpayer money, there is the usatn r .

he Wl,he h bn loein ts ty ofra iLoon, no question about that.

Some cities have that and others don't.

Right?

>> Yeah.

I mean, you know, when I was out covering a local governments in western Kentucky, West Kentucky.

Yeah, plenty, plenty of drama.

I mean, I remember, you know, one case out in Crittenden County where they were dealing with a water shortage that was precipitated by, you know, having to drain a lake from a failing dam.

You had a lot of local politics in Germany going on.

Obviously, Weddle and the London situation, its own unique circumstances, but plenty of drama.

>> That doesn't have to be a tough situation where the the council has voted to remove the person that they now are working with, right.

>> Oh my God, it's bizarre.

And I think the reason why it's such a big story in the state and why this is getting a lot of coverage, is because of the scandal around Wendell Randall Waddell's contributions to Governor Beshear.

He used one credit card in a bunch of different people's names.

So that's why this is kind of broken through.

But it's still just a remarkable story.

>> A contribution that was returned.

Well.

>> It was yes.

>> Those were just quickly.

This marks the 50th anniversary of racial integration in the Jefferson County Public Schools.

There were bussing controversies then.

Is it all still evolving?

>> Yes.

I mean, the integration plan has been evolving since day one.

The most recent iteration is allowing more students to attend school closer to home, which was supposed to be, you know, more fair to black students in the West End.

At the same time, it's increasing segregation across the district.

And so that comes with its own challenges.

>> All right.

Buffalo trace held a celebration marking its 9,000,000th barrel of bourbon since prohibition.

The accomplishment was even more newsworthy because it came just months after flooding left some of the facility under water and on a warm and sunny day.

Keeneland opened its fall meet Friday.

There's a record purse of nearly $11 million, big crowds expected as the track is showing off some new features as well.

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