>> During every other shutdown in my lifetime, SNAP has been funded.

>> As Kentucky Governor Andy Beshear asked for food stamps to continue.

There's now uncertainty about what happens to the program after midnight.

How and where you can give a state backed food drive.

>> They learned that stories are fun and that reading is not a chore.

>> And a local children's book author on how he's trying to get kids and their parents to enjoy reading.

>> Production of Kentucky edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

>> Happy Halloween, good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Friday, October the 31st, I'm Renee Shaw, and we thank you for joining us, which is a treat.

Two federal judges today ordered the Trump administration to fund the SNAP program, better known as food stamps, just hours before the administration was set to cut funding for the program.

It's not clear how quickly SNAP debit cards that are used to buy groceries could be reloaded after the ruling.

40 million Americans, including about 600,000 Kentuckians, may still not have access.

Starting tomorrow, as the federal government shutdown enters its second month, Governor Andy Beshear joined two other Democratic governors today for a zoom meeting, talking about SNAP and about the concerns over the end of some Affordable Care Act subsidies.

One of the issues at the center of the shutdown, Governor Beshear, talked about some of the people affected.

>> I recently did one of these virtual press briefings with Congressman Morgan McGarvey, and we welcomed an pipes from Louisville and is a professional, and her husband is a general contractor and works two jobs.

Her husband works one.

Those are three separate jobs, but now they are terrified of not being able to afford health care.

Her premium is expected to jump from $350 a month to more than 1200 per month.

She says there's no way they'll be able to make those payments.

Even scarier, her son has some needs and is therefore covered by Medicaid, which she also believes is at risk.

These are worries keeping our American families up at night, and they are entirely unavoidable.

They are entirely avoidable during every other shutdown in my lifetime, SNAP has been funded.

The USDA had on their website up until, what, a couple of weeks ago that they could continue to fund SNAP.

This is the decision of one person, Donald Trump, that he is willing to put the lives and the food assistance to millions of Americans on the line simply as leverage the American people, and having enough to eat should never be a prop or a tool or leverage for negotiating.

We always ought to put them first.

So we're calling on congressional Republicans to come together to extend the ACA credits.

And all you're saying is we care enough about the American people, where we don't want your health care costs to go up.

Certainly they voted.

They didn't want taxes to potentially revert back to previous levels.

Well, how about we care the same for struggling families and their health care.

And then the Trump administration should agree that they will fund SNAP.

>> The state has organized a food drive to help people affected by the loss of federal help.

The drive runs through November the 21st.

People can drop off nonperishable food items at one of several state office buildings in Frankfort, as well as the L and N building in Louisville.

The food will go to organizations such as Dare to Care, God's Pantry, and the Christian Appalachian Project.

People can also donate money rather than food by giving to the Kentucky Employees Charitable Campaign or the Team Kentucky Storm Relief Fund, another victim of the federal government shutdown.

Kentucky's Head Start programs.

These offer low income families child care free of charge, but the yearly federal grants these programs rely on aren't coming.

Our June Leffler visited one center that is going into debt just to keep its doors open until the shutdown ends.

>> It's a happy Halloween at this head start in Lebanon, Kentucky.

>> And then what we're going to do search.

We search for the wand.

>> It's story time for these three, four and five year olds.

>> Head start is a federally funded preschool program that is all across the country.

It is an amazing opportunity to help families in need.

Access free preschool high quality preschool education.

They get all nutrition taken care of.

They get all therapy services taken care of.

The social emotional learning all happens in this space.

>> This is just one of many classrooms now operating without federal funding.

>> Now Gretna, which.

>> Since the office of Head Start is furloughed due to the federal shutdown, they're not processing grant applications, not administering funds.

And so as of October 31st, we will no longer have access to federal funds to to operate our programs here for Central Kentucky Community Action Council.

>> The council, which serves 400 Head Start kids across six central Kentucky counties, expected $8 million on November 1st.

But now.

>> On Monday, our board of directors and our Head Start Policy Council voted unanimously to allow us to pursue a line of credit alone to maintain operations.

We are very fortunate that people's Bank here in Lebanon was willing to provide us this loan, because it doesn't come without risk.

>> The $1 million loan would likely be reimbursed at the end of the federal shutdown, but all interest falls on this regional nonprofit.

>> Give us about three weeks of operating time.

And so we are planning to be able to open and operate until November 21st, at which point, if the government has not reopened or if we haven't gotten funding letter or some other source of funding, we would probably have to cease operations right before the Thanksgiving holiday.

>> Not every program is in this kind of bind yet.

The federal government staggers Head Start grants throughout the year for regional programs that serve 2500 kids now have lapsed funding, but all have found contingency funds to operate a little while longer.

>> Local school boards are partnering.

We're seeing local governments to get involved.

I think folks are trying to find out what's the right recipe just to keep taking care of our kids.

>> But if the shutdown lingers, it could eventually impact the more than 16,000 Head Start kids across Kentucky.

>> Our Head Start programs throughout the state are typically our highest quality.

We have a 1 to 5 star rating system in the state of Kentucky for child care programs, and our head starts are consistently four and five star programs.

>> Head start is both pervasive and all inclusive, says this child care expert.

>> Unlike a private child care facility that may just serve children and focus on early education and care while parents are away, Head Start has extensive wraparound services, and there's a huge effort on making sure that families get the medical care that they need.

So if a child has not had all of their immunizations or medical care up well checks up to a certain point, Head Start will partner with local community agencies to make sure that children get those supports.

Dental busses may come to the area, and they'll make sure that children get teeth cleanings and even get cavities filled at a young age.

So when we talk about a potential loss of head Start, we're talking about early care and education.

We're talking about food and basic needs.

We're talking about health care, mental health care, and disability supports.

>> Sara Vanover says in half of Kentucky counties, there aren't enough child care slots for kids that need it.

Any disruption to Head Start would only exacerbate Kentucky's childcare deserts.

For Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thank you so much.

June Head Start celebrated its 60th anniversary with festivities at the state Capitol earlier this month.

In other news, earlier this week we told you about the Hardin County Republican Party chair posting a video showing former President Barack Obama and former First Lady Michelle Obama as apes.

The Republican Party of Kentucky was quick to condemn the post.

Well, today I spoke with Whitney Westerfield, a former three term Republican state senator and attorney from Christian County who was calling on his party to do better.

Tell us why you feel now is the time for you to speak out in the manner in which you have.

>> Well, there's no time like the present to speak out, and we've been trending this way for a long time, I'm afraid.

And and it just keeps getting worse.

And I, I highlighted three examples in the piece, and you mentioned the one from Hardin County where the the chair of the Hardin County Republican Party shared an AI generated video with, among other things, showing President Trump's face superimposed over the body of a lion.

But disturbingly, President Obama and First Lady Obama's faces imposed on apes.

And it's disgusting and foul.

It's racist.

It has no place in our our government.

It has no place in our politics.

It has no place in everyday talking with fellow human beings.

And it's it's disturbing that that didn't register before that post went up.

She has since taken the post down and she's apologized and and I mentioned this in the piece.

I'm so thankful for Chairman Robert Benvenuti, the state party chairman, for quickly and unequivocally condemning it for the racist, vile nonsense that it was.

But we continue to see more of this encroaching.

We we have that example.

We have the candidate for former Senator David Yates seat, who has written derogatory things and demeaning things about women and has defended himself.

And in fact, in the coverage.

I saw the county party chair over in Jefferson County didn't condemn it really at all.

The commentary I saw, I didn't see a full quote, perhaps, but the commentary I saw was him saying, well, you know, we didn't really put our shoulder into this.

I'm paraphrasing.

We didn't we didn't really put a lot of effort into this the last time around.

It's always been a Democratic held seat for a number of years, but maybe this year we can put a little bit more effort into it.

Where was the where was the call to action to stop this?

We're better than this.

Frankly.

It doesn't matter what party we are, we should all be better than this.

>> And you wrote in your piece that appeared this week that the president, President Donald Trump, is modeling what you call offensive and racist behavior.

So you believe this is coming from the very top of the Republican Party?

>> I think you'd have to be intentionally burying your head in the sand not to believe that that's a source from where a lot of this comes from.

A week ago, Renee, the president of the United States, gleefully shared an AI generated video of himself in response to these no Kings protests, which I think were relatively harmless First Amendment protected speech affairs.

But in response to that, showed this video and shared it of himself flying in a jet with King Trump written on the side, flying over protesters and dumping dumping feces all over the protesters, including a specific one who's a liberal activist, I believe down in front, I when you have this, the the party leader, which I'm ashamed to say is the party leader and the sitting president of the United States, setting that sort of example and normalizing that sort of rhetoric and tone, that approach to to just policy and politics.

Of course, other people are going to take his lead for ten, 12 years now, we've been doing nothing but seeing people take his lead and and move into the places that he has broken the envelope on.

And it's all to the worse.

It's all to the, the, the detriment of our society and our civil discourse.

>> We should remind folks that you are a Republican, a conservative, Republican.

Even your description at the in your.

>> Signature line or of who you are.

When you wrote for the Courier Journal, you say, you know, you're an evangelical Christian, right?

And you served in the Kentucky General Assembly as a proud Republican chair of the Senate Judiciary Committee.

So are you being held?

Are you being called on the carpet for calling out Republicans when some people would say that liberal Democrats have some similar offenses?

>> And if you were to go through.

I have no doubt that you can find a ton of, of this same sort of garbage on both sides of the aisle.

But as I mentioned in the piece, I'm a staunch conservative, you know that.

And the viewers that pay any attention to Kentucky politics know that that you can't challenge my conservative bonafides.

But in the in the piece, I mentioned the fact that both offline and online, I'm occasionally criticized.

Why don't you always get on Trump?

You always complain about the Republicans.

Why?

Why aren't you complaining about this?

Well, first of all, I do complain about those things when I see them and when I when I'm aware of those instances when they cross what I believe is a line.

But more to the point, I want my side to do better than this because it is better than this.

We we should rise above this because that's where we belong.

The policies that we believe in should be the things that we stand up and support when the other side gets it wrong.

Absolutely call it out.

But I'm going to make sure my side's doing it right so that when we do call it out, when we do say that this is wrong and this is right, that we're more credible when we do well.

>> Whitney Westerfield, we thank you for sharing your thoughts with us, and we hope that maybe, perhaps we can engage with you again in the future.

Thank you for your time today.

>> Glad to give it.

Good to see you, Renee.

>> In business news, one of Louisville's largest companies is moving its headquarters downtown.

More in tonight's Business Beat.

Yum!

Brands says it signed a ten year lease at PNC tower.

Mayor Craig Greenberg says about 550 employees will be relocating next year.

Louisville Business First says the company will occupy four and a half floors of the 40 story building back in June.

Yum!

Brand said it would donate its current headquarters to Jefferson County Public Schools.

On Thursday, we told you about a new study showing the number of parents reading to their children is at an all time low, particularly among Gen Z parents.

And we heard from Bill Goodman, the executive director of Kentucky Humanities, who wrote an op ed piece about the study.

Well, today.

More from him on how an event like the Kentucky Book Festival coming up this weekend, presented by Kentucky Humanities, helps encourage literacy and reading in children.

>> The book festival has been around for 44 years now.

Kentucky Humanities took it over from a volunteer group in Frankfort ten years ago.

It was part of our mission of literacy and books and of reading, and it's even grown and been so more, so much more since 2015.

We have there's so many great Kentucky children's authors.

I would say so many great Kentucky authors, period.

But so many wonderful children's authors that are so dedicated to writing books that children are interested in.

And we're so rich in that part of our literacy outreach and what we do and what we try to do at the Kentucky Book Festival.

In some ways these days, with the competition out there for movies and technology and video games and all of that, we have to think a little bit out of the box, if you will.

That's sort of an old fashioned saying, but we have to look at what other book festivals have done, what authors have done well there, what ideas and gimmicks, if you will.

We have just recently done some work.

We're going to have some costume characters there.

We've had a magician in the past, and I'm talking a lot about the children and the the family part of it.

We've really grown that part of our of our outreach and our book festival.

In the last, I would say, five years, more than anything that we did for the first five years, we always had children's authors there, but we didn't go out of the way to do face painting.

Last year we did some pumpkin carving.

We have to kind of think that other than just getting a book and meeting an author and and maybe having a story time, which we've always had the authors take turns on a storytime stage inside Joseph Beth Booksellers to read to the children.

And that's like going to the library on Saturday morning with your child.

So this is happening all at the book festival, so we've had to look at new ways of of doing the same old thing, but maybe dressing it up a little bit.

>> So good to see Bill Goodman, who as you know, was here for 20 years hosting many of our public affairs programs while also appearing at the festival this weekend.

Sean Pryor, a Lexington based author who has written dozens of children's books.

Pryor also participates in another program to promote literacy, Kentucky Humanities, at the schools.

He tells us while he writes mainly for children, he looks for ways to get parents involved in reading as well.

>> I have participated.

>> In the Kentucky Book Festival for over a decade, and it's just it's a labor of love for me.

To be able to talk with parents and children and, you know, just to get kids into reading or if they are readers.

If it's a subject of mine that interests them, like to be able to have those little conversations and autograph books.

Kids get so excited when like, can you sign my book?

I'm like, yeah, sure.

They're like, wow.

So like, that's really, really fun for me.

It's it's the positive energy.

It's the joy.

And everybody's there for the same reason.

For the love of reading, literacy is something that's so important, especially for the current generation of kids in elementary schools, middle schools and high schools.

I do about 30 author talks a year across the tri state area.

And what I've noticed is, is that I'll have teachers and librarians say, hey, it's been difficult to get our boys to read.

I'll come in and I'll do a talk and I'll explain some, like some how some of our books are made, how they're created, what's the process behind it, and what inspires us to be creative and like something clicks with some of those kids and then they want to read, read my books, and then that gets them to read other books.

So it becomes a catalyst.

So like, I just want to be a catalyst for kids because I want them to understand that everything that we enjoy, a story is told, whether it be the book or whether it be a book, a comic book, a, you know, a novella, children's book, video game, movie, music.

Somebody had to write that.

And once they get that, it changes.

It changes things a bit.

It no longer becomes a chore when if I talk to parents and they'll say, well, you know, I don't really read to my kids.

And so, like my kids, I want to get them into reading.

But like, reading feels like a chore for me.

And if they're younger kids, I'll say, well, you know, reading to your kids is actually something that's very important, especially at a young at a young age.

And also it's just fun.

They learn that stories are fun and that reading is not a chore.

So like, I'll point to the fact that like most Gen Z parents are video, you know, they play video games and I'm like, your kids play video games, whether it be on a phone or on a tablet or on a console.

And like for an example, I'll say, okay, well, I have I have a book series, superhero series called The Gamer.

And so that incorporates video games and superheroes.

And so like in that generation, loves Gen Z parents love those Marvel movies, those DC movies, and so do the kids.

So let's all use that as a bridge.

So it's something that they both enjoy.

In the hopes of that, the parent will read the book to the child, or the child would then just take the initiative and say, I want to read more of these.

But it is something that like, gets asked a lot about how do we get, you know, how do we get these kids to read?

And it's just you can't force it on them, but you have to show them.

There's so much there's so many things to read about.

And it's all not just like, you know, static history.

There's so much creativity out there.

They just have to see it and like.

And if there's something that they have like a certain niche, there's a book for it.

>> Shawn and other authors will be at the Kentucky Book Festival that is happening this Saturday.

Tomorrow at Joseph Beth Booksellers in Lexington, Kentucky.

You can get more information, including the author lineup and the schedule, by going online to KET Book Festival Dot.

We fall back this Saturday night.

Put that extra hour to good use, enjoying the many activities planned around Kentucky.

Our Toby Gibbs has a long list and this week's look at around the Commonwealth.

>> Spring into the fall season this weekend at Colorfest, Bernheim Forest's longest running festival, making a return this year.

The mud pie kitchen, giant slides and pumpkin rolling, plus new hands on activities that show the science of color in nature.

There will also be live music and food.

They're skipping fall and heading right to winter at the Harvesting the Holidays event in Cynthiana this Saturday.

This family friendly event includes an ice rink, train rides, bumper cars and games.

There will be vendor booths to get a start on holiday shopping.

Plus the highlight an appearance by Santa.

Celebrate indigenous food cultures from Guatemala to the holler at the third annual Heritage Food Festival taking place in Harrodsburg.

Learn about growing, gathering, processing, preparing and preserving food through workshops and hands on experiences.

The event kicks off next Friday.

It's a party where the music's loud, but the crowd isn't.

Slip on your wireless headphones and dance like nobody's listening because, well, they aren't at the silent disco.

Hosted by Tradewater Brewing in Madisonville.

Whether you're into pop, rock, or hip hop, you can tune in to your own vibe and groove under the stars with friends.

The party takes place Saturday.

Wrong.

Where the Buffalo Call home is big Bone Lick State Historic Site celebrates National Bison Day experience America's great prairie icon up close at the bison viewing area.

Hear stories and get questions answered about the herd, and watch as the Black Wolf Singers and Ochanda honor the bison with hand drumming, singing, and dancing.

The celebration happens on Saturday.

Harlan County is opening a new chapter in its history on Tuesday with the opening of the historic Harlan Museum.

Among the exhibits, the county's myths and legend, its natural wonders, early frontier life stories from the coal fields and its military and sports history.

Get ready to rock out in symphonic style in Bowling Green with the rock orchestra.

Hear rock and metal reimagined as classical musicians perform the music of some of the world's most iconic bands, all by candlelight.

The show goes on Wednesday.

The historic Virginia Theater plays host to the inaugural Black Mountain Film Festival in Somerset, kicking off next Friday.

The three day celebration of storytelling, creativity and community features a curated selection of independent films from emerging and established filmmakers.

The festival also includes live performances, filmmaker Q&A, panel discussions and special events throughout the weekend.

And that's what's happening around the Commonwealth.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

>> A lot of treats and hopefully very few tricks.

This weekend was we told you about at the top of our program.

There's uncertainty about what happens to the SNAP program or food stamps after today.

While the Trump administration wants to stop funding, two judges have blocked that move.

We will continue to follow this story Monday, and we'll look at how people in the Maysville community are helping people affected.

Full coverage this of this issue next week on Kentucky edition and SNAP and Wik and TANF and other food assistance programs by the government.

That's our topic on Kentucky tonight.

Coming up on Monday night at 8:00 eastern, 7:00 central on KET.

So lock it in on Monday from 630 on.

We thank you for joining us tonight.

And we will see you back here Monday at 630 eastern, 530 Central on Kentucky Edition, where we inform, connect and inspire.

We hope that you'll connect with us all the ways you see on your screen.

We've got some newsletters and some full episodes and clips that you can view online on demand at ket.org.

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Happy Halloween!

Hopefully you get a bucket full