>> Here is my message to parents.

Get your kids off Roblox.

Do it today.

>> Kentucky's attorney general sues a popular gaming platform for children.

>> I wouldn't send him a dime.

Like that's my position.

I don't think whatever we're getting isn't worth it.

>> Two years of war between Israel and Hamas, and the debate on U.S.

involvement continues.

>> I think it's a big term in terms of separation of powers, in terms of presidential authority, and in terms of the guardrails for democracy.

>> And a Kentucky constitutional law professor talks about what's at stake for America.

As the U.S.

Supreme Court prepares to make some big decisions.

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

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition for this Tuesday, October the 7th, I'm Renee Shaw, and we thank you for joining us this evening.

The state's top cop claims that a popular children's gaming and social media platform is, quote, a website of choice for child predators.

And he's suing that platform called Roblox.

Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman says that since its launch in 2006, Roblox, with its 380 million monthly users, has knowingly permitted an online environment for child exploitation.

The suit alleges Roblox has created a hunting ground for child predators, and knowingly failed to inform parents of the dangers of the platform.

>> Here is my message to parents get your kids off Roblox.

Do it today.

>> I consider myself to be a very engaged parent.

Like many parents, I thought Roblox is a safe choice.

It presents itself as a bright, safe, creative playground.

But I came to realize later than I would like to admit that it actually is the Wild West of the internet targeted at children today.

>> As Attorney General, I'm proud to announce the Commonwealth of Kentucky has filed a lawsuit against Roblox for its knowing failure to protect children from the darkness that lurks on its platform.

Nearly two thirds of all U.S.

kids, two thirds of kids under the age of 13 play games on Roblox platform.

We're holding this platform accountable for online sex rooms.

We're holding this platform accountable for sextortion, and we're holding this platform accountable for child sexual abuse material.

We also learned that after the gruesome assassination of Charlie Kirk, sickening so-called assassination simulators immediately popped up on Roblox.

They allowed children as young as five to access bloody images of the shooting.

For years, individuals have called on Roblox to implement stronger safety features to mitigate this harm to protect our kids.

But the company's response has been anything but adequate.

Young kids are able to create accounts quickly, easily, and without their parents knowledge.

At the end of the day, we want Roblox to change their platform age verification that is able to both preclude younger kids from purporting to be older, and predators purporting to be younger.

To have to induce Roblox to actually have content filters that work and cannot be easily worked around, which is the case now to encourage Roblox to provide additional parental notification to provide disclaimers.

>> The only advice that I have today is to delete it.

The reality is, Roblox makes it nearly impossible to police as a parent.

It breaks my heart every time I hear of another tragedy linked to this platform.

If your kids are on Roblox, please don't assume that your child will not fall prey to this.

Roblox.

>> Kentucky is the second state to file a lawsuit against Roblox.

Louisiana Louisiana rather filed a similar lawsuit in August.

The attorney general was also asked today about his push to reinstate the death penalty in Kentucky.

In June, he sent a letter to Governor Andy Beshear requesting the governor set an execution date for Ralph Baze.

Baze was convicted of killing the Powell County sheriff and deputy sheriff in 1992.

In response to the attorney general's request, Governor Beshear said the state doesn't have and can easily get the drugs needed to carry out a lethal injection, and that the Department of Corrections must take several steps before a death warrant can be issued.

Today, Attorney General Coleman suggested those arguments are just a distraction.

>> What our governor said was, there's a rag that needs to work its way through before we can move forward.

It's a brilliant answer by the smart lawyer.

There is a red that's working its way through it.

It applies to those who have intellectual disability claims.

Mr.

Baze doesn't have an intellectual disability claim.

There is no new rag.

There's no new statute.

There's nothing needed from the General Assembly or the courts for our governor to enforce the law of this Commonwealth and bring justice to the family of two slain law enforcement officers.

Governor, how about it?

Let's enforce the law of this Commonwealth.

And no more of these red herring answers.

>> The last execution in Kentucky was in 2008.

Currently, there are 25 inmates on death row in the state.

President Donald Trump hasn't endorsed a candidate in the 2026 Kentucky race for the U.S.

Senate, but someone with close Trump ties is backing Republican candidate Nate Morris, the Lexington Herald-Leader reports.

Zach Wittkopf and his wife, Sophie Knight, are hosting a 45th birthday fundraiser for Morris at the Wittkopf family's Lexington farm next week.

Wittkopf is the son of President Trump's special envoy to the Middle East, Steve Wittkopf.

Morris had no comment to the Lexington Herald Leader about the fundraiser.

Kentucky's current congressional delegation is reacting to the second anniversary of a Hamas attack on Israel that killed 1200 people, mostly civilians.

Since then, Israel's Israel's retaliation on the Gaza Strip has killed more than 67,000 Palestinians, and what the United Nations and human rights groups called a genocide.

The U.S.

has been involved in everything from trying to broker a peace deal to providing military aid to Israel.

Our June Leffler has more in this report.

>> U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell has championed unfettered military support for Israel.

Like Ukraine, McConnell says America's allies share our global interests, and as independent nations must decide their own war tactics.

On this anniversary of the October 7th attack, McConnell writes, quote, Hamas has chosen every day to compound needless suffering.

Israel has sacrificed greatly in the pursuit of peace.

Congress has supported Israel, sending more than $20 billion in military aid to the country since the war started two years ago.

>> But progressive left and isolation is right.

Hyperventilated about the specter of so-called forever war.

>> That speech was at the tail end of a tense time this summer, when Israel bombed Iranian military and nuclear facilities.

In June, Kentucky's other Republican senator pushed back on calls to escalate America's involvement in the Middle East.

>> I see more war and more carnage, and it's not the US's job to be involved in this war.

>> Unlike McConnell, Paul has questioned Israel's government just a month into the war.

Paul penned an op ed.

He wrote, quote, when I visited Israel in 2013, I suggested to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that incremental improvements in the lives of Palestinians might lessen their rage and propensity to commit violence.

However, the senator also wrote against USAID for Palestinians, and while he supported a Bernie Sanders resolution to report on Israel's human rights record, he has never supported Sanders weapons embargo in the Senate, Republican Congressman Thomas Massie discussed such military aid on Theo Vaughn's podcast.

>> I wouldn't send him a dime.

Like that's my position.

I don't think whatever we're getting isn't worth it.

And don't ask me to articulate the benefit, because I think the cost is greater than the benefit you could.

Everybody in Gaza is, at this point has to hate Israel, right?

And by extension, those bombs, when they see American politicians go over there and, like, sign the freaking bombs that are going to kill women and children.

>> Massie also called out lobbyists advocating for such aid, namely the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC.

Massie is Kentucky's only U.S.

senator or representative not to take AIPAC money, according to AIPAC tracker, which opposes the lobbying group.

However, Kentucky's only Democratic congressman, Representative Morgan McGarvey, said this summer he would no longer take AIPAC contributions, which he received in previous campaigns for Kentucky Edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> Thank you, June, for that.

As the U.S.

tries to broker a peace deal with Israel and Hamas, Senator Mitch McConnell writes today, it would, quote, provide an opportunity for Palestinians to turn a page on a dark chapter of terrorism and tyranny and chart a new course without Hamas, end quote, violent crime is trending down in Kentucky's largest city.

Louisville.

Leaders say it's because new strategies are working.

The city's Office of Violence Prevention just released a new report looking at the impacts of these programs over the last three years.

According to the report, gun violence related homicides dropped by 43%.

The number of shooting victims across the city decreased by 39%.

And in the four neighborhoods, using the anti-violence program called Pivot to Peace, gun violence also dropped by more than 60%.

A mother and member of one of the city's anti-violence neighborhood coalitions says the violence intervention programs not only make neighborhoods safer, but also build community.

>> I've lived in the neighborhood for close to 15 years, and when we first moved in, it was difficult because we heard gunshots all the time.

And when I became a mother four years ago, almost, it was terrifying, honestly.

But over the past three years, I can tell you that that occurrence has reduced.

I haven't heard as many gunshots when I'm putting my son to bed and that is that is dynamic.

The ABC in Taylor Berry has made a critical, life saving impact for so many families in my neighborhood, and it has built a community network of support that is unlike any I've seen before.

>> The city has also updated its Gun Violence dashboard.

It now provides daily updates on violent crimes in the city, using real time information.

We heard from all sides last night on Kentucky Tonight as we discussed vaccines and medications with a panel of board certified physicians.

In September, the Trump administration warned people about possible connections between acetaminophen use, the active ingredient in Tylenol and autism.

Last night, our panel talked about the study that led to that conclusion and whether doctors should give Tylenol to pregnant women.

>> The study was based.

The information is not new, but the most recent study was a review of 48 different studies, and 27 of them found kind of an alarming correlation between Tylenol use in pregnancy and autism.

>> So was there a correlation or causation.

>> With any epidemiological study?

You cannot prove causation.

So that's that's the best that we have, especially in pregnant women.

That's often the best that we have.

It's very hard to design a randomized controlled trial in in pregnant women.

>> That's and that's very true.

There needs to be more research that's actually focused on pregnant women so that we have some of these answers.

But we know this answer with Tylenol.

It's been studied over and over and over for over 20 years.

And we know based on the science and the evidence, acetaminophen does not cause autism or other neurological disorders.

Period.

And to imply which is what this administration is doing, that it might that that there could be a link is dangerous for patients for so many other downstream effects in this country.

>> You can hear more of that discussion as well as the debate over vaccinations, including the Covid vaccine.

That program is online and on demand that you can stream at ket.org.

Tonight.

The United States Supreme Court began a new term this week.

Today, justices heard a case that is familiar to many here in Kentucky.

It has to do with conversion therapy and whether or not a state law banning this practice violates a counselor's First Amendment rights.

Conversion therapy is is any emotional or physical therapy used to suppress a person's attraction to the same sex or their gender identity, identity, and expression?

This morning I spoke with Josh Douglas, an elections, voting rights and constitutional law professor at the University of Kentucky, who says the High Court seems to be leaning in favor of the counselor.

>> Well, the court heard oral argument, and I think coming out of the argument, it seems like the court's going to strike down this Colorado law.

So the Colorado law basically says that licensed therapists cannot provide so-called conversion therapy.

And it's a First Amendment challenge.

And so it's suggesting that by banning a particular practice, which has been seen as harmful to the LGBT community, that it violates these providers First Amendment rights.

And reports from the oral argument suggest that the court is going to apply what's known as strict scrutiny.

So the highest level of judicial review, the most skepticism of a state law.

And it sounds like, again, if we're going to read the tea leaves from the argument that the court is seems likely to strike it down.

And this has implications, obviously, with respect to LGBT rights and the laws that many states are passing with respect to conversion therapy, I think there's 20 something states that have these laws on the books.

>> The Family Foundation in Kentucky is urging the Supreme Court to strike down Colorado's law.

In a statement, Executive Director David Walls said, quote, this harmful law is designed to promote false LGBTQ ideologies and muzzle Christian counselors from helping children struggling with gender and sexuality confusion.

Governor Andy Beshear banned conversion therapy in Kentucky through an executive order last year.

This year, the Kentucky General Assembly passed House Bill 495, overturning the executive order.

Beshear vetoed the bill, and the veto was overridden by the Republican dominated state legislature.

From the legality of many of President Donald Trump's sweeping tariffs to the firing of independent agency members and birthright citizenship, the nation's highest court, which began its new term yesterday, has some constitutional scholars watching for rulings that could rein in the president's expansion of executive power.

UK law professor Joshua Douglas comes back to give us a primer on some key cases to watch.

>> There are a lot of really significant cases that are going to tell us the scope of how much the Supreme Court is going to be a check on the executive.

We're seeing the court already issue various orders in its so-called emergency docket.

Some people refer to it as the shadow docket.

>> These are what does that mean?

>> They're basically cases that where the losing party at the lower court asks for an emergency decision, an emergency appeal.

They don't have full briefing.

They don't have oral argument like in the regular course of cases.

And the court didn't used to use this very much, didn't used to entertain these kinds of appeals.

But more and more has been issuing decisions, typically putting a lower court decision on hold, which has the effect in the cases involving Trump, have has the effect of in most of these cases, allowing Trump to take the action that he's seeking while the court says, but we're going to decide later on the full substance of this and the full legality or constitutionality of the action.

So what we saw over the summer was the court, in numerous decisions, put lower court decisions on hold and say, we're going to decide these later.

And, well, later is now for this this new term.

>> And you have some particular interest in some cases that will be heard concerning voting rights.

Tell us about this.

>> Yeah.

Well, so the biggest case with respect to voting rights is out of Louisiana.

This is a case about redistricting the way we draw district lines.

And what's kind of crazy is that we're still litigating the maps that were drawn after the 2020, 2021 census, and states have to redraw their lines every ten years to ensure population equality, to ensure that the districts have roughly the same number of people.

But there are other rules involved, particularly with respect to race and the current doctrine.

Essentially, the current case law, essentially, that is, that states have to think about race some if there's a significant minority population like in Louisiana, but you can't think about race too much.

And so what happened is in Louisiana, they have six congressional districts with a population that's about 33% racial minority.

And only one of those six districts had a majority of people that were of minority race.

A majority of people who are black.

But with six districts, you would think in 33% of the population, maybe it should be closer to two.

And so there was a lawsuit under the Voting Rights Act, section two of the Voting Rights Act, which said, essentially, you've got to have two seats instead of just one that are majority black.

The lower courts agreed.

Louisiana drew a map that was to majority black districts while still trying to preserve the Partizan representation.

And then some white plaintiffs sued and said, well, hold up.

You thought about race too much in drawing the lines and making sure that you had two majority black districts.

And so that's the challenge facing the court right now, is did Louisiana think about race too much in drawing the lines?

And if it was forced to think about race to comply with the Voting Rights Act, does that make the Voting Rights Act itself unconstitutional?

Now, the court heard the case last term, and then on towards the end of the term, it said, we're going to rehear it with new briefing and new argument on that bigger constitutional question.

Is section two of the Voting Rights Act unconstitutional?

>> And this is widespread beyond just the implications for Louisiana, this could have major implications nationwide.

>> I mean, I think, you know, there's so many states that have maps that are drawn under the auspices of section two of the Voting Rights Act, where we're seeing that you have to have a certain amount of minority representation, because here's what map draws will sometimes do, because in many states, minorities tend to live in the same geographic area.

They'll draw the lines to pack as many minority members into one district, so that their supermajority in one district, and have zero influence in the rest of the state.

And section two has said, or the court's interpretation of section two has said, that that's often unlawful when you could draw a map that has stronger minority representation.

So maps in Alabama, in Florida, in North Carolina all have this kind of concern.

And even here in Kentucky, you know, there's some talk about should the Republicans try to redraw the lines, like many other states are doing in this mid-decade redistricting and take away the one Democratic controlled seat right now in Louisville?

But the problem for the state is that it might face a section two Voting Rights Act lawsuit if it does that, because Louisville obviously is a large minority population.

Well, section two goes out the door.

There's perhaps not as much of a legal constraint on at least that aspect of redrawing the lines.

>> And this.

>> Is not about redrawing district lines in a mid in mid cycle, as I would say.

>> Yeah, this this case out of Louisiana is not.

But I think it has implications not only for future lawsuits, but also for what states might try to do, knowing that there could be a lawsuit, you know, pending or brought against it.

So, you know, laws aren't just about the lawsuits that are brought.

They're about deterring action because of the potential of a lawsuit that might come down the pike.

>> Professor Douglas cast this term of Scotus as a test of the separation of powers in terms of presidential authority and the guardrails for democracy.

In today's digital environment and ChatGPT, it can seem like medical information is just a click away.

But physicians say having a primary care provider is still the best resource to better health.

This week is Primary Care Week, and Norton Health Care shares why having a relationship with your PCP is still important.

>> A lot of us only think of going to the doctor whenever we're sick, whenever you have an upper respiratory, or maybe like, I just have this weird thing on my arm and I need to go get it checked out.

But our health is something that is more encompassing than just a respiratory infection, or this thing you're seeing on your skin.

There could be things going on inside that you may not realize like high blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes.

So having a primary care week is just a nice reminder that, hey, we take care of ourselves on the outside.

Let's take care of ourselves on the inside, too.

It's a relationship.

It's something that's going to grow over time.

It's someone who's going to learn about you and learn about your specific risks, especially when it comes to your family history, about other conditions that we need to watch for down the road.

But also it's helping you have a trusted source when it comes to information, because there's just so many sources out there right now.

And how do you filter through all this information?

How do you have someone who can help give you good advice, who knows you?

And that's what a primary care can do for you?

ChatGPT is going to do an excellent job in giving you a differential.

I have chest pain.

What should I do?

And it's going to tell you it could be a heart attack.

It could be a pulmonary embolism.

It could be reflux.

It could be inflammation in your chest muscles.

And looking at all of that information can be really, really overwhelming.

And how do you decipher ChatGPT can't tell you, hey, you're 21 years old.

It probably isn't a heart attack.

Maybe it could be, but ChatGPT can't figure that piece of it out.

But someone that you feel comfortable talking to and who you can share your symptoms with.

So that way they can help figure out, do we need to go down this path or that path to help figure out what's causing your chest pain?

It's going to be a whole lot more helpful.

I know there's a lot of online entities that have come up to help say, hey, we'll help you with your hair loss.

We'll help you with your mood.

We'll help you with your weight loss.

And they make it sound very easy to interact with them.

But the thing you miss out on, an entity of that sort, is that you don't get continuity.

You come back that second time, you may not be seeing the same person, and then you're repeating that story and they don't know where you're coming from.

And how can they tell if you're doing any better on that medicine.

So you're still kind of on your own.

And so a primary care is going to help you filter through that and help you figure out what's best for you.

>> Our thanks to Doctor Mona Lisa Taylor for that.

A recent report from the National Association of Community Health Centers says one third of Americans do not have a primary care provider.

Well, we'll talk about recent political developments in Kentucky tomorrow in our reporter's notebook.

Plus, as the federal government shutdown continues into its second week, insights from a University of Kentucky political science professor.

All that and more on Wednesday's edition of Kentucky Edition, which we hope we'll see you for again at 630 eastern, 530 central, where we inform, connect and inspire.

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

Facebook X formerly known as Twitter and Instagram to stay in the loop and send us an idea or two that we can do a story on by email at Public Affairs at KET.

Dot.

I'm Renee Shaw, good to have you with us tonight, and hope to see you