So we're looking at a really ugly few days and weeks for both Israel and for Gaza.

The latest on yet another war in the Middle East, including the impact it's having here in Kentucky.

How can we prepare nurses to be qualified, educated, but helping them to become nurses as quickly as possible?

It's a program that could offer a fast track solution to Kentucky's nursing shortage.

Kentucky is one of the most staunchly conservative states in the country.

Yet we are in the forefront for enthusiastic support for recognition.

Indigenous people stay.

Why Activists believe Kentucky could play a key role in the push to make Indigenous People's Day a federal holiday.

I think businesses benefit from being able to talk to a labor force that is just really untapped.

No, we do.

And how to local partners are bringing employers face to face with new Kentuckians hoping to earn a livable wage.

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Endowment for Kentucky Productions, the Leonard Press Endowment for Public Affairs and the KET Millennium Fund.

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky Edition on this Monday, October the ninth.

Thank you so much for joining us.

I'm Renee Shaw.

The world is reacting to yet another war in the Middle East, this time between Israel and Hamas.

A Palestinian militant group which controls the Gaza Strip.

The fighting began Saturday when Hamas launched an unprecedented and coordinated attack on Israel, killing hundreds of people, including many women and children.

And at least nine Americans, according to the U.S. State Department.

Israel retaliated and formally declared war on Sunday, a sign of greater fighting and a possible ground assault into Gaza.

Already, more than 1500 people have been killed and thousands wounded on both sides.

Dr. Robert Farley teaches at the University of Kentucky Paterson School of Diplomacy.

He says the conflict could escalate in the coming days.

In the next few days, we're going to continue to see Israel mobilize militarily.

So much of the Israeli military is based on a reserve system.

Everybody is a conscript.

Everybody has served and has training.

And Israel is already mobilizing those forces.

And I mean, the Israelis are essentially bound to hit back against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Right now, that's taking the the form of airstrikes against Gaza.

But most people seem to think and we don't know for sure yet, but most people seem to think that we are going to see a direct ground invasion of the Gaza Strip by Israeli military forces.

And that's going to get really, really ugly, really, really fast.

There's going to be building to building, fighting.

There's going to be a lot of destruction of civilian areas, of extremely dense urban areas.

And I don't think anybody at this point knows how far the Israelis intend to go in terms of sort of discipline in Gaza and reestablishing control of the Gaza Strip.

Kentucky has, especially parts of Kentucky, have a very longstanding Jewish population.

You know, the synagogues and temples within Lexington and Louisville.

Right.

These are part of the community and they care deeply about what's going on in Israel.

The connections between Israel and these communities are tight.

Kentucky also has a Palestinian community, a Palestinian Christian communities, a smaller Palestinian Muslim community that care a lot about what is happening in Israel-Palestine.

And that matters for sort of how we think about it here in Kentucky.

You know, the federal government is very involved in this already, that we're sending an aircraft carrier to the region.

And so the Biden administration thinks that this is a significant national interest.

The opposition agrees.

Republicans agree that it's a significant national interest.

And so, yeah, I think there's a there's a situation here where, you know, we in Kentucky, we know people who have people who are part of this conflict.

They're part of the communities that we live in.

And that's the reason we should care about it.

We've learned a group of Kentuckians was in Israel during the weekend attacks.

The mayor of Bardstown, which is in Nelson County, said our public affairs team, a statement this morning.

According to Mayor Richard Heaton, the group was in Israel for a tour of the Holy Land.

They have since been evacuated and will soon be making their way home.

Mayor Heaton thanked several people, including members of Kentucky's federal delegation, for working with the Pentagon and the U.S. Embassy to make sure the group from Kentucky was safe.

On ex, formerly known as Twitter, U.S.

Congressman Brett Guthrie of Kentucky says his office is working to help Kentuckians return home from Israel, but he did not offer any details, citing security concerns.

U.S. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell also released a statement, quote, The United States and the civilized world must stand in solidarity as a fellow democracy, defends its sovereignty and its citizens, and must unequivocally condemn these vicious attacks against civilian populations.

Failure to support friends under attack in Kiev or Tel Aviv will only embolden the world's largest state sponsor of terrorism and fellow authoritarians.

Members of Kentucky's Israel Caucus are also condemning the weekend attacks by Hamas.

In a statement, the bipartisan, bicameral group of 36 state lawmakers said, quote, The Kentucky Israel caucus stands and completes our solidarity with the men, women and children of Israel who were attacked by Hamas.

The nation of Israel finds itself at war with terrorists.

Its people have every right to defend themselves against this act of aggression and invasion.

And Governor Andy Beshear took to social media over the weekend as well.

He said he was praying for the people of Israel and that, quote, Every family deserves safety from violence.

Attacks like these should not take place anywhere.

End quote.

Stay tuned to Kate for complete coverage of the conflict.

PBS News hour is coming up at seven eastern, six central following here on Kentucky Edition right here on KCET now.

In other news, Kentucky's general election is now less than a month away and time is running out to register to vote.

The deadline to register is tomorrow, October the 10th.

Excused Absentee voting begins October 25th.

Early voting begins Thursday, November 2nd and runs through Saturday, November the fourth.

Republican Secretary of State Michael Adams, who himself is on the ballot this year, gives his predictions on voter turnout in next month's election in Kentucky.

We typically have about 60% of registered voters vote in a general election for president and about 40% of voters vote in a non-presidential general election.

That's what we had last November, about 41%.

We were 42% in November 2019.

I think we'll be somewhere in the low forties.

It's hard to say.

We'll have a better sense of that when we have more absentee ballot requests come in.

We'll be able to tie that to extrapolate, come up with a hard number later.

Is that pretty typical in a gubernatorial election year?

Yeah, actually, 42% was seen as high in 2019.

That was that was pretty good.

So it tends to be a little lower.

And I will tell you this to our offices doing a study we'll be releasing soon about voting in Kentucky and civic health and some other metrics.

And what we've found is increasingly, Kentuckians are getting less of their news from from local sources, from newspapers, from local television, and more from cable.

And that comes with some problems.

And one of the problems is cable news doesn't cover who is governor or that there's an election for governor or secretary of state or any of that.

And so we've seen a lot of decline in awareness of these state elections, and that may hurt the turnout as well.

I hope not.

You can register to vote as well as find out where you're voting Precinct will be by visiting.

Go vote k y dot com.

Remember election day is Tuesday, November the seventh.

Secretary Adams will be one of our guests on kentucky tonight, this evening, along with his democratic opponent, charles buddy Wheatley.

We'll also discuss the race for ag commissioner.

So join us for both of those conversations.

And we want to send or get your questions and comments as well.

That's tonight on Kentucky tonight beginning at eight Eastern, seven Central right here on KCET, Kentucky.

Court of Appeals rules, part of a new state law is unconstitutional.

The Jefferson County Board of Education sued the state over Senate Bill one.

The law, which was passed by the state legislature earlier this year, shifts the authority from the board to the superintendent and limits the board to meeting once every four weeks, among other things, according to Louisville Public Media.

An appeals court ruled the law unconstitutional, affirming a lower court ruling.

The Board of Education argued JCPenney was being singled out.

The appeals court agreed, noting the state constitution prohibits special and local legislation.

The school district was already not enforcing the new law since a lower court ruled in its favor.

For all the students in our audience heading to college next year and parents who are helping them seek financial aid.

We have two important dates to give you.

First, in years past the FAFSA application process, which is the Free Application for Federal Student Aid form, has been made available on October 1st.

Many of you may have already been notified by colleges and universities you plan to attend that this date has been changed to December.

Unfortunately, they have not announced the exact date, but we are told that major changes and improvements are coming to this year's FAFSA form, which makes the second date.

We're about to give You are even more important to help answer your questions and help you prepare for the upcoming changes.

We encourage you to join our Kelsie Starks here on Katie tonight for the program.

College Financial Aid 2024.

Kelsey will have a panel of four guests to discuss FAFSA, the changes taking place and what parents and students can do to prepare for the application process.

So make sure you stick around.

That's tonight at nine Eastern, eight Central right after Kentucky tonight here on Katie.

A Kentucky deputy was wounded and a suspect killed when gunfire erupted during an attempted arrest.

Kentucky State police say the shooting happened Saturday in Allen County as officers tried to find someone involved in an earlier car chase in Simpson County.

That's neighboring.

Police say a man was pronounced dead at the scene and a Simpson County sheriff's deputy was hospitalized with life threatening injuries.

The Simpson County sheriff's office said on Social media that Chief Deputy Brad Harper was shot while trying to arrest a man for attempted murder.

Kentucky has a severe shortage of health care providers, according to the University of Louisville, at least part of 113 of the state's 120 counties are designated as health professionals shortage areas.

Kentucky also ranks at the bottom when it comes to meeting the need for primary care physicians.

While the University of Louisville hopes a new grant will change all that.

That begins today's medical news today.

The university states receiving $16 million to increase training for medical students in underserved rural and urban communities.

The money is part of a four year grant from the Health Resources and Services Administration.

U of a School of Medicine will use the grant to enhance existing programs and create a new program to train medical students in an urban environment while also helping students afford these programs.

Another group is working to address this shortage.

It's estimated Kentucky will need an extra 20,000 nurses by the year 2025.

A program at Midway University not only aims to build a career pipeline for future nurses, but move more nurses through it and into a hospital setting faster.

I've always been really, really interested in just taking care of people, being able to care for somebody, be there when no one else can be.

We are partnering with the local high schools and other high schools in central Kentucky in an effort to really help those high school students to be ready to transition and move right into our associate degree in nursing program.

It's kind of crazy.

I'm seeing a lot of my friends, you know, still in school or still searching for the right job or what they need to do in life.

And I'm over here about The Graduate with the 89 degree and, you know, have my life set up at 19.

They can apply to the program while they're in their senior year and they can actually be accepted to the fast track nursing program even before they graduate.

After the very beginning, it was a little hectic, a little scary because I was jumping into something right out of high school.

But it's super exciting because I was like, I'm going to be graduated at 19 with an associate's degree and I'm going to be a nurse.

The students are prepared.

They have nurse aid training, certified nurse training, and are encouraged to complete dual credits that allow them to meet the prerequisites for our program.

Therefore, when they get into the program, they have less time here and midway, so their tuition costs are also decrease.

So I graduate this December and 2023 with an associate's degree in nursing.

And so right now I'm in Advanced Med Surge, and that's technically my last class until my practicum, and then it's all smooth sailing in December.

So our associate degree in nursing program that is the evening option allows our students to complete the program in 16 months.

So it's it's very fast, but also allows them to help with that nursing shortage that we're seeing.

I think everyone's aware that there is a very significant nursing shortage in Kentucky and also nationally.

So thinking about how can we prepare nurses to be to be prepared to be qualified, educated, but helping them to become nurses as quickly as possible.

It's made me look at life a little bit differently.

I'm ready to be mature in my life, ready to get things moving so I can have a better future for me, my family.

I just think it's really important for high school students if they know or can even try to look ahead of their life and try to set up things that can benefit them for their future and their career and take those steps to do that while they can.

According to Midway University, the associate degree in nursing program has a pass rate of 90%.

Today is Columbus Day.

But in a number of states and cities around the country, the second Monday in October is also recognized as Indigenous Peoples Day.

It's a calendar of celebration, recognizing the resilience and contributions of Native Americans and law of war.

The celebration started over the weekend with an event featuring performers, storytellers and speakers from the Indigenous community.

I think Indigenous Peoples Day today in all ways is sort of a multifaceted event.

On the one hand it's, you know, we try to balance the discussion between European colonization and the European side of history to also include Native American history and culture and the great contributions of Native Americans to this country.

And then on the other hand, it's a celebration.

I believe it is just so important to have a complete story, a complete story of our of indigenous history and, you know, the contemporary issues that affect Native Americans.

We need stories of resilience, not just for pain.

I start my story with Chiang Mai, the great granddaughter and granddaughter of residential school survivors.

I only stand before you today because they survived the loss of language, loss of culture, loss of community, loss of family.

The residential schools should avoid the South.

I think U.S.

Interior Secretary Taylor, who's herself is indigenous.

She says, I know that this process will be painful.

It won't undo the heartbreak and loss that we feel, but only by acknowledging the past and work toward a future that we're all proud to embrace.

We have to teach our kids to fight for our sovereignty from a young age so they carry on never again mentality.

Why the resiliency?

I learned I used to fight for what I believe is right, right here in Kentucky where I've made my home the last 15 years.

As I said, the federal recognition of indigenous people stay is just so important.

They are a national holiday that celebrates native American history and culture is just is long overdue.

Congress needs to take a look at the fact that Kentucky is one of the most staunchly conservative states in the country.

Yet we were in the forefront for enthusiastic support for recognition of indigenous people today.

The governor has signed four statewide proclamations since 2020.

The Kentucky legislature, which is, you know, ultra conservative, has passed two resolutions which permanently recognize indigenous people, stay in the state of Kentucky.

So I can't think of any other messages that that can send a more powerful message to Washington that we need to take a look at federal recognition of indigenous people.

We need a national holiday.

Refugees and immigrants searching for new jobs recently got the opportunity to meet with more than a dozen businesses at a job fair at Lexington's North Side Library.

The partnership between the Lexington Public Library and the Kentucky Refugee Ministries is meant to eliminate barriers for English language learners and employers in the community.

We know that the job market has been good for a variety of people, though those with some barriers still need extra support.

And that's where we at the library have decided to partner with Kentucky Refugee Ministries in order to help the members of our community who might have barriers such as English language learners, newcomers, immigrants, migrants and others in our community.

And so a lot of our clients right now are coming from like Western Africa, so like Congo, Rwanda, Tanzania.

We had a big influx of Ukrainians come in, and most of them are in Lucasville.

We have people coming from Afghanistan, Jordan, So anywhere in the world you can think of, we probably have them coming here.

It's important to have an event like this because there are so many from other countries that are seeking employment, and I feel like this is going to help them.

And also, there are many people with a lot of barriers of life.

And so I feel like that this gives them a chance to improve.

Learning English is very difficult and so it takes it takes time.

I can imagine just being somewhere totally new, don't know anybody, barely have any help.

And then you expect me to go and work at a job that I don't know anything.

I just it's so difficult.

A lot of times the main difficulty is getting their certificate to translate here, right.

And it's in English is the barrier.

So that's why a lot of times you feel like they're slotted into certain certain professions, right?

Housekeeping, agriculture, work.

And we you know, if our clients want to work in those positions, we will get them in those positions.

Right.

But there's there's lots of other things that they're able to do, manufacturing and and as much as we can get English to be not a barrier, these clients will will come with certificates, come with training to be able to work in a variety of backgrounds.

So we work with a variety of employers, and a lot of our employers will have a variety of positions.

And so it's all about finding a fit.

I think it shows the community that we have a variety of speakers and ethnicities in our community who call Lexington home and that we should embrace individuals who are here, notwithstanding, wherever ever they may have originated.

I think businesses benefit from being able to talk to a labor force that is just really untapped.

It's in the business's interest.

If you want to be fully staffed, if you want to, if you want to make contact with with workers that are excited that our take will take pride in their work.

I always recommend our clients.

We think the integration and communication just demonstrates that we all have the same basic need to feed our families to grow and enrich our communities and be civically engaged.

Yeah.

Kentucky Ministries said each job opportunity paid $15 an hour and included traditional employee benefits.

A Kentucky folk artist hopes to inspire the next generation of creators and artisans.

Willie Roscoe is a woodcarver from Hopkinsville.

The Kentucky Folk Life Program hosted a discussion and demonstration with him at Western Kentucky University.

A proclamation was read declaring it Willie Roscoe Day.

Roscoe uses natural resources to create his sculptures.

He spent more than four decades sculpting art from driftwood, metal and animal hides, many of it forged from Kentucky Lakes and Woods masters.

It's a difference in the wood and techniques is so much work involved.

And my daddy was a builder.

My daddy was a builder all his life.

And so we are associated with wood from an early age.

We wanted our sons and my daddy and God give me this gift.

There's an out of town.

This is a gift.

And what God gave you, no man can take away.

So that's why I'm still at it.

To this day, Good thing he is.

Willie Rasco has a permanent collection at the Kentucky Folk Art Center.

And 2020, he was the recipient of the Governors Awards in the arts through the Kentucky Arts Council.

Well-deserved.

Pro basketball in Kentucky, A vice presidential debate and a media.

Our Toby Gibbs has that and more in tonight's Look.

Back at this week in Kentucky history.

Meriwether Lewis arrived in Clarksville, Indiana, just across the Ohio River from Louisville on October 14th, 1803.

He would soon meet up with William Clark for the beginning of the famed the Lewis and Clark expedition to the Pacific Northwest with nine Kentuckians as part of their party.

Governor AB Happy Chandler resigned as governor on October 9th, 1939.

King Johnson became governor and he appointed Chandler to the U.S. Senate.

This was just after the death of Senator Mel Logan.

Chandler would serve in the Senate until 1945, when he resigned to become baseball commissioner.

Kentucky State University opened on October 11th, 1887.

It had three teachers and 55 students.

John H. Jackson was the university's first president.

Senator College in Danville hosted a vice presidential debate on October 11th, 2012, between Vice President Joe Biden and Republican vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan.

The American Basketball Association's Kentucky colonels played their first game on October 14th, 1967, losing to the Indiana Pacers 117 to 95.

The so-called Peekskill meteor broke up over Kentucky on October 9th, 1992.

The pieces passed over West Virginia and hit a parked 1980 Chevy Malibu in Peekskill, New York.

And those are some of the highlights from this Week in Kentucky history.

Toby Gibbs, thank you, Toby and Matt, to do it for us.

Hope to see you again tomorrow night.

Take good care.