Who's calling part of a Republican crime plan banana's.

Here's a hint.

It's a fellow Republican.

I think it's going to raise up some expense expensive some of the underprivileged kids who won't be able to have access to it.

And it's just going to shut all the programs down.

We're hearing from some programs who think new rules go off the deep end.

I think the Sri Lankan table on the southern table are far more similar than people care to admit.

And when cultures collide, chefs kiss.

The results can be delicious.

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 for Thursday, September the 28th.

We're almost a Friday.

Thank you for joining us.

I'm Renee Shaw.

It's now legal to bet on sports online in Kentucky, betting online began this morning at 6 a.m.

Anyone 18 and over can now download apps and place bets legally on their smartphones and computers.

Sports betting got underway in Kentucky earlier this month with in-person betting at eight racetracks.

Governor Andy Beshear said onsite wagering brought in about four and a half million dollars during the first two weeks.

With betting now expanding to online.

Experts predict it will bring in $23 million a year by law.

Most of the proceeds will go directly to Kentucky's public pension system.

A small percentage of the revenue will go into a fund to help people addicted to gambling.

It does cost more to bet online.

State lawmakers put in place a new excise tax on sports wagering.

It's just under 10% for bets made in person, but more than 14% for bets placed online.

There could soon be a new president of the Kentucky community and Technical College System.

The system's Board of regents is meeting today and could name one of these three candidates as the new president.

Ryan quarrels, the current Kentucky commissioner of agriculture and former candidate for governor.

Dean McCurdy, senior vice president for academic affairs at Ivy Tech Community College of Indiana.

And Beverly Walker Griffith, President of Mott Community College in Flint, Michigan.

If there is a decision today, we will have it for you tomorrow on Kentucky Edition.

In other news, today marks two weeks since the United Auto Workers went on strike.

It appears the strike against three automakers is about to expand.

The union says President Sean Fain will make the announcement tomorrow.

The UAW went on strike September 14th when it could not reach agreements on new contracts with Ford, General Motors and Stellantis, the maker of Jeep.

At first, it targeted one assembly plant from each company.

At last week, it added 38 parts to strip distribution centers run by GM and Stellantis.

Ford, which has a large truck plant in Louisville, was spared the second escalation because talks with the union were progressing.

It's unclear if Ford will be impacted by the union's next expansion.

Now, technicians were at the state capitol this week calling for changes to some state board of cosmetology policies, including the English only certification exam.

They pointed out most nail techs are Asian American and Pacific Islanders and English is not their first language, which makes passing the licensing exam hard.

However, representatives with the Kentucky Board of Cosmetology said to their knowledge, all state licensing exams are given only in English.

If ensuring sanitation and safety to the public is the main focus for Kentucky State Board, we must offer multiple language exam, sanitation and safety.

Our number one topic in the in the written portion of the exam, they are universal language.

One a person understand it, they understand it.

It doesn't matter what language, they understand it.

In.

Most of the workers in this industry are none.

Native English speaker to test people in a language that they do not comprehend is forcing them to memorize only words, but not understanding the material as an experience.

Text.

I can assure you that will be prepared to be a good one.

You don't have to be proficient in English.

To be clear, the exam that we give is a nationally created exam.

It is given in English only.

We are not the only board in Kentucky that gives only an English exam.

And in fact, every board that I have asked specifically about their exam practices requires and a proficiency in English exam if it is not a first language and an exam in English should be taken, the nail technicians told the committee they also want to see the cap removed on the number of times the exam can be taken under current regulations.

Failing the exam more than three times requires the applicant to wait six months and take an 80 hour course before retaking the test.

If they fail two more times, the applicant is banned from retaking the exam for three years.

Senate Minority Caucus Chair Reginald Thomas, a Democrat from Lexington, said he plans to introduce a bill in 2024 that would update nail tech certification, testing and nail salon regulations.

A Republican anticrime plan announced yesterday already has a vocal critic, and that critic is a fellow Republican.

A group of Kentucky House Republicans yesterday announced the SAFER Kentucky Act with 18 provisions, including a three strikes law that would mean life in prison for a criminal.

Third, violent felony offense and the seeking of the death penalty for anyone who intentionally kills a law enforcement officer.

The plan also would create a state wire tapping policy, while state Representative Savannah Maddox posted this on Xe, formerly known as Twitter.

Quote, Folks, I am blown away that wiretapping is being contemplated and a Republican supermajority.

Some of the items on this list make sense.

Others are absolutely bananas.

I cannot provide a complete analysis until I have a bill draft in hand.

But I can tell you right now that I will never support legislation that allows for wiretapping all caps at the state level.

And quote, the Fairness Campaign's political action committee today endorsed Governor Andy Beshear's campaign for reelection.

In a statement, the PAC's chair said, quote, Governor Andy Beshear is the most pro fairness governor in Kentucky history.

He's protected LGBTQ Kentuckians from discrimination with the strongest executive orders possible and has fought for our Commonwealth's LGBTQ kids against the worst attacks in recent memory and, quote, the Fairness Campaign PAC also endorsed the rest of the state Democratic ticket on the ballot this year.

Yesterday, you heard from Michael Bowman, the Democratic candidate for state treasurer.

Now you're about to hear from his Republican opponent, Mark Metcalf.

Metcalf is the Garret County attorney and elected office He's been elected to six times.

I asked him why he was making this pivot to pursue the state Treasurer's office and what prompted his run.

It's a tough decision.

I love my job.

But I thought that with what I saw in the ESG movement coming out against coal and one of the things that the the the the left as I perceive them is doing is saying that we should not have fossil fuels at all, but it's fossil fuels that have created the cheapest energy on the planet to be able to power businesses and homes.

Many people would say that sounds like a stretch for the office of the state treasurer to be involved in.

It seems like that would be underneath a different environment or a different cabinet level position, energy environment or something else.

Can you make that make sense to the viewer at home?

Sure.

The state treasurer of Kentucky is mandated to report to the General Assembly about those businesses that are discriminating against fossil fuels.

If I'm going to be active in advocating what are some of the things that Kentucky does best, which is produce energy, then I'll be asking Kentuckians to take a second look at these ESG movements that diminish the importance of fossil fuels, not just in not just empowering Kentucky, but empowering the United States.

And the other thing to keep in mind is because many of the utilities in Kentucky are trying to make that transition so key to green technologies.

The biggest impact has been felt in eastern Kentucky, where the cost of electric utilities has gone up 18% this year.

You can see the full interviews with Mark Metcalf and his Democratic opponent, Micah Bowman, this Sunday morning on Connections at 1130 Eastern, 1030 Central right here on KCET.

And you'll also see Mark Metcalf and Mark Obama next Monday on Kentucky.

Tonight, along with two candidates for state auditor Alison Ball and Kimberly Reader.

Hear from them.

And we always want you to send us your questions and comments.

That's Monday night at 8 p.m. Eastern, seven Central right here on KCET.

Now, the candidates for governor.

They'll be with us on October 23rd.

Still no action yet in the US House to prevent a government shutdown at the end of the month.

Now, just two days away, there is disagreement among House Republicans about spending.

A conservative faction is demanding steep cuts in domestic programs.

As the shutdown looms, the House began hearings today on whether to impeach President Joe Biden, with Republicans claiming he was involved in his son's financial problems and Democrats saying there's no proof of it.

Congressman James Kama of Kentucky's first District spoke at today's hearing when it began.

Since assuming a Republican majority in January, the House Oversight and Accountability Committee has uncovered a mountain of evidence revealing how Joe Biden abused his public office for his family's financial gain.

For years, President Biden has lied to the American people about his knowledge of and participation in his family's corrupt business schemes at least ten times.

Joe Biden lied to the American people that he never spoke to his family about their business dealings.

He lied by telling the American people that there was an absolute wall between his official government duties and his personal life.

Let's be clear.

There was no wall.

The door was wide open to those who purchased what a business associate described as the Biden brand.

Democrats, including Congressman Jamie Raskin of Maryland, say the so-called overwhelming evidence is pure fiction.

The committee has received 12,000 pages of bank records.

Here they are right in front of us, printed, double sided, and not a single page shows a dime going to President Joe Biden.

We've received 2000 pages of sales reports the chairman subpoenaed.

We've held hearings and conducted interviews with everybody from Hunter Biden's business partners to a federal agent assigned to that investigation.

And still we found no evidence of wrongdoing by President Biden.

If the Republicans had a smoking gun or even a dripping water pistol, they would be presenting it today.

But they've got nothing on Joe Biden.

Today, the committee did not hear from anyone providing evidence.

Instead, it heard testimony from experts on tax law, criminal investigations and constitutional legal theory.

Drought problems have return to many parts of Kentucky.

Let's look at the latest map from the U.S. drought monitor.

This was released today but completed Tuesday.

So it doesn't reflect any rain from yesterday or today.

The areas in yellow are abnormally dry.

The areas in light orange are in moderate drought.

Swim programs have concerns over a new state lifeguard regulations.

They say it'll be both difficult and costly to comply and could even cause some pools and programs to close.

Our Lower Rogers spoke with the coach and the swim club president who say they now need four lifeguards every time they're in the water.

They say this comes at a time when people need more access to pools, not less.

For Bowling Green High School swimming to dive as an award winning program.

But their coach says new state lifeguard regulations are making waves.

Just really trying to figure out how to make this work.

You know, with the program swimming pool versus recreational swimming, I think it's a big difference between that.

The new rules say swimming pools need a lifeguard for every 2000 square feet of water.

And the problem with that is you can have a big pool with just a few swimmers and you're required to have a lot of lifeguards more than you probably need.

It's going to hurt more than it's going to help.

You know, you're basically shutting down the lesson programs or are you going to price them out of the range or people can't afford it.

It's also affecting swim clubs like the western Kentucky Greengate ers affiliated with U.S. Masters.

Swimming competitive teams and swim lessons need to be exempt from these rules.

Hansbrough says he's concerned about the ripple effect, eventually reducing the number of Kentuckians that learn to swim.

Further worsening the lifeguard shortage and water safety.

If you limit access to pools, you're going to have lifts people.

They're going to be able to bully lifeguards and to do the training, if not a lot of lifeguards going around.

There's been a shortage of lifeguards for the last couple of years.

Both Wilkins and Hansbrough say they understand and they're requirements for recreational pools.

But for competitive swim teams and swim lessons, they say it's a solution to a problem that doesn't exist.

These kids are mainly doing the same general activity, swimming up and down, doing drills, things like that.

So it's much easier to identify when somebody is in trouble.

Coach Wilkins says it will be difficult to find lifeguards to work for short periods of time during often inconvenient hours.

We have morning practice at 5 a.m.. Where are you going?

To find somebody?

Want to come in?

Get up at 430.

Stay here from 5 a.m. to six.

You know it's going to be it was impossible.

And then there's the cost, $160 a day just to have a practice.

Plus, paying the coaches there on the day.

So if you practice five times a week, that's going to be almost seven or $800 a week.

And it's going to put all the swim programs out of business.

Suggestions to ease the burden of the requirements include allowing coaches to be considered as lifeguards.

Coaches are certified lifeguards and are watching their kids all the time.

And exemptions from the rules for competitive swim teams and lesson programs.

Now, I understand we have four lifeguards.

If it was an open pool like for a recreational swim, if you have a whole bunch of kids or some going off the diving board.

So I'm just doing their own thing.

But when it's a structured program where you're telling kids what to do, you're observing with their kids and you're perfecting a sport, I think the coach should be counted.

Wilkins, also head coach of the Sky Swim team, says they have until January to come up with a plan.

They said that they would set the pull down so we could get in compliance.

For Kentucky Edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

According to the state cabinet for Health and Family Services, this method, called Zone lifeguarding, uses time and distance to determine the most appropriate number of lifeguards based on a program's needs, such as swim meets and practices.

Pools can submit alternative lifeguard plans using a third party compliance specialist.

Well, following the police involved shooting death of Breonna Taylor in 2020, two sisters from Louisville decided to do their own part to combat racism.

In the years that have followed their efforts have grown into a community based program to educate and change attitudes about race and relationships between the races.

Listen.

Learn, Act as a group.

A little nonprofit that began back in May of 2020 with my sister Debbie Laporte, and it was in the wake of Breonna Taylor's murder.

We decided that we were outraged.

We know nothing about how to be an anti-racist or justice warrior or anything like that, but we definitely had to do something about it.

We wrote an email to our friends and just said, We have to do something.

Will you join us?

This was drafted for 50 women and if you are in.

Just reply.

Yes.

The next morning we got replies from 100 people we knew we had touched a nerve.

At the beginning our name was White Women demand justice for Breonna Taylor.

As we went on and further and further, we realized there was so much more for us to address and that we wanted everybody in it with us.

So we dropped the white women and we dropped that.

It was specifically about what happened to Breonna and what we are trying to do is learn everything that we can by listening to black leaders, by reading, forming ourselves, and then we try to give that information to other people, try to kind of be a bridge.

The anti-racism challenge.

We both take these lifestyle challenges sometimes where you don't eat certain foods and you exercise every day and you sleep well.

And and the idea is that after doing this practice for a month or so, you have better habits.

And we thought that should be applied to anti-racism.

And so we developed it.

We realized this is a lifelong thing.

This isn't something that you just do occasionally.

This is something that you have to do again and again and again to break old, old in our DNA genes of racism.

It goes so many generations back.

And if we pretend that it's not there, it will always rear its ugly head.

We create a list of activities that people can do can be anywhere from.

Read this article or write your council person about this or patronize this black owned business.

These types of things just gives people an entry way to understanding and seeing what else is watching what's going on out there that you can do something.

The the fear is always been, I don't know what to do.

I don't know what to do.

Well, here, do this.

And it's really important to us to bring in as many people as we can.

Listen, Learn.

Act is a multimedia adventure in nature, actually offering everything from in-person classes to written articles and the anti-racism challenge in its programing.

New episodes of Katie's weekly health program start airing this weekend.

The show will explore senior care medical cannabis, sleep apnea and much more.

In the first episode, Dr. Wayne Tuckson discusses insect borne diseases with a professor at the University of Kentucky who says ticks pose a greater risk to humans than mosquitoes.

What is the normal or typical life span life cycle for tick?

It is similar to mosquitoes, except they are called the eggs.

The females lay eggs.

Then we get larvae hatched from those eggs.

Then they grow and become nymphs, and nymphs become adults and the life cycle goes through.

In most ticks, they do take a blood meal before they go from one stage to the next stage.

So if they can live very long and like mosquitos, months and months, even year without a blood meal, they just sit there right there waiting for a blood horse to take a blood meal.

When they find the host, they latch on and take blood and go to the next stage.

As this tick comes on and stays on the arm as it takes blood in that process, it can transmit some pathogens they have now.

Unlike mosquitoes.

The tick bite takes longer.

They don't that doesn't suck blood quickly.

They have to be on you for hours.

If not days, before they take full blood meal and transmit these pathogens.

So one good grace with ticks is you have some time.

If you go out, better to check yourself right away.

And if you find some ticks and carefully take them off you, then the possibility of them transmitting pathogens to you are very low.

Is there a season for ticks?

Know, we all like to think that we go out in the summer and that's when we will come in contact with.

But what about toward when the weather starts getting cooler?

Are the ticks still out then too?

Yeah.

So they are more prevalent during summer months, especially when we go out for a hike or not when the warm days, depending on the tick tick species we are talking about.

We have been targeting ticks for throughout the year.

We can find ticks throughout the year in Kentucky, but depending on the month you survey it, you find adults find lottery nymphs, and even the species of tick you find varies with without site conditions.

You can see the full interview and catch each Kentucky Health episode beginning this Sunday afternoon at 130 Eastern.

1230 Central right here on KCET.

Central Kentucky is home to some amazing restaurants.

A Lexington chef who was nominated for a prestigious award despite not having a traditional kitchen, just opened her own restaurant.

Samantha four, made her way onto the food scene by operating pop up locations around town.

Now she's blending the flavors of Sri Lanka and southern cooking in her new restaurant took took snack shop for was recently featured on Kentucky Life where she talked about the inspiration behind her culinary career.

I really wanted to make the flavors of Sri Lanka accessible to everybody.

I didn't want people to see the word curry and get intimidated.

It's crazy how much interest people have had.

I was a Plate magazine chef to watch.

Then it was a recipe on the cover of Food and Wine that kind of started the domino effect.

Honestly.

So now I basically get to travel around the country and cook because there haven't been a lot of Sri Lankan chefs to do that.

And I have the very unique position of being the only one who blends Sri Lankan and southern flavors.

My home is equal parts Sri Lanka and the southern United States.

I mean, this is where I was raised.

Some of my southern inspired dishes include curry brine, short ribs, buttermilk fried chicken with everything I put into a chicken curry.

I do the deviled eggs with an egg curry base.

I have been able to do shrimp and grits that have been extremely successful.

I think it becomes a mission to push forth the flavors of my childhood and the ones that I know so that I can kind of reflect on my own story and tell it through food.

There's moments where that sort of scent memory will hit and you'll remember being in the middle of the markets.

Sri Lanka, I feel like it's a great place for some memories between the markets.

The fishermen by the sea.

It's just it's hard to describe it in a way that does it justice.

The spice trade was pretty critical to Sri Lanka's development.

It was a major port for Portugal, for the Netherlands, for England.

Instantly, and probably people think that they're going to have extremely spicy food and there's heat, but there's no heat without purpose, as he was flavor.

And I think of these big, bold flavors of coriander, kume and the richness of coconut, the head of lime, the really beautiful Sri Lankan spices, because that's what the island was known for.

And so I want to make sure that I do that reputation some justice.

I think the Sri Lankan table on the southern table are far more similar than people care to admit because a lot of the best Southern cooking is family tradition.

It's carrying that story, it's carrying the thread, but it's also realizing that your community is more than just your immediate family.

And I think that's a big tenet that both Southerners and Sri Lankans embrace.

You can see the full interview with Sam four, along with host Chip Alston, sharing other great stories from around the Commonwealth airing online and on demand at KCET Dawgs Kentucky Life.

You'll see a solar eclipse over Kentucky in 2024 and some western Kentucky University students are working on an app to gather data, and they're getting help from Naza.

More on that tomorrow, Friday on Kentucky Edition.

And we hope you'll join us tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

We hope you'll also follow us all the way as you see on your screen, Facebook and Instagram, and send us a story idea, download our program on the PBS video app and watch it on demand at any time.

We thank you so much for joining us.

We'll see you tomorrow.

We've got inside Kentucky politics with two dynamic political observers.

You don't want to miss it.

I'll see you tomorrow night.

In the meantime, take good care.