Some of the concerns that we hear.

You heard tonight, people are concerned about the roads being moved in their neighborhoods.

People are charged up about an electric battery plant near Elizabeth Town and not always in a good way.

Who's ahead in the race for governor?

Not in the polls, but in the money.

So when I got the opportunity to sing, I was like, Oh, oh, oh, I get to sing at the arc and it even looks like it's going to rain today.

Up, up, up, up.

And it's contemporary Christian music with an Old Testament backdrop.

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 Wednesday, September the 13th.

We're almost to the weekend.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

Kentucky's ban on gender affirming medical care for transgender youth will remain in place.

That's the ruling issued yesterday by the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

According to the Kentucky land turn, two of the judges on the three judge panel denied the ACLU of Kentucky's request to lift a stay of injunction.

They ruled the law is similar to a Tennessee law.

The court already allowed to be enforced.

One judge did dissent, saying that unlike Tennessee, Kentucky's law offers no grace period for transgender youth already receiving care.

The ban on gender affirming care for transgender youth is the result of Senate Bill 150, which was passed earlier this year after state lawmakers overrode Governor Andy Beshear his veto.

Advocates of the bill called the medical care life altering procedures that young people shouldn't be exposed to.

But supporters of trans kids, access to puberty blockers and hormone therapy argued they're safe, necessary forms of health care that are backed by every major medical group.

Now, also making news today, a jury says Kim Davis, the former Rowan County clerk, has to pay a same sex couple $50,000 after she refused three times to give them a marriage license.

W.K.

White says they are David arm old and David Moore.

A jury decided Davis did not owe money to another couple, also denied a license.

Davis went to jail in 2015 after a judge found her in contempt of court for refusing to issue those licenses.

She says it was against her religious faith.

Davis was in jail for five days, but eventually agreed to issue licenses without her name.

She was defeated in her bid for reelection in 2018.

With less than two months to go before the November 7th election.

Governor Andy Beshear is outraising and outspending his opponent, Republic, to Attorney General Daniel Cameron.

The candidates just filed campaign finance reports with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

Governor Bashir has raised almost $15 million and spent almost 11 million.

Attorney General Cameron has raised 2.8 million and spent about 1.4 million.

We'll have more about all of this with public radio journalist Ryland Barton, who'll break it all down in just a few minutes.

The blue oval esque electric battery plant is headed to Hardin County.

Some people are very excited, but some others have concerns and some are even angry.

Organizers of a town hall in Elizabeth Town heard from all points of view.

People are concerned about the roads being moved in their neighborhoods.

They're concerned about things like dust and and weeds and overgrown lots surrounding the fence line.

My name is Steve Dalibor, and I'm from Glendale.

And this ain't about a job or any question like that.

It's about being good neighbors and you are the new neighbor.

I don't think any all can answer the question because you probably know somebody that can, if you all will get a hold of somebody in your all's organization and talk to the road people, they'll do anything you all want to do.

I'm talking about cutting Glendale in half with a with a bypass that runs right through my neighbor's house and another neighbor's house and makes my yard and property worthless because the Beltway runs right by.

This is a really large project.

They haven't seen this kind of large industrial factory coming in, even though it's been zoned that way for more than 20 years.

It's still imagining what it could be like.

It's not the same as experiencing what it is like.

So I understand sometimes they're stressing straight in, but I think overall people are very positive about have less care coming in and the potential jobs that are available when we're onboarding, you know, that curriculum is really going to be about the job specific skills that that are needed to enter a particular job.

And some of that will be about the the proprietary knowledge of the ASC on processes for the development of a battery.

But some of that training will also be safety.

You know, there's a lot of safety training that's going to go into onboarding to step into this blue oval escape plans.

We're going to talk about at that training facility taking an existing skill set that is related to manufacturing and really honing that to this particular job.

I think we are doing our best to engage with people, to talk with them, to have these types of town halls.

We have a regular meeting with the folks in Glendale to let them know what's going on with the battery plant to address their concerns.

But I will ask, is not here to do this to this community.

We're here to grow with them and to plan with them and to try to work to the best solutions for that community.

Because it's our community.

To name the blue oval as a battery plant is set to open in April of 2024.

Good news tonight for Officer Brandon Hailey, the officer shot last week in Louisville's Chickasaw neighborhood.

Police say Haley and another officer were conducting a traffic stop when someone in a nearby house shot Hailey in the upper torso.

The other officer wasn't hurt.

Louisville Metro police say Hailey is no longer on a ventilator.

His family says he's showing signs of a sense of humor as therapy is going well and he can now stand with some assistance.

Good news.

Police arrested four people after a standoff that lasted for hours.

No one has been charged with the actual shooting.

We told you yesterday about the passing of Eastern Kentucky University's long time football coach Roy Kidd.

Kidd led the Cardinals to two national championships as coach from 1964 to 2002.

He died at the age of 91.

Funeral and visitation plans are now complete for Coach Kidd.

The visitation is Sunday at the Youth Center for the Arts from 4 to 7 p.m.. That's on the EKU campus.

The funeral is set for Monday, September 18th at 11 a.m., also at the EKU Center for the Arts.

In education news, Kentucky has a new Teacher of the Year.

Kevin Daly teaches social studies at Ballyshannon Middle School in Boone County.

He was named the 2024 Kentucky Teacher of the Year during a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda today.

Daly has been with Boone County Schools since 2021 and has been an educator for the past decade.

It has been so incredible, the support that I've gotten from a lot of people leading up to this.

And then just being in our Capitol building in this rotunda has just been an honor.

It's always.

We were all sitting all the teachers are sitting down at the beginning of this, and we were talking about how it's so wonderful that at least for one day a year, teachers are treated like the celebrities.

They should be teachers are treated like the most important people in the room.

And it's just incredible to be a part of it.

You talk about congrats to him.

Daly received $10,000 as a reward.

The elementary and High School Teachers of the Year awards were also announced today.

And you'll hear from all of the winners tomorrow right here on Kentucky Edition.

Now, on the higher education front, Berea College is welcoming a new president to its campus.

Cheryl Nixon is the first woman to serve as Berea College president and the institution's 167 year history.

She comes to Kentucky by way of Fort Lewis College in Durango, Colorado, where she was the provost and vice president for academic affairs.

Right now in Berea, she's on a listening tour to learn about the students staff and the community before she set And so I need to do is really talk to campus and say, what is the next chapter in those values?

Those values are bedrock.

Those values are not going anywhere.

They're not going to change.

What might change is how we refresh and renew our commitment to those values.

We might come up with new ways to express those values.

But I need to listen to campus faculty, staff, but especially students.

What is the future?

We're going to build on that firm foundation together.

What have you heard so far that you've marked down as Oh yes.

Aha, I get that.

And let's move with that right.

Well, I'm doing a listening, learning and community building tour so that I'm listening.

But I also need to learn from my students and learn from faculty and staff and then also use just that very fact of coming together to create community.

So I'm hearing a lot from students about all the fantastic ways that they want me to come out and actually be with them and sort of learn with them.

So one of the great elements of Berea College is that we have a work program where all of our students work 10 hours a week on campus.

That's part of how they contribute to our wonderful community and also are able to graduate without debt or without having, again, what we were talking about earlier that worry about finances.

So they want me to come out and do some work with them.

Just say I'm looking forward to going out and being with them in some of their meetings around the work that they do, but then work side by side with them, whether it be in the computer lab or the library.

We have a farm, we have a forest.

I actually want to get out on the farm and see our pigs and see our horses and and do some of that work side by side with the students.

So they're coming up with some ideas like that?

Yeah.

What do you want to accomplish in your first?

I don't want to say 100 days, but you tell me the milestone.

I think that having this listening and learning together that brings some sense of building community, that brings joy into the community.

I think coming out of COVID, everyone feels a bit weary.

Right?

Right.

And I think of all those great values that I was just listing off.

I actually think celebration and joy is a really important value for us to rediscover just being together and having a fun conversation.

So I do want to have a sense that we have great celebrations together on campus and then coming out of that, that we wind up pivoting towards doing some strategic planning on campus.

Now you can see the full half hour interview with Berea College's 10th president, Dr. Cheryl Nixon, Sunday morning at 1130 Eastern, 1030 Central right here on Katy's connection as time now for a check in of some major political news so far this week with our good friend Rylan Barden, who is managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you.

Good to see you, Renee.

So let's start with the money in the governor's race.

We know yesterday that the candidates, all the constitutional officers were to file their pre 60 day general election reports with the Kentucky Registry of Election Finance.

And Governor Andy Beshear is outraising his opponent by quite a bit, according to yesterday's financial report.

Yeah, he's Beshear has brought in about $15 million compared to about $2.8 million since the primary election in mid-May.

So it's been a it's been a real rally there this year.

Fund raising, outraising Cameron hand over fist.

Meanwhile, in the political action committee side of things you have, there's other groups that support Cameron and Beshear, his campaigns or any politician's campaigns, but aren't supposed to be coordinating with them.

They both raised.

They both spent about just about the same amount of money, about $13 million, 13 to $14 million.

So it's, you know, part of this, what we always say going into these campaigns, when you have an incumbent governor, the incumbent governor has the advantage of being, you know, being the incumbent, of being the person who's a lot more regularly on on TV or having press conferences, making official trips around the state to, you know, to really do do his business.

But at the same time, he's getting his face out there.

You know, some of the campaign work just kind of goes hand in hand with him in that respect.

So I think we're seeing that advantage play out a lot here.

But also the, you know, the Democratic Party in Kentucky has been supporting him considerably.

If I remember right, and really, I'm driving my memory with the numbers from the Herald-Leader reporters Austin Horn and tested of all.

He did a great rundown of this.

Got to give them props.

I think the Kentucky Democratic Party gave about his campaign about $6 million.

So it's you know, there's a lot of funding that's coming from from that area as well.

You know, it's it's a lot of it's really hard to raise that much money as a governor's can go candidate for statewide office in Kentucky, because you can only raise about, you know, the max contribution is 20 $100.

So you need a lot of donors to pull that off.

And.

But but this year's gotten a lot of donors.

Well, and it doesn't always mean that just because the person with the deepest pockets and the highest fundraising becomes the victor.

Right.

We saw that play out in the Republican primary where Carly Crabb spent how much per voter?

$189 per vote compared to Daniel Cameron, who came in just under eight bucks per vote.

Now, that was a primary.

It's different, but a lesson could be learned from it.

Sure, we can also look back to the Amy McGrath Mitch McConnell race.

And in 2020, like that, was she even she spent about $90 million in that campaign, too.

I can totally remember.

I want to say it was like 30 to $40 million McConnell spent.

She it was just like way more and still ended up losing the race by 15 to 20 percentage points.

So, you know, raising the most money does not always signal the most.

You know, the winner.

It is just kind of signals that that person's very good at fundraising and you can really expect that their other name and face and visage is going to be all over the airwaves.

So let's shift and talk about the current Kentucky Supreme Court.

Chief Justice Lawrence VanMeter announced yesterday that he will not seek reelection in 2024 and his judicial career spans 30 years.

A lot of us know him, and he's been the only one of the only chief justices that have been in all four levels.

He will finish the one eight year term.

That's how long the terms are on the Supreme Court.

He was elected in 2016 and was just elected to the by his colleagues, to the chief justice position just in in January of this year.

Our capital reporter, Sylvia Goodman did an interview with him yesterday and he talked a little bit about his legacy and he said he was just he was just ready.

It was time to retire.

It was time to you know, he's he's had a good long career and he's ready to, you know, enjoy life in other ways.

And also, he wanted to give enough time for other lawyers or judges to, you know, consider whether or not they want to run for that district seat.

It's been the year he's presided over a lot of cases, you know, dealing with, oh, let's say, you know, this year's power during the coronavirus pandemic, you know, the Supreme Court initially upholding that and then striking them down after the legislature changed laws, the school voucher issue, or that's the school.

Private school scholarship tax credits, which the Supreme Court ultimately did not uphold.

So it's been it's been an interesting run.

Like you said, that's it's very that's very remarkable for a judge to hit all those different levels, the district circuit appellate and Supreme Court levels.

Also in this interview I thought was notable.

I didn't know this.

He was in county, I believe, the judge who presided over a case involving Lexington's smoking ban.

Back and I want to say that was like in the early 2000 and ultimately ruled upheld the city's smoking ban saying that they had an interest in upholding the public health of citizens.

So, you know, yeah, had a judicial career that spanned quite all this time.

And he's just decided to move on to this next chapter in his life.

Yeah.

So finally, in about a minute and 30 something seconds remaining, let's shift to Washington politics.

So Speaker of the House Kevin McCarthy announced yesterday that there will be an investigation or an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden concerning the business dealings of his son Hunter.

And there is a prominent Kentuckian who will be front and center as his committee will be heading those investigations.

James Comer of the first Congressional District in Kentucky.

Yeah, Covers Comer has been, you know, making a lot of noise about this for, oh, I don't know, a year or two now since he started chairing helming the House Oversight and Investigations Committee.

This is something he's hinted a lot at.

And I guess Speaker McCarthy has enough confidence that Republicans are going to that this is a political win for Republicans at this point.

But, you know, the timing is a big part of this, where, you know, a little over a year until the presidential election and this will allow the committee to, you know, to be doing this investigation throughout the election, you know, where the said that there is an overwhelming amount of evidence showing President Biden lied to the American people about it, about some of these allegations involving his son.

You know, I think a lot a lot of people are still waiting for some of this to to come out, that there hasn't been a lot of proof that has come out yet, but that is ostensibly what the the impeachment investigation process is for.

So, yeah, a prominent Kentuckian Congress been around for a while now and has a very secure position in Kentucky's first district and and is his star is only rising in the Republican ranks in Washington right now.

And the Republican attorney general also gubernatorial candidate Daniel Cameron, tweeted out yesterday he was standing next to Congressman James Comer and he said this I fully support Kevin McCarthy's decision to open a formal inquiry into impeaching President Joe Biden.

Obviously, the American people deserve answers.

And I'm confident that my good friend, Congressman Colmer, is going to get to those answers.

So General Cameron is all in.

And does he get any kind of political booey from being featured with the guy who is in Trump's corner, perhaps, and going after the current Democratic president?

Absolutely.

You know, this is something that has worked well in state politics for a while now.

You're tying a an unparalleled popular national figure to you, to your opponent.

President Joe Biden has performed very poorly, performing very poorly in Kentucky during a presidential election 2020.

And I think, you know, it definitely allows Cameron's political aspirations to, you know, be tying himself and associating himself with the person investigating that person.

So, yeah, I imagine more to see that, too.

But also notable to that, Kilmer's going around and campaigning with Cameron at this point and trying to show some Republican unity at this point, which in this competitive race right now.

Well, thank you, Roland Barton, for breaking it down for us.

We appreciate it as always.

Thanks for.

Congratulations to six athletes from the Racing Louisville Football Club.

Mayor Craig Greenburg honored them yesterday for their impressive play during the FIFA World Cup.

The six represented their home counties the United States, Australia, Brazil, China and South Africa.

I was so proud to see how well you represented your your countries as well as your team here in Louisville.

And you certainly represented our city, Louisville, so amazingly well.

Ten picket lines channeled her spirit animal, the tiger to Captain South Africa to the knockout round for the first time.

Uchenna Kanu scored for her, our home country of Nigeria.

And beyond the field, Tambyah and China have helped lead the fight for better pay and working conditions for all female footballers.

Ari Borgia scored the first hat trick in Brazilian soccer history.

Men's or women's?

At the World Cup, Alex Chidiac helped to push Australia to a fourth place finish on our home soil.

Wong Wong scored twice for China and is back there now, handing off the Asian Games torch to the next generation of Chinese stars.

Lastly, Savanah DeMello started for the United States in only her second appearance representing her country, and we are proud to say she has signed to stay in Louisville through 2026.

The team contributed more goals during the competition than any other U.S. club soccer team.

They will now prepare for playoff season this fall.

Congratulations.

The Oregon counter opened in Williamstown in 2016.

It features a 510 foot long, 85 foot wide and 51 foot high arc.

Built to the specifications found in the biblical book of Genesis.

But more than animals, two by two have been flocking to this attraction.

Last week, they ended the 40th day of what they called the world's largest Christian music festival.

The 40 days and 40 nights of Christian music is the subject of this week's arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.

My story Dusty and Queen of How I see This.

We actually met with the Ark encounter and Answers in Genesis back in 2019 and started talking about doing this event and originally when we were talking, we were only talking about doing a three day event.

And then after really thinking about this, we thought about what what this park represents and what the Bible talks about, how it rained 40 days and 40 nights.

But today, you know, as we live here in an age of grace, that God could pour out his blessings for 40 days at a park like this.

And people come in here to enjoy the park, but then as an added attraction, they get to enjoy all the great music as well.

Ten years more than no in South.

We've been here every year that they've done it, and it's been great to watch it grow because we were part of that first year and that was a really it was a trial run.

Nobody had ever attempted it before.

Is 40 Days of Christian Music Festival and nobody had attempted it.

And so it's been really cool to watch that grow over the last three years.

They got it down to, Oh, well, I think it's great for Kentucky because as it is the Ark and the Creation Museum are the two leading Christian themed attractions in the world, and over 92% of those who come to the attractions actually come from outside Kentucky.

So it brings all these people into Kentucky.

And there's a lot of people that come here to the Ark that have never been to Kentucky before.

And so they certainly boost tourism in Kentucky.

Right now, we've seen people here from over 40 some states, multiple countries.

So it continues to grow.

And the impact of this is so great because not only do you see people come into Kentucky, enjoy what they see around here, but they also are refreshed through the music, the preaching of God's word.

It's just it's just a wonderful event to be a part of.

So we really, really hard to see what the views are and know.

This is not an event just for the Christians.

Our attractions are for the public, the concerts are for everyone, and we have a whole different range of music.

You know, there's there's country music, there's bluegrass, we have contemporary, we have Southern gospel events.

So it's a bit of everything.

And so it appeals to all sorts of ages and all sorts of different people.

So I think all the music ties in together.

It may start here, there and hither, but it all ends up singing about Jesus.

And that's what I love about music, because you can never underestimate with one genre what God will do for the world.

Flynn says the event continues to grow every year, with attendance up 25% from last year, and they have already set aside July 30th through September 7th for next year.

A federal bill meant to make communities safer takes aim at school archery programs.

Archery is deemed safe for only below one other sport, and that other sport is painful for it.

Hear from those who say cutting funds to school archery programs misses the mark when it comes to protecting young people.

We'll have that story and more tomorrow night on Kentucky Edition at 630 Eastern, 530 Central.

And we sure hope to see you then.

Connect with us all the way as you see on your screen.

And we hope to see you right back here again tomorrow night.

In the meantime, take really good care.

Have a great night.