It's hard to watch the news and to see the death and devastation.

And then on the flip side, on the anniversary of a mass shooting, one survivor is still fighting for change.

They don't get to see a therapist every day at a traditional school, a new school in Lexington focuses on more than just education.

One woman is preserving a unique Appalachian art form.

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 6th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky says he will finish his current Senate term and remain as Senate Republican leader.

Senator McConnell told reporters today he would not resign after freezing while speaking in Washington, D.C., in July and in Covington, Kentucky, last week.

In a letter released by McConnell's office yesterday, the Capitol's attending physician says McConnell did not have a stroke or a seizure.

But today, when reporters asked, McConnell did not say what caused those two medical incidents.

McConnell's current term ends in January of 2027.

We've got two months to go before the November general election.

Attorney general and Republican candidate for governor are Daniel Cameron was on the campaign trail in southern Kentucky and he had some company.

Congressman James Comer was an early supporter of Kelly Craft ahead of the Republican primary.

Craft's former running mate, state Senator Max Wise, was also there.

Their stops included Scott's fall and his speech.

Cameron says he wants to get the income tax rate down to zero and supports the death penalty for the murder of a law enforcement officer.

And he attacked Governor Andy Beshear, his handling of the COVID 19 pandemic.

He has hurt kids all over this state by the fact that he shut down our schools for nearly two years.

And we have extreme learning loss because of it.

And our kids are going to lose out on tens of thousands of dollars of earning potential simply because Andy Beshear was indifferent to our children and indifferent to them being in school.

I'm going to be a governor that can tell you and guarantee that we're not going to have mask mandates here in Kentucky.

We're not going to shut down our schools.

We're not going to shut down our churches.

Cameron has released what he calls the Cameron Catch up plan, which includes summer and after school instruction to make up for learning loss during the pandemic.

He also says he wants to increase the starting pay of teachers and, quote, return discipline to the classroom.

A new poll shows Governor Andy Beshear with a nine point lead over Attorney General Cameron.

The poll is from Hart Research, a polling firm affiliated with Democrats.

It shows Beshear ahead 51 to 42%.

The polling firm surveyed 716 Kentuckians by August the 30th through September 1st.

We'll have more on the governor's race, including some new ads coming up in a few minutes with Ryland Barton of Kentucky Public Radio.

Tomorrow, Kentucky will become the 35th state where it's legal to bet on sports.

For now, sports wagering in Kentucky will be confined to in-person betting at approved racetracks in the state.

Governor Andy Beshear is expected to place the first bet tomorrow at Churchill Downs.

And a group of Republican state lawmakers planned a news conference at Red Mile in Lexington.

Last week, the state announced which sports are eligible for wagering rejoicing.

It includes NFL, NBA, MLB and NCAA sports.

Online betting will launch on September 28th.

Time now for a midweek check in of some major political news so far this week with Rylan Barton, who is the managing editor of Kentucky Public Radio.

Good to see you, Ryland.

Good to see too many.

So we're just two months and one day away from the governor's race, from the culmination of it, on November 7th is Election Day.

But before we talk about the governor's race, let's talk about a status update on U.S. Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

He's back in D.C. And apparently during the month of August, he was pretty productive and recommends some cash for the party.

Yeah, so he's still dealing with the ripples of his, you know, so-called freezing episodes that took place in late July and just last week in northern Kentucky.

But he and his team have been doing a lot of work to kind of tamp down some of that, some of the worries over that.

All of that took place during the August recess.

The Senate is back in after the recess.

McConnell was back on the Senate floor, you know, speaking on behalf of Republicans.

And he said that, you know, you know, something happened in August that everybody's been that everybody's been paying attention to.

And he's done talking with that.

And he touted all these things that he'd heard from Kentuckians during his visits back home.

And then today, he's really been making the rounds with other Republican leaders in the Senate, making the case to still keep him in leadership and that being behind closed doors, he's been coming out after these meetings.

Republicans have been saying, you know, they still feel confident or a lot of them have been saying they still feel confident with his leadership.

One of his notable things he pointed out, as you said, he raised about $50 million in August on behalf of Republicans for their efforts, their national political efforts.

So, you know, that's that's a big reason how McConnell got to the position that he is.

And he's reminding his colleagues that he can still do that even during this time when everybody's been questioning his health and when, you know, there were some Republicans, notably Nikki Haley, who was running for the presidential nomination for Republicans and former governor, said that something about that the US Senate is like the country's best and noted nursing home.

Right.

And we know that Congressman Marjorie Taylor GREENE had called for his resignation.

So there are a lot of calls perhaps from maybe some perceive as outsiders in the party who are calling for him to step aside.

Right.

And, you know, in some ways, that's been happening for years.

There's there's already been, you know, establishment versus, you know, Vanguard splits within the Republican Party going back to the Tea Party movement.

Even Kentucky has an example of one of these splits between McConnell and Rand Paul.

You know, they really don't agree on some issues and represent kind of different parts of the party.

But I think also the thing that this did as well as it reminded Americans and voters of that of this issue of kind of an aging Congress.

And I think that that discussion is not going away.

You know, even if McConnell stays in leadership and stays, you know, stays in his position.

But, you know, that's something that people are going to really be talking a lot about even going into the presidential election next year when we're going to have, you know, the the oldest, you know, president running for reelection next year and who knows, possibly another contender if Donald Trump ends up being the nominee and other aging contenders.

So that's something that I think is, you know, reemerged as being a front of mind issue for voters in the country.

And President Biden didn't hesitate when it was asked by some media scrum last week if he thought the leader still is able to lead and he said yes or the other opposite to that, that you know, he shouldn't resign.

I know.

So even President Biden, who himself, as you mentioned, has some age behind him, is defending the leader.

Yet both President Biden and to a certain extent, a Democratic governor, Andy Beshear.

He's said that he's confident that McConnell would stay in office.

And I think part of that, too, is that they are not really wanting to stick their necks out on this issue.

They do not want to be, you know, say, in Bashir's case, campaigning on reelection based on, you know, I want to be the guy to replace, you know, to pick McConnell's replacement.

They don't want to kind of show that, you know, bad taste politics.

I think it might be characterized as.

So I thought that's been notable that those two party leaders, at least have been not are not voicing that particular opinion.

So now let's shift and talk about the governor's race.

Daniel Cameron has taken to the football field to make a point about how his performance as a football player could also be translated to how he would lead as governor.

He was governor.

Yeah, I thought this was interesting, an interesting ad, and this hadn't really come up yet so far in the in the campaign season.

Yes.

Daniel Cameron used to play football for University of Louisville.

He was a walk on player and he was touting that as showing that he's a hard worker and then, you know, making the you know, that comparison.

We all knew would happen in sports to politics.

And then he wants to be the guy to beat Beshear, raising some of his, you know, points against, you know, some of Bashir's coronavirus restrictions throughout the pandemic and just trying to make that tie in there.

It was also a commercial that featured his his young son, which is you know, it's a it's an image campaign for Daniel Cameron.

And this is coming amid this real onslaught of campaign ads that have started this month and are really going to continue up until the election in November.

And among those, the Democratic Governors Association, DGA, also released an ad that says that Daniel Cameron is trying to rewrite his record on public education.

Right.

And they're really trying to slam him on this issue.

This is you know, Beshear has really made himself has made himself out as the is the public education governor.

Every one of his budgets every year involve some raise for teachers and and more funding for public education.

A lot of people think that's one of the reasons that he beat former Governor Matt Bevin in 2019 because of some of the former governor's rhetoric around around teachers.

So schools, Democrats, that Democratic group is trying to lean into that and attack him on that issue and also tie him to the to the former governor as well.

And meanwhile, abortion is also a topic among the ads that are being played.

And Governor Bashir has an ad featuring a prosecutor that's about abortion, even though abortion is not explicitly said in the ad and help them move on.

Yeah, this is a really fascinating ad.

And because it's not something that I think many imagine that Beshear would go out of his way to campaign against Daniel Cameron on.

But I think he feels somewhat emboldened by last year's statewide vote that struck down, you know, a potential amendment to the state constitution that would have added anti-abortion language to the state constitution.

I think he feels a little bit emboldened that that Kentucky voters do not are not really interested in having politicians that are, you know, in favor of an all out ban on abortion.

This ad really focused on the two issues of there being no exceptions for rape or incest under Kentucky's ban on abortion, and that that Attorney General Cameron has stood up for the law as written and not called for any more exceptions to be added to it.

Yeah, a lot to keep our eyes on with two months and one day away.

Thank you, Robin Barton, for doing it for us.

We appreciate it.

See you next week.

Thanks, Renee.

Today marks five years since a mass shooting in Cincinnati killed three people and wounded two others.

One of them was Whitney Austin, a Louisville woman who has since become an advocate for ending gun violence.

Our Kelsey Starks talks with her about the change that has happened since and what change she still wants to see.

Whitney Austin founded the Whitney Strong organization five years ago, and this week, I know all your focus is on this week of remembrance.

Tell us what's happening.

So five years ago, the most horrific thing happened.

I was shot 12 times in a mass shooting.

But it wasn't just about what happened to me.

There were three victims that day, others who were injured and thousands of people whose lives were changed forever.

And so for me, on this five year mark, I wanted to make sure that we did something truly special that we pause to remember those impacted, but also that we pause to remember the good that the Whitney Strong organization brings and all that we have been able to accomplish in the last five years.

One of the biggest success moments that I've seen in the last five years was working with Senator McConnell and Senator Portman and others for the passage of the bipartisan Safer Communities Act.

And so we've seen change already and the last five years.

And I want to give people hope that we will see more because once again, we all agree that what's happening is not okay and we've got to come together and solve this problem.

And in those five years that have passed, mass shootings have increased.

We've experienced one here in Louisville just in April.

There's news in Tennessee right now of what's happening there.

And they're trying to get things passed and it's not happening.

And how do you continue to give people hope that things are happening and things are changing?

And what do you hope does change in, say, the next five years?

Yeah, you're right.

It's been really devastating to be here in Louisville and to see mass shootings play out.

I personally went to Nashville to participate in the special session after their devastating mass shooting.

And so where I'd give you hope in all of this is that we can see continuing to see this as a top priority within legislatures.

We continue to see bipartisan teams building for change, specifically in the state of Kentucky.

We have been working on a bill called crisis, Subversion and Rights retention that would allow for the temporary transfer of firearms when a gun owner is going through a crisis, whether it's a suicide or potential mass violence, and where there's hope in that, not only that, we would be helping gun owners, but that we've had bipartisan support from the beginning.

And so that continues.

And we're on our second group of lawmakers at this point who want to help with Senator Westerfield and Yates and others.

And so I get it.

It's hard to watch the news and to see the death and devastation.

And it's also hard to see the lack of progress through legislatures.

But I promise you, I've seen it.

It's going to continue to happen, change that is, and it will only accelerate if you participate with us.

You can find out more about the Whitney's strong organization on its website tomorrow.

They encourage a day of advocacy to call your lawmakers this Thursday and let them know what change you want to see when it comes to gun violence.

When it does come to gun violence, protecting schoolchildren is Kentucky classrooms.

That's the top priority of school security.

Security officials.

Kentucky laws in recent years have required tighter safety protocols and more access to mental health services.

I talked recently with the state school security marshal and director of the Center for School Safety about a recent risk assessment report showing that most Kentucky schools are doing what's required to keep students and staff safe.

More in tonight's Education matters.

The risk assessment is broken into two parts, the first part being access control, which is your first line of defense when it comes to protecting kids.

And that's making sure your doors are locked, making sure your exterior doors are controlled, your entrances are controlled.

We're at 99% compliance and you don't hear that very often.

Anything that's 99% compliance, it's about the same numbers as last year, which means that we're maintaining a lot of consistency in our safety.

And I think that that's what's very important.

I think what's important is that our staff and students are not a compliance issue anymore.

It's a commitment issue.

And that's what we're seeing.

And I think that's why we're so very happy with the report, is that we're going in and we're not having to work a lot with with with staff because they're doing what they're supposed to be doing.

Yeah.

So delineate for us complying ends versus commitments.

Well, that's the thing is, you know, compliance is a check in the box.

Commitment is we are doing this because this is what we're supposed to do.

This is the important thing.

This is why we're keeping our kids safe.

You know, it's not just, oh, I'm shutting the door.

I'm checking a box.

No, it is.

You know, we're we've we've we bought into the program.

We know what's important, and we're there to protect our kids.

And that's what we talk about when we say it's not a compliance issue anymore.

It's a commitment that we're getting from our staff.

Are you satisfied with how things are going, John and Charlene doing?

You know, I think our partnership with the Office of State School Security Marshal has helped that compliance issue absolutely into a commitment issue early on, when his compliance officers would go there and they would pass, they would check the box and then some things would slide.

But now that's not happening as much as we hope that it wouldn't be doing.

Let's put in those terms.

But they are showing that commitment a lot more.

I will highlight a quick one.

Muhlenberg South Middle School does this thing called double door tug of war door.

Tug of war.

Tug of war.

That when staff walks around the building like on planning period, whatever as they pass next to your door, they may just go over.

Just give it a little tug, just to be sure that it's in a locked, that it's not open or whatever.

So that's just going well over and beyond the call of duty when it comes to just being just something part of the fiber of the school.

So join me Sunday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern Time, 10:30 a.m. Central, as I talk more about school safety issues and tips on how we all can do our part to keep classrooms a place to learn and not fear.

That's on my conversation.

Show connections.

You'll also hear from the head of the Kentucky Association of School Administrators about renewed calls to pay teachers more in order to keep them on the job.

All of that's coming up on connections this Sunday morning right here on Katie.

A new school opened in Lexington last week, but it's not your typical public school.

Aspire Day school is for students who struggle in a traditional classroom setting due to behavioral or mental health issues.

At Aspire, students spend half their time with a teacher, half with a therapist.

So the mission of Aspire Day school is to integrate education and mental health options for elementary to middle age school children between the ages of five and 17 years old that may have displayed psychological or behavioral disorders.

Students are given the opportunity to participate in structure structured therapeutic groups, along with individual and family counseling sessions that are designed to teach effective social skills.

So a typical day is the student comes in, we do breakfast.

Then they are with the boss, which is a behavior intervention.

They're with them for an hour setting goals.

What's their plan for the day?

Then they start to education, which is with me.

This is very important because a typical school, one teacher don't have the capacity to to teach and work with four or five people with behavioral issues.

So for us to just target those behavior, mental health and education piece is better as a smaller setting.

They don't get to see a therapist every day at a traditional school.

Here we have a behavior therapist that they are seeing at least 3 to 4 hours a day.

Kids here come.

They don't know how to win.

They don't know how to deal with No, you know, not right now.

You I'll have to get with the next child.

I'll get with you in a minute.

Some of those kids are coming in and they want it right then and there.

And at public school.

You can't do that.

You have so many other kids you're dealing with.

So being able to set a child here and deal with their outbursts, deal with their mental health.

That's our main goal, is to give them give them the tools they need so they can actually be in a traditional setting.

One thing at a spa day schools that we believe in the holistic approach that involves not only the student or the individual, but the importance of family to be engaged as well, to ensure the success of everyone involved, because it simply it takes the parents involvement that helps assist in the student success.

Our team works very diligently to create a customize treatment option based upon the individual student.

You know, we're gung ho with getting that charity and getting the services they need, the parent involvement 3 to 6 months, and then we'll see where they are.

To be able to transition them back into their traditional school.

There are two other Aspire Day schools in Kentucky, one in Louisville and one in Radcliffe.

Well, you've heard of tap dancing.

You may even know about clogging, but what about flat footing?

Carla Grover was born and raised in the mountains of Letcher County in eastern Kentucky.

As a child, she learned how to flatfoot dance.

Now she's determined to share her knowledge with others.

We have more in our arts and culture segment we call Tapestry.

I think it's just really valuable to share my story of being somebody who's from eastern Kentucky, who grew up with a bunch of beautiful traditions.

And not only that, the arts are such a beautiful way to invite people into our world, to share our lives and to break down those misunderstandings.

I am a Kentucky musician, dancer and cultural educator.

The salad days I perform is called Appalachian flat, floating or clogging.

It's a style that evolved from a mixture of the European roots of some of our Kentucky ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, England, also with influences of Indigenous Native American dancing and African American dancing.

And so those styles obviously mixed together in a lot of ways.

It came up with tap dance and clogging and flat footing.

And if you wanted a really simplest difference between clogging and flat footed, I would say clogging is often done in teams with synchronized choreography and flat footing is what most people think of as a very similar style, but usually just performed as an improvization with live fiddle and banjo music.

It's very simple and accessible.

A lot of times people will tell me I'm too old or I'm too out of shape or I'm too heavy and I just invite people to try it anyway because it's a great, fun way to exercise.

And it's also not it's not so hard that the average person can't access it because this dance style, it's not made to be dance, you know, on the big stage.

This is made for porches and bar dances and living rooms and jam sessions.

And so I think this dance styles for everybody.

I love teaching that flat footing basic.

So it's step, lift, pull, step, lift, pull, step, lift, pull, step, lift, pull.

So if I add the toes, it looks like that.

You can also add a sound on that step with the heel like a little scuff.

So if I add the here it is playing with the toes and the heels, and then you can add beats and leave them out.

Yet it doesn't matter that it did it it did that.

So that is one of the steps that helps you unlock having that conversation with the fiddle, mimicking the fiddle tune lines.

And that's just one step.

And there's lots of steps you can learn.

So I love teaching people how to do that.

During the pandemic, when things shut down, and like many other musicians, I was suddenly cut off from every single source of income that I had.

I just started offering these different zoom classes and I, you know, I did ballad singing of Kentucky and banjo tunes of Kentucky, and I did this flat foot dancing.

And when I started to offer the dance classes, which I had previously mainly just done at like an elementary school residency or a festival, all of a sudden, I was having people sign up that I'd never even heard of, that never even met.

Like, it has blown me away.

How I've been able to reach students from all over the world.

I have students in Sweden, in Germany, in Ireland, in Scotland and England and Canada, all over the United States.

I've had about 150 students come through my academy now.

And now that things are open up and I'm touring again, I'm never going to stop doing the academy because it's it's really important to me to make it accessible to people.

And I don't want this art form to die out.

I've spent a lot of time collecting this knowledge and I want to pass it on and preserve it.

When you learn a traditional style from somebody that grew up with it and can tell you the stories of the people and the places and the situations where they learned it, it adds a whole nother dimension.

And I think that's special.

So I'm proud to pass that on.

Good thing she is.

If you're interested in learning more about flat footing, check out Carla Govan dot com.

We mentioned this earlier in our newscast.

In person, sports betting begins tomorrow in Kentucky.

Some prominent people will be placing bets, including Governor Andy Beshear and some Republican legislative leaders.

We we'll catch up with them and tell you more about the first day of sports betting.

We hope you'll join us again tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition for that story and more.

We hope you all subscribe to our weekly email newsletter and watch full episodes and clips at KET dot org You can also find the Kentucky edition on the PBS video app on your mobile device and Smart TV, and we encourage you to send us a story idea.

At Public Affairs at KET dot org and follow us on Facebook.

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Thank you so much for watching this evening.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Take really good care and I'll see you right back here again tomorrow night.