Today.

We remember those lost in the September 11th attack 22 years ago.

A new COVID booster has been approved.

So how soon can you get the new shot?

What we know about the rollout.

And there seems to be a lot of interest in local blooms.

How more Kentucky farmers are beautifying the Bluegrass.

It has like it continues to have different cycles of revitalization in a really exciting way.

And this current one is a really big one for us.

And how art and asphalt are bringing new life to one Kentucky city.

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, September 11th.

I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Monday night with us.

It was a day of reflection and solemn tributes across the country today as Americans reflected on the horror and legacy of 911.

People gathered at memorials, firehouses, city halls, campuses and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.

Nearly 3000 people were killed when terrorists hijacked planes and crashed into New York Trade Center and the Pentagon and a rural Pennsylvania field.

In Kentucky, a special ceremony was held this morning in Ashland.

As our nation emerged from that dark day, we came together as one.

And today, we pause and honor those who paid the ultimate sacrifice.

And now for our brothers, firefighters that have completed their task, well done.

The bell rings three times, followed by a pause.

Three times followed by a pause and three times in memory of an injury to their lives and service.

Now, 911, 2001 is the worst terrorist attack our nation has ever seen.

We lost 3000 children of God that day and thousands since I lost a classmate of mine named Ted Adderly that day when the first plane struck the floor that he worked on.

It's a day that changed so much in this country.

But a day that also brought an amazing amount of unity, of togetherness, of knowing that more brings us together as Americans that can ever tear us apart.

But today, we we commemorate the loss, the heroic bravery of Patriot Day of of those that rushed into collapsing buildings to save people's lives.

It's it's both a tough day, but one where we saw the best of the best in trying to save our fellow human being.

I think it's very important that we never forget the sacrifices that those first responders made on what was America's darkest day.

Those were the individuals that were still going in.

As you look at different stories and you hear different reports that came from that day, a lot of those first responders knew in the back of their mind that this was an extraordinary event.

These were ordinary people doing extraordinary things.

They were rushing in when everyone was getting out.

If we look at the lives that were saved that day, take care of the World Trade Center, for instance, the lives that were saved that day from the first responders and their actions was phenomenal.

Following a proclamation from the White House, the governor directed flags at all state office buildings be lowered to half staff today in honor of those lost in the 911 attacks.

In other news, members of the Bowling Green Fire Department were in Nashville over the weekend participating in an annual event to honor the more than 300 firefighters who died on September 11th.

The firefighters wore full gear as they climbed 110 floors, the same number of floors as the 911 firefighters.

Each wore a badge with the name and photo of a firefighter who died that day.

Pivoting now, the annual Appalachian Regional Commission, or AAC conference kicked off today in Corbin in eastern Kentucky.

13 states in the region are represented at the conference.

This year's theme is Appalachia Rises Resilience, Strength and Transformation.

The aim is to strengthen Appalachia through workforce development, growing outdoor recreation opportunities and developing entrepreneurs.

Gayle Manchin is the federal co-chair of ARK.

Today, she, along with Governor Andy Beshear, are awarded one and a half million dollars to support recovery programs to help boost Eastern Kentucky's workforce.

The ARK conference continues tomorrow.

We'll have more coverage from the event later this week on Kentucky Edition.

Destructive wildfires have made headlines from Canada to Hawaii this year.

Our Kristi Dalton finds out what could be in store for us as we approach Kentucky's fire season.

Ball is typically a drier season for the Bluegrass State, but that can set the stage for our fall wildfire season.

Brandon Howard, Kentucky state forester, joins us.

So Brandon, September it started off has started off to be kind of on the dry side already Is that raising any concerns?

Yeah, it's we're keeping an eye on the situation.

I mean, there's a little bit of rainfall forecasted, but for the most part, there's been several weeks.

We've had a lot of dry weather.

There's areas currently now in southeastern Kentucky, in Harlan, Alachua County, that are showing up as abnormally dry or just slightly in the drought.

And so, yeah, we're keeping an eye on it because that particular area is one we can have large wildfires.

And so we're watching it very closely.

Okay.

So well, that leads me to my next question.

Is there a certain part of the state where you typically see more wildfires?

Topography, Yes.

In southeast eastern Kentucky, we have a lot of fires in northeast as well.

So basically all of eastern Kentucky is where most of our wildfires occur.

We usually can see large fire growth in the in the areas where they're shooting steep terrain, such as Bale, Harlan and larger.

Okay.

Is there a certain month that you historically see more wildfires or it's a bigger problem, bigger risk in November?

There's usually no leaves on the trees and so our forest floor dries out quicker and so we can have larger fire growth.

And so November, if I were to pick a month in the fall season, November would be the one that would be most concerning that factor.

And so we can all share responsibility in preventing forest fires.

What are some of your main tips for landowners who want to burn brush or or leaflet or what have you?

You need to check your local ordinance.

Sometimes the county judge executives can put burn bans on, so you need to be aware of that.

And the individual landowners have a responsibility to pay attention to the weather themselves.

If there's a red flag warning issued by the National Weather Service, that's not a good time to burn because that indicates high winds, low relative humidity and that's moisture in the air.

With those combinations, it's a recipe for a wildfire to escape from a burned out brush fire.

Okay.

Well, Brandon Howard, Kentucky state forester, thank you so much for joining us.

Thank you.

And thank you, Christy.

According to UK's Department of Forestry and Natural Resources, most wildfires in the state are caused by humans either intentionally or by accident.

Kentucky's fall fire season runs from October to December.

Now turning now to politics.

Former President Donald Trump is expected to be in Lexington later this month.

That's according to Fran Anderson, chairwoman of the Fayette County GOP.

Rather, he told GQ that Trump will be in Lexington on September 22nd for a fundraiser for his 2024 presidential campaign.

While the location is unclear, Anderson said tickets to the event will require a contribution of at least 30 $300.

Trump won Kentucky by wide margins in 2016 and in 2022.

He has since been indicted four times and is facing state and federal charges for, among other things, his actions related to an insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on January six, 2021.

Meanwhile, one of his political rivals is also making a stop in Lexington.

Florida governor and presidential hopeful Ron DeSantis will be the guest of honor at an event tomorrow.

But further details about that have not yet been released.

The Food and Drug Administration approved updated COVID 19 vaccines today in hopes of revving up protection against the latest coronavirus strains.

That story tops today's health news.

COVID hospitalizations have been rising since late summer, although it's a smaller spike than we saw this time last year.

But protection wanes over time, and the coronavirus morphs into new variants that can dodge prior immunity.

It's been a year since the last time the vaccines worked tweaked.

There's still another step before you can get the latest shot.

The CDC must sign off.

A CDC advisory panel is set to issue recommendations tomorrow on who most made the updated shots that vaccinations could begin later this week.

And both the COVID 19 and flu shot can be given during the same visit.

The American Red Cross has declared a national blood supply shortage.

The organization says its supply is now at a critically low level after dropping nearly 25% in the last month.

The Red Cross says low donor turnout and natural disasters such as Hurricane Adela have further strained the blood supply.

This trend is also playing out here in Kentucky.

Eric Lindsay is with the Kentucky Blood Center.

He says his group had a couple of tough weeks heading into Labor Day.

Fortunately, a couple of big blood drives are helping them shore up those critical needs.

Still, he says, the Kentucky Blood Center is always looking for people who can help save a life.

One in four people will need a blood transfusion or a lifetime for everything from traumas to cancer treatments to premature births.

You know, this month, the Sickle Cell Disease Awareness Month or things like that, you know, I can go on and on about the number of things blood is need it for.

And to be frank with you, when the blood supply is low, you know, that puts hospitals and health care officials in tough positions to be able to meet all those different needs.

We've seen a dip in collections at our at our mobile drives where going out to businesses, places of worship, community centers, wherever that will have us.

And we just you know, we've had a tough last couple of weeks of not meeting kind of the goals that we have set to meet the need.

And so we are starting to see some some really low numbers on our shelves for some some specific types, particularly O-negative and O-positive blood and a negative blood.

We just haven't been able to get on top of that and feel comfortable about, you know, the supply we have based off the needs of hospitals.

We want to be able to, regardless if there's if there's an uptick in trend and traumas to be able to supply all those different needs, but also to be able to help, you know, the young boy or girl in the hospital needs it for cancer treatments to be able to help, you know, a mother who may have a difficult pregnancy and needs it for a premature birth, regardless of what the need is.

In order for us to to meet that need, the blood has to be there when that need arises.

And I cannot think of something that is easier to do and has a bigger impact our community.

It's a really simple process that is going to have a long lasting impact on on people in your backyard with the way we split our products here at Kentucky Blood Center.

Your one donation could impact or save up to three lives.

Blood donation is something that doesn't cost any money to do.

To give back only takes a little bit of time to actually do it and is going to have a real measurable impact on multiple people in your backyard, whether it's, you know, someone in your family, a friend that you know, your dentist, your accountant, whoever it may be, it's going to touch someone in this state who really needs it, do good, feel good.

The Kentucky Blood Center has eight donor centers and six cities around the state.

You can find one near you and sign up to donate at Y Blood Center dot org.

Join me and a panel of doctors, policy experts and state lawmakers as we discuss Kentucky's health care challenges.

Tonight on Kentucky tonight, we'll talk about Medicaid rules and ideas on changing eligibility, the future of rural hospitals that are struggling, and efforts to bring down prescription drug prices.

We do want your questions and comments, so join us for that conversation on Kentucky tonight at eight Eastern, seven Central right here on KCET.

Some food pantries in Kentucky can now keep more food on hand to help those in need.

Feeding Kentucky received $40,000 from the Kentucky Department of Agriculture as part of the Kentucky Hunger Initiative.

According to the AG Department, the money was used to purchase 42 freezers and refrigerators to help pantries keep more perishable food items like eggs, meat and milk on hand.

We now know the name of a Louisville police officer critically injured in a shooting late last week.

Elm PIN D Lmpd Rather identified the officer as Brandon haley.

He remained in critical condition over the weekend.

Police say Officer Haley and another officer were conducting a traffic stop last week when someone fired shots at them from a nearby house.

Officer Haley was hit in the upper torso.

He has been with the department for a little more than two years.

University of Kentucky offensive coordinator Liam Coen continues to recover after he was admitted to the hospital over the weekend.

On Sunday, the university said the assistant football coach, quote, had a medical episode while at work at UC's football offices on campus.

He was listed in good condition.

Cohen was expected to be released from the hospital today, and the university has not given additional details about what happened to him.

This is Coen's second season with the Cats after returning to UK from the NFL last season.

More Kentuckians are taking time to stop and smell the flowers They've grown themselves.

The state is seeing an increase in flower farming stemming from the pandemic.

Our Laura Rogers spoke with a young man getting an early start in the industry and explains how a network of growers is expanding access to locally grown cut flowers.

A lot of sunflowers.

Eucalyptus.

I love dahlias.

Different types of zinnias.

At 18 years old, Spencer Smith of Warren County as a budding flower farmer to Lucia, that I do as well.

Smith grows three acres and nearly 40 varieties of flowers.

It's a lot of a lot of work to kind of keep up with, but I love the end result.

He was inspired by work on an Illinois flower farm before his family relocated to Kentucky.

This was just like a field of really tall grass.

Today, it's a lot more colorful and a playground for pollinators, for monarch butterflies.

They love milkweed.

So I'll see maybe 20 to 30 monarch caterpillars.

Smith sees his flowers through from bud to bloom, cutting and arranging them into bouquets to sell at the farmer's market.

I think it's amazing how some flowers come from, like, this little tiny seed, and it produces this huge, big plant.

He's one of many new flower farmers across the bluegrass.

There is definitely a growing interest in the amount of local flowers and also people interested in growing local blooms.

Kristen Hildebrand says about 80% of the US flower market is imported.

The interest in local flowers grew when the supply chain was disrupted during the pandemic across the state of Kentucky.

We started with about 60 growers that were identified back in 2020 and we slowly kind of picked up more growers each year.

So that number has steadily grown to over 100 growers that we've identified that are growing cut flowers now.

So the Southern Kentucky Floral Exchange, based in Butler County, has a partnership of cut flower growers connecting them to retailers and florists.

It's just a great opportunity for those that are interested in maybe not filling at a farmer's market that want to do things on a wholesale type scale.

Many of the growers in the floral exchange also offer experiences like field to base in which people cut and take home their own arrangements.

Gardening is a type of therapy that we have, both mentally and physically.

There's a lot of joy that comes from raising cut flowers and it seems like the more that you share that beauty with others, there's a lot of rewards that that person reach.

For Schmitt, he dreams of one day having a farm to table restaurant, one with fresh local flowers on the table.

Of course, it's just very peaceful and amazing just to kind of see butterflies fluttering by.

Or Kentucky Edition.

I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

The Kentucky Department of Agriculture estimates the cut flower industry draws more than a half a million dollars a year.

The Warren County extension Office says in the past four years, the number of known cut flower growers has increased to more than 130 farms across the state.

We head to the southern edge of the bluegrass region for today's Monday's on main series Danville is the seat of Boyle County and home to well-known institutions like Center College, the Pioneer Playhouse, the Kentucky School for the Deaf and the art Center of the Bluegrass, which is undergoing a major expansion.

City leaders hope that expansion, along with a large streetscape project set to be completed next month, will help drive business into Danville.

Over the past decade, a few tables.

Really, it's actually not changed that much.

It's not changed like a lot of other cities have, which I think is actually a good thing.

We've we've kept our character that we've always had, but now it's poised to change a lot.

The city developed a downtown master plan started in 2019, but a big emphasis on the downtown master plan was almost expand our downtown, like growing out and taking it up a little bit to create more inventory because there's a there is a there's a demand for space.

We did a project we thought would would really attract more people downtown.

For me, it's a town with like nine lives.

It has like it continues to have different cycles of revitalization in a really exciting way.

And this current one is a really big one for us.

Our main street seems like it's been decades since we've been as exuberant as we are right now.

So we bought this building about 20 years ago from from the city.

The city purchased it back from us with a 100 year lease, $1 a year.

The city has been a pretty amazing partner to us.

We just purchased the building next door to us, which is another historical Danville building, and we had the same set up with the city again with the expansion over into the new building.

This space is turning into the National Glass Museum.

One of the things are really excited about being the art center of the bluegrass right here in downtown Danville is we are amongst some amazing restaurants and shops and businesses here that support the local community and really make it a thriving economic center for Kentucky.

We are an Italian restaurant, but we're also an Italian restaurant in the heart of Kentucky.

So we do a lot of your classics like you're going to find Your Spaghetti and Meatballs, your Fettuccine, Alfredo and things of that sort.

Opening in Danville specifically, there was really no other option for us.

We had talked to a few different places and looked at some buildings and then we were like, Let's just stay home.

The way that Danville accepted us at Corporate Oak with open arms and they supported us.

We decided that we were definitely going to do it here to make this project success.

We're going to need the whole community to be on board with reinvigorating downtown.

Um, you know, it has disrupted business.

Just the whole project.

I mean, we were, we rebuilt the entire main core of downtown and, you know, we kept businesses doors open and we kept traffic flowing.

So since being here and being a business owner in downtown, it doesn't come without its hardships.

You know, as anyone has been able to look around, we've been under construction even for a while.

And though that has had its growing pains, we see that so many people are coming back and they are complementing the work that's happening and and watching the restaurant scene explode.

And the small businesses, if you look downtown a lot.

We have a new boutique that's about to open this week, actually, and another restaurant that's coming in a couple of months.

And so that growth and seeing so many people from outside of Danville come in and they're like, wow, this place has changed since 15 years ago or 20 years ago.

It's great to know that we are a part of that progress and pushing forward.

Danville Streetscape Project cost $6 million.

The city plans to have a ribbon cutting ceremony in early November to kick off the holiday shopping season.

Time for our weekly look at interesting events and personalities from Kentucky's past.

Tonight, the father of bluegrass music, Ford's first plant in Kentucky and an Oscar race with a high profile jockey.

Our Toby Gibbs has all of that and more.

And this week in Kentucky history.

The Ford Motor Company opened its first Louisville plant on September 12th, 1915, on two and a half acres on South Third Street.

53 people worked there and they produced 15 Model T Fords a day.

Happy birthday to the father of bluegrass music, Bill Monroe, born September 13th, 1911, in Ohio County.

Phyllis George was crowned Miss America on September 12th, 1970.

She represented Texas in March of 1979.

She would marry John Brown nine months before he became governor of Kentucky, making her Kentucky's first lady.

She died in 2020.

Kentucky's first ever night baseball game was September 14th, 1931.

A traveling baseball team called the House of David from Michigan brought its own portable lighting system to a game with the Louisville All-Stars at Parkway Field.

7000 fans turned out to see the national pastime under the lights.

This is not a sport you see every day.

Ostrich racing and a September 17th, 1953 ostrich race at the Kentucky State Fair included an all star jockey.

The winning ostrich carried Governor Lawrence Weatherby.

And that's a look at what was happening this week in Kentucky History.

I'm Toby Gibbs.

Thank you, as always.

Toby Gibbs.

The average age of a Kentucky farmer is 62 years old, according to research out of Kentucky State University.

But that doesn't mean there aren't any young farmers in the state.

We want to be able to leave a legacy here that is sustainable.

A legacy that can go on for generations.

Whether our kids want to continue to farm it, whether their kids want to continue to farm it.

We want to make sure that we left the place better than what we found it.

How the Kentucky Department of, I guess, supporting young farmers with its new next generation farming program.

That's tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, which we hope will see you for at 630 Eastern, 530 Central, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our email newsletters and watch full episodes and clips at Ket dot org.

You can also find us on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV, and you can send us a story idea at Public Affairs at Ket dawg, and follow us all the way as you see on your screen.

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Join us at 8:00 for Kentucky tonight when we talk about health care challenges.

Until then, I'm Rene Shaw.

I'll see you soon.