The US Department of Justice says Kentucky is violating the civil rights of some of its most vulnerable citizens.

Our Laura Rogers talks with NPR journalist Ryland Barton about the latest federal investigation targeting the commonwealth and other stories in the world of Kentucky politics.

Thank you so much, Kristi and Riley.

And we'll dive right into that DOJ investigation, saying that involves far too many people.

Thousands of patients a year are being admitted to psychiatric hospitals.

Tell us more about this investigation.

Yeah, this is an investigation the DOJ has been doing since about 2002.

And they're saying that the state is violating the Americans with Disabilities Act, saying that there aren't enough community mental health services to respond to people with mental health issues.

And there's just too many folks that are ending up in mental health institutions.

They say that the state in the city of Louisville could be providing a of, say, mobile crisis response, crisis stabilization efforts, peer support, supportive housing and employment instead of farther down the pipeline, folks ending up in a mental health crisis in ending up in some sort of state institution.

This is separate from another investigation into Louisville Metro Police in which several officials said police were similarly violating the Americans with Disabilities Act by having overly aggressive responses to folks in mental health crises.

So this is something the state's going to have to respond to.

It's also something that the city will as well.

And, you know, this is the states in a lot of there's a lot of oversight into what's going on in Louisville right now with policing especially.

And this is just it fits in a little bit to how this the state and city needs to change, how it's approaching some of these issues and trying to have a more supportive responses to the folks struggling in the community.

Yes, we know mental health is such a complicated issue and so hopefully trying to streamline and better serve the people that they respond to that are having those episodes.

Moving now to the story about a dispute between the state auditor and the governor's administration concerning access to a database and how it tracks and handles cases of abuse and neglect.

In Kentucky Auditor Alison Ball filing a lawsuit over this.

What can you tell us about this situation?

Yeah, this comes after the state legislature moved an ombudsman office, which hears complaints about about the state health department from the state health cabinet to the state auditor's office, which is, you know, a completely different part of state government.

The health cabinet is, you know, within the Governor Bashir's administration, the state auditor's offices.

State Auditor Alison Ball, the former state treasurer who's a Republican, she's saying that the state isn't being proactive enough with producing records related to abuse and neglect and in the Bush years, administration is saying that, well, there's actually still state law that doesn't allow them to share those records.

So Alison Ball's office has sued the Beshear administration, ordering those to be turned over.

You know, this is a little bit, you know, part of its government, part of its politics as well.

This is something we've seen a lot over the last few years of when these different offices are controlled by folks from different parties.

There's some some tension there.

They don't always work together very well.

The Beshear administration has said that they support a change, a full change in law to to clarify what exactly they're allowed to turn over during the next legislative session, which starts in January.

But Auditor Ball's offices are trying to get that to happen sooner, saying that everything is all straightened out.

The legislature has spoken on this and to just go ahead and turn over those records.

Another headline concerning Governor Andy Beshear, his political action committee is PAC, raising a record amount of money over the last few months and I think a lot of people would agree that that has something to do with the fact that he was getting all the national attention when he was being vetted to be vice president.

Kamala Harris's running mate.

Yeah, there was that time where where Andy Beshear is really in the national spotlight when he was in that the conversation, the veepstakes conversation will hit will he won't he will Vice President Harris pick him to be her running mate, His PAC, he started last year as a in an effort to kind of support candidates around the country that he's supportive of, including, say, in North Carolina's governor's race.

That's one which they're throwing some money into.

It brought in over $200000 to $16000 throughout the month of July, which is almost double what it's normally been bringing in over each month during the year.

So definitely a lot more attention.

You know, some of it there is more money that was coming in from from national organizations, including ActBlue, which is kind of a national funder for Democratic efforts.

This is money that his political aspirations get to keep and that he can continue to.

Again, as I was saying before, to support those political efforts, but also continue to have that national presence going forward into the second term in this administration.

I just wanted to mention as well, you know, talking about Vice presidential candidates, J.D.

Vance was in Lexington this week raising money for his efforts and Donald Trump's efforts.

And they raised about $2 million at a fundraiser in Lexington last night.

So a lot of political activity happening in Kentucky right now.

Yes.

Have you heard anything about the messaging that was heard from J.D.

Vance, from those that were in attendance?

He was going after Kamala Harris, really the one he didn't mention, Andy Beshear, from at least what I saw on the Herald-Leader coverage of this event, which has relied on folks who are at that event.

But he was going after Kamala Harris, especially on the economy and saying that Republicans were better fit to serve.

Well, Roland, it's good to talk to you as always.

And we appreciate it so much.

Thank you for your time.

And we will talk to you again next week.

Thanks, Laura.