I'm Laura Rogers and Ryland Barton, joining us for our midweek check in on things related to Kentucky politics and religion.

We'll start with this story about an ethics complaint being filed against another Democratic state lawmaker.

Tell us more about that.

Yeah, so this is a Republican activists filed this ethics complaint against Democratic Representative Sherilyn Stephenson, saying that a her recent purchase of a condo she purchased with a Frankfort lobbyist violates state ethics rules.

Now, that lobbyist had actually and Representative Stephenson had sought a an ethics ruling on this earlier in the year to make sure that everything was fine.

They say that and the ethics commission said it would be as long as everything's recorded properly.

Nonetheless, the this complaint was still filed saying that there could be some material benefit that Representative Stevenson got out of purchasing this along with that lobbyist.

The building was actually owned by outgoing State Representative Rachel Roberts, which just adds another little turn to this.

The lobbyist and represented students that were purchasing it from them.

There is some precedent set to this kind of situation.

A similar situation took place in 1994.

The Ethics Commission reviewed that back then and said that that was okay.

So it's one of those things where I think that no matter what this is, this is something a Republican activist is is raising this and no matter what, we're talking about it now.

So it's becoming a little bit more of an issue.

But there hasn't really been legal filings filed over this at this moment.

So at this moment, it is just it's still pretty internal within the legislative ethics proceedings.

Also, want to get your take on some developing news that just happened this morning at the state capitol.

Governor Andy Beshear signing an executive order banning conversion therapy.

What are you hearing about this story?

This is this has been an effort for several years in the legislature from many Democrats and some Republicans have called for the banning of this practice.

It's a debunked practice.

Medical professionals have said that this does not work in itself.

And it's cruel to the to the the kids, the people who are put through this practice, oftentimes by their parents.

But even though this has been proposed several times during the legislative session, it's never moved very far.

It hasn't gathered that much steam.

And I will say there have been Republican co-sponsors of this in the past.

Republican Representative Kim Banta and also Republican Senator Alice Walker.

And also this, they're both announced for the cure.

Former state senator and but it just hasn't gone anywhere.

So Governor Beshear issued an executive order saying that any state funds to organizations that provide or the conversion therapy would be they wouldn't be allowed to go to those organizations.

I think what's pretty notable about this, there have been I think it's something like 24 states across the country have already banned or heavily restricted conversion therapy.

But Kentucky's really this would be really the first one in the in the south, in the southeast, and really one of the first Republican led states.

Although we have a Democratic governor, we have a legislature that's 80% controlled by Republicans.

North Carolina is kind of in a similar place, and they have restricted conversion therapy as well.

So it is a it's a pretty novel approach there.

And it's novel that it's the governor doing this.

You know, ultimately an executive order often doesn't last pass a governor's administration.

So it would be up to the legislature to pass a law like this to make it permanent.

And then in election news, the Jefferson County Teachers Association Political Action Committee, they are rallying behind a candidate for the Kentucky Supreme Court and fund raising some big money, a couple hundred thousand dollars for the candidate that they're throwing their support behind.

Yeah, according to Kentucky Public Radio's Jo Sawka, the Jefferson County Teachers Association, which is the kind of advocacy arm of the local teachers union, is spending $200,000 on ads to support Judge Pamela Goodwin, who's running for the Kentucky Supreme Court.

This is really a continuation of a lot of big spending and also, you could say the politicization of some of these state Supreme Court races.

We saw this a couple of years ago, a big race in northern Kentucky between an incumbent Supreme Court justice and a very conservative state representative who's running against her.

And this is something that the parties really got behind.

But judicial candidates are supposed to be nonparty artisan races.

Governor Beshear has gotten into this race as well, But also this, the GTA, Jefferson County Teachers Association is saying they're you know, they're getting into this because they know that these justices will be weighing in on issues related to public education.

So say, like many Kentucky voters will be weighing in on this year, that the so-called school choice amendment to the state constitution, but other things relating to union representation, the power of unions in the state, which a lot of Democrats and union advocates are worried that the powers of which are being undermined by the Republican state legislature.

So there's a lot more money, a lot more attention in these races because these justices do get the final legal say on a lot of these matters in Kentucky politics and governance.

Roland Barton, senior editor for the NPR states team.

It is so good to catch up with you, as always.

Thank you so much for your time today.

Graciela.