♪ ♪ ♪ >> Kentucky pays tribute to those killed on that unforgettable day.

23 years ago.

>> Notably, you just hear a lot of chuckles throughout the event.

>> Students take on last night's presidential debate.

>> They're proud of their heritage, but they're equally proud of the fact that they have become Americans in every sense of the word.

>> And who settled northern Kentuckyian why?

Production of Kentucky Edition is made possible in part by the KET Millennium Fund.

♪ ♪ Good Evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION for this Wednesday, September, the 11th, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for joining us.

We're here on the campus of northern Kentucky University inside Griffin Hall, home of NK Use College of Informatics as Kentucky Edition goes on the road yet again.

And here is where students are learning to make some pretty cool robots.

As you can see here with this dancing dog today.

We'll also hear from the student about last night's presidential debate.

Learn about the culture and history of the northern Kentucky region and see how a hospital here in the region is changing how patients receive care.

But first, today's news, it is September.

11th a solemn day as people all across America paused to remember the terrorist attacks of 23 years ago.

And Louisville firefighters and other first responders gathered today to remember the more than 3,000 people killed in New York, Pennsylvania.

And at the Pentagon.

♪ ♪ >> The pain remains role and the losses.

We're still heartbreaking.

For thousands of our fellow Americans.

These losses are deeply personal and deeply painful.

>> If you want to do something positive today and I BC 2, please do.

Be kind to everyone that you see.

Even if you think they don't deserve it.

And I'll tell you what, especially if you think they don't deserve it because they probably need it the most.

>> Think about September.

12th 2001, the way that we came together as a nation, the way that we look out for one another.

And that's how we honor their memory.

>> 343 firefighters and 72 police officers died during the 9.11 attacks and hundreds more died in the years after 9.11, because if I attack related cancers and other illnesses.

Now, when Kentucky news today, a state legislative committee considering how to overhaul Jefferson County Public Schools has wrapped up its public hearings in Louisville as our June LaFleur reports.

One lawmaker says he was hoping to hear more feedback and less pushback.

>> Jefferson County residents got their second and final opportunity to offer their thoughts on JCPS to a legislative committee.

Parents wonder what can be done about the basics, getting their kids to school and keeping them safe.

>> Their fights at my son's high school every single day.

It does not seem to be a problem that's getting any better.

When he was in middle school.

A student film, one of the fights and send it to news station and they aired it when he got to school the next day, faculty informed the students that from now on, if you get caught filming a fight, you will be automatically suspended.

That response to me as a parent made me feel like they were more interested in keeping the public in the dark about what's really going on in our schools, then about making sure that my son is kept safe.

>> Some teachers say they're overworked and unheard.

>> We get one hour to prepare for 4 more classes, maybe because most of the time were pulled his 7, another teacher's class who couldn't show that day.

>> The committee chair hope to hear more of these concerns and solutions.

But he says too often speakers focused on one thing.

Breaking up JCPS and 2 more smaller districts.

>> I want to hear what we can do to help what want to just kind of public schools need what the students need, what can be done.

That's what we want.

Some of it is misinformation from the public.

Are they are attention on the one thing split the district are not.

>> Students rail against this idea.

They question how resources would be distributed equitably in that case.

>> Divide the city in the county will undoubtedly have a detrimental impact on schools within the area.

The separation of resources, funding and administrative support.

That typically comes with maintaining unified district boundaries will likely lead to disparities and educational opportunities for students.

>> Putting a JCPS a huge, amazing endeavor system.

Not a mean not only takes away this opportunities but also reduce aggregates level as a hope.

We've gone backwards in history already.

We don't need to push back anymore.

>> Senator Michael me Miss says breaking up the district is not the goal of the task force, but it is one of a few governance changes mentioned in the resolution that created the committee.

Apparent brings up another one of those expanding the JCPS board.

Something she says has more promise than split in the district.

We need more voices at the table.

>> More eyes watching over how our resources are allocated.

How policies are crafted and how decisions are made.

Expanding our board to include additional members would bring in a broader range of perspectives expertise and lived experiences.

The committee made of lawmakers and some Jefferson County community members will report its findings by December, which may or may not lay the groundwork for state legislation in the 2025 session.

>> For Kentucky edition, I'm John Leffler.

>> Thank you.

June.

That meeting occurred last night at male high school today.

A student was arrested for bringing a gun to that school.

WDRB reports a new weapon detection system that uses AI based technology is what found the gun in the student's backpack as they entered the school.

According to the Norton Children's Hospital.

Kentucky is ahead and of the national average for child abuse in the country with roughly a dozen of every 1000 children in the state becoming victims of abuse.

The annual kids are worth it.

Conference organized by prevent child Abuse.

Kentucky was held in Lexington this week.

The event brought together social service workers, mental health professionals, law enforcement agents and many others to discuss and share information to help reduce child abuse in the Commonwealth.

This year's conference all several ongoing factors that often lead to abuse coming into focus.

>> We know the opioid use disorder is still going to be an issue.

We're making progress, but we still have a long ways to go.

We know the Internet crimes against children will still be an issue.

And we know that mental health and domestic violence.

>> Will unfortunately still be issues that will need to tackle the issue of parent engagement, you know, involving the people who are most impacted by the policy decisions and buy decisions regarding their Karen recovery continues to be an issue that's at the forefront of a lot of providers, fines.

>> During Tuesday's keynote address at the conference members of the Kentucky State Police.

>> Put on a demonstration with specially trained K 9 units used to help assist and cybercrime cases.

Event.

Organizers say brain to gather the state police and other groups for networking is an important tactic in fighting child abuse.

>> It's important for folks to attend an event like perhaps first and foremost, isn't it the networking that happens?

It so important for everybody to know?

You know, here's what's happening in eastern Kentucky.

Here's what's happening in western Kentucky.

We don't want to work in silos.

We know that we cannot come place this work by her.

So I would be hard pressed to say that anybody here thinks that they have all the answers.

So it's important to learn from other folks who have either gone through that particular experience or provided a particular service so that we can know what the pitfalls are.

We can know what the successes are and we can all learn from each other.

Prevent child abuse.

Kentucky says information gathered at this year's kids are worth it.

Conference could help determine the types of topics covered at next year's event.

>> A new wrinkle in the case of a state lawmaker up for reelection in November and advocates for and against a proposed constitutional amendments are raising millions of dollars.

Our Laura Rogers caught up with him PR journalist Rylan Barton.

For a look at some of the political stories making headlines so far this week in Kentucky.

>> Yeah, Reiland will begin with amendment 2 which will be on the November ballot.

And a lot of people call this the school choice referendum.

This is where voters will decide if they want public dollars to go to private schools.

And we have groups that are fund raising millions of dollars to advocate both for and against the passage of this amendment.

Who are these groups that are so passionate about this cause?

>> Yeah, they've been raising millions of dollars already for and against this issue.

And just as a reminder, what this does a change like which in the state constitution, currently the Constitution prohibits any public money from going to nonpublic for non common schools.

This would add language saying that the financial support from the state can be provided to outside the system of common schools.

Just that change in language.

So that actually doesn't do anything immediately to create that system.

But it opens the door to allow the legislature to pass a law that could fit within say that school choice model.

So say if our system work a system that lawmakers of trying to act before it's ruled against by courts that would allow tax breaks to go to full to donate to private school scholarships.

Anyway, there's 2 different groups have already raised millions of dollars.

One of them is called protect our schools, Kentucky, which is largely education union, Support an organization that rates about 3 million dollars and they are put down $200,000 for TVs, probably start seeing them across the state and we'll see a lot more important to the general election.

And then the other is called Protect Our Freedom PAC, which is something that's been involved in a Kentucky for a long time that they have a 2.4 million dollars cash on hand.

And this is largely supported by Pennsylvania, a Republican fundraisers for a lot of Rand Paul's effort.

Jeff Yass, he's made a force larger package, 3, 14 million dollars.

So some big players are already involved in this in this battle, which is really going to be the signature statewide vote that Kentuckians are going to weigh in on this November.

>> And then also apparently is going to be on the ballot in November, at least in the 40th House district State Representative Nima Kulkarni, a Democrat from Louisville, which we've been talking about this case now for weeks, if not months, there's been a lot of back and forth and appeals.

And it's my understanding it feels court actually now recommending this case be transferred to the Kentucky Supreme Court.

Where do we stand on this?

At the present moment?

Abs?

>> Yeah, it seems like we talk about this every week.

There's some new update.

That's the trip through Kentucky politics.

So this goes back to somebody on the medical part of this team had not properly registered as at the appropriate times and because you have to sign off on her candidate certification makers and she was still registered as Republican.

Technically that option her candidacy was actually disqualify.

So the court created.

It's not as if there's a vacancy for that for that race, which spent a lot of the party to its own nominee, the party of the People party.

But the other Democrat running that race earlier this year said no way I should be the candidate.

She shouldn't be allowed to.

And as you just said, the Franklin Circuit Court, which we spent a lot of the said State politics and state government matter said that no, in fact, Carney is the do full the nominee here.

So she's going to as of now be on the ballot are in search or if they can seize them created and that she can be all about run this We will see that the Supreme Court that could be one more bite at this.

Apple of the deadline is coming up.

Ballots are supposed to be printed by Monday next week.

>> Yeah, the election.

What about 8 weeks away right now?

Yet just 2 months or and then also in Jefferson County, a couple of other Democrats that are hoping to turn their House district blue.

Those seats currently held by Republicans and they're getting a lot of support from Governor Andy Beshear on the campaign trail.

>> Yeah, just taking a little bit of a look at, you know, of all the seats in the state.

House of Representatives are up for re-election.

Half of the state Senate is up for reelection.

Republicans in the Kentucky Legislature and are at a high water.

Hard to imagine them capturing more seats so that 80 at 100 seats in the house and this is appointments.

Democrats are trying to call back some of that ground.

They lost over over the years.

And Kentucky Lantern the kind.

Of course, we had a great story this week profiling a couple of races in suburban Louisville that Democrats are trying to flip in favor of their party.

A couple of incumbent Republicans.

They're going Emily Calloway can Fleming.

And there's a couple Democratic candidates, strong Stovall, obviously union leader and also an education advocate for over 10 foot.

The seas.

You know, this is something Democrats have been trying for the last several years and been doing obviously the loss of his friend recently.

But they're hoping that with any issues help is rates profile in recent years have been a little bit more political muscle behind their backs to sway things in their favor.

But this is just one of those wait and see things.

Kentucky has up until this point just shown how you know, he's just really moved to favor Republicans center.

yeah, we haven't.

We haven't seen that turning back yet.

It's only been getting more and more public.

>> Yes, not a single Democrat told us a legislative office in the Central Time zone.

The state.

I think that's interesting to point out as well is the perception there in Jefferson County that those Democrats are garnering some support?

>> I think that there's always hope from Democrats.

They just imagine that of Louisville is the Democratic stronghold in the state and that they should be able to pick up a bit more ground pick up.

But I think it's good to point out that will actually is no is a model that there are conservative parts of.

>> Of the of the county.

And obviously these districts are drawn in a way to pay for this incumbent Republicans after redistricting.

>> In 2020 in parts of those of these districts to also going and county and bullet County.

So there's no guarantee that Democrat that when these, but I think that least that is the head of the more competitive than they used to be.

>> Thank you as always, for providing some more information on these big political stories of the week.

We really appreciate your time and we will see you again next Wednesday.

>> Here on the campus of northern Kentucky University students gathered last night to watch the big presidential debate between former Republican President Donald Trump and Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris ahead of the event.

Students have the opportunity to ask questions about the debate to a panel of professors.

Emily Sisca, a former KET intern runs the student-led news magazine.

The northerner and was at last night's event to capture it all.

So we saw a lot of mixed reactions.

I think.

>> Notably, you just hear a lot of chuckles throughout the event, especially at some of the, you know, remarks and facial expressions that you can see from the candidates when it came to talking about wars, you know, in Ukraine and Russia and with Israel and Palestine, people were really tuned into that.

I think that's something that for specially the college generation, we're really interested to hear more about it.

Actually learn.

What are their stance is going to be?

I think that a lot of people were.

I would say unimpressed by just the attacks on the political candidates and seemed like they were much more interested to actually hear about what the candidates would do if they were elected and when they're in office.

I believe that topics like immigration, your world peace, things like that are really important right now.

It's our generation to our students.

I think, you know, even here on this campus, we have a lot of students whose parents might be immigrants.

Are they have family members who are immigrants have a lot of international students here who might be interested in becoming a citizen are staying here.

So work.

So I think that is something that is of particular interest to our generation, especially here on in case campus personally actually been surprised by how little that I have seen people reacting to Taylor Swift's endorsement of the Harris campaign actually expected to hear a lot more people and talking about it.

But I don't know if that's, you know, because it happened so recently or just because people.

Are really trying to come to their own conclusions on income use campus.

It's largely commuter based.

There are a lot of online students and so having a space to like represent yourself politically to ask questions to try and learn more from, you know, professors and professionals who have been around to kind of seeing some of the things that are going to happen.

That's extremely important.

>> Annalisa says Nku is hosting monthly sessions to allow students to learn more about the issues of this year's presidential election.

This month's topic focuses on race.

From architecture to foods like data that we heard about on Monday, the German influence of northern Kentucky is still very visible today.

But how did that even come about?

We spoke with Doctor Paul turncoat, a professor of history here at Nku to hear how immigration has influence the region too.

♪ So by about 18, 40.

>> We know that Catholic tournament immigrants were arriving in the city of Cincinnati, northern Kentucky by about 200 people a day.

And by the time they established the church where and now mother of God church as it specifically German-speaking congregation.

Already there are say 30 or 40 families in 18, 41 when the church was established 12 years later, it was estimated that there were 1500 Catholic Families in Covington alone.

So that would have been phenomenal because covenants population was only about 10,000 at the time.

So we know that most of those immigrants were German immigrants.

Many were German where German Lutherans and the many of them were Arash Catholics as well.

And so the way they set up their churches was to reflect what they saw when Germany.

So what you're seeing around you is the church that they constructed in 18, 70 71 and German American artists, very well-known artists from across the country and also from this region, pain at the beautiful murals pain at Seco work on the ceilings, on the walls that you see stained glass windows were imported from Germany from Myron Company.

So it showed the gifts and the talents that the German people in this instance had to offer to their city and at and felt that this was actually a civic achievement.

This was something that they were doing to beautify the city themselves and to show that they as immigrants had arrived in American society, they're proud of their heritage, but they're equally proud of the fact that they have become Americans in every sense of the word.

The reasons for immigration really are strongly consistent throughout history.

And most immigration historians will tell you that the main reason why people immigrate is for economic opportunity.

The second reason would be for political opportunities.

So much of it.

Our immigration is coming from Central America now currently.

And there's political unrest and Central America and also lack of economic opportunity.

So this is what Latinx people are seeking and the United States and they're finding and that's true of Asian population.

South Asian populations, people from India and likewise are also seeking those opportunities because this area is part of that great Golden Triangle of Cincinnati, Covington Newport.

On the one hand and then Louisville and Lexington right as well.

So you have this prosperity and the return.

♪ >> The city of Covington will celebrate its German heritage this weekend at Oktoberfest featuring all things German at Goebel Park.

Primary care.

Physicians are at the frontline of treating mental health.

A doctor you see for an annual checkup or sick visit is just as likely to prescribe antidepressants.

As a psychiatry issed because of that, doctors are tag teaming with social workers at primary care offices across the Saint.

Elizabeth Healthcare system in northern Kentucky.

It's getting more people into counseling.

He should sell their primary care doctors.

A lot of information.

>> So they may share with their primary care doctor that they recently lost their spouse or that they're dealing with a lot of depression.

If a doctor recognizes a social work need, they can immediately coming at the social worker.

We can meet with that patient that day.

We love to meet with patients that way because they're more likely to continue as services.

A patient was in our in our doctor's office who had experienced a car accident.

And since being in that car accident, she experienced high levels of anxiety, driving some even some phobia around driving.

What winds up doing is as I started meeting with that patient for some counseling services, we talked about kind of how to build her to stress tolerance, essentially and how to deal with some of these fears and how to overcome them.

And we worked together for about the full the full 9 months.

Her and I worked together and she was able to begin driving again.

She purchased a new car.

I see so many patients that because I'm able to meet with them and in person right then and there.

And because their doctor recommends them to me, there are a lot more willing to meet and talk with me.

And so that level of accessibility just really allows us to reach a patient population that would otherwise never get services.

What we really now is that when patients to not have access to food, they do not have access to housing or they're struggling with depression, anxiety, grief.

They are a lot less likely to take care of themselves.

And so that's when you have a patient that's not compliant on their medication or they are not coming.

The doctor like they should or they're letting health concerns.

Tell that otherwise they may address they may have addressed if they want going through these extenuating circumstances.

These untreated patients are ending up in our emergency rooms with these problems that if we had met with them when they were in the primary care and got ahead of, they would not.

They had been turned into these emergency.

So we do a lot of work to help make sure that patients are connected with the appropriate level of care.

So we're not having all of these patients come to the emergency room causing longer waits for other other patients and really issues that need to be addressed earlier.

It is definitely becoming more normalized there.

Certainly a lot of talk within CMS, which is a center for Medicare and Medicaid around the importance of this holistic care.

I will say in this area, Saint Elizabeth has one of the most robust programs they truly have invested a lot of time and effort and making sure that we have enough support across the system to meet patient needs.

Saint Elizabeth serves parts of Ohio, Indiana and Kentucky with 6 hospitals and 169 primary and specialty care office us.

♪ >> We continue our road trip to northern Kentucky tomorrow.

There something you'll notice when you visit Covington.

There are murals everywhere will talk about the Kentucky town that's embracing outdoor art and a really big way.

That's tomorrow on Kentucky edition, which we hope you'll join us for at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central where we inform connect and inspire subscribe to our Kentucky Edition, e-mail newsletters and watch full episodes and clips of KET Dot Org.

>> of Frost on the PBS video app on your mobile device and smart TV.

Send us a story idea.

Public affairs at KET Dot Org and look for us on Facebook, X and Twitter or X as it's known to stay in the live.

Thank you so much for joining us from Nku in Nky.

I'm Renee Shaw and take really good care.

♪ ♪