to the Senate and makes his first vote since a bad fall in June and a summer of questions.

[MUSIC] Major outside money flows into Kentucky's closely watched sixth district congressional race.

Governor Beshear enters Kentucky into a program to erase medical debt for some.

[MUSIC] Former Governor Matt Bevin is released from jail after serving nearly two weeks of a 60 day sentence.

Our sizzling September rolls on and comment is next on KET.

Good evening.

I'm Bill Bryant, and we welcome you to comment on Kentucky.

A look back at and some analysis of the week's news in the Commonwealth and the guests on our panel of working Kentucky journalists tonight are Hannah Pinski political reporter for the Lexington Herald-Leader.

McKenna Horsley politics reporter for the Kentucky Lantern and Morgan Watkins, health and environment reporter for the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting.

Also tonight, how will Kentucky spend its money from a settlement with social media giant meta?

But let's begin with Senator Mitch McConnell's return to the Senate.

He came to the Capitol Monday for the first time since he fell back on June 14th.

And just before he appeared, McConnell released a statement acknowledging the difficulty of his recovery.

Morgan, it was really the mystery of recent months in politics.

Would McConnell return?

And when?

>> Yeah, I mean, he's one of the most watched senators, period, because he's been so powerful over the years.

So when he, you know, is out of commission in terms of doing showing up for votes and stuff like that, people take notice.

Also, this was, I think because he is so notable and because we've had some other congressional members in recent years who've kind of disappeared from, from their jobs for a while.

It kind of became a source of a lot of like discussion online and some conspiracy people, you know, speculating, like, is he dead and being hidden?

And a lot of conspiracy theories.

So I think that kind of also fueled a lot of the tension.

>> So Hannah he, he was rolled in and there he was.

And he voted.

>> He was.

I mean, that's the first time we've seen him since.

I want to say before June, when he had his fall.

And then the slight case of pneumonia.

And I think with Morgan was saying, with all these conspiracy theories, the speculation is partly due because throughout this whole thing, his office has been very tight lipped on what's been going on.

I think it was well into a month of him being hospitalized that we didn't necessarily know why he had been, whether he was still in the hospital.

But I think also, in a way, him coming back this way is him sort of controlling his narrative, how he's leaving office because, you know, he's not seeking reelection.

His term ends at the end of the year.

And I think he's, in part, trying to preserve or at least control some of the legacy that he wants to leave behind as much as he can.

>> Yeah, to the extent he can.

McKenna.

You know, there was the as we've mentioned, the social media rumors all summer long, the demands for proof of life.

Governor Beshear was under significant pressure.

I think it's fair to say, from many Democrats to try to make more strong demands of the Senator.

>> I definitely think that those conspiracy theories that we're talking about online that prompted some people to find out who Andy Beshear is, the Democratic governor of Kentucky.

And we saw a lot of comments asking, why is he not going to the hospital to talk with Senator McConnell in person from to he should call a special election to vacate the seat and things like that.

But state law really limits a lot of things that he can do.

Beshear when a situation like this happens, I think one thing that kind of played into McConnell's favor, though, throughout that pressure campaign was that that kind of makes it harder for Beshear.

It raises a question for when he is put back in the national spotlight.

Like if he wanted to run in 28 for president.

>> And I think there is like a sorry, I think there is like a real frustration to that.

Some people have about like, if someone is out of commission and they're an important congressional member.

What, if anything, can anyone do?

Like, is it the ball completely in that person's court to decide how they want to handle their own private health issues and also their public job?

And yeah.

>> And Senator McConnell isn't the first Republican member of Congress to do that this year.

Earlier this year, there was a lot of questions around Republican Rep Tom Kean Jr of new Jersey, who was absent for four months.

And then when he returned, he said he was being treated for depression.

And, you know, that raised a lot of questions as well.

I think, you know, he's not the same kind of Republican national figure like McConnell is.

I think that invited more speculation.

Like Morgan said earlier.

But I think this is opening the door for conversations about how to hold members of Congress to be more transparent and accountable to.

>> Senator Dianne Feinstein had a similar situation.

So it's happening more often, right, with with older members of the Senate.

Hannah McConnell didn't say much to reporters, and he didn't take questions upon his return.

>> He did.

And that's sort of following this trend that we've kind of seen throughout this whole situation.

I mean, when McConnell was still recovering at home, we I had seen people online posting videos, basically waiting outside his home for his staffers to come out, asking, hey, like, do we have an update on when he's coming back to the Senate?

Can you give us any updates about his health?

So it doesn't really come as a shock right now that he's not really talking to reporters.

And he's also typically been pretty private about his health, too.

When he does have these health scares.

>> McConnell's vote was needed for the farm bill.

It turns out, which narrowly passed Wednesday and headed to the house, where it will be a while.

But that's another story because they're not in session.

But McKenna, why was that?

You know, why was it so touch and go on the farm bill?

>> So the farm bill has been a little controversial between Republicans and Democrats that are on that agriculture committee, because of issues around Snap rules that are in it.

The bill currently in its current form, would allow a two year or there's some conversation around an extension for how these states can implement new rules that were in the one big, Beautiful Bill act last summer.

So McConnell had attempted to vote by proxy in August at a committee meeting.

Senate rules prevented that vote from going through.

So that's why this bill was delayed for a few weeks before he returned.

This week.

>> Appeared to have a bit of a challenge in casting his vote that day.

>> Yeah, there were some video of that conversation online, and that prompted even more questions about his fitness.

>> You could clearly hear his eye vote there at the end.

>> The online theorizing is not over.

Oh, a new phase.

>> Yeah.

>> And you know, that's the way it goes.

Well, McConnell is leaving the Senate by his own choosing at the end of the year and the race to replace him picks up some September steam.

Republican Andy Barr, the nominee, expressed his confidence that he will take the seat as Democrat Charles Booker is working to grab attention.

Morgan Barr continues to have obviously lots of advantages, namely a lot more money and Kentucky's trend in national elections certainly so far, there has been talk of a potential blue wave in in in the nation.

And perhaps that many Senate seats could turn from Republican to Democrat.

But Kentucky is not mentioned in that narrative, is it?

>> It is not.

Kentucky is very heavily Republican state, especially when you're talking about statewide races with national stakes.

And we've already have like there's been a track record like the last time Senator McConnell ran for reelection, you had a big push, a very well-funded campaign from Amy McGrath, and she still didn't win.

Now, granted, you had that incumbent factor where you don't have an incumbent in this race, but still, the general wisdom, especially looking at all the Kentucky history, is that a blue wave?

It would have to be the most massive blue wave to overcome the money.

Lead and all of that.

>> And McKenna has an interesting theory that maybe the sleepy Democratic primary is, is part of what's at play here, right?

>> You know, we talked earlier on the show this year about how we didn't really see a lot of enthusiasm for the candidates that were in that Democratic primary.

There was no clear front runner.

I feel like between those two sides, we did see Booker and McGrath back in that campaign, and there were a slate of other candidates as well.

But when you look at compare, that party's primary to something like the sixth Congressional District, which we'll talk about more in a minute, Democrats there, there was a slate of them, and they all had.

It seemed like a lot of supporters on the ground.

And that became a pretty well contested primary.

And then looking at the Senate Republican primary, that three way battle between Nate Morris and Andy Barr and Daniel Cameron to the end, pretty much was definitely something that a lot of Republican voters were paying attention to and getting a lot of news coverage out of it.

>> Hannah there is one debate scheduled between the Booker and Barr, so we'll see.

That's coming up in October.

>> That is.

And I think Booker said he was willing to do multiple debates.

I want to say 4 or 5, whereas Barr said we will only do this one.

And Barr also did bring up the point, you know, when McGrath and McConnell were running against each other, they also only did one debate.

And Booker, when he ran for Senate against Rand Paul.

Rand Paul didn't wasn't willing to do any debate.

So we'll see how these candidates get their messages out on the stage and upcoming November.

>> And since Barr is the Republican Senate nominee, his seat in the House is open.

It appears to be the race to watch here in Kentucky this week, Governor Andy Beshear, political action committee and a PAC that's connected to President Trump's political operation, announced they're getting involved in the sixth district race.

And the ads are underway.

>> Bevin's running mate, Ralph Alvarado stood side by side with Bevin.

>> Doctor Ralph Alvarado spent years watching it and got sick of it.

So he's running.

>> Scott Hannah.

Obviously now this race is on the national radar.

Interesting that Governor Beshear is opening up his operations wallet to try to help Democrat Dembo.

>> He is Beshear is investing significant time and money into this race.

I remember I want to say it was a couple months back when there is sort of this campaign launch for Dembo for the general election.

He was there as well as, you know, Lieutenant Governor Jacqueline Coleman, Rocky Atkins, you know, notable Democrats in this state.

And I think for Beshear, targeting this race makes sense in two different ways.

One is that this race, as you said, has been targeted by national figures like the D, triple C has identified as one of the districts.

They're hoping to flip from red to blue.

You know, the district involves includes more Democratic voters as well as more moderates and independents as well.

So I think Democrats see this as a chance, a good chance to flip it, but also, I think potentially a Dembo win could help Beshear should he decide to run in 2028 for president Bashir.

You know, throughout this past year has sort of been saying this message across the country of I am a Democrat who can win in a red state.

And I think if Beshear can say, look at me, I helped another Democrat win in a deep red state like Kentucky, that sort of just adds another thing to his resume as he's trying to sway voters.

He's a viable candidate here.

>> McKenna, do Republicans see a threat with President Trump's political operation putting in over $635,000 into the race to try to help Alvarado?

>> I think both of those PACs spending show that both parties really want to invest in keeping this or keeping or gaining the seat, depending on which party it is.

You know, I think Republicans that I'm talking to in the sixth district feel like this district is historically held by Republicans.

Andy Barr has held the seat since 2012.

That election, and they feel like some of those rural counties can counteract a high Democratic vote in Lexington.

>> And then you see the 70, almost 70,000 independent voters in the sixth district, you said that's 12.5%.

>> About 12.5% as of August.

Numbers.

>> That's hard to ignore these days, right?

>> Yeah.

And I think that you, as we're talking about like nationally, President Trump's approval ratings being pretty bad, I think there's a sense of maybe those independent voters are, you know, they're always up for grabs, right?

Because they're registered independents, but maybe they're more up for grabs for the Democrats.

And maybe we have to put more money into the ads on the Republican side to try to make sure that, you know, they don't snag them.

>> There will also be first time voters in this race, this election cycle, because we have closed primaries.

So they weren't able to vote for any Republicans or Democrats a few months ago.

>> And I think that, you know, both candidates are recognizing the significance of this rise of independent voters.

I mean, first year of Denbo, who we have not seen, sort of lean more into kind of the progressive policies, like, let's say, that Booker has in his Senate campaign.

And then you have Alvarado, who has removed some Trump Trump, you know, things from his website.

So I think both candidates are, in a way, trying to appeal to those moderate voters.

And I don't know, they could be that independent block, could be the deciding factor here in the upcoming election.

We just don't know.

>> We do not.

Well, the U.S.

House went into recess until after the election.

Kentucky Congressman Thomas Massie says it was because of what he was putting before lawmakers a move to impeach Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and what he called the Epstein files.

Epstein Files Transparency Act two.

>> When people want to go home, I'm here to work.

I'm here to get justice for the Epstein victims, the survivors.

>> So Massie, you know, has been a thorn in the side of the president and House leaders as he enters his last few months in Congress.

Hannah.

>> Yeah, he has.

And I was reading a couple of articles that, you know, Massie sort of surprised GOP leaders with these articles of impeachment against Hegseth.

I've seen a couple of stories that say it seems he has been working on this for weeks.

And according to multiple sources, did not inform GOP leadership that he was going to do this.

While it I think it's fair to say it's little chance that these impeachment articles will be successful.

It still creates headaches, you know, for party leaders here.

And I think, you know, with Massie, this is something this comes not a surprise.

He's always kind of done things like this.

And he is out of office after this year.

So I think he kind of views right now is that he has nothing really left to lose at the moment.

>> Yeah.

And and do some anticipate he'll return to politics.

>> He's left the door open.

>> Yeah.

Right.

Setting maybe the stage for that.

All right.

It was a busy news week.

Former governor Matt Bevin was released from jail this week after serving nearly two weeks of a 60 day sentence for contempt of court.

McKenna.

This was over.

Bevin not providing documents that a Jefferson County Family Court wanted in a child support case.

His attorneys argued in their appeal that he could not comply with the court's orders while he was in jail.

>> Right.

And so, you know, as the Kentucky Court of Appeals continues to weigh that decision, he is he has been released.

So, you know, this is definitely not the last step in that case.

So we'll definitely see how that continues as we move forward.

>> Also here in Kentucky, Governor Beshear issued an executive order this week designed to wipe out $250 million in medical debt for more than 130 000 Kentuckians.

Morgan, it's called the Team Kentucky Medical Debt Relief Program.

How would that work?

>> So the plan is for the state to partner with this nonprofit called Undue Medical Debt that will go and buy, like bundled medical debt packages on the cheap and then forgive that debt so the Beshear, I think, is chipping in about 2.5 million in state money to the effort to kind of help make this happen.

And then essentially, the plan is they'll forgive debt for people who owe 5% or more of their annual income in medical bills, or people who are earning at or below 400% of the federal poverty level.

So people whose debt has been acquired in this program and is going to be forgiven will get letters in the mail.

It's not something you sign up for.

They will tell you if you are on their list.

Beshear said that he expects over 130,000 people should get debt forgiven through this program.

>> Because the providers agree to cooperate because they'll get something for.

>> That is, I have not researched that.

>> But it was just interesting.

A lot of people just wonder how this works, you know, because it is it is interesting.

All right.

Flock cameras continue to be in the news this week.

There was some reporting in Lexington about how the vast majority of searches for information from flock cameras came from other agencies.

That investigation by KET and most of those agencies, by the way, were from out of state.

So that has touched off a lot of conversation about flock cameras.

>> Yeah.

And that's definitely in local communities.

But I think we'll see something at the state level next session.

Earlier this month, a few Republican lawmakers signaled in a committee meeting that they would be open to some kind of regulation on flock, particularly something like requiring that officers get a warrant before they make a search.

So that would kind of curb some of those erroneous searches that we've been seeing reported a lot.

So there might be something on the table at the state level.

>> And it's not unusual for a lot of out of state like searches to be made by external agencies.

Like that is part of the whole flock network flocks pitch is like when you buy our cameras, you get can can choose to hook yourself up to a national network of other police departments, cameras, and you can kind of search data.

So that's like the pitch for why the cameras are so powerful.

But it also has gotten a lot of pushback, even not just like out of state agencies searching, but even just should any agency beyond the police department that has these cameras be searching it, like at the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting, like we got into the Louisville's audits and found that, you know, an officer had given his login to a local DEA agent who then did searches on immigration.

So it's sort of like, how much control do the police departments that are running these cameras have over the way that the data that they're collecting is used, and people are very up in arms about it?

I mean, you've seen here in Kentucky, like Newport decided to get rid of their not they had a free trial with flock and they decided, we're not going to make that permanent because of public local pushback on it.

Independence took their cameras down.

Fort Mitchell said that they're done with flock.

So like people are showing up and telling their representatives they have issues with this.

And that's happening here in Kentucky, but also in other places around the country.

>> And Lexington's mayor, Linda Gorton, wants to have a full review of them, and then the her challenger candidate, Raquel Carter, said she would suspend the use of flock cameras until there is some kind of full review.

So that's where things are.

It's in the political realm as well.

Well, Governor Beshear said this week that he is willing to work with the General Assembly on rules for data centers in light of the U.S.

House passing ratepayer protection legislation.

He made a broader statement about the future of artificial intelligence.

>> I believe we already have some of the stronger protections in the country right now through that EO, and I'm happy to work with the General Assembly if they want to put those in statute.

I think they create real protections that then allow local communities to be on equal footing with these really large companies to decide, do they want that data center or not?

But if I was in, I would encourage members of Congress to vote for it.

And then turn to real oversight of AI.

>> Data centers have been constructed for years.

In fact, Lexington based Gray Construction has built them for many years across the country.

But this discussion on AI and data centers and and for that matter, flock cameras, as we were talking about, it, have really come on the scene suddenly, it seems.

And it seems to defy the political boundaries.

>> Yeah.

I mean, you're seeing like progressives, conservatives, people in the middle, getting up in arms about some of these issues, especially like if a data center is coming to their community or being upset about flock, I think a lot of people see a connection between like AI and the data centers being built to help support AI and flock as this sort of like bigger issue of what level of mass surveillance are we comfortable with as a society?

What level of, you know, intrusion of technology are we comfortable with, you know, you have a lot of talk about like, will AI steal all of our jobs?

So you also have like an economic component of like people debating, like, do I want that?

So I think, yeah, you see, like it kind of does unite people in a way that like crosses your typical political tripwires.

>> Yeah.

And I think with data centers specifically, we even have some disagreements within parties.

For example, the Republican Party during this legislative session, the House had a bill that basically would have protected ratepayers from having to pay any of the costs.

These data centers would have brought, and it passed the House.

I want to say it passed with almost unanimous support, but it stalled in the Senate.

And the Senate never took it up.

And I think that was partly because there are some senators who have said, you know, we don't know if this is needed for right now.

We don't know if we need these regulations.

Let's just see how this kind of plays out.

And I think there are conversations just all around about how, you know, this could potentially bring economic benefits to Kentucky.

But at the same time, how do we go about this to make sure it doesn't hurt?

You know, communities, it doesn't hurt water.

It doesn't hurt the resources that these communities use here.

>> It's going to be a robust discussion.

I think, in the upcoming General Assembly coming up, there were some interim committee discussions this week on what Kentucky should do with its share of a settlement with social media giant meta, Rob Duncan from attorney General Russell Coleman's office, spoke to lawmakers.

>> We're grateful for the opportunity to discuss how Kentucky stands to benefit from the largest big tech settlement in history.

Some have asked why we chose to settle instead of pursuing the case to verdict.

And to put that plainly, the answer is the injunctive terms that we secured from meta are better than anything that we could have recovered from a verdict in court.

>> So the Attorney General and other attorneys general feel they have made a good deal.

McKenna, it would appear there's momentum for applying this money to the problem.

And and not putting it in the general fund.

For instance.

>> Right.

One of my colleagues, Sarah Ladd, she spoke with some lawmakers about this issue for a story last week.

Republican Representative Kimberly.

Kimberly Moser said that she's going to revive a bill that she had this year, which would funnel social media settlement money into programs, into youth development around the country, around Kentucky.

So that's something that might be coming back next session.

Also, another thing not related specifically to the settlement money, but this settlement and the rules around social media for teens and children.

Republican Representative Matt Lockett is going to revive a bill in some form that would have put state regulations on social media for minors.

>> And I think there's a broader discussion about screen time and kids in school even.

>> Right.

And that was even part of the settlement in some way.

Meta agreed to add some features within the next few months.

So we'll see that continue around the country as well.

>> Morgan.

We continue to see more measles cases in Kentucky.

Much of that seems concentrated in Western Kentucky, but there's some scattering.

>> Yeah.

We've had according to the state's latest numbers that are online, 51 cases of the measles in Kentucky this year.

That includes one in Trimble, two in Owen, two in Lewis County, four in Jessamine, five in Washington.

And then the biggest cluster is like 20 in Christian and nine in Trigg that have been recorded this year.

And that's compared to 13 cases last year.

And in the years before that, like going back to at least 2011, you usually saw zero cases almost every time because when enough, like when people broadly get the measles vaccine, it protects against measles being spread.

But as people have been more hesitant or rejected, vaccines, there's less people getting vaccinated.

And it creates the opportunity for measles to resurge.

>> Bill Estep reported for the Kentucky Lantern on federal charges against five people in connection with cockfighting.

So this is going on a federal direction, right.

>> And so this is unique.

Some advocate groups that he spoke to said that the new indictments in Kentucky are path breaking because they charged owners with possessing roosters for the purposes of fighting.

Typically what you see is law enforcement feels like they have to catch people in the act of fighting roosters.

So that's a different kind of path forward.

>> Hannah this is a tough night for us, as you'll be leaving the Herald-Leader because of the staffing cuts.

We have so enjoyed having you here and you are giving us your expertise and you have a tremendous command of Kentucky politics.

So we're wishing you the best.

>> Thank you.

I really appreciate it.

Love covering this Kentucky political scene.

I hope this is not the last time I'll be covering Kentucky politics here, and just really grateful to you and for KET for having me on.

And I know my colleagues, Alex and Tessa, who also were part of the layoffs, have as well.

>> Well, we appreciate that.

Thank you, and good luck.

Big weekend in Louisville.

The louder Than Life Music Festival rolls on the University of Kentucky, announcing record enrollment today, over 39,000 students at the school.

UK has students from all 120 Kentucky counties and all 50 states.

[MUSIC] That's come and have a good week ahead.