Oh, what it means is the people of Laurel County and the surrounding area can rest a little easier.

The Laurel County manhunt ends after a couple finds the likely interstate shooter.

We're not hearing anything about solutions from the other side.

More from this week's lively conversation about the pros and cons of school choice in Kentucky.

You saw the significance and the impact that he had not on just Louisville, but on the state and on the country and on the world.

And a special look back at the legacy of Louisville's own, Muhammad Ali.

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

Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Thursday, September 19th.

I'm Laura Rogers, filling in for Renee Shaw.

Thank you so much for being here with us.

And we do begin tonight with a developing story in Letcher County.

The Mountain Eagle newspaper reports the sheriff, Nikki Stynes, is in custody after the shooting of District Judge Kevin Mullens at the Letcher County Courthouse.

The newspaper says Stein surrendered to police after the shooting.

WUKY reports the coroner has confirmed a death.

Much more on this tomorrow on Kentucky edition.

It appears the Laurel County manhunt is over.

Police accused 32 year old Joseph Couch of shooting at vehicles on Interstate 75 on Saturday, September 7th.

Five people ended up wounded, but all of them survived.

The shootings prompted a 12 day search for Couch in the woods nearby.

Yesterday, a couple found a body near the shooting.

Same state.

Police say that is probably county's body.

We are still waiting for confirmed patients.

Governor Andy Beshear talked this afternoon about the end of the manhunt.

I want to thank everybody who's who who worked so hard to create plans to keep the community safe.

While we thought there was a threat and so listen to us of counsel tried to create tried to commit.

Joseph Count's tried to commit an unspeakable act of evil.

And thankfully, he failed.

The only person who died in this was Joseph Couch.

And I want to thank all of our first responders that rushed to the scene, our dispatchers that got to talk to the dispatchers that took those calls.

There were saved a lot of lives.

And I think it's important that we show that we are not going to live in fear.

These individuals that commit these acts, I hope we forget their names as fast as we can.

And so I'm I'm glad to bring this to a close.

And on another topic, the governor defended his decision to issue an executive order yesterday banning conversion therapy, a process that involves attempts to convert someone to another sexual identity.

After the announcement, the Conservative Family Foundation criticized him for going beyond his authority.

That executive order is legal and constitutional.

It's been done in other states.

The United States Supreme Court refused to review Washington's ban on conversion therapy, leaving it in place.

But at the end of the day, I mean, this is a practice that every major medical organization says is unethical and that it harms kids.

It makes them twice as likely to commit suicide.

I made a pledge in comfort that I was going to make the hard decisions to save lives.

And I'm continuing to do that.

And if this was some practice that that that involved a different subset of kids, I'd stand up against it just as much as I have today.

People said some of the same things right after I did my medical marijuana executive order as well.

We believe it's constitutional.

We are ready to fight for it in court if we need to.

But whoever wants to file that lawsuit is standing up for a practice that hurts Kentucky kids and results in more Kentucky kids dying.

We should all be against that.

Other news from the governors news briefing.

A new law enforcement training facility is headed to Madisonville.

It will open in February of 2025 when it opens.

Officers in western Kentucky won't have to travel to Richmond for training.

Also, Moody's has upgraded the state's credit rating, making it easier for Kentucky to borrow for the future.

A northern Kentucky mayor and self-described nerd want state lawmakers to build a cybersecurity army of sorts.

Fort Wright Mayor Dave Hatter says neighboring Ohio has recruited the state National Guard and citizen techies to participate in cybersecurity drills and hopes Kentucky could do the same.

Here's some recent good press they got out of the Cincinnati media market about the drills they're doing with the Ohio National Guard and the public private partnership they've created with businesses like ours to get people trained up and be in a position to respond to crisis is to go out and do education, that sort of thing.

This is an initiative they do every year now, a formal several day training period where they bring in people from the National Guard.

They bring in citizens, citizens who are part of this cyber reserve, and they go through this extensive training session.

So, again, they're preparing people to be able to hit the street in the event of some sort of crisis.

Kentucky colleges are offering more cybersecurity, bachelor's and certificate programs.

Bullitt County Republican says that's just one piece of the puzzle.

State Senator Mike Nemetz proposed the Kentucky Cybersecurity Center in 2023, offering support to local and state governments, law enforcement and businesses.

Kentucky native and sexual abuse survivor Hadley Duvall is featured in a new campaign ad from Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris.

And the 22 year old shares that her stepfather first started abusing her when she was five years old and impregnated her when she was 12.

The ad is part of an effort by the Harris campaign to highlight the consequences of the US Supreme Court ruling that overturned the constitutional right to abortion, including some states restricting abortion even in cases of rape or incest.

I was a child.

I didn't know what it meant to be pregnant at all, but I had options.

In the ad, Deval says.

Republican nominee former President Donald Trump has taken away a rape or incest victim's right to have an abortion if they become pregnant.

Harris has said Trump is responsible because he appointed three conservative ads to the US Supreme Court who helped overturn Roe versus Wade.

Kentucky voters.

You'll be voting yes or no to a constitutional amendment to the so-called School choice amendment.

If it passes, the Kentucky General Assembly could then vote to authorize the use of public money for private schools.

We talked about the pros and cons of Amendment two Monday night on Kentucky tonight.

More in tonight's Education Matters report.

Backers of the amendment say it will mean more education choices and more freedom for parents and their children.

Critics say it will divert money away from public schools and hurt education for most Kentucky students.

Our Renee Shaw asked the panel about that and also about accountability.

Private schools are not required to have open meetings or open records like public schools.

So they have guidelines?

No.

They don't.

Not private schools don't.

They don't have they don't have to have open meetings like board meetings or state based council meetings or any of those.

They don't have to have open records, audits.

They don't have audits.

But what I would say is, is if if we think that private schools should get public money, then why would they think that, you know, they could continue to teach whatever they want to teach, whatever curriculum they want to set aside when we in public schools have to do whatever either the federal government or state government tells us to teach?

Tom, I think that's an important point because, you know, there's an old adage that who has the purse has the power.

And so ultimately and I'm starting to hear this in some of these other states, particularly where they're spending over $1,000,000,000 of new revenue or new cost on vouchers, and they're not really finding the increase in academic achievement that's occurring there.

In fact, maybe it's declining and so there's accountability where all these dollars going, and they're finding some pretty absurd examples in terms of where this money spent.

But I want to get back to.

Well, let me ask the accountability issue really quickly, Mr.

Waters.

I want you to answer that about the guidelines that they'd have to abide by the curriculum that they would do.

So Mr. Shelton still refuses to designate the difference between a public charter school and a nonpublic school.

A public charter school would be subject to the open records and meetings Act.

Are they rejected to the Katy guidelines To be subject.

To some, they would be free from some guidelines which.

Once are determined.

Well, that's determined by the law.

That would be determined.

However, the legislation is set out.

The major difference is two differences.

One is the charter school principal is actually in charge.

He doesn't have to call the guy and the bureaucrat at the central office to make decisions about who to hire or who to fire.

He doesn't have to be beholden to the unions on who the hire.

But the other more important thing about accountability is the difference between a public charter school and a traditional public school is parents decide to enroll their children in a charter school that is the ultimate accountability factor.

If if you say that parents are enrolling their children and the children are failing, you're accusing parents of not giving their children the best opportunity.

We know that the charter schools across the country are closing the achievement gaps and they're doing great things.

We're not hearing anything about solutions from the other side.

See more of that informative conversation online on demand at dot org slash k y. Tonight, the US House, narrowly controlled by Republicans, rejected a Republican spending bill yesterday that would fund the government past September 30th.

The bill included a requirement for new voters to prove their citizenship as they registered.

A provision demanded by former President Donald Trump.

The bill failed.

222 202.

14 Republicans voted no.

Congressman Thomas Massie of Kentucky voted present.

He posted this on x. Madam Speaker, we are told today that we are going to vote on a continuing resolution with another bright, shiny object attached to it.

I feel like this legislation is insincere and unserious.

Now, why is it unserious?

Well, it's unserious because we're cramming all government spending into one bill.

And instead of deciding what to spend on, we're saying, well, let's just spend at least as much as we spent last year and not worry about running any of these bills through committee or debating how much we should spend on the things.

Kentucky's four other Republican congressmen voted yes.

Senator Mitch McConnell says more of America's young people are kicking the e-cigarette habit.

The FDA and the CDC report.

E-cigarette smoking has dropped to its lowest level in a decade, with the number of young people using e-cigarettes down to one third of where it was five years ago.

Senator McConnell says Senate legislation as part of the reason for that.

In 2019 is e-cigarette use was at its peak.

That's the year that I wrote and introduced the Tobacco Free Use Act with my good friend, Senator McCain from Virginia.

Our bipartisan bill raised the minimum age to purchase tobacco products, including e-cigarette devices, from 18 to 21.

We didn't try to reinvent the wheel.

We knew that nearly all smokers, roughly 95% of them started by the age of 21.

But raising the age limit.

Let's go back to when one drove in high schools, which means less opportunity for children to get their hands on addictive vaping devices.

This issue is closer to home.

Kentucky has the highest cancer rate in the country.

In years past, we've even topped the list for higher proportion of cigaret related cancer deaths.

McConnell says many were surprised when that legislation came from a tobacco state senator.

But he says tobacco farmers don't want their children addicted to nicotine.

In medical news, for those who have what's known as long COVID, the symptoms can linger for years.

And according to new research from the University of Kentucky, long COVID can cause lasting damage, including cognitive impairment similar to Alzheimer's disease and related dementias.

We spoke to the researchers behind that study.

Long COVID is after COVID have test negative and people still experience symptoms of neurological deficits and cognitive problems such as mental fog fatigue and could not focus attention problem and later memory problems very similar to Alzheimer's disease and dementia.

Were all part of a larger project cure at the University of Kentucky that studies the role of certain brain cells in Alzheimer's disease and related work related dementias.

And so when one cell type is called astrocytes, and so astrocytes with Mike Quigley play a role in neuroinflammation.

So when the brain kind of becomes inflamed, you see a lot of the same kinds of symptoms that you see with long, long COVID.

So you get a brain fog, for instance, you have cognitive deficits, and a lot of these are really severe, which you see it, early stages of dementia as well.

There's genetic risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, and there's also environmental risk factors for Alzheimer's disease, things like repetitive brain injury, for instance.

So with something like long COVID, that also seems like it might be a kind of brain insult.

And so one of the things I think will be important for us to try to understand, you know, as we get farther and farther removed from the pandemic, is does infectivity with COVID increase risk of later life dementia and Alzheimer's disease and other neurodegenerative diseases like that?

We really want to promote the idea that when somebody has COVID or worried about long COVID, they will not just check their long, they will check their heart function and a brain function and methods like EEG or other methods that are available at hospitals and and hopefully in the future will be more routinely used long COVID and or COVID.

Each is relatively simple compared to like going in and getting an MRI or going in and getting a PET scan or even worse, getting a spinal tap and having your your cerebrospinal fluid assayed.

You know, so EEG, you're you just attach electrodes to to your head.

And most hospitals are set up to do that.

That kind of testing, if there's a cell type that you know is affected by by COVID, you know, like astrocytes or some other cell type in the brain that gives you the potential for a drug target.

So if something works for ameliorating brain fog with COVID, for instance, we might be able to work and see if that also ameliorates cognitive changes that early stages of Alzheimer's disease and vice versa.

According to the latest numbers from the CDC, about 17 million Americans currently have long COVID.

A new program is giving Kentuckians the opportunity to train for jobs in several high demand industries for free without leaving their home.

They look at how this program is getting them industry ready.

And today's economic news Ready for industry is an opportunity for individuals all across the state who have an interest in the career field to learn more about it.

So it's an online course that you can register for.

There are five modules based on the top five industries that are nationwide, and then you can go online self-paced to take that course and learn everything about that industry.

What the industry does.

What are the current jobs?

What's the vocabulary?

What are the hot jobs that are in that industry and the culture so that you know, whether or not it might be something you'd be interested in.

So someone could go through a course 15 to 20 hours and pace and walk away, having a really good sense of what the expectations are and whether or not it might be a fit for them.

And then we have them paired up with education and training partners all across the state, and they may finish that and say, I want to move further into a job.

We can enroll them in training, help them identify a registered apprenticeship or some other means that they can move forward and advance their skills.

And in some cases, that's just going through that is enough to be able to interview with an employer and get a job and allows them to explore.

You know, some they might have been thinking about that, but then they also thought, well, I'll never be able to do something like that.

But this actually takes them the step by step and, you know, sets them up for success and being in somewhere where they can grow.

A high growth industry sector, you know, that they have an opportunity to move in that company, but it gets to them a foot in the door, too.

And the businesses are probably very appreciative, you know, to see, hey, I've got someone that, you know, understands and this is a person that I can hire and bring on board.

And I think that sets them up for success.

It's absolutely free to any citizen in the Commonwealth.

So we're working with all of our partners in the workforce development ecosystem to be able to provide this opportunity to any Kentuckian who's interested in accessing it.

Sometimes people don't even really realize what skills they have until maybe when you're sitting down with someone and you know, in conversation to actually bring that out.

So I think that our goal and our responsibility is to do just that, you know, get to know the individual and get them on a career path that's going to meet what they want to do, whether it's financially or whether it's passion for what they're doing or what have you, but understanding their needs.

For anybody who is interested in exploring new opportunities in their career field, this is a great way to get a sense of what it's like without having to step on the playing floor or to walk into a hospital or to be on a construction site.

You can get the feel.

You can determine whether or not it's the direction that you want to go.

And then we've got you connected with somebody can who can help you get across the finish line.

For more information on ready for industry or to sign up, go to ready for industry dot com slash K Why?

Kentucky's drought picture is getting worse, according to the U.S. drought Monitor.

First, let's look at the map from two weeks ago.

The light orange is moderate drought.

The yellow is abnormally dry.

Now let's switch to the new map out today that was updated on Tuesday.

And you now see a darker shade of orange in many places.

That is severe drought.

And you can even see a red color in northeastern Kentucky.

And part of Boyd and Lawrence counties.

That is extreme drought.

More than 30 Kentucky counties and towns are under burn bans because of the dry weather levels.

Muhammad Ali Center is closed until further notice after a fire and an adjacent parking garage Wednesday morning.

This is file video of the center.

The Courier Journal says fire crews found tiles on fire on the Garage's second floor around two in the morning.

A center spokesperson says smoke from the fire entered the building and affected the air conditioning system.

While it's hard to believe it's been almost a decade since Muhammad Ali's death in June of 2016, people from all over the world came to honor the greatest in his hometown of Louisville.

His legacy continues, and that is the subject of this week's episode of Inside Louisville.

What would you like people to think about when you've gone?

I like for them to say he took a few cups of low.

He took one tablespoon of patience.

One tablespoon teaspoon of generosity.

One part of kindness.

He took one quart of laughter, one pinch of concern.

And then he mixed willingness with happiness.

He had lots of faith.

And he started up well.

Then he spread over a span of a lifetime.

And he served it to each and every deserving person he met.

So let me tell you a story about a man.

His name is Muhammad Ali.

He is the greatest of all time.

He is from Louisville, Kentucky.

And he lives in each and every one of us.

The most significant event I've experienced here in the city was the funeral of Muhammad Ali at the center.

And not just the funeral.

The funeral self was was special, obviously, to have people come in from around the world, celebrities, world leaders to be right here in Louisville to to say goodbye to the champ.

That indeed, was special.

But I think what touched me probably more than anything else was the outpouring of love that you saw throughout this city.

I have never seen anything like it.

There were people in the streets.

There were people hanging out in front of the Yum!

Center celebrating.

They were, you know, folks drawing love hearts and and messages on the concrete.

You saw people from all sorts of backgrounds talking to one another out front, people from different nations here collaborating.

And it showed me what we have the potential to do and to be right here in Louisville, Kentucky.

In my first full year here at the Frazier History Museum.

2016 was when Muhammad Ali died.

And we had a group of people here that went up on the rooftop and watched the procession that that literally shut down the highway.

And it was such a unifying day.

And we had problems then.

And we have problems now.

And we'll always have problems.

But it was a day that the entire community came together and you you saw the significance and the impact that he had not on just Louisville, but on the state and on the country and on the world.

Because here, speaking on his behalf that night, you've got Billy Crystal, Bill Clinton.

You know, John Ramsey did an amazing job.

It was a really impactful day that everybody just put all the stuff aside and celebrated the legacy of one of Louisville's greatest heroes.

And this Sunday, hear from Lonnie Ali, the widow of Muhammad Ali, as she discusses her perspective of that day and her life since she sits down with Kelsie Starks on inside Louisville this Sunday at noon 11 Central on KCET.

There's a new and re-imagined Kentucky show at the Frazier History Museum.

Since 2020, the Frazier has used this production to introduce guests to all parts of the Commonwealth.

A new version of the multimedia production premieres today.

Take a look.

Kentucky is an emotional state that is part.

Of the Kentucky nature.

We like to be.

Challenged to spirit, and it's the old desire, you know, for competition.

The 32 minute film takes guests across the Commonwealth to show the history, landscapes, culture, commerce and arts of Kentucky.

It is narrated by actress and Kentucky native Ashley Judd and is shown five times daily and the museum's Brown-Forman Theater.

The Frazier History Museum is located on West Main Street in downtown Louisville.

Less than seven weeks to the end of the presidential race, a race that could come down to just seven states.

Is that a good thing?

It's not clear we're worse off having a few.

Battlegrounds.

Decide things than if this campaign, this presidential race, had to be decided voter by voter everywhere across the entire nation.

We'll talk about battleground states, the Electoral College and more.

Inside Kentucky politics.

Tomorrow on Kentucky Edition, we sure hope that you'll join us again tomorrow night at 630 Eastern, 530 Central for Kentucky Edition, where we inform, Connect and Inspire.

Subscribe to our Kentucky Edition email newsletters.

You can see full episodes and clips at k e t dot org.

Send your story ideas to public affairs at K at dot org and be sure to follow us on social media.

Thanks so much for watching.

Have a good evening.