♪ >> And make sure we do this right.

>> Where do things stand and kids Aqui for months before the beginning of legalized medical marijuana.

>> The yield on your double crown Baynes will start to drop and that's course never good.

>> Dry conditions are worsening across Kentucky, potentially affecting the fall harvest.

>> Topping music, it's meant to be played with other people.

>> And you'll find plenty of other people at this Martin County music tradition.

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

♪ ♪ >> Good Evening and welcome to Kentucky EDITION on this Thursday, September.

That said, I'm Renee Shaw.

Thank you for spending some of your Thursday night with us.

>> Kentucky leaders are responding to America's latest school shooting.

>> A 14 year-old is accused of killing 2 students and 2 teachers and wounding 9 other people yesterday at a high school in Winder, Georgia.

Police say he opened fire with an assault-style rifle in a hallway outside his algebra class Governor Andy Beshear posted this quote, The news out of Georgia is devastating as another senseless act of violence has taken more lives and will leave others with lifelong trauma.

My heart breaks for those students and we pray for all those affected.

We must do better end quote.

Today in his weekly press or the governor talked about Kentucky's new medical cannabis program.

Thousands of businesses submitted applications for licenses to grow process and sell medical marijuana to qualifying patients.

Starting next January.

But the law only allows 48 dispensaries divided between 11 regions of the state.

The governor says the number of applicants exceeded expectations and he says the state will work overtime to process those applications before the planned license lottery in October.

>> We are increasing our staff almost doubling them for reviewing the applications.

We had already taken the step to move from about 9 people to about 29 people.

And we're adding another 20 on top of that to do our best to get through this as quickly.

But also as accurately as we can.

Most important thing is that we do it right and we do it safely.

And we create a program that addresses any concerns.

And then provides this important health care service to our people.

We will announce the lottery dates for each each license category in the coming weeks.

Here's some to be prepared for processor and cultivators.

That lottery will be earlier than dispensaries.

programs can help a lot of people remember the veteran with PTSD was brave enough to come up here to to this podium with the service dog talk about how this helped him get from a 20 plus medications down to one or 2.

Talked about how he had been contemplating suicide, had difficulty working in and how it helped him get to a really good and positive place where he's enjoying life and could come up here and even do this.

So really excited as this rolls out.

And I just remind people that it is still a limited program.

Then you have to have one of a certain number of conditions.

Well, I think there need to be more conditions.

It is limited to that.

And so we are making sure that as we set up the industry that it's appropriately scaled, that we don't go through what we went through and help that left.

A lot of farmers with a whole crop.

They couldn't sell, threaten bankruptcy, had a lot of processors want when they had the right intentions are not in the beginning.

Go out of business.

We want to make sure we do this right.

>> Patients with cancer, multiple sclerosis, epilepsy and post traumatic stress disorder will be eligible to use medical marijuana.

Now turning to national politics, U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell says President Joe Biden was on electable and the Democrats made a smart political move, replacing him with Vice President Kamala Harris.

McConnell talked about the presidential race while speaking in Richmond yesterday.

>> Now let me shift to the what's on everybody's mind.

First of all, I don't know who's going to win.

But I think we're going to have a very competitive rage.

And for those of you are not political junkies.

Large parts of America have already shot up with one side or the other.

So you say that to count is going to 7 states.

>> Over and over and over again.

Both candidates going to the same place.

That's where virtually all of the money will be spent.

My view is it.

Mire over the next couple of years.

No matter who wins this time.

Mr.

Try to get us in the right place.

On to found.

>> McConnell says next Tuesday's presidential debate could be a pivotal moment in the presidential race.

The U.S. Court of Appeals is siding with Kentucky's attorney general and a First Amendment case.

Republican Attorney General Russel Coleman asked the 6th Circuit Court to block the Kentucky registry of election finance is guidance that local Republican Party, executive committees could not spend money to advocate for or against constitutional amendments.

Coleman argued the restriction violated the party's right to free speech.

Today.

The court said, quote, and the realm of First Amendment rights to are more central than the right to express opinions on electoral questions and the qualifications of political candidates.

And quote, last month, Coleman said public schools can not spend public dollars to campaign for against constitutional amendments.

There are 2 amendments on the ballot in Kentucky this Year.

Amendment one would prohibit noncitizens from voting and state and local elections.

Amendment 2 would allow the Kentucky General Assembly to authorize public money for private schools.

The general election is 2 months from today on November.

The 5th.

The attorney general is also cracking down on a new type of game, he says violates Kentucky law.

The so-called risk-free or no risk games are quickly popping up across the state.

Attorney General Coleman says the games should be considered Graham machines that are therefore illegal in the state.

The General Assembly passed a law last year outlawed the slot style video games before that back or said they were games of skill, making them legal.

But critics said they were games of chance making them illegal.

This week, Coleman Senate advisory, 2 police chiefs, sheriffs and commonwealth's attorneys and powering them to investigate and prosecute violators.

His advisory said, quote, the law is clear.

Graham machines and other games like them are illegal gambling devices that have no place in Kentucky will uphold the law passed by our commonwealth's policy makers and the general assembly, unquote.

An attorney for one of the companies making the games told Kentucky Public Radio that their machines would be removed from Kentucky stores by the close of business yesterday.

>> In today's Education news, 2 institutions for higher learning are teaming up to help students overcome a financial barrier to getting a four-year college degree.

Kentucky State University and the Kentucky community and Technical College system are offering a new scholarship.

It will allow Pell eligible Kctcs students to transfer to KSU and continue working toward a bachelor's degree free of charge.

Pell Grants are federal aid program offered to low-income students, according to KCTCS more than 60% of its students who earned an associate's degree in 2023. received a Pell Grant scholarship applications for the spring semester are open through November.

The 15th.

♪ ♪ A Louisville is about to get its first hospital west of 9th Street and 150 years.

And now we know when more in today's look at medical News Norton, Healthcare says that Norton West Louisville Hospital will open on November.

The 11th that's on South 28th Street.

The hospital will have an emergency room operating rooms, plus X-ray and MRI services and a pharmacy.

The campus also includes a Goodwill Opportunity Center to provide social services earlier this year.

Our Kelsey Starks sat down with the chief administrative officer, Townsend for an episode of inside Louisville.

And you can learn more about the project by heading over to KET.

He dot org.

As we age.

We often hear the need to, quote, get our affairs in order.

It's one of the major chores of adulting making sure our loved ones know our wishes when it comes to end of life care, having and updating our wills and tending to other financial decisions.

These are complex tasks to sort out and often hard to talk about.

I talked to a professor at Wayne State University yesterday about how to care for those who are dying.

Andrea send car is author of the book Dying At Home.

A Family Guide for Caregiving.

The book gives Essential information that the dying need to navigate that journey, including the benefits and barriers to dine at home.

Our conversation is part of Katie's the next chapter initiative focused on the issues facing Kentucky's Asian population and their loved ones.

Dr. Andrea sent Card.

Thank you so much for a few minutes of your time to talk about this very important topic.

>> And thank you for having me.

Let's talk about this dying at home.

A family guide for caregiving.

Give us the the impetus for for this.

You've had a couple of these versions of of this work.

Why is this so important to talk about it and what kind of consequences do we face if we try to ignore the inevitable source and can The impetus for this current version of it is the increase in funding that's available on the federal level through Medicare and Medicaid.

>> As well in private insurance.

So that means that hospitals when they understand that chair is no longer possible.

Now have presentations terminal are really pushing people to be cared for at home.

And there is some support, as I said to the hospice benefit.

But it's not adequately except in very few cases.

And so families are left with a very high level of care.

Somebody maybe just left in the intensive care in the hospital and they're at home know, and the family has to provide all the care.

So this book is designed to help families and close friends will provide that care, understand what the issues are, understand what they're facing, understand where they can get support and then how to cope with this very challenging tasks and very rewarding tasks.

>> And dying at home is key because many people think I don't know if I want that right for my loved one or for me.

Kind of dispel for us, the myths or concerns that people may have about dying at home.

Well, one of the unfortunate is is that if you sign up for hospice, essentially that, you know, you'll get any more care.

And that's a new death for.

>> Hospice care is available for 6 months before someone dies.

And it's it's focused on keeping the patient, the person inside comfortable and supporting the family that is providing the care.

So it's not a death sentence.

You know, people wait, wait too long to get hospice care.

Typically they could start getting hospice care sooner and then they can have more care in the home.

When you have somebody who's dying, they need a lot of attention and a lot of care and often gets around the clock care.

If you have the hospice benefit, you're able to access the resources that hospice provides without the benefit.

If you just him home care or you're trying to do it yourself, it's really difficult.

>> And making the decision to have that at home hospice assisting what are some other considerations are questions you should be asking yourself are discussing with your loved one if they're able to communicate at that point because we would think that they may be at a point and their terminal condition where that communication is a possible.

But that's a second line.

Well, 2 things sort of a physician has to certify the view of the patients only has a 6 months left to live.

>> So that's the first you access to getting hospice care.

Then you have to as a caregiver, you have to assess.

Can I really do this?

Not everybody can do this.

I mean, if you're elderly couple and the person is not dying is as for real potential as a person has died, maybe they can't do it or if you're a young parent with little kids and full-time job, maybe you can't do it.

So even the person who who is dying, who would like to die at home, that caregivers may not be able to actually, you know, respond appropriately to that wish.

And they have to mean 2 different chairs settings for the dying person.

That's OK. And we need to really say, can I do this?

Do I have the extra support they need in order to do this and will the rest of my life and sort of my total fixation in attention to caring for the dying person.

>> We always hear the phrase Dr Sen car about getting your affairs in order and hopefully many people are doing this before they get to this point.

But if there is a sudden unexpected turn and someone's health or condition where they're not able and did not make those advance provisions.

How do you help someone get their affairs in order and what does that really mean?

What's the full extent of that?

That's a huge And that could be everything from writing a will, which you don't necessarily have to have in order to be in hospice.

>> To doing advanced directives to deciding what you can have a do, not resuscitate order to a whole range of things that you want to think about.

No, if you are in and rolled in a hospice, they will suggest that you think about these issues.

So it's not miss Sanchez up to the caregiver and the dying person.

It you'll get professional advice about you really need to have advance directives in advance directives or what the U.S., you know, hopefully the dying person is alert enough to be part of this is to serve, specify what levels of care they want.

You know, you have something happens if they king in there and hospice to they want to be resuscitated or that they won.

Just let it go.

Then if they have an instruction where they're uncomfortable, anyone in a barracks to make themselves more comfortable, which could prolong their lives.

And they just want to let the infection take its course.

So ideally, you want to have that done in person involved in all these decisions.

So when this comes up as a crisis, that's not just on the caregivers shoulders the caregiver can, you know, turn back to say, OK, what did that?

My loved ones say they want to do in this situation and they don't provide guidance for the caregiver in both the caregiving acts and the decisions they have to make.

>> The process of dying, if perhaps there is there common signs of that?

When we think about the loss of appetite in the inability to eat and we thank o my my loved one is starving to death, right?

But that's a part of the transition process, correct?

And are they feeling this in any way or is there pain associated with the dying process?

The research has been done so far on the dying process shows that it's >> completing a loan for the dying person to stop eating and to stop drinking several days and 7 in the case of eating sometimes a few weeks before death.

And that to force food on them can extend sense, make them much more uncomfortable because the body functions, what the stomach and liver are shutting down and to insist that they can make their body respond negatively so can actually make their life more painful.

So, yes, those are, as you said, those are all natural part of the national dying process and they're to be expected.

The hospice, social worker, hospice nurse spoke guide you through this as the caregiver.

This is the first time you've done this.

They can say this is natural.

This is what we expect and hope people will check out your comprehensive guide for caring for a loved one.

Nearing the end of life dying at home.

A family guide for caregiving.

We thank you so much for writing this and sharing.

>> A little bit about it with us today.

We appreciate it.

Thank you for that.

A programming note as part of Katie's next chapter initiative or having a viewer driven Colin program to help all of us get our affairs in order.

>> We'll take your questions about the legal and financial issues we face at end of life and then planning.

We all should do to give us and our families peace of mind.

I do hope you'll tune in Monday night at 8 Eastern 7 Central for end of life and estate planning Colin Akt form and get your questions answered by experts.

♪ >> We Kentucky needs rain and for most of the state, the situation is getting worse.

>> Details and the impact in tonight's look at weather news now.

Let's take a look at the U.S. Drought monitor map from 2 weeks ago on August, 20th, a small part of northeastern Kentucky was in a moderate drought.

That's the area you see in light orange, the yellow area is abnormally dry at that time.

Western Kentucky was considered normal.

Now let's switch to this week's map updated Tuesday and released today.

There's much more orange and yellow all over the state and western Kentucky is now in a moderate drought.

The worsening drought comes as farmers made late summer rain for soybeans to have them ready.

Fall harvest this fall.

Our Laura Rogers spent some time in the field with the Warren County farmer who says it's been weeks since he's had a good downpour.

>> Its corn harvesting time at Tucker Farms and the Woodburn community of Warren County.

But corn is real nice, mainly because of the.

>> July rains had big rain on 4th of July.

>> We have received the right range at the right time.

And our corn crop is actually looking really good.

>> But there are concerns it won't be the same for other crops going into September.

The ground starting to dry.

Tucker had a half inch of rain over the Labor Day weekend.

But before that, I think we're push in by 20 days.

22 days since last right?

We are dry, especially for this time of year.

That's hurting the yield potential on double crop soybeans.

Part of a 3 crop rotation system.

They don't get to play in it until the week comes.

Also they're just a little bit later in the season.

Light summer rain is your number one priority for your noble crops or being props.

Need water and livestock needed for full ridges.

Their food source, dry conditions are also a safety hazard.

Sparks can happen fires.

So we're a little concerned about that.

We have a lot of equipment in the field that's move in currently.

>> A lot of crop that's still in the field.

This really draw South Roan a cigarette out a window or even some friction in the field from some of the equipment can start a fire.

It's not just dry weather that has farmers talking.

>> Tucker, who also needs rain right now for sowing winter wheat says he's worried about grain prices, something he hears from other farmers as well.

Rain Marcus at a 15 year low and puts our.

>> It's high as I've ever been.

And the market is as low as it's been in many years, which makes his operation all the more dependent on good yields.

Farmers take that risk.

When they put out the crops, they can't control market conditions, weather conditions and unfortunately rain is is something that we absolutely have to have that we can't control.

>> Despite weathering those risks and concerns occur is proud to carry on his family legacy of farming, unable to plan a save mart to grow from day one.

And up until today, warmer harvest.

The Nets.

>> Also enjoy watching my kids out.

They get a big thrill out of get a court plan to stall, been able to walk out and pick it up and still say this, a detached to the roots and all that may get a big kick out of that.

>> For Kentucky edition, I'm Laura Rogers.

Thank you, Laura.

The talkers will harvest their soybeans.

And so winter wheat in October.

>> In the meantime, they're just hoping for some rain.

Meteorologists say there is a small chance for scattered showers and thunderstorms tomorrow, but that our state's only significant shot at rain through at least the middle of the week.

♪ Every July in Martin County becomes the mecca of bluegrass music.

We take you to the old time music gathering as seen by Katie's Kentucky life.

♪ >> This is a link that is as old as these mountains, the families that lived here.

>> Traditions that they transmit to us.

And all of these traditions have melded together in passing along this musical tradition that.

>> And so the to the heart, it's his deep into the mountains.

>> And you can trace traditional music back to for 500 years.

And of course, it's involved, but it's music.

It has deep roots in the past and in families and communities and places.

So it's sort of more like.

The natural music that people did out of the need because music was this a natural?

And question?

>> Part of their lives.

♪ >> A plan regional old time music and that has its own stories and history.

Whatever coach are all tied to that.

And that's all tied to the instruments.

>> State and is one of the premier old time music festivals in the state of Kentucky as well as likable.

What I want to do is showcase these people that come down to work so hard to teach workshops concert center in here.

So that's what I did.

♪ >> Addressed Estables all that sort of STA that encourages folks from different communities to get together is usually pretty exciting.

♪ >> Is this Kentucky old time music community, it wouldn't exist without being able to gather.

♪ Is it a good tap of music?

It's meant to be played with other people in the U.S.. And it's good to sit together and hang out and tell stories about the 10's testers.

What he learned from.

♪ >> When folks have these gatherings, then you get folks coming from all over different states to come just because they have a genuine interest and the sort of the same stuff that we do.

You know, we all come to.

To sort of fellowship and see what everybody else has has been doing with it.

And I think that's what the importance of the czars.

This also sort to help give you a broader perspective on the music as well.

>> Way back home.

We are in constant search us out.

And it can to sort and store in This time.

There has to be the certain folks.

>> In our community that are carrying on loose your traditions.

>> And a corner stones in this community.

I mean, what are musicians without their instrument?

>> How to do is Kentucky music >> I I was raised to appear in.

It's in my blood.

♪ >> More great stories like that.

Saturdays at 8 Eastern 7 central on Kentucky.

Life here on KET with Tip Poston.

Tomorrow is Friday.

And Trey Grayson and Bob Babbitt join us for inside Kentucky politics.

So we hope you'll join us for that at 6.30, Eastern 5.30, central on Kentucky EDITION where we inform connect and inspire.

Connect with us all the ways you see on your screen, Facebook, X and Instagram.

>> We will see you right back here again tomorrow night.

And meantime, take really good care so long.

♪ ♪