music >> I find this bill and typical to established medical ethics.

>> Here are the Frankfort debate over morals and medicine.

>> This is a significant step in the right direction.

[MUSIC] I don't trust automated enforcement of anything.

[MUSIC] >> What happens to the data captured by license plate cameras?

One bill wants to make sure it can't be stored indefinitely.

[MUSIC] >> When I saw that video, it bothered me.

I didn't see a man attacking ice.

I saw a man retreating.

[MUSIC] >> From ice to Jeffrey Epstein.

Two top Kentucky Republicans talk about the big issues in the news.

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

[MUSIC] .

>> Good evening and welcome to Kentucky edition for this Wednesday, February the 11th, I'm Renee Shaw, and we thank you for winding down your Wednesday with us.

What one lawmaker calls a right of conscience.

Others decry as discrimination a religious liberty measure is in motion in Frankfort as it advanced from committee this morning.

A Jessamine County Republican and physician is putting up the measure that applies to doctors and other health care professionals.

As our June Leffler reports, medical associations and LGBTQ rights groups aren't on board.

That begins tonight's legislative update.

[MUSIC] >> But, you know, this bill protects those who wish to follow their strongly held conscience beliefs as long as it does not put others in danger or even interfere with the rights of others.

There are there are always other health care providers that they can use as options.

>> Health care workers could refuse any medical care except emergency or sexual assault services.

Under Senate Bill 72, medical professional boards could not reprimand a worker for exercising their beliefs.

A Louisville Democrat and doctor asked for real world examples.

>> When would this have ever had any applicability to my practice?

>> Having prescriptions changed.

I've been in clinics where the owners of the clinics actually changed prescriptions that were written for patients.

>> Though the measure offers more leeway for health care workers, medical professionals and associations testified against the bill.

>> As health care providers, we take an oath to do no harm.

That oath does not change based on who the patient is or what someone believes.

I am also a member of the LGBT community, and this bill scares me.

Not just of being denied care, but of receiving care that is less complete, less compassionate, and less safe.

>> The local American Civil Liberties Union and the Fairness Campaign, an LGBTQ rights group, also testified.

>> The list of health care services that can be denied is so broad, and it's not an exhaustive list, but it includes testing, diagnosis, referral, even record keeping.

A receptionist could refuse to check in a patient wearing a Maga hat.

A custodian could refuse to clean an interracial couples room in the maternity ward, or an unmarried mother single mother, a pharmacist could refuse to provide HIV prevention drugs.

>> In the Senate Health Services Committee.

Both Democrats oppose the measure.

>> Our job is to treat and not make moral judgments on who we are treating or why they are in that situation.

I find this bill antithetical to established medical ethics.

>> All Republicans approved the measure.

>> The way I see this, this is not denying patients of whatever persuasion, any care, especially in emergency, that they will they will get care and emergency.

>> I was able to speak with the medical school student from UK, and he and his wife both were attending UK, and they were sincerely concerned about their conscience rights to the extent that they were going to move to Florida, where they do have conscience protections.

>> Senate Bill 72 passed 8 to 2 and heads to the Senate for its first floor vote for Kentucky edition.

I'm June Leffler.

>> The Alliance Defending Freedom helped craft Senate Bill 72.

That's a national law firm that has won U.S.

Supreme Court cases for a wedding cake baker and a web developer for refusing to serve gay clients.

Crime fighting versus privacy rights.

That was the debate today during a Judiciary Committee hearing.

House Bill 58 would prevent law enforcement and others from keeping data from license plate cameras for more than 90 days.

As our Mackenzie Spink tells us, some lawmakers feel the measure doesn't go far enough to protect Kentuckians privacy.

>> Automated license plate readers take pictures of the plates of every car that passes by the camera.

According to House Bill 58.

The data recorded about those vehicles includes the license plate number and the car's make and model.

Law enforcement uses this data in several ways as a crime fighting tool, including to help find stolen vehicles and more.

Under House Bill 58 data recorded about your vehicle by the plate readers would disappear after 90 days.

>> The crux of the bill is that we are intending to limit the retention of that data to 90 days after, with certain exceptions, it should be destroyed, so it can't be used for future fishing expeditions, and also to strictly limit the sale or even giving away of that data to avoid invading people's personal privacy.

>> There are exceptions to the bill.

The data captured by a license plate reader can be held for longer than 90 days.

If the information is relevant in an investigation or open court case.

>> You mention in here that 90 day retention, I believe if I read correctly, is there an exception?

If there is a pending court case that needs that data to be retained until the conclusion of that court case?

>> Yes.

If there's an active criminal investigation, you can retain it as long as necessary.

And also an active insurance investigation or subpoena.

>> While the bill received unanimous support from the House Judiciary Committee, some lawmakers voiced opposition to the existence of automated plate readers at all.

>> This is a significant step in the right direction.

I don't trust automated enforcement of anything.

The error rates that we see on this has resulted in catastrophic results for innocent parties, including third parties, that had nothing to do with the topic of the investigation.

Simply put, the right to be left alone is one of those rights that sparked the revolution that created this country.

This gets us closer to that effort and ensures that there's at least guardrails in place to ensure that citizens are not constantly being spied on.

And that's not a right, and that's not a right to protect the guilty.

It's a right to protect the innocent.

>> Depending on where you are in the state, the location of automatic license plate readers may be public, like in Lexington, or they may be undisclosed, which is the case in Louisville.

For Kentucky edition, I'm Mackenzie Spink.

>> Thank you.

Mackenzie.

This month, Kentucky Attorney General Russell Coleman said that Louisville Metro Police do not need to reveal the locations of its license plate cameras.

He agreed with LMPD that publicizing their locations would make them less effective at fighting crime.

As we've reported many times and discussed on our public affairs programs, Kentucky is dealing with a major housing shortage.

The state needs more than 200,000 new units to keep up with demand.

A Henderson Republican has an idea to bring local governments and housing developers together to make homes more affordable and get new construction up and running.

Our Emily Sisk explains as we continue our legislative update.

[MUSIC] >> Senate Majority Caucus Chair Robby Mills says if more housing developments don't soon get off the ground, Kentucky's housing shortage could rise to almost 300,000 units over the next five years.

Today, Mills proposed his housing legislation to the Senate's State and Local Government Committee.

Senate Bill nine would do two things.

It establishes a residential infrastructure development district, where local governments can issue bonds to pay for costs like roads, utilities and other infrastructure.

Developers would pay that back over time rather than footing the bill up front.

Senate Bill nine also establishes housing development districts, where participating local governments can award annual housing incentives to developers for either 7 or 15 years.

Mills said these initiatives should encourage developers to get off the sidelines and start construction.

>> These tools, if used properly, could make more residential development lots available across the state, expediting building the building process and make a home more affordable along the way.

>> Mills emphasized that as part of Senate Bill nine, local governments would partner with developers and municipalities could tailor developments to what their community needs.

>> They could require certain projects to be workforce housing, certain projects to be affordable, first time home buyers homes, or even more denser housing units like condos, townhouses and multi-family homes.

>> The Henderson Republican also pointed out that Senate Bill nine would not add any cost to the state budget, as it would put the fiscal responsibility on local governments.

Senator Lindsey Tichenor raised a question about those finances.

>> It may not directly in this bill require an allocation, but it might in the long run.

If local governments are heavily funding or needing funding for these infrastructure projects, would that be an accurate assessment?

>> No not really.

So so the so the the infrastructure we're talking about, the bonds will actually pay be paid from that district.

So no one outside of that district will be paying for those.

>> Senate minority whip.

Cassie Chambers Armstrong, a Louisville Democrat, asked how exactly this legislation would make homes more affordable.

>> I'm not seeing anything in this legislation as I'm reading it, and like you said, it's very dense.

That would require the homes built under this, that a certain percentage of them be legally classified as affordable.

>> My thought process here was to give local governments as much control over this, this process.

So we're not saying do this, do that.

We're letting the the local officials make that decision.

>> Mills said it's his belief that as the housing supply goes up, the cost of homes will go down.

He also said there's plenty more housing legislation to come during this legislative session.

Senate Bill nine passed the State and Local Governments committee and now heads to the Senate floor for consideration for Kentucky edition.

I'm Emily Sisk.

>> Thank you Emily.

Now we pivot from the affordable housing issue to how to make it easier to keep the lights on in a home.

A Pikeville Republican wants to give ratepayers, especially in eastern Kentucky, plagued with sky high energy bills when they need to use it the most.

Phillip Wheeler advanced his Senate bill 172 from committee today.

He says the measure will give the PSC Public Service Commission tools to give relief to ratepayers suffering from spiked surcharges during high demand times.

His plan would stabilize those rates by spreading them out over several months.

>> I will cleanse it a little bit for the testimony here, but no darn way in a 1400 square foot house, sit on 67 with two people living in it.

In the evening she just received a bill for $712 for a single month.

Now, members of the committee, you know, for working class people, that's just unsustainable.

And, you know, I know it's been cold this last month.

We've all experienced that sliding around on on campus here for the last week.

And usage has been pretty high.

But for particularly my region that used to have some of the lowest bills in the Commonwealth, really, that bill is a portrait of a bad energy policy that we have seen since around 2009, that with a couple of breaks, continues to plague ratepayers in eastern Kentucky, not only with high electric bills, but also a cost in jobs.

>> Has a Republican, Brandon Smith, said his constituents to have also contacted him about the spikes in their light bills that often exceeds their mortgage or rent.

>> But no other place in the state nowhere gets hit with bills like we do, and it hits the least among us.

It hits the area that has some of the greatest struggles in this country.

Owsley County is one.

It's considered to be the poorest county in the United States of America.

There's something inherently wrong about what's happening here.

This is a very good committee, and we've got great staff, we've got smart members.

Some of the most senior members in the General Assembly are here.

We can we can address this.

We can do better than what we're putting up with here.

>> The fuel surcharge stability measure cleared the Senate Natural Resources and Energy Committee that Senator Brandon Smith chairs without opposition this morning, and is scheduled for a Senate floor vote later this week.

Five people have been indicted on federal charges in a licensing fraud case in Kentucky.

Governor Andy Beshear announced the news yesterday, saying the cases were tied to two drivers licensing offices.

In August, news reported undocumented migrants were illegally being sold driver's licenses at a licensing branch in Louisville.

According to the indictment, the suspects illegally charged between 200 and $1500 to expedite driver's licensing applications and allowed applicants to bypass certain testing requirements.

All five suspects are facing 45 charges.

Most carry a maximum sentence of 20 years each.

In national politics now.

Gun laws.

Ice nationalized elections and the federal budget.

U.S.

Senator Rand Paul of Kentucky and his guest, Congressman Thomas Massie of the fourth Congressional District, talked about all of those issues and more during a video town hall last night.

Congressman Massie recapped where things now stand with the Jeffrey Epstein Files and discussed his sponsorship of the Epstein Files Transparency Act.

>> It gave the DOJ 30 days to publish all of the Epstein files.

Well, they missed their deadline.

And you know, that's bad enough.

But they made some other mistakes.

They accidentally against the law.

The law says don't release victims information.

But they say it was an accident.

They released the names of victims, which they weren't supposed to do.

And the most concerning thing is they're still covering up files or they're over redacting files.

This week, starting on Monday, I had a chance to go to the DOJ and look at the unredacted files.

And I found out of those millions of documents, I just looked at 40 of them, and I found three documents where they were redacting names of coconspirators of Jeffrey Epstein in the sex trafficking ring.

Right.

Leslie Wexner is one of them.

He's a former CEO.

He's still alive.

He should go to court.

He's listed in the FBI's documents as a coconspirator and then several other names that I forced the release of.

There's a very troubling email in the Epstein files where somebody sends Epstein a torture video and he says, I really enjoyed the torture video with the redacted who it came from.

And I went in there, I got the email that it came from, and I was able to use the DOJ's own computers to match the email up with an individual.

And it's a sultan from overseas that Jeffrey Epstein interacted with quite frequently.

>> Senator Rand Paul has been critical of Ice.

After two deadly shootings in Minneapolis.

He talked about the recent shooting death of a 37 year old nurse.

>> The problem turns out, is in in in Minnesota and Minneapolis.

And I'm going to have a hearing on this this week.

And I'm bringing in people from Minnesota to answer these questions.

In Minnesota, the mayor of Minneapolis said, this is Mayor Frey.

He said in December of this year, no cooperation.

In fact, you're not allowed to cooperate at all.

Well, then that's a problem.

And so then the Ice people said, well, if the jails aren't going to turn him over to us, we have to send 3000 agents.

And then when they got 3000 agents there, some things happened that shouldn't have happened.

And look, I think most of the people who work for Ice and most people in our government are good people.

Law enforcement is a hard job.

I think they're trying to do the best.

But when I saw that video, it bothered me.

I didn't see a man attacking ice.

I saw a man retreating, and I don't think the people meant to be what happened?

I think if you could ask them, they'd probably say they feel bad that that, you know, about the shooting and I would, you know, anybody has to feel bad about it, but it has to get better.

And so really, Homan has gone in and he's not a shrinking violet by any means.

He went in, he said he's going to reduce the agents by 700.

He told the agents, if you misbehave, you will be punished and maybe it's going to get better.

But we have to have more communication.

So there is some blame that goes on Minnesota for not, you know, for trying to nullify federal immigration law.

But there also is too much force.

I'm going to ask the head of Ice on Thursday what is the appropriate use of force.

I mean, I think if, you know, some of these are women being thrown to the ground where the woman probably is maybe saying something nasty, something bad, or protesting, but you shouldn't throw somebody to the ground for being obnoxious.

And so a lot of people have seen those videos and they don't think it's right.

>> Congressman Massie is a candidate for reelection in Kentucky's fourth congressional district.

He has disagreed with President Donald Trump on some budget and foreign policy matters and more at Gallrein is running against Massie in the May Republican primary, and has President Trump's endorsement.

U.S.

Senator Mitch McConnell is now out of a Washington, D.C.

hospital.

As we told you last week, Senator McConnell checked himself into a hospital after suffering from flu like symptoms.

A McConnell spokesperson says the 83 year old left the hospital yesterday and will be working from home this week on the advice of his doctors.

Governor Andy Beshear of Kentucky says he will boycott a white House dinner after President Donald Trump disinvited to Democrat's.

The Courier Journal says the president doesn't want the governors of Maryland or Colorado at the dinner, which is always open to all governors of both parties.

Beshear is chair of the Democratic Governors Association.

He says this is another example of President Trump creating chaos and division.

[MUSIC] Kentucky's famous Bourbon Trail serves up a neat way to explore the Commonwealth.

Now it got just a little longer.

The Kentucky Distillers Association is welcoming ten new destinations.

They include urban satellite tasting rooms and new distillery experiences.

There are now 68 stops on the Kentucky Bourbon Trail, which attracts more than 2.5 million visitors a year.

A new report by an economist at the University of Kentucky shows the state's bourbon industry had a $10 billion economic impact for Kentucky last year.

We caught up today with the Kentucky Distillers Association, who says bourbon tourism remains a thriving industry in the Commonwealth.

>> I think bourbon tourism is definitely one of the key parts of the bourbon boom over the last 20 years, because people from all over the world, millions of people, in fact, are coming here to really immerse themselves in the place where bourbon was invented.

And, you know, they can see the small distilleries, the mom and pop distilleries that are literally, you know, doing this by themselves and creating local whiskey, using local corn.

And then they can go to the larger distilleries and walk in the footsteps of Colonel Bean, wild Turkey, you know, these are global brands that people have talked about for generations.

And it's really helped not only boost tourism, but it's a tourism boost.

That's 365 days a year.

You know, a lot of things in Kentucky, like horse racing, for example.

And I'm a big fan of horse racing.

But, you know, you can only go to Keeneland and church and things like that only certain times of the year and state parks, things like that, that are, that are gorgeous.

You know, some of those beautiful parts of Kentucky, you may only visit those in the summer or the fall or something.

There used to be a slow time for Kentucky bourbon tourism.

Not anymore.

I mean, you have people coming every single day from all over the world to kind of experience the art and craft of of making the world's finest whiskey.

>> Eric Gregory says.

In 2008, there were seven distilleries in Kentucky.

They now see an average increase of 5 to 10 distilleries a year.

There are currently 125 distilling locations in Kentucky in 45 counties.

The ten new destinations are in Meade, Breckinridge, and Scott counties, along with Frankfort, Louisville, Lexington and Paducah.

We'll toast to that.

[MUSIC] Kentucky's Black History is on display at Roots 101 African American History Museum in Louisville.

The Downtown Museum opened in 2020 and is a treasure trove of artifacts and educational resources.

Our Kelsey Stack sat down with the CEO and co-founder, Lamont Collins for the latest episode of Inside Louisville.

>> Tell us about Roots 101.

For somebody who's never been there, what?

What are they going to see?

What are they going to learn there?

>> I think Roots what makes Roots so vital is that you see America, you see the history of black people.

You see the resilience of black people.

You see the the contributions of black people.

That's what makes Roots so unique.

It's an emotional journey.

It's not a bunch of AI.

There's there's actual artifacts that you can pick up and feel at my museum.

Everybody can touch and feel everything that comes in the museum.

When you come in the museum, I have some shackles that are more than 400 years old.

Shackles from Ghana.

Everybody puts those shackles on.

I mean, I put them on the most wealthiest woman in Louisville.

I put them on.

And the reason I do that, I want people to understand what we've been through.

And it's I had a lady come in.

The museum had 37 million views on YouTube.

It was a white lady that started to cry, and she cried from compassion of holding those chains, not from guilt of those chains, because the Roots we don't talk about guilt, we talk about the greatest part of America is when black people and white people came together.

That's what made America the beacon in the hill.

It was not that it was separated, it's that it was growing together on the history of what it was.

I think that's what makes Roots so unique.

When you come out of that museum, you feel everything in that walk, but when it's over, you feel like there is an opportunity, that there's greater allies together than we are apart.

And that's what I would say.

We're better together.

And I think that's what Roots tells that story of how black history is American history, and American history is the history of all of us.

And that's what we do.

>> Yeah.

And it's so important, too, for young people today to understand and learn about that history.

I know you all do a lot of education outreach.

Tell me about that.

>> Well, yeah, it's so important for young people because, you know, if you don't know the history of where you're going, you don't know where you've been.

Right?

So a unique time like this, the same things that I heard my grandfather and grandmother talk about at the kitchen table are the same things.

I'm talking to my grandchildren.

The only thing different than what I've talked about from what they could talk about, is I did see a black president in my time.

But when we saw that black president, now we see the residual fallback from people in America.

Some people in America feel like somehow they're losing something in the process of black progress.

So Roots brings all that to the table.

I mean, there's no way that people leave out of Roots and don't feel different than they come in Roots because it's not about alienation, it's about coming together.

And we can't allow people to tell their story as if it can't be told without telling the truth of the story.

>> Learn more about the museum and the nonprofit Reckoning, Inc.

which is behind an exhibit on black soldiers during the Civil War.

Currently on display at the Muhammad Ali Center.

And a new podcast about some of the Kentucky centered and little known history of the Civil War that's on inside Louisville, streaming now online on demand at Keturah.

Well, that will do it for us tonight on Kentucky Edition.

We sure hope we see you right back here again tomorrow night at 630 eastern.

530 central, where we inform, connect and inspire.

We sure hope you'll connect with us on all the social media channels, Facebook and Instagram.

To stay in the loop, send us a story idea to Public Affairs at Keturah.

We would love to hear from you, and also look for us on the PBS app that you can download on your mobile devices and smart TV.

And of course, you can stream so many of our programs online on demand at Keturah.

[MUSIC] We've got more from the Kentucky General Assembly tomorrow.

We'll bring it to you when you tune in tomorrow night.

In the meantime, have a good one and I'll see you soon.

So long.