Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear held a press briefing on Wednesday.
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NewsTranscript
00:00Hey, everyone. I'm Andy and welcome to this week's team Kentucky update. This
00:05week will start where we always start with great economic development news.
00:10Since I've become governor, we've now announced more than 1100 new location
00:15and expansion projects, totaling over $35 billion of private sector
00:19investment. Even more important, we've crossed a major milestone of having
00:24created more than 60,000 new Kentucky jobs were now at 60,300. And we have
00:31some great companies hitting those milestones along with us. On Monday, I
00:35joined local officials in Owensboro and leaders from Miss Con America to
00:40break ground on the company's $156 million expansion, which will create 44
00:46new Kentucky jobs. Miss Con is a Japanese owned international food
00:51manufacturer that has operations in Owensboro since 1975, as well as a
00:57warehouse in Shively. And these 44 new jobs will join Miss Con's current
01:02workforce of 425 Kentucky ins. Already, the Owensboro facility produces about
01:09one million jars of ragu pasta sauce every day. This expansion, once it's
01:16complete, will allow Kentucky workers to make even more of Miss Con's
01:21delicious pasta sauces and other vinegar based products in an expanded
01:25state of the art facility. When companies like Miss Con America choose
01:30to invest and reinvest in our communities and in the Commonwealth,
01:35good things happen. I was honored to be there to help celebrate this
01:38groundbreaking. Remember the announcements, the hope the groundbreaking
01:42is the progress. I really look forward to the ribbon cutting when we know
01:45there's there'll be 44 new Kentucky jobs as well as a lot more sauce being
01:50produced in Owensboro. Next, we're announcing funding for five projects to
01:55improve communities across Kentucky. First up, we have announcement for Wayne
01:59County. We're committing $750,000 from our community development block grant
02:05program to renovate a senior center in Monticello. We have a video from Wayne
02:10County Judge Executive Scott Gehring.
02:14A judge executive. Just want to say thank you on behalf of myself, the
02:19citizens of Wayne County and the Wayne County Physical Court for this amazing
02:24grant. I think Governor Bashir and his staff, Secretary Noel and his staff,
02:30Lindsay and the staff at the Lake Cumberland Area Development District
02:33for making this grant possible. This is much needed for Wayne County. Our
02:38senior citizen center is used daily and this is just
02:49okay. We're also announcing $750,000 to Bourbon County to renovate a vacant
02:55building in Miller Spark, 750,000 to the city of Murray to renovate the week's
03:01senior center,
03:04750,000 to Hickman County to renovate a senior citizen center in Clinton and
03:09750,000 to the city of Somerset to relocate God's Pantry of Pulaski County
03:15to a larger facility. These are projects that lift our people up. Senior
03:21centers and food pantries are so important to the communities that they
03:24are in. All these projects will be listed in today's release and all of
03:28them will move these individual communities forward in a positive way.
03:33I'm also excited to announce another round of team Kentucky investments to
03:38strengthen our state's infrastructure and fuel economic growth. Nearly $1.5
03:44million will support six Riverport projects across the Commonwealth, each
03:49one critical to our economy. Projects include new material handling
03:53equipment, conveyors, crane buckets and mawr for Henderson County,
03:58Eddyville, Hickman, Fulton County, Owensboro and Paducah, McCracken County,
04:03Riverport authorities. By making these investments, we're not just improving
04:08service capabilities for existing industry. We're also creating
04:12opportunities to attract new business and new jobs. When companies see a
04:16state committed to strong infrastructure, they choose to invest
04:20here, bringing even more growth to our communities. I want to take a quick
04:24moment to acknowledge one of our grant recipients, Eddyville, Riverport and an
04:28industrial development authority. Along with funding from the first round, they
04:33are receiving more than $515,000 that will help with to increase their barge
04:39storage capacity from 12 to 18. So we have a video from Amanda Davenport,
04:45executive director of Eddyville, Riverport and Industrial Development
04:48Authority, who's going to share a few words about the importance of this
04:51project.
04:56I'm Amanda Davenport, the executive director of the Eddyville, Riverport,
05:00and this is a big thank you to the Kentucky Transportation Cabinet for
05:03administering the Riverport Construction and Maintenance Grant Program. This
05:07grant program will allow Riverport all across the state to expand their
05:11operations in their capacity. In Eddyville, we received $1.2 million to
05:16construct dolphins. Dolphins are essentially very large docks that
05:20barges can tie to. This matters to our port because it allows us to continue
05:25to grow alongside our customers. Our customers at the port primarily serve
05:29the agriculture industry and ag is strong in Kentucky. Thank you to
05:33everybody that was involved in creating this grant program. Without these funds,
05:38our Riverport would not be able to grow and continue to serve our customers in
05:41the way that we need to. Thanks to this program, Eddyville, Riverport will
05:45expand alongside the needs of all of their tenants for many years to come.
05:58Well, thank you to Amanda and everyone working at those Riverports.
06:01Congratulations on the new investments. I also want to provide an update on our
06:07continuing efforts to help folks affected by widespread flooding from a
06:11deadly storm system. Back in February, this is the one that had the flash
06:15floods, then the river bank floods, then the snow storm and then the dangerous
06:19cold that swept through our state. The team Kentucky Storm Relief Fund is now
06:24raised over $880,000 from 3851 donors. This includes $70,000 from two
06:33individual donors. We're grateful to them. It includes a $50,000 donation
06:38from the Outlaw State of Kind Foundation. That's Chris and Morgan
06:42Stapleton's charitable fund that supports a variety of causes closest to
06:46their hearts. It includes $30,000 from Jim Bean, $25,000 from the Atlanta
06:52Jewish Foundation in the name of Mr and Mrs Robert Lee of Hebron and $10,000
06:58from the Jack Harlow Foundation. Thank you to everyone who's able to donate
07:02both small and large amounts. It all makes a difference. The money is
07:05currently assisting to pay for funerals for our families that lost a loved one.
07:11The first thing we always do is we grieve together. And I've heard
07:15firsthand having these funds available so that the family doesn't have to
07:19carry that burden and what it means in times of great difficulty
07:24to donate. You can visit our any ky dot gov website and click on the banner at
07:30the top or go to team Ky Storm Relief Fund dot ky dot gov fema report. As of
07:36March 17th fema has approved more than $22 million in housing and other types
07:42of assistance to more than 3800 Kentucky households. More applications
07:46are being processed daily and it's going a lot smoother. The fema
07:50individual assistance than it did in 2022. So grateful to them. Secretary
07:55Noam President trump who authorized this individual assistance. Their fema
08:00workers are doing a great job in Kentucky. There are currently 13
08:05disaster relief centers. We're going to put them up. Remember these are
08:09places you can go to discuss your fema claim to to apply for a small business
08:14loan or to meet your other needs. Uh 16 now the largest number we've had. The
08:20information is subject to change and we update our website as it does. That
08:25website is governor dot ky dot gov backslash flood hyphen resources
08:32disaster unemployment assistance. On monday we announced that disaster
08:37unemployment assistance is now available to two additional counties.
08:41Those are Leslie and Woodford counties. That's available to folks who are out
08:46of work due to the mid february storms. Now we're up to 16 counties eligible
08:52for disaster unemployment assistance. These counties are on the screen. If
08:59you live in any of these 16 counties and believe you're eligible for
09:02disaster unemployment assistance, please visit the Kentucky Career
09:05Center website at KCC dot ky dot gov or or you can call 502564 2900 to file
09:14your initial claim. Most important piece today is the deadline. The
09:19deadline to apply for disaster unemployment assistance is april 25th
09:232025. If you need it, if you qualify for it, make sure you get it in before
09:28that date. The Small Business Administration announced today that
09:32additional counties have been approved for disaster assistance loans. Counties
09:38eligible for both physical damage and economic injury loans are on this
09:43screen and then there are counties eligible for economic injury only which
09:49have now been put up on the screen. So a number of different counties, it
09:54shows how widespread the damage was. Certainly some counties receiving more
09:59than others but significant damage across the commonwealth. I mean if you
10:04if you look here you can, you can see not only counties in the east but in
10:09southern Kentucky and central Kentucky. A lot of damage occurred out there and
10:14we want to make sure as many people can get the help as needed. Uh applications
10:20for disaster loans may be submitted online using the my S. B. A. Loan portal
10:25at lending dot S. B. A. Dot gov or you can visit one of those disaster or
10:30business recovery centers. Filing deadline here is the same april 25th
10:352025. Uh that that except that is for the physical property damage. The
10:42deadline for economic injury is november 24th 2025. Kentucky State
10:48parks are currently sheltering 215 people at five state parks. So thank
10:53you to the staff at Buckhorn Lake Park, Cumberland Falls State Park, Jenny
10:58Wiley State Park, National Bridge and Pine Mountain Kentucky State Parks
11:03campgrounds. Our travel trailer program is now up to 77 people being sheltered.
11:09That is 44 adults and 33 Children. They're all at Jenny Wiley State Park.
11:15We're encouraging all flood survivors to go to housing can't wait dot org to
11:19create a needs assessment. If you go to that and fill it out, a representative
11:24from Fahy will call and we'll talk to you about whether you might qualify for
11:29any of the houses that we are building in our high ground sites across eastern
11:34Kentucky.
11:36Next, we have an update on what team Kentucky is doing to help protect
11:39Kentuckians from scams. It's been a long term mission for me when I was
11:44attorney general, I made it a priority to ensure our most vulnerable,
11:47especially our seniors and veterans were protected from scams. Through our
11:52work, we returned over $1 million to victims of scam or financial abuse.
11:57These scammers work to ruin lives and destroy life savings. And so I remain
12:02committed to making sure we protect as many Kentuckians as possible to help
12:07make sure everyone is up to date on how to avoid the latest scams. We invite
12:11Kentuckians to our Department of Financial Institutions and other local
12:15partners like A. A. R. P. Kentucky to one of our upcoming scam jams
12:21topics will include information on what resources are available to help those
12:26that have already been victimized and how to prevent being victimized. We
12:32also have free secure document shredding for those who attend. Last
12:37year, team Kentucky educated over 500 Kentuckians about how not to fall for a
12:42scam. Remember, the best thing we can do is to prevent it from ever happening.
12:46It's really hard to get that money back. Once it's been paid the times
12:50we've been able to do it, returning those dollars have been something
12:53pretty special. But we want to make sure that no one loses their life
12:56savings to one of these scams this year. Four events have currently been
13:01scheduled. That's april 11. That will be the northern Kentucky scam jam and
13:06shredding. The june 4th Lexington scam jam. The june 5th 2025 summer scam jam
13:13that is in Jefferson town and the june 12th Paducah scam jam and shredding.
13:18Learn more about how to avoid scams and find out about scam jams at K. F. I. K.
13:24Y. Dot gov. Now for our team Kentucky all stars because we're moving fast
13:30today. The greatest tradition in college sports, the kickoff to March
13:34madness and the N. C. Double A. Basketball tournament is finally here
13:38this year. Kentucky has five incredible schools playing in the tournament
13:43representing them inside. We have the University of Kentucky, a three seed
13:47led by new head coach Mark Pope and the University of Louisville and eight C.
13:52Though they do get to play in Lexington led by first year head coach Pat Kelsey.
13:58Congratulations to both these new coaches in their first year making the
14:02tournament. We're really proud of both of them. They are both really good
14:06human beings trying to do good things for those students and for the
14:09Commonwealth. On the women's side, we have the University of Kentucky, a four
14:14seed led by first year head coach Kenny Brooks, the University of Louisville, a
14:19seven seed led by head coach Jeff Walls, who's been an amazing coach there for a
14:24number of years and Murray State University and 11 seed led by head
14:28coach Rochelle Turner. Kentucky will also be welcoming basketball fans from
14:33across the world to our new Kentucky home at Rupp Arena and the historic
14:37Memorial Coliseum, where Lexington will play host as a host city for both the
14:42men's and the women's first and second round games. It's been a historic year
14:48for basketball in the Commonwealth. So to all the players, coaches, managers
14:51and staff who made this moment possible. Congratulations. You are all
14:56this week's team Kentucky all stars. And now I know a lot of y'all are out
15:00there today. If you didn't have to do the play in trying to fill out your
15:04bracket and you're trying to figure out what are the best strategies to fill
15:09out the bracket today, we're bringing you just a little bit of help. It is
15:142025 March Madness and suddenly everybody is a college basketball
15:20expert. But we have devised the most foolproof way to win every office pool
15:26to let Winnie do it. Of course, we're gonna let Winnie Pickle. You ready?
15:30Let's go.
15:35Michigan, Illinois, U. C. L. A. Marquette, Ernie here first folks. Texas
15:41Tech, Kansas. Oh, Montana. Anything can happen in March Madness. St. John's
15:49City, Louisville, Creighton, Kentucky, Troy. Nope. Can't be doing that.
16:10I guess this didn't work out how we thought. But I'm pretty positive that
16:14Winnie believes the winner of March Madness is mama.
16:20Or you could pay attention to dad.
16:32I told him this wouldn't work. He never listens to me.
16:38So a little humor as we move into March Madness. I'm sorry that Winnie could not
16:44give us actual tips. But I'm sure everybody out there will get their
16:48bracket filled out. All right. We have one journalist in studio and two on
16:53the line. So we are right now, I think, about to set a world record for the
16:57amount of time it's taken us to get through a team Kentucky update. So
17:00we'll start with Carolina.
17:04Okay.
17:06I have reported that he's arrested 81 people in Kentucky during recent
17:09removal operations. And of course, this has cost communities. What are your
17:16thoughts on what ice is doing? And then also, is Kentucky State Police
17:20assisting them in any way? And the second, and then there are many bills
17:25on your desk, of course. Last week, I asked you about the abortion
17:29clarification bill. You said you've had questions when it came to that bill.
17:33Planned Parenthood is now asking you to veto it. They're saying that it could
17:38actually harm women more. Um, have you gotten any clarification on that bill?
17:43And do you know how you're going to act? So on the first question, we have not
17:48been contacted in the governor's office, nor is the Kentucky State Police from
17:52ice on on any alleged raid. I hope that the people of Kentucky out there, um,
18:01believe that the rule of law will and does apply to them and that anybody who
18:06is in this country and in this state legally, um, will not and should not be
18:12persecuted in any way. Um, we will evaluate any requests that that comes
18:17from ice as it comes to us. But the scenarios can be so different depending
18:22on on what people throw out there. Um, on the on the other bill, we're still
18:28analyzing it. And in fact, I'm even looking back on testimony when the
18:33trigger law passed about, um, claims that were made then about that law
18:38still protecting the life of the mother. And so the need for this
18:44clarification, I'm trying to figure out because if the trigger law when passed
18:49protected the life of the mother, this bill could be read as being more
18:53restrictive than what is currently out there. Um, some concerns when you go in
18:58there that a doctor might have to wait until a woman goes into sepsis, uh, to
19:03act. And certainly you shouldn't require someone in the hospital to
19:06reach that point if their life is in danger. So still reviewing it, um,
19:12should have a decision likely early next week. But I have serious concerns that
19:18it not only lessons acts access, but it may make it more dangerous for an
19:24individual that that whose life may be on the line. And it also may create a
19:30different legal standard for doctors, uh, that give them less judgment in
19:36their, um, in their medical judgment about when to act to protect the life
19:41of a mother. All right. With that, we'll go to Tom Latek from Kentucky
19:44today.
19:49Thank you, Governor. Good afternoon to you. I'm gonna have to watch the replay
19:52of this so I can see who Winnie picked there for the tournament. Um, are are
19:57there any bills that you do plan on vetoing at this phase? I know you still
20:01have a few days left before your, uh, you've got to take action one way or
20:05the other. But I just wondered if you had any that you were looking at that
20:08you were going to be planning on vetoing. Well, we'll have one veto that
20:12will come out today. Um, and it's a bill that would allow employees of the
20:18Department of Agriculture to apply for and receive loans from the Department
20:24of Agriculture. Um, and I don't think this was pushed by the commissioner in
20:28any way. We've got a good working relationship, but this has always been
20:31viewed as unethical and unlawful. Uh, the executive branch ethics code,
20:36which is in statute, says an executive branch employee cannot apply for a
20:41benefit or a loan or a grant from a department or an agency that they work
20:46in. And that applies to every executive branch agency. And now
20:50there's this bill that says yes, but if you work in the Department of
20:53Agriculture, you can apply for a grant or a loan from the same Department of
20:57Agriculture from the person who works down the hall from you or because, Tom,
21:02it's not worded in a way that prevents it. The person down the hall who decides
21:06who gets the loans or the grants from the Department of Agriculture can't
21:10apply for a loan or grant that would come across their their desk. So, so
21:16this isn't to me about that department at all. It's about no one should be
21:21able to work in an agency and then apply directly to that agency for a
21:26loan or a grant from it. In the end, I believe it's unfair to farmers that
21:31don't work for the Department of Agriculture that they are gonna have to
21:35compete with someone else who's applied for the same loan and works next to the
21:39person who's going to determine it. So I just the last piece of it that
21:43concerns me is this has been not only unethical under the statute, there are
21:48two opinions that have come out um in the last several years and it says you
21:52can't do this. Well, this bill tries to be retroactive and to say for the last
21:57two years, if you've done something that has been unethical and there have
22:01been opinions that are out there that says it's unethical, it's okay that you
22:05did it. I mean, I think that's, I think right's right, wrong's wrong. The same
22:10rules should apply across the board again. I think that the Department of
22:14Agriculture is doing a good job. I think the commissioner is doing a good job. We
22:18all work well together. This bill for me is just about not chipping away at a
22:23basic ethics rule that applies um to all parts and all agencies and all
22:29departments. And I say all that um admitting that I think the the votes
22:33were um democrats and republicans voting for it, but I don't think they
22:38ever got into why it was being offered. I don't think they got any comparison
22:43with any other agency that's out there and I don't think they saw two ethics
22:46opinion saying no, this is an easy call. You absolutely can't do this. Last
22:50thing is I don't think they thought about the other farmers who don't work
22:54for the department. They would have to compete with ones that that do. Now I
22:58did sign um uh house joint resolution today that provides $5 million to that
23:05same department that was withheld from uh the the General Assembly because
23:10they wanted to plan. So again, um not about the individuals at all, just
23:15based on I think ethics and our government's important and the same
23:19rules need to apply. Uh Liam Nehemiah from the Kentucky Lantern.
23:27Hi governor. I wanted to ask just about um least terminations with the
23:32Department of Government Efficiency at the federal level, specifically with
23:36um m sure the mind safety and health administration. Some advocates have
23:41raised concerns that um least terminations for m sure offices in
23:46Kentucky, you know, could potentially lead to less mind safety inspections.
23:51I'm worried about the capacity of m sure. I was wondering if you or you
23:56know anyone else in state government has has heard about what the capacity is
24:00at m sure regarding doge and just your thoughts on um least terminations
24:07specifically within m sure um in Kentucky.
24:12So to my knowledge, we haven't had any federal agency reach out to confirm
24:17that those offices are closing. But let me say I have concerns about the
24:21capacity of any agency from our federal government based on what Elon musk is
24:27doing right now. He's firing tens of thousands of hardworking federal
24:31employees and they're getting a letter saying it's because of their poor
24:35performance. That's a lie. It's wrong and it disrespects some people that
24:39chose civil service for their life. Many of them veterans trying to continue
24:43that service and what it could mean for m sure is put aside whether or not you
24:48need an office in a different location. Are there enough people there to carry
24:53out the duties of that office? And then you've got somebody in D. C. Has
24:56never been to Kentucky. He's never been to Appalachia. He doesn't know how long
25:00it takes to get from one part to another. It reminds me when Matt Bevin
25:04just looked at a map and started closing um different unemployment
25:08offices uh and and had no idea how long it would take for somebody from one
25:14community to drive to another and how that impacted us during the pandemic.
25:19Think about this. Um if social security offices are closing, which
25:24those are on the list, some in Appalachia and some elsewhere and then
25:29that rumored memo that's supposedly out there that says they want to cut the
25:34call in center for questions on social security. Then some of our oldest
25:40Kentucky ins, you know, who are living on a fixed income, who don't have the
25:43resources to travel, have to travel hours to get basic questions answered.
25:49Why? Because they don't want them to do it and they want to be able to kick
25:52them off. It's not right. These are people who qualify and the federal
25:56government has an obligation to have enough offices call in or other
26:01resources um to to ultimately process the applications that are out there and
26:06answer the questions that people have. My concern is that what Elon musk is
26:11trying to do is break government, not fix it. Listen, I think we can admit
26:15that um people all across the political spectrum have some issues
26:20with our federal government. But the answer to that isn't breaking it, isn't
26:25destroying it, it's actually fixing it. It's trying to sit down with others at
26:31the table and trying to hammer out different ways we can do these things
26:36better. Can we do things better? Yes. Should we always strive to do things
26:40better? Yes. But the idea that we would just indiscriminately fire tens of
26:46thousands of people in areas that that the american people depend on and I'll
26:51say is that you're not really looking out for the american people and you
26:54don't necessarily care who gets hurt. So that's how I feel. Uh and I know that
27:00there's a lot of now unemployed, hard working federal uh former federal
27:06employees that have been deeply hurt and in my opinion they've been deeply
27:10wrong. All right, we will be back next week on our regular day thursday for
27:15our team Kentucky update. Thank you.