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Kentucky Supreme Court hears arguments in redistricting lawsuit

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Kentucky Supreme Court hears arguments in redistricting lawsuit


FRANKFORT, Ky. (WKYT) – Kentucky’s Supreme Court heard arguments on gerrymandering Tuesday.

Democrats believe Republicans violated the state constitution when setting new district lines.

Political experts say, while not surprising, cases like these have become part of a national movement.

The congressional district and state House district maps are at the center of this lawsuit.

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Districts, which define the area an elected official represents, are adjusted every ten years by the Legislature to reflect changes in population and often favor the party in power.

“You know our constitution asked us to pay homage to the proposition that counties shall not be split. We all agree that no longer works. It doesn’t matter if the Democrats did it when, then and now ya’ll are doing it now. It just no longer works,” said Justice Michelle Keller.

One map puts Frankfort in the same district as most of western Kentucky. It’s represented by prominent GOP Congressman James Comer.

“Even if we did switch to a map that didn’t have that Comer Hook, stretching from West Kentucky up to Franklin County, it’s really unlikely it would make any difference to our congressional delegation,” said Dr. Stephen Voss, an Associate Professor of Political Science at the University of Kentucky.

Democrats say the other map breaks up more Democratic areas like Lexington for representation in the state House. They claim both maps give the GOP an unfair and unconstitutional advantage.

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Republicans maintain they followed the law. Their lawyers argue it’s just a Democratic reaction to being the super minority.

“The lawyers here and elsewhere are hunting big game. They’re looking down the road to a national Supreme Court case that permanently changes how districts get drawn in states around the country. So, really, Kentucky is just a small battle in a much bigger war,” Dr. Voss said.

Some states have non-partisan commissions that draw up districts. So far, Kentucky hasn’t adopted that method of drawing the lines.



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Kentucky

Kentucky man charged after shooting in Bell County

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Kentucky man charged after shooting in Bell County


BELL COUNTY, Ky. (WATE) — One man has been injured and another man has been charged following a reported shooting at a Bell County, Kentucky residence Sunday night.

The Bell County Sheriff’s Office said in a social media post shared overnight Monday that deputies responded to a residence on Blue Ridge Church Road around 10:05 p.m. for a report of a man being shot. The victim, who had been shot twice, was initially taken by a family member to Middlesboro ARH Hospital. They were later taken by AirEvac and unable to give a statement according to BCSO.

At the scene, Bell County deputies made contact with a 20-year-old suspect identified as Matthew Shelton, of Page.

Shelton told deputies that the victim had left the residence running with his hand behind his back, and Shelton felt he was “going to be hurt, so he discharged his firearm striking the individual,” BCSO’s post states.

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This is a developing story. Download the WATE 6 News app or sign up for our email alerts for updates.

Based on the on-scene investigation, deputies arrested Shelton and charged him with assault in the first degree. He was taken to the Bell County Detention Center. The investigation is ongoing.



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KY space camp aims to introduce more girls to aerospace science

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KY space camp aims to introduce more girls to aerospace science


MOREHEAD, Ky. (WKYT) – The STEM field is a predominantly male-dominated area, but for one space camp program, they’re working to change that.

Over the last week, several high school girls from across the Commonwealth and beyond have been getting a glimpse of what its like to work in the aerospace industry.

“I was just really excited, like wow, I can learn all of this stuff in two weeks and have all of this fun and meet other girls who are interested in this stuff like me,” said high schooler Ruby Korman.

This is all thanks to the SpaceTrek Program, which is a space systems program for young women that has been happening in Morehead.

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“Girls in SpaceTrek get exposure to electricity and electronics and they develop the knowledge, skills, and abilities to understand space craft subsystems,” said the program’s director, Jennifer Carter.

Through the two-week-long program, the girls get to do a bunch of hands-on activities, like launching their own satellite-like device called a cricket sat.

The cricket sat is sent into the sky collecting data on the temperature.

“The primary takeaway for girls participating in SpaceTrek is that they see a tangible college and career pathway in aerospace,” Carter added.

That’s exactly what happened for the program’s co-instructor Chloe Hart.

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“Throughout my time at SpaceTrek, I just fell in love with space systems engineering and ground station communications specifically, and that’s when I decided to change my career path and go into space systems engineering,” Hart said.

And beyond the group bonding activities and guest speakers, like WKYT’s own meteorologist Alexa Minton, girls get to see that there is space for them in this industry.

“My team created SpaceTrek to be what we needed when we were young teenagers. We needed this academic challenge to show ourselves what we are truly capable of doing,” Carter said.

The program will wrap up Saturday, June 22.

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Nick Mingione describes Kentucky's offensive approach, explains how it helps in Omaha

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Nick Mingione describes Kentucky's offensive approach, explains how it helps in Omaha


Known for its car-crash style, Kentucky baseball boasts one of the most unique offensive units in the country this season. They’ve proven to be an issue for opposing infields all season long.

That trend has continued in Omaha as the bunting, base-stealing Bat ‘Cats showed that they’re more than just a flashy offense. Kentucky went on to score four of its five runs against NC State in Saturday’s College World Series opener off three home runs en route to a 5-4 victory in extra innings.

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“That’s why I started just calling our offense a whatever-it-takes type offense because our guys are so talented,” Kentucky head coach Nick Mingione said after the win. “… When we get production up and down our lineup, that’s us at our best, and we can do it in all different ways. And you know what? There’s a lot of coaching that goes into that. But for the players to be able to execute all those different things, we have to be very intentional.”

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Even when his players don’t record the hits they want at the plate, Mingione also gauges his player’s performances in terms of how good was the total at-bat. Ryan Waldschmidt went 0 for 4 at the plate with a walk, but Mingione graded him 3 for 5 in quality. The same goes for Emilien Petri, who was graded 5 for 5 quality at-bats despite going 1 for 3 with two walks on the stat sheet.

Kentucky got about as quality of an at-bat as it gets in the 10th inning from Mitchell Daly, whose solo home run ended up being the difference in the game as UK walked it off to win their first CWS game in program history. He was 2 for 5 at the plate and wasn’t not struck out in any of his at-bats.

“The attention to detail by the players, their focus, their execution. It’s definitely not easy, but boy can they execute at a high level,” Mingione continued. “And I just want to make sure that everybody knows it’s not all about bunting. The whatever-it-takes type of offense, please, because bunting is a small piece to it, but to your point, we can hit homers too.”

Kentucky will look to continue this trend as they advance to take on SEC foe Texas A&M in the winner’s bracket of the College World Series with a shot at the national semifinal on the line. The first pitch is scheduled for Monday at 7 p.m. ET live on ESPN.



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