Cabinet For Health And Family Services Fined

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...The state Cabinet for Health and Family Services has been fined more than $16,000 for improperly withholding records on children who died or were hurt because of abuse and neglect after Franklin Circuit Judge Philip Shepherd ruled Thursday the cabinet willfully withheld public information from three newspapers. Shepherd said in a strongly worded memorandum that the agency continued its efforts to wrap the child-welfare system under a "veil of secrecy" even after he'd ruled that files on child deaths and near-deaths should be public. Shepherd also ordered the cabinet to pay more than $57,000 in legal fees the Lexington Herald-Leader, The Louisville Courier-Journal and the Todd County Standard incurred in challenging the cabinet's refusal to release the records. Cabinet Secretary Janie Miller says the agency is "weighing its options" on the order to pay penalties and attorney fees, and other issues.