Dispute Headed To Court Of Appeals

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Hours before they were supposed to release hundreds of pages of records on child abuse deaths and serious injuries in Kentucky, Governor Steve Beshear announced Thursday the Cabinet for Health and Family Services has decided to take their dispute to the state Court of Appeals. On November 30th, Beshear called a news conference to announce that the state would drop its lengthy legal battle with the state’s two largest newspapers, The Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader, to keep records confidential and would comply with Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd’s orders to release them. Despite the appeal, the cabinet plans to release the first batch of records Friday, with redactions deemed necessary “to protect the best interests of the state's child welfare system.