Judge Orders Release Of Child Records

{Frankfort, Kentucky}...Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd has ordered state officials to provide two years of records in child-abuse and neglect cases in 90 days to the state's two largest newspapers, the Louisville Courier-Journal and the Lexington Herald-Leader. Shepherd's order replaces a prior one that said the cabinet must release 1,000 pages of records a week, which started on January 27th. Jill Midkiff, a Cabinet for Health and Family Services spokeswoman, says officials are reviewing the order and continuing to release records. Shepherd has already ruled such records must be released, but legal wrangling has continued over the cabinet's insistence it has the right to delete some information from the files.  Last month, the cabinet appealed the dispute to the state Court of Appeals. Under a previous order from the judge, the cabinet has been releasing heavily redacted files at the rate of about 1,000 pages a week for the past four weeks.