Friday, the Kentucky Court of Appeals ordered the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services to pay $20,000 to The Courier-Journal and Lexington Herald-Leader in a fight over child abuse records. The appeals court ruled that Franklin Circuit Judge Phillip Shepherd correctly ordered the state to cover the legal fees for the two newspapers in October 2010. The case involved Kayden Daniels, who was under the supervision of Kentucky's child-protection agency when he died in 2009 after he drank drain cleaner at a mobile home in Wayne County where he stayed with his mother and methamphetamine had allegedly been made.
