Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting (https://kycir.org/category/government/page/3/)
Louisville’s public nuisance ordinance is intended to provide a way to bust up drug houses and crime dens. But police and code enforcement officials have been increasingly focused on residential locations where crimes are reported — regardless of whether the victim or the offender lives there.
The Loch Mary dam was featured in a recent KyCIR investigation which found dozens of dangerous dams with no emergency action plan.
Two state cabinets are appealing a judge’s order that they must reimburse the Kentucky Center for Investigative Reporting for legal costs after withholding public records. Franklin Circuit Court Judge Phillip J. Shepherd ruled this spring that the Labor and Finance and Administration cabinets “willfully” violated open records laws when they refused to release the names of employees accused of sexual harassment, but internal investigations didn’t deem the allegations substantiated. Shepherd ordered the Labor Cabinet to pay more than $17,000, and the Finance and Administration Cabinet to pay more than $19,000, to KyCIR for legal costs and penalties. In a Monday filing, the Labor Cabinet said that Shepherd’s decision to award fees was an “abuse of discretion.” The cabinet argued that it operated in “good faith” in its decision to withhold records, and should not be punished for its interpretation of the law. That cabinet has already turned over the name it previously withheld of a staffer accused of sexual harassment. Court records show that Hector Fonseca was under a court order to stay away from a woman who accused him of domestic violence when a coworker in September 2016 said Fonseca exposed himself and forced her to touch his genitals.
Something went wrong with the Fireball ride at the 2018 Kentucky State Fair, and ride operator Duanne Haywood went underneath. Within minutes, Haywood was pinned. His was one of 19 worker injuries the ride company reported last year.
Eighty Kentucky dams have deficiencies and are deemed high-hazard, because a breach would threaten lives or property. Only six of those dams have complete emergency plans.
The new audit determined that Kentucky has either resolved or made progress toward addressing all of the findings from the previous year, but improvements are still underway in fatality investigations.
Search our database of every racing-related horse death in Kentucky since 2010.
Officials from other major racing states share which horses die, where and when. The Kentucky Horse Racing Commission largely keeps that secret.
At Little Sandy Correctional Complex in northeastern Kentucky, prison leaders created a culture that “may have contributed to acts of sexual harassment and a reluctance to report allegations of sexual harassment,” according to a state report.
Mike and Pam Oakley have been talking for years about how Kentucky’s worker safety agency failed their 17-year-old son. State officials never listened. They’re listening now.