JANUARY

ARTICLES

First-ever annual session begins

The first annual session of the Kentucky General Assembly has already started, and the KPA News Bureau is again providing coverage for member newspapers interested in the service.

Last year, House Speaker Jody Richards, D-Bowling Green sponsored House Bill 936. The bill put a constitutional amendment on this year's ballot that would revamp the General Assembly's schedule from biannual to annual sessions.

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Kentucky Standard fights closure of charges against Bardstown police chief

The Kentucky Standard isn't taking a judge's ruling prohibiting the release of charges against the city's police chief laying down.

The newspaper filed an open records request for the documents regarding the police chief's alleged misconduct. The city was prepared to release the charges, which led to the suspension of then-chief Michael Shain, but Shain's attorney went to Nelson Circuit Court to stop the charges from being made public.

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Public hurt by 'confidential' court settlements

A recent article in the newsletter of the Libel Defense Resource Center (LDRC), reprinted from Business Week, highlighted a problem that is all too common in Kentucky. Time and again we receive Hotline calls concerning case settlements, or other court documents, which have been labeled "confidential" and sealed by the court. I'd wager each and every one of you has encountered this road block.

Other than offending our instinct to want to see what we've been told we can't, are there ramifications to this apparently growing trend to seal court records? Mike France, the author of the Business Week article, argues emphatically that there are. And we agree.

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Lottery advertising rules relaxed by USPS

The Postal Service has relaxed its rules governing "prohibited mail matter" and the rules now allow newspapers to publish lottery advertisements in their mailed newspapers as long as the lotteries are legal under state laws. The National Newspaper Association (NNA) and its community newspaper members have been urging the Postal Service for decades to loosen the regulations on one of the most labyrinthine rules in the U.S. Postal Service's Domestic Mail Manual.

" NNA has long been working towards a better solution for the rules governing mailed distribution of lottery ads in newspapers. NNA is pleased that the Postal Service's legal department reviewed its rules in light of recent Supreme Court precedent. The Postal Service's amended rule opens more advertising opportunities for newspapers in line with what other media can do," said Max Heath, NNA's Postal Committee Chairman and executive editor, LCNI.

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Multi-million dollar project completed at Appalachian News-Express

Gov. Paul Patton was on hand when the Appalachian News-Express in Pikeville marked completion of its multi-million dollar construction project with an open house on Dec. 2.

News-Express Publisher and co-owner Marty Backus estimated 250 people visited the newspaper during the four-hour event, in which Patton and his wife Judi toured the facility.

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Kentucky papers use, pay of stringers varies widely

Susan Reed Lambert, editor of the LaRue County Herald News, uses freelancers every week to produce her newspaper.

A coach at the local high school covers all the sports, a freelance photographer takes pictures and two non-staffers write for the news section.

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