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Lawmakers move to ensure info is available to investigate complaints against state cabinet • Kentucky Lantern
Lawmakers move to ensure info is available to investigate complaints against state cabinet
by Sarah Ladd, Kentucky Lantern
February 11, 2025
After mediation and a judge’s order, Kentucky Auditor Allison Ball says the legislature needs to codify her office’s access to an important database kept by the state Cabinet for Health and Family Services.
During a Tuesday committee meeting, Ball told lawmakers the cabinet appears to not be forwarding every complaint it receives about itself to the ombudsman, housed in her office. She said she wants to make sure no complaints are “missing in the process.”
“Right now, the cabinet is acting as a gatekeeper on those complaints,” Ball said. “We feel like we don’t need a middleman. Things are being dropped in the handoff. So, this will resolve that situation to make sure we have access to all the complaints when they come in.”
A cabinet spokeswoman told the Lantern that the cabinet “is not aware of any complaints being withheld from the Office of the Ombudsman.”
Judge inks ceasefire in state government battle over new ombudsman’s access to information
This comes almost five months after the Cabinet for Health and Family Services and the office of the ombudsman settled a dispute over access to a computer system called iTWIST, which stores information about abuse and neglect cases.
The Senate Families and Children Committee unanimously approved Senate Bill 85, which clarifies the ombudsman gets “any software and access rights.”
Ball’s office assumed oversight of the ombudsman from the cabinet on July 1, thanks to a law enacted in 2023 by the legislature, Senate Bill 48. But her office did not get immediate access to iTWIST.
The ombudsman, whose job is to investigate and resolve complaints about agencies in the cabinet, including protective services for children and elderly Kentuckians, can’t do that job without access to iTWIST, (the Workers Information System), Ball has said. She eventually filed a lawsuit for the access, and the case was mediated and eventually settled in Franklin Circuit Court.
“We reached a settlement in that mediation, and we were given access with certain structures in place,” Ball told committee members Tuesday. “We feel like it is now necessary to codify it, make it abundantly clear there’s no possibility of this coming up again, that we have access to iTWIST.”
The September court order that settled the access dispute said the cabinet would have to provide the ombudsman with read-only access to iTWIST. Judge Phillip Shepherd also said the legislature and the parties would work during the 2025 session to codify any needed clarification.
A spokeswoman for the auditor said the office “can compare the number of complaints received by the ombudsman before the transition with the current number, which has drastically decreased.”
“This is due in part to the failure to transfer the previous phone number, resulting in our office not receiving all complaints,” said Joy Pidgorodetska Markland, the auditor’s director of communications. “Upon suspecting complaints were not being forwarded, we used an open records process to request all communications sent to the retained phone number and email and found many un-forwarded complaints.”
SB 85, sponsored by Sen. Stephen Meredith, R-Leitchfield, has an emergency, meaning it would take effect immediately upon becoming law.
“This is an emergency because we know this needs to be done right away,” Ball said. “That way we can move forward without any more hang ups and make sure the public is provided everything that they need.”
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Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Man arrested after alleged strangulation of adult and juvenile
SUMMARY: In Bowling Green, Ky., Glennis Ligon, 32, was arrested following an alleged assault involving an adult and a juvenile victim. Police responded to a residence where the adult claimed Ligon assaulted both her and the juvenile amid an argument that escalated physically. The adult was choked and had her glasses knocked off, while the juvenile was also choked upstairs. During the altercation, the juvenile stabbed Ligon in the shoulder with a kitchen knife, after which Ligon was found outside with a stab wound. He was treated at TriStar Greenview Regional Hospital before being jailed and charged with strangulation, assault, and resisting arrest.
The post Man arrested after alleged strangulation of adult and juvenile appeared first on www.wnky.com
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
Trial of Brooks Houck, Joseph Lawson enters Day 7
SUMMARY: The seventh day of the Brooks Houck and Joseph Lawson trial is underway in Bowling Green, Kentucky. The defense called Rhonda McIlvoy, Houck’s sister, who testified about being accused and threatened following Crystal Rogers’ 2015 disappearance. Rogers’ body remains unfound. McIlvoy denied any involvement or knowledge of a family conspiracy related to Rogers’ disappearance. Prosecutors questioned her about illegally recording her grand jury testimony, suggesting it was part of a family effort to align stories. Three recording devices were found in the family home. News 40 continues to provide updates as the trial progresses.
The post Trial of Brooks Houck, Joseph Lawson enters Day 7 appeared first on www.wnky.com
News from the South - Kentucky News Feed
In small-town Kentucky, finding ‘all the more reason to resist’
by Guest columnist, Kentucky Lantern
July 2, 2025
At first I wasn’t sure we ought to go. It was easy to imagine several ways this thing could go off the rails. But pretty soon we got clear. If there was going to be an anti-Trump rally in Manchester, we were going to be there.
We’d watched the massive protests in cities and towns around the country, none of them close to our home in Clay County. This was our chance to participate. Edmund threw two folding lawn chairs in the trunk of the car. I brought the signs.
In a downtown parking lot, we found a small group of young people unpacking boxes of snacks and bottled water. We set up in a small grassy area right in the middle of town. Gradually, one at a time, others joined us, adults of varying ages, men and women, some from around here, others from nearby towns. I counted about two dozen on our side.
Meanwhile another group about the same size was gathering across the street. Much of the event turned out to be these two groups yelling at one another from across the road.
From our side we chanted:
No hate, no fear
Everyone is welcome here
Hey Hey Ho Ho
Donald Trump has got to go
We sang “This Land is Your Land ” and “Which Side Are You On?”
We held up signs:
Medicaid Cuts = Closed Hospitals
Hillbillies Need Health Care, Too
Trump Gives to the Rich, Takes from the Poor
We had chants, songs and signs. They had flags and trucks. They were gathered around a bright red pickup, parked as if aimed in our direction. There were other trucks, too, not parked, but in constant motion, driving past us up and down Main Street, Trump flags flying, going one way then turning around and coming back the other. It took us a few minutes to figure out that there weren’t as many trucks as there seemed to be, that we were seeing the same ones again and again. And again.
The trucks, already loud, revved up even louder as they passed us. Some of the people in the trucks got loud, too. Some yelled, GO HOME! To which some of us replied, “We ARE home.” Other truckers shouted something else, which sounded like “other truckers,” but which started with M as in mother and F as in father. I have heard this expression many times in my life, but never so much as last Friday night. It was appropriate, I guess, since earlier in the week the president himself had dropped the F-bomb in a public statement about dropping bombs in Iran. One woman in our group, when they yelled obscenities at us, answered, “We love you.”
Two drivers with diesel engines released clouds of black smoke on our group as they passed. They were promptly pursued and arrested by the police, along with a gentleman in Proud Boy gear who started across the street towards our group and was escorted away by a policeman.
The Manchester police did an amazing, effective and important job. They made it possible for all of us on both sides of the street to exercise our right to protest, and they kept us safe.
There’s another KY Resist protest rally July 5 in London. I plan on being there. It’s a risky business, because Donald Trump has purposefully turned up the dial on anger, hate, fear, and the possibility of violence.
Which is — Hey Hey Ho Ho — all the more reason to resist.
GET THE MORNING HEADLINES.
Kentucky Lantern is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Kentucky Lantern maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Jamie Lucke for questions: info@kentuckylantern.com.
The post In small-town Kentucky, finding ‘all the more reason to resist’ appeared first on kentuckylantern.com
Note: The following A.I. based commentary is not part of the original article, reproduced above, but is offered in the hopes that it will promote greater media literacy and critical thinking, by making any potential bias more visible to the reader –Staff Editor.
Political Bias Rating: Left-Leaning
This content highlights participation in an anti-Trump rally, featuring chants and signs critical of Donald Trump and his policies, such as Medicaid cuts and economic inequality. The tone is sympathetic to the protesters and emphasizes resistance against Trump’s rhetoric and actions. While it presents aspects of the opposing group, the language and framing clearly support left-wing activism and criticize right-wing elements, indicating a left-leaning perspective.
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