Lawmakers say they want to do more to prevent child abuse in Kentucky after years of troubling reports ranking the state as one of the worst for child mistreatment.

The legislature’s Oversight and Investigations Committee met Thursday to discuss findings and recommendations from the state’s Child Fatality and Near Fatality External Review Panel, which, as it does annually, released another report this year detailing substance abuse and mental health issues as leading drivers of child abuse in the state.

Melissa Currie, a doctor at Norton Children’s Hospital and a member of the panel, said since the panel’s inception 10 years ago, the state hasn’t seen a drop in abuse cases.

“No, absolutely not, we’re not seeing a huge drop in the numbers. And we’re seeing worse and worse cases,” Currie said.

 Louisville Metro is in favor of a federal study into the historical and lingering impacts of slavery in the United States and reparations for Black descendants of slavery. 

Mayor Greg Fischer signed a resolution Thursday affirming that position and throwing the city’s support behind Congressional legislation. 

HR 40 would create a commission to “examine slavery and discrimination in the colonies and the United States from 1619 to the present and recommend appropriate remedies.” 

Council Member Jecorey Arthur, a Democrat who represents District 4, co-sponsored the resolution.  

During a press conference, he said this kind of resolution is “long overdue.”

 A new program aimed at diverting some 911 calls away from a police response and to a mobile crisis response team is closer to becoming reality. 

In February, Louisville Metro Council approved funding for research into non-police response models across the country. 

The University of Louisville’s Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky and Spalding University worked to research and develop the program’s model.

“Based on this work, we recommend a multilayer model for Louisville to include public and private partners to operate synchronously as a system connecting people in crisis to the resources they need to feel and be safe,” said Susan Buchino, the assistant director of Commonwealth Institute of Kentucky at U of L, at a press conference Wednesday.

 For the second year in a row, Kentucky has the highest rate of childhood obesity among kids ages 10-to-17 at 23.8%.

That’s according to a new report by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation released this week. Senior Program Officer Jamie Bussel said rates are too high across the country.

“They’ve been exacerbated by COVID, and we’re finding that in a number of different data that’s coming in,” Bustle said. “Kids of color and kids that live furthest from economic opportunities continue to be at greatest risk.”

In West Virginia, the childhood obesity rate is 21.9%. Both Kentucky and West Virginia’s rates are much higher compared to the national rate of 16.2%. Ohio's childhood obesity rate is slightly above the national average at 17.2%.

So far two Democrats are running for Kentucky’s 3rd Congressional District seat with long-time Rep. John Yarmuth announcing he won’t run for reelection next year.

State Rep. Attica Scott and state Sen. Morgan McGarvey are the only ones officially vying for the seat at this point, but Yarmuth’s retirement announcement could open the floodgates for more candidates to get into the race.

Scott was first. When she launched her campaign in July, it was a long shot primary challenge against Yarmuth, a well-known 16-year incumbent and powerful chair of the U.S. House Budget Committee.

After Yarmuth announced he wouldn’t run again Tuesday, Scott congratulated him on his retirement and said she was honored by people who supported her campaign early.

Kentucky’s lone Democrat in Congress, John Yarmuth, won’t run for reelection next year after 16 years in office, creating a likely contentious primary battle for the Louisville-area district.

Yarmuth is the chair of the powerful House Budget Committee. The 73-year-old said Tuesday he wants to have “more control of my time in the years I have left.”

“The desire to have more control of my time in the years I have left has become a high priority. Candidly, I have found new and incomparable joy in spending time with my young grandson. And I would like to spend more of my golden years in Louisville,” Yarmuth said in a video posted to Twitter.

Yarmuth was first elected in 2006 after defeating incumbent Republican Rep. Anne Northup. He will step down in January 2023, at the end of his eighth term.

The U.S Supreme Court heard arguments on Tuesday over whether Republican Attorney General Daniel Cameron is allowed to defend a Kentucky abortion law that was struck down by a federal court.

The blocked law at the center of the case passed in 2018. It would ban a common abortion procedure called “dilation and evacuation.”.

Former Republican Gov. Matt Bevin defended the law until he lost reelection in 2019. The following year, the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals upheld a ruling that struck down the law and Gov. Andy Beshear declined to continue defending the case.

Cameron is asking the high court to let him intervene. During the Supreme Court hearing on Tuesday, Deputy Attorney General Matthew Kuhn argued Cameron’s office should be allowed to continue appealing the case.

A bipartisan pair of lawmakers wants to require people accused of animal abuse to pay for housing and upkeep of their animals while their court cases are pending.

Republican Rep. Kim Banta, of Ft. Mitchell, and Democratic Rep. Cherlynn Stevenson, of Lexington, are sponsoring a bill that would create the “cost of care” law in Kentucky. It would allow courts and shelters to sue owners of animals seized in cruelty cases to pay for care until cases are resolved.

During a legislative hearing last week, Banta said the measure is good for animals and taxpayers.

“When animals are seized, taxpayers and the agencies are picking up the cost of care while the animals are being housed and taken care of,” Banta said.