AOC to sponsor Bench-Press meeting in Somerset this month

The Administrative Office of the Courts is conducting a seminar for circuit/district judges and the news media in the Southeast Kentucky region. Newspapers in the region should have received a letter from the AOC recently inviting them to participate in the March 21 Bench-Press Conference in Somerset at the Center for Rural Department, 2292 South U.S. 27.

This will be the seventh regional conference the AOC and KPA have conducted around the state. A deli lunch will be served at noon and the discussion will be from 12:30 to about 4:30 p.m.

For the past three years, there has been an effort to bring the bench/bar/press together so that participants can each better understand the other, if not form a better working relationship.

All newspaper editors/reporters will be encouraged to talk about issues or problems they have experienced.

KPA’s role is two-fold: (1) to invite the newspapers in the counties and to encourage each to have a representative attend since local judges are expected; and, (2), to encourage journalists to talk specifically about how their newspapers cover the courts and what they see that both sides can do to improve relationships.

Most judges have encouraged newspaper people to “come talk with me” about decisions they have made, explanations of certain rulings and what the media needs to better cover in the courts and be better educated about covering the courts.

Papers in the Southeast Kentucky Region include: the Clinton County News, Mountain Advocate, Cumberland County News, Central Kentucky News Journal, Adair Progress/Columbia News, Corbin Times Tribune, Record Herald, Harlan Daily Enterprise, Leslie County News, Thousandsticks News, Russell Register, Lebanon Enterprise, Casey County News, Sentinel Echo, Jackson County Sun, Middlesboro Daily News, Wayne County Outlook, Mount Vernon Signal, Times Journal, Commonwealth Journal, Somerset-Pulaski News Journal, Springfield Sun, Tompkinsville News and McCreary County Record.