Dan Modlin

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services says information on more than one thousand Medicaid clients may have been involved in a computer security breach. 

The Cabinet says the information that may have been unintentionally released was held by Hewlett Packard Enterprise Services, which is the vendor that manages Medicaid’s information management system.  The Cabinet says an employee of a subcontractor of HPES responded to a telephone computer scam and may have allowed a hacker to get access to health and other information regarding 1,090 Medicaid clients.

Those individuals who might have been affected by the incident will be notified individually by the Cabinet for Health and Family Services. In addition, HP ES is arranging for those affected to receive free credit monitoring for one year, to help reduce the chance of identity theft.

As shoppers start to return unwanted Christmas gifts, the Better Business Bureau has some advice on dealing with store policies. The BBB says its important to know a seller’s return policy--- and to remember that returning or exchanging items is a privilege, not a right.

If a product was defective, however, you have every reason  to expect the store to provide a substitute or refund.

The Better Business Bureau says most stores will honor an exchange or credit if the buyer of the gift has made a reasonable mistake, like purchasing a sweater of the wrong size or color. The credit can typically be applied to  any other item at that store.

The Kentucky Cabinet for Health and Family Services is reminding parents to "keep their cool" during the upcoming Christmas holiday period. The agency says when children are home from school and families are facing tight schedules for travel and gatherings with relatives, stress levels can increase and put some children at risk for abuse.

Jim Grace, the Assistant Director of the Division and Permancy, says its "never ok to hit a child." He says its important for parents to help teach children how to communicate, by talking about things that might be bothering them.

A new report finds there has been an “alarming” increase in drug overdoses in Kentucky in recent years. The data compiled for the study was collected over an eleven year period.

The Kentucky Injury Prevention and Research Center says drug overdose mortality rates increased 282 percent between 2000 and 2010. In the Bluegrass State, that means the overdose mortality rate has jumped from six deaths per one hundred thousand people to nearly 23 deaths per one hundred thousand people during that eleven year period.

The Research Center is located in the University of Kentucky’s College of Public Health, and is an agent for the Kentucky Department of Public Health.  The new report is based on an examination of  emergency departments, inpatient hospitalization statistics, and mortality data.

As the investigation into the elementary school shooting in Connecticut continues, WKU Psychology Professor Dr. Bill Pfohl is offering some advice for reporters at the scene. The lead person for the National Emergency Assistance Team of the National Association of School Psychologists says "it's a bad idea" to conduct TV interviews with young people who have experienced such trauma.

He says putting that kind of pressure on children who have witnessed tragedy could be harmful to them. 

Dr. Pfohl says its important for parents to understand that trauma isn't limited to those who actually witnessed the violence. He urges parents to limit the amount of time children watch news coverage of the tragedy.

More information about recommendations from the National Association of School Psychologists can be found at the group's website.