What in the name of rudimentary jurisprudence was up with Pulaski County Circuit Judge Tim Fox's initial refusal--then sudden agreement--to allow a reporter into his hearing last Friday?
His reversal came during the lengthy dispute between Cherokee Nation Businesses and Gulfside Casino Partnership over the license to open a casino in Pope County.
My hackles weren't the only ones raised, particularly since state law clearly says media and citizens have the right in the public interest to attend every sitting court proceeding or by livestream video.
Eliza Gaines, the managing editor for this paper, rightly labeled Fox's original denial an affront to transparency.
Leave it to our state newspaper to rail against any form of secrecy when it comes to conducting the public business according to the constitution. That's part of its due diligence as a watchdog over your freedoms.
The First Amendment right of access to public proceedings is an affirmative, enforceable public right, Christoph Keller, a lawyer at Quattlebaum, Grooms & Tull and counsel for the Arkansas Press Association, said in a petition to open last Friday's hearing.
Reporter Jeannie Roberts said repeated attempts to reach Fox for response last week had been unsuccessful as of late Thursday.
Fox's trial court administrator, Christie Greer, at first had informed the paper Fox was barring in-person and virtual attendance, supposedly because of the March 16, 2020, executive order from Pulaski County Judge Barry Hyde that restricted public access to certain county buildings because of the covid-19 pandemic.
Hyde, however, had previously made it clear his order didn't necessarily close court proceedings and that cameras are available in all courtrooms to enable public access.
I'll take the complaints of the way this was mishandled a step further and say something smelled bad to me.
Why, all Arkansans should wonder, did Fox at first insist on closing his courtroom in the Pope County casino licensing dispute that has dragged on and on?
As Roberts so ably reported, other court proceedings allowed news reporters to attend during the pandemic.
Then, came the reversal of his denial without Fox even informing the newspaper. Roberts told me the judge suddenly decided after his hearing began Friday that she could, in fact, be among eight people allowed in the publicly owned courtroom.
The resulting news account from Saturday said a pew (that could have used to seat the reporter) had been turned to face the wall.
"Greer nor Fox notified me or anybody with the ADG that the courtroom was open," said Roberts. "That [information] came off-the-record from an attorney in the case. He texted me and told me to hurry up and get over there. Greer met me at the courtroom door, pointed to the back wall and said I'd have to stand in the back through the hearing."
Sounds an awful lot like petty vindictiveness to me. How about you, valued readers?
Without wading deeper into the weeds of the well-rehashed tedious and constitutional debate over who gets the Pope County license, the bottom line for me is Fox raised legitimate First Amendment concerns by his initial refusal to allow Mr. and Mrs. Arkansas into his tax-supported courtroom.
That, even though state law and the county judge agree that was permissible all along.
Good and not so
As readers know, I follow the website WalletHub, which uses statistics comparing our state with others in varying categories.
Sometimes we fare surprisingly well. Other times, unfortunately, not so much.
Most recently the good news: Arkansas ranked first in the total number of job postings when compared to pre-covid levels. Pretty impressive, I'd say.
We were second in the number of restaurant visits. Our hospitalization rate from covid ranked 11th among the states. And we were ninth in the lowest share of hospitals with supply shortages.
The remainder shook out this way: 12th in covid death rate; 13th in real GDP versus pre-covid levels, and 19th in the unemployment rate versus pre-covid levels.
Then, when measuring the plight of working mothers, things dropped off dramatically.
Arkansas ranked 50th in the number of pediatricians per capita, and 46th in the average length of the work week (in hours) for females.
When it came to the percentage of single-mother families in poverty, we were ranked 45th, and 40th in day-care quality.
From there, we were close to the middle of the pack at 28th in the ratio of female to male executives, and 17th for the median women's salary (adjusted for cost of living).
Arkansas came in at 18th for its gender pay gap (women's earnings as a percentage of men's) and 15th for our female unemployment rate.
Seems clear enough to me that we can do much better in most areas when it comes to working moms and their children while being among the leaders when it comes to our economic recovery from covid.
Now go out into the world and treat everyone you meet exactly like you want them to treat you.
Mike Masterson is a longtime Arkansas journalist, was editor of three Arkansas dailies and headed the master's journalism program at Ohio State University. Email him at [email protected].