Score yet another Freedom of Information Act courtroom victory for Fort Smith attorneys Joey McCutchen and Stephen Napurano after the West Memphis School District and its school board settled a lawsuit accusing them of secretly interviewing four candidates to become new district superintendent.

Because the district failed to notify the media or constituents that it was meeting to interview the candidates, it has settled the suit for a $1,500 fine signed by Crittenden County Circuit Judge Keith Chrestman. The case against the district and board had been filed by Cheryl Roe and Tammy Bell.

I’ve asked several times before and might as well again, where are the school boards’ attorneys (and other lawyers for every public board and commission) when their elected bodies need guidance for following the FOIA laws? Are they MIA, ignorant of the law, or just don’t feel inclined to warn their boards when they’re likely in violation?

Good grief, people, isn’t that part of what they are paid to do?

Anyway, McCutchen, whom I’ve labeled the bulldog when it comes to holding FOIA violators statewide accountable, issued a statement afterwards saying: “The Board announced in May 2023 that Dr. Terrence Brown was selected as the new superintendent after the Board conducted interviews. No notice of these interviews was given to the public or media in clear violation of FOIA.”

PIT KILLINGS CONTINUE

The onslaught of death and maiming by pit bulls and their mixes goes on.KTLA5 reported Feb. 16 that “a chaotic and gruesome scene unfolded” in Compton, Calif., after a man who was breeding pit bulls was mauled to death by his own dogs, apparently as he was feeding them in his backyard.

According to the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, officials responded to the home about 7 a.m. after a friend visited and discovered the man’s body. Investigators believe the attack occurred the previous evening between 7:30 p.m. and 8 p.m.

“He was feeding the dogs at which point maybe there was an altercation between some of the dogs and [they] ultimately attacked and mauled the victim,” said a homicide investigator. Some might say he bred them to kill, but my bet is on genetics.

JOURNALISTS KILLED

Being a war correspondent in the Middle East today puts journalists and photographers in serious jeopardy of sacrificing their lives.

I read that more than 75% of the 99 journalists and media workers killed worldwide in 2023 died in the Israel-Hamas war, according to a new report from the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ).

CPJ counted 77 journalists and media workers killed over the first 10 weeks of the war — including 72 Palestinians, three Lebanese and two Israelis — more than have ever been killed in a single country over an entire year.

Don Bolles, my predecessor heading investigations at The Arizona Republic, was murdered by a car bomb 10 years before I replaced him in 1986, so I’m well aware such things happen even in the U.S.

PREDATORS ABOUT

A recent bizarre story caused me to realize again what a mistake parents of teenage girls make in failing to vigilantly protect their daughters from predators.

Isaac James Melder, a 42-year-old Yellville man, was sentenced Feb. 13 in Fayetteville to 30 years in prison without the possibility of parole after being found guilty in Arkansas’ Western District U.S. Court of communicating with a 14-year-old girl through the Internet to entice the minor to engage in sexual activity.

Melder had exchanged Xbox messages in May 2022 to convince the girl to run off and live with him in a remote Marion County cave. They were discovered after six weeks of searching.

The investigation revealed Melder groomed the girl (and even her family) by providing groceries, money, alcohol and marijuana, even referring to the child as his wife, according to a Justice Department news release. Wonder what the family had to say about the supposed “marriage.”

The girl told a State Police special agent she and Melder met at an agreed-upon location in Mountain Home after school in May and went from there to the cave.

MILQUETOAST, COWARD

Speaking of the internet, a stranger emailed last week to call me a “milquetoast” and “coward.”

Am I that person? I sought the definition of milquetoast: A very timid, unassertive, spineless person, especially one who is easily dominated and intimidated. I knew what coward meant.

It’s remarkable how a stranger was so enlightened as to summarize me and 53 years in this business in two words. As a lifelong journalist who supposedly trembles like a frightened chihuahua and pathetically shies at questioning those in authority, I find the angry writer’s condemnations undoubtedly sincere. Perhaps I am more milquetoasty than I’ve ever realized.

Now that the accuser feels he’s penetrated my shaky facade, after introspection I feel duty-bound to admit to valued readers that I do, in fact, prefer gentle dogs to killer breeds, and love and kindness over hostility, rudeness, arrogance, violence, jumping to judgments and belligerence. My milquetoast-ness is a shameful part of my character I alone must bear.