What is the value of a human life? It is not just Paul that irks me

It is not just Paul that irks me so much.

I realize there are confidentiality issues but certain information and general policies should be available to the public. The Judges don't make decisions behind closed doors, yes certain trials and cases and information are sealed or confidential. Government meetings are subject to Brown Act rules.

Yet, certain offices such as the District Attorney's Office that deal with people's lives need to be more transparent and accessible.

Every court case I cover is because of my own journalist background, legal research and connections and on my own time. When other reporters are in the courtroom, we all help each other out. The media and the public and other organizations see the legitimacy and work; Paul and others do not. Paul has made it even more difficult and time consuming because if I don't have information in open court or I cannot hear the clerk due to disrespectful people who think court is their personal living room, I have to work harder to get the information and make sure it is accurate because that is the record of integrity I have as a journalist for 30 years.

I do not cover cases off press releases. The Cook case has been going on for a year, no one covered it, not even after I posted the first report. The Workman case, same thing. We do have a shortage of reporters but we seem to have article after article on the same polarizing issues and people show up at BOS and City Council meetings for the GPU or ridiculous stuff like raw milk yet cases like the Cook case that affect lives and generations go unnoticed.

It is not the reporters and editors who decide what gets covered or what gets newspapers sold. The audience and those who advertise determine the coverage.

When I was a journalist in Philadelphia and Atlanta, I worked for smaller newspapers. As 1 reporter, it was the trust and my connections and my being a part of the community that allowed me to scoop my bigger and better funded competition. In my heart, I am always be that neighborhood reporter. I have also always been a community advocate. 

Humboldt when you don't care about your neighbor and get swayed emotionally about issues that both political sides benefit from but not the foot soldiers of those sides; don't complain about the elected leaders and your quality of life.

What is the value of a human life? To me that brave 7 year old girl, a mother who stood up for her child against odds, a prosecutor dedicated to children and a well-qualified, caring Judge showed an arrogant man who thought his money would get him off the hook and saved future girls from the same fate.

All these years the businesses, the law enforcement, the community was silent. You let him get away with it because you are too busy being distracted by what is not important.

Some people in power and some with money on both sides of the political spectrum as well as bloggers and commenters who rant and rave attacking people, especially those who  hide behind anonymous blogs they create, what have you done that has changed the life of society in the way that 7 year old did?