News and court coverage during COVID 19, a special thanks to certain individuals

COVID 19, the guidelines by the Health Department and now a shelter in place and stay at home order, while media is considered "essential service", lack of access to City Hall, the Courthouse, most government offices, social distancing is going to impact coverage.

Every single department, PIO has more work to do as a result of COVID 19. We certainly don't have a shortage of media for a small, rural County.

Coverage will take extra time. While court coverage is my niche, right now people's lives are being affected in many ways by COVID-19 so the focus of my live reporting maybe different day by day.

Email and phone is an option but I like to report live and do my own work and check court minutes and documents on my own. That is not possible until at least April 9, maybe longer. I will still get you that information but it will require extra time.

With the livestreaming of court hearings, anyone is free to watch them.  Even with that option, if there are multiple hearings at the same time, I can only watch one. I cannot go back and forth between courtrooms and currently I cannot check court minutes. I don't think people realize what it takes to do solo live reporting, especially with court where things are fluid.

I want to thank the court tech department,  Humboldt Superior Court CEO Kim Bartleson and certain members of court admin and court staff who have gone beyond what is required during the COVID 19 related closures to work on accessibility for the public and providing information on changes. This is in addition to having to deal with rescheduling court hearings, figuring out court operations and their own workload.

In these last two weeks, despite the demand from multiple sources, First District Supervisor Rex Bohn, Sheriff William Honsal, EPD Crime Analyst Brittany Powell and HCSO PIO Samantha Karges have been accessible, available right away and very helpful to all media.

Every single person bringing you information has their own struggles with the impact of COVID 19. When it comes to media, there are a few of us that don't have corporate funding to fall back on or sales reps to make up for any trickle down effect of COVID 19.

So in this "instant age", let us be grateful and keep in perspective that law enforcement, first responders, media and even elected officials are dealing with the same challenges you are although the level for every individual varies.