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Teri Finneman:        This is Teri Finneman. Today is June 29, 2020. I am interviewing Wes Brown, publisher of The Daily Record in Little Rock, Arkansas, for the Community Journalism in Middle America: Challenges and Innovations of COVID-19 Coverage Oral History Project. So, Wes, why don't we start out with you telling us a little bit about your background in journalism.

Wes Brown:        Okay. I've been in the news business for now more than 30 years. I actually grew up in a little town called Hope, Arkansas, kind of the same as President Clinton, and I started out as a stringer, a football stringer at age 16. And that was 42 years ago. Then I went to school at Jonesboro, Arkansas State University, and my first job after I got out of college was at the Tulsa World, a newspaper in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

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        A lot of things are happening now with the [George Floyd inspired] riots and Black Wall Street [See Appendix 1], I wrote about that and some of my experience also covered the Oklahoma City bombing. And from that point, I went into business reporting, which I never thought I would do, but that was a perfect fit for my career. Since then I've been in – I was covering the oil and gas industry, which is big in Oklahoma.

And I've been a financial reporter since then. I've covered everything from every sector of the economy: economics, business, I still love to write about oil and gas. My first job was a business reporter with Tulsa World. After I left Tulsa World, I went to – worked on Wall Street with Bridge News for about three years as the international correspondent covering the oil and gas industry, OPEC Exxon Mobile. That was a period of time when there was a lot of mergers.

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        And then Bridge News was purchased by Reuters, the international wire service, and I was reassigned or lost my job and I came back to Arkansas where I worked for Stephens Media, which has just purchased Donrey Media, which is – it was the rural – the large rural publication owned by Donald Reynolds and I worked at their main headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas, as the state business editor in Arkansas. And I did that for several years, during the period when there was big growth in northwest Arkansas with Walmart, Tyson Food, and J.B. Hunt.

And then I came back to Oklahoma – uh, not Oklahoma City but Little Rock, where I was the – also worked at the Capitol bureau covering business and politics here in Little Rock.

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        And then, as you know, over the last 15 years, during consolidation of the news industry, Stephens Media basically went through several iterations, and GateHouse bought part of it, but they sold off a large part of the company. They were owned by the Little Rock investment firm Stephens Inc. So, they was selling off major parts of it.

So I went into the private sector for a few years working for Alltel Corp., which was also consolidating and was purchased by Verizon. Then I worked in a few other corporate jobs with the Transamerica Life Insurance. And I got back – after about a six-year stint in the corporate world, I got back into news business with Talk Business & Politics, which at that time was a startup news publication, online publication, that's just focused on its name: business and politics.

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        And now, today, Talk Business & Politics is one of the larger news organizations in the state of Arkansas. I worked there as the senior business and political reporter, doing my tenure there for about six years. And then last year I was hired by The Daily Record as the publisher. Daily Record is the longest – uh, the oldest business publication in the state of Arkansas so I joined them back in November, and we've been pretty busy since being – uh, since COVID changed the way we do things. So that's kind of a picture of my long and varied career in the news business.

Teri Finneman:        Yeah, and because it's so interesting I'd like to delve into it just a little bit more before we talk about the pandemic. So you mentioned that you covered the Oklahoma City bombing. Tell us a little bit of your memories of working as a journalist covering that.

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Wes Brown:        Well, it was just one of those life-changing things. You know, there was two state newspapers in the state of Oklahoma: the Tulsa World and the daily Oklahoman. And I was, on the day that the bombing happened, I was just – uh, an editor called me at my apartment and told me just get on the road to Oklahoma City. I got on the turnpike, which is about a 90-minute drive to Oklahoma City from Tulsa.

And when I got off the turnpike, you could see a smoke plume in there. I thought it was – at the time, I thought it was a nuclear bomb, but it turned out to be the bombing, the site, and it was just chaos. The city was in chaos. And over the next month, you know, a month and a half or so, the Tulsa World had its entire staff, we rented a Winnebago or a big van just for our news staff and our photographers, –

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        and we were just down on the scene for several weeks just at the center of everything. And it was life changing for everyone involved.

Teri Finneman:        The Oklahoma City bombing has been labeled in journalism history as really a pivotal moment, as far as, you know, kinda the push to the Internet taking off. Do you remember anything about that?

Wes Brown:        Yeah. I mean, you know, when I was at the Tulsa World, we basically – when the Internet came around, we just first had one Internet computer in the newsroom of a, you know, more than 150 reporters and photographers and staff, and we all had to – you know, when you wanted to get on the Internet, we all had to go to that one computer. You didn't have it at your desk and you still did legwork when you wanted to do research. You went to the courthouse to get court records, you used the various, you know, phonebooks, things like – people don't even remember –.

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        And you didn't have use of e-mail. So you made phone calls, you interacted with people. So yes, that was a change, but at that time, like you mentioned, the Internet came in and that, at that time, we began to use that research to, you know – I think a lot of the tracking down of the terrorists in that situation, domestic terrorists, was using the Internet and using this evolving technology that really changed the way we were doing things.

And also, one of the other things at that time that came into play was digital photography. The Tulsa World was actually the first newspaper in the United States to go, well, every – we went totally digital and, you know, there were ethical issues that we had to ask ourselves in the – you know with a photo on a computer, how do you manipulate it if you change it. So those ethical questions were really right in our face at that time.

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        So just I mean every – I think every reporter or photographer will tell you in Oklahoma that that incident changed their lives, and you know, after the Oklahoma City bombing I couldn't just get back to covering the city beat, you know. It was just – you know, it was difficult, so that's why I got into business, because it was totally different than what I was covering, and it gave me a change away from the pace of what I was covering in  – So yeah, it was totally a transforming situation, Internet and in every other way, too.

Teri Finneman:        Could you expand a little bit on what you mean by how it was totally different?

Wes Brown:        Yeah. I mean, you know, I think there were some of our reporters who covered it all the way to the Timothy McVeigh trial and I –

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        occasionally continued to cover stories on that. And like I said, the one thing that it did, it made a reporter know that this may be the, you know – every reporter is looking for that great big story, that big story that defines their career, and when it happens you kinda feel – you know, you feel depressed because you – kinda in your mind you realize that this may be the biggest story that I ever cover, so how do you make that pivot in your career to, you know, to adjust to that.

Like I said, I went into business and lucky for me it was the greatest, greatest thing because I love business, and I never thought I would be a business reporter. I didn't even read the business pages at that time. So for me I was lucky, but I've seen many of my colleagues that came out of that period, many of them, they're not in the news business anymore.

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        Uh, a lot of people after that, they got out. And as you mentioned, the Internet came along and it continued to change the business, and a lot of my peers with the consolidation in the way we did the news, it changed the way and you had to – I mean I have had to completely several times change the way I do things. People call me a, you know, an Internet guru or expert in the Internet for online publication, but I had to change, I had to adapt to the way the Internet changed everything. So and some of – I have to say some of my colleagues couldn't adapt to that.

Teri Finneman:        So what is it that you like so much about business reporting?

Wes Brown:        Just the diversity of coverage. You can – you know, I – my first job was covering the oil and gas business, –

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        The integrated – in Oklahoma at that time, Tulsa was actually the oil capitol of the world when I started coverage and most of that has moved down to Houston now. Houston is now considered the energy capital of the U.S., but Tulsa had that first title. And during the time I was there, you – I got to cover oil and gas, and I was told this early in my career that, if you learn the oil and gas business, you can basically cover any aspect of the corporate world of publicly traded companies because oil companies, like integrated oil companies, huge companies like Chevron, Mobile Arco BP, Shell Oil, they have every part of the corporate world in those companies. They're huge companies.

And I made it a point to learn that, and now, you know, I love economics. I cover the stock market. I cover the Federal Reserve.

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        There is not an area of business reporting that I'm not comfortable with in covering. And it is – and it actually made, even though during my period at the Tulsa World I covered some politics and the trends – you know, the going to covering politics is actually easier for me. I enjoy covering the business world.

And what I did when I came to Stephens Media and worked at the Capitol where I was able to be the first reporter in Arkansas to kinda combine coverage at the state Capitol, where – you know, where the intervention of business and politics, and I was happy to land with a publication called Talk Business & Politics that focuses on those two things that I feel very comfortable with, in writing about.

Teri Finneman:        So you're at The Daily Record now. What is your newspaper circulation?

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Wes Brown:        We have about 10,000 subscribers and The Daily Record is one of the – we are known for our legal notices that we publish: all the foreclosure notices, bankrupt notices, all the death notices. Any kind of legal notices, where you have to go and it has to be filed public. You see those in the newspaper on Sunday. In Arkansas, all the other newspapers buy those legal notices from us and purchase those, and we also have a business with law firms. That's the legal notice side of the business.

They hired me to over the last 10 or 15 years – with the change in the news business and with constant consolidation they had lost a little bit on the editorial side and their coverage had went down. Also, they have kind of a niche focus on –

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        the real estate and the legal community, and since my experiences I know those two industries well, I was able to come in.

But I've also, since I've been there, added some other areas of business coverage that are unique to central Arkansas, such as government, Little Rock being the capital, but also health care, energy and other areas that are – you know, when you look at the labor statistics, that are key for the central Arkansas economy.

Teri Finneman:        And how many people are in your newsroom?

Wes Brown:        Well, we have four people right – I mean on the editorial side, but we also have in our legal notice, we have three people also. Uh, before COVID, I had also had about seven freelancers, but we've kinda paused that part of the business –

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        since, you know, since COVID. And, you know, me and our CEO are having conversations now about, you know, when do we go back to – because, of course, we were impacted financially in terms of revenue and in terms of advertising once COVID hit.

Teri Finneman:        So you mentioned your CEO. Who is the ownership of the paper?

Wes Brown:        Well, we have Mark Nichols, who was actually an attorney in Little Rock, he is the owner, and our CEO is Bobby Burton, who handles a lot of our legal notice side of the business. And they actually contacted me several months ago, back in late 2019 and said, Wesley, we need someone that – to really bulk up our editorial coverage and once, you know, we had that conversation, I was comfortable with coming over and –

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        making those changes and coming in doing the, you know, just doing more in-depth and more enterprising business news coverage.

Teri Finneman:        When did the impact of COVID-19 start with your newspaper?

Wes Brown:        I think it was, you know, the first positive coronavirus case in Arkansas was, I think, March 11 of [2020], but I think if you – you know, you look at around that time, that's when, when it, you know – and also, for us specifically, the president – Trump made – there was a moratorium on foreclosures and that's a big part of our legal notices business, so that directly impacted us. So we felt that when that – that was the first big, wow, this is gonna be huge for us.

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        And then then there was talk of the CARES Act package, the relief emergency relief package, the $2.2 [trillion] CARES Act that was passed. [See Appendix 2] Once that happened and once the information started coming out about that, we really kinda pivoted our coverage to be a resource for small business community as for COVID-19 related news. In fact, we've become experts on the Paycheck Protection Program [See Appendix 3] and all the parts of the CARES Act that affects the small business community, the health care community. So we had to make that pivot in our coverage and still we have – we're still kind of in that phase and writing about COVID-19, our cover stories, our features inside. We're getting back to some other additional stories, but COVID-19 continues to dominate.

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Teri Finneman:        So going off of that. How has your newsroom adjusted their routines during the pandemic?

Wes Brown:        Well, I mean we were – you know, when I came there and in my conversations with Bobby Burton, our CEO, he has a philosophy of just being flexible with your workers and having a flexible newsroom. So what I put in place is that we were already at some points working from home. I didn't have any problems with my reporters and staff working from home. We already had our design, page designer, she was working from home and, you know, the two reporters that I work with now that I told them I just want you to be able to do your job.

So, of course, and Arkansas is one of those states that didn't mandate social distance or stay-at-home orders, they strongly encouraged it, which essentially was a mandate.

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        So in the first three months after the first case in Arkansas and the cases started ramping up, we were all working from home. And then over the last month and a half, I come into the office just because I want a break. I come into the office about twice a week. But I don't – and my reporters come in once or twice a week. But I tell them, you work where you're comfortable, as long as we can get the stories done and we can get out and do –.

As you know, in this Zoom kind of virtual experience, that we do a lot of our work with Zoom and other type of – instead of – and I'm a reporter but – and I still, as a publisher, still like to get out and report and write stories. I – and you know, I love to get out and talk to people, but having to adjust to that – adjusting to that, to where we're using Zoom, –

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        phone calls and going a little bit back where we want to make sure that the reporters are safe and comfortable doing their jobs.

But that's one area where we've had to change. But, also, just in our – the number of papers that we publish. You know, we usually have a run of about 10,000. We cut that. First we cut it down to 5,000, and we – and now we've cut it down even more that number. We have also changed our, you know, some of our deadlines for copy and, you know, just kind of being more flexible for our reporters.

And because we have to sync up, you know, even though we are working from home, we still have to be sync with each other on what we are doing. So in a lot of ways, it's you know –.

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        And I think some of those changes will stay in place for a while. But going into it, we already had a flexible office environment. So our adjustment was not as great as some newsrooms have to go through, especially those who were – they required their reporters to be in the office.

Teri Finneman:        Tell us a little bit about what the pandemic is like in your community and how many cases you've had so far.

Wes Brown:        Actually, before you called, I was writing a story. I think, I'm trying to remember the number. I'm thinking it's right at 30,000 in Arkansas confirmed cases, and about 250 deaths. But over the last – since we've gone through our phase – we had a Phase One reopening, which was I think around June 1, and then the Phase Two, which really impacted most of the business reopenings, –

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        restaurants and things, shopping malls, that happened on June 15. And before the – between the first and second reopening, some of the cases were actually coming down, the number of cases. But since this June 15 reopening, we've seen record numbers. We've had a spike of 4,000 cases in June and even as we speak today, those number of cases have not what you call flattened out where –.

And so there is conversation – our governor holds a press briefing. Gov. Asa Hutchinson holds a press briefing every day and he talks about the issues, and I know there are some concerns that those – that that plateau – that the number of coronavirus cases is continuing to go up.

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        In fact, on this past weekend, our – Little Rock's first Black mayor, Frank Scott [Jr.], announced Little Rock to be the first city in Arkansas to mandate that you would have to wear a face mask in public. [See Appendix 4] So those changes are taking place, and although the governor has not gone that far and he has – you know, and he's been on national TV and locally stressed that he doesn't want to mandate that you wear a face mask or to mandate these social distancing policies, he just wants people to do it, but there is some talk that that may be a step.

But, I mean, knowing Governor Hutchinson, I still think he won't mandate that. I think he will hold out and keep this policy in place, where he encourages people to, you know, to wear a mask and stay – be at safe distances and social distancing policy, –

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        but I don't see him mandating that.

Teri Finneman:        Talk about how you've personally adjusted to be a journalist during the pandemic and having to juggle your life and your career and how the number of hours you work every week has or hasn't changed.

Wes Brown:        Well, you know, when I was with Talk Business over the last, you know – and we talked earlier about the changes of the Internet and the consolidation of the news industry. Well, when I came back in the news industry, I created my own basically LLC, where although I work for Tulsa businesses, Talk Business, I actually worked for myself and I was a contract labor for them, even though I was full time. That allowed me to change the way I did everything. I worked for myself, so I worked from home. I work my own hours. I did the – you know, even though I talked with the publisher and everything, he basically said, “Wesley, you go out and do the stories” –

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        And then I was a state Capitol reporter here in Arkansas and with Talk Business and covered both business and politics. So I basically had my own beat, did my own thing and you know. So the adjustment, when COVID-19 came, is I was already pretty flexible in the way I did things so my adjustment hasn't been that great. I have a nice setup here at home, I have a home office that I've been working from for the last, you know, probably last nine or 10 years now. So even when I was with The Daily Record, even though I was going in the office, coming back to the office was easy for – I mean back home was easy for me. I know I've talked to people and a lot of people say they would love to work at home, but when COVID happened, a lot of people couldn't make that adjustment. It was difficult for a lot of people. So for me, it's been pretty easy.

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        Uh, and now I'm – you know, I'm just going back to the office a few times a week. But the adjustment hasn't been that great. I will say that, you know, there are – like I said earlier, some of the things we've had to adjust for is Zoom. I'm sick of Zoom now. I do Zoom with my family, I do Zoom at work, I do Zoom with friends, and those adjustments in your personal life are different. I'm an outdoors person, and I'm a former marathon runner, I love to run, I walk and I'm older now but I can't do – I can't get out. I love to play golf, I can't – you know. You have to make those adjustments in your personal life, but as far as journalism, it hasn't been that big of an adjustment for me in the way of the hours I work, but just adjusting to how you do things and getting things done. That's the biggest change.

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Teri Finneman:        So let's compare and contrast in regular times how often you published compared to how your new strategy has changed as far as print, online and social.

Wes Brown:        Well, you know, we haven't – you know, one of the things that when I was hired at The Daily Record at the end – at – I was already implementing changes to – you know, we were talking about changing our webpage and, and doing more social media. So we were in the midst of those changes. So we kinda paused some of the things that we were doing and focusing on the print publication and focusing on our niche audiences.

And so we've had to pause some of our plans. Also was planning a new kind of advertising push as publisher on the – outside the editorial side of my position – and I've had to pause some of those plans too –

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        because we are unsure of how the business community is responding and some of them have paused their purchases of online media and print media, so you have to change those.

So you know, we're adjusting on that end, but, you know the – and now there is talk of possibly a second spike of COVID cases, so, you know, we're having conversations, me and Bobby, of what – how can – what's gonna happen, what's ahead and how do we plan for that. And I think for – you know, I talk to other people in the business and the thing is, there is nothing that they – we can compare it to. You talk about compare and contrast, there's nothing that I can look back and see in the past that I can say, okay, we did it this way in the past and then we can adapt now to that. It's new to everybody that we don't know, so making those adjustments is –

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        you know, sometimes difficult because you don't have any past examples.

But – and this is, you know, the word you hear all the time is new norm, it definitely is a new normal of the way we do business and some of the things, the way we did things in the past may not be the same. We may not – I think virtual remote offices, interviewing people virtually, using other technologies to get the story done or – And I think the reporter in the newsroom has to be able to do everything now. They have to be – you know, I do TV, I do radio here. People call me to talk about economic things and political things or – on radio and TV, so you have to adjust to what's going on and be able to do pretty much everything.

I still think the foundation of being a journalist is being a good writer –

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        but now you also have to adjust to be able to, you know, take pictures on the scene, to be able to go on social media and post a tag and be able to do all those universal things around your stories.

Teri Finneman:        Have you noticed any spikes in your online traffic?

Wes Brown:        No, and you know, one of our things is we're trying to create a more vibrant Internet presence and web-based presence and that's something that our print publication, unlike a lot of media, our print publication is still our main focus, so we haven't – we don't get the online traffic like on a regular newspaper. Our business, because of the – you know, the legal notices and things that we publish, people like to have their hands on the publication.

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        But they also can go on our online site and be able to get that same information. So our print publication kind of work together, like, you know, like when I came from Talk Business, even though we had some business journals, our web presence was mainly where we did daily news and we were able to do that. With The Daily Record, I don't envision, you know, going – we're still weekly, so we focus on being a weekly and not trying to capture that daily news cycle that, you know, sometimes is the focus.

And I know some weekly publications do that now, with their web presence they're able to do daily news, breaking news and things for that, but we haven't made that venture yet. We could in the future but right now the model that we have is working for us.

Teri Finneman:        So running a business-focused publication –

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        and the business industry has been terribly hit by this pandemic, you mentioned pausing freelancers and cutting back on circulation. Talk about the financial toll that your newspaper has seen as a result of the pandemic.

Wes Brown:        Yeah, I mean it was immediate, immediate, I think. You know with our Arkansas Press Association, we the publishers in Arkansas came together and held a conference call with our congressional officials when they were talking about the CARES Act and putting in place CARES Act’s $2.2 trillion that came to help small businesses. And there were some targeted funds in there, but there was no funds that were set aside for the news or publishing industries. So we've had to adapt.

Like I said, you know, we paused our freelance and they did a lot of work for us. And we also we are –

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        we're a 24-page publication. We were down to – we went – we're now down to 20 pages and at – early on, we were actually talking about possibly going down to 16 pages, but we settled on 20 pages and we've been able to be steady at that.

We've also had to furlough some hours. We've cut back one day out of a week in terms of dealing with finances. We've also made, you know, we've also, just as many small businesses, we've also accessed some of the CARES Act funds that are out there and to remain a viable business. Because, you know, as you know, as you mentioned advertising revenue is down significantly and you know, –

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        our owner here has been very good about saying we want to keep everybody onboard and not have to, you know, go to layoffs or anything at that time. So I – it's been difficult, but we have – we seem to kind of have leveled off and seem to be at a manageable state right now.

Teri Finneman:        So you mentioned becoming an expert on the Paycheck Protection Act. What are some of the other biggest stories that you've covered related to the pandemic?

Wes Brown:        Well, we've covered kind of the – one of our big industries here in central Arkansas is the health care industry and we've written about how, you know, with them being on the frontlines but also looking behind the scenes, how financially how it's impacted those businesses and that's what we've tried to do. [See Appendix 5]

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        We've looked at different sectors [See Appendix 6]. We've looked at the real estate industry, we've looked at the legal community, we looked at government because Little Rock is the state capital here, so you have a large government sector here. So we've looked at different sectors of the economy and focused – weekly, we try to find the different sectors that are key to central Arkansas that are –.

We also got to look at the aerospace industry, which is big in central Arkansas, and now we've also looked at the – as we're going through these different phases of reopening, we are looking at how companies are, especially restaurants, we did some pieces on, you know, in a couple weeks, on how restaurants are dealing with the reopening and how they're adjusting to those things.

So we've been really focusing on looking at different sectors of the businesses in central Arkansas –

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        that are key to our economy and focusing – looking at those businesses, how they're impacted by COVID-19 and looking at their financials and looking at how they are impacted.

We also have looked into the issue of labor market [See Appendix 7]. In Arkansas there has been about over – about 400,000 jobless claims and our unemployment rate has jumped over 10 percent when although it's not as bad as the national numbers, it's still a large impact and that's a story that we'll continue to follow.

And also, being one of the lone few Black journalists and lone publisher in the state of Arkansas, I have also seen, you know, the impact of COVID-19 on the Black population and especially, you know, looking at the health care part of it –

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        being directly impacted but also the job numbers. A large portion of the jobless claims, the unemployment numbers are Black African American people, poor people, socioeconomics, lower socioeconomic status. So looking at those kind of stories.

So we've kept – there is no limit to the number of business stories that I think, in fact that when you look at the sectors being impacted, business and healthcare are essentially the two major, you know, the frontlines of what's happening right now.

Teri Finneman:        Looking kind of broadly, how do you see the business model for the journalism industry changing as a result of all of this?

Wes Brown:        Well, I still think, you know, even though COVID-19 has come, I think it's exposed what was already happening with the consolidation in the news industry with the Internet.

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        You were already seeing, before we went into – actually when I was with Talk Business and did some stories on the new Census Bureau numbers that came out, showing that in Arkansas and I think the numbers were, you know, a decade ago in our industry, the publishing and newspaper industry, there were over, around 8,000 jobs. That number has been cut in half because of the Internet.

In Arkansas, you've seen the company I used to work for Stephens Media, they essentially they were owned by, like a lot of news industries, have been purchased by venture capitalists or hedge funds or corporations. And the first thing that they look at is the bottom lines to make them profitable. So the decisions that are made sometimes are not in the interest of the newsroom, and we are seeing that in terms of number.

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        Arkansas, what is happening in Arkansas, is that most cities – small, rural towns had a newspaper – you don't see that anymore. Most of the city – small, rural newspapers are gone. There are a few still left, but they're maybe family owned. A few – GateHouse which is in – they have a few, but they have also cut significantly in areas and some of those newspapers may have one reporter that has to do everything, has to do business, has to do sports, you know, and then they have to do online.

But what I do see is an emerging kind of an online where former journalists are going and starting their Talk Business, which has started out as a blog is now a statewide business publication that covers central Arkansas, –

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        northeast Arkansas and northwest Arkansas. Roby Brock, who is the publisher over there, has done a great job of morphing, and he also has TV. On his website they do – we do video, they do social media. They – so they've found their niche, and I think that's what's gonna take place, you're gonna see niche publications, niche online publications kind of come into view, and COVID has just exposed those things, and I think it would just quicken the pace that that happens, where publications have to find their niche and be able to do things.

Another part of that and it – that piques my interest because I'm a Black and I've always, a lot of times been the lone Black reporter in the stops where I have gone in my career, and Black media is no longer. All the Black newspapers that were –

[0:41:00]

        in the United States, they're gone. They have all gone bankrupt. Not just – uh, and all the national Black publications have been purchased by – have gone bankrupt or been purchased by larger companies. BET is owned by Viacom. All the large Black – Johnson [Publishing Co.] that did Ebony and JET, they have gone bankrupt and sold off most of their assets, so Black publications –

And you know, I have an interest in – I've started a small venture where I am doing some publication, a newsletter that just covers the business end of the Black consumer, but that's something that I've been doing as my own venture, but I see that because that niche is missing in the news media. There is not much coverage on how COVID-19 has impacted Black consumers, how Black businesses didn't get any of the PPP [federal Paycheck Protection Program] money, things like that.

[0:42:00]

        And I think those stories are important and also especially with, you know, with George Floyd protests that are going on right now.

Teri Finneman:        Have you been assigning reporters to cover any protesting in Arkansas?

Wes Brown:        Well, we have been – you know, that's kind of – we've covered kind of the business ends. I have written columns about it. But we haven't had the muscle to go out and cover it on a daily because of what happened with COVID. And, you know, I support what's happening in our daily newspaper going out and doing that and the publications that can do that.

But, you know, it is kind of – as a publisher, I have to look at, say yeah, I want to cover that, but I also have to look at it from a business standpoint and say that's not our niche and that's – you know, when it – there are gonna be stories that fall into our lap –

[0:43:00]

        dealing with the business side of that. How and when those stories do come around, definitely, yeah, we will be doing those stories, but I think that's more so because I think one of the things that's happening is the corporations – how are corporations responding to the Black Lives Matter movement, how? And in Arkansas, you haven't seen the movement that has taken place nationally, but, you know, we're starting to see some of that. And I think a lot of times a trend that happens nationally doesn't – it takes a little while for it to build down to Arkansas and the rural communities in Arkansas.

Teri Finneman:        You know, one of the things that Ashley [Wimberley] at the [Arkansas] State [Press] Association pointed out in our talk was the pandemic has really made clearer the lack of Internet access in rural areas of Arkansas. Is that something that you have noticed as well?

[0:44:00]

Wes Brown:        Well, you know, we're here in Little Rock, so Little Rock has –you have all the major players: AT&T, Comcast suddenly that are in this market. But yes, definitely, when you go outside of the Little Rock market – I am from Hope, Arkansas, which is down 90 minutes from here, and when I go down to visit my mom, yes, that's an issue. And that's a well-known issue. Gov. Asa Hutchinson has talked about that, how Arkansas is well behind.

And you know, one of the stories we've been covering that has gotten lost in all of this was what likely have been one of the larger stories if COVID-19 hadn't – and that's the Census Bureau count that's taking place. And one of those – that, you know, that's one of the issues that is being talked about in those hard-to-count areas, those people.

[0:45:00]

        And Arkansas is behind on the Census Bureau count because a lot of those communities can't go online and do the Census Bureau application, you know. And, you know, it only takes a few minutes to do, but, but Arkansas is behind the national trend. I think right now it's at 60 percent of people in the United States have responded to the Census; in Arkansas it's probably around 55 or 54 [As of July 31, 2020, 57.6% of Arkansas residents responded], and I don't see, unless, you know, the pandemic ends and the Census Bureau workers are allowed to go out and canvas those communities, I think Arkansas is gonna suffer because of that, because of the lack of Internet access.

Teri Finneman:        What changes have you noticed with your reader base during the pandemic?

Wes Brown:        You know, one of the things, like I said earlier, we pivoted to COVID-19 coverage, and one of the things, –

[0:46:00]

        like I said, we became kind of an expert in the PPP program, a lot of questions, a lot of controversy around that program. So, I have actually – was invited to a panel discussion along with the SBA, Small Business Administration for the state of Arkansas, and after it, he said, “You guys know as much about this as we do.” So, you know, we made ourselves, so and now we have a resource page that we publish every week and people come and find that information useful for them in making decisions about their businesses.

We've also, you know, have pivoted in a lot of other ways in our coverage in terms of saying, you know, as a publisher you have to make a decision of what's important and what's not, and right now –

[0:47:00]

        you have to weigh the COVID side of things a little bit more heavier. But being that our readership base was kind of founded on the real estate community and the legal community, we've looked at doing, you know, stories that was of special interest to that audience, which is a large part of our audience.

So, you know, we've done recent stories and are working on a story on the commercial real estate industry. You know, what's happening in larger markets is that some big tenants have just said we're gonna stop paying rent or – so that's a big issue, a story – an evolving story of the real estate market, which generally drives the economy. That's gonna be a big story that we will begin to develop you know.

The second spike, if that happens what then next, you know? And also, there is a lot of talk of now –

[0:48:00]

        of a second round of stimulus money and that's starting to hear, you know, in political circles that that is probably gonna happen in the next few months, especially as the numbers spike. So I think, you know, this second spike is really gonna continue some of the same coverage that we had to pivot to in late March and in early April. And I don't see, you know, for the foreseeable future – I've never seen a story where – you know, I've seen stories like Sept. 11, like Oklahoma City, that for a time it changed your coverage. At Tulsa World we had a special page on the Oklahoma City bombing. When Sept. 11, a lot of newspapers pivoted to that coverage, but this has the potential to impact coverage for the foreseeable future and possibly years down the road if there is not a vaccine.

[0:49:00]

        So it really causes you to try to figure out, you know, what's important to the reader even more so now than you did in the past.

Teri Finneman:        What changes to your newspaper operations during the pandemic are you most ready to see just done?

Wes Brown:        Oh, Zoom. I think that's an easy one. I hate Zoom now. I hate to, uh – I, like I said, I love, you know, I love sitting down with people because there's something about, even if you're seeing people, there is still something about, you know, face-to-face communication that's the lifeline of what I – I mean as a journalist I have always enjoyed that part of the business. And as a publisher, I am still – my foundation is a journalist –

[0:50:00]

        even though I am involved in other aspects of the business.

The other thing is, you know, just the total coverage on COVID. I want to – there is other important stories out there that you want to get back to. There's stories in the – nonrelated COVID-19 stories in the health care sector. There is – there were things that were going on in the economy that were important before COVID came, 19, and they exposed it and you were writing about that, but you always have to put in a COVID-19 angle within those stories.

For instance, we – there was a big merger, a breakup of the largest – that we're doing this week – of the largest real estate, commercial real estate firm in Arkansas, and alone, that story was a strong story just standing on its own [See Appendix 8], but you have to go in and also ask –

[0:51:00]

        the COVID question, how is this COVID-19 impacting your business, and then, you know, there is other interesting angles of – you have to – what I am having to do is weigh those other interesting angles of the story, do they outweigh the COVID impact, and when you write, you have to consider those factors.

So, you know, that – COVID is always the elephant in the room now. It – you – there is no story that doesn't have a COVID-19 [angle]. We have an intern that's working for us this summer, and he is writing about sports and he is gonna – and doing a story on how the state sports, collegiate sports are impacted by COVID. So you know, I am looking forward to the day when I can write a story and not include the word coronavirus or COVID-19 or virus or anything related to it.

[0:52:00]

Teri Finneman:        How has the pandemic influenced your views of the role of journalism in society?

Wes Brown:        Well, I, you know – there was – we've always – I think the news reporter and the news desk and the editor have always – I think it's – the pendulum is swinging back to, you know, to our readers and to our audience and to the public in terms of determining what stories you do. You know, I think the pendulum swung way too far in the other direction, where the newsroom was saying these are the stories we do, this is how we do a newspaper. We do the front page, we do sports, we do business, we do entertainment, we do certain sections, and every – you go across the country, every newspaper looked the same except for the stories –

[0:53:00]

        they did. You had the same sections. I think that's gonna change. I think the way – you know, and all – and a lot of that's COVID-related, but as I said, the newspaper industry was undergoing an evolution anyway. COVID is just speeding those things up. And I think those changes are – we can say they're COVID-related, but I – as you and I know, and you studying this industry, those changes – many of the changes that are taking place were already underway.

We were, you know, the model, the business model of the newspaper industry, the old model is gone and you're starting to hear in Arkansas, the Arkansas Democrat Gazette, which is our state newspaper, is now, you know, they've went to – I'm one of their subscribers, so I read my Sunday newspaper on an iPad. You know, that is shocking to me. I love – I'm a person that loved to sit down and –

[0:54:00]

        read the newspaper, grab my coffee. I love to get the Wall Street Journal off my porch in the morning, the New York Times. But now I don't have any paper subscriptions. I don't. So obviously COVID-19 is speeding up the move to online publications.

We are kind of isolated. We haven't gone – fully gone over there, but we are moving that way, you know, and I don't know the day when it'll change where we will be totally web-based or if we will be, but that's the way the industry is moving towards.

Teri Finneman:        What do you want readers to know about journalism right now?

Wes Brown:        You know, as a Black reporter who has been in the industry all my life and going through this issue –

[0:55:00]

        with Black Lives Matter, I think the importance of diversity in the newspaper industry is one of the – well, one of the columns I wrote in the last few weeks [See Appendix 9] was about this issue, about how we, you know – that question has always been in the news industry since I've been out there but it's never been answered, is always have to – you know, the same questions, but nothing has changed.

And I think while we're changing, while we're going through this evolution that's been caused by COVID-19, that's been caused by the Internet, that's been caused by the change in ownership, been caused by so much that's going on in the industry, we have to bring – we have to nurture young people that don't look like us, that are – that haven't had access to the news industry, get them interested in it so you can you can be able to tell a story from all sides and not just from one point of view.

[0:56:00]

        And the need for that is so important right now, to be able to have more than one view. It's kinda like, you know, being a Christian, I look at the gospels, the four gospels are the same thing, but they're told from different point of views, and they evoke – all four bring a rich understanding of the picture that's trying to be painted and that's what is needed in the newsroom.

We – well, I think the way we've lost some readers and we've lost some of the – some of the integrity in our business is because we didn't have that diversity. We can go out and call someone a racist, but we haven't looked at our own industry. We call someone that you haven't done this or you haven't done that, but we haven't looked at our own, and so I would like to see that changed in our industry and like to see more – more people of color, more people that – more women executives, –

[0:57:00]

        more movement in the industry where it's not dominated by the same people and the same voices.

Teri Finneman:        What do you want journalists 100 years from now, who may be covering a new pandemic, what do you want them to know?

Wes Brown:        That being honest, keeping your integrity, being true, being honest, being a good writer, being diligent, being ethical are things that don't change as a newsperson. I think those are the values that if you go back 100 years before today and you look at great journalists, good journalists that are able to get the story, they all have those same values, those same issues, too, in their search and their curiosity –

[0:58:00]

        for the truth, and I think that's the one thing that won't ever change about the news industry. If it does, then it won't become news, it won't become news anymore, it becomes something else.

Teri Finneman:        Is there anything else you wanted to talk about?

Wes Brown:        No. I will end with just saying that this, you know, in the last – you know, in my career, I have gone from being a traditional newspaper writer, where we just wrote with our pen and pad and covered things and that's how we did the story. But in the last 10 years, I think I've needed – the one thing that is happening, the pace of change is quickening so much with Internet first, then social media –.

[0:59:00]

        And we don't know what the next thing is gonna be, but those changes are happening very quickly and it's both frightening and exciting. Frightening in the way that, you know, when I came back to Arkansas with Stephens Media, when I was with the – when I left the Tulsa World, those were newsroom – urban newspapers that had, you know, large staffs and large – and now that's changed. Warren Buffett owns the Tulsa World – you know, like I said, the Democrat-Gazette has changed the way it does business.

So the pace of change for the news industry, I know people out there who are thinking about getting into the business saying that may not be, but if you want to be a journalist, I say jump in and it's an exciting business. It gets – it gets in your blood. It's a wonderful avocation and vocation that you want to get in.

[1:00:00]

Teri Finneman:        Okay. This is the conclusion of this oral history.

[End of Audio]

Appendix 1

https://www.nytimes.com/2020/07/13/us/tulsa-massacre-graves-excavation.html

The Massacre That Destroyed Tulsa’s ‘Black Wall Street’

In 1921, the city of Tulsa erupted in a spasm of hate and fire that destroyed its prosperous Black district. A century later, excavators are uncovering a “crime scene.”

By Ben Fenwick

• Published July 13, 2020Updated July 18, 2020

TULSA, Okla. — Incited by a salacious and largely fabricated news story about a young Black man assaulting a white girl, a lynch mob showed up at the Tulsa city jail, where he was being held. A group of African-Americans, many of them soldiers who had returned from fighting the First World War, rushed over to help guard the young man. Fighting broke out, then shooting.

The episode touched off a racist rampage. White rioters descended on the city’s Greenwood District, a Black community considered so affluent that Booker T. Washington, the author and orator, had called it “Black Wall Street.” Soon they were aided by a local National Guard unit with a water-cooled Browning machine gun. According to eyewitness accounts from 1921, planes circled overhead, shooting people as they fled and dropping incendiary devices.

While the young man at the jail was able to leave town and was later exonerated, the entire Black township lay burned to its foundations. City officials, law enforcement and guardsmen rounded up thousands of surviving residents and forced them to stay in a hastily arranged internment camp as the bodies of as many as 300 people were dumped in unmarked graves.

The massacre lay hidden for decades. Educators did not teach it. Government offices did not record it. Even archival copies of some newspaper accounts were selectively expunged.

On Monday, though, forensic investigators broke ground at the possible site of a mass grave in Oaklawn Cemetery, a few blocks from where much of the carnage occurred.

“There was a curtain of silence drawn to keep this quiet,” said Scott Ellsworth, a Tulsa historian who wrote a history of the massacre, “Death in a Promised Land: The Tulsa Race Riot of 1921.” The dig defies the official silence, he said, which was an attempt to hide the crime.

“This is a major step,” Mr. Ellsworth said. “This is unprecedented.”

On Monday morning, the forensic team assembled by the city and the state began to remove earth from an 8-by-4-foot test dig in an effort that was expected to last about a week. The site lies within what ground-penetrating radar suggests might be a much larger pit. Researchers are focusing on what is described as an “anomaly” in the ground, which could mean the earth there was disturbed. The site lies in the unmarked section of the cemetery.

The dig is only an initial step, with further steps planned depending on what is found.

“We don’t know what we will find,” said Lesley Rankin-Hill, an emeritus professor of anthropology at the University of Oklahoma. Ms. Rankin-Hill, who is part of the investigative team, said the anomaly could be human remains, or it could be a box of debris — the instruments that were used to scan the area could not tell.

Editors’ Picks

 “We have analysis that shows there was a big disturbance in the dirt where we were told people were buried,” she said.

Image

Two of the only known headstones in Oaklawn Cemetery for victims of the race massacre in Tulsa, Okla., in 1921.Credit...Joseph Rushmore for The New York Times

A 2001 report from a truth commission convened by the state notes numerous accounts showing that for years, despite official silence, local oral history from both Black and white residents pointed to the Oaklawn site.

One of those cited is a Salvation Army major, O.T. Johnson, who said he oversaw diggers burying 150 bodies in Oaklawn. Similarly, the wife of a Black mortician, Eunice Cloman Jackson, recounted in the report that her stepfather was part of a crew of 55 gravediggers burying bodies in Oaklawn. The report also records the story of a young boy, Clyde Eddy, who saw large wooden crates containing several burned bodies next to workers digging a trench at the cemetery.

“While Mr. Eddy did not directly see the victims being placed in this trench-like area, it is reasonable to assume that its purpose was for a mass grave,” the report states.

Also suggesting the Oaklawn site are the few records of known victims, which listed 39 dead — 13 white and 26 Black. Of the Black victims, 21 were interred in Oaklawn, according to the report.

TULSA MASSACRE

The city investigates its traumatic history through a search for mass graves from the 1921 Tulsa race massacre.

If the test site uncovers human remains, the diggers expect to halt their work. No exhumation is likely to occur at this phase, Ms. Rankin-Hill said. Even during the test dig, the site is closed to public viewing, although the dig will be recorded on video.

 “There is a lot of protocol,” Ms. Rankin-Hill said. “It’s technically a crime scene they are going into.”

Image

“We have a huge segment in the African-American community that has been advocating for this for decades, since the massacre in 1921,” said the Rev. Dr. Robert R.A. Turner, pastor of the Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greenwood.Credit...Joseph Rushmore for The New York Times

When he announced the investigation, Mayor G.T. Bynum of Tulsa also called the undertaking a crime investigation and called for the process to be “transparent.” Part of the transparency is an oversight commission.

Chief Egunwale Amusan, president of the African Ancestral Society in Tulsa, was one of many Tulsans who pressed for the inclusion of the oversight committee. He is one of the few community leaders who will be allowed to visit the dig site. He said the city faced a conflict of interest because, though the massacre occurred nearly a century ago, the city government was part of the crime.

“You are looking for a crime and that means there is a criminal,” Mr. Amusan said. “That investigation may turn up something. You start to find out who was involved.”

Also on the oversight committee is the Rev. Dr. Robert R.A. Turner, pastor of the Vernon African Methodist Episcopal Church in Greenwood, a church that was all but destroyed in the fires and rebuilt shortly afterward. Mr. Turner visited the site on Sunday, the day before the dig, and prayed for the victims who might be buried there.

“We have a huge segment in the African-American community that has been advocating for this for decades, since the massacre in 1921,” he said. “We’ve been advocating for this since the bodies went missing.”

Appendix 2

https://apnews.com/2099a53bb8adf2def7ee7329ea322f9d

Trump signs $2.2T stimulus after swift congressional votes

By ANDREW TAYLOR, ALAN FRAM, LAURIE KELLMAN and DARLENE SUPERVILLEMarch 27, 2020

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an unprecedented $2.2 trillion economic rescue package into law after swift and near-unanimous action by Congress to support businesses, rush resources to overburdened health care providers and help struggling families during the deepening coronavirus epidemic.

Acting with unity and resolve unseen since the 9/11 attacks, Washington moved urgently to stem an economic free fall caused by widespread restrictions meant to slow the spread of the virus that have shuttered schools, closed businesses and brought American life in many places to a virtual standstill.

“This will deliver urgently needed relief,” Trump said as he signed the bill Friday in the Oval Office, flanked only by Republican lawmakers. He thanked members of both parties for putting Americans “first.”

Earlier Friday, the House gave near-unanimous approval by voice vote after an impassioned session conducted along the social distancing guidelines imposed by the crisis. Many lawmakers sped to Washington to participate — their numbers swollen after a maverick Republican signaled he’d try to force a roll call vote — though dozens of others remained safely in their home districts.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously late Wednesday.

“Today we’ve all acknowledged our nation faces an economic and health emergency of historic proportions,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif. She said Americans deserve a full-on government response “to address these threats to their lives and their livelihood and they need it now.”

The $2.2 trillion legislation will speed government payments of $1,200 to most Americans and increase jobless benefits for millions of people thrown out of work. Businesses big and small will get loans, grants and tax breaks. It will send unprecedented billions to states and local governments, and the nation’s all but overwhelmed health care system.

“This is not a time for cynicism or invective or second-guessing,” said GOP Whip Liz Cheney of Wyoming. “This is a time to remember that we are citizens of the greatest nation on Earth, that we have overcome every challenge we have faced, and we will overcome this one.”

Despite reservations, arch-conservatives joined with progressives like Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., to back the bill, which moved quickly through a Congress that’s been battered by partisanship and is itself not immune to the suffering the virus has caused. Reps. Joe Cunningham, D-S.C., and Mike Kelly, R-Pa., announced Friday that they’d tested positive, bringing the number of infected lawmakers to five.

Tea party Republicans said government orders to shutter businesses merited actions that conflict with their small-government ideology. Liberals accepted generous corporate rescues that accompany larger unemployment benefits, deferrals of student loans, and an enormous surge of funding for health care and other agencies responding to the crisis.

“I’m going to have to vote for something that has things in it that break my heart,” said conservative Rep. David Schweikert, R-Ariz.

The bipartisan amity went only so far. Top congressional Democrats were not invited to the White House signing ceremony, said Democratic aides speaking on condition of anonymity to describe the situation.

And in a statement released after the signing, Trump objected to efforts to establish congressional oversight of spending in the bill and said his administration “will continue the practice of treating provisions like these as advisory and non-binding.”

Many lawmakers summoned the bipartisan spirit of 9/11 and efforts to fight terrorism. Others praised the roles low-income workers play in keeping the country going and the heroism of health care workers. Some, like Iowa Democrat Abby Finkenauer, who had just learned of two additional coronavirus-related deaths in her district, came close to tears.

Others couldn’t restrain their partisan impulses. Republicans chided Democratic leaders for delays and provisions they see as extraneous, such as funding for public broadcasting and the arts; Democrats said too many elements are a bailout for corporations that may not need it.

Still, in a chamber increasingly populated by lawmakers whose chief skill often seems to be partisan attacks, Friday’s debate was a noteworthy break.

“We have no time to dither,” said Rep. Gerald Connolly, D-Va. “We have no time to engage in ideological or petty partisan fights. Our country needs us as one.”

The run-up to the vote contained an element of drama because libertarian conservative Thomas Massie, R-Ky., announced plans to seek a roll call vote.

Leaders of both parties united to prevent that because it would have forced lawmakers back to the Capitol or blemished their voting records if they stayed home. Instead, they made sure enough lawmakers would attend Friday’s session to block Massie’s move under the rules, and lawmakers took the unprecedented step of sitting in the visitors galleries to establish the necessary quorum.

The House promptly adjourned for a weeks-long recess but will return later in the spring to consider further legislation.

“This bill is not only a rescue package, it’s a commitment — a commitment that your government, and the people whom you elected to serve you, will do everything we can to limit the harm and hardship you face, both now and in the foreseeable future,” said Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif.

The massive CARES Act started as a draft plan among Republicans controlling the Senate who were seeking a greater voice in the coronavirus response efforts -- especially after Pelosi was a dominant force in earlier legislation imposing a sick leave mandate on businesses.

Full Coverage: Economy

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., welcomed Democratic participation a week ago, and signed off on a major expansion of unemployment insurance, but his efforts to freeze out Pelosi and force a quick agreement were met with Democratic demands for large infusions of aid to states and hospitals, as well as an assortment of smaller items. McConnell and top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer of New York wrestled for days, along with Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and other administration officials.

Negotiations finally produced a deal early Wednesday morning, and the Senate passed the measure by a 96-0 vote.

The legislation dwarfs prior Washington responses to crises like 9/11, the 2008 financial crisis, and natural disasters.

Key elements are untested, such as grants to small businesses to keep workers on payroll and complex lending programs to larger businesses. Rebate payments will go to people who have retained their jobs. Agencies like the Small Business Administration and state unemployment systems will be severely taxed, and conservatives fear that a new, generous unemployment benefit will dissuade jobless people from returning to the workforce.

The bill amounts to a bridge loan for much of the economy and carries a price tag that equals half the size of the entire $4 trillion-plus annual federal budget.

The legislation also establishes a $454 billion program for guaranteed, subsidized loans to larger industries in hopes of leveraging up to $4.5 trillion in lending to distressed businesses, states, and municipalities.

There is also $150 billion devoted to the health care system, including $100 billion for grants to hospitals and other health care providers buckling under the strain of COVID-19 caseloads.

It also seeks to strengthen the safety net for the poor and homeless. Schools and students would get relief, small business loans payments would be deferred. Evictions from public housing would be put on pause.

Republicans successfully pressed for an employee retention tax credit designed to help companies keep workers on payroll. Companies would also be able to defer payment of the 6.2% Social Security payroll tax. A huge tax break for interest costs and operating losses limited by the 2017 tax overhaul was restored at a $200 billion cost in a boon for the real estate sector.

Most people who contract the new coronavirus have mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough that clear up in two to three weeks. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness, including pneumonia, or death.

—

AP writers Zeke Miller, Mary Clare Jalonick and Matthew Daly contributed.

Appendix 3

http://www.dailyrecord.us/small-business-owners-grumble-that-banks-front-ended-covid-19-loans-to-larger-companies-preferred-customers

Small business owners grumble that banks front-ended COVID-19 loans to larger companies, preferred customers

April 27 - May 3, 2020

SBA’s Paycheck Protection Program paid out $2.72 billion to nearly 22,000 small businesses in Arkansas

Even as local communities in Arkansas and across the U.S. prepare for another round of funding for small businesses impacted by COVID-19, sole proprietors and other “gig economy” firms with limited access to capital are still angry that banks and SBA-approved lenders halted their applications due to confusion over the first $2.2 trillion stimulus act signed into law on March 27.

At the same time, some small business advocates allege that some banks may have front-ended loans to larger companies and publicly traded concerns that exploited a loophole in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act to get access to federal dollars through the much talked about Paycheck Protection Program (PPP).

That initial $349 billion emergency loan program created under the CARES Act and administered and approved by the U.S. Small Business Administrative provided forgivable loans up to $10 million to small businesses left financially distressed by the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic. Those loans, however, quickly ran out of funds in only two weeks after by a national network for more than 100 banks and credit unions began accepting applications on April 3.

In Arkansas, more than 100 Arkansas banks and lenders processed 21,754 PPP loans totaling more than $2.72 billion, according to the SBA’s District Office in Little Rock. Under CARES Acts rules, the loans were provided to small businesses without collateral requirements, personal guarantees, SBA fees, or credit elsewhere tests. Supposedly, those eligible for the program include small businesses, certain non-profits, veterans’ organizations, self-employed individuals, independent contractors, and other businesses with fewer than 500 employees.

On April 17, exactly two weeks after the program’s highly anticipated launch, SBA Administrator Jovita Carranza and U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hailed the PPP as a national success despite technical delays and snafus that created application backlogs at SBA district offices nationwide, including Arkansas. 

“The Treasury Department and SBA launched the unprecedented Paycheck Protection Program in just one week. Following its launch, the SBA processed more than 14 years’ worth of loans in less than 14 days, which will protect a vast number of American jobs,” Carranza and Mnuchin said in a statement, adding that payroll assistance has been provided to more than 1.6 million small businesses in all 50 states and territories. “The PPP enjoyed broad-based participation across the country from lenders of all sizes and a wide array of industries and businesses.”

SBA officials also highlighted that nearly 20% of the amount approved was processed by lenders with less than $1 billion in assets, and approximately 60% of the loans were approved by banks with $10 billion of assets or less. No lender accounted for more than 5% of the total dollar amount of the program.

PPP Protests

Despite processing those thousands of PPP applications in Arkansas, several small business trade groups and advocates protested that many SBA-approved banks and financial institutions processed the biggest loan amounts first because they increased origination fees.

Some small business advocates in Arkansas say possibly thousands of applications by firms sole proprietors, independent contractors, nonprofits and other self-employed “1099” entities were held up by SBA lenders due to confusion over a late guidance by SBA and Treasury officials on April 14. That notice provided specific instructions on calculating the maximum loan amount for self-employed individuals with income of less than $100,000. 

By that time, however, SBA officials had explicitly stated that nearly all the $350 billion in PPP funds were gone. Locally, SBA officials sent out a notice to Arkansas banks, lending partners, clients, local and state policymakers, and others on April 17 that PPP funds had completely dried up.

“The high demand we have seen underscores the need for hardworking Americans to have access to relief as soon as possible. We want every eligible small business to participate and get the resources they need. SBA is communicating with Congress to request additional appropriations,” said email communications from SBA’s Little Rock Office, headed by State Director Edward Haddock. “Unfortunately, the SBA cannot issue new loan approvals or accept new applications given this lapse in appropriations per US law.”

Besides halting PPP loans, SBA’s Arkansas office also paused the agency’s expanded Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) program that included a much-talked about feature that allowed program participants to receive a $10,000 advance for COVID-19 relief that did not have to be repaid.

The EIDL program also allowed loans for up to $2 million for more established small business firms with first payment is deferred for 12 months. However, that program had also exhausted all its available CARES Act funding, prompting SBA to acknowledge that applications for that program had been tabled too.

“The application portal for the EIDL–COVID-19 assistance program is temporarily closed,” SBA Arkansas officials said on April 17. “Applicants who have already submitted their applications will continue to be processed on a first-come, first-served basis.”

Haddock told the Daily Record on April 21 that because of the unprecedented deluge of applications, Arkansas banks were faced with receiving and processing thousands of submissions in the days after the launch nearly three weeks ago.

On top of the PPP applications, Haddock said the SBA agency approved 26,919 EIDL loans nationwide totaling nearly $5.6 billion in proceeds. In Arkansas, SBA provided nearly $96.9 million to 460 small businesses under the CARES Act provisions.

“Just the sheer number of applications, there has never been anything like this,” said Haddock, adding that PPP and EIDL applications in the agency’s pipeline can be restarted if Congress approves a new round of CARES Act funding.

Still, National Federation of Independent Business (NFIB) officials said 90% of its members surveyed in all 50 states last week said they were unable to secure funding in the first round of PPP funding. They also indicated they had not yet received any explanation from the SBA or their local banks.

In its 10-point legislative blueprint asking Congress to extend as second round of funding under the CARES Act funding, the NFIB said lawmakers should force banks and SBA-approved lenders to end the practice of “big-customers-first and favored-customers-first,” noting that the illegal policy leaves the smallest businesses with the greatest need at the back of the loan line.

“Small business is the heart and soul of Arkansas’s economy,” said Sylvester Smith, state director of NFIB’s Arkansas chapter. “Unless Congress relieves the financial pressure the COVID-19 response has put on small businesses, many of the local establishments that had to close temporarily may never reopen.”

The nation’s largest small business trade group, which has chapters in all 50 states, also said Congress should amend section the Small Business Act to prohibit discrimination among applicants in the order or speed of processing or granting of loans. That process is based in whole or in part on the number of employees of the applicant business, dollar value of the business, or length of relationship of the business with the financial institution, the group said.

“Small businesses, which account for half of the American economy and nearly half of all jobs, are fighting for their survival every day that this crisis continues. Efforts by the (Trump) Administration and Congress, while well-intentioned, have been met with significant challenges to this point,” said NFIB President Brad Close.

POSSIBLE LAWSUITS AHEAD

Meanwhile, a recently filed class action lawsuit in California claims that the nation’s four largest lenders involved in the PPP program, JPMorgan, Bank of America, Wells Fargo and USBank, rigged the loan process to benefit their bottom line to the tune of nearly $6 billion in commission and fees.

According to the federal complaints, instead of a “first-come, first-served” application process after the PPP program was launched on April 3, many banks processed the biggest loan amounts first because of profitable origination fees. That method left more than 90% of the small businesses still in the SBA’s queue once funds were depleted, according to federal class action complaint.

The lawsuit, filed by Los Angeles-based Stalwart Law Group, also alleges that Bank of America and other banks concealed from the public that they were reshuffling the PPP applications that gave preference for deceptive lending prioritization practices, giving preference to larger “small businesses” over true small businesses. The lawsuits further allege that as a result of their deceptive lending practices, many banks handed out hundreds of millions of dollars low-interest, taxpayer-backed loans to publicly traded companies with more than 500 employees. 

Under the CARES Act rules outlining the PPP program, Congress encourage companies with fewer than 500 employees to apply for relief to keep workers on payroll. The law also gives the U.S. Treasury Secretary a $454 billion credit line to provide financing for banks and other lenders that make direct loans to mid-sized businesses with more than 500 employees. That program has not been implemented yet.

Bank of America, which has branch offices in Central, Northwest and Northeast Arkansas, did not immediately respond to a request for comment concerning complaints about its PPP initiative. In the Bank of America’s first quarter earnings report on April 15, the Charlotte, N.C.-based banking giant posted quarterly profits of $4 billion and said it received 279,000 PPP loan applications totaling $43 billion in the first week of the program. 

On Thursday, U.S. House of Representatives overwhelmingly approved the $500 billion CARES Act stimulus to replenish the SBA programs with an additional $335 million for the PPP and EIDL programs. The legislation, which was approved by the Senate on April 21, will also provide COVID-19 funding for hospitals and more virus testing as the Trump administration looks to reopen parts of the nation’s economy again within weeks. 

Appendix 4

https://www.arkansasonline.com/news/2020/jun/26/lr-mayor-issues-mask-wearing-mandate/

Little Rock mayor issues mask-wearing mandate

Cover-ups required in public spaces; health, economy crux of edict, Scott saysby Rachel Herzog | June 26, 2020 at 7:25 a.m.

Masks or other face coverings are now required in public spaces in Little Rock where 6 feet of social distancing cannot be maintained, according to an executive order signed Thursday evening by Mayor Frank Scott Jr.

The order, issued at 5 p.m., cites the surging number of new cases of the deadly coronavirus in Arkansas and notes studies and recommendations from experts that point to mask-wearing as a way to stem the spread of the respiratory infection, which is typically transmitted through droplets from coughing, sneezing or talking.

Scott said on social media Thursday evening that he signed the order in the best interest of the city's public health and economy.

He said at a news briefing last week announcing that an executive order would be written that he felt the city needed to implement restrictions as the state reopens.

"We do feel it necessary to have public restrictions as we are traversing around and we cannot keep social distance between one another," he said.

The order states that all members of the public, except for specifically stated exemptions, are "exhorted" to wear face coverings when inside of or in line to enter any business; at the entrance to and inside elevators in all public and private buildings; engaged in essential infrastructure work; waiting, riding or driving public transportation, including buses, taxis, private car services and ride-sharing vehicles.

All businesses as well as entities engaged in essential infrastructure work or essential government functions except health care, which is subject to its own regulations, are to require their employees, contractors, owners and volunteers to wear face coverings when interacting with the public, working in any space visited by members of the public and in any room or enclosed area where others are present.

Businesses and organizations also are directed to take "reasonable measures," such as posting signs to remind people of the requirement, and to take reasonable steps to prohibit anyone not wearing a face covering from entering -- and not serve them if they still refuse to cover up.

[DOCUMENT: Mayor Frank Scott Jr.'s executive order requiring face coverings in public in Little Rock » arkansasonline.com/626order/]

The order exempts children 12 and younger, though it still strongly recommends that children older than 2 wear face coverings.

Individuals who have medical or workplace-related risks related to mask-wearing are also exempt.

The order includes language that nothing in the declaration shall be used to regulate or interfere with commerce.

An executive order issued by Gov. Asa Hutchinson on March 11 states that the state has sole authority over all restrictions on commerce.

City Attorney Tom Carpenter said he had not yet read the order when reached by phone after it was signed Thursday evening because he had been out sick for the past few days, though he had recommended language to ensure the order would not override the state's executive order.

He said he felt the language "would give the city the strongest possible argument."

The order was drafted by Carpenter's staff at the direction of the mayor's office.

Hutchinson has declined to issue a statewide order on face coverings.

"I think we've lost our sense of balance if that's really the essence of the debate as to whether it should be mandated or whether it's something that should be encouraged and we educate people on," Hutchinson said during Thursday's daily news conference. "The most important thing is increasing the number of people who take personal responsibility."

The governor said there is a growing acceptance and understanding of why masks are needed, but acknowledged that it is a challenge for restaurateurs to enforce mask wearing among staff members and guests, which is a state directive.

"I'm getting calls all the time saying 'so and so's not doing it,'" he said.

Hutchinson also said mandating mask-wearing could lead to backlash.

"Whenever a low percent of the public decides not to wear masks, or they might wear a mask, but if you start penalizing it and making it mandatory, then there's resistance about that," Hutchinson said. "It throws the whole thing in shambles and loses credibility."

A spokeswoman for the governor said Thursday night that Hutchinson would review the order and respond during today's covid-19 news briefing.

Ward 4 City Director Capi Peck, who is chef and owner of Trio's Restaurant, said she was hopeful the order would help business owners enforce mask-wearing. Peck has not yet reopened her eatery for dine-in but enforces mask-wearing for employees and customers picking up orders.

"It gives it a little more teeth if there's some sort of a mandate or ordinance. Maybe it's just optics or verbiage, but if you can say the city of Little Rock has required this, I think it's a bit more meaningful for some people," she said. "I'm thinking that could only help, because I know a lot of business owners have had some ugly incidents with people just refusing. ... It's not like we're going to go out and find anybody, but I think it'll give it more weight, at least I'm hoping that's true."

Asked how the order would be enforced, mayoral spokeswoman Stephanie Jackson said by email Thursday night that the city can pursue all legal remedies available to the city to handle public nuisances, since the order is "an attempt to prevent and protect our residents from the immediate threat of covid-19."

Code enforcement officers may issue citations, which would be handled in environmental court, she said. In some instances, a criminal citation may be issued resulting in a misdemeanor.

Jackson said the city implemented "the most stringent mandate allowed within the state's parameters," which goes as far as it can under the governor's declaration."

"However, we hope residents will voluntarily comply to slow the spread in Little Rock," Jackson wrote.

The order itself does not include any penalty for individuals who do not comply. An earlier draft of the declaration, provided to the Democrat-Gazette on Thursday morning, included specific language about any violator being considered a public nuisance under state statute.

The city plans to distribute masks to underserved communities at grocery stores south of Interstate 630, Jackson said.

A similar local mandate is unlikely in the capital's neighboring city. North Little Rock Mayor Joe Smith told the City Council on Tuesday that any order about masks would be Hutchinson's to issue.

"We can only do what the governor allows us to do," Smith said. "It wouldn't be worth the paper it was put on. The one Little Rock did and the one Fayetteville did was worthless."

Little Rock followed Fayetteville in requiring masks in public. On June 16, the Fayetteville City Council approved an ordinance requiring members of the public to wear masks in most indoor public places.

Appendix 5

http://www.dailyrecord.us/after-facing-covid-19-head-on-central-arkansas-hospitals-healthcare-providers-look-ahead

After facing COVID-19 head-on, Central Arkansas hospitals, healthcare providers look ahead

June 15-21, 2020

By Daily Record Staff 

As many hospitals and other healthcare providers continue to deal directly with the impact of COVID-19, those same entities are now facing the pressure of getting their operations back up to speed and reopening again to the public.

Following the state Health Department’s initial announcement of the state’s first positive coronavirus case on March 11, most healthcare providers immediately began limiting interactions with the public in face of social distancing and state-at-home orders from state health officials and the U.S. Centers for Disease & Control (CDC).

On March 20, when there were still less than 100 confirmed across the state, ADH also issued an order mandating that all hospitals, clinics and mental health facilities to begin conducting mandatory temperature and COVID-19 symptom screening of staff and visitors to help prevent the spread of the highly contagious virus known as SARS-CoV-2. 

A day earlier, the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences (UAMS) first announced it had begun implementing new guidelines where no visitors would be allowed at the hospital system’s medical center or outpatient clinic in Little Rock due to a spike in COVID-19 patients. That new policy only allowed hospital visitors for patients only in exceptional cases such as end of life and mothers in labor.

“UAMS is taking these steps during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic to protect its patients, who are among the most vulnerable in the state, and to reduce the ever-increasing workload for UAMS staff,” the state’s lone health sciences university said in a March 19 statement. “Please know that we worked very hard to maintain visiting hours as long as possible, but more COVID-19 cases in our community and an ever-increasing workload for our staff forced us to implement this change. We apologize for the inconvenience this may cause for your family, but we must take this step for the protection of our patients and staff.”

In early April, as coronavirus case began to jump in Central Arkansas, UAMS updated its visitation policy by restricting any guest for patients confirmed or suspected of having COVID-19. Those restrictions allowed a hospital nurse or doctor to conduct health screenings of each visitor twice a day and note in the patient’s record. If a visitor did not pass the health screening, there were asked to leave the facility.

Altogether, UAMS has 2,727 students, 870 medical residents and five dental residents, officials said. It is the state’s largest public employer with more than 10,500 employees, including 1,200 physicians who provide care to patients at UAMS, its regional campuses, Arkansas Children’s Hospital, the VA Medical Center and Baptist Health.

On the front lines

Dr. Stephen Mette, senior vice chancellor for UAMS Health, told the Daily Record that UAMS is now nearly back up to full capacity but will keep its current visitation policy in place for the foreseeable future to protect patient, employee, and visitor health. Mette added that UAMS has built in about 15% of “inherent inefficiencies” because of health and safety precautions related to COVID-19.

The chief executive at UAMS Medical Center said the goal of hospital system is to be a “safest place” for all its patients, visitors, and employees, acknowledging that he has seen some practices in public where some Arkansans are not wearing masks or practicing social distancing. He also notes that some UAMS hospital practices will likely end indefinitely.

“I think some things that we do will never go back to the way they were. For instance, all of our outpatient and OR waiting rooms, we have made it so that no chairs are less than six feet apart. It is hard to imagine that we will ever revert back because even if COVID-19 is no longer prevalent, there are kinds of other viruses out there include influenza that really should be treated the same way,” said Mette, who is also chief executive of UAMS Medical Center. “I want UAMS and all of its physical locations to be the safest place for anybody to be. This is the pledge that all healthcare organizations should have to the public.”

In west Little Rock, Baptist Health was one of the earliest adopters of COVID-19 visitor restrictions when it announced on March 17 that its medical centers would allow only one visitor per day for patients not on special isolation precautions, with the exception of labor and delivery and postpartum. 

That policy was later updated on May 13 after hospital operator suspended all routine, in-person visits to hospitalized patients. The state’s largest nonprofit healthcare provider, Baptist Health’s operations provide over 200 points of access that include 11 hospitals, urgent care centers, a senior living community and over 100 primary and specialty care clinics in Arkansas and eastern Oklahoma. 

In a June 9 video message to patients and the company’s 11,000 employees, Baptist Medical President and CEO Troy Wells acknowledged that COVID-19 had changed the operations of the Little Rock healthcare provider over the past few months. However, the nonprofit hospital operator had begun to ease back some of the earlier restrictions following the initial rush of COVID-19 cases at its facilities, he said.

“As we emerged from the initial phase of COVID-19 and move into a maintenance phase of the pandemic, there is a shift from population-level restrictions like travel bans and stay-at-home orders to individual responsibility for safe and healthy behaviors,” said Wells. “As our society opens back up at the public level, it is all the more important that we all do our part to protect ourselves and (patients) from COVID-19.”

Meanwhile, visitation policies at Chi St. Vincent also were updated on May 21, allowing one visitor per patient. Headquartered in Little Rock as part of the Catholic Health Initiatives healthcare system based CHI St. Vincent system facilities first paused visitations in March as part of the Englewood, Colo.-based health giant’s initial response to the COVID-19 pandemic to protect patients, visitors, and healthcare staff.

With the resumption of elective procedures and additional precautions, a single visitor is now permitted at CHI St. Vincent hospitals in Little Rock, Hot Springs, Sherwood, and Morrilton, as well as the hospital system’s network of primary care, specialty clinics, urgent care, home health, rehabilitation, and surgery centers across the state. The updated policy applies to non-COVID-19 patients only, officials said.

“We understand that this is a difficult time for our patients and now that we have the necessary precautions in place, their loved ones can once again join them at the hospital to provide the support they need and deserve,” said CHI St. Vincent Chief Medical Officer Dr. Douglas Ross. “We’re thankful for the support our healing ministry has received from our Arkansas community as we’ve taken steps over the past few months to ensure that our healthcare staff can continue to deliver compassionate care in the safest way possible for all concerned.”

Today, visitors to CHI St. Vincent hospitals will still be required to undergo a temperature screening upon entrance and adhere to existing safety precautions, including universal masking policies and staying inside the patient’s room the entire duration of their visit, CHI officials said. No visitor with fever, cough, sore throat, or other flu-like symptoms will be permitted inside the hospital.

In additional to treating COVID-19 patients and rebooting operations, UAMS and Baptist Medical have also rolled out robust testing sites across the state to evaluate patients concerned about possible exposure as coronavirus levels have spiked in recent weeks as Arkansas reopens for business.

For example, Baptist Medical has various COVID-19 testing sites in the parking lots of its facilities in Little Rock, Heber Springs, Arkadelphia, Malvern, and Stuttgart. For its part, UAMs operates dozens of drive-through evaluation clinics and COVID-19 screen sites statewide that are free to anyone experiencing flu-like symptoms, including cough, fever, and shortness of breath.

Both statewide healthcare system have ramped up their COVID-19 testing capacity at the urging of Gov. Asa Hutchinson, who authorized the release of $30 million in state funds in late March for PPE purchases for health care professionals and first responders to test and treat patients with COVID-19.

“The testers, first responders, nurses, and doctors are our first line of defense in the fight against this aggressive virus,” Hutchinson said during a media briefing at the State Capitol on March 20. “They are risking their lives in the same way as firefighters who run into a burning building.  We must provide them every piece of protection they need as they test and treat the Arkansans who have contracted COVID-19.”

In addition, CHI St. Vincent, UAMS, Baptist Medical and a growing number of medical providers in Central Arkansas and other parts of the state are encouraging patients to make use of telemedicine options and virtual care options for the treatment of minor ailments and injuries.

Road ahead still unsure

Dr. Shane Speights, dean at the New York Institute of Technology College of Osteopathic Medicine at Arkansas State University in Jonesboro, said hospitals and healthcare providers across the state still have many hurdles mitigate the impact of COVID-19. Speights said he meets with a group of hospital executives in Northeast Arkansas each week where COVID-19 dominates every conversation.

“Everybody is struggling with the best way to move forward,” said the former administrator at St. Bernard’s Hospital in Jonesboro. 

Speights added that as most hospitals and healthcare providers have halted most elected procedures for now, national and state data shows a significant decline in emergency room and clinic visits, along with a decreases in mammogram tests and screenings for strokes, heart disease and most types of cancer. Adding to those issues, hospital administrators and their medical staffs are faced with calming patients’ worries about catching COVID-19 during a doctor’s visit or just by sitting in a waiting room, he said.

“The healthcare system has stepped up and made it safe for patients because it is important (they) lead in terms of best practices to protect patients and those individuals who are coming to visit their loved ones at these facilities,” said Speights.

Other critical issues facing hospitals ahead is a 30% year-over-year decline in vaccinations rates in Arkansas, based on recent ADH data. The ASU medical school dean said hospital administrations worry those numbers could put undue pressure on hospital resources and staff if COVID-19 cases continue to rise, or ADH officials are forced to reinstate stay-at-orders again in the fall.

“That is significant when we worry about outbreaks of infectious diseases,” he said. “The last we want to see is a measles outbreak on top of COVID-19.” 

Still, Speights said he believes Arkansas’ healthcare community is ready to handle another virus outbreak or other potential disruptions after serving on the front lines of the state’s COVID-19 emergency response. He said lessons learned several months ago, however, may not be applicable now.

“We are learning more everyday about this virus. I promise you the way a patient is treated today for COVID-19 is different than how they were treated in March,” he said. “But I feel good about where we are.”

Appendix 6

http://www.dailyrecord.us/labor-data-highlights-post-pandemic-struggles-for-several-key-industries-as-economy-reopens

Labor data highlights post-pandemic struggles for several key industries as economy reopens

June 1-7, 2020

By Daily Record Staff

Although not quite the economic apocalypse that some forecasters predicted, the post-pandemic business landscape is still expected to leave some key sectors and laid off workers in dire straits over the next several months.

In Arkansas and across the U.S., the consumer-facing retail, leisure and hospitality, and professional and business service sectors all face a long climb out the COVID-19-induced recession. On the blue-collar side of the economy, the transportation, manufacturing, and aviation sectors also are expected struggling as the economy reopens for business.

Nationwide, the most recent U.S. job report shows that total nonfarm payroll employment plummeted by 20.5 million in April as all key sectors of the economy saw across-the-board job losses. The April over-the-month decline is the largest job decline since the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) began compiling such data going back to the Great Depression.

According to BLS data, job losses in April were widespread, with the largest employment decline occurring in leisure and hospitality. That sector, which includes restaurants, bars and hotels, fell by 7.7 million or 47%. Employment declined by 2.5 million in education and health services in April as local dentist and doctor’s offices, and other healthcare practitioners shuttered their due to social distancing nationwide.

Employment in the hard-hit retail trade was close behind with job losses of more than 2.1 million as clothing and clothing accessories stores, motor vehicle and parts dealers, home furnishings, and other miscellaneous retailers lost ground. By contrast, general merchandise stores that included warehouse clubs and supercenters like Walmart, Sam’s Club, Costco and Trader Joe’s gained 93,000 jobs.  

In the manufacturing sector, employment dropped by 1.3 million with about two-thirds of the decline at durable factories where so-called hard goods motor vehicles, auto parts and fabricated metal products are made. Nondurable “soft” goods that have short shelf life also shed 416,000 jobs.

Employment in the other services industry declined by 1.3 million in April, with nearly two-thirds of the decline occurring in personal and laundry services. Other sectors such as government, construction, transportation and warehousing, financial services and mining also send millions of U.S. workers to the unemployment line as jobless claims topped 38 million for the week ending May 16.

In the Conference Board’s monthly Employment Trends Index, all components of the U.S. job market have fallen into negative territory. Gad Levanon, head of The Conference Board Labor Markets Institute, called the magnitude of job declines in April “unprecedented.”

“The principal objective of the economy going forward is to accommodate the delicate balance of getting people back to work while minimizing the spread of the virus,” said Levanon. “Millions of workers in businesses that were shut down will return to work over the coming months as states start to reopen their economies. 

However, for many companies, massive layoffs will continue in the coming months as they try to adjust to lost revenue with cost cuts,” continued the highly influential Wall Street economist. “Beginning in May or June, we expect that the number of workers returning to work will be larger than the number being furloughed or laid off. This would mean the unemployment rate will start to decline. At the end of the year, however, the labor market may still be in worse condition than it was at the peak of the Great Recession.”

In a May 22 op-ed with CNBC, Levanon said before Covid-19 hit the U.S. economic, paychecks were rapidly rising for workers in jobs that do not require a college degree. “Wage inequality had actually begun to narrow, due in large part to the gains being made by blue-collar workers. Poverty had been dropping, too, as more African Americans were in the workforce, and the employment rate for Hispanic women had reached an all-time high,” said the Conference Board’s chief economic forecaster.

But now, with job claims likely to near 50 million going into June, the pandemic has literally erased the long-awaited wage and employment gains made by America’s more economically vulnerable, “making their path to recovery will take longer than for the rest of us,” he said.

“Ultimately, it comes down to social distancing. A disproportionate number of less-educated workers and minorities work in jobs that have and will continue to suffer from the economic impact of social distancing,” he said.

In his CNBC report, Levanon said the types of jobs most sensitive to social distancing are in entertainment, travel, lodging, food services, health care, retail sales, transportation, maintenance and repair and cleaning services. This group also encompasses those working in personal care, such as barbers and manicurists. For these highly impacted workers, about 8 in 10 have less than a bachelor’s degree.

And in some of these specific categories, the share of those without a bachelor’s degree is even higher, approaching or coming in at 9 in 10 workers. For example, those in food services, cleaning services, maintenance and repair and personal care.

In the most recent U.S. unemployment report, In April, average hourly earnings for all employees on private nonfarm payrolls increased by $1.34 to $30.01. Average hourly earnings of private-sector production and nonsupervisory employees increased by $1.04 to $25.12 in April. 

However, BLS officials noted that the recent spike in average hourly earnings largely reflected the substantial job loss among lower-paid workers. “This change, along with earnings increases, put upward pressure on the average hourly earnings estimates,” said the economic research arm of the U.S. Labor Department.

Meanwhile, St. Louis Federal Reserve economists Fernando Leibovici and Ana Maria Santacreu, along with research associate Matthew Famiglietti, have recently released two research notes on the impact of social distancing on jobs with the highest risk exposure to COVID-19. The report comes as the Trump administration and state governments across the U.S. are considering the potential of reopening the U.S. economy “an industry at a time.” 

In the brief research report on May 12, the economic forecasters for the expansive Eighth District of the Federal Reserve constructed a “novel index of physical contact exposure.” The index ranks the first industries that should reopen based on the individuals with high proximity to others to carry out operations and their reliance on inputs from other industries that also require “physical proximity” to complete their jobs.

Using those indicators, the Federal Reserve economists began classifying industries as “contact-intensive” according to their required degree of physical proximity. Out of a total of 149 industries in the BLS’ job classification system besides local, state and federal government jobs, the St. Louis Fed identified 38 high contact-intensive industries, representing 55% of total employment and 46% of labor income.

“We find that dentists, hospitals and air transportation require a high degree of physical exposure and, thus, might not be the first industries to reopen. Other industries have a high degree of physical exposure indirectly via their intermediate inputs,” said the St. Louis Fed economists. “For example, clay product manufacturing is not itself considered a contact-intensive industry, but it is highly vulnerable to the pandemic because more than 90% of its inputs are purchased from contact-intensive industries.” 

The St. Louis Fed economist said an illustration of the usefulness its research can be observed when sorting industries based the index. For example, the report found that the 26th most contact-intensive industry is “animal slaughtering and processing,” and the industries ranked as more contact-intensive are either related to health care or are considered nonessential industries except for “food and beverage stores.” 

“This finding is consistent with news that the slaughterhouse industry has recently been affected by high rates of infection and difficulty in continuing operations,” said the St. Louis Fed economist. “Given our index, this is likely not coincidental, and other nonmedical essential industries that are similarly contact-intensive, such as the postal service and truck transportation, should also be monitored closely for signs of outbreaks.”

Even with the new index, the St. Louis Fed economists conclude that government policymakers and business executives in Arkansas and other states across the expansive Eighth District are still struggling on figuring how to reopen the economy without further damage that could lead to a prolonged recession.

“Figuring out how to reopen the U.S. economy to minimize both the health and economic costs of the COVID-19 pandemic is an ongoing problem that is being addressed from multiple alternative angles,” said the Leibovici, Santacreu and Famiglietti.  

Appendix 7

http://www.dailyrecord.us/brown-on-business-by-wesley-brown-062920

Brown on Business

June 29 - July 5, 2020

By Wesley Brown
wesley@dailydata.com

Health of U.S. job market floats all economic boats

As the world’s largest economy tries to awaken out its coronavirus-induced stupor, many experts now say the key to getting the wheels of commerce smoothly spinning again is getting nearly 50 million jobless Americans back to work.

In the U.S. unemployment report released on June 19, the damage that shelter-in-place and social distancing mandates has inflicted on the U.S. job market is now trickling down to almost every single household activity. In fact, recent economic reports show that high unemployment is not worsening food insecurity, homelessness and hunger but also causing a spike in late rent and mortgage payments and delayed decisions on big ticket items like cars, overseas travel, family vacations.

Nationwide, all 50 states and the District of Columbia in May had jobless rate spikes from a year ago, according to the U.S Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS). If there is one bit of good news that can be drawn from the monthly job report, it would be that the national unemployment rate declined by 1.4 percentage points over the month to 13.3%. Still, that is a whopping 9.7 points higher than a year ago when the Trump administration proudly touted a near record jobless rate of only 3.6%.

To put that data in perspective, there were only 5.9 million unemployed workers in the nation’s 258.6 million-person civilian workforce in May 2019. Today, that number stands at a tidy 21 million, down by 2.1 million in April. Altogether, there were 45.7 million workers in Arkansas and across the U.S., respectively, that have filed jobless claims during the pandemic.

And although that number is starting to slow, the four-week moving average for jobless claims still averages nearly 1.8 million per week. Highly cited economist Gad Levanon, head of The Conference Board’s Labor Markets Institute, offered this view on the job market in the coming weeks and months.

“The number of workers returning to work is larger than the number of new layoffs. That was the case in May and will likely be the case moving forward. Just to put things in perspective, the job gains in May recouped just 11% of the jobs lost in March and April,” said Levanon. “Just how much consumers will increase their spending – and how many new workers employers are willing to hire during such uncertain times – remains to be seen. 

“Also, layoffs are far from over,” the Conference Board economist warning, noting that many HR executives at large companies plan on furloughing more workers in the coming months. “By the end of 2020, the employment level in the US may still be 10 million below where it stood in February – a difficult time for the class of 2020 to enter the labor market,” said Levanon.

In practical terms, that means that a huge swath of the nation’s working class and fresh-out-of-college millennials are falling behind on their bills. According to real estate analytics firm Zillow, more than $1.7 billion in rent and mortgage payments is owed each month by a growing number of U.S. workers currently receiving unemployment benefits.

The same report, released on June 17, shows that the biggest impact of this trend is being felt by younger service-sector workers in the food, arts, entertainment, recreation and retail industries that have seen reduced operations or shut their doors completely.

About 70% of that total, or about $1.2 billion, is from newly unemployed renters that have lost jobs during the pandemic. Although safety nets such as unemployment benefits, recent CARES Act stimulus checks and rent deferrals have been put in place, a large share of housing payments could be missed eventually if government assistance expires or jobs don’t return to pre-pandemic levels, said Zillow’s Senior Principal Economist Skylar Olsen.

“As we’re watching resilient buyers return to the for-sale market and more renters able to pay on time in May than in April, it’s important to remember that much of the confidence that led to that improvement rests on massive government aid,” said Olsen of the $2.2 trillion CARES Act. “By supporting the more than 40 million Americans who have filed for unemployment benefits, that package is not only easing financial hardships but also safeguarding the housing market from widespread evictions and foreclosures that could have devastating effects. 

Still, Olsen warned: “That safety net has an end date, so if employment does not bounce back as hoped this summer the housing recovery could be impeded, especially for renters who aren’t insulated by the equity owners hold in their homes.”

Just as ominous as struggling workers falling behind on their rent payments because of skyrocketing unemployment is that same trend as prompted more than 2.7 million young adults to move back in with their parents. Zillow’s recent analysis shows that the number of adults living in a parent’s or grandparent’s home grew by more than 2.7 million in March and April, nearly triple the next-largest two-month increase from the past five years. 

A large majority of those who moved back home – about 2.2 million – are from the so-called Generation Z between 18 and 25 years old. Those Gen Zers just entering the marketplace represent an estimated $726 million in rent payments each month, Zillow noted.

“The share of adults living with their parents has been high since the global financial crisis of the aughts,” said Olsen. “Then, it was millennials flocking to the basements and spare bedrooms of their Baby Boomer parents, where many remained as rent burdens grew. Now, it is Gen Z’s turn to ride out today’s crisis amid massive unemployment. 

But Gen Zers moving back home are also finding that many of their Baby Boomer parents are struggling to ends meet too. Zillow’s rival, Jacksonville, Fla., -based real estate analytics firm Black Knight Inc., said on Monday (June 22) that 723,000 homeowners were past due on their mortgages in May, pushing the national delinquency rate to its highest level in 8.5 years.

There are now 4.3 million homeowners past due on their mortgages or in active foreclosure, said the Black Knight monthly report, including those in forbearance who have missed scheduled payments as part of their plans. 

The report also noted that serious delinquencies are on the rise as well, increasing by more than 50% over the past two months. For Arkansans, the troubling news is that the Natural State is among the top five states with the highest percentage of past due mortgages over 90 days at 1.78%. Fellow SEC states, Mississippi, Louisiana and Alabama, are at the top of the 90-day delinquency list at 3.08%, 2.37% and 2.04%, respectively.

Meanwhile, the reality is that even with a strong bounce back in the U.S. hiring, it may be many years before the U.S. economy recoup those millions of jobs that have been swept away during the pandemic. That most likely means that the health of the U.S. job market will take center stage over the next several months as Americans look to the 2020 presidential election in November.   

Appendix 8

http://www.dailyrecord.us/kelley-commercial-partners-emerges-with-new-brand-new-energy-amid-covid-19-pandemic

Kelley Commercial Partners emerges with new brand, new energy amid COVID-19 pandemic

July 6-12, 2020

This is the first in a two-part series on

 KELLEY COMMERCIAL PARTNERS

By the Daily Record Staff

After entering 2020 expecting another strong year of performance, Arkansas’ foremost commercial real estate brand was suddenly faced this spring with two, once-in-a-lifetime business interruptions in the space of 30 days.

Today, as Arkansas continues its Phase 2 reopening from the global coronavirus pandemic that has now topped 20,000 cases in Arkansas, the former Flake & Kelley has completed a 60-day companywide rebranding following the surprise announcement on May 7 that one-half of the iconic real estate firm’s partnership was parting ways. 

Reflecting on those tumultuous days now in the rearview mirror,  Henry “Hank” Kelley Jr. and his new team of partners sat down for nearly 90 minutes with the Daily Record at the company’s office at the downtown Simmons Tower to talk about the new rebrand and “new norm” the firm faces amid the COVID-19 crisis.

Kelley, the CEO and executive broker at the newly branded Kelley Commercial Partners, said his current team had already been in place for many years but now the strengths and talents of the new nine partners will be the focus of the real estate venture.

“All the people here are partners of Kelley [Commercial] Partners,” Kelley said, looking around the table. “We have other associates but when we named the company … my hope was to emphasize the ‘partners’ associated with the firm. If you look at our tenure in the business and what clients we represent as a group, we are active and grateful with clients we have.”

Kelley later emphasized even though John Flake left the firm and removed his name from the company, the company’s focus and operations in Central and Northwest Arkansas commercial real estate will continue much the same way it has for years.

“I have been given a license to drive the bus,” Kelley said jokingly of his chief executive responsibilities. “The corporation didn’t change – the name changed.”

Statewide, Kelley Partners’ main offices in Little Rock and Springdale now include nearly 80 employees providing brokerage and leasing services, investment sales, property management, retail and tenant landlord representation, consulting, accounting, marketing and administration, and facilities services. Kelley said the firm – which manages the Simmons Tower, Little Rock’s tallest office building – also provides some legal, regulatory and other development management services when needed.

Kelley CFO Maggie Hogan, also with Company President Daryl Peppers and Executive V.P. Nicholas Kelley, serves as the firm’s executive team that handles day-to-day operations. She said the companywide rebranding effort began immediately after the Flake & Kelley split in early May. She said John Flake had already stepped away from most of his management duties and was mostly involved in “transactional” deals.

“But the [rebranding] has been well-received as far as we can tell,” said Hogan. “But generally speaking, it is a lot of work and a lot of coordinating trying to get websites changed, email addresses, signage and all those types of things that come with it.”

Kelley added that part of the redemption agreement with Flake included mothballing the familiar Flake & Kelley moniker so there would not be multiple names in the Little Rock market associated with the Flake family. In ending his partnership with Kelley, the 72-year Flake has joined his daughter Jessica Flake Dearnley in a new firm called Flake & Company. (See related story on web).

“We wanted to avoid confusion in the marketplace so there would not be a Flake & Kelley Commercial and a Flake & Company. Everyone would say that is a confusing situation, so we were glad to make that as one of the arrangements in the redemption agreement to say, ‘we will change our name.’ And we have done so in less than 60 days,” said Kelley.

Hogan also said the company’s former logo, corporate colors and brand layout have stayed with Kelley Commercial. Kelley added that all the partners and the firm’s outreach team, led by Brooke Miller, have ramped up efforts to sit down with clients and explain that nothing at the firm has changed in terms of day-to-day operations and the service the company provides.

“These were the partners of Flake & Kelley and are the partners at Kelley Commercial,” said Kelley, pointing at the newly minted partners gathered around the table at the firm’s corporate offices at the Simmons Tower. “Our new name is intended intentionally to raise up the partners in the firm. I like to think I am a part of that, but it is a partnership now where we value each of the partners here and the associates that are with us.”

COVID-19 and the commercial real estate market

While Flake’s departure may have been in the cards for a time, what the state’s premier commercial real estate firm did not foresee was the impact of COVID-19 on the industry after Arkansas reported its first positive case of the novel coronavirus on March 11. Soon after, Gov. Asa Hutchinson instituted stay-at-home orders and social distancing policies that have greatly impacted the commercial real estate industry in Arkansas.

According to the highly watched Skyline Report produced quarterly by Arvest Bank, Arkansas commercial real estate sector was poised for another great year entering 2020. In the high-growth Northwest Arkansas, where Kelley Commercial is now a major player, commercial building permit values for all of 2019 were $363.9 million, the highest one-year total since the inception of the industry report.

“The Northwest Arkansas market has added more than 1.5 million square feet of new office space since the beginning of 2015, and during this time the vacancy rate for such space has steadily fallen,” said economist Mervin Jebaraj, director of the University of Arkansas Center for Business and Economic Research (CBER). “This demonstrates the continued demand for quality, rentable office space in the region. It will be interesting to see how the current financial situation due to COVID-19 impacts growth and demand in the region in the near-term.”

As noted by Jebaraj, some analysts have also predicted that COVID-19’s toll on the estimated $16 trillion U.S. commercial real estate market has only begun to show as buildings start reopening in cities and properties emerge from months of mass shutdowns. 

Locally, Kelley said his firm is working closely to assist those tenants impacted by the COVID-19 spread in Arkansas. He also noted that many of the firm’s clients have also been able to get state and federal financial assistance through the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act, the $2.2 trillion emergency relief act enacted into law on March 27.

“Tenant safety and assisting tenants with shortfalls they may experience with the after-effect of COVID-19 shutdown and how we can assist to get them through the difficult time as a team effort, we are all in this together,” he said. “We have been fortunate with our tenants. Due to the CARES Act, we have not had a tremendous number of tenants asking for abated, deferred rents.” 

Still, Cynthia Lu, a Kelley Commercial partner and commercial real estate broker who serves the retail sector, said her clients on the front lines of the pandemic in Arkansas have been greatly impacted. Although the firm has built its reputation on understanding the local retail market by building strong relationships with clients, Lu said her job has become more difficult since the stay-at-home and social distancing policies kept her working remotely for several months.

“Not having that face-to-face connection has been challenging – even just wearing a face mask to a showing,” said Lu, speaking through a mouth covering at the company’s downtown headquarters. “You cannot read people as well, so that is one of the main changes I have seen in how we do business.”

Lu said she and Kelley Commercial partners and associates are compensating by holding virtual Zoom meetings and Facetime calls with clients. She also said that one of the good things that has occurred from the pandemic is that the Little Rock firm has strengthened ongoing relationships with clients.

“What is interesting is that when we were all working from home, people had time to have conversations,” said Lu. “And so that has strengthened the bond that we have with a lot of our clients. In a normal situation we were not able to do that because we are all busy going to the kids’ soccer games, going to church, and doing this and that – so that has been a positive.”

Lu, Miller and Kelley Commercial property manager Eric Varner, all agreed that most national and retail deal flows were stunted during the local and state shelter-in-place mandates. More recently, however, the firm has seen a strong rebound in activity since Gov. Hutchinson initiated the state’s Phase 2 reopening on June 15. Lu said Kelley Commercial partners are now reaching out to those clients that put deals on the shelf in March.

“We are going to reach out and they are going to say now they are ready again,” said Lu. “So, it has been a rollercoaster. The goalposts have changed daily, and strategy has changed daily because every day we get new information.”

While all the other partners were speaking, Kelley Commercial President Daryl Peeples sat quietly and shook his head agreeably concerning the company’s operations since the highly contagious virus alit upon Arkansas in March. When Hogan noted that Mayor Frank Scott’s recent executive order requiring anyone in public to wear a face mask sent the firm scrambling on how to respond, Peeples echoed the current cliché that has become part of COVID-19-speak.

“It varies every day,” Peeples said of the real estate firm’s “new norm.” 

“The thing that I know we have when I walk in and look at the organization is that talent to handle whatever area that is going to pop up. I am confident that when we get our arms around whatever the issue is, the people within these four walls are capable of dealing with it – and dealing with it effectively,” said Peeples, who joined the firm in 1985.

And as Kelley Commercial continues to navigate through the recent spike in coronavirus cases amid talk of a possible second wave of the contagion in the fall, both Peeples and Kelley said they are willing to work with and partner with their clients to get through this difficult period as long as they are transparent and open.    

Appendix 9

http://www.dailyrecord.us/brown-on-business-by-wesley-brown-060820

Brown on Business

June 8-14, 2020

By Wesley Brown
wesley@dailydata.com

Surreal times highlight need for diversity in news industry

Most journalists, including myself, would hope that they would have the opportunity to cover at least one historic “where were you when” moment during the span of a career.

Joe Worley, one of my mentors and the former Executive Editor of the Tulsa World, once told our staff on the day of the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995, that this story would likely be the apex of the careers for most of the reporters and photographers at the newspaper now owned by billionaire Warren Buffett.

Although Worley’s prediction may have been true to some extent, I have had the privilege as one of the few Black financial reporters in the U.S. of covering other social and economic stories that have impacted more Americans than the nation’s worst domestic terrorist incident more than 25 years ago.

For example, after three years of covering many of the nation’s top oil companies, I left my first job after nearly 10 years at the Tulsa World to become national energy correspondent for Bridge News Telerate in New York City in 1999.

During that time, when crude oil prices plunged as low as $10 a barrel due to OPEC and Middle East instability, the oil industry went through an unprecedented period of consolidation. That crucial period in the oil industry gave us the blockbuster $250 billion Exxon-Mobil merger and subsequent deals where Big Oil rivals British Petroleum and Royal Dutch Shell swallowed up former iconic U.S. brands like Arco, Amoco and Pennzoil.

After only two years of running through hundreds of millions of dollars, Bridge News flamed out and in May 2001 after accepting a takeover bid from U.K.-based Reuters in May 2001 to purchase most its assets for $275 million. Although the deal excluded the news section, I lost my job with the New York-based financial news startup a few months later after Bridge’s parent company filed for bankruptcy protection.

I made my way back to Arkansas after I was hired as the business editor for Stephens Media’s Group in Springdale, which was right in the middle of the nation’s last true newspaper war in Northwest Arkansas. After only a few weeks on the job, I was stunned by the images of Sept. 11, 2001, because the Bridge News offices were located in the American Express building that was located directly opposite to the World Trade Center and was damaged during the fall of the towers.

Although I was not working on Wall Street at the time, I have written many stories about former colleagues and my experiences in New York City before Sept. 11, which easily eclipsed the all-day, everyday news immersion first introduced to the American psyche during the OKC bombing.

Since then, the biggest story that I have covered has been the fallout from the Great Recession, the global financial downturn that was precipitated the banking and mortgage financial crisis of 2007–08 that quickly spread across the world.

Fast forward to year 2020. If someone would have told me year ago that story about a global pandemic would be more impactful than Sept. 11, I would have certainly bet the farm. However, COVID-19 has not only forced me and most news reporters to shelter-in-place and learn how to do their jobs remotely, but has cause the entire news industry to essentially pause all our news coverage to focus on an unknown virus that has killed more than 110,000 Americans and pushed the U.S. economy to near collapse.

On top of that, I have spent the last week as a Black journalist watching surreal images being played out on TV images and social media following the killing of George Floyd that I certainly don’t have the adequate words to try and explain in this column or others to come.

What I can say is that hopefully what we are all seeing will help jumpstart difficult conversations in Arkansas and across the nation about issues such justice, racism, financial equality, jobs, education, and other topics that COVID-19 has only magnified and brought to the surface.

For me, I hope the conversation will first begin in the news industry, where for most of my career I have often been the long Black journalist in nearly every newsroom that I have worked in since joining the Tulsa World in the late 1980s. Along with my assistant editor Caitlin Smith, the weekly Daily Record has more Black journalists on staff than most major newspaper across the U.S.

As the age of digitization continues, many small to medium-sized newspaper outlets across the country have forever shuttered their doors due to failing profits and an inability to effectively compete with online news sources. In the past decade or so, iconic media conglomerates such as Freedom Communications, Sun-Times Media Group, Gatehouse, the Journal Register Company and TribuneCompany have all declared bankruptcy and laid of thousands of working reporters. Despite the push for web-based subscription services, many modern consumers simply prefer to read their news for free, rather than pay for print or online viewing privileges, leading to massive industry wide losses in profits.

In Arkansas, the same trend has continued. The once formidable Donrey Media Group with its flagship Las Vegas Review-Journal and dozens of rural and mid-size local newspapers across the South, was sold to Little Rock-based investment firm Stephens Inc. in 1993 for about $1 billion. In February 2015, Stephens Media was purchased by GateHouse for $102.8 million. In December 2015, GateHouse sold Review-Journal to billionaire casino magnate Sheldon Adelson for only $140 million.

What has been lost in all the discussion on the downsizing of mainstream media is the same trend that has taken place in Black-owned media, where such famous Black-owned properties such as BET, Essence and The Root been sold to Viacom, Time and The Slate Group, respectively. Also, the Johnson Publishing empire, which has Arkansas roots, put its iconic Ebony and Jet magazines up for bankruptcy in April 2019 and sold off its historical African American-focused photo archives at pennies on the dollar to a private investor. 

Other niche Black publications such as BlackVoices.com, Savoy, and Black Enterprise and most Black-owned newspapers in major cities across the U.S. have also gone bankrupt, been purchased by corporate conglomerates, laid off most their staff, or been impacted by combination of all the above.

Likewise, the number of Black journalists in American newsrooms today is so bad that American Society of News Editors’ (ASNE) in September 2018 delayed the results of its annual survey on diversity because of a lack of participation to make the poll more representative of the media industry. Out of 1,700 newspaper and digital media outlets, only 234 participated in 2018, mainly because of the lack of Black and minority representation on their staffs. 

When the report finally came out in 2019, it noted that “journalists of color: make up nearly a third of the full-time workforce among online-only news organizations with offering any details to substantiate the data.”

In highlighting the report, Katrice Hardy, chair of ASNE’s News Leaders Association’s Diversity Committee, stressed that diversity and inclusion are critical to the success of the news industry. “If we don’t reflect our communities and our changing nation, how can we ever rebuild and keep the trust of our readers? How can we truly produce fair and balanced journalism without everyone having a seat at the table to offer their insights and perspectives?”

Good questions, especially in these surreal times. Let us hope the news industry can find some answers so we can more accurately report the news as we look to regain the trust of the American public in these unusual times.

If you would like to share a thought or comment with Daily Record Publisher Wesley Brown, please send him a note at wesley@dailydata.com