Hello and happy Tuesday.

I have been thinking a lot about what happened last week during Russell LaFeed's seven-hour

sentencing hearing, and I'm honestly still stunned by a lot of it.

Not only am I bothered by the fact Russell got a sentence two years less than the minimum

suggested by the US probation office, I am still in awe of how impactful the victims'

impact statements were. They deeply affected me. There are so many examples of why our court

rooms, specifically our federal court rooms, should be open to the public. Like truly,

open to the public through video and audio recordings that are easily accessible online and

through transcripts that aren't prohibitively expensive. Because access to federal court

is so limited, the public didn't get to experience the raw hurt that was expressed in the

Russell LaFeed victim impact statements. They also didn't get to hear the disturbing exchanges

between the judge and one of Russell's attorneys. There's so much important perspective that gets

lost because of outdated policies on public access. And there's so much the public doesn't get

to know because of those outdated policies. Something has to change here. On today's episode,

we talk about this issue as well as some of the more disturbing aspects of what came out of that

hearing. Plus, the latest in the satirfield case in why Dick and Jim have once again gone too far.

In our premium members, we'll hear exclusive content from Eric Blan talking about slap lawsuits

in Liz and I. Talk about how court reporters could be part of the solution. So let's unpack it.

Yeah, I'm okay. I'm ready to talk about Russell LaFeed though. I'll tell you that. We had kind of

a long week last week and I say long because the not just like this lead up, but like the hearing

itself lasted like seven hours, which from what I understand from attorneys that we've talked to

you, Eric is not something that we normally see. But Mindy, first, I wanted to hear your thoughts

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