But here of late I have been puzzling if the same words should apply to the local criminal court system.

It started back in January with the court-ordered redaction of birthdays of criminal defendants. But Journalism 101 says that identification should include age, as many people share the same name and hometown -- two men with whom I shared a name have died, prompting some of my friends to be amazed when they see me up and walking around.

Believe it or not, to report someone has died when they haven't is a classic case for libel charges. But I have learned that in checking the criminal filings, one is likely to find a birthdate in another location other than the cover sheet.

As the year has gone on, almost every case file has something in an envelope which is sealed from public view by court order. In the past, that was only done to protect the identity of juvenile victims or witnesses, and happened perhaps four or five times in the course of a year.

I can live with that kind of witholding of information, for the most part.

Then, just recently, I ran across a couple of cases that threw me. The first one had the defendant charged with misdemeanors on the cover sheet, but felony charges were included in the more detailed information, so I didn't fuss.

But the very next case had the defendant charged with two misdemeanors, both in the cover sheet and the information.

Now the criminal division of circuit court handles felonies with the occassional assoiciated misdmeanor, but it does not handle cases with only misdemeanor charges. That's the district court's responsibility

I figure that before I see any criminal filings, the information has already gone through about three hands, that being law enforcement, the prosecutor's office, and the circuit clerk's office. So I asked Circuit Clerk Ramona Wilson what was going on with the misdemeanor-only case.

Her eyebrows went up, and she started calling the prosecutor's office, only to learn that the prosecutor and his deputies were out of town for a continuing education program.

Not knowing exactly who does what, I wondered if someone formerly working in a district court, where misdeamnor charges are routine, was now working in the circuit court system, and was having difficulty getting in to the swing of things.

I may never know what has been going on, but new court officials have been in office now for almost five months. That's long enough to figure out what the right thing is.