Alva Review-Courier -

MUSKOGEE, Okla. (AP) — An Oklahoma newspaper on Tuesday challenged a judge's decision to ban the public from a hearing in the case of a Muskogee man accused of killing six people, including five children.

An attorney for the Muskogee Phoenix filed a motion to intervene in the case after District Judge Bret Smith barred a reporter for the newspaper and two other members of the media from attending a preliminary hearing in the case on Monday.

Telephone calls to the judge's office on Tuesday rang unanswered, but the judge told a reporter for the Tulsa World that he closed the hearing because of a...