# Mike Wickline Reporter, Arkansas Democrat-Gazette. Email [email protected]. Covered both APERS and ATRS during the May 2025 push to authorize Israel Bonds investments. Wickline emailed Mark White on 5/14/2025 at 4:36 PM with a single question: "Does ATRS have any Israeli-related investments or Israeli bonds? I am covering APERS tomorrow and expect a push to invest in Israeli bonds so hence the question for ATRS." White confirmed ATRS had Israeli bonds plus equity and fixed income holdings in Israeli companies. Wickline asked for a number; White and Graves produced approximately $25 million total Israel exposure ($19 million direct, $6 million indirect, of which approximately $1 million is Israel sovereign bonds via the SSgA index). White also clarified to Wickline on 5/14/2025 that the bonds ATRS held were owned indirectly through the index fund. The 5/15/2025 byline that ran in the Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette: "APERS panel authorizes investment of up to $50 million in Israel bonds." A subsequent 6/3/2025 NWA Democrat-Gazette story attributed in the Google Alerts in this batch: "Arkansas Teacher Retirement System's trustees to hire firm to invest up to $50 million in Israel bonds." Wickline's coverage tracked the parallel ATRS/APERS authorization sequence in real time. ## Evidence > "1. does ATRS have any Israeli-related investments or Israeli bonds? I am covering APERS tomorrow and expect a push to invest in Israeli bonds so hence the question for ATRS." > Mike Wickline to Mark White, Emails3.pdf p.17, 5/14/2025 > "Yes, we have Israeli bonds as well as both equity and fixed income investments in Israeli companies in our portfolio." > Mark White to Mike Wickline, Emails3.pdf p.16, 5/14/2025 > "APERS panel authorizes investment of up to $50 million in Israel bonds, Northwest Arkansas Democrat-Gazette" > Google Alert in Emails3.pdf p.24, 5/16/2025 ## Cross-References [[mark-white]] [[rod-graves]] ATRS sources [[atrs-pre-existing-indirect-exposure]] concept page [[atrs-foia-r1-staff-emails]] [[apers-foia-r1-7-7-25]] source pages ## APERS R1 production additions (7/7/25): the full Wickline article text The 7/7/25 APERS R1 production captures the full text of Wickline's 5/15/2025 Arkansas Democrat-Gazette article ("APERS panel authorizes investment of up to $50 million in Israel bonds") that APERS Director of Communications Brooke Hollowoa forwarded to Fecher on 5/16/2025 2:11 PM. The article documented the IFSC's actions and quoted Brady extensively on the rationale, the credit framing ("a low risk for a bond"), the regional-context framing ("a region of the world that is volatile at best"), the Mike Huckabee aide disclosure, the Treasurer's office $55M total, and the Walther/Milligan Treasurer-era purchase history. Wickline also quoted Borromeo for system size ($11.92 billion) and Hudson for the infrastructure-secondaries action. The article framed the IFSC vote as "approved Brady's motion with no audible dissenters." > "Brady told the Investments and Finance Subcommittee that in his efforts to further diversify the retirement system's investment portfolio with investments such as private equity and private credit and seek increased investment returns for the system, 'it has come to my attention that APERS does not own any Israel bonds, like those held by the state treasurer's office.'" > Mike Wickline reporting on the 5/15/2025 IFSC meeting, IB_FOIA_MAY_25_Reviewed.pdf p.21 > "The system's Investments and Finance Subcommittee approved Brady's motion with no audible dissenters." > Mike Wickline, IB_FOIA_MAY_25_Reviewed.pdf p.23 ## ASHERS production: Wickline's parallel pre-publication multi-system canvass The ASHERS production at [[ashers-foia-r1-3-27-26]] documents Wickline executing a parallel-day pre-publication canvass to ASHERS on the same evening he asked the parallel question to ATRS. Wickline's 5/14/2025 5:21 PM email to ASHERS Executive Secretary [[robyn-smith]]: > "1. does ASHRS have any Israeli-related investments or Israeli bonds? and if so how much? I am covering APERS tomorrow and expect a push to invest in Israeli bonds so hence the question for ASHERS / respectfully, mike Wickline" > Wickline to Smith, FW_ wickline's questions.eml, 5/14/2025 5:21 PM CDT The Wickline message to ASHERS arrived 45 minutes after his parallel 4:36 PM message to White at ATRS. The two inquiries used substantively identical language. Wickline therefore ran a multi-system pre-publication canvass on 5/14 evening: ATRS first, ASHERS 45 minutes later. Smith's internal-channel context note to Wiley (documented in this entity page's source) characterizes Wickline's behavior as routine: "When he has situations like that, he normally reaches out to all the systems. In the next few days, I expect there will be an article in the newspaper, so I just wanted you to be aware." Smith replied at 8:32 AM the next morning — three hours and 28 minutes before the APERS IFSC convened — with the "ASHERS does not hold any Israeli bonds" plus three Israeli tech equity holdings answer (CyberArk $504K, Camtek $690K, Cellebrite $773K). The ASHERS-side reply to the same question Wickline asked ATRS established the cross-system data Wickline could have used for comparative context in the 5/15 article. Wickline's published 5/15 article did not include the ASHERS contrast; the article focused on the APERS IFSC action and the ATRS history. The ASHERS data Smith provided is not in the wiki's documented published reporting; whether Wickline used it for any subsequent reporting is not documented.