Knoxville News Sentinel

8 Sep, 2016

News-Sentinel: Details about Tennessee State Museum donors should be public

By |2016-09-08T16:59:08-05:00September 8, 2016|Categories: Public Records|Tags: , , , |0 Comments

The Knoxville News-Sentinel makes the case that a foundation that was set up entirely for one purpose - to raise money for the state-owned Tennessee State Museum - should disclose details about donations that will help fund a new building. The foundation has a big job: It's supposed to raise $160 million to add to the $120 million committed by the Legislature for a new place. Gov. Bill Haslam is leading the fundraising effort. And it's an admirable cause. We don't have to go into too much detail here about the need for transparency in foundations with ties to government or government officials. In this case, there's an easy answer that would [...]

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2 Jun, 2016

Knox County judge refuses to lift his seal on court records in UT case

By |2016-06-02T11:24:57-05:00June 2, 2016|Categories: court records|Tags: , , , , , |0 Comments

Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee refused this week a request by the Knoxville News Sentinel to lift the seal on court records entered in the case of former University of Tennessee football players accused of rape. Former UT football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams. The news organization filed a petition months ago, arguing that the judge had put the records under seal without any hearing on why secrecy was needed. The judge did not grant the News Sentinel's request for a hearing, but allowed its attorney to argue the point during another hearing on Tuesday related to the prosecutors' request to delay the trials. McGee said he [...]

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4 Apr, 2016

News-Sentinel praises delay on body camera legislation

By |2016-04-04T11:13:11-05:00April 4, 2016|Categories: crime records, Legislature|Tags: , |0 Comments

The Knoxville News-Sentinel in a Sunday editorial praises a House committee's decision to delay body camera legislation and wait for a study by the Advisory Committee on Open Government: The state Legislature wisely has decided to take a closer look at police body cams before imposing secrecy on the videos they produce. Legislation proposed by Rep. Glen Casada, the Republican Caucus chairman from Franklin, would have kept all footage away from the public for at least a year while the issue was being studied. The moratorium was needed, Casada said, to protect the privacy of bystanders who might be caught on camera. The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government agreed that [...]

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25 Feb, 2016

News Sentinel: State museum meeting should be open to the public

By |2016-02-25T09:12:16-06:00February 25, 2016|Categories: Open Meetings|Tags: , , |0 Comments

The News Sentinel published an editorial today saying that the "Douglas Henry State Museum Commission is barreling toward a possible violation of the state's Open Meetings Act." It urges the commission, which was just allocated $120 million of taxpayer money toward construction of the new facility, to open to the public its planned March 28 meeting in which it is scheduled to discuss what is needed in replacing the museum's long-time executive director. One of the commission members, Victor Ashe, called for the state museum meeting to be open, but has met resistance from another member, Tom Smith, who heads a committee on succession planning. (Ashe is a member of TCOG's board [...]

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12 Feb, 2016

News Sentinel files lawsuit over sealed court documents in UT rape case

By |2016-06-02T11:20:40-05:00February 12, 2016|Categories: Open Courts, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

The Knoxville News Sentinel filed a lawsuit today, after requesting for more than a year to inspect court records and exhibits in the aggravated rape cases against former Tennessee football players A.J. Johnson and Michael Williams. The newspaper claims that Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee sealed records "without any petition or order to do so." The newspaper was also told that Magistrate Ray H. Jenkins had sealed search warrant records, including a police investigator's affidavit. Following is an excerpt from the News-Sentinel's story, which you can read in full here: News Sentinel files lawsuit to unseal UT rape documents: The lawsuit argues that evidence can be sealed to protect the constitutional [...]

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