tennessee

About Deborah Fisher

Deborah Fisher has been executive director of Tennessee Coalition for Open Government since 2013. Previously she spent 25 years in the news industry as a journalist.
19 Dec, 2022

Private meetings on Chattanooga redistricting violated open meetings law, lawsuit alleges

By |2023-01-02T17:00:37-06:00December 19, 2022|Categories: open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , , |2 Comments

A redistricting committee made up of Chattanooga city councilmembers violated the open meetings act when it convened privately to make decisions and deliberate on the city's new voting district maps, a lawsuit alleges. The lawsuit by the Chattanooga Times Free Press also alleges that councilmembers violated the open meetings act when the city's executive staff, at the request of the redistricting committee, met individually with council members to decide on the contours of each of their new districts.

21 Oct, 2022

Dispatch call on Elvis death left the building, left a mystery

By |2023-01-02T17:08:47-06:00October 21, 2022|Categories: Public Records, records management|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

A recording of the emergency communications of the Memphis Fire Department when Elvis Presley was found dead in 1977 has emerged in a Memphis karate shop and museum. But the fire department itself claims not to have the recording, which would be a public record.

30 Aug, 2022

Court of Appeals: Trial audio recording a public record

By |2023-01-02T16:52:59-06:00August 30, 2022|Categories: court records, public records lawsuits Tennessee|Tags: , , , , |0 Comments

The Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled that an audio recording of a trial made by the court reporter is part of the court record and a public record subject to the state public records law. The ruling overturns a lower court decision that had upheld an East Tennessee judge's refusal to give a convicted killer the audio recording of his murder trial.

29 Jul, 2022

Court of Appeals whittles away public notice protections of open meeting law

By |2023-04-11T11:01:48-05:00July 29, 2022|Categories: adequate public notice, open meetings lawsuits|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

A Tennessee Court of Appeals rolled back the meaning of the open meetings law in a surprising ruling when it said that a governing body does not have to give public notice of an important upcoming vote as part of its agenda, even when the vote is on an issue of widespread community interest.

4 Jul, 2022

We need a closer eye on what is happening in state prisons

By |2022-07-05T09:34:35-05:00July 4, 2022|Categories: state records|Tags: , , , , , , , |0 Comments

Our government should operate safe and secure prisons. If it is failing, the public should be able to know so that citizens can press for change. Based on the state’s own assessment of its prison system and the number of complaints coming from some prisons, including Trousdale, it seems clear that we need a closer eye on what is happening within.

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