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.
A lawsuit filed earlier this month by journalist Stacy Jacobson of WREG in Memphis is seeking access to records related to the Department of Children's Services interactions with a 14-year-old boy who died in Memphis 2020. The department had investigated issues surrounding the boy four times previous to his death.
A House subcommittee is scheduled on Tuesday to consider a bill that would expand the confidentiality around applicants for the chief executive positions at state colleges. State Rep. Mark White is sponsoring a bill to expand the confidentiality related to filling top positions of president and chancellor at all state colleges. HB 473, sponsored by state Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, would allow a search committee to keep confidential the identity of applicants for the president or chancellor positions at all state colleges except for the finalist or finalists selected. The bill would allow a search committee to reveal only the single finalist they select, although the committee [...]
Davidson County Chancellor Patricia Moskal denied a request for an injunction to force the production of data that could show which Tennesseans have not yet returned absentee ballots. Her ruling was based largely on lack of proof that a public records request for the data had actually been made. In an election eve hearing today, attorney Benjamin Gastel of Branstetter, Stranch & Jennings, argued that his client, the Tennessee Democratic Party, and the other plaintiff, the Marquita Bradshaw for Senate Campaign, had requested the data from five county election commissions and the Secretary of State's office. Chancellor Patricia Moskal Gastel said they wanted to find out the names of the [...]
WUOT 91.9 FM reporter Claire Heddles demonstrated last week that making a public records request to the right person is sometimes all it takes. The White House Coronavirus Task Force is distributing to governors a weekly report on the COVID-19 epidemic. The task force does not make the reports available to the public, but they have been released in some states by local and state officials. In Tennessee, however, Gov. Bill Lee downplayed the importance of releasing those reports in a press conference last week with Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey. And the Center for Public Integrity, which has been compiling the task force reports from various states, lists Tennessee among [...]
