Tennessee Coalition for Open Government Archives - Page 20 of 21

20 Jan, 2015

TCOG elects WPLN news director Anita Bugg to its Board of Directors

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-20T10:40:43-06:00January 20, 2015|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Anita Bugg, TCOG board, TCOG news, WPLN|0 Comments

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently elected Anita Bugg to its Board of Directors. Anita Bugg, News Director for WPLN, Nashville Public Radio Bugg is news director of Nashville's public radio station WPLN where she has worked since 1995 in roles that have also included Morning Edition host and assignment editor. Bugg fills the board seat representing Tennessee Associated Press Managing Editors. She is a member of Society of Professional Journalists and Public Radio News Directors, Inc. She graduated with a bachelor's of arts in journalism from Murray State University, where she worked for commercial stations and discovered her first public radio "home" with WKMS. TCOG is a non-partisan, non-profit [...]

8 Jan, 2015

TCOG elects Chattanooga citizen Helen Burns Sharp to its Board of Directors

By Deborah Fisher|2015-01-08T09:11:54-06:00January 8, 2015|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Helen Burns Sharp, TCOG board, TCOG news|0 Comments

The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government recently elected to its Board of Directors Helen Burns Sharp, a public interest advocate in Chattanooga who has advanced awareness of the Tennessee Open Meetings Act and the rights of citizens to transparency in government. TCOG's Board of Directors recently elected Helen Burns Sharp to a seat on its board. Sharp is a community development consultant and a retired urban planning director who has been involved in two public interest lawsuits against the Chattanooga Industrial Development Board over violations of the state’s sunshine laws. She holds a master’s degree in government from the University of Texas, and a political science degree from [...]

3 Dec, 2014

TCOG, SPJ-East TN: Arguments in Open Meetings case make a mockery of state’s Sunshine Law

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:52:34-05:00December 3, 2014|Categories: Open Meetings, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: audibility of public meeting, litigation, Open Meetings Act, SPJ-East Tennessee Professional Chapter, TCOG news|0 Comments

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: December 3, 2014 CONTACTS: Deborah Fisher, executive director, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government, [email protected], (615) 602-4080; Michael T. Martinez, president of the East Tennessee Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists, [email protected], (865) 314-5256 NASHVILLE -- The Tennessee Coalition for Open Government and the East Tennessee Professional Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists have issued a joint statement of concern about efforts to interpret the Tennessee Open Meetings Act that could fundamentally reduce citizen access to public meetings. (See PDF of Press Release here). The Industrial Development Board of Greeneville and Greene County and the private company US Nitrogen contend in a lawsuit that the Tennessee Open [...]

12 Nov, 2014

TCOG training gets some media coverage!

By Deborah Fisher|2014-11-12T17:52:33-06:00November 12, 2014|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: Johnson City Press, TCOG training|0 Comments

ETSU student thanks TCOG after presentation. What terrific students. Lots of good questions and thoughts about what open government means. I don't often write on this blog about Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's activities, but since we got some unexpected coverage in Johnson City this week from the Johnson City Press, I thought I would share. So far in 2014, TCOG has done 13 educational presentations for journalists, citizens and college students about open records and open meetings laws in Tennessee, and how to use them. We've reached about 360 people directly through these presentations. (I have to say, TCOG training is one of the favorite parts of [...]

15 May, 2014

Happy 11th birthday, TCOG!

By Deborah Fisher|2014-05-15T08:24:56-05:00May 15, 2014|Categories: Tennessee Coalition for Open Government|Tags: TCOG news|0 Comments

On May 15, 2003, the idea of a nonprofit, nonpartisan coalition of citizens, professionals, media and academic groups was officially born when its charter was filed with the Tennessee Secretary of State. Tennessee Coalition for Open Government's initial board of directors included Ron Fryar as president, then with The Daily News Journal in Murfreesboro and a continuing board member; Doug Pierce, a media attorney with King & Ballow who has remained on the board and is now TCOG's president; Kent Flanagan, then the bureau chief of The Associated Press who also served as TCOG's executive director for two years; Steve Lake, publisher of the Citizen-Press in Pulaski; Dorothy Bowles, journalism [...]