News - Page 49 of 125 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

19 Apr, 2018

Bill to allow more meetings of Advisory Committee on Open Government wins approval

By Deborah Fisher|2018-04-19T10:58:08-05:00April 19, 2018|Categories: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Legislature|Tags: Advisory Committee on Open Government, Office of Open Records Counsel, State Rep. Bob Ramsey, State Sen. Mike Bell|0 Comments

The Advisory Committee on Open Government will be allowed to meet more frequently and at the call of co-chairs under legislation that has won approval from both the Senate and the House. Previously, the committee met only at the request of the Office of Open Records Counsel. State Rep. Bob Ramsey, R-Maryville, and Chair of House State Government Committee ACOG is a 14-member committee established by the Legislature in 2008 as part of open government reform. Its 14 members, equally representing government and citizen groups, are appointed by the Comptroller’s office. It also has three ex-officio members. The committee's purpose and duties include advising the Office of Open Records Counsel [...]

17 Apr, 2018

Bill to allow more confidentiality for college president candidates awaits governor’s signature

By Deborah Fisher|2018-04-17T11:46:33-05:00April 17, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: Bill Haslam, college president selection, exemptions, higher education, State Rep. Harry Brooks, University of Tennessee|1 Comment

Legislation that would allow more confidentiality for college president candidates has passed the House and Senate and is now on the governor's desk for signature. The bill, which includes an automatic repeal in three years, expands an exemption in state law that already allows names and applications of college presidents to be confidential except for "no less than three" finalists selected by a search committee. Tennessee Governor Bill Haslam The change allows a search committee to select "up to three" instead. The effect is that college search committees now have the option of recommending to a governing board as few as one person as finalist for president. Only [...]

7 Mar, 2018

Senator drops bill to close autopsy records

By Deborah Fisher|2018-03-09T10:47:32-06:00March 7, 2018|Categories: Legislature|Tags: autopsy reports, county medical examiners, Knox County Medical Examiner, State Rep. Eddie Smith, State Sen. Joey Hensley|1 Comment

State Sen. Joey Hensley, a county medical examiner himself, put a stop on Wednesday to the effort to close autopsy records, noting that the state's autopsy law already provided privacy of medical records of the deceased that are unrelated to the cause of the death. Hensley, a physician and the county medical examiner for Lewis County, decided not to present a bill that would have closed autopsy reports, sending it to the general subcommittee of the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. State Sen. Joey Hensley, R-Hohenwald Hensley, in explaining his action on Wednesday, said the bill was brought to him by the House sponsor (Rep. Eddie Smith, R-Knoxville) [...]

4 Mar, 2018

McElroy: Making government-ordered autopsies secret hurts the public’s right to know

By Deborah Fisher|2018-03-04T12:31:04-06:00March 4, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: autopsy reports|1 Comment

(This is a column by Knoxville News Sentinel Editor Jack McElroy that appeared in the news organization's Sunday edition.) Sen. Joey Hensley, a Republican from Hohenwald and a medical examiner, has introduced a bill to make autopsy reports secret. Rep. Eddie Smith of Knoxville is carrying the bill in the House. Jack McElroy The legislation may sound like a mom-and-apple-pie proposition to the average citizen. After all, what reporter could be so ghoulish as to want to examine records about how people died? Besides, shouldn’t the dead, and their families, be allowed to rest in peace rather than having gruesome details of death dragged before the public? But [...]

4 Mar, 2018

Tennessee lawmakers seek to close autopsy reports, findings

By Deborah Fisher|2018-03-04T12:44:24-06:00March 4, 2018|Categories: exemptions, Legislature|Tags: autopsy reports, Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, Julia Goodin, Knox County, State Rep. Eddie Smith, State Sen. Joey Hensley, toxicology reports|3 Comments

The House Health Subcommittee approved a bill Wednesday that would make autopsy investigation reports and findings conducted by the state and county medical examiners confidential. John Lott with the Knox County Regional Forensics Center, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, the county medical examiner for Knox and Anderson counties, and State Chief Medical Examiner Julia Goodin, tell lawmakers while they want to make confidential state and county autopsy reports. Speaking to the subcommittee, Dr. Darinka Mileusnic-Polchan, the county medical examiner for Knox and Anderson counties, said that having the findings of forensic autopsies available to the public is difficult for family members and sometimes means that familial conditions, such as dementia, [...]