News - Page 73 of 127 - Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

13 Jul, 2016

Jeremy Durham investigation committee banks on the power of transparency

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:56:44-05:00July 13, 2016|Categories: Legislature, Public Records|Tags: Jeremy Durham, Russell Perkins|0 Comments

The special House committee investigating allegations of sexual harassment by state House Rep. Jeremy Durham, R-Franklin, did the right thing today in releasing its findings. The investigative report, which the committee posted online, is the outcome of a months-long investigation by Attorney General Herbert Slatery at the request of the committee. It included 78 interviews, 22 of them with women who described encounters with Durham. Durham's attorney tried to get an injunction to stop the release of the report, but Davidson County Chancellor Russell Perkins said it was in the public's interest for the report to be released and denied the request. The media rushes to pick up copies of [...]

2 Jun, 2016

72% of Tennesseans think the state is not transparent with economic incentives to corporations

By Deborah Fisher|2019-09-11T18:56:25-05:00June 2, 2016|Categories: economic development|Tags: Beacon Center, ECD, economic development, tax credits|2 Comments

Just how transparent is the state of Tennessee with its economic development programs? In the eyes of Tennesseans, not very. A new poll by icitizen and The Beacon Center of Tennessee measured opinions about the state's economic development activities. The Beacon Center favors stemming "corporate handouts" to specific companies in favor of lowering business taxes for everyone. Most of the questions were designed to measure approval or disapproval of incentive programs. While the poll results show mixed opinions about tax breaks for select companies, what's indisputable is that Tennesseans largely think the state is not transparent about them. A whopping 72 percent agreed with the statement: "State government is not transparent with the incentives it [...]

2 Jun, 2016

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

By Deborah Fisher|2016-06-02T11:24:57-05:00June 2, 2016|Categories: court records|Tags: Knox County, Knox County Criminal Court Judge Bob McGee, Knoxville News Sentinel, Richard Hollow, sealed court records, University of Tennessee rape case|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 [...]

26 May, 2016

Haslam staff used private email accounts for state business

By Deborah Fisher|2016-05-27T08:20:35-05:00May 26, 2016|Categories: email|Tags: Bill Haslam, Janet McGaha, Mark Cate, Phil Williams, private email, Will Cromer|0 Comments

While the U.S. State Department's inspector general on Wednesday released a blistering analysis of Hillary Clinton's use of private email, back in Tennessee reporter Phil Williams of NewsChannel 5 reported a nugget about the use of private email by Governor Bill Haslam and his staff. NewsChannel 5 reporter uncovers Haslam staff using private email for government business. Williams made a public records request of emails on the state email server of a handful of administrators that either were received from or sent to a private email address containing @billhaslam.com, a domain for the governor's campaign webpage. Although it was only a snapshot for a defined slice of time, [...]

25 May, 2016

Performance evaluation of UT-M chancellor off limits to public under new law

By Deborah Fisher|2016-05-25T14:45:32-05:00May 25, 2016|Categories: exemptions|Tags: exemptions, performance evaluations, public records exemptions, The Jackson Sun, University of Tennessee at Martin|0 Comments

The Jackson Sun hit a public records roadblock in its ongoing probe into the accreditation problems at the University of Tennessee at Martin. Here's the short story: Tom Rakes resigned his position as chancellor at UT-Martin on May 31, 2015, and is now teaching a few online classes at the university for a lowered salary of $185,520. The university was placed on academic probation in December 2015 after years of notification to the university of key problems from its accrediting body. UT system President Joe DiPietro declined to say whether performance issues were a factor in the chancellor's resignation. So the newspaper asked for Rakes' personnel file, expecting to see Rakes' [...]