Tag Archives: website

TN legislative website wins top award at NCSL 2015 convention

National Conference of State Legislatures news release
Seattle—The Tennessee General Assembly’s website took home the 2015 Online Democracy Award for having a superior legislative website this week during the National Conference of State Legislatures’ (NCSL) 2015 Legislative Summit in Seattle.

NCSL’s Online Democracy Award is presented annually to a legislature, legislative chamber or caucus whose website makes democracy user-friendly in an outstanding way. The winning website is chosen by a committee of legislative staffers who evaluate each site’s design, content and technological integration.

This is the second time Tennessee has won the award. The state’s first honor was in 2009. This year, the website swayed the panel of judges with its simple yet stimulating interface that facilitates public access to the workings of the legislature.
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Judge Rejects Subpoena of Newspaper’s Records of Website Commenters

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The Commercial Appeal will not be forced to release comments and identifying information about those who commented on stories related to the public controversies over the reorganization of Shelby County’s public schools, the newspaper reports.
U.S. Dist. Judge Samuel “Hardy” Mays issued a ruling Thursday night rejecting the Shelby County Commission’s motion to compel The Commercial Appeal to release that information. The commission’s lawyers from the firm Baker Donelson had filed a motion last week asking the judge to force The Commercial Appeal to comply with a July subpoena request asking for the identities of all online commenters to 45 stories that ran between Nov. 19, 2010, and July 12, 2012.
In denying the motion, Mays wrote that the information would not be relevant to the case.
“The Commission’s claim that the information it seeks concerning the opinions of the general readership of The Commercial Appeal is relevant to determining whether racial considerations were a motivating factor in the Tennessee General Assembly’s decision to enact the Municipal School Acts is not well taken,” the judge ruled.
“The information sought by the Commission is not relevant to the underlying issue to be decided and is not an appropriate subject of discovery in this case.”
The commission claimed that harvesting some comments and identifying information about the commenters could help them prove that new state laws enabling new municipal school districts in suburban Shelby County were motivated at least in part by racially discriminatory intent.

Romney Campaign Removes Praise of DesJarlais from Campaign Website

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Mitt Romney hailed Scott DesJarlais as an “independent and principled conservative” in a May endorsement of the 4th District congressman’s re-election, but his campaign has now quietly removed a news release on the endorsement from a campaign website.
The Huffington Post says the news release was taken down Thursday after the Internet news service asked about it, in light of revelations that DesJarlais had encouraged his pregnant mistress to get an abortion when he believed her pregnant.
From the HuffPo:
Romney’s campaign so far has declined to comment.
But the GOP presidential nominee himself was effusive in the original posting.
“I’m very proud to have the support of such a principled and independent conservative as Scott DesJarlais,” said Romney. “In his time in Congress, Scott has been a real leader for balancing the budget, lowering taxes and scaling back the size of government. I look forward to working with Scott to spread that kind of conservative message across the Volunteer State as we work to restore America’s promise.”
That message may be missing from Team Romney’s site, but Romney’s kind words can still be found on DesJarlais’ news feed.
DesJarlais’ Facebook page also features a photo of the congressman and his family posing with the presidential contender.

Hargett Sets Up ‘Honor Veterans’ Website

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News release from Secretary of State’s Office:
Voting and paying tribute to our nation’s active and retired armed services personnel are two of the most patriotic acts citizens can perform. A new program launched by the Secretary of State’s Office this week allows people to tie the two together.
Secretary of State Tre Hargett announced the “Tennessee Honor Vote” program, which will provide citizens with an opportunity to dedicate their votes in the upcoming election to the servicemen and servicewomen of their choice.
A new page has been developed on the Secretary of State’s web site where people may sign up and dedicate a personal message to one or more active or retired members of the armed forces.

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New Website Lists TN College Grad Earnings

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There’s always been anecdotal evidence that one college’s nursing program was better than another, for instance, or that jobs weren’t as plentiful for people with degrees in medieval language as, say, in business.
Further from the Commercial Appeal:
The veil lifts Tuesday with the launch of a website collegemeasures.org/ESM/Tennessee that shows first-year earnings of graduates in every field of study, allowing taxpayers (and their college-bound offspring) to see which majors are most lucrative and compare first-year pay across state-sponsored schools.
Graduates in health fields at the University of Memphis (with average starting salary of $59,570) earn more than graduates in any major in any public college in Tennessee and nearly $5,000 more than graduates in the same programs at Middle Tennessee State University.
The highest paying degrees are in the medical and engineering fields; the lowest are philosophy and religious studies, with grads from Austin Peay State University making $20,500 – $7,000 less than grads in the same majors at UT-Martin.

Christian Conservative Group Sets Up ‘Voter Education’ Website

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News release from Family Action Council of Tennessee:
FRANKLIN, Tenn. – The Family Action Council of Tennessee, Inc. announced today the launch of its non-partisan 2012 Voter Education Headquarters.
“With voters heading to the polls tomorrow, we want to do our part to make sure that they know as much as possible about the candidates running for the state legislature,” said David Fowler, President of the Family Action Council of Tennessee. Mr. Fowler said that the website’s information is nonpartisan, including answers from every candidate, Democrat and Republican, who responded to their survey, as well as links to the candidates’ websites.
Mr. Fowler said that he believes “the Voter Education Headquarters page on our website is a great tool for anyone looking for information about those running in the state legislative primaries because of the multiple features it offers.”
With redistricting shifting voters to new legislative districts, Mr. Fowler said that one important feature is that voters will have at their fingertips the tools they need to quickly find out what district they are in.
The website also allows citizens to find the surveys of just those candidates who are running for office in their district, along with an easy to read side-by-side comparison of the candidates’ answers. “We want to eliminate the frustration I’ve experienced myself of having to read through a long list of candidates in an effort to find the ones in your district, and then having to read small, jammed together lines of answers requiring you to remember what each numbered question was about.”
Another feature Mr. Fowler noted was direct links to every state legislative candidate running in the primary that has a website or Facebook page. “We think this feature is important to help voters easily find out additional information about a particular candidate without having to spend time surfing the web. With our great team of volunteers, we’ve been able to do that surfing for them,” Mr. Fowler said.
The 2012 Tennessee Voter Education Headquarters website is available at www.FACTn.org

Rep. Ragan Drops State Email, Phone Number from Campaign Website

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Republican state Rep. John Ragan says he has removed his state office phone number and state email address from his campaign website as a “courtesy” to a constituent who complained — opponent and Democrat Jim Hackworth.
Hackworth this week sent reporters an email declaring Ragan, who represents District 33 in Anderson County, had run afoul of state laws with his campaign website, http://johndragan.com, on two fronts. He added a third example in an interview.
First, Hackworth said that by giving his state office telephone number and state government email address as a means of communicating on campaign matters, Ragan appeared in violation of the state’s “Little Hatch Act,” which generally prohibits use of taxpayer-paid equipment for political purposes. Hackworth said a caller to Ragan’s state office asking for campaign information was referred to a separate number, providing another indication that state facilities were being used for politics.

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Haslam’s Pitch for Romney on Government Website Questioned

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By posting a call for the election of Mitt Romney on a state website, Gov. Bill Haslam has drawn criticism from a Democratic Party official and a government watchdog.
“Now it’s up to Tennesseans and Americans to turn their attention to the November election. By electing Mitt Romney, we can be sure the entire law will be repealed,” Haslam said at the end of a statement giving his thoughts on the U.S. Supreme Court decision that upheld most of the federal Affordable Health Care Act.
The statement was read aloud by Haslam and posted on the governor’s state government website, where it remained over the weekend, as well as on YouTube. His communications office also emailed the text to reporters, who has solicited his comment on the court ruling.
Asked Friday whether it was appropriate to push a presidential candidate through state equipment, Haslam replied, “As the governor, people want to know how you think about things.”

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ECD’s ‘Transparency Website’

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News release from state Department of Economic and Community Development:
NASHVILLE – The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development today announced the launch of its transparency website, OpenECD.tn.gov. The website is designed to be a user-friendly site where the public can easily access public information and documents pertaining to ECD grants and incentives.
“Our department wants to provide the public with as much information as possible,” Bill Hagerty, commissioner, ECD, said. “It is important to Governor Haslam, and to all of us, that we operate as an open and transparent government. These documents have always been available to the public, but we wanted to make them more easily accessible to the public, and we have accomplished that with OpenECD.tn.gov.”
OpenECD.tn.gov will be updated quarterly. The public can sign up to receive email alerts notifying the recipient when information has been added and/or updated. Visit OpenECD.tn.gov for more information.
About the Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development
The Tennessee Department of Economic and Community Development’s mission is to develop strategies which help make Tennessee the No. 1 location in the Southeast for high quality jobs. The department seeks to attract new corporate investment in Tennessee and works with Tennessee companies to facilitate expansion and economic growth. Find us on the web: tn.gov/ecd. Follow us on Twitter: @tnecd. Like us on Facebook: facebook.com/tnecd.