Columns

By Kent Flanagan, Tennessee Coalition for Open Government

Tennessee Department of Children’s Services has one of the toughest, most unforgiving jobs in state government — to protect the most vulnerable children in our society from harm — but few Tennesseans know much about the agency.

Most details about Children’s Services operations are denied to the public by confidentiality required under state law to protect the privacy of the children and the families that come into contact with DCS.

Wednesday of last week, as we were perusing the Business section of the Chattanooga Times Free Press, our eye was caught by the headline “Bonuses paid Brown prior to collapse”, with a sub-head reading “Soddy-Daisy shuffle combined Ponzi scheme and tax fraud, trustee charges.”

We thought this might be an interesting item showing the ingenuity of some of the financial villains who prey on the ignorance and gullibility of so many of our brethrery and so further reading showed.

By KEN PAULSON
First Amendment Center
It’s open season on paparazzi in celebrity-laden states as legislatures gear up to protect the rich and famous.

Most recently, the Hawaii legislature was so grateful that Aerosmith singer and American Idol judge Steven Tyler purchased a home on Maui that it named an anti-paparazzi bill after him.

By LEE H. HAMILTON
A few weeks ago, the survey firm Public Policy Polling made headlines when it released a poll comparing Congress’s standing to a variety of unloved things.
Respondents did prefer our national legislature to the ebola virus, but otherwise the news was grim: Americans, the survey suggested, have a lower opinion of Congress than of head lice, Genghis Khan, used-car salesmen and root canals.
I’ll admit it: I chuckled, though I don’t really agree.
Having experienced both, I put Congress well ahead of root canals.