Jack McElroy

• Jack McElroy: Public Records Law is a secret to success Published 02/05/2012 at 4 a.m.

  The 5-year anniversary of Black Wednesday came and went last week. I hadn't even thought about it until WUOT aired a segment of its "Dialogue" show looking back on the day that the County Commission laid waste to the Open ...

• Jack McElroy: Anniversary chance to bring Knoxville history home Published 01/29/2012 at 4 a.m.

  I'm a history buff. The passion grows more intense as I grow older and the past, once distant, now seems not so far away.

• Jack McElroy: Tennessee politicos now face PolitiFact's 'Truth-O-Meter' Published 01/15/2012 at 4 a.m.

  The Knoxville News Sentinel is joining the national PolitiFact network and will begin putting Tennessee's political rhetoric through the "Truth-O-Meter."

• Jack McElroy: Political news is one sure bet for 2012 Published 01/01/2012 at 4 a.m.

  "I am personally acquainted with hundreds of journalists," wrote Mark Twain, "and the opinion of the majority of them would not be worth tuppence in private.

• Jack McElroy: Pearl the cat finds purr-fect home for holidays Published 12/25/2011 at 4 a.m.

  A couple of week ago I wrote about Pearl and her kittens, the cats we have been fostering for the Young-Williams Animal Center.

• Jack McElroy: Anger at Young-Williams Animal Center is misplaced Published 12/10/2011 at 9:55 p.m.

  I'm allergic to cats. But Pearl and her four kittens have moved into our spare bedroom, and they're welcome to stay until they're ready to go to homes of their own.

• Jack McElroy: Have an app, app, appy Christmas this year Published 11/27/2011 at 4 a.m.

  It's shopping time again, and high-tech gizmos are big sellers. In a recent survey, 58 percent of chief marketing officers for American retailers expected consumer electronics to be the hottest category this holiday season.

• Jack McElroy: Sometimes a newspaper has no choice Published 11/13/2011 at 4 a.m.

  There are times when a newspaper has no choice but to fight to force the government to conduct its business in public.

• Jack McElroy: Feds want to be able to lie about records Published 11/06/2011 at 3 a.m.

  In his first full day as president, Barack Obama declared openness to be a core value of his administration, telling all federal agencies to meet Freedom of Information Act requests with a "presumption of disclosure."

• Jack McElroy: Prescription drugs are latest wave in 40-year tide of abuse Published 10/30/2011 at 4 a.m.

  A week ago I made a pilgrimage to Tucson, Ariz., to attend my 40th high school reunion.

• Jack McElroy: News Sentinel's 125th anniversary celebration will mark history, look to the future Published 12/23/2011 at 4 a.m.

  News, it's said, is the rough draft of history. In that capacity, the News Sentinel and its predecessors have now been sketching the history of Knoxville for exactly 125 years.It was on Dec. 23, 1886, that Kentuckian John T. Hearn ...

• TVA agrees to release salaries Published 05/13/2010 at 3:03 p.m.

  KNOXVILLE - David Mould, TVA's senior vice president for communications, said today the federal agency will release the salary information requested by the News Sentinel under the Freedom of Information Act.

• The Upfront Page: Sports journalists aren't boosters Published 02/20/2010 at 12:25 p.m.

  A letter writer complained about a photo in Sunday's paper showing a Kentucky player bouncing the basketball off the head of the Vols' J.P. Prince:

• Duly noted: UT still not saying what Dooley will be paid Published 01/21/2010 at 6:14 a.m.

  The UT Athletic Department isn't saying what Dooley will be paid or what the other terms of his employment are because the agreement hasn't been finalized. Tiffany Carpenter, the department's director of public relations, says she hopes to have numbers ...

• New Vols football writer starts Published 09/01/2009 at 6:09 a.m.

  Austin Ward took over our UT football beat Monday. He comes to us from the Star-Tribune in Casper, Wyo., where he covered University of Wyoming football and was named 2008 Wyoming sportswriter of the year.

• McElroy: Cobbins case about overcoming racism Published 08/30/2009 at midnight

  In the end, the Letalvis Cobbins case was about race but not in the way the racists tried to spin it.

• McElroy: NS ad reps keep up with the times Published 05/17/2009 at midnight

  In the newsroom, we jokingly refer to the advertising department as the "dark side," where worldly concerns may take precedence over the ivory tower ideals of truth, justice and the First Amendment.

• McElroy: Knox family stumbles over money woes Published 05/10/2009 at midnight

  This is the story of the Knoxes, a nice, middle-class family, working to keep up with the Jones, not to mention the Nashes and Noogas down the street.

• McElroy: Swine flu a reminder of Great Pandemic Published 05/03/2009 at midnight

  Remember SARS and bird flu? How about ebola or West Nile virus?

• McElroy: Paperless project PolitiFact claims a Pulitzer Published 04/26/2009 at midnight

  The most important Pulitzer Prize this year wasn't awarded for a newspaper story or photograph. In fact, the winning work wasn't even printed in a newspaper.

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