State Regulation of Trucking: The Policy Impact of Differential Speed Limits

Includes bibliographical reference

Early Voting in Tennessee: Removing Barriers to Participation

In 1994. the Tennessee General Assembly mandated a new early voting system that allowed voters to cast a ballot in a two-week period prior to any election. Unlike absentee balloting, which requires registrants to justify why they cannot participate on election day, early voting is available to any registered voter who chooses to do so. By enacting early voting in Tennessee, the state legislature hoped to achieve increased turnout and easier access for citizens unable to vote at a regular polling site on election day. The purpose of this chapter is to ascertain whether the program was able to increase access for senior citizens and other citizens disadvantaged by a single election day voting period. Using county level-census data and voting returns from the 1996 election in Tennessee, we examine early voting participation by different socioeconomic groups

The Practice of Government Public Relations

With the recent change of administration in the U.S. executive branch, we have seen increased attention to issues of public information, transparency in government, and government and press relations in the United States and abroad. In addition, rapidly evolving technology and its influence on public communication have left many in government struggling to remain current in this area. Citizens and constituents learn to use interactive tools when searching for information, utilize technology for communications, and now expect government information and services to exist in the same information space as private entities. This book is an effort of leading experts in the field to assist public managers in understanding the nuances of the rules and regulations governing public information, innovative ways to use new technology, how to respond in a crisis, and how to think strategically in crafting a public image. The very practical and applied treatment of these topics should generate the interest of practitioners and policy makers due to the lack of available information on issues of public relations in the public sector. Several chapters contain a Best Practice Checklist as well as other supplemental material (all provided on the CD-ROM that comes with this book) that can be used to implement the strategies outlined in the book. This book is intended to serve as a single source of information for all aspects of governmental public relations. As the U.S. government transitions into a period of more relaxed restriction of public information, public administrators need a book with practical guidelines and applicable tools to assist in this new era of government public communication. In addition, the decline of traditional journalism and the rise of social media are moving targets that are continuing to evolve and require renewed and sustained attention for public administrators to the public relations function. This book addresses some of the common issues and approaches to consider when dealing with this rapidly changing environment. This book is aimed at providing a very practical, hands-on approach for the planning, implementation, and evaluation of various aspects of government public relations. The conception of the book is to serve as a practitioner counterpart to the academically oriented Government Public Relations: A Reader, which was published by Taylor & Francis in 2008 to serve as a textbook in university-level courses. The majority of the chapter authors are current or past practitioners of government public relations crossing all the levels of government, extending outside the United States and in other areas of public service as well (such as nonprofit and nongovernmental organizations [NGOs]). While their writings are informed by the latest research, their interests and orientation are to improving practice. Each chapter is intended to be useful to someone practicing in the field and looking for guidance, resources, practical advice, and best practices

Implementation of Early Voting

We examine the early voting process in Tennessee during the election of 1994. By conducting a mail survey of all 95 county registrars, we ascertained the methods and costs of early voting implementation. Generally, the survey reveals a strong belief that early voting encourages greater participation by voters, with turnout data supporting this belief. We find that the ballot type and location of early voting sites play an important role in determining both the costs of early voting and the rate of voter participation

Can Deliberative Democracy Work in Hierarchical Organizations?

Some measure of equality is necessary for deliberative democracy to work well, yet empirical scholarship consistently points to the deleterious effect that hierarchy and inequalities of epistemological authority have on deliberation. This article tests whether real-world deliberative forums can overcome these challenges. Contrary to skeptics, it concludes that the act of deliberation itself and the presence of trained moderators ameliorate inequalities of epistemological authority, thus rendering deliberative democracy possible, even within hierarchical organizations

Turnout and Partisanship in Tennessee Elections

To understand the forces shaping current Tennessee politics, we discuss two fundamental concepts of Tennessee\u27s electoral system: voting turnout and partisanship. These two concepts are easily illustrated by two questions. First, how many people participate in elections in the state? Second, whom do Tennesseans elect to represent them? While we use a historical perspective to inform the analysis, we are generally more interested in the forces shaping politics in Tennessee today

Trends in Public Opinion, 1989-1996

In this chapter, we examine the party identifications and ideological orientations of Tennesseans from 1989 through 1996, as revealed through survey research. We also look at Tennesseans\u27 positions on several issues of public policy that have been salient in state politics during this period. Our intent is to isolate any trends in the partisan and ideological character of the state while examining citizens\u27 positions on key issues

A compilation of global bio-optical in situ data for ocean colour satellite applications – version three

A global in situ data set for validation of ocean colour products from the ESA Ocean Colour Climate Change Initiative (OC-CCI) is presented. This version of the compilation, starting in 1997, now extends to 2021, which is important for the validation of the most recent satellite optical sensors such as Sentinel 3B OLCI and NOAA-20 VIIRS. The data set comprises in situ observations of the following variables: spectral remote-sensing reflectance, concentration of chlorophyll-a, spectral inherent optical properties, spectral diffuse attenuation coefficient, and total suspended matter. Data were obtained from multi-project archives acquired via open internet services or from individual projects acquired directly from data providers. Methodologies were implemented for homogenization, quality control, and merging of all data. Minimal changes were made on the original data, other than conversion to a standard format, elimination of some points, after quality control and averaging of observations that were close in time and space. The result is a merged table available in text format. Overall, the size of the data set grew with 148 432 rows, with each row representing a unique station in space and time (cf. 136 250 rows in previous version; Valente et al., 2019). Observations of remote-sensing reflectance increased to 68 641 (cf. 59 781 in previous version; Valente et al., 2019). There was also a near tenfold increase in chlorophyll data since 2016. Metadata of each in situ measurement (original source, cruise or experiment, principal investigator) are included in the final table. By making the metadata available, provenance is better documented and it is also possible to analyse each set of data separately. The compiled data are available at https://doi.org/10.1594/PANGAEA.941318 (Valente et al., 2022)

Citizen, Defend Thyself: An Individual-Level Analysis of Concealed-Weapon Permit Holders

Research on right‐to‐carry laws and subsequent crime reduction has relied heavily on the use of econometric models relying on aggregate‐level data. We examine the underlying individual‐level motivations for obtaining a concealed-weapon permit utilizing a survey of permit holders and citizens in New Orleans. Employing a multi‐level modeling strategy, we simultaneously examine individual‐level characteristics along with contextual effects, specifically the neighborhood violent crime rate. In sum, we find little evidence to support the supposition that concealed-weapon permits are utilized by those most likely to be at risk for violent crime victimization