Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed American radio talk show host and political commentator, Jeri Thompson in studio to discuss mask mandates imposed by local school boards and the challenge facing Governor Bill Lee’s executive order.
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School board members for the Franklin Special School District (FSSD) have voted unanimously to impose mask mandates. The mandates are scheduled to begin Monday, according to Nashville Public Radio.
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The Tennessee mask mandate opt out for school children might violate federal laws, the Department of Education says. Governor Bill Lee (R) signed an executive order that allowed parents the right to opt their children out of mask mandates in schools.
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In spite of Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order, Metro Nashville Public School (MNPS) officials have sent out robocalls to parents to tell them they may not opt their child out of COVID-19 mask mandates. The Tennessee Star obtained a recording of a robocall that MNPS officials sent out this week.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee has not publicly stated whether he wants the state to take in Afghan refugees, but two of the state’s other top Republicans on Friday made their opinions known. Lee did not return two requests for comment Friday.
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Nashville Mayor John Cooper backs school defiance of Governor Lee’s (R) executive order allowing parents to opt their kids out of mask mandates. Cooper called the order “disappointing.” The order follows the Nashville Metro Public Schools (MNPS) board voting to mandate masks in classrooms less than two weeks ago. As reported by The Tennessee Star, over 1,000 individuals signed a letter asking the Nashville Metro Public Schools to instate a mask mandate for the 2021 school year.
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On Tuesday Governor Bill Lee told Clay Travis and Buck Sexton on their nationally syndicated radio program, “our executive order actually gives the school district the authority to impose a mandate, but it gives the parent the ability to opt out of that if they choose it.” “I have always been a really strong believer that parents know best what their children need. So I’m a parent. I raised four kids, got eight grandkids. No one knows their kid like the parent. No one cares about their children more than their parents, and so in the middle of all of this covid world that we’re living in, which is people,” Lee told Travis when asked about Executive Order No. 84, signed by the governor on Monday.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee’s executive order granting public school students the right to opt out of COVID-19 mask mandates has prompted Nashville and Memphis school administrators to announce they will not comply with Lee’s latest directive. That, in turn, prompted a response on Tuesday from Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally (R-Oak Ridge). On Facebook, McNally said Metro Nashville Public Schools’ (MNPS) and Shelby County Schools’ (SCS) officials’ apparent defiance against Lee left him “appalled and alarmed.”
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to discuss the lack of clarity in Bill Lee’s executive order for K12 mask mandates.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Monday issued an executive order that grants parents the right to opt their children out of a school’s COVID-19 mask mandate if a school board or a health board enacts one over a district. Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) had requestedthat Lee convene a special session of the state’s General Assembly to address school districts who impose mask mandates upon students. Lee said Monday he would not call for such a session.
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Maury County Mayor Andrew Ogles on Wednesday called upon members of the Tennessee General Assembly to convene a special session to address Gov. Bill Lee and what Ogles said was the governor’s “continued abuses of power.” Ogles, in this proclamation, said Lee’s “indecisiveness and half measures” have “subjugated parents and their children to out of control school boards and superintendents, liberal mayors and a complicit commissioner of education.”
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Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) and more than 70 other Republican state representatives on Wednesday formally requested that Gov. Bill Lee call a special session of the General Assembly. Sexton said last week he and other legislators want to restrain public school officials who might mandate or have already mandated that students wear COVID-19 masks.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Americans for Prosperity’s Grant Henry in studio to weigh in on the laws and liberties of American citizens, dangerous precedence, and Governor Lee’s disturbing executive order.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order late last week regarding the state’s continued response to the COVID-19 pandemic, but some people worry it infringes upon basic liberties. Among other things, Lee’s executive order permits more flexibility in behavioral health care to relieve capacity strain and allows medical laboratory directors to monitor facilities remotely. But the order also gives the state government discretion to use the National Guard in connection with certain health care and emergency services operations.
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If Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee favors a special legislative session to fight COVID-19 mask mandates in public schools then he has not yet put out a forceful enough statement saying as much. Lee’s office though, has released the following remarks:
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Tennessee State Rep. Bruce Griffey (R-Paris) said Sunday that if he and other state legislators hold a special session then they should consider restraining the governor’s emergency powers. Griffey said legislators should take up the governor’s authority to declare and extend public health emergencies. The governor can do this without oversight by the Tennessee General Assembly.
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Crystal Ivey, broadband director at Tennessee’s Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD), said Wednesday that $500 million in taxpayer money bestowed upon Tennessee in the latest round of federal COVID-19 relief will go toward broadband expansion.
ECD officials and Governor Bill Lee (R) have stressed the heightened importance of telecommuting, e-commerce, telemedicine and distance learning after the pandemic hit.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, guest host Ben Cunningham welcomed Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton to the newsmakers line to reiterate Monday’s press conference as Tennessee stands united on COVID and education.
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Tennessee Speaker of the House Cameron Sexton (R-Crossville) said Monday that it’s time for students to put their virtual learning behind and walk back into their classrooms — without a COVID-19 mask mandate. And Sexton also said he and other state legislators have a plan to restrain public school district officials who think otherwise.
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Live from Music Row Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report with Michael Patrick Leahy – broadcast on Nashville’s Talk Radio 98.3 and 1510 WLAC weekdays from 5:00 a.m. to 8:00 a.m. – host Leahy discussed the firing of vaccine chief, Dr. Michelle Fiscus, and Governor Lee’s statement, which exposed his unfamiliarity with the Tennessee Department of Health’s mature minor doctrine. Michel Patrick Leahy: Well, we’ve been talking about Governor Billy’s statement yesterday about the termination of Dr. Michelle Fiscus, the state’s former vaccine chief. And there’s something wrong with the way he’s explained it, it seems to me. By the way, you can call in if you want to disagree or if you have any additional insight into this number. So here’s the story. Actually, I’m reading the story from Newsweek about this and will elaborate a little bit on some of the headlines that you heard on the radio during the break. Here’s how Newsweek reported it. Remember, Newsweek is part of The Daily Beast. It’s more of a far-left outfit. So take this with a grain of salt. But they have done the most comprehensive reporting that I’ve seen on this so far. Tennessee Republican Governor Bill Lee…
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles to the studio to weigh in on Nashville’s educrats that claim critical race theory is a suggestion and questioned the continued employment of Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles in studio to weigh in on the rise of illegal migrants and refugees in the state and how they are the prioritized recipients of social benefits.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of his staff would not say Thursday whether they will dispatch resources to Texas and Arizona to help guard the U.S.-Mexican border. The Tennessee Star made repeated attempts Thursday to contact Lee’s Communications Director Laine Arnold — by email, phone, and text. Arnold did not return our messages before Thursday’s stated deadline.
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Republican Governors from across the country traveled to the Volunteer State this week for a series of multi-day meetings and presentations.
The Nashville event has allowed hundreds of people to attend the conference, as this is the first major event the organization has held since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Andy Ogles in studio who talked about growing frustration from conservatives around Tennessee and the transgender bathroom bill.
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Members of Tennessee Stands told supporters in a newsletter this week that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is weak on immigration and refugee resettlement issues. “We have a crisis at the border and it’s undeniable. And while there are many areas we could point to regarding the Lee administration where things are not always what they seem, one of the most glaring for most of his time in office has been immigration and refugee resettlement. Lee is weak on enforcing a conservative immigration policy and has a propensity to use the guise of Christianity to support refugees pouring into our state,” according to the newsletter.
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Tennessee joined several other states on Monday in banning the teachings of Critical Race Theory (CRT) in public schools throughout the state.
The legislation, a section of a larger education bill, prohibits the teaching that “an individual, by virtue of the individual’s race or sex, is inherently privileged, racist, sexist, or oppressive, whether consciously or subconsciously” according to the bill.
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Former State Representative and U.S Senate candidate Joe Carr announced on Tuesday that he will run for mayor of Rutherford County.
Carr spent years in the Tennessee state legislature and championed several key pieces of legislation that conservatives celebrated.
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Monday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed all-star panelist Crom Carmichael in studio to explain why school choice is becoming more important why parents need to stand up against critical race theory despite limited resources.
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Governor Bill Lee, alongside Arkansas Governor Asa Hutchinson, traveled to Memphis on Tuesday to detail the ongoing process and plan to repair the I-40 bridge.
“We are making swift progress on repairs to the Hernando de Soto bridge to ensure safety and a return to uninterrupted commerce,” Governor Lee said.
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Tax deals for the NFL’s Tennessee Titans and minor league baseball’s Tennessee Smokies were signed into law this week by Gov. Bill Lee.
The governor also signed two bills that are key cogs in his criminal justice reform initiative. They aim to reduce recidivism and keep lower level offenders related to substance abuse and mental health out of jail and in community-based alternative programs.
The Titans deal is estimated to have a $10 million annual sales tax impact on the state. It will allow the team to retain sales tax revenue from all events at Nissan Stadium and keep half of the tax revenue from a planned mixed-use development around the stadium to use toward future stadium upgrades.
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Tennessee will cease all federally funded unemployment on the eve of Independence Day, Governor Bill Lee announced Tuesday. The governor asserted that work opportunities are abundant – meaning, people can and should get back to work.
“We will no longer participate in the federal pandemic unemployment programs because Tennesseans have access to more than 250,000 jobs in our state. Families, businesses & our economy thrive when we focus on meaningful employment & move on from short-term, federal fixes,” wrote Lee.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is one of four governors nationwide who have endorsed a proposed amendment to the U.S. Constitution to limit the number of U.S. Supreme Court justices to the current count of nine. This, according to an emailed press release that members of the Coalition to Preserve an Independent U.S. Supreme Court emailed this week.
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Tennessee State Rep. John Ragan (R-Oak Ridge) has formally asked Tennessee Department of Human Resources (DOHR) Commissioner Juan Williams to explain the diversity and equity council program he wants state agencies to enforce. In his letter, Ragan requested that Williams justify his actions — in a timely manner — and explain how much it will cost taxpayers.
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Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of the state’s Department of Human Services last year granted millions of dollars for social services, and on Monday TDHS officials said they won’t give any to refugees or illegal immigrants. The Nashville-based Catholic Charities of Tennessee last year received $7.3 million in state grant funds to expand social services to 10 Middle Tennessee counties. Part of the organization’s model is based on liberal services performed in Nashville.
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Calling Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee “a member of fringe politics,” members of a new Political Action Committee announced Thursday they are mobilizing against the governor and his anticipated 2022 reelection campaign. People affiliated with the PAC, Beat Bill Lee, published a press release on their website this week.
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Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles Friday announced that Maury County is the new beneficiary of “the single largest deal in state history.” Ogles announced the news on his Facebook page and said it affects not only Maury County but also Tennessee and all of North America.
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Tuesday morning on the Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed Maury County Mayor Andy Ogles to the studio to explain and clarify the governor’s emergency powers according to the Tennessee Constitution.
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President Joe Biden’s plan to resettle 125,000 foreign refugees this year, a 960 percent increase from former president Donald J. Trump’s 12,000 per year, could intensify an ongoing battle between first-term Gov. Bill Lee, a Republican, and elected Republican officials in the legislature and across the state.
“On Thursday, Biden signed an order that will set the maximum number of refugees resettled in the U.S. at 125,000 for Fiscal Year 2021,” Breitbart reported. “The refugee cap is simply a numerical limit and not a goal for federal officials to reach.”
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Officials with The Tennessee Valley Authority and the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation announced Wednesday they will develop more electric car-charging stations in the state, at an anticipated cost of $20 million. TDEC and TVA officials said in a press release that to get the money they “will leverage various funding sources.”
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Former U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, a Republican who once represented Tennessee, has no plans to challenge current Gov. Bill Lee in 2022. This, according to Corker’s spokeswoman Micah Johnson on Thursday.
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Governor Bill Lee was appointed the co-chair of the National Governors Association’s (NGA) Pandemic and Disaster Response Task Force on Wednesday. The other chair selected was Connecticut Governor Ned Lamont.
Lee and Lamont will oversee the Federal Emergency Management administration (FEMA), the National Guard, cybersecurity, healthcare, and all issues related to addressing and recovering from COVID-19, such as testing and personal protective equipment (PPE). Other members in the task force have yet to be announced; as of Wednesday, the two staffers on the task force were legislative directors Mary Catherine Ott and Maribel Ramos.
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The Tennessee General Assembly convened for a special session to discuss learning loss and literacy reforms introduced by the governor’s office. State officials are proposing a series of reforms they dubbed “targeted intervention.” The first bill would establish a full-time tutoring core, after-school camps, learning loss bridge camps, and summer learning camps. Additionally, the second bill proposed a third grade “reading gate” to ensure students are prepared before entering fourth grade and that K-3 educators teach phonics as the primary form of reading, which would be complemented by a screening tool for parents’ use.
The impact of standardized testing also faces reforms. The third bill would keep the Tennessee Comprehensive Assessment Program (TCAP) in place for the 2021 school year, but wouldn’t impose any negative consequences on student assessment. This would ensure that educators and families have a benchmark to assess student progress, but no teacher or district would face penalties based on those TCAP results. Under the fourth bill, the state would adjust the state budget to give pay raises to all teachers immediately.
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The federal government approved Tennessee’s proposed Medicaid aggregate cap, granting a lump sum for a self-imposed, fixed budget. The ten-year agreement, referred to as “TennCare III,” is the first of its kind nationwide. It also allows for the state to reserve any unused funds and apply them to other government programs, with up to 55 percent of those savings potentially matched by additional federal funds for state health programs.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) described the measure as an “innovative financing approach.” Unlike what various reports claimed, federal officials explicitly stated that this agreement wasn’t a block grant. This agreement allows the state government to be flexible with its spending cap under certain circumstances – like last year’s pandemic and related unemployment crisis.
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Members of Tennessee Stands said this week that Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and members of the state legislature should prioritize students — and not school district budgets — during the upcoming special session on education. Tennessee Stands is a nonprofit based out of Williamson County.
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Tennessee Governor Bill Lee on Tuesday called on the Tennessee General Assembly to convene for a special legislative session to address what he said were “urgent issues facing Tennessee students and schools.” This, according to a press release that Lee’s staff published on the governor’s website.
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Marc Lobliner announced that he would run in 2022 against Governor Bill Lee – if not for the state’s residency requirement. According to the law, an individual must reside in the state for at least seven years prior to the gubernatorial election. Lobliner moved to Tennessee at the end of last summer.
The massive fitness influencer issued the statement in response Governor Bill Lee’s latest executive order. Since Sunday, in-person gatherings have been limited to 10 or less people. The order didn’t indicate what the punishments were if not followed. The order also “strongly urged” employers to implement remote working, and for individuals to maintain social distancing and practice health department guidelines for weddings, funerals, and worship services. The order ends in about a month, on January 19th.
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Tennessee Stands, based out of Williamson County, on Monday, said Tennessee residents “didn’t elect Bill Lee to have him cancel Christmas and stomp the Constitution.” Tennessee Stands spokesman Gary Humble said this in an emailed newsletter, addressing Gov. Bill Lee’s Sunday announcement that the state will ban indoor public gatherings of more than 10 people in response to COVID-19.
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Governor Bill Lee called out Tennessee for its recent Thanksgiving gatherings as selfish, indifferent, and foolish decisions. The governor issued these remarks during a press conference as some of the first COVID-19 vaccines were administered at Vanderbilt University.
“We do stand here and celebrate a tremendous breakthrough in this pandemic,” stated Lee. “But there is a darkness before the dawn that’s happening right here in Tennessee – we have to recognize that. Tennessee’s cases are surging. The holidays have caught up with us. Decisions that some made during Thanksgiving have a severe reality in this hospital and all across Tennessee today.”
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Revance Therapeutics (Revance), a premiere biotechnology company, announced its plans to relocate its headquarters from Newark, California to Nashville. It is the fourth prominent company to depart from Silicon Valley this month.
Governor Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Bob Rolfe shared the news in a joint press release with Revance. According to them, the company will invest over $10 million and create approximately 150 jobs.
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