A viral report of a sudden surge of coronavirus cases in infants in a single county in Texas is inaccurate, a local official said on Saturday.
On Friday, the top health official for the Corpus Christi area said at a press conference that the county currently has 85 cases of newborns with coronavirus.
Read the full story
As Ohio’s coronavirus testing and case numbers are increasing, Gov. Mike DeWine is threatening to impose a statewide mask mandate.
While Ohio’s coronavirus tests and cases are increasing, the rate of deaths is decreasing, even as Gov. Mike DeWine says he has not ruled out a statewide mask mandate.
DeWine spoke about mask mandates on Meet the Press on Sunday.
Read the full story
U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty announced Saturday that he will host U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) in Clarksville on Friday.
“Team Hagerty is looking forward to hosting Senator Tom Cotton in Tennessee next week,” Hagerty said in a press release his staff posted on his campaign’s website.
Read the full story
Friday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio to discuss a recent article in The Wall Street Journal citing illogical reasons to spend more money to open schools in the fall.
Read the full story
Davidson County has a plan for reopening the city from COVID-19. This plan uses a number of data points including the status of transmission rate, 14-day new case trend, public health capacity, testing capacity, and the number of regular hospital beds and ICU beds.
However, a key metric that is missing from the county’s reopening plan is mortality rate.
Read the full story
Ohio business owners who are fed up with Gov. Mike DeWine’s ever-lasting shutdown regulations are joining their lawsuits together into a class action against the state.
Three lawyers are working together to help combine existing lawsuits and are looking for other owners whose livelihoods are being threatened by what they say are unconstitutional orders. The suit against the DeWine administration and other government agencies was filed in the Ohio Court of Common Pleas in Lake County.
Read the full story
A group of Williamson County parents said this week they are displeased with their local school board’s mandate that students wear masks or other face coverings, and they would like to recall certain people from office.
But Gary Humble, who speaks for the group, Recall Williamson, told The Tennessee Star Wednesday that he and other parents will have to wait a while. That’s because current Tennessee law does not permit them to recall school board members — at least not yet.
Read the full story
Dr. Damon Petty, a Nashville-area physician, presented to the Conservative Caucus Saturday his analysis of data related to the excess in deaths and found they are not due to COVID-19.
An economics-degreed Harvard graduate who then went on to medical school, Dr. Petty’s goal was to analyze the data in order to make his presentation reflect the University’s veritas – or truth – shield. The motto of the University, “Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae,” translated from Latin meaning “Truth for Christ and the Church,” was adopted in 1692.
Read the full story
Tuesday morning on The Tennessee Star Report, host Michael Patrick Leahy welcomed the former state Senator and President of FACT, David Fowler to discuss the legal implications of Governor Lee’s mask executive order.
Read the full story
Facing eight federal lawsuits and opposition from hundreds of universities, the Trump administration on Tuesday rescinded a rule that would have required international students to transfer or leave the country if their schools held classes entirely online because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The decision was announced at the start of a hearing in a federal lawsuit in Boston brought by Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. U.S. District Judge Allison Burroughs said federal immigration authorities agreed to pull the July 6 directive and “return to the status quo.”
Read the full story
When Governor Lee’s COVID-19 Executive Order first ordered certain businesses to close, I looked up the law on which he relied and saw it passed while I was still in the state Senate. My heart sank on the assumption I probably voted for it. However, this week’s Executive Order delegating authority to county mayors to require county residents to wear facemasks or face state criminal sanctions sent me to the Tennessee Code to see if I’d really voted for a law that would allow that. I did not, and it is time we tell our state legislators to put an end to law by executive branch fiat.
Read the full story
A federal judge agreed Monday to suspend a rule that requires women during the COVID-19 pandemic to visit a hospital, clinic or medical office to obtain an abortion pill.
U.S. District Judge Theodore Chuang, an Obama appointee based in Maryland, concluded that the “in-person requirements” for patients seeking medication abortion care impose a “substantial obstacle” to abortion patients and are likely unconstitutional under the circumstances of the pandemic.
Read the full story
Another 630,000 Americans came off continuing unemployment claims the week ending June 27, according to the latest unadjusted data from the U.S. Department of Labor, proving President Donald Trump is right about the economy rapidly recovering from the COVID-19 pandemic state-based shutdowns.
Since the week ending May 9, unadjusted continuing unemployment claims have dropped from 22.8 million to 16.8 million the week ending June 27, a massive turnaround of 6 million Americans who temporarily found themselves on unemployment benefits but then rapidly came off of it on a net basis.
Read the full story
Most students around the country haven’t been to school since March, when large parts of the country began to lock down in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Now, the data increasingly suggests that reopening schools entails the least risks and should be a goal of every level of government.
The early hope was that the closures would be temporary, such as Michigan’s school-closure order that was originally meant to end in April—but that was extended for the rest of the school year.
Read the full story
Ohio concluded the 2020 fiscal year with General Revenue Fund tax revenues of $1.1 billion, or 4.6 percent, below estimates, a clear indication of the impact the COVID-19 restrictions have had on the state.
Tax revenues in June were $50.5 million, or 2.2 percent, below estimate. However, state officials noted that revenues were better than a month earlier when they were 13 percent below expectations.
Read the full story
One of former President Barack Obama’s top health care officials said he asked Gov. Tim Walz to reclose all bars in Minnesota during a Sunday phone call.
Andy Slavitt, the former acting administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, said he urged Walz and Department of Health Commissioner Jan Malcolm to close “all of the bars to indoor service across the state of Minnesota” to prevent the spread of COVID-19.
Read the full story
The Minnesota legislature kicked off its second special session Monday, and Gov. Tim Walz signed Executive Order 20-78, extending the COVID-19 peacetime emergency through Aug. 12.
Walz first declared a peacetime emergency on March 13.
Read the full story
A Tennessee state lawmaker says he has tested positive for COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus.
State Rep. Kent Calfee (R-Kingston) said on Facebook on Friday that both he and his wife have tested positive. The 71-year-old Kingston lawmaker said his wife is receiving treatment and he is self-isolating, though he is not experiencing symptoms.
Read the full story
More than a quarter of a million Tennesseans have open unemployment claims with the Department of Labor and Workforce Development.
While some unemployed claimants have waited more than nine weeks to receive a first benefit payment, the department said it is continuing to adapt to meet the unprecedented demand.
Read the full story
A judge has ruled against some Nashville bar owners who sought a temporary restraining order against city officials in an effort to push back against coronavirus restrictions.
Federal Judge Eli Richardson denied the request, the mayor’s office and the plaintiffs’ attorney told news outlets on Sunday.
Read the full story
One board member of nonprofit Healthy Tennessee, founded by Dr. Manny Sethi, has taken positions excusing protestors for spreading the coronavirus, and he and another director have attacked U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn.
Alex Jahangir and Jesse Ehrenfeld were listed as directors of Healthy Tennessee on the nonprofit’s 2018 Form 990EZ, available here.
Read the full story
Gov. Tim Walz said he plans to extend his COVID-19 peacetime emergency declaration for another 30 days when lawmakers return to St. Paul Monday for a special session.
The governor announced Friday night that he has convened a special legislative session for July 13, the same day his peacetime emergency declaration is set to expire. According to Minnesota law, the governor must convene both houses of the Legislature if he wishes to extend a peacetime emergency when the Legislature is not in session.
Read the full story
Williamson County Mayor Rogers Anderson has clarified and/or corrected part of a face covering requirement he imposed on the county this past week.
As The Tennessee Star reported, Williamson County residents will have to wear masks or other coverings in public until at least August 3 to guard against COVID-19.
Read the full story
A survey conducted by the Minnesota Department of Education found that the majority of parents would feel comfortable sending their children back to school this fall.
Between June 15 and July 6, the agency collected more than 130,000 responses to the informal survey, which was offered in English, Hmong, Spanish, and Somali. A total of 64 percent of respondents said they would feel comfortable sending their children back to school in September. Of that 64 percent, 94 percent said they would send their children back to school full time.
Read the full story
Sen. Lamar Alexander (R-TN) said he disagrees with President Donald Trump’s decision to terminate the United States’ membership in the World Health Organization (WHO).
The Trump administration formally notified the United Nations this week of its decision to leave WHO, The New York Times reported.
Read the full story
Because of COVID-19, Nashville business owners will likely have their worst year ever, but Mayor John Cooper said at Thursday’s press conference that they and others in the city must still pay dramatically higher property taxes.
As The Tennessee Star reported last month, Nashville Metro Council members voted to impose a 34 percent property tax hike upon city residents.
Read the full story
There’s no way to know for certain if people in Nashville who caught COVID-19 are telling the truth when they said they didn’t march in any recent political rallies honoring George Floyd or Black Lives Matter.
A spokesman for the Nashville Metro Health Department said as much this week.
Read the full story
The Buckeye Institute said that it and three employees filed a lawsuit over the taxing of workers’ income in Columbus since they do not live in the city and were not allowed to work there during Ohio’s Stay-at-Home order.
The lawsuit, which is available here, was filed in the Court of Common Pleas in Franklin County.
Read the full story
Republican Senate candidate Jason Lewis said parents should be refunded for property tax payments and tuition if schools aren’t allowed to reopen in the fall.
“The more we learn about COVID, the more it becomes apparent that we have done a huge disservice to our children in the way we have handled this virus. Research has proven that COVID presents minimal risks to young people. But what isn’t minimal is the toll this prolonged lockdown and social isolation has on our kids’ social, mental, and physical well-being,” Lewis said in a statement released Wednesday.
Read the full story
Live from Music Row Wednesday 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 welcomed the original all-star panelist Crom Carmichael to the studio.
During the third hour, Carmichael talked about the unrealistic science being used to mandate masks nationwide. He added that data supports that children under the age of 12 are unable to contract or contaminate older people and advocated the importance of getting them back into school.
Read the full story
A Republican lawmaker has drafted a bill that would require Minnesota to sell a facility it purchased for the storage of deceased COVID-19 patients.
Due to a projected surge in COVID-19 fatalities, the state of Minnesota spent $6.9 million in May to acquire a warehouse for the “temporary storage of human remains.” As of early June, however, the facility had yet to be used.
Read the full story
Gov. Tim Walz is expected to call another special session by the end of the week in order to extend his peacetime emergency powers.
House Speaker Melissa Hortman (DFL-Brooklyn Park) alerted members and staff in a Monday email about the likely special session.
Read the full story
Live from Music Row Monday 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 welcomed early edition co-host, Doug Kellett to the studio.
During the first hour, Leahy and Kellett discussed the lack of data to support the face mask mandate across the nation. Leahy noted that the public health officials at healthaffairs.org had used analyses providing supporting evidence that face masks only reduced the spread of coronavirus by only two percent.
Read the full story
Gov. Bill Lee plans to call a special legislative session to take up COVID-19 liability protection that Tennessee lawmakers debated but did not pass last month.
While an executive order Lee signed Wednesday limits liability for licensed health care workers responding to the coronavirus, it leaves businesses, local governments and school districts across the state open to COVID-19-related lawsuits.
Read the full story
U.S. Senate candidate Bill Hagerty reportedly said last weekend that governments in Tennessee should not require residents to wear a mask to guard themselves against COVID-19, according to the Chattanooga-based WRCB.
Hagerty reportedly said this as he appeared alongside U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-TN-03) in Signal Mountain.
Read the full story
The COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on many sectors of the economy and livestock farming is one of them.
Closures of public spaces such as schools, restaurants, bars, and hotels mean decreased demand for meat products. In addition, outbreaks of coronavirus-caused illness at meatpacking plants caused some large operations to shut down temporarily, swamping small mom-and-pop operations that are now booked into spring 2021.
Read the full story
State Sen. Scott Jensen (R-Chaska), a practicing physician, revealed Sunday that anonymous complaints were filed against him with the Minnesota Board of Medical Practice for his public comments on the coronavirus pandemic.
“This is one of the most important videos I’ve made and one of the hardest,” Jensen said in a video posted to Facebook. “Less than a week ago, I was notified by the Board of Medical Practice in Minnesota that I was being investigated because of public statements I had made.”
Read the full story
Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine said he supports Dayton’s decision to require residents to wear face masks in public places.
The Dayton City Commission approved an ordinance Wednesday requiring “face coverings in public spaces.”
Read the full story
A company partly owned by Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine is among those that received loans from a $600 billion-plus coronavirus aid program.
The data released Monday shows DeWine Seeds-Silver Dollar Baseball received a loan under the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program for a range of $150,000 to $350,000.
Read the full story
Williamson County residents must wear face coverings or masks in public to fight COVID-19 starting Tuesday.
County residents will have to wear masks or other coverings in public until at least August 3.
Read the full story
As of Sunday night Tennessee has had a total of 51,431 confirmed COVID-19 cases and 646 deaths. Officials at The Covid Tracking Project reported the latest numbers on their website Sunday night. The website also reported that the virus has hospitalized 2,871 Tennesseans. Exactly 949 of those Tennesseans remain hospitalized.. But the Covid Tracking Project also reported that 30,254 Tennesseans have recovered from the virus. As of press time, 844,735 Tennesseans had tested negative for the disease. The Tennessee Department of Health, meanwhile, reported on its website Sunday night that Shelby and Davidson counties continue to lead the state in confirmed and probable COVID-19 case counts. The TDH website listed the following numbers for Tennessee’s counties Sunday: • Shelby County: 11,793 cases • Davidson County: 11,089 cases • Rutherford County: 2,987 • Hamilton County: 2,781 cases • Sumner County: 1,610 cases • Trousdale County: 1,498 cases • Williamson County: 1,313 cases • Knox County: 1,171 cases • Wilson County: 941 cases • Putnam County: 883 cases • Robertson County: 834 cases • Sevier County: 804 cases • Bradley County: 707 • Lake County: 692 cases • Tipton County: 645 cases • Bledsoe County: 620 cases • Bedford County: 570…
Read the full story
Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel defiantly responded to a letter from U.S. Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., regarding the number of nursing home deaths in the state attributed to COVID-19.
Scalise is ranking member of the U.S. House of Representatives Select Committee on the Coronavirus. His June 25 letter – also signed by Reps. Jim Jordan, R- Ohio; Blaine Luetkeymer, R-Mo.; and Jackie Walorski, R-Ind. – followed a similar letter to Gov. Gretchen Whitmer to which she did not respond.
Read the full story
Just a few weeks ago, Tennessee looked like a sure bet to become the latest state to protect businesses and other organizations from lawsuits by people impacted by the coronavirus in the push to reopen the economy. Republican Gov. Bill Lee had talked up the change and touted his advocacy on tort reform as a businessman, and he had GOP lawmakers in supermajorities lined up to seal the deal.
That was before negotiations among lawmakers broke down so badly in the hectic waning hours of legislative work that the generally mild-mannered Senate Speaker Randy McNally accused two House leaders of working with “a cabal of Democrats and attorneys to defeat the legislation and place our entire economy in danger.”
Read the full story
Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Friday granting the mayors of 89 counties the authority to issue local face mask mandates.
Six Tennessee counties – Sullivan, Knox, Hamilton, Davidson, Madison, and Shelby – have local health departments, and therefore already have the authority to issue mask requirements as needed, Lee’s office explained.
Read the full story
An anti-malarial drug that President Donald Trump hyped as a potential therapy for the coronavirus helped some patients survive the disease while in the hospital, according to research published Wednesday.
Some of those who received hydroxychloroquine before acute symptoms began were much less likely to die from the virus, according to researchers at Henry Ford Health System in Michigan. Their findings come after other studies determined that the experimental drug provided little or no benefit to people struggling with the coronavirus, or COVID-19.
Read the full story
State Rep. Robin Smith (R-Hixson) told staff at The Tennessee Holler Thursday that she did not have COVID-19, but she said staff members went online a short time later and published she had the virus anyway.
The Holler based this information off of unnamed yet “reliable sources.”
Read the full story
Live from Music Row Thursday 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 welcomed Tennessee Senate Majority Leader Jack Johnson to the studio.
At the end of the third hour, Leahy and Johnson answered calls from concerned parents about Governor Lee’s state of emergency extension that will last until August 29 and touched upon the potentiality of spreading COVID-19 through elementary and high school students.
Read the full story
The Tennessee Supreme Court announced on Thursday it was canceling the July 28-29 administration of the Uniform Bar Examination.
Read the full story
Nashville Mayor John Cooper shows double standards and enforces bad COVID-19 policies upon the city, staff at the Beacon Center of Tennessee said Thursday.
Beacon is a right-of-center think tank. Staff criticized Cooper in an emailed press release.
Read the full story
U.S. Senate candidate Manny Sethi criticized Nashville Mayor John Cooper Thursday after the mayor announced the city would revert to Phase Two of its planned reopening after COVID-19.
“This is lunacy,” Sethi said in an emailed press release.
Read the full story