Nashville–The White House quietly told Tennessee early this week that “a statewide mask mandate must be implemented” to curb its growing spread of COVID-19, strong instructions that the White House and governor did not discuss publicly before the report emerged in a records request. The Oct. 11 state report for Tennessee, where Republican Gov. Bill Lee has let counties decide whether to require masks in public, first came to light in a records request by WUOT-FM. The Associated Press obtained the report from the Knox County Health Department afterward. “A statewide mask mandate must be implemented to stop the increasing…
Author: Article submitted
New York, NY —Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights today announced its 2020 Ripple of Hope Award laureates: Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases; Dolores Huerta, founder and president of the Dolores Huerta Foundation and co-founder of United Farm Workers of America; Colin Kaepernick, human rights activist, co-founder of Know Your Rights Camp, and Super Bowl quarterback; Dan Schulman, president and chief executive officer of PayPal; and Dan Springer, chief executive officer of DocuSign. The annual Robert F. Kennedy Ripple of Hope Award celebrates outstanding leaders who have demonstrated a commitment to social change,…
Leaders from the Kidney Transplant Program at Ascension Saint Thomas West met with Fahad Tahir, President and CEO of Ascension Saint Thomas West and Midtown, to celebrate the program’s record-breaking 100th kidney transplant year-to-date. Click this link to view video from the celebration. “We have been blessed and successful in our endeavors because we continue to be a very patient-centric program concentrated on the needs of every individual patient no matter what their insurance or social status,” said Dr. Derek Moore at the event. Moore is the Kidney Transplant Program Director. He added, “We continue to revise our evaluation and surgical techniques…
Bestselling author Don Winslow has released a viral video that calls out President Donald Trump over his years long racist rhetoric and contempt for Black women. In the 88-second spot shared Friday on YouTube, the narrator begins by noting Trump’s “long history of racism” before pointing out that the president “especially hates Black women.” The ad includes clips of Trump verbally attacking and insulting Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) as well as journalists Abby Phillip, Yamiche Alcindor and April Ryan, showing that the accusation is “not hyperbole,” the voiceover says. Watch the full video below.
Nashville—Dr. James Hildreth, president of Meharry Medical School, continues to be a leading voice in the Covid-19 crisis — this time in a national setting. Hildreth has been appointed to a Food and Drug Administration committee that will evaluate coronavirus vaccine candidates. The FDA’s Vaccines and Related Biological Products Advisory Committee is a “group of academic scientists, doctors and federal health officials will scrutinize safety and efficacy data on every coronavirus vaccine candidate, and make a pivotal recommendation to the FDA on whether to greenlight or shelve each shot,” Politico said in an article. “There are not many African-American scientists who have gone…
By Stephen Fowler, Georgia Public Broadcasting This article is co-published by ProPublica, Georgia Public Broadcasting and National Public Radio. Kathy spotted the long line of voters as she pulled into the Christian City Welcome Center about 3:30 p.m., ready to cast her ballot in the June 9 primary election. Hundreds of people were waiting in the heat and rain outside the lush, tree-lined complex in Union City, an Atlanta suburb with 22,400 residents, nearly 88% of them Black. She briefly considered not casting a ballot at all, but decided to stay. By the time she got inside more than five…
More than 270,000 residents voted early in Tennessee by Wednesday, according to the Secretary of State. Between voting in person and submitting mail ballots, the office confirmed a 91% increase of early voting compared to 2016 and a 120% increase from 2012. “I’m excited that Tennesseans are engaged and are making their voices heard at the polls,” Secretary of State Tre Hargett said in a news release. “We are on pace to break our previous early voting turnout record, which was set in 2016.” Early voting lasts until Oct. 29. Election Day is Nov. 3. Voters are asked to wear a face…
NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn today called for removing negative consequences for schools and educators associated with student assessments for the 2020-2021 school year. Student assessments will be conducted as planned. “Given the unprecedented disruption that the COVID-19 pandemic and extended time away from the classroom has had on Tennessee’s students, my Administration will work with the General Assembly to bring forward a solution for this school year that alleviates any burdens associated with educator evaluations and school accountability metrics,” said Gov. Lee. “Accountability remains incredibly important for the education of Tennessee’s students,…