Nashville Tennessean
Gov. Bill Lee said in July news footage an early mask requirement may have prevented Tennessee from shutting “everything down” earlier this year, remarks that offer new insight into the governor’s thinking on the contentious topic of mandating masks.
Lee’s statements in the footage do not distinguish between a statewide mask requirement, which he opposes, or county-level mandates, which he supports. But he suggested some sort of mask mandate may have stopped the shutdown of non-essential businesses earlier this year.
“I said to someone the other day, gosh, if we had the hindsight of 2020 and we d done a mask requirement at the beginning of March, we probably wouldn’t have had to close everything down,” Lee said in the video.
From Bill Freeman Tweet
Photo via TN.gov
The past two months have been unusually turbulent for Gov. Bill Lee and his original cabinet members.Â
In October, two of the governorâs commissioners â Hodgen Mainda, commissioner of the Department of Commerce and Insurance, and Danielle Barnes, commissioner of the Department of Human Services â resigned. Mainda resigned amid sexual misconduct allegations, and Barnes left upon finding a new job in the private sector. Commissioner Courtney Rogers of the Department of Veterans Services resigned the week of Thanksgiving along with Tilman Goins, a deputy commissioner in the department. Both were accused of separate forms of misconduct, with most of the allegations proven true upon investigation. Rogers and Goins served as state legislators from 2012 to 2018.Â
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The first Covid-19 vaccine shipments in the U.S. were set to leave a manufacturing plant in Michigan on Sunday for delivery on Monday. | Morry Gash/AP Photo via pool
DRIVING THE DAY
SIREN … IT’S HAPPENING! “Trucks with first COVID-19 vaccine in US get ready to roll,”by AP’s Matthew Perrone, Mike Stobbe and Mark Scolforo: “The first trucks carrying a COVID-19 vaccine for widespread use in the United States were set to pull out of a Michigan manufacturing plant Sunday, with the shots that are critical to stopping the nation’s coronavirus outbreak destined to reach states a day later.
taking illinois history by storm. it is illinois in the war of 1812 . it s a book of the of the illinois state historical society. it s about a theater of the war of 1812 that has long been neglected by historians, and i m proud to ask gillum ferguson to lead off with his own opening thoughts. well, my interest in the war really turned around its importance in the development of illinois in 1812. of a territory which include not only the state of illinois but wisconsin, and about 12,000 people in it. they were scattered, you know, narrow fringe along the southern end of what is now the state of. six years later in 1880 and was able to knock wisconsin on the door again to be asked to be admitted in the union. after that they never look back to the population of illinois tripled every 10 years for the next several decades. but in intervene was the work 1812 surprising no one had given a detailed look at what happened in illinois during that were. well,. well, a few fundame
if there s time at the end for a q&a with the author, if you could please use the microphone located in the center of the room with the home viewing audience can your questions, though it be great. it would like to watch coverage of chaise programfrom adobe reader tonight at midnight central time on c-span 2 s booktv. if you re interested, books can be purchased in the arboretum and don t have the opportunity to have your book signed by the author if you would like. at this time, turn off all electronic devices on cell phones. thank you very much. it gives me great pleasure to introduce the moderator for this conversation, president of the chicago history museum. thank you are a match. [applause] thank you very much. it s a pleasure not to introduce today s author, gillum ferguson is a lawyer by trade, but the kind of lawyer who became a historian. he s an infinite scholar. desperate in his first book, it has been taken by storm. it is illinois in the war of 1812 , a book