Local News

Tennessee Governor Bill Lee is being accused of playing politics during a public health emergency after he signed an Executive Order allowing parents to opt-out of mask mandates at their local schools. Gov. Lee signed the order after Shelby, Davidson, and Williamson County school boards opted to mandate masks for some school children. The decision in Williamson County one which led to protesters threatening board members and speakers who voiced support for the mandate before it’s passage.

President Biden attacked Tennessee parents who protested mask mandates for the second time in less than a week in an address delivered at the White House on Wednesday afternoon. Biden also threatened Republican governors around the country who have banned school board mask mandates, at the press conference, during which he took no questions. He did not address the unfolding military debacle in Afghanistan caused by his reckless decision to remove all American troops before American citizens in the country were evacuated. At present the Biden administration has abandoned thousands of Americans left behind enemy lines in the country which the Taliban overran earlier this month in a matter of days.

A man was arrested after police said he left his baby and their dog alone in a minivan parked outside of a Goodlettsville Kroger. Goodlettsville police responded Tuesday night to the grocery store on Northcreek Boulevard, where they said they found the vehicle with the windows “partially cracked.” An officer said he observed a dog in the front seat of the minivan and a baby under the age of two in a car seat behind the driver’s seat. An arrest warrant states the temperature was “81 degrees and humid,” and he could feel the inside of the minivan was five to ten degrees warmer.

Data shows that more than 70 percent of regular pediatric and ICU beds are filled with COVID-19 patients across the state of Tennessee. As students return to school, Memphis doctors plead with parents to have their children wear masks to school. The Medical Director for Infection Prevention at Le Bonheur Children’s Hospital said there are 36 children in the hospital between the ages of 10 to 13. He emphasizes that children can still really get sick with COVID-19 despite having strong immune systems.