Here is your Cleveland, Tenn. | Bradley County, Tenn. news on mymix1041.com, sponsored by Toyota of Cleveland: In news today… Cleveland State Presid
Here is your Cleveland, Tenn. | Bradley County, Tenn. news on mymix1041.com, sponsored by Toyota of Cleveland:
In news today…
Cleveland State President, Dr. Bill Seymour, has announced his plans to retire during the summer of 2022. Seymour began his CEO duties at the college in January of 2014. He told CSCC employees during a Town Hall meeting that he believes this will be a good time to step-down both for himself and the college. He expressed his gratitude to God for calling him to serve others through this position.
Seymour is completing his 43rd year in higher education administration which has included large state universities, small private colleges and community colleges. Thirty of those years have been in Vice President and President roles.
Seymour said his announcement at this time was to allow the Tennessee Board of Regents time to approve a plan for selecting the next President and conduct a search process during the Spring 2022 semester.
Seymour anticipates that his last day in office will be June 30, 2022.
State Rep. Glen Casada, who resigned as House speaker in 2019 amid scandals after serving only months in the position, announced on Wednesday that he would not seek reelection to the state legislature.
Casada, a Republican from Franklin, has been a state lawmaker since 2003 and also has served as caucus chairman and majority leader in the House.
He resigned from the top leadership post in August 2019 after revelations he exchanged sexually explicit text messages about women with his former chief of staff years ago. Despite that, he was easily reelected to the House in 2020.
Other controversies included an aide’s cocaine use at a legislative office years ago and allegations of doctoring emails to frame a young black activist — which Casada and the aide both denied.
Casada was also one of several Republican state House lawmakers whose homes and legislative offices were searched by federal agents earlier this year. Federal authorities have release scant details about what they were looking for.
Tennessee Governor Bill Lee will sign the omnibus bill from the General Assembly’s COVID-19 special session.
The governor announced his plans to sign the sweeping legislation over loosening COVID-19 prevention measures at a brief media availability Wednesday.
Lee said he’s meeting with other lawmakers to look at the bill line by line and consider its potential consequences. He specifically wants to take a closer look at impacts involving hospitalizations and TOSHA.
State lawmakers passed the bill near the end of the COVID-19 special session in the middle of the night.
Here are key provisions of the bill gathered by The Associated Press:
- A state or local government entity, including schools and school districts, and private businesses would be barred from making anyone show proof of COVID-19 vaccination, setting up a conflict with President Joe Biden’s upcoming rule on requiring vaccinations for many workplaces
- Entertainment venues could continue letting people show either proof of vaccination or a negative COVID-19 test for entry
- People receiving services in their home could require proof of vaccination for the provider
- Government entities, including public schools, could only require masks when a county has registered at least 1,000 new COVID-19 cases per 100,000 people over the previous two weeks; the metric must be met every two weeks to continue renewing a mask mandate; religious and medical exemptions must be offered
- Schools that institute a mask mandate must provide N95-equivalent masks for students and staff, and schools would be banned from using state money for any mask requirement
- Exemptions from mask and vaccine limitations would include entities such as airports, paramedics, hospitals and other health care providers, and industries that require masks regardless of COVID-19
- Exemptions to the limitations on mask requirements alone would include private businesses and correctional facilities
- People who are fired because they refused to get the COVID-19 vaccine would be assured they are eligible for unemployment benefits, including retroactively
- The state health commissioner would take over authority to create COVID-19 quarantine guidelines, such as when schools and private businesses might need to close temporarily or restrict operations, removing authority from local governments
- Certain minors could no longer get vaccinated for COVID-19 without parental consent, an infrequently used option that created outrage among state lawmakers and was in play during the firing of the state’s vaccine leader; an exception would exist when a provider thinks the minor is being abused by a parent or guardian or may be a dependent and neglected child
- The state would need to create rules before any health board punishes a provider for how they prescribe medications for COVID-19, including some that have been promoted by conservative figures as a treatment despite a lack of conclusive evidence that it helps people with the virus
- State or local government money could not be used on federal policies that include COVID-19 prevention requirements; state personnel or property also could not be used on those federal policies
- Entities could apply with the state comptroller for exemptions to the vaccination, mask and funding requirements if they would cause the government entity, including schools, or private business to lose federal funding
- Individuals could sue businesses or government entities to stop a mask mandate or vaccine requirement, or sue a provider breaking new COVID-19 vaccination permission for minors rules; plaintiffs could also seek compensatory damages and attorneys’ fees
- Hospitals would be required during the COVID-19 pandemic to allow at least one family member to stay with a patient who doesn’t have and is not showing symptoms of COVID-19 or another virus or communicable disease
