Shelby County to start mandatory testing of unvaccinated staff
Testing will begin Sept. 6 for Health Department staff.
There are 602 article(s) tagged Lee Harris:
Testing will begin Sept. 6 for Health Department staff.
The Shelby County Commission voted Monday, Aug. 9, to override the veto of a new ethics advisory panel the commission would appoint.
The veto override by the commission is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.
Three local bar/restaurants have laid down the law: If you want to drink or eat with them, you have to show proof of vaccination or that you’re COVID-free.
The attorney advising the Shelby County Commission would be separate from the county attorney’s office under a proposal on which the commission is expected to take its first vote Monday.
DeAndre Brown has been tapped to be the acting head of the county’s re-entry program.
The Shelby County mayor says a survey of county employees found that 70% had already been vaccinated.
Order runs through the end of August and may be renewed.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says it is too early to announce whether he will run for a second term. But local Democrats are anxious for an answer. Meanwhile the local Democratic party has a two-way race for a new chairman next month and the coalition for a “Moral Budget” talked about tax rate regrets at the “People’s Summit” in Whitehaven.
Decision on masking mandate rests with the county mayor’s office. Aside from a tweet endorsing the CDC guidelines Wednesday, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris refused comment.
The VA is the first federal agency to mandate vaccines. It applies to employees at the VA Hospital in Memphis. The only other Memphis hospital that mandates vaccinations is St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.
Morgan is in his second term on the City Council, which has a limit of two consecutive terms. Contenders for county offices in the May Democratic and Republican primaries can’t begin pulling petitions to get on the ballot until Dec. 20.
Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. wants the county to get the bonuses to county workers in the next pay period. County Mayor Lee Harris says the county needs to be sure the use of federal American Rescue Plan Act funds is allowed before it cuts checks.
A new monument on Beale Street honors the 19th century school teacher, journalist and anti-lynching figure. The recognition comes 130 years after Wells left the city just ahead of a mob that ransacked her newspaper office.
The positivity rate has tripled since July 1, to 8.9%. The majority of cases are the Delta variant, which is 50% to 60% more contagious than the B.1.1.7 strain that was dominant here from mid-March 2021 to early July.
The collaborative with more than 150 local nonprofits is to tackle long-terms needs and problems in the same rapid and sustained way the countywide COVID task force has handled the local response to the pandemic.
Sarah Houston, executive director of the nonprofit “Protect Our Aquifer,” talked on “Behind the Headlines” about the end of a truce between the City Council, County Commission and the builders of the proposed Byhalia Connection oil pipeline.
The absence of four county commissioners, including three of the “yes” votes for the $3.45 property tax rate set two weeks ago, was crucial to undoing the tax hike. However, the issue is likely not over.
Some of the changes proposed and outlined on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast address issues that came up in the allegations made against county commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. in an independent investigation made public last month in The Daily Memphian.
The Monday, June 7, session of the County Commission could mark the end of the 2021 budget season with a series of final votes on a $1.4 billion consolidated budget and a county property tax rate considered stable if it drops from the current $4.05 to $3.45.
The site will remain open, but with new hours beginning Thursday.
The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast runs down recent political events including sorting out what became of the idea of a “Super Chancery Court” proposed in the Tennessee General Assembly.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says he’s found nothing to validate accusations that doses of vaccine were lost, stolen or misused when the county Health Department controlled distribution.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said on “Behind The Headlines” that the estimated drop in the county property tax rate to $3.50, accounting for increases in values, should be the line to hold on the county tax rate. But county commissioners this week reviewed numbers suggesting some want to raise taxes beyond that point.
The mask mandate will be lifted in the new health directive, beginning Saturday, May 15.