Where's Lee? (Sept. 23 - Sept. 29)
Talking Jesus and then heading east
You might have noticed there was not a “Where’s Lee?” column last week. It wasn’t because I forgot. It’s because some press releases from a former email had been automatically forwarding to me, and now they’re not. I’ve emailed the governor’s communications team to add me again to the list at this email address, but they won’t respond to repeated emails. They also won’t respond to other emails asking legitimate questions about policy. Shocking, I know, given how they don’t seem to care about breaking the law.
If you are a person who would like to continue to see Gov. Bill Lee’s weekly public press schedule in your inbox — which is a public record, by law — please email press secretary Laine Arnold (laine.arnold@tn.gov) and communications director Chris Walker (chris.walker@tn.gov) and request that I am added once again to the press list — something no other department in the state has had an issue doing. There are around one thousand of you lovely subscribers now (!!!), and maybe your influence will help remind the communications staff that the governor’s office is not a private business and doesn’t get to pick and choose which reporters it responds to.
GOVERNOR LEE’S MEDIA SCHEDULE FOR SEPTEMBER 23, 2019 – SEPTEMBER 29, 2019
Monday, September 23
No public events
Tuesday, September 24
No public events
Wednesday, September 25
No public events
Thursday, September 26
Tennessee Association of Christian Schools Educators’ Convention
Franklin Road Baptist Church & Christian School
3124 Franklin Rd.
Murfreesboro, TN 37128
8:30 a.m. CDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
Smyrna Check Presentations (Nourish Food Bank of Smyrna and Lee Victory Recreation Park)
TN College of Applied Technology
663 Ken Pilkerton Dr
Smyrna, TN 37167
9:15 a.m. CDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
Judge Wesley Bray Investiture Ceremony
City Courthouse
300 E. Spring Street
Cookeville, TN 385014:00 p.m. CDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
TN Tech College of Business Distinguished Lecture
Leslie Town Center
1 West First Street
Cookeville, TN
6:00 p.m. CDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
Friday, September 27
McMinn Higher Education Center Groundbreaking
2345 Denso Drive
Athens, TN 37303
11:30 a.m. EDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
CTE Ceremony
Jefferson County High School
115 W. Dumplin Valley Rd.
Dandridge, TN 37725
1:30 p.m. EDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
Hamblen County Event with Rep. Eldridge and Sen. Southerland
Walters State Community College
Dr. Jack E. Campbell College Center, Foundation Room
500 S Davy Crockett Pkwy
Morristown, TN 37813
4:30 p.m. EDT
MEDIA – Open, Availability
Saturday, September 28
No public events
Sunday, September 22 (sic)
No public events
If you want to send me tips, I’m on Signal, Confide, Twitter and Facebook. You can also reply to this email. And if you’re a newsletter subscriber, you can see the P.O. Box to which you can mail me any documents you want to leak! (Or contact me and I can give it to you.)
I’m also on Venmo @cgervin if you want to help fund my reporting until subscriptions start in the next few weeks. Thanks to many readers’ generosity, I have been able to pay my car insurance and my cell phone bill, two things no reporter in the South can be without. And please, if you were forwarded this, sign up for the newsletter. No one else in this state is covering Tennessee politics from such an uncompromising stance. I’m not here to run puff pieces for “access.” I’m here to report on stories no one else is.