The Tennessee General Assembly approved a $160 million package of bills last night and this morning aimed at tackling student learning loss during the pandemic, the state's stagnant literacy rates and how schools will handle standardized testing after a year of academic disruptions. The education initiatives, introduced by Gov. Bill Lee, were finalized in a four-day special session, the Tennessean reports. Critics argued that the action was being taken too hastily. Republican leaders countered that the issues being addressed were urgent and deserved quick consideration.

Tennessee state Sen. Ed Jackson, R-Jackson, confirmed he has tested positive for COVID-19 since the start of the special session and other lawmakers and staffers may have been exposed. The Tennessee Journal reports that he is quarantining at home with mild symptoms. One additional senator is believed to be in quarantine, while another is remaining on duty because he already had COVID-19. Legislative officials declined to confirm or deny any infections due to privacy concerns. The news outlet later reported that the other senator in quarantine is Sen. Becky Duncan Massey.

U.S. Rep. David Kustoff announced on Tuesday that he had come into close contact with someone who tested positive for COVID-19. Kustoff tested negative in a test administered on Monday and is now quarantining consistent with the recommendations of the attending physician of the U.S. Congress.

Rep. Mike Carter, R-Ooltewah, is back in Nashville after battles with COVID-19 and pancreatic cancer, Chattanoogan.com reports. Carter, an attorney and former judge who was diagnosed with the cancer last fall, recently spent several days in the hospital after getting the coronavirus. He will serve as chair of the House Civil Justice Committee for the new session. Speaking about his return to Nashville, Carter said, “I feel blessed to be back in Nashville representing the people of District 29,” and “honored that Speaker Sexton has entrusted me to serve in this important role."

President Joe Biden is poised to take action on 53 executive items over the next 10 days as he seeks to implement his own policies, The Hill reports. Today, in his first day in office, he is expected to sign an extension of a nationwide moratorium on evictions through the end of March, National Public Radio reports. Other orders to be signed in the coming days include requiring face masks be worn on federal lands, repeal of a travel ban on certain Muslim countries, halting construction on a border wall, new public health measures to address the COVID-19 pandemic, restoring collective bargaining rights to federal employees, establishing a policing commission and reunifying immigrant families previously separated at the border.

The Nashville YWCA will host Stand Against Racism: Education in a Time of Crisis on Jan. 26 from noon until 1 p.m. CST. The event will feature a panel of experts from Nashville’s K-12 schools who will examine the dual impact of racism and COVID-19 on youth and how we can build towards an anti-racist future in schools and beyond. The virtual webinar is free to the public.  

In employment-at-will states like Tennessee, employers are able to make the COVID-19 vaccine mandatory, but a recent article from the Daily Memphian examines several factors involved in making that decision. Burch Porter Johnson attorney Lisa A. Krupicka tells the paper that objections to getting the vaccine without merit could force employers to fire a significant number of employees. “Employers need to think hard about whether requiring the vaccine, versus strongly encouraging the vaccine, is the best way to proceed,” she said. Krupicka says employers might also consider the legalities of an in-house vaccination program and the legal protections employees have under ADA and Civil Rights acts to object on medical or religious grounds to forced vaccination. Attorney and Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s designee to the statewide business reopening task force, Alan Crone, says he can see mandating the shots if a business wants to advertise that all its employees are safe, but adds that there are ramifications to consider on the other side of this “360-degree” problem.

Gov. Bill Lee has released the package of bills to be taken up by lawmakers in a special session scheduled to begin on Tuesday. In a release yesterday, Lee identified three bills to be considered in the special session, which is dedicated to “addressing K-12 student learning loss and the adverse effects on Tennessee students’ proficiency in reading and math after extended time away from the classroom due to COVID-19.” The bills are SB 7002 “Intervening to Stop Learning Loss,” SB 7003 “Building Better Readers with Phonics” and SB 7001 “Accountability to Inform.”

The federal government last night executed Corey Johnson, who was convicted of drug trafficking and seven murders in 1992, National Public Radio reports. His attorneys argued that Johnson had an intellectual disability and that moving forward with the execution would be "cruel and usual punishment" because of his recent COVID-19 infection. Johnson is the 12th person to be executed by the federal government since the Trump administration restarted federal executions after a 17-year hiatus. Dustin Higgins is the last person scheduled to be executed before President-elect Joe Biden is sworn in. He is scheduled to die today. Biden has indicated he may seek to abolish federal executions.

The Tennessee Supreme Court today issued an order extending the judicial state of emergency and suspension of jury trials and in-person court proceedings through March 31. The court said the move was being taken “in light of the continued record number of COVID-19 cases and related hospitalizations and deaths in Tennessee and the governor’s issuance of Executive Order 73." Exceptions to the suspension of jury trials may be granted by the chief justice on a case-by-case basis. Suspension of in-person proceedings is subject to exceptions enumerated in the paragraph 3 of the court’s Dec. 22, 2020, order. Today’s order applies to all state and local courts, including municipal, juvenile, general sessions, trial and appellate courts, as well as court clerk offices. It does not apply to administrative courts within the executive branch or federal courts in the state.