GEXA QUARTERLY REPORT Monthly Email Newsletter curated by our top Editors NATIONAL

Presidential Scandal: The federal government is heading towards an impeachment investigation for the first time in 21 years. In late September, President Donald Trump released the transcript of a phone call he had conducted recently with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. In this conversation, Trump appears to have attempted to negotiate a deal with Zelenskiy that involved the Ukrainian government investigating Joe Biden and his family. This investigation would have the intention of discovering material pertaining to Biden that would benefit Trump in the 2020 presidential election. Along with this aspect of the phone call, Trump also mentions that the United States is withholding military funds meant for Ukraine. At first, he claimed that he withheld the military aid because of corruption in Ukraine, but then quickly changed his reason to his belief that other European countries need to pay more money to Ukraine instead.Democrats have filed articles of impeachment against Trump because of this conversation concerning a pressure campaign against Biden. Some Democrats in support of impeachment think that Trump’s actions towards Ukraine were not proper but they were still legal. Others believe that his actions were illegal on all levels of the spectrum. After CBS News conducted a new poll, 55% of Americans now believe that Trump should be impeached because of his actions. At the latest, the American public will know of Trump’s impeachment (or lack thereof) by the end of the 2019 calendar year.

No More Treaty: In other news besides impeachment, President Trump during his 2nd year in office had treaty talks with both the leader of North Korea, and the independent leaders of the Taliban. Talks are still underway with both, but treaties were failed to be reached in both aspects. With the Taliban killing US troops in Afghanistan, Trump declared there will be no treaty as long as the killing continues. Talks with North Korea about the threat of Nuclear war will continue this weekend October 5th and 6th.

News from Other States: Big laws were enforced in other states; California will begin paying sports athletes and Florida passed a bill that will allow school teachers to carry firearms to class. California; this bill will be widespread in challenging the NCAA in letting players in all sports make money off of their likeness (Names, jersey, sponsorships) and will be looked at in all states and could lead to the NCAA making changes themselves. Florida; Since the mass shootings in Odessa, Texas and the shooting of Columbine (though in history there have been many before the nationally televised shooting in Colorado) many lawmakers have been focused on protecting or taking away firearms. Florida is now the eighth state to actually take matters to the state level, passing a bill Tuesday, October 1st allowing schools to opt in or out of teachers carrying firearms on all academic settings and locations (other states include Utah, Idaho, Kentucky, Texas, Etc.)

Volume 2 Issue 1 SGA GEXA QUARTERLY REPORT Monthly Email Newsletter curated by our top Editors STATE

UT Promise Scholarship: Starting in the fall 2020, the UT Promise scholarship will cover tuition and mandatory fees for students that attend UT Knoxville, Chattanooga, Martin, or Memphis; have a family household income under $50,000; qualify for the HOPE scholarship; and complete 8 volunteer service hours. Following the UT Knoxville’s Sex Week, UT Board of Trustees made the final ruling to dissolve the presents of the Campus Activities Board (CAB) and the Student Programming Allocation Committee (SPAC) at all UT System schools. The money that was once collected through student fees, will still be there, but the final decision of where is gets directed now falls under the jurisdiction of the Office of Student and Family Engagement.

Voter Registration Law: A federal judge has blocked Secretary of State Tre Hargett’s recent voter registration law. The law would have required voter registration groups to undergo training in order to operate and would also impose fines on organizations which pay workers to sign up voters for turning in faulty or incomplete voter registration forms. The law would not have prevented or hindered any individual’s ability to assist another citizen in registering outside of paid registration drives. Hargett says that the law was intended to “encourage completeness” in voter registration forms as some counties have complained about the frequency of incomplete or faulty forms.

Medicaid Grant Block Waiver: Governor Bill Lee has proposed a Medicaid grant block waiver. The Governor would like to still accept funding from the federal government, but would prefer that Tennessee’s TennCare program supply most of the government funded healthcare for the state. The funding accepted from the government would be mostly turned into one yearly lump sum, effectively capping the amount that Tennessee can receive. Governor Lee says that costs will be cut, and the federal government and Tennessee would split these savings 50/50. While the state has said that enrollment and coverage will not go down, it has not commented on where the savings would be coming from. Tennessee is the first state to formally attempt to block Medicare funding.

Volume 2 Issue 1 SGA GEXA QUARTERLY REPORT Monthly Email Newsletter curated by our top Editors LOCAL

Andy Berke Picks a Candidate: Chattanooga Mayor finally weighs in on the Presidential Democratic Primary, throwing his support behind Pete Buttigieg on and accounts.As ABC reports Wednesday, September 18th, Chattanooga Mayor Andy Berke has officially endorsed South Bend, Indiana Mayor Pete Buttigieg for President. “For the decade I have known Pete,” the post says, “he has worked hard to make mid-sized cities like Chattanooga and South Bend stronger and more prosperous. No one better understands the obstacles people face and how the federal government can help improve their lives.” Buttigieg is currently struggling in national primary polls, but he is campaigning vehemently. Last week he unveiled a disaster relief plan to address weather events made worse by climate change.

TAW Restores Chattanooga’s Water, But Where Was The Hamilton County Health Department?: Over the weekend, many Chattanoogans were left confused. While we have water now,there were some casualties and fewer answers. In a morning news conference on Friday the 13th, Tennessee American Water spokesperson Kurt Stafford announced that there had been a large water main break Thursday night during a planned maintenance project. He asked all residents to conserve water and all restaurants that did not have an adequate water supply for sanitation to close for the public’s safety. An estimated thirty-five thousand connections were affected. Water distribution and fire crews from surrounding counties were set up throughout the affected parts of the city. That same night, TAW reported that “repair work to the water main is now complete.” (WRCB) Officials say on Sunday morning 80% of customers had their water restored. Hamilton County emergency personnel were quoted saying that the boil advisory for parts of the downtown area and the high-elevation neighborhoods would be lifted “throughout the day.” The Tennessee Aquarium reported several animals, including anemones, were dead following the main break which caused pressure and temperature fluctuations in some of the tanks. (Belleville News) Now that the main has been repaired and water restored, many in the city want to know why exactly the break occurred and why the response was so casual. For example, the Hamilton County Health Department made no move to close restaurants and businesses which could not have been boiling water before serving customers. (Times Free Press)

Climate Strike: On Friday, September 20th, concerned members of the Chattanooga community came together at the Chattanooga Aquarium to participate in a “Climate Strike.” Lauren Newman organized the event in coordination with the Global Climate Strike effort to address climate change worldwide.A United States-based organization, We Are Unstoppable, is hosting a national call on October 3rd to build on the momentum of the climate strikes around the country.

Business Improvement District Policy: In early September 2019, the Chattanooga City Council passed an amendment to their Business Improvement District (BID) policy which was passed in July. When it was originally passed, the policy was disputed by some who claimed it was strong arming downtown business owners. The original resolution required those in certain areas of downtown Chattanooga to pay a small fee for street cleaning and security ambassadors which the city would oversee instead of the owners themselves. Plenty of Chattanooga’s downtown business owners supported the policy, however. Henry Schulson, the Executive Director for the Creative Discovery Museum sees the BID policy as “a bridge to bring people downtown to help every business to be more successful and to make Chattanooga downtown a dynamic and engaging civic space” (NewsChannel 9). The original legislation read that all property owners within a certain area of downtown would be required to pay these fees (as small as 9 cents) for additional city services.Six Chattanooga business owners filed a lawsuit in August in an effort to prevent BID’s creation.Now the council has passed an amendment 5-4 stating that the city cannot pursue any property owner who refuses to pay the fees laid out in the previous Business Improvement District policy.According to Chairman Oglesby, the amendment means that the city can collect an assessment fee, but if someone is errant in paying the fee, the city has no means to go after them.

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