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.