Three things for November 17
1. Chattanooga mayor calls for statewide mask mandate
Chattanooga mayor Andy Berke stated that a mask mandate for the state of Tennessee should be implemented. This comes after COVID-19 cases have increased exponentially across the state and the nation.
“We have a mask mandate in Hamilton County, but I believe we need one across the entire state,” Burke explained in a statement on Monday, Nov. 16.
Currently, Gov. Bill Lee has authorized individual counties to make their own decision on mask mandates. Hamilton County’s mandate has been active since July 10.
Hamilton County officials will announce whether the mask mandate will be extended past Nov. 22 in the near future.
2. SpaceX capsule arrives at International Space Station
On Sunday, Nov. 15, the SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule successfully launched with four astronauts inside. On Monday, the crew made it to the International Space Station, where they will stay for the next six months.
While SpaceX originally launched a capsule earlier this year, with two pilots scheduled for two months, this will be the first full half-year stay the company has pulled off.
The astronauts — Commander Mike Hopkins, Victor Glover, Shannon Walker and Soichi Noguchi — decided to give their capsule the name of Resilience. Hopkins and his crew join two Russians and one American who flew to the space station last month from Kazakhstan.
Glover is the first African-American to move in for a long haul, according to AP News.
3. Taylor Swift announces first six albums will be re-recorded
After the rights to Taylor Swift’s first six albums were purchased twice in the last seventeen months, Swift announced yesterday she would be re-recording her Big Machine catalog.
Scooter Braun first bought the rights to her catalog in 2019 after Scott Borchetta, CEO of Big Machine, sold the record label. Recently, Braun sold the rights again to a private equity company called Shamrock Holdings.
While the singer originally planned to establish a partnership with the new company, she turned them down when it was revealed that Braun would still profit off of her early music. Instead, she planned to move forward with re-recording the songs.
“I have recently begun re-recording my older music, and it has already proven to be both exciting and creatively fulfilling. I have plenty of surprises in store,” Swift said in a tweet addressing the situation.
