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Nashville, Tenn. – Tennessee Governor Bill Lee and Commissioner of Education Penny Schwinn announced today the State of Tennessee’s continued efforts to assist families, teachers, and districts as the 2020-2021 school year begin.

NASHVILLE - The Tennessee Prison for Women (TPFW) will now be known as the Debra K. Johnson Rehabilitation Center. Governor Bill Lee signed Executive Order No. 56 renaming the women’s facility in honor of the TDOC Correctional Administrator who was killed in the line of duty one year ago.

Week ending on August 1, 2020

Week ending on August 1, 2020

HENNING –He was once named one of the FBI’s “10 Most Wanted Fugitives.” Now, a former prison escapee is back in Tennessee to serve the remainder of his sentence. Lohman Ray Mays, Jr, an habitual offender who escaped from the Turney Center Industrial Prison 36 years ago, was recaptured in Wyoming in 1985 and has since been serving a federal sentence for bank robbery.

PIKEVILLE – Six people have been arrested after a special operation by the Tennessee Department of Correction’s Office of Investigations & Conduct (OIC). TDOC special agents began apprehending individuals indicted by the Bledsoe County Grand Jury last week.

The Tennessee Department of Agriculture’s Division of Forestry is accepting applications for the 2020 Volunteer Fire Assistance (VFA) program until Sept. 11. Departments may now apply for VFA Wildland Fire Suppression Kits to supplement their department's wildland firefighting capacity.

The Federal National Mortgage Association has discontinued its free market auction system for commitments to purchase conventional home mortgages. Therefore, the Commissioner of Financial Institutions hereby announces that the maximum effective rate of interest per annum for home loans as set by the General Assembly in 1987, Public Chapter 291, for the month of September, 2020 is 5.22 percent per annum. The rate as set by the said law is an amount equal to four percentage points above the index of market yields of long-term government bonds adjusted to a thirty (30) year maturity by the U. S. Department of the Treasury. For the most recent weekly average statistical data available preceding the date of this announcement, the calculated rate is 1.22 percent.

NASHVILLE--Tennessee Department of Financial Institutions Commissioner Greg Gonzales announced today that the maximum effective formula rate of interest in Tennessee is 7.25 percent per annum. The rate is based on a ceiling of 4 percent over the weekly average prime loan rate of 3.25 percent as published by the Federal Reserve on August 3, 2020.

Nashville – August 7, 2020 will mark a somber anniversary for the Tennessee Department of Correction. It was on this day, one year ago, that our beloved Correctional Administrator Debra Johnson was killed in the line of duty.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – Today, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee called for the Tennessee General Assembly to convene on Monday, August 10, 2020, for a special session to address COVID-19 liability protections, telehealth services and laws governing the Capitol grounds.