Welcome to another Monday, Memphis. It’s July 15, and Southwest Tennessee Community College will resume in-person classes today after a cybersecurity incident shut down operations down earlier this month. And in other Southwest news, the college isn’t giving up on a northwest Memphis neighborhood, even after selling its Frayser campus.

The Memphis Grizzlies will be busy in Las Vegas all week with more NBA Summer League action. Tonight, the Bears of Summer will play the Dallas Mavericks. For a look at what else is ahead, check out This Week in Memphis.

THE NEED TO KNOW

Developers of the eight-acre bank of land in Midtown known as the Crosstown Mound are moving forward with their plans for the site. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

What’s going down in the Mound: The Crosstown Mound, that massive pile of dirt about two blocks south of Crosstown Concourse, is a step closer to becoming a new Memphis neighborhood. The City of Memphis sold the eight-acre parcel for $10 to Crosstown Partners LLC, last month, and plans for new single-family homes should be ready by the fall. The Mound has sat vacant for almost 60 years, after soil was piled up there during a failed project to extend Interstate 40 through Midtown. Efforts to create new housing on the land began in 2018, but plans were paused after arsenic was discovered in the soil. The project is back on, but the arsenic remains.

Members of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools cabinet were recognized at an event celebrating Superintendent Marie Feagins' first 100 days on Wednesday, July 10. (Angel Ortez/MSCS Communications).

Who’s in Feagins’ cabinet? Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Marie Feagins has filled eight of her 10 senior leadership positions, while managing to shrink the overall team’s size from past administrations. Feagins added new positions for a special assistant to the superintendent, a director of literacy, a chief transformation officer and facilities services officer. But she’s cut positions for chiefs of human resources, security, communication and IT. We’ve got a look at who is on the cabinet so far. 

The new bridge is to be built slightly south of where the existing Memphis-Arkansas Interstate 55 bridge has been since 1949. It would replace the existing bridge. (The Daily Memphian file)

Cross that bridge soon-ish: The plan to replace the aging Memphis-Arkansas Bridge (aka the “Old Bridge”) is moving along after U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., announced a nearly $394 million federal grant for the project on Friday. That’s a crucial chunk of the $800 million needed to build a new bridge. The new Interstate 55 bridge will be wider than the existing 1949 bridge and designed to meet seismic standards that didn’t exist when the current bridge was built. All of this begs the question: Will we call the “New Bridge” the “Old Bridge” after this bridge is built? (Insert thinking face emoji.)

Brent Taylor (left) and Josh Spickler appeared on “Behind the Headlines” on Friday, July 12. (Screenshots)

Taylor vs. Spickler: If there are two people who are any more divided on bail and public-safety policies than state Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Eads, and Just City Director Josh Spickler, well, that would be hard to imagine. Taylor has worked to pass many tough-on-crime laws at the state level over the past year, including three bills with stricter rules around bail. And Spickler, who approved of recent reforms from 2023’s standing bail order, has been harshly critical of Taylor’s changes, including one that prohibited judges and judicial commissioners from considering a defendant’s ability to pay bail. The two went head to head on “Behind the Headlines.” In other bond-related, criminal-justice news, the man accused of organizing the 2021 killing of Memphis rapper Young Dolph will remain out on bond despite a recent arrest in Mississippi.

MEET MEMPHIS

First-round draft pick Zach Edey talked during a Memphis Grizzlies press conference introducing their 2024 NBA draft picks. (Benjamin Naylor/The Daily Memphian)

New Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey has only been in Memphis for a few weeks, but he already gets us. Like, really gets us. He explained his playing style this way: “If something is happening on the court that I don’t appreciate, I will let my presence be felt.” And he followed that with this: “That’s the culture of … the city in general, right? It’s for the hard-working people that have to earn it all. It’s for the people that don’t back down.” (Yes, Edey, that’s us, and you’ll fit right in.) The Toronto native and former Purdue big man is also incredibly humble, so he was recently unsure how to react when the ever-chatty GG Jackson showered him with compliments before taking him to dinner at South Main Sushi. 

THE NICE TO KNOW

Rawgirls owners Hannah, left, and Amy Pickle launched Rawgirls in 2011. (Jim Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

The raw truth: After 13 years of serving walnut-meat taco salad and mung-bean pasta bowls, vegan grab-and-go eatery and juice bar Rawgirls will close at the end of the month. (I’m not crying; you’re crying.) The married couple, who owns the food truck and Downtown brick-and-mortar, tried to sell their business as they made plans to leave Memphis, following their daughter’s graduation. But no deal worked out. And if that makes you sad (as it does me), no worries: The Pickles plan to share their recipes on a new digital platform soon. 

A spicy Italian pizza from Brooklyn Bridge. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

Staying power: The Memphis headlines have been dominated with restaurant closures lately (see above), mostly due to rising food costs and staffing shortages. But some eateries, like 39-year-old Brooklyn Bridge, seem to be doing just fine. The Daily Memphian’s Jennifer Chandler paid this family-owned East Memphis institution a visit for the first time in about 15 years. And she was pleasantly surprised by the crowd, the portion sizes and the eggplant parmesan pizza.

Byway Coffee Co.’s new mobile coffee shop is in a vintage Airstream. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

Coffee and Cache: A new coffee shop is rolling into Memphis. Literally. The owner of the Highball cocktail trailer recently outfitted a vintage Airstream camper into Byway, a new mobile coffee shop serving locally roasted Comeback Coffee and sweets from Chloe’s Giant Cookies and Miss Muff‘n. Your first chance to visit Byways is this weekend when the trailer will debut at two Memphis-area parks. In other new food news, Memphis rapper Moneybagg Yo will open a second location of his high-end dining spot Cache 42 Downtown. The big difference from the original Hacks Cross Road location? The Downtown spot will be open for lunch.

In this Jan. 14, 2012, photo, Shannen Doherty participated in a panel for the television show “Shannen Says” on WE. (Danny Moloshok/AP file)

RIP, Shannen Doherty: The Memphis-born actress best-known for her role as Brenda Walsh on 1990s teen drama “90210” has died at age 53. Doherty, whose family relocated to Los Angeles when she was 7, suffered from breast cancer for nearly a decade. The “Charmed” and “Mallrats” star made tabloid headlines in the 1990s over her angry outbursts and issues with drinking, but she later expressed regret over some of her past behavior.

Attorneys for Mississippi’s Board of Election Commissioners are pushing back against a timeline for Mississippi lawmakers to redraw the districts. (Steve Helber/AP file)

Mississippi’s on the clock: A federal court ruled earlier this month that certain Missisissippi House and Senate districts drawn in 2022 dilute the power of Black voters, and it’s now requiring the creation of a Black-majority Senate district in areas around DeSoto County, among other Black-majority districts in the state. And the court has given the state a tight timeline ahead of the Nov. 5 election. Now, Mississippi’s election commission is pushing back on that timeline.

THIS WEEK’S WEATHER

We’re looking at a hot next few days, but what’s new? And then, rain will cool things off just in time for the weekend. Woo-hoo!

Don’t forget that early voting is underway!

.....