Good morning, Memphis! It’s Tuesday, July 30, and the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board will discuss a new overtime policy proposed by Superintendent Marie Feagins. The district leader wants new rules after discovering school employees received $1 million in overtime payments she claims they did not earn. 

The board will also consider a charter application for the Memphis Grizzlies Preparatory STEAM School for Girls, which would be modeled after Downtown’s all-boys’ Grizz Prep school. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Elon Musk said in an interview that the supercomputer in Memphis is a “massive training center” for its chatbot Grok, a competitor of OpenAI’s ChatGPT. (Michel Euler/AP file)

How Grok is being trained: The chatbot Grok, a rival to OpenAI’s ChatGPT, is being trained by nearly 40 AI tutors and scientists at Elon Musk’s xAI, and they’re pulling in more figures per year than Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant. A source close to xAI compared Grok’s training program with teaching a kid how to ride a bike. (Um, if that kid was using the bike to take over the world, maybe?) The xAI supercomputer powered up on July 22, and it’s set to be fully operational by mid-August. 

Sen. Marsha Blackburn (left), Rep. Steve Cohen and Sen. Bill Hagerty reacted to President Joe Biden’s speech regarding term limits for the Supreme Court. (The Daily Memphian files)

Supreme change: On Monday, President Joe Biden proposed big changes to the U.S. Supreme Court, including term limits of 18 years and a binding code of ethics for justices. He’s also proposing a Constitutional amendment that would reverse the recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents have immunity for some officials acts. All of the changes would require approval from Congress, which isn’t likely due to partisan politics. And speaking of partisan politics, reactions from Tennessee’s U.S. House and the U.S Senate leaders were, predictability, split down party lines. 

Germantown Alderman Jon McCreery said Monday night that he wants to “let the voters decide” whether Germantown should have a full-time mayor. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Should mayor be a full-time job? For now, the job of running the City of Germantown might as well be on par with a night shift pouring beers at a brewery. That’s right: It’s a part-time job. But Germantown Alderman Jon McCreery has been pushing to make the mayor’s position a full-time gig. McCreery floated the idea again during a Germantown Board of Mayor and Aldermen work session on Monday. He wants to take the idea to Germantown voters, but that would first require approval from the BMA. And some aldermen have concerns. 

MEET MEMPHIS

Keegon Schuett

Memphian Keegon Schuett’s play, “this dry spell,” is the winner of the 2024 Yale Drama Series Prize. It was chosen from more than 2,000 submissions from 55 countries. Schuett, who now lives in Chicago, is a filmmaker and performance artist and earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Memphis and a master’s from Northwestern University. Schuett created “this dry spell” during a writer’s workshop by Memphis-based Voices of the South theater company. “As a queer, gender non-conforming playwright, it is an incredible honor to be recognized … [The play] celebrates trans identity at a time when many places would like to erase us,” said Schuett.

THE NICE TO KNOW

A golfer warmed up before playing at The Links at Audubon golf course. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

May the course be with you: Get your clubs ready. The long-awaited reopening of The Links at Audubon Golf Course is this week. The Links closed in the fall of 2022 for a $9 million revamp, which included lengthening the course and adding a new driving range, practice facilities and a six-hole short course. The updates were intended to bring The Links up to “championship level” with options for both beginners and veteran golfers. A couple of our Daily Memphian reporters — Drew Hill and Samuel Hardiman — have a hole lot (eh??) of love for golf, so they hit the green on Monday and offered up their expert review. Sounds like a good time as par as the eye can see!

Gina Sugarmon

Remembering Gina Sugarmon: Gina Sugarmon, a passionate advocate for early-childhood education and the widow of judge/civil rights activist Russell Sugarmon, died on Saturday at age 86 after a long battle with cancer. Gina Sugarmon was also the stepmother of current Shelby County Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon. She was born in Berlin in 1938 and endured a Russian occupation and a dangerous flight to freedom in the U.S. as a child. In the 1970s, after Gina (who was white) married Russell Sugarmon (who was Black), she and her late husband endured prejudice as an interracial couple.

The Memphis Zoo is building the Conservation, Awareness, Research and Education Center in Sri Lanka. (Courtesy Memphis Zoo)

Memphis to Sri Lanka: The Memphis Zoo is heading east. Like, way east — to Sri Lanka. The zoo is building a research station in the South Asian country that will focus on biodiversity and land conservation. It’ll be part of a tropical research network founded by Enoka Kudavidanage, a conservation biologist from Sabaragamuwa University in Sri Lanka. Kudavidanage and the zoo began talks about the station back in 2023, when he visited the zoo to help with emergency rescue for wildlife and injured animals.

Ed Scott spoke at a June 28, press conference announcing him as the next athletic director of the University of Memphis. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

First day of school: New University of Memphis athletic director Ed Scott started his new gig on Monday. And if he’s using Asana, you can bet that to-do list is already stacked. Our own Frank Bonner II looks at some of the things on Scott’s plate, including a few new hires he’ll need to make sooner than later. In other Tigers sports news, we’re continuing our greatest athletes of the past century series today with No. 11-14, and two Tigers of the John Calipari-era made the list. And in even more Tigers news, baseball Coach Matt Riser is looking for a few good men who want to win.

Cam Spencer, Jaylen Wells and Zach Edey, during the Grizzlies’ press conference introducing their 2024 NBA draft picks on June 28. (Benjamin Naylor/The Daily Memphian file)

How the Grizzlies spent their summer vacation: After the Memphis Grizzlies’ disastrous, injury-ridden past season, fans were hoping for some hot offseason action: a big-name draft pick or a hot trade. We didn’t get any of that. Instead, we got a few rookies (though Zach Edey is pretty impressive) and some new assistant coaches. The Daily Memphian’s Chris Herrington recaps the Grizzlies’ modest summer moves and lessons learned.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Germantown’s Seth Rider was supposed to be competing in the men’s triathlon at the Olympic Games in Paris today, but that’s been postponed due to water quality in the infamously dirty Seine River. That’s where the swim portion is supposed to take place, and Rider has had a rather interesting (and pretty gross) way of preparing. Would you call this E. Coli microdosing?

For those of you reading at home, please wash your hands. And if you’re waiting on that triathlon, it could happen as soon as tomorrow.

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