Hi there, Memphis. It’s Thursday, June 5, and Tyré Nichols, who died in 2023 after he was beaten by five Memphis police officers, would have been 32 years old today.

There’s a birthday party and community rally this afternoon at I Am a Man plaza, next to what’s left of Clayborn Temple. That starts at 5 p.m. There will be birthday cake and a march to the Tyré Nichols Sunset Canopy at Tom Lee Park. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Tristan Strickland drove from Michigan to pay his respects at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church for the funeral of Tyré Nichols on Feb. 1, 2023. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

What will happen to the old Temple Israel? Earlier this week, Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church unveiled an ambitious, $310 million plan to build a new church, more than 600 apartments, a hotel, a health-and-wellness center, a parking garage and a grocery store on its Midtown land. Pastor J. Lawrence Turner said Wednesday that the plan was 12 years in the making, and the church will be a partner in the development, rather than just selling its land to a developer. But the historic Temple Israel building, which sits where the church’s future sanctuary will go, will apparently be a casualty of the new development. In other church construction news, the Germantown Planning Commission approved a plan that will help Harvest Church move parking off its front lawn.

County crime lab plan: Shelby County Commissioners heard plans for a local crime lab Wednesday that Shelby County District Attorney General Steve Mulroy says would increase the solve rate for violent crimes, but it won’t come cheap. The new lab would offer expanded ballistics testing, cell phone testing and DNA testing, and it could complement the state lab in Jackson. That Jackson lab used to be at Shelby Farms before it moved in 2021, and Mulroy hoped the local lab could be housed in its old building. But the state already has a use for that space. So, there’s another proposed location now.

The University of Memphis tuition hike follows an increase last year that was the largest in eight years. But it was eclipsed by the increase approved Wednesday. (The Daily Memphian file)

U of M tuition hike: University of Memphis students will pay more in tuition next year, after the Board of Trustees voted on a rate increase Wednesday. The tuition increases are expected to generate an additional $6.2 million, which the U of M says it will use to increase enrollment, develop new academic programs and help with its research initiatives. Here’s a look at how much more students will pay, depending on their in-state or out-of-state status. 

MEET MEMPHIS

Ellen Chamberlain has worked as a ghostwriter in Mexico, the United Arab Emirates and Belize. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

Meet Ellen Chamberlain, The Daily Memphian’s new restaurant reporter. The Michigan native learned to cook from her Florida-born dad, who taught her how to make cheese grits, fried chicken and the staples every good Southern cook should know how to make. Her mom handled the black-pepper gravy lesson and encouraged her teenage baking obsession. Chamberlain’s love for food led her into a career in ghostwriting cookbooks before she settled in Memphis. Read more about her journey in Table Talk — and for something completely different, check out her TEDx Talk on misogyny in hip-hop.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Jordan VerHulst, sitting to the left of assistant coach Andre Turner (who is standing), is leaving the Memphis Tigers for a new job. (Nikki Boertman/AP file)

His new Kentucky home: The Memphis to Murray State connection just keeps getting deeper. Memphis Tigers director of basketball operations Jordan VerHulst is leaving Coach Penny Hardaway’s staff for a new job at Murray State. That’s Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s alma mater, and it’s where where Ryan Miller (former Grizzly Mike Miller’s brother) is now head coach. VerHulst had been a member of Hardaway’s staff the past four seasons.

Chef Ranequa Bean (left) showed the color of a correct roux during her Cajun cooking class on Thursday, May 29. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

No roux-grets: With a name like Bean, you’d better know how to cook. And Chef Ranequa Bean does. Bean, who formerly ran the 350 Baked bakery Downtown and in the Hickory Ridge Mall, started teaching weekly cooking classes this past February. Freelance writer Erica Horton recently attended one of the Chef Bean Experience classes, where guests learned to make gumbo. If you missed that class, no worries because there’s another gumbo class tonight and two other New Orleans-inspired lessons later this month. 

Downtown’s Design Review Board approved new tenant signs for the Bass, Berry & Sims building. (The Daily Memphian file)

Signs, signs, everywhere signs: Downtown’s Design Review Board approved new tenant-name signs for the Bass, Berry & Sims building (the big office tower next to the old Peabody Place Mall), a move that goes against Downtown’s design code. But the landlord is really hoping the new signs will finally attract a tenant to the ninth floor, which has been vacant for nearly a decade. The board also gave the OK to a new mural and other aesthetic upgrades for the Edge District alley between Ugly Art Co., Bar Limina and the Cnct. Design spaces. And it approved next steps to help a vacant building on Bellevue Boulevard transform into a turkey-leg restaurant.

Extensive infrastructure work, including drainage-retention areas, is underway at the Union Depot mixed-use project in Bartlett. (Michael Waddell/Special to The Daily Memphian)

No on Union Depot: The Bartlett Planning Commission isn’t a fan of developer Keith Grant’s plan to expand his Union Depot mixed-use development to property on the northeast corner of U.S. 70 and U.S. 64. The commission’s unfavorable recommendation this week to the suburb’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen stems over concerns that proposed apartments would overlook the Little Bears Preschool. “If I were to tell a pedophile that his balcony could look over into a playground … I would see his eyes light up,” said concerned resident Greg Williams. 

U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn followed her xAI tour with another post praising Elon Musk for facing “relentless flack and threats for his mission to eliminate corruption.” (Mark Schiefelbein/AP file)

On politics: In his Political Round-up, The Daily Memphian’s Bill Dries shines light on U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn’s xAI tour, which occurred on the same day xAI founder Elon Musk announced his departure from the Trump administration’s DOGE. He also looks into some local projects, like the mixed-use conversion of the old Southwest Twin Drive-In, that Memphis Mayor Paul Young hopes will temper violence in the community. And he’s got an update on the new leader of the Shelby County Democratic Party. Speaking of Democrats, a blue wave has taken over Horn Lake, which elected a Democratic mayor Tuesday. And five out of seven Horn Lake aldermen are now Democrats.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Is the DeSoto black bear the new Midtown coyote? Whatever the case, the Mississippi wildlife department says it’s not their problem. 

Hope your day isn’t unbearable!

.....