Hey, hey, hey, Memphis. It’s Wednesday, Oct. 2, and Downtown’s Design Review Board will review a project for the very nondescript Memphis Municipal Employee Credit Union. You’ve likely driven past the building on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard without ever noticing it.

But the credit union has a history that coincides with the Civil Rights Movement in Memphis, and the planned updates, which will include an “I Am a Man” statue in the lobby, are intended to shine more light on that story. 

On Tuesday, the Memphis City Council approved Memphis Mayor Paul Young’s plan for the city to buy Downtown’s Sheraton hotel for $22 million. The unanimous vote came after council members took a little field trip from City Hall to the hotel a few blocks away. They toured the dilapidated rooms that the hotel’s current owners won’t pay to fix. Young has framed the purchase as a way to protect the city’s more than $300 million investment in the attached convention center. The city will use funds from the Center City Revenue Finance Corp. as earnest money in that purchase.

The winner of this year’s Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association’s Restaurateur of the Year award doesn’t even own a brick-and-mortar restaurant. Ernie Mellor, who runs catering companies Hog Wild - Real Memphis Barbecue and A Moveable Feast, has been catering since 1997 and served as a past Memphis Restaurant Association Board chair. The TNHTA noted Mellor’s charitable contributions. Two other Memphis restaurants, both known for their burgers, were recognized during the awards ceremony. 

Plus, violent school threats are on the rise, the longshoreman strike could hit Memphis and Jaren Jackson Jr. may be injured.