Supreme Court rejects Texas suit supported by Tennessee
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander had commented during a Friday recording of NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he didn’t see the basis for the lawsuit.
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Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander had commented during a Friday recording of NBC News’ “Meet the Press” that he didn’t see the basis for the lawsuit.
“Red Tub Day” by the Memphis Family Connection Center gathers in red tubs gifts the children request. The gifts are given out at an annual holiday party.
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff of Germantown is among 106 Republican members of the House who signed an amicus brief Thursday, Dec. 10, in support of the Texas lawsuit seeking to overturn the outcome of the November presidential general election.
The County Commission Scorecard tracks some specific pandemic votes as well as a call for Medicaid expansion.
The lawsuit seeks to invalidate the 62 electoral votes in the four battleground states that would go to President-elect Joe Biden.
Shelby County commissioners called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee Monday, Dec. 7, to enact a statewide mask mandate, but the vote wasn’t unanimous. It was among a series of COVID-related measures.
Monday’s delay by the Shelby County Commission follows a similar delay in approval by the Memphis City Council.
Drag racing would still be a misdemeanor under the legislation proposed by two Shelby County legislators. But it would be a higher grade misdemeanor. The City Council will also see some resolutions on its agenda supporting the bill.
The deputy adjutant general of the Tennessee National Guard is the interim commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Veterans Services.
The city estimates a quarter of solid waste crews have the COVID virus and are in quarantine.
The commission also votes on funding for a public health coordinator’s position at the Shelby County Health Department as part of the ongoing discussion about the county’s pandemic response.
Sen. Lamar Alexander also said President Donald Trump has a record to be proud of during the interview on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. And he said he carried Memphis in his five statewide general election wins by campaigning everywhere in the county, not just the Republican suburbs.
The cut-bank bluff design is the first of the changes to Tom Lee Park and the surrounding area Downtown by the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
The veteran state legislator will have an office on Capitol Hill in Nashville as part of the governor’s cabinet.
National Civil Rights Museum president Terri Lee Freeman is leaving in February to lead a museum in Baltimore. She arrived at the helm of the museum just as the city’s new activism began to surface.
Leaders of the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association and Mid-South Food Bank talked on “Behind The Headlines” about how the pandemic has changed their distribution models.
The next-to-last council meeting of the year saw some votes change, the simple become complex and the obvious spelled out. There was also a rare slip that saw an item that appeared to fail win approval after all.
Commissioners questioned the Health Department’s response to the tent party in Hickory Hill Saturday that drew hundreds of people. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter indicated there will probably be some changes but that there are limits on what her department can do. Later in the day there were some changes in that.
The senator from Tennessee told colleagues on the Senate floor Wednesday that being a senator is like “joining the Grand Ole Opry and not being allowed to sing.”
A voting miscue Tuesday was reversed Wednesday with the passage of the resolution that directs the mayor to draw up a plan to end the use of any city money to buy bottled water.
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge a statewide mask mandate, and several council members said their earlier vote against the city’s mask ordinance was wrong.
The measure by council member Chase Carlisle was one vote short of the seven needed. It failed after a council debate that included one council member remembering his own brush with corruption charges. Others argued the proposal was arbitrary and cumbersome.
Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson said council members who behave badly, as council member Edmund Ford Sr. did two weeks ago, can’t be removed or suspended. And restoring order is “a question of judgment” by the chairperson.
The number is smaller than the ranks of 2,800 previously pushed by Mayor Jim Strickland and Police Director Michael Rallings. Related story: Survey seeks community input on next Memphis police director
The outburst by City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. two weeks ago still raises questions about how to apply rules of conduct to elected council members. And it’s a discussion past councils have had about Ford and others on the body.