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Hey, guys. How are you today? It’s Thursday, Aug. 5, and the world’s best professional golfers will tee off for the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational at TPC Southwind beginning at 9:15 a.m. We’ll have all the action on our live blog throughout the day or you can opt to get a roundup of each day’s events delivered directly to your inbox in the evening.
Speaking of this evening, Maggie Rose and Your Academy are playing at Handy Park, beginning at 6 p.m. as part of this summer’s Get Loud! concert series. And there is a Latte Art Throwdown at Vice & Virtue Coffee in Downtown’s Arrive Hotel.
THE NEED TO KNOW
 Workers’ cars were parked on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge while it was being repaired earlier this summer. Questions remain about previous and future inspections of the bridge. (Bill Dries/Daily Memphian file)
How to move forward: In some ways, the I-40 bridge situation could be an “all’s well that ends well.” The Hernando DeSoto Bridge is now reopen to traffic in both directions and the crack was repaired before anyone was seriously injured. But. The crack was also missed during inspections for years. And with the Arkansas Department of Transportation performing its next inspection of the bridge as early as next month, how will it know it’s now finding everything? The answer is not reassuring. “Even as two federal agencies are investigating what happened with the bridge, the agency does not yet have a plan for how to ensure such a profound failure never happens again.”
County could join city in mask ask: Though the Shelby County Health Department declined to make masks mandatory with its latest directive, the Shelby County Commission may ask them to do so. The commission plans to vote next week on a resolution calling for the change, and the new director of the health department is here for it. She says the Centers for Disease Control’s recent guidance makes sense but only because they are advising the entire country and not just areas, like ours, with high transmission rates. The Memphis City Council also approved a measure Tuesday that urged the Health Department to make masks mandatory inside the city limits.
 Rob Norcross (from right), Breen Bland and Barney Rolfes have a conversation during lunch at the Rendezvous late last year. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)
Let’s do lunch: With the pandemic lingering on and many office workers still in a hybrid situation, Downtown doesn’t have the daytime numbers it once did. Which means that lunch, once a steady, reliable source of diners for local restaurants, is anything but — and that’s got area restaurateurs concerned, especially as companies are now pushing back office reopening plans.
Schools, masks and a dentist: The new school year is right around the corner, and the area’s public school districts have already shared their new safety protocols. Now, The Daily Memphian’s Daja Henry has talked to local private schools about what they are doing with the coming term, with some requiring masking and other saying masks are optional. And, in a surprising and somewhat related story, a dentist affiliated with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital seems to be leading a local effort to fight mask mandates and vaccination in schools. Christopher Rowland recently invited people on social media to attend an informational forum at his East Memphis home; the post said the goal of the meeting was to review local schools’ policies and that “it is our duty as parents to ensure our children are never subjected to health mandates again.”
MEET MEMPHIS
As the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational heats up, it seems only right to feature Bob Winn, a 46-year volunteer with the Memphis tournament. It may be impossible to imagine, but for the first time in almost five decades, Winn won’t be attending this year’s event. Instead, he’ll be at home, adjusting to his new pacemaker. “We went out there today for a walk-through, and I walked past the Phil Cannon Media Center, and I can’t imagine that place without Phil and Bob,” said another longtime volunteer, Tammy DeGroff. “I think of them together, Phil and Bob, that’s the foundation of so many memories at the tournament.” Winn has many memories — and some great stories — of his own.
THE NICE TO KNOW
 Mike Conley Jr. participated in the Danny Thomas Celebrity-Am on Wednesday, Aug. 4, 2021 at Spring Creek Ranch. (courtesy ALSAC/St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital)
Mike back in Memphis: Mike Conley Jr. was back in the Bluff City yesterday, and it had nothing to do with basketball. The former Grizzlies star played in the Danny Thomas Celebrity-Am in Collierville and said the opportunity to work with St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital again was something he wasn’t going to pass on: “I was here for so long and all the work I was able to do alongside with St. Jude and just getting to meet the families and kids. … St. Jude is just a very, very special place.”
COVID forfeits could be a thing: The American Athletic Conference held its media day yesterday, and one of the conference’s goals is universal vaccination for its student-athletes. The AAC doesn’t plan on rescheduling games due to COVID-19 this season; if a team is forced to cancel because of an outbreak, they will forfeit the game. U of M football coach Ryan Silverfield says his team will be more than 80% vaccinated by the time the season starts on Sept. 4.
Coaching rumors: The University of Memphis Tigers have one high-profile assistant basketball coach. Now, it seems they could get another. Penny Hardaway confirmed yesterday at the Danny Thomas Celebrity-Am that former NBA player Rasheed Wallace was “definitely” a potential candidate. Wallace won an NBA championship while playing with the Detroit Pistons under none other than coach Larry Brown.
WE’RE TALKING ABOUT
We’re definitely getting some Christmas 2020/early January 2021 vibes …
To be fair, there are a lot of summer colds going around right now, more than usual by some news reports, but Shelby County is also averaging about 450 new COVID-19 cases each day for the past week.
Enjoy the rest of your Thursday, and try to stay well out there!
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