Good morning, everybody. Today is Wednesday, Oct. 13, and Tigers basketball fans probably already know what’s happening, but I’ll mention it anyway. It’s Memphis Madness, which gives many of us our first chance to see this year’s basketball teams in person as well as maybe some surprise musical guests. 

Honestly, it’s kind of a sports-heavy day. The Memphis Grizzlies are playing a preseason game tonight against the Indiana Pacers (there, obviously), and the Memphis 901 FC is playing Louisville City at AutoZone Park. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

Family members of victims wait with Memphis Police Department officers outside of a postal facility in Orange Mound. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

Another deadly workplace shooting: In what seems to be becoming an all-too-common local occurrence, three postal workers are dead after a workplace shooting in Orange Mound. Memphis police officers, as well as FBI and ATF agents, made the scene yesterday afternoon at a U.S. Postal Service carrier station on Park Avenue that is not open to the public. One of the three employees was the apparent shooter; that person, yet to be identified by authorities, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound.

Historic bank joins the biggest: Tri-State Bank, the Black-owned financial institution started by J.E. and A. Maceo Walker and notable for its role in the civil rights movement, has officially been acquired by a New Orleans-based firm. Liberty Bank and Trust Co. has branches in 10 states and is the nation’s largest Black-owned bank. It plans to retain all of Tri-State’s current workers as well as hire additional people in the area. (You may also notice a new byline on that story. It comes to us from The Daily Memphian’s new business reporter, Frida Qi, as does one about this week’s ongoing robotics conference.)

A robot operated by the University of Memphis engineering department tosses a ball into a basket at the Renasant Convention Center Oct. 12, 2021. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

PILOT study: The Downtown Memphis Commission’s Center City Revenue Finance Corp. will move forward with a review of its PILOT program and three very specific questions it wants answered. The first, and perhaps most important of those inquiries, is: Is the PILOT program growing Downtown’s tax base?

MEET MEMPHIS

Dave Jones (left) and his father David Jones pose for a portrait inside their Germantown mechanic shop/gas station. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)

David Jones opened Germantown Auto Service — GAS — as a 19-year-old father with a wife and small baby to support. At the time (1972), attendants pumped customers’ gas and checked their oil, but the station also offered oil changes and brake repairs. Over time, however, the family business evolved into more of an automotive repair shop that also sold gas. But now, 50 years later, even that era is over, and the Jones’ have gotten out of the gas business completely. 

THE NICE TO KNOW

A four-year-old gives an icy slide a try at Williamson Park in Midtown during February of this year. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian file)

Play time: From A (Alcy-Samuels) to Z (Zodiac), the City of Memphis has more than 150 parks (and other community spaces). Now, alongside a rebranding, the city’s parks division is trying to bring more people out to those places, with activities such as kickball games, line dancing, movie nights and human checkers. As Memphis Parks Director Nick Walker put it, “if the grass is cut and there are trash receptacles,” that was once seen as good enough for the city’s parks. “While that is a good start,” he continued, “I think we’ve seen at Tom Lee and Overton, and a lot of the parks that the city still operates, a desire to have amenities.” 

Dillon Brooks, seen here during September’s media day, is out with a hand injury. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

We’ll have to wait a while for Brooks: Memphis Grizzlies’ fan favorite Dillon “Villain” Brooks will miss the beginning of the team’s season as he continues to undergo treatment for a broken hand. (I think this was the injury we learned about in August when ESPN cameras caught Brooks watching a summer league game and wearing a cast.) What’s maybe eyebrow-raising is that Brooks has also been out during the preseason, but that was for “thigh soreness.” Elsewhere in the Grizzlies’ universe, Chris Herrington is singing the praises of De’Anthony Melton and talking about Melton and Desmond Bane’s roles on the team. 

Mailbox and RV ordinances: Despite various objections over so-called cluster mailboxes, Collierville’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved standards for the boxes earlier this week. So, while the U.S. Postal Service is the agency requiring cluster mailboxes for all new subdivisions, Collierville’s government is the one limiting their color to bronze, black, dark green or silver, among other restrictions. And this isn’t really related to that at all, but seemed worth noting: Bartlett’s BMA also recently approved the measure that would allow residents to live in an RV or other temporary dwelling on their property if a flood, fire or other natural disaster made their actual home uninhabitable. 

WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

That was also the last time a Southwest plane flew out of Memphis International. 

Sorry, sorry. Just a little joke. Not true. Southwest Airlines has been struggling with thousands of canceled flights in recent days, seemingly stemming from bad weather on Friday that disrupted the carrier’s logistics. 

Thanks for reading and we’ll see you back here tomorrow! 

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