Germantown’s Judge Raymond Clift Jr. is retiring, effective Sept. 1, after more than four decades.

At least some of those who qualified for the Nov. 8 ballot by the noon Thursday, Aug. 18, deadline are expected to seek the interim appointment the Memphis City Council makes at a special Sept. 1 meeting.

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Germantown, Lakeland mayoral candidates unopposed as ballots are set in suburban elections

As of Friday, Aug. 12, 171 Shelby County residents had been vaccinated against monkeypox. 

Community leaders and patrons of the Fogelman Downtown YMCA praised updates to the facility Thursday, Aug. 18, as a recent $2 million renovation was celebrated with a ribbon-cutting ceremony and luncheon. 

The Shelby County Clerk’s office will put in place new procedures for auto dealers, including a one packet limit for car title applications, during its closure next week.

Cummings K-8 is closed following a ceiling collapse Monday, Aug. 15, inside its library.

We say goodbye to a beloved Midtown Vietnamese eatery, Ford Motor Co. wants to hire local for BlueOval City and the Memphis City Council is seeking a new member.

Photographer Andrew Feiler traveled 25,000 miles to capture images, interviews and history connected to Rosenwald Schools, a program created in 1912 by Julius Rosenwald and Booker T. Washington.

Whoever gets the appointment would serve approximately two months until the winner of a special election on the Nov. 8 ballot is decided. Meanwhile, the deadline to file for the special election race on the November ballot is Thursday at noon. 

“Probably the most problematic thing about Mud Island is that it exists,” said a member of the Mud Island task force, which met Wednesday via Zoom. “To a lot of people, the solution is slap a coat of paint on it and reopen the monorail. It’s not that simple, and we need to figure it out in modern times.”

Angela Griffith has decided to seek another four-year term.

Nelson, a Whitehaven advocate, was shot and killed Saturday, Aug. 13, in Raleigh. 

Downtown’s Fire Station No. 5 will be demolished in 60 days, Methodist North went on lockdown Tuesday and you can join Penny Hardaway’s team today.

A new state law is raising the pressure on local public and charter schools. Third graders who “flunk” next spring’s TNReady reading test — and generally two-thirds of them in Tennessee do — are eligible to be retained in third grade next year. 

Even as Tennessee moves forward with a law that could hold back tens of thousands of third graders, there is widespread misunderstanding about what it even means to read at “grade level.”

Many third-grade students who fail their reading tests have learning disabilities, but Tennessee’s new retention law fails to address that reality, putting thousands of kids at risk of being held back.

Tennessee joins 36 states with laws that can result in underperforming elementary students being held back, but the results in other states have been mixed.

Critics worry Tennessee’s new retention policy fails to address most of the reasons children struggle to read, leaving tens of thousands of third graders at risk of being held back this year.

Suburban superintendents are concerned about the high stakes attached to the TCAP test and if it’s an accurate measure of whether students are reading proficiently.

The race for the vacant Memphis City Council District 4 seat has already drawn four contenders, including the sister of a council member who gave up the seat following her victory in the August county elections.

Mike Miller plans to open his fourth Let It Fly next summer, in Southaven’s Silo Square.

Neighborhood leaders got together during a press conference Tuesday, Aug. 16, to respond to the recent slaying of Yvonne Nelson, a community leader who led the Whitehaven Development Corporation and wrote community news for years.

The grant from Knight, which is a leader in supporting local news initiatives nationwide, marks a major vote of confidence in The Daily Memphian’s subscriber-first model of nonprofit news.

This week’s Inked covers news on the Brooks Museum’s new Downtown location, an 80,000-square-foot office real estate transaction in East Memphis and the Kiwi and Goji apartments up for sale. 

Collierville alderman Billy Patton has decided to seek another term, three days before the filing deadline.