EcoPro Services, a division of Empower Employs, provides jobs to the disadvantaged who sanitize agencies working with the homeless in Memphis.

While proponents of merging the City of Memphis and Shelby County governments cannot promise that consolidation would mean a spike in economic development, they believe it is the straightest line to major growth. Opponents aren’t so sure and worry about negative fallout. 

Attorneys representing the inmates, including lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and Memphis’ Just City, claim conditions at the jail are ill-equipped to deal with safety regarding COVID-19.

The church is home to one of the city’s handful of Stephen Ministries, a program that pairs a person suffering from loss with their own trained lay person for a year.

Danton Barto, Memphis football’s all-time leading tackler, is in the hospital fighting COVID-19. He sent his wife, Shelly Beth, a text: “Get that shot for me.”

Violent crime is both a national problem and a Memphis problem. But when criminals point guns your way, as 26-year-old engineer Manuel Rodriguez discovered, it forever becomes part of your personal history. So much so, that you consider leaving the city you have always called home. 

While there are no firm plans on a solution, for the first time in three years, TDOT, the city and community members seem to be on one accord. A significant departure from a few months ago when Scott Street closure, as part of a $45 million redesigned Poplar Viaduct, seemed a formality.

One of the county’s most vocal advocates for a new voting system with hand-marked paper ballots says the push for such a system isn’t part of the national political movement that contends Donald Trump won the 2020 presidential election.

A week after the shooting death of an unarmed Black man by an unlicensed security guard, protestors staged a boycott of the Kroger fuel station.

The local 12-year-old is getting his shot at the big time as the understudy in a production by the Metropolitan Opera in New York City.

Greater Memphis Chamber chief public policy officer Bobby White said planning construction could take a decade or more, most likely across the administrations of several presidents, governors and mayors.

Vote on your favorite: We’ve got some fab sports pics this week, including 901 FC and the final day of the WGC FedEx St. Jude Invitational, but Brad Vest’s image of some students who appear none too happy to be back in school says it all.

Memphis Fire Department Director Gina Sweat is asking the public to do three things — get vaccinated, wear a mask and social distance. In addition to COVID, car crashes have added to system stress.

With the Delta variant spiking local COVID rates, will tougher, more restrictive measures at venues and festivals become more common in Memphis?

“The ERs are inundated,” said Dr. Shailesh Patel. “If we do not change course, we are headed to our darkest hours, our darkest days.”

Five of the Shelby County suburban districts saw some of the top achievements in results for TCAP, the state-mandated testing.

The data will help determine how districts are drawn for the Tennessee General Assembly and Congressional districts as well as the Shelby County Commission and the Memphis City Council.

Gas stations and used-tire shops don’t appear to fit with the city’s long-range development plan for at least 21 commercial districts in Memphis. 

We’re charting a course for consolidation; 911 wait times are a worry; and Shelby County Schools says it’s not going virtual again in September. 

About 25 people were vaccinated at the event Thursday. In recent months, the City of Memphis has hosted various community pop-up in ZIP codes with lower vaccination rates to increase uptake as part of a more door-to-door approach.

In 24 states, nurse practitioners are allowed to practice independently, without supervision by physicians. During the pandemic, 15 other states loosened restrictions to give them more autonomy.

The first step toward consolidation shows up on the City Council’s committee list for next week. 

SCS’ standardized testing data revealed the district’s weaknesses and gaps, widened by COVID-induced learning disruptions.

Shelby County District Attorney Amy Weirich said Thursday, Aug. 12, she is recusing her office from the investigation into a fatal shooting at a Kroger gas station because of a possible conflict of interest.

Within days, the Memphis-Shelby County COVID-19 Task Force is expected to announce plans for how the local health care system will handle a number of coronavirus cases expected to surpass last winter’s peak.