Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allows students to opt out and attend classes without masks.

Sen. Katrina Robinson accused of embezzlement and fraud with her business, The Healthcare Institute, appeared in court Friday, a final time before her Sept. 13 trial begins. 

Plus, a trail is being blazed in local basketball, redistricting is underway and another golf course is getting something of a redesign.

U.S. Census figures show some County Commission districts have grown in population while others have lost population since a decade ago. 

Three leaders of the federally-funded effort to help pay overdue rent and utility bills talked on “Behind The Headlines” about what the new market reality means for the city’s growth with a shortage of quality affordable housing.

Other examples include K-12 schoolchildren whose parents have asked in writing for masking exemptions.

Mississippi is facing a record number of people hospitalized with the virus — 1,633 on Tuesday, according to the state Department of Health.

Germantown Baptist Church will reopen as a mass vaccination site in September.

The Pipkin Building vaccination site will not close at the end of August and Germantown and Collierville partners will open a high-volume site, said City of Memphis COO Doug McGowen.

Watch the COVID-19 Task Force Briefing live now. 

Collierville will host Raleigh-Egypt on Friday after Wooddale forfeits. 

Related story:

Daily Memphian preseason Power 15 rankings

Today, the Shelby County Health Department reported 915 new COVID-19 cases. 

Shelby County is set to pay millions as part of class action lawsuits, we’ve got COVID in schools and we’re asking people to eat, drink and be mask-y. 

The widely believed notion that COVID-19 is only an adult problem is patently false.

Shelby County “lost” potentially thousands of people in the county court system during the launch of a digital management software system by Tyler Technologies in 2016. 

The commission scorecard focuses on a rare veto by the county mayor and the County Commission’s vote earlier this month to override that veto. It’s another chapter in a contentious political saga as the commission enters the last year of its current four-year term of office.

The Lab School is a private and independent micro-school which currently serves six students of mixed ages 4-6. The day-to-day learning environment sees educators teaching students topics such as problem-solving, critical thinking and communication, along with developing math, science and reasoning skills.

Restaurateurs worry that Shelby County’s new mask mandate might scare customers, but prefer it over more stringent restrictions on their businesses.

Schools saw COVID-19 even when universal masking was required. The numbers from the first week of school, prior to Gov. Bill Lee’s order, provide a baseline.

Masks will be required in all public, indoor settings, including restaurants and bars.

The CEO of the region’s trauma center and safety net hospital said national competition among hospitals for the skilled specialists needed to put 21 beds back in use at Regional One is intense and costly. 

There are also questions about whether the move back to masks is legal, given the governor’s recent executive order.

Related story: 
Health Dept. Director: Shelby County mask mandate ‘needs to happen quickly'

“I anticipate, honestly, that everyone that got the vaccine is going to want the booster. That is the feedback I have been getting,” says Melanie Keller, CEO of Meritan.

Suburban districts shared the number of students opting out following Gov. Bill Lee’s order. However, most students continue to mask.

“We must have a universal mask mandate in Shelby County and it needs to happen quickly,” Health Department director Dr. Michelle Taylor told the County Commission Wednesday. 

Related story: 
Most — but not all — county commissioners support return to masks