Memphians are not happy with Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates in schools. 

Tennessee’s two Republican U.S. senators were highly critical of President Joe Biden’s decision to withdraw U.S. military forces before his speech Monday, Aug. 16. They were more critical after the speech.

Suburban school districts are no longer requiring mask mandates for students, in line with Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order. However, the Shelby County mandate still affects staff.

Shelby County Schools leaders, however, say the school system’s mask mandate remains in place despite the executive order that also includes mask mandates by school systems. Shelby County Commissioner Van Turner is suggesting the county should take the issue to court.

In the first 15 days of August, there were more hospitalizations than there were in any full month of the pandemic, although not all of those were due to the coronavirus.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting involving the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

Gregory Livingston, the Kroger security guard charged with fatally shooting Alvin Motley, has hired high-powered criminal defense attorneys Leslie Ballin and Steve Farese to represent him. 

A total of four daily, nonstop flights to the New York area will return this fall.

Breakfast restaurant has a longer than anticipated wait, protesters urge a boycott and Scott Street is taking to a change like a viaduct to water. 

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.”