“We have an untapped resource of labor that they can get, and they probably are not aware of that,” says Troy Allen, director of employment for Shelby Resident and Vocational Services.

As the start of the school year approaches, Shelby County Schools and surrounding suburban districts are releasing guidelines on how they’ll reopen safely, amid rising COVID-19 cases and uncertainty around the Delta variant.

“I want to pay it forward, and I’m working with an organization that is doing incredible things to help children and families,” Marie Pizano said of MVP3 Entertainment Group’s partnership with Rotary-Family Youth Initiative.

The pandemic’s return to Memphis was among the topics discussed in a reporters’ roundtable on the WKNO program “Behind The Headlines.”

Riders can reserve a pick-up or drop-off ride within the designated service area by phone.

Gotta love those Redbirds, but you may prefer one of these other photos from The Daily Memphian. Cast your vote for the best one.

Stock up on school supplies, clothes and shoes this weekend. Tennessee’s tax-free holiday continues through Sunday, but Mississippi’s ends at midnight Saturday. The Volunteer State is also exempting most food items (except candy!) from sales tax.

The Tennessee Department of Transportation plans to move up the reopening of eastbound lanes of traffic on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge to Saturday evening, July 31.

The accused killer of young Jadon Knox is behind bars, and up to $50,000 in rewards from the U.S. Marshals Serve remains on the table for information leading to arrest in the homicides of eight youngsters last year.

Ramsey, who works at Insomnia Cookies and trains at Bartlett, qualified on her third throw.

Local leaders don’t expect to enact another mask mandate, a group of dancers prove their metal and the Grizz look to Spain, again. 

The Daily Memphian will hire three investigative reporters and an investigative editor, adding to its newsroom of more than 35 journalists. 

A week after welcoming the public back to its sessions at City Hall, the Memphis City Council is reinstituting pandemic measures starting with the Tuesday, Aug. 3, committee sessions and the full meeting of the council later in the day.

The first step would be a commission to draft a charter for a combined city of Memphis and Shelby County government covering Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County but not the six suburban towns and cities. 

While many Republican leaders nationwide are now calling more strongly for COVID vaccinations in light of the Delta variant, Tennessee’s leading Republicans have remained more muted.

The city is on track to exceed last year’s record 332 homicides. Violent deaths are up 14.6% in 2021 compared to the same time period last year.

The next health directive will offer clearer guidance on when and where to mask, but Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said he does not expect additional restrictions or mask mandates at this time.

Watch live as the Shelby County COVID-19 Task Force addresses the latest developments in the coronavirus pandemic.

This week Lucero frontman Ben Nichols will play a solo acoustic birthday show and septuagenarian gospel artist Elizabeth King, flanked by some ace Memphis sidemen, will perform a live score to a pioneering work of Black cinema. 

Big changes for the Liberty Bowl, a special exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum and a hero’s welcome for the Hernando DeSoto? 

The Council Scorecard follows the saga of a used car lot in Raleigh that has come to symbolize the complexity of trying to move toward less-intense commercial development on major roads that have neighborhoods just behind them.

Decision on masking mandate rests with the county mayor’s office. Aside from a tweet endorsing the CDC guidelines Wednesday, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris refused comment.

As of 5 p.m. July 21, there were 162 COVID-19 positive people in area hospital beds.