University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro is set to leave active service in mid-November, three months before he will officially retire as head of the state system.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is making a change in who runs the county’s memorandum of agreement with the U.S. Justice Department for changes in Memphis-Shelby County Juvenile Court.

The University of Memphis president is at it again, pushing for big, iconic structures to define the campus and its surrounding neighborhoods.

This is a boy-meets-girl story, with complications. Because what love story for the ages ever came off without some complications? And so: Boy gets cancer. Girl gets cancer, too. Boy loses right arm, at age 7, but discovers his inner lefty. He takes up golf, and even plays on the baseball team. “I played first base and centerfield,” he says, with pride. “I wasn’t the kid in right field who ate grass. I was part of the team.”

Most of the 50 citizens at a Hickory Hill town hall meeting Monday, Sept. 17, came to talk and complain about city garbage and trash pick-up. There were so many complaints the host, City Council member Patrice Robinson, began setting up a meeting just to talk about the city’s solid waste services, which are in the process of changing.

As a new chapter in Shelby County government is being written, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris and the County Commission have an opportunity to improve the strained relationship between the two branches of government.

Open records advocates believe they’re on the verge of major victories in eliminating and changing exceptions to Tennessee laws to offer a more transparent look at how government runs.

Siblings were truant at a Shelby County school last year because they had to share a uniform.

Democratic state Senate candidate Gabby Salinas, a three-time cancer survivor, moved with her family to the United States from Bolivia as a child to seek treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital.

Republican Senate nominee Marsha Blackburn removed a picture Monday, Sept. 17, of her with the University of Memphis Spirit Squad posted on her campaign Facebook page.

Purple Haze, a Downtown Memphis nightclub that announced last week it was closing indefinitely after four people were shot there, has now had its liquor license suspended by the state.

Bartlett Police Chief Gary Rikard, leader of the suburban department for 11 years, will retire Dec. 31.

Democratic U.S. Senate contender Phil Bredesen met a crowd of 500 at Rhodes College Thursday, Sept. 13, that consisted mostly of supporters on what was originally planned as a debate with Republican rival Marsha Blackburn. Blackburn would not commit to the debate.

In response to weeks of questioning by Marc Perrusquia, director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting, about the Memphis Police Department’s long reluctance to record custodial interrogations, MPD spokeswoman Karen Rudolph released the following statements via email. The final statement repeated the Institute’s questions and provided answers.

During the murder trial last year of defendant Brandon Taylor, defense attorney Gregory Carman and Memphis Police Department homicide detective Fausto Frias engaged in a testy exchange.