Three employees with Better Days Tax Service have been charged with wire fraud, accused of scamming $1.1 million from a COVID-19 loan relief program aimed at helping small businesses impacted by the pandemic. 

Since its inception in April, EDGE reports having awarded $751,000 in NEED grants to 134 businesses.

How the latest project proposed for the Pinch District is different, how AutoZone is doing during the pandemic (very well) and how football is a way into coronavirus reporting. Also, we’ve got Charlie’s Meerkats. 

The Tuesday city council session will also include a call for more information about the percentage of city contracts that minority-owned businesses get.

During a school board committee meeting, SCS Superintendent Joris Ray told board members that the timeline is dependent upon the data.

The firing was confirmed by an election commission spokesperson after state Rep. Antonio Parkinson posted about the change in personnel Sunday on social media.

The Shelby County Health Department reported 287 new coronavirus cases and two new related deaths on Monday, Oct. 19.

Welcome to the working week. Your regular Early Wordsmith, Mary Cashiola, is at a secure, undisclosed location and I’m taking a turn in the captain’s seat today.

The total is inexact but ahead of the pace for early voting in the last three presidential elections in Shelby County. Data includes details of who the early voters and absentee voters are and a batch of new voters registered in recent months. 

Paula and James Campbell know the appraised value of their Orange Mound home is far less than the $300,000 they spent to build it. But that’s OK. They intend to stay.

Gov. Bill Lee and Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn said the annual state tests, known as TNReady, will be administered as planned, but teachers and schools should be held harmless for the results. 

The White House quietly told Tennessee last week that “a statewide mask mandate must be implemented” to curb its growing spread of COVID-19.

Tennessee Department of Health reports 2,605 new cases, bringing the total number of cases since early March to 228,744. Six new deaths push the statewide toll to 2,909.

The Raleigh Springs Civic Center “unofficially” opened this spring when construction signs were removed following completion of the $45 million development’s initial phase. That included the 11-acre walking trail and lake, and a new skate park. 

Since a mixup in evidence at the Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk’s property and evidence room, a new verification procedure has been put in place to reduce the risk of such a situation occurring again. 

From Oct. 3 to Saturday, Oct. 17, the Shelby County Health Department reported an average of 155 new coronavirus cases and 3,039 test results each day, yielding a 5.1% positivity rate.

Shelby County’s 49 new COVID-19 cases came from 907 test results, yielding a 5.4% positivity rate. 

By Nov. 1, each state is to have identified sites where mass immunization clinics will be held. But plans are hard to make when vaccine requirements aren’t known.

Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the unofficial vote count may be tallied by midnight Nov. 3. But counting absentee ballots is a complex process.

The ruling is in one of five federal court challenges to state laws governing Tennessee’s absentee ballot process underway as absentee voters are completing their ballots and mailing them back to election commissions across the state.

Program will provide cancer care across affiliated hospitals and clinics in the region.

For the second day this week, the Shelby County Health Department reported 250 or more new coronavirus cases. 

Three SCS board members said January is the earliest they feel comfortable reopening school buildings, especially as county health officials this week declared the virus’ autumn “surge” has arrived.

It’s Friday and we’re talking current challenges for festivals, the sale of Duncan-Williams and the complicated calculus of how we do (and don’t) incarcerate juvenile offenders.