A new health directive is looming – one that could significantly tighten restrictions for the upcoming holidays.

On Thursday, the Frayser Exchange Club awarded Steve Lockwood its 2020 Community Service Award. He’s credited in helping turnaround one of the city’s worst housing markets during the past decade. 

Several dozens activists and organizers working for Democratic candidates in the 2020 elections have drafted a “roadmap to renewal” for the state party. A Memphis organizer talks about the roadmap on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. The recommendations come as the party prepares to elect a new statewide leader in January.

Staffer snaps, edits the thrill on her iPhone to snappy “My Shot” from Hamilton. 

Leaders implore citizens, particularly those of color, to gather virtually for the holiday.

The Memphis In May International Festival is calling off the Beale Street Music Festival in May as the Memphis City Council considers urging a Christmas week “safer at home” order. 

The Shelby County Health Department reported 625 new COVID-19 cases on Friday, Dec. 18. 

Chick-fil-A looks to be landing at the airport, Bill Dries is remembering The Jar, and Maker’s Mark helps Ripley get lit.

The council approved the financing for a $62 million set of five Downtown parking projects. But the issue was what to do with the money made from the parking garages. 

The recent surge associated with the COVID-19 pandemic trickles down to local fire departments in Bartlett, Collierville and Germantown and their response.

The local face of a global pandemic, challenges to education and the local reaction to the death of George Floyd topped a “Behind The Headlines” review of the year 2020.

As the first COVID-19 vaccinations began in Memphis hospitals Thursday, Gov. Bill Lee offered a message of hope that the pandemic’s end is close but also acknowledged the challenges of Tennessee being in the midst of its worst surge yet.

Memphis International Airport employees are being tested for COVID-19 each day they work at the airport, as part of an assurance testing program that the airport hopes to expand.

Methodist-Germantown Hospital president says, “This is the moment we stop this. It is one of those moments I will never forget.”

Coming restrictions have to include ways to limit transmission over the coming holidays, health officials say.

For the first time in the pandemic, the Shelby County Health Department reported more than 1,000 new coronavirus cases in a daily update on Thursday, Dec. 17.

The Health Department reported 1,163 new COVID-19 cases and four more coronavirus-related deaths in its daily update Thursday morning.

LeMoyne-Owen College has named Vernell Bennett-Fairs its new president.

Today is Thursday, Dec. 17, and we’re considering additional fines for those not following health directives, thinking about a Charley Pride biopic and putting our energy into Tiger basketball. 

The nonprofit’s programs prepare graduates for permanent employment.

At Baptist Hospital-DeSoto, about half of the more than 1,800 employees have signed up to receive the vaccine.

The ordinance cleared second reading Wednesday at a special commission meeting with seven votes. However, nine votes will be needed to approve the ordinance at Monday’s final vote of the commission.