Teacher pay is one of the key issues that lawmakers are expected to take up beginning Jan. 19 during a special legislative session on education.

PPP is back, the Grizz are five-in-a-row and why Memphis may be behind other counties in phasing in vaccinations. 

One Memphis lawyer says the downside of mandating the vaccine could be having to fire a significant number of staff who will refuse it without grounds. 

Charisse Madlock-Brown leads a group looking at social determinants of health in a massive, NIH-funded database representing 2.5 million people tested for COVID in about 75 clinical centers around the nation.

The deaths of individuals who tested positive for coronavirus during the past two weeks have risen by more than 23%, from 925 to 1,140.

Nineteen KIPP Memphis Academy Middle staff members sent a letter to the board of directors asking them to remove Kendra Ferguson, who has led the charter network of five schools since 2016 and reports to the board. 

The total number of cases since early March now totals 77,566.

Hendrell Remus is the first Black chairman of the state party and a veteran political operative in Memphis who recently moved to Nashville. He got the votes for chairman Saturday on a pledge to shake the state Democratic Party from its traditional Nashville orientation to a more grass roots and statewide approach. 

From Jan. 2 to Jan. 16, the Health Department reported an average of 589 new cases and 4,266 tests results a day with a 13.8% positivity rate.

The 535 COVID-19 cases reported Saturday resulted from 5,199 tests, yielding a 10.3% positivity rate. The positivity rate for Tennessee is 14.8%.

American Eagle flight 4245 was set to leave Memphis International Airport at 7:48 a.m. and was delayed for more than five hours, according to American Airlines. It finally departed at 1:41 p.m.

Overton Park golf course may be jammed this weekend with golfers playing one last round before the nine-hole track closes until the fall. The course is being redesigned and rebuilt.

Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the map to winning Tennessee may have changed with some suburban areas turning purple. 

Lakeland officials say they understand the seriousness of the virus, but want better collaboration with the Health Department.

Memphian Matthew Bledsoe has been charged as one of the rioters at the U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., Wednesday, Jan. 6.

The Congressman from Germantown told The Daily Memphian he believes Trump’s remarks just before the Capitol insurrection fueled the violence that claimed five lives. Kustoff also indicated it might be time to change the Congressional Act that allowed the electoral college challenge he supported.

The two mayors, in an extended interview on “Behind The Headlines,” say new vaccines that don’t require two doses or sub-zero refrigeration could work better for meeting the need countywide. 

The 491 cases come from 4,472 tests, giving the day a positivity rate of 11%.

In addition to new summer school and tutoring programs to catch students up from learning disruptions caused by the coronavirus pandemic, Gov. Bill Lee promised a pay hike for teachers, but did not specify an amount.

Shopping centers are out, a new QB is headed to Memphis, and the Health Department isn’t ruling out extending our latest ‘Safer at Home’ restrictions. 

Toni Woods feels safer after second dose, but she knows her patients and her mother still need her to keep working, avoid risk.

Groups are finding virtual ways to serve for the MLK holiday this year because of the pandemic. 

Dr. Brown holds numerous positions in genetics, genomics and pediatrics at UTHSC.