Darren Goods, a veteran Memphis Police officer who was former head of the gang unit, has retired and taken a job with the state Department of Children Services. 

The commission also votes on funding for a public health coordinator’s position at the Shelby County Health Department as part of the ongoing discussion about the county’s pandemic response.

How fast the vaccine is available to the general public will depend on how many people in the priority categories decide to get it.

The Shelby County Health Department closed six restaurants and businesses over the weekend, including two locations of T.J. Mulligan’s. Related article: Beale St. club among latest health department closures

Shelby County Health Department reported six new deaths Sunday, Dec. 6, and 702 people in the county have died with COVID-19.

The Daily Memphian asked Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter and county Mayor Lee Harris for data used to make decisions about health directives affecting restaurants, and the Health Department released some information Dec. 3.

Carjackings are “basically a crime of opportunity,” said Lt. Jimmy Lewis of MPD’s Violent Crimes Unit. And this year, he said, police are seeing guns used more often during the crimes.

From Nov. 21 to Dec. 5, the Health Department reported an average of 415 new cases and 3,980 test results a day yielding a 10.4% positivity rate. With cases outgrowing tests, that’s leading to a surging county positivity rate.

The Shelby County Health Department reported 541 new COVID-19 cases and seven virus-related deaths in its daily update Saturday.

The new Raleigh branch library is set to open Dec. 14, replacing the 54-year-old location at 3157 Powers Rd., which is closed as the transition begins to its future home.

Memphis has reached 300 homicides this year, a record- shattering number. 

Staffing shortages account for bottlenecks in emergency rooms, and the inability to staff hundreds of vacant hospital rooms.

Sen. Lamar Alexander also said President Donald Trump has a record to be proud of during the interview on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. And he said he carried Memphis in his five statewide general election wins by campaigning everywhere in the county, not just the Republican suburbs.

The city estimates a quarter of solid waste crews have the COVID virus and are in quarantine.

The cut-bank bluff design is the first of the changes to Tom Lee Park and the surrounding area Downtown by the Memphis River Parks Partnership.

Thirty area ICU beds and 198 area acute care beds were available.

Terri Freeman plans to leave the National Civil Rights Museum, the VP comes to Memphis and we now know who will get the vaccine first in Tennessee. 

Leaders of the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association and Mid-South Food Bank talked on “Behind The Headlines” about how the pandemic has changed their distribution models. 

A panel of experts shared their insights on how the pandemic has affected retail, office, industrial and multifamily real estate, and the effects long after COVID-19 is gone.

National Civil Rights Museum president Terri Lee Freeman is leaving in February to lead a museum in Baltimore. She arrived at the helm of the museum just as the city’s new activism began to surface.

Vice President Mike Pence called Memphis-born FedEx “a remarkable American company” and said it will be crucial to successful execution of a COVID-19 vaccination program.

The Health Department ordered In Love Memphis to close for two weeks, said Alisa Haushalter, Shelby County Health Department Director. That’s the minimum amount of time the agency can require a facility to close.

BancorpSouth is the fifth largest bank in the Memphis market based on local deposits.