On Friday, the Shelby County Health Department reported a daily positivity rate of 16.4%. 

It's Friday, July 24, and the theme today is eating, drinking and being merry. Or trying to be. 

Most diners are complying with Health Directive 8 and giving their names and numbers at restaurants, but Jiminy Cricket! Some just won’t do it.

We curse them, criticize them and (sometimes even) flip them the bird. On National Drive-Thru Day, let's hear it for the front-line workers who see us at our worst.

Two local leaders in the pandemic fight said on "Behind The Headlines" there would be a stronger-than-usual push for flu vaccinations. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter also said the role of schools in the pandemic makes reopening them – virtually or in person – an important part of battling the virus.

The council's Glenview cell tower vote and a series of Black Lives Matter proposals setting the stage for some renamings of public places are the latest entries in our ongoing scorecard of council roll call votes.

The turnout totals from the Shelby County Election Commission also show the first indications of a massive absentee voter turnout as election officials expect to catch up to a backlog of absentee applications by Friday.

State Rep. London Lamar is hoping a new emergency powers committee she is joining will look at the governor’s executive authority and decisions affecting everything from business closings to education amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

Even though Republican governors are mandating masks and President Donald Trump has begun calling them "patriotic," Gov. Bill Lee continues to decline requiring face coverings statewide.

We’ve had more time to prepare for remote learning than we had in the spring. But there are complications that our spring pause did not present: new teachers for most, new schools for many, and a first school experience for some. 

MATA has had nine employees test positive from the coronavirus since April.

The president says the university is lucky it doesn't have many classes with a large-lecture format. 

The state’s seasonally adjusted unemployment rate decreased for the second consecutive month, falling to 9.7% in June from 11% in May.

Continuing unemployment claims dipped slightly both locally and statewide for the week.

City of Memphis COO Doug McGowen said the local COVID-19 task force is in search of a “testing czar” to look at coronavirus testing in Shelby County.

Shelby County’s overall positivity rate of coronavirus tests has increased yet again; the number is now 9.8%. Today's positivity rate is 18.4%.

The new EEG test can be set up in less than five minutes, while a typical EEG test takes between 20-30 minutes.

It's Thursday, July 23, and Major League Baseball's season will begin today. We're all going to be eating street food, the Nylon Net building may be getting new life and a wing business is taking flight. 

Hargett called for more federal funding for election procedures in the pandemic without Washington putting any conditions on state election officials in the process. Lawmakers questioned him closely on the state's opposition to expanded absentee balloting even after it was ordered by a state court. 

The college will open for virtual classes Aug. 12, and will monitor coronavirus case numbers to decide whether to reopen the campus after Labor Day.

Germantown Municipal School District has announced it will push back its start date for the fall semester to Aug. 17.

The reopening is one of several measures the city is announcing or considering this week in what looks like a new round of measures in the four-month-old pandemic

The 3-mile ball of ice will make its closest approach to the Earth on Thursday, July 23.

Shelby County, from July 8-22, averaged 342 new cases a day, 2,350 test results and a 14.6% positivity rate, according to Shelby County Health Department data.

So far, the return by voters of the unusually high number of the mail-in ballots hasn't shown up in the early voting turnout figures. Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips told county commissioners Wednesday, July 22, that some absentee voters may not complete their ballots because they are expecting to see the presidential general election that is on the November ballot.