Hundreds of fans visited Graceland to celebrate the King of Rock 'n' Roll's birthday, a celebration that will continue with events through Friday, Jan. 11.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division is proposing a new electric rate hike that would be less steep than an earlier proposal in the first of three years, but about the same overall. Meanwhile, some city council members want to pair the rate hike decision with whether MLGW cuts its ties with the Tennessee Valley Authority.

The second-term slate of 13 Jim Strickland administration directors and chiefs drew some resistance from several council members in committee sessions Tuesday at City Hall. The decision to delay the vote on the slate for two weeks saw some of the new council members on different sides of the question at their first council meeting.

Gov. Bill Lee unveiled a new paid family leave policy for state employees Tuesday, a measure permitting up to 12 weeks of annual medical leave time for events such as child births and family illnesses. Lee admitted it will come with a cost.

The old council rejected a multi-year electric rate hike at its last meeting of the term last month. The new council talks compromise Tuesday in committee sessions with MLGW brass.

The Daily Memphian's primer on the ground rules, customs, proverbs and unwritten rules that keep City Hall running.

The plan, which may be considered by city government later this month, would address blight in an area near Northgate Shopping Center. 

The first City Council meeting of 2020 next week will include a review of the two new appointees and 13 returning division directors and chiefs. 

The Memphis mayor said the new corp would start with 25 young adults picking up litter part-time for $12 an hour as they work toward high school diplomas and college degrees.

A five-year, $5 million study of potential threats to Memphis’ drinking water supply has been slowed by protracted contract negotiations between MLGW and a University of Memphis research unit. 

The Memphis mayor promised details at his Wednesday oath of office ceremony on a city effort aimed at "opportunity youth" between the ages of 16 and 24. 

Special counsel Alan Crone will soon take his leave from Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration. As Strickland starts his second and last term, Crone, a long-time friend, will return full-time to his own law practice.

Since March 2018, the City of Memphis has been saying it intends to end the 1970s-era agreement to treat wastewater in a North Mississippi sewer district that predates the incorporation of Southaven. 

The Tennessee Court of Appeals has upheld dismissal of a 2018 lawsuit against the City of Memphis, Shelby County government and the Memphis Grizzlies by Elvis Presley Enterprises over Graceland’s plans to build a 6,200-seat arena on its Whitehaven campus.

Analysis of what is ahead for second-term Mayor Jim Strickland and a City Council that is a mix of second-termers, new members and those in between after an election year that delivered some mandates.

The incoming and outgoing leaders of the Memphis City Council agree the city probably doesn't have enough money from a half-cent sales tax hike approved by voters in October to fully restore benefits cut by the city in 2014. 

The grants to eight nonprofits announced at City Hall Monday cover areas outside Downtown and Midtown where the housing stock is old and could use some help to encourage private development. The fund works with the city's recently approved Memphis 3.0 land use and development guidelines.

The six Memphis City Council members whose terms end with the new year said their farewells Dec. 17 at the last council meeting of the year. For some it was emotional, for others it was a time to reflect and for still others it was political.

City leaders announced Wednesday, Dec. 18, they are pausing the parking plan at the Memphis Zoo to consider instead building a one-story parking deck of 350 spaces. 

Water and gas rate hikes were approved but a proposed electric rate hike was rejected. The council also took back its rejection of a solid waste fee hike that goes on the same monthly utility bills. That after Mayor Jim Strickland threatened layoffs and reductions in garbage service in the new year without the hike.

The Holiday Night Market Friday in the park highlights the intersection between the drive to remove the monuments and an earlier effort to activate the park for more Memphians.

The eight-unit apartment building at Kansas and Waldorf from the 1950s got an extensive rehab with state funding and some donations after sitting vacant for 20 years.

The City Council could also Tuesday revisit its decision two weeks ago to reject a solid waste fee hike. Mayor Jim Strickland said no fee hike could lead to laying off sanitation workers and scaling back garbage pickups of curbside trash. The combination with the MLGW rate hike proposal could cause the council to do either/or but not both.

Toys for Tots and Alpha Phi Alphi Fraternity, Inc., staged two events for holiday giving that took place just blocks apart in Whitehaven.

The tiny Deaderick family cemetery in Orange Mound was once much bigger. And this week, an archaeological effort by the city and several Orange Mound groups found evidence of more graves beyond the wrought iron fence of the cemetery along Park Avenue.