Simmons Bank, which is acquiring the rights to rename the venue, has decided to switch out one word.

The new district lines will reflect a drop of 16,000 Memphians by the U.S. Census count and populations gains in three of the seven single-member City Council districts as well as drops in the head count in the other four districts. 

The higher minimum wage for EDGE tax break incentives was well short of seven votes Tuesday, Oct. 19, on the Memphis City Council. Opponents of the measure defeated a move to delay the outcome but there may still be some life left in the call for higher pay for tax breaks.

In other action Tuesday, Oct. 19, the council delayed a final vote on a comprehensive downzoning plan and approved funding for the start of the next phase of construction on the South City development.

The council tabled a move to put an ad hoc working group in place, similar to what the Shelby County Commission already has up and running. The delay came after a discussion about motives, snakes, the city’s method of redistricting and protecting incumbents.

Most of the early proposals for the council’s share of ARPA funding took a cut in their dollar figures in the compromise worked out by Chase Carlisle and Edmund Ford Sr.

The Tuesday, Oct. 18, City Council session also includes a vote on further commercial uses of the Annesdale Mansion and a vote on raising the minimum wage to qualify for economic development tax break incentives.

Meanwhile, the Shelby County Election Commission has underlined with a resolution that it needs to have redistricting maps for the school board and the Shelby County Commission no later than Nov. 8 to be ready for the 2022 county elections.

Former First Lady Michelle Obama was joined by Poor People’s Campaign founders Rev. William Barber and Liz Theoharis in an awards ceremony that was for the most part conducted live in an Orpheum theater without an audience.

Federal and local law enforcement introduce a new plan to tackle violent crime by holding community summits throughout the city. 

An Orange Mound postal facility where three people including the gunman died earlier this week was back in operation Thursday.

Three organizations against the Memphis Area Transit Authority’s recent service changes are holding a town hall meeting Friday, Oct. 15, in Boxtown.

The Council Scorecard looks at a lopsided council committee vote earlier this month on a new minimum wage for EDGE incentives and the outside events influencing it.

Memphis River Parks Partnership President Carol Coletta called the riverfront path “one of the most important parts of the park.”

Memphis Parks Director Nick Walker discusses rebranding and a website that emphasizes programming in city parks, as well as plans for a return to amateur sports leagues.

Attorneys for state Sen. Katrina Robinson have filed a motion asking for a new trial or acquittal after she was found guilty last month of four wire fraud charges. 

A veteran Public Defender is seeking to become the first Indian-American to serve as a judge in Shelby County. But Sanjeev Memula is considering which of the nine criminal divisions of General Sessions Court he will seek.

Shelby County Schools has announced that employees can receive up to 10 consecutive days of paid sick leave while in isolation following a positive COVID-19 test. 

Germantown is beginning the process of providing its water services to residents in the southernmost portion of the city.

Two Memphis organizations providing meals to children in the summer of 2020 billed the state for meals they didn’t serve. Federally funded food programs have been susceptible to fraud for years.

The council also delayed action on several resolutions awarding federal American Rescue Plan Act funding allocated for the council’s uses. 

The City Council approved the pipeline right-of-way ordinance on the first of three votes Tuesday, Oct. 5. It covers the entire city, requiring a permitting process for any work done beneath or across city streets. 

City Council members took a test vote of sorts in committee sessions on a proposal to make pay of $21 an hour the minimum for getting tax breaks from EDGE. The new Ford plant in Haywood County came up in the discussion.

The council is on record opposing TVA’s plan to truck coal ash from the old Allen Fossil Plant to a landfill in Capleville. The Tuesday council committee discussion also ventured into TVA’s role in the Blue Oval City Ford battery plant. 

The $4.9 million in funding would replace much, but not all, of the 55-year old structure’s exterior marble veneer.