Barbara Swearengen Ware died Thursday, Sept. 30, 11 years after she resigned from the Memphis City Council after a plea deal on an official misconduct charge. She served 17 years on the council representing the North Memphis area that included the Douglass community.

The opt-out policy has been blocked in three metro counties, including Shelby County.

Former Memphis City Council member Barbara Swearengen Ware has died at the age of 82.

Memphis and the surrounding region lost out when the state’s original auto corridor was established in Middle Tennessee almost 40 years ago. But the new Ford plant in Haywood County comes with lessons from that pursuit as well as doubts and the prospect of more change beyond the electric vehicles powered by batteries made at the megasite.

The Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission are already getting requests from groups that want a share of the money.

Statewide, there have been 4,933 student cases and 755 staff cases reported as of Friday afternoon.

The head of the city’s Office of Business Diversity and Compliance is also leaving her position.

Sheriff Floyd Bonner says the COVID-19 pandemic has made his job more difficult but touted low crime rates in unincorporated Shelby County. 

Some of the reaction called for an immediate look at the causes of such violence as part of a national debate while others called for supporting those grieving from the loss of life, at least for now.

The Shelby County Commission’s ad hoc group on the new district lines got its first look at some proposed maps for the redistricting plan this week. The group makes recommendations to the full commission, which decides on how to deal with shifts in population within its 13 districts.

Shelby may still be the largest of Tennessee’s 95 counties, but it long ago lost the influence and cachet that it once enjoyed statewide.

The resolution to form a commission to draft a consolidation charter showed up in Wednesday committee sessions without notice. Like the City Council, county commissioners amended it to stop short of beginning to draft a charter and to include looking at changes to local government short of consolidation.

A fraud investigator for the federal Department of Health and Human Services Office of the Inspector General testified he had a hard time finding students who attended the nursing school.

The measure is one of three proposals to limit and require local government approval and regulation of new oil pipeline projects. It’s broader than the other two measures delayed Tuesday over lingering legal questions.

A low vaccination rate is just one of the problems the city faces as it wrestles with chronic problems surrounding solid waste disposal. 

Also on the Tuesday, Sept. 21, Memphis City Council agenda is more discussion of how to spend the council’s $20 million share of the city’s federal ARPA funds and a minimum wage for getting EDGE tax incentives.

The mayor is among 23% of Memphians who got COVID despite being vaccinated. About 77% of the city’s coronavirus patients are unvaccinated; 94% who are hospitalized are unvaccinated, and 99% of fatalities are unvaccinated, said Dr. Richard Walker, interim head of emergency medicine at UTHSC.

The City Council has approved $20 million in American Rescue Protection Act funding for council-led community initiatives like fighting homelessness, providing relief to artists, and funding the Boys and Girls Clubs. 

Some of the roadways and parks that were researched include Overton Park, Lamar Avenue, Jackson Avenue, Audubon Park and Manassas Street. 

The University of Memphis desires to maintain its presence in Collierville. However, that presence has changed from what it was when the university opened its suburban campus in 2015.

“This is where the poor are. This is where the Prophet would be. So this is where we need to be.” 

Strickland said he had been experiencing mild symptoms including congestion that prompted him to get tested with the results being positive Friday.

Retired Atlanta police official to start new job in Memphis on Sept. 13.

Most of the refugees arriving in Memphis are allowed to enter the country because they fear persecution under Taliban rule. Others aided the U.S. military in Afghanistan. 

The special assistant to Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland talked about his exploratory campaign for mayor Wednesday, Sept. 8, and sounded very much like he is in the race while taking a few jabs at incumbent Mayor Lee Harris.