The local face of a global pandemic, challenges to education and the local reaction to the death of George Floyd topped a “Behind The Headlines” review of the year 2020.

The task force making the call is one of several working on police reforms and better police practices. The size of the Memphis Police force is a controversial part of the civic discussion about police reform.

The city is in a race with the calendar to spend its federal funding within the next two weeks or send it back to D.C. 

Memphis City Council members heard about the difficulty of getting financing for hotel projects before approving the financing of a third hotel for One Beale. The set of parking projects nearby had a more complex path to approval.

Homeless veterans, those in second chance and sober living programs or people simply wanting to get their lives in order are the target groups for The Purpose Place, the applicant behind the proposal.

A set of three proposed ordinances aren’t due for a vote by the full council until the new year. But several council members are concerned about how police will carry out the ordinances if they are passed.

The council also talks about limits on mufflers, a cleanup of the city’s code of ordinances and could take a final vote on a sidewalk change that would require a sidewalk inspection as part of the closing process in real estate sales.

The six-mile stretch through Orange Mound is changing, using the year-old Memphis 3.0 land use and development plan. Lots of other parts of the city want to follow the same path.

The 29th awards ceremony was virtual this year because of the COVID-19 pandemic. The online video of past ceremonies covered the annual event all the way back to its 1991 origins.

The National Civil Rights Museum’s annual Freedom Awards Friday, Dec. 11, will be basically a “greatest hits” online moment in this year of the pandemic.

City of Memphis and Memphis River Parks Partnership officials hold virtual groundbreaking on Cutbank Bluff, the first phase of a $60 million overhaul of Tom Lee Park.

The Memphis Regional Megasite made the organization’s top 3 in its 15-year list of worst government waste.

National nonprofit, FedEx and Memphis Athletic Ministries partner to distribute the coats across the city of Memphis.

Drag racing would still be a misdemeanor under the legislation proposed by two Shelby County legislators. But it would be a higher grade misdemeanor. The City Council will also see some resolutions on its agenda supporting the bill.

Christ Community Health Services, the Mid-South Food Bank, Las Americas and MICAH will be honored for outstanding service in a very unusual year. 

Three billboard companies are donating digital billboard space to encourage Memphians to “Shop Local 901.” The colorful message will be displayed on about 15 billboards about 140,000 times a week this holiday season.

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.

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

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. 

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.

The next-to-last council meeting of the year saw some votes change, the simple become complex and the obvious spelled out. There was also a rare slip that saw an item that appeared to fail win approval after all.

Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson said council members who behave badly, as council member Edmund Ford Sr. did two weeks ago, can’t be removed or suspended. And restoring order is “a question of judgment” by the chairperson.

The council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge a statewide mask mandate, and several council members said their earlier vote against the city’s mask ordinance was wrong.

The measure by council member Chase Carlisle was one vote short of the seven needed. It failed after a council debate that included one council member remembering his own brush with corruption charges. Others argued the proposal was arbitrary and cumbersome.

A voting miscue Tuesday was reversed Wednesday with the passage of the resolution that directs the mayor to draw up a plan to end the use of any city money to buy bottled water.