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. 

The outburst by City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. two weeks ago still raises questions about how to apply rules of conduct to elected council members. And it’s a discussion past councils have had about Ford and others on the body.

A 40,000-square-foot entertainment and arcade venue called High 5 has signed a letter of intent to be at Liberty Park. And that doesn’t include High 5’s planned, 25,000-square-foot miniature golf course. 

Both e-commerce and early shopping could be contributors to the smaller-than-normal crowds, not to mention the COVID-19 pandemic.

As of 5 p.m. Monday, Nov.23, the Health Department reported that 89% of the area’s acute care hospital beds were occupied.

Concerns about the spread of the coronavirus forced organizers to cancel the Whitehaven Christmas Parade and the Memphis Holiday Parade.

MemFeast, the annual Thanksgiving dinner for the homeless and those in need, had to change the way it distributes meals because of the pandemic. Six churches will serve meals from food trucks in their parking lots.

No location has been decided on for the re-interment, according to SCV leader Lee Millar. But court documents suggest the remains and equestrian statue of Forrest removed from Health Sciences Park could be bound for a new National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tn. 

Overton Park Conservancy is asking the public to complete by Nov. 30 a 21-question survey to help guide a new master plan for the park’s east side. The survey is found at www.overtonpark.org/zone1.

The Council Scorecard dives deeper into the political winds blowing in what turned into a race for council chairman and the mixed results in a set of proposed convenience stores with gas pumps.

While the wait until completion likely won’t be as long as the years long push for a new facility, there’s no Ed Rice center available while those improvements are underway.

Council member JB Smiley is also seeking a change in council rules that would allow the chairman of the body to bar a council member who does what Ford did twice during Tuesday’s council meetings.

The task force is among the recommendations in a violent crime blueprint touted by council member Jeff Warren for the past year. Meanwhile, the city should have a new police director by the spring and the head of the MPD is a key player in such a task force.

Frank Colvett won election as City Council chairman Tuesday over Martavius Jones. But Colvett’s selection did not come without some controversy. 

The Family Safety Center and Memphis police said during the holidays, they see an increase in domestic violence incidents. And during the pandemic, they have also seen an increase in cases.