The first step toward consolidation shows up on the City Council’s committee list for next week. 

Authorities said 40 people have been indicted on drug trafficking charges for distributing drugs from three abandoned houses in a North Memphis neighborhood. 

Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright says even with recent changes in state laws this year, it’s unclear where the health department’s authority to issue mask mandates and require other measures ends and where decisions by elected officials begin.

Testing will begin Sept. 6 for Health Department staff.

The Shelby County Commission voted Monday, Aug. 9, to override the veto of a new ethics advisory panel the commission would appoint.

The veto override by the commission is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.

The delays to the Aug. 23 commission meeting followed a rancorous debate among commissioners and between commissioners and anti-maskers who taunted one commissioner online before Monday’s session.

For the first time since March 2020, all Shelby County Schools students were expected to return to in-person classes amid rising COVID-19 cases. 

Students who do not comply and do not qualify for an exemption are to be sent home.

The commission is the latest body to take up a call for a countywide mask mandate that would come from the Shelby County Health Department. The health department amended its latest health directive Friday to require all K-12 students in all schools – public and private – across the county to wear masks as the school year begins. Also on Monday’s agenda is a veto override.

“If you don’t have time to do it, I’m sorry. I need someone else who can do it,” Judge Paula Skahan tells psychologist.

The TBI began an investigation into the improper use of confidential information by someone in the district attorney’s office. 

The last major construction project at the school was more than 40 years ago.

The specialized school will offer students the opportunity to earn an associate degree. 

Of the 4,383 active cases in Shelby County, more than a quarter are in children, and those children are suffering more respiratory symptoms than they were earlier in the pandemic. 

The attorney advising the Shelby County Commission would be separate from the county attorney’s office under a proposal on which the commission is expected to take its first vote Monday. 

Shelby County is now 60% of the way to the goal of vaccinating 700,000 residents against COVID-19.

As Shelby County Schools students gear up for in-person school Monday, Aug. 9, the district is revving up a new fleet of buses. 

DeAndre Brown has been tapped to be the acting head of the county’s re-entry program. 

The Shelby County mayor says a survey of county employees found that 70% had already been vaccinated.

County Commissioner Tami Sawyer announced Monday she will not seek a second term in the 2022 county elections. Her decision means six new faces on the commission in the next election.

The first step would be a commission to draft a charter for a combined city of Memphis and Shelby County government covering Memphis and unincorporated Shelby County but not the six suburban towns and cities. 

The County Commission will soon have a panel of five to advise on ethics. One commissioner warns it could be seen as conflicting with the ongoing special prosecutor’s investigation into a 2019 grant proposed by Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr.

Brent Taylor says the County Commission decision to take its own bids on a new voting system “effectively bypasses” the Election Commission and “doesn’t indicate a willingness to work cooperatively.”

The commission also delayed the second of three votes on the Byhalia Connection Pipeline ordinance after it was amended.