While thousands considered Steve a friend, it never felt like thousands when you visited with him. It was just you and Steve. He listened to you, you the homeless, you the wealthy, you the mover and shaker and you the one being moved and shaken.

Those who are showing up for the pandemic version of Elvis Week are getting a first look at new interactive exhibits – "Elvis Movie Match Game," "Elvis Yourself" – that will become permanent fixtures at the complex across from Graceland.

Loosening the residency requirement would make it easier for Memphis to create racial diversity in the ranks of MPD with smart, targeted recruiting. But in a perplexing vote, the Memphis City Council decided to remove the residency referendum from the Nov. 3 ballot.

Presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden is counting on his choice of running mate Kamala Harris to bring in new and reenergized voters in key battleground states.

Many organizations are working on worthwhile causes. Many of these organizations are nonprofits, often with limited funding and staff, who are looking for volunteers to serve as advocates.

Richard Halliburton spent his short life “living poetry instead of writing it.”

When our world turned upside down on Jan. 25, 2002, Pastor Steve Montgomery and the Idlewild Presbyterian congregation not only fed our souls, but also our bodies.

Over the course of a year I saw first hand the renovation and reselling of homes in my neighborhood, and I saw the people who came with it. After all, I was one of them. Who is this “New Memphis” for?

Stranger things have happened. Heck, Ronald Reagan carried New York – twice. 

There will be a vaccine for COVID-19. In the meantime, we will continue to suffer from chronic, fatal stupidity.

Some find it galling that the City Council pulled back a public referendum on the police residency question. I dunno, I’d say the point of representative democracy is to elect officials and ask them to deliberate and make informed judgments.

The data on inducing COVID-19 immune responses are promising, but it is not clear yet whether this will result in limited protection, modest protection or complete protection from either infection or disease. As we know from influenza vaccines, even partial protection may have benefit.

A majority of Americans trust Dr. Anthony Fauci to tell the truth about the pandemic. But Tennessee U.S. Senate candidate Dr. Manny Sethi, hoping to impress President Trump, says Fauci needs to go. 

The party with which I have self-identified for much of my adult life, the Republican Party, has failed to live up to its “big tent” credo of inclusiveness and belonging.

The pandemic presents everyone with unique and unprecedented options. No school district has ever decided such matters, and there may not be a “one-size-fits-all” direction to take in this.

It’s a community service to put election stories outside the paywall. And yet, bluntly, our decision also comes with a cost. Because producing this news is expensive.

Bipartisan support for this bill – including by Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, Republican U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, and Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander – speaks volumes about the value of parks in our lives. 

As the U.S. reckons with centuries of oppression and racism against Black people, a concurrent reckoning must happen within the Latinx community, which has its own history of systemic anti-Blackness.

The data does not show that we need more police to become a safer city. Police experts will tell you: It is more about how you use police officers, rather than how many you have.

It may surprise Christians who advise athletes and audiences to pray instead of protest, but Christians have never separated protest and prayer.

In light of COVID-19, counselors at Universal Parenting Places now provide individual counseling to parents via HIPAA-compliant telehealth video chats as well as by phone.

Eighteen cities bear his name as do counties in 22 states. Fourteen presidents have gone to his home to pay homage. But stock in Jackson's historical reputation, which has been declining for several years, just took another major hit.

In 1972 in Fayette County, John Lewis and Julian Bond passionately urged African Americans to vote. Attendees that night also saw that both Lewis, the son of sharecroppers, and Bond were just ordinary people intermingling, like “home folks,” with rural activists.

Amid the struggles we are going through, the gist of William Sloane Coffin’s saying is on point. Except for the most disciplined of us all, who is not exhausted by the strain and uncertainty?

My longtime pastor, Steve Montgomery, died of injuries from a bicycle accident earlier this week. What would Steve have said to help us make sense of his death? I asked some of his close friends.