It’s hard to imagine many places of Memphis’ size with history and culture so rich and a sense of place so profound.

When we get into buying big stuff, like $20 billion to $25 billion worth of electricity, there are laws and rules, conventions, traditions and common sense that apply. One of these is getting competitive bids from more than one capable bidder.

Even though Corinth was a small town of about 1,200, its location made it the key to controlling the western half of the Confederacy and its most important city, Memphis.

'Despite our financial soundness, everyone in Shelby County soon will be paying more in property taxes unless my colleagues on the County Commission embrace a serious reality check regarding the shortfall in the county’s general fund.'

Poets, artists and musicians historically have been able to speak the truth when the truth is hard to come by, and sometimes do more more to help people through the crises they face than so-called experts.

Finding a light when things are so dark is what scientists do, and this is how society will think (not just spend) our way out of this pandemic and all its consequences.

Smaller class sizes, class time spent teaching instead of dealing with behavioral problems, and a rigorous college-prep curriculum were important to me. But times change, and different students thrive in different environments.

Like the lottery for military service during the Vietnam War, what if there was a lottery of a certain number from other segments of society — with no exceptions allowed — who would serve on the meatpacking lines for a month?

Gov. Bill Lee called the day the House passed the school voucher law last year an “historic day.” If so, the bar for historic days is lower than a salamander’s belly.

The operational difference between “Phase 1” and “Phase 2” was always fairly narrow and has grown more so via “phase creep.”

Yes, covering your nose and mouth with a mask is annoying. Yes, it causes your glasses to fog. Yes, it makes communication more difficult. And yes, it stops the spread of disease.

The Forrest statue made the park unusable space for most Memphians. The Sons of Confederate Veterans lost the battle for the hearts and minds of Memphis, thank goodness, long before they lost the legal battle over moving the monuments to Forrest and Jefferson Davis. 

Fred Davis, a charter member of the Memphis City Council, may have left elected office more than 40 years ago, he never stepped aside.

First day back at the gym means you follow new rules, and unless you’ve been very disciplined, you regret your COVID ‘self-care’ choices.

The lack of a national plan to deal with the pandemic led to a disorganized and uncoordinated set of responses. Project Apollo and the Manhattan Project show what we can do when the response to a challenge is unified.

In the age of COVID-19, suspicions that police are not trustworthy must take a back seat to the certainty that this pandemic will spread without adequate safeguards.

At a price tag of about $1 million, the program marks the first major statewide investment in addressing learning loss due to the public health emergency.

Rather than assuming all students are behind when schools reopen, we should begin the school year providing grade-level content and addressing lost-learning challenges as they are identified.

Before the pandemic, the Memphis Zoo was a choose-your-own-adventure endeavor, but for the time being, visitors will be guided in one direction around the exhibits. “If you’re just here to see the giraffes it’s going to take you awhile, because you’re going to have to walk the walk,” says zoo CEO Jim Dean.

Around the world, nurses are demonstrating their compassion, bravery and courage as they respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. Never before has their value been more clearly demonstrated.

It was a Mother’s Day we’ll always remember, though one we’ve declared deserves a do-over.

Just over two years ago, a nonprofit called Memphis Fourth Estate Inc. began operation. I am fortunate to be one of the first two employees of that organization, which would go on to launch The Daily Memphian in September 2018.

With no current Tennessee Democrat available to fulfill Biden’s pledge to choose a woman VP, how about his other promise: to “appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court”? 

The Stockwell and Abbott families started a Downtown lunch spot 40 years ago that inspired a son’s lifelong belief in city-building: ‘Nine-year-old me didn’t doubt Downtown could rally, because I had seen my own family do it.’

The Daily Memphian’s Eric Barnes writes about how the emotional quarantine of dementia is made worse by coronavirus on Mother’s Day.