As Memphis in May and Memphis River Parks Partnership negotiate a plan for the park on the Mississippi, city residents should recall other Memphis projects born in conflict.

There is no excusing the murderer who took Glenn Cofield’s life or Brandon Webber’s self-destruction. There is also no excuse in the richest nation on Earth for the poverty and despair our policies produce, and the pressure that puts on law enforcement and support systems.

As former Memphis mayors Dick Hackett and A C Wharton can attest, the top city job requires political skill in the face of bad news or calamity.

Our grandchild, born June 10, is part of the flow of the Mississippi where my father's ashes are, and the stream in upstate New York where my brother Frank's ashes are. Just as every one of us is an individual, every one of us is part of something larger, connected in ways large and small, and always to place.

District Attorney John Champion is not serving as a P.R. spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service or any other law enforcement agency. He is speaking out for the Hernando shooting victim, whose ordeal has mostly gotten lost amid the violent unrest, the finger pointing and vigils that occurred after Brandon Webber was killed.

Here's a collection of 13 terrific innovations in our language, plus a longer list of major annoyances in contemporary use.

Currently, just over 50% of children are ready when they enter kindergarten and only about a quarter of third-graders in Shelby County Schools are reading on grade level. That means half of Shelby County students are already behind before they even get started.

A review of weather statistics, electricity usage and health records for the past 50 years shows that Memphians are increasingly paying more for electricity, and experiencing more emergency department visits and deaths due to heat. 

If you’re lucky enough to have a pool – even a kiddie pool – this playlist should provide the perfect accompaniment for an afternoon lounge in your floaties.

Photographers, along with reporters, hovered over the veterans like they were the newest rock group. Both men and women were crying, cameras clicked with non-stop flashing, and young children hugged our heroes.

Local data from pre-K this year shows the effectiveness of high-quality early childhood programs. Eighty-five percent of the 7,800 children who attended finished the year "ready for kindergarten," and more likely to read on grade level in third grade. 

In a social media post, Webber shares his original rap song “Fly High Kerr-Dulea,” about the shooting death of his childhood friend.

Almost as if by a magnetic force, residents were drawn to Ms. Jean. The few gifts she would accept – a hamburger, a blanket, a bag of cherries – were small. But the gift she gave was enormous: She activated compassion and drew her neighborhood closer together.

He was 13 years older, the blond guy in the living room reading books and blowing smoke rings, off to college when I was 5, married and off to the Iowa Writers’ Workshop when I was 12. 

Children with fathers are less likely to repeat a grade, more likely to get A's and more likely to enjoy school.

There are others out there like me who value the ability to be vulnerable, honest and real as it relates to the adventure of fatherhood. 

It’s called the music business for a reason, and from the beginning, Sam Phillips’ never-ceasing struggle was to make records he loved while keeping his shoestring operation financially solvent.

The gravity of violent crime continues to loom over Memphis like an ominous storm cloud that stubbornly refuses to break up and move on.

Companies previously opposed to hiring ex-offenders are awakening to the value of creating taxpayers rather than funding perpetrators.

We’ve gone from being the nation’s most-expensive airport for travelers to its 28th most expensive. And flights cost less than $10 more from Memphis than at the 20 next-cheapest airports, according to the Bureau of Transportation Statistics.

The mayor said he "yields to the will of the body, namely the County Commission. My recommendation is that he does just that so the commission can finish his incomplete homework assignment."

Glenn was not a first generation do-gooder. Helping others and promoting peace and prosperity for all ran deeply in his blood. An hour before he died, he collected money from friends – at a party for a children's nonprofit organization – to help pay the caterer's MLGW bill.

Richard Halliburton wrote a steamer trunk of bestsellers and syndicated articles, but to call him merely an author would be like calling Indiana Jones merely an anthropologist. And while Indy’s unbelievable fictional adventures are just that, Halliburton’s unbelievable adventures were real.

The interfaith organization MICAH wants to make sure former Foote Homes residents have access to a significant number of the new units under construction on the site.

Inequity not only exists in terms of professional opportunities or pay for women who are musicians, but it also exists in the very situations where creativity is born. The system is rigged to its core.