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.

'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?

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 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.

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.

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.

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.’

A German student learns to love America. She also learns that American students are baffled by Trump's election, and that some want to carry guns on campus.

Children may face immediate and long-term consequences of COVID-19 – from delays in seeking medical attention for current illnesses, to chronic toxic stress, to the threat of communicable diseases due to delayed vaccinations.

My family of five popped into our hairdresser’s backyard for a quarantine cut. We got good cuts over good conversation, muffled slightly by our masks.

I planned five hours of my work week at Shelby Farms, waking up bright and early, packing up lunch, protective gear, my 7-year-old and heading from my Downtown home to the park. Before long I ordered a hammock from Amazon and found us a spot near Beaver Lake. 

While children are not now in traditional classrooms, they are learning lessons. Don’t be surprised if the next generation floods the health care industry with new workers whose knowledge and ideas will be married to selfless compassion.

The Tennessee Department of Education and Gov. Bill Lee should use federal stimulus money to restore our children and their schools back to the position they were in prior to March 20, 2020.

Hundreds of people in Memphis will tell you that Brooks made life worth living again or saved their marriages. If ever I was in the dark pit, I called Brooks, and he talked me out.

Studies show that anxiety, heart rate, blood pressure and respiratory rate can be reduced by listening to music, and that music has been linked to better sleep while on a ventilator in the ICU. Health care professionals have described a reduction in stress and empathy fatigue from listening to music.

This month's playlist is accompanied by news about the Music Export Memphis COVID-19 Relief Fund, which to date has awarded more than $100,000 in grants to individual Memphis musicians.

For as long as we can remember, Ramadan has been a communal activity. Perhaps coronavirus is a sign that we need to slow down and remember what’s important in life. 

The boundaries between work and home have completely broken down, and life will not really return to normal as long as parents don’t have any place to send children during the day.

Ask your doctor if the test you’re taking is specific to COVID-19 and have him or her review with you its limitations, particularly if the test is not yet approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration.

Downtown projects at One Beale, FedEx Logistics' headquarters and Union Row are working toward completion. What's missing in the pandemic is pedestrian vibrancy.

Many of the heroes who are attending to the sick and dying in our hospitals are immigrants: 25% of physicians in the United States are foreign-born, and 1.5 million immigrants are employed as doctors, nurses and pharmacists.