Motivated by the fact that the majority of Tennessee’s third-grade students can’t read or do math on grade level, a bipartisan group of legislators has committed to exploring policy improvements for students prior to third grade.

Here are 20 songs from the Memphis music catalog that will improve your commute one day this week.

John will be lamented and loved as a survivor and casualty of addiction, a saint and sinner, a gentle and tormented soul whose life and death, head and heart, darkness and light were a parable, a revelation, a psalm.

The beauty of Tom Lee Park is the unobstructed expansiveness of it all. It could certainly use some improvements, but keep it simple. Let this park be a park. 

Addiction is an illness. Mental health conditions are illnesses. No judgment, shame or feelings of guilt are needed from us; only love, support and treatment.

'I don’t know where Rashad is. I don’t have a heaven or a hell to put him in. But I believe that he experienced heaven on earth in my classroom.'

'Ministers and those in other healing professions are called to use their own woundedness in the healing of others. At times, such openness can become an occupational hazard – becoming overwhelmed by the exposure to such pain.'

As written, the Tennessee bill prohibits abortion as early as six weeks, before many people even know that they’re pregnant. Similar versions of this bill have been declared unconstitutional in other states.

Because the legalization movement has made marijuana sound healthy, more people are using it. Daily intake nearly tripled from about 3 million users in 2005 to more than 8 million in 2017. 

Every Friday at The Way, John Kilzer would greet those who were new to recovery, who were afraid and alone, with these words: “We are going to love you, and there ain’t nothing you can do about it.”

Instead of trying a new, unproven program with dubious accountability to the taxpayers who are funding it, why don’t we double down on the initiatives that are already working across the state?

"I am a scientist at a world-class institution where a lack of power is unimaginable, but Venezuela's blackout is affecting me personally. Fear, uncertainty, helplessness is what the outage has generated in all Venezuelans."

A teacher's dilemma: "I felt the tension rise in me, the tension of being told 'no,' and I felt the clear choice to either escalate the situation or to draw near to the student."

The global governing body of the United Methodist Church reaffirmed its position on traditional marriage, including prohibition on ordaining LGBTQ+ people as pastors and prohibiting LGBTQ+ people from being married in the church. "This decision has caused much despair among people I love and respect," a pastor writes.

The City of Memphis uses some creative methods to fund projects such as Union Row and The Fairgrounds youth sports complex, and those methods are often misunderstood, says a city deputy chief operating officer. 

Lt. Richard 'Tito' Lannom’s remains were recovered on a rocky island off the coast of North Vietnam, through a joint project of Americans and Vietnamese, in which both sides try to heal wounds from the war that ended in 1975.

Tennessee spends nearly $11,000 on each student’s education annually. With ESAs, parents could direct a portion of their child’s funding to the schools and programs they choose, including homeschooling, private and online schools, as well as traditional public schools.

In the United States, at least 30 million people of various ages and genders suffer from an eating disorder – that means roughly one of every 10 Americans will have symptoms of the disease. The prevalence is even greater in certain high-risk populations, including younger women, the LGBTQ community and members of the Armed Forces.

Memphis has provided the world with some of the great love songs, but love is not always easy. Here's a playlist that takes heartbreaks, loneliness and love gone wrong into account.

When reporting on economic development, the media often emphasizes tax breaks while downplaying the net new taxes generated. This leads many people to simply misunderstand how incentives work and can have serious repercussions for a community, as can be seen in New York with Amazon.

The bold new design for Tom Lee Park aspires to create one of the country's great waterfronts while sending a message that Memphis is a place that embraces its past but isn't defined by it. 

From the St. Jude expansion to the reinvigorated Edge District, Memphis has much to celebrate. But some people have questions and concerns about the Memphis River Parks Partnership's proposal for Tom Lee Park. The concerns and questions should be addressed.

Cities evolve or die. Look at places like Nashville, New Orleans, Atlanta and even Louisville and Austin. Compare those to Little Rock and Jackson, Mississippi. Which do we want to be more like?

Too many people are engaging in dangerous rhetoric that encourages people to “resist” all forms of authority, including law enforcement. This slander must stop – and it must stop right now.

Infrastructure is key to continued growth in Tennessee’s economy. In Memphis, we must continue to invest in world-class transportation systems and we must look to new solutions to fund these investments.