NASHVILLE (AP) – Tennessee taxpayers are spending more than $500,000 a year to keep the lights on 24 hours a day at Legislative Plaza and the War Memorial Building, where lawmakers have their offices.

2. County Commission Weighs School Merger Changes - Monday, March 18, 2013

Shelby County Commissioners might discuss Monday, March 18, the idea of restructuring the countywide school board for a third time in the last year and a half.

But they are likely to delay action on a resolution that would create a 13-member school board effective Sept. 1 by appointing six new members to go with the seven existing members.

3. Slam Dunk - Wednesday, December 19, 2012

Historically, December isn’t the kindest month to Downtown Memphis’ economy. That’s compared to the summer months, when Beale Street and its surrounding areas are bustling with people visiting attractions, dining at restaurants and spending money on retail items.

4. Endocrinologist Detti Joins UT Medical Group - Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Reproductive endocrinologist Dr. Laura Detti has joined the Germantown office of UT Medical Group Inc., where she specializes in male and female infertility. Detti provides genetic diagnosis and counseling; management of conditions such as polycystic ovarian syndrome, recurrent miscarriages and premature menopause; and pre- and post-cancer care for fertility issues.

5. Commercial Advisors Hires Ewen as Controller - Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Erika Ewen has joined Cushman & Wakefield/Commercial Advisors Asset Services LLC as controller. Ewen will direct the accounting department in all accounting functions and financial reporting of Commercial Advisors Asset Services as well as all property management clients.

6. Art City - Tuesday, October 23, 2012

Artists Colleen Couch-Smith and Kelly Lindsey of Memphis are the creative minds behind Rock Paper Scissors (indielamps.com), offering lamps distinctive enough to double as illuminated art.

7. Business Focus - Monday, August 13, 2012

Memphis’ small-business community got a shot in the arm earlier this month.

Tennessee’s three-day sales tax holiday ran from Aug. 3 through Aug. 5, and it drew shoppers to retailers that carry certain clothing items, school supplies and computers.

8. County Redistricting Battle Continues - Monday, March 26, 2012

Shelby County Commissioners will meet privately with their attorneys Monday, March 26, to see whether they have any options left in a redistricting scrap that is now firmly in the courts.

The commission meets in formal open session Monday at 1:30 p.m. at the Vasco Smith County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St.

9. Oxford Labs Opens New Facility - Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Oxford Diagnostic Laboratories Monday, Feb. 27, unveiled its new, state-of-the-art, 35,000-square-foot facility at 5846 Distribution Drive, which is expected to bring as many as 40 new high-paying, highly skilled jobs to Memphis within the next year, and as many as 65 new jobs total in the future.

10. SBA Honors Graduates of e200 Program - Monday, January 02, 2012

The U.S. Small Business Administration recently honored new graduates of its Emerging 200 Initiative, or e200, at a ceremony at Southwest Tennessee Community College.

SBA identified 14 inner-city businesses from Memphis that demonstrated a high potential for growth. The agency then provided the small businesses with a free, six-month course of in-depth business education focused on organization management, growth strategies and management, market development and strategic planning.

11. Touch and Go - Monday, December 19, 2011

In the aviation industry, Memphis International Airport is considered a fortress hub, an airport where a single airline – in Memphis’ case, Delta Air Lines Inc. – handles 70 percent or more of the passenger flights.

12. City Council Looks to Fill Ware’s Seat - Tuesday, June 28, 2011

The Memphis City Council is taking applications to fill the District 7 council seat of Barbara Swearengen Ware, and council chairman Myron Lowery has set a target date of filling the seat no later than July 22.

13. Rooftop Revelry - Thursday, June 16, 2011

With half of this year’s season of The Peabody hotel rooftop parties now in the rearview mirror, the storied Memphis hotel is satisfied that what’s been an incremental retooling of its series of weekly after-work parties was the right move – and that it’s paying dividends.

14. Rise of Vegetarianism Means More Choices - Monday, May 30, 2011

According to a study commissioned in 2008 by Vegetarian Times, 3.2 percent of Americans – about 7.3 million people – follow a vegetarian-based diet. About 1 million of those people are vegan, meaning that they avoid eating not only animals but animal products. Another 10 percent, about 22.8 million, said that they “largely follow a vegetarian-inclined diet.”

15. Humphreys Joins Keller Williams Realty - Wednesday, April 20, 2011

Herbo Humphreys has joined the Crump Realty Group of Keller Williams Realty. Humphreys previously worked as a project supervisor for Bryan-Turley Properties.

16. Lighting the Fuse - Monday, February 21, 2011

Memphis voters have 22 words to weigh as they decide what is to become of Shelby County’s two public school systems.
“Shall the administration of the Memphis City School System, a special school district, be transferred to the Shelby County Board of Education?”
The words seem inadequate to cover what a “yes” or a “no” vote means after a state law and other factors changed the terms of a vote already scheduled for March 8.
Voters for schools consolidation may be against special schools district status but for letting some of the six suburban towns and cities try to go with their own municipal school system.
Voters may be against school consolidation and against special school district status if it includes taxing authority for the county school board, albeit with tax approval required by the Tennessee Legislature.
Some voters may see it as a way of ending reforms driven by MCS superintendent Dr. Kriner Cash. Others may see it as a way of ending Shelby County Schools board chairman David Pickler’s dominance of that school system.
School consolidation advocates are still urging citizens to vote “yes” and school consolidation opponents are still urging citizens to vote “no.”
“The lay of the land has changed, so will people consider the lay of the land or what? That statement stands. It’s on the ballot and everyone knows what it’s designed to do,” said Memphis City Council chairman Myron Lowery. “This occurred after the question was put on the ballot. If someone wants to make that stretch, they’re jumping over a lot of hurdles. This was not in place when this was put on the ballot.”
Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr., along with Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell, sought a transition period even as political positions began to harden. He doesn’t see what’s in the law as a transition period.
“The way it’s structured, there’s every incentive not to reach an agreement. It looks to me like it falls off the face of the earth,” Wharton said. “There was nothing in there that states where do you go if at the end of this (the planning process) there is nothing resolved.”
State Sen. Mark Norris, R-Collierville, disagrees.
“The state has a compelling interest in assuring that the administration of schools is properly discharged,” Norris wrote in an op-ed piece for The Memphis News last week. “To do otherwise defies common sense and common decency.”
Pickler said if voters approve the question, he will quickly move to assemble a team to work on the transition. It’s a transition that Pickler has always emphasized will be controlled by the county school system. That is one point on which the attorneys seem to agree.
“Clearly we understand that this issue is not about educational outcomes,” he said during a WKNO forum last week. “We still do not believe that creating a mega district … doesn’t do anything to improve education.”
MCS board member Tomeka Hart, at the same forum, countered “We do here as an economic issue,” a reference to the University of Memphis study showing special schools district status could cost MCS half of the county property tax base it relies on for funding. “It’s time to rewrite all of this,” Hart concluded.
Here is the timeline – to date – of the ongoing schools showdown:

17. County Commission Set to Weigh in on Schools Issue - Monday, February 14, 2011

Shelby County commissioners are certain to mirror some of last week’s debate in the Tennessee Legislature Monday when they take up an ordinance and a bundle of resolutions all dealing with the schools consolidation issue.

18. Medical Impact - Monday, January 24, 2011

The Medical Education & Research Institute has evolved into one of the elite medical training facilities in the country. The center’s list of faculty and students reads like a “Who’s Who” of medicine from all over the world.

19. County Commission Meets Wednesday - Wednesday, January 12, 2011

Shelby County commissioners will make up Wednesday for their Monday snow day.

What was to be Monday’s session of the full commission gets under way at 1:30 p.m. at the Vasco Smith County Administration Building.

20. Tsunami Ushers in Holiday Artists Market - Friday, November 26, 2010

In the past two years eating local food has been promoted heavily in Memphis.

Now with the holiday-shopping season approaching, local artists are hoping that buying local gifts will take on the same kind of fervor.

21. Wright Latest Orthopedic Firm Hit by Probe - Monday, October 04, 2010

The agreement between Wright Medical Group Inc. and the U.S. Justice Department that allowed the company to avoid prosecution for allegedly violating the federal kickback statute is the latest run in a series of scandals that has touched all three of the city’s big orthopedic firms.

22. Added Protection - Monday, September 27, 2010

Shelby County Commissioners wade into the continuing controversy over the Aug. 5 election results Monday with a resolution to change the standards for protection of whistle-blowers.

The County Commission meeting at the Vasco Smith County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St., begins at 1:30 p.m. An agenda is on page 10.

23. County Awards New Design Contract For Admin Building - Wednesday, June 23, 2010

Shelby County government is drawing up a new contract for renovation of the Vasco Smith Administration Building, 160 N. Main St., after deciding not to work with the first vendor chosen for the project.

24. County Awards New Design Contract for Admin Building - Tuesday, June 22, 2010

Shelby County government is drawing up a new contract for renovation of the Vasco Smith Administration Building, 160 N. Main St., after deciding not to work with the first vendor chosen for the project.

25. Paintball Park Sells For $3.5M After Foreclosure - Wednesday, June 16, 2010

The property that houses the Paintball Park at 9640 Davies Plantation in Lakeland has sold for $3.5 million in a substitute trustee’s deed following a foreclosure.

The sale closed June 10 with Trustmark National Bank reclaiming the 101.95-acre property on the Shelby County Courthouse steps from substitute trustee Kelly E. McCarthy of Morton & Germany LLC.

26. Bartlett Retail Center Sold After Foreclosure - Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The 20,000-square-foot retail center at 6496 U.S. 70 (Summer Avenue) in Bartlett has sold for $739,000 to IBERIABANK following foreclosure.

The bank bought the center March 24 from Kelly E. McCarthy of Morton & Germany PLLC. She served as substitute trustee in the matter along with Jeffrey D. Germany, both of whom were appointed to that position in June 2009.

27. Life or Death for The MED - Monday, March 01, 2010

A hand as tiny as a budding leaf punched at the air inside a baby incubator.

Kelley Smith, the head nurse of the neonatal intensive care unit at The Regional Medical Center at Memphis, checked on the little fighter.

28. Memphis Bar Association Names New Board Members - Tuesday, December 08, 2009

The Memphis Bar Association has appointed new officers and new members to the board of directors for 2010.

Ricky E. Wilkins of the Law Offices of Ricky E. Wilkins will serve as president. John Cannon of Shuttleworth Williams PLLC will serve as vice president and Gary K. Smith of Apperson Crump Maxwell PLC will serve as treasurer. Linda Warren Seely of Memphis Area Legal Services Inc. will serve as secretary.

29. Fire Protection Latest Issue For Charter Commission - Monday, December 07, 2009

The Metro Charter Commission has a “project manager” to help meet its tight deadline for a consolidation charter proposal.

The concept is a new one to government undertakings. But at its Thursday meeting, the group agreed to make Lou Etta Burkins, a project manager at FedEx Express, its project manager. The move was suggested by commission Chair Julie Ellis and adopted by the group with no objections.

30. Memphis Bar Assn. Elects New Officers, Board Members - Monday, December 07, 2009

At the Memphis Bar Association’s Annual Meeting Thursday at The Peabody hotel, the MBA announced its 2010 officers and new members of its board of directors.

Immediate past president Art Quinn passed the gavel to incoming president Ricky E. Wilkins of the Law Offices of Ricky E. Wilkins. John Cannon of Shuttleworth Williams PLLC and Gary K. Smith of Apperson Crump & Maxwell PLC automatically move to the positions of vice president/president-elect and treasurer, respectively. Linda Warren Seely, director of pro bono projects at Memphis Area Legal Services Inc., was chosen as secretary.

31. Insulated Industry - Monday, September 17, 2007

In a sluggish economy replete with residential housing woes, it's easy to see how real estate and its peripheral industries can suffer.

If consumers have fears about buying a home, they merely wait it out and stay in their rental for another six months while builders, Realtors and mortgage bankers - among others - feel the ripple effects of the delay.

32. Sexually Oriented Business Ordinance Delayed by County Commission - Wednesday, July 25, 2007

Shelby County Commissioners delayed action Monday on an ordinance putting new requirements on sexually oriented businesses to see if they can turn it into a joint ordinance that would also apply to the city of Memphis.

33. Hampton Hotels Names Smith Senior Director of Product Service - Wednesday, July 11, 2007

Kurt Smith has been named senior director of product service and development at Hampton Hotels. Previously, Smith served Hampton as director of global brand integration. Prior to that position, he was the director of hotel performance support.

34. C-USA to Boost Local Economy, But by How Much? Enough, Observers Say - Thursday, March 08, 2007
     With 12 universities spread across nine states, Conference USA's footprint is as widespread as any in the country, extending from West Texas to West Virginia, from New Orleans to North Carolina.
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35. Medtronic Expansion Heralds 600 New Jobs - Tuesday, September 12, 2006

Construction recently began on the expansion of Medtronic Sofamor Danek Inc.'s Memphis headquarters, a project that will add 600 new jobs over the next four years.

The annual median wage for the project will be $55,700, making it one of the highest median wage projects the Memphis Regional Chamber has seen, said Mark Herbison, senior vice president of economic development at the chamber.

36. Former FBI Agent, Attorney, Lobbyist, Security Expert to Appear on WKNO Program Monday - Thursday, June 08, 2006

William "Bill" Carter says he's never planned anything; things just seem to happen in his life. Carter's career, so far, spans some 50 years, from serving as a Secret Service agent during President John F. Kennedy's administration to waging a legal battle with the U.S. government on behalf of the Rolling Stones, to acting as executive producer for a recent documentary on religious icon Billy Graham that was endorsed by the Graham family.

37. Office Market Holds Steady in Third Quarter - Tuesday, November 15, 2005

Shelby County's office market remained steady through the second and third quarters, but the fourth quarter isn't expected to finish as strong, local real estate experts said.

"There was no significant change from the second quarter to the third," said Kelly Truitt, president of the Memphis office of CB Richard Ellis.

38. UTHSC Names Neonatology Division Chief - Wednesday, July 27, 2005

Dr. Ramasubbareddy Dhanireddy was named neonatology division chief and Sheldon B. Korones Professor in Neonatology at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center. Dhanireddy also will serve as medical director of the Sheldon B. Korones Newborn Center at the Regional Medical Center at Memphis. He previously served as neonatology division chief at the Louisiana State University Health Sciences Center.

39. Archived Article: Lead - Friday, June 10, 2005
Waste Burning Issue Moves to City Council

Waste Burning Issue Moves to Council

RACE, citizens embroiled over radioactive waste incinerator

ANDY MEEK

The Daily News

A dispute over whether to allow a company on Presidents Island to burn...

40. Archived Article: Newsmakers - Wednesday, March 09, 2005
Smith & Nephew Announces New Division and Promotions

Smith & Nephew Announces New Division, Promotions

Steve Hirsch was named president of Smith & Nephew Orthopaedics, a new division of the company opening in Europe. The following ...

41. Archived Article: Newsmakers - Wednesday, July 07, 2004
Dr

Physician Selected to Chair Methodist Board

Dr. Richard Hollis was named chairman of Methodist Healthcares board of directors, marking the first time in the hospitals history a physician has been named board chairman. Hollis received a bach...

42. Archived Article: Ccdc (lead) - Thursday, August 16, 2001
CCDC approves Pat OBriens loan CCDC approves Pat OBriens loan By SUE PEASE The Daily News The Center City Development Corp. Wednesday approved a $62,000 development loan application to the owners of a business planning to build a Pat OBriens bar on ...

43. Archived Article: Market Briefs - Monday, January 08, 2001
A conference for working women The Balancing Act of Juggling Lifes Many Roles is Feb 16 at the UT Agricultural Research Cen A conference for working women "The Balancing Act of Juggling Lifes Many Roles" is Feb. 16 at the UT Agricultural R...

44. Archived Article: Baptistchurch - Thursday, September 30, 1999
By: LAURIE JOHNSON Hollywood Baptist plans move to Bartlett annexation area By: LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Construction is underway on Hollywood Baptist Churchs new worship center at 4351 Germantown Road. The church plans to move to the new site,...

45. Archived Article: Baptist - Thursday, September 30, 1999
By: LAURIE JOHNSON Hollywood Baptist plans move to Bartlett annexation area By: LAURIE JOHNSON The Daily News Construction is underway on Hollywood Baptist Churchs new worship center at 4351 Germantown Road. The church plans to move to the new site,...

46. Archived Article: Law Briefs - Thursday, July 17, 1997
The Memphis/Mid-South chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the U The Memphis/Mid-South chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee are sponsoring a seminar on Friday at noon at Calva...

47. Archived Article: Memos - Wednesday, July 09, 1997
Margaret Craddock has been named executive director for the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association Margaret Craddock has been named executive director for the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association. She formerly was associate executive director for MIFA...

48. Archived Article: Law Briefs - Thursday, July 03, 1997
The Memphis/Mid-South chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the U The Memphis/Mid-South chapter of the Federal Bar Association and the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Tennessee are sponsoring a continuing legal education seminar...

49. Archived Article: Calendar - Monday, March 17, 1997
March 17 March 17 The Institute of Management Accountants will meet at Union Planters, 6200 Poplar Ave. from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. The seminar topic will be the Internet, and the presenter will be Dr. Larry Schmidt of Christian Brothers University. The c...