VOL. 126 | NO. 177 | Monday, September 12, 2011
Both local home sales and average sales price saw a healthy bump last month, but real estate professionals are finding it difficult to predict whether the positive momentum will continue as the year progresses.
Like Shelby County, August home sales in Fayette and Tipton counties saw positive increases in several categories.
Weekend memorials in Memphis mark 9/11 tragedy
For many, the slightly early turn of season brings it all back. There was more than a hint of fall in the air under clear, blue skies in Memphis on the day of the 9/11 terrorist attacks 10 years ago.
Shelby County Commissioners take the final step Monday, Sept. 12, to the creation of a new countywide school board that will take office in three weeks.
With a schools consolidation planning commission and a new countywide school board set to convene next month, some of the very specific issues of the merger are creating their own political gravity.
Duncan-Williams Inc. is continuing to expand its private client group. In keeping with its company-wide expansion goals, the Memphis-based investment banking firm a few days ago announced the addition of a new branch office in Akron, Ohio.
It was 10 years ago this month – amid some of the most uncertain times in the nation’s history – that Trace Hallowell founded Tactical Magic.
GOVERNMENT AGENDA
The Shelby County Commission will meet Monday, Sept. 12, at 1:30 p.m. in the Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St. Click on the meeting icon for a full agenda.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
Mission critical to success as a business owner is knowing what you need to know when you need to know it. Better still, know it ahead of time. Budding entrepreneurs today are trying to learn everything in 90 minutes or 90 days and then they can “launch.” There is probably no harm in these things, but they are far from the complete packages needed.
Last week we exemplified how one person or company can start a movement by taking action with small steps to impact our community. This week let us spotlight an organization that is bringing together children from all backgrounds by providing a professional standard of training, regardless of the ability to pay: New Ballet Ensemble & School.
THE MEMPHIS NEWS
City Council incumbents, challengers ready for fall election
Four years after the biggest turnover on the Memphis City Council, the Oct. 6 city elections could see the biggest return of incumbents ever on the council. Early voting begins Friday, Sept. 16.
Every organization can use an influx of fresh thinking, new ideas and a questioning of the status quo.
Opposites attract in art as well as in love. A local art gallery hopes to attract audiences as well by exhibiting two artists from opposite ends of the country with diametrically opposing styles.
Every realm of human endeavor is subject to controversy and scandal, from politics, history and religion to sports, the arts, love and marriage, and just about any other effort, belief or philosophy that bears influence on our hearts and minds. How would newspapers and magazines, television and the Internet function without the constant fuel provided by the controversies and scandals that seem to engulf global culture?
Increasingly, instead of ordering a bottle of wine at a restaurant, we order wine by the glass. The days – or, I should say, the nights – when I could share two or three bottles before, during and after dinner are long in the past, and the dictates of maturity and common sense enforce a more salubrious regime. In other words: I can’t drink as much as I used to!
STATEWIDE
COOKEVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Transportation has begun undoing sweeping changes imposed by former Gov. Phil Bredesen in response to the agency’s poor environmental record and reputation for ignoring the wishes of local governments and communities when deciding where to put roads.
NASHVILLE (AP) – General fund revenue collections have started the new Tennessee budget year $18 million above expectations.
KNOXVILLE (AP) – The Tennessee Valley Authority is revamping its pilot Generation Partners program that encourages solar energy projects after a surge of requests from large commercial interests.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) – Bank of America is considering cutting at least 10 percent of its work force as part of a massive restructuring, according to published reports.
DALLAS (AP) – Southwest Airlines Co. said Friday it matched other airlines in raising prices on tickets favored by business travelers.
NEW YORK (AP) – The next time you swipe your credit card at check-out, consider this: It's a ritual the rest of the world deems outdated and unsafe.
SOUTH BEND, Indiana (AP) – The top executive at General Motors Co. says the United States needs to live within its means. He called for Social Security and health care reform and said improvements are needed in public education.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) – House Republicans plan to attach a 5 percent cut in the Federal Aviation Administration's budget to legislation necessary to prevent another shutdown of the agency, according to a GOP summary of the bill provided to lobbyists.
WASHINGTON (AP) – Typical workers would get an extra $1,500 in their paychecks next year under a plan by President Barack Obama to expand a payroll tax cut that is scheduled expire at the end of the year. Higher paid workers would get more, and businesses would get tax breaks, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) – A tentative thumbs-up.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) – The federal government is looking at how it could help a greater number of homeowners who owe more than their house is worth refinance at today's historically low rates.