VOL. 131 | NO. 166 | Friday, August 19, 2016
A performance audit report on the Achievement School District by Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson released this week is critical of the financial controls in place at the state-run school system for the lowest-performing schools in the state.
The first order of business is to figure out what the city and the owners of Wiseacre Brewing Co. are negotiating about when it comes to Wiseacre’s proposal to convert the Mid-South Coliseum into a brewery.
EDGE is showing its teeth. For the first time in the history of the Memphis-Shelby County Economic Development Growth Engine and its predecessor, the Industrial Development Board, the entity is considering punitive measures for a company that failed to meet requirements about diversity contracting.
A $100,000 grant from the National Cancer Institute to a University of Tennessee Health Science Center professor to study a certain type of breast cancer is the latest example of a groundswell of efforts in Memphis to fight the disease.
The new plant manager at the Owens Corning Roofing and Asphalt plant didn’t know the plant had a nine-year $1.5 million payment in lieu of taxes agreement much less that the company hasn’t spent any money with locally owned small or minority business firms in 2013, 2014 or 2015 – that according to EDGE officials.
Thirteen incumbents in the four sets of suburban municipal elections on the Nov. 8 ballot were effectively re-elected to new terms at the Thursday, Aug. 18, filing deadline for the set of 30 races.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – A judge has seen enough progress on the dilapidated home where singer Aretha Franklin was born to keep it from being demolished.
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
The Black Lives Matter movement gathered at Graceland during Elvis Week to have their voices heard. One question I wonder about is, what would Elvis had thought of this? It may seem like a trivial question, but there are relevant lessons.
STARTUP CONFIDENTIAL
When you open the website of Playback Memphis, the 8-year-old nonprofit founded by Virginia Murphy, the first thing you see is a banner memorializing Verdell Smith, the Memphis Police officer who was killed on June 4 by a criminal in a speeding car fleeing a Downtown shooting. In the picture, Smith is in uniform, smiling broadly, holding a sign that says, “I matter.”
THE TIPPING POINT
Memphis stands at the threshold of incredible possibility. In this series, we introduce innovative Memphians who are driving our city forward and forging its future success.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
SHADES OF THE FUTURE. We were talking about sunglasses and how you see things through them.
Ray’s Take Less than half of states in the U.S. require the students at public high schools to take a personal finance class before they graduate. So, many young people learn through the “school of hard knocks” once they get out in the real world.
SPORTS
Black horn-rimmed glasses. Those were offensive lineman Brandon Burlsworth’s trademark, and they were prominent even behind the facemask of his Arkansas Razorbacks helmet.
He’s a first-team All-American, possibly could be the first pick in the 2017 NFL Draft, and his head coach has called him “low maintenance.”
As an NFL quarterback, Sunday is show time for Marcus Mariota. That’s when he suits up and does everything in his power to help the Tennessee Titans win football games.
One of the most electrifying plays of the Tennessee Titans preseason opening win should make fans feeling much better about the team for the coming season.
Jalen Hurd knows right where he stands among Tennessee’s running backs of the past and wants to be No. 1 in career rushing yards at the end of the 2016 season.
KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – Tennessee athletic director Dave Hart will retire next summer after a tumultuous tenure that included consolidation of the men's and women's athletic departments, improvements in fundraising and facilities and the settlement of a Title IX lawsuit.
MEMPHIS AREA
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Prosecutors say a Shelby County penal farm inmate has pleaded guilty to arson for using toilet paper and disciplinary reports to set a fire in his cell.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) – More than two years after the state closed a troubled Tennessee cemetery whose owner was accused of losing bodies and burying multiple people in single plots, it appears that efforts to determine exactly who is buried where have failed.
REGIONAL NEWS
CORINTH, Miss. (AP) – Whole Foods Market will soon carry soaps and other products made by a Corinth business.
JONESBORO, Ark. (AP) – The Arkansas State University system's president says the school will look for a long-term interim chancellor to replace former chancellor Tim Hudson, who resigned after internal audits criticized the school's study abroad program run by his wife.
RETAIL
NEW YORK (AP) – Wal-Mart's vast fleet of stores and its online business are starting to click together.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Uber announced Thursday that it will partner with Volvo to make autonomous vehicles. The tie-up is the latest between automakers and tech companies hoping to speed driverless cars to market. Here's a rundown of who's working with whom: