VOL. 127 | NO. 147 | Monday, July 30, 2012
The final turnout numbers for early voting, released Sunday by the Shelby County Election Commission, show 62,601 citizens – 10.7 percent of Shelby County’s 584,443 voters, voted early.
The election driven by ballot questions and one-time-only races looks to become an election that goes into overtime as well.
SPECIAL EMPHASIS: Green

Homes become more eco-friendly as energy costs rise
There was a time not so long ago when potential homebuyers had to demand energy efficiency in new homes.
Faced with the cost of illuminating 2 million square feet of space, University of Tennessee Health Science Center has a bright idea to lighten its energy load.
The Memphis biomass start-up that has focused on developing sweet sorghum as a fuel now has a financial partner who believes in the future of ethanol as a fuel.
Executives with Raymond James Financial Inc. remain pleased with what their company got out of its $1.2 billion acquisition of Memphis-based investment firm Morgan Keegan & Co. Inc.
EdR’s second quarter was marked by improvements in same-community net operating income, operating profits of new communities and lower interest expense, the Memphis-based collegiate housing REIT reported in its Thursday, July 26, conference call.
Shelby County Commissioners will try again Monday, July 30, to elect a new chairman after 21 rounds of voting two weeks ago failed to produce someone who could get seven votes.
Creative Aging Mid-South, an organization dedicated to promoting vital aging through the arts, is one of 10 arts-focused nonprofits across the country being saluted this month by The Huffington Post, in partnership with GreatNonprofits.org.
More than a dozen school closings should take place in a single school year and have in other large school systems, the schools consolidation planning commission concluded Thursday, July 26, at what could be its last meeting.
GOVERNMENT AGENDA
The Shelby County Commission will meet Monday, July 30, at 1:30 p.m. in the Shelby County Administration Building, 160 N. Main St. Click on the meeting icon for a full agenda.
SMALL BUSINESS SPOTLIGHT
Most people who install solar panels to their home understand that it’s an investment that takes awhile to pay off.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
When was the last time you received a report card? I suspect most of you would say it’s been a while. However, if you are involved with a business you probably receive a report card everyday. It’s more of a mental report card than a printed report card.
THE MEMPHIS NEWS

A look at the sustainability movement in Memphis
There are many shades of green.
Green is complex, we are finding out. It also has some of the same economic factors to consider that non-green undertakings do.
REGIONAL
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Gov. Phil Bryant wants to end Mississippi's statewide system of seniority-based teacher raises. Instead, the Republican governor wants each of the state's 151 school districts to design their own system to pay teachers according to student performance.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) – Here's a small consolation: The Great Recession wasn't quite as horrendous as previously thought.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Twenty-nine states have reached a $151 million settlement in a lawsuit alleging one of the country's largest drug wholesalers inflated prices for hundreds of prescription drugs, officials said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) – High unemployment isn't going away – not as long as the economy grows as slowly as it did in the April-June quarter.
NATIONAL GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) – A federal appeals court on Friday left intact a court judgment that ordered tobacco companies to do corrective advertising about the dangers of smoking.