VOL. TMN-6 | NO. 27 | Saturday, June 29, 2013

Nashville’s loss of airline hub provides blueprint for Memphis
Memphis, Nashville feels your pain.
In early 2009, The Memphis News published a cover story analyzing the Delta-Northwest merger, which at the time was undergoing FAA authorization after being inked a few months prior. The report included comments from Delta CEO Richard Anderson, Memphis International Airport executives and airline industry analysts, all of whom were bullish, for the most part, on what the deal meant for Memphis.
EMPHASIS The Business of Law

Memphis property attorneys seeing benefits of resurgent markets
The residential and commercial real estate markets are slowly coming back, and residential and commercial real estate attorneys are seeing increased activity thanks to the surge.
Most businesses are well aware of key provisions in the Affordable Care Act, like the mandate for larger employers to provide health care insurance coverage to employees.
Jonathan Hancock, partner and shareholder in Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz PC’s labor and employment practice group, feels fortunate to have been instructed in employment law by current Memphis Mayor A C Wharton Jr. while attending law school at the University of Mississippi in the mid-1990s.
It all started with a request to handle the divorces of a few of the firm’s clients, Suzanne Landers recalled from her office in the Memphis Cotton Exchange building in Downtown Memphis.
THE MEMPHIS NEWS ALMANAC
2012: Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell was among those reacting to a legal motion by the Shelby County Commission to stop the move by suburban leaders to form their own municipal school districts. Luttrell said he wasn’t surprised by the motion but was “shocked” by the commission’s claim that the suburban school districts would amount to a racial resegregation of public schools in Shelby County.
MEMPHIS (AP) – The city of Memphis is challenging a lawsuit that alleges officials acted illegally when they renamed three Confederate-themed parks.

‘Common Core’ occupies area teachers’ summer
For area teachers, the move to the school year ahead began around spring break.
Pomp & Poise, a new gift store concept specializing in home and garden items, has signed a new lease at Park Place Center.
Memphis City Council members raised the city property tax rate Tuesday, June 26, by 4 cents above the recertified tax rate and put the rest of a turbulent budget season to rest.
With the second quarter drawing to a close, The Daily News is encouraging members of the Memphis business community to take part in a new feature intended to be a forward-looking measure of business sentiment.

Complaints spotlight concerns over criminal-background checks
It’s not illegal for businesses to use criminal-background checks when making hiring decisions, but two recent complaints filed by federal regulators highlight the increasing government scrutiny of criminal and credit checks.
By Friday, June 28, as many as 300 central office employees of the consolidated school system will be without a job as the schools merger is about to become official with the July 1 start of the new fiscal year.
A government watchdog report released last week pointed to delays in setting up consumer assistance programs in states that have opted for federally run health insurance marketplaces, like Tennessee.
After working to help grow Obsidian Public Relations’ branch in Dallas since early 2012, Kerri Guyton has returned to Memphis to take over daily management of the PR firm’s local team.

Metal Museum celebrates work of apprentices past and present
Matthew Snape was working for a blacksmith in his native United Kingdom when he got the opportunity to do a demonstration at the Metal Museum.
A new campaign launched Monday, June 24, to prepare for the opening of the consolidated school district in August is urging citizens to support students of the new school system.
After the housing bubble popped and the recession roiled the economy, the orientation classes Melanie Blakeney taught to new members of the Memphis Area Association of Realtors kept getting smaller and smaller.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen doesn’t remember the National Security Agency and intelligence officials briefing Congress on their gathering of telephone and email records and the tracking of the communications of millions of American citizens. But he has his doubts because he says the agencies involved routinely lie.

New Memphis Institute program sells young adults on city
Staunching a brain drain of college-age creative talent is a task cities around the country are undertaking with varying degrees of enthusiasm.
More Tennessee families are trying to raise children in the face of poverty and homelessness, according to an annual survey released Monday, June 24, by the Annie E. Casey Foundation.
The International Port of Memphis played host to a handful of influential guests Friday, June 21, just as the city and its partners are seeking a large federal grant to help expand the industrial area.
Less than a week before an effort to rein in billions of dollars in Medicare spending on home medical equipment is set to kick in, members of Congress and medical supply programs are pushing to delay the plan, saying some of the process has been mishandled and that the process lacks transparency.

Frayser 9th Grade Academy signals key ASD move
Three weeks before the first school year of the Achievement School District ended in May, parents and students at Westside Achievement Middle School began to prepare for the addition of a separate ninth-grade academy at the Frayser school opening this August.
Wright Medical Group. Inc. said Wednesday, June 19, it will sell its hip and knee implants business, OrthoRecon, to a unit of Shanghai-based MicroPort Scientific Corp. for $290 million in cash.
RedRover Sales & Marketing has added several new members to its “pack” in recent weeks.
From the hold of a slave ship to a segregated classroom to “freedom song karaoke,” the new elements of the renovated National Civil Rights Museum are taking shape.
So the Grizzlies finally made it official and promoted lead assistant Dave Joerger to head coach. This qualified as breaking news about as much as reporting that barbecue has been discovered in Memphis.
Less than a year ago, guard Michael Dixon was a preseason second-team All-American selection by The Sporting News after a junior season at Missouri in which he averaged 13.5 points and 3.3 assists. Off the bench.
MEMPHIS STANDOUT
For a new school principal arriving in Memphis, this might seem like at least an interesting time and place to become a school administrator.
MEMPHIS LAW TALK
Courtney Tomlinson has known since the fifth grade that she wanted to be an attorney. Specifically, she had designs on being an environmental lawyer.
MEMPHIS NEWSMAKERS
Tim Doyle has joined Christian Brothers University as associate vice president of student life. In the role, Doyle supervises multiple aspects of campus operations – including housing, student government, health services and Greek organizations – working to address non-academic student needs and help students develop into active, engaged alumni.
REAL ESTATE RECAP
3689 James Road Memphis, TN 38128 -
A California company has bought the 432-unit Jamesbridge Apartments at 3689 James Road in Raleigh for $3.6 million.
Jennifer and Andrew Brunson opened The Hub Automotive last September in the Cooper-Young District.
LOCAL COLUMNISTS
CARROLL CLOAR PAINTED US. Boyle is throwing a birthday party at Brooks for themselves and Carroll Cloar.
Ray’s Take Like it or not, eventually most kids are going to have to enter the workplace, so why not let them learn something about the “real world” while school is still their main focus? After all, learning to balance work and other pursuits is central to a successful life.
Did you ever wonder if in golf you get a lift from the loo? Or if there’s a penalty for breaking and entering while on the course? Tourneys in May spoke to these issues. Kinda.
Years ago psychologist Martin Seligman discovered a dramatic correlation between a salesperson's optimistic outlook and his ability to close sales. Optimists do indeed sell more than pessimists – 33 percent more. They handle rejection more easily; in fact, rejection increases persistence. Plus, they are more likely to stay motivated on their own and less likely to give up when a sales call doesn’t go well.
All eyes were on Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke last week, as the Federal Open Market Committee held its June meeting, followed by a Bernanke press conference. Let’s first remember how we got here.
Let’s talk about data: the exciting information hidden within your nonprofit’s donor database. There’s much to be learned by running reports, and many reports to run. The most in-demand: funds raised to date. But what about less popular reports and the secrets they can reveal? What about your “top-tier small donors?”
The most exhilarating, stressful, satisfying, frustrating, rewarding and anxious event for an entrepreneur is raising capital to fund his business. Statistics show that less than a third of startups actually receive funding. With these odds, why would anyone ever turn down money?
Today, I finished reading the book “Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion and Purpose” by Tony Hsieh. Tony is the CEO of Zappos – and Tony is an experimenter extraordinaire! In a nutshell, he seems to be willing to try pretty much anything in his ongoing quest to develop and nurture a culture of happiness creators at Zappos.