CBHS Applies for $9.1 Million Permit to Build Athletic Facility

Christian Brothers High School is getting ready to beef up its athletic facilities.

Christian Brothers, located at 5900 Walnut Grove Road near Interstate 240 in East Memphis, has applied for a $9.1 million building permit through the city-county Office of Construction Code Enforcement for a “new athletic building containing locker rooms, gymnasium and weight rooms.”

Linkous Construction Co. is the contractor for the project.

Source: The Daily News Online & Chandler Reports

– Amos Maki

Start Co. Now Taking Accelerator Applications

The Start Co. organization has started taking applications for its Seed Hatchery, Upstart and Sky High accelerators.

For the second year, the accelerators will run simultaneously, and Start Co. is looking for “passionate, flexible and execution-oriented teams.” The application window runs through March 1. Teams accepted will start with Start Co. May 4.

Accelerator programming will feature workshops, product development sessions and other resources led by Memphis business partners, including archer-malmo, AutoZone, Baker Donelson, JumpFund, PayPal, SendGrid, Softlayer, Springboard, The Marston Group and others.

– Andy Meek

Southwest Adding Seasonal Memphis-Baltimore Flight

Southwest Airlines is adding a seasonal second daily nonstop flight between Memphis International Airport and Baltimore-Washington International Airport to its summer schedule, which begins June 7.

“The Washington, D.C., area is a popular destination for our passengers, so we are pleased that Southwest Airlines has chosen to add this additional summer service,” said Scott Brockman, president and CEO of the Memphis-Shelby County Airport Authority, in a statement.

The additional flight will be the second seasonal addition for Southwest in 2015 and is scheduled to conclude in August.

Dan Landson of Southwest Airlines said the additional flight “is aimed at handling the expected demand during the peak summer travel period.” The airline also is adding a seasonal second frequency flight to Orlando International Airport in March.

Southwest also provides nonstop service to Chicago Midway, Houston Hobby and Tampa.

– Amos Maki

Southern College of Optometry Seeks Participants for Dry Eye Study

Southern College of Optometry has announced that it is participating in a clinical study to determine the effectiveness of a new product developed for treating dry eye in adults. The study will take place in cooperation with TearWell Advanced Dry Eye Treatment Center on campus and is the second such study the college has conducted since the Dry Eye Center of Excellence opened at SCO this summer.

Participants must be 18 years old or older, have been diagnosed with dry eye, use artificial tears at least twice daily and be willing to attend study visits during a one-month period. Qualified, enrolled patients may be eligible for compensation for participating in the study.

Dry eye is a condition in which the eyes are not producing enough tears to adequately lubricate and nourish themselves. People suffering from this condition typically do not have enough tears or produce poor-quality tears. It is a common, often chronic, problem that worsens with age and is often associated with other conditions like rheumatoid arthritis, diabetes and thyroid problems.

The study is ongoing until the required number of participants for statistical significance is achieved. For more information, contact Randy Brafford at 901-252-3660.

– Don Wade

UTHSC Researchers Awarded $1 Million Grant

Two researchers at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, Ilsa Schwarz, professor emeritus, and Jillian McCarthy-Maeder, assistant professor in the Department of Audiology and Speech Pathology, have received a $1 million grant from the Department of Education, Office of Special Education Programs.

The five-year grant will support the training of master’s level students in literacy and language outcomes by financing 32 graduate students with three semesters each of tuition remission and stipend support. Upon completion, the students will graduate with specialty training to improve the language and literacy outcomes for children who are deaf or hard of hearing.

The specialty preparation will include courses on the topics of language, literacy, aural habilitation and deaf education; and four semesters of practicum.

All of the trainees will also prepare a capstone research project about the language and literacy development of children who are deaf or hard of hearing. Additionally, trainees will complete the disciplinary requirements for state licensure and the prerequisites for starting the clinical fellowship year required for certification by the American Speech-Language-Hearing Association.

Nine students will begin the program in January.

– Don Wade

Tennessee Part of T-Mobile ‘Cramming’ Settlement

Tennessee consumers who got a $9.99 a month charge on their T-Mobile bills for “premium” text messages they never requested will be part of a $90 million settlement announced Friday between the phone company and all 50 states as well as the District of Columbia.

The settlement includes at least $90 million in payments that consumers can submit a claim for at tmobilerefund.com. The site also includes information about eligibility and the ability to request a free account summary with details of any of the premium text message charges.

There is also a phone line for a refund administrator at 855-382-6403.

The text messages included the ability to get sports scores, horoscopes and trivia.

– Bill Dries

Volcker Critical of Delays in Namesake Rule

Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker on Friday criticized a decision to delay full implementation of a rule that bears his name and aims to curb banks’ risky investments.

The Fed said Thursday that it would delay until July 2017 the deadline by which U.S. banks will have to sell off potentially volatile holdings in private equity, venture capital and hedge funds.

“It is striking that the world’s leading investment bankers, noted for their cleverness and agility in advising clients on how to restructure companies and even industries, however complicated, apparently can’t manage the orderly reorganization of their own activities in more than five years,” Volcker said in a statement.

Congress passed the Volcker Rule in 2010 as part of the Dodd-Frank Act, a major overhaul of financial regulations. The rule limits banks’ riskiest trading bets that could go implode at taxpayers’ expense. It was risky investments that triggered the 2008 financial crisis that caused the worst disruption of the banking system since the 1930s.

– The Associated Press

Ardent Studios Founder John Fry Dies

John Fry, whose lengthy list of musical accomplishments includes founding Ardent Studios and producing records for Big Star, has died.

The news comes days after the Ardent family lost another longtime member, engineer John Hampton, who died last week.

Fry’s deft touch behind the control panel was a seminal ingredient in the sound of much of the music of Big Star, the Memphis power pop band with which Fry worked that led to him being included in the 2012 documentary about the band, “Nothing Can Hurt Me.”

More than that, he was a booster for Memphis music, a lifelong music fan obsessed with sound quality and getting it right.

A few months ago, Fry told The Daily News:

“Basically, I think any music that lasts is kind of a combination of really good songwriting, really good performances and things that were maybe a little misfit-sounding at the time they came out so that they’re not locked into some era. …

“(At Ardent) I think we’ve always tried to maintain the creative, attractive environment for people. And we’ve always had a great staff who – they do great work, they’re good at relationships with clients and then there’s the whole Memphis connection. There’s so many people who’ve come to record at Ardent who relate to records that have been done here and for whom the whole Memphis music history really resonates.”

– Andy Meek