VOL. 132 | NO. 159 | Friday, August 11, 2017
Last Word
Bill Dries
Last Word: Collierville's New School, New Cops and Z-Bo's Bust
By Bill Dries
Collierville Schools superintendent John Aitken knew the crowd at the Collierville Chamber of Commerce Wednesday wanted to see how the city’s new $90 million high school was coming along a year before its scheduled opening. And he brought plenty of aerials to show the progress. But Aitken also came to talk about what is to happen in the new Collierville High School once the construction is done.
And that is just as daunting if not more than building the school. How daunting? Consider this; the Collierville Schools system manages more than 8,000 digital devices used by students and that will easily top 10,000 when the high school opens in a year.
The director of project development for the Bakery Development says over half of the space in the $73 million mixed-use project already has verbal agreements to lease up and talks about why the Chisca paved the way for the apartment piece of the project and the financing of the parking garage part of this.
A few things from overnight:
85 new Memphis Police officers.
And the Czech Republic is the honored country for the 2018 Memphis In May International Festival.
It’s Elvis Week and a critical test of Graceland’s recent $137 million expansion not to mention 40 years since Elvis Presley died. In recent years, there has been a lot of speculation about the appeal of the first rock and roll star 40 years after his death especially with what has happened to rock and roll post-grunge in the last 15 years or so. It’s understandable. But as we’ve reported, the tourism folks tracking those who come to town for Graceland, including this week, say they are trending younger … as in, not born in 1977. Just take a look at who is writing on the walls of Graceland these days in Houston Cofield’s photo from a journey to Whitehaven this week.
AP on the fatal shooting of Aries Clark by police in Marion, Ark. The police body cam footage of the incident last month was released Thursday as Crittenden County prosecutors announced they will not file charges against the officers.
Zach Randolph was free on bond Thursday evening in Los Angeles following his arrest there late Wednesday and his attorney says the drug charge is “false and misleading.” Here is the basic account. And here is Don Wade with a provocative take on why it probably doesn’t diminish Randolph’s stature in Grizz land.
It should be noted that the Memphis Police Department came out ahead of just about everyone else in opposing a move by the city council to allow police officers to write a civil summons or ticket for pot possession instead of a misdemeanor charge. And Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings led the charge against the change expressing a hard line on simple marijuana possession, even saying it is gateway to harder drugs.
With that, we move to the Friday Sports Section and Stubby Clapp’s first year as manager of the Redbirds keeps getting better.
The differences between defensive backs and wide receivers.
Or how about David Climer on cornerbacks, specifically the Titans cornerback? Or maybe the Titans wide receiver?
Dave Link at Big Orange on Todd Kelly’s last football season there.
In the new issue of Oxford American, Peter Guralnick on coming to Memphis for the 1969 Memphis Country Blues Festival at the Overton Park Shell and the relationship among the blues giants he encountered there.
The USPS mail slump could start to affect daily mail delivery.
Black market diesel and gasoline.
Consumer Reports pulls its recommendation of four Microsoft laptops.
And Facebook’s move into video with “Watch.”
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is our guest on "Behind The Headlines" Friday at 7 p.m. on WKNO TV.
The cover story by Andy Meek in our weekly, The Memphis News, is business advice for start-ups. The PDF of the new issue is up now on this very website. The hard copies are in the racks Friday morning with the online version of the cover story going up here Friday afternoon.