Museum Lofts Downtown Approved for Variance

The Museum Lofts, a proposed 68-unit apartment complex Downtown located at 138 Huling Ave., received a unanimous green light from the Shelby County Board of Adjustment Wednesday, May 23, to move forward.

The Unified Development Code limits the maximum allowable density for new residential construction to 40 units per acre, so Museum Lofts LLC had to seek a variance from the board of adjustment to allow more units on the 0.6-acre lot.

The ground-up development is slated to fill one of the last remaining privately-owned parcels of land adjacent to the National Civil Rights Museum and hopes to tap into the growing demand for housing opportunities in the Downtown area.

– Patrick Lantrip

SCV, Forrest Family Appeal Ruling on Moving Monuments

The Sons of Confederate Veterans and descendants of Confederate general, slave trader and Ku Klux Klan grand wizard Nathan Bedford Forrest filed an appeal Thursday, May 24, of the Davidson County Chancery Court ruling backing the removal of Confederate monuments from two Memphis parks.

Chancellor Ellen Hobbs Lyle stayed the effect of her ruling last week in anticipation of such an appeal to the State Court of Appeals. The stay remains in effect until the appeal is decided.

Lyle ruled the city of Memphis acted legally when it sold Health Sciences Park and Memphis Park to the private, nonprofit Memphis Greenspace Inc. for $1,000 each. Memphis Greenspace then had the monuments of Forrest, Confederacy president Jefferson Davis and Confederate Army Capt. Harvey Mathes removed from the two parks.

Any sale or transfer of the monuments is on hold pending the appeal. Memphis Greenspace has had the monuments in storage at an undisclosed location since their removal last December.

– Bill Dries

Eight Pull Petitions For City Council Seat

Eight citizens have pulled qualifying petitions to run for the Super District 9 seat on the Memphis City Council in the Aug. 2 election.

Shelby County Schools teacher Erika Sugarmon filed May 17 for the seat vacated by Philip Spinosa earlier this month – the same seat council members appointed Joseph Ford Canale to this week pending the outcome of the special election in August.

Canale, a funeral director and Christian Brothers High School golf coach, has also pulled a qualifying petition for the race along with music producer and Realtor Charley Burch; outgoing Probate Court Clerk Paul Boyd; former Memphis City Schools board member Stephanie Gatewood; education consultant and former Achievement School District executive director Tim Ware; FedEx customer experience and innovation manager Marvin White Jr.; and Tyrone Franklin.

The deadline for candidates to file for the race is noon June 21.

– Bill Dries

Major Memphis Providers To Discuss Patient Safety

Leaders from Baptist Memorial Health Care, Methodist Le Bonheur Healthcare, Saint Francis Health Care and Regional One Health will gather for a screening of “To Err is Human: A Patient Safety Documentary” and related discussion on Friday, May 25.

The first-of-its-kind panel discussion centers on shared solutions to reduce preventable medical mistakes among health care organizations throughout the Mid-South. It will be held from 4 p.m. to 7 p.m. at Southern College of Optometry, 1245 Madison Ave.

Hosted by SCO, the Memphis Medical District Collaborative and the Memphis Business Group on Health, the event will feature a sneak preview screening of Mike Eisenberg’s film “To Err is Human.”

The film, set to be released in November, explores the United States’ third-leading cause of death: medical mistakes, which lead to as many as 440,000 preventable deaths each year. It also follows Sue Sheridan, whose family experienced a variety of medical errors that caused long-term health issues.

Following the film, representatives from Memphis’ four major hospital systems will participate in the panel discussion and Q&A session to address preventable medical mistakes and how their systems can work together to reduce errors and improve care throughout the Mid-South.

Attendance is free but limited to 250 participants. Visit eventbrite.com to reigster.

– Daily News staff

WUMR to Host Annual Jazz in June Radiothon

WUMR 91.7 FM The Jazz Lover will host its annual Jazz in June Radiothon June 17-24. The yearly event raises funds to help operate WUMR, including staff salaries and equipment to provide quality jazz to the city of Memphis.

Part of the University of Memphis’ College of Communication and Fine Arts, WUMR is the only exclusive jazz outlet in the Memphis metro area. It has been at the U of M since 1979, and an element of its mission continues to be training communication and journalism students in all aspects of radio broadcasting. The station also serves the Mid-South community with unique educational, sports and community service programming.

For more information, call 901-678-2560. To donate online, visit memphis.edu/wumr and select “Make a Gift.”

– Don Wade

Running Pony Wins Seven Telly Awards

Memphis video production company Running Pony has won seven national awards in the 39th Annual Telly Awards, in categories including Animation, Social Media and Branded Content.

The awards were for videos produced for AHS, Terminix, TruGreen, Ronald McDonald House of Memphis, the Memphis Convention & Visitors Bureau, Harvest Group and Memphis Jewish Home and Rehab.

The Telly Awards honor excellence in the production of film and video for TV, cable, online and non-broadcast markets. On average, more than 13,000 Telly Awards entries are received each year from all 50 states and five continents.

– Daily News staff

MMDC Promotes Miller to Vice President

Memphis Medical District Collaborative director of data and programs Abby Miller has been promoted to vice president.

Miller, who started at MMDC in February 2016, was brought in to design the tools used to measure and manage the MMDC’s complex portfolio of work.

“Abby’s ability to lead and manage others while maintaining a personal connection to the work and the people doing it is unrivaled,” MMDC president Tommy Pacello said. “As our team has grown, more has been asked of Abby and she has taken on additional responsibility effortlessly. This promotion reflects her unique ability to think ahead and anticipate the next emerging issue. Abby continues to oversee our data and metrics but also represents MMDC in several capacities beyond our program portfolio.”

– Patrick Lantrip

UTHSC Researcher Lee Wins CORNET Award

Sue Chin Lee, assistant professor of physiology in the College of Medicine at the University of Tennessee Health Science Center, has been awarded the UTHSC/Southern Research Collaborative Research Network (CORNET) Award in Drug Discovery and Development for studying treatments that target anti-tumor immunity.

Nearly two years since its inception, the CORNET Awards have been the seed of more than $1.4 million in funding to support new collaborative research teams and their groundbreaking drug discovery and development initiatives.

For her project, titled “Drug Discovery Targeting Lysophosphatidic Acid (LPA) GPCR Subtype 5 (LPA5),” Lee will receive combined funding from Southern Research and UTHSC for up to two years to further develop her novel research project investigating the role of LPA5 in cancer metastasis and cancer immunosurveillance.

In recent years, Lee and her team have discovered that LPA5 plays a key role in cancer metastasis. These findings led Lee and her team to believe that developing compounds that target the LPA5 receptor have potential therapeutic utility in cancer, especially in the area of cancer metastasis and anti-tumor immunity.

– Daily News staff