Mayor A C Wharton: He is scheduled to resume his listening tour with a stop Saturday night in Collierville.

Memphis Youth Manifesto: County School Board member Rev Kenneth Whalum is helping promote and catalyse online efforts to create new, positive opportunities for Memphis youth. Link to site in article. A similar program of similar aims is Peer Power.

Politics: Several of the new laws this session go into effect soon. The new out-of-state wine shipment law goes into effect July 1. The charter school bill appears dead in the State Legislature right now; or maybe not as efforts to revive it are underway. More, from the Daily News, on extending the Tennessee Ethics Commission.

License Renewals: A glitch in communications between the County and the State means a lot of June license plate renewal notices haven’t gone out yet. Check your plates!

County Commission: Commissioner Mike Ritz is reviving the proposal to give the City of Memphis the County’s stake in the Coliseum.

Watoto de Afrika: They celebrated the opening of their new WatotoMemphis Youth Development Center which, along with other initiatives, they hope will bring national exposure.
 

Germantown: The Board of Mayor and Aldermen approved a $10 million bond issue, with SunTrust Bank, for capital improvements and refunding old bonds.

DeSoto County: The Just-us League uses toy drives to help the underprivileged and sick children in the Mid-South.

Collierville: Work on expansion and renovation of the police and court buildings is to begin next week. A disagreement over the new property tax rate is holding up approval of the city’s 2010 budget.

Summer Travel: When buying travel insurance, be sure to know what you’re buying.

Banking: SunTrust has raised over $2 billion of Tier 1 capital as part of its “stress test” mandate. Mortgage activity went down slightly in May.

Mid-South Community College: They are partnering with the Arkansas Workforce Center for an Career Training Expo on the 18th of the month in West Memphis.

Mississippi: The State is receiving nearly $20 million to help improve home energy efficiency. Governor Haley Barbour warns that policies being studied in Washington DC could adversely affect MS; more in the CA.

Arkansas: A civil rights lawsuit has been filed against the Marion Police Department, alleging promotions racial discrimination.

Good Morning Memphis: The importance of fiber in a healthy diet. More on the benefit golf tournament for the Memphis City Schools later this month.

On the Block: We ask local leaders about important issues of the day. This week: Do politicians from West Tennessee start with a location advantage or a location disadvantage in state-wide races?

New Life Holiness Church: It turns out, the church wasn’t the only thing in the neighborhood tagged with graffiti this past Sunday morning.

Memphis City Council: The Council is reconsidering raises the Mayor gave City employees in his too-large budget. They are also looking into other areas to cut. More on Judge Earnestine Dorse’s threat to stop charging court costs and fees, which could cost the City dearly.

Memphis City Schools: Federal stimulus monies totalling $191,000 will allow the system to buy new equipment for the Central Nutrition Center. More on the system’s overhaul of its sexual harrassment policy. The Board of Education gave early approval to a plan to move the system to “block scheduling.”

Pinnacle Airlines: The NTSB is investigating pilot qualifications following testing allegations.

Tennessee: As expected, State tax revenues for May were 15% below estimates; more on Fox13, WMC, Daily News. Enrollment in the state’s trade and technical colleges is booming right now.

Business: Memphis-based Resolute Games is introducing new games for the iPhone and iPod Touch; the Commercial Appeal also has the story. Orgill plans to lay off 176 people in its Memphis Distribution Center; more in the Daily News. However, Liberty National Life Insurance is opening two new branch offices and is hiring 100 people. The senior VP and CFO of Thomas & Betts, Kenneth Fluke, is retiring later this year. The effects of the recession are being felt in Downtown Memphis, too.

People in Business, from the CA.

FedEx: For the 12th year in a row, they are ranked number one in customer satisfaction. More in the Daily News. They are preparing to roll out a multi-million dollar campaign against their main competitor, UPS, alleging union front activities; more in the Daily News, Commercial Appeal.

Speaking of UPS, they agreed to delay pilot furloughs for 10 months and will get most of the employee savings they hoped for.

Stanford Financial Group: Request by court-appointed receiver unites everyone else in opposition!

Hope Works: Faith-based program goes to jails and recruits prisoners to teach job skills and career counseling to change lives.

Downtown: Today’s meeting of the Center City Revenue Finance Corp. will look at some PILOTs.

Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare: They are not giving up efforts to open a hospital in Olive Branch.

Survey Says: Four out of five potential renters want a pet-friendly policy from their landlords. The International Air Transport Association says globally, airlines will lose $9 billion in 2009. The Conference Board’s employment index came up in May.

Notes from Memphis: She’s back from her European vacation and has some pictures … of what’s going on Downtown. Also, tomorrow the Memphis Micro Cinema Club is having its monthly evening of films.

My Memphis Attorney: A quick report from his busy weekend.

MAKE IT HAPPEN: She’s very proud of her 11 year old cousin’s girl’s softball team.

Joy’s Life and Times: A report from the Heatwave triathlon.

Jerm’s Baby blog: Piper is nearing the ten week mark.

Annoyed in Memphis: A scathing rant on Mayor Willie Herenton and some of his (fading, slowly) supporters, and the MSARC fiasco.

Bigger Than Your Head: The wine of the week. A lot of white wines under $20!

Pretty in Pink Megan: Possibly the longest blog post ever, as she answers questions about herself, her dogs, her marriage and husband, makeup, clothes and much, much more! And then, a report from her weekend.

(Lang Wiseman) Random Thoughts: Some quick thoughts on hard work, effort and sleep.

Running With Dice: The new Sims3 is a lot of fun but so is Labyrinth Lord. A followup post.

Rustmeister’s Alehouse: He links to a blogger who has started a website for restaurants that allow concealed gun carry on the premises.

Timothy J. Finnell: President Obama’s “public option” health insurance plan “is, at best, untenable.” (via the Commercial Appeal)

The Shelf Life: The live chat for the book Netherlands has been rescheduled to next Monday, the 15th. (via the Commercial Appeal)

Born Again Hippies: Some rather hopeful thoughts on the effect of President Obama’s Middle East speech on the current world situation.

Xspectre8: A rant about the Commercial Appeal’s anti-gun bias and Wendi Thomas personal crusade against certain restaurants.

The Daily Docket: He’s found two old Guilloteens videos to commemorate the passing of Laddie Hutcherson! The songs are I Don’t Believe and Hey You.

The Conservative Zone: He went out house-hunting Sunday and bagged one!

The Chubby Vegetarian: Some advice for BBQ grilling tofu.

The Chockley Blogs: Taste testing the season’s first tomotos on a friend. With pictures! And, another report from Saturday’s Rock-n-Romp.

Steve’s Nude Memphis Blog: A collection of mug shots. See if you can spot the commonality.

Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease: She ridicules Wendi Thomas’ new blog and her comment policy.

Smart City Memphis: Reviewing MCS Superintendent Kriner Cash’s first year to the helm.

Commercial Appeal: A unified attack will help solve poverty in the Delta. MCS Superintendent Kriner Cash is the leader now, so we need to support him.

The Flypaper Theory: Blogger autoegocrat points out that numerous states surrounding Tennessee already allowing concealed carry in restaurants and other places that serve alcohol … and there hasn’t been any Wild West action yet.