Photo Credit: WMC.com
A Dream Come True

 
The St Jude Dream Home was awarded on Sunday to Mallorie Lindsey. The giveaway also raised more than $1.2 million dollars for St Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Dozens more people won smaller prizes.

Shelby County Commission: Today’s meeting is primarily about a third-and-final reading of the redistricting ordinance, among other things. Meeting agenda and Commission website. In committee, the Commission approved working with TVA on new pollution control equipment at the Allen Steam Plant.

Memphis Animal Shelter: To polish their image, they will have a logo contest. Interim director James Rogers will speak to the Rotary Club on Tuesday.

Memphis City Schools: Former deputy superintendent Irving Hamer, who left in April, is still claiming MCS employment on his current resume.

Shelby County Elections: The Commercial Appeal profiles the candidates for the District 5 seat on the Unified School Board. I have no idea what the Flyer’s Jackson Baker is trying to say here.

Mississippi River: River levels are dropping in this Summer’s drought. Even the dry conditions in East Tennessee are playing a role.

National Civil Rights Museum: As part of the renovations already underway, the balcony where the Reverend Martin Luther King was shot will be opened to the public. NCRM website.

Vo-Tech Schools: No longer offered by the public school system, vocational-technical schools are seeing an explosion of growth. Also, many public schools are investing in growing the scientific education and backgrounds of many Memphians. The Daily News story that underlies those two articles.

Politics: The turmoil among Republican State primaries is a sign of TNGOP health. A related story from the Tennessean and one from the Associated Press. The website of State House Representative Julia Hurley has been hijacked. The Green Party could be on the ballot as a party, depending on a court ruling on July 25. US Senator Bob Corker is not on the short-list of potential vice-presidential candidates for Mitt Romney. Critics are still attacking the sex education reforms passed this past General Assembly.

Governor Bill Haslam says there’s no need for a special session on education, as called for by State Democrats. He warns against “knee-jerk special sessions”.

Election Season 2012: The battle is heating up between Republicans Weston Wamp and incumbent Third District Congressman Chuck Fleischmann. The two debated each other over the weekend in front of the Chattanooga Tea Party. The Commercial Appeal looks at the re-election chances of Republican Stephen Fincher in the Eighth Congressional District.

The Knoxville News Sentinel has a series of stories on various races: the House District 5 Republican primary; the State Senate District 2 race; and the failure of any Democrat to qualify in the State House 89 race. State Representative Tony Shipley has kicked off his campaign for a third term in House District 2.

Immigration: The first in a series of panels on President Barack Obama’s new immigration policy change was held by Latino Memphis last week. Latino Memphis website. The Commercial Appeal looks at how the policy change might affect local Hispanic young people.

DeSoto County: The County school system is switching to in-house legal counsel. It will also not need a tax increase for next year’s budget. A judge has been named in the traffic case involving Southaven mayor Greg Davis: Tallahatchie County Justice Court Judge Steve Ross. Sam Rikard will not seek re-election as the mayor of Olive Branch. The City of Hernando had their video shoot last night for their “Bark for Your Park” entry. The new County Jail will make it harder for people to smuggle in contraband. Project Fit America is now a baker’s dozen. PFA website.

Tennessee: A report by the US Chamber of Commerce gave a “D” review to the State’s colleges and universities for teaching workplace-related skills. You can study the report for yourself.

Code Orange Alert: The Mid-South continues may be under an ozone alert for today. MATA busses would be a quarter all day. Check the Shelby County Ozone Action Alert website to be sure.

West Memphis Three: The mother of victim Steve Branch, Pam Hobbs, is suing the West Memphis police to see evidence involved in the murder of her son. More from Fox13, ABC24, WMC, WREG and the Commercial Appeal.

City of Memphis: The new national president of the AFSCME, Lee Saunders, promises “greater militancy”. Residents are answering the City’s call to lead healthier lives. Even the Memphis Police are getting in on the campaign.

NEW! INTERNET EXCLUSIVE! Operation Broken Silence: This anti-human trafficking organisation has been working to raise their profile in Shelby County and helping to get Shelby County governments to be aware of the problems of human trafficking here at home.

New! Internet Exclusive! Southpaw: Sweet Home Shelby-Co: Andria K. Brown is back from her Summer vacation, where trips to stomping grounds both old and new brought her to a realisation about herself.

Unified Development Code: Citizens’ “stakeholders group” gets the Office of Planning and Development to back off of many planned changes to the UDC.

Juvenile Court: Bill Powell, who will lead the committee charged with repairing the Court, says it needs an “in-depth culture change”.

Overton Square: A look at the two architectural firms at the heart of the rebirth.

Grizzlies: The Commercial Appeal interviews the head of the team’s local ownership group, Staley Cato. An analysis by Wunderlich Securities calls possible new owner Robert Pera a “very strong CEO” and a “a tough businessman”. The Commercial Appeal has an in-depth profile of Pera.

Knoxville: Knox County mayor Tim Burchett has some ’splainin’ to do after his wife, Alison, who is divorcing him, had some checks and charges not appearing on his campaign finance discosures. To protect themselves from lawsuits like those brought by the Freedom From Religion Foundation to other Mid-South communities, the County Commission will craft a policy on prayer before County meetings.

Collierville: The gym, LifeTime Fitness, that employed Anthony Webber, who has been charged with sexual assault, is now being sued by the parents of three girls.

Unemployment: From ABC24, a report on Mid-South unemployment rates for May.

Mississippi: The State’s sole abortion clinic, Jackson Women’s Health Organization, is struggling to come into compliance with a new State law that takes effect July 1. MS Power Company wants to raise rates, about $20 a month. The Daily News has more information on the upcoming Baptist Memorial Hospital-North Mississippi expansion in Oxford. The mayor of Hernando, Chip Johnson, was selected to lead the Mississippi Municipal League. It’s not easy to get a constitutional amendment enacted.

Real Estate: Homeowners in distress have a plethora of resources to help them avert crisis. The Madison at Schilling Farms Apartments in Collierville sold for $32 million. “Green” building design is slowly taking hold in Memphis.

Business: DO NOT indiscriminately hook up to WiFi networks. One study says Tennessee is particularly vulnerable to the European debt crisis. State and Federal regulations stand in the way of producers of locally- and naturally-grown “organic” meats getting to consumers. Legislators and industrial giants support the WAVE4 bill, which would raise taxes to fund inland waterway improvements. Entrepreneur and small business news, from the Commerical Appeal.

The Daily News covers Today’s Events. The Business Journal reports People on the Move. In the Commercial Appeal, you learn What to Do for Sunday; People in Business for Sunday; and Property Transfers & Done Deals.

Buckeye Technologies: The company is trying to re-open a plant severely damaged in a fire last week. And a bit more from the Business Journal.

Delta Air Lines: Twenty-five more daily flights will be eliminated at Memphis International Airport by the Fall. More from the Business Journal and the Daily News, Fox13 and WREG.

Those cuts, in 50-seat regional jets, are forcing Pinnacle Airlines to scrap talks with their pilots and start over. Much more from the Business Journal and the Daily News.

FedEx: Their FedEx Express division has filed for a permit to build a $30 million investment “cost reduction program” for the division.

Blight: How a group of community leaders are transforming the community of Northaven. No Federal TIGER funds were allocated for Whitehaven’s efforts to renovate the area around Elvis Presley Boulevard. Residents of Westwood are angry with the City for not cleaning up their neighborhood. The Vollintine-Evergreen Community Association had a “meet the neighbors” ice cream social. Memphis City Beautiful want to remind Memphis it didn’t used to be this way.

Fayette County: James Teague will be the interim superintendent of the County schools system, despite questions.

Politics on TV: WREG’s Informed Souces for this week is available online for all you political junkies, and you can also find the Daily News’ Behind the Headlines online from WKNO.

Commerical Appeal: The daily announces they will have a new, standardised layout for the paper beginning this week.

Crime: The local problem with theft of copper is growing. So is the theft of car tires and expensive rims.

Chattanooga Free Press: Let’s party like it’s 1992! America’s government leaders always need reminders about over-reaching when it comes to taxes.

Sandra Cannon: Isn’t Memphis also instituting “cash mobs”? (via the Knoxville News Sentinel)

Tom Humphrey: He evaluates Governor Haslam’s performance on government openness. (via the Knoxville News Sentinel)

Jack McElroy: The Baby Boomers will be with us for a few more decades. (via the Knoxville News Sentinel)

Lauren Spuhler: When more and more social media platforms are interlinked, online security is vital. (via the Knoxville News Sentinel)

Knoxville News Sentinel: More must be done in the General Assembly about the “scourge” of drunk driving.

Joe Spake’s Daily Buzz: The rest of the day’s news, from all sorts of eclectic places.

Tennessean: Most communities, like Nashville or Memphis, have expensive, expansive public transport plans that extend out for decades and should be supported.

Congressman Marsha Blackburn: She opposes regulations that control air pollution, like the Utility MACT. (via the Tennessean)

Memphis News: Praise for Northaven community advocate and cornerstone, Louis Padgett.

Chattanooga Times: Our national military parks are an important reminder of our history.

Commercial Appeal: Maybe the problems isn’t the Animal Shelter, but the people who oversee it and work there? Will replacing firefighters with technology still get the job done, and safely? They believe MCS superintendent Dr Kriner Cash may have an important role to play in his last year here … if he decides to stay. Ice wouldn’t melt in their mouths when they talk about MATA like this.

Chris Peck: He applies a rose-colored, utopian lens to the future of the unified Shelby school system. (via the Commercial Appeal)

Otis L. Sanford: Years of effort and tens of millions of dollars will achieve what, for public education in Shelby County after 2013? (via the Commercial Appeal)

Joe Hayden: He cannot recreate the experiences of his youth, which shaped him, so he must encourage what he can from the world he lives in. (via the Commercial Appeal)

Wendi C. Thomas: She tells her readers about the Convoy of Hope and the massive mission of charity they will shortly undertake. (via the Commercial Appeal)

John Branston: For all the money we don’t have to spend on the Harahan Bridge and Bass Pro Shop, with their benefits last and be leveraged? (via the Flyer)