Suburban school districts are no longer requiring mask mandates for students, in line with Gov. Bill Lee’s executive order. However, the Shelby County mandate still affects staff.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation is investigating a fatal officer-involved shooting involving the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office.

While proponents of merging the City of Memphis and Shelby County governments cannot promise that consolidation would mean a spike in economic development, they believe it is the straightest line to major growth. Opponents aren’t so sure and worry about negative fallout. 

Attorneys representing the inmates, including lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and Memphis’ Just City, claim conditions at the jail are ill-equipped to deal with safety regarding COVID-19.

“The ERs are inundated,” said Dr. Shailesh Patel. “If we do not change course, we are headed to our darkest hours, our darkest days.”

Five of the Shelby County suburban districts saw some of the top achievements in results for TCAP, the state-mandated testing.

The data will help determine how districts are drawn for the Tennessee General Assembly and Congressional districts as well as the Shelby County Commission and the Memphis City Council.

The first step toward consolidation shows up on the City Council’s committee list for next week. 

Authorities said 40 people have been indicted on drug trafficking charges for distributing drugs from three abandoned houses in a North Memphis neighborhood. 

Shelby County Commissioner Mick Wright says even with recent changes in state laws this year, it’s unclear where the health department’s authority to issue mask mandates and require other measures ends and where decisions by elected officials begin.

Testing will begin Sept. 6 for Health Department staff.

The Shelby County Commission voted Monday, Aug. 9, to override the veto of a new ethics advisory panel the commission would appoint.

The veto override by the commission is the latest chapter in an ongoing dispute between County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. and Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris.

The delays to the Aug. 23 commission meeting followed a rancorous debate among commissioners and between commissioners and anti-maskers who taunted one commissioner online before Monday’s session.

For the first time since March 2020, all Shelby County Schools students were expected to return to in-person classes amid rising COVID-19 cases. 

Students who do not comply and do not qualify for an exemption are to be sent home.

The commission is the latest body to take up a call for a countywide mask mandate that would come from the Shelby County Health Department. The health department amended its latest health directive Friday to require all K-12 students in all schools – public and private – across the county to wear masks as the school year begins. Also on Monday’s agenda is a veto override.

“If you don’t have time to do it, I’m sorry. I need someone else who can do it,” Judge Paula Skahan tells psychologist.

The TBI began an investigation into the improper use of confidential information by someone in the district attorney’s office. 

The last major construction project at the school was more than 40 years ago.

The specialized school will offer students the opportunity to earn an associate degree. 

Of the 4,383 active cases in Shelby County, more than a quarter are in children, and those children are suffering more respiratory symptoms than they were earlier in the pandemic. 

The attorney advising the Shelby County Commission would be separate from the county attorney’s office under a proposal on which the commission is expected to take its first vote Monday. 

Shelby County is now 60% of the way to the goal of vaccinating 700,000 residents against COVID-19.

As Shelby County Schools students gear up for in-person school Monday, Aug. 9, the district is revving up a new fleet of buses.