You may have seen the photo with the story about the brutal weather — firefighters pushing to free an ambulance stuck in the snow and ice. Michael Rowland was in that ambulance. Nothing brings the value of friendship into focus like a threat to a friend. 

With available, clean drinking water an increasingly precious commodity, Memphis’ supply is perhaps the city’s most important asset. We did nothing to earn it. But it’s on us to preserve and manage it. 

The vaccine distribution debacle on Mayor Lee Harris’ watch will figure prominently in the GOP campaign to retake his office, the party’s Shelby County executive director says. 

Tennessee was not “insulated” from cold weather. Temperatures in Memphis were similar to parts of Arkansas and Texas. What was significantly different was the safe, reliable power delivery to Memphians that avoided rolling blackouts that crippled other areas of the country.

“It’s time to claw back the power our public health institutions have accumulated this year. That’s the goal of Tennessee House Bill 7,” says guest columnist Daniel Chatham, a Shelby County physician.

How did a small group of citizens persevere for so long to block an interstate route through the park? They cultivated relationships with the place, through walks in the forest and picnics by the lake. Close connections led to enduring affection.

Binghampton is at the very center of our city but far from the center of our attention. We drive through it en masse every day on Walnut Grove and Sam Cooper, largely ignoring the decline to our left and right.

Among the misguided proposals presented at the Tennessee Legislature, none would have as much negative impact on the majority of Tennesseans as the bill introduced last week to abolish early voting in the state.

“Shelby County does not need help from the federal government or Chick-fil-A or FedEx. They just need to ask our neighbors in Mississippi!”

Why did we, in Memphis, not have power service interruption? The simple answer is that Tennessee did not receive the brunt of the severe weather like other states did.

The gallery resonated deeply with what we’re experiencing right now, outside the walls, in real time.

During this Lent, the Prophet Isaiah’s strident call — given in God’s name — asks us to do our fasting by “releasing those bound unjustly.” May that perspective lead us in our national debate on raising, for the first time in 12 years, our federal minimum wage.

The snow may be glistening, but winter wonderlands have no place when walking in Memphis.

The fight continues to easily access our history, to stand on our oldest ground above our best view of the Mississippi, to make traffic Downtown make sense.

Here’s to the iced-over trees that began our winter week. We got the eerie beauty without much of the damage. Here’s to the giant icicles forming from gutters and awnings, giving neighborhood strolls a beyond-the-Wall “Game of Thrones” vibe.

In this fight, Black people and white people are on the same side. So are local politicians who don’t always agree on matters of public policy.

This week, the city’s Division of Parks and Neighborhoods will unveil the first Parks Master Plan in more than 22 years. The 10-year plan is ‘based on countless hours of community engagement and research.’

While cities across the U.S. are moving toward roads for all users and equitable, place-based strategies promoting safety and access, Memphis is often stalled and focused on crime and punishment or bending to the will of the auto-centrics.

It’s one of the more interesting things about daily life in Memphis, and one that just might kill you. We can’t drive. Worse. We’re proud of it.

Given what we actually know about COVID spread and what we should value, it’s never felt right to me that I could sit inside a restaurant dining room but my kids couldn’t sit inside a classroom.

But when it comes to serving up political red meat – in both coded and straightforward language – to far right conservatives, Lee has perfected that nicely.

The beleaguered Shelby County Health Department simply cannot effectively manage the monumental effort needed to distribute vaccines. We need someone to take charge and lead. Someone who will get things done, without excuses.

The variety of COVID-19 scams we’ve seen since the beginning of the pandemic are overwhelming.

Once we have gotten to know the people who have called Memphis home through the good and the bad, we can start to understand this place we inhabit together.

Dan Conaway: “Our kids, Memphis kids, our tomorrow, have to get back in classrooms. Today. Period. Every day they don’t is another day falling further behind.”