Each week, the Flyer will feature adoptable dogs and cats from Memphis Animal Services. All photos are credited to Memphis Pets Alive. More pictures can be found on the Memphis Pets Alive Facebook page.
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Month: August 2016
A bi-partisan majority of Tennessee residents support reforming the state’s drug-free school zone law — one that’s been criticized as being out of line with the legislation’s intent.
“Although drug-free school zones may sound good on the surface, they seem to create some troubling inequities,” said Senate Minority Leader Lee Harris. “As a consequence, today many states are in the process of making modifications to their drug-free school zone laws. It’s time for Tennessee lawmakers to join them, and as this poll shows, Tennesseans are ready for change.”
icitizen, in collaboration with Sen. Harris, conducted the poll. The organization surveyed 531 registered Tennessee voters and found that more than eight in 10 Tennesseans support a reform to The Tennessee Drug-Free School Zone Act, which was enacted in 1995. The law enhances penalties for drug crimes that occur within 1,000 feet of a school, daycare, library, recreational center, or park.
[pullquote-1]A defendant in a school zone currently faces 15 years in prison for a first-time, nonviolent offense before the possibility of being released. If the offense took place outside of a school zone, the same defendant would be eligible for release after 29 months. The law applies even when the offense occurs outside of school hours, when school is closed during summer, and regardless if children are present.
About 84 percent of those polled support major or minor reforms to the law. Tennessee residents — 62 percent — say policy that clarifies the law’s intent should enhance penalties when children are present. Support for reform garnered interest from both parties, with 90 percent of Democrats and 80 percent of Republicans supporting a reform to the law.
“It’s refreshing to see D’s and R’s come together in the name of criminal justice reform,” Sen. Harris said. “I believe that they recognize, like I do, that this law disproportionately affects urban areas such as Memphis, Nashville, Knoxville, and Chattanooga. In these urban areas, due to their density and the sheer number of schools, most places are a drug-free school zone.”
Nashville’s District Attorney Glenn Funk has previously said in op-eds published in the Commercial Appeal and Chattanooga Times Free Press that the law is applied inconsistently with the legislation’s intent.
“[The intent] was to keep drugs away from schoolchildren,” Funk wrote. “This enhancement puts street level drug-free school zone act violations on par with second degree murder. The idea that this law keeps school kids safe is a myth, all it accomplishes is the destruction of communities.”
Infographic: Memphis in May 2016 Economic Impact
Memphis in May (MIM) bought more than $88 million to the area’s economy this year, according to a new study.
More than 265,000 attended the month-long festival this year and they spent $38.3 million while they were there. Spending outside the festival gates (restaurants, parking, shopping, and more) was more than $72 million, according to MIM.
“Our mission directs that we foster economic growth for our city, so we are pleased to have once again produced such a major positive impact for the Memphis area,” said James L. Holt, president and CEO of MIM.
The economic impact of the 2016 festival was 15 percent higher than in 2011 when a similar study was conducted by the University of Memphis Sparks Bureau of Business and Economic Research, according to MIM.
The 2016 festival brought more than $2.8 million to city and county tax coffers. The MIM organization pays to rent Tom Lee Park form the city and pays for all utilities on the site during the festival.
While the festival does get support from city and county public safety organizations, it does not receive any direct funding from local taxpayers.
Mavis Staples plays the Levitt Shell on Saturday, October 15th.
The 2016 Free Music Series at the Levitt Shell kicks back up this weekend with the Stone Soul Picnic on Saturday, September 3rd and a Rock For Love show on Sunday, September 4th. The series will feature 17 concerts in all, in addition to the Indie Memphis Film Series that will run through October.
Highlights include a performance by the North Mississippi Allstars on Friday, September 9th, the Levitt Shell’s 80th anniversary party with Cedric Burnside on Tuesday, September 13th, and the “This is Memphis” festival showcasing Blue Tom Records related artists on Sunday, October 2nd. Check out the complete schedule below. With the exception of the Mavis Staples “Stars at the Shell” concert, all events are free.
Saturday, September 3rd- Stone Soul Picnic
Sunday, September 4th- Rock for Love
Thursday, September 8th- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens Country Blues Festival
Friday, September 9th- North Mississippi Alllstars
Saturday, September 10th- Civil Twilight
Sunday, September 11th- Delta Rae
Tuesday, September 13th- Levitt Shell 80th Anniversary Party featuring Cedric Burnside & Sons of Mudboy
Thursday, September 15th- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens Respect Yourself
Friday, September 16th- New Brass Breed Band
Saturday, September 17th- Rhodes College Jazz Band with George Coleman
Sunday, September 18th- Henry Gross
Thursday, September 22nd- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens Once
Friday, September 23rd- Parker Millsap & Sara Jarosz
Saturday, September 24th- Snowglobe
Sunday, September 25th- New Ballet Ensemble
Thursday, September 29th- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens The Wiz
Friday, September 30th- Opera Memphis
Saturday, October 1st- Motel Mirrors
Sunday, October 2nd- University of Memphis “This is Memphis” Festival
Thursday, October 13th- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens Mavis! A Documentary Film
Saturday, October 15th- Stars at the Shell: Mavis Staples & St. Paul and the Broken Bones ($$$)
Thursday, October 20th- Indie Memphis Music Film Series screens The Blues Brothers
Friday, October 21st- The Blind Boys of Alabama
Saturday, October 22nd- Eleanor Tallie
Sunday, October 23rd- Balkan Beat Box
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Young Dolph at the New Daisy
Young Dolph will perform at the New Daisy Theater Wednesday as part of his “Royalty Tour.” Young Dolph- Real name Adolph Thornton Jr.- released his debut album King of Memphis in February, and the rapper has been making waves since then, most notably appearing on the O.T. Genasis track “Cut it.”
Check out the video for “Cut It” below and get to the New Daisy by 8 p.m. tomorrow. Tickets are $20-$30 dollars and advance tickets are available.
Young Dolph at the New Daisy
Categories
OUTMemphis is New Name for MGLCC
The Memphis Gay & Lesbian Community Center (MGLCC) has changed its name to OUTMemphis in an effort to be more inclusive of the entire gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgender, and queer community.
OUTMemphis was established as the MGLCC more than 27 years ago, and although the center has served the entire community through its programs, the original name didn’t include a mention of the bi, trans, and queer communities that may not identify as gay or lesbian. The center began considering a name change eight years ago as it began adding paid staff and expanding its services.
“Changing our name reflects our efforts to be more responsive to and inclusive of all LGBTQ people in Memphis and the surrounding areas,” says Will Batts, OUTMemphis Executive Director, in a press release. “Our new name mirrors the change this organization began eight years ago. It honors the diversity of our board, our staff, our volunteers, our visitors, and our services.”
OUTMemphis’ programs range from support networks, social activities (like potlucks), HIV testing, and workshops to educate the wider public about LGBTQ issues. OUTMemphis is also working to launch a project that will house homeless LGBTQ teens.
Here’s a statement from OUTMemphis’ press release on the name change:
We have known for a while that our name did not reflect our full identity — as individuals, as an agency, or as a community. So we set about to change it. No combination of letters describing our individual identities could do full justice to our diversity; no acronym would encompass every way in which we define and describe ourselves. So rather than focus primarily on our individual identities, we chose a name that would express our vision, our mission, our hopes, and our dreams of a living in a world that respects all LGBTQ people. Thus we have become OUTMemphis: The LGBTQ Center for the Mid-South.
Regardless of how we identify as individuals, we all seek a world where we can live openly, honestly and authentically. We desire a community that celebrates and respects us fully as parts of the whole. A community that respects US, and not a caricature or incomplete identity we put on simply to live in peace. We each deserve to live as openly as WE choose to be. We expect the freedom to be open about who we are and about whom we love. We deserve to be OUT, as OUT as we choose to be. Working to make that vision a reality is what we do every day at — in dozens of ways, in hundreds of settings, and for thousands of clients and allies each year.
Just as our new name highlights our vision of a better world, our new image reflects our mission. The rainbow illustrates the diversity, passion, and POWER of our people, interlocked and CONNECTED through a central hub, working to EDUCATE ourselves and others about the LGBTQ experience, and turning that knowledge into ADVOCACY that demands equality and safety for all of us wherever we are. We do not imagine ourselves the only place where this happens. However, as the only center like us for several hundred miles in every direction, we have a special responsibility to serve as many people as we can, as best as we can, and in as many ways as we can.
Our movement — the LGBTQ struggle for full equality and inclusion — has made too many advances to accept retreat. We understand that not every person can be out and fully honest. We know that right now we live in a world where the costs of being out can be too high to bear for some people. As an agency and as a movement, even with that understanding, we can no longer accept being silent, being hidden, or being in the closet. Someday in the future, there may be no need for coming out, because there is no “in.” Until that day, we will continue to fight, to educate, to support, and to stand proud. Open, authentic, and OUT.
Shakespeare and Newstok
Rhodes College English Professor Scott Newstok has presented his first lesson to the incoming class of 2020, and is a Deusey: “How to think like Shakespeare.” It’s a witty critique of modern education practices that begins with a rather incendiary notion stated in clear, unmistakable terms.
But to me, the most momentous event in your intellectual formation was the 2001 No Child Left Behind Act, which ushered in our disastrous fixation on testing. Your generation is the first to have gone through primary and secondary school knowing no alternative to a national regimen of assessment. And your professors are only now beginning to realize how this unrelenting assessment has stunted your imaginations….You’ve been cheated of your birthright: a complete education.
In his address Newstok takes on several misconceptions about education, brushing away the waxy film of political ideology to reveal truths about the relationship between traditional models and meaningful progress. He does so using Shakespeare — the only named author in contemporary “common core” curriculum — and the kind of educational models he’d have encountered as a student.
Building a bridge to the 16th century must seem like a perverse prescription for today’s ills. I’m the first to admit that English Renaissance pedagogy was rigid and rightly mocked for its domineering pedants. Few of you would be eager to wake up before 6 a.m. to say mandatory prayers, or to be lashed for tardiness, much less translate Latin for hours on end every day of the week. Could there be a system more antithetical to our own contemporary ideals of student-centered, present-focused, and career-oriented education?
Yet this system somehow managed to nurture world-shifting thinkers, including those who launched the Scientific Revolution. This education fostered some of the very habits of mind endorsed by both the National Education Association and the Partnership for 21st Century Learning: critical thinking; clear communication; collaboration; and creativity. (To these “4Cs,” I would add “curiosity.”) Given that your own education has fallen far short of those laudable goals, I urge you to reconsider Shakespeare’s intellectual formation: that is, not what he purportedly thought — about law or love or leadership — but how he thought. An apparently rigid educational system could, paradoxically, induce liberated thinking.
I’ve only quoted the set up. The good stuff’s all in the body of the address, which was published in the Chronicle of Higher Education, and which I heartily encourage you to read.
State Tourism Breaks Spending Record
Tennessee tourism shattered records in 2015 with visitors here spending more than $18 billion, up 3.7 percent over 2014.
State government officials announced the record in a news conference Tuesday morning at the Sevier County Courthouse near the iconic Dolly Parton statue.
Tourism has topped $1 billion in state and local sales taxes for the last 10 years, officials said. Revenue last year was $1.6 billion, up $1.6 billion. Tourism jobs increased 2.9 percent for a total of 157,400.
Beale Street is Tennessee’s top tourist destination.
JB
Mayor Luttrell during debate not the power-sharing measure
For some time, various members of the Shelby County Commission have been trying to wrest a share of control over various local governmental prerogatives that have hitherto been the exclusive province of the County Mayor. Most of their efforts have concerned expanded fiscal oversight of this kind or that. But one of them falls directly into Mayor Mark Luttrell’s prerogatives of appointment.
This was an ordinance, sponsored by outgoing chairman Terry Roland, amending the Shelby County charter to “require the hiring appointment and dismissal process for the County Attorney to consist of a recommendation from the County Mayor with the concurrence of a resolution of the Board of County Commissioners.”
It would fall short of allowing the Commission to hire its own lawyer, a continuing and so far thwarted desire, but it would give the body a share of the process, one which, Roland said during debate, would tend to make the process “independent” and pave the way for further expansion of Commission wherewithal in the future.
In the end, the ordinance, during its third and final reading on Monday, would gain the required 9 votes from the 13-member body, the number needed in order to qualify as a ballot referendum, presumably in November.
In a brief debate on the matter, Mayor Luttrell had said he would give the ordinance “serious consideration,” and did not object to submitting the matter tthe people for a vote, but made it clear he preferred that it not pass. He compared the appointment of a County Attorney to the appointment by the President of the United States of an Attorney General and said he thought the processes should be similar.
Both Reaves, who wondered about the efficacy of submitting the matter to the people via a referendum, asked, “Does this really matter to Joe Blow?”, and Chism, who thought the ordinance fell short of actually giving the Commission any power and was therefore somewhat pointless, voted no, as would Steve Basar who merely said he would “agree to disagree” with advocates for the measure.
Commissioner Heidi Shafer, along with Roland a prime supporter of expanding the Commission’s piece of the action, made it clear that the ordinance was a direct result of the long-standing quarrel over the Commission’s wish to have its own attorney. “If we had our own staff, this would not need to be implemented,” she said. And she added, November would be “a good time to be engaged.”
Luttrell reacted, somewhat obliquely, to what Shafer said (and others had implied in previous debates) by saying, “Some comments have been made regarding the Mayor’s influence on relations between the County Attorney and the Mayor.” He denied siding with the County Attorney’s office against the Commission and said he had “taken pains” to avoid that circumstance.
Monday’s action comes in the aftermath of the resignation of former County Attorney Ross Dyer, who vacated the position following his appointment to a state appellate court. It was during Dyer’s tenure that tension first flared over the Commission’s wish to have his own attorney to render independent advice.
Perhaps unsurprisingly, Dyer consistently offered opinions that the County Charter made no allowance for the Commission’s hiring of its own attorney.
In the interim, ssistant county attorneys Marcy Ingram and Kim Kuratsky are, in effect, alternating in the role of provisional County Attorney.
The 5th Annual Best Memphis Burger Fest took place on Sunday, Aug 28. Over 40 teams competed in Bloody Marys and various burger categories, and also provided samples to the general public. The event was a fundraiser for Memphis Paws, a local non-profit dedicated to generating support for animal care and rescue organizations around Memphis. In addition to cooking burgers, the event also included a Kids Zone, a pickle eating contest, a slider eating contest, live music, food trucks, and a corn hole tournament.
The winners were:
BLOODY MARY
1 – SMOKEMASTERS
2 – GAME OF BONES
3 – COWBOYARDEE
VEGGIE BURGER
1 – MEAT IN THE MIDDLE
2 – SUNS OUT BUNS OUT
3 – GAME OF BONES
SPECIALTY BURGER
1 – COWBOYARDEE
2 – PAT HARRISON’S HAMBURGER KING
3 – PIRATES OF THE GRILLIBBEAN
BEST MEMPHIS BURGER – CLASSIC CHEESEBURGER
1 – LBOE (Last Burger on Earth)
2 – MEAT IN THE MIDDLE
3 – SLIDER INN
GRAND CHAMPION – LBOE
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