Month: June 2020

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News News Blog

Shelby County to Perform Mass Testing at Corrections Facility

The Shelby County Health Department (SCHD) said Tuesday that it will begin mass testing at the county’s corrections facility.

The testing of 517 staff members and near 1,500 inmates at the Shelby County Divisions of Corrections facility on Mullins Station Road will be done beginning June 2nd (today) until June 8th. This comes as a result of a partnership between the Shelby County government and the Tennessee Department of Health. The state health department is paying for the testing kits, laboratory fees, and personal protective equipment for SCHD personnel.

“Men and women serving time and those awaiting trial deserve humanity and compassion, just like all the rest of us,” said Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. “That’s why we have been working so hard to surge the testing at our facilities. This surge is expected to be one of the largest organized testing efforts since the arrival of COVID-19. We will continue to expand our efforts to make our facilities safe, protect the vulnerable, and lift the least of these concerns.”

Alisa Haushalter, director of the SCHD, said inmates and employees in correctional facilities are considered vulnerable populations because the congregate living arrangements makes social distancing difficult.

She adds that testing in the facilities will identify any asymptomatic cases, which will allow for those individuals to be isolated.

“Having this opportunity to provide COVID-19 testing to our staff and offenders is comforting,” said Anthony Alexander, director of Corrections, “Corrections employees are first responders who risk their health and safety daily, and our offenders deserve to be housed in a safe and humane environment. Testing will provide much-needed reassurance to our employees, offenders, and their families.”


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News News Blog

Tennessee Travel Normalizing, Especially Outside of Metros

CREDIT: Vanderbilt University

Vanderbilt University

Tennesseans, especially those outside metro areas, are returning to travel levels seen before the first case of COVID-19 arrived in the state, according to the latest analysis from researchers at Vanderbilt University.

Those researchers have been issuing public health policy papers since early April. Those papers have focused largely on the spread of the virus, predictions on the possible surge of patients in hospitals, and when the state may reopen the economy.

However, the newest paper focuses on travel. For it, the researchers relied on “anonymized cellular device data” to analyze travel habits in the state.

“Tennesseans dramatically scaled back their movements just after the first coronavirus case was reported in Tennessee and as reports of transmission more broadly in the U.S. began to emerge in early March,” reads the paper. “Moreover, the chart makes clear that mobility decreased statewide seven-10 days before the statewide Safer at Home policy was announced on March 31st.

“Finally, mobility began increasing in mid-April, and in some regions has now returned to levels last seen in February 2020. Non-metro areas of the state have seen larger increases in movement after the Safer at Home order expired on May 1st.”

Travel in the regions around Shelby County and Davidson County are the lowest in the state, according to the data. Travel in the rest of West Tennessee, south central Tennessee, and Upper Cumberland regions is now back above February levels.
Vanderbilt University

Researchers wondered if travel changes were different in areas most affected by the virus. They found travel patterns were the same before the first case arrived here in early March. But “sustained mobility differences between these areas emerged just after the first case, and differences became larger over time.”

Vanderbilt University

“Our results underscore an important point about the virus and its impact on the Tennessee economy,” reads the paper. “Mobility changes in areas with the most COVID-19 cases occurred at the same time as changes in areas least affected by the virus to date.

“However, through May 26 the most affected areas continue to see substantially lower economic activity. A top priority for the state and for Tennesseans must be suppressing the virus to avoid further and prolonged negative economic effects across the state.”

Hardest hit by lower travel numbers have been religious organizations, museums and historical sites, day care centers, doctors’ offices, and department stores. The study looked at 16 of the top commercial categories identified by the North American Industry Classification (NAIC) and compared travel to those types of businesses to 2019 levels.
Vanderbilt University

“… visits to many places across Tennessee began a steep decline just after the first COVID-19 case was announced in early March,” reads the paper. “These declines leveled out in mid-April, but visits to some types of places have recovered to the levels observed for the same week in 2019.

Vanderbilt University

“Even outside of Davidson and Shelby counties, visits to restaurants remain 20 percent below comparable amounts from the same week in 2019, while across all areas visits to churches remain 40 percent – 50 percent below their usual levels for mid-May, presumably due to limits on large gatherings.”

The Vanderbilt researchers explained the information they used came from anonymized and privacy-protected cellular device data from SafeGraph, a data analytics firm. The firm tracks 40 million smartphones, and location movements “are recorded in terms of travel among census block groups, which are geographic areas containing between 600 and 3,000 people.” The data is only collected from these census block groups, “and thus we do not track individuals’ movements across the state.”

Read the entire paper here:
[pdf-1]

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News News Blog

COVID-19 Positive Rate Up Again

Shelby County’s positive rate for COVID-19 rose Monday to 7.7 percent.

The health department reported that 2,473 tests were given on Monday, and, of those, 190 were positive. The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 5,314. The department also reported four additional deaths, bringing the total number of deaths to 113 in the county. 

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News News Blog

Monday Night Protests End Peacefully at 10 p.m.

CREDIT: Coalition of Concerned Citizens/Facebook

Coalition of Concerned Citizens/Facebook

Monday Night Protests End Peacefully at 10 p.m. (16)

Protests in Memphis ended peacefully at around 10 p.m. after a march on Beale Street, a demonstration at 201 Poplar, and a rolling blockade of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge.

The sixth night of protests came after Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland instituted a curfew earlier in the day, running from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. The Tennessee National Guard was also activated but the agency’s presence was not dominant in Wednesday’s protests.

Here is how the protests here played out on social media from journalists,  activists, and other sources.

Monday Night Protests End Peacefully at 10 p.m.

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Meanwhile in Nashville:

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Monday Night Protests End Peacefully at 10 p.m. (54)

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Film/TV Film/TV/Etc. Blog

Music Video Week: Don Bryant

Music Video Week is taking it back home.

We’re closing out Music Video Week with Don Bryant and the Bo-Keys. Bryant was a Memphis music staple in the 1960s and 70s, fronting Willie Mitchell’s band and co-writing the hit “I Can’t Stand The Rain” with his soon-to-be wife Ann Peebles. In 2017, after decades of retirement from secular music, Bryant returned with the supergroup the Bo-Keys to record Don’t Give Up On Love, one of the Memphis Flyer’s Best Albums of the Teens.

In 2018 Bryant and the band recorded this video for Beale Street Caravan’s I Listen To Memphis series. Director Christian Walker captured them playing in a sacred space for Memphis music, Wild Bill’s juke joint. Here’s hoping we can all soon go back there, and to all the other live music venues that make Memphis such a special music town.

Music Video Week: Don Bryant

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News News Blog

Mayor Sets New, Nightly Curfew

Mayor Sets New, Nightly Curfew

A new, nightly curfew begins tonight from 10 p.m. to 6 a.m. in an effort to calm protests here related to the police killing of George Floyd in Minneapolis.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland set the curfew in a special news briefing Monday afternoon. He said the curfew is an “effort to keep things peaceful” and will go on “as long as necessary.”

“This means if you’re out during those hours, you can be arrested with the exception of essential workers and those with medical [emergencies],” Strickland said.

Strickland said the decision to institute the curfew came after a weekend phone call with mayors and police directors with the 40 largest U.S. cities.

“They felt a curfew was needed when there was property damage or violent acts,” he said. “We saw that last night. [There were] broken windows and bottles being thrown. So we decided it was appropriate at this time to have a curfew.”

Strickland began the special news conference this way, “Thank you.”

“Thank you to the protesters in Memphis, for those conducting themselves in a peaceful and powerful manner,” Strickland said. “I applaud you and I thank you for your leadership and passion. I know that you’re hurting and that you’re angry and that you want change. I’m with you on that.”

Strickland said the city of Memphis and the community at large have made strides in decreasing poverty, improving education and workforce development, and reducing violent crime. However, in all of those regards and others, Strickland said, “we must do better.”

“As I said days ago, the needless death of George Floyd and too many other souls around our country serve as a constant reminder that we must do better,” Strickland said. “We must do better. In our country, we as Americans and as Memphians, we deserve better.”

“Moving forward, I want you to know that I hear you. The Memphis Police Department hears you. The city of Memphis hears you.”

In his closing remarks, Strickland described what he called “two types of protestors.” The first group “that I believe is the vast majority or protestors” believe in their message and want “to get it across in a peaceful, powerful, and respectful way.” The other group, he said, “wants destruction and chaos, regardless of the cost and how many people they may hurt.”

“We cannot let the second group steal the message to end systematic racism and take it from those of us who love our city and want to bring meaningful and lasting change to a broken system.”

The Tennessee National Guard has been activated to respond to protests here and across the state. Neither Strickland nor Memphis Police Department director Michael Rallings were precisely sure of the Guard’s movements here.

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Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Caritas Village Closes, Hopes to Return This Fall

CREDIT: Caritas Village/Facebook

Caritas Village/Facebook

Caritas Village, the Binghamton-based community center and cafe, closed this week and will remain closed throughout the summer. Officials there plan to re-imagine the space as a kitchen for local food entrepreneurs and is shooting to re-open this fall.

The organization announced the closing in a Monday Facebook post, noting that “in the wake of the global pandemic, our organization has had to face some difficult realities.”

Here’s the rest of the Caritas statement in full:

“We are deeply committed to the vital mission of love and service to our community of Binghamton as created by our founder Onie Johns. With that in mind, we have decided to re-imagine the use of our kitchen, converting it from a café to a community resource for local food entrepreneurs. Caritas will remain closed for the summer while we work to strengthen partnerships with other local organizations, envision how all of our programs will continue, and ensure a sustainable future for our beloved organization.

Caritas Village/Facebook

We would like to sincerely thank Kristin McMillin for her leadership in shepherding the café through several challenges so capably, and, with the help of Chef Spencer McMillin, in leveraging additional resources to offer the truly above-and-beyond Restaurant Workers Unity Project and Feeding the Front Lines efforts.

We are grateful to the leadership of Brad Watkins, who offered resources valuable to residents and laid the groundwork for programming to come, and to the entire staff, who worked tirelessly to produce wonderful food and fellowship for our community.

We are grateful beyond measure for the countless people who made Caritas’ mission of love and service theirs by offering their monetary support or volunteer support. To all of our customers over the years, we love you and are so happy to have played a part in your fellowship and conversations over meals at Caritas. We are grateful that you decided to spend your time and money in support of a mission that brought many people together and helped us provide meals to many hungry people who had no money to eat.

Caritas Village/Facebook

We are grateful for the hard work and countless contributions of our neighbors in Binghamton, who worked to make Caritas what it has become and continue to inspire our collective work. We are excited about what the future hold for Caritas and are dedicated to returning with a renewed commitment to serving our community of Binghamton in the fall.”

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News News Blog

Elected Officials Across State Respond to Police Brutality, Protests

CREDIT: Facebook/Tami Sawyer

Facebook/Tami Sawyer

Elected officials in Tennessee are having different responses to the death of George Floyd and the protests across the state that followed.

Many took to social media to express their thoughts on the shooting, police brutality in general, and the ongoing protests in the state.

On Saturday, Tennessee Governor Bill Lee, authorizing the National Guard to respond, said the protest in the state’s capital were a “threat to both peace and property.” He called the protesters’ actions “unacceptable.” 


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Some state legislators applauded the decision by the governor and Nashville Mayor John Cooper to deploy the National Guard in response to protests. 

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Elected Officials Across State Respond to Police Brutality, Protests

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Meanwhile, other elected officials expressed support, backing protesters.

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In Memphis, two Shelby County Commissioners tweeted, questioning law enforcement’s response to protests here. 

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News News Blog

Protesters Took to Memphis Streets Over Weekend, Speaking Out Against Police Brutality

As in many cities around the country, protesters hit the streets of Memphis for five consecutive nights, calling attention to police brutality in the wake of George Floyd’s death at the hands of a Minneapolis police officer.

Over the weekend, protests continued with marches Downtown. The protests led to the arrest of at least a dozen people.


On Sunday, protesters, who marched through Downtown and one point made it to I-55 and proceeded down the highway, were met with police in riot gear. As the night progressed, police, some mounted on horses, used pepper spray and rubber bullets to disperse the crowd.

Here is a look at the events captured by Memphis journalists and others. 

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Protesters Took to Memphis Streets Over Weekend, Speaking Out Against Police Brutality

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Protesters Took to Memphis Streets Over Weekend, Speaking Out Against Police Brutality (13)

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News News Blog

Virus Positive Rate Continues to Slide

Shelby County’s positive rate for COVID-19 fell for the third day in a row Sunday, a day of high testing.

The Shelby County Health Department reported 121 new cases of the virus from 2,317 tests given yesterday. That put the positive rate at 5.2 percent. That figure slid Friday and Saturday after a five-day stretch of higher numbers. The county’s average positivity rate is 6.8 percent since the virus surfaced here in March.

No new deaths were reported Sunday. The death toll in Shelby County stands at 109.

However, hospitalizations are still higher, according to information obtained by the Flyer.

Also, the Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) will expand bus service close to pre-pandemic levels on June 7th, according to that information.