Month: July 2020

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News News Blog

Seedy Seed Scam Hits Tennessee, Has ‘Scary Downside’ For Consumers

CREDIT: Tennessee Department of Agriculture/Facebook

Tennessee Department of Agriculture/Facebook

If a weird package of seeds showed up at your house from Amazon recently, you’re not alone. But you might want to check your account, and Tennessee agriculture officials are asking citizens to not plant the seeds.

A brushing scam is popping up all over the country. The Better Business Bureau (BBB) first reported the scam on July 2nd, and the organization says it has a “scary downside” for consumers.

The brushing scam works like this according to the BBB:

“The companies, usually foreign, third-party sellers that are sending the items, are simply using your address and your Amazon information,” the consumer protection organization said in a statement. “Their intention is to make it appear as though you wrote a glowing online review of their merchandise, and that you are a verified buyer of that merchandise. They then post a fake, positive review to improve their products’ ratings, which means more sales for them. The payoff is highly profitable from their perspective.”

Tennessee Department of Agriculture/Facebook

This is bad for consumers because it indicates that the companies probably have some of your account information, at least your name and address and, possibly, your phone number and password, according to the BBB. Also, “porch pirates” can use that information, then watch for a package and steal it.

If this happens to you, the BBB recommends contacting Amazon immediately and changing your account password.

The brushing scam came to the attention of the Tennessee Department of Agriculture (TDA) this week, according to posts form the agency on Facebook. Officials said the seeds seemed to have been shipped from China and some were labeled as jewelry or beads.

“Imported plant materials — including seeds — go through rigorous testing and inspection to ensure they are not carrying any plant disease or pests and do not pose any threat to our environment and health,” reads the TDA post. “It is not clear that these seeds have gone through appropriate inspection, or if they are the type of seed they are labeled to be.”

~~~LATEST UPDATE ON UNSOLICITED SEEDS~~~

Citizens have contacted the Tennessee Department of Agriculture indicating…

Posted by Tennessee Department of Agriculture on Tuesday, July 28, 2020

Seedy Seed Scam Hits Tennessee, Has ‘Scary Downside’ For Consumers

After checking with the USDA, agriculture officials here said they believed the seeds were, indeed, part of a brushing scam.

“While we have no reason to suspect at this time that these seeds were sent with ill intention, we want to take every precaution to be sure an invasive or otherwise threatening plant species doesn’t take hold here,” TDA said.

Here’s the TDA’s guidelines for anyone who received the seeds:

• What should a person do if they received seeds?

Don’t plant them. Double bag the seeds and all packaging and send to the Tennessee Department of Agriculture, to the attention of Plant Certification.

Our mailing address is:
P.O. Box 40627
Nashville, TN 37204

Our UPS or FedEx address is:
436 Hogan Road.
Nashville, TN 37220

We need your name, contact information, and where you live.

• What if a person received seeds but doesn’t want to ship them to us?

Please notify the Tennessee Department of Agriculture that you received unsolicited seeds. Call plant certification at (615) 837-5137 or email our plant certification administrator Anni Self at anni.self@tn.gov.

We need your name, contact information, and where you live, as well as what you received. Photos are also helpful.

• If you are not shipping the seeds to TDA and prefer to just dispose of them, please double bag them and put them in the trash. It’s not a good idea to compost them.

• What should a person do if they planted the seeds?

We recommend pulling up the plants, double bagging them and putting them in the trash. It’s not a good idea to compost them.

Tennessee Department of Agriculture/Facebook

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News News Blog

Amazon Posts 500 New Jobs for Olive Branch Center

Need a job? Amazon has 500 of them.

The retail giant posted the jobs for its new, 1-million-square-foot fulfillment center in Olive Branch on Tuesday, July 28th.

The full-time jobs start at $15 per hour. They also come with a benefits package that includes health, vision, and dental insurance, a 401(k) with a 50 percent company match, up to 20 weeks paid parental leave, and Amazon’s career program that pre-pays 95 percent of tuition for courses in high-demand fields.

The fulfillment center will be located at 11505 Progress Way in Olive Branch. Workers there will pick, pack, and ship large customer items, like sports equipment, patio furniture, fishing rods, pet food, kayaks, bicycles, and larger household goods.

Job candidates must be 18 years or older and have a high school diploma or equivalent to be considered. Learn more here. Or, sign up for text alerts by texting PITNOW to 77088.

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News News Blog

Online Lecture Series Focuses on Black Lives in America

CREDIT: Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash

Photo by Mike Von on Unsplash


This week the national nonprofit Braver Angels continues its 2020 social action campaign with a series of lectures centered around sharing the experiences of African Americans in the United States.

The goal of their 2020 campaign is to “show the American people how to ‘fight right’ — how to compete with one another politically and engage our differences in a way that builds our bonds rather than destroys them.”

Braver Angels is a grassroots organization that works to closes depolarize politics. The group consists of Democrats, Republicans, and Independents and hosts lectures, guest speakers, film views, and open panels with the hope of finding common ground in politics.

This Wednesday from 7 to 9 p.m., the group will be hosting an American Public Forum scholar Glenn Loury, media entrepreneur, and activist Joy Donnell, and businessman/community advocate Nel Glover in a discussion on the future of Black America. The event will be moderated by Braver Angels.

On Thursday from 8 to 10 p.m., the Braver Angels community and Americans from across the country will debate the subject of reparations and the logistics behind them in modern times. Coleman Hughes, Roderick Graham, Jason Hill are guests to look out for during the live stream.

Finally, on Friday starting at 8 p.m., Braver Angels will be hosting the inaugural meeting of the Braver Angels Film discussion group by doing a deep dive into the movie Accidental Courtesy: Daryl Davis, Race & America.

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News News Blog

Mayors: ‘This Fight Can’t Go On Forever Without National Assistance’

Mayors of cities up and down the Mississippi River urged Congress to pass a federal stimulus package Tuesday to aid them in the worsening COVID-19 crisis.

Mayors of the Mississippi River Cities and Towns Initiative (MRCTI) described “challenging” situations in their cities Tuesday. Testing supplies were stretched. Testing times were long. Personal protective equipment (PPE) was running low. Hits to their cities’ budgets have been worse than the financial crisis of the late 2000s.

For all of this, the mayors asked the House and Senate for expediency in passing a stimulus package that includes revenue replacement for local governments, resources for testing, additional PPE assistance for schools, intense heat response, and hurricane preparations in the face of the ongoing coronavirus surge.

The MRCTI mayors banded together in March to pool resources for a region-wide response to the COVID-19 crisis. The move “paid off,” according to Bettendorf, Iowa, Mayor Bob Gallagher.

“We’ve now accumulated over 75,000 units of PPE, equipping our cities with masks, body coverings, and now thermometers,” he said in a statement. “We’ve also partnered with technical experts to better access federal resources.

“As a region we can better respond to the pandemic than individually. But, this fight can’t go on forever without national assistance.”

City revenues from the 10-state, Mississippi-River corridor are down between 10 percent to 30 percent, leaving fewer resources to deliver basic services and respond to the crisis.
[pullquote-1-center] “We are working to contain the contagion, but our depleted revenue complicates our efforts,” said Lacrosse, Wisconsin, Mayor Tim Kabat. “Also, if we are going to get our economy fully reopened, we need to have the capacity to test the healthy, not just the exposed and symptomatic.”

“My state originally peaked on May 28th with 646 new cases reported that day. We more than doubled that on July 24th alone.”

The new surge is raging across the Mississippi Delta in Louisiana and Mississippi. New virus rates are topping the worst levels seen in April by several hundred cases all in the midst of a very active hurricane season, according to the MRCTI.

“Here in Mississippi, we’re seeing cases rise to past double what we were seeing in April, May, or June,” said Vicksburg, Mississippi, Mayor George Flaggs. “It didn’t take long to climb from 400 cases a day to 1,600 and it is the western side of the state seeing the fastest rise in newly reported cases.
[pullquote-2-center] “In fact, I just placed a new order with MRCTI for additional masks and thermometers to assist my city with response. We got ahead of this before and think we can again, but now cases are rising much faster and we’ve been fighting the pandemic longer with a greater toll.”

Mayor Sharon Weston Broome of Baton Rouge, Louisiana, said test times there have climbed to as much as 10 days. 

“If we’re expected to open schools in the fall, have capacity in place for a major hurricane, and lift it all with a third less revenue, then we need action on this stimulus now and it has to get funds to Main Street,” she said. “We only had one city along the entire Mississippi River qualify for direct funding from the CARES Act.”

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News News Blog

New Virus Cases Rise by 528

COVID-19 Memphis
Infogram

New Virus Cases Rise by 528

* as of Monday, July 27th

Shelby County added 528 new cases of COVID-19 on test results reported since Sunday morning.

The number is not the number of new cases on tests given yesterday. Tests results are now rarely returned within 24 hours and can take up to eight or more days. The new-case count comes from numerous tests over numerous days from numerous laboratories.

The latest weekly data available shows 15.9 percent of all tests were positive for the week of July 12th, a slight increase over the 15.3 percent of positive tests reported the week before. The weekly average positivity rate has grown steadily since the 4 percent rate recorded for the week of May 4th, just as the county’s economy began to reopen.

The county’s overall average positive rate for COVID-19 was 10 percent on Monday, according to the latest figures from the Shelby County Health Department, on all test results reported since the virus arrived here in March.

The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 19m694. One new death was reported since Monday morning. The death toll in Shelby County now stands at 263.

The total of known COVID-19 cases now diagnosed in Shelby County is 5,530. The figure is 28.1 percent of all virus cases recorded in Shelby county since March. However, there are 8,024 contacts now in quarantine.

Categories
Food & Drink Hungry Memphis

Brittney Adu Turns Unemployment Into Opportunity With Furloaved Breads + Bakery

Photos courtesy Brittney Adu

Furloaved’s Challah bread

When Brittney Adu was furloughed in May due to the COVID-19 pandemic, sitting around was never an option.

To deal with the stress, she turned to one of her favorite pastimes: baking. After churning out several loaves of bread, she joked to her friend that she might start her own bakery. Fast forward several months, and Adu has her no-contact bakery, Furloaved Breads + Bakery, in full swing.

“I’m more of a doer, as opposed to someone who sits and wallows,” says Adu. “So, I had this idea and I pulled it together.”

With a background in public relations, it was no problem for her to create a logo and get the word out about her new business. Next came deciding on a menu. To start, she turned to her fiancé and future mother-in-law for inspiration.

“They’re Jewish, and I think Jewish food and traditions are just amazing, so I thought it would be a good time to try out Challah bread since I’ve been eating it for so many years,” she said.

She spoke extensively with her mother-in-law on techniques, and immersed herself in videos from Jewish bakers.

“I really wanted to learn from those who have made it as a part of their culture for years,” she said.

For her second item, Adu looked to mix things up. Rather than go with a conventional muffin option, she experimented with various ingredients to create a healthy alternative. The result? Avocado blueberry muffins.

“A lot of my friends and acquaintances on social media had just been complaining about gaining pounds during quarantine,” Adulting said. “So, I thought about playing around with different types of healthy fats and using avocados as a replacement for butter. Besides the novelty of opening one up and seeing that it’s green inside, people have really taken to the taste.”

Brittney Adu

Every Monday, interested customers can place an order starting at 9 am through a form she provides on her Instagram and Facebook pages. But be quick! Hungry Memphians have flocked to Adu’s baked goods, which frequently sell out within 15 minutes.

For now, she utilizes Church Health’s community kitchen to prepare her orders.  Adu bakes all day on Thursdays, while she’ll email customers a pick-up location for either Friday or Saturday. 

“Since I was a kid, it’s been a dream to own a bakery,” says Adu, “I just thought it would happen later in life.”

Looking forward, she plans to stick with Furloaved and see what she can grow the idea into. While menu additions are certain, the original items are here to stay.

“No matter what the business grows into, I can’t get rid of the Challah and muffins,” Adulting said. “That’s what I started with, and they’re sentimental to me.”

But as she works on new recipes, Adu is keeping those with dietary restrictions in mind.

“I definitely want to add in some more things for people who have some special dietary needs,” she said. “I don’t want anyone to miss out on having something special just because they can’t eat those ingredients.  So, I’m really working hard to figure out some good recipes with perhaps alternatives to flour, or other substitutes, so everyone can feel included.”

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News News Blog

Shelby County Schools to Go All-Virtual This Fall

Shelby County Schools to Go All-Virtual This Fall


As the numbers of confirmed COVID–19 cases continue to rise in Memphis, Shelby County Schools superintendent Dr. Joris M. Ray announced Monday that the district will begin its school year fully virtual starting on August 31st.

The move came amid growing national pressure for schools to remain closed due to the COVID–19 pandemic. However, Ray cited the growing number of cases and uncertainty of the pandemic as major factors in the decision. 

“Safety signage, spacing desks, more hand sanitizer, and masks simply cannot make a school safe in a community that is experiencing a daily triple-digit increase of virus cases,” Ray said in a video announcement. “There are more than 18,000 cases of COVID-19 in Shelby County — a 9.3% positivity rate and growing. Science tells us that by September, our community will reach the same trajectory as New York City, and this figure does not account for the students returning to school.”

Teachers will have the option to teach remotely or in classrooms, but all students will rely on remote learning until further notice.

To supplement the process all students will be given a digital device and have the opportunity for an internet hotspot, based on need. Shelby County Schools will also continue to provide meals for students and accommodations to students who receive special education services.

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From My Seat Sports

WGC Returns to Memphis

CREDIT: PGA TOUR

TPC Southwind won’t be packed with galleries of fans this week, as it typically has been for decades when the PGA Tour comes to town. But make no mistake. With the World Golf Championships-FedEx St. Jude Invitational in town for the second year, Memphis will be the center of the golf universe for four days. The field will include the top eight players in the World Golf Rankings (at the top of the list, Jon Rahm) and 70 others competing for a total purse of $10.5 million and a bounty of 550 FedEx Cup points for the winner.
PGA TOUR

Defending champion Brooks Koepka.

Defending champion Brooks Koepka and three other players answered some questions in advance of the most unusual PGA event Memphis has ever hosted.

There’s irony in the absence of fans in golf, as silence is expected on each shot. Is it a different kind of silence, though, with no gallery?

Brooks Koepka: I’ll tell you what, it’s very weird. You’re used to so many people following your group and cheering, and even when you hit a bad shot, the little gasp they do, you’re used to that. It’s a weird feeling. Sometimes when you hit one offline, you can see the crowd kind of scurry over there so you know where it is and it just now becomes a little bit tougher. I’ve had to do it a few times, but you’re searching for a ball over there; that three minutes comes up rather quick. You don’t have as many people searching for it. It is weird when you make a birdie and there’s no applause, no cheer, no anything. It’s kind of an eerie feeling, but at the same time, I’m just happy to be back playing.

Tommy Fleetwood: For me, I’ve always kind of pictured the atmosphere with crowds and everything, whether it be winning a major or winning a Tour event or anything like that. I always think about what that feeling’s going to be, the reaction and interaction with the crowds. I think at times you’ve seen the emotion from players — which has been just the same — but there’s no doubt about it, there’s going to be less noise, less ebbs and flows momentum‑wise without the crowd living and breathing it with you. So maybe that does play a big part. Probably be silly to say that it doesn’t, but we’ll see.

Tony Finau: It’s really strange. I thrive on that energy, having them out here. I don’t mind the distraction of fans. That dynamic is amazing for our game. I miss that energy.

Rafa Cabrera-Bello: You miss the crowds, obviously. We want silence, but only for the moment before we hit. The rest of the time, we don’t mind [the crowd noise] at all. We wish they were here.

Those watching the WGC on television will welcome any live sports in ways they haven’t before. Do you feel like the PGA Tour is providing a form of stress-relief by playing during the pandemic?

Cabrera-Bello: I have no doubt it’s been good. We have the opportunity to be one of the first sports back out there, as close to normal as it can possibly be. If there are fans who might not otherwise be watching, it will be good to grow the game.

Much of the season’s rhythm was lost with the cancellation of the Masters and U.S. Open. Does this put that much more of a premium on a tournament like the WGC-FedEx St. Jude Invitational?

Finau: Every tournament seems to be extremely important. No matter whether you’re playing for Ryder Cup points, FedEx Cup points, world-ranking points. They’re all extremely important because of how condensed the season has been. You look at every week as a major week.

Cabrera-Bello: We may play fewer majors this year, so that would give more importance to the World Golf Championships, but they’ll always be a step down from the majors, unfortunately, for me.

Professional golf in Memphis has long been tied to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. Have you been able to visit the hospital . . . and does this connection distinguish the upcoming tournament on your own playing schedule?

Finau: It’s a great tournament. The work they do for St. Jude is amazing. I’ve been down to visit that hospital. It’s pretty cool. Gives you a sense of humility, seeing how grateful those kids are just to have life. I’m looking forward to competing there.

Cabrera-Bello: It’s amazing. It’s one of the best courses we play all year, FedEx has its headquarters there [in Memphis], and what they do to help the kids [at St. Jude]. When you can manage to save a kid’s life, there’s nothing better in the world than that. As a recent father, I can only imagine what parents go through when they have a sick kid. All the support — and not just financial, but moral — for St. Jude is truly unbelievable.

Categories
Music Music Blog

Al Kapone Releases New Single, ‘When It Hits Home,’ July 27th

CREDIT: Nathan Black

Nathan Black

Al Kapone releases his new single, ‘When It Hits Home,’ on July 27th



Fresh after he released a new album, Hip Hop Blues, Al Kapone released a new single, ‘When It Hits Home,” on July 27th.

The single, again released under the name, “AK Bailey,” deals with what’s on most people’s minds — the pandemic. The song is a reworking of a song, “COVID Blues,” that he wrote several months ago.

“It became outdated because a lot of stuff happened,” Kapone says. “And I wrote that in the very early stages. Well, I decided to revisit that and actually make it more current.

“I wanted to approach it in a different way. Instead of just talking about what’s going on, I wanted to make it more personal.”

People hear “all these different stories” about COVID-19, he said, and “it’s easy for you to either take it serious or not to take it serious.”

They’re either “directly affected by it” or they don’t know know anybody who’s got the virus.

“You start questioning how serious it is because you’ve only seen it on the news. You’re not really feeling it close enough,” he said. “When it hits home, if it happens to you or happens to one of your loved ones, all the stuff you looked at looks different, feels different, because it’s close enough to you. It feels real. That’s when you tend to start to tell people how serious it is.”

That can apply to other things, Kapone says.

“If you’re not used to police brutality, which has been a big part of the protest and everything that’s going on, if you’re not used to being affected in that way, it’s easy for you to not see it as a serious issue,” he said. “But as soon as you or someone you know goes through that exact same scenario, it becomes way more serious again. It feels completely different.

“You can flip it on the women’s rights situation. If women are used to going through certain abuse that men don’t go through, some men — not all — could dismiss where they’re coming from. But as soon as it happens to their mom or their daughter or somebody close to them, if that level of abuse happens to somebody close to them, they change their whole insensitive thought pattern.

“Again, when it hits home. Until it hits home you dismiss it or don’t take it serious. It can apply to anything if it hits home. I wanted it to feel that way so the lyrics will connect with the overall feeling I was trying to convey.”

His son, Young AJ, designed the single’s cover, which features a photo taken by Nathan Black of Kapone wearing a black mask.

Nathan Black

Kapone’s son, Young AJ, designed the cover for Kapone’s new single, ‘When It Hits Home.’

“Some people have their issues about wearing masks,” he said. “But if it’s going to help the situation, fighting about it is not really worth it. The same thing with seat belts. There was a time when people wouldn’t wear a seatbelt. We wear it for precautionary measures. To help the situation. It’s not saying it’s going to end the situation.

“Everybody needs to do their part so we can get the economy back going and people can get back to work and can take care of their family like they want to do. It’s all good. We can go back to partying and kicking it. We will get a chance to go back and do some of those things. This is definitely not going to last the rest of our lives.”

The pandemic has a plus side, Kapone says.

“A lot of people were able to slow down and focus on things they didn’t have a chance to focus on,” he said. “A lot of people were able to sharpen their skills, bond with family members. Before this, you didn’t have time to stay still long enough.

“Some positive things have come out of this quarantining. If we didn’t slow down, we wouldn’t make time to reconnect with family members. Or even get to know yourself. Sometimes if you sit still long enough, you learn things about yourself.”

To hear “When It Hits Home,” click here: 

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News News Blog

Average Positivity Rate Hits 10 Percent

COVID-19 Memphis
Infogram

Average Positivity Rate Hits 10 Percent

Shelby County added 402 new cases of COVID-19 on test results reported since Sunday morning.

The number is not the number of new cases on tests given yesterday. Tests results are now rarely returned within 24 hours and can take up to eight or more days. The new-case count comes from numerous tests over numerous days from numerous laboratories.

The latest weekly data available shows 15.5 percent of all tests were positive for the week of July 12th, a slight increase over the 15.2 percent of positive tests reported the week before.

The weekly average positivity rate has grown steadily since the 4 percent rate recorded for the week of May 4th, just as the county’s economy began to reopen. The county’s overall average positive rate for COVID-19 was 9.8 percent Wednesday, according to the latest information, on all test results reported since the virus arrived here in March.

The total number of COVID-19 cases here stands at 19,166. Three new deaths were reported since Friday morning. The death toll in Shelby County now stands at 262.

The total of known COVID-19 cases now diagnosed in Shelby County is 5,439. The figure is 28.4 percent of all virus cases recorded in Shelby county since March. However, there are 8,053 contacts now in quarantine.