Author: Micaela Watts

Memphis will soon be home to the first virtual and augmented reality lab in the Mid-South, thanks to a multi-pronged partnership between the The FedEx Institute of Technology at the University of Memphis and local technology development groups.

The lab will be open to students, researchers, and members of the local technology community who are working to further advance development in VR technologies, or simply experience them.

The president of Memphis Game Developer, Ernest McCracken, has said that with the lab, “we can address a number of problem spaces in game development, media and art, interactive training and
medical visualization, just to name a few.”

In addition to partnering with Memphis Game Developer, the U of M has recruited the Institute for Intelligent Systems, and the MemphisTechnology Foundation.

“This is also the first collaboration between academia and the greater Memphis IT community of technology enthusiasts and makers,” said McCracken.

The grand opening will include demonstration and will be held on the fourth floor of the FIT building at the U of M, starting at 5:00p.m.. Those interested in attending may RSVP to cbehles@memphis.edu

Micaela Watts

Karen Spencer Mcgee was one of the first to line up and offer feedback to the Department of Justice.

Less than 50 people showed up tonight for the first community forum held by the Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The forum, held at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, is the first of two forums officiated by the COPS office. 

The partnership between COPS and the Memphis Police Department was announced last month. The sole purpose of the review is to evaluate relationships between the citizens of Memphis and the police force charged with their safety; especially when it comes to policies pertaining to community policing and the use of deadly force.

For most that came up to the microphone, a general consensus was expressed; The MPD has good officers, but some had left an otherwise foul impression, or what Karen Spencer-Mcgee called “a bad cloud” over the MPD.

Spencer, who says an unjust firearms charge is still hanging over the head of her 16-year-old after he was stopped by police for walking “an expensive dog”, is wondering what the DOJ plans to do about unfounded charges.

“Will he go to college? Can he get a grant of any sort? In my age, we grew up with ‘Officer Friendly’. Now, my son only knows, ‘Eff the police.'”

The next forum is on November 30, at the Hickory Hill Community Center from 5:00-8:00p.m..

Department of Justice

The Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services has announced their first two community listening sessions, to be held Tuesday and Wednesday of next week.

The community meetings are part of a lengthy DOJ review of the Memphis Police Department’s community policing policies and policies regarding the use of deadly force. Citizens are encouraged to attend and voice their concerns with representatives from the COPS office.

The partnership of the MPD and the COPS program was announced last month by Chief Noble Wray with the COPS office, Memphis mayor Jim Strickland, U.S. Attorney Edward Stanton III, and MPD director Michael Rallings, who all emphasized that the partnership was sought by Memphis officials.

At the time, Rallings said of the decision, “We want to improve. And, in order to improve… you have to open yourself up.

The first community meeting is at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church in Midtown, on November 29 from 6:00p.m.-9:00p.m.. The second meeting is on November 30, at the Hickory Hill Community Center from 5:00-8:00 p.m.

Shelby County Health Department

The numbers of infants dying before their first birthday are now historically low, but for black women they are still too high.

This morning, the Shelby County Health Department announced that the infant mortality rate has fallen to the lowest number ever recorded by the health department, 8.2 deaths per 1,000 live births.

“We have made significant improvements and are encouraged by the decreased rate,” said Alisa Haushalter, DNP, RN, director of the Shelby County Health Department. “We will continue to collaborate with all partners; partners who work tirelessly to ensure all babies not only live to celebrate their first birthday but thrive in a healthy community.”

While this IMR number is the lowest it’s ever been in recorded history, the number still disproportionately affect non-hispanic blacks, who have 10.6 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Center for Disease Control and Prevention through Healthy People 2020 has established the national IMR at 6 deaths per 1,000 live births.

To be certain, this number is a vast improvement since 2003, when the IMR rate among black communities was a devastating 21 deaths per 1,000 live births. In 2008, national attention turned to Memphis when ABC’s news show, 20/20, focused their attention on the staggering crisis happening in Memphis’ poorest, majority-black neighborhoods.

Over the years, experts from multiple organizations committed to combatting the problem routinely point to a lack of access to prenatal care and education for expecting mothers. This lack of critical resources is what results in low birth weights, birth defects, maternal complications during pregnancy, and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.

Shelby County mayor Mark Luttrell said he is “pleased” with the dropping numbers, and directly attributes the decline to the work of the health department and various advocacy organizations that focus on educating expecting mothers, saying their work “has certainly assisted many mothers and their children at this critical time in their lives.”

Let’s all gather in for a second and cast aside our partisan differences, because we have a snuggly announcement guaranteed to make both sides of the isle smile.

Ok, ready?

Today, The Memphis Zoo announced the birth of a BABY MONKEY (more specifically, a Francois langur), named “Rook”, born to “Jean Grey” and “Jay-Jay”.

Officials with the zoo say that baby Rook is in perfect health, and Jean Grey is taking to motherhood with ease. (Comic fans, you better show up with something witty in the comment section to balance out the expected Greensward comments).

Francois langurs have long been cared for and reproduced at the Memphis Zoo, since 2002. They grow up to be leaf-eating monkeys, equipped with two stomach chambers to digest their mega-fibrous diet.

Before they grow into their black coats that distinguishes them as adults, they start out their little monkey existences with bright orange fur, which is believed by some scientists to encourage females in the group to lend a hand with rearing the monkey-child. Plus, like, orange is Jean Grey’s favorite color, so that worked out nicely for Rook.

Both mother and child are on display for the public for limited hours every day at the CHINA exhibit.

The Memphis Zoo

If you don’t at least half-way smile at this image, then I don’t know what there is to be done about your icy-cold heart.

Micaela Watts

Tonya Reece, an organizer with SURJ facilitates a conversation with meeting attendees on what various forms of direct action against racism could look like. More than 150 were in attendance for SURJ’s largest meeting yet.

Last night, roughly 150 citizens gathered in the main sanctuary of First Congregational Church on Cooper to discuss how they, as white people, would streamline their collective outrage at the national and local trends of discrimination against people of color into action.

SURJ, or Showing Up for Racial Justice, is a national organization with a newly formed Memphis chapter. Their aim is simple, to take the burden of discussing complex issues around white supremacy off of black people. In doing so, they hope to facilitate conversation which ideally will result in unified political actions.

“We have a lot of people here who already have a pretty deep analysis around anti-racism already, but we absolutely welcome people who are brand new, and have a lot of questions,” said Allison Glass, an organizer with SURJ. “For people who have questions, we want to “call them in”, not “call them out”.

According to Glass, it’s a great thing when white people have questions about white supremacy and how to combat the overt and covert forms it manifests in. However, turning the the nearest black person you know for explanation, “well, that can be extremely hurtful. They have to do deal with that reality every day.”

The stated national goal of SURJ is to engage 3.5% of white people in racial justice. This can take on many different forms such as fundraising for black-lead racial justice organizations like Black Lives Matter.

“One of our main goals with SURJ, is to center black-lead anti-racist movements,” explained glass.

In the wake of Trump’s elections, hate crimes have seen a dramatic rise. Some experts have even said the numbers of reported hate crimes are surpassing those that took place in the days following 9/11.

“What we’ve seen in response since the election, shows that this work is needed now more than ever.”

SURJ will have a meeting at 6:00 p.m. tomorrow at 902 S. Cooper to discuss upcoming direct actions against racial violence.

Micaela Watts

More than 50 people protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline peacefully marched to the front of the Clifford Davis Odell Horton Federal Building in Downtown Memphis and were denied access to the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers with no explanation given.

This afternoon, security guards at the Clifford Davis Odell Horton Federal Building in Downtown Memphis blocked citizens of Memphis and press protesting the Dakota Access Pipeline from entering the building to file their grievances with the Memphis offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers.

The crowd of roughly 50 people gathered to voice their concerns about the controversial oil pipeline that protestors say threatens sacred burial grounds and sovereign land that was granted by the U.S. government in 1868 under article 11 of the 1868 Fort Laramie Treaty.

Security did let other camera crews into the building, but explained that they were there for “something else”.

“You’re getting a small taste of what we’ve been dealing with for hundreds of years,” explained Caroline Mudbone, a transplant Memphian from California who was there to inform the crowd of the conditions protestors face in the ongoing Standing Rock protests, which have been ongoing for weeks now.

“Our youth are getting shot by rubber bullets, they are spraying us with tear gas, and this is all because we are protecting a water source for millions of Americans,” said Mudbone.

Media coverage of the Standing Rock protest has been almost non-existent explained Mudbone. Speaking to the crowd she explained, “We have seen a widespread media blackout, no one is there to say what is happening.”

Satellite oppositions of the Dakota Access Pipeline have surfaced all over the United States, but today was the first organized protest in Memphis, attended by familiar local environmentalists such as Scott Banbury and dozens more citizens.

Organizer Thomas Wayne Walker was told that the offices of the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was closed today.

“It’s not a national holiday, and its Thursday in the middle of the afternoon — so, I’m not sure what’s going on.”

Got a headache? Need some weed?

Arkansas voted yesterday to approve medical marijuana for residents with qualifying conditions, becoming the first state in the Bible Belt to do so.

The Arkansas Medical Marijuana Amendment, or Issue 6, was approved 53-47. Less than two weeks prior, a competing medical marijuana initiative, Issue 7, was disqualified from the ballot after the Arkansas Supreme Court disqualified thousands of signatures from the initiative’s petition, rendering it ineligible to vote on.

Issue 7, considered by many to be the more lax initiative of the two, had more than twice as many medical qualifiers for obtaining medical-grade cannabis, and the ability for residents to grow their own plants if they lived too far from a dispensary. After Issue 7’s removal from the ballot, supporters encouraged voters to throw their vote behind Issue 6. Some medical weed is better than no medical weed.

Details about dispensaries, pricing, and zoning for sale will unfold in the year to come.

Citizens and media in Memphis are feverishly working to identify the Trump supporter whose ultra-racist tangent was caught on film and subsequently ricocheted all throughout the internet.

So far, we only know for certain the one man who is NOT responsible for the abhorrent spew, and that man is Brad Carson, producer for ESPN 92.9.

An unknown person for unknown reasons falsely tagged Carson in the viral video, and almost immediately the sports-show producer began receiving death threats via email and social media.

Twitter

This isn’t the first time an individual has outed themselves to the world at large as a racist, rancid, festering boil upon the dermis of humanity. It likely won’t be the last. But, with searching tools more available than ever, false accusations are now easier than ever to spread.

Just ask Brad Carson.

Brandon Lev, the recpient of the foul spew and quite possibly one of the most patient humans on earth, has been the only one to identify themselves and come forward about what happened. That’s somewhat surprising as the unidentified boil seems awfully proud of sharing his views.

Carry on, Internet- but do so with caution.