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May 10-17, 2018
N EVE R E N D I N G E LVI S You know, it’s been a while since we’ve had a good, headline-grabbing Elvis sighting (at least since that silver-ponytailed groundskeeper at Graceland set the Elvisnet ablaze way back in 2016.) Last week, the foxy groundskeeper’s Elvishood met with a serious challenge when U.K. tabloids ran with stories titled, “King of Rock NOT DEAD?,” and “Elvis Presley, spotted ALIVE singing in a church.” The new reports allege that Elvis is pretending to be 61-year-old Pastor Robert Joyce of Benton, Arkansas. “Most of these folks know I am not Elvis, but to them [the people who hear me sing] it doesn’t matter,” Joyce said.
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S I N C LAI R WATC H According to a new report by the political news website Politico, the Sinclair Broadcast Group has been denying, “any interest in challenging Fox News while awaiting approval of a merger with Tribune Co.,” but is “gearing up to do just that.” If the Tribune merger goes through, Sinclair will own 200 local TV stations including Memphis’ WREG, giving the company considerably more reach than the top cable news stations. Sorry, no punchline. MAR S HA, MAR S HA, MAR S HA U.S. Rep. and Senate hopeful Marsha Blackburn thinks President Donald Trump should win the Nobel Peace Prize. That is all.
By Chris Davis. Email him at davis@memphisflyer.com.
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Questions, Answers + Attitude Edited by Toby Sells
W E E K T H AT W A S By Flyer staff
Spinosa, Tiny Homes, & TVA Council member resigns, a new C-Y project, and a new source of energy.
S P I N OSA O UT Philip Spinosa Jr. resigned his post last week on the Memphis City Council to join the Greater Memphis Chamber staff. He also resigned from FedEx, where he worked in sales management for 25 years. Spinosa now serves as the senior vice president of the Chairman’s Circle, which gathers leaders to solve big problems. He did not make any formal announcement to the media nor to his constituents. Remaining council members will vet and name the next member to fill Spinosa’s seat. M O R E TI NY H O M ES Ed Apple, of Apple Partners LLC, applied to the Landmarks Commission last week to build two new “tiny home” concepts in Cooper-Young, at the corner of Tanglewood and York in a sortof-residential, sort-of-industrial area close to railroad tracks. Apple and his partners at Arkansas-based City Cottages already won approval to build 10 of the small homes in CooperYoung. The homes are pre-fabricated at a facility in Arkansas and assembled on site. Apple and Little Custom Homes have argued, though, that the houses aren’t modular homes or trailers. N EW E N E R GY Tennessee Valley Authority’s (TVA) massive Allen Natural Gas Plant went live last week. The plant replaced the coal-burning Allen Fossil Plant. Both are located on Presidents Island. The Allen Fossil Plant was built by Memphis Light, Gas & Water in 1956 and began generating power in 1959. TVA board members approved a budget of $975 million for the new Allen Natural Gas Plant. However, TVA spokesman Scott Brooks said there’s not yet a final tally of the plant’s actual costs.
LO N E L I N E S S “ E P I D E M I C ” Memphians and Americans are lonely. Health insurance giant Cigna issued those findings in a national survey last week and said loneliness is “at epidemic levels in America.” The loneliness rates in Memphis roughly matched national statistics. Half of the Memphians surveyed said they sometimes or always feel that no one really knows them well. Many said they often feel left out, that their relationships aren’t meaningful, or that they feel isolated. B I K E S HAR E C O M ETH Memphis’ new bike share system announced last week it will officially launch on Wednesday, May 23rd. The system will initially have 600 bikes located at 60 stations across the city from Uptown and Downtown to South Memphis and Orange Mound to Overton Square to Cooper-Young. F LY LI K E AN EAG LE Memphis Zoo staffers and agents with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA) released a bald eagle back into the wild last week. A TWRA agent discovered the bird in March, lying on railroad tracks in Lauderdale County. He brought it to the zoo, where a blockage was removed from its throat and it was rehabilitated. The Memphis Zoo said it helps rehabilitate an average of three bald eagles a year. “Partnering with the TWRA on this successful recovery has allowed Memphis Zoo to do what we do best — help animals thrive,” said zoo veterinarian Dr. Felicia Knightly. Fuller versions of these stories and even more local news can be found on The News Blog at memphisflyer.com.