Good morning, sunshines! It’s Friday, March 20, the official first day of spring, and the weather is going to be gorgeous all weekend. On Saturday, you can celebrate the equinox all day with the Holi and Kite Festival at Shelby Farms in the morning, an afternoon of beer at Wiseacre’s German Frühlingsfest and an evening Faerie Fête at Loflin Yard.

You may be glued to the NCAA Tournament games all weekend, cause hey, there’s a lot riding on those office brackets. You won’t find any Memphis basketball there, but you will find a couple of Memphis Grizzlies games on: They play the Boston Celtics tonight and the Charlotte Hornets tomorrow. 

See even more weekend fun — like Journey’s last journey to Memphis — in The To-Do List. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

This three-story building at 324 S. Front St. is being demolished. (Andy Ashby/The Daily Memphian)

Out on Front Street: One of developer Tom Intrator’s blighted properties is finally coming down. The long-vacant warehouse at 324 S. Front St., next to Gus’s Fried Chicken, is one of eight Intrator buildings involved in a blight lawsuit from the Downtown Memphis Commission. Intrator had big plans for several Memphis developments that never panned out, including including the new, six-story apartment building planned for this site.

Five of the seven University of Tennessee Health Science Center occupational-therapy faculty resigned over alleged student mistreatment. (Courtesy UTHSC)

UTHSC is hiring: The University of Tennessee Health Science Center is on the hunt for new faculty members after five people resigned over abuse allegations. The five faculty members from the occupational-therapy department left after they say the university failed to address concerns that a fellow professor was abusive to students. According to student complaints, Pamela Yvette Lewis-Kipkulei “led many students to break down in tears” and “publicly ridiculed” students for asking questions. The UTHSC has opened an investigation into the matter, and they’ve hired a search firm to replace faculty in time for fall.

Memphis was responsible for nearly one-third of gun violence’s economic toll on Tennessee in 2023, new data shows.(Courtesy Pixabay)

Bloody year: Shelby County had more gun-related homicides in 2023 than any other county in the state. That’s from the new Tennessee Firearm Fatality Dashboard, which tracks firearm fatalities across the state from 2014 to 2023. But you might be surprised to learn that Memphis didn’t top the list for overall gun deaths, and the county’s gun-related suicide rate was among the lowest in the state. The dashboard also shows the big economic toll from those deaths.

Speaking of guns … state Republican lawmakers are trying to make it easier to carry guns into government buildings. A bill that passed the state House this week says state-government buildings can only ban guns if they have a metal detector and armed guard at every entrance. And according to the new bill, when someone ignores a “no firearms” sign, they can’t be criminally charged unless they refuse to leave with their gun. (If someone with a gun refuses to leave, it seems like that could go south very quickly, no?).

MEET MEMPHIS

Kai Stowell is a food-content creator known as Chino_cappucino on Instagram where he has more than 185,000 followers, and SenpaiKai9000 on his YouTube channel where he has more than 1.6 million followers. (Courtesy Kai Stowell)

What happens to all that food that social-media influencers cook for YouTube shorts and Instagram reels? Well, some probably just eat it. But Memphis content-creator Kai Stowell is feeding the city’s homeless. Stowell, a food-industry veteran who has worked in high-end kitchens and under a James Beard-nominated chef, has more than 1.6 million followers for his YouTube cooking videos. His early content was simple cooking clips (like this video on how to cut an onion the Michelin-star way), but these days, he cooks for a crowd and then donates the meals to local community fridges.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Central BBQ is rolling out several new offerings, including a breakfast menu, a value menu and party wings. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Barbecue for breakfast: Or least, breakfast from a barbecue spot. Central BBQ will start serving breakfast at its Midtown location Monday morning, and while there’s no word on whether the items will include pulled pork, there will be biscuits and burritos. (I am here for all of that alliteration.) Read more on that in Food Files, where you’ll also get the scoop on Midtown’s newest patio. In other food news, our $15 Deals (there’s more than one today) from Little Petals may cure what ails ya when you get the sniffles. 

The former Railgartend tiki bar, to the left in this photo, will be turned into a workspace at Stomping Grounds. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

Off the ground: The planned opening date for Midtown’s Stomping Grounds should be easy to remember. The owners say they’re aiming to transform the former Railgarten into the kid-friendly bar in time for a 901 Day opening. That’ll involve a lot of work that includes turning the main bar building into an indoor play space with a self-service tap wall for beer, cold brew and soda. They’re also building a community workspace — for office work and homework — where Railgaten’s tiki bar was. 

FedEx shipped an average of 18.5 million packages a day in the recent third quarter. (The Daily Memphian file)

FedEx is a-OK: Memphis-based FedEx Corp. is coming off its most profitable holiday season ever. The shipping giant reported strong third-quarter earnings Thursday with revenues of $24 billion, an 8% increase over the same period a year ago. As for the war in Iran and its impact on fuel prices, FedEx president and CEO Raj Subramaniam said he wasn’t too worried.

Receiver Cortez Braham Jr. (left) and running back Greg Desrosiers Jr. (right) were among several Memphis Tigers who participated in the Memphis football program’s Pro Day Thursday. (Parth Upadhyaya/The Daily Memphian)

Like a pro: Memphis Tigers football players Cortez Braham Jr. and Greg Desrosiers Jr. got a chance to show off for the NFL Thursday. Braham (receiver) and Desrosiers (running back) weren’t invited to last month’s NFL Scouting Combine, but Thursday’s Memphis Pro Day gave them a chance to prove their worth to NFL teams right here at home. The Daily Memphian’s Parth Upadhyaya talked to both guys about how the — probably very nerve-wracking — day went.

Trash cash: Horn Lake residents are about to be throwing more money into the trash — literally. The city is raising sanitation rates for the second time in a year. The reason for this hike? Sanitation contractor Meridian Waste is raising prices. The other hike happened last fall to pay for the relocation of Horn Lake’s municipal landfill.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

This comment on Memphis Grizzlies player Taj Gibson’s jersey number is for your kids.

And with that, I’ll duck out. Enjoy this beautiful weekend!

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