Shelby County poised to create bail-hearing room for arrestees

Good morning and happy Tuesday!

This is Executive Editor Mark Russell, and you're reading the Daily Briefing, our one-stop digital shop for the best Memphis stories from our award-winning Commercial Appeal team.

Nearly eight months after the American Civil Liberties Union and Shelby County advocacy groups threatened to sue the county for its bail and pretrial detention practices, the county government is poised to change those practices by creating a bail hearing room for arrestees, Katherine Burgess reports.

The Shelby County Commission will first consider in a committee meeting on Wednesday whether to fund expenses and additional personnel — to the tune of $2 million — to establish that room.

Meanwhile, when tenants on the verge of eviction show up at Shelby County General Sessions Court, most don’t know what their hearing will be like or what they’re supposed to say. And many haven’t heard that millions of federal dollars have been set aside to help people in their situation, reports Jacob Steimer of our partner, MLK50: Justice Through Journalism.

All six General Sessions Civil Court judges — who are up for re-election Thursday Aug. 4 — know about the Emergency Rental Assistance funds, but only three brought it up during court, MLK50 journalists found.

In case you missed it: While The Commercial Appeal is still far below the community's diversity, our newsroom staff diversity improved in the last year. Africans Americans make up 29% of the newsroom, compared with 22.2% at this time a year ago. The percentage of women in the newsroom rose to 45.2% compared with 37% a year ago, I wrote in a recent column.

While we are going in the right direction, we have more work to do to match the diversity in our coverage area as you well see in this column.

We all know the Memphis food scene is about way more than barbecue, fried chicken and catfish -- our food version of Louisiana's holy trinity -- and the latest list of six restaurants to try from Jennifer Chandler underscores that point.

July was a busy month for new eateries in Memphis. From a bakery specializing in French macarons to a new Vietnamese restaurant to a Downtown speakeasy, here are six new spots you need to check out, Jennifer reports.

Speaking of food, if you want to keep up with the tastiest news in Bluff City, sign up for our Eat Drink Memphis weekly newsletter for a hearty serving of stories on everything from restaurants to recipes. You can sign up here.

Thanks for reading The Commercial Appeal! Your support powers our ability to do important journalism, including the stories below. If you are not yet a subscriber, please consider becoming one. You can find the best deals at this site.

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: Shelby County to create bail hearing room arrestees