Beale Street drops security fee
MEMPHIS – Officials have stopped charging a $10 security fee to people who visit Beale Street during peak times.
The Commercial Appeal reports Downtown Memphis Commission President Paul Morris shared the news in a letter to Mayor A C Wharton.
“We understand that the fee was bad for business and unpopular with many, and we are confident that we can find another way to ensure public safety going forward … , ” Morris wrote.
The security fee was collected on only two days — Aug. 17 and Aug. 24 — in an effort to control overcrowding and increase safety. The early Sunday morning fee was part of a plan merchants put in place after “a series of public safety breaches” earlier in the summer that seemed to stem from overcrowding.
Morris said new measures would be considered if the overcrowding problem develops again.
Teeth whitening rules challenged
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Businesses are asking a Birmingham judge to overturn an Alabama law restricting teeth-whitening services outside of dentist’s offices.
Lawyers for a North Carolina man and an Alabama woman asked a Jefferson County judge Thursday to declare the law unconstitutional. They say teeth whitening is safe and dentists are creating a monopoly.
The state dental board is defending the law. It says the products could pose a health threat, and that’s enough for a law.
Legislators passed the law three years ago saying businesses like nail salons can’t sell teeth-whitening products. Violators can be fined $5,000 and jailed for a year.
Consumers can still buy the products in retail stores and use them at home.
Battlefield gets preservation grant
THOMPSON’S STATION, Tenn. – The National Park Service has announced a grant of more than $202,000 for preservation of land at the Civil War battlefield at Thompson’s Station in Middle Tennessee.
The funding is part of more than $1.7 million in grants to preserve battlefields threatened with damage or destruction by urban and suburban development.
Thompson’s Station, in Williamson County, was the site of a March 1863 battle during the Civil War.
The grants go to state and local governments for acquisition of land or easements near the battlefields.
Teen captured after jail escape
NASHVILLE – Nashville police say they’ve captured one of six teens who were still on the run after a mass breakout from a Nashville detention center.
Police say the teen was found at an apartment complex in Hermitage on Friday, and five others who were being held at Woodland Hills Youth Development Center remain at large.
More than 30 teens escaped from the facility late Monday.
Most teens at the center have committed at least three felonies. On Wednesday, two dozen detainees broke into the yard, wielding sticks and spraying a fire extinguisher. The center has a history of violent clashes, breakout attempts and attacks on guards.