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Harold Ford Jr. Wants Part of Grizzlies

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Former congressman Harold Ford Jr. has agreed to become a member of Robert Pera’s Memphis Grizzlies ownership group, reports the Commercial Appeal.
Less than two weeks after Pera added some star power in the person of homegrown pop star and actor Justin Timberlake, he’s come to an agreement with the former five-term congressman from Memphis.
“I’m honored to be a part of Robert’s ownership group,” said Ford, who did not specify what percentage of the team he will own. “He’s a genuine guy and a great guy.”
Ford said he met Pera through mutual friends more than a year ago, before Pera began his pursuit of the Grizzlies. When Pera reached an agreement with Michael Heisley to buy the franchise, Ford said he had the same concerns as everyone else.
“I still have a home in Memphis; I didn’t want to see the team leave,” he said. “I watched the speculation and read the articles. But from the beginning, Robert assured me that moving the team was not his desire. He’s serious about making the team a success on and off the court. He’s even more serious about making sure there’s local involvement.”

Shelby-Memphis Charter Schools in Limbo

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The Memphis-Shelby County unified school board has voted to deny 17 charter school applications. The Commercial Appeal has a report on the impact, using the Grizzlies Foundation – hit “in its philanthropic heart” as the lead example
Since the spring, the foundation and its Grizzlies Prep board have invested “five figures” in training and pay for the school’s principal.
The Grizzlies charter school, a college-prep middle school for boys, was expected to open in fall 2012 in the former Federal Reserve building at 168 Jefferson.
Its fate now hangs in the state treasurer’s hands after the unified school board rejected its application, saying the school and 13 other high-scoring applications pose serious financial threats to the traditional public schools in the county.
“I’m disappointed for the kids that this (school) would help,” Ross Glotzbach, Grizzlies Prep board chairman, said Wednesday after a five-hour school board meeting Tuesday night.
“The alternatives that these kids would have to go to, boys there score 5 percent proficient on their test,” he said. “In one school, they did not have one seventh- or eighth-grader pass the math TCAP in the last year.”
On the advice of legal counsel, both Memphis City Schools Supt. Kriner Cash and Shelby County Schools Supt. John Aitken recommended that the unified board deny all the applications, saying the expense of losing nearly 2,000 students to charter schools would decimate school budgets.
“When I looked at the data presented on this issue, it immediately became glaringly clear that Memphis City Schools cannot now and into the future withstand the financial impact to the district that this many charter schools being approved each year would have,” Cash said.