As the the impeachment inquiry in Washington D.C. heats up, politicians are making their cases to the voters back home.

After her son Chase died in 2015, Tracey Bailey left his room untouched—down to the last overnight bag the 16-year-old took with him to St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, where he had been receiving bone cancer treatment. 

“I come in here every day...it gives me a sense of peace," says Bailey, of Clarksdale, Miss. 

For a while, finding peace seemed impossible. But for her and other St. Jude families, a mentorship program has provided bereaved parents extra emotional support.  

Hospice is a word that some people are afraid of.

The phones are ringing off the hook at several Downtown Memphis restaurants.  The reason? The 11th annual Downtown Dining Week is going on now through Nov. 17.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is proposing a fee for individuals who own more than two cars. The revenue collected from the fee would go toward expanding and improving the county's public transportation. This week on WKNO-TV's Behind the Headlines, Harris tells host Eric Barnes and Daily Memphian reporter Bill Dries that public transportation fosters economic growth and is better for the environment. 

Activists are demanding more community oversight of a team monitoring the Memphis Police Department as it crafts new policies on electronic surveillance.

The court-appointed monitors held a second public forum Thursday night. Many questions surrounded the ongoing compliance issues with the Kendrick Consent Decree, a 40-year-old legal agreement that prevents police from spying on non-criminal political activists. 

Recent elections in Virginia and Kentucky showed Democrats making political inroads into Republican strongholds. Not so in Mississippi last Tuesday, when voters decided that the state -- ranked 50th in healthcare, 48th in economy, 46th in education and 48th overall -- needs no change in management. The Republican majority in the state senate grew even larger. Political analyst Otis Sanford says that Mississippi voters are, above all, loyal to the G.O.P.

After the NCAA announced last week that college student athletes may soon receive pay for play, some Tennessee lawmakers are planning for the next steps here.

California is the first state to pass a law allowing student athletes to accept endorsement deals and hire agents. If the law isn’t struck down by a judge, students could start seeing paychecks beginning in 2023. 

Now, state Rep. Antonio Parkinson from Memphis plans to re-introduce similar legislation—a bill that would create a so-called “student athlete graduation grant” for the state’s public universities and colleges. 

“Spotlight on Lifelong Learning” is a weekly look at some of the exciting public conversations upcoming around Memphis. Host Jonathan Judaken is the Spence L. Wilson Chair in the Humanities at Rhodes College.