City of Memphis coverage in one place: the 13-member City Council that sets the city budget and approves contracts, plus the neighborhoods, hospitals, infrastructure, outages, and civic life that shape the city day to day. Every Council vote is put on the record.
Outages are falling across Memphis, and that is real. But 17 percent of customers still lose power three or more times a year, and that number is rising. Everyone paid the same rate increase.
The 901 Report
Tyrin Johnson, 20, was killed by a Tennessee National Guard member. Alfonso Ivy, 47, was killed days later in a DEA-led warrant service. State records show task force shootings now match the total for MPD and the Sheriff's Office for all of 2024. The NAACP is demanding a federal investigation. Nobody has been charged, and the investigations are open.
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A committee advanced the FY2027 Community Grant Program on July 7. It arrives after city auditors questioned a $13,000 grant to a County Commissioner-elect, and after a former county commissioner pleaded guilty to five tax evasion counts tied to steering nonprofit grant money. The full Council still has to approve it.
The 901 Report
The Tennessee Comptroller's four-volume review flagged about $54.2 million in transactions the auditors called consistent with potential fraud, waste, or abuse, most of it in procurement, and made 133 recommendations. It is an accountability review, not a criminal case, and no one has been charged.
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Young is replacing two Strickland-era holdovers, COO Antonio Adams and CFO Walter Person, as the city engineer retires. The new COO and CFO need Council confirmation.
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The Memphis City Council approved Mayor Paul Young's FY2027 budget 11 to 1 on June 23, holding the tax rate flat and adding $5 million for AutoZone Park, but without the transit and violence-prevention money residents pressed for over weeks of hearings.
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The Memphis City Council delayed its FY27 budget vote on June 9 after residents demanded more funding for violence prevention, transit, and housing. The decision is due back at the Council's next scheduled meeting.
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Memphis-Shelby County Schools, the Shelby County Commission, and all nine elected board members filed a federal lawsuit on June 19 seeking to block the state-appointed oversight board from taking control of the district on July 1.
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As The 901 Report opens its MLGW beat, here is how the city-owned utility is governed, when its board meets in public, and where the rate increase now on every bill is supposed to go.
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Civil liberties groups are pressing MPD to follow a decades-old court order limiting surveillance as federal agents and National Guard troops operate in the city. Supporters of the deployment say the goal is reducing violent crime.
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Steve and Marjorie Harvey joined family, community leaders, and residents in Memphis for a street naming ceremony honoring the legacy of Marjorie Harvey's late father.
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A widespread T-Mobile Fiber outage hit customers across the U.S. on May 28, with complaints spiking by midmorning. Memphis residents using the service should watch how quickly T-Mobile restores access and explains the cause.
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Janika White (Super District 8-2), chairing the budget block, stated publicly that the FY27 budget cannot meet the city's needs through cuts and named a tax increase as a topic Council needs to discuss. The 10,000 housing units math gap was confirmed. The City Attorney did not mention the Tyre Nichols civil trial. The livestream dropped during the Parks presentation.
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The administration confirmed on the public record that the Memphis Police Department's proposed $29.8M FY27 overtime budget is not an operational reduction. $4-5M of it comes from a state Violence Intervention grant that expires in FY28. When the grant ends, the cost lands back on the General Fund.
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The first FY27 Memphis budget hearing in plain English. Council got real answers on the debt cliff, pre-K, and potholes. They did not ask about police overtime, the $13M contractor cut, or the Tyre Nichols civil trial. And the 10,000 housing units promise got quietly redefined.
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Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act is now a live fight for Memphis families, and the real stakes are who gets paid first when state dollars move. MSCS and Shelby County voters need the receipts, not the slogans.
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Memphis budget season is moving from talk to math, and the missing details may matter more than the headline totals. City Hall still has to explain what residents get for the dollars it wants to lock in.
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Memphis is live on the FY27 budget, and the real story is what departments aren’t explaining: staffing, backlogs, response times, and what gets protected first. Residents should watch what City Hall leaves unsaid before the final numbers harden.
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Gov. Bill Lee just turned Memphis schools over to a nine-member state board of Republican appointees. That means Shelby County’s largest district is entering a new power structure - and families need to know who will be held accountable when decisions land.
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Four Memphis residents are suing over the Memphis Safe Task Force, saying agents harassed and mistreated them for filming police. With a second death now under investigation, the question is who is policing the police in 901.
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Two Memphis hospitals just got poor ratings from the federal government, and that is not a branding problem - it is a patient-safety and accountability problem. The question now is which systems, leaders, and departments have to answer for the gap.
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Gov. Bill Lee’s Education Freedom Scholarship Act is now a live fight for Memphis families, not a talking point. The question for Shelby County is simple: who gets paid first when the state redirects education money?
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MSCS has put a $1.7 billion budget on the table for 2026-27, and the new state-appointed board is walking into the hardest question in city schools: what gets cut, what gets protected, and who owns the fallout?
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Memphis is now staring at a pension bill that could shape the FY27 budget, police staffing, and city services. The real question: what happens if the numbers don’t fit, and who in City Hall owns the risk?
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Memphis retirees are staring at a pension question that could hit the city’s balance sheet, police/fire staffing, and future budgets. The real issue: what the FY27 budget proposal leaves unsaid about long-term obligations and who pays if the numbers wobble.
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Memphis-Shelby County Schools has put forward a $1.7 billion budget for 2026-27 as a new state-appointed board prepares to take over. The proposal puts funding choices, staffing, and school stability back under a microscope.
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