The latest reporting from The 901 Report, newest first.
A Memphis charter amendment would mandate a lobbyist registry without defining a lobbyist or setting a penalty, while authorizing money to defend it in court.
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In back to back committee meetings Tuesday, council members heard about two taxpayer-funded projects that failed early. Nobody could tell them how the vendors were chosen.
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A University of Memphis team told a council committee the protective clay layer is thinner than anyone thought. To go further they need well records Shelby County has, and cannot get them.
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Gerald Thornton takes over as General Sessions Court Clerk Pro Tempore on August 8. His term is not tied to Tami Sawyer's suspension. It runs until her case ends or her term does.
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A federal judge has scheduled a four-day trial for the suspended General Sessions Court Clerk. The judges who suspended her have already named a stand-in whose term is tied to the outcome of her case, not to her suspension.
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The city set aside half a million dollars for a sidewalk grant program. It was never built. The money has not been touched, and no one at Tuesday's committee meeting could say where it sits.
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Mayor Paul Young signed the executive order on July 20, six weeks after the Council asked him to. The Council's resolution named fertility treatments. The reported description of the signed order does not.
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Together4Students launched in May, backs the state-appointed oversight board, and is gathering signatures to pressure the district into abandoning its case. Its founder says it has no funding and declines to name the organizations on its strategy team.
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The utility told the City Council the project would push rates down, not up, and would be fully operational by December 2028. The presentation did not include a public price tag.
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The ouster case against the Shelby County Clerk was voluntarily dismissed after the trial landed in the final week of her term. The county's chief litigating attorney says continuing would have cost taxpayers money for a trial that could no longer change anything.
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Mayor Paul Young's administration pitched how it would spend roughly $3.3 million collected from SpaceXAI on the area within five miles of the Colossus I data center in southwest Memphis.
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At its July 21 meeting the Memphis City Council confirmed leaders in Mayor Paul Young's administration, including Art Davis as the city's chief financial officer, and approved a change to the trustee structure the transit authority has operated under since 2025.
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A coalition of nearby liquor stores led by Buster's Liquors and Wines has spent months trying to shut down the East Memphis store. The Memphis City Council rejected their latest appeal on July 21. The lawsuit seeking to reverse the store's approval has not been resolved.
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The private piece of Liberty Park was approved in 2024 as a $112.5 million project with a hotel, apartments, and retail. Two years later there is no groundbreaking, and the City of Memphis is moving to end its contract with the joint venture managing it.
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District Attorney Steve Mulroy found the shooting legally justified and declined to prosecute. None of the four DEA agents who entered the Frayser Burger King were wearing body cameras. Pigram's death was the first of four fatal Memphis Safe Task Force shootings this year.
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Early voting is underway for the District 6 and District 8 seats on the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board. Because the state takeover of the district remains tied up in federal court, it is not yet clear how much authority the winners will hold when they take office September 1.
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State investigators have opened eight use-of-force inquiries into the federal task force since September. Two of the four fatal shootings came within four days this month, and civic leaders are now calling for the unit to leave the city.
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On July 1, the day a state oversight board was to take control of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, a federal judge ordered everything paused. The district calls the takeover unconstitutional. The state has asked the judge to lift the freeze. The case will decide who runs the district as the school year begins.
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After 14 detainees and five staff were overcome by heat inside the Criminal Justice Center, commissioners are pressing Mayor Lee Harris to order a full assessment of the building. The county has already spent $58 million on emergency repairs, and the Sheriff says the facility is crumbling.
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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.
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Tennessee dismantled its only majority-Black district on May 7, dividing Shelby County three ways. Early voting starts Friday. Check your district before you vote.
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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.
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Temperatures hit 92 degrees at 201 Poplar. Fourteen detainees needed medical attention, one was hospitalized, and five kitchen workers overheated. Staff called the conditions "inhumane and cruel."
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A "processing omission" left four of six special judicial races, and a county charter referendum, off ballots already mailed. Replacement ballots are due Wednesday. Check yours.
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The South Carolina Republican served in the Senate since 2003 and chaired the Budget Committee. He had returned from Ukraine days before his death.
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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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Commissioners delayed final votes on the county's operating and capital budgets to June 29, a meeting that will also decide the property tax rate. One commissioner has proposed raising the rate by 6 cents.
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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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The Shelby County Sheriff's Office is one of the largest pieces of the county budget the Commission votes on June 29. Sheriff Floyd Bonner has said the county shortchanged his office, even as the aging jail at 201 Poplar faces serious scrutiny.
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Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk Tami Sawyer was suspended for 30 days beginning June 17, days after a six-count federal indictment accused her of embezzling about $44,600 in public funds. She has pleaded not guilty.
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Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk Tami Sawyer surrendered to federal custody Monday morning, according to Action News 5. The indictment is sealed, and the specific charges have not been made public.
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State lawmakers say the changes are aimed at reducing cryptocurrency-related scams and increasing consumer protections.
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Tennessee drivers may face new vehicle registration requirements under recently approved legislation. Here's what motorists need to know.
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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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A state court panel upheld Tennessee’s new congressional map, preserving the split of Memphis into three districts. The ruling keeps the fight over who speaks for 901 voters at the center of redistricting oversight.
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Shelby County DA Steve Mulroy filed an emergency lawsuit today to block two new state laws targeting the county's criminal justice system. The fight now centers on who controls local prosecutions and court oversight in Shelby County.
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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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UT Knoxville just advanced a $227M business building and a national security center, while Memphis still fights over what gets funded and who pays. The question for Shelby County: why is Knoxville building ahead while 901 keeps arguing over basics?
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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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The Council's FY27 budget hearings run through early June. The final vote is scheduled before the fiscal year begins on July 1. Here is what is still open.
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The Council's first week of FY27 budget hearings covered police, fire, public works, and general services. The pattern was consistent: presentations answered how much, not what for.
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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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The ACLU of Tennessee filed a federal First Amendment lawsuit against the Memphis Safe Task Force on behalf of four residents, one week after a DEA agent working under the task force shot and killed a man at a Frayser Burger King.
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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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A federal judge has temporarily blocked Tennessee Highway Patrol from assisting immigration enforcement during traffic stops in Memphis and Nashville. The question now is who authorized the practice - and how many 901 drivers were caught in it.
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Tennessee’s unemployment rate held at 3.6% for a third straight month, but that headline hides the pressure on Memphis households already facing high rent, weak wages, and tight credit. The question is whether state leaders will pair the good numbers with real relief for 901 families.
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A Trump-backed push to end federal income taxes on overtime and tips is landing in a Memphis economy where a lot of workers rely on both. The real question: who pays the price if Washington trims the tax bill but shifts the hit somewhere else?
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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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Tennessee’s weekly loan-rate cap reset to 10.75% on May 19, and Memphis borrowers are now the ones living with the fine print. For families already balancing rent, car notes, and late fees, this is a budget story with teeth.
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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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Police and fire went before Council on May 19 in the first substantive FY27 budget hearing. The Memphis Police Department is on track for roughly $221 million under the mayor's proposal.
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The fight over Tennessee’s new congressional map just got bigger: the ACLU of Tennessee has brought in outside attorneys as another case is reassigned and the NAACP calls for a boycott. For Memphis, this is about who gets to speak for 901 voters - and who answers when the map splits the city apart.
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72% of Mayor Paul Young's proposed $898 million FY27 budget is personnel: salaries, health insurance, and pensions. The pension piece is the one nobody wants to talk about.
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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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State Republicans’ new congressional map splits Memphis into three districts, triggering lawsuits and pushing Rep. Steve Cohen to end his reelection bid. The fight now centers on fair representation and who can be held accountable for Memphis voters.
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