In a city known for music — where legends are born and blues once filled the streets — there will soon be a new place to play. Or sing, rather. It’s not a concert venue or a dark bar, but a karaoke place with individual rooms for groups of two to 20 people. 

Today, The Daily Memphian’s Mary Cashiola is joined by business reporter Sophia Surrett to talk about the new venture and the Memphis native who is betting that private karaoke is the next big thing. 

Plus:

• Crime data shows a significant impact from the Task Force
• The federal public defender's office is struggling amid the Memphis Safe Task Force
• The Governor says he has the authority to deploy the Guard to Memphis
• Local home sales rose in September
• A local packaging facility is set to close

 

Sixteen years ago, University of Memphis basketball coach John Calipari left Memphis for the University of Kentucky, and to say the Bluff City had hard feelings may be an understatement.   

Before that, Calipari had been at the U of M for nine seasons, taking the Tigers to the NCAA title game in 2008. But five months after Calipari left Memphis, the NCAA retroactively ruled Derrick Rose ineligible and forced the Tigers to vacate all wins from their historic 2007-08 season.

Monday, Oct. 27, Calipari will be back in Memphis and back at FedExForum. And to celebrate, remember or rewind, The Daily Memphian’s sports team has picked nine memorable moments from the coach’s nine years in Memphis. Editorial director Mary Cashiola and sports editor David Boyd discuss how they did it. 

Plus:

• Memphis wasn't asked to join the National Guard lawsuit
• Nearly half of the charges against a Memphis doctor have been dismissed
• A noise complaint turns deadly in DeSoto County
• A state program chips in for college savings accounts
• TBI has been asked to review Tami Sawyer's confrontation with deputies
• Area politicians speak out as the federal task force effort in Memphis continues
• Leaders have a plan to fix Memphis' pothole problem
• A new program will help fix Memphis' affordable housing shortage

On this special episode of The AM/DM, editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips are joined by Sarah Leach, director of fundraising and development for The Daily Memphian, to talk about this week’s events. 

Plus:

• Memphis police data chief retires
• Community members demand resignation of a school board member who defended Lindsey Whiteside
• 201 Poplar is more crowded since the Memphis Safe Task Force began
• A manufacturer is set to close its Memphis facility

This weekend, there are lots of chances to score Memphis Grizzlies swag ahead of Wednesday’s home opener. Plus, River Arts Fest and Repair Days bring art to the riverside, and beer fest brings lots of beer to Cooper-Young. Newsletter editor Bianca Phillips and digital producer Kelsey Bowen talk about those activities and more. 

Plus:

• Millington could sue Wanda Halbert's office
• Memphis Mayor Paul Young wants to work with the Memphis Safe Task Force instead of contesting it
• Cordova apartments sold for $41.6 million
• Palladio is expected to close but vendors remain hopeful it will continue
• An Uptown brewery plans to add a beer garden, dog park and playground

When you think of a pregnancy test, you might picture something small, plastic and available at a corner drug store. And that does work, surprisingly, for some animals at the Memphis Zoo. But, for others, zookeepers use methods that are more time-consuming, more laborious and much smellier. 

To help animals reproduce — and species thrive — staffers at the Memphis Zoo study poop, freeze sperm at -196 degrees, and even help endangered species reproduce long after their deaths.

Plus:

• State Troopers want to stop speeders and drivers are crashing out
• Mayor Lee Harris says the county could take the Memphis Safe Task Force to court
• The National Civil Rights Museum is undergoing an expansion
• A hotel developer plans to buy a Downtown property
• About 1500 feds are working in Memphis
• A hardware-store supplier opens a showroom in Collierville 

Germantown will soon ask its residents a big question: Should mayor become a full-time job?

Shelby County and the City of Memphis both have a strong mayor form of government. But most of Shelby County’s suburban municipalities have a part-time mayor — with the exception of Bartlett, which switched to a full-time mayor in the ’60s — and a Board of Mayor and Aldermen. 

And this spring, Germantown residents will have the opportunity to vote on whether their mayor should also be full-time, while remaining their city administrator as well. Today, Mary Cashiola and Collierville and Germantown reporter Abigail Warren talk all about it. 

Plus:

• About 1500 feds are working in Memphis
• A former youth pastor is spared prison for child sexual battery
• Students with income-limited vouchers outperform MSCS on reading, but not math
• Two off-duty Memphis cops were arrested for drag racing
• American Conference Commissioner Tim Pernetti is hopeful College GameDay can visit Memphis

The Station is open, but the East Memphis liquor store isn’t serving everything it wanted to. 

The Station has been at the center of a controversy ever since it got a license from the Memphis Alcohol Commission. In doing so, the body signed off on The Station meeting a requirement that it was 1,500 feet away from a church or school — in this case that it was far enough away from Woodland Presbyterian. 

But questions arose over whether The Station actually met that distance requirement and if the Memphis Alcohol Commission meeting was even legal. And in the latest, the owner of The Station is firing back. 

Plus:

• How tariffs are impacting the Mid-South
• Lakeland may gain a new daycare center
• An architectural marvel is up for sale in Frayser
• FedEx commercials poke fun at office power moves

Editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips talk about the National Civil Rights Museum’s Freedom Award and the unofficial beginning of the University of Memphis Tigers basketball season. This year, it includes a high-profile game of HORSE. 

Plus:

• Immigration advocates say that fear surges as the task force ramps up
• Memphis libraries change "Banned Books Week"
• A teen charged in the death of a Memphis police officer pleads guilty
• Memphis completes a public-housing development after 10 years
• Banana Ball is coming to Memphis
• Most local recipients of Tennessee's voucher program live in top-earning zip codes
• Germantown City Hall phone lines are back to normal

This week’s activities are heavy on seasonality, with a Monster Market, a few different takes on Oktoberfest and a 5K you can do with your dog.

Editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips talk about those activities and more. 

Plus:

• National Guard patrols are to begin today
• Fall Break traffic at Memphis International Airport is expected to be up by 6%
• An International Paper building has sold
• Collierville Fire is fully staffed for the first time in 5 years
• Project Backboard breathes new life into a public basketball court

On Sept. 15, President Donald Trump announced — from the Oval Office, no less — that he was sending a federal presence to Memphis. The 13-agency task force was to include members of the FBI, DEA, Homeland Security, ICE and the National Guard. Today, members of The Daily Memphian’s metro team — Aarron Fleming, Sam Hardiman and Laura Testino — sit down with Mary Cashiola to talk about what we know, what we don’t know, how we’re tracking data and what we’ve been able to ascertain.