The AM/DM

In the last few years, one of the largest changes to college football — and basketball, too — is the number of student athletes changing schools between seasons. The NCAA transfer portal began in 2018 as a way to streamline the process of allowing student athletes to tell their current school they're planning to leave and let other schools know they are interested in moving.

Today, Tigers football beat reporter Frank Bonner joins us to talk about what it's like for athletes inside the portal.

Plus:

• The City Council approves Kevin Woods to the MLGW board
• Nike will lay off nearly 600 employees in Memphis
• Claims allege that the Grizzlies owner's company supplied the Russian war effort

Up until recently, the land on the southwest side of Poplar Avenue and Kirby Parkway was home to Carrefour at Kirby Woods. Now it's been demolished, and an ambitious plan that includes condos, apartments, a parking garage, office space and a hotel could rise in its place. It's called The Standard.

But before any of that can happen, Germantown needs to vote on its first-ever TIF, or tax increment financing, a tool that allows new tax revenue to help pay off the project's infrastructure. Suburbs reporter Abigail Warren is here today to tell us how people feel about the TIF and what happens to The Standard if the TIF isn't approved.

One note, the Germantown Industrial Board Meeting was scheduled to vote on the TIF Thursday, Jan. 29, but that meeting was postponed after we recorded this podcast.

Plus:

• The historic Annesdale Mansion catches fire
• The state board will hear the liquor application for The Station tomorrow
• Mayor Young responds to Noem
• The Shelby County DA is under the microscope again
• Local farmers' jobs get even harder when winter weather hits
• A Collierville hospital doubles its ICU beds

During the first week of January, Rob Brown was at home when he saw — via his security cameras — law enforcement agents sitting in a van outside his restaurant, Da Sammich Spot. Though the restaurant was closed, Brown didn't want law enforcement using his parking lot as a staging area, so — again, through the cameras — he asked the officers to leave. When they didn't, he headed up to the Park Avenue restaurant to see if he could convince them in person.

Before the night ended peacefully, the parking lot saw more officers and protesters amass in the area, with video of the incident going viral. Today, food writer Ellen Chamberlain talks to us about what happened and why, as well as some other recent developments on the local dining scene.

Plus:

• More than 600,000 tulips will soon bloom at The Dixon
• Bill Dunavant has been elected to the St. Louis Fed board
• A Memphis handroll sushi restaurant has opened at Popular Collection
• Noem invokes Memphis in defense of the Minneapolis shooting
• Fewer than 3,300 homes sold in Memphis suburbs in 2025

This cold week should see two Collierville households looking to be deannexed, the Memphis-Shelby County Schools system considering a search for a new superintendent and the late Lisa Marie Presley's birthday weekend.

One note, given the winter weather, some of these events may have been canceled or postponed after press time.

Join editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips as they discuss what's happening this week.

Plus:

• MLGW is not expecting significant outages as Memphis dodges ice
• What a Texas-style takeover would look like for Memphis schools
• Penny Hardaway is tired of waiting on his 'bigger money guys'
• State Troopers will remain in Memphis after Task Force leaves
• 'Essential Housing' effort breaks ground in North Memphis
• The Memphis airport saw 4.8 million passengers and 6.5 billions tons of cargo in 2025
• Collierville could trim a thoroughfare

This weekend everything seems up in the air, whether it's sleet, snow or that event you've been wanting to attend. Newsletter editor Bianca Phillips joins us this morning to talk about all the fun on the calendar.

*One note. At press time, these events were still happening, but please double-check before you go, as some cancellations could occur.

Plus:

• A fifth-grader starts a food pantry
• Craig Brewer directs another Oscar-nominated performance
• The Plant Based Heat owner wants to sell the original location on Highland
• The Buster's Liquor co-owner appeals to the City Council over the approval granted to The Station
• A Collierville funeral home drops Brent Taylor's name
• Expect power outages as ice threatens Memphis this weekend
• Chef Jimmy Gentry earns a James Beard finalist nod

Last week, the Memphis Grizzlies organization — the players, members of the front office, the entertainment team, the mascot — traveled to Europe to take on the Orlando Magic. Twice. And The Daily Memphian was there. We sent Grizzlies beat reporter Drew Hill and sports editor David Boyd along for the ride.

Plus:

• The Feds support the National Guard deployment in Memphis
• Justin J. Pearson is running for reelection and the U.S. House
• Five Pop Local winners are set to open at Carriage Crossing
• Germantown residents vocally oppose a tax incentive for The Standard
• The new GOP chair says there will be a Republican contender for county mayor
• Elon Musk wants to fund more improvements to MSCS school buildings
• MSCS adds the Shelby County Commission to the ballot lawsuit

In 1933, just as Franklin D. Roosevelt was about to assume the presidency for the first time, the U.S. economy was in a shambles. There were fears of an economic collapse and that panicked citizens would pull all their gold from banks — the same gold that, at the time, underpinned our monetary system. So Roosevelt took the U.S. off the gold standard and mandated that all gold in private hands be returned to the federal government in exchange for cash.

But just before Roosevelt's proclamation, the U.S. Mint in Philadelphia had crafted almost 500,000 1933 Double Eagle $20 gold coins. That is where today's story starts.

Reporter Jody Callahan tells us about the time one of the world's most valuable coins found a home in Memphis … and how it ended up leaving in the hands of the federal government.

Plus:

• Lakeland earmarks land for a new veterans center
• The 'largest investment in rural health in Tennessee's history' could transform medical care in Shelby County
• Ford suppliers will pay $5M in property taxes to Stanton throughout 10 years
• An autopsy finds that a Shelby County Jail inmate died from heart failure

As we begin this somewhat short week, Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. heads back to court for a report date, and the Germantown Industrial Development Board will hear from residents about how they feel about what could be the city's first-ever TIF district. The tax increment financing proposal is for The Standard, a development located at the site of the former Carrefour at Kirby Woods.

In today's episode, editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips take a stroll down Carrefour's memory lane and, as always, we'll remind people what the heck a TIF is anyway.

Plus:

• A 2020 Black Lives Matter protest organizer will challenge Cohen for Congress
• Big changes are coming to Beale Street
• Ja Morant says he wants to be in Memphis
• Pottery Barn packs up for Southaven
• Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says the county jail needs real reform
• Downtown's Crazy Coop closes
• Almost every Tennessee voucher recipient reapplied to get public funds for their private school tuitions in the upcoming school year

January hits hard this weekend, but there's still stuff to do, especially if you're ready to be put to work. In today's episode, newsletter editor Bianca Phillips and editorial director Mary Cashiola talk about it all.

Plus:

• TN Republicans unveil sweeping immigration legislation
• Sally Jones Heinz is stepping down from MIFA
• Locals worry what could happen here in the wake of a fatal Minneapolis ICE shooting
• Woodland Presbyterian launches a $2.2M campus campaign
• Local GameStop locations are closing
• A man dies in Frayser after a chase with the Task Force

In December, a new baby orangutan was born at the Memphis Zoo — only the second orangutan born there in a decade.

The World Wildlife Foundation estimates that there are fewer than 120,000 orangutans left in the wild and about 1,000 total in zoos worldwide. That's down from an estimated 230,000 orangutans who were living a century ago. So, having a new baby orangutan at the Memphis Zoo is good news — and it's unbelievably adorable.

Today, reporter Jody Callahan joins us to talk about everything orangutan.

Plus:

• A local movie wraps filming around Memphis
• SmokeSlam is to pause in 2026
• A woman arrested at an ICE protest appears in court
• Germantown updates rules on beer and liquor sales