The AM/DM

This weekend's fun starts with a little dress up but keeps the celebrations going with Samhain and Dia de los Muertos. It also includes a walk on Broad Avenue, India Fest and the Memphis Youth Symphony's fall concerts. Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips discuss those events and more.

Plus:

• The Task Force is impacting crime and straining the local justice system
• Another inmate dies at 201 Poplar
• The City provides $500,000 to help offset the loss of SNAP benefits
• Bartlett imposes term limits

Restaurants are third spaces, places where people can gather, socialize and connect outside their homes or work. But that can put restaurants — especially local restaurants — in a precarious position when politics come into play, whether or not restaurateurs want them to.

Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and food writer Ellen Chamberlain talk about how the local restaurant industry has been impacted by the Memphis Safe Task Force surge.

Plus:

• The immigration enforcement surge brings fear and absences to some schools
• Tennessee's graduation rate improves for the third straight year
• Halbert is likely to go to the Tennessee Supreme Court on a revived ouster complaint
• Another National Guard resolution has been delayed at the County Commission
• A restaurant is opening in Downtown's former Tamp & Tap location

Sometimes the best way to get a hint of the future is to look into the past. And, today, we did a little bit of just that.

Cedric Coward, the Memphis Grizzlies' newest rookie, scored a combined 57 points in his first three regular-season games with the team. On Saturday night alone, he scored 27 points against the Indiana Pacers. Editorial director Mary Cashiola and columnist Chris Herrington talk about Coward's journey to the NBA, his performance so far and to which other rookies — and eventual superstars — his numbers are comparable.

Plus:

• The MSCS board unanimously OKs an expanded bus service in response to ICE concerns
• Lindsey Whiteside is granted bond and home incarceration for the second time
• The County Commission voted to put all 9 MSCS board seats on the 2026 ballot again
• A Collierville bus lot moves to final review despite pushback
• A Downtown restaurant closes after nearly two decades
• The state argues that the National Guard is an army and not a militia

Halloween is just around the corner, and The Daily Memphian's popular "Ask the Memphian" series has been getting into the spirit with a number of local ghost stories. There's a haunted bar, a local boogeyman and a ghost said to inhabit Downtown's Orpheum theater. Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and reporter Jody Callahan talk about all the ghosts and goblins.

Plus:

• A Federal grand jury indicts a former youth pastor on 3 felony counts
• The impending loss of SNAP benefits leaves some wondering how they will eat
• The Evolve Bank & Trust CEO is arrested for child pornography
• Immigration arrest numbers are no longer part of the Memphis Safe Task Force data releases
• With a new owner, Cafe Piazza celebrates 20 years

Newsletter editor Bianca Phillips and editorial director Mary Cashiola help prepare you for the next seven days. The last week of October 2025 includes the Hoops for St. Jude Tip Off Classic (and John Calipari's return to coaching at FedExForum), the Shelby County Commission possibly overturning a mayoral veto and, coming up very soon, the end of Daylight Saving Time.

Plus:

• The National Guard's impact hits some restaurants hard and some not at all
• Expired car-tag renewals have jumped since the Task Force's arrival
• Bartlett's Quail Ridge Golf Course could reopen
• International Paper is to outsource its IT services
• The Memphis airport building construction will cost $57 million

This week's fun is perhaps heavy on the heebie jeebies, given the proximity to Halloween. There are two stage productions adapted from novels and a party with a very successful children's book author. Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and newsletter editor Bianca Phillips discuss those events and more.

Plus:

• A controversial East Memphis liquor store license is denied
• Two Memphis restaurants are making comebacks
• The judge who presided over the Lindsey Whiteside case recuses himself
• Germantown Schools see fewer students who live in the district
• Shelby Drive is to remain closed when a new fire station reopens

Potholes seem to be a fact of life anywhere there are both roads and weather, and Memphis gets a lot of rain. More even than Seattle. But a new City of Memphis program aims to be more aggressive about fixing potholes proactively.

On today's episode, The Daily Memphian's Samuel Hardiman joins editorial director Mary Cashiola to talk about the new city program, how it works, what the early results look like and how the news website may share a small amount of the credit.

Plus:

• Tennessee Highway Patrol is driving an increase in arrests
• Marshals arrest a second suspect in a fatal shooting of a rapper
• Downtown makes progress, despite the "doom loop"
• DeSoto County parents planned a protest following Whiteside's sentencing
• MSCS school mergers could impact 2,650 students
• A Cleotha Abston rape conviction is upheld by the Appeals Court

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