The AM/DM

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.

With colleges around the country facing what's known as the enrollment cliff, it's been a challenging time in higher education.

In Memphis, most of the colleges and universities have seen small enrollment dips this new school year. Christian Brothers University has seen a particularly large percentage drop. On the other hand, LeMoyne-Owen College has seen a bit of an increase.

Today, host Mary Cashiola and reporter Jody Callahan talk about the reasons why.

A car drives into a restaurant patio. A mechanical issue catches several restaurants on fire. A kitchen employee is injured in a grease fire. Today, editorial director Mary Cashiola and food writer Ellen Chamberlain are talking about local restaurants that had to close after some sort of calamity and how they can come back from it all.

This week marks the beginning of the Memphis Grizzlies' pre-season, with three games at home. Newsletter editor Bianca Phillips and editorial director Mary Cashiola discuss the upcoming season as well as other things to watch out for this week.