Happy Thanksgiving eve, Memphis! It’s Wednesday, Nov. 22, and I hope you’ve gotten a head start on your holiday cooking. I’ll be prepping my sourdough dinner rolls and cranberry sauce this afternoon. 

Tonight, the Memphis Grizzlies take on the Houston Rockets in an away game, and that means they’ll have their first chance to play against former teammate Dillon Brooks. Brooks has been hurling jabs at the Memphis Grizzlies lately, including a reference to himself as our ex-girlfriend. “You don’t know how good she is until she’s gone,” Brooks said. The Grizzlies are responding with kindness (and a dash of sass).

The Memphis Tigers are in the Bahamas today to play Michigan in their first game in the Battle 4 Atlantis tournament. Coach Penny Hardaway is back from his NCAA suspension, and he’s got something to prove.

And don’t forget that The Daily Memphian’s Commercial Real Estate seminar is next Thursday, Nov. 30. Here’s a rundown of the panelists and keynote speakers, one of whom is Memphis Mayor-elect Paul Young. Tickets are available here.

THE NEED TO KNOW

Fred Smith, founder of FedEx Corp., has gifted $50 million toward the Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium renovations. (Courtesy FedEx)

Add Fred Smith to your gratitude list: FedEx founder Fred Smith will donate $50 million toward Liberty Stadium renovations in a deal that could finally move forward stalled negotiations over sports venue improvements. The gift from Smith will be matched with $50 million to be raised by the U of M, plus $120 million from state stadium funds, for the $220 million Liberty Stadium renovation project. According to the plan, which still needs Memphis City Council approval, stadium ownership would be transferred to the University of Memphis Foundation. And it would leave significant state funds available for financing FedExForum’s renovations, but there’s still a gap. The whole deal is pretty complex, but our own Samuel Hardiman offers this explainer. Geoff Calkins says Smith’s gift makes him feel optimistic about the future of both projects. But not everyone is smiling: AutoZone Park was left out of the deal, and they’re not happy.

The Memphis City Council chose JB Smiley Jr. as the new chair for 2024. (The Daily Memphian file)

Busy day at City Council: On Tuesday, the Memphis City Council gave final approval to rules that would help bring fiber internet to low-income parts of the city, despite protests from Comcast. And they elected JB Smiley as the council’s new chair. They also approved funds for a much-needed pedestrian crossing into Overton Park from Cooper Street. One thing the council didn’t do: move ahead with two ballot measures that would allow partisan primaries and bring back runoff voting. The council delayed a final vote on those two referendums, but they did advance a new referendum that would allow the council to set the salaries for themselves and other city division directors. In other council news, Doug McGowen, Memphis Light, Gas and Water president and CEO, was back in front of the City Council on Tuesday making the case for a 12% rate hike over the next three years. McGowen said the increases would fund a more modern grid that would limit the length of power outages. Our own Bill Dries offers a recap of even more council news from Tuesday.

Gov. Bill Lee will send more than 50 Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers to Shelby Coounty to contribute to an ongoing “surge” over the next few weeks. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian file)

More troopers, again: Gov. Bill Lee sent an additional 40 Tennessee Highway Patrol officers to Memphis on Monday with a goal of reducing traffic deaths. And next week, another 15 to 20 troopers will join the effort “for the foreseeable future.” That’s on top of 20 additional troopers Lee funded in early 2022. Lee’s announcement followed a Nov. 15 letter from Sen. Brent Taylor pleading for more help fighting crime in Memphis. “My city is under siege,” Taylor wrote. He wants an independent “monitoring team” to publicize crime data, claiming that the data from the Shelby County District Attorney General’s office and the local judicial system is unreliable.

Man sentenced for strangling cellmate: Stephen Robinson has pleaded guilty to second-degree murder for strangling his cellmate, Marcus Donald, last November at the Shelby County Jail. Robinson also pleaded guilty to first-degree murder for killing Detrick Hammer, the crime he was serving time for at the time of Donald’s death. Shelby County Criminal Court Judge Carolyn Blackett sentenced Robinson to life with parole, plus an additional 25 years, for both deaths. Donald’s family is teaming up with civil rights attorney Ben Crump in a lawsuit against Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, Chief Jailer Kirk Fields and the county. 

QUOTED

Victims of shootings allegedly carried out by Mavis Christian Jr. include Tori Christian (top left, pictured with her mother), Lateisha Bobo (top right) and Ruby Manuel (bottom left). Tori Christian is pictured at the bottom left. (Courtesy Selise Manuel)

“Our whole life has been flipped upside down.”

— Selise Manuel, niece of Mavis Christian Jr.
On Saturday, Christian allegedly shot and killed four female family members, including his wife, and wounded a 15-year-old relative, before killing himself. Selise Manuel found her mother, Ruby Manuel, dead from gunshot wounds on Saturday. She talked to The Daily Memphian about the tragic deaths of her family members and the “red flags” they saw in Christian.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Salad Station, a restaurant specializing in customizable salads, will open in the Shops of Forest Hill in early 2024. (Courtesy Salad Station)

Lettuce eat salad: Here’s a story of targeted Facebook ads gone right. Arlington resident Kendall Woodard was talking to one of her former beauty shop clients about how she’d love a soup and salad spot in the Memphis area, and then she started seeing social media ads for the Salad Station chain. “You know Facebook is always listening to us,” Woodard said. And next thing you know, she’s getting ready to open the area’s first Salad Station in Germantown. The franchise offers build-your-own salad, rice bowls, loaded potatoes and more.

PURE Academy is moving into the former Memphis Academy of Health Sciences. (Courtesy the Office of State Comptroller Jason Mumpower)

Pure moves: Nonprofit, private school PURE Academy, which serves at-risk youth, is relocating its campus from Whitehaven to the former Memphis Academy of Health Sciences on Chelsea Avenue in Nutbush. The new campus will have 10 times more capacity, with room for 300 students and more space for students to live on-campus. The Daily Memphian’s Sophia Surrett has the details in her Inked column, and she’s got news of a formerly vacant shopping center that’s being activated by Memphis-area Black entrepreneurs.

Davonte Pack’s charge stemmed from a fight with former high school basketball player Joshua Holloway in July 2022. (Karen Focht/The Daily Memphian file)

Charges dropped: Memphis Grizzlies star Ja Morant’s friend Davonte Pack is no longer facing charges for an alleged assault on former high school basketball player Joshua Holloway. Pack’s misdemeanor assault charge, which stemmed from a fight with Holloway at a pick-up basketball game last summer, was dropped on Tuesday. Holloway, who was a minor at the time, is suing Morant in Shelby County Circuit Court over the fight, and last week, a judge said Morant would be allowed to use the state’s “stand your ground” law to claim self-defense.

Romeo Domingo painted the interior wall of a house that was under construction in Arlington in October 2020. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

On the home (sales) front: This will likely come as no surprise, but suburban home sales are down in Shelby County. Bank of Bartlett senior vice president Chao Lin estimates that most local lenders and builders are likely down 20% to 25% year-over-year from 2022. And that’s mostly thanks to high interest rates, Lin says. The good news? Interest rates are dropping a tad for some buyers, builders are offering incentives to get buyers off the fence and, hey, at least things aren’t as bad as they were during the Great Recession.

What we’re listening to: You’ll likely need something in your ears while you prep that green bean casserole. In this week’s Sound Bites, Chris Herrington, Holly Whitfield and Natalie Van Gundy offer hot takes the Thanksgiving menu. Like, dressing or stuffing? (Dressing, I say.) Candied yams or sweet potato casserole? (Neither, if you ask me. Sweet potatoes are already sweet enough.) When that’s over, tune into the Tigers Podcast, where host Greg Gaston and our staff experts break down what the new Fred Smith stadium gift means for Tigers football.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

X (aka Twitter) was filled with praise for FedEx founder Fred Smith over his $50 million gift to fund Liberty Stadium renovations.

What do you think? New Memphis Tigers stadium logo for next season?

Have a lovely Thanksgiving! The Early Word will be off for the holiday tomorrow and Friday. So, I’ll see you bright and early on Monday.

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