City Council talks MATA and Regional One Health rebuild
City Council members will talk about next steps for the city’s bus system as one member calls for talks with County government on Regional One Health’s campus rebuild.
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Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
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City Council members will talk about next steps for the city’s bus system as one member calls for talks with County government on Regional One Health’s campus rebuild.
Reporters’ roundtable looks at the problems plaguing Memphis Area Transit Authority, and the new trial for former Memphis Police officers convicted in Tyré Nichols’ death.
The Shelby County Commission is scheduled to vote on cutting short the terms of some Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members and a new jail resolution that would rule out the old Firestone plant site.
Also in the political roundup, County Mayor Lee Harris has connections to several contenders on the 2026 ballot and U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen signs onto the Epstein files discharge petition.
The Memphis Zoo is expanding its program to offer free admission on Tuesdays year-round.
Former public official DeAndre Brown and his wife Vinessa Brown were charged with misusing $1.38 million in public money. The pair ran the Lifeline to Success non-profit, which is now also under scrutiny.
Also in the Political Roundup: Jerri Green at Wiseacre and one less contender for Shelby County Mayor.
The departing MATA board members appear to have been surprised by City Council members asserting a role in hiring the new permanent CEO. One former member called the move “insulting.”
Proponents of a plan to move the Shelby County Jail to the former Firestone plant say the site’s status as a brownfield is a positive for the project.
The Shelby County Commission has an amended plan to seek proposals on where and how to build a new jail. The detailed process was pushed Monday, Aug. 25, to a Sept. 3 committee meeting for more discussion.
Green acknowledged that part of her campaign’s struggle is to convince Democrats that a Democrat can win in Republican-dominated state political landscape.
Major moves by the county toward a new jail are on hold, but County Commission votes could push it closer to more specific plans.
A set of 10 new homes near Zodiac Park in Whitehaven Hills is the latest milestone in the city’s affordable housing movement.
Sheriff Floyd Bonner’s lawsuit seeks $67 million in proposed funding for his office that he says was not included in the county’s $1.7 billion consolidated budget.
Trump also talked generally about possibly sending National Guard troops to Memphis to help battle crime although procedures for activating the Guard in states differ from the laws that allowed him to put troops on Washington, D.C. streets.
As the perception of crime and safety in the city remains a challenge, Memphis Mayor Paul Young called the new precinct “an investment in safety, service and trust in our community.”
The maneuvering for a new jail plan at the site of the old Firestone plant in North Memphis has been pushed off until at least October.
The Council voted 11-0 to direct property tax revenue from the two xAI data centers to nearby communities.
The City’s more aggressive stance on blighted properties is focused on taking court cases to Chancery Court instead of Environmental Court. The funding would fuel that effort and could be sustained with money from the sale of properties out of receivership.
The Memphis City Council will dive into a revamped entrance and security upgrades for Liberty Park along with a $14.6 million “action plan” from Mayor Paul Young.
The head of the Downtown Memphis Commission talks on “Behind The Headlines” about what’s beyond Downtown’s waiting period for several new and renovated institutions to come online.
Also Republican contender for governor John Rose on Medicaid expansion and “Tennessee values,” and Democratic contender Jerri Green on debating Senator Marsha Blackburn.
It took one vote to elect the new County Commission chair and four to elect the chair pro tempore. In between was the usual commission intrigue and grievances.
The Shelby County Commission agreed to start term limits for Memphis-Shelby County Schools board elections with the 2026 election. But it delayed a decision on when to get all those races on the same ballot.
“My time as a member of Congress is not my calling card for this job,” the Republican Congressman from Cookeville said of his run for Tennessee Governor.