City of Memphis
Memphis council chair warned her behavior could violate city charter
Memphis City Council Chairwoman Jana Swearengen-Washington has been accused of using her position to benefit her niece, who worked in the city’s IT department.
Samuel Hardiman
Reporter
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development.
There are 677 articles by Samuel Hardiman :
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May 2026
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City of Memphis -
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BusinessAnthropic paying $15B a year to rent Memphis data center from SpaceX
Earlier in May, xAI (now a part of SpaceX) announced a deal with Anthropic, the company behind the popular artificial intelligence chatbot Claude.
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Spirit of Memphis Flags, headstones and hard truths: Memphis National Cemetery tells a different Civil War story
For row after row, many of the headstones bear no name.
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State Government Cohen to sue over redrawn congressional map
“We’ve been campaigning hard since the filing deadline ... and that’s a First Amendment violation, so there will be a lawsuit in state court,” Cohen said.
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Public Safety Appeals court deals blow to lawsuit challenging National Guard
The court said plaintiffs lacked standing to bring the challenge of the guard’s deployment.
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MetroIf there are new maps, what are Cohen, Kustoff and Pearson going to do?
At least one local elected official hinted at what they might consider if the new congressional district map passes.
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Business Claude AI to use xAI’s Memphis data center
Anthropic, the company behind the widely successful Claude chatbot, would use all of Colossus’ computing capacity.
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2026 elections
ElectionsFour County Commission races set for August
Four Shelby County Board of Commissioners races now have their final pairings for the August general election.
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2026 elections
ElectionsClerks, register, trustee and assessor: Here’s who won the primaries for the other races
Wanda Halbert, the current county clerk, lost the Democratic nomination for Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk to state Rep. Joe Towns Jr. on Tuesday, May 5, by a 121-vote margin according to unofficial totals.
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2026 elections
ElectionsAnthony Buckner wins Democratic primary for Sheriff
Shelby County Sheriff’s Office Chief Deputy Anthony Buckner won the Shelby County Democratic primary for sheriff Tuesday.
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April 2026
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City of MemphisMemphis budget shows rising cost of doing business
When presenting the budget, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the city had to make “significant tradeoffs.” From pension to healthcare and clothing, here’s a closer look at the city’s spending.
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City of MemphisHow Memphis plans to spend $100 million in state money on Beale Street
John Zeanah said an interesting phrase as he stood outside FedExForum during a City Council bus tour — he called the area the “arena district.”
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City of Memphis Mayor proposes 2% raise for city employees and no tax increase
Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the City of Memphis made “significant trade-offs” as it designed the city’s coming fiscal year budget.
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City of Memphis Memphis gets another $50M for Downtown Memphis safety
The Tennessee General Assembly included a $50 million grant for Downtown Memphis Public Safety in the state budget passed this week.
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Public Safety Five former MPD officers dismissed from Tyré Nichols civil suit
The plaintiffs filed to dismiss them so that the planned November 2026 trial could continue as scheduled.
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2026 elections
ElectionsFundraising picture for May county primary election remains unclear
The lack of financial forms makes it difficult to see how key candidates have fared with donors in the past three months.
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City of Memphis Memphis Art Museum tour ends with $6 million
Memphis City Council members got a peek inside what will be the new Memphis Art Museum before voting to repurpose city funds for public infrastructure outside the Front Street museum.
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Metro XAI sued because of alleged Clean Air Act violations
The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI.
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Public Safety A week before MPD officers beat Tyré Nichols, MPD shot a 17-year-old. The incident is part of reams of new evidence to be introduced in Nichols’ civil case.
New documents and witnesses announced in Nichols' civil trial will aim to show use-of-force culture in MPD.
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2026 elections
ElectionsOne Shelby County candidate has more cash than all his opponents combined
Newly filed campaign finance forms show two Shelby County Democratic mayoral candidates with far more financial resources than the rest of the crowded primary.
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2026 elections
ElectionsWhat should be done about 201 Poplar? Democratic county mayor candidates share their ideas.
For most of an hour at Springdale Baptist Church in North Memphis, six of the Democratic candidates for Shelby County mayor displayed few differences. Then, the prospect of a new jail to replace the dilapidated and struggling 201 Poplar brought them to life.
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Metro XAI Mississippi air permit appealed by SELC
Last month, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board approved an xAI subsidiary’s application to erect 41 natural gas turbines.
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City of Memphis Elon Musk gives timeline on water recycling plant
The Daily Memphian reported the water recycling facility, a key promise the company made to local leaders and residents, was “on an indefinite pause.” Without it, xAI uses fresh drinking water to cool its Colossus data center.
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City of MemphisXAI promised it would save billions of gallons of fresh drinking water every year by recycling wastewater. Now, that’s in doubt.
Ahead of SpaceX’s IPO, it would stand to reason the cost of a water-recycling plant may be essential to the long-term health of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, but it might not be essential to a company whose books could soon come under broader public scrutiny.
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Update
MetroXAI water recycling plant on indefinite pause
Without the plant’s completion, xAI and TVA could continue drawing billions of gallons of freshwater from the aquifer, which also supplies the region’s drinking water.
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