Months after a Daily Memphian report on Liberty Park consulting contracts, Memphis City Council members are questioning the project’s costs. Vice Chairman Chase Carlisle and Budget Chairwoman Janika White plan to write a letter to Mayor Paul Young’s administration about the development and to request a full accounting. The focus on redevelopment costs at the former Fairgrounds came last week as the city brought forward two more cash infusions for the project, amounting to $800,000 for two signs.

The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board is pitching a 19-member committee as an alternative to proposed state takeover legislation. MSCS board Chair Natalie McKinney said the “local solution,” called the “Local Accountability and Transformation Plan,” would utilize the committee to hold the district to a set of academic, fiscal and operational goals. MSCS board member Sable Otey is set to propose a resolution for the board to adopt the plan.

Through the first two months of 2026, the city has continued to see what Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis describes as a “huge” drop in crime. The police department saw 48% fewer Part 1 crimes — homicide, rape, murder, burglary, robbery, larceny and car theft — in January 2026 versus January 2025, from 3,709 incidents to 1,908. There was a 38% drop in February 2026 from the year before, according to data MPD gave to the council.And the Shelby County Commission has a new member following the resignation of Edmund Ford Jr., who pleaded guilty to federal tax evasion charges. Matthew Szalaj, 24, got the interim appointment to the commission. Szalaj, a special assistant to Mayor Young in the city’s office of intergovernmental affairs, is not among the field running for a full four-year term in Ford’s former seat this year.

— Metro editor Jane Donahoe

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Memphis-Shelby County Schools board members voted to close five campuses at the end of the school year. The decision impacts 2,650 students and staff, and could be the first round of a total 15 school closures within three years.

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