Spring break won’t be forever, despite what James Franco says in Harmony Korine’s “Spring Breakers.” But it will be for this week. It’s Monday, March 10, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools students are out for the week. Suburban kids will just have to wait though.

Over in Germantown, aldermen will consider abolishing the suburb’s rules around when certain holiday decor can be displayed. That’s because the city is being sued after a resident was cited for adding a skeleton to her Christmas display. 

And the Memphis Grizzlies return home tonight, fresh off two road wins, to take on the Phoenix Suns at FedExForum. Plan the rest of your week with This Week in Memphis.

THE NEED TO KNOW

Edmund Ford Jr. is accused of using the community-grants programs of the Memphis City Council and Shelby County Commission to get kickbacks. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Edmund Ford Jr.’s political path: The Shelby County commissioner who was indicted this month on federal bribery and tax evasion charges got his start in politics in 2008 when he was elected to the Memphis City Council. Edmund Ford Jr. served on the council for 11 years before his election in 2018 to the Shelby County Commission. The Daily Memphian’s Bill Dries digs deep into Ford’s political history, which is part of a family legacy. His father, Edmund Ford Sr., once held the same City Council seat, as did two other Fords before him. And the family political tree dates back to the Reconstruction era. Now, Ford Jr. is facing 40 years in prison now for his alleged role in a kickback scheme. But as longtime Memphians know, he’s not the first Ford (or even the second) to find himself in trouble.

According to MATA Interim CEO John Lewis, the number of missing buses reached 19,300 between September and December 2024. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

MATA lied about bus routes: Nearly one-third of Memphis Area Transit Authority’s buses weren’t showing up where or when they were supposed to for nearly a year. And MATA lied about why, according to Interim CEO John Lewis. Lewis told the MATA board on Friday that previous leadership told the public that buses were breaking down, had missing parts or didn’t have operators show up to drive them, when in reality “those vehicles were never intended to show up, and it was deliberately designed that way.” In unrelated MATA news, an unnamed employee was placed on leave for making more than $144,000 worth of questionable charges to a MATA credit card.

Tennessee consumers are subject to a 4% sales tax rate on groceries — one of the highest in the country. (Allison Dinne/AP file)

Groceries could get cheaper: That is, if Tennessee lawmakers approve a couple of bills that would abolish the 4% state sales tax on groceries. Tennessee currently has one of the highest taxes on groceries in the country, and here in Shelby County, our local government has an additional grocery tax that has us paying up to 6.75% for things like baby formula, butter and raw meats. That’s not helping at a time when food prices have risen about 24%.

The xAI supercomputer already has one data center (pictured) in Southwest Memphis. Now, they’re planning to open a second one in Whitehaven. (Sophia Surrett/The Daily Memphian file)

Colossus gets more colossal: Elon Musk’s xAI purchased land in Whitehaven to build a second AI data center. The new center at 5420 Tulane Road is expected to add up to 350,000 chips to power xAI’s operations. It’ll be located next to the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Southaven Combined Cycle Plant, which xAI hopes can be a power source for the center. But Memphis Light, Gas and Water’s spokesperson said xAI’s request for an impact study on 260 megawatts of electricity has not been looked into yet. 

Crime scene investigation, which has been made popular through TV shows like the “CSI” franchise, involves analyzing crime scenes for evidence. (Matt Rourke/AP file)

Not as seen on TV: On the “CSI” TV show, bizarre crimes are neatly solved in 45 minutes, not counting the commercial breaks. And investigators use all sorts of tech to bring the killer to justice. Memphis Police Department Lt. Tony Barbarotto, who serves with the department’s Crime Scene Investigation unit, says real-life CSI isn’t like that at all. For one, crime scenes take hours or even days to process. And of course, many of the tech tools on TV don’t actually exist. But in this interview with our own Aarron Fleming, Barbarotto explains how truth is getting closer to fiction. 

MEET MEMPHIS

Marilyn Davis was the first COVID-19 patient in Shelby County. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Marilyn Davis was patient zero. It was early March 2020 when Davis was diagnosed as Shelby County’s first official COVID-19 patient. “I really thought I was going to die because they didn’t know what to do,” said Davis. She was a cardiac monitor technician at Baptist, and she’d recently traveled to New Orleans for Mardi Gras. Her travel companions got sick, too, but Davis had it the worst. The Daily Memphian’s Jane Roberts caught up with Davis five years later. Though COVID-19 didn’t make its way to Memphis until March 8, city leaders and health officials were already alarmed in January. Here’s a timeline of how the city handled the pandemic’s early days.

THE NICE TO KNOW

A long-dormant monorail sits at Mud Island. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Monorail’s curse? The Mud Island monorail cars haven’t moved since 2018. That’s when six passengers had to climb out of a hatch after the monorail stopped halfway through the ride. (Yikes.) And that’s just one of many, many problems to haunt the rail cars that once ferried passengers from Front Street to Mud Island River Park. In his latest “Ask the Memphian” series piece, Jody Callahan looks at the city’s fascination with monorails dating back to 1902 and the pomp (and controversy) around the rail’s opening on July 4, 1982. I have fond memories of riding the monorail to shows at the amphitheater in the late 1990s and early 2000s, but if I knew half of the problems Callahan details in this piece, I’d have never set foot inside a car. 

Memphis Tigers forward Nicholas Jourdain cut down the net after the Tigers clinched the regular-season title by beating South Florida on Friday, March 7. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian)

We are the champions: The Memphis Tigers are AAC regular-season champs after defeating South Florida, 84-88, on Friday night. The win was largely due to a second-half surge by the team’s seniors (fittingly in the Tigers’ Senior Day game). It was the team’s first outright conference championship under Coach Penny Hardaway and the first regular-season conference championship since 2013. The Daily Memphian’s Geoff Calkins chronicles Hardaway’s post-game celebration, and our own Parth Upadhyaya looks at the team’s long road to success after a tumultuous season last year. So, what does this mean for the Tigers’ NCAA Tournament seeding? Here’s what the bracketology experts are saying. 

Memphis Grizzlies guard Ja Morant celebrated a three-point basket during the fourth quarter of a game against the New Orleans Pelicans on Sunday, March 9. (Matthew Hinton/AP)

Grizz snap losing streak: The Memphis Grizzlies are finally winning on the road after four consecutive losses at home. They snapped the streak on Friday night with a 122-111 win over the Dallas Mavericks. The Grizz didn’t lead by more than four points until the final minutes when Desmond Bane and Ja Morant tag-teamed to secure the win. After the game, Morant said he felt like “old Ja” was back. And then on Sunday night, they overtook the New Orleans Pelicans, 107-104, after trailing at the half. Morant and Bane were in a groove again. For Ja, maybe it was the shoes?

Fish pudding and fixings at Calvary Episcopal Church’s Waffle Shop. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Fish story: If you don’t eat your meat, you can’t have any pudding, according to that Pink Floyd song. But at Calvary Episcopal Church’s Lenten Waffle Shop, you can have your meat and pudding, too. Well, sort of. In this week’s What to Order, food writer Jennifer Chandler explains how the waffle shop’s famous fish pudding is way tastier than it sounds. For one, it’s not actually pudding in the American sense; turns out “pudding” is an old English term for casserole.

THIS WEEK’S WEATHER

You might still be missing that lost hour of sleep, but if it magically ushered in these spring temps, I’d say it was worth it. Follow MemphisWeather.net for updates on those storms later this week.

Enjoy this perfect spring break weather!

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