Happy hump day, Memphis. It’s Wednesday, Sept. 10, and if you don’t have tickets yet to our upcoming Small Business Seminar, well, what are you waiting for? This panel will feature Andre Ford of Campbell & Ford Construction, Inc., David Perdue III of Greenview Landscape Services and Shannon and Lloyd Finks of ZüpMed. And if that’s not enough, there’s wine and cheese. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

There were 28,660 overall reported incidents from January through August 2025. Since 2001, the highest number of overall crime incidents on MPD’s record was in 2006 with 46,334. (Brad Vest/The Daily Memphian file)

How low can crime go? We’ve been hearing for a while that, despite a serious perception problem, crime is down in Memphis. But data released by the Memphis Police Department on Tuesday showed that crime is so down, it’s at a 25-year low. The data shows crime decreases across all major categories, but the biggest drops are in property crimes. Despite that, two Republican state lawmakers recently called for a Tennessee Bureau of Investigation audit of MPD’s crime stats to make sure felony crimes aren’t being reclassified as misdemeanors. MPD Chief C.J. Davis is standing by MPD’s numbers. 

“Quite frankly, the buses weren’t running on time. They weren’t running at all,” said Memphis City Council Attorney Allan Wade on Tuesday. (Patrick Lantrip/The Daily Memphian file)

Bus money: The Memphis Area Transit Authority’s money will be controlled by a City of Memphis trust that will oversee how the bus system spends its $30 million in city funds. That was the decision of the Memphis City Council on Tuesday. The move follows the city calling off a MATA CEO search, and now there’s a discussion of a new structure for the beleaguered bus system. In other news, council member Dr. Jeff Warren wanted the City Council to support a push to call off building a new $2 billion Regional One Health campus, a Shelby County-owned hospital that the city does not fund nor has any control over. But council members put the brakes on that.

The smokestack at the former Firestone plant has been removed. The facility made its last tire in 1983. (The Daily Memphian file)

No new jail for New Chicago: The former Firestone plant in New Chicago won’t be the site for a new Shelby County Jail. The Shelby County Commission made sure of that on Monday when it OK’d a resolution that rules out the New Chicago area for a new jail. A group of real-estate developers proposed the Firestone site in early August, but a vocal group of residents in the area opposed the plan. So, what’s next for a new jail? Commission chair Shante Avant is working on it. 

DeAndre Brown is the founder of Lifeline to Success. The program helps ex-offenders reintegrate into society. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

DeAndre Brown gives up on gun rights: For now. Brown, the now-suspended director of the Shelby County Office of Re-Entry, and his wife, Vinessa Brown, were recently indicted on felony charges related to alleged misappropriation of public money. Brown lost his gun rights in the early 2000s because of a felony bank-fraud conviction. He was pardoned for that crime in 2023, and he filed a lawsuit earlier this summer to get his gun rights back. But his attorney just filed to dismiss the suit “pending the outcome of [Brown’s] state charges.”

QUOTED

“Last year, [the state] made it pretty clear ... they’re spending all the money on the private school vouchers.”

— Michelle Childs, Lakeland School System board member
For the past two years, the Lakeland School System has asked the General Assembly to fund state-mandated, special-education for prekindergarten students. But Childs said, last year, the state spent its money on private-school vouchers instead. So on Monday, the LSS board unanimously approved another request for state special-ed money.

THE NICE TO KNOW

“The heart of Memphis needed something like this,” said SweatHouz franchisee Paul Stephens. (Courtesy Daniel Parker/Boyle)

You’re hot, then you’re cold: If freezing and sweating sounds like a good time to you, listen up. SweatHouz, an Atlanta-based wellness company, is opening a location in East Memphis’ Williamsburg Village, and it’ll offer infrared saunas, cold plunges and vitamin C showers. Franchisee Paul Stephens swears by hot-cold therapy helping with his back pain. Read more on SweatHouz in Inked, plus a new art gallery coming to East Memphis.

Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo will seek a fourth term as the suburb’s mayor. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

Palazzolo to run again: Germantown Mayor Mike Palazzolo formally announced Tuesday that he’ll seek a fourth term as the suburb’s mayor. That shuts down the speculation that he’ll run for Shelby County mayor next May. Palazzolo said a countywide mayoral race just sounded “pretty daunting.”

“The Long Walk,” which opens in wide release this week, is the second of at least three Stephen King adaptations that will land in movie theaters this year. (Courtesy Lionsgate)

Will ‘The Long Walk’ cross the finish line? There have been more than 60 films adapted from Stephen King novels, and as our movie buff Chris Herrington says, they haven’t exactly all been winners. The latest King adaptation, “The Long Walk,” comes out this week. The dystopian tale has a Shirley Jackson’s “The Lottery” vibe as 50 young men take off for a walk to the death. Will the film be one of the winners, like “Carrie”? Or, is this another “Sleepwalker”? Herrington has more on that, plus a look at the sequel to the 1984 mockumentary, “This Is Spinal Tap.”

Test flight: Memphis high-school students got to watch drones and hot-air balloons Tuesday at the FedEx Experience Center. The demonstration by the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association was a way to show off its free, four-year aviation curriculum to teachers and school administrators. The You Can Fly program is designed to introduce students to all kinds of aviation careers, not just piloting planes.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

Still not sure how to use the new roundabout at Interstate-55 and Crump Boulevard? The Tennessee Department of Transportation created this fun tutorial. 

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