Good morning! It’s Thursday, May 21, and there’s a hearing today in Nashville for a temporary injunction against the new congressional map that splits Memphis into three House districts. 

It’s the last day of school for Memphis-Shelby County Schools students. When I was a latchkey kid in the ’90s, summer break meant absolute freedom to roam the neighborhood with my friends, adopt stray animals while my parents were at work and eat trashy TV dinners for lunch every day. Not sure what kids do these days, but here’s hoping it’s as fun as all that.

And speaking of summer, Memphis Tigers baseball is still on with another American Conference tournament game today. The Tigers play UAB after winning yesterday’s game against Charlotte. 

THE NEED TO KNOW

The Anthropic deal may be a boon to SpaceX’s current finances, but when xAI was a separate company, it hemorrhaged cash. (AP file)

Inside the Anthropic deal: Elon Musk’s xAI data centers may have been living rent-free in the minds of local environmentalists, but chatbot Claude is paying about $15 billion a year to live there. Public Securities and Exchange Commission filings show AI company Anthropic will pay xAI (now part of SpaceX) that much to rent the computing capacity at Colossus. And it seems like the company needs that money after hemorrhaging cash in 2025. Those filings also failed to mention xAI’s promised water-recycling plant, which was put on pause earlier this year. And they revealed that SpaceX is open to deals with other AI companies, too.

Liam Wright, co-chair of the Memphis-Midsouth Democratic Socialists of America, spoke during a press conference near Novel. (Brad Vest/Special to The Daily Memphian)

State of the union: Employees at Novel voted Wednesday to form a union, which they say will push for better pay and working conditions. Workers said they’d like to be paid a living wage, which equates to about $21 per hour, and they want a more coherent work structure rather than a store that runs on “vibes.” Novel’s local management said they already give annual raises and pay 100% of employee health insurance, but one managing partner said Wednesday that unionization is “not one of the biggest headwinds we face as a local, independent retailer.”

A new lawsuit alleged that the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s engagement in immigration-enforcement tactics violates the Fourth Amendment and the Equal Protection clause. (John Amis/AP file)

Immigrant-rights group sues troopers: A lawsuit filed Tuesday accuses state troopers of engaging in immigration enforcement. The Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition is suing the Tennessee Highway Patrol for teaming up with ICE on traffic stops in Memphis and Nashville. About 90% of the Memphis Safe Task Force’s immigration-related arrests started with such a traffic stop. The suit says that goes against the Fourth Amendment’s protection against unreasonable seizures and amounts to racial profiling. It’s the second recent lawsuit filed over Memphis Safe Task Force-related activities. 

Expiration and execution: Tony Carruthers of Memphis is set to be executed today over a 1994 murder conviction. But Tennessee prison officials are refusing to confirm if the execution drugs they’ll be using are expired. Carruthers’ attorneys have made three written requests for assurances the drugs aren’t expired — without much luck. Medical experts say out-of-date drugs raise the risk of a prolonged and painful death. And it wouldn’t be the first time Tenneseee has failed to properly test lethal injection drugs.

MEET MEMPHIS

Bria Saulsberry was named the inaugural poet laureate of Memphis during an induction ceremony on Wednesday, May 20. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)

Memphis has its first-ever poet laureate. That would be Bria Saulsberry, who received that honor in a ceremony Tuesday, where she appeared alongside two other finalists. In her new position, Saulsberry will visit classrooms, lead workshops and write original poems about Memphis. “I couldn’t have imagined my little feelings and my little poems would make room for me in the ways that it has,” Saulsberry said during her acceptance speech.

THE NICE TO KNOW

Mike Miller (middle) joked on the bench during an exhibition game in Nassau, Bahamas, when he served as a Memphis Tigers assistant coach. (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian file)

Letting it fly: Memphis has become a pre-draft hotspot for soon-to-be professional NBA players from around the country. (Or, well, technically Eads, but who’s counting?) That’s all thanks to former Memphis Grizzly Mike Miller’s Let it Fly Barn, a state-of-the-art training facility in Eads with workout space, a pool and a massive video screen for watching games. Miller stayed in Memphis after his time with the Grizzlies to “give people a chance to work and focus on basketball in the city that loves hoops.”

U.S. players Sam Querrey (left) and John Isner attended a news conference on Tuesday, April 2, 2013. (Greg Kreller/Idaho Press-Tribune/AP file)

Game, set, match: The upcoming Memphis Classic is a pro Women’s Tennis Association event, but there will be at least two dudes playing on the court at Leftwich Tennis Center. Tennis pros Sam Querrey and John Isner will open the week of matches with an exhibition game on July 25. It’ll be a bit of a homecoming for the two, who met in an Association of Tennis Professionals match in Memphis for the first time back in 2010. The Daily Memphian’s Geoff Calkins recaps that story.

Memphis Grizzlies center Zach Edey dunked against the Golden State Warriors on April 1, 2025. (Brandon Dill/AP file)

Wemby vs. Edey? The San Antonio Spurs’ Victor Wembanyama is showing up and showing out during his team’s playoff run against the Oklahoma City Thunder. When Wemby drilled a 30-footer in overtime of Game 1, basketball fan Chris Herrington watched with a “mix of awe and horror.” But did you know the Memphis Grizzlies have “the only player in the NBA who can match Wemby’s length while countering his otherworldly athleticism with superior strength”? That’s Zach Edey, according to Herrington, and he makes the case for a Wemby vs. Edey subplot — plus, answers your burning draft questions — in the Grizzlies Mailbag.

WHAT WE’RE TALKING ABOUT

You’ve probably heard, but the Super Bowl is coming to Nashville in 2030. The Tennessee Titans are wrapping up construction now on a new $2 billion enclosed stadium, which no doubt helped them win the bid. I love to hate on Nashville as much as the next Memphian, but this is pretty darn cool. Road trip?

But let’s not wait until 2030 to see each other again. How about tomorrow? Right here?

.....