Memphis Local, Sports, Business & Food News | Daily Memphian | Michael Nelson

Nelson: For Paul Manafort and Roger Stone, it all started in Memphis

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Tue, 21 Mar 2023 21:06:37 -0500

Paul Manafort and Roger Stone were young, politically ambitious, and determined to advance their careers by coming to Memphis for the Young Republican National Convention in 1977.

Ten weeks from Election Day, does Biden have a chance in Mid-South?

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 24 Aug 2020 16:53:26 -0500

One convention down, one to go, and one question on many people’s minds: Who’s going to win the presidential election?

Nelson: 'Are you really the Republican or Democrat you think you are?'

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 17 Aug 2020 04:00:13 -0500

Two online quizzes want to help you find out which party is truly aligned with your beliefs. One questionnaire is better than the other, but both might surprise you.

'He was Memphis’ Indiana Jones, Marco Polo, P.T Barnum and James Bond'

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 10 Aug 2020 10:57:00 -0500

Richard Halliburton spent his short life “living poetry instead of writing it.”

Nelson: Can the Democrats win November Senate elections in Tennessee and Mississippi?

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Fri, 7 Aug 2020 13:09:57 -0500

Stranger things have happened. Heck, Ronald Reagan carried New York – twice.

Opinion: Are historians trying to cancel Andrew Jackson?

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 3 Aug 2020 04:00:06 -0500

Eighteen cities bear his name as do counties in 22 states. Fourteen presidents have gone to his home to pay homage. But stock in Jackson's historical reputation, which has been declining for several years, just took another major hit.

Opinion: Conservatives should wear masks, but liberals make it unnecessarily hard

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 27 Jul 2020 04:00:13 -0500

One of John Stuart Mill's arguments in “On Liberty” is often reduced to this sentence: Your freedom ends where my nose begins. Never has that way of putting it seemed more literal, noses being the coronavirus’s main point of entry into our bodies.

Nelson: How is the Aug. 6 election screwy? Let me count the ways, part 2

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Tue, 21 Jul 2020 04:00:07 -0500

Local elections are always a mess. Here are ways they’re especially messy this year.

Opinion: How is the Aug. 6 election screwy? Let me count the ways, Part 1

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 20 Jul 2020 06:06:39 -0500

Local elections ought to be straightforward affairs for voters. Here are six ways our leaders always deny us this right – three today and three tomorrow.

How Memphis helped win the Battle of Vicksburg, and the Civil War

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 13 Jul 2020 04:00:04 -0500

Historian Donald L. Miller’s spellbinding book about the campaign is titled “Vicksburg,” but it could just as easily have been called “Memphis.”

Fred Smith helps make Washington's NFL team do the right thing

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 6 Jul 2020 09:36:40 -0500

The team name in question, of course, is Redskins. It has been a standing insult to our country’s first peoples since the team was created in 1933.

Nelson: Strickland should be an agent of restraint

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Wed, 1 Jul 2020 15:51:31 -0500

Public safety includes not taking actions that risk turning up the city’s temperature at a volatile time. In those moments the mayor needs to be an agent of restraint.

Nelson: In these conflicted times, Mississippi shows the way

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Sun, 28 Jun 2020 15:53:10 -0500

"Nuance and process are the boring but essential virtues we need to make good decisions about matters like state flags, Confederate monuments and public holidays."

How the Supreme Court saved the day for a Memphis family

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 22 Jun 2020 04:00:03 -0500

A year ago this week, the U.S. Supreme Court gave the green light to the new owners of Kimbrough Fine Wine & Spirits. But their victory may be Pyrrhic.

We survived 1968. We'll thrive in 2020

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 15 Jun 2020 04:00:13 -0500

Wonder why you don’t see Memphis in the national news? Because when a city doesn’t bleed that city doesn’t lead.

We lack what the Mid-South needs – two-party competition

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 8 Jun 2020 04:00:00 -0500

With Republicans in the driver’s seat in all three Mid-South Senate elections, are there competitive contests anywhere else on the ballot? The short answer: No.

Never mind how we're going to vote. What are we voting on?

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 1 Jun 2020 04:00:10 -0500

Believe it or not, something important is on the August ballot.

Sports betting is coming to Memphis, in the right way at the right time

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 25 May 2020 09:50:03 -0500

And if the lottery board were less greedy, the state would actually make more money.

When the Civil War siege of Corinth ended, the conquest of Memphis began

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 18 May 2020 04:00:02 -0500

Even though Corinth was a small town of about 1,200, its location made it the key to controlling the western half of the Confederacy and its most important city, Memphis.

Tennessean for vice president? No, but how about the Supreme Court

mnelson@dailymemphian.com (Michael Nelson) — Mon, 11 May 2020 04:00:05 -0500

With no current Tennessee Democrat available to fulfill Biden’s pledge to choose a woman VP, how about his other promise: to “appoint the first black woman to the Supreme Court”?