Dakota Garrity presides over central control at FedEx Ground in Olive Branch, Mississippi, like a NASA flight director overseeing a moon mission.

A state panel approved Memphis’ request Monday for a Fairgrounds Tourism Development Zone to help fund an estimated $150 million project complete with a youth sports and events complex that will depend on construction of a privately developed hotel.

Memphis Democratic Rep. Karen Camper won election Sunday within the House Minority Caucus to become the group’s leader, the first African-American caucus leader in Tennessee history.

American Athletic Conference commissioner Mike Aresco is taking the approach that the UCF and Memphis offenses did in a 62-55 double-overtime game in last year’s league championship.

Six games into Penny Hardaway’s first season as the Memphis Tigers’ head coach, this much is clear: The heralded freshmen will thrill and they will aggravate. In the end Sunday night against Charleston, there was more frustration than joy as the Tigers fell 78-75 in the fifth-place game of the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando.

For the first half Friday, Whitehaven looked nothing like a team that was ready for the bright lights of Cookeville. The second half, though, was a whole other story.

The official stats read, “HENDERSON, D. rush for 4 yards to the MEM48, 1ST DOWN MEM.” This moment was more significant than one line on Friday's play-by-play in Memphis' 52-31 win over Houston.

Enes Kanter had a career-high 26 rebounds and scored 21 points, Tim Hardaway Jr. finished with 22 points and the New York Knicks overcame a poor shooting first half to beat the Memphis Grizzlies 103-98 on Sunday night.

ORLANDO – Just a few days earlier, Penny Hardaway had been sitting along the baseline at the Landers Center, watching three gifted recruits light up the court.

Kevin McKenzie and Montavious Smith will be in court next month after they were arrested at a Memphis mall over an incident that centered around a hoodie.

A federal judge already has ruled the city of Memphis violated a consent decree when police officers conducted surveillance on protesters in recent years. This summer, another non-jury trial will be held after the city asked the court to modify the 40-year-old consent agreement.

New management of The Shops at Carriage Crossing wants to enhance the pedestrian-friendly shopping center’s customer experience – a shifting of direction for the business district.

Downtown development is booming, with new announcements occurring, it seems, almost daily. 

The Memphis City Council’s deadlock over filling a vacancy on the body began to read like a political whodunit, even while the council was in the process Tuesday of taking more than 100 votes on the appointment. The usual suspects of race, political power and political deals were all mentioned and hinted at during the standoff between council members backing Raleigh Community Development Corp. executive director Rhonda Logan and Flinn Broadcasting sales manager Lonnie Treadaway.

While big-box retailers like Best Buy and Walmart tend to dominate Black Friday sales, the Saturday after Thanksgiving is when consumers “shop small.” In 2010, when small businesses were struggling from an economic recession, American Express declared the Saturday after Thanksgiving as Small Business Saturday, a marketing effort that encourages people to include small, local businesses in their holiday shopping.

About 26 years ago, Amy Howard started Amy Howard Collection, a company where she designed and manufactured furniture.

The Beale Street archway signs are loved by some and hated by some, but with nearly 1 million impressions in six months, there’s no debate. They work. For the past six months, Chris Porter, the local graphic designer who created the winning submission, has been keeping track of how many times the archways appeared in an online video or were posted to social media.

Just under 1,000 provisional ballots cast on Nov. 6 but not counted until almost three weeks later will be the center of attention on Monday, Nov. 26, as the Shelby County Election Commission certifies the results of the last election of 2018 in Shelby County.

At least one of the spectators who watched the Memphis City Council vote more than 100 times to fill a vacant council position Tuesday will be among those vying for an appointment to one of two other open council seats.

After Oklahoma State handed Memphis a 20-point loss in the first round of the AdvoCare Invitational in Orlando, coach Penny Hardaway called the performance “embarrassing” and vowed to make adjustments.

Nobody at the breakfast table knew what school Jamirah Shutes would choose for college, not even her parents. Missouri, Ole Miss and Purdue were putting pressure on the 5-foot-7 guard from Brownsville to commit. The school 45 minutes away from her and her family still had a shot, though.

ORLANDO — Penny Hardaway sat in front of the microphone in the wake of Oklahoma State’s blowout win over the Memphis Tigers in the AdvoCare Invitational and decided to really lay into the individual he thought was responsible for the listless performance.

Mike Norvell had time to think about the play, time to think about exactly what to call.

Two Memphis state legislators are vying to become leader of the House Democratic Caucus in an effort to help the minority party regain stature in the Legislature. Reps. Karen Camper of District 87 and Joe Towns of District 84, both Memphis Democrats, are running for the top leadership position in the caucus along with Reps. Johnny Shaw of Bolivar and Bo Mitchell of Davidson County, a late entrant into the race.

Wiseacre Brewing Co. plans to build a second, larger brewery Downtown. Abel Parcels LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Wiseacre, is seeking a Board of Adjustment variance to build on 2.5 acres at the southeast edge of Downtown. B.B. King Boulevard, East Butler and Vance avenues and Abel Street border the site.