Interfaith Dinner is called off, the teen accused in the death of the “watermelon man” will be tried as an adult and new hotels are coming to historic Downtown buildings. 

“You miss graduation, you miss birthday parties. You miss the little scrapes and the falls,” Artis Whitehead said of the things he missed about being a dad during the 21 years he spent in prison. “You miss being able to actually guide them.”

“Music is what we have in common with strangers,” said Jason Isbell, now six-time Grammy Award-winning singer-songwriter, to a near standing-room-only crowd at Rhodes College.

Demarion Tackett, 16, is accused of shooting 76-year-old John Materna, who was known for selling watermelons in The Heights neighborhood, on May 15, 2023. Materna died in the hospital two weeks after being shot.

Organizers say sensitivities about Gaza make the gathering between Muslims, Jews and Christians too difficult.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water has moved into the second phase of its project to replace the city’s old sodium streetlights with LED bulbs.

“North Memphis is not here to save your environment,” Memphis City Council member Michalyn Easter-Thomas said about a proposed facility to keep trees and wood waste out of landfills.

Madden previously helped Memphis navigate “some of the most difficult times in our history,” said MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen. 

The Lake District could be liquidated, state lawmakers try to compromise over wetlands and Young says changes are coming to Beale.

“Southwest is the first place that I feel like adults have looked at me and spoken to me and said, ‘OK, this person has potential. This person can do something and has good ideas'”, said Allyson Harrison.

In 2023, 47 of the nation’s 56 organ procurement organizations, including Tennessee’s, broke records in the recovery of organs for transplant. 

Rep. Mark White (R-Memphis) cited prolonged frustration with the board’s locally elected leadership when explaining his plans to Chalkbeat on Tuesday.

In other action Tuesday, the council approved the reappointment of Robert Knecht as the city’s public-works director.

Rev. Dorothy Wells came to Memphis to attend Rhodes College in the late 1970s. She practiced law 18 years before entering the ministry. 

Half of the state’s wetlands — often described as “earth’s kidneys — could be deregulated under a new proposal, but lawmakers are looking at a compromise that would take wetlands’ size and quality into account.

The Tennessee General Assembly passed a law in 2023 taking the power away from local DAs in collateral review of death penalty convictions and instead putting the authority in the hands of the Tennessee Attorney General’s Office. 

The archive of 60 years of Ernest Withers’ photographs joins the national set of historic places as the Beale Street entertainment district marks 10 years of operation and management by the Downtown Memphis Commission.

A Memphis resident has filed an ethics complaint against a Memphis City Council member over an alleged conflict of interest.

MEM lands big bucks for a terminal upgrade, the sun isn’t setting on a county solar moratorium and Collierville puts the brakes on a car dealership. 

The DA’s office will now receive $991,178 for the remainder of the fiscal year 2024, which comes out of the general fund balance. Each following fiscal year, the DA’s office will receive $2.98 million.

“The state of our state is strong, resilient and ready for the future,” Gov. Bill Lee told the audience of state lawmakers and other officials within the House chamber at the Tennessee State Capitol in Downtown Nashville.

Related story:

Gov. Lee proposes $1.2 billion in business tax refunds, $410 million annual cut

The assessment of Shelby County’s requirements for solar farms stemmed, in part, from the pushback against a 1,500-acre project planned in Millington.

Gene Dewayne Saulsberry was arrested by Shelby County Sheriff’s Office’s Fugitive Apprehension Team around 2 p.m. on Monday, Feb. 5, in Hickory Hill.

The tax cut is among the biggest expenses in the governor’s budget, and comes as state revenues are stagnating. Lee argues the state can afford it because revenue is stabilizing at a level significantly above where it was a few years ago.

The City Council has a few more votes on Mayor Paul Young’s remaining appointees to his leadership team and some questions on the interim status of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis.