Walter Bailey Jr. gets a portrait, James Lewellen gets a room at Town Hall and Germantown students react to 3Gs deal.

A redistricting committee explores whether City Council members seeking reelection on the October 2023 Memphis ballot take a hand in redrawing their district lines.

Bailey is perhaps best known as a lawyer representing Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. during the sanitation workers’ strike of 1968, and also took on several high-profile legal battles to desegregate Memphis schools.

The Shelby County Commission meets Wednesday, Dec. 14, to talk about making an appointment to the State House District 86 seat ahead of the special elections.

Constance Abbey’s founder is paralyzed, Damaria Franklin is ruled eligible for the Tigers and JJJ puts blocks on the Hawks.

As Mayor Jim Strickland formally opened the Memphis Sports and Events Center on Saturday, he had a contract on his desk for the commercial mixed-use development along Central Avenue.

The certified vote totals from the November election show an increase in the number of provisional ballots cast and counted compared to the August elections. The votes added didn’t change any of the outcomes on the November ballot, but they did boost the turnout to 34.4%.

Germantown was the first of four government bodies to approve an agreement transferring two of the 3Gs to the suburb’s school system.

Roger Wolcott, 74, and his wife, Margery, started Constance Abbey in 2013 to meet the needs of homeless people by living among them.

Attorneys for the City of Memphis want a judge to dismiss rape victim Alicia Franklin’s lawsuit, contending MPD owed Alicia Franklin no duty to investigate to the extent she wanted.

Leadership changes in the DA’s office and juvenile court system have raised questions as to whether the motions to try the two defendants as adults would still be on the table. 

The suspects in the slaying of Greater Memphis Chamber CEO Phil Trenary saw their trial pushed back almost a full year — to October 23, 2023 — following a conflict-of-interest delay.

Planned Parenthood will offer vasectomies, U of M’s Laird Veatch talks Tigers sports and we found the deadliest street for pedestrians.

The Summer Avenue Merchants Association president wants to protect area small businesses, but says there’s value in national chains like Starbucks and Chick-fil-A, too.

Related story:

Crime, speeding, reckless driving top concerns for Summer Avenue area

According to the most recent data available Thursday, Dec. 8 at 1 p.m., 78 pedestrians have been killed so far this year. Read on for a deeper dive into the data, which the DM obtained from the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security. 

Summer Avenue and the neighborhoods that surround it have, like most every area of the city, their fair share of problems with crime.

The trauma after becoming a victim can increase the chances of juveniles becoming perpetrators themselves, creating an endless cycle of gun violence, said Dr. Eraina Schauss, director of a counseling group for Le Bonheur’s trauma victims.

As the city sees crime rates rising, we hear a lot about young perpetrators. But the data on the other side of the coin, young victims, is just as striking.

Related story:

Solutions to childhood violence lie in trauma counseling

The shooting occurred in the 4900 block of Cimmaron Drive around 12:15 p.m. on Friday, Dec. 9. 

East High grad Brandice Daniel followed her heart to create Harlem’s Fashion Row in 2007. This weekend, she’s back in her hometown with a sold-out show at Nike.

The agreement will be reviewed next week by Shelby County Board of Commissioners, City of Germantown, Memphis-Shelby County Schools Board of Education and the Germantown Municipal School District Board of Education.

The 3.5% increase is set to take place in fall 2023. The last time the university increased on-campus housing prices was in fall 2017.

The D.C. Scorecard looks at the partisan split on federal same-sex marriage recognition and the National Defense Authorization Act.