MPD disbands its SCORPION unit, Flinn Broadcasting is making changes and the Overton Park Shell hits the road.

“The state has determined right now that it’s in the best interest of Tennesseans for the state to assume direct financial and managerial responsibility for these services,” Health Commissioner Ralph Alvarado told Tennessee lawmakers.

The moves are designed to allow Flinn Broadcasting to focus more tightly on its home market of Memphis. 

Some of the “forever chemicals” that scientists have linked to various health risks were found at five locations along the Mississippi River in Louisiana at levels well above the EPA’s most recent guidance, according to a new report.

U.S. Rep. Steven Horsford (D-Nev.), chair of the Congressional Black Caucus, said during an interview on Politics Nation on MSNBC that he extended the invitation to the family.

Prominent leaders of the Memphis Black community are calling for legislative action in the wake of the death of Tyre Nichols.

One protester said local activists will keep protesting until all the officers involved in the events that lead to Tyre Nichols’ death have been identified. 

As public officials expressed outrage about Tyre Nichols’ death online, the protests marking the release of the videos returned to the symbol of local protest in the age of Black Lives Matter — the bridges across the Mississippi River.

The Daily Memphian analyzed the earliest available footage of the Nichols traffic stop in detail, creating a moment-by-moment timeline of the Memphis Police Department officers’ increasingly aggressive responses, even as Nichols himself remains calm and compliant.

What’s at stake in the case is the federal jurisdiction over the nation’s most valuable natural resource: water. 

The Memphis Police Department’s SCORPION unit, which MPD announced Saturday is being disbanded, is reminiscent of a controversial defunct unit in Atlanta over which MPD Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis was once in charge. 

Related story:

MPD’s SCORPION unit permanently deactivated

The Memphis Police Department footage of Tyre Nichols’ beating spurred hundreds of people to participate in Downtown marches Saturday. As the gatherings concluded, a trumpet player offered a bluesy hymn.

The crowd at Handy Park heard Downtown Memphis Commission President Paul Young ask, “the question for our city is: what are we going to next?”

MPD released a tweet Saturday that said: “In the process of listening intently to the family of Tyre Nichols, community leaders and the uninvolved officers ... it is in the best interest of all to permanently deactivate the SCORPION Unit.”

“I was just trying to turn a negative into a positive. That’s my main goal today.”

Earlier Saturday, the U of M had announced its campus would close “until further notice.”

The evaluation is part of the Shelby County Health Department’s effort to gain national accreditation from the Public Health Accreditation Board. 

 When Kirstin L. Cheers, director of communications for BRIDGES, learned of the release of the Tyre Nichols’ arrest video, she quickly mobilized to try to help.

The Memphis Fire Department confirmed Monday, Jan. 23, that two personnel involved in the “initial patient care” of Tyre Nichols had been relieved of duty pending an internal investigation.

MPD’s Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis talked to The Daily Memphian about why they are releasing the video footage Friday evening, whether the National Guard will be brought in and how she thinks these latest events will affect recruiting. Earlier in the day, she also discussed the fire department’s role in Nichols’ death.