The city filed a motion on Monday, Feb. 17, to dismiss the suit, just like it did in 2023 when the lawsuit was filed. 

In addition to competing, barbecue teams will have the opportunity to sell select menu items to attendees. 

The Memphis City Council will return to the proposed city sale of land to a subsidiary of xAI, and up for a vote Tuesday, Feb. 18, is a $10.5 million budget amendment, including $5 million in emergency funding for MATA.

Also happening this week: The five officers charged in the Tyre Nichols case are back in court, and MRPP celebrates Tom Lee’s birthday.

After the ribbon-cutting for the adult wellness crisis center, Alliance Healthcare Services broke ground on the neighboring $11 million children’s wellness center.

On Thursday, xAI’s plans to use natural gas turbines in the long term became public after The Daily Memphian received the company’s recent application to the Shelby County Health Department for an air-emissions permit.

Several employees confirmed to The Daily Memphian that two paychecks appeared in their accounts on Friday and late Thursday.

CTC Property, a subsidiary of xAI, applied for air-emissions permits for its fleet of natural gas turbines in January.

The City of Memphis confirmed Thursday, Feb. 13, that payday is coming a tad later than normal for some of its 8,000-plus employees after a clerical error. 

MAS Interim Director Mary Claire Borys said the outbreak might never have happened if not for the inadequacies at the city’s nearly 14-year-old animal shelter in Northeast Memphis.

Art Davis, the interim executive director of the Memphis River Parks Partnership, has been an accountant, a construction overseer and even Santa Claus during his time with the organization. 

Also happening this week: Bartlett’s BMA votes on new RV parking rules, and a new crisis center opens in Binghampton.

Memphis Light, Gas and Water would lose revenue if a water-recycling plant is built. The utility’s CEO still says it’s “what we have been looking for.”

The three-day festival was “paused” in 2024, Memphis in May officials said at the time, largely due to issues regarding the reconfigured Tom Lee Park that led to a less-than-successful 2023 installment of the event.

The return of the Shelby Farm Parkway proposal comes two years after it was removed from the city’s list of road projects. The Greater Memphis Chamber is pushing for its return.

City Council members said Tuesday they still need a financial accounting of how MATA spent past city funding before a new board was installed in October.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young outlined the next steps in the planned renovations of FedExForum on Tuesday, Feb. 4.

An xAI representative received a mixed reception from the Memphis City Council regarding the company’s plan to buy 13 city-owned acres where it will build the greywater plant. 

XAI applied for a permit to construct the water reuse facility last year.

Most of the budget amendment would come from city reserves and includes $5 million for the Memphis Area Transit Authority.

According to copies of its bills, MLGW has sent xAI at least three notices that its electric and water service could be cut off.

Also happening this week, the City Council takes up its gun-control trigger ordinance and a new program for entrepreneurs launches.

Memphis Mayor Paul Young discussed crime, blight and debt, but also called on Memphians to “say yes” to promoting the city and working toward goals of economic growth for all.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris talked of the new hospital site as a connection of the Medical District to Downtown, where there is now a lot of vacant land and blight.

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