The ongoing discussion and debate were also present Wednesday, Sept. 21, as commissioners interviewed 30 attorneys who have applied to fill three vacant positions for judicial commissioners.

The voter registration deadline for the Nov. 8 ballot gives a sense of urgency to the latest canvassing forays into the city to increase not only voter registration but voter turnout. 

The MSCS board chairwoman, who in August won a second four-year term, referred to the board’s $480,000 severance package for superintendent Joris Ray as a “challenge” in which the school board showed leadership.

Brent Hammonds, David Parsons and Kevin Quinn discussed their qualifications and what they see as the priorities for the suburb improving. The fourth candidate — John Lackey — did not participate.

Between the Sept. 14 deadline to file qualifying petitions with the Shelby County Election Commission and this past Sunday’s deadline for candidates to withdraw the field stayed the same in the last judicial race of this election year.

The Commission Scorecard tracks votes on an attempt to change who investigates ethics complaints and selection of a new chairman and chairman pro tempore at the first meeting of the term.

Michelle McKissack is currently chairwoman of the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board and is looking at a potential run for Memphis mayor.

The Libertarian nominee for governor is a Black Memphian who says the party, which was overtaken this year by a caucus that is friendly with white nationalists and opposed to transgender people, has “broken (his) spirit.”

During a campaign stop Thursday, Sept. 15, in Memphis, Dr. Jason Martin pointed to low funding levels for the TBI crime lab despite a state surplus of $2 billion

The Shelby County Election Commission also approved two new polling places for the Nov. 8 election day.

The proposed “Restoring Law and Order Act” would include federal grant programs for more police and detectives focused on violent crime as well as a General Accounting Office examination of delays in processing rape kits.

The election will fill the vacancy left when Tarik Sugarmon resigned last month to become Juvenile Court Judge.

The ordinance would take the power to appoint the county ethics officer away from the county attorney’s office. It comes eight years after that office investigated whether Brooks lived in the commission district she represented, and concluded she didn’t.

Related story:

Shelby County Commission weighs forming public safety committee in wake of recent violence

The Democrats didn’t field a candidate in a district that used to be — before redistricting — one of the General Assembly’s most flippable.

Carlson characterized Lee as soft on crime in a monologue against criminal justice reform, which, he claimed, “means letting violent people out of prison early.”

Gov. Bill Lee was in Memphis Friday, Sept. 9, touting stricter laws targeting violent repeat offenders passed during his tenure. 

Teri Dockery was appointed to the vacant District 4 council seat last month. She isn’t a candidate in the Nov. 8 special election for the council seat but is eyeing a full four-year term on the October 2023 ballot.

The Shelby County Commission that took office this month has three judicial commissioners to appoint. It’s part of a chain reaction from the dozens of judicial races decided on the August ballot.

Though it includes 10 judges and 10 divisions, Shelby County’s criminal court system had only tried 32 cases by August of this year — and there’s a backlog of 465 pending trials. 

Germantown Alderwoman Mary Anne Gibson is seeking reelection to the suburb’s Board of Mayor and Aldermen. She is unopposed for her third, four-year term.

Long lines formed outside the Shelby County Clerk’s Mullins Station office Thursday, Sept. 1, despite a policy instituted in July that was intended to eliminate such scenes. 

The item would have required the winner of the 2023 Memphis mayor’s race to get a majority of the votes either on election day or in a runoff.

Teri Dockery, a counselor at the YMCA, is the newest Memphis City Council member.