On the 50-mile drive over to Brownsville, Marsha Thompson told us a story.

Jamie Woodson is stepping down as CEO of the State Collaborative on Reforming Education (SCORE) after eight years.  Woodson says there’s still much more to do for students in Tennessee.

The 10 women honored with Luminary Award medals this year represent the diversity, racially and otherwise, that makes Memphis a cool place in which to live.

Who exactly is driving the opaque process by which the Office of Planning and Development amends the UDC, and what does it mean for a city struggling to attract and retain people and businesses?

Historian Jimmy Ogle has an encyclopedic knowledge of Memphis – and he generously shares it with anyone he thinks might want to know. As he prepares to move closer to family, he's leaving us with what he calls his "bicentennial gift": a farewell storytelling series.

Over the past two centuries, presidents almost always have become more effective and less influential during their first two years in office. President Donald Trump has defied these patterns.

Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris calls on the University of Memphis and Shelby County Schools to lead the way on higher minimum wages. 

Sifting through Grizzlies issues on the day after the worst loss of the season, including Marc Gasol's frustration, trade-deadline notes, the Grizzlies' precarious place in the lottery race, the impending arrival of former prospect Bruno Caboclo, and more.

U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee reflects on the significance of the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday.

Legalizing sports betting could ultimately mean more buses, more drivers, more frequent service, more routes and more shelters for waiting passengers in Memphis and Shelby County.

"Big Mo" – as in Momentum – is a nickname that just might stick. And as Mayor Jim Strickland makes his re-election bid, he would be wise to embrace it.

Mike Lupfer wore many hats: University of Memphis professor, leader, world traveler – and most of all, friend.

Mentors can have powerful and lasting positive effects on children, showing them what hope looks like before they turn to a life of violent crime.

Ernest Withers aimed his camera through a bramble of twisting oak limbs, sharpening his focus on a home atop a small hill.

CLAIMING OUR ISLAND. I said I’d start the year with a couple of ideas.

“In the entire history of girls’ high school basketball in Tennessee, no one had ever seen a uterus lying on a basketball court.”

Gov. Bill Haslam's highly-publicized and celebrated decision granting full clemency to Cyntoia Brown is indicative of how he has governed during his two terms: a compassionate conservative moved simply by the desire to do the right thing.

First, let me say I’m pretty much all for development, especially in the Memphis city core, but I think the massive Union Row project demonstrates an inequity in the development process that we need to examine. The beauty of this problem, however, is the solution would have a positive impact, helping create new small “infill” development across Memphis in neighborhoods that might otherwise be ignored.

Again and again, prior to the launch of The Daily Memphian, people would say to me, “You’ve got to have obituaries.”

Michael Nelson offers his take on sports betting in Tennessee; the Mississippi governor's race; and why Lamar Alexander and Marsha Blackburn face some interesting times in Washington.

“OF OUTSTANDING UNIVERSAL VALUE.” I thought I’d start this year – our bicentennial year – with a couple of ideas. Seems like a good time for new ideas, and some reminders that this place is special – even if so many of us have forgotten that. It was, in fact, special long before any of us arrived.

After putting the kibosh on rumors about his political future, U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen is making a rather bold prediction of his own.

Memphis has plans: Plans for development, redevelopment and revitalization, from Downtown to the neighborhoods surrounding the central city.

Years are arbitrary units of time, and a lot of what was most interesting in Memphis in 2018 are ongoing changes or trends that don't stop because a calendar flips. With that in mind, this year-in-review often doubles as a kind of year-in-preview: A Memphis 10 look back at some of the most significant Memphis stories and developments (often literally) of 2018, and beyond. 

Whether in Memphis, Mississippi, Tennessee or Washington, politics in 2019 promises to be more interesting than usual in an odd-numbered year.