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.

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.

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.

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

"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.

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.

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

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

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.

A DAISY A DAY. A couple of weeks ago, a friend made a request for one of my former columns ­– like a song request. That’s only appropriate since it was a column about a song, and I think an appropriate column for the end of a year, and particular ends and particular memories for each of us. So this one is for you, Dick. And for me.

Go figure: a Christmas week movie called “Vice.”

A steady flow of mostly positive economic news for Memphis and Shelby County – coupled with the solemn and tasteful commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s assassination – was overshadowed at times by political bickering and grandstanding in 2018.

CHRISTMAS TIME. Every Christmas I tell this story, and in the telling Christmas comes home. This year, I’m telling it in memory of my big brother, Frank. His pub – or as they say in England, his local – is central to the story.

There are Confederate monuments, and there are Confederate monuments.