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

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

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.

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.

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

Ocie Cleveland “O.C.” Pleasant Jr. always offered a quip and a smile upon an encounter. When expressing the standard Southern inquiry as to his well-being, he would simply reply, “I’m pleasant.”

 “Confirmation bias” refers to the tendency to only credit information which reinforces your own view.

With a shared private and public goal to increase population density as a mechanism to become more efficient and successful as a city, the expansion of Memphis and Shelby County’s Economic Development Growth Engine (EDGE) payment in-lieu-of taxes (PILOT) incentive to include Midtown has been welcomed by multifamily developers in our community.

At Phil Trenary’s funeral, I spoke about those things that I felt he would want to see happen that would move Memphis forward.

I recently heard a retired judge tell a gathering that he started his legal career as a prosecutor.

The tariffs implemented by President Donald Trump’s administration are prompting supply-chain disruptions from coast to coast. 

At 6:30 p.m. Saturday of the Thanksgiving holiday, I was standing in my kitchen and heard four pops from a gun near McLean and North Parkway. News coverage the next morning indicated shots were fired in traffic congestion as people were taking their children to see the annual display of holiday lights at the Memphis Zoo.

Downtown development is booming, with new announcements occurring, it seems, almost daily.  

Soon after I arrived in Knoxville to lead the Institute of Agriculture in 2006, I fell in love with the University of Tennessee. It is a special place because of the people and their commitment to the students and citizens all across the state of Tennessee. There is something about the spirit found within this university. It is real. It is sincere. It is palpable. It is authentic.

The Downtown Memphis from 2014 when I moved back home from Austin, compared to the Downtown I experience and represent today, is almost night and day.

The first executive order issued by President Trump in February 2017 was to reduce crime and restore public safety to communities across the nation.

There are about 64,000 veterans in Shelby County. This Veterans Day, instead of saying “Thank you for your service,” why not ask a veteran to tell about their service.

“Our country has changed,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in Shelby County v. Holder, a landmark decision that overturned a key provision of the 1965 Civil Rights Act and ended the enforcement of federal oversight of voting practices in states that have historically disenfranchised minority voters.

It’s almost 2019 – do you have a plan for year-end fundraising?

Throughout my career in politics, I have always worked to amplify the voice of the voters that I have been fortunate enough to represent. In that spirit, I urge everyone to vote against the creatively worded charter amendments on the ballot in the Nov. 6 election.

In a letter I wrote supporting Joe DiPietro for president of the University of Tennessee, I noted that he gained the respect and cooperation of the UT Institute of Agriculture faculty, staff and students during a difficult time of state of Tennessee funding reductions.

As I begin my journey of service as Sheriff of Shelby County, I am humbled by the faith this community has placed in me.

You have probably heard some public discourse around the use of code names for projects seeking incentive packages in our community.

This morning I rode my bike east on the Greenline and through Shelby Farms thinking about how perfect the fall morning is and what a great asset we have in our bike paths, parks and recreational areas.

“The job is basically getting 7,000 people to stop bickering and remember why they got into this business,” he said stoically before breaking into his trademark grin. “Should be pretty simple.” A recent acquisition and a second pending acquisition were about to triple the size of the “family” as Phil Trenary lovingly referred to his Pinnacle Airlines employees, and Phil understood his culture was falling behind. “We need to stop behaving like separate airlines and start acting like one.”