Part one of a three-part series from the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis

The 100-year-old neighborhood in the middle of Memphis always seems to be under construction and duress, but the people who live and work there still believe in its promise.

Extra to our Special Report: Unlike Memphis, some cities dig deep into the backgrounds of developers seeking public incentives.

In Part Two of our series: How the Great Recession nearly flattened J. Kevin Adams before he rebounded to assemble possibly his greatest project yet. 

The Three 'R's of Union Row: In an extra to our Special Report, learn the reading, 'riting and 'rithmatic behind Memphis' largest mixed-use development.

In Part One of our two-part series: How developers lassoed huge public incentives and millions of out-of-state dollars to redo the face of Downtown.

In Part Three of our series: Audiologists at U of M are pioneering new methods of diagnosing and treating children with hidden, brain-based auditory deficits that disrupt learning and behavior.

In Part Two of our series: U of M and UTHSC scientists use non-invasive "brain training" to treat developmental trauma.

In Part One of our three-part series: Pediatricians and nurses at LeBonheur and psychologists at UTHSC screen children for poverty and trauma, and prescribe social services to help them.

With a combined 75 years of journalism experience, David Waters and Marc Perrusquia have been covering some of the hardest, most important and most complicated stories in Memphis.

Special Report: Memphis' Reading Test

PART 1: Meeting goals for third-grade reading proficiency in Tennessee is a daunting task unless dramatic improvements occur in Shelby County, where the hurdles are high and the challenges complex. And in Memphis, a city where nearly four in five children in public schools aren't reading on grade level, the undertaking is monumental.

Breaches in the Memphis aquifer means some of our drinking water comes from heavily polluted Nonconnah Creek, but filtration still yields excellent water quality.

Nonconnah Creek, along with the Wolf River, is one of the two major sources of drainage for the Memphis area, yet many people aren't familiar with it. But understanding Nonconnah and the potential consequences of man-made changes to it, as demonstrated on a terrifying night in 1980, could be important to our future.

After input from 5,300 people and 65 meetings, a Tom Lee Park transformation plan has drawn opposition from 4,000 petitioners and 2,200 Facebook followers. Will mediation settle hard feelings?

Bucking a nationwide movement, nine of 13 Southern states have no state law or court edict requiring police to video or audio record interrogations, according to recent studies.

A report memorializing procedural mistakes appears among hundreds of pages of records released Friday by the Memphis Police Department in answer to a public records request by the Institute for Public Service Reporting.

An investigation by the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis reveals MPD is a prominent outlier in a national movement among police departments to fully record the questioning of suspects during homicide investigations, making its detectives frequent targets for allegations of impropriety.

PART 2: High-stakes testing has shifted the focus of kindergarten from what's developmentally appropriate to get kids ready for school, to what's academically required to prepare students for their first standardized achievement tests in third grade.

PART 3: Billions of government and philanthropic dollars have funded new curricula and standardized tests, teacher evaluation systems, charter schools and takeover schools. But it hasn't made much of a dent in the third-grade reading gap or any other measures of student performance.

As the story goes, FBI agents hired provocateurs to smash store windows and start a riot designed to embarrass King. A recent account includes civil rights photographer Ernest Withers in the plot, but there's no credible proof for the theories. 

As Franklin Haney tells it, his trouble started when President Donald Trump passed him a business tip. It came on an otherwise delightful night last spring as they dined at adjacent tables in Florida’s exclusive Mar-a-Lago resort.

As the Memphis Police Department struggles to catch up with a nationwide movement to reform interrogations, its failure to record lets an accused murderer go free.

In response to weeks of questioning by Marc Perrusquia, director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting, about the Memphis Police Department’s long reluctance to record custodial interrogations, MPD spokeswoman Karen Rudolph released the following statements via email. The final statement repeated the Institute’s questions and provided answers.

During the murder trial last year of defendant Brandon Taylor, defense attorney Gregory Carman and Memphis Police Department homicide detective Fausto Frias engaged in a testy exchange.