The Early Word: Tigers barely avoid a loss, and crime is down, but how much?
Brrrr, Memphis. Is it cold enough for you yet? It’s Monday, Jan. 6, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools students are back in class today after winter break. And speaking of MSCS, the district’s beleaguered superintendent is expected to issue a written response today to school board members over their claims that she’s mishandled finances.
The Arlington Board of Mayor and Aldermen will meet today, and the next step in Town Hall improvements is on the agenda. Tonight, the Memphis Grizzlies play the Dallas Mavericks at FedExForum, and here’s hoping they have better luck than they did all weekend.
For more on what’s coming, check out This Week in Memphis.
The Memphis Tigers men’s basketball team eked out a 68-64 win against North Texas on Sunday afternoon, but that was despite a slow start from Coach Penny Hardaway’s team that exposed some of their biggest flaws. Among those: more than double the number of turnovers versus assists. But there were bright spots, too, like a rainbow of a shot from guard PJ Haggerty.
Crime is trending down in Memphis, and the city’s murder rate — 39.8 murders per 100,000 people — is the lowest it’s been since before the pandemic. But that rate is still quite a bit higher than the murder rate from a decade ago, when the city had a larger population. Memphis has lost about 8% of its people since then, so we’re a smaller city now but one with a murder rate that’s higher than it was as a larger city. Plus, aggravated assaults, while also down, haven’t decreased that much. The Daily Memphian’s Samuel Hardiman digs into the numbers and compares them with crime rates from peer cities.
Plus, the DOJ report will play into the Tyre Nichols civil suit, a “kooky” eatery has closed in Cordova and we’ve got a look at Memphis running clubs.
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Bianca Phillips
Bianca Phillips is a Northeast Arkansas native and longtime Memphian who’s worked in local journalism and PR for more than 20 years. In her days as a reporter, she covered everything from local government and crime to LGBTQ issues and the arts. She’s the author of “Cookin Crunk: Eatin’ Vegan in the Dirty South,” a cookbook of vegan Southern recipes.
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