WASHINGTON (AP) — Letters sent to President Barack Obama and a Mississippi senator tested positive for poisonous ricin in preliminary checks Wednesday, and authorities chased reports of other suspicious mail at a U.S. Capitol already on edge.

2. Time to Burn Brackets - Friday, March 22, 2013

I have one fool-proof method for filling out my NCAA Tournament bracket. I go straight to the 1 vs. 16 games and advance all of the No. 1s into the next round. Seeing as how a No. 1 seed has never lost to a No. 16 seed, this has never failed me.

3. Likeability Loses Shine if Tigers Can’t Deliver - Friday, March 15, 2013

Tigers coach Josh Pastner likes to talk about how there are three parts to the college basketball season. The University of Memphis aced their final run through the Conference USA regular season (going 16-0 in Part 1).

4. Time for Tigers to Make Case for Higher Seed - Friday, March 08, 2013

On Saturday, March 9, the Tigers finish out the regular season at FedExForum against UAB. We know if they win this game, they will have a perfect 16-0 record in the last season in Conference USA. We also know it will be the last time Tigers fans get to see senior D.J. Stephens play – dunk – in a home Tigers game.

5. Comments, Victories Becoming Broken Record - Friday, February 15, 2013

So Josh Pastner’s latest post-game conference is just about to start, this one after a 93-71 victory over Central Florida on Wednesday, Feb. 13, a game the Tigers led by as many as 34 points.

6. Tony and DJ: The City’s Basketball Game-Changers - Friday, January 25, 2013

The supreme talents – the All-Americans, the All-Stars – can take possessions off and still score their 25 or 30 points a night. They can pick their spots to play defense, which in reality means going for a steal here and there, and then mostly defer on the hard work. You know, staying with their man step-for-step, cleaning the glass – sorry, I don’t do windows – or risking humiliation by contesting potential dunks – sorry, I’m not ending up on somebody’s poster.

7. Sheriffs, State Lawmakers Push Back on Gun Control - Friday, January 18, 2013

GRANTS PASS, Ore. (AP) – From Oregon to Mississippi, President Barack Obama's proposed ban on new assault weapons and large-capacity magazines struck a nerve among rural lawmen and lawmakers, many of whom vowed to ignore any restrictions – and even try to stop federal officials from enforcing gun policy in their jurisdictions.

8. ‘Bad Joe’ Gone as Poise Brings Winning Formula - Friday, January 11, 2013

The Conference USA Tournament came early this season. That, or Tigers guard Joe Jackson has his dates confused. After two roller coaster seasons that included winning the Most Valuable Player award in two straight league tournaments – a C-USA first – Jackson apparently has decided to flip the calendar forward.

9. Tigers Must Stay on Right Path to Reach Potential - Friday, January 04, 2013

Depending on your perspective, it was lavish praise that spoke to the Tigers’ potential still there for the realizing and great NCAA Tournament victories still there for the taking.

Or, depending on your perspective, it was an unintentional indictment of a college basketball team that so far has majored in underachievement and of a basketball equation where the sum is always less than its individual parts.

10. Louisville Game Opportunity to Widen Margin for Error - Friday, December 14, 2012

There are several ways to measure the magnitude of a college basketball game. First, will the outcome echo through the rest of the season and resonate with the NCAA Tournament Committee come March?

11. Tigers Fans: Sit Back, Soak it In - Friday, November 16, 2012

Former Tigers coach John Calipari had a convenient label for fans and media members who dared to question him or worry about less than near-perfect results.

“The Miserables,” Calipari whined on more than one occasion.

12. Time for Memphians to Rejoice Yet Again - Monday, October 29, 2012

Each year, a Chicago firm called Challenger, Gray & Christmas Inc. publishes a tongue-in-cheek report on the nation’s lost productivity during March Madness.

13. A Season for More - Monday, October 29, 2012

Last season, the Grizzlies made the playoffs and even earned home-court advantage for their first-round series against the Los Angeles Clippers.

Last season, the Tigers made the NCAA Tournament after winning the regular season and tournament Conference USA championships.

14. J.D. Byrider Brings First Franchise To Memphis - Friday, October 26, 2012

The nation’s largest used car franchise company has entered the Memphis market. Carmel, Ind.-based J.D. Byrider has inked 30,900 square feet at 2580 Mount Moriah Road, marking the company’s second Tennessee dealership.

15. Lease Brings New Breed Footprint to 3 Million Feet - Friday, October 12, 2012

New Breed Inc. is enhancing its Memphis operations with a new distribution warehouse lease in the Southeast industrial submarket.

16. Team Mantras Usher in New Basketball Seasons - Friday, October 05, 2012

Although the date and time are unknown, there was a point some years ago when it became mandatory for every big-time college and pro team to have a mantra.

And so it is for the Grizzlies and University of Memphis Tigers. The Grizz and local media gathered at FedExForum and coach Lionel Hollins said: “Our buzz words are sacrifice, trust and consistency.”

17. Levy Named Assistant Dean in U of M School of Public Health - Wednesday, July 11, 2012

Dr. Marian Levy has been named assistant dean of students and public health practice for the University of Memphis School of Public Health. Levy is also an associate professor in the school and is the current president of the Tennessee Public Health Association.

18. West Tenn. Bankruptcy Judge Retires - Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Everybody is having to do more with less these days – including bankruptcy judges in one of the busiest areas of the country in terms of bankrupt debtors.

U.S. Bankruptcy Court Judge G. Harvey Boswell has announced his retirement effective July 8. Boswell’s court is in Jackson, Tenn., which is part of the Western District of Tennessee, the same district that includes the bankruptcy courtrooms of Memphis.

19. Analysis: Loss to Saint Louis Ends Tigers’ Dreams of Deep NCAA Run - Monday, March 19, 2012

Anything can happen in the NCAA Tournament. See No. 15 seed Norfolk State beating No. 2 seed Missouri. See No. 15 seed Lehigh beating No. 2 seed Duke.

In the same day.

So if you want to frame the Memphis Tigers’ 61-54 loss to Saint Louis University as unexpected, surprising, crazy, an upset, you can do that.

20. Jackson Leads Way for Tigers’ March Attack - Wednesday, March 14, 2012

Ten weeks ago, when University of Memphis point guard Joe Jackson was so distraught over his playing time that he considered transferring, who would have predicted this?

21. Roar of the Tiger: Memphis Captures C-USA Championship - Monday, March 12, 2012

Before halftime it was clear that the University of Memphis would be cutting down the nets at FedExForum as champions of the Conference USA Tournament. Again, their defense and athleticism – one and the same for the Tigers – was too much for an overwhelmed opponent as they defeated Marshall, 83-57, on Saturday for their seventh straight win and third consecutive blowout in the tournament.

22. Tigers Step Closer to Title With Win - Friday, March 09, 2012

For the University of Memphis to lose to UTEP at home on Feb. 18, the Tigers had to blow a nine-point halftime lead. Which was exactly what they did en route to a still-amazing 60-58 loss.

So with the score tied 24-24 with a little more than two minutes to play in the first half of Thursday night’s quarterfinal game with UTEP in the Conference USA Tournament, there was reason to be uneasy. And then point guard Joe Jackson made one of his five steals and raced down the court and finished with a reverse one-hand slam dunk that brought the FedExForum faithful to their feet.

23. Honors Continue For Architect Of Memphis Sound - Tuesday, March 06, 2012

Memphis music icon Willie Mitchell was honored on what would have been his 84th birthday last week with a Tennessee state historical marker at his Royal Studios.

24. Tigers Right Their Wrongs Heading Into Postseason - Friday, March 02, 2012

They assumed greatness. Assumed it as opposed to earning it and proving it.

That’s the quicksand in which this Tigers basketball season started. The college basketball world told them they were a Top 10 team and the Tigers decided they would need, oh, a few days on the beach in Hawaii to prove they were really Top Five and better than Michigan, Georgetown, even Duke.

25. Tenn. Swaps 'Stage' for 'Song' as Tourism Slogan - Friday, March 02, 2012

NASHVILLE (AP) – The stage may be set for travelers in Tennessee, but state tourism officials have abandoned it for a song.

The Tennessee Department of Tourist Development has dropped the slogan "The Stage Is Set for You," which had been used for eight years.

26. Hot-Shooting Memphis Beats Central Florida 84-55 - Wednesday, February 29, 2012

MEMPHIS (AP) – The Memphis Tigers wanted to make sure Central Florida did not have a chance to beat them on a last-second play this time.

Will Barton had 18 points and 11 rebounds, Memphis shot better than 60 percent most of the second half and the Tigers won their third straight with a 84-55 victory over the Knights on Tuesday night.

27. Pastner Channels Inner Bob Knight - Friday, February 24, 2012

Josh Pastner finally got mad.

Really, really, really mad.

Not enough to cuss. Not enough to throw a chair. But enough to pound on the scorer’s table and knock out the electricity on part of press row – sports writers unplugged.

28. Barton Leads Memphis Over East Carolina 70-47 - Thursday, February 23, 2012

MEMPHIS (AP) – After a demoralizing home loss to Texas-El Paso last Saturday, the Memphis Tigers wanted to show they had not lost their edge.

It took until the second half Wednesday night against East Carolina for the Tigers to display they were back in control.

29. Will Barton Leads Memphis Past Tulane 82-64 - Thursday, February 16, 2012

NEW ORLEANS (AP) – Memphis guard Will Barton noticed the excitement building in Tulane's cozy Fogelman Arena when the Green Wave took a second-half lead, and he decided it was time to make up for his slow start on the offensive end.

30. Tigers’ Goal: Try To Sustain Winning Way - Friday, February 10, 2012

Sustainability is a big deal. Corporations talk about it. The federal government has a website for it. And no doubt right this moment, in one or more presidential campaigns, someone is talking about the sustainability of a platform or a poll number.

31. Tigers Grow Close in Face of Adversity - Friday, January 27, 2012

Here’s how a family works, at least a highly competitive family: You can say and do things to one another that you would never try on someone else.

So Rice’s Tamir Jackson was clearly in the role of outsider when he made a hard foul against the Tigers’ Joe Jackson late in a game the Tigers would win 73-51. Will Barton, Tarik Black and Trey Draper all came off the Memphis bench and were ejected.

32. Clanton Lifts Central Florida Over Memphis 68-67 - Thursday, January 19, 2012

ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) – Keith Clanton's three-point play with 4 seconds to go lifted Central Florida over Memphis 68-67 Wednesday night and gave the Knights their first victory over the Tigers in 11 meetings.

33. Second Win Over Tennessee Shows Tigers Hitting Stride - Friday, January 06, 2012

The sky isn’t falling and Joe Jackson isn’t transferring.

Amazing what an 18-point win over Tennessee at FedExForum can do for the psyche of the University of Memphis basketball team and Tiger Nation.

34. Tigers Hit Stride, Beat Vols Again - Thursday, January 05, 2012

The sky isn’t falling and Joe Jackson isn’t transferring.

Amazing what an 18-point win over Tennessee at FedExForum can do for the psyche of the University of Memphis basketball team and Tiger Nation.

35. Memphis has Long Team Meeting After Loss to Hoyas - Monday, December 26, 2011

WASHINGTON (AP) – After yet another disappointing loss, Memphis coach Josh Pastner decided it was time for a long, long talk with his team.

Pastner addressed his players in the locker room behind closed doors for more than 90 minutes after a 70-59 defeat against Georgetown on Thursday night, the Tigers' third loss in four games.

36. Renewal of Classic Rivalry Backdrop to Tigers’ Woes - Friday, December 16, 2011

Whether Josh Pastner has a firm grasp of how to best use the tremendous athletes at his disposal is up for debate.

But the University of Memphis coach does have a good handle on the Tigers’ current situation in the wake of a 76-72 home loss to Murray State.

37. Crystal Awards to Honor Memphis Philanthropists - Thursday, November 24, 2011

The 2011 Crystal Awards luncheon, honoring individuals, businesses and organizations for their outstanding philanthropic efforts in the greater Memphis community, will be held Tuesday, Nov. 29, at the Holiday Inn-University of Memphis, 3700 Central Ave.

38. Tigers Ace First Test, Take Talents to Maui - Friday, November 18, 2011

Every season has a first game. But this was not a perfunctory tip to an ordinary season. This one felt different, felt like the first act of a play that could have the ultimate, dramatic, ending.

Months from now, no one will remember all the particulars from the University of Memphis’ 97-81 victory over Belmont on Tuesday, Nov. 15. People will forget that Will Barton, Wesley Witherspoon and Joe Jackson all went for at least 20 points, that the game started at 11 a.m. on a Tuesday (to accommodate ESPN) and that outside FedExForum it was a gray, rainy day.

39. Barton's 23 Leads Memphis Over Belmont 97-81 - Wednesday, November 16, 2011

MEMPHIS (AP) – Will Barton scored 23 points and Wesley Witherspoon added 22 to lead No. 10 Memphis past Belmont 97-81 on Tuesday.

40. Expectations High as Tigers Look to Build on Success - Friday, November 11, 2011

After the University of Memphis Tigers’ first-round NCAA Tournament loss to Arizona, guard Joe Jackson might have fired up the grill and tossed his team warm-up onto the flames.

41. Harwell Stops Payment for Some Legislator Travel - Tuesday, July 26, 2011

NASHVILLE – House Speaker Beth Harwell, who donates her own legislative expense payments to charity, has moved to curtail the expense money other state representatives collect for out-of-state traveling.

42. Agape North Provides Charity Through Clothing - Monday, July 18, 2011

With a classic sense of fashion and an idea to help people in need, Joe Williams created apparel company Agape North that donates a portion of the profit made to children in Peru as well as various nonprofit organizations.

43. County Bankruptcy Filings Fall Slightly - Friday, July 15, 2011

The total number of bankruptcies filed in Shelby County has slowly declined over the last two years.

All chapters combined – Chapters 7, 11 and 13 – amounted to 2,904 Shelby County bankruptcies in the second quarter of 2011, down 1.2 percent from 2,939 in Q2 2010 and down 5 percent from 3,056 in Q2 2009.

44. Jackson Indicted for Official Misconduct - Monday, July 11, 2011

General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson has been indicted on four state charges of official misconduct.

45. House Republicans Hoping to End Session Next Week - Friday, May 13, 2011

NASHVILLE (AP) – House Republicans are hoping to wrap up this year's legislative session as early as next week.

House Clerk Joe McCord tells members of the lower chamber that the "most optimistic" timetable could see the state's annual spending plan come up for a vote on Thursday. He also asked lawmakers to bring extra clothes in case they need to work through the weekend.

46. U.S. Attorney Announces Appointments - Wednesday, May 11, 2011

U.S. Attorney for West Tennessee Ed Stanton has completed a reorganization of the federal prosecutor’s office that began last year with the establishment of supervisors for criminal and civil appeals as well as the establishment of a civil rights unit.

47. Memphis Pride Signs Lease At Trinity Ridge - Friday, May 06, 2011

An up-and-coming Mid-South cheer and tumbling company has signed a new lease to expand its business, a move that will benefit the facility’s students and parents alike.

Memphis Pride is relocating from a 5,000-square-foot space in Cordova Industrial Park to 16,080-square-foot lease at 7740 B Trinity Road, suite 126.

48. Home Run - Monday, April 18, 2011

From March to September, Matt Hughes is a busy man. His 10-year-old son plays for the Jackson (Tenn.) Coyotes, a competitive baseball team. Just about every weekend Hughes and his family of four hit the road for a baseball tournament, traveling around the Southeast to places from Memphis to Panama City, Fla.

49. McWherter Had Local Reach - Wednesday, April 06, 2011

As Tennessee governor, Ned McWherter always did well politically in Memphis, the largest base of Democratic voters in a single county in the state when they turn out.

His death this week from cancer ends the story of one of the state’s most powerful and influential Democrats. The power and influence was forged during 20 years in the Tennessee Legislature.

50. Former Interim Chef Kramer Back in Charge - Monday, March 21, 2011

“Interim” – a pause or interval in a succession of events

When the restaurant Wally Joe closed in January 2007, owner Fred Carl Jr., founder, president and CEO of Viking Range Corp., decided to keep a restaurant going while looking for a buyer for the space in the shopping center at South Mendenhall Road and Sanderlin Avenue. Appropriately, the temporary restaurant would be called Interim.

51. Highwoods Extends Tenants at Southwind Office Center - Friday, January 28, 2011

Raleigh, N.C.-based Highwoods Properties Inc. has signed two deals at its Southwind Office Center, a 62,000-square foot, three-story building with views of the Tournament Players Club at Southwind golf course.

52. Dear Santa - Friday, December 17, 2010

Dear Santa, Please consider my gift list for our local elected officials. After all, they’ve been giving it to us all year.

To all: Common Sense – a simple grid for MATA routes, consolidated city and county services, cutting the grass, sidewalk maintenance, paying attention to review board and appointed commission recommendations.

53. EMHC Moving to Appling Farms, Doubling in Size - Friday, December 17, 2010

Emergency Mobile Health Care is more than doubling the size of its Memphis corporate headquarters.

EMHC has signed a 14,200-square-foot lease at 6972 Appling Farms Parkway. EMHC currently occupies 6,900 square feet at 5071 Wilfong Road, and also has an office in Jackson, Tenn.

54. Grubb & Ellis’ deWitt Appointed To MAAR Commercial Council - Wednesday, September 01, 2010

Greg deWitt of Grubb & Ellis Co. has been appointed to the Memphis Area Association of Realtors Commercial Council. He will take over one of the council’s director seats next year before becoming the council’s vice president in 2012.

55. Designer Hamburgers Lend Luxury to Once-Humble Patty - Monday, July 26, 2010

As an icon of American culture, the hamburger is infinitely variable. Though enduring as many costume changes as Madonna and Lady Gaga combined, the burger is essentially a statement of utter simplicity: a grilled or fried or broiled patty of ground beef served between two pieces of bread. The additions or condiments depend as much on regional tradition as personal taste. The lettuce-tomato-mayonnaise camp mans the barricades against the ketchup-mustard-pickle contingent, and never the twain shall agree.

56. DECISION '10: Mayor’s Race a Contest Between Contrasting Styles - Monday, July 19, 2010

The race for Shelby County mayor offers a choice between two very different politicians who, while in the political spotlight for years, have often been near the edges of that light.

Joe Ford, the interim Shelby County mayor and Democratic nominee, is a former Shelby County Commissioner and City Council member. He has served as chairman of both legislative bodies. Ford also is the face of the city’s most storied political family.

57. Gov Hopefuls to Hold Live TV Forum - Thursday, May 20, 2010

The four Republican contenders for Tennessee governor will be in Memphis Tuesday for a statewide live television forum moderated by Eric Barnes, publisher of The Daily News Publishing Co. Inc.

58. Ford Name Plays Into Election Victory - Thursday, May 06, 2010

It didn’t work for Myron Lowery in last year’s special election for Memphis mayor.

But Joe Ford won the Democratic nomination for Shelby County mayor this week by running from the office.

59. Ford Wins Democratic Mayoral Primary - Wednesday, May 05, 2010
 

Interim County Mayor Joe Ford became the Democratic nominee for mayor in the August county general elections Tuesday night.

And the August sheriff’s race will be a contest between Democrat Randy Wade and Republican Randy Wade.

All three were among the winners in Tuesday’s low turnout county primaries.

Approximately ten percent of Shelby County’s nearly 600,000 voters cast ballots in early voting and election day polling.

Ford, who was appointed interim mayor in December, beat County Commissioner Deidre Malone and General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson in the Democratic primary. He will face Republican Mark Luttrell who had only token opposition in the Republican primary from perennial contender Ernie Lunati.

Luttrell has raised more money than all three of the Democratic primary contenders combined and began running television ads in the last week runup to election day.

The final unofficial totals in the Democratic mayoral primary are:

Ford 20,360 57%

Malone 12,916 37%

Jackson 2,168 6%

The pair of primaries for Sheriff featured eight candidates, seven of whom either currently work for the sheriff’s department or are past employees. Only Reginald French, in the Democratic primary was not a former or current department official.

Wade was the 2002 Democratic nominee, losing to Luttrell who is leaving as Sheriff after serving two terms. French was the Democratic nominee in the 2006 elections.

Oldham is Luttrell’s chief deputy, the number two position in the department. He is also a former director of the Memphis Police Department.

The final unofficials totals in the Republican primary are:

Bill Oldham 13,821 48%

Dale Lane 7,981 28%

Bobby Simmons 5,886 21%

James Coleman 943 3%

In the Democratic primary:

Randy Wade 22,643 67%

Reginald French 6,777 20%

Larry Hill 2,738 8%

Bennie Cobb 1,814 5%

Voters in the primary elections decided to return six Shelby County commissioners to new four year terms with Tuesday’s results. They also elected six new commissioners. The winner of the thirteenth commission seat will be decided on the August general election ballot in a contest between district 5 Democratic incumbent Steve Mulroy and Republican challenger Dr. Rolando Toyos. The winner of the match up will determine whether the commission remains majority Democrat or goes majority Republican.

Mulroy easily defeated Jennings Bernard in Tuesday’s Democratic primary.

Republican incumbent Mike Ritz ran unopposed as did new Democratic commissioner Walter Bailey.

In the remaining ten contests, the primaries decided who gets the seats since no one ran in the opposing party’s primary.

The most hotly contested contest among the commission races was for District 4 Position 1. Outgoing Probate Court Clerk Chris Thomas beat John Pellicciotti, appointed to a commission seat last year but running for a different position in the same district. Jim Bomprezzi, the former mayor of Lakeland, was the third contender in the contest.

The final unofficial totals in the Republican primary:

Thomas 7,631 52%

Pellicciotti 4,871 33%

Bomprezzi 2,298 15%

In position 2 of the same district incumbent Republican Wyatt Bunker easily overcame two challengers with former Lakeland alderman John Wilkerson finishing second and Ron Fittes finishing third.

Millington businessman Terry Roland claimed the third position in the district that takes in all six of Shelby County’s suburban towns and cities.

Roland beat George Chism to take the seat Pellicciotti was appointed to but opted not to run for in deference to Roland.

Heidi Shafer, an aide to outgoing County Commissioner George Flinn, claimed Flinn’s District 1 Position 2 seat over Albert Maduska.in the GOP primary.

District 1 incumbent Republican Mike Carpenter easily beat businessman Joe Baier.

In the Democratic commission primaries, Melvin Burgess claimed Malone’s District 2 Position 3 seat in a field of six contenders. His closest contender was Reginald Milton. Burgess, a city school system audit manager, had run for the seat before. He brought in 54 percent of the vote.

The other hard fought Democratic commission primary saw Justin Ford, son of the interim mayor, claim his father’s District 3 Position 3 seat.

Ford beat Edith Moore, a retired IBM executive, whom the commission appointed to the seat after the elder Ford became mayor.

The final unofficial vote totals are:

Ford 7,342 66%

Moore 3,822 34%

Democratic incumbent commissioners Henri Brooks, Sidney Chism and James Harvey were all re-elected over primary challengers.

The county-wide primaries for seven clerk’s positions saw the return of former Criminal Court Clerk Minerva Johnican 16 years after Republican challenger Bill Key took her job. Johnican decisively beat Ralph White and Vernon Johnson in her first bid for office since the 1994 defeat. She will face Republican Kevin Key, the son of Bill Key in the August general election.

The final unofficial vote totals are:

Johnican 16,381 51%

White 10,170 31%

Johnson 5,954 18%

Former Juvenile Court Clerk Shep Wilbun easily won the Democratic primary with 76 percent of the vote to face Republican Joy Touliatos in August for the office being vacated by Republican Steve Stamson. Touliatos was unopposed in the primary.

Democrat Coleman Thompson is back for another go at incumbent Republican Register Tom Leatherwood.

Aside from Leatherwood, Jimmy Moore is the only other of the seven clerks seeking re-election. Moore ran unopposed in the GOP primary. He will face Democrat Ricky Dixon in August.

Trustee Regina Newman was appointed to her office following the death last year of Paul Mattila. Newman easily overcame M LaTroy Williams in Tuesday’s Democratic primary. She will face David Lenoir, who beat former Shelby County Commissioner John Willingham in the Republican contest.

The final unofficial vote totals are:

Lenoir 15,922 58%

Willingham 11,569 42%

The other six candidate field on the ballot was in the Democratic primary for Probate Court Clerk. Sondra Becton posted impressive vote totals over her rivals, bringing in 35 percent of the vote with Peggy Dobbins her closest rival. Becton, who is making her fourth bid for the office, will face Republican Paul Boyd, who ran unopposed in his primary.

The final unofficial vote totals are:

Becton 10,929 36%

Dobbins 5,366 18%

Annita Hamilton 4,848 16%

Clay Perry 3,549 12%

Danny Kail 3,120 11%

Karen Tyler 2,782 9%

The closest contest of the evening was in the Democratic primary for County Clerk. Wrestling promoter and television personality Corey Maclin won his political debut by less than 1,400 votes over Charlotte Draper and LaKeith Miller. He will face Republican Wayne Mashburn who beat Steve Moore in the companion primary.

Early voting in advance of the Aug. 5 election day begins July 16. The August ballot will also feature state and federal primary elections including the statewide primaries for governor and the primaries for all nine of the state’s Congressional districts.

60. Primary Campaigns Come to Close - Tuesday, May 04, 2010

The 2010 Shelby County primary campaigns ended in a soggy, flooded and windswept mess.

As home and business owners patched roofs and pushed floodwaters out, the campaigns assessed the damage the weekend storms might do to what was already expected to be a low voter turnout.

61. Early Voting Draws to Close - Thursday, April 29, 2010

Early voting ends Thursday evening at 21 locations across Shelby County.

Candidates in the Shelby County primaries begin their drive to the May 4 Election Day when the early voting polls close Thursday at 7 p.m.

62. Commission Races Hinge on Public Issues - Monday, April 19, 2010

Two issues figure in to the 11 competitive races for the Shelby County Commission – the future of the Regional Medical Center and local government consolidation.

Any push card for a credible candidate includes either something about how to save The MED or the candidate’s opposition to consolidation – or both.

63. Candidates Battle it Out in Democratic Primary - Monday, April 19, 2010

Before voters get to the slimmer, trimmer Aug. 5 race for Shelby County mayor, some of them must decide the three-candidate Democratic primary on the May 4 ballot.

As political races go, this one has enough drama to make it interesting.

64. Democratic Mayoral Contenders Make Pitches - Friday, April 16, 2010

Two of the three Democratic contenders for Shelby County mayor still don’t agree on whether The Regional Medical Center at Memphis has been saved.

Joe Ford and Deidre Malone also disagree on whether local schools are already funded by a single source.

65. Cowart Pleads In Obama Assassination Plot - Tuesday, March 30, 2010

The case of two rural West Tennessee men accused of plotting to kill President Barack Obama at his inauguration ended Monday as the second of the two suspects pleaded guilty.

In a hearing Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen in Jackson, Tn., Daniel Cowart pleaded guilty to eight counts of conspiracy, firearms charges, intentional damage to religious property and threatening to kill a major candidate for President.

66. Cowart Pleads in Obama Assassination Plot - Monday, March 29, 2010

The case of two rural West Tennessee men accused of plotting to kill President Barack Obama at his inauguration ended Monday as the second of the two suspects pleaded guilty.

In a hearing Monday afternoon before U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen in Jackson, Tn., Daniel Cowart pleaded guilty to eight counts of conspiracy, firearms charges, intentional damage to religious property and threatening to kill a major candidate for President.

67. Mayoral Candidates Liven Race Up at First Debate - Wednesday, March 17, 2010

At one point during Monday’s first debate among the contenders for Shelby County mayor, Joe Ford said only two people he spoke to didn’t want him to run for the post he now holds on an interim basis.

68. First Mayoral Debate Finds Differing Views of MED - Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Interim Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford declared the Regional Medical Center has been “saved.”

Ford made the declaration at a Monday night forum held at the Central Library by the League of Women Voters.

69. UPDATE: First Mayoral Debate Draws Crowd and Friction - Monday, March 15, 2010

Interim Shelby County Mayor Joe Ford declared the Regional Medical Center has been “saved.”

Ford made the declaration at a Monday night forum held at the Central Library by the League of Women Voters.

70. What’s Coming Up This Election Season - Monday, March 15, 2010

After a year of turbulence, the Memphis political scene continues to remake itself.

The May 4 and Aug. 5 elections don’t have the focused drama of last October’s special election for Memphis mayor, but they represent new chapters in a story that could end with a new generation of political leaders and at least a passing of the political baton.

71. Election Season Influences Legislative Pace - Monday, March 01, 2010

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Election season is a driving factor behind a push by lawmakers for an early conclusion of the legislative session. It might also be to blame for keeping the session from immediately kicking into high gear.

72. Court Postponed for Skinhead Charged in Obama Plot - Wednesday, February 24, 2010

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) — A West Tennessee man accused of plotting to kill then-Sen. Barack Obama and dozens of other black people in 2008 has had a court date reset for March 29.

Twenty-one-year-old Daniel Cowart had been scheduled to appear in U.S. District Court in Jackson on Monday.

73. Jackson Brings ‘Balanced Leadership’ to Mayor’s Race - Tuesday, February 23, 2010

The surprise candidate in the race for Shelby County mayor said Monday he had been considering a bid for the job for the past 10 years.

General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson checked out his qualifying petition for the May 4 Democratic primary Thursday morning and filed before the noon deadline.

74. County Primary Fields Clear Up - Monday, February 22, 2010

The newest candidate for Shelby County mayor is scheduled to talk about his decision later today.

General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson was a last-minute filer in the Democratic primary for mayor at noon Thursday. Jackson’s decision was the biggest surprise at the deadline.

75. Candidate Filing List -- The Final Version - Friday, February 19, 2010

Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell appeared on his way to the Republican nomination for Shelby County mayor at Thursday’s noon filing deadline for candidates on the May 4 primary ballot.

76. UPDATE: Mayor's Race Grows At Filing Deadline - Thursday, February 18, 2010

Shelby County Sheriff Mark Luttrell appeared on his way to the Republican nomination for Shelby County mayor at Thursday’s noon filing deadline for candidates on the May 4 primary ballot.

Luttrell faces only token opposition from perennial candidate Ernie Lunati.

Meanwhile, the Democratic primary for mayor grew to three contenders as General Sessions Court Clerk Otis Jackson filed his qualifying petition just before the deadline. He joins interim County Mayor Joe Ford and Shelby County Commissioner Deidre Malone.

Luttrell ruled out a bid for Shelby County mayor last year (2009). But when Harold Byrd decided not to run in the Democratic primary, some local GOP leaders asked Luttrell to reconsider.

The result touched off a scramble of candidates from both parties for the open sheriff’s office. But before the noon deadline, the initial field of over a dozen possible contenders was narrowed to ten – six Democrats and four Republicans.

The other surprise at the filing deadline was the return of attorney Walter Bailey to the District 2 Position 1 seat he gave up in the 2006 elections. Bailey sought re-election then to another term despite a two term limit on commissioners. Bailey lost to J.W. Gibson who decided not to seek re-election. He also lost a court fight to overturn the term limits.

Bailey was the only candidate who had filed for the seat at the Thursday deadline.

Only one incumbent county commissioner – Republican Mike Ritz -- was effectively re-elected at the deadline because he had no opposition.

All but one of the eleven contested County Commission races will be decided with the May 4 primaries. The only general election battle for the August ballot is the district 5 contest between GOP challenger Dr. Rolando Toyos and whoever wins the May Democratic primary between incumbent Steve Mulroy and Jennings Bernard.

Former County Commissioner John Willingham also returned to the ballot among a field of Republican contenders in the primary for Shelby County Trustee.

And former Criminal Court Clerk Minerva Johnican joined the Democratic primary field for her old job. Incumbent Republican Bill Key pulled petition to seek re-election but did not file at the deadline.

Here is the list of races and contenders from The Shelby County Election Commission. All candidate have until noon Feb. 25 to withdraw from the ballot if they wish.

D-Democrat

R- Republican

I- Independent

Shelby County Mayor:

Deidre Malone (D)

Joe Ford (D)

Otis Jackson (D)

Mark Luttrell (R)

Ernest Lunati (R)

Leo Awgowhat (I)

Shelby County Sheriff:

James Coleman (R)

Bobby Simmons (R)

Bill Oldham (R)

Dale Lane (R)

Larry Hill (D)

Bennie Cobb (D)

Randy Wade (D)

James Bolden (D)

Elton Hymon (D)

Reginald French (D)

County Commission Dist 1 Pos 1

Mike Ritz (R) (incumbent)

County Commission Dist 1 Pos 2

Albert Maduska (R)

Heidi Shafer (R)

County Commission Dist 1 Pos 3

Mike Carpenter (R) (incumbent)

Joe Baire (R)

County Commission Dist 2 Pos 1

Walter Bailey (D)

County Commission Dist 2 Pos 2

Henri Brooks (D) (incumbent)

David Vinciarelli (D)

County Commission Dist 2 Pos 3

Eric Dunn (D)

Norma Lester (D)

Tina Dickerson (D)

Melvin Burgess (D)

Reginald Milton (D)

Freddie Thomas (D)

County Commission Dist 3 Pos 1

James Harvey (D) (incumbent)

James Catchings (D)

County Commission Dist. 3 Pos 2

Sidney Chism (D) (incumbent)

Andrew "Rome" Withers (D)

County Commission Dist. 3 Pos 3

Edith Moore  (D) (incumbent)

Justin Ford (D)

County Commission Dist 4 Pos 1

Chris Thomas (R)

John Pellicciotti (R)

Jim Bomprezzi (R)

County Commission Dist 4 Pos 2

Wyatt Bunker (R) (incumbent)

John Wilkerson (R)

Ron Fittes (R)

County Commission Dist 4 Pos 3

Terry Roland (R)

George Chism (R)

Edgar Babian (R)

County Commission Dist 5

Steve Mulroy (D) (incumbent)

Jennings Bernard (D)

Rolando Toyos (R)

Shelby County Clerk

Charlotte Draper (D)

Corey Maclin (D)

LaKeith Miller (D)

Wayne Mashburn (R)

Steve Moore (R)

Criminal Court Clerk

Vernon Johnson (D)

Minerva Johnican (D)

Ralph White (D)

Michael Porter (R)

Kevin Key (R)

Jerry Stamson (I)

Circuit Court Clerk

Jimmy Moore (R) (incumbent)

Steven Webster (D)

Carmichael Johnson (D)

Ricky W. Dixon (D)

Juvenile Court Clerk

Joy Touliatos (R)

Charles Marshall (D)

Sylvester Bradley (D)

Shep Wilbun (D)

Julia Roberson Wiseman (I)

Probate Court Clerk

Paul Boyd (R)

Sondra Becton (D)

Danny Kail (D)

Annita Sawyer Hamilton (D)

Peggy Dobbins (D)

Clay Perry (D)

Karen Tyler (D)

Shelby County Register

Tom Leatherwood (R) (incumbent)

Coleman Thompson (D)

Lady J. Swift (D)

Carlton Orange (D)

Shelby County Trustee

Regina Newman (D) (incumbent)

M. LaTroy Williams (D)

John Willingham (R)

Jeff Jacobs (R)

David Lenoir (R)

77. White House Defends Year-Old Stimulus - Wednesday, February 17, 2010

WASHINGTON (AP) - President Barack Obama, defending his economic stimulus plan on its first anniversary, is dispatching his Cabinet across the country to try to calm an anxious public as Democrats head into potentially devastating congressional elections in November.

78. 2009 Bankruptcy Filings Up 2 Percent - Friday, January 15, 2010

While he was at a free legal clinic last week, Memphis bankruptcy attorney Bruce Ralston struck up a conversation with a woman whose background would have made her a hot commodity once upon a time.

79. Visible School Names Ellis To Modern Music Ministry Faculty - Wednesday, January 06, 2010

Bill Ellis has been hired to the Visible School faculty in the Modern Music Ministry program.

Ellis will teach guitar, the history of pop music and hands-on courses in world music and ethnomusicology.

80. Special Elections Held in Miss. - Thursday, November 05, 2009

JACKSON, Miss. (AP) – Ron C. Cooke and Chris Hemphill will compete in the Nov. 24 runoff for justice court judge in Lowndes County.

81. Building Permit Brings Wally Joe Restaurant Closer to Reality - Tuesday, November 03, 2009

690 S. Perkins Road
Memphis, TN 38117
Permit Amount: $800,000

Project Cost: $800,000
Permit Date: Applied October 2009
Completion: Summer 2010
Owner: Wally Joe Realty LLC
Tenant: TBA
Contractor: Day Construction LLC
Architect: Doug Enoch

82. Though New Place Not There Yet, Wally Joe Still Working It - Monday, November 02, 2009

If the truism in the restaurant industry is it takes twice as long to open a restaurant as you plan, try this: Wally Joe left his eponymous establishment on Sanderlin Avenue, which opened in May 2002, in December 2006.

83. Chairmanship Battle a Preview Of Coming Political Landscape - Friday, July 17, 2009

The political fortunes of the Shelby County Democratic Party haven’t been this high in awhile.

Democrats have high hopes for the 2010 county elections. In the 2006 elections, four Democratic challengers of Republican incumbents in countywide offices came within 1,000 votes of wins. Democrats picked up a countywide office in the 2008 elections when Otis Jackson, one of the four Democrats who got close but not close enough two years earlier, upset Republican incumbent Chris Turner in the General Sessions Court clerk’s race.

84. Q2 Bankruptcies Rise 6 Percent - Friday, July 17, 2009

For anyone reading tea leaves looking for the next direction of the economy – in particular, consumer activity – an ominous trend emerges from second quarter bankruptcy filings in Memphis.

As the economic slump sometimes referred to as the Great Recession grinds on, more people are finding themselves stretched to the limit and turning to the local bankruptcy courts for protection. And that suggests a turnaround in the economy is still far off for many people.

85. Deadline: What it's Really Like Inside the City's Big Daily - Wednesday, April 29, 2009
EDITOR’S NOTE: Bill Dries was a reporter at The Commercial Appeal from June 1997-October 2005. This story is based in part on his experiences there and more recent conversations with other CA staffers.

The fall evening six years ago when Chris Peck became the editor of The Commercial Appeal was treated with utmost secrecy inside the newspaper at 495 Union Ave.

Then-publisher John Wilcox was determined to prevent leaks of that night’s decision to any other media outlets. So not only would the choice be a secret to those outside the building, but inside as well.

Then-Metro editor Charles Bernsen camped out in his small office at one end of the newsroom with the blinds drawn across its large window. He emerged just before the regular 11 p.m. deadline to tell editors on the copy desk he was sending the story, written from home by a trusted reporter.

The article by Tom Charlier in the Oct. 9, 2002, edition described Peck as “a veteran journalist who built a national reputation for innovative leadership and unblinking coverage of difficult topics” as the editor of The Spokesman-Review newspaper in Spokane, Wash.

Otis Sanford, the CA’s deputy managing editor and the other finalist for the top job, was promoted to managing editor. It was the first of many changes in the past six years to the newspaper’s masthead, where its top leaders are listed.

New era dawns

Peck arrived in Memphis shortly after the article and, although he would officially take over in January after Angus McEachran’s retirement, there was a great deal of anticipation – and, uncharacteristically for a floor full of reporters – not much background checking on Peck.

Before selecting Peck, executives of the CA’s parent company, the E.W. Scripps Co., had set up a committee of CA employees and solicited their opinions on what they wanted to see in the next editor. Many said they wanted a new direction at the newspaper.

Peck came to Memphis from a short stint as the Belo Distinguished Chair in Journalism at Southern Methodist University in Dallas. He had served as editor at the Spokane Spokesman-Review just prior to the academic post.

Peck left that paper on the heels of a journalism controversy that got little play outside the Northwest and continued to linger as recently as two years ago. It concerned financing for a large public project involving the newspaper’s owners.

Meanwhile, hopes were high among some CA staff members that Peck would change the dysfunctional management style at the paper. Others believed no creative undertaking the size of a newspaper is possible without some level of dysfunction. And still others were leery about any optimistic assessment for any reason.

Bernsen was among the first to leave the CA after Peck’s hire. Louis Graham, who had been expected to head the Metro desk even if Sanford became the new top editor, replaced Bernsen.

Six years later, departing and current staffers describe the CA’s management style and newsroom atmosphere as “toxic.” They also complain that little has changed in terms of who runs the newspaper on a daily basis despite a frequent shuffling of the management chart.

None would talk with The Memphis News on the record for fear of reprisals. Even past staffers didn’t want their names used because of the prospect of doing freelance work for the newspaper. Those still in the newsroom and on the payroll wouldn’t talk on company phones.

Profits and losses

What ails The Commercial Appeal has a lot to do with what ails the newspaper industry in general these days. But that’s a black-and-white version that misses large colorful splotches unique to the institution.

Decisions made during the past six years to pursue a growth strategy targeting “suburban” readers, as well as longstanding practices for managing talent, have also helped bring the newspaper to where it is today.

Managers at the newspaper, in separate interviews with The Memphis News, insist it is stable, profitable and will remain a seven-day-a-week operation despite recent moves that severely cut the reporting staff, eliminated classified ads from the already thin Monday and Tuesday print editions and an admission that the newspaper probably won’t be covering less urgent topics in the future.

Asked if the demise of classified ad sections in the Monday and Tuesday editions could be a sign that the Monday and Tuesday print editions might vanish entirely, publisher Joe Pepe was unequivocal.

“No. That’s not going to happen, at least under my tenure here,” Pepe said. “A lot of the transactional classified business is done online anyway. Everything that you see in the paper every day of the week is also online. So putting the Monday and Tuesday (classifieds) online was essentially just a way for us to save on some newsprint costs while not taking away from the advertising.”

The CA is profitable, Peck and Pepe insist, although they won’t release any numbers.

“We’ve projected a profit for 2009,” Peck said. “We were profitable in 2008. So, I fully expect we’ll be profitable in 2009.”

Pepe responded, “Absolutely,” when asked if the CA is profitable. When asked if he would be more specific, he replied, “No. Good try.”

Doing less with fewer

The newspaper is not alone in its reluctance to give out specific financial data. Most businesses consider such information to be proprietary.

The optimistic assessment is in contrast to a letter subscribers got this month from Karl D. Wurzbach, vice president of circulation, saying subscription rates would go up by $2 a month effective Nov. 1.

“This is the only way we can continue to deliver to your home every day,” he wrote. “This increase is across the board, for everybody, with no exclusions.”

Wurzbach’s letter also noted that the CA had dropped home delivery to 11,600 subscribers in outlying areas during a five-month period. The weekday newsstand price had already increased from 50 cents to 75 cents.

“It was costing us more money to print and deliver than we earned in revenue,” he said in the letter. “No company can survive using that business model. … Simply put, we are making very difficult decisions to help our business survive.”

Both moves in the appearance and delivery of the paper came in the week after 20 reporters and editors faced the ultimate “difficult decision.”

The newspaper made the decision of whom to fire using a controversial system that ranks reporters in the particular section of the paper they work for. The key to the ranking is not reporting ability or even a byline count; it’s how a reporter gets along with his or her editor. It had already been a key to longevity at the CA before Peck arrived in Memphis and made it a formal part of employee evaluations.

“You have to grieve those who are no longer with us in a genuine way because they were great contributions,” Peck said. “But you really at that point also have to rather quickly turn your attention to the task at hand. That’s what we’re trying to do.”

But the veteran employees “grieved” by management are the same employees management had ranked as the least valuable in their respective departments.

That included Jimmie Covington, the longest-serving reporter at the paper until his dismissal in March after years of being shuffled from one suburban bureau to another. Covington was a veteran of the county government and Memphis City Schools beats.

The layoffs also included Frederic Koeppel and Christopher Blank, who provided much of the newspaper’s arts coverage and who apparently won’t be replaced with full-time reporters.

There’s now no mention of the “master narratives” Peck once included in his “blueprint” for the CA. They included long-form stories on race, the city’s musical heritage, barbecue and the river. It was to be a departure from the newspaper being what Peck referred to as a “news utility,” or all-purpose paper of record.

“What we have to do is prioritize our staff resources,” Peck said just weeks after 20 people in the CA newsroom either resigned or were fired in the latest series of cutbacks – the deepest to date for the editorial staff. “I think where that’s going to lead is making sure that we have the nuts and bolts of hard news coverage. That’s probably police reporting, court reporting, government reporting, school reporting. We want to make sure we’ve got those bases covered.”

Whatever is left of a full-time reporting staff will be devoted to issues and institutions such as FedEx, the University of Memphis Tigers basketball team, the Memphis Grizzlies, the economy and the medical center.

“If we run out of people at that point, then we’re going to turn to freelancers and more community-generated content,” Peck said. “I think we’ll be able to fill a lot of holes there if we need to and I think it will work out fine.”

Wanted: free (or reduced) labor

Pepe offered a basic definition of citizen journalism.

“All blogging is citizen journalism,” he told The Memphis News. “In a lot of cases it’s unsubstantiated. It’s not objective. It’s not edited content. It leans more toward opinion and subjectivity. Anytime we have citizen journalism, it’s still going to get edited. It’s still going to get verified. It’s going to get checked for facts before we post it. We apply the same rules to citizen-sponsored journalism as we do to our top line reporter.”

Sanford said citizen journalism “has its place” and has been discussed since the early 1990s. It shows up in the pages he governs in the form of opinion pieces and letters to the editor. Non-newspaper employees also serve on the CA’s editorial board.

“Now, I am a traditional, old-fashioned journalist,” Sanford said. “And I believe that while citizen journalism has its place, I’m not one – and maybe this is an old-fashioned view – but I’m not one to think that citizen journalism can ever take the place of the traditional journalism that I know and love. I just don’t believe that.”

The names of reporters and photographers cut in the most recent round of layoffs are already turning up in CA coverage as freelancers. Instead of a straight name with “The Commercial Appeal” below it, their names now appear with the phrase “special to The Commercial Appeal” and, of course, they receive no health benefits or regular paychecks from the newspaper.

Worldwide wakeup call

Before Peck’s arrival in Memphis, the CA was more than out of touch with the need for an Internet presence. The newspaper was hostile to such a move.

Posting a story on the Web site that was anything more than a teaser paragraph before the actual newspapers rolled of the presses and into delivery trucks was seen as handing the story to the competition.

It was a philosophy that had served the newspaper well in competing with television news, even with the rise of 24-hour cable news channels.

However, there have been consequences for being late to the Internet party, and financial consequences for not taking the Internet seriously.

“Right now all the revenue is generated off advertising,” Pepe said of print journalism’s gradual realization that it needed to be in the Web business as well. “Until search engines are firewalled – until all local media either together or individually start charging for content online – it’s going to continue to be a source of non-revenue in terms of content. That then means that revenue for all Internet ventures will be based on advertising.”

After Peck arrived, the move to unique content for the Web site was still slow in coming.

Editors exerted the same multi-tiered control over copy that might mean a story was not edited for Web or print until later in the day, closer to the print deadline.

Scraps often erupted over how copy was edited after it left the editors and went to the “new media” department. It might be a change in a few words or a new, snappier lead (first sentence), but some editors clearly didn’t like having their work changed as much as they might have imagined reporters liked having their work rearranged.

Reporters are expected to take such changes without protest, and protests are rare even when edits distort meaning. Reporters can always fall back on the excuse that the story got messed up after it was out of their hands.

But that brings into play another rule for newsroom survival – always, always make a hard copy of the story you turn in to your editor.

The anonymity of snark

The comments section on www.commercialappeal.com, where readers may post their thoughts at the bottom of stories, has been wildly successful if you look just at the number of comments some stories generate in a short amount of time.

But success isn’t the word that comes to mind if you start to read the comments on a regular basis.

They routinely crackle with racial tension and even racial slurs. When some staffers complained about the slurs and called for better policing of such comments, Peck reportedly asked for a list of what slurs should be considered cause for removing comments.

Sanford had a different take in March as he spoke at a University of Memphis panel discussion about race and the media.

“Please stop reading those comments,” Sanford told a crowd of 100 people on campus. “You’ve got … anonymous people who go on our stories … and make unbelievably goofy and stupid comments. And then that becomes, unfortunately, the reality. And we have to stop that. We can’t stop the comments because the Web people have told us, ‘Well, that’s how you get people in there.’ But please don’t listen to that.”

To civic groups and even individual citizens who contact the paper with complaints and concerns, Sanford is its face, voice and ears. When the CA participates in media forums, chances are the speaker will be Sanford.

For the past two years, Sanford has been in charge of the paper’s editorial board and Viewpoint section. It’s a position that evolved after editorial page editor David Kushma’s departure, when Kushma’s duties came to be included in Sanford’s.

“That just didn’t work right,” Sanford told The Memphis News. “We had a lot of discussions about this. Corporate was even involved in it. We agreed that the editorial pages, Viewpoint, the editorial board – we would sort of restructure the newsroom operation and the editorial board and the editorial opinions of the paper so that would fall directly under the publisher and I would be running that. I think that was a good thing to do.”

That means that Sanford works for Pepe, not Peck, as he did when he was managing editor.

Gum-popping good times

Peck met with each reporter in his office shortly after he arrived in Memphis. He appeared to be taking notes on a legal pad as he listened to their comments and suggestions.

However, trying to find Peck’s strategy over the years has been no simple matter. There wasn’t much beyond slogans that included “rebuilding the jet while flying it” or “building a 21st century newspaper.” The latter phrase was still being used six years into the new century.

One reporter who tried to get into Peck’s head in terms of management philosophy hit a brick wall with a thud, although he is still employed at the CA.

On that occasion, Peck was in no mood to discuss philosophy despite a casual-sounding e-mail asking if the reporter had a few minutes to talk. Instead of a dialogue, Peck gave the reporter $50 in cash and a list of books he could buy to read. He also sent the reporter back to the night cops beat for objecting to how a story was edited.

The editorial page and op-ed page were the first parts of the paper that changed. Peck wanted more letters to the editor. He also wanted to stop the practice of rigorously fact-checking letters.

This drew dissent from Kushma, who was eventually overruled and left in the first round of buyouts in 2003 that followed Peck’s arrival. Some of the other changes were in the Metro section – the hard news engine of the paper.

Reporters were switched around, which is a normal part of life at the city’s daily newspaper unless you are declared immune from such changes. The six or seven Metro editors were immune for the most part from the changes.

The newspaper’s home office in Cincinnati had long maintained that the paper was top heavy with such editors. Peck talked a lot about change, but didn’t change that.

At one of Peck’s first meetings with the Metro staff, a reporter asked Peck when there would be changes for the editors as well. Peck’s answer was to talk about Dentyne gum and how the company that makes it had allegedly improved its sales figures by repackaging the gum.

The analogy was that the CA was going to undergo a similar repackaging: What was under the wrapper would remain the same.

For weeks after the meeting, fellow reporters left numerous packages of Dentyne on the questioner’s desk.

Before Peck answered the question, some staffers remained hopeful because they saw most of the problems with the new management as a result of Peck having to answer to John Wilcox, the CA’s publisher. It was a key difference in the management structure.

Before Wilcox’s arrival, McEachran had served as editor and president – a title that gave McEachran near absolute power over everything the newspaper did, editorially and otherwise.

The Dentyne story showed that if there was a struggle between Wilcox and Peck, it wasn’t much of a difference of opinion. They essentially agreed on a newsroom strategy that continued to unfold.

Neighborly gestures

Of those at the top of the masthead, only Sanford has seen all of the changes unfold from one regime to the other.

“In terms of news, certainly the newspaper has changed dramatically under Chris,” Sanford told The Memphis News. “There have been significant changes in focus and really in newsroom culture.”

Asked to characterize whether the change has been good, bad or indifferent, Sanford said, “I’m not going to say. I’m going to let others decide that. The readers can determine that.”

Peck’s take on newsroom culture at the CA is almost as neutral.

“The culture is not one where people are necessarily beaming with big smiles every day because it’s a difficult time in the industry,” he told The Memphis News. “I think that I have tried to be very realistic with people with what’s going on in the business – and very realistic about our expectations of what we need from our staff, from my office all the way down to the last person who leaves at night.”

The Neighbors sections were abolished with Peck’s settling in – sections included every Thursday for each zone of the city that also contained honors rolls of all schools in and out of the zone, and other such listings. It had the kind of items that readers might like to cut out and post on their refrigerators. No matter where you lived in Memphis, you got a Neighbors section.

Peck wasted no time in making the refrigerator postings a rallying cry for what was to replace Neighbors. They would be hyper-local sections that would contain only news about that part of the county. Some would be written by a staffer, but most often written by citizens in that area. Often, the citizens were members of a group or organization that was the focus of the piece.

Soon the philosophy began to apply to the news that appeared in other parts of the particular delivery zone.

Not every section of the city got a suburban edition. Vast sections of North and South Memphis as well as Frayser and Raleigh were out of the loop.

Peck first pleaded ignorance to and has since repeatedly denied a central tenet of life in Memphis. Memphians often have family that might live in another part of town. Thus someone Downtown might want to see the honor roll of Tara Oaks Elementary School in Collierville or someone in Bartlett might be interested in what is happening in Arlington.

This often led to readers wondering what they missed in other parts of the city, and being suspicious of only receiving certain news.

New suburban bureaus were opened as full-time postings in Mississippi and Arkansas and state Capitol coverage from Jackson and Little Rock, respectively, was abandoned. Meanwhile, the newspaper’s greatest success in a suburban edition was being changed to make it fit the cookie-cutter mold of the new suburban bureaus.

Escape hatch

The newspaper’s DeSoto County edition opened late in McEachran’s tenure. It was one of the few times McEachran talked about marketing studies as he explained a concept to the newsroom. But it was because the data were clear.

DeSoto County readers wanted a newspaper that covered North Mississippi and did not mention Memphis, at least on the front page. The DeSoto County bureau had a separate sales and management staff. And the CA edition delivered in DeSoto County had its own front page that was DeSoto County-centric. It was even called The DeSoto Appeal. And it was a hit out of the box, with plans to duplicate the model in Tipton County while maintaining a different model within Shelby County because of the differences in attitudes clearly shown in the marketing study.

Peck wasn’t interested in the distinction.

When Pepe arrived as publisher in late 2005, the CA got someone with experience in such suburban editions. Pepe came to Memphis from St. Louis, where he headed the Suburban Journals – a collection of 38 weekly community newspapers.

Pepe said the CA’s suburban business strategy as modified several times over has worked. That strategy is to get advertising from small businesses in the community receiving the directed section – businesses whose reach and revenue can’t sustain a pitch to the paper’s larger audience.

“In St. Louis, they’ve been in place for 50 years,” Pepe said. “So they were humming. Here, we’ve had them in place for three or four years. I would suggest that if we’d not done this, that we would have even greater financial problems, only because the dependency on the larger advertisers would have been even greater than it is.”

“Zoning,” as it’s called, is now a three-day-a-week proposition.

“We still do zoning Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. We have a suburban, urban and a DeSoto zone. I think that’s where we need to be,” Peck said. “What we’re trying to do is balance the best of both worlds. Make sure our readers have the best of what’s going on in greater Memphis, but that we also provide a degree of zone content that is either geared toward the metro area, the suburbs or DeSoto County.”

But the practice has been much different than the theory behind the advertising and the needs of news consumers. As valued as the suburban coverage has been throughout Peck’s tenure, the bureaus have been places where reporters with troublesome attitudes toward editors have been exiled.

It was the next destination for many of those summoned for personal meetings with Peck as the first round of buyouts began in late 2003. In some cases, reporters have welcomed the assignment to be able to get out of the Downtown newsroom.

In the doghouse

The first round of buyouts under Peck in 2003 was brutal – even more ham-handed and graceless than anyone imagined possible. And the CA is not an organization noted for having an optimistic outlook.

All employees who were older than 40 and had been at the company 20 years or more got packets outlining the terms of the buyout. But within that group, Peck singled out about a dozen copy editors, reporters and photographers, including some of the most senior reporters and photographers in the organization. He had already begun discussions with several in the group who had been ill or had surgery.

Each got an e-mail from Peck asking if they had a few minutes to talk in his office. Peck would later quarrel with an assertion that he had threatened those in the group in the one-on-one talks. But he did tell each of them that if they didn’t take the buyout, they would be assigned more onerous duties.

One was told that if he didn’t take the buyout, he would be working nights and weekends. When the employee said he already worked nights and weekends, the meeting ended abruptly. A features reporter and another reporter each were told they would be working the night cops beat if they didn’t accept the buyouts.

The night shift started at 4:30 p.m. and ran until 1 a.m. or so. It involved listening to a police scanner and checking for such news that had to be written on deadline. The night cops reporter is the only news reporter on duty at the paper after 5p.m. unless there’s a late City Council meeting or someone on dayside decides they are on a roll and continues working.

Most papers have the night cops beat, and it is usually where beginning reporters start. It’s a good way to learn the basics of print reporting and determine whether a reporter can hold up under deadline pressure. At the CA, it is a beat assigned to reporters who are out of favor – firmly, decisively and usually terminally out of favor.

Under Peck, even summer interns don’t have to work night cops.

The Newspaper Guild, the union that represents reporters, photographers and copy editors, took the unusual move of passing a resolution that complained about Peck’s singling out employees. The same day the union passed the resolution, Peck called into his office the reporter who had made the proposal. I was that employee.

“I would really like for this not to find its way to Cincinnati,” was his reaction after he quarreled over whether his other talks with employees had amounted to threats.

The guild membership had voted unanimously for the resolution to be sent to Scripps management in Cincinnati. Peck later talked union leaders out of sending it, despite the membership vote.

Some of the squeezed employees took the buyout. Others stayed and were shuffled out to the suburban bureaus the following August, and were among those laid off this past March.

‘Treacherous ground’

The guild’s idea of a protest was to have reporters in the newsroom wear green on certain days of the week. This signaled that contract negotiations weren’t going well or weren’t going at all.

It’s been six years since the last labor contract expired that included guaranteed annual raises. Then the guild went to the idea of wearing green buttons – no words on the buttons, just green buttons that Scripps brass in town would see during their visits to Memphis. The brass never got near the newsroom. Still later, the guild kept the idea of the green color scheme but added the wording “We All Merit A Raise” to protest the company’s proposal of merit pay raises instead of a percentage raise guaranteed in the contract.

At one point, the guild was optimistic that the company was getting the message. So the guild urged members not to file grievances against management to keep the goodwill going.

In October 2007, the most visible sign of dissent in years came outside the framework of the guild and stalled contract talks. As the CA prepared to publish a series of articles on the impact of Memphis businesses around the world, a lead piece about FedEx to be sponsored by FedEx was ordered rewritten and the reporter, Trevor Aaronson, refused. The newspaper had approached FedEx about sponsoring that particular piece. Dozens of staff members, in a rare public move, signed a petition objecting to the practice Peck referred to as “monetizing content.” They felt it crossed the line separating the editorial part of the newspaper from sales. National trade magazines and blogs, which normally overlook the CA, took note of the flap.

Peck retreated, telling Editor & Publisher, a print trade magazine, “I went to our publisher and said, ‘We have probably gone half a step more than we should have gone on this project.’ It is treacherous ground when you start talking about having an advertiser in a section that has them in the reporting.”

Aaronson later left the CA, but has been quoted as saying he enjoyed the freedom he was given to pursue his own interests.

“I don’t care to talk about my experiences there,” Aaronson wrote in an e-mail.

The favored few

The stage for the latest round of layoffs that came in April was set with the release of fourth-quarter figures for Scripps.

Profits were way down. The chain ended the year with its share prices down 51 percent or $22. The chain announced it would freeze the pension plan, cutting 401(k) matching funds from the company. At the CA, the 401(k) match has always only applied to managers.

Mark Watson, head of the triumvirate of labor unions at the CA, including The Newspaper Guild, broke the news about the layoffs, calling it a “crisi-tunity.” He was among those laid off weeks later.

The weekend after the announcement, Peck in his Sunday column once again lectured about the hard economic times.

From the start, Peck’s quest was to garner favorable attention within the city and in journalism circles across the country by winning awards. At first, he touted every award the paper won, which, for writing and reporting, were usually the monthly Scripps awards from the home office in Cincinnati.

But he later reversed that and said the paper should note only awards of national stature. Photographers regularly won those, but reporters didn’t.

When some reporters complained their work was always excluded from consideration, Peck directed that reporters submit on a monthly basis any work they wanted to be considered for award entries.

Those suggestions were then forwarded to the very editors who had been excluding their work in the first place and who remained in control of contest entries.

Like other newspapers, the CA’s approach to awards is sometimes to deem a story to be eligible for an award, possibly before the first interview is done or the first word is written.

But a contest entry had to have the right byline as well – the right reporter doing a story for a contest was usually not the one covering the beat from which the story arose.

Pamela Perkins, who left the paper voluntary in the November 2008 round of layoffs, along with music writer Bill Ellis, who left in 2005, won a national award in 2004 from the Missouri School of Journalism at the University of Missouri for their continuing coverage of the return of Stax Records and the surrounding Soulsville neighborhood in South Memphis. Their writing won first place in the arts and entertainment category of the Missouri Lifestyle Journalism Awards.

There was no companywide e-mail congratulating them as there had been for awards in the monthly Scripps competition.

Stephen Price’s work as one of several reporters working on the deadly shooting of a child on Rosamond Avenue in 2002 caught the attention of Florida’s Poynter Institute, a leading journalism think tank. Other reporters deemed more worthy were praised the next day in the inevitable self-congratulatory e-mail in which management separated those it favored from those it didn’t.

Price had blended into the neighborhood crowd as police cleared reporters from the area, came back with the story no one else had and wrote it on deadline.

The Poynter Institute carries a lot of weight in Peck’s newspaper philosophy. Several times, he’s used Poynter fellows to mediate discussions with community leaders about the newspaper’s policies. But when Price’s account of the shooting aftermath in the Rosamond neighborhood was reprinted in Poynter’s annual anthology of the nation’s best journalism of the past year, CA management once again did not acknowledge the accolade.

Curious ideas

As the 2004 presidential season began, Peck revealed an important part of his views on political coverage to an editors’ forum in Washington. It was the same night as the Iowa caucuses.

The remarks to the American Press Institute gathering didn’t get much publicity, even after they showed up on an industry blog. It took a few more months. He never said anything about it to anyone who worked at the CA.

Peck said having reporters cover campaign events was a waste of time and resources. Instead, he said citizen journalists should cover the events – those who were already going to attend the rallies anyway.

“We have to get over the notion that we have to do it all ourselves,” he told Chad Capellman of API as he talked of having editors find volunteers to write summaries of what was said. “It’s not doing the democracy any good to send out a reporter to write down a regurgitation of what a candidate is saying in a staged event.”

Peck also said newspapers should compete with comedy shows such as “The Daily Show” and “Saturday Night Live” as a source of political information. Also, Peck called for focus groups of readers to determine what issues should be discussed.

“Don’t let the candidates drive coverage of the three issues they want to ride to get elected,” he told the API group.

Being the newspaper’s political reporter had been a difficult posting for some time, even before Peck arrived in Memphis. Bernsen had a checkered history of political coverage that turned into a deep distrust and contempt for politics when he became the head of Metro.

Each election season he would dutifully call those assigned to political coverage to his office and haul out a set of his own news clippings, which he said illustrated the kind of reporting he wanted. Under no circumstances, he insisted, would the candidates be setting the agenda for the newspaper’s coverage.

Such tension is normal in the planning of most media coverage of politics. It’s a game candidates, their representatives and the reporters who cover them play constantly.

Bernsen’s decision was not to play the game at all. He did not want coverage of campaign events and rallies. And the end of an election meant the end of political coverage. Any attempt a candidate made to establish or give voice to an issue was uniformly rejected even if it obviously hit a nerve with voters. To him, the whole process was rigged and the newspaper’s view was the only valid one.

There was supposed to be a wall between the reporting that was allowed on the political process and the endorsements of candidates that the CA editorial board made. Most candidates interested in the newspaper’s endorsement never believed there was a wall. If there was, they reasoned, editors not on the board would still find a way to limit or tilt coverage of those who weren’t endorsed.

Prism of perception

The CA began 2009 with a curious 15-part series that recapped the public life of Mayor Willie Herenton.

Herenton has had problems with the newspaper throughout that public life. And similarly, the newspaper’s leadership has had problems seeing straight when the subject was Willie Herenton.

The paper’s until then consistent political coverage was missing in action when Herenton launched a surprisingly strong-willed bid for mayor in 1991. Editorially, the newspaper had strong reservations about the People’s Convention that Herenton took by storm, clearing the first political obstacle in what became a historic campaign.

His willingness to participate in the convention, whose goal was to come up with a consensus black challenger to incumbent Dick Hackett, put off those in the newspaper’s front office. It translated to next to no coverage of a campaign effort that was on the streets every day, while Hackett pursued the local equivalent of a rose garden strategy of speaking to small groups at select backyard parties.

When Herenton won, the ambivalence turned into hostility.

Herenton had a good relationship with several reporters who had covered his tenure as city schools superintendent – even through the sexual harassment lawsuit that came near the end of his tenure there and just before his entry into the 1991 mayor’s race. (The harassment case stemmed from a relationship Herenton had with a teacher.)

Those reporters had to walk a fine line. A favorable comment by Herenton in public that got back to editors could mean that reporter would be perceived as biased toward Herenton. The problem many reporters had with walking the tightrope was editors increasingly viewed a reporter’s duty to the paper as a requirement to shank their sources in print to show where their loyalties lay.

The editors were convinced a 2005 recall petition mounted by radio talk show host and blogger Thaddeus Matthews would succeed. They considered it a foregone conclusion that Matthews would gather more than enough signatures on the petitions and do it well before the deadline to file with the Shelby County Election Commission.

The newspaper’s planned coverage moved past the recall drive itself. The editors ordered up a piece on who was likely to run in the recall election that followed. They approached at least two reporters with the task before the effort flagged just enough for the piece to become an article on who might run for city mayor in 2007.

The fact that politicos across the city were still waiting to see if the 2006 county elections would offer any opportunities didn’t cross their minds. Calls to those politicos were met with widespread laughter and wonderment at the eccentric methods afoot at the CA. The petition drive failed and Matthews backed Herenton’s 2007 bid for re-election.

Distance learning

By this past February, CA management signed off on a content-sharing agreement with fellow Scripps paper The Knoxville News Sentinel, as well as The Tennesseean newspaper in Nashville and the Chattanooga Times Free Press.

The Feb. 5 agreement was already in effect by the time an internal memo from News Sentinel management surfaced in early March in Editor & Publisher.

The CA and the Knoxville newspaper had used such a strategy for years in covering politics. The result was that the CA continued to do without any local political coverage beyond biographical pieces introducing candidates.

Statewide races for governor and the U.S. Senate were covered from Knoxville or by the CA’s Nashville bureau chief, Richard Locker, or in some cases by Bartholomew Sullivan, a former CA reporter who now works for the Scripps News Service’s Washington bureau. That meant candidates for statewide office coming to Memphis were usually covered before they got to the city or after they left.

The agreement was most visible during the 2006 U.S. Senate race between Republican Bob Corker of Chattanooga and Democrat Harold Ford Jr. of Memphis. One of the campaign’s crucial events was a showdown between the two at Memphis International Airport.

Corker had called a press conference there. Ford crashed the event ahead of time and the two faced off in the airport parking lot – a few inches from each other with television cameras and microphones surrounding them.

There was no CA reporter in the press pack. Sullivan covered what became known as the “parking lot debate” from the D.C. bureau.

86. Events - Friday, April 10, 2009

Memphis College of Art will host its annual spring career fair today from 12:30 p.m. to 4 p.m. in the Main Gallery of Rust Hall at the Overton Park Campus, 1930 Poplar Ave. For more information, call 272-5160 or e-mail careers@mca.edu.

87. Events - Thursday, April 09, 2009

The Alliance for Nonprofit Excellence will hold a workshop titled “Leadership, Mentorship and Supervision for New Managers” today from 8:30 a.m. to noon at the Alliance office, 5100 Poplar Ave., Suite 502. The facilitator will be Tiffany Chisnall of the Memphis Area Teachers’ Credit Union. Cost for each seminar is $65 for members, $125 for nonmembers and $55 for those in the Program for Nonprofit Excellence. For more information or reservations, call 684-6605 or visit www.npexcellence.org.

88. Wrestling Promoter Preps For County Clerk Run - Wednesday, April 08, 2009

Wrestling promoter and television personality Corey Maclin is the latest Democratic candidate to announce his intentions for the 2010 countywide elections.

Maclin on Monday told members of the local Democratic Executive Committee that he will be a candidate in the 2010 Democratic primary for Shelby County clerk.

89. Council Frets Over Next Move in Lee Case - Friday, January 09, 2009

In an attorney-client meeting this week, Memphis City Council chairman Myron Lowery laid out some options his fellow council members could pursue in defending themselves against a lawsuit filed last month by a former city official.

90. Men Accused in Obama Plot Plead Not Guilty - Friday, November 28, 2008

JACKSON, Tenn. (AP) - Two white supremacists charged with plotting to kill President-elect Barack Obama and dozens of other black people pleaded not guilty Wednesday to new criminal charges added to an earlier federal indictment.

91. Skinhead Charged In Obama Plot Wants Dismissal - Friday, November 14, 2008

A white supremacist charged with plotting a killing spree that would include President-elect Barack Obama wants his indictment dismissed, arguing that the federal grand jury that charged him had too many black members.

92. Cohen, Blackburn Lead Local Election Winners - Monday, August 11, 2008

More than half and possibly as much as 75 percent of Shelby County’s nearly 626,000 voters are expected to turn out for the Nov. 4 election that will be highlighted by the John McCain-Barack Obama battle for the White House.

93. Cohen Crushes Tinker - Jackson Upsets Turner - Charter Changes Pass-Fail - Friday, August 08, 2008
Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen was the big winner in Thursday’s primary elections. Cohen, with 80 percent of the vote, crushed challenger Nikki Tinker in the hard fought 9th District Democratic primary.

The upset of the evening was the general election contest for General Sessions Court Clerk where Democratic challenger Otis Jackson beat Republican incumbent Chris Turner.

And only one of two sets of Shelby County charter amendments on the ballot were approved by voters.

Voter turnout was just under 16 percent in Shelby County. Voter turnout was clearly driven by the 9th District Democratic primary. More people voted in that primary which covers most but not all of Shelby County than voted countywide in the state Democratic primary for the U.S. Senate. Turnout in the Democratic primaries was twice that of the Republican primaries in Shelby County.

All results are unofficial pending audit and certification by the Shelby County Election Commission and Tennessee election officials

9th Congressional District
Democratic Primary
Steve Cohen 50,284 79%
Nikki Tinker 11,814 19%
Joe Towns Jr. 914 1%

Not even close. Cohen won the primary for the open all Shelby County seat two years ago by 4,400 votes over Tinker and 13 other candidates. This time around he was the incumbent and Tinker’s challenge was more strident with a pair of controversial attack ads in the gap between the end of early voting and election day. Both were probably factors in the vote totals along with a smaller field of five candidates.

Cohen faces independent candidate Jake Ford in the Nov. 4 general election.

7th Congressional District
Republican Primary
248 of 265 precincts reporting
Marsha Blackburn 29,158 65%
Tom Leatherwood 15,636 35%

These are the results district wide which includes not only the eastern part of Shelby County but a strip of Middle Tennessee up to the Kentucky state line. In Shelby County’s part of the 7th district, Leatherwood beat Blackburn with 62 percent of the vote. But it was 62 percent of just over 19,000 votes. Outside Shelby County it was always going to be difficult for Leatherwood.. The low voter turnout in Collierville and other eastern parts of the county made Leatherwood’s task impossible.

Blackburn faces Democrat Randy G. Morris on the Nov. 4 ballot.

Shelby County Charter Amendment #360
Yes  49,506   49.73%

No   50,043   50,27%

Closest contest of the night in Shelby County with a 537 vote margin and the highest turnout with 99,549 votes total.

This set of charter changes was to fix a legal problem noted in a recent Tennessee Supreme Court ruling. Another part of the package deal was increasing term limits for the county mayor and the county commission from two consecutive four year terms approved by voters in 1994 to three consecutive four year terms. The County Commission meets Monday to ponder whether it should offer another charter amendment on the Nov. 4 ballot that would fix the legal problem.

Shelby County Charter Amendment #361
Yes 65,548 68%
No 30,188 32%

This set of charter amendment includes provisions for recalling elected officials. It also establishes a new method for filling a vacancy in the office of County Mayor.

General Sessions Court Clerk
Otis Jackson 51,438 52%
Chris Turner 43,971 45%

The upset of the evening. Turner, the Republican nominee and the incumbent was seeking a fourth term. Jackson, the Democratic nominee, was making his fourth bid for county-wide office after coming close in a 2006 bid for County Clerk.

Trustee
Paul Mattila 54,734 57%
Ray Butler 29,977 31%

Mattila beats Butler in a race featuring an energetic and misleading campaign by M. LaTroy Williams in which Williams billed himself as the “real Democrat.” He was, in fact, an independent candidate garnering 8 percent of the vote. Mattila fills the remaining two years left in the term of office of the late Bob Patterson, a Republican. Mattila, a Democrat, worked with Patterson. Butler, the Republican, was also a friend of Patterson’s and the race amounted to who would best continue to operate the office as Patterson did.

Criminal Court Judge Div. 6
John Fowlkes 44,581 52%
Latonya Burrow 21,874 26%
Michael G. Floyd 12,071 14%
Claiborne H. Ferguson 6,240 7%

Fowlkes serves out the remaining six years left of the eight year term of office of Fred Axley who resigned from the bench shortly after winning re-election in 2006. Burrow finished a close second to Axley two years ago and again ran an energetic campaign this time around. But Fowlkes status in the legal community and his appointment to the bench by Gov. Phil Bredesen proved to be the advantage.

Assessor of Property
Cheyenne Johnson 59,637 60%
Bill Giannini 39,057 40%

Johnson, the Democratic nominee, easily beat Giannini, who is also doubling as local GOP chairman. Local Democrats keep the county-wide position in their column as voters go for the candidate endorsed by outgoing Democratic incumbent Rita Clark.

U.S. Senate
Democratic Primary
2,192 of 2,290 precincts reporting
Bob Tuke 54,613 32%
Gary G. Davis 37,193 22%
Mike Padgett 32,190 19%
Mark Clayton 30,359 18%
Kenneth Eaton 13,718 8%
Leonard Ladner 4,431 3%

These are the statewide results. Tuke got 42 percent of the Shelby County vote with Clayton finishing second. Tuke, the former state Democratic Party chairman, faces Republican incumbent Lamar Alexander, one of the most successful politicians in the history of the state, in the Nov. 4 general election.

Judicial Retention Races

All seven state appellate court judges, including two Tennessee Supreme Court justices, won their yes/no contests on the ballot across the state. That includes Tennessee Criminal Appeals Court Judge Camille McMullen of Millington who was just appointed to the bench in June by Gov. Phil Bredesen.

The Associated Press contributed to this story.

94. Cooper’s Foibles on Display During Ford Trial - Friday, May 16, 2008

Once the jury in the federal corruption trial of former Memphis City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. finished watching the recordings that are the centerpiece of the case this week, they got to know a lot more about the government informant behind the camera.

95. 14 Applicants File for Two Judicial Vacancies - Tuesday, May 13, 2008

Two vacancies in the western divisions of two state appeals courts have drawn a lot of interest from attorneys and judges in West Tennessee.

A total of 14 applicants filed with the Tennessee Judicial Selection Commission for both vacancies by Friday’s deadline.

96. Holder to be Tenn. Supreme Court's First Woman Chief Justice - Friday, May 02, 2008

The next chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court will be Memphis Justice Janice Holder - who will be the state Supreme Court's first woman chief justice.

Holder will replace William M. Barker, who announced this week he will retire effective Sept. 1. Barker told his fellow justices two years ago that he would retire soon, Justice Gary R. Wade told the Chattanooga Times Free Press. Wade said the justices selected Holder as the new chief justice then and there.

97. State Paid $1.1M to Lawmakers For Travel, Expenses in Q1 - Tuesday, April 15, 2008

NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee spent $1.13 million on lawmakers' expenses in the first quarter of 2008.

The expenses posted on the General Assembly's Web site cover travel costs, hotel accommodations at conferences and daily stipends called per diems. They do not include lawmakers' salaries.

98. Filing Deadline For Elections Is Thursday - Tuesday, April 01, 2008

A healthy voter turnout doesn't necessarily mean every race on the ballot gets the benefit. Politicos call it "ballot falloff." It means races such as those for president or mayor get voters to the polls. But those same voters might decide not to vote in the other races.

99. Archived Article - Tuesday, March 25, 2008

6101 Shelby Oaks Drive
Memphis, TN 38134
Loan Amount: $2.4 million

Sale Date: March 13, 2008

Buyer: Splendid Hospitality LLC

100. Proposed Tenn. Constitutional Amendment on Hunting Heads Back to House - Friday, February 29, 2008

NASHVILLE (AP) - A proposal to create constitutional protections for hunting in Tennessee is headed back to the House after the Senate passed a slightly changed version.

The Senate voted unanimously Thursday for a version that added protections for so-called traditional hunting methods as long as they target non-threatened species.