If you’re part of Generation X, you’ve not yet reached retirement age. However, you are likely in, or quickly approaching, your peak earning years. Now is the time to get serious about planning for retirement. Whether you’ve been stashing money away for the last 20 years or are just now beginning to save, the following tips can help you plan today for a wealthier retirement down the road.
1. Lower your taxes.
If you’re one of those people who only thinks about taxes as you approach the annual tax filing deadline, it’s time to make some changes. Proactive tax planning can have a big impact on your retirement savings. When done correctly and consistently, tax planning has the potential to save you a significant amount each year, which is money that can be used to help you fund a wealthier retirement. You’ll want to consider strategies such as tax loss harvesting, contributing to a health savings account, education planning for children, charitable giving, asset location, and timing of business income and deductions.
2. Shore up your retirement savings.
One of the biggest threats to many Gen Xers’ retirement security is “leaky” retirement planning. Just because your employer-sponsored retirement plan permits loans and withdrawals doesn’t mean it’s wise to take them. By taking money out of your retirement savings, even temporarily, you miss out on the benefit of compounding interest on that amount. Plus, early withdrawals are subject to taxes and penalties, which is money you’ll never get back.
The best strategy is to invest regularly into your employer-sponsored retirement plan at a level that maximizes your employer match while being sustainable over time. Save enough in an emergency account to cover three to six months of living expenses so that you don’t have to tap into your retirement savings in an unexpected situation.
3. Don’t miss out on growth opportunities.
While it’s wise to gradually shift to more conservative investment options as you near retirement, becoming too conservative may result in missed growth opportunities. Be sure to allocate a healthy portion of your portfolio to growth investments in order to continue enhancing the savings that will one day fund your retirement. Your wealth manager can help you determine an allocation that is in line with your risk tolerance, retirement goals, and time horizon while also meeting your income, protection, and growth objectives.
4. Eliminate debt.
Perhaps the best way to increase your retirement savings potential is by paying off outstanding debt and saving that would-be monthly debt payment toward retirement. Once your debt is paid off, you may be able to free up enough funds to establish a passive form of income, such as an investment property or high-dividend investment that provides recurrent income to help support you in retirement.
5. Optimize your employer benefits.
Not only are employer-sponsored retirement plans a great way to save for retirement, they also provide an added benefit of lowering your taxable income when you contribute on a pre-tax basis. At a minimum, be sure to contribute enough to your 401(k) or 403(b) to qualify for your employer’s full matching contribution. Beyond that, if you’re on the younger end of Generation X, consider contributing at least 10 percent to your retirement. If you’re on the older end of the generation, it might make sense to max out your savings by contributing 20 percent or more (up to the annual contribution limit).
6. Don’t forget about IRAs.
While employer-sponsored plans are a simple and effective way to save for retirement, it’s wise to diversify your savings by also contributing to IRAs. If you contribute pre-tax dollars to your 401(k), it might make sense to establish a Roth IRA, which will help diversify the tax status of your retirement income.
Gene Gard, CFA, CFP, CFT-I, is a Private Wealth Manager and Partner with Creative Planning. Creative Planning is one of the nation’s largest registered investment advisory firms providing comprehensive wealth management services to ensure all elements of a client’s financial life are working together, including investments, taxes, estate planning, and risk management. For more information or to request a free, no-obligation consultation, visit CreativePlanning.com.
Perla Kirkpatrick, Kathy and John Lyons, Ben Bolden, Michelle Bolden, and Jonas Bolden (Photos: Michael Donahue)
A rainy day is a good day to soak up some chili and jump into a tank of water. Special Olympics Greater Memphis obliged with its annual Bluff City Fire & Ice Chili Cook-Off & Polar Bear Plunge.
Amarion Tate and Amari FunchesKevin BrazzellChad and Graham CornwellEleanor Massey, Troy Ramsey, and Gloria RamseyJosh, Alice, Valerie, and Aggie Sparks
The event, held on February 16th at the Pipkin Building, featured 56 chili contestants, says Lisa M. Taylor, executive director of Special Olympics Greater Memphis.
Shannon Smith and Tim CrosasSpencer Stalnaker Jacob Frasure, Andrew Martin, Noah Burch, and Hunter StroudTim Griffin, Michael Thomas, Lonnie Hurt, Spencer Owens, Don Taylor, and Courtney BradleyJacob Dyer, Jerry Suzore, Josh Mayo, Michael Dyer, and Mark Wes
More than 500 people attended, Taylor says. “It was not our biggest one, crowd-wise, due to the weather,” she says.
But, she says, “With the weather being like it was, I think we did excellent.”
Rob, Ashley, and Llewyn ColemanAndy Demster, John Lunsford, and Chance NesterKimberly Tolbert and Hollis Moore
Then there were those people who wanted to get wet. They participated in the Polar Bear Plunge. “We were very lucky to have a break in the weather. They plunged into a pool we set up. We had around 85 people, including the U of M football players and three U of M volleyball players.”
Bryan Crow, Gray Clawson, and Emi PayneAlexis Michael, Chris Carrier, Cody Garbuzinski, Riley Kilgore, and Evan MichaelHenry Boggs, Alex Boggs, Reagan Boggs, Jenay Boggs, Lisa Farrah, and Thomas Boggs
But again, she says, “Weather cut the numbers.”
Knuckleheads Chili came in first place in the chili contest, which celebrated its 18th anniversary. This was the 29th Polar Bear Plunge.
Courtney Jones and Amy Bingham (Photo: Kristi Evans)
Oh Grate! is getting greater. Or “grater.”
They still use graters for the cheese on some of their frozen ready-to-heat meals, and sales of their Fiesta Sauce (formerly known as Tropical Dressing) as well as new innovations in their product lineup have been great, says Amy Bingham, co-owner with Courtney Jones of the store at 2028 West Poplar Avenue, Suite 104, in Collierville, Tennessee.
First the Fiesta Sauce: “It’s still going really well,” Bingham says. “We’re shipping it out all over the country.”
The sauce is based on the green dressing, a mustard-vinegar based salad dressing, that was served at the old Pancho’s Mexican Restaurants. “We missed the Pancho’s green sauce that everybody put on tacos and taco salads,” Bingham says.
Jones began making it when Pancho’s still had restaurants in Memphis. “I had made it for years at home,” she says. “Oftentimes it would be hard to find at Kroger. Once Pancho’s was sold, you could not find it any longer.”
It wasn’t difficult to unearth the original Pancho’s recipe. “Everybody likes to throw out the recipes. You can find them online. A copycat Pancho’s dressing.”
She made some changes to the original recipe, which she later had to adapt for shelf life and to make it in bulk while “trying to keep that quality as best as we could, true to the original sauce.”
“Next thing we knew our doors were blown off and everybody was here trying to get the green sauce.”
Sales of their Fiesta Sauce “went viral last year,” Bingham says.
They changed the name from “Tropical Dressing” to “Fiesta Sauce” last year because “people were confused about the flavors,” Bingham says. Was it salsa or tropical? Pancho’s referred to its sauce as “Tropicale Salad Dressing.”
But the “main thing that has really changed” at Oh Grate! is the inclusion of locally-made products in their store. “We kind of tapped into an audience of people who love food from Memphis.”
In addition to honing in on “the nostalgia from Pancho’s,” they wondered what else they could offer so people “could relive some of these Memphis memories.”
Charlie Vergos’ Rendezvous was at the top of their list. “We formed a partnership with Rendezvous, and we sell their products here at our store. We sell ribs, smoked sausage, all their sauces and seasonings. And that has been wildly successful.”
Not everybody can just hop in their car and drive an hour or so from Collierville to the Rendezvous at the last minute. “You’re just craving Rendezvous, but you’re not going to drive Downtown unless it’s a special occasion,” says Bingham.
They also began carrying products, including juices and meals, from RawGirls. “It’s all fresh, all tailored to meet a targeted need. So, the Charcoal Lemonade is for detox; Sinus Shot is best this time of year. Everybody’s got the sniffles. It’s packed with ginger and vitamin C, so that really enhances the effectiveness.”
Arbo’s Cheese Dip is another item. This was founder Andrew Arbogast’s answer to Pancho’s cheese dip after Pancho’s moved out of Memphis.
They sell the chips and white cheese dip from Las Delicias as well as the “top-notch toffee’” from 901 Bakehouse in Germantown.
And they carry the homemade sourdough bread and pizza dough from Southern Flourery No. 6 in Collierville, not to mention short bread cookies and pound cakes from Made From Scratch Cookie Company.
Their counters now include Memphis Grindhouse Coffee, Dancing Peppers salsa, and products from Brim’s Snack Foods, which makes several products in addition to its popular pork rinds.
A line of mustards, including hot and spicy flavors, from Harvest Gourmet in Cookeville, Tennessee, is their newest addition. They discovered it at Harvest Gourmet’s booth at the recent Mid-South Sports & Boat Show at Agricenter International. “We tasted their mustard and just fell in love with their products.”
They “made a pretty large purchase” and put the products in their store, Bingham says. “It happened so quickly and unexpectedly. Less than 24 hours and we had met with them and had their products on our shelves.”
Another new product — Southern Chocolate Chess Pie — originated closer to home. Jones’ daughter Maddox Huey “started making pies at home,” she says. “And, of course, we have the facility here to help her with that. One day she made a chocolate chess pie at home. I tell you, the whole family was blown away.”
More pie flavors are on the way. “She’s about to begin making a key lime pie for us.”
Bingham and Jones enjoy helping people get their businesses off the ground. “It’s hard to know where to start a business,” Bingham says. “We want to help others along. We have this retail space that people have kind of come to know in this small area. But it can give exposure to smaller businesses as well.”
Oh Grate! also has had “great collaborations” with established businesses like the Rendezvous. “We’ve learned from them.”
They’ve been able to “share, grow, and help each other.”
As for the Oh Grate! heat-and-serve meals, all of which are made on-site, Bingham says, “We cover the gamut.”
They make soups, sliders, and ready-to-eat dinners with different entrees, including chicken spaghetti, shrimp Alfredo, meatballs, and marinara. They also carry lunch and party items, including chicken salad and pimento cheese. “We are your one-stop shop for not having to cook.”
Last year, Oh Grate! introduced a new item: Energy Bites, which Jones describes as “little power balls,” including oatmeal, flax seed, peanut butter, honey, and chia seeds. “We’re now making hundreds and hundreds of energy balls.”
Some Oh Grate! products are available locally at High Point Grocery, South Point Grocery, and Cordelia’s Market. “We firmly believe in local,” Bingham says. “Local grocery stores are vital to our success as well.”
They recently began selling their products in North Mississippi stores “all the way down to Batesville,” including Piggly Wiggly.
Much of their success is “due to our amazing team,” Jones says. “We now have 17 people that work with us part-time. Everyone is part-time but me and Amy. None of this would be possible without them.”
What’s next for Oh Grate!? “I would say our most requested item is the Pancho’s hot dip recipe,” Bingham says. “That is what we get asked for quite often. I feel it would do quite nicely in our lineup.”
People just referred to it as “the hot dip,” Jones says.
Will that be on Oh Grate! shelves one day? “It’s something we are looking into,” Bingham says. “It takes a while to launch a product.”
But, Jones adds, “There’ve been some test batches.”
A series of information meetings and yard signs are speaking out against Memphis 3.0. (Photo: Toby Sells)
Editor’s note: Citywide planning, land use discussions, zoning, and the potential economics of it all are far too broad and dense to ever be covered in a single news story. (So are other considerations about income, race, and population loss.) Please consider this piece the beginning of our coverage on Memphis 3.0.
For this one, we’ll take you inside one of MidtownMemphis.org’s information meetings and share a Q&A rebuttal about it all from John Zeanah, director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development (DPD).
Memphis 3.0 will “sell out” Midtown neighborhoods to investors and businesses looking to cash in on (but maybe never really care about) the attractive communities residents in those places have built over decades.
That’s a very basic expression of the argument voiced for months now from MidtownMemphis.org. The volunteer group is fighting the plan with a series of information meetings, an online information hub, and yard signs — sure signs that a Midtown fight has gotten real.
Passed in 2019 and devised by former Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration, Memphis 3.0 is a document guiding the growth of Memphis. It’s up for its first-ever five-year renewal. A major strategy for sustainability in the plan has been to support some of the city’s anchors like Crosstown Concourse, Overton Square, and commercial areas around Cooper Street.
However, MidtownMemphis.org argues the locations for these anchors and the planned density that could surround them aren’t fair. For example, group members say a lot of density is planned for Midtown but very little for East Memphis.
Also, adding density to certain places around Midtown means multifamily homes, the group says, instead of single-family, owner-occupied homes. They fear profit-minded landlords will use 3.0 to work around zoning laws to create duplexes or quadplexes, won’t upkeep these properties, create transient tenants, and make neighborhoods less attractive for potential buyers. They say this could slowly destabilize neighborhoods into ghosts of their current selves.
“What we’re against — and we have history on our side — is destabilizing the neighborhood to support Crosstown,” said MidtownMemphis.org volunteer Robert Gordon, who has spearheaded the battle against 3.0. “[The plan] is going to wreck Crosstown, wreck the neighborhood, and, consequently, wreck the city. And if you don’t believe me, go back to Midtown in 1969. Go back to Midtown in 1974. Go back to Midtown when it was zoned like the [Memphis 3.0] future land use planning map envisions zoning.”
All of it, they say, could lead to a showdown at Memphis City Hall next year as council members review the changes for a vote.
However, John Zeanah, director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development, said the 3.0 plan won’t do what MidtownMemphis.org fears it will do.
“The goal is to make sure that our community has healthy, stable anchors that are supported by healthy, stable neighborhoods,” Zeanah said. “The suggestions that we would take extreme actions to destabilize neighborhoods is really puzzling. It doesn’t come from anything that we’re saying as a part of our meetings. It doesn’t come from anything the plan is saying.”
Nearly 60 people gathered for a MidtownMemphis.org Memphis 3.0 meeting earlier this month. (Photo: Toby Sells)
Inside a MidtownMemphis.org 3.0 meeting
A dreary, cold, wet February night was not enough to stop a crowd from sloshing through puddles to hear about how the Memphis 3.0 plan could “sell out our neighborhood,” as the signs say. Nearly 60 people gathered for a MidtownMemphis.org 3.0 meeting earlier this month at Friends For All.
MidtownMemphis.org has been holding meetings like these since September. Other info sessions — six in total — have been organized at Otherlands Coffee Bar, the Cooper-Young Community Association building, and the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library. Gordon said it was in January that planing officials stopped working with MidtownMemphis.org on the 3.0 issue.
At the latest February meeting, Gordon took the stage before a slideshow projected on a screen behind him. He described MidtownMemphis.org as a “sort of neighborhood association for neighborhood associations,” meaning his group meets monthly with Midtown neighborhood groups from Central Gardens, Cooper-Young, and more. MidtownMemphis.org also plants trees around Midtown and oversees the community garden next to Huey’s Midtown.
Gordon told the crowd he entered public planning discussions as a NIMBY (not in my backyard), concerned that the Poplar Art Lofts plan in 2019 would push noise and exhaust onto those enjoying Overton Park. This led him to the MidtownMemphis.org organization and he’s been a volunteer with the group ever since.
Gordon described the 3.0 plan as a “city guide” and a “North Star” for Memphis-area planning efforts. The plan’s motto, he said, reverses the sprawl strategies of years past and embraces the idea to “build up, not out.” While the motto is the essence of the plan, Gordon called it “quite misleading.”
One critical foundation of the Memphis 3.0 plan is where that growth inside the city’s footprint should happen. The plan says that growth should happen around anchors. These anchors, picked with the help of residents, are usually commercial areas like Overton Square, Crosstown Concourse, Cooper-Young, and others.
To Gordon, city planners dropped a compass point on these anchors and drew a circle around them. Inside those circles is where the 3.0 plan wants to grow, he said. This is a critical foundation of MidtownMemphis.org’s argument against the 3.0 plan, with Gordon saying, “I’m not alone in thinking that’s a bad way to make plans.”
“So, you may have bought your home in a single-family neighborhood, but the future land use planning map sees in the future … a change to a more dense kind of neighborhood,” Gordon told the crowd. “One of our big issues with [3.0] is right here at the core of it: the anchors. We don’t agree that an anchor necessarily warrants this kind of density. Nor do we agree with what are called ‘anchors.’ For example, let’s just point out, Overton Park is not an anchor.”
The anchor model and the density projections that come with it are brush strokes too broad to paint the intricacies of planning something as complex as Midtown neighborhoods, Gordon said. This is seen at a macro level in the plan as the city is divvied up into 14 planing zones. In this, Midtown, the Medical Center, and Downtown are merged into one zone called “Core City.”
“I think that is a mistake because Midtown is residential housing, and Downtown and the Medical Center are not,” Gordon says. “So, let’s start by saying those should be separated.”
But Gordon easily shifts into the micro: the dense, complex, nitty-gritty of 3.0 that could allow single-family neighborhoods to legally be chopped into quadplexes, new units built where they can’t be now and, he says, destabilize Midtown neighborhoods.
The density models from anchor planning in 3.0 are the easiest way for a developer to create multifamily in a single-family zone, he said. They’ll pay “professional convincers,” basically development lobbyists at Memphis City Hall, to speak to planning boards like the Land Use Control Board or the Board of Adjustment and ask for a special zoning change on property from single family to multifamily.
“This professional convincer is going to go in there armed with information from Memphis 3.0 and say, ‘This is what the city wants,’” he said. “So, in short order, your single-family neighborhood is going to begin to show multifamily buildings. And people who are looking for houses to buy are going to go, ‘Wait a minute. I remember this as a single-family neighborhood. What’s that four-plex doing there?’”
While the process may move slowly, he said, it could be a deciding factor for potential Midtown homeowners who might not want to gamble their biggest investment “on a neighborhood that’s in flux.”
A neighborhood could get multifamily zoning even if it’s not in one of those anchor density zones, Gordon said. The Memphis 3.0 plan designates some entire streets for higher density, regardless of where they lie, he said. So, even if your neighborhood passes all the other tests, a developer could use the street designation as an argument for, say, a four-plex on a street. Later, another developer could come in wanting the same thing nearby because there’s already one across the street.
A third way Gordon told crowd members a neighborhood could get density through 3.0 is from degree of change. He joked it was the “dreaded degree of change” because it was harder to explain. The term, he said, basically means how money gets into a neighborhood. The 3.0 plan outlines three categories, he said. In it, the city works alone or with developers to fuel projects in certain neighborhoods, based on the need, and that could mean high-density housing.
“If you’re in a ‘nurture’ neighborhood, the city’s going to throw a lot of money at you,” Gordon said. “If you’re in an ‘accelerate’ neighborhood, the city’s going to throw some money at you but they’re going to try and get private investment to come in.
“If you’re in a ‘sustain’ neighborhood, then the city’s is going to say that private investors are going to take care of that.”
Memphis 3.0’s future land use planning map envisions denser neighborhoods. (Photo: Courtesy Memphis and Shelby County DPD)
A contentious question of motivation
The Q&A portion of the meeting found a raw spot in discussions around Memphis 3.0 and the density topic in general. The basic question: Are single-family housing proponents seeking to bar low-income people from their neighborhoods?
Abby Sheridan raised the point gently at the MidtownMemphis.org meeting. The reason she and her family moved close to Crosstown, she said, was to be within walking distance of the Concourse, for the density. She went to the meeting to see what the opposition to 3.0 was about, she said.
“Don’t be afraid of density,” she told the crowd. “Just because we allow for different types of housing doesn’t mean it’s an automatic guarantee.
“I’ve lived in multi-unit neighborhoods for most of my adult life. They are thriving, vibrant communities.
“If we, as Evergreen [residents], believe that diversity is our strength, y’all are really showing your colors tonight.”
The comment sucked the air from the room that was quickly filled with side chatter, sighs, and low gasps. Emily Bishop, a MidtownMemphis.org volunteer, responded, saying owner-occupied homes stabilized Cooper-Young in the late ’80s when she bought her home (once a duplex, she said) there.
“The businesses were nonexistent in Cooper-Young,” Bishop said. “There was one Indochina restaurant. [The neighborhood] was light industrial at best.
“There was no zoning change that brought density back. What makes a neighborhood thrive are owner-occupied homes with people who get involved, who do the code enforcement work, who get rid of slumlords, and who support the local businesses.”
In all, Bishop said Memphis doesn’t have a housing shortage; it has an affordable housing shortage.
“And there again,” Sheridan said, “what I’m hearing you say is … ‘not in our neighborhood.’”
Gordon jumped in to cool off the topic by saying that MidtownMemphis.org really is simply in favor of doing smaller plans for distinct neighborhoods.
Joe Ozment spoke plainly.
“I’ve been doing criminal defense in this city for 33 years and I’ve seen what’s happened in areas like Hickory Hill and Cordova when you add density,” he said. “We don’t want that in Midtown.”
Jerred Price, president of the Downtown Neighborhood Association, and his board attended the meeting to “support the neighbors.” He and the board agreed that Downtown should be a separate planning bloc from Midtown. He said the anchor-and-compass method “shouldn’t be a strategy for development.”
Dropping “one of those special, little circle-drawing thingamajiggers” at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital would mean high density for the single-family neighborhoods like Uptown, he said. But higher density could be welcomed on the other side of the interstate there because it’s in the Downtown core.
“So, even for us, those circles don’t make any sense of our communities,” Price said. “We stand with you on that.”
Asked about the timeline of the Memphis 3.0 proposal, Gordon said public meetings will continue through this year. Revised plans with that public input would then be published. Then, the Memphis City Council would vote on them, likely in 2026.
“If the future land use planning map hasn’t changed,” he said, “we will continue to marshal forces and the idea will be a showdown at city council.
“We would bring many citizens up there to protest a map that is not properly planned and does not look at what is stable in Midtown, is determined to destabilize Midtown for the benefit of commercial anchors, and is giving a free pass to other parts of town.”
Q&A with John Zeanah
John Zeanah is the director of the Memphis and Shelby County Division of Planning and Development. He said overarching city plans like Memphis 3.0 are nothing new; they’re even mandated for cities in certain states.
Among those plans, Memphis 3.0 stands out, Zeanah said. It has won awards from the American Planning Association and the Congress for the New Urbanism. Memphis 3.0 is the city’s first comprehensive plan since 1981.
We asked him to respond to the movement against the 3.0 plan, which was authored by his office. — Toby Sells
Memphis Flyer: What do you make of the arguments about 3.0 from MidtownMemphis.org? John Zeanah: Memphis 3.0 was adopted six years ago. So, when is it going to do those things [that MidtownMemphis.org argues] if it hasn’t already?
They’re saying the plan is up for a five-year review. We’re undergoing our first five-year plan update now. One of the things that we’re doing as a part of the five-year plan update … is conducting a comprehensive look at the zoning map and understanding how well our zoning works with [Memphis 3.0].
I think part of the misunderstanding is the claim that we would necessarily rezone areas, according to the plan, to the most intense use or the most intense zoning district that could be conceived. And that’s not the case.
First of all, [Memphis 3.0] is general in nature. It — and the future land use map that they are so worried about — is meant to be general, with a generalized land use map.
I think there’s some misunderstanding about whether the future land use map is calling for all these new things to happen. It’s an expression of what’s existing today. In some cases, it’s a mix of both.
Suffice to say, as we are going through the five-year plan update and we’re thinking about how zoning is a tool to implement the plan, our orientation is not to just apply the most-intense zoning district. There are changes to zoning that may not always be in residential areas. In fact, I’d say most of the zoning changes that will end up being recommended are in some of our commercial areas and commercial corridors.
The goal is to make sure that our community has healthy, stable anchors that are supported by healthy, stable neighborhoods. The suggestions that we would take extreme actions to destabilize neighborhoods are really puzzling. It doesn’t come from anything that we’re saying as a part of our meetings. It doesn’t come from anything the plan is saying.
They’ve said developers could use the future land use planning map as another arrow in their quiver. They could argue that while multi-family homes may not be allowed in a zone now, they could point to the suggestion in Memphis 3.0 and make a case for their project at city hall. One cannot simply point to a generalized land use map and say, “Well, because this area around an anchor is a mixed-use type, I should be entitled to do the most intense thing that is part of this mix.” That’s no. 1. And no. 2: The plan does not have the authority to entitle that. That’s the role of zoning.
So, if you live in a neighborhood that is predominantly single-family and your zoning is single-family detached, and it is a stable neighborhood, there is no reason for the city to propose changing the zoning for the neighborhood. You are the healthy, stable neighborhood that is helping to support the anchor nearby. That is a good thing. That’s what we want to help preserve.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young opened an Ask Me Anything (AMA) thread on the Memphis subreddit over the weekend. His answers were to be posted after press time. Questions centered around the Memphis Area Transit Authority, the potholes and trash on Airways to and from the airport, drive-out tags, and more. A major focus of questions, though, was on Elon Musk and his Memphis super computer’s environmental impact.
Horse Thief
Posted to Facebook by Shelby Farms Stables
A stolen horse was returned to Shelby Farms Stables last week after a brazen daylight theft left stable workers tracking the animal and its thief down the Shelby Farms Greenline. Pancho was returned after the stable’s Facebook post about the theft blew up, as did a TV news spot on the ordeal.
Dammit Gannett
The Commercial Appeal was on a hot streak of typos and errors last week, all captured on the All News Is Local Facebook group. One headline told of the “schoold voucher bill.” Another wondered if “Memphis VA wokers” had been laid off. Susan Adler Thorp roasted the Memphis paper’s post about where to get the best king cake in Knoxville.
Thaddeus Matthews (Photo: Wikimedia Commons via YouTube | Shawn Prez)
Perhaps the most surprising news to come from the revelation Monday of the death of the pastor/broadcaster/activist/firebrand Thaddeus Matthews was that Matthews had long had his own Wikipedia page, a mark of temporal renown that has eluded many another ambitious and outwardly more seemly Memphians.
In advance of his passing at the age of 66, the much-consulted online biography service had included Matthews as “‘The Cussing Pastor,’ … an American pastor and broadcaster, who gained popularity for using profanity in his preaching.” And it went on to cite several examples of Matthews’ notoriety in that regard, including an Instagram video entitled “I Don’t Give a Shit Saturday,” which ended up being sampled in a song by the rapper/DJ Madlib.
Anyone who followed the ups and downs of Matthews’ local activity would surely regard that as pretty tame stuff. In his various guises, including a self-produced streaming video service that was the guilty secret of many a local pol-watcher, Matthews forsook any and all niceties in his characterizations of whomever he happened to be feuding with — and that would include many an unlucky political celebrity, including W.W. Herenton, the city’s former mayor for almost two decades.
For a lengthy spell, Matthews devoted himself to daily fulminations against the mayor and basically appointed himself unofficial chairman of a variety of madcap efforts to have Herenton impeached, recalled, tarred and feathered, or, one way or another, turned out of office.
None of that had much relation to anything realistic, of course, but it surely had nuisance value and went on for quite a while until Mayor Herenton hit upon the remedy for all this vituperation: He took out paid advertising on Matthews’ show, and that was enough to change his profile overnight into that of a heroic champion of the people.
Much has been made in recent years of the prevalence of “bogus ballots,” broadsheets that would turn up in an election year, featuring endorsements of political candidates who had paid this or that publisher for the privilege.
Thaddeus Matthews, on his broadcast show, was that sort of thing, writ large. You paid up, or else.
And a select few of his declared enemies could count on being the subjects of a barrage of scatological and obscene accusations that knew no bounds.
For all that, and despite brushes with the law for such things as harassment of girlfriends and putting pornography on the air, Matthews developed something of a reputation in political circles as a scoop artist. He knew where a lot of bodies were buried.
He could even turn the tables on himself. Even after the onset of his final illness, he allegedly self-posted a video showing himself deep-throating a dildo.
Thaddeus Matthews was an American original, and Wikipedia didn’t know the half of it.
• It is a well-worn fact that state Senator Brent Taylor took on two primary named adversaries in his self-serving vendetta against the local law enforcement establishment (aka “Make Memphis Matter”) — General Sessions Court Judge Bill Anderson and Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy.
It therefore becomes something of an irony that Anderson, who has been forced into early retirement at least partially due to Taylor’s nonstop attacks, will be succeeded on the bench by a Mulroy protege, his former University of Memphis law student Taylor Bachelor, who has been serving as an assistant DA and on Monday was named to Anderson’s former position by a vote of the Shelby County Commission.
Mulroy’s take: “We considered her quite the catch. She’s been on board for about six or eight months or so, working in the gangs-and-drug unit. I’m sorry to lose her, but I’m happy for her. It’s always nice when a former student makes good.”
• After years of attempting delays, former state Senator Brian Kelsey has surrendered and is serving a federal prison term for his conviction on campaign finance violations.
Toilet paper shoppers in Kagoshima Prefecture in southern Japan have a new option, GoodNewsNetwork.org reported on Jan. 14: rolls made from used diapers and other hygiene products. The cities of Shibushi and Osaki worked together to recycle disposable diapers starting in April 2024. The used items are sanitized, bleached, and shredded into a pulp to be mixed with recycled paper, to the tune of 30,000 rolls in the first two months of production. They’re sold at $2.70 for a dozen rolls. “Please support this eco-friendly product, which aims to promote a sustainable society by reusing local resources,” said Takumi Obo, spokesperson for the Osaki Municipal Government’s SDGs Promotion Council.
Irony
On Dec. 18 at the Family Dollar store in Mulberry, Florida, two shoplifters worked together to pull off a cleaning products heist, the Miami Herald reported on Jan. 10. The Polk County Sheriff’s Office, referring to the couple as Mr. Clean and Ms. Dookie until an arrest is made, hatched a plan to distract employees. “The man walked around the store gathering nearly $500 worth of merchandise [like lots of Gain, Tide and Clorox products],” officers said, “whilst the woman … [used] the restroom, without going to the restroom.” While employees cleaned up the mess, Mr. Clean walked past the registers and out to a Ford van, where Ms. Dookie joined him, and they drove away. The odd couple are still at large.
Unclear on the Concept
Hampton, Virginia, police officer J’ron Harry lost his job after a less-than-satisfying encounter with a prostitute on Dec. 30, WAVY-TV reported. Harry met 20-year-old Alexus “Dream” Copeland on an app and arranged to meet her that day at an apartment in Virginia Beach, police say. They agreed to shower together, but Copeland never came into the bathroom, instead lifting Harry’s phone, keys, wallet, and car (with police credentials). Police were able to track down the car in Norfolk; Copeland told them Harry had given her permission to borrow his car, but she was charged with grand larceny, credit card fraud, and prostitution. Harry was not charged but was terminated on Jan. 7.
Wrong Place, Wrong Time
A coyote “made a mistake” on Jan. 13 and ended up in the refrigerated case of the produce section at an Aldi store in Chicago, WLS-TV reported. It was sequestered behind a selection of fine cheeses after roaming around the parking lot just minutes earlier. “It picked an odd location,” said Stan Gehrt with the Cook County Coyote Project. “They do this sometimes. They’re trying to hide from us.” Gehrt said many of the animals who end up in a sketchy situation are those who haven’t found a mate yet. The coyote will be evaluated by the Flint Creek Wildlife Rehabilitation group, which will determine whether it can be released back into the wild.
Least Competent Criminal
Victoria state police in Australia released a video on Jan. 9 in an effort to identify two would-be arsonists who bungled their crime, Yahoo! News reported. In the video, two people in dark hoodies attempted to set fire to a Melbourne fast-food outlet on Christmas morning, but one of them became engulfed in flames. The footage shows the person removing their fiery trousers and running away bare-cheeked; the other person was seemingly unharmed.
Mistaken Identity
As a group of schoolchildren walked home on Jan. 13 in Syracuse, New York, Onondaga County Sheriff’s deputies approached the kids and said one girl, wearing a pink jacket and camo pants, was the suspect in a car theft nearby. WSTM-TV reported that another child started recording video as the 11-year-old girl and her friends denied the accusation and deputies put her in handcuffs. They showed the kids a picture of the suspect and said, “Girl, you gonna tell me this ain’t you?” Eventually, one deputy noticed that the suspect had longer hair and “apologized,” saying, “I’m sorry about it, but you matched the description pretty clearly.” The sheriff’s department reviewed the situation and claimed the detainment was “lawful and reasonable,” but Sheriff Toby Shelley met with the girl’s mother afterward and called their conversation “productive.”
The theme of the 2024 Oxford Film Festival is “Stories That Shape Us.” The annual festival runs from Thursday, Feb. 27 to Sunday, March 2, with screenings taking place at the Malco Oxford Commons Cinema in Oxford, MS.
“Mississippi has always been a place where stories flourish,” says Oxford Film Festival Board President Mike Mitchell. “From music to literature to film, our state is a cornerstone of storytelling. That’s why, this year, we’re thrilled to amplify the creative voices that are putting Mississippi’s stories on the global stage.”
The opening night film is Chasing Rabbits, which is the directorial debut of novelist Michael Farris Smith. The McComb, Mississippi native has published seven novels, including Nick, a prequel to F. Scott Fitzgerald’s The Great Gatsby; and 2023’s Salvage This World, a sci fi novel set in the climate change-ravaged Gulf Coast of the future. Chasing Rabbits is a neo-noir film about a truck stop waitress who seeks revenge after her home is vandalized, and, in true noir fashion, things get out of control. 2017 Memphis Film Prize winner McGhee Monteith stars, along with Davis Coen and Stephen Garrett.
“A House for My Mother” (Courtesy OFF)
Opening the opening night program is “A House for My Mother.” Directors Pilar Tempane and Dr. Benjamin Nero. The short documentary traces the 88-year-old Dr. Nero’s life, from growing up in segregated Greenwood to becoming the first Black dentist from the University of Kentucky to his lifelong friendship with Morgan Freeman.
On Friday, the doc A Life In Blues: James “Super Chikan” Johnson gives the audience a big dose of the ol’ down home. Johnson is a Clarksdale, Mississippi native who is still slinging the blues at age 73. Vancouver-based filmmaker Mark Rankin and producer Brian Wilson bring the story to house rockin’ life.
On Saturday, March 1 is Stella Stevens: The Last Starlet. Andrew Stevens produced and directed this documentary about his mother, the Mississippi-born and Memphis-raised actress who stared in more than 50 films and television series, including Girls! Girls! Girls! opposite Elvis Presley. Stevens nearly 50 year career spanned the waning days of the studio system and the New Hollywood of the 1970s, appearing alongside everyone from John Cassavettes to Jerry Lewis.
After more than 60 films screen, the awards ceremony will be held on Saturday night. The winning films will receive encore screenings on Sunday.
For details about the entire program, individual tickets, and passes, visit the Ox-Film website.
The woman who sought to steal Graceland from the Presley family pleaded guilty to fraud charges in court Tuesday.
According to court documents, Lisa Jeanine Findley, 53, of Kimberling City, Missouri, orchestrated a scheme to conduct a fraudulent sale of Graceland — using a fake company, forged documents, and false court filings.
Findley falsely claimed that Elvis Presley’s daughter had pledged Graceland as collateral for a loan that she failed to repay before her death. Findley threatened to foreclose on Graceland and auction it to the highest bidder if Presley’s family did not pay or settle the claim against the estate.
In court, Findley pleaded guilty to one count of mail fraud. She is scheduled to be sentenced on June 18th and faces a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison. A federal district court judge will determine any sentence.
Elon Musk. Photo by Trevor Cokley / Public Domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Members of the Memphis community have continuously voiced their opposition to Elon Musk’s xAI supercomputer project, and the approval of a land deal along with recent news of the city’s investment into the Colossus Water Recycle Plant have amplified public dissent.
When the xAI deal was announced, community leaders and advocates openly opposed the project due to its negative environmental impact and disproportionate effect on minority communities.
Groups such as the Southern Environmental Law Center; Young, Gifted & Green; and Memphis Community Against Pollution (MCAP) have written letters openly opposing the project, and these concerns have only grown louder.
Today, Mayor Young posted on Facebook that city council approved land acquisition for the future Colossus Water Recycle Plant, an $80 million “investment in green infrastructure to protect our aquifer and safeguard our water for the long term.”
“This is a big win for our entire community,” Young said.
According to the group Protect Our Aquifer, the Colossus Water Recycle Plant will be used to “reduce aquifer usage” of the Colossus supercomputer and “other nearby industries.” The plant will be placed in Southwest Memphis at the former Electrolux facility.
The mayor went on to say that environmental concerns were a “top priority” from the beginning, and that when the electrical grid is experiencing high demand, xAI will move to “100 percent battery power.”
“We have an opportunity to position Memphis as a leader in AI and technology, but we have to do it responsibly,” Young said. “Together, we’re charting a path towards a sustainable future that protects our aquifer and ensures this investment benefits all Memphians for generations to come.”
While the mayor’s post seemed to address the looming environmental concerns, citizens are still not satisfied with the city’s decision.
“This is a very bad business decision,” a Facebook user by the name Richard Faulkner said. “This was blatant disrespect to all Black people in this city.”
Local drag performer and community activist Moth Moth Moth (aka Mothie) is encouraging people to write to Mayor Young regarding “urgent concerns” on the project through an email campaign. Mothie has provided an email prompt on their social media account.
“We stand at a critical apex of our city’s history, ” Mothie said. “As the world changes all around us, let’s future-proof Memphis against authoritarianism and environmental ruin. The people of Memphis are bigger and more powerful than a lame computer will ever be. Invest instead with the incredible people of Memphis and you will see this city blossom.”
These comments come a week after the Memphis City Council approved an $820K land deal for the xAI facility, which is projected to use over 10 million gallons of wastewater a day.
Over the weekend, The Tennessee Holler posted a video of last Tuesday’s council meeting showing the discussion between xAI representative Brent Mayo, who was joined by Mayor Paul Young during the presentation.
The video shows Councilwoman Yolanda Cooper-Sutton saying that she wanted more transparency for the citizens of the city.
“We want to do good business with people,” Cooper-Sutton said. “Your boss doesn’t do good business.”
Councilman JB Smiley Jr. immediately intervened, advising Cooper-Sutton to stop and saying he would mute her microphone — which he eventually did. He said his reasoning was because the council’s rules of decorum do not allow “personal attacks from members of [the] body.”
“We have a situation here,” Councilwoman Pearl Eva Walker said. “I say this kindly and respectfully, but there is a lot of pushback in the community. Nobody says to us as a body how we should address that or handle that.”
The video, which was reposted by Memphis social media account @unapollogeticallyMemphis, allowed space for more users to echo these sentiments in the comments.
“Memphians, DO NOT TRUST ELON MUSHHEAD,” a user by the name @Randy.booktravel commented. “I do not remember any public information provided for this project he all of a sudden decided to put here.”
