Tennessee and other states are urging the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to take action against those who sell “counterfeit, unapproved and contaminated weight loss drugs.”
A press release from Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti said he has led a “38-state and territory bipartisan coalition” that is asking the agency to regulate the sale of drugs with weight loss side effects. These drugs include Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro and Zepbound.
The FDA has addressed concerns for these “unapproved” drugs. They noted that these are “options for weight loss” but noted that illegitimate versions “do not undergo the FDA’s review for safety” among other testing.
A letter from the coalition to the FDA noted that while the states have a role in “protecting their own customers,” they need the agency to regulate counterfeits that originate outside of the United States.
“With its broad jurisdiction and resources the FDA is uniquely positioned to lead the campaign against dangerous adulterations of GLP-1 medications in the U.S. drug supply,” the letter said. “We urge the FDA to exercise its statutory authority through investigations, inspections, and enforcement actions to safeguard consumers.”
Skrmetti noted that while many rely on these drugs for health reasons, there are people taking advantage of this need. The Attorney General said high demand and “tight supply” have created a lucrative market for counterfeits. He added that not only have these bogus products not been tested but pose a threat to the country’s “national security” and they have “infiltrated the U.S. supply chain.”
“These counterfeit or copycat drugs can be contaminated through shady supply chains running from China, Turkey, and other overseas suppliers, or they can contain entirely different drugs manufactured and packaged to look like GLP-1 drugs,” Skrmetti said in a statement. “We are asking the FDA to lead efforts to safeguard our American supply chain and to work with other federal and state agencies to stop bad actors from producing counterfeit drugs.”
In a consumer protection warning against these items — known as GLP-1 drugs — Skrmetti mentioned that online marketing and social media have helped their spread. While these sellers advertise these products for a “fraction of the price” they could be offering an “ineffective alternative.”
“Online health/wellness companies might try to bypass prescription requirements by offering to sell the active ingredient of GLP-1 drugs (semaglutide or tirzepatide) and marketing them as ‘not for human consumption’ or for ‘research purposes only,’” the warning said. The websites, however, will often provide consumers with tips on how to use the active ingredients to make their own versions of GLP-1 drugs at home.
The letter to the FDA said that the fake items only offer “active ingredients,” which creates additional issues for consumers. Users are then required to supplement the medication themselves, without the proper knowledge on how to administer injections.
“Patient error in self-dosing has contributed to the dramatic increase in reports of semaglutide overdoses in the U.S. Consumers may also expose themselves to danger by improperly storing active ingredients or using non-sterile equipment,” the letter said.
A.D. Weaver as George Washington in Hamilton (Photo: Joan Marcus)
A crash course in historical irony was on hand last night, as my son and I trundled into the Orpheum to see Hamilton: An American Musical. While the cast of the celebrated musical sang and rapped their way through the circumstances and ideals upon which this country was founded, a shadowy Trump administration and its unelected advisor, Elon Musk, had just frozen funds for the National Endowment for Democracy in direct violation of the 1974 Impoundment Control Act (which mandates that funds appropriated by Congress be distributed to their proper recipients). Meanwhile, the United States apparently abandoned all commitments to erstwhile ally Ukraine. Authoritarian states like China and Russia were delighted by both moves. And, with characteristic hubris, Trump tweeted “LONG LIVE THE KING,” referring to himself. Welcome to another day in Upside-Down World, where a supine Republican Congress continues to give the executive branch free rein.
Meanwhile, the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) diverted all funding originally targeting underserved communities only two weeks ago. Instead, those monies shall now go to projects honoring the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. That, perhaps, is the most chilling irony: the NEA celebrating a revered historical document as a kind of fetish while caving in to principles that defy its very intent.
It was not always thus. As Hamilton creator Lin-Manuel Miranda told CBS News in 2017, without the NEA he might never have had a career at all.
“My first musical was workshopped at the O’Neill Musical Theatre Center, which is partly funded by the NEA,” he said. “But that’s not even the real story. The real story is the NEA funds things in all 50 states. They are the supplement when arts programs get cut. They fund reading programs between parents and young children in Kentucky. They fund, you know, educational initiatives all over the state, all over the United States. So, when we talk about the NEA, we’re talking about a very small amount of money that does get an enormous return on its investment in terms of what it gets out of our citizens.”
How could one not imagine President Trump’s royal ambitions whenever Hamilton‘s farcical character of King George III (Justin Matthew Sargent) appeared, full of imperious condescension, the perfect foil for the musical’s American patriots? It was enough to give this audience member chills, a bracing reminder of this country’s origins.
The Orpheum has always championed Miranda’s 2015 musical, having been the first theater to bring Hamilton to Tennessee in 2019, then again in 2021. And while those touring productions were stellar, the new touring production, at the Orpheum until March 2nd, hits differently. Suddenly, it seems more necessary than ever.
From the beginning, Hamilton was a shot across the bow for diversity, equity, and inclusion. Its central conceit was to recast the country’s white, propertied “Founding Fathers” as multi-ethnic players fired with the grit and grind of hip hop culture and the soaring emotions of an R&B ballad. And, as Miranda told the New York Times after its opening, “Our cast looks like America looks now, and that’s certainly intentional. It’s a way of pulling you into the story and allowing you to leave whatever cultural baggage you have about the founding fathers at the door.”
Indeed, the musical’s staunchly pro-immigrant ethos is a heartening reminder that Trump is not our king. This was abundantly clear last night, when, during the “Yorktown (The World Turned Upside Down)” scene, after the Marquis de Lafayette (Jared Howelton) says the word “immigrants,” and Hamilton (Michael Natt) joins him in saying, “We get the job done,” there were enthusiastic cheers and whoops in the audience. Clearly, I was not the only one who’s spirits were bolstered.
Natt, as a person of color, perfectly embodied the idealism and the drive of his character, delivering the rhymes and raps — sometimes derived from actual historical texts — with understated aplomb, as did his more aggressive foil, Jimmie “JJ” Jeter as Aaron Burr. Lauren Mariasoosay, of South Asian ancestry, masterfully inhabited the unique mix of Colonial-era decorum and emotionalism of Eliza Hamilton, especially in the anguish she conveys at the show’s final moment, just before the house goes dark. And perhaps none captured the play’s inclusive spirit more than the regal A.D. Weaver as George Washington, who expressed all the gravitas that the role demands.
Washington’s repudiation of demands that he become the young nation’s new king, insisting instead on mounting an election for his successor, was a compelling beacon of hope in these dark times, when an American president dares call himself king and jokes about never needing elections again. In matter-of-factly expressing, with new urgency, what once seemed to be this nation’s imperfectly executed yet fundamental principles — a respect for diversity, the peaceful transfer of power, and the rule of law — Hamilton preserves the ideals that we’ve thus far taken for granted and offers the possibility that they haven’t been forgotten.
Back in 2016, newly elected Vice President Mike Pence attended a performance of Hamilton that caused quite a stir when Brandon Dixon, the actor playing Burr, stepped out to share some thoughts with the audience and Pence after the curtain call. If those words rang true then, they are even more critical today, as all of the first Trump administration’s excesses are amplified beyond belief. See Hamilton if you can, take your sons and daughters, and when you do, remember Dixon’s reminder to Pence:
We, sir, are the diverse America who are alarmed and anxious that your new administration will not protect us, our planet, our children, our parents — or defend us and uphold our inalienable rights, sir. But we truly hope that this show has inspired you to uphold our American values and work on behalf of all of us. All of us.
Memphis’ Cxffeeblack has announced a partnership with COMOCO Cotton, a sustainable textile company, to release a limited-edition T-shirt with the phrase “God Don’t Make No Junk. Cxffee Don’t Need No Cream” printed across the front. This partnership, in turn, has created what they say is COMOCO’s and the world’s first Black-owned cotton supply chain.
“This collaboration is about more than a product. It’s about shifting the narrative — reclaiming what was once stolen and turning it into a tool for our collective liberation,” Bartholomew Jones, hip-hop artist, educator, and co-founder of Cxffeeblack, said in a press release.
“Coffee’s a $465 billion industry, and it’s the most traded good for third-world countries after oil and is the most drunk liquid on the planet after water,” Jones said in a previous interview with the Flyer. “Amidst all of those things, the people who discovered coffee, which are people in Africa, receive less than 1 percent of that revenue.”
Bartholomew Jones and Stephen Satterfield, owner of COMOCO Cotton (Photo: Courtesy Bartholomew Jones)
Cotton, likewise, is another historically charged material for its role in slavery and sharecropping. “COMOCO is helping to reframe that narrative and reclaim cotton as a source of pride, empowerment, and prosperity,” its website reads, as the business works exclusively with Black farmers to address “the historical and ongoing marginalization of Black farmers and farms.”
In this way, as the press release states, “Through this partnership, coffee and cotton, once tools of oppression, are transformed into symbols of resilience and creativity, owned and driven by Black hands.”
The cotton T-shirts are dyed with the coffee company’s Guji Mane, sourced directly from Ethiopian farms. These shirts are limited only to those who invest or return to invest in Cxffeeblack’s WeFunder, the goal of which is to build a permanent headquarters as a community space and to establish the world’s first all-Black coffee supply chain connecting Africa to Memphis. Recently, the company has celebrated passing its halfway point to $1.2 million on capital raised.
“Investing in this collaboration means investing in a future where Black ownership is not the exception — it’s the standard,” Stephen Satterfield, owner of COMOCO Cotton and host of Netflix’s High on the Hog: How African American Cuisine Transformed America. (Satterfield met Jones when he visited Cxffeeblack’s shop, the Anti Gentrification Cxffee Club, during a stay in Memphis. Ever since, Satterfield has supported the Memphis-based company.)
“Black creativity is the foundation of so many industries, yet we rarely own the means of production,” Jones said. “This collaboration proves that we don’t have to ask for a seat at the table — we can build our own, from the soil up.”
A notice from the federal government has impacted how advocacy groups can provide legal services for unaccompanied immigrant children in Tennessee.
Yesterday evening Advocates for Immigrant Rights (AIR), a subgrantee of the Acacia Center for Justice, was notified by the organization that a “stop work order” had been issued. The center, which helps support unaccompanied youth migrants through legal aid, provides funding to AIR for children in Tennessee.
In a letter addressed to the Acacia Center, the United States Department of the Interior said the group must “stop all work” associated with a contract between them and the department.
Photo: Advocates for Immigrant Rights
“This sudden decision cuts off legal services that help ensure due process for these kids, leaving 26,000 children across the U.S. vulnerable to deportation and potential harm,” AIR said in a statement.
Casey Bryant, executive director of AIR, said through their contract with the Acacia Center, they’ve accepted 200 cases. Bryant said the stop work order advises them to stop all work on their cases.
“This creates a serious quandary for us as attorneys who have a legal and ethical obligation to represent clients who we’ve agreed to represent,” Bryant said. “We’re representing them through universal representation.”
Bryant explained through this process they agree to be their client’s attorney for “anything that they need that has to do with their immigration proceedings.” They added this agreement lasts until the client receives legal status.
The population of unaccompanied immigrant children represent “some of the most vulnerable people in the country,” Bryant said. As a result, they don’t have access to immigration proceedings or representation in court.
Bryant said they are not changing the way they represent their clients at this point; however, they’re hoping they can reach a resolution through litigation. Even if there is no plan for the contract between the Acacia Center and AIR to be extended, Bryant hopes they can receive funding to represent their current cases.
“We’ve agreed to representation; we’ve already entered our appearance with the courts,,” Bryant said. “The courts are relying on us to provide representation. It’s impossible for us to not do work on these cases.”
This recent order is the newest addition of those issued by the Trump administration that targets immigrants including acts of mass deportations, family separation, and expansions of detention centers.
“We’re moving towards a dictatorship where a select group of people gets to make decisions about the way that we live and move through the country,” Bryant said. “I don’t think the Trump administration and these decisions speak for the people of the United States. He’s being influenced by big money, and they are making decisions to make this country — and the state — inhospitable to people who they don’t want to be here. That’s not how we as a country act or believe.”
Bryant mentioned they believe that governors like Bill Lee who have voiced their support for Trump’s mission and policies are “riding on the coattails of whatever authoritarianism the president and government are enforcing.”
“It’s not benefitting the people of Tennessee,” Bryant said. “It doesn’t benefit the people of Tennessee to act like this and to treat people who are residents, who pay taxes, and who add to the diversity and fabric of our communities.”
Update February 2, 2025: According to the Acacia Center, the order has been rescinded. Both the Acacia Center and AIR can resume their services.
Shelby County participants at Housing and Homelessness Day on the Hill (Photo: Housing for All TN Coalition)
Representatives from Memphis homelessness advocacy groups joined other advocates yesterday for the third annual Housing and Homelessness Day on the Hill.
Officials said the group, comprised of 125 renters, unhoused residents, and concerned constituents from across the state, went to the state capitol in Nashville. Participants convened under a coalition named Housing for All Tennessee.
Organizers met with 50 state legislators to encourage lawmakers to address housing issues, homelessness, and protections for renters.
“The intensifying housing crisis is one of the most pressing issues in Tennessee, impacting rural and urban areas alike,” officials said in a statement. “Rents, evictions, and homelessness are on the rise and homeownership is increasingly out of reach. Twenty-eight percent of Tennesseans, and nearly half of all renters, are cost burdened — paying over 30 percent of their income on housing — while the state faces a shortage of over 121,000 rental homes for extremely low income renters.”
Mauri Pinckney, an organizer from the Memphis Tenants Union, said not only is rent constantly on the rise in the state, but landlords often have more rights than tenants.
“[There’s] little to no affordable housing in Memphis,” Pinckney said. “It’s not in a good state at all. Most people are one paycheck away from being homeless. That’s just not acceptable — especially with most of the residents in Tennessee being a part of the working class.”
Pinckney went on to say that the purpose of yesterday’s event was to introduce legislators to the coalition, and to see what their stances are on housing issues and the current state of housing. They also worked to get data on renters and how they can move the affordability crisis forward in a “progressive way.”
Kiera Sowell, youth action board chair for Community Alliance for the Homeless (CAFTH), said they also wanted to convince them to pass bills that would assist the homeless population and tenants.
“[We’re trying] to push them away from the bills like the highway bill,” Sowell said. “We would like people to be able to protest. We want people who are living on the streets and the highways to be able to not have all their stuff taken away, and be able to live comfortably as much as they can while we get assistance to them.”
The proposed legislation in question is Senate Bill 0217 which would require the Tennessee Department of Transportation and other agencies to regulate “the collection, storage, claiming, and disposal of personal property used for camping from the shoulder, berm, or right-of-way of a state or interstate highway, or under a bridge or overpass, or within an underpass, of a state or interstate highway.”
“I just want our legislators and representatives to see that there are real people in these communities, collectives, and companies that have struggled with homelessness and housing insecurity,” Sowell said. “It is something that affects every single person whether or not they’re aware of it. Not only are we in danger of losing our homes and security, but across the nation people are [as well]. If we can be an example to the rest of the states of effective housing assistance, direct change, and advocacy — I hope we can expand that to the rest of the country.”
“If you’re a nice person, you are welcome to be a part of our family.” (Photo: Courtesy Dru’s Bar)
Tami Montgomery calls herself someone who would have never considered buying a bar. In fact, while she may own a bar on paper, she doesn’t consider herself in the “bar business.”
“I’m in the community business,” she says. “Not just the gay community business — the Memphis community. I just want to leave it how I found it.”
Montgomery has been the owner of Dru’s Bar (1474 Madison Avenue) since 2008. And there’s a surprising story about how she came to be in either business in the first place. According to Montgomery, she got two separate phone calls on two different days, notifying her that the bar — known as The Jungle at that time — was for sale.
“I am not someone who ever, ever, considered buying a bar,” Montgomery says. “I’m not one of those people that would go out and have a drink and say, ‘Oh I’d like to own a bar sometime.’ That is not me.”
She says those phone calls felt like cosmic alignment. Taking guidance from that, Montgomery told the previous owner she wanted to purchase the building. Two weeks later, she quit her job to prepare to reopen.
“It was a bit of an out-of-the-blue experience, but I felt like it was the right decision, and I’ve been working at it ever since,” she says.
Dru’s has meant a lot of things to a lot of people who walk through the doors. While some may come in looking for a fun night out, others have found it to be a sanctuary of sorts.
“We’ve taken the approach that all nice people are welcome,” Montgomery says. “We couldn’t care less whether you’re gay, straight, Black, white — we don’t care. If you’re a nice person, you are welcome to be a part of our family.”
Dru’s was created as a space for people to be themselves and have fun — free of judgement. Those who frequent the bar have admitted it’s hard not to be drawn in by the welcoming environment. Aubrey Wallace — also known as Aubrey Ombre in drag — has been working at Dru’s for 15 years.
“For a lot of us [Dru’s has] been here for so long it’s more than just a bar — it’s home,” Wallace says. “It’s the only place we really have left we can fight for. This is where all of us started. This is forever going to be home, and we’re going to come together and keep it going no matter what.”
Montgomery notes Dru’s doesn’t have a lot of the problems that come with bar culture such as fights and brawls. Yet this doesn’t mean it’s exempt from the troubles many bars have faced since the pandemic.
“We’re just now starting to see the true fallout from all the Covid stuff and shutdowns,” Montgomery says. “All the bars and restaurants that have closed recently. I think we’re finally seeing that happen. It’s like, ‘We’ve held on as long as we can.’ Most people who own a small business have been in the same position. … Nothing has bounced back like we thought it would in the industry as a whole.”
Terry W. has helped organize an upcoming benefit for Dru’s. He notes that gay clubs in the area are dwindling after Atomic Rose’s closure last year, but adds that Dru’s incurred additional expenses when a brick was thrown through the window.
“Your safe places for the whole community, they’re kind of going away,” Terry says. “But Tami is working hard to not let that happen. She wants everybody to have a place.”
To help with its challenges, the bar will be hosting a Benefit Drag Bingo on February 23rd at 1 p.m. In addition to bingo, patrons can participate in raffles and a silent auction and purchase their own brick to sign at the bar. The event, hosted by Pat McCooter and Shyla Tucker, will also have live entertainment and a roast of Montgomery.
“There’s been so much that Tami has done,” Terry says. “We want to come back and help her. She has been there for everybody — it’s time everybody comes for her.”
Richard Ross, John and Suzanne Scharff, and Deborah Ross (Photos: Michael Donahue)
Guests were all heart at Works of Heart, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center fundraiser presented by Stern Cardiovascular. The art auction and party was held Saturday, February 8th, at the Memphis Botanic Garden.
Chloe Haynes and Will TaylorDebbie Eddlestone and Steven GubinMurray Riss and Shanna RissVirginia Stallworth, Richard Wood, James Hay, and Kevin ScottBennett Foster, Nubia Yasin, and Lawrence Matthews
“Works of Heart was a record-breaking success,” says Beryl Wight, the center’s communications and grants manager. “We had 122 artists — a record — and raised over $139,000 [also a record].”
Alexandra Eastburn, George Williford, Donna Williford, and Juston Williford
This was the third year at the Memphis Botanic Garden, Wight says. Between 300 and 350 people attended the event.
Robyn and Joe BirchSteve MulroyKristi Goldsmith and Mike AlabasterSonal Mehr, Sujit Mehr, Swati Chokshi, and Saurin ChokshiDoug Wright, Lucas Skinner, and Rick Bartl
Now in its 33rd year, Works of Heart’s first beneficiary was the Mental Health Association. After it closed, the Memphis Child Advocacy Center became the beneficiary.
Tracy Thomas and Burton BridgesDavid Driscoll and Gloria DoddsSusanna Souliere and Toni CrutchfieldJeanne and David SimmonsDJ Alpha Whiskey
Longtime Works of Heart supporter Murray Riss was at this year’s event with his wife Karen and daughter Shanna. “Murray was part of the planning committee that brought the event to us,” Wight says, adding, “He certainly is a very important contributor, serving as chair and co-chair for many years. And, of course, he still is a contributing artist.”
Bryant and Heather Bain and Ryan Glosson (Photo: Michael Donahue)
Rise and shine. Breakfast is almost ready.
Barksdale’s, the iconic eatery at 237 Cooper Street, is about to reopen after a fire in June 2024.
And I can’t wait.
“We’re hoping to open by the end of next month,” Bryant Bain says. “By the end of March.”
Bain, his wife Heather, and Ryan Glosson are the new owners of Barksdale’s. They’re also the owners of Bain Barbecue down the street at 993 Cooper Street in Cooper-Young.
Why did they want to buy Barksdale’s? “We’ve all eaten there,” Bryant says. “And it’s been in the community for so many years.”
When they heard Barksdale’s was going to close, they knew that couldn’t happen. It was, “Hey, if we can do something about it, we’re going to.”
They’re going to retain as much of the look and atmosphere of the old Barksdale’s as possible. “We’re trying to keep it feeling like it used to be.”
Barksdale’s in the early days (Photo: Courtsey Barksdale’s)
But, Heather adds, “They had a terrible fire. Because of grandfather laws and stuff, we had to redo the vast majority of it.”
They had to get “all new electric,” Bryant says. As well as “rebuild the bathrooms. The ceilings are new. All new light fixtures. Everything is new except the walls.”
They did save the bar and tables and chairs. “That kind of thing.”
Plates and cups were also saved, Heather says.
As for the employees, Bryant says, “They’re all invited to come back. Some of them obviously had to get other jobs.”
But, he says, “I know Miss Debbie [Miller] and Bert [McElroy] are coming back, for sure. Some kitchen staff are coming back.”
Asked what they ate when they used to visit Barksdale’s, Heather says, “I would just get eggs and bacon.”
Bryant got the plate lunch. “More of the veggies, to be honest.”
Customers can look for their favorites on the menu. “It’s going to be the same type of menu, but I’ve overhauled it to make it fresher,” Bryant says. “Everything is going to be homemade. A lot of things they were making out of bags. And I just don’t do that.”
Asked if they’re going to sell barbecue at Barksdale’s, Bryant says, “We will not be.”
In April 2024, I did a story about Barksdale’s, then known as Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant, for MemphisMagazine. This was my description of the place after I ate there that morning: “Every table is taken on my visit. Photos of smiling customers on memorabilia-covered walls look down on the smiling faces of customers talking and eating. Servers with coffee pots wind around tables pouring refills and taking orders.”
The original Barksdale Restaurant was at 227 South Barksdale Street, owner Beth Henry told me. The owner’s last name was Stamson, she said. He was from Greece.
The restaurant moved to where it is now around 1968. Stamson gave the restaurant to his son Jerry Stamson, who sold it to Bob Henry in 2000, Beth said. Bob changed the name to Bob’s Barksdale Restaurant.
Beth married Bob, who she got to know after she began visiting the restaurant from her job at an insurance company across the street. She took over the restaurant after Bob died.
“We were just friends for years,” Beth told me in my interview. “I’d come over and have coffee. Then I got to know people. And I got to know some of the servers. And then later on in life it worked out to where we ended up getting together and got married. I just knew that he was a good man.”
Not much was done to the interior after she took over, Beth told me. When she pondered the idea of sprucing the place up a bit after she bought it, she said, “You could hear the Midtown gasps: ‘No, no, no. We like it like that.’”
She said customers told her they began going to the Barksdale with their dad and now they bring their granddaughter.
Beth did say she had interior painting done when they were closed for 82 days during the pandemic. And then she had to repair the foyer after a car crashed into the front of the restaurant on June 26, 2022.
She said half the customers are college students. “We have some customers who have been coming here 30, 40 years. When we don’t see them, we start to worry.”
And she told me over the years, weddings, birthdays, anniversaries, and the filming of at least one short movie took place at the Barksdale.
Former MSCS Superintendent Marie Feagins engages with students during an April 2024 visit to Grandview Heights Elementary School. (Photo: Ariel Cobbert)
I’ve watched every school board meeting since Dr. Marie Feagins was elected superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools a year ago.
I’ve read the board’s resolution that terminated her contract last month, and the special counsel’s 209-page investigation of the board’s allegations against her.
I’ve read Feagins’ response to the allegations in her two-page email to board chair Joyce Dorse-Coleman on January 6th, and her 14-page “official response” to the board January 14th.
I’ve read Feagins’ startling allegations against the board in the 31-page lawsuit she filed in Shelby County Circuit Court earlier this month.
I’ve read every relevant public document and heard every public statement made by all parties involved in the latest disaster that has befallen our local public school system. And I’ve read news articles, opinion columns, politicians’ comments, and angry social media posts about the sordid mess.
I still don’t get it. I still don’t understand why Feagins was fired after less than a year on the job.
Michelle McKissack (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
The three examples of “professional misconduct” the board leveled against her might have justified a public reprimand, but not a public execution. At best, as six-year board member Michelle McKissack argued, they reflect “growing pains” for a superintendent who started working in April and a board with four members elected in August. At worst, well, we don’t know.
In her recently filed lawsuit, Feagins paints a picture of school board members bowing to local political and financial interests and conspiring behind the scenes — in violation of the state’s open meetings law — to find reasons to fire her.
But board members who voted to fire her, and the special counsel’s January 21st report they relied on to do so, paint a very different picture, one of a renegade superintendent running roughshod over the district and making “false and/or misleading” statements to the board about her intentions and actions.
The public record so far, to say the least, is inconclusive.
The special counsel’s report concluded that Feagins “violated her employment contract no less than eight times and deviated from Board policy on at least nine occasions.”
Six of the nine alleged policy “deviations” pertained to a single board policy — 1013, or the Superintendent Code of Ethics. That three-page policy, approved in 2017, contains 15 “statements of standards” the superintendent must follow, including: “I will endeavor to fulfill my professional responsibilities with honesty and integrity.” Vague enough for you?
As for the eight alleged contract violations, all pertained to a single paragraph in her contract. “Ethical conduct: The superintendent in all aspects of her interactions and transactions related to carrying out her duties of superintendent, agrees to represent, enforce, and adhere to the highest ethical standards.” Whose ethical standards? Which ethical standards?
“I will point out,” McKissack wrote in a January 13th letter to the board, “that Superintendent Feagins is not accused of theft, fraud, or any criminal misconduct.” What she mostly is accused of is making “false and/or misleading” statements to the board about three allegations of “professional misconduct.” That covers 13 of the 17 alleged contract violations.
The four other “violations” were attributed to Feagins’ failure to provide a document or report to the board in a timely manner. Feagins said those failures were unintentional and the result of “staff oversights.” The public record seems to support her version.
Photo: Ariel Cobbert
The Termination Resolution
First, the termination resolution claims that Feagins “misled the board” about “overtime abuse” she brought to the board’s attention last July. “Dr. Feagins never presented any evidence suggesting that her statement was true, and she did not correct or clarify her statement to the public,” the board’s first allegation reads. But Feagins told the board last July and again in December and January that she based her comments on “documented fiscal reports” of overtime pay records for 2022, 2023, and 2024.
“I provided at least three years of data to the board,” Feagins said after hearing the charges against her read aloud at the December 17th special called meeting.
There are no records that the board ever asked for or reviewed the data or tried to substantiate Feagins’ claims about overtime abuse.
Second, the termination resolution claims that Feagins accepted and deposited in the district’s account a $45,000 donation to the district from the SchoolSeed Foundation “without Board approval.”
“At a [November 19th] Board Work Session, Dr. Feagins misrepresented her knowledge of and involvement in depositing the unapproved donation check in violation of Board Policy,” the board’s second allegation reads.
Feagins said she didn’t learn about the donation until November 8th, the result of “a staff oversight,” and “promptly submitted the donation to the Board” at its next meeting, November 19th. The board approved the donation December 3rd. Two weeks later, five board members used it to charge her with “professional misconduct.”
The special counsel’s report cites two emails Feagins sent to staff in July that “irrefutably establish” that she knew then about the check. But neither email mentions a $45,000 SchoolSeed check, which records show wasn’t received by the district until August 13th.
Third, the termination resolution claims that Feagins “was dishonest with the board and public” about missing a deadline for a $300,000 federal grant to help homeless students. Feagins acknowledged that her staff failed to meet the September 30th deadline, but said the state subsequently allowed the district to use the funds for various expenses related to helping homeless students. “We missed the deadline,” she told the board December 17th.
The board’s allegations and investigation do not say how much — if any — of the $300,000 grant (leftover Covid-relief funds) was used or forfeited. The special counsel’s report to the board states that Feagins’ comments about the grant were “only accurate to a degree, but not completely.” That could sum up the board’s allegations against Feagins: only accurate to a degree, but not completely.
“Clerical errors,” McKissack called them at the December 17th special board meeting. At least five board members at that meeting were clearly determined to fire Feagins. They didn’t explain why Feagins or board members in her corner didn’t see the resolution to fire her until a few minutes before the meeting. They didn’t respond to questions that Feagins or four other board members raised about the specific allegations in the resolution.
Sable Otey (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Missing Pieces
They did raise a slew of other issues that weren’t in the resolution or the special counsel’s report. Board member Sable Otey, elected August 1st, blamed Feagins for the suicidal thoughts of an educator in her district, and the firing of a teacher in her district. She also claimed teachers were texting her with complaints about the superintendent. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Towanna Murphy (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Towanna Murphy, elected August 1st, blamed Feagins for the injury of a special needs child in her district, and for putting other special needs students at risk. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Natalie McKinney (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Natalie McKinney, elected August 1st, accused Feagins of creating “a climate of fear and intimidation” in staff across the district. She didn’t present any evidence of her claims, and they weren’t included in the resolution.
Various board members blamed Feagins for the district’s problems receiving sufficient staff and materials for online learning, dual enrollment, remedial instruction, and student assessment. They didn’t present any evidence that Feagins was to blame for those problems, and those complaints weren’t included in the termination resolution.
Amber Huett-Garcia (Photo: Memphis Shelby County Schools)
Board member Amber Huett-Garcia, who voted not to fire Feagins, said many of the complaints were “highlighting the woes of a district that is under-resourced [with] generational challenges” that began decades before Feagins arrived.
McKinney pushed back. “Our [board] seats have given us a bird’s-eye view of the working of the district,” McKinney said. “We see things the general public does not see.”
The general public still is not seeing those things. The superintendent works for the board, but the board works for the public. The board owes the public — not to mention Feagins, her staff, teachers and parents, and other public officials — a thorough, clear, compelling, and public explanation for why she was fired.
There was a fourth and final accusation in the termination resolution: “The board has also become aware of certain patterns of behavior by Dr. Feagins that are not conducive to the effective operation of the District in the best interests of students, including but not limited to her refusal to communicate and/or cooperate with valued District partners.”
That accusation was not included in the 209-page investigation, nor in the list of 17 alleged contract or policy violations. But I suspect it probably comes closest to explaining what went wrong. Feagins could be prickly, curt, and dismissive, even in public board meetings, in stark contrast to her predecessor Joris Ray, who resigned under a cloud in 2022.
A Direct Approach
At board meetings, Ray was unfailingly polite and solicitous, usually thanking board members profusely and formally by title and name for every question. His staff members did the same. Ray began meetings by asking his staff to join him in reciting the district’s motto: “Together we must believe. Together we can achieve. Together we are reimagining 901.”
Feagins didn’t have a motto or lead a cheer. Her responses to board members’ questions were more direct and could include a cold stare or a disdainful “for the record” or “let the record show.”
I suspect that Feagins was fired because a majority of board members didn’t like her, didn’t like how she was managing the district, and were getting complaints from central staff administrators, principals, local nonprofit leaders, and favored local contractors.
They were being told that Feagins was moving too fast and going too far and stepping on too many toes in her efforts to restructure the top-heavy district to address the loss of Covid funding and to give classroom teachers more support and more authority. But that’s just speculation. Just about everything you’ve read or heard about why Feagins was fired is speculation.
Feagins has called the allegations against her “meritless and baseless.” Earlier this month, she sued the school board and asked the court to void the board’s 6-3 vote to fire her.
In the lawsuit, Feagins claims that Althea Greene, Dorse-Coleman, and several other board members violated the state’s open meetings law by meeting secretly beginning in August to plan ways to terminate her contract.
It’s likely the litigation will end with a quiet, off-the-record settlement much like Ray’s agreement to resign in 2022. Which means the public may never know exactly why Feagins was fired.
What’s Next?
So now the school board is at odds and searching for its sixth superintendent since the 2013 merger upended the entire system. The Shelby County Commission has ordered a forensic audit of the school district’s budget. The state is threatening to take over the school board. State Representative Mark White (R-Memphis) plans to introduce legislation to create a new nine-member board that would oversee the local board. “This would be a management intervention,” White told Chalkbeat Tennessee.
Public education is under duress. The governor plans to spend nearly half a billion dollars a year offering private school vouchers to high-income parents. The Trump administration is prioritizing private “school choice” funding and gutting the U.S. Department of Education. Public schools are preparing for massive safety net cuts and immigration raids and conducting regular “active shooter drills.”
Meanwhile, schools and teachers continue to try to address the academic, social, and emotional needs of students traumatized by poverty, community violence, school shootings, and the pandemic. And constant political turmoil.
David Waters, a veteran journalist, has covered public education in Memphis and Tennessee off and on for 30 years. He is associate director of the Institute for Public Service Reporting at the University of Memphis.
The Federal Agency for the Safety of the Food Chain in Belgium was forced to issue a warning to the country on Jan. 7 against eating Christmas trees, United Press International reported. The statement was in response to the city of Ghent recommending cooking with conifer needles. “You can make delicious spruce needle butter with them for bread or toast,” Ghent’s website read. But the FASFC wasn’t having it: Christmas trees “are not meant to end up in the food chain” because many have been treated with pesticides and other chemicals, including flame retardant. Ghent responded by changing its headline to read “Scandinavians eat their Christmas trees” and added a warning: “not all Christmas trees are edible.” Way to throw the Vikings under the bus, Belgians!
Wait, What?
In early November, Emily James, 27, of Kansas City, Missouri, underwent a most unusual and expensive ($17,000) body-altering surgery, the New York Post reported. The trans woman had six ribs removed from her rib cage in order to achieve a smaller waist. The recovery gave her plenty of time to think about what she wanted to do with those extra ribs — yes, the hospital gave them to her — and her options seemed limitless: Make them into dog toys, boil them down for broth, have an “Emily barbecue.” But eschewing all the cannibalistic notions, James has come up with the perfect project: “I plan on having someone make a crown and, like, incorporate my bone pieces in there,” she said. “Getting my ribs removed doesn’t change the fact that I’m a kind, loving trans girl. It’s my money, my body, and I’m going to do what I want with it.” Yas queen.
Precocious
A 12-year-old boy from Grand Traverse County in Michigan was charged with joy riding, operating a motor vehicle without a license, carrying a concealed weapon, and possession of marijuana on Jan. 12, MLive.com reported. The boy’s parents contacted the county sheriff when they realized their 2000 Chevy Blazer was missing, saying their son had taken it. They had tracked his progress south into Clare County, where deputies were alerted to be on the lookout. By the time he was stopped, he had driven more than 90 miles; officers found a 12-gauge pump-action shotgun and ammunition, along with a little weed, but said there was no indication that he planned to use the gun. He did tell deputies he was unhappy at home. He was released to his parents.
Compelling Explanation
San Mateo, California, police arrested a Kentucky man early on the morning of Jan. 12 for a suspected hit-and-run incident, CBS News reported. Frank Falcone, 62, told officers that he was driving northbound on Pacific Boulevard when a southbound car came toward him with its high beams on. The lights disturbed Falcone “because of the brightness and potential radiation,” he said, so he rammed the other car. When it stopped, he allegedly rammed it two more times. Falcone fled the scene and told officers he evaded them because people impersonate cops. He was arrested on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon.
Um …
Nigerian gospel singer Timileyin Ajayi, 30, was arrested on Jan. 12 as he carried a bag that contained the severed head of his purported girlfriend, the BBC reported. The bag drew the attention of other people, who held him until police arrived. “The suspect was found with a fresh human head,” Nasarawa police said, “and when we got to the scene, we rescued him from being mobbed.” Other parts of the deceased’s body were found later at his home. Abby Simon, a friend of the 24-year-old victim, said Ajayi was not her boyfriend. “Even if she was his girlfriend, she didn’t deserve to die this way,” Simon said.
You Had One Job
Brigantine (New Jersey) police were called to a home on the Jersey Shore on Jan. 13 after a neighbor found a toddler wandering around outdoors, NBC Philadelphia reported. The neighbor recognized the child and returned them to their home, where she found babysitter Jena Davidson, 35, passed out on the floor. First responders took Davidson to the hospital, where it turned out she had “consumed a significant amount of the homeowner’s alcohol to the point that she became unconscious and unresponsive,” police reported. She was charged with endangering the welfare of a child.
