This image of Bass Pro Shops at the Pyramid was just too good not to share. Memphis Memes 901 titled it “the beautiful, snow-capped mountains of Tennessee.”
Records Request
Posted to Facebook by Steve Mulroy
Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy fulfilled a “burdensome” records request from state Sen. Brent Taylor recently. Taylor, of course, is seeking Mulroy’s ouster from the job during the legislative session this year.
The request included 4,000 documents, 16,000 pages, six boxes, and more than 150 staff hours to complete, Mulroy said. “Things like this are a distraction from the real work that our office has to do. But we will fully cooperate with legislators.”
GIF Level
Posted to Reddit by u/Melodic-Frosting-443
Reddit user Melodic-Frosting-443 took the Memphis-Shelby County Schools situation to GIF level with a photo of the board surrounding Marie Feagins, overlaid with Stealers Wheel lyrics, “Clowns to the left of me, jokers to the right …” (You could see it above. But we’re not The Daily Prophet.)
The MEMernet was wild for the white stuff last weekend. It was that “good snow,” making snowmen, snowballs, and snow sledding all easy and fun and driving not so dangerous.
“These children give added meaning to ‘birdie’ while taking flight Saturday above the Overton Park golf course,” said Tom Bailey on Facebook.
The Memphis Zoo’s socials were blown up last weekend. Reels showed tigers playing, a grizzly bear rolling in the snow, and Babu, a mandrill, knocking over a snowman.
Posted to Facebook by Memphis Zoo
There was also lots of love out there for the often-maligned city and Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW). Redditors tipped their hats to MLGW’s tree-trimming efforts, which helped to keep the lights on, and to the city for keeping the roads clear. Wow.
CA for Arts?
Posted to Facebook by Jay Etkin
Art gallery own Jay Etkin wants to turn the former Commercial Appeal building on Union into the Flow Museum of Art & Culture. Etkin said he is in talks with city, county, and state leaders on the idea.
The building is on the auction block at the end of the month. Another idea would turn the building into a vocation training center for youth (see here).
Memphis Light, Gas & Water last week invited customers to play bingo with a card holding squares that said, “bragged about my low utility bill,” “didn’t lose power during a storm,” and more.
Commenters (not so gently) reminded MLGW of the impending 4-percent energy rate increase this month and that their power can still be unpredictable. Many said the post was “tone-deaf,” with some suggesting that it was proof of MLGW’s “toxic” relationship with customers.
New Year’s Tear
Posted to Facebook by Moth Moth Moth
Drag artist Moth Moth Moth was on a Facebook tear New Year’s Eve morning, saying, “Understand this. I will rip this town apart and sew it back together myself if I have to.”
By that afternoon, though, Mothy softened: “I’m not feeling grumpy anymore! I just needed to eat some toast.”
“Distinctive Weapon”
Posted to Facebook by WREG
Comments went wild-larious on two WREG posts about the search for and arrest of Jayden Burns. He allegedly robbed Midtown stores, using an old-timey, long-barreled pistol. Steve Clarke said, “Hear ye! Hear ye! Unhand thy currency!”
• A state report found “out of control” inmates, drug overdoses, staff shortages, and more in Tennessee state prisons, especially at Tiptonville’s Northwest Correctional Facility.
• Cannabis industry leaders began working against new state rules that would remove smokeable products from their shelves and damage the industry.
• Memphis Police Chief C.J. Davis kept her job but on an interim basis.
• SmokeSlam BBQ Festival was introduced.
• We got to the bottom of the “Dicc Dash” car that had been seen all over Memphis.
• Winter Storm Heather left five dead in Shelby County, pushed a record-breaking demand for electricity, and put all residents under a boil-water advisory.
FEBRUARY
• Artis Whitehead was exonerated 21 years after he was convicted of a 2002 robbery at B.B. King’s Blues Club.
• Governor Bill Lee pushed for more school vouchers and big business tax cuts in his State of the State address.
• The Memphis-Shelby County Schools board picked Marie Feagins as its new superintendent.
• Data showed that Black residents got four times as many traffic tickets than whites.
• A bill was filed to mandate gun safety training for every Tennessee school student.
Tyre Nichols (Photo: Dakarai Turner)
MARCH
• American Queen Voyages closed.
• Eighteen anti-LGBTQ bills were introduced from GOP lawmakers in the state legislature.
• State House members voted to stop the Memphis City Council from a proposed ban on pretextual traffic stops, which came in the wake of the beating death of Tyre Nichols by MPD officers.
• The Overton Park Conservancy (OPC) gave an early look at new trails on land ceded to the park by the Memphis Zoo.
• Memphis ranked as most dangerous city for pedestrian deaths.
• Renting a home in Memphis became more affordable than buying one.
• Elon Musk announced Memphis would be the new home for his supercomputer, Grok.
• New census data said nearly half of Tennesseans could not afford the basic cost of living in their counties.
• Tina Sullivan announced she would step down from the OPC.
• The Memphis Area Transit Authority (MATA) asked the city council for $30.5 million after revealing a $60 million deficit.
• A federal judge blocked some protections of transgender people in Tennessee allowed by new Title IX rules.
JULY
• Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi said more than 10,000 people had left Tennessee for an abortion in the two years after Roe v. Wade was overturned.
• The U.S. Supreme Court announced it would hear Tennessee’s ban on gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
• The Memphis Brooks Museum of Art’s new Memphis Art Museum project was allowed to move ahead after a judge denied a challenge from Friends for Our Riverfront.
• City council members asked for more transparency from MATA after the announcement of its big budget deficit.
• New state laws went into effect including a death sentence for child rapists, one against “abortion trafficking,” a declaration of the Bible as a state book, one against “chemtrails,” and another for singers’ protection from AI.
• A court denied former state Senator Brian Kelsey’s (R-Germantown) request to rescind his guilty plea for campaign finance violations.
• The former leader of Shelby County’s Covid vaccine rollout lost a bid to declare she was wrongly blamed for allowing hundreds of doses to expire.
• A court ruled transgender Tennesseans cannot change the gender marker on their birth certificates.
• Memphis International Airport was green-lit for a $653 million modernization of its main terminal.
• The school board settled with the Satan Club for $15,000 and a promise to end its discriminatory practices.
• A court ruling allowed a ban on drag shows in public places.
• Tennessee tourism hit a record spend of more than $30 billion in 2023.
AUGUST
• Environmental groups asked Memphis Light, Gas & Water (MLGW) to deny an electricity deal for xAI’s supercomputer.
• The Links at Audubon Park opened.
• Memphis cases of HIV and syphilis spiked 100 percent over the past five years.
• Leaders warned of a tax surge coming after property reappraisals next year.
• Black Lodge closed.
• Serial scammer Lisa Jeanine Findley was arrested in Missouri for her attempt to steal Graceland from the Presley family.
• MATA suspended trolley service.
• Kaci Murley was named OPC’s new executive director.
• The Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) raised electricity rates by 5.25 percent.
SEPTEMBER
• Carol Coletta stepped down as CEO of the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
• A state land deal could protect the Memphis Sand Aquifer.
• Cannabis industry leaders sued the state over new rules that would ban smokeable products.
• Tennessee ranked near the top for arresting people for cannabis.
• For the third year in a row, water levels were down in the Mississippi River after Midwest droughts.
• AG Skrmetti proposed warning labels for social media.
• Social media threats made for a turbulent week at local schools with disruptions and some lockdowns.
OCTOBER
• Lawmakers want to replace the now-fallen statue of racist newspaper editor Edward Carmack at the State Capitol Building with David Crockett.
• A court decision mandated schools offer “reasonable accommodation” for transgender students to use bathrooms of their choice.
• Three MPD officers were convicted in the beating death of Nichols.
• Memphis Mayor Paul Young replaced every member of MATA’s board.
• State Democrats pressed for financial reforms to address the state’s “crumbling transportation infrastructure.”
• Judges blocked discipline for doctors who provide emergency abortions.
NOVEMBER
• Atomic Rose closed.
• A new school voucher bill was filed.
• The Memphis-area crime rate fell.
• Tuition at state schools looked likely to rise again next year.
• TVA approved xAI’s request for power.
• Teachers scoffed at Lee’s $2,000 bonus as a “bribe” to go along with school vouchers.
• 901 FC left Memphis for Santa Barbara.
• University of Tennessee Health Science Center began a plan to demolish the “eyesore” former hotel building on Madison.
• Gun Owners of America sued the city of Memphis to block the gun referenda approved by voters from ever becoming law.
• A new $13 million plan will help redesign the intersection of Lamar, Kimball, and Pendleton.
• Crime fell Downtown in 2024 compared to 2023.
• Cannabis industry leaders filed another suit against the smokeables ban after lawmakers left it in the final rules.
DECEMBER
• Buds and Brews, a restaurant featuring cannabis products, opened on Broad.
• Blended sentence laws could usher hundreds of kids into the adult criminal justice system.
• State revenue projections flagged on big business tax breaks.
• A blistering report from the U.S. Department of Justice found that MPD used excessive force, discriminated against Black people, and used “harsh tactics” against children.
• Houston’s abruptly closed.
• The SCOTUS heard Skrmetti’s case against gender-affirming care for transgender minors.
• The former Velsicol facility in North Memphis could enter into a state-run environmental response trust.
• Feagins narrowly survived the board’s ouster move but the situation will be reviewed in 2025.
Looking for unique gifts this giving season? Here’re a few posted recently on Facebook Marketplace Memphis.
“Homemade Iron Throne chair. Made for a murder mystery party and used during that night. It is crafted from a plastic Adirondack chair, wood supports, and different types of foam. $100.
Posted by Charlie Barnett
One of two oil paintings on offer; $150 for both.
Posted by Sky Sirling
Banksy Keep It Real graffiti sign original, 2004. $3,000.
“A holy grail piece for any street art collector.”
Posted by David Comstock
Autographed photo of Dr. Phil with the quote: “Walking around with a stick up your butt will not make you a corndog!” $20.
The Velsicol plant in North Memphis (Photo: Ashli Blow)
Velsicol, a legacy polluter that manufactured pesticides, is proposing to hand over its 83-acre defunct facility in North Memphis to Tennessee as an environmental response trust. Should the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation (TDEC) accept a settlement agreement from the company, the state will be left to determine what to do with wide-ranging contamination including a baseball diamond-shaped pile of hazardous waste and a fluctuating groundwater plume of chemicals beneath it.
The proposal comes after the company faced questions this fall from environmental regulators and bankruptcy attorneys about inappropriate management and potentially fraudulent activity.
These new allegations shocked environmental justice advocates and residents in the historically Black community neighboring Velsicol. They have long expressed frustration over the company’s slow efforts to clean up, now more than 20 years in the making.
The North Memphis plant’s closure in 2012 was already a staggering delay compared to the nationwide action prompted by Rachel Carson’s 1962 book Silent Spring, which exposed reckless pesticide production and application. As environmental policy changed and Velsicol plants shut down nationally in response, the Memphis facility continued creating these chemicals from a bygone era through the turn of the 21st century.
But even without a plant, the company has continued brokering chemicals in Memphis under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA), a federal law designed to protect human health and the environment from hazardous waste disposal. Over the last few months, Velsicol has been undergoing its once-in-a-decade renewal process for its RCRA permit.
In September, the TDEC sent a “Notice of Deficiency” to the company that their RCRA application was incomplete, followed by 36 pages outlining missing data and unsatisfactory plans for soil contamination across its property. Now, Velsicol is proposing that it pay a $3 million settlement to TDEC over five years in exchange for a release of their permit obligations. TDEC estimates the company is still responsible for between $137 and $143 million in cleanup costs, according to claims it has filed as part of Velsicol’s Chapter 11 bankruptcy case. Velsicol did not respond to the Lookout’s request to comment, and TDEC declined citing pending litigation.
Velsicol disputes TDEC’s and other claims brought forth in its bankruptcy case, in which nearly 600 organizations allege that Velsicol owes them money. Among them is the District of Columbia, whose Office of the Attorney General sued Velsicol in 2022 for contaminating local waterways and wants them to be held financially responsible.
The District of Columbia’s legal counsel filed a motion to investigate Velsicol’s financial condition in October. They presented evidence that company leadership received $10.6 million in salaries, expense reimbursements, bonuses, and consulting fees from 2012 to 2023.
“Investigation is needed to review the excessive transfers made to the shareholders over the past five years,” the counsel wrote in the motion, signed by attorney Kevin Morse. “In addition to potential fraudulent transfers prior to the bankruptcy, the District is very concerned about the viability of [Velsicol] moving forward.”
Paying for contamination
Moving forward, Velsicol as a company will no longer be in Memphis, should things go according to its plan of reorganization as filed in bankruptcy court this November. But its toxic legacy will be long felt.
It’s still deep in the Wolf River, where fish absorb chlordane as they swim through waters contaminated with the chemical, which doesn’t break down easily. If people eat these tainted fish they could experience tremors, convulsions, or even death. Velsicol produced chlordane — a by-product of a WWII nerve gas used by the Army — for commercial use starting in 1945. Although the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) banned its use in the 1980s, the Memphis plant continued to manufacture it as the sole producer in the U.S. through the 1990s for international export.
By the time the EPA banned it, more than 30 million homes and commercial buildings had been treated with chlordane, with the chemical washing into streams and rivers throughout the country like in Memphis and Washington, D.C., as detailed in the District of Columbia’s first complaint against the company. The District anticipates spending over $35 million to address contamination throughout the city.
The MEMernet was dominated late last week with the news that chain restaurant Houston’s closed its longtime Memphis location, citing staffing and safety challenges.
Reactions online followed a familiar rhythm — shock at the news, sadness over the dishes that will be missed, remembrance of good times had at the chain restaurant, a wave of pffffftt about safety concerns in one of the safest parts of town, a review of all the other restaurants in the area that are thriving, undertones of racism in the motivation to close, context on how the restaurant never engaged with the Memphis community, news that a local wanted to step in to reopen the place, and, finally, a meme showing Houston’s could reopen as a Jack Pirtle’s Chicken.
Haunted Hepburn
Posted to Facebook Marketplace
Someone bought some Halloween just for Christmas. A recently purchased poster ($50) of Audrey Hepburn was described as “haunted” in a Facebook Marketplace post from Collierville. The poster said whatever spirit was attached to the poster was “escalating” things by touching them and even leaving red marks.
UFO on Sam Cooper?
Posted to X by @the_paranormal_chic
A video posted to X by Myra Moore The Paranormal Chic apparently showed a UFO transported through Memphis last weekend on a flatbed trailer, driving down Sam Cooper Boulevard.
Posted to Facebook by
the Downtown Memphis Commission
Memphis on the internet.
Marathon reminder
Plan ahead for some road closures this weekend as the city makes way for the St. Jude Memphis Marathon Weekend.
It’s looking to be another chilly one. So throw on a hat and gloves and go cheer on the runners. If nothing else, be willing to be patient.
Good Roads?
Never mind potholes aplenty and Poplar’s perilous far-right lanes, Memphis roads got some actual good reviews in a Reddit thread last week.
Reddit user u/Jcb0304 started the conversation saying their favorite stretch was Walnut Grove from Union to Germantown Road, calling it “delightful.” Others liked North Parkway, Belvedere, Raleigh Lagrange, Belleair, Cooper, Riverside, and more.
It’s beginning To …
Posted to Facebook by Novel
It’s happening. Maybe it already happened. The holidays are here, and it’s everywhere you look. Novel kicked off Christmas last weekend with story time, hot chocolate, and a visit with the Grinch.
Right here last week we poked fun at a big typo in The Commercial Appeal with a legacy headline “Dammit Gannett.” We left off a “t” at the end of Gannett in a typo-inside-a-typo-meta-Inception kind of situation. We regret the error!
The Business
Speaking of newspapers, The Daily Memphian launched its online marketplace last week. The first item listed was an anti-circumcision book titled “This Penis Business.” History, folks.
Prepare
Posted to Facebook by The Damn Weather of Memphis
Speaking of penises, “prepare for penetration,” wrote The Damn Weather of Memphis about last week’s bomb cycle weather event that brought cooler temps here.
