Entering federal court on April 4, 1968, to address the injunction against Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. are, left to right, King advisors James Lawson and Andrew Young, along with lawyers Lucius Burch, Charlie Newman, and Mike Cody. Photo: Tom Barber, Memphis Press-Scimitar newspaper morgue, Special Collections Department, University of Memphis Libraries
W. J. Michael “Mike” Cody, an influential Memphian in the fields of law and politics, died Sunday at the age of 88 at Baptist Memorial Hospital after a lengthy illness.
Cody was well known as a reformer, even before his first tenure in local government as a city councilman from 1975 to 1977. He had been one of the local legal advisers to Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. in 1968 and had helped King strike down a ban on a second march on behalf of striking sanitation workers, mere hours before the fateful assassination of the civil rights leader.
In the wake of that tragedy, Cody collaborated with the Rev. James Lawson in forming the organization that became Memphis Legal Services.
Cody was appointed by President Jimmy Carter as U.S. Attorney for the Memphis district in 1977 and served through 1981. When Memphis Mayor Wyeth Chandler resigned to become a judge in late 1982, Cody became a candidate in a special election to succeed Chandler.
He would finish a strong third in that race, behind J.O. Patterson and Dick Hackett, the eventual runoff winner. In 1984, Cody, a Democrat, was appointed state Attorney General, across party lines, by Republican Governor Lamar Alexander, serving until 1988.
Cody, a renowned athlete during his college years at Southwestern at Memphis (now Rhodes College), was also well known as an inveterate runner who participated in numerous marathons. He was named to the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame. He was also the author of a 1992 book, Honest Government: An Ethics Guide to Public Service.
Memphis Congressman Steve Cohen remembered Cody this way: “I knew Mike Cody all of my adult life. He was a highly respected attorney and public official, and was scrupulously honest. He did admirable service for Memphis, Tennessee, and the United States. As Lucius Burch would say, ‘The hair of the hypocrite was not seen about him.’ I extend my sincere condolences. His was a life well-lived.”
Cody is survived by his wife, Suzanna Cody; two daughters, Jane Cody of Corrales, New Mexico, and Mia Cody of Memphis; a son, Michael Cody of Germantown; three grandchildren, and two great grandchildren.
Boats docked at the Riverside Park Marina south of Downtown Memphis are getting cut off from the Mississippi River Nov. 2, 2022. (Patrick Lantrip/Daily Memphian)
For the third year in a row, extreme drought conditions in the Midwest are drawing down water levels on the Mississippi River, raising prices for companies that transport goods downstream and forcing governments and business owners to seek alternative solutions.
Extreme swings between drought and flooding have become more frequent in the region, scientists say, as climate change alters the planet’s weather patterns and inches the average global temperature continually upwards.
“Without question, it’s discouraging that we’re in year three of this. Because that is quite unique to have multiple years in a row of this,” said Mike Steenhoek, executive director of the Soy Transportation Coalition, a trade organization representing Midwest soy growers. “We’re obviously trending in the wrong direction.”
Since 2022, much of the Midwest has experienced some level of drought, with the driest conditions concentrated in Iowa, Missouri, Nebraska and Kansas. Record rainfall in June and during part of July temporarily broke that dry spell, forecasters say, only for drought conditions to reemerge in recent weeks along the Ohio River basin, which typically supplies more water to the Mississippi than any other major tributary.
Dee Wisecarver, a commercial fisherman from Hamburg, Arkansas, looks out onto the mud-covered Panther Forest boat ramp in August of 2024.
(Lucas Dufalla/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
Water levels have been dropping in the lower Mississippi since mid-July, federal data show, reaching nearly seven feet below the historic average in Memphis on September 13. In October 2023, water levels reached a record-low -11 feet in Memphis. Remnants of Hurricane Francine, which made landfall in Louisiana Wednesday night as a Category 2 storm, “will provide only temporary relief,” the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said in a news release Wednesday.
“Rainfall over the Ohio Valley is also not looking to be widespread and heavy enough to generate lasting effects and anticipate that much of the rainfall will soak into the ground with little runoff,” the agency said in the release.
Those conditions have raised prices for companies transporting fuel and grain down the Mississippi in recent weeks, as load restrictions force barge operators to limit their hauls, which squeezes their profit margin. Barge rates from St. Louis reached $24.62 a ton in late August and $27.49 per ton by the following week, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
Historically low water levels of the Mississippi River have caused massive barge backups on Thursday, October 27, 2022 in Merman-Shelby Forest State Park. . (Mark Weber/The Daily Memphian)
Steenhoek said barge prices during the first week of September were 8 percent higher than the same week last year and 57 percent higher than the three-year average. “It does change that supply-demand relationship,” he said, “because now all of a sudden you’re having to transport a given amount of freight with less capacity.”
A river in flux
Aaron Wilson, Ohio’s state climatologist and a professor at Ohio State University, said the whiplash between this summer’s record wet months and September’s drought conditions appears to fit what could be an emerging climate trend observed by researchers.
But evidence also suggests the Midwest is experiencing more frequent swings between extreme wet and extreme dry seasons, with climate models predicting that the trend will persist into the future, said Wilson, who was the lead author of the assessment’s Midwest chapter.
“This was front and center for us,” he said. “One of the main things that we talked about were these rapid oscillations … between wet to dry and dry to wet extremes.”
Research also suggests that seasonal precipitation is trending in opposite directions, and will continue to do so in the coming decades, Wilson added. “And so what you get is too much water in the winter and spring and not enough during the growing season,” he said, referring to summer months.
If that evidence holds true, it could have notable impacts on U.S. food exports moving forward.
Future impacts on shipping
Transporting goods, including corn, soy, and fuel, on the Mississippi is more efficient pound for pound than ground transportation, business groups say, and gives the U.S. an edge in a competitive global market. According to the Waterways Council, a trade association for businesses that use the Mississippi River, a standard 15-barge load is equivalent to 1,050 semi trucks or 216 train cars — meaning domestic farmers and other producers can save significant time and money moving their goods by boat.
The majority of U.S. agricultural exports rely on the Mississippi to reach the international market, as farmers move their crops to export hubs on the Gulf Coast, said Debra Calhoun, senior vice president of the Waterways Council.
“More than 65 percent of our national agriculture products that are bound for export are moving on this inland waterway system,” she said. “So this system is critical to farmers of any size farm.”
The ramifications could be especially harmful to the soy industry, Steenhoek said, since about half of the soy grown in the U.S. is exported. By the last week of August, grain exports transported by barge fell 17 percent compared to the week before, according to a Thursday report released by the USDA.
Steenhoek said the increased costs to U.S. growers hurt their ability to compete globally. Any price increase to domestic grain could encourage international clients to instead buy from rival countries like Brazil or Argentina, he said.
While it’s typical for water levels on the Mississippi to drop during the fall months, Steenhoek said, the recent years of drought have been a real wakeup call for farmers to diversify their supply chains. Soy growers, he said, have since set up new supply chain agreements with rail lines and have even invested in new export terminals in Washington state and on the coast of Lake Michigan in Milwaukee.
Luckily, Calhoun said, disruptions to river transportation this year haven’t been nearly as bad as they were last year, when the Mississippi’s water levels reached record lows. Several barges were grounded last year and in 2022, she said, referring to when boats get stuck on the riverbed or in areas where sediment has built up. That hasn’t occurred so far this year.
Dee Wisecarver, a commercial fisherman from Hamburg, Arkansas, walks up the dry, mud-covered Panther Forest boat ramp in August of 2024. The ramp allows boaters to enter the Mississippi River through an old channel.
(Lucas Dufalla/Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
She chalks that up to proactive efforts this year by companies and federal agencies, like the Army Corps of Engineers, to mitigate transportation disruptions.
George Stringham, chief of public affairs for the Corps’ St. Louis District, said they started dredging the river a few weeks earlier this year. “We started early to get ahead of things, in anticipation, after having two straight years of low water conditions,” said Stringham. Dredging involves moving sediment on the riverbed from areas where it can cause problems to boats to areas where it won’t.
Wilson, Ohio’s climatologist, said he has seen stronger cooperation among stakeholders in tackling this issue. “It’s a mix of climate scientists, social scientists and planners and emergency preparedness folks that are really coordinating this effort,” he said.
The result, Calhoun said, is that their coalition of groups have been able to handle the disruptions relatively well this year, which leaves her feeling cautiously optimistic. “It’s really hard, you know, to track this and try to figure out is it just normal? Is it getting much worse? Are we going to have to make significant changes, and if so, what would they be? But we’re not there yet,” she said.
Today we have a world premiere music video, which is a collaboration between two Memphis originals.
General Labor is Thomas Corbin, Elijah Posten, and Carlos Carrasco. “Illuminator” is a throbbing, screaming synth punk symphony.
“Though we work in repetitive, clock-synced instrumentation that rides on rails, we try to always leave space for magic,” says Corbin. “We draw heavily from Surrealist techniques and Oblique Strategies for finding our words and instrumental composition, so that the meaning seems to be coming from ‘somewhere else.’ For that reason, the lyrics are largely open to interpretation.
“However, in retrospect, ‘Illuminator’ seems to describe a fearless pursuit of wisdom and truth, trusting a process of transformation that carries one through the dark night of the soul. If this thread of meaning is followed, ‘Illuminator’ appears to be about ego death. It’s about finding the flame that burns inside of us all and harnessing it in a way that serves a higher purpose rather than fueling the will of self.
“The lyrics reflect a journey of self-discovery, transformation, and enlightenment through philosophical and alchemical lenses. It describes a search for hidden truths beyond the visible world, symbolizing the pursuit of deeper understanding by tapping into one’s subconscious mind, guiding the seeker toward a greater self-awareness.
The short answer is that we have no idea what it means!”
Thomas Corbin
“The alignment of senses that metamorphoses the seeker from a shadow self to illuminated self signifies the culmination of alchemical philosophy where body, mind, and spirit harmonize, and where the excess ‘dross’ of character flaws and maladaptations are burned off, revealing the purified gold within. That’s the long explanation, anyway. The short answer is that we have no idea what it means!”
The video was shot at a collaborative performance between the band and Graham Burks’ circuit-bending visuals.
“The live performance featured in the video was recorded at Black Lodge, to whom we are incredibly grateful for letting us pursue such an ambitious experiment,” says Corbin. “We wanted to stay true to this attitude of subconscious exploration and truth-seeking through artistic expression.
“There was no real concept other than to find the magic in the moment, all the way from the song’s inception to the audiovisual performance, recording, and current debut in video form.”
If you would like to see your music video featured on Music Video Monday, email cmccoy@memphisflyer.com.
Hurricane Francine has impacted more than 34,000 Memphis Light, Gas and Water (MLGW) customers while also causing record-breaking rainfall of 4.25 inches.
The storm brought in winds up to 57 mph and according to MLGW this caused a number of downed limbs and trees and outages. As a result, the utility company has more than 50 crews working around the clock to clear debris and work on storm restoration.
MLGW president and CEO Doug McGowen said they are prioritizing the largest outages and customers who have been without service the longest.
“We are asking everyone for their patience as we take care of the damage that came from the storm and prepare for what is ahead,” McGowen said.
Work such as replacing power poles can take an average of eight hours. During this time crews are working to close roads, direct traffic, and coordinate with law enforcement agencies. MLGW said underground outages can take longer than overhead outages.
Some of the areas that MLGW prioritizes include hospitals, facilities with large community impact, and areas with large members of customers without power.
Customers are urged to report outages on the MLGW app or by calling 544-6500.
MLGW also asks that customers stay away from downed power lines and to not attempt to remove fallen tree limbs or debris. Customers should also report these to MLGW.
David Bautista in The Killers Game. (Courtesy Lionsgate)
The Killer’s Game
Dave Bautista stars as Joe Flood, a professional assassin who is diagnosed with a terminal illness. Unwilling to waste away, he decides to take out a contract on himself. But then his doctor informs him that his diagnosis was in error. Joe must now fight off his fellow assassins who he himself ordered. Also staring Sofia Boutella, Terry Crews, Scott Adkins, and Ben Kinglsey.
Speak No Evil
Louise (Mackenzie Davis) and Ben (Scott McNairy) Dalton take their daughter Agnes (Alix West Lefler) on an idyllic holiday in a rustic country house. The house’s owners Paddy (James McAvoy) and Ciara (Aisling Franciosi) are welcoming at first. But then cracks appear in their friendly facade, as their son Ant (Dan Hough) exhibits strange behavior. Soon the Daltons are fearing for their lives, but Paddy won’t let them leave. This Blumhouse production is a remake of a 2022 Danish horror hit.
Blazing Saddles
Whenever someone says, “They couldn’t make a movie like that today,” they’re usually talking about Mel Brooks’ Blazing Saddles. The crux of the story is this: a frontier town in the Old West gets a new sheriff who happens to be Black, and that throws the racists among them into a tizzy. If that sounds heavy, it’s not. Brooks is a comedy genius who has tackled racism head on over and over again in his career. The film has a crackerjack cast led by Gene Wilder as a drunk gunfighter who helps the late, great Cleavon Little (who got halfway to an EGOT before dying at 53) get control of the town — after blazing up, of course. Blazing Saddles screens Sunday, September 15 and Wednesday, September 18 at the Paradiso.
Being There
Peter Sellers had a long and legendary career. But his real masterpiece didn’t come until Hal Ashby cast him in Being There. It was the film Craig Brewer (who is featured in this week’s Memphis Flyer cover story) chose when he appeared in my Never Seen It series. (Spoiler alert: he loved it.) The Crosstown Theater film series screens Being There on Thursday, Sept. 19.
Tennessee is near the top for arresting people for cannabis and near the bottom for cannabis justice.
Those are the conclusions from Denver-based The Last Prisoner Project (LPP). The group is “dedicated to releasing every last cannabis prisoner and helping them rebuild their lives.” It works on drug policy and criminal justice reform to “redress the harms of the federal government’s so-called ‘War on Drugs.’”
The group said 14,426 people were arrested for cannabis in Tennessee in 2022, using the latest available data. The figure gives the state an arrest rate of .2 percent per the population. Cannabis arrests comprised 39 percent of all drug arrests in the state that year.
The Last Prisoner Project
This puts Tennessee near the top in two of these rankings. Only Texas arrested more people for cannabis that year (24,941). (But given that state’s huge population, the arrests rate was only .08 percent of its population.) Only Wisconsin had a higher arrest rate for cannabis (.22 percent). In Louisiana, 60 percent — more than half — of all drug arrests were for cannabis.
But LPP admits that any real figure to determine exactly how many people are locked up on cannabis charges will be “an educated guess” at best.
The Last Prisoner Project
“Unfortunately, thanks to our complex and oftentimes impenetrable hodgepodge of local, state, and federal criminal justice databases nobody — not even the federal government — is privy to that exact number,” reads a blog post from the group.
However, the group’s figures (and Tennessee’s cannabis arrest rates) aren’t plucked form the air. LPP relied on two separate Bureau of Justice Statistics reports reviewing incarcerated populations by drug-specific offenses. That is, the report counted all those behind bars for drugs and what drugs brought them there.
But the figure has to be low. Those reports don’t count those in local and county jails, juvenile detention facilities, and those held for pre-trial and pre-sentencing. Also, some facilities just don’t report to the feds like they should.
“Nearly 40 percent of law enforcement agencies around the country did not submit any data in 2021 to a newly revised FBI crime statistics collection program,” according to a study from The Marshall Project. Neither New York City nor Los Angeles reported to the FBI that year, for example.
The Last Prisoner Project
But the LPP can measure how well states help those previously incarcerated to find justice in the wake of either cannabis legalization or service of their time.
Don’t worry. Tennessee does terrible there, too. Its June report gave Tennessee a D- after earning 3 points. (California earned 25 points for scale.)
The Last Prisoner Project
“With no full legalization, no pardon policy, no avenues for resentencing, and extremely limited avenues for record clearance, Tennessee falls behind and offers virtually no relief for individuals impacted by past cannabis prohibition,” reads the report.
The Last Prisoner Project
The LPP gave Tennessee two points for a law passed in 2022 that allowed for some criminal records to be expunged. However, it wasn’t written specifically for cannabis and the LPP said, “this unfortunately means that cannabis offense are not expedited nor guaranteed.”
The state’s other point in the report came as the law does include broad eligibility for different levels of offenses. Tennessee scored points only in two of the report’s 16 categories.
Don’t worry. Mississippi and Arkansas scored a D-, too. However, both states got an extra point over Tennessee for having some sort of legalization and/or decriminalization process. Tennessee has neither.
In a surprise action that recalls a similar circumstance eight years ago, state Democratic Party chair Hendrell Remus has removed local Shelby County party chair Lexie Carter from power.
The action took place Thursday following a Zoom call between Carter, Remus, and others. Invoking what the state chair said was the absolute authority of the state party over local parties, Remus said Carter had not measured up to the needs of a coordinated Democratic campaign for the fall election.
He mentioned specifically the campaigns for District 98 state representative of Jesse Juseth, who opposes Republican incumbent John Gillespie, and that of Gloria Johnson of Knoxville against GOP US Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Remus said he had sent a questionnaire to Carter asking for details of the local party’s readiness for election activity and received insufficient information in response.
Carter professed to be taken by surprise, having just, as she maintained, presided over the local party’s annual Kennedy Day banquet last weekend and raised upwards of $40,000 for party coffers. She alleged that a number of disagreements and confrontations had occurred between herself and Remus at the recently concluded Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
Former local party chair and ex-County Commissioner Van Turner, who had assisted Carter in answering Remus’ questionnaire, raised concerns about due process in Carter’s removal and likened his action to the state Republican Party supermajority’s attempt to dominate over the actions of local government.
Remus said he would be appointing four ad hoc co-chairs to guide the SCDP until December, when a local party election will be held.
The new developments recalled the situation of 2016 when then state Democratic chair Mary Mancini disbanded the Shelby County party following years of local controversy, including charges of embezzlement.
The local party was reconstituted in 2017 with Corey Strong as chair.
Cooper-Young Festival returns for its 36th year. (Courtesy: Cooper Young Business Association)
Southern Heritage Classic Cultural Celebration Various Locations Through Saturday, September 14 Kick off the season with the Southern Heritage Classic Cultural Celebration. Sure, there’s the rivalry football game between Arkansas-Pine Bluff and Tennessee State, but there’s also a ton of non-football events to check out, from the parade to an exhibit at the National Civil Rights Museum. More info here.
Mighty Roots Music Festival Stovall, MS Friday-Saturday, September 13-14 Might I interest you in a mighty good time? This music fest’s lineup has Joe Austin & the Tallahatchies, Alex Jade and the Gemstones, Dogpark, and Happy Landing on Friday, and Reed Brake, Alice Hasen and the Blaze, Chinese Connection Dub Embassy, hey nothing, Hans Williams, flipturn, Easy Honey, Trey Gardo, and Terry “Big T” Williams on Saturday. General admission is $75. Tickets and more info can be found at mightyrootsmusicfestival.com.
Cooper-Young Festival Cooper-Young Historic District Saturday, September 14, 9 a.m.-7 p.m. At the corner of Happy and Healthy — wait this isn’t Walgreens — at the corner of Cooper and Young is the festival where happiness and a healthy amount of art, music, and crafts flourishes. This year’s headliner is Carla Thomas, with The Stax Academy Alumni Band. She’ll perform at 5:15 p.m. Also on the lineup are Rachel Maxann, Oakwalker, Tennessee Screamers, Jombi, Salo Pallini, Cameron Bethany, Turnstyles, General Labor, Late Night Cardigan, Black Cream, and Steve Selvidge Band.
Mid-Autumn Festival Crosstown Concourse Saturday, September 14, 6-9 p.m. Celebrate the beauty of Asian culture with live music, traditional lion dance performances, and fun for the whole family with face painting and a fashion show. Savor the sweet taste of tradition with free mooncakes and explore the rich heritage of four local temples.
Memphis Yoga Festival Memphis Brooks Museum of Art Sunday, September 15, noon-5 p.m. It’s not a stretch to say that this festival will have all the yoga you could ever dream of. You can take a variety of classes from a variety of instructors in just one day — from learning about the power of the breath to Pilates fusion to a forest walk. There will also be vendors, food trucks, and kids classes. General admission is $45 and day of admission is $55. More information here.
MJ Orpheum Theatre Tuesday, September 17-September 22 Michael and Jackson happen to be two of our writers on staff, but when you put them together, you get Michael Jackson, one of the most famous entertainers of all time. Michael and Jackson also seem to be the most famous writers on our staff. Is this a coincidence? Maybe. Or do the names Michael and Jackson carry some super power? These are the things to think about. Anyways, I don’t need to tell you who Michael Jackson is, but there’s a musical about him coming to the Orpheum next week. Get your tickets for the show here.
Latin Dance Tom Lee Park Thursday, September 19, 6 p.m. Celebrate Hispanic Heritage Month with free Latin dance lessons each Thursday from September 19th to October 10th at AutoZone Plaza in Tom Lee Park. Each week, you’ll learn a different style of dance. Up first is salsa, followed by bachata (September 26), cumbia (October 3), and merengue (October 10).
Shelby County continues to experience one of the highest HIV rates in the nation – designated one of 48 “hotspots” that are collectively responsible for half of all new U.S. infections.
Despite the urgent need for intervention, the Shelby County Health Department has had to forfeit more than $3 million of the $8.6 million in federal HIV prevention funding it has received in the past five years, according to information provided to lawmakers by the Tennessee Department of Health.
Credit: Tennessee Lookout
The funding came from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), which – until last year – provided Tennessee with annual HIV prevention funding, distributed through the Tennessee Department of Health to local health departments and nonprofit organizations. Between 2019 and 2023, Shelby County’s share of the funding ranged from $816,000 to $1.7 million annually.
But in four of the past five fiscal years, Shelby County failed to tap all available CDC dollars. The money can be used to purchase HIV tests, hire public health workers to administer them and perform contact tracing to identify potentially additional cases. Last year, the county drew down just $410,000 of its $1.5 million grant.
In an August 23 letter to lawmakers highlighting the unspent funds, Tennessee Department of Health Commissioner Dr. Ralph Alvarado blamed CDC bureaucratic red tape and understaffing by the Shelby County Health Department.
A spokesperson for the Shelby County Health Department, in turn, blamed delays in executing contracts with the state health department, a process that also requires approval by the Shelby County Board of Commissioners and acceptance by county contracting officials.
The spokesperson also cited the Covid pandemic’s lingering impact over the past four years, as reassigned sexual health workers limited the number of HIV investigations funded by the grants.
Dr. Ralph Alvarado, commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Health. (Photo: John Partipilo)
Losing out on $3 million in HIV funding in Shelby County has troubled advocates who work with limited budgets to educate, test, and provide resources to individuals impacted by HIV.
“Folks are making decisions between $3,000 medications and a roof over their heads,” said Cherisse Scott, CEO of Sister Reach, a Memphis reproductive health organization.
Sister Reach operates mobile vans that travel into underserved communities to offer testing and support. At $63 per HIV test, it’s a struggle to provide the service, she said. “The fact is those dollars have not trickled down” Scott said.
Rep. G.A. Hardaway, a Memphis Democrat, said Wednesday he planned to discuss the HIV expenditures with Shelby County health officials and local HIV advocates – and potentially the Tennessee Comptroller’s office, which is charged with investigating uses of public funding.
“Anytime we have federal dollars that cannot be spent in a timely fashion, we have to figure out why,” said Hardaway, who noted that local health officials may not have been in a position to responsibly spend money that came to them late in a grant cycle.
“We don’t want to get into a pattern where there’s too much red tape or we’re creating a situation where people are being rushed into spending in a way that would be ineffective,” he said.
Rising HIV rates
The letter from Dr. Alvarado outlining Shelby County HIV spending was sent in response to questions from Democratic lawmakers concerned that teens seeking HIV tests, along with other healthcare services, were being turned away from public health clinics if they did not have a parent’s permission.
Public health clinics began turning away unaccompanied teens on July 1st, shortly after Gov. Bill Lee signed a new state law requiring parental consent for healthcare services, the Lookout reported.
The state health department has since reversed course, instructing public health clinics to resume providing sexually transmitted disease testing and birth control to teens.
Rising rates of HIV in Shelby County sparked concern earlier this year when the Tennessee Department of Health and the Shelby County Health Department jointly issued a news alert. “Shelby County is experiencing a peak in a six-year trend of increasing HIV and syphilis infections,” Tennessee Department of Health Chief Medical Officer Dr. Tim Jones said in the new release. “Testing is critical in reducing these rates.”
The release noted a 36 percent increase in HIV rates in Shelby County since 2018 and a 40 percent increase among those 15- to 19-years old between 2018 and 2023.
The news has prompted renewed action among nonprofit advocates to stem the growing rates of HIV.
Conflicting disease data
But in his August 23rd letter to lawmakers, Dr. Alvarado said the number of newly diagnosed HIV infections have decreased in the past 14 months – a message at direct odds with previous public statements from his department.
Dr. Alvarado noted there had been a two-year backlog in investigating HIV cases at the Shelby County Health Department. Once the backlog was resolved, he noted, “there was not a significant, acute spike or ‘outbreak’ indicated, as reported by the press.”
The letter does not make clear how resolving the backlog in investigations resulted in fewer reported cases. Investigations, which include contact tracing to identify and test intimate partners, may result in more positive cases rather than fewer. The state health department did not respond to questions about the investigations.
Dr. Alvarado provided lawmakers with charts showing the number of HIV infections in Shelby County decreased from 358 in 2022 to 329 in 2023. Among teens in the county, the number of new infections increased from 22 to 37 during the same time period.
The data provided uses infection numbers, not rates of infections – a typical public health metric previously cited in health department press releases about HIV prevalence in Shelby County that measures the number of infections compared to population size.
The department did not respond to numerous requests seeking clarity on HIV infections in Shelby County.
Dr. Alvarado noted that the decrease in the number of HIV infections coincided with the rejection of federal HIV funding from the CDC by the Lee administration. Last year, Lee announced he would forgo all future CDC HIV prevention funding in a move widely seen as a politically-motivated effort to block the federal dollars from also going to Planned Parenthood clinics in Tennessee.
The state has since allocated its own funding for HIV prevention efforts. Shelby County this year received $1.7 million in state dollars and has thus far spent $885,000 on prevention efforts.
Tennessee Lookout is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Tennessee Lookout maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Holly McCall for questions: info@tennesseelookout.com. Follow Tennessee Lookout on Facebook and X.
In March 1966, Muhammad Ali refused to be drafted into the Army to fight in the Vietnam War, citing his Islamic faith as a reason and claiming conscientious objector status. At the peak of his boxing career, he was banned from the sport and spent the next four years in and out of the courtroom. In October 1970, he was finally granted a license to fight in Georgia, and on October 26th, he faced Jerry “The Bellflower Bomber” Quarry in Atlanta. In front of a sellout crowd, Ali took Quarry down in only three rounds, setting off a night of celebration in Atlanta’s Black community. At one infamous party, a group of Black gangsters celebrating the victory were set up and robbed at gunpoint by another group of Black gangsters, setting off a chain reaction of botched reprisals and mutual misunderstandings worthy of a Coen Brothers movie.
Years later, journalist Jeff Keating, writing for the Atlanta alternative weekly Creative Loafing, discovered that the person who threw the party, an ambitious hustler known as Chicken Man, was not killed, as had long been reported, but instead had survived the ordeal and was living under an assumed name in Atlanta. Keating recounted the too-weird-to-be-true story in his true crime podcast Fight Night. Released in 2020 during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic, it became a huge hit. Writer/producer Shaye Ogbonna and comedian Kevin Hart pitched the story to Universal Television, who ultimately ordered an eight-part limited series for their new streaming service Peacock.
Craig Brewer poses at the Fight Night premiere in New York City (Photo: Jamie McCarthy/Peacock)
One of the first calls they made was to Memphis director Craig Brewer. “I got this job the old-fashioned way,” he says. “I got a call from my agents saying that [executive producer] Will Packer and Kevin Hart wanted to meet with me on a project. … Shaye, the creator, has been a fan of my films, particularly Hustle & Flow, which he saw in Atlanta.”
Brewer was intrigued by the story and impressed with the rough drafts of the first two episodes, which were all that existed at the time. “I remember reading the script and thinking to myself, ‘This guy Shaye and I, I think are gonna really get along.’ We have the same interests in movies and TV and music. But more importantly, it’s something I always remember John Singleton talking to me about: ‘Is there regional specificity to this voice?’ And I was like, yeah, this feels like a guy from the South, in Atlanta, making movies from his heart, his culture, and his experience. It felt real to me; it felt furnished and honest and, above all, exciting.”
Fight Night: The Million DollarHeist was on its way to the screen.
Putting the Team Together
Kevin Hart’s Hartbeat and Will Packer Media had produced the podcast, says Brewer. “Kevin was always going to be Chicken Man. That was from the jump. Then I came on and we started putting together the other cast members.”
Kevin Hart stars as Chicken Man, the small-time hustler who gets in over his head in Fight Night. (Photo: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK)
Samuel L. Jackson, an acting legend who Brewer worked with in 2006’s Black Snake Moan, was quickly cast as New York gangster Frank Moten. Taraji P. Henson, who was the breakout star of Hustle & Flow, came onboard as Vivian, Chicken Man’s partner in crime. “She was always at the top of the list,” says Brewer. “Then Will Packer called me and said, ‘We gotta go get your boy Terrence.’”
Gangsters “Cadillac” Richie (Howard) and Frank Moten (Jackson) land in Atlanta with their entourage. (Photo: Parrish Lewis/PEACOCK)Jackson as Moten ignores the press before the big fight. (Photo: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK)
The producers thought Terrence Howard, star of Hustle & Flow, would be perfect for gangster Richard “Cadillac” Wheeler. “I’m speaking to you from New Jersey, so I’m speaking to you from Cadillac Richie’s territory,” says Brewer.
Terrence Howard and Marsha Stephanie Blake (Photo: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK) Taraji P. Henson stars as Vivian Thomas. (Photo: Parrish Lewis/PEACOCK)
After Hustle, Brewer had directed Henson and Howard in the hit TV series Empire. “I called up Terrence, and I was kinda talking him into doing the show. I said to him, ‘Listen, it’s me. I’m gonna let you get up on that tight rope like you usually do. I’ll be your net. What I want you to do is bring your creativity to this and create this character because he’s an important character as the series goes on. I’m gonna just agree to anything you wanna do and help you get it.’ Then he said, ‘Well, I wanna look like one of the Bee Gees. That’s what I wanna do.’ I just remember feeling like, ‘Oh no, what is this gonna look like?’ But then he showed up, and I thought, ‘This cat is gonna steal this show because he looks amazing. … I don’t know if he’s gonna take it off ever again.’”
Detective J.D. Hudson (Cheadle) protects Muhammad Ali (Dexter Darden) before the fight. (Photo: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK)(Photo: Eli Joshua Adé/PEACOCK)
The final big get for the cast was Don Cheadle. The actor/director was on Brewer’s bucket list. “I have always wanted to work with Don, and it was everything that I could have dreamed for and more. He’s a great actor, yes. But I would say that with him — and I would put Sam Jackson in the same category — you’re not just getting somebody’s acting talent, you’re getting their experience of making, watching, and living the art of storytelling. They have an eye for things that some younger actors do not have. Are we telling the right story? They make you better because they hold you to a standard of making sure that you’re doing right, not only by their character, but how their character interacts with everybody. So there were countless times that Don Cheadle would take me and Shaye off into his trailer, and we would work a scene. By the time we left the trailer, Shaye and I would look at each other and just go, ‘Man, the scene is just so much better!’”
Fight Night is filled with star power, in a way very few TV shows have ever been. “The thing about movie stars is, they are decided by the people,” says Brewer. “This show is packed with five movie stars.”
Hotlanta
Fight Night was filmed in Atlanta, Georgia. The series features extensive location shoots among the split-level ranch houses of the suburbs and in the dense city center. Crucial scenes were shot in the distinctive Hyatt Regency Atlanta, whose 22-story atrium influenced hotel design for a generation.
“There is a crucial monologue in episode two that Sam Jackson delivers, where he’s talking about his vision for Atlanta,” says Brewer. “He wants Black people put in places of power, and for the economic future of Atlanta to be Black. It’s funny because you look at the monologue, and you can imagine if it were being said in 1970 to an all-white audience, it may seem outlandish. But last night at the premiere, there were cheers because you realize that dream is here and realized. So it’s very interesting to talk to young people about Atlanta at this crucial time in its history, in the early 1970s, where they were on a campaign that I feel is comparable to Memphis’ history, and to Memphis’ present, which is to deny that you are living, working, and thriving in a Black city. It is to your own peril if you fight against it.
“Atlanta is a city that is open for business. We’re too busy to be dealing with any of that racist bullshit. We’re here to make some money, and I’ll be damned if that’s not the Atlanta that I go to all the time when I’m filming these movies. This is my third project in Atlanta. I’ve been there the whole time that Atlanta has said that they wanna be the next Hollywood. And so many people saying, well, that’s not gonna last, or this is gonna be transitional, or the industry is gonna change. I am telling you right now, no one wants to call it out, but production in Atlanta is there to stay. I don’t see this returning back to Hollywood as long as there’s places like Atlanta.”
Brewer had worked on episodic network TV with Empire, but Fight Night was his first limited series, a form that has become more common in the streaming era. Brewer compares the experience to shooting an eight-hour movie. Brewer directed the first two and last two episodes, and collaborated on the writing of the entire series. He describes the process as a mixture of careful prep and on-the-fly improv.
“I got a call from Shaye saying, ‘We got this idea to do the scene between Sam Jackson and Don Cheadle in an interrogation room,’” Brewer recalls. “We locked ourselves in a room and banged out this scene, probably had it written by like 8 o’clock, 9 o’clock at night. Then, the following morning, I went down to the sound stage and there they were, doing the scene that mere hours ago we had worked on. It’s amazing how fast it all happened. It was just so special because there’d be these moments where Shaye and I would write something, and we knew, ‘Okay, right here, Sam’s gonna probably make this part better. So let’s move on and know that he’s gonna come up with something great to say here — and sure enough, he did! It was this great moment of watching these titans just being amazing.”
Kevin Hart, one of the driving forces behind the development of the series, took the most chances. One of the best-known comedians in the country found a new lane as a dramatic actor. “I had a moment where I saw something that I had never seen before, and it kind of knocked me on my ass,” says Brewer. “It’s in episode two where Kevin Hart’s character is in grave danger, and he has to make a plea for his life. I’m sitting there at my monitor, and I watch Kevin make this tearful plea. That was one of the most real things I’ve ever seen an actor do. I remember just sitting there in awe thinking, ‘How could someone as successful as Kevin Hart actually have a whole other store of talent inside of him that we’ve yet to see? How can it be that he could drop everything that he is as the funniest man on the planet and actually be a dramatic actor?’ You make an assumption about a person, that maybe they don’t have this particular arrow in their quiver, and then suddenly they hit a bull’s-eye. I was stunned. Everyone was stunned. Terrence came up to me and he goes, ‘That cat’s the real deal.’”
Making the Music
Fight Night is set in 1970, a high point in the history of soul, funk, and R&B music. For Scott Bomar, producer and musician behind such acts as The Bo-Keys, that’s his wheelhouse. Bomar and Brewer have worked together on five movie and TV projects, beginning with Hustle & Flow in 2005. “I feel like I got spoiled working with him early on because he’s so musical,” Bomar says. “I find that the way Craig shoots, the way he directs his actors, the way he edits, it’s got a rhythm to it. I’ve worked with him enough now to kind of know what his rhythm is.”
Bomar says he was in “summer home repair mode” when Brewer called him out of the blue. “He said, I’m working on this TV show. Theoretically, if you had this gig, would you be able to do it? Are you available? And I’m like, sure, yeah. I can do it. I knew it was a pretty quick turnaround, but I had no idea exactly how quick of a turnaround it was. I think there were people involved who had their doubts on whether or not it was possible to do what we did in the amount of time we did it.”
Mixing engineer Jake Ferguson and composer Scott Bomar lent their talents to the series. (Photo: Chris McCoy)
Bomar and Brewer recorded the score to Fight Night at Sam Phillips Recording in Memphis. They had one week to take each episode from concept to final mix. “I can’t say enough about my collaboration with Scott Bomar,” says Brewer. “It’s something that truly is a collaboration. I see the scene, and Scott and I start just kind of grooving to a beat, to a track that has yet to be written. We start with rhythm. It really is kind of a Memphis way of doing it.”
Bomar enlisted several of his stable of veteran Memphis players, including drummer Willie Hall, who played on Isaac Hayes’ “Theme From Shaft.” Joe Restivo played guitar; Mark Franklin, Kirk Smothers, and Art Edmaiston contributed horn parts, along with Kameron Whalum, Gary Topper, and Yella P. Behind the board were veteran producer Kevin Houston and Jake Ferguson, who recently returned to Memphis after collaborating with superstar producer Mark Ronson. Most recently, Ferguson worked on the soundtrack to Barbie. “I feel like Craig came in and basically taught a master class on TV scoring,” Ferguson says.
“It’s quite a bit different than film because the schedule’s so accelerated,” says Bomar.
A 1970s vintage mini Moog synthesizer Bomar found in a closet at Sam Phillips Recording played a major role in creating the series’ soundscapes. In some cases, Bomar says they didn’t have time to assemble a full band, so he would have to play almost all of the instruments himself. “I’d say that this is the closest thing to a solo record I’ve ever made,” he laughs.
“It was fascinating to hear Scott and Craig talk about Atlanta in the ’70s and all the inspirations they had,” says Ferguson. “Musically, it was so cool to see how we can take, quote, unquote, ‘modern instruments’ and make them feel like you’re back in the ’70s. When we finished the first two episodes, it was just incredible to see how much the scenes would come to life with the music we added.”
“When we had the first mix, one of the producers said, ‘We asked Scott to do the impossible, and he’s done it,’” says Bomar. “That’s one of the best compliments I’ve ever gotten.”
Final Fight
The first three episodes of Fight Night: The Million Dollar Heist premiered on Peacock Thursday, September 5th. New episodes will drop every Thursday for the next five weeks. The night before it hit streaming, there was a star-studded premiere at Lincoln Center in New York City. I interviewed Brewer the next morning, as he was beginning preparations for his next project, a film he wrote called Song Sung Blue starring Hugh Jackman. The director was still reeling from the reception to Fight Night. “When you’re dealing with a brand like Will Packer and Kevin Hart, that means it’s gonna be a party. You can’t just do wine and cheese and a floral arrangement. There were dancers dressed in some of the outfits from the show. There was a Cadillac in the middle of the dance floor. It’s just a party and everybody was there! My son [Graham], I had to pull his ass off the dance floor last night at like 1 a.m., saying, ‘I gotta work, son! Let’s go!’ But he was out there, doing the wobble with everybody else. … It was such a great thing to see it with a crowd. Yeah, I think we got a great show here.”
