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Getting Back Out There: Southland Casino Racing’s Huge Expansion

Here’s the first in an occasional video series called Getting Back Out There from Flyer reporter Toby Sells.

For this one, ride along with Sells as he tours Southland Casino Racing’s $250 million expansion. The project features a massive gaming floor (bigger than two football fields) and a massive hotel tower housing more than 300 rooms.

The casino is expected to open in April and the hotel is expected to open in September or October, Southland officials said Friday.

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Prosecutor Moves to Block DNA Test in West Memphis Three Case

The lead prosecutor now working the West Memphis Three lawsuit asked a judge to deny a new request to test evidence in the case. 

Damien Echols, one of three people convicted of 1993 murders committed in West Memphis, asked the Crittenden County Circuit Court to allow the new testing in a petition filed last month. Specifically, Echols wanted the ligatures — the shoelaces used to tie the young victims’ arms and legs — to be tested with new DNA collection technology. 

Keith Chrestman, the prosecuting attorney in the case based in Marion, said Echols’ request does not meet legal standards and “we must follow the law.” Among other things, Chrestman said a hearing on such matters must be held in the court where the conviction was entered, Chrestman wrote, and Echols’ conviction was handed down in Craighead County, not Crittenden.

In addition, he claims in his response to Echols’ request that, “Under statutory law, if new DNA testing — like [the] defendant seeks — excludes him, the circuit court has two options: grant a new trial or resentence. When a defendant has completed their sentence, it makes no sense to grant them a new trial. Nor does it make sense to resentence them. Here [the] defendant has completed his sentence. He’s no longer a prisoner. So for [the] defendant … habeas corpus writ isn’t an available remedy.”

Echols and his attorney want to test the evidence with new, M-Vac technology. The company behind the process said comparing its system to previous methods of extracting DNA samples from evidence is like comparing a push broom to a carpet cleaner. 

However, Chrestman said using the new tech would require the court to determine whether or not it is a generally accepted testing method. Also, it must be proven that the new method of testing would not damage the evidence, as such evidence must be preserved, and the M-Vac method would “forever alter the physical evidence.” 

Further, Chrestman said Echols must prove that testing the evidence would establish “actual innocence,” not to support a “theoretical defense.” He set out several pieces of “substantial evidence of [Echols’] guilt” shown to the jury at the original trial. For example, he said Echols knew facts about the case not available to the general public. Also, witnesses said that Echols had confessed to the killings and was near the scene at the time of the murders.       

In response to Chrestman’s statement, Echols tweeted, “Arkansas continues to follow the path of corruption they set out on from the very beginning of this case.”

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West Memphis Police Chief Resigns, Some Say on New West Memphis Three Evidence

Michael D. Pope, the chief of the West Memphis Police Department (WMPD), has resigned after some claim evidence was found in the West Memphis Three case, according to Damien Echols, one of the three boys convicted of murder in 1994.

Calls for confirmation to the WMPD and West Memphis City Hall were not immediately returned.

Echols, Jessie Misskelley Jr., and Jason Baldwin were convicted of killing three boys in a Satanic ritual. New DNA evidence found in 2010 allowed the three to negotiate a plea bargain. In 2011, they left prison after entering Alford pleas. 

WMPD Chief Michael Pope resigned in a letter dated December 7th. Pope said he’d leave the post on December 24th. In the letter, Pope said his resignation comes as “I have other endeavors and goals that are pointing me in a different direction.” Pope took the job six months ago. 

However, Echols said on Twitter Tuesday, “The chief of police [Pope] was not truthful. He has now resigned, and we know that none of the evidence was destroyed. It can now be tested, to see who left DNA at the crime scene. My attorney was in the evidence room this morning and saw it with his own eyes. Every piece is still there.” 

Mara Leveritt, an investigative journalist who wrote The Devil’s Knot, a book about the West Memphis Three case, quoted Echols’ attorney in a tweet Tuesday. He said, “Patrick Benca, an attorney for Damien Echols, said he’s been advised that WMPD Chief Mike Pope resigned. Benca was in [West Memphis] this morning to examine evidence in the case of the [West Memphis Three], some of which was reported missing. Benca texted, ‘We found the ligatures. We got what we needed.’”

The Arkansas Justice Project, an online crime watch news source, shared the news saying, “We have received reports that the police chief of the West Memphis Police Department has resigned after someone suddenly located the evidence related to the West Memphis Three case. More importantly, they have all the ligatures. They have all the evidence. 

“We are also calling for criminal charges for anyone involved in the coverup and obstruction, including police officers, prosecutors, judges, and whoever else was involved in this scam.”

The Truth and Justice podcast tweeted texts from Echols.

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Big River Park Started With $1M Gift

A $1 million gift will establish Big River Park on about 1,500 acres of land along the west side of the Mississippi River. 

The move will purchase land there now in the hands of multiple owners. That land is primarily between the Hernando De Soto Bridge and Big River Crossing on the Harahan Bridge. Buying the land and stitching it together will help ensure that it is conserved and protected for recreational and outdoor needs of the Memphis region. 

The $1 million gift is from the First Horizon Foundation to create the park and the Big River Conservancy. That group will own and operate Big River Park as a publicly accessible nature preserve with recreational amenities. Its board will work with TennGreen Land Conservancy and Ducks Unlimited to protect the land from incompatible development and subdivision. The group will also encourage public access and permit the construction of trails and other park amenities. 

“With the Mississippi River as one of our company’s environmental focus areas, we are proud to play a vital role in this initiative,” said Bryan Jordan, president and CEO of First Horizon Corporation. “This initiative and partnership will safeguard and conserve the land along the river as well as provide our community with opportunities to enjoy the beautified space.”

First Horizon was also an early sponsor of Big River Crossing, which opened in October 2016. Since then, many bikers and hikers have found their ways to the Big River Trail System, which includes more than 70 miles of riverside trails along the Mississippi River’s levee system. The conservancy said more trails are planned throughout the park, including some trails through the restored wetlands areas. 

The project will also provide key environmental benefits. The wetlands and floodplains there have been converted for farming. Once they’re restored and as the level of the Mississippi River fluctuates throughout the year, the floodplain will absorb and hold the rising waters. In the process, the floodplain plants will filter pollutants, degraded farm soils, and debris from the floodwaters before returning cleaner water to the river.

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At Large Opinion

Warning Shot

Some of you may remember that back in 2015 the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT) announced plans to shut down the I-55 bridge over the Mississippi in Memphis for nine months. TDOT said it needed to do so in order to install a “roundabout” interchange on the Memphis end of the bridge. The entire project was to begin in early 2017 and last through November 2019, effectively screwing up traffic across the bridge and through South Memphis for two years.

It didn’t happen. And that’s mainly because some people with common sense (including this newspaper’s staff) raised hell against it, pointing out that shutting down the “old bridge” was a nightmare scenario, one that would funnel 100,000 vehicles a day (double its then-current traffic count) across the Hernando DeSoto Bridge and expose the entire Central U.S. to a potential shutdown of commerce should something happen to the one remaining bridge.

Over in West Memphis, state Senator Keith Ingram’s hair was on fire. He rightly pointed out that the shutdown would “devastate local economies throughout Eastern Arkansas and would cripple emergency services in the event of an accident or natural disaster.”

The late Phil Trenary, president and CEO of the Greater Memphis Chamber, cited a post-9/11 study that showed that closing both of the city’s bridges would have a negative economic impact of about $11 billion to $15 billion per year, adding that the impact on business would be “significant to not only the local economy but to the national economy.”

The Flyer’s Toby Sells wrote a comprehensive cover story on the subject. We editorialized against the shutdown vociferously and often. Eventually, thanks to building public, political, and business opposition, the TDOT plan was mothballed, hopefully forever. The area’s leaders came to recognize that Memphis would be in big trouble if we ever got down to one bridge.

Oops.

As we all know, thanks to the discovery of a fissure in a structural beam on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, the feared “down-to-one-bridge” scenario has happened. And as was predicted in 2015, traffic is backed up on I-40, through the city, and on the south I-240 loop, as 80,000 vehicles a day are funneled across a narrow highway bridge built 70 years ago to handle one-fourth that amount of traffic.

Imagine if the break on the Hernando DeSoto Bridge had been discovered in, say, June 2017, during TDOT’s proposed shutdown. Or worse, imagine if something should go awry on the I-55 bridge now. Can you say Helena, Arkansas? Or Dyersburg, Tennessee? Those are the nearest two Mississippi River crossings. Local — and national — commerce would suffer a horrific hit.

But thankfully the TDOT bridge-closure didn’t happen in 2017. People raised hell. The bureaucrats were stopped. Now, with any luck, the “new bridge” gets fixed in the next couple months, and we get back to normal. But we need a new normal. There’s a lesson to be learned here, and the time to act on it is now.

We have two bridges, both over a half-century old, both facing deterioration and maintenance issues. It’s obvious that Memphis needs a third bridge across the Mississippi. And it isn’t just about Memphis. It’s about the entire interstate commerce system through the middle of America, North and South, relying on a rickety, aging infrastructure that was built for the 1960s and 1970s. A new bridge addresses current and future issues. It could integrate with the I-69 corridor and maybe even incorporate space for future high-speed rail. Why not think big?

It’s not like we’d be asking for the moon. St. Louis has six major bridges across the Mississippi. Davenport, Iowa, has three. Hell, Dubuque, Iowa, has two bridges. We’re tied with Dubuque, people. It’s in our interest and in the country’s interest to plan for the future, not to wait until the two extant bridges fall completely apart. Officeholders and business leaders from Tennessee, Arkansas, and Mississippi need to get together and form a commission to explore the best way to get this moving.

Patching a crack with overlaid slabs of steel is a temporary solution, a band-aid that doesn’t address the overarching issues of a deteriorating infrastructure. Moving toward getting a new bridge should become a priority now — not when we’re forced to deal with another bridge shutdown. We’ve been shown a glimpse of the future. It’s time to face it, realistically.

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MEMernet: Follow West Memphis Facebook for Bridge Updates

If you want near-daily updates on the repairs of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, follow the City of West Memphis on Facebook.

The city provides regular updates on the repairs, which range from general updates for the public to technical, in-the-weeds descriptions of the work being done, and images of the work you won’t likely see anywhere else. It all makes the city’s Facebook page a go-to site if you want to know what’s going on out there.

For example, on Monday the city said the “contractor is making significant progress on the repairs.” For true bridge-repair enthusiasts, the city noted that “in-depth ultrasonic weld testing inspections of the I-40 bridge” were continuing Monday.

On Tuesday, the page offered that “both PT weldments/anchors were delivered this weekend and are being installed. The first anchor is 50 percent complete. Installation of the second anchor will start as soon as today. Steel-strengthening plates and splice plates for the permanent repair are being fabricated.”

Sounds like forward motion, to this layman, anyway.

But another piece of information is easier to understand, especially for anyone using I-55.

“A second lane was added over the weekend to the I-55 southbound ramp to help alleviate some congestion and advance flow through the Crump Interchange,” the city reported on Facebook. “Crews also repaired some damaged pavement on I-55 northbound.”

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West Memphis Snarled With Bridge Closure Traffic, Mayor Urges Patience

Thanks to the closure of the Hernando DeSoto Bridge, big trucks roll through West Memphis neighborhoods, driveways are blocked, and emergency medical services are “struggling,” according to a Friday Facebook post from West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon.

McClendon said he knows citizens are “frustrated and looking for someone to point the finger at” and he’s “normally that target.” But he reminded West Memphians “that I live in this city also, and I see what you see.” 

(Credit: Marco McClendon/Facebook) West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon

“I understand that big trucks are going through your communities, tearing up city streets, and prohibiting our children from simply playing in the yard,” he wrote. “After a hard day’s work you just want to get home for some relaxation and peace, but your driveway or entrances are blocked. I know the impact that this is having on our local businesses and especially small businesses. Our emergency medical services are struggling just to make it through traffic.”

(Credit: Tennessee Department of Transportation) A TDOT SmartWay camera shows traffic backed up on I-55 at Ingram in West Memphis Friday morning.

He said GPS services are now routing truckers in residential communities and that “we are working with Google [for a] virtual reroute.” He said he’s working with the Arkansas Department of Transportation on a number of adjustments to alleviate traffic, but “I believe the only solution to this is getting that new bridge fixed quickly.”

Pray for West Memphis!

West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon

“Be safe out there, and pray for West Memphis!” McClendon wrote. “We will get through this together. There was not a road map through COVID and a bridge closing but this too shall pass!”

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CannaBeat: Play Ball!

Here we go!

The General Assembly cranked back up last week, and while it seems some new leaders may have dampened efforts toward medical cannabis, some other cannabis bills have already been filed.

New House Speaker Cameron Sexton said of cannabis legislation, “It’s against federal law. And so, until that changes, it’s hard to have a discussion.” However, other states have passed medical cannabis despite speakers’ reluctance, according to the Marijuana Policy Project. Gov. Bill Lee said he wants to “explore alternatives before we go there.”

However, Rep. Rick Staples (D-Knoxville) filed a bill last week that would allow referenda in Tennessee counties that would “authorize the growing, processing, manufacture, delivery, and retail sale of marijuana within jurisdictional boundaries.” The bill also “decriminalizes the possession of small amounts of marijuana statewide.”

The Memphis City Council tried to lower punishments set here for the possession of small amounts of cannabis back in October 2016. The move would have allowed Memphis Police Department officers to charge anyone in possession of less than a half-ounce of marijuana with a $50 fine or community service. However, state lawmakers voided the rule.

Sen. Sara Kyle (D-Memphis), who sponsored a raft of pro-cannabis legislation last year, is back this year with a new bill. Kyle wants to allow medical cannabis patients from other states immunity from Tennessee laws. If a person carries a medical marijuana patient identification card from another state and has less than a half-ounce on them, they “do not commit an offense in this state.”

So, say you’re a patient from West Memphis and you carry your legally prescribed cannabis with you across the bridge. If Kyle’s bill were law, police here could not arrest nor charge you for carrying your medicine.

A number of other cannabis-related bills remain from the first part of the 111th legislative session. However, no major bill has yet been filed that would organize a medical marijuana system in Tennessee.

Buds of Summer

ICYMI: Major League Baseball (MLB) players won’t face drug penalties from the league if they use cannabis.

MLB and the MLB Players Association announced last month that marijuana had been removed from the league’s list of banned substances, and its consumption among players will now be treated the same as alcohol. Up to now, players were fined $35,000 if they tested positive for cannabis.

The new policy begins with spring training 2020, which starts on February 21st when the Rangers meet the Royals in Arizona.

Body and Mind

Coming soon to West Memphis

West Memphis

Work is underway for three dispensaries to be open soon in West Memphis, according to WMCTV.

The dispensary sites were approved by the Arkansas Medical Marijuana Commission in 2018. At the time, no work had begun on any of the West Memphis sites. Plans were filed for the shop on OK Street in October. That one is from Body and Mind, a Vancouver-based, publicly traded company that offers dried flower, edibles, topicals, extracts, and vape pen cartridges.

West Memphis Mayor Marco McClendon told WMC that the lure of medical marijuana could help people from Memphis to move to his side of the Hernando DeSoto bridge.

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CannaBeat: New West Memphis Dispensaries, Marketing CBD

Moves are afoot to open one of three approved medical marijuana dispensaries in West Memphis as plans have been submitted for a Body and Mind dispensary on OK Street.

Body and Mind is a Vancouver-based, publicly traded company investing in cannabis cultivation with a production facility in Nevada. Its products include dried flower, edibles, topicals, extracts, and vape pen cartridges. Body and Mind strains have won the Las Vegas Hempfest Cup 2016, High Times Top Ten, and the NorCal Secret Cup.

The company will team up with Arkansas’ Comprehensive Care Group to open the West Memphis dispensary. The project will get underway with $1.2 million in start-up costs, according to a news release issued by Body and Mind.

Plans for the new dispensary in West Memphis must first be approved by city leaders there.

‘Dat CBD Life

The legal cannabis industry in America, while lucrative, is still so young that its growing pains are numerous.

For example, many banks won’t do business with cannabis retailers because cannabis is still illegal on the federal level. This means many cannabis retailers run as cash-only operations, leading to higher risks of robbery.

Marketing cannabidiol (CBD) products can also be tricky. Thanks to those federal laws and a myriad of different state laws, getting messages to consumers online comes with high hurdles.

For example, CBD ads are often banned from social media. Google doesn’t even allow marketing firms to use its Keyword Planner to search for potential terms to target. Cannabis also makes the list of prohibited content on Google AdWords. Thanks to all of this, CBD companies can’t use pay-per-click ads for advertising.

An Arkansas company is side-stepping some of this by influencing social-media influencers. Little Rock-based Tree of Life Seeds launched its “CBDisLife” campaign last week.

“What we’re doing is reaching out to social media gurus with large audiences who use CBD oil,” said Jason Martin, Tree of Life CEO. “They share how the products have benefited them, which clears up common misconceptions about CBD products and educates the general public.”

The company said once other people catch onto the “CBDisLife influencer movement” they can join and share their stories, no matter their audience size.

Cannabis Cafe

On Monday, a Los Angeles Times story gave the ins and outs of The Lowell Cafe. The first-of-its-kind cannabis cafe in West Hollywood will allow diners to smoke cannabis inside and outside the restaurant, thanks to a new license issued by the city.

Says the Times: “When you arrive, you will be seated at a table and greeted by a flower host (also known as a ‘budtender’) who will serve as your cannabis guide. He or she will drill you on your past cannabis experiences (whether you’re Snoop Dogg-level or haven’t smoked since high school or at all) and help personalize your cannabis order. You also will have a server from whom you can order food and non-alcoholic beverages.”

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Southland Launches Live Table Games, Unveils New Name

Southland Casino Racing

This rendering shows the $250 million expansion proposed for Southland’s casino and dog track in West Memphis.

Southland Gaming and Racing launched live tables games Tuesday afternoon and the casino and dog track has a brand new name.

The newly dubbed Southland Casino Racing received its formal casino license from the Arkansas Racing Commission and opened 40 live tables games at 1 p.m. Tuesday. Visitors there can now play blackjack, craps, and roulette.

The license also allows Southland to expand the number of slot machines, now with 2,050 machines on the casino floor. The expansion created more than 100 new jobs, according to David Wolf, president and general manager of Southland for Delaware North, the casino’s parent company.

In January, Delaware North announced plans for a $250 million expansion of Southland to include a new casino complex and high-rise hotel. Construction on the project is expected to begin this summer. The casino complex and parking garage are expected to be complete in about 12 months. The hotel tower should be complete in about 18 months.