Bringing an end to one of the most notorious local crimes in recent history, a judge sentences confessed killer Dale Mardis to 15 years in prison for the slaying of code-enforcement inspector Mickey Wright. The victim’s family reacts to the verdict with outrage. We can’t say we blame them.
Temperatures drop below freezing over the weekend — in March, remember — making Easter egg hunts a bit more challenging for the kids, who might as well be picking up snowballs. Brrrrr!
Nothing about the Ford family 
Greg Cravens
surprises us anymore, not even the revelation that Tamara Mitchell-Ford carries ravioli in her pockets. Not Snickers, or packets of M&Ms, or even Slim Jims. Just bare, unwrapped ravioli. During her arrest for drunk driving back in February, police report that the former wife of John Ford pulled a piece of ravioli from her pocket, ate it, and then blew into the Breathalyzer. We’ve heard of ways to beat these machines, but we never knew pasta was one of them.
Thieves break into the abandoned Sears Crosstown building and steal more than $11,000 worth of brass valves from the structure’s plumbing and fire-control system. In recent months, we’ve read about thefts of copper tubing from air conditioners and even bronze urns from cemeteries. We never knew the scrap-metal business would be so appealing. What will be taken next — the trolley tracks?
A Memphis Symphony Orchestra member fights a Germantown traffic ticket — and loses. The musician, nabbed by the remote cameras precisely one-half second after running a red light, argues that a sudden stop might have damaged his prized viola. The judge doesn’t buy it, so Marshall Fine just ends up with an even bigger fine.
