Imagine That

Larry Edwards and Anne Beffel: seeing the world anew.

• by Carol Knowles

Herenton Says Police Officers Should Be Allowed to Live Outside City Limits

Memphis mayor Willie Herenton spoke at the City Council's public safety committee Tuesday morning, saying he agreed with a proposed resolution to let police officers live 20 miles outside the city limits ...

• by Mary Cashiola

The Best Obituary Ever Written

Ida's marriage to Karl was a three ring circus, engagement ring, wedding ring and suffering. Ida met and married Albert Sills in 1960. Ida said "I never knew what real happiness was until I got remarried, then it was too late". Ida Mae and Albert settled down in Fox Meadows area of Memphis. Albert wanted a son, Ida wanted a dog. Ida quoted "with my way we just ruin the carpet". But on March 6, 1966 a son was happily born named Lee ...

• by John Branston

Fly on the Wall

• by Chris Davis

Michael Hooks Jr. Gets 30 Days in Jail

Michael Hooks Jr. was sentenced to 30 days in prison and four months home confinement Wednesday for a minor crime committed in 2001 that helped set in motion the federal government's Operation Tennessee Waltz two years later.

Hooks, a former member of the Memphis City Schools Board of Education, told U.S. District Judge Daniel Breen, "I have no one to blame but myself ...

• by John Branston

Memphis School Board Skips Council Meeting

The Memphis City Council's education committee was expected to talk about alternative schools, discipline and graduation rates, and the Memphis City Schools budget today with representatives of the school system. Unfortunately, the discussion was tabled when it turned out that school board member Kenneth Whalum Jr. was the only representative of the district at the meeting ...

• by Mary Cashiola

Q&A: Larry Godwin

Memphis Police Director

• by Bianca Phillips

Home Again

On the eve of his new film's Memphis debut, director Ira Sachs talks about "Married Life," working with established stars, and growing up in Memphis.

• by Chris Herrington

Memphis' Million-Dollar Missed Free Throws

Each of those missed free throws late in Monday night's national-championship basketball game between Memphis and Kansas turned out to be rather expensive for some Memphians. According to the advertising director at Ashley Furniture Homestore, Tiger fans would have received more than $1 million in refunds for furniture purchased over a pair of promotional weekends last winter ...

• by John Branston

Northwest/Delta Merger Could Be Announced Tuesday

From The Wall Street Journal online today: "Delta Air Lines Inc. and Northwest Airlines Corp. may unveil their long-delayed merger announcement as early as Tuesday, said people familiar with the matter, in the latest move by airlines to grapple with high fuel prices and a softening economy.

The deal could value Northwest at roughly $3 billion, these people said, though terms were still being negotiated. That would be well below Northwest's market value of more than $4.6 billion as of Feb. 1, reflecting the industry's worsening prospects in recent weeks ...

• by John Branston

Mayor Calls for Property Tax Increase

The Memphis mayor called for a 58-cent property tax increase today, citing declining home values and negative consumer spending.

"Conservative consumer spending means less money in sales tax," Mayor Willie Herenton told the City Council during his fiscal year 2009 budget presentation. "Decreasing home values means less money collected in property taxes."...

40 Years Later

Sights and sounds from the April 4th recommitment march.

• by Preston Lauterbach

Herenton Offers Council "Will," "Courage," and 58-Cent Tax Hike

The Memphis City Council, with nine new members and all decked out in University of Memphis jerseys, got a reality jolt Tuesday when Mayor Willie Herenton asked them to approve a 58-cent property tax increase. "I stand before you with the will and the political courage to make the hard decisions," he said.

• by John Branston

What They Said

Comments from memphisflyer.com

• by Flyer Readers

A Green "Dream"

• by Mary Cashiola

Pending Bill Would Make Cockfighting a Felony in Tennessee

Tennessee is one of only 13 states with misdemeanor penalties for cockfighting, but a bill pending in both the state Senate and House of Representatives would elevate the crime to felony status.

Popular in rural parts of the state, including small towns in West Tennessee, cockfights pit roosters against one another, often fighting to the death ...

• by Bianca Phillips

Weekend Round-Up

It looks like the rain is expected to, finally, let up over the weekend. And though temps are expected to drop into the 50s, that's no excuse to stay in your boring old house. Not when there's so much going on. Get out and do something. Here are some ideas:

Quell your hot flashes with the silly, campy Menopause the Musical at the Orpheum Friday through Sunday night. The show, which has been described as 'The Rocky Horror Show for women"...

Northwest and Delta to Merge; Will be Named Delta Airlines

There will be no more Northwest Airlines. In a message to frequent-flyer cardholders today, Northwest spokesperson Bob Soukup wrote:

As a valued Northwest Airlines customer and WorldPerks member, I wanted you to be among the first to hear that we have announced a merger with Delta Air Lines. Subject to regulatory review, our two airlines are joining forces to create America's premier global airline which, upon closing of the merger, will be called Delta Air Lines ...

• by John Branston

A Memphis Grande Dame For Sale

Hernando DeSoto stopped here in 1541, looking to cross the river. Don Manuel Gayoso, the Spanish military commander of West Florida, built a fort here in 1795. But it wasn't until after World War I that Memphis embraced all things romantically European, and the city was graced with houses in the Tudor, Italian, and Spanish Revival styles.

George Mahan Jr. was one of the major architects of these Romantic revivals built between 1914 and 1938. In 1922, Esther Cook Norfleet built this house on Goodwyn Street, using Mahan's plans ...

• by John Branston

Gilding the Spanish Lily

Spanish Revival in Buntyn.

• by John Griffin

Blues-rock duo expands their sound — slightly.

• by Stephen Deusner

Homecoming

How national icons and local figures spent Martin Luther King week in Memphis.

• by Jackson Baker

Who Is This Man, and Why Is He, er, Steve Cohen Smiling?

In a surprise (but unanimous) decision, the Shelby County Election Commission on Thursday approved the petition of State Representative Joe Towns, Jr., as a candidate in the Democratic primary for the 9th congressional district. Towns provides a potentially serious alternative to incumbent Steve Cohen's main challenger, corporate lawyer Nikki Tinker.

• by Jackson Baker

Hey, Remember the Grizzlies? It's Draft Time ...

Well, now that college basketball season is over and we have a pretty good feel for the range of possibility for the Grizzlies lottery pick this summer, now seems like a good time for an early read on the draft.

The Grizzlies are currently slotted 5th in the league's inverted standings (winning -- or losing, as the case may be -- a tiebreaker with Knicks), but are only two games behind (or ahead of ) the fast-fading Clippers ...

• by John Branston

The End of the Line

Tigers' loss ends a magical season, but the pain and the joy endures.

• by Frank Murtaugh

FROM MY SEAT: 2008 Redbirds -- First Impressions

No position in recent Cardinal history has been as rich as centerfield, with three All-Stars -- Willie McGee, Ray Lankford, and Jim Edmonds -- manning the spot for most of the last quarter-century. The next decade appears to be in decent hands with Redbird centerfielder Colby Rasmus.

• by Frank Murtaugh

"Well" is Well Worth Theater-goers' Time at Theatre Memphis

This is a plug for a play. The play is called Well, and it is being performed at Theatre Memphis on the Next Stage through April 20th.

My colleague, Chris Davis, will review it. He is a pro and an actor. I'm not trying to intrude on his turf. This is just a plug from a fan of an exceptional play that I think will speak to a lot of Memphians in a lot of ways ...

• by John Branston

"Leatherheads" Is Almost Saved by Clooney

George Clooney's considerable charisma and talent prevent his new comedy, Leatherheads, from being an unequivocal waste of time, but not by much.

The year is 1925 -- you can tell by the film's phony old-timey photo montages. Clooney plays Jimmy "Dodge" Connolly, aging captain of the struggling Duluth Bulldogs pro football team. In a desperate bid to keep his team (and the pro sport) alive ...

• by John Branston

Might for Right?

Taxi to the Dark Side looks at U.S. interrogation policy.

• by Greg Akers

Clooney's charisma saves period football pic.

• by Addison Engelking

April Sadness

• by Flyer Staff

Bianca Knows Best

Dear Bianca,

I can't stop thinking about my ex. Though we broke up almost a year ago, she's on my mind all the time. We had a long-term relationship, lived together, and I even helped raise her two kids (which are not biologically mine).

Now, I live across town and share a place with a roommate ...

• by Bianca Phillips

Black and White, Still

Barack Obama may need to make one more speech on race.

• by Richard Cohen

Charley Reese: John McCain's Not Up to the Job of President

Republicans waited too late to nominate Senator John McCain. When he ran in 2000, he was bright and alert, but they chose George W. Bush, the pseudo good old boy and country-wrecker. Now they want to hand the presidency to McCain, soon to be 72 years old. He's not up to it ...

• by John Branston

Is Memphis Stuck in 1968?

At a University of Memphis forum last week commemorating the 40th anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.'s death, a young man in the audience asked the panelists if Memphis was forever stuck in 1968.

The question was bundled with several others and didn't get answered very well, which was too bad because it was a good question, maybe the best of the day ...

• by John Branston

Past and Present

Forty and counting: the dubious merits of being America's civil rights city.

• by John Branston