Reporter
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development.
There are 652 articles by Samuel Hardiman :
The City of Memphis is eyeing a single-item tax on food and other items sold Downtown to fund the district’s security, beautification and assistance for the area’s unhoused population.
The new sentence includes no prison time. Robinson received a sentence of time served in 2022. Instead, U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman imposed a fine of $48,600.
Attorneys for RowVaughn Wells, Tyre Nichols’ mother, said that the city “misused” the court docket and is attempting “to poison the jury pool” in a case set for trial next year.
The claims add a new twist to the $550 million civil rights lawsuit that Tyre Nichols’ mother, RowVaughn Wells, and his estate have filed against the City of Memphis following Nichols’ 2023 beating and death at the hands of five now-former Memphis Police Department officers.
It is unclear whether MPD Interim Chief C.J. Davis has the council votes to become the full-time chief again, but she appears to have gained at least one vote since January.
Two groups want to stop the city from enforcing the nonbinding gun-control measures voters approved during a referendum last week.
Local Democrats are examining their tactics in a low-turnout presidential general election. Meanwhile, fewer local Republicans voted for President-elect Donald Trump than four years ago even as U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn grew her countywide totals.
Multiple TVA board members asked questions about the impact xAI has had on surrounding neighborhoods in Westwood and Boxtown.
On Tuesday, Memphis voters also approved giving the City Council the ability to set its own salaries. Previously, the council’s salaries were indexed to the Shelby County Board of Commissioners.
“I think that he’s made a name for himself in the Legislature in a way that voters are fairly excited about some of the issues, particularly about crime,” a political consultant said.
The two U.S. Senate candidates didn’t cross paths. They each told supporters turnout is important in an election each believes has high stakes.
Voters could bring back mayoral runoffs, approve a residency requirement for city candidates for office and give the City Council more control over salaries.
If Democrats are going to dent the Republican supermajority in the Tennessee General Assembly, Districts 83 and 97 will be key.
Some say they’re excited about the prospect of the nation’s first woman president. But wording of the gun control referendums may have led to ballots cast against the measure they intended to support.
Memphians remade how future mayors are elected Tuesday night, where they must live and how salaries are set for key members of city government.
The Tennessee Republican supermajority did not crack in Memphis on Tuesday with Rep. John Gillespie beating Democratic challenger Jesse Huseth and retaining the state House of Representatives District 97 seat.
One voter said he voted for Kamala Harris because he saw her as strong and “borderline cocky,” which is what he felt she needed to deal with Trump.
“We see green banks as a critical player in creating lasting change,” the U.S. Department of Energy’s Yasmin Yacoby said Tuesday.
A person familiar with the company’s thinking has said xAI plans on being fully interruptible, meaning it will cut its electric load down to nothing if the TVA grid is stressed.
The district’s growth is intended to pay off the Memphis Sports and Event Center’s $100 million debt.
Musk has said he wants xAI to be the most “truth-seeking” artificial intelligence, its training not swayed by ideology. At present, its training appears to not be swayed by anyone, including Musk.
What people don’t see is the blood on the floor. Bag after bag that’s used to save lives. They don’t see the doctors and nurses with soaked scrubs. They don’t see the gore left for janitors to clean up.
The sales-tax growth captured Downtown showed city taxpayers will not bail out Bass Pro Shops at The Pyramid, the Renasant Convention Center and other Downtown projects for the first time since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The newly confirmed board voted unanimously to suspend the cuts the previous board had approved on Sept. 24.
The Young administration recently decided to pay $30 million to save the Downtown Memphis Sheraton from the auction block. The MATA overhaul could be just as expensive and resonate over just as long of a time period.