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At least one man is in custody after a violent sexual assault that happened during a home invasion. Three men were inside a home on Orr Street when four armed men forced their way inside. The intruders taped the victims' mouths, noses, and eyes. Their wrists and ankles were bound with plastic ties. One of the victims was taken to one room, while the other two were taken to another. According to a police affidavit, they were beaten with a baseball bat and broom handle. All three of the men were sodomized and sexually assaulted with the weapons. The incident...

NASHVILLE – The state Senate gave final legislative approval this afternoon to a bill allowing the Memphis suburbs to hold referendums and school board elections this year on new municipal school districts, despite charges that the bill is “part of a growing trend…of apartheid in Shelby County.” The bill now goes to the governor for his signature, which is expected soon. The House approved the same measure Friday, which was the critical vote. The Senate, which had approved virtually the same language in the bill last week, followed suit today, approving the measure on a 22-9 vote that was largely...

A piñata shaped like a white woman was strung up to a tree at the University of Memphis, then African-American students took turns beating it with a stick. Where is Al Sharpton when you need him? Isn’t this a shocking case of racism? No, actually it isn’t. Turns out the students involved were mere grade school kids, brought on campus for a special “Luau” party sponsored by the university. The piñata was supposed to represent a hula dancer. “We want to assure our community that no racial or gender animosity was intended,” said a university spokesperson. At worst, this...

Before resigning last month as the Memphis officer heard on a police radio allegedly having sexual relations with a woman, Dion D. Anthony claimed that the encounter was a charade. He claimed he faked sexually explicit comments and sounds with a woman and broadcast them to expose racism and unfairness in the Memphis Police Department. Anthony, 37, raised the issues in an interview during an internal investigation at the department of the 58 seconds of sex talk broadcast over an open microphone on the police radio about 8:40 p.m. on March 12. "I was not having sex on duty," Anthony...

MEMPHIS, April 9 (UPI) -- Memphis police said an Easter egg hunt ended with a brawl between two families and a woman's arrest for taking a hammer to a man's head. Police said the man argued with Annette Pearson, 43, Sunday because he thought she was giving the children too much help finding the grand prize golden egg containing $7, The Memphis Commercial Appeal reported Monday. The families broke into violence after the man slapped the woman twice and police said Pearson retrieved a claw hammer from her house and struck the man in the head, leaving a wound that...

The latest labor stats offer better news for the Memphis area than for Memphis. The number of people employed -- 563,640 -- in the eight-county Memphis metropolitan area is a 3.2 percent increase over February 2011 when 545,880 were working. But among Memphis residents, the number employed fell by 7,890, or 3 percent, from 270,000 to 262,110. Those numbers show that while local employment is on the rebound since the most recent recession, the growth is not evenly distributed across the metro area. The disparity, a local economist said, may result from a continued migration of people and wealth from...

This is based on a genealogy table I made. Had a bit more trouble than I should have tracking down the first round results, wth.

A federal judge’s ruling has temporarily halted the Tennessee Department of Health’s decision to rescind funding for Planned Parenthood’s HIV and syphilis testing program. Today, U.S. Dist. Judge William Haynes granted a preliminary injunction filed by Planned Parenthood, which is suing the state over $150,000 in dropped grants. A portion of the grant money supported HIV testing at Planned Parenthood affiliates including the Memphis Gay and Lesbian Community Center.

NASHVILLE, TN (WSMV) - A state lawmaker with a history of impassioned speeches was at it again at the Capitol. This time, Sen. Ophelia Ford, D-Memphis, wanted to talk about nurses and her experiences in the hospital. Sen. Ford reacted during a senate committee meeting Tuesday night over a proposal that would increase penalties for assaults on healthcare workers. The Memphis lawmaker talked about her own experience during two separate hospitalizations in recent years. "I cannot tell you the horrific experience that I had, and it was nurses who were mainly doing these things to me," she said. The bill...

MEMPHIS, TN -(WMC-TV) – Police say a two-year-old pointed a gun at them while they were checking on a report that the child and its siblings were left alone in a car while their mother got her nails done. It was a bizarre twist of events that left other customers wondering why a mother would leave her kids alone in such a dangerous environment. "It's a crying shame," said Nicole Eubanks, after she heard about the arrest of 23-year-old Erica Rooks. "It doesn't make any sense." Rooks is charged with marijuana possession, unlawful possession of a weapon and three counts...

What you’re about to hear is stunning. Get ready. Here’s how MRC explains the exchange between a Memphis radio host, Thaddeus Matthews, and a GOP candidate for Congress, Charlotte Bergmann: "This shocking video (uploaded to YouTube by someone not friendly to the Tea Party) shows Memphis talk radio host Thaddeus Matthews insulting and humiliating Republican congressional candidate Charlotte Bergmann on air." And that’s being kind. Matthews quickly became upset with Bergmann when she wouldn’t answer directly about any affiliation with the Tea Party. Then he launched into a 16-minute argument filled with curse words and accusations that added up to...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Memphis officials on Thursday approved naming a city street after the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., nearly 44 years after the civil rights leader was killed in the city. The 10 members of the Memphis and Shelby County Land Use Control Board voted unanimously to re-name a nine-block downtown stretch as Dr. Martin Luther King Avenue. Previously called Linden Avenue, it runs in front of the FedExForum, where the Memphis Grizzlies play their home games, and parallel to Beale Street, the famous tourist drag. The street also runs near the Clayborn Temple, where King rallied with...

Occupy Memphis member Mallory Pope had just finished telling a group of about 75 tea party followers Thursday night that politicians should not allow themselves to be influenced by lobbyists and unions when she received an unexpected invitation. "It sounds to me that y'all ought to be joining us," said Jerry Rains, a 64-year-old computer programmer and tea party member. "You have a lot of the same goals we have, which is to take our country back." Pope and fellow Occupy Memphis protester Tristan Tran had a lively, sometimes strained and confrontational, but mostly civil discussion with members of the...

MEMPHIS, TN - (WMC-TV) - A new meal program for some students of Memphis City Schools was the subject of a recent rant by nationally syndicated radio host Rush Limbaugh. Students in dozens of Memphis City Schools are receiving an extra meal - dinner - during the district's after-hours enrichment programs. A recent story in the Commercial Appeal about the federally funded program caught Limbaugh's attention. "The writer, this Jane Roberts, (writes as if) 'oh this is wonderful...this is the greatest invention ever: supper at school,'" Limbaugh said. The article spotlighted an 11-year-old student at Shelby Oaks Elementary who expressed...

Herman Cain's speech today in Bartlett, TN (Memphis) the first 10 mins have been cut. Click the link at the top. Herman Cain was born in Memphis and is coming home to his roots, in Memphis. MY observations: There were over 2,000, when only 200 were expected, and we left the grounds SPOTLESS, we did not take a dump on a LEO car, or call the LEO bad names, or burn the Flag. Not one flag was left on the ground. Pledge was said, as was the National Anthem sung. People of all colors were there with their children. It...

The change will come on Monday when WMC-AM (790) will drop "Country Legends" and become a sports/talk station as "Sports 790am." WMC will be affiliated with Fox Sports Radio, and will be the home of some St. Louis Cardinals baseball games. The lineup will include Zakk & Jack in mornings, with Jim Rome from 11am-2pm, Fox's "Loose Cannons" in the afternoon, followed by Petros & Money and Fox Sports Tonight from 9pm-12am. The new affiliation with Premiere's Jim Rome was revealed earlier this week, and the Memphis Board of Radio-Info.com speculated about a change to sports by Entercom. The company...

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — A 17-year-old student charged with first-degree murder in the slaying of a Christian school principal told investigators he had planned to stab the woman on the third day of classes, when he knew he'd be alone with her in a classroom, police said Thursday. Eduardo Marmolejo was held without bond and ordered to undergo a mental evaluation by a Juvenile Court judge during a hearing Thursday. State law allows police to release the names of juveniles charged with first-degree murder.

I was listening to Andrew on WREC Memphis Saturday afternoon, and he was saying it was his farewell weekend. He said tune in Sunday in the 2 o'clock hour for details. Well listening Sunday, it was a Rush weekend show. Does anyone know what happened to Andrew? He is a strong black conservative to those who do not know him, who was doing a Saturday and Sunday show in Memphis TN.

The Memphis area's jobless rate surged in June, nearing the worst levels of the recession. Layoffs by government offices and the tourism industry caused the surge along with a big flow of people who had given up looking for work coming back into the labor force and hunting for jobs again..... Business analysts sounded a pessimistic note, saying the high jobless rate is another sign the Memphis economy is running poorly. "We're still fighting our way up from the bottom," said economist John Gnuschke of the University of Memphis.... The jobless rate rose in June. Here's how June 2011 compares...

Delusion guided accused shooter of soldiers at Little Rock recruiting centerPsychiatrist says reality was lost on Muhammad By Kristina Goetz Memphis Commercial Appeal Posted July 23, 2011 at midnight LITTLE ROCK -- The star defense witness in the capital murder trial of Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad said Friday that the defendant believes he is persecuted because he's Muslim and that his actions are more important than they really are -- all because he suffers from a delusional disorder. "Saying you're an operative of a major terrorist organization is grandiose," said Dr. Shawn Agharkar, a psychiatrist who examined Muhammad three times in...