Memphis Must Regulate Data Centers Without Driving the Future Across the State Line

(9.14.26) As of today, the Memphis City Council has not abandoned the data-center debate. Its Sept. 15 agenda contains three proposals that could determine whether Memphis freezes new data-center development, replaces a blanket moratorium with negotiated standards or imposes extensive water and energy restrictions.

Ordinance 5982, a proposed 12-month moratorium, is scheduled for third and final reading. It would stop the processing and approval of most applications and permits for new data centers while city officials study permanent regulations. Existing, lawfully operating facilities would generally be exempt unless they expand their buildings, electrical demand, utility capacity or operational intensity.

Two alternatives will receive second readings. Ordinance 5985, sponsored by Councilman Philip Spinosa, would replace a blanket moratorium with tiered, time-limited reviews, water assurances, minimum fiscal requirements and negotiated development agreements. Ordinance 5986, sponsored by Councilman Jeff Warren, would require closed-loop cooling, restrict major withdrawals of local water, mandate increasing use of renewable or non-carbon electricity and establish public-disclosure, enforcement and operating requirements. All three measures appear on the council’s Sept. 15 agenda.

The council therefore is not simply allowing xAI to take its computers, construction and future investment elsewhere. But that remains a real danger. Mississippi has already secured an xAI project in Southaven involving a promised investment exceeding $20 billion—the largest private investment announced in that state’s history—with hundreds of permanent jobs expected. The project demonstrates that this industry can move across a state line even while remaining within the greater Memphis infrastructure network.

Memphis should not give any company a blank check. Concerns about turbine emissions, neighborhood effects, water consumption, electrical demand and costs passed to ordinary utility customers deserve enforceable answers. Data-center operators should pay the infrastructure costs their facilities create, comply with environmental law, disclose resource consumption and use cooling systems that protect the Memphis Sand Aquifer. Those are reasonable conditions of doing business—not a justification for shutting the door.

A blanket one-year moratorium is a blunt instrument. It would not undo the decisions that allowed xAI’s existing Memphis operations, and it would not by itself resolve disputes over emissions or neighborhood effects. It would, however, announce that Memphis may spend another year debating whether it wants an industry that Mississippi is already recruiting aggressively.

This is where Mayor Paul Young should show stronger leadership. His role should be to bring the company, council, utility officials, environmental regulators and affected neighborhoods together behind enforceable standards. Memphis needs a negotiated framework that protects residents while giving investors clear requirements, firm deadlines and confidence that political winds will not change the rules halfway through a project.

Memphis cannot afford to let partisan hostility toward Donald Trump or Elon Musk—or left-wing agitation against capitalist progress—determine whether a project is good for the city. Supporters should not dismiss legitimate environmental questions, but opponents should not be permitted to turn those questions into an automatic veto against investment, technology and job creation.

The best path is a workable combination of Ordinance 5985’s predictable review system and the strongest practical protections contained in Ordinance 5986. The council should reject an unnecessary blanket moratorium, require xAI and future operators to meet transparent standards and make certain that taxpayers and residential MLGW customers are not forced to subsidize private infrastructure.

Memphis has spent too many years watching major investments land elsewhere and then explaining why the city was not ready. This time, it has an opportunity to lead. Protect the water, protect the neighborhoods and protect ratepayers—but do not regulate the future out of Memphis.

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Federal Prosecutors Put RICO at Center of Memphis Gang Fight as Young Mob Case Produces Results

(9.11.26) Federal prosecutors are putting federal racketeering law at the center of their fight against Memphis street gangs, outlining the strategy in interviews published Sept. 8 by The Daily Memphian. U.S. Attorney D. Michael Dunavant said the goal is no longer simply to disrupt or dismantle gangs but to “completely eliminate” them, with the continuing Young Mob prosecution offered as a leading example of how federal racketeering cases can attack an entire criminal organization.

Federal authorities say 20 Young Mob members and associates have been indicted on federal charges involving murder, attempted murder, robbery, large-scale drug trafficking and firearms crimes. Paul Nelson pleaded guilty Aug. 14 to armed robbery, causing death with a firearm and drug conspiracy, while Edgar Smith and Cedric Jackson pleaded guilty Aug. 20 to RICO conspiracy. Braxton Beck earlier received 10 years in federal prison and Larry Wilson received 87 months for their roles in the Young Mob racketeering conspiracy.

Young Mob has operated in Memphis since 2007, according to the U.S. Department of Justice. RICO — the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act — allows prosecutors to connect robberies, shootings, drug trafficking and other offenses as part of a continuing criminal enterprise rather than treating each crime as an isolated case. Federal prosecutors say the Young Mob cases have “significantly dismantled” the organization, providing an early test of whether the strategy can do more than simply replace imprisoned gang members with new ones.

The Memphis Safe Task Force is part of the wider federal assault on Memphis gangs and has separately reported arrests of people affiliated with Young Mob, but MSTF is not listed as an investigating agency in this particular RICO prosecution. The Justice Department identifies the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives, Memphis Police Department and Multiagency Gang Unit as investigators. MSTF and the RICO prosecutions therefore represent related but distinct parts of the broader federal effort — one concentrating heavily on arrests and street-level enforcement and the other using federal racketeering law to attack the gang organization itself.

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Data Centers, Blight, Rentals and MLGW Spending Head Tuesday Council Agenda

(9.14.26) The Memphis City Council will hold committee meetings beginning at 10 a.m. Tuesday before its regular voting session at 4 p.m. The meetings can be watched on the city’s official live-video page. Data-center regulation, blight enforcement, short-term rentals, pension changes and millions of dollars in MLGW expenditures are among the leading items on the Sept. 15 agenda.

Three competing data-center measures remain before the council. Ordinance 5982, proposing a 12-month moratorium on permits for data-center development, is scheduled for third and final reading. Ordinance 5985 would substitute tiered, time-limited reviews and negotiated development agreements for a blanket moratorium, while Ordinance 5986 would impose extensive water, energy, operating and public-disclosure requirements. Those two alternatives are on second reading.

Also facing a final vote is Ordinance 5980, which would revise enforcement rules for short-term rentals reported as public nuisances. Ordinance 5950, a broader consolidation of the city’s blight-remediation and neighborhood-improvement laws, returns for third and final reading after being held at numerous previous council meetings.

The council also will consider nearly $4.55 million in MLGW payments connected to the Lamar Avenue Phase 3 project: $3.83 million to relocate electric-distribution facilities and $716,454 for gas-distribution work. Other utility expenditures include $1 million for substation engineering services, $740,600 for transformers and $420,000 for expanded work involving the strategic placement of battery-energy storage systems.

Ordinance 5983, amending the City of Memphis pension and retirement system, and Ordinance 5984, amending the joint Memphis-Shelby County Building Home Program, are scheduled for second reading. The abbreviated agenda descriptions do not explain the full financial or operational effects of either proposal.

Two 15-unit residential proposals also are scheduled for consideration. Planning officials recommend conditional approval of 15 townhomes at 2604 Covington Pike, where no opposition was recorded, and a 15-lot development at 795 Tanglewood Street, which drew opposition before the Land Use Control Board. A separate proposal would permit an outdoor patio larger than normally allowed for a tavern or lounge at 525 and 529 South Main Street.

The council’s fiscal agenda also includes accepting approximately $1.11 million in state funding for in-service training, including $88,800 designated for emergency-medical-services training. The regular council meeting begins at 4 p.m. at City Hall, 125 N. Main St.

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Eight Years, 34 Crates, a Jamaica Vacation, Millions Unaccounted, Mayor Lee Harris Would Not File to Remove Her, Nobody Charged — Taxpayers Left Holding the Bag

(9/12/26) On Wednesday a Shelby County Commission committee sent new Clerk La Sonya Hall’s $6.1 million bailout to the full board for Monday, Action News 5 reported, after she found 34 crates of dealer packets — about 2,600 titles idle since June — in an office still running Windows 7. Hall told commissioners that revenue is “not captured” while those packets sit. Taxpayers are being asked to pay again for work they already paid a clerk to do.

The public tab is not one invoice. A 2024 Tennessee Comptroller review found late revenue reports and about $3.5 million unidentified in a clearing fund; The Daily Memphian reported the office failed to give auditors a proper annual statement; The Commercial Appeal put Halbert’s ouster attorney fees at about $99,000. Add a late county wheel tax and Hall’s $6.1 million fix and the working range is roughly $10 million to $13 million in cleanup and delayed money — more if disputed assessor claims ever stick.

Lee Harris had the microphone and the rent check and still left taxpayers without a working clerk. He scolded Wanda Halbert’s Jamaica week, threatened the DA over an office site, and paid the Millington rent she would not — then said on TV that keeping her was no solution and that he was unlikely to file the ouster himself. Mick Wright and hired lawyers ran two cases that died; the county paid her attorney; Harris left with the crates still in the building.

Can she be prosecuted? Not on what was filed — and the first punch was thrown by a lawyer who could not legally land it. Shelby County District Attorney Steve Mulroy recused his own office as “too political,” then handed the job to Hamilton County District Attorney Coty Wamp. 

Wamp spent months on the file and in May 2024 filed a civil ouster for willful neglect, not an indictment. A judge threw that case out because an out-of-town DA had no standing. That is not a close question of politics. It is the first question a lawyer asks before filing: who is allowed to bring this.

 Mulroy exported the heat and imported a prosecutor who could investigate and still could not sue. A second civil ouster by hired county counsel also died. Halbert’s lawyer Darrell O’Neal noted no criminal charges were ever filed. 

A 2026 audit found reporting failures but “no problems or irregularities with the money moving in and out” of the office, Action News 5 reported. A DA could still charge official misconduct or theft if new evidence showed intent. Wamp had the file and did not. Mulroy picked the messenger who could not file. She is out of office. The crates and monely are still the story.

Mulroy has questions to answer.

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New County Commission Faces Leadership Vote, $6.1 Million Clerk Request and $38 Million Jail Contract

(9.14.26) The Shelby County Commission, now including eight newly elected members, is scheduled to meet at 3 p.m. today at the Vasco A. Smith Jr. County Administration Building. The meeting can be watched on the commission’s official live-video channel, and supporting documents are available through the county’s Sept. 14 agenda.

The reorganized commission’s first major decision will be the election of its chairman. Shante Avant remains chairwoman until commissioners choose new leadership, which will influence committee assignments and the commission’s direction during the coming year.

New County Clerk La Sonya Hall is asking commissioners to release $6.1 million from a special-revenue fund controlled by the Clerk’s Office. Hall said she inherited aging equipment, weak financial and inventory controls and 34 crates containing approximately 2,600 unprocessed automobile-title and registration packets. The request would not require a tax increase or money from the county’s general operating fund, and it advanced from committee without opposition, as Action News 5 reported Sept. 9.

Commissioners also will consider a major contract with Wexford Health Sources to provide medical care for people held in Shelby County detention facilities. The proposed contract would cost nearly $38 million during its first year—$37,982,899—with two additional one-year renewal options carrying higher annual costs. The vote comes as county officials continue confronting medical-care, staffing and maintenance problems at the jail.

A separate judicial appointment also is scheduled. Commissioners must select someone to fill the vacancy in Shelby County General Sessions Civil Court Division VI. The General Government Committee interviewed multiple applicants Sept. 9 but forwarded the appointment to the full commission without recommending a particular candidate.

The commission also is expected to consider the Hyde Park Neighborhood Revitalization Plan, a housing strategy connected to the joint city-county Building Home program. The proposal is intended to encourage new housing—including apartments, duplexes, triplexes and other “missing middle” development—on approximately 200 vacant or deteriorated parcels in the North Memphis neighborhood.

Other agenda matters involve funding and repair work at county detention facilities, including contracts associated with Landmark Construction. Those votes arrive as newly elected Sheriff Anthony Buckner evaluates immediate repairs, medical accommodations and longer-term options for replacing or rebuilding portions of the county jail system.

Today’s meeting is the commission’s first full voting session since the new members took office, making the leadership election, Clerk’s Office cleanup request and jail health-care contract early tests of how the new body will handle inherited operational and financial problems.

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Nightclub Raids Net Criminals and a Deported Gun Convict — and a Fourth Amendment Fight

(9.13.26) Two late-August club operations in Memphis produced what police and ICE said they were after: guns, drugs, cash, a club owner, unlicensed armed guards, and a previously deported Honduran national now facing felony reentry. What they also produced is a live constitutional argument — not yet a lawsuit — over whether Memphis police could hold hundreds of uncharged patrons and demand identification before anyone left.

That is the split worth keeping straight. The arrests of people with criminal records and of an illegal reentrant are the part that holds up. The mass hold-and-ID at one club is the part that invites lawyers.

Hickory Hill: a vice raid, then an ID line

On Saturday night, Aug. 8, MPD’s Organized Crime Unit, the Memphis Safe Task Force, the Fire Marshal’s Office and the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission hit Legends Lounge at 6232 Knight Arnold Road. MPD said the club had drawn 191 calls for service and 47 police reports over two years, including gun assaults, auto thefts and break-ins. The fire marshal found more than 300 people inside a room licensed for 99. Agents seized illegal firearms, narcotics, paraphernalia and cash. Seven people were arrested, among them co-owner Nickolas Armstrong-Green, 26, on marijuana and drug-paraphernalia charges plus an alcohol-sales citation; two armed security guards without required state cards; a man who fled with about 1.5 pounds of marijuana; and others on warrants or disorderly-conduct charges.

That part is a standard public-nuisance case. The fight is over what happened to everyone else. Patrons were held and required to show ID to exit. Defense attorney Michael R. Working told Action News 5 the hold-and-ID of roughly 300 people who were not charged was a “blatantly unconstitutional” Fourth Amendment seizure. “Why were 293 people harassed for no reason?” he asked. No patron lawsuit has been reported. MPD has cited violence, overcrowding and contraband. It has not explained why identification checks were mandatory for people who were not arrested.

Berclair: a federal immigration sweep, not the same raid

Just before 1 a.m. Sunday, Aug. 30, ICE arrested Honduran national Marco Sabillon-Urbina at El Corralón on Macon Road. DHS told the Tennessee Star he entered illegally in 1994, lost Temporary Protected Status — a work permit, not a green card — in January 2020, pleaded guilty in 2023 in Memphis federal court to possessing a gun as a drug user and agreed to removal, was deported Dec. 13, 2024, came back illegally, and now sits in U.S. Marshals custody on felony reentry, according to FOX13, court records and DHS. ICE said it rounded up 121 people it identified as illegal aliens in that operation. TBI warrants targeted illegal gambling and narcotics. This was a federal immigration sweep with state investigative backing, not an MPD vice bust and not the Hickory Hill ID-check of uncharged patrons.

MPD said it only controlled traffic at El Corralón. The Memphis Safe Task Force denied directing that raid. DHS said the target was immigration, drug and gambling violations under federal and state warrants.

What the record supports — and what it does not

The record supports taking Armstrong-Green, the unlicensed guards, the fleeing drug suspect and Sabillon-Urbina off the floor. A club with that call history, that occupancy violation and that contraband is a legitimate target. A man already ordered removed, already deported, already back with a gun-as-drug-user conviction is a legitimate ICE arrest.

The record does not yet support the word “lawsuits.” Working’s objection is on tape. Papers have not been filed. Law enforcement has not directly answered the constitutional point. Until someone sues, the honest line is this: the criminal and immigration arrests were the point of the nights. Holding hundreds of uncharged people for ID is the part that can still turn into court.

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