Memphis, Tennessee

Republican U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn is one of 15 candidates running for Tennessee governor, and among the top four per polling, alongside David Hatley, Jerri Green, and Lauren Pinkston. Blackburn's platform centers on economic development, public safety, education, and cutting government spending, including support for a "Tennessee DOGE" effort to reduce the budget, though she has not committed to eliminating the state's grocery sales tax.

She backs expanding school vouchers statewide, leaving data center siting decisions to local governments, and supports capital punishment, including reinstating the electric chair. Blackburn has declined debate invitations from opponents, instead emphasizing door-to-door campaigning. A Senate ethics inquiry into her office was resolved, she said, without findings of misconduct. Democratic rival Jerri Green, by contrast, has centered her campaign on affordability, eliminating the grocery tax, and expanding health care access.

Independents Lauren Pinkston and David Hatley are campaigning for Tennessee governor, a post no independent has ever won in the state. Hatley, an Elizabethton businessman, emphasizes transparency, openly discussing a past federal conviction, and supports full cooperation with ICE and continuing the federal Memphis crime task force. Pinkston, a teacher and anti-trafficking advocate, opposes the Memphis task force's cost, would push to deport immigrants with criminal records, and calls for a stay of executions, citing the Christa Pike case. Hatley supports continuing executions under current law. Both candidates back ending Tennessee's grocery tax, with Pinkston proposing a medicinal marijuana program to replace lost revenue and prioritizing affordability on housing, insurance, and child care.

The Memphis City Council passed a resolution calling for the removal of Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the National Guard, deployed in the city as part of the Memphis Safe Task Force since September 2025. The council has no authority to force the personnel out but wanted its opposition on record. Sponsors cited an August operation that rounded up 121 people at a Berclair nightclub and described aggressive tactics targeting people based on skin color and accent. One council member sought to exempt the National Guard, citing constituent support, but that effort failed. Police data show crime was already declining before the task force arrived.

Mississippi's attorney general has concluded that a Senatobia police officer was justified in using deadly force during a June shoplifting call that ended with the death of 1-year-old Kohen Wiley. Officers responding to a reported theft at a Walmart fired at a moving car they said was driving toward them, striking Kohen and wounding another passenger. His mother, who was not charged, disputes that the car headed toward police, and civil rights attorney Ben Crump says a preliminary independent autopsy suggests Kohen was shot from the side, not the front. Authorities have not released body-camera footage, and use-of-force experts are divided on whether the shooting was justified. The case has intensified long-standing tension between Senatobia police and Black residents.

Memphis is approaching the one-year anniversary of the Memphis Safe Task Force, the federal-state-local operation launched after President Trump's September 2025 memorandum directing 13 federal agencies to combat violent crime in the city. The U.S. Marshals Service reports the task force has surpassed 13,000 arrests, including over 130 homicide arrests and more than 2,100 seized firearms, while city data shows violent crime down roughly 36% year-over-year, with murders down 37%. Memphis Police note declines began before the task force arrived. Shelby County Commissioner Charlie Caswell says residents' views are mixed: many feel safer, but others, particularly in the Nutbush neighborhood, describe families disrupted by ICE detentions of parents.

Separately, county commissioners are weighing a potential moratorium on data-center development, mirroring a proposal before the Memphis City Council. Commissioner Henri Brooks withdrew an attempt to fast-track the ordinance after objections over public notice; the council has postponed its own vote to October 6. Supporters cite concerns over water, electricity and zoning; the Greater Memphis Chamber opposes any pause, warning it could hurt economic competitiveness.

As it approaches its one-year anniversary on Sept. 29, the Memphis Safe Task Force has recorded more than 13,020 arrests, seized over 2,187 firearms, and coincided with a 37% drop in murders, according to the U.S. Marshals Service for the Western District of Tennessee. The task force was created by a September 2025 memorandum from President Trump directing 13 federal agencies to work with state and local law enforcement, including the Memphis Police Department, county sheriff's offices, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, and Homeland Security Investigations, to curb violent crime in the city.

U.S. Marshal Tyreece Miller said no end date has been set, noting the president will decide when the mission concludes, though a return of National Guard troops is expected soon. About 6.5% of arrests involve immigration status, and officials maintain the operation targets violent crime rather than immigration enforcement, though ICE remains a partner agency. Memphis Mayor Paul Young welcomed the added resources but disputed claims of an immigration crisis, noting crime had already fallen 27% before the task force arrived. Reactions from residents and advocates remain mixed.

Arthur T. Bennett, a retired Shelby County Criminal Court judge and pioneering figure in Tennessee's legal history, has died at 93. A family friend confirmed to WREG that Bennett passed away Monday at Baptist Memorial Hospital in Memphis. Funeral arrangements have not yet been announced.

Bennett attended Howard University Law School and returned to Memphis to practice law. In 1965 he became the first Black prosecutor in Tennessee's District Attorney's Office since Reconstruction, and in 1967 he was appointed by the governor to the Shelby County Criminal Courts, making him the first Black assistant district attorney and later judge in the state. In 1975 he became the first Black judge appointed to the General Sessions Court. He served on the bench until retiring in 2014, remembered for a quiet but stern courtroom presence and for opening doors for African American lawyers in Tennessee.