Matthews also claimed that Bergmann had no interest in the Black community and questioned her ties to the Tea Party.

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Jamal Smith was arrested at Millington High School. The school was placed on lockdown after Smith posted the death threats on Facebook.

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ABC24 reports:

Jamal Smith’s mother died two weeks ago. Monday, the grieving teen told everyone on his social network he now “has nothing to lose.” In posts, he bragged about buying hundreds of dollars worth of ammunition and talked about searching for people to kill. His next post identifies Millington Central High School specifically.

“I think I’ll shoot the school up just to take the pain away,” Smith writes. The third post begins, “This is a warning. I got a list of all the people I will target.” Smith lists students, coaches, teachers, even the principal and assistant principal. The last line reads, “these people need to die.”

Read More At ABC24

According to court documents, the suspect asked his mother for help changing a lightbulb, but instead he grabbed his mother from behind and raped her.

Friends who didn’t want to  talk on camera said the victim in this case moved out of the house just days after the attack and doesn’t seem like herself anymore.

Read more at wreg.com.

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With 100 percent of the precincts reporting, Wharton won with a commanding 65 percent of the votes cast to 28 percent for his nearest rival, Edmund Ford Sr., the brother of former U.S. Rep. Harold Ford Sr. All others split the rest with James Harvey Sr., a commissioner from Shelby County surrounding Memphis, who lagged in third with nearly 3 percent in a race marked by light voter turnout, the count showed.

Wharton, a silver-haired lawyer and former college professor, was the candidate to beat entering Thursday’s balloting, in which partisan politics played no significant role. He had won a special election in 2009 to replace the city’s first elected black mayor, Willie Herenton, after Herenton resigned in his fifth term and 18 years in the job.

The typically low-key Wharton was exuberant in victory, waving his hands and yelling his campaign slogan in his speech: “we are a city in motion.” Supporters clapped and cheered him on as he stood in front of a large poster that included a picture of President Barack Obama and alluded to hard times of budget cuts and high unemployment.

“We are one city,” said Wharton, 67. “I see the pain, I see the suffering. But there is room enough for all of us in this city.”

Wharton, Ford and Harvey are black, important in a majority Democratic city where 63 percent of the approximately 646,000 residents are African-American, according to the 2010 Census. New Census data released last week showed Memphis, a city known for blues music and the Beale Street tourist drag, is the poorest big city in the nation.

During his first term, Wharton gained in popularity by mediating a crisis stemming from a long-running school funding battle. But budget woes persist as the city has grappled with attempts to ease a deficit that had risen to $60 million, leading to pay cuts for firefighters and police officers. Gang crime and infant mortality also are issues he has had to confront.

Wharton had been criticized by Harvey and others for backing large tax breaks for big companies that were considering building plants in Memphis. Wharton says tax breaks were important in attracting companies that are bringing thousands of jobs to the Memphis area.

Wharton also faces what could be a difficult transition to a unified school system after voters approved consolidation of the city and county school districts.

Voters who backed Wharton said they welcomed his calm, reassuring manner on the job.

During the historic Memphis flooding on the nearby Mississippi River last spring, Wharton largely seemed unflappable as he coordinated with county emergency management official and calmly pleaded to the public to take the flood and evacuation orders seriously.

Supporters also spoke of his breadth of job experiences.

He previously had served for about seven years as mayor of Shelby County. He also was the first African-American law professor at the University of Mississippi, a position he held for 25 years. And he also once served as Shelby County’s chief public defender.

At Central Christian Church on Thursday, one of the city’s busiest polling places, two dozen voters said they chose Wharton while none said they voted for the other candidates.

“He is doing a real good job,” Mike Harris, a 36-year-old restaurant manager, said of Wharton. “I look at what he inherited. We had problems when he got here. He’s handled it very well.”

Carl Sebelius, 70, said he has known Wharton for years and has confidence in him.

“I don’t see any need to change at this stage of the game,” he said.

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After the student’s mother became concerned that she had not seen him for a weekend and he hadn’t called, he told her that he spent the weekend with Davis.

Fox Memphis Reports:

About a week later, police interviewed the student. Records said, “he stated he had been engaged in sexual intercourse with his school counselor, Mrs. Cinnamon Davis … Mrs. Davis had picked him up from a local store and then drove him to her apartment … where she gave him alcohol to drink and had sexual intercourse with him repeatedly.”

Read More At Fox Memphis

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Officers said the body Suzette York, 48, was discovered by a teacher shortly after 11 a.m. at Memphis Junior Academy, a Seventh-day Adventist Church-affiliated school in east Memphis.

Police spokeswoman Karen Rudolph said the student was taken into custody at the school.

A motive and cause of death were not immediately disclosed.

Marvin Lowman, executive secretary with the Kentucky-Tennessee conference of the Seventh-day Adventist Church, said York had been principal at the school since 2008.

Peter Hunter, who attended the school for seven years and now has a 6-year-old cousin in the school, said York was a caring, sweet woman who enjoyed teaching young people.

“She was a wonderful person who was very much involved with her students, a person who cared deeply about the development of her students,” he said. “This was not the way she was supposed to go.”

Classes at the one-story, red brick school began Monday. A sign out front Wednesday said, “Welcome back.” The school has a large back recreation area with a swing set and playground slide.

Tuition ranges from $223 to $840 a month. The school has classes for pre-kindergarten through high school.

“Our staff is committed to providing quality education in a Christian environment,” the school’s website says.

Hunter said York was a science and math teacher who had left the school, but returned to become an administrator.

“She came back here because she had a passion for the people,” he said.

Linda Taylor told The Commercial Appeal she received a call from her husband who said the school called and told them to pick up their 14-year-old son, Josiah, because there was an emergency. The school didn’t say that someone had been killed.

“I’m just wondering what’s going on,” she said at the scene.

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Deborah Marion has repeatedly visited and called the Memphis Police Department for answers about her son’s shooting death, though authorities have very few.

“We are a long way from solving this crime,” Memphis Police Director Toney Armstrong said last week.

Marion said: “I will never lose hope until I’m dead and buried.” But mistakes have hurt the case, which remains unsolved since Wright, 34, was found dead July 28, 2010.

Wright’s relatives and friends have complained a missing person’s report wasn’t taken seriously. It was 10 days before his body was found, complicating the investigation because evidence was left to deteriorate in a swampy field at the height of summer. A 911 call made from Wright’s cell phone soon after he was last seen by his family was botched by dispatchers. A small reward of $6,000 — less than the $8,000 offered by a family and animal rights groups for a missing pit bull named Kapone — has yielded just 28 Crime Stoppers tips.

Armstrong acknowledged the reward and the number of tips were low for such a high-profile case.

Marion filed a $2 million lawsuit Wednesday, accusing suburban authorities in Germantown and Collierville of messing up the emergency call and the missing person’s report. Officials in both municipalities have declined comment. Marion said the police departments involved did not take enough responsibility.

“It’s like they were just passing the ball from court to court,” Marion said of the agencies.

The slender, athletic Wright played for the Memphis Grizzlies and four other NBA teams as a forward and center over 13 seasons before retiring in 2009. He also played high school and college ball in Memphis, where he was a fan favorite thanks to his charity work with youth and his father’s involvement as a coach in summer leagues.

His death was immediately met with grief and calls for justice. Hundreds went to the crime scene off a back road that he often drove. A memorial service and vigil were held in the FedEx Forum arena, attended by NBA players and politicians.

Since then, public interest has waned.

More than a dozen homicide detectives were once entrenched on the case, Armstrong said at a news conference on the one-year anniversary of Wright’s disappearance. Now the case has moved into the hands of a new lead detective who Armstrong hopes can bring “fresh eyes” to the case.

Armstrong, who took over as police chief in April, also said he plans to ask city officials to increase the reward.

Wright, a father of six, was last seen on July 18, 2011, as he left the home of his ex-wife, Sherra Wright. According to an affidavit, Sherra Wright told police she saw him leave her home carrying money and a box of drugs.

Before he left, Sherra Wright said she overheard her ex-husband on the telephone telling someone that he was going to “flip something for $110,000,” the document said.

Sherra Wright said Lorenzen Wright left her home in a car with a person she could not identify. The affidavit said Sherra Wright gave the statements to police in the Memphis suburb of Collierville, where she lives, on July 27 — nine days after he left her house for the last time.

In the early morning of July 19, a police dispatcher in the suburb of Germantown received a call from Wright’s cell phone. Dispatchers acknowledged they heard noises like gunshots before the call was dropped.

Dispatchers said they didn’t alert patrol officers or commanders because they couldn’t confirm it came from their jurisdiction. They didn’t send a patrol officer or relay the information to Memphis police until days later.

Wright’s mother filed a missing person report with Collierville police on July 22. Authorities in Collierville were accused of dragging their feet in the days after the report was filed, and an apparent lack of communication kept authorities from linking the 911 call to the missing person report.

Police found Wright’s body July 28. An autopsy report showed bullet fragments were lodged in Wright’s skull, chest and right forearm, indicating five shots. Police said they recovered shell casings of different calibers with Wright’s body, indicating the possibility of two shooters.

The corpse was badly decomposed, weighing 57 pounds. The 6-foot-11 Wright’s playing weight was around 225 pounds.

Wright’s ex-wife and a half-dozen other people were called before a Shelby County grand jury, but officials have said those appearances produced no substantial leads.

Wright also had a distant connection to drug kingpin Craig Petties, who has pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy and racketeering in four murders for hire.

Court documents show Wright acknowledged to the FBI in 2008 that he sold a Mercedes sedan and a Cadillac SUV to Bobby Cole, known by authorities to be part of the Petties gang. The affidavits about the business deal don’t show if Wright knew Cole well or was aware he had been indicted on drug distribution charges in 2007.

As part of that drug case, Cole offered in 2008 to forfeit the vehicles to the Drug Enforcement Administration. The vehicles still were registered to Wright, who claimed in court that he didn’t know they had been used in crime. The judge ruled in favor of the DEA in March 2010, and the vehicles were forfeited.

Marion told The Associated Press she would like to hire a private investigator to look into her son’s slaying but cannot afford it. She said Armstrong, who is now police chief, recently spoke with her but didn’t seem to know anything about the case.

“He said he hadn’t been briefed on that case at all,” she said.

She said she has turned to counseling and her pastor to cope with her son’s death. Herb Wright, Lorenzen Wright’s father, continues to coach basketball, “doing exactly what he knew Lorenzen wanted, which is to keep his boys in basketball,” she said.

Wright had a house in Atlanta and spent time there, but his mother said she is certain the killer or killers are in Memphis and had a “vendetta” against her son: “They were just stone-cold killers.”

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The Grio Reports:

The men at the cemetery could not identify the grave site since they were out of town until 6 pm on Thursday. They marked the grave early the next morning, but that was too late in Jackson’s opinion. Jemar Lambert, vice president of the cemetery, did not bring a temporary grave marker with the body.

Read More At TheGrio.com

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“You’ve always been underdogs,” the president told the cheering students, clad in green and yellow gowns, from a school where academic scores and graduation rates have soared despite tough conditions in the community. “Nobody’s handed you a thing. But that also means that whatever you accomplish in your life, you’ll have earned it,” Obama said.

The high school won a national competition, and Obama’s presence, thanks to its hard-fought academic turnaround. The school is in a gritty south Memphis community where many of its students live in tough neighborhoods beset by crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy and untreated mental illness. A majority of the students are poor, and some are homeless.

Obama told the smiling seniors: “You’ve shown more grit and determination in your childhoods than a lot of adults ever will.”

The president personalized his graduation message, reminding the students his father left home when he was 2 and his mom raised him amid economic struggles. He said his mother and his grandparents stayed on him to excel.

“I’m lucky they kept pushing,” Obama said. “I’m lucky my teachers kept pushing. Because education made all the difference in my life. And it’s going to make an even greater difference in your lives.”

After putting in place educational innovations and adding variety to its curriculum, the Memphis high school saw its graduation rate jump from 55 percent in 2007 to nearly 82 percent in 2010. Changes at the school include separate freshmen academies for boys and girls and a greater choice of advanced placement classes.

Obama said the whole culture of the school has changed to one of caring and learning.

“That’s why I came here today,” he said. “Because if success can happen here at Booker T. Washington, it can happen anywhere in Memphis. And if it can happen in Memphis, it can happen anywhere in Tennessee. And if can happen anywhere in Tennessee, it can happen all across America.”

Obama seemed to enjoy the moment as much as the students. He said he always treasures commencement ceremonies, but “this one is especially hopeful.” And he thanked the students for inspiring him as president.

Obama spoke after privately offering comfort to Memphis area families affected by the Mississippi River’s flooding; his trip had been scheduled before the flooding occurred.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said Obama met with the flood victims, local officials and first responders for about 35 minutes. Nanny Williams, an unemployed mother living with her daughter and granddaughter, described being flooded out of her house, forcing her family into a community shelter, Carney said. Another woman, Rose Hunt, told the president that prayer spared her house which became a refuge for her son, who had to abandon his home.

Snow melt and rain that have sent a torrent of water down the Mississippi, topping levees and forcing flooding along its path. The river crested at Memphis last week, just inches short of the record set in 1937. Some low-lying neighborhoods were inundated, but the city’s high levees protected much of the rest of Memphis.

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MEMPHIS — More Memphis residents were being told Sunday to flee their homes for higher ground as the mighty Mississippi’s crest edged toward the city, threatening to bring more flooding to parts of an area already soaked.

Officials were going door-to-door, warning about 240 people to get out before the river reaches its expected peak Tuesday. In all, residents in more than 1,300 homes have been told to go, and some 370 people were staying in shelters.

The mighty Mississippi spared Kentucky and northwest Tennessee any catastrophic flooding and no deaths have been reported there, but some low-lying towns and farmland along the banks of the big river have been inundated with water. And there’s tension farther south in the Mississippi Delta and Louisiana, with the river’s crest continuing a lazy pace, leaving behind what could be a slow-moving disaster.

Jittery Memphis residents have been abandoning low-lying homes for days as the dangerously surging river threatened to crest at 48 feet, just shy of a 48.7-foot record of a devastating 1937 flood.

Record river levels, some dating as far back as the 1920s, have already been broken in some areas upstream. Heavy rains and snowmelt have been blamed for swelling the big river, and there’s so much water in the Mississippi, the tributaries that feed into it are also backed up, creating the much of the flood problems so far.

At Beale Street, the famous drag known for blues, water pooled at the end of the road, and dozens gathered to catch a glimpse.

Scott Umstead, his wife and their three children made the half-hour drive from the eastern Collierville. He has never seen the river so high and marveled at the other gawkers.

Tourists typically flock here in May for a music festival or barbecue championship, but the river area was buzzing this year.

“It’s probably the biggest tourist attraction in Memphis,” Umstead said.

The water on Beale Street was about a half-mile from the world-famous nightspots, which are on much higher ground.

Kim Mueller, and her husband Lloyd were taking pictures of the river from an elevated walking bridge that runs parallel to the river. The Brentwood, Tenn., couple came to Memphis to watch their son play in a rugby tournament and were stopping by the river on their way out of town.

“If it was my house, I would be devastated,” said Kim Mueller, whose home was spared last year during the Nashville floods, which inundated parts of downtown and many low-lying neighborhoods.

She thought the wide river looked peaceful. “It’s just awesome,” she said.

Downriver in Louisiana, officials warned residents that even if a key spillway northwest of Baton Rouge were to be opened, residents could expect water 5- to 25-feet deep over parts of seven parishes. Some of Louisiana’s most valuable farmland is expected to be inundated.

The vital Morganza spillway, northwest of Baton Rouge, could be opened as early as Thursday although a decision has not yet been made.

A separate spillway northwest of New Orleans was to be opened Monday, helping ease the pressure on levees there, and inmates were set to be evacuated from the low-lying state prison in Angola.

Engineers say it is unlikely any major metropolitan areas will be inundated as the water pushes downstream over the next week or two. Nonetheless, officials are cautious.

Since the Great Mississippi Flood of 1927, a disaster that killed hundreds, Congress has made protecting the cities on the lower Mississippi a priority, spending billions to fortify cities with floodwalls and carve out overflow basins and ponds – a departure from the “levees-only” strategy that led to the 1927 disaster.

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On March 8, Memphis voters will decide whether to approve disbanding the city schools system and turning education over to the county district, which is earning good grades on its own and doing everything it can to stave off consolidation.

Memphis resident and school cafeteria worker Mary Washington questioned why Memphis schools would even want to give over its students to a system that doesn’t want them.

“It’s just like you losing your freedom going into bondage,” Washington, who is black, said after an American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees meeting. “In the background, in the foreground, it is about race.”

David Pickler, the white Shelby County School Board chairman, bristles at such claims.

“To say that we don’t want someone because of the color of their skin to me is the most offensive thing someone can say to me,” Pickler said.

Regardless of the motives, it’s a pivotal time in the history of Memphis: Jobs, education quality and school closings hang in the balance.

There’s also a growing feeling among some parents and students that the children are being ignored as adults make power plays and political moves.

The Memphis City Schools board voted last December to surrender its charter and turn over control to Shelby County’s system, which includes public schools outside the city limits.

VIDEO:

The spark for the schools consolidation fight began smoldering on Election Day last November, when Republicans took control of the state Legislature and saw Republican Bill Haslam win the governor’s race. Shelby County’s Republican politicians finally saw their chance to forever block a merger by securing special school district status.

The special status would draw a boundary around the Shelby County school district, protecting its autonomy and tax base – and, according to Jones, taking $100 million a year from the already underfunded Memphis schools system.

“We’re already a divided community in terms of racial polarization,” said Tom Word, who is white and a parent of three children in Memphis public schools. “That would further exacerbate that division.”

Memphis school board member Martavius Jones launched the charter surrender effort to get out in front of any effort by Shelby County to fence off its schools from the city.

Memphis schools began integrating in 1961 without the violence other Southern cities endured. White parents instead left the city for the suburbs or put their children in private schools, effectively re-segregating education into a mostly black city system and a largely white suburban system.

The 2010-2011 budget for Memphis City Schools is about $890 million to cover 103,000 students, 85 percent of whom are black. For the 47,000-student Shelby County system, which is 38 percent black, it’s more than $363 million.

Nicole Scott, 37, lives in the upscale suburb of Germantown and has three children in the Shelby County schools. Scott, who is white, says fears a merger will diminish quality in the public schools her children now attend and suggests the white flight that desegregation created will happen again.

“If the quality begins to decrease,” Scott said as she supervised a Girl Scout cookie sale at a shopping center, “we will consider other options” for places to live.

“The mere act of merging the two really provides no education value, but not merging the two … that provides educational harm for our students,” Jones said.

The Memphis City Council accepted the charter surrender Feb. 10, dissolving the board.

State and federal governments quickly entered the fight. Within days, Republican lawmakers passed and the governor enacted a law that delays the merger for three years.

Pickler, who has asked a federal judge to invalidate the Memphis school board’s decision to disband, says it’s unfair that county voters will not be allowed to vote March 8. He says absorbing the Memphis system, which earned D’s and F’s from the state in important categories last year, would hurt academics in the county system, which received all A’s.

Pickler also argues the creation of one huge district will overstretch resources, possibly leading to job cuts among nontenured teachers, janitors and cafeteria workers. Schools that are operating under capacity could be closed.

City council chairman Myron Lowery, a prominent African-American official, invoked the language of segregation in describing what he thinks opponents of the merger want: “Separate but equal.”

While adults fight a power battle, students like Nyree Smith are wondering about their future. She said young people are unfairly excluded from the process, and suggested including a student on the transition oversight team the new state law creates.

“This is a big issue, give us some facts, let us know what’s going on,” said Smith, a 16-year-old black junior at Middle College High School.

She supports a merger because she says it will give Memphis students like her better educational opportunities and she’s disappointed that some so strongly oppose that.

“Somewhere in the mix, race plays a huge role,” Smith said.

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According to one group tracking the numbers, Frayser has the highest teen pregnancy rate in Memphis. The new campaign, called “No Baby!” is designed to try to get teen girls and boys to prevent pregnancies; at the same time, Memphis City School officials are working on a way to help students more effectively deal with unplanned pregnancies.

The startling news was confirmed by a high ranking city official and comes as the community plans to roll out a new initiative to help combat the problem.

However, one Frayser High School graduate says teen pregnancy is not a new problem for the school.

VIDEO:

“When we would come back from summer break, there would be a thousand people pregnant. We were like, what’s going on?” joked Alicia Williamson, who graduated from Frayser in 2004.

“There were a whole lot of bellies. You had to watch out so you didn’t bump into them. Being 2011, I thought a lot of them would have thought this is not the right way to go, having babies during school time,” she added.

The organization, Girls, Inc. teaches girls about preventing pregnancy.

Deborah Hester Harrison, who heads the organization, says Memphis’ teen pregnancy rate stands at between 15 and 20 percent, almost twice the national average.

In the Frayser zip code, the rate is about 26 percent. Harrison partly blames the media.

Read more at ChicagoTribune.com

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That photo of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. riding one of the first desegregated buses in Montgomery, Ala.? He took it. The well-known image of black sanitation workers carrying “I Am a Man” signs in Memphis? His. He was the only photojournalist to document the entire trial in the murder of Emmett Till, and he was there in Room 306 of the Lorraine Hotel, Dr. King’s room, on the night he was assassinated.

But now an unsettling asterisk must be added to the legacy of Ernest C. Withers, one of the most celebrated photographers of the civil rights era: He was a paid F.B.I. informer.

On Sunday, The Commercial Appeal in Memphis published the results of a two-year investigation that showed Mr. Withers, who died in 2007 at age 85, had collaborated closely with two F.B.I. agents in the 1960s to keep tabs on the civil rights movement. It was an astonishing revelation about a former police officer nicknamed the Original Civil Rights Photographer, whose previous claim to fame had been the trust he engendered among high-ranking civil rights leaders, including Dr. King.

Read more at NYTimes

Click here to view photos:

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Democratic voters in Memphis rejected their former mayor’s race-focused campaign for Congress on Thursday, delivering a landslide to incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen.

Willie Herenton had urged the majority black 9th District to elect him because he is African-American and could diversify Tennessee’s all-white, 11-member congressional delegation.

Cohen, who is white and Jewish, got 63,343 votes, or 79 percent, to Willie Herenton’s 17,128, or 21 percent according to final but unofficial results.

In other closely watched Republican congressional campaigns, a former state GOP chairwoman narrowly lost, a state senator narrowly won and a gospel singer finished far ahead in the nation’s most expensive U.S. House race.

Cohen said his victory sends a message that “Memphis is a city on the move and not a city of the past.”

Herenton, the city’s first black mayor, had never before lost a campaign. He urged his supporters to back Cohen and at age 70 said he has no immediate plans to run for another office.

“I’m the kind of guy that was always the winner. For whatever reason, it was not part of God’s master plan,” Herenton said.

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Herenton’s campaign message ranged from making the case that “diverse people ought to have representation” to chiding voters to “come off that Cohen plantation and get on the Herenton freedom train.”

Cohen, a two-term congressman and former state senator, countered that with endorsements from President Barack Obama and Harold Ford Sr., the first black elected to the seat and senior member of a powerful political family.

Cohen, 61, also built support in the black community by supporting civil rights legislation and bringing much-needed federal funding to Memphis schools and hospitals.

Brenda Garner, a 67-year-old retired health case professional, said she voted for Cohen because he has been more active in the community and has shown genuine concern for voters in his district.

“He visited everywhere to just let us know, ‘I’m not taking you for granted,’” Garner said.

After Thursday night’s victory, Cohen said he was asked by the Democratic Caucus to help other Democrats around the country hold onto or win seats in November.

In southeast Tennessee’s 3rd Congressional District, Chattanooga attorney Chuck Fleischmann prevailed over former state Republican Party leader Robin Smith. With 99 percent of precincts reporting, Fleischmann had 26,860 votes, or 30 percent, to Smith’s 25,451, or 28 percent. The seat was open because incumbent Zach Wamp ran for governor.

Fleischmann won the endorsement of former GOP presidential candidate Mike Huckabee. He said Huckabee called to congratulate him Thursday night.

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Smith, whose term as GOP leader saw the party take control of the Legislature but also be criticized for 2008 literature that implied then-candidate Obama was a Muslim, was endorsed by the Club for Growth.

“The people are tired of the politics as usual,” Fleischmann said. “They wanted someone who was a true political outsider.”

After calling Fleischmann to concede, Smith thanked her supporters and told them to “stay involved — pray, pray.”

Fleischmann faces Democrat John Wolfe in November.

In the 6th District east of Nashville, Sen. Diane Black won by just over 360 votes in a race dominated by issues of illegal immigration and diversity.

With all precincts reporting, Black had 24,604 votes, or 31 percent of the vote. Party activist and businesswoman Lou Ann Zelenik garnered 24,242 votes, or 30 percent, while state Sen. Tracy had 23,875 votes, or 29.7 percent.

Tracy and Black boasted about their plans to stamp out illegal immigration, while Zelenik raised eyebrows when she said in June that plans to build a mosque in a Nashville suburb posed a threat to Tennessee’s moral and political foundation.

In the Democratic primary, Iraq war veteran and lawyer Brett Carter edged Henry Barry and another veteran, Ben Leming. Carter had 9,052 votes or 30 percent. Barry had 8,820 votes or 29 percent while Leming had 8,705 votes, also 29 percent.

Incumbent Democratic Rep. Bart Gordon is retiring, and Republicans are hoping to take the seat in the fall.

In northwest Tennessee’s 8th District, Crockett County farmer and gospel performer Steve Fincher won the GOP primary, where campaign spending hit $5.2 million.

With all precincts reporting, Fincher had 35,016 votes, or 49 percent of the vote. Jackson physician Ron Kirkland came in second with 17,638 votes, or 24 percent, while Memphis radiologist and broadcaster George Flinn had 17,309 votes, also 24 percent.

Fincher’s rivals criticized him for collecting $3.2 million in farm subsidies. Flinn was targeted for living outside the district, while Kirkland was attacked for personal and political action committee donations to Democrats.

Fincher faces Democratic state Sen. Roy Herron in the fall. Incumbent Democratic Rep. John Tanner is retiring, and Republicans think the seat is one they could pick up in November.

Republican Rep. Phil Roe was declared the winner over opponent Michael Sabri in the 1st District in northeast Tennessee and faces no opposition in November.

Democratic Rep. Jim Cooper defeated Eric Pearson in the 5th District encompassing Nashville. He will be challenged by Republican David Hall, a businessman who defeated 10 other candidates, including CeCe Heil, who had been endorsed by Sarah Palin.

Three congressional incumbents — Republicans Jimmy Duncan in the 2nd and Marsha Blackburn in the 7th and Democrat Lincoln Davis in the 4th — had no primary opposition.

Click here to view photos:

From MyEyeWitnessNews.com:

MyEyewitnessNews.com has obtained court documents detailing a transaction between Lorenzen Wright and an admitted associate of accused Memphis drug kingpin Craig Petties.

The documents show in 2008, Wright sold two luxury cars, a Cadillac SUV and Mercedes Benz to a man named Bobby Cole. At the time Cole was indicted on drug distribution charges in a case in Atlanta and admitted to FBI agents that he was associated with a drug ring connected to Petties. The cars were ultimately seized by the government.

Click here to read more

Click here to view photos:

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — In the city where Martin Luther King Jr. was assassinated, a once-unbeatable former mayor wants the Democratic congressional primary to be a referendum on race.

Willie Herenton is accusing white two-term incumbent U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of “trying to act black.” He tells voters in this majority-black city that they “need to come off that Cohen plantation and get on the Herenton freedom train.”

But President Barack Obama has endorsed Cohen, who has an “A” rating from the NAACP and has built support in the black community by supporting civil rights legislation and bringing much-needed federal funding to Memphis schools and hospitals.

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From MyFoxMemphis

SOUTHAVEN, Miss. – A man arrested for the first time in DeSoto County was sentenced to life in prison.

Darnell Wilson was caught leaving the Kohl’s in Southaven after stealing bras. Although this was his first arrest in Desoto County, prosecutors used his numerous arrests in Tennessee and a Mississippi law to put him behind bars for life.

He explained that he was a prostitute,” said Murphey. “A transvestite prostitute.”

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MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Former Mayor Willie Herenton tried to stir up his low-key congressional campaign Wednesday by claiming again that his race is a good reason to send him to Washington.

Herenton smiled for the cameras at a news conference, donned a white, red and blue cap and held up a sign reading “Just One” — a campaign slogan that reflects Herenton’s contention that Tennessee needs one African-American U.S. representative to fight for Memphis, a majority black city.

Herenton, the city’s first elected black mayor, resigned that office last year to try to unseat incumbent Rep. Steve Cohen in the August Democratic primary. Cohen is white, as are the other 10 people who represent Tennessee in Congress.

“This picture is totally unacceptable,” said Herenton, holding up a campaign handout with a photo of the state’s two U.S. senators and nine representatives.

“I’m truly urban. This is an urban district. It has some critical urban needs that you have to feel, feel within your belly.”

Herenton is pushing the race angle in a campaign criticized as inactive and lacking specifics. Herenton has made few campaign appearances and is far behind Cohen in fundraising. The incumbent has more than $706,000 on hand and Herenton has $8,400, according to the Center for Responsive Politics’ database.

Democrats have held the 9th District for three decades and the party’s primary winner is expected to win in November. The district lines roughly equal the city borders, and Cohen in 2006 became the first white to be elected since 1972.

Cohen’s race was an issue in his two previous primaries, but in those elections he faced several black opponents. This time Cohen goes head-to-head with Herenton, providing a referendum on race and politics in Memphis, where about 60 percent of the city’s 671,000 residents are black.

At Wednesday’s news conference Herenton touched on issues he would tackle as a congressman, such as abating poverty, helping urban public schools and the cutting into the trade deficit. But he offered no detailed plans or strategies he would use if elected.

It resembled a sparring match at times, with references to Muhammad Ali and an invitation for reporters to “come at me as hard as you want to.”

Herenton, a former Golden Gloves boxer, traded shots with reporters who asked questions about controversies that arose during his record 18-year mayoral stint. He took jabs at Cohen, saying he has no record and “hasn’t achieved anything” in Congress.

Cohen released a statement later Wednesday touting his experience in the House, including being appointed regional whip and chairman of the Subcommittee on Commercial and Administrative Law.

Herenton said many Memphis voters know him well and respect his accomplishments as school superintendent and mayor, which included revitalizing the downtown area, improving Memphis’ economy, and increasing home ownership.

“For thousands of citizens of Memphis, I will always be their mayor,” Herenton said.

On one occasion, Herenton drew a line when comparing blacks and whites, saying the facts show whites have had better opportunities to succeed than blacks. So, more diversity is needed in Congress to level the playing field, Herenton said.

Herenton’s reliance on the black vote is an obvious move, but he’s counting on help from across the spectrum. For example, he said he doesn’t agree with everything about the tea party movement, but he does “agree with some of their frustrations.”

Later, he said: “I’m going to get a lot of white votes; you may not believe this.”

Herenton also brushed aside some questions about a previous federal investigation, saying he has already addressed it.

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From BlackVoices.com:

The New York Times recently wrote about the economic challenges of black residents of Memphis, Tenn. In the piece, the author describes how the recent recession, creating a double whammy of high unemployment and foreclosure, has created an unprecedented amount of financial hardship for African-American residents in the city. The median income of black Memphis residents rose steadily until about five years ago. Since that time, it has dropped to levels not seen since 1990 and remains at half the median income of white Memphis residents.
Black unemployment in Memphis, which is at 16.9 percent, is more than three times greater than white unemployment, which is at 5.3 percent. The problems being faced by Memphis residents are part of a larger national trend, in which the wealth gap between blacks and whites has increased over the past several decades. The Institute on Assets and Social Policy at Brandeis University recently released a study stating that the wealth gap between blacks and whites has grown fivefold since 1984. Additionally, a Federal Reserve study states that for every dollar of wealth possessed by white families, a black or Latino family has only 16 cents.

There is more evidence of African American suffering during the recession. The Economic Policy Institute recently found that during the 2009 recession, black family wealth dropped by more than twice as much as white family wealth. The median white family has $94,600 in wealth, while the median black family has just $2,100.

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MEMPHIS — For two decades, Tyrone Banks was one of many African-Americans who saw his economic prospects brightening in this Mississippi River city.

A single father, he worked for FedEx and also as a custodian, built a handsome brick home, had a retirement account and put his eldest daughter through college.

Then the Great Recession rolled in like a fog bank. He refinanced his mortgage at a rate that adjusted sharply upward, and afterward he lost one of his jobs. Now Mr. Banks faces bankruptcy and foreclosure.

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“I’m going to tell you the deal, plain-spoken: I’m a black man from the projects and I clean toilets and mop up for a living,” said Mr. Banks, a trim man who looks at least a decade younger than his 50 years. “I’m proud of what I’ve accomplished. But my whole life is backfiring.”

Not so long ago, Memphis, a city where a majority of the residents are black, was a symbol of a South where racial history no longer tightly constrained the choices of a rising black working and middle class. Now this city epitomizes something more grim: How rising unemployment and growing foreclosures in the recession have combined to destroy black wealth and income and erase two decades of slow progress.

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The NCAA has forced Memphis to give up its 38 victories from the Final Four season of 2007-08 under former coach John Calipari because of an ineligible player.

The announcement came Thursday, 16 months after the Tigers lost to Kansas in the title game. Calipari has moved on to become the coach at Kentucky.

The NCAA also said the school must return the money it received from the NCAA tournament appearance. School officials were expected to discuss the report later Thursday.

The NCAA said a player had someone else take his SAT exam, allowing him to attend Memphis. The player was not identified in the report, although material previously released by the governing body indicates it could only be Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2008 and the NBA rookie of the year.

The NCAA also said a man, believed to be Rose’s brother, received free transportation and board during away games that season.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP’s earlier story is below.

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) – Memphis will be forced to vacate the record 38 victories from its Final Four season of 2007-08 under former coach John Calipari because of NCAA violations, The Commercial Appeal reported.

The newspaper, citing an unidentified source close to the situation, said on its Web site Wednesday night the NCAA will release findings of its investigation Thursday. The Commercial Appeal said it was unaware of any penalties beyond this season.

The NCAA investigated whether someone took the SAT exam for a player on that Final Four team. Memphis was notified of potential violations in January and met with the governing body in June.

The NCAA has said an unknown person took the college entrance exam for a player – with his knowledge – and that the player used it to get admitted. The governing body says the athlete played for the Tigers only in the 2007-08 season and the 2008 NCAA tournament. Just one person fits that description: Derrick Rose, the Chicago Bulls’ No. 1 overall draft pick in 2008 and its rookie of the year.

“I know I didn’t do anything wrong,” Rose said two weeks ago.

The NCAA planned a conference call for Thursday afternoon, and Memphis president Shirley Raines told The Associated Press the school would follow with a news conference.

Memphis coach Josh Pastner declined to comment early Thursday, deferring to university officials.

Memphis finished 38-2 in 2007-08, setting the NCAA record for wins in a season. The Tigers lost 75-68 to Kansas in overtime in the national championship game.

It would be the second time both Memphis and Calipari had to vacate Final Four seasons. The Tigers were stripped of their 1985 appearance and Calipari’s Massachusetts team lost its 1996 berth.

Memphis athletic director R.C. Johnson, coach Josh Pastner and a team spokesman couldn’t be reached for comment Wednesday night.

Calipari, appearing at the Kentucky State Fair on Thursday, would not elaborate because the report had not been officially released.

“We don’t know anything because I’m not going to comment because I have to wait on the finding,” Calipari said. “I would be disappointed if that’s what they chose to do.”

Kentucky Gov. Steve Beshear, appearing with Calipari on Thursday, said he’s not concerned about the troubles at Memphis following Calipari to the Wildcats.

“I’m not worried about it because they have never said Coach Cal did anything wrong at all,” Beshear said. “I think he’s a very upstanding guy. I think that’s his reputation and I think that reputation will be with him here. I really don’t foresee any problems.”

Kentucky athletic director Mitch Barnhart, who hired Calipari from Memphis this year, declined to comment.

Barnhart told the AP last week that he’s not concerned about the potential violations that became known only after Calipari was hired. The coach has not been deemed “at risk” by the NCAA, and Barnhart stressed Calipari is eager to help the Wildcats win the right way.

“There’s one thing John says, ‘I want my banners to count for something and I want to put the rings on the fingers and let them stay there,’” Barnhart said. “That’s important to him and so he is embracing any help that we give him to make sure we’re able to, at the end of the day, not have to look over our shoulders and worry.”