The New Tri-State Defender

“Good Grief, Pass the Bread, Mom is Dead: A Memoir” by Angela Nissel, c.2026, Amistad, $21.99, 224 pages For weeks, you’ve been picking at a scar. Your brain says to stop, but your heart likes the sweet pain you get when you pick, pick, pick. It’s a scar from loss, a scar of trauma – yours, and your parents’ – a scar that might heal in time, or maybe not.

Leadership, community service, scholarship and fellowship were on full display recently in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, where members of the Memphis chapter of Jack and Jill of America joined hundreds of teens from the organization’s southeastern region for its 70th annual teen leadership conference.

Emerging contenders for U.S. Congress introduced themselves Wednesday, July 8, to voters – some learning about their district candidates for the first time – at a political forum in Memphis, hosted by a nonprofit group of faith leaders. Republican lawmakers’ redrawing of the state’s congressional map, dividing Memphis into three districts, has left many voters wondering where to vote in upcoming elections and unclear about which candidates would vie for their vote.

The revered words that formed a new nation were spoken aloud Wednesday, July 8, at the Hall of Mayors inside City Hall, where hundreds gathered for the first public reading of the Declaration of Independence in Memphis to commemorate America’s 250th anniversary. The commemoration was part of a nationwide initiative marking the first public reading of America’s founding documents in Philadelphia in 1776.

By Travis Loller NASHVILLE, Tenn. — A member of a federal crime-fighting task force in Memphis shot and killed a person there on Wednesday, the second fatal shooting by a task force member in four days, and the fourth death involving the unit since its deployment in September. The shooting occurred while U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration agents were serving a drug warrant at a hotel room, said Brady McCarron, a U.S. Marshals Service spokesperson.

By Jackie Hampton and Wiley Henry NASHVILLE, Tenn. — Although she received more than 500 local, state, and national honors for her extraordinary contributions to publishing, journalism, civil rights, education, and for her support of economic empowerment within Nashville’s African American business community, Rosetta (Irvin) Miller-Perry sought only to help others succeed in life. Miller-Perry was smart, relentless and unwavering in her pursuit of excellence while reaching the pinnacle of success.

By Bri Hatch Long-awaited results from the state-ordered forensic audit of Memphis-Shelby County Schools were released Wednesday as the legal battle continues over who will lead the district for the next four years. The 667-page report on district finances and operations, completed June 30, identifies over $54 million in MSCS spending that serves as evidence of “potential” fraud, waste or abuse, primarily found in district contracts.

Memphis City Council members began preliminary discussions during committee meetings Tuesday, July 7, on local zoning plans for data centers. A planning strategy for the controversial large-scale supercomputing facilities are expected to be included in an update of the Memphis 3.0 comprehensive zoning plan, which aims to build up older or established neighborhoods in the city. Data centers have proliferated across the nation as AI technology continues to expand.

By Jack Brook and Travis Loller NASHVILLE — The grandfather of a man who was shot and killed by the Tennessee National Guard in Memphis over the weekend says he wants answers from law enforcement. Evaniel Johnson said he is waiting to see if video footage supports the police narrative that his 20-year-old grandson, Tyrin Johnson, turned toward U.S. guard members with a gun while running from them early Sunday. Memphis police say the guard members were responding to a report of gunfire.

The Tri-State Defender hosted its fourth and final TSD in the Community forum of 2026 focusing on public education on Wednesday, July 1, just hours after U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. issued a temporary restraining order halting Tennessee’s takeover of Memphis-Shelby County Schools.