Podcasts about Shelby County

Shelby County Schools seems to be hiding financial information in order to run the clock out on a tax referendum signature drive.Levi Anderson joins the show to talk about how the community in Shelby County is trying to fight back against a 10% property tax revenue increase from the schools.Community members have been requesting financial information from the schools through open records requests. The schools have been late in responding. When they do respond they claim there is some technicality wrong with the request. Why are they doing this?The citizens only have 8 more days to get signatures from registered voters in order to put the tax increase on the ballot. If Shelby County Schools can hold off on revealing potentially damning information, it won't motivate voters to sign and the tax increase can go through, BEFORE the voters find out about the waste, fraud, and abuse inside the school system.

In this episode of Passing Judgment, host Jessica Levinson welcomes Jan Wolfe of Reuters to break down a major Supreme Court case that could reshape voting rights nationwide. They discuss how a challenge to Louisiana's congressional map escalated into a broader attack on Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act—one of the remaining federal protections against racial discrimination in voting. Jan and Jessica unravel the complexities of the case, the Supreme Court's skepticism, and the potential consequences: from narrowing how race can be considered in redistricting, to making it much harder to bring successful claims under Section 2. The episode also takes a look at other high-profile cases on the Supreme Court's docket, including questions of executive power and social issues, highlighting the legal and political stakes at play this term.Here are three key takeaways from the episode:Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is at a crossroads:Following the Supreme Court's 2013 Shelby County decision (which gutted Section 5 preclearance provisions), Section 2 remains the primary tool to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices. This case could either hobble or maintain its effectiveness, depending on how the justices rule.The current dispute reflects broader battles over race and "colorblindness":The case sits at the intersection of redistricting and the recent trend in the Court toward a “colorblind” constitutional interpretation—reminiscent of last year's affirmative action ruling. The outcome could make it significantly harder to prove voting power is being diluted due to race, with huge consequences for minority representation.The Court's decision may have national ripple effects—or remain narrow:While the justices have options ranging from a sweeping redefinition of Section 2 to a narrow ruling specific to Louisiana, the oral arguments showed splintering among conservatives and uncertainty about the ultimate path forward. Watch for possible “off ramps” that limit the case's impact nationally.Follow Our Host: @LevinsonJessica

Keith sits down with Terry Kerr and Matthew Vanhorn, the leaders of America's oldest turnkey real estate provider, Mid South Home Buyers, to unpack the practical systems that keep thousands of rental units profitable and tenants happy. With national renter mobility dropping, longer stays are now the norm. Average resident stay is 4 years—double the industry average, thanks to proactive maintenance and relationship-driven management. Instead of fighting for eyeballs on Zillow, they target HR departments at hospitals, universities, and major employers, tapping into pre-screened, income-verified tenants with stable paychecks and predictable work schedules. Invest where returns still make sense. Visit midsouthhomebuyers.com to book your investor tour and get $500 off your first property. Resources: Switch to listening to the podcast on the Apple Podcasts or Spotify app, as the dedicated GRE mobile app will be discontinued at the end of the month. Show Notes: GetRichEducation.com/576 For access to properties or free help with a GRE Investment Coach, start here: GREmarketplace.com GRE Free Investment Coaching: GREinvestmentcoach.com Get mortgage loans for investment property: RidgeLendingGroup.com or call 855-74-RIDGE  or e-mail: info@RidgeLendingGroup.com Invest with Freedom Family Investments.  For predictable 10-12% quarterly returns, visit FreedomFamilyInvestments.com/GRE or text  1-937-795-8989 to speak with a freedom coach Will you please leave a review for the show? I'd be grateful. Search “how to leave an Apple Podcasts review”  For advertising inquiries, visit: GetRichEducation.com/ad Best Financial Education: GetRichEducation.com Get our wealth-building newsletter free— text ‘GRE' to 66866 Our YouTube Channel: www.youtube.com/c/GetRichEducation Follow us on Instagram: @getricheducation Complete episode transcript: Keith Weinhold  0:01   welcome to GRE I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, learn about how to cut your rental property vacancies and keep tenants twice as long. Why Memphis, Tennessee stays the cash flow King, and exactly where to find really low cost, quality properties today. That make sense from day one today on, get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  0:26   You know, most people think they're playing it safe with their liquid money, but they're actually losing savings accounts and bonds don't keep up when true inflation eats six or 7% of your wealth. Every single year, I invest my liquidity with FFI freedom family investments in their flagship program. Why fixed 10 to 12% returns have been predictable and paid quarterly. There is real world security backed by needs based real estate like affordable housing, Senior Living and health care. Ask about the freedom flagship program. When you speak to a freedom coach there, and that's just one part of their family of products, they've got workshops, webinars and seminars designed to educate you before you invest. Start with as little as 25k and finally, get your money working as hard as you do. Get started at Freedom family investments.com/gre, or send a text now it's 1-937-795-8989, yep, text their freedom coach, directly. Again, 1-937-795-8989,   Corey Coates  1:39   you're listening to the show that has created more financial freedom than nearly any show in the world. This is get rich education.   Keith Weinhold  1:49   Welcome to GRE from New York's Long Island Sound to Washington's Puget Sound and across 188 nations worldwide. I'm Keith Weinhold, and you're listening to get rich education. There's an economic trend that you need to be aware of. We're going to talk about how you can play it in this era, sources ranging from Redfin to Housing Wire and others, you know they're all in agreement that the transiency rate, that mobility rate for Americans, is down. And what that means is, when people find a place to live, whether they're a property owner or a renter, they are staying put longer. They put this big, heavy anchor down, and that kind of goes along with employment. Although the unemployment rate is low right now, there aren't very many people moving jobs or changing jobs. So the rate of hiring is low, that's bad, but the rate of employer firings is low, that's good. So on balance, Americans are keeping their job if they've already got one, and they're keeping their home if they've already got one. But because movement has slowed, as we are in this slower housing market, I'll drastically oversimplify here. All right, a few years ago, you might have had a tenant stay for two years, and then there would be a one month vacancy between tenancies today, double both of those. You're more likely to see a four year stay, but two months between vacancies. So your occupancy rate, therefore, is the same in both scenarios, but there's less movement. Again, oversimplifying, but you can see the effect a longer vacancy period is bad, a longer tenant retention period is good, all right. Well, how do you increase your tenant's length of stay and decrease that vacancy in order to be more profitable as an investor and yet give your tenant a satisfactory experience too well. One thing that you can do is list your vacant unit with an employer. Yeah, advertise it through a local stable company. You're going to end up with higher quality tenants. See, there's already this built in screening that was done for you. The employer basically did that for you. So when you work directly with especially hospitals, universities, corporate campuses or military bases, what you're doing is you're fishing from a pond of already vetted, income verified and drug screened candidates. See these tenants what they had to do. They already had to pass HR background checks and employment verification in order to get their job. So for you, that saves you both risk and time compared to the you know, the Craigslist style roll the dice crowd. Now, Of course, we cannot discriminate against certain groups of people, and we'll get into that shortly. But of course, steady employment equals steady rent tenants sourced through employers. They usually have reliable paychecks, often through direct deposit. They've got predictable work schedules, and there's going to be less income volatility. So that means that you'll have fewer late payments and lower eviction risk. And some landlords, you know what they do, they even structure rent payments through payroll deduction. I mean that essentially automates the rent collection. Yes, you can do that. Employees who move for a job, they often sign longer leases, because relocating again would be a hassle. So many will stay in your unit as long as they stay employed. That could be two years or five years, especially in the health care, education and tech sector. So less turnover means fewer make ready costs for you, fewer showings and just more ease and peace of mind. So advertising through employers that is a really low competition marketing channel as well. You know, most landlords, they blast their listings on Zillow apartments.com or maybe Facebook marketplace. Well over there, your post is just one out of hundreds, instead of all that competition, what you're doing is you're finding quiet, uncrowded channels when you utilize these employer housing boards and their HR relocation departments, and this way you can even get inside that company's internal newsletters so you're reaching renters before they can even start scrolling listings over on Zillow and see employers love this too. It's not like the employer is having to do a favor for you. They love it, because when they can help new hires or transferees find housing, it's better for that company. It reduces the employee's stress. It improves the retention at that company. If they have an employer that's satisfied and has a good place to stay, and it really boosts that company's recruiting success. So you're helping yourself, you're helping that company, and you're helping their new employee, which is your tenant. So this makes HR departments. They are surprisingly receptive to you. They might even circulate your listing internally or add you to their housing resource list. So this is a perfect fit for these hands off turnkey investors. So if you're doing that or you're managing properties remotely, this employer outreach, it really gives you a nice extra layer of reliability. And as far as the people that will be your tenants, think about nurses, engineers. IT staff, sometimes teachers, sometimes military based personnel. I mean, they are all ideal long term tenants. Now the way that you can actually do this and put it into practice is identify major employers that are near your property, that could be hospital systems, that could be universities or manufacturing plants, then contact their HR or the relocation department, and after that, it's not hard just provide them with a concise PDF or a one page flyer with your property photos and the monthly rent amount. And one thing you can do, and you should in this case, is put the distance or the time it takes to travel to the employer from your rental unit, and then add your contact info. That is exactly how you do it. You can offer a small incentive, like $50 off the first month for employees. So this is a slick way to advertise your vacancy with employers and make you more profitable over time.    Keith Weinhold  7:02   Now today, we're going to talk to who is actually America's oldest turnkey real estate company. As far as we know, they're based in Memphis, Tennessee, and we'll learn how they advertise a vacant unit and screen prospective tenants and place them and maintain their units over time. They are called mid south homebuyers. You've heard them on the show before, and because of their success, both investors and other real estate companies, they actually listen in intently to what these people have to say. I mean, others study them and learn from them. These are the people other companies study, and you're still going to hear from their principal and their sales lead about reducing your vacancy time and increasing your tenant duration. And, you know, it's just kind of funny how often Memphis, Tennessee, which is where they're based, how often this comes up in cash flowing real estate conversations that you have out there over time? I mean. And Memphis consistently has the best cash flow, maybe, amongst any substantial Metro in the nation. We'll just say among metros that are big enough to have a major pro sports team. I mean, Memphis does have the NBA Grizzlies. There aren't many other cities that can even compete with Memphis as the cashflow King, although there are some that you can work into the conversation. Indianapolis, Cleveland and Oklahoma City are some of those places. Now, before we're done, you'll also learn about how, even following this generation's big inflationary wave, how purchase prices are still as affordable as they are in both Memphis and Little Rock. I mean, this is going to make you ask out loud today, how could they still be so low? We'll also talk about conventional, enduring property management techniques today, now next month here on the show, we're going to talk about how you can use AI to self manage your properties, and that show next month is going to be with an expert straight from Silicon Valley. We're going to talk to the CEO of hemlane then and their AI driven property management software. She used to work for Apple, and she's got a Harvard Business School degree. That is next month today. It's about tried and proven techniques to make you more profitable as an investor   Keith Weinhold  11:24   I'd like to welcome in longtime friends of the show, with the emphasis on long time since they were first here with us, nearly 11 years ago, They are those ever steady property providers based in Memphis, mid south homebuyers. They also serve Little Rock, Arkansas. I have physically walked their offices and properties in person myself. They are, in fact, America's oldest turnkey real estate provider. And it's the return of their founder and principal, Terry Kerr and a second guest who you'll meet shortly, Terry, welcome back on of the show.   Terry Kerr  12:04   Thanks so much, Keith, so glad to be back.   Keith Weinhold  12:07   Congrats on your success. Your model and operation is prominent and exemplary nationally. You've now grown to 110 w2 employees there, and your 13 plus year property management guru who's been leading that entire division is now your sales director. It's terrific to introduce him to the world today. Matthew Van Horn,   Matthew Vanhorn  12:31   Keith, so great to be on here. Long time listener of the show. Really great to meet you.    Keith Weinhold  12:36   Yeah. Appreciate it now you'll soon be listening to yourself on the show. GRE, listeners are familiar with the turnkey real estate model. What you do is buy a distressed property, you rehab it, and then you place a tenant in the property, and you hold on to that for investors across the nation for the production of long term cash flow. Well, let's get an update between Memphis and Little Rock. How many properties do you hold under management for investors now and then? What percent are single family rentals versus other types?   Terry Kerr  13:07   Right now, we're about 57 maybe a little closer to 5800 and the vast majority of them are single family houses. I'm going to say probably. What 5% are duplexes? Matthew, something like that. Yeah, something like that. So no other multis, just single family, most of them rehabs. And of course, now we're doing a new construction direct to rental as well.   Keith Weinhold  13:29   Interestingly, with 58 to 5900 rentals, I mean, you can easily sort of be your own surveying outfit in an informal way, in finding out what's happening with the market, what all the dynamics are. So why don't we start at the beginning, when you're marketing and advertising and looking to place a tenant, tell us about just what you look for, just what you need to avoid. I mean checking for the tenant. That typically involves an employment check, a credit check, a rental history. Sometimes something might appear like a red flag, say, a 590 credit score. Would you always accept tenants in that condition? Because there are times when there are extenuating circumstances when a tenant with a 590 credit score actually might be a good placement. So tell us more about that screening.   Terry Kerr  14:17   As you know, it is renters that drive our returns as investors, and so selecting the right renter is where the money is made in this business, for sure, we are doing as much screening as we can for our renters. There's a lot that goes into that. We actually have a whole processing department. You know some people here who spend their whole day working in the processing division. And what you really got to watch out for, as far as red flags, is just fraud. There are so many ways you can use machines to defraud, and we have people who are able to detect and weed out the bad actors there, but we know what works really well. We have, for instance, in. Arkansas, the main employer of our residents is Baptist Health Medical Center, and we love our healthcare workers there. So that's a place that, you know, starting from the marketing side, we're going to dial up our marketing in those places we're going to go to the HR department, or we're often in the HR department of Baptist Health Medical Center, pushing and asking for referrals from them, you know. And same with just referrals in general, good tenants tend to refer other good tenants. We're of course, looking for strong income that we can verify. And more than anything, we're looking for strong, credible current rental history, so someone who's paying the rent today somewhere to a verified landlord, not their sister, you know, but a very verified landlord. That's the big thing, Keith.   Keith Weinhold  15:50   Tell us more about that. That's great that you're being proactive and getting right in there with a stable, steady employer. That is where our rent comes from. After all, are there any other red flags, maybe things that people would not think about identifying as a red flag when it comes to that employment, in that credit, in that rental history   Matthew Vanhorn  16:11   one reason I bring up the localized marketing that some people may not think about is that renters who move from Out of state often will land in a place and then stay there for one year, which is fine, but then they often don't renew their lease and they'll move somewhere else. Now, of course, what we have to do above all is we have to be legal, you know, so we can't discriminate against someone from coming from out of town, but what we can do is dial up our localized marketing so that we're getting people who are in the neighborhood, who love the neighborhood already where they are, and so that contributes to longer residence days, and it's just little things like that. Once again, you're looking for employment that you can verify, so that you know that you're getting a quality renter.   Terry Kerr  16:59   I'll also say that one of the ways that we try to attract the most potential residents we can is by having a free application. So typically, a property management company is going to charge, you know, 50 to 75 bucks per applicant. And we're very fortunate that we've get a terrific deal from Equifax, because we're also lenders, we do some lending to our investors, which gives us a really good deal on paying for credit checks. And so we waive those fees for our residents. And so a lot more folks are going to apply with us, because it doesn't cost them anything to apply. And of course, the more people that apply, you've got a much better shot at a filling the property quicker, but also finding a much better resident.   Keith Weinhold  17:44   well this is a great part of building the connection. One of the first interactions they have with you is realizing that you don't have any application fee. And AI can be great for marketing and for doing things like writing listing descriptions, but you build that human connection there. For example, you do in person showings. You invite prospective tenants in current tenants into your physical office, kind of replacing society's trust crisis with humanity.   Matthew Vanhorn  18:14   Yes, that's right, Keith. In the last 12 months, we've spent more money than ever on technology, so we are leaning heavily into creating the systems and processes that allow us to get to our service quickly. And at the same time, we've invested more into staffing up in the past 12 months, into inviting people into our office, you know, and we can still do everything remotely. We can do it virtually for folks who want that, we found that a lot of residents love to look us in the face, and they like to come down to our office, and they like to sit across from Karen and across from Gabby, and they just love the personalized experience that we give them. It's hard to quantify it, Keith, but I just really believe that it drives longevity, right?   Keith Weinhold  19:04   Having a face behind that rental because your properties are freshly rehabbed, or, in some cases, they're new builds, so hopefully you won't have too many tenant service calls once they do become a resident, and you don't need to interact with them all the time, though you're there for them, but once you have chosen a tenant, and that tenant is placed, you know somebody has to be the adult in the lease, and we sincerely hope that the tenant is one of them. So with regard to that, how do you help ensure that tenants keep making on time payments, and you can keep tenants and not get ones that break the lease. So can you speak to us about that, how you can help identify that in the screening and then that ongoing relationship?   Matthew Vanhorn  19:47    I will say that perfect vetting does not necessarily lead to perfect collections, because it turns out that every one of our residents, they are humans, and as humans, we run into things you. Know, divorce can happen. Relationship breakups can happen, job losses happen. Just very human things happen. And so we like to stay in touch with our residents as often as possible, and very much encourage an open line of communication. We very much believe in compassion based collections here at Mid South. And so when residents fall upon hard times, we are truly there for them. Memphis actually has more nonprofits per capita than any place in America then. So when residents do fall on hard times, you know, and it happens, we're actually able to reach out. We have connections with several agencies that can help with rental assistance for renters who need it, we found that by pouring into our staffing with the resident support and solutions department that we've had a lot of success in collecting just by keeping that relationship intact when the pandemic hit. For instance, and I know that's been a few years from now, and maybe we all want to forget it, our collections rate actually went up during that time, and I attribute that largely to the fact that, number one, we had a relationship in place with our renters. We staffed up, and matter of fact, we had a full time person just working to get rent assistance for those renters who kind of had been disenfranchised by the pandemic   Keith Weinhold  21:26   during pandemic times or post pandemic times whenever it is us as investors, we're always interested in reducing that vacancy time. We seem to be in a period, at least nationally, where when people get a hold of a place, they want to keep it and hold on to it. In a lot of markets, the duration of a tenancy has been increasing. So despite what era that we're in, can you talk to us about some of the best practices for how you reduce the vacancy time? Because we all know vacancy and turnover is our biggest expense over time. As investors,    Terry Kerr  21:58   I like to say, you know, at the heart of what we do is making sure that when a hard working, single mother comes home at the end of the day, she can give her child a hot bath. And that's not possible if the water heaters out. And that's just one example, but our main job is to give a good quality of life to the residents that we are caring for, and if we can do that, and if we can treat them with respect when they do fall on hard times, like Matthew said, they're going to want to renew the lease. So we have got a almost twice the average length of stay as the industry average, which is we've got about a four year average resident stay. And when folks move out of a mid south house, it's not because they can find a better value they're going to get. They're already in the nicest house on the street. And if something breaks, we're out there lickety split to fix it. When folks move out of a mid south house. It's either because they're downsizing. Kids are moving out, or they're going up because they're having their family increases and they've got to move up, or maybe something happens to them, like Matthew mentioned, you know, death, divorce, disability, these things happen, right? But no one's moving out because they can find a better value or because they're not getting the service or respect that they deserve.    Keith Weinhold  23:25   That says a lot. Being managers of 5800 to 5900 properties, which gives you this sort of canvassing or de facto surveying ability that you have. What are we seeing for the direction of rents? We'll get into rents and prices later, because nationally, rents are just holding steady. They're really not rising very much. What do you see there?   Matthew Vanhorn  23:49   Yes, we saw them fairly stable. Over the course of 2024 I have started to see an uptick here in the past few months, I will say, which is encouraging for investors, for sure, each month, I'm looking at all of the renewal rates personally, to kind of look at that, engage the market. And like you said, it really is helpful. I mean, yes, we have all the tools, Zillow, rentometer, all these things, but there's nothing like just our own data of seeing, hey, what's the house across the street renting for? You know, how long did it take for that to rent and incorporating that into our data. And right now, our houses are moving at a faster pace on the leasing tip, which rent increases tend to follow that    Keith Weinhold  24:30   when it comes to optimizing rents, a lot of that coming back to reducing vacancy time. There are a number of strategies that one can employ now it's not with you guys, but I have a single family rental home in another market, and one promotion that that manager is running and encouraged me to participate in is a 50 inch flat screen TV having that and giving it away to the tenant. Somehow, that only costs $250 so I decided to do that. At for a vacancy that I have there in that market. Now, some investors might say, you know, why am I buying TVs for a tenant? I'm already providing them with a place. If the rent is 1500 bucks, a $250 TV only costs five days of vacancy, and that helps me reduce that vacancy period. Might even make a tenant want to stay longer, so sometimes you got to be thinking about how your tenant thinks, and you can come up with inventive ways to reduce vacancy. Do you have anything like that, any small concession that you've offered or have needed to offer in either market?   Terry Kerr  25:33   Well, we haven't done anything like that, Keith, but what we do like to do, and Matthew mentioned this earlier, is as great tenants tend to refer other great residents, and so we have a referral bonus that we pay out to our residents that refer other folks to us, and that does not come out of the pocket of our investors, that comes out of our pocket, because it's our job to make sure that We rent these properties as quick as we can to qualified residents.   Keith Weinhold  26:04   One thing that I've liked about Memphis, which few markets have, is that it's embedded within renter culture in Memphis, since it is such a renter city, that renters travel with their appliances, like the refrigerator, in their stove, in their dishwasher, which always seems crazy to me, so you're not providing those appliances. It seems like that fact alone might help with resident retention in Memphis. They're just less likely to move when they have more stuff to move.   Matthew Vanhorn  26:35   Yeah, it's really true. Yeah. And the longer people stay, the longer they tend to stay as funny as that sounds. And yeah, that's something that we found even in our new construction homes where we do provide the appliances we've been finding in many instances, still the residents are coming with their own appliances. And so we're storing our appliance, our brand new appliances, in our warehouse.   Keith Weinhold  26:58   Wow, yes, that's just something that you don't see in other places. And when it comes to retention, we're interested in maintaining the property like you talked about being proactive with are there some other things you do to help ensure that the maintenance expenses stay lower throughout the lifetime of that investor ownership? How do you approach that?   Terry Kerr  27:16   It really starts with doing a full blown rehab, right? So every once in a while, you know, we'll have houses that, you know, have some age on the components. But when we do a rehab, everything is brand spanking new, like a new roof, gut, the kitchen, got the bathroom, you know, all new electrical, all new plumbing, all new HVAC, a new water heater the whole nine yards. So it starts there, and then when a property turns over, we go into the property, and we are looking for safe and clean, right? So we want to make sure to keep the water out. We want to make sure that everything is safe and the property is tip top and super clean. Fortunately, the folks that are maintaining the houses for our investors. The technicians are the same technicians that did the renovations on the property, right? And it's the same materials. Yeah, it's like, we have an assembly line and a junky house jumps on the assembly line, and we rip everything off, and all the same materials jump back on the house. So we're able to keep costs low because of that, and also because the labor that we end up having to pay the technicians typically is a lot less than normal, because they're used to working on the same water heater, the same HVAC system, you know, the same furnace, the same dishwasher. So our volume model kind of helps with that.   Keith Weinhold  28:39   Oh, if you were listening closely, yes, what a huge efficiency that can be. You fellas, have any last thoughts about efficient property management, since that's what you've led for more than 13 years, Matthew,   Matthew Vanhorn  28:51   I resonate with what you said about how many investors overlook vacancy costs when properties turn over. And so I think it's just getting your rents right on the money, maybe just a little below, can actually drive returns, as opposed to maybe trying to get an extra 25 bucks more, which takes you three weeks longer to rent. You actually did not come out ahead in that, in that scenario, Keith   Keith Weinhold  29:14   today, with inflation, a $25 difference, I mean, we're down to what 12 hours of vacancy is, really how we're talking about there Property Management turning a passive income into an active lifestyle since forever. That's what they do. Property managers are the people that have never met a maintenance issue that waited until business hours. So that's why I'm grateful that my managers do what they do for me. That's what we're talking about today. More when we come back with Terry Kerr and Matthew Van Horn of mid south homebuyers, I'm your host. Keith Weinhold   Keith Weinhold  29:45   if you're scrolling for quality real estate and finance info today, yeah, it can be a mess. You hit paywalls, pop ups, push alerts, Cookie banners. It's like the internet is playing defense against you. Not so fun. That's why. It matters to get clean, free content that actually adds no hype value to your life. This is the golden age of quality email newsletters, and I write every word of ours myself. It's got a dash of humor. It's direct, and it gets to the point because even the word abbreviation is too long, my letter takes less than three minutes to read, and it leaves you feeling sharp and in the know about real estate investing, this is paradigm shifting material, and when you start the letter, you'll also get my one hour fast real estate video course, completely free as well. It's called The Don't quit your Daydream letter. It wires your mind for wealth, and it couldn't be simpler to get visit gre letter.com while it's fresh in your head, take a moment to do it now at gre letter.com Visit gre letter.com    Keith Weinhold  30:56   the same place where I get my own mortgage loans is where you can get yours. Ridge lending group and MLS, 42056, they provided our listeners with more loans than anyone because they specialize in income properties. They help you build a long term plan for growing your real estate empire with leverage. Start your pre qual and even chat with President chailey Ridge personally, while it's on your mind, start at Ridge lending group.com that's Ridge lending group.com   Tom Wheelwright  31:31   this is Rich Dad Advisor Tom wheelwright. Listen to get rich education with Keith Weinhold, and don't quit your Daydream.   Keith Weinhold  31:37   welcome back to get rich education. You've got the pleasure of listening to the voices of America's oldest turnkey real estate provider mid south homebuyers based in Memphis, Tennessee, and some years ago, they branched out to Little Rock, Arkansas as well, just about a two hour road trip west of Memphis. When us as investors buy a property, we've got to be cognizant of the fact that that property swims in an economic ocean, and therefore job vibrancy is, after all, how the tenant pays the rent. So tell us about economic developments in Memphis and Little Rock, because there are some exciting ones.   Matthew Vanhorn  32:24   So yeah, both in Memphis and in Little Rock, we've got the roads, we've got the rivers, we've got the rails, which drives both Memphis and Little Rock as distribution hubs here in the middle of America. And so of course, FedEx famously has their headquarters here in Memphis. Many of your listeners will know it's the largest cargo airport in America. We've had a resurgence of X. AI has actually come to Memphis and built the world's largest supercomputer here in Memphis, and they're actually working hard now on building a second called Colossus two, which is going to be even larger. They're saying it may hold as many as 1 million Nvidia chips, which I can't do that math, but that's a lot of money. And so x AI is has quickly become the second largest taxpayer here in Memphis and in Shelby County. And 25% of those tax proceeds, by the way are going, they're earmarked to go right into that local community beside where the plant is, and all the development is in Little Rock. You know, of course, it's Arkansas's largest city. It's the capital city, and so by nature of that, there are many stable state government jobs there that is a bulwark of the economic development there. There is a actually Fintech startup space is big in Little Rock as well. Lockheed Martin has been doing developments there, so a lot of aerospace development around Little Rock. Folks who look at our homes will also notice that we are in Jacksonville, which is a suburb of Little Rock that's anchored by the Air Force base there in Jacksonville. And there's actually a large munitions supplier there, Sig Sauer, which provides a lot of jobs to the locals there. And our number one, I may have mentioned it earlier, our number one employer in Central Arkansas is actually Baptist Health Medical Center. And just generally speaking, health care workers make up the largest portion of our residents in Central Arkansas. So a lot of great economic drivers that we're seeing bringing renters to Little Rock and and new jobs there. As a matter of fact, not just that, but I noted recently that the cost of living in Little Rock is now 10% below the national average. I think we had a report on our website a few years ago that it was 6% and that's actually. It's only becoming more favorable to live in Central Arkansas.   Keith Weinhold  35:04   You're talking about stable and growing drivers here, AI related businesses and healthcare. Let's talk about those rents and prices. Because really, this is one reason why national investors are so drawn to that area. It's that high affordability and that high ratio of rent income to purchase price. So what sort of rent and price ranges are we looking at in both markets now,   Matthew Vanhorn  35:29   it's not the same as it was when I started here in 2012 Reds have increased and so, you know, average rents around here start around 900 and now we're going up to about 1700 toward the high end there. And you know, the great news is that incomes have increased as well, and so our renters are able to afford this just as well as they were before. Or maybe even better, like I mentioned, cost of living in Arkansas has actually improved. And so what that means is people are actually making more money compared to the rent, even though rents have increased, which I believe is good news for investors, and it's been good news for us as a management company, as I think that contributes to the resident longevity there, once again,   Keith Weinhold  36:17   nowhere in the nation Do we hear enough about increased affordability stories, which is exactly what you have when your income rises faster than your rent, which is a harbinger of being able to increase the rent in the future. Tell us more about the rent in price ranges in both markets.   Matthew Vanhorn  36:35   In Memphis, if you get a two bed, one bath, you can often find that for as low as 808 850, something like that. As you step up into a three bed one bath, that's going to be somewhere between 1000 1200, depending on where you are in the city, there in Memphis, if you're in our new construction homes, those can range between 1395 all the way up to 1850 once again, depending on the size of the construction and the location out in Arkansas, rents tend to be just a little bit higher than in Memphis. So you see the rent starting there around 950 and going up to just under 2000   Keith Weinhold  37:19   and we're interested in that capital price, because a lot of times, investors think about their purchase through that perspective of the ratio of the rent income to the purchase price.   Matthew Vanhorn  37:30   As far as sales price goes, Keith, we started right around $100,000 on the low end, and those can range up to 240,000 thereabouts, on the high end, if you're talking about a new construction, three, two with a two car garage in an appreciating area. You can see that sort of range in Memphis, very similar, very similar. We have some of our smaller rehabs starting as low as 100,000 and going up to about that $215,000 range.   Keith Weinhold  38:04   Now, I would imagine, in the inflationary era that we're still in, that you get investors that call in there, and you do have these robust interactions with investors, where you talk with them on the phone like a human being, and people that say, come on. How can you get a respectable tenant in a single family rehab rental home that only costs $120,000 How do you handle questions like that?   Matthew Vanhorn  38:30   That's the whole job here is explaining that Sure, no where our renters are living. It's the best home that they've ever lived in, and it's it's in a affordable area. It's in an area where their friends live, where you just have workforce, just blue collar, but beautiful neighborhoods where they live. And I mean, they're proud to call these houses their home, and for many, it really is their dream home.   Keith Weinhold  38:55   People mold their lawns. The streets aren't littered with trash. I know where you guys invest. I've been on the streets there with you, checking them out. What percentage of investors finance the property, and how has that changed over time?   Terry Kerr  39:09   I'm going to say that it's probably about 75% finance, 25% cash. A lot of your listeners come with their own mortgage broker. The ones that don't, we have our tried and true mortgage brokers. Interest rates are not 4% anymore, and some folks are are wanting to pay cash, and they do, and some of them will pay cash, and then, you know, plan on refinancing later. But right now, that's probably about 25% cash, 75% finance.    Keith Weinhold  39:36   Yeah, it's interesting to see that direction, since rates did begin to get higher in 2022 you have this robust interaction with investors, but that doesn't only have to be over the phone. You guys are so proud of what you do that you've long offered investor tours. In fact, now you're doing more of those investor tours than you ever have. I believe you're doing 11. In tours per year in Memphis, and five in Little Rock as well.So tell us about that.    Terry Kerr  40:04   I guess it was maybe seven or eight years ago. We're so stoked that everybody wants to buy houses from us, and we've got, you know, a short wait list, and that's awesome, but we want folks to come visit us, and so, you know, we just started offering folks $500 off of the purchase of their first home, if they'll just come visit us. And so we know it's in our best interest to try to get to know our investors on a personal level, and the investors that do come to visit us, and we're able to pull back the curtain and show them, you know how operational efficiency benefits them as investors. I think they appreciate it, and then we do also just kind of like the nerd out on the nuts and bolts of the business. So it's fun to be able to pull that curtain back.   Keith Weinhold  40:48   Now, you don't have to be an investor to come on the tour, either prospective investors or regular investors that are already there can come on the tour. Is the Tour Free? Absolutely. So the tour is free, and you get a $500 credit if you end up purchasing there. Most investors never come physically see the property at all, but you sure can do that, and they make it really easy for you. Well, this is going to help a lot of people, especially when we think about how to manage the tenant and reduce our vacancy time in today's era. Before I ask how our listeners can learn more about you. Do you have any last thoughts at all about anything that we discussed management or properties or tenants or anything else? Maybe I did not think about asking you.   Matthew Vanhorn  41:32   I'll just go back to Keith talking about how well staffed we are here at Mid South. I think that's where we stand. Apart from a lot of our competitors is that we're not just two or three guys in an office here, we have over 100 employees. It takes speed to deliver good service. Service leads to satisfaction. Satisfaction leads to the residents staying. The resident staying leads to stacks of cash for you as investors, and the only way you can do that is if you're staffed up properly. And so that's something that you want to ask if you're ever vetting another property manager, is what does your staff look like? And really understand, can they actually provide the service to their residents and to their investors that they're reporting?   Keith Weinhold  42:17   You have helped more of our listeners than any other provider in the nation, certainly over 100 of them, perhaps hundreds by now. I'm not really sure if listeners want to get a hold of you, what's the best way for them to do that?    Terry Kerr  42:31   Invest at mid southhomebuyers.com   Keith Weinhold  42:34   that's a great starting place for you. And that way you can take a look at properties, get thinking about the market. Learn more about their management and get a hold of them. Terry and Matthew, it's been valuable as usual. Thanks so much for coming out of the show.   Matthew Vanhorn  42:49   Thank you, Keith.    Terry Kerr  42:49   Thank you, Keith.   Keith Weinhold  42:56   Oh yeah. Sharp insights from Terry and Matthew at mid south homebuyers today, waiving their application fee means more applicants, a bigger renter pool to choose from, which either shortens your vacancy time or it's going to get you a better quality tenant. Now, a lot of people, they think that real estate is unaffordable and even impossible, but few make it easier and more affordable than these people. And I think I shared with you before that, an 18 year old guy who I do know and have talked to in person, he bought his first ever rental property from mid south homebuyers. So it's kind of interesting. His goal was to own his first rental property when he was 18, and he closed just in time the day before his 19th birthday. I think he's age 20 now, but because fully renovated single family homes can be bought in a range of about 100 to 220k here, and you will put 20 to 25% of a down payment on that your monthly rent is about eight tenths of 1% of that purchase price. Okay, so that's renovated, and then new builds sell in a range of 200 to 260k rent to price ratios on those are a little lower. They're point seven five or so. Now we are here in an era where mortgage rates are in the low sixes for owner occupied that means you'll pay closer to 7% on income properties. But if you go new build, which is really something I've been suggesting to you for a while, if you can swing it, those rates are as low as five and a quarter percent for qualified buyers here, yes, at these low Memphis and Little Rock prices, they've got a few duplexes usually available as well, renting your residence. It's just something that's sort of in the culture there in Memphis, and that's why they're confident in offering a number of guarantees for investors. They just do things that. That other providers don't do in the rare event that your property is occupied and then it somehow falls vacant during your first year of ownership. Their releasing fee is free. They also have a guarantee that you will cash flow after you close. They have a one year bumper to bumper warranty on the renovations we're talking about from the doorknob to the ductwork, and there's a lifetime 90 day occupancy guarantee. What that means is, if your property were ever vacant for that long, they would start paying rent to you on day 91 but you know what's amazing? It's easy for them to offer that they'll tell you that they've never had to pay out on that, because they've never experienced the vacancy of more than 55 days. Just amazing. And all those guarantees I just told you about that is in writing on their website. So if you want to get a hold of them, there's virtually no one else in the nation that makes it easier and more affordable. I believe that's an email address that Terry gave there. Again, it is invest@midsouthhomebuyers.com their website is, as you might have guessed, midsouthhomebuyers.com that's midsouthhomebuyers.com interestingly, you can even look at their income properties. There some provider websites don't let you do that. And again, they offer free tours, and if you prefer, their phone number is 901-306-9009, this week, you learned some great techniques for reducing your vacancy and being more profitable, as well as a provider that can deliver it for you. Should you so choose? The proverb goes, give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime. Well, you've got the option of doing either one or both today, until next week. I'm your host. Keith Weinhold, don't quit your Daydream.   Speaker 1  46:59   Nothing on this show should be considered specific, personal or professional advice. Please consult an appropriate tax, legal, real estate, financial or business professional for individualized advice. Opinions of guests are their own. Information is not guaranteed. All investment strategies have the potential for profit or loss. The host is operating on behalf of get rich Education LLC, exclusively you   Keith Weinhold  47:27   The preceding program was brought to you by your home for wealth building, get richeducation.com  

The Supreme Court's conservative majority is revisiting the heart of the Voting Rights Act in Louisiana v. Callais, a case that could dramatically limit protections for minority voters. At stake is Section 2 — the last powerful tool left to challenge racially discriminatory maps after the Court's 2013 Shelby County v. Holder decision gutted preclearance. Join this channel for exclusive access and bonus content: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkbwLFZhawBqK2b9gW08z3g/join Five Minute News is an Evergreen Podcast, covering politics, inequality, health and climate - delivering independent, unbiased and essential news for the US and across the world. Visit us online at http://www.fiveminute.news Follow us on Bluesky https://bsky.app/profile/fiveminutenews.bsky.social Follow us on Instagram http://instagram.com/fiveminnews Support us on Patreon http://www.patreon.com/fiveminutenews You can subscribe to Five Minute News with your preferred podcast app, ask your smart speaker, or enable Five Minute News as your Amazon Alexa Flash Briefing skill. Please subscribe HERE https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkbwLFZhawBqK2b9gW08z3g?sub_confirmation=1 CONTENT DISCLAIMER The views and opinions expressed on this channel are those of the guests and authors and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Anthony Davis or Five Minute News LLC. Any content provided by our hosts, guests or authors are of their opinion and are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, individual or anyone or anything, in line with the First Amendment right to free and protected speech. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Meanwhile in Memphis conversations showcase collaboration in Memphis and beyond, and tody's episode is part of a mini-series within the show: Legislately with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. This collaboration will bring together experts and local leaders to amplify the way leaders in our community are learning, collaborating, innovating, and working to set Memphis and Shelby County up for success. Today's installment features a conversation with Beto Sanchez (Starbucks employee and member of Memphis 7) and Jessica Stewart (SEIU Local 205). Resources mentioned in this episode include: "The Memphis 7" SEIU Local 205 Starbucks Workers United origin story in Buffalo, NY Previous installments of Legislately with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris can be found here, here, here, and here What the Memphis Seven Decision Means for Starbucks Workers National Labor Relations Board McKinney v Starbucks Corp.

Lee Harris, the mayor of Shelby County, accused the Memphis Safe Task Force of racial profiling and illegal stops. Harris spoke at a press conference on his concerns for the Memphis Hispanic community, but we're all concerned on his embarassing inability to pronounce Spanish words. Also on the show: Rep. David Kustoff joined the show to talk about the ongoing government shutdown and the Israel/Hamas peace deal, we play two rounds of Impossible Memphis Trivia, and Memphis potentially hosting College Gameday next Saturday. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

This week on Sustainability Now!, your host, Justin Mog, gets caught up with the great work of Glean Kentucky to rescue excess produce from our broken food system and get it onto the tables of those in need. Our guest today is Jennifer Palmer, the new Executive Director of Glean Kentucky. Jennifer holds a BA in Fine Art and Political Science from Cedar Crest College, an MFA in Painting from the Savannah College of Art and Design, and a BA in Sustainable Agriculture from the Wendell Berry Farming Program of Sterling College. She has over 20 years of experience teaching fine art at various universities and previously served as the Executive Director of a nonprofit organization dedicated to land conservation. Having transitioned to become an Extension Agent in Jefferson County, Jennifer resides on her farm in Shelby County, where she grows vegetables and flowers and rescues animals in her free time. Passionate about community engagement and fostering resilient local food systems, she brings a unique blend of artistic insight, nonprofit leadership, and sustainable agriculture expertise to her work with communities. Glean Kentucky rescues fresh excess fruits and vegetables to nourish Kentuckians facing food insecurity. Since its founding in 2010, Glean Kentucky has redirected nearly 3,000,000 pounds of fresh produce through dozens of programs in Central, South Central, and North Central Kentucky. Learn more at https://gleanky.org/ As always, our feature is followed by your community action calendar for the week, so get your calendars out and get ready to take action for sustainability NOW! Sustainability Now! is hosted by Dr. Justin Mog and airs on Forward Radio, 106.5fm, WFMP-LP Louisville, every Monday at 6pm and repeats Tuesdays at 12am and 10am. Find us at https://forwardradio.org The music in this podcast is courtesy of the local band Appalatin and is used by permission. Explore their delightful music at https://appalatin.com

Episode Notes My guests include County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon. First, they vote to change the election cycle of the school board only to have the Mayor veto it. Will there be an override? Also, the state Comptroller has not approved the Shelby County budget so what could that mean? I ask and she responds. Natalie McKinney was elected to the school board in 2024 to a four year term. That was recently changed by the Shelby County Commission to a reelection in 2026 only to be vetoed by Mayor Harris. She was also recently elected by her peers to be the next board chair. She tells me what the priorities will be moving forward. State Representative Torrey Harris drops in to share his thoughts on the Federal incursion into our city, if it was necessary and what he has heard about the reaction from residents. That and more both on air and online Monday, 6 pm on 91.7 FM WYXR. Also, the WYXR app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to talk!

Episode Notes My guests include County Commissioner Erika Sugarmon. First, they vote to change the election cycle of the school board only to have the Mayor veto it. Will there be an override? Also, the state Comptroller has not approved the Shelby County budget so what could that mean? I ask and she responds. Natalie McKinney was elected to the school board in 2024 to a four year term. That was recently changed by the Shelby County Commission to a reelection in 2026 only to be vetoed by Mayor Harris. She was also recently elected by her peers to be the next board chair. She tells me what the priorities will be moving forward. State Representative Torrey Harris drops in to share his thoughts on the Federal incursion into our city, if it was necessary and what he has heard about the reaction from residents. That and more both on air and online Monday, 6 pm on 91.7 FM WYXR. Also, the WYXR app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to talk!

Sophia Lin Lakin on How the Supreme Court Could Dismantle the Law Protecting Voters The U.S. Supreme Court is once again preparing to rule on a case that could further dismantle the Voting Rights Act — Callais v. Landry. At the center of this case is Section 2, one of the last remaining protections against racial discrimination in voting. After Louisiana courts ruled that the state's congressional map illegally diluted Black voting power, a new map was drawn to include a second majority-Black district. But now, a group of white voters — and the state of Louisiana itself — are asking the Court to go even further, claiming that Section 2 of the Voting Rights Act is unconstitutional. If the Court agrees, it could strip away the very protections that ensure voters of color can participate equally in our democracy. To unpack the case and its sweeping implications, Jen Taylor Skinner speaks with Sophia Lin Lakin, Director of the ACLU's Voting Rights Project, whose team represents Black voters in this landmark case. They discuss the history behind Section 2, the chilling parallels to Shelby County v. Holder, and what this moment could mean for the future of voting rights in America. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Host Jeremy C. Park talks with Sean Lee, President of Porter-Leath, who highlights the nonprofit organization's 175-year history as a children's services provider in Memphis, Tennessee, including their evolution from an orphanage to early childhood education, early literacy, foster care, caregiver services, and other programs that have evolved to meet today's needs. The conversation covers various initiatives such as home visitation services, early Head Start programs, and their Books from Birth program, while highlighting the importance of third-grade reading proficiency and community support. Sean shares Porter-Leath's expansion plans, foster care program details, and opportunities for community involvement, emphasizing their commitment to quality education and data-driven decision-making for future growth.SummaryPorter-Leath's 175-Year HistorySean Lee, President of Porter-Leath discusses the organization's 175-year history of serving children in Memphis. Sean explains that Porter-Leath began as an orphanage in 1850, founded by Sarah Leath, and has since evolved to focus on early childhood education and development. The organization now provides various programs including home visitation, early Head Start, and Head Start services to promote school readiness and reduce infant mortality rates in the community.Early Childhood Education Improvement InitiativesSean and Jeremy discuss the importance of third-grade reading proficiency, highlighting that only 26% of children meet this target, and emphasizing the need for community support to improve this statistic. They also talk about the Books from Birth program, which has been mailing age-appropriate books to children since its inception 20 years ago, and its positive impact on early learning and parental engagement. Additionally, they discussed the Teacher Excellence Program, which aims to professionalize preschool educators by providing them with training and development opportunities, ultimately improving the quality of early childhood education in Shelby County.Porter-Leath's Early Childhood ExpansionSean discusses Porter-Leath's collaborative approach to early childhood education, highlighting their work with nonprofit partners, foundations, and board members to provide kindergarten readiness programs. He explains that the organization has expanded significantly in recent months, growing from 6 sites with 300 employees to an expected 20 sites with 650 employees across Shelby County, including 40 childcare partners. Sean also describes their foster care program, which provides training and support for 50 foster homes in Shelby County, caring for children from infancy to age 17.Becoming a Foster Family ProcessSean explains the process for becoming a foster family through Porter-Leath, emphasizing that interested individuals can contact them through their website or by phone to learn more without any initial commitment. He highlights the importance of volunteerism, mentioning various opportunities such as reading with children in the Books from Birth and Head Start programs, assisting with maintenance, or working in the office, and noted that they welcome help from youth groups with adult supervision.Porter-Leath's Vision for QualitySean, reflecting on his 27-year tenure as president of Porter-Leath, emphasizes the importance of a culture of quality and data-driven decision-making. He outlines his vision for the future, focusing on improving community outcomes through the Head Start grant and enhancing kindergarten readiness rates from 30% to 60%. Sean also highlights the value of transparency, even in failures, and encourages organizations to prove their worth through data and storytelling.Porter-Leath's Community Support UpdateSean discusses Porter-Leath's major events, including the Raging Cajun Crawfish Festival in April and a holiday campaign after Thanksgiving. He highlights that they now support 2,920 more children than last year and encourages community involvement through their website, porterleath.org. Sean also mentions that you can find volunteer opportunities and make financial contributions through their website.Visit https://www.porterleath.org to learn more and get involved with Porter-Leath.

Building Official Rita Anderson interviews Director Jim Hightower of the Manufactured Housing, Modular, and Licensing section within the State of Tennessee's Department of Commerce and Insurance. Jim expands upon the popular term "tiny home" and shares the distinct differences between manufactured and modular housing, along with the federal and state standards that apply. Rita and Jim share what options are available for property owners and contractors within the State of Tennessee and what code standards the different housing types.This episode is the first in a two-part series focused on tiny homes and manufactured and modular housing in Memphis and Shelby County.Have questions for Rita or Jim? Email them to buildingbeat@memphistn.gov, and you'll get an answer on a future episode. 

Kentuckians react as the federal government shuts down after Congress and the White House fail to reach a budget agreement, Kentucky's top doctor speaks out on the Trump administration associating Tylenol use during pregnancy to autism, and the search for answers in a Civil War massacre leads archaeologists and historians to a Shelby County farm.

With President Trump ordering the National Guard to Memphis to solve the crime problem, questions about how to best use this resource and who will be in charge arise. Representative Antonio Parkinson for Dist. 98 Shelby County gives insight to who is involved with making decisions, what military presence will look like in the city and how the Guard will be used. Plus, Representative Parkinson also discusses the impact of the Big Beautiful Law on SNAP benefits, housing and state budget.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Luke Cymbal and Kristen New are filling in for Todd Starnes this week, while Todd speaks at a the Spiritual Leadership Conference in Los Angeles! Live Weekdays 7AM Central on the KWAM app, or Mighty990.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The U.S. Supreme Court has vastly reshaped American democracy — rolling back voting rights, enabling secret money in politics and expanding presidential power. These decisions have a real impact on all Americans by making it harder for citizens to exercise their freedom to vote, easier for wealthy interests to sway elections and more difficult to hold leaders accountable.In this episode, host Simone Leeper speaks with law professor and co-host of the Strict Scrutiny Podcast Leah Litman, Campaign Legal Center Senior Vice President Bruce V. Spiva and Campaign Legal Center Campaign Finance Senior Counsel David Kolker. Together, they unpack the real-world impact of landmark Supreme Court decisions — from voting rights cases like Shelby County v. Holder and Brnovich v. DNC to campaign finance rulings like Citizens United — and explore what reforms could restore balance, accountability and trust in the Court.Timestamps:(00:05) — What do Americans really think about the Supreme Court?(02:18) — Why does the Supreme Court's power matter for democracy?(07:01) — How did Shelby County v. Holder weaken voting rights?(16:39) — What was the impact of Brnovich v. DNC?(23:39) — How has the Supreme Court reshaped campaign finance?(29:24) — Why did Citizens United open the floodgates for money in politics?(32:37) — How have super PACs changed elections?(34:02) — How have wealthy special interests reshaped U.S. elections?(35:44) — What does presidential immunity mean for accountability?(37:30) — How do lifetime seats protect the Supreme Court from accountability?(39:22) — What role can Congress play in restoring trust and democracy?Host and Guests:Simone Leeper litigates a wide range of redistricting-related cases at Campaign Legal Center, challenging gerrymanders and advocating for election systems that guarantee all voters an equal opportunity to influence our democracy. Prior to arriving at CLC, Simone was a law clerk in the office of Senator Ed Markey and at the Library of Congress, Office of General Counsel. She received her J.D. cum laude from Georgetown University Law Center in 2019 and a bachelor's degree in political science from Columbia University in 2016.Leah Litman is a professor of law at the University of Michigan and a former Supreme Court clerk. In addition to cohosting Strict Scrutiny, she writes frequently about the Court for media outlets including The Washington Post, Slate, and The Atlantic, among others, and has appeared as a commentator on NPR and MSNBC, in addition to other venues. She has received the Ruth Bader Ginsburg award for her “scholarly excellence” from the American Constitution Society and published in top law reviews. Follow her on Bluesky @LeahLitman and Instagram @ProfLeahLitman.Bruce V. Spiva is Senior Vice President at Campaign Legal Center. He is an attorney and community leader who has spent his over 30-year career fighting for civil rights and civil liberties, voting rights, consumer protection, and antitrust enforcement.Over the past three decades, he has tried cases and argued appeals in courtrooms across the country, including arguing against vote suppression in the United States Supreme Court in 2021. In 2022, in his first run for public office, Bruce mounted a competitive run in the primary election for Washington, D.C. Attorney General. In addition to founding his own law firm where he practiced for eleven years, Bruce has held several leadership and management positions as a partner at two national law firms. Most recently, Bruce served as the Managing Partner of the D.C. Office and on the firm-wide Executive Committee of Perkins Coie LLP, where he also had an active election law practice. He first-chaired twelve voting rights and redistricting trials across the country, and argued numerous voting rights appeals in U.S. circuit courts and state supreme courts during his tenure at Perkins. David Kolker is Campaign Finance Senior Counsel at Campaign Legal Center. He focuses on both short- and long-term strategies to improve campaign finance laws across the country, and precedent interpreting those laws. David has spent decades litigating cases in both the public and private sectors. He worked for nearly 20 years at the Federal Election Commission, where he litigated cases on federal campaign finance law and for several years led the agency's Litigation Division. He represented the government in dozens of oral arguments, including the government's defense in SpeechNow.org v. FEC before the D.C. Circuit sitting en banc. He litigated many cases decided by the Supreme Court, including the landmark cases of McConnell v. FEC and Citizens United v. FEC. David joined CLC from the Federal Communications Commission, where he served as the deputy bureau chief, Enforcement Bureau. He previously was a partner at the law firm Spiegel and McDiarmid in Washington. Early in his career, David worked as a trial attorney in the Civil Rights Division of the United States Department of Justice. Links:The Supreme Court Needs to Start Standing Up for Democracy – CLCThe Supreme Court's Role in Undermining American Democracy  – CLCSupreme Court's Impact on Voting Rights Is a Threat to Democracy  – CLCWhy the Current U.S. Supreme Court Is a Threat to Our Democracy  – CLCU.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Illegal Virginia Voter Purge at the Eleventh Hour – CLCWhat Does the U.S. Supreme Court's Recent Arizona Decision Mean for Voters? – CLCAlito Flags the Fatal Flaw of the Supreme Court Ethics Code – CLCU.S. Supreme Court Reinstates Illegal Virginia Voter Purge at the Eleventh Hour – CLCImproving Ethics Standards at the Supreme Court – CLCSupreme Court tossed out heart of Voting Rights Act a decade ago, prompting wave of new voting rules – The HillU.S. Supreme Court Significantly Limits Restraints on Unconstitutional Presidential Actions – CLCCampaign Legal Center Responds to SCOTUS Ruling Limiting Court Restraints on Unconstitutional Presidential Actions – CLCProtecting the Promise of American Citizenship – CLCBringing the Fight for Fair Voting Maps to the U.S. Supreme Court – CLCThe Supreme Court Must Uphold Fair Voting Maps for Fair Representation – CLCAbout CLC:Democracy Decoded is a production of Campaign Legal Center, a nonpartisan nonprofit organization dedicated to solving the wide range of challenges facing American democracy. Campaign Legal Center fights for every American's freedom to vote and participate meaningfully in the democratic process. Learn more about us.Democracy Decoded is part of The Democracy Group, a network of podcasts that examines what's broken in our democracy and how we can work together to fix it. Hosted by Simplecast, an AdsWizz company. See pcm.adswizz.com for information about our collection and use of personal data for advertising.

Episode Notes On the next live and all new Real Talk Memphis; One big issue with three differing points of view. Guests include State Senator Raumesh Akbari. With the advent of the state national guard. State troopers and other federal assets, our city will under the microscope. She tells me what she hopes will happen and what the takeaway will be. Luke Cymbal, Vice Chairman, Republican Party of Shelby County joins me to say how their party believes this is a good thing and a way to restore law and order. Finally, the immigrant population will be watching this situation very closely as ICE is expected to increase their efforts. Latino Memphis Executive director Mauricio Calvo drops by to share his thoughts and concerns. That and more on an important conversation Monday, on air and online on WYXR 91.7 FM. Also the wyxr app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to talk, and listen!

Episode Notes On the next live and all new Real Talk Memphis; One big issue with three differing points of view. Guests include State Senator Raumesh Akbari. With the advent of the state national guard. State troopers and other federal assets, our city will under the microscope. She tells me what she hopes will happen and what the takeaway will be. Luke Cymbal, Vice Chairman, Republican Party of Shelby County joins me to say how their party believes this is a good thing and a way to restore law and order. Finally, the immigrant population will be watching this situation very closely as ICE is expected to increase their efforts. Latino Memphis Executive director Mauricio Calvo drops by to share his thoughts and concerns. That and more on an important conversation Monday, on air and online on WYXR 91.7 FM. Also the wyxr app, Tunein, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to talk, and listen!

A huge crowd gathered in East Memphis to celebrate the National Guard. There were even some Democrats who joined the Republicans of Shelby County to call for an end to crime. Meanwhile, a small crowd of angry Democrat activists held a press conference in downtown to accuse the National Guard of terrorizing Memphis. Live Weekdays 7AM Central on the KWAM app, or Mighty990.comSee omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Did you know nearly 47% of families with children in Shelby County are fatherless? On today's Mid-South View Point #radioshow, Hassan Salem, a Memphis native raised in the Westwood community and visionary founder of Memphis Fathers Love Ministry is our guest. Drawing from firsthand experience of the challenges facing fatherless youth, Hassan launched the ministry to instill character, confidence, and courage in the lives of these young people.

The Legis-lately series with Mayor Lee Harris is created by the office of Mayor Lee Harris. This episode will feature a conversation with State Representative and Chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, John Ray Clemmons. He is joining Mayor Harris today to share a state-level perspectives on their party's approach to the intersection of policy and politics as they relate to issues impacting Tennesseans, and what gives him hope about the future of Memphis, Shelby County, and Tennessee The views and opinions expressed in this program are those of the speakers and do not necessarily reflect the views or positions of the podcast publisher or New Memphis.

Grassroots advocates are the lifeblood of the ACA, and our Connect to the Cattlemen series is here to highlight their efforts! From a countywide rodeo, to the culinary classroom, cattlemen in Shelby County have gotten creative on how to highlight cattle production and promote beef in the Birmingham Metro area! In this episode, host Michael Smith sits down with Shelby County Cattleman Rickey Colquitt to discuss how a steak tasting in the classroom has turned into an educational experience that reaches hundreds of future consumers. Discover how this hands-on approach is building a deeper understanding of the beef industry— and creating lifelong beef fans in the process!

In 1965, a nonviolent voting rights march in Alabama culminated in a brutal televised brutal attack by state police. The public outrage that followed prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to dismantle racially discriminatory barriers to voting. Since then, this landmark civil rights law has faced continued attacks. The Supreme Court has weakened its protections, most notably in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. And just this summer, a lower court ruling in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Howe blocked voters in seven states from using the Voting Rights Act to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices. The Supreme Court has put that decision on hold for the moment while it considers whether to take up the case. But the very fact that we're celebrating a pause on the near destruction of the Voting Rights Act's last remaining protection illustrates how bad things have gotten in the courts. Thankfully, courts don't have the only say. The 15th Amendment gives Congress the power to safeguard the right to vote through legislation. This conversation explores the history of the Voting Rights Act, its impact on voters today, and what it will take to ensure fair representation for all.Speakers:Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy SchoolSean Morales-Doyle, Director, Brennan Center Voting Rights and Elections ProgramLenny Powell, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights FundNikema Williams, U.S. Representative (D-GA)Moderator: Natalie Tennant, Kanawha County Commissioner; Former West Virginia Secretary of StateIf you enjoy this program, please give us a boost by liking it, subscribing, and sharing it with your friends. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, please give it a five-star rating. Recorded on August 19, 2025. Keep up with the Brennan Center's work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

In 1965, a nonviolent voting rights march in Alabama culminated in a brutal televised brutal attack by state police. The public outrage that followed prompted Congress to pass the Voting Rights Act, a law meant to dismantle racially discriminatory barriers to voting. Since then, this landmark civil rights law has faced continued attacks. The Supreme Court has weakened its protections, most notably in the 2013 case Shelby County v. Holder. And just this summer, a lower court ruling in Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa Indians v. Howe blocked voters in seven states from using the Voting Rights Act to challenge racially discriminatory voting practices. The Supreme Court has put that decision on hold for the moment while it considers whether to take up the case. But the very fact that we're celebrating a pause on the near destruction of the Voting Rights Act's last remaining protection illustrates how bad things have gotten in the courts. Thankfully, courts don't have the only say. The 15th Amendment gives Congress the power to safeguard the right to vote through legislation. This conversation explores the history of the Voting Rights Act, its impact on voters today, and what it will take to ensure fair representation for all. Speakers: Alexander Keyssar, Matthew W. Stirling Jr. Professor of History and Social Policy, Harvard Kennedy School Sean Morales-Doyle, Director, Brennan Center Voting Rights and Elections Program Lenny Powell, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund Nikema Williams, U.S. Representative (D-GA) Moderator: Natalie Tennant, Kanawha County Commissioner; Former West Virginia Secretary of State If you enjoy this program, please give us a boost by liking it, subscribing, and sharing it with your friends. If you're listening on Apple Podcasts, please give it a five-star rating. Recorded on August 19, 2025. Keep up with the Brennan Center's work by subscribing to our weekly newsletter, The Briefing, at https://go.brennancenter.org/briefing.

Trump meets Putin in Alaska, will it be "Seward's Folly" all over again? Can POTUS "negotiate himself out of a paper bag?" Other than lead in the drinking water and fleas, it's been the "smoothest" start of school for Shelby County! Have MLB players gone "soft?"See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

In this episode, Bradley Smith of Capital University Law School and Nicholas Stephanopoulos of Harvard Law School join to discuss the history and future of racial gerrymandering, including how the Court's upcoming decision in Louisiana v. Callais could affect the Voting Rights Act.  Resources Louisiana v. Callais (2025)  Allen v. Milligan (2023)  Shelby County v. Holder (2013)  Nicholas Stephanopoulos, Aligning Election Law (2024)  Bradley Smith, Unfree Speech: The Folly of Campaign Finance Reform (2001) Stay Connected and Learn More Questions or comments about the show? Email us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠podcast@constitutioncenter.org⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Continue the conversation by following us on social media @ConstitutionCtr. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Sign up⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ to receive Constitution Weekly, our email roundup of constitutional news and debate. Follow, rate, and review wherever you listen. Join us for an upcoming ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠live program⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ or watch recordings on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. Support our important work. ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Donate

Meanwhile in Memphis conversations showcase collaboration in Memphis and beyond, and today's episode is part of a mini-series within the show: Legislately with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris! This collaboration will bring together nationally-renowned experts and local leaders to amplify ways leaders in our community are learning, collaborating, innovating, and working to set Memphis and Shelby County up for success. Today's installment features a conversation with Shelby County Commissioner Michael Whaley. Commissioner Whaley also serves as the Tennessee Director for Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) where he empowers current and former educators to enhance their civic engagement and leadership skills. Commissioner Whaley is joining Mayor Harris to share insights on leadership lessons learned throughout various stages of his own journey and to offer tangible takeaways for leaders at every stage. Resources mentioned in this episode include: Legislately Episode 1: Unlocking a Future Legislately Episode 2: Common Ground Leadership for Educational Equity (LEE) Commissioner Michael Whaley Ernest Shackleton's ship Endurance South Georgia Island Elephant Island Memphis College Prep This episode is made possible in partnership with Shelby County Government.

We're back at Coffee Central in Southaven and welcome Coffee Central Shop owner, Tina Tatum and Trisha Henderson from Sista2Sista to talk about a collaboration to help women escaping addiction and sex trafficking. Sex trafficking is the 2nd fastest‑growing crime in Tennessee, with Shelby County among the 4 highest counties for reporting cases. Sista2Sista is safe haven for women breaking free from addiction and prostitution.

This Day in Legal History: Voting Rights ActOn August 6, 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the Voting Rights Act into law, marking a pivotal moment in American legal and civil rights history. The legislation aimed to enforce the Fifteenth Amendment by prohibiting racial discrimination in voting, especially in the southern states where such practices were deeply entrenched. The Act outlawed literacy tests and other mechanisms that had been used for decades to suppress the Black vote. It also authorized federal oversight of voter registration and election procedures in jurisdictions with histories of discrimination.The law came in the wake of sustained activism, including the Selma to Montgomery marches and the brutal attack on peaceful demonstrators in what became known as “Bloody Sunday.” Johnson, in a powerful address to Congress, tied the moral imperative of the Act to the nation's founding ideals, declaring that “it is wrong—deadly wrong—to deny any of your fellow Americans the right to vote.” Within months of the Act's passage, hundreds of thousands of Black Americans were registered to vote, reshaping political representation across the South.The Voting Rights Act has since been amended and interpreted by courts, with key provisions reauthorized multiple times. However, in Shelby County v. Holder (2013), the Supreme Court invalidated the formula used to determine which jurisdictions required federal oversight, significantly weakening the Act's enforcement mechanism. This decision opened the door to new state laws that voting rights advocates argue disproportionately affect minority voters.Legal scholars and civil rights lawyers continue to debate the future of the Act, with efforts ongoing to restore and update its protections. The Voting Rights Act of 1965 remains one of the most consequential civil rights statutes in American history, transforming the legal landscape of democratic participation.Ghislaine Maxwell, convicted in 2021 for aiding Jeffrey Epstein in sexually abusing minors, is opposing the U.S. government's attempt to release transcripts from the grand jury that indicted her. Her legal team argues that public disclosure could irreparably damage her reputation and complicate a potential retrial, especially as she seeks to overturn her conviction at the U.S. Supreme Court. They claim the grand jury testimony is incomplete and lacks the scrutiny of cross-examination. The Department of Justice, citing public interest, requested permission from two Manhattan judges to release the material, prompting responses from Maxwell's lawyers, Epstein's estate, and alleged victims.President Donald Trump recently pushed for the release of the documents, seeking to address criticism from both allies and opponents about the handling of the Epstein-Maxwell case. Trump's Justice Department acknowledged that a rumored Epstein client list does not exist, which disappointed some supporters. While Epstein's estate took no stance on the release, attorneys for victims advocated for limited disclosure that protects victims' identities and allows pre-review by their legal teams.The Justice Department said the grand jury testimony largely aligned with evidence presented at Maxwell's trial. Maxwell's appeal to the Supreme Court argues that a 2007 plea agreement between Epstein and prosecutors should have protected her as well. Additionally, she recently met with Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche about potential information she may have on other individuals.Epstein partner Maxwell opposes release of her grand jury materials | ReutersA federal judge in Boston has blocked the Trump administration from diverting over $4 billion away from a disaster prevention grant program known as Building Resilient Infrastructure and Communities (BRIC). The ruling, issued by U.S. District Judge Richard Stearns, grants a preliminary injunction to stop the government from redirecting funds intended to help state and local governments prepare for natural disasters like floods and hurricanes.The lawsuit was filed by 20 predominantly Democratic-led states, led by Massachusetts and Washington, arguing that FEMA lacked authority to cancel or repurpose the BRIC program without congressional consent. The judge agreed that the states faced potential irreparable harm and shouldn't have to wait until the funding was fully withdrawn to challenge the decision.FEMA, a part of the Department of Homeland Security, had labeled the program as wasteful and ineffective earlier this year, announcing plans to shut it down. However, Judge Stearns noted that such a move violated proper legal procedures and posed serious risks to public safety and infrastructure.The BRIC program was created in 2018 during Trump's first term and has since approved around $4.5 billion in funding for nearly 2,000 infrastructure projects, largely in coastal areas. Massachusetts Attorney General Andrea Joy Campbell said the ruling affirms the importance of federal support for community disaster preparedness.US judge blocks Trump administration from diverting disaster prevention grants | ReutersTesla and CEO Elon Musk are facing a proposed class action lawsuit from shareholders who allege they committed securities fraud by misrepresenting the safety and readiness of Tesla's self-driving technology, including the Robotaxi. The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Austin, Texas, follows a June test of the Robotaxi that revealed troubling behavior such as sudden braking, wrong-lane driving, and unsafe passenger drop-offs. After the test, Tesla's stock dropped 6.1%, erasing roughly $68 billion in market value.Shareholders argue that Musk and Tesla overstated the capabilities of their autonomous driving systems, misleading investors about the company's prospects. Key statements under scrutiny include Musk's April 2025 assertion that Tesla was "laser-focused" on launching the Robotaxi in Austin and Tesla's public claims of a scalable and safe autonomous approach. The lawsuit covers shareholders who bought stock between April 19, 2023, and June 22, 2025.Tesla CFO Vaibhav Taneja and former CFO Zachary Kirkhorn are also named as defendants. The complaint arrives as Tesla confronts lagging demand for its existing EV models and public concern over Musk's leadership and political views. Meanwhile, Tesla is appealing a recent Florida jury verdict holding it partially liable for a 2019 crash involving its self-driving software, which resulted in a $243 million damages award.Tesla, Elon Musk sued by shareholders over Robotaxi claims | ReutersThe U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), led by Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., announced a sweeping rollback of government-funded mRNA vaccine projects, cutting 22 initiatives worth $500 million. The move affects high-profile organizations including Moderna, Emory University, and Tiba Biotech. Kennedy justified the decision by claiming mRNA vaccines have not effectively protected against upper respiratory illnesses like COVID-19 and influenza. He also indicated a policy pivot toward “safer, broader vaccine platforms” that could maintain effectiveness despite viral mutations.This decision marks a dramatic shift in federal vaccine policy under the Trump administration and reflects Kennedy's long-standing skepticism toward vaccine safety. It follows previous actions he's taken, including firing 17 CDC vaccine advisers, removing COVID-19 vaccines from recommended use in healthy children and pregnant women, and reducing contracts with Moderna and Novavax. The Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority (BARDA), which oversees U.S. pandemic preparedness, is now being redirected to focus on vaccine platforms with what the agency calls “stronger safety records” and more transparency.Critically, the rationale for these cuts leans heavily on Kennedy's controversial views, which conflict with the broader scientific consensus on the safety and efficacy of mRNA technology. While it is reasonable to assess long-term vaccine strategy, completely abandoning mRNA platforms — particularly after their role in containing the COVID-19 pandemic — appears ideologically driven rather than data-based. Public health experts warn this may jeopardize future preparedness and undercut decades of scientific advancement, especially when the HHS has not publicly released the data allegedly supporting its decision.RFK Jr. Pulls Back on mRNA Projects as Vaccine Shakeup Continues This is a public episode. If you'd like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit www.minimumcomp.com/subscribe

New concepts to relocate the county's courts and jails from 201 Poplar and Shelby Farms to a new building in North Memphis was presented to Shelby County lawmakers, with an estimated cost of the 71-acre site at $1.26 billion. So far, it doesn't seem higher taxes will be the way to pay. Also on the show, we react to Marsha Blackburn announcing her TN Governor campaign, JB Pritzker getting surprisingly tested by Stephen Colbert, and a third rubber phallic attack in a WNBA game. We also give you today's Wheel of Weird story: Pet Sounds. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

At the urging of President Trump, the Texas legislature has launched a mid‑decade redistricting effort aimed at securing additional Republican seats in Congress. If successful, this effort could have far‑reaching implications for representation and governance—and spur other states to try the same. In this episode of Stanford Legal, two of Stanford Law School's—and the nation's—leading election law experts sit down to untangle the legal and political stakes of today's redistricting wars. In their wide‑ranging discussion, Professors Pamela Karlan and Nathaniel Persily shed light on Texas's push to add five new Republican‑leaning seats, the Supreme Court's recent decision to re‑argue Louisiana v. Callais—a move that could reshape how the Voting Rights Act is applied—and the broader battles over race, representation, and the future of redistricting in America.Links:Nate Persily >>> Stanford Law pageConnect:Episode Transcripts >>> Stanford Legal Podcast WebsiteStanford Legal Podcast >>> LinkedIn PageRich Ford >>>  Twitter/XPam Karlan >>> Stanford Law School PageStanford Law School >>> Twitter/XStanford Lawyer Magazine >>> Twitter/X(00:00) Voting Rights and Gerrymandering (05:31)The Legal Landscape of Redistricting(15:01) The Impact of Partisan Gerrymandering (25:31) The Evolving Role of the Judiciary (35:01) Future Implications for the Voting Rights Act 

In this episode of the Ohio Ag Net Podcast, Dusty Sonnenberg and Brianna Smith chat with Ray Foos, ODOT Survey Operations Manager, and John Fulton, OSU Extension State Specialist on Precision Planting. They discuss the upcoming changes to the Geodetic Datum and how it will affect farmers. Then, Dale Minyo talks with Luke Crumley, Director of Public Policy and Sustainability for Ohio Corn and Wheat. He highlights the wins of the recent reconciliation bill passing, along with the many funds protected for farmers within the Ohio State Budget. Next, Joel Penhorwood continues to highlight a major piece of the Ohio State Fair, the open livestock shows. Joel highlights two shows, beef and sheep, talking with the Baney Sisters at Creek Bottom Farm and Tom Wallace and Family from Miami County. To wrap up, Joel catches up with Jada Shroyer, of Logan County, who exhibited the Grand Champion Market Sheep at the 2025 Ohio State Fair, along with Madison Shatto, of Shelby County, who exhibited the Reserve Champion Market Sheep.

Episode Notes My guests include State Representative Torrey Harris. One of the biggest issues in our community is the drama surrounding the MSCS Board members and the County Commission regarding a possible shortened term and term limits. He was one of state sponsors of the proposal and will tell me why he thinks it's a good move. Next, Cardell Orrin is the Executive Director of Stand For Children, a non profit advocacy organization designed to create policy change to help our children. He joins me to share his hopes and agenda as we prepare to begin another school year. Finally, speaking of the new school year, Porter Leath has announced it's taking over the reins of Shelby County's Head Start services. MSCS will no longer hold the $30 million federal contract. Preschool Director of Porter Leath, Towanda Peete Smith joins me to discuss what the change will mean in terms of additional students, services and staff. That and more on air and online Monday, 6 pm on WYXR 91.7 FM. Also, the WYXR app, the Tunein app, Facebook Live, YouTube and wherever you get your podcasts. It's time to talk!

Natalie McKinney and Michelle McKissack join The Daily Memphian's Eric Barnes and Laura Testino to discuss lawmakers' push for a takeover of the school district, the former superintendent Marie Feagins' lawsuit to get her job back, and more. 

ArtsMemphis recently reached a milestone of awarding more than $100 million across Memphis and Shelby County since its founding in 1963. President and CEO at ArtsMemphis Elizabeth Rouse joins Eric Barnes to talk about how they support artists and arts organizations and raise funding.

"I'm giving people the really good traps now. The ones that make their lives easier—because the cats shouldn't be the ones who suffer when we don't have our act together." This episode is sponsored-in-part by Maddie's Fund and the Rescue Cleaners and Disinfectants. In this episode, Stacy sits down with KerryAnn May, founder of Animal Outreach of Shelby County, to talk about what it really takes to build a successful TNR program from the ground up. KerryAnn shares how a random encounter with a feral kitten set her on a decades-long path in cat rescue, eventually leading her to pioneer the first multi-county TNR effort in Indiana. She opens up about growing a small rescue into a well-oiled operation—without losing that local, community-driven spirit. From fundraising with handwritten letters to implementing tech solutions like Asset Tiger to keep track of equipment, KerryAnn proves that small organizations can still think big. The two also get real about the challenges of managing supplies, fostering community buy-in, and creating sustainable partnerships with local vets. This is a conversation packed with practical tips, relatable stories, and a refreshing sense of what's possible when passion meets a good plan. Press Play Now For: How one feral kitten changed KerryAnn May's life A blueprint for scaling TNR with local vet partnerships Fundraising made simple: From $1K to $50K with direct mail How Asset Tiger revolutionized their equipment tracking Why grassroots doesn't mean small thinking The power of community-led, local-focused cat care Tips for inspiring neighbors and nurturing mini TNR pods Resources & Links: ShelbyCats.com (http://ShelbyCats.com) Community Cats Grants (https://www.unitedspayalliance.org/community-cats-grants/) Mission Meow (https://missionmeow.org) Asset Tiger (https://www.assettiger.com) Community Cats Podcast Facebook (https://www.facebook.com/communitycatspodcast) Episode with Sally Williams of Mission Meow (https://youtu.be/rq2Sp2ZvNmM) Sponsor Links: Maddie's Fund (https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/maddies622) Rescue Cleaners and Disinfectants (https://www.communitycatspodcast.com/virox) Follow & Review We'd love for you to follow us if you haven't yet. Click that purple '+' in the top right corner of your Apple Podcasts app. We'd love it even more if you could drop a review or 5-star rating over on Apple Podcasts(https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/the-community-cats-podcast/id1125752101?mt=2). Select “Ratings and Reviews” and “Write a Review” then share a quick line with your favorite part of the episode. It only takes a second and it helps spread the word about the podcast.

Memphis is home to a world-class facility that's attracting regional and national events and tournaments but its primary role is to serve and create community right here in Memphis and Shelby County. Joining us to share a peek behind the operations and the details of the economic impact of this work are JJ Greer (Memphis Sports Council) and Kiyla Glasper (Memphis Sports and Events Center). Resources mentioned in this episode include: Memphis Tourism Memphis Sports Council Memphis Sports and Events Center Liberty Park Memphis Simmons Bank Liberty Stadium Cooper Young Neighborhood SmokeSlam BBQ Festival Memphis in May Nike EYBL Veterans Golden Age Games Memphis VA Mike Rose Soccer Complex FedExForum Renasant Convention Center USA Basketball Stadium Memphis Zoo This episode is made possible by Independent Bank.

James Brodnax, Program Director of LifeWise Academy for Shelby County is joined by Tara Crawford and Cedric Taylor to share how two small pilot programs serving just nine students has now grown into seven programs reaching over 200 students. Lifewise brings Bible-based, character-building education to public school students during the school day—completely legally, off-campus, and with parent permission. LifeWise has also launched a county-wide initiative to bring these programs to every municipality across Memphis and Shelby County.

Meanwhile in Memphis conversations showcase collaboration in Memphis and beyond, and today's episode part of the mini-series within the show: Legislately with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. This collaboration will continue to bring together nationally-renowned experts and local leaders to amplify ways leaders in our community are learning, collaborating, innovating, and working to set Memphis and Shelby County up for success.   Today's episode is the second installment of the Meanwhile in Memphis Legislately series, and the conversation illuminates the connections between local and federal government with Mayor Lee Harris and former Mayor of Salt Lake City, Utah, State Senator and Congressman, Ben McAdams. Resources mentioned in this episode include: S5E23 Legislately Episode 1: Unlocking a Future Learn more about Ben McAdams here Memphis Shelby County Schools Underutilized or Vacant Buildings Shelby County Lowered Taxes Salt Lake County Government Putting Assets to Work Tennessee College of Applied Technology (TCAT) Mayor Dickens of Atlanta, Georgia This episode is made possible in partnership with Shelby County Government.

Producer Breana Miller interviews Senior Signs & Zoning Inspector Antwone Smith about the signs, billboards, and zoning regulations that he and his team enforce and that they tend to educate and inform customers about while in the field. While handling anything from eight-second digital billboard advertisement frequencies to the prohibition of roosters in residential areas, Signs and Zoning Enforcement has seen and heard a lot of what's happening in the Memphis and Shelby County area.Have questions for any Antwone? Email them to buildingbeat@memphistn.gov, and you'll get an answer on a future episode.

Shelby County Election Commission Chairman Mark Luttrell says candidates running for office have much to do with how many voters turn out in elections. And voter turnout in Memphis and Shelby County has been lower for years. Luttrell and Shelby County Election Commission Administrator of Elections Linda Phillips are this week's guests on Behind the Headlines.

On Episode 58 of the Ohio Field Leader Podcast, Dusty visits with Jon, Joe, Tim and Tyler Everett of Everett Farms in Shelby County. The brothers and their sons have been farming many of the same acres for generations, and the unique thing is that the absentee landlords are also multi-generational as the land has been handed down over the years. Establishing and continuing to develop their landlord relationships and stewarding the ground has been a key to their success. They also discuss the unique aspects of having two families and multiple generations farming together and what it takes to make it all work.

KSR is Live in Shelby County talking NBA Draft, farm animals, and your calls.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

KSR is Live from Shelby County talking the latest news and taking your calls.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Following Tennessee Law? - You Don't Hear of That Very Often...Refusing To Fly Pride Flags...Shelby County Schools Destroying Documents?& Much More on The Tennessee Conservative's BIG 7 Weekend Update!Sign Up for The Tennessee Conservative's FREE eNewsletter, just text "NEWS" to 423-205-5600.Like what we're doing & want us to stick around?Donate Today! - https://bit.ly/3OBZvcCAdvertise with us! Check out our advertising options here - https://tinyurl.com/2re6bfswSubscribe to our FREE eNewsletter - https://bit.ly/3ybSpV8Follow The Tennessee Conservative on these Free Speech platforms:TTC on X, formerly known as Twitter - https://twitter.com/TnCoNews1TTC on MeWe -https://bit.ly/3SbuqxWTTC on Gettr - https://bit.ly/3LifSKCTTC on Gab - https://bit.ly/3di03aiTTC on Truth - https://bit.ly/3BINn5B

In this episode of Just Schools, Dr. Jon Eckert speaks with Lionel Cable and Joi Taylor Johnson from New Hope Christian Academy in Memphis, Tennessee. New Hope, founded nearly 30 years ago is an urban, college-preparatory elementary school providing students with a challenging, intellectual, and Christ-centered education Joi, a New Hope alum and now Director of Development, shares how the school helped shape her leadership and calling. The conversation highlights New Hope's innovative scholarship model, its farm and forest learning spaces, and the school's vision for expansion. The episode ends with a powerful piece of advice from Lionel's sister, “Do the exact opposite of what you want to do and watch what God does through you.” The Just Schools Podcast is brought to you by the Baylor Center for School Leadership. Be encouraged. Connect with us: Center for School Leadership at Baylor University Jon Eckert LinkedIn Baylor MA in School Leadership   Jon: Well, Lionel and Joi, it is a blessing to have you here today. I'd love for you to just give our listeners a little bit of an idea of what New Hope Christian Academy is all about, where it's at, what its history is, and what your hopes are as you move forward. Lionel: First, thanks so much, Jon, for having me and Joi this morning. So New Hope is going on 30 years old. We were founded in the basement of a church downtown Memphis in 1995, 1996. Basically, it was established because there were no high quality, just private or public education options for kids in the downtown corridor. So we were founded to just offer teaching, learning, discipleship to families in need at the time. So over the past 30 years, we've grown to a little over 420 kids. 80% of our families, they have to qualify for free and reduced lunch. So the core of our mission truly is impoverished families and reaching out to them because we know in order to change that trajectory, it's two things. One, gets at the heart and that's the gospel, and then two high quality academics. If we can bridge those two things together, obviously that's going to change the trajectory of family, but then also change the trajectory of Memphis. Jon: And you have kids from age three all the way through sixth grade currently with the hope of expanding in the coming years. Is that correct? Lionel: Yeah, absolutely. Past 30 years due to our funding model, which is simply on a sliding scale, it was an impossible thing to expand. Now, with the passing of the Voucher Law in the state of Tennessee, the doors are now wide open for us to expand. So after next school year, we will be adding seventh and eighth grade. Jon: Yes. And so it's great to have your director of development on here because she has a vested interest in New Hope. So Joi, can you tell us a little bit about how you ended up back here professionally at New Hope? Joi: Yes, it's such a beautiful story honestly. I graduated from New Hope in 2007 and graduated from the sixth grade, and New Hope gave me a scholarship to go on to another independent school here in Memphis named ECS, Evangelical Christian School. And from there I went to the University of Memphis and I was all about social work and helping others. And from there, I helped start a program called the Choose 901 Alumni Program. And the alumni that we were helping were exactly the alumni from New Hope Christian Academy. And so I've kind of just always been in the works, helping our alumni get internships, jobs, and just connecting them to different opportunities and networks here in the city of Memphis. But as time went on, I kind of yearned to be back home. I wanted to be here and trying to advance the mission of New Hope. We want this school to be known all around the Memphis community and even further, because there's just so many great things happening here. This is the place that helped raise me honestly and cultivate the type of leadership and servant leadership that I have to this day. So it just made complete sense for me to come back and give my twenties, my thirties away to a school that helped make me who I am. Jon: I love that. And you mentioned this scholarship that happened after you left New Hope to go to another school. That is an unusual model. Joi: It's different. Jon: So can you talk a little bit about that Joi? How does that work? Joi: Yeah, so New Hope has always been a main proponent of school choice. Whether the actual vouchers have been passed or not, they've always just had a heart to connect students to quality education. Low-income students, underserved students to quality, Christ-centered education. And so they have always been connected to several foundations and donors who really care about what's happening in the Memphis community. And so they did the thing, they made sure it happened, and they've been doing it for 30 years now, funding scholars to go to different schools all around the city. Jon: That's such a beautiful thing, especially in a place like Memphis. Memphis is an amazing city, but it's also one of the most racially polarized cities that I've ever seen. And when they integrated Shelby County schools and they tried to connect with other counties, there was a lot of strife in that. And what I love about New Hope is it's, hey, each kid deserves an education that best fits that kid. And so ultimately you have people that have put money behind doing that, and then you have a school that's living out that mission pre-K through sixth grade, and now that's expanding with some additional opportunities. But even when it wasn't, it wasn't ever just about New Hope, but that's what I love. It was about the kids you were serving, and so therefore you're willing to use resources that a lot of schools would hold for themselves. And you're putting that scholarship with kids over the next six years to get you to the University of Memphis so that you can get through successfully. Do you know of other schools that have that model? I've been in a lot of schools and I don't know if I've ever heard that. Are you familiar with anybody else? Or Lionel, where did that idea come from? Was that just the community that you were in, or did that come from another school's model? Lionel: Yeah, so 30 years ago know when we opened, we wanted to go through 12th grade. However, the demand for high quality Christian urban education, it exploded, so we grew faster than what we intended. So the founder, Steven Carpenter, no, I can tell you the scholarship program, that was not a part of his original design for the school. It was around year four or five, we need to figure out are we going to expand or are we going to just send the kids somewhere else? And ultimately our checkbook said, okay, it's cheaper and actually easier to send the kids to our surrounding schools rather than add a grade at the time. So the model stuck. But I will tell you, Jon, you mentioned just Memphis being such a unique place. In the private sector, there are not a lot of urban ED private schools here. As a matter of fact, they're exact opposite of us. So I would like to think that our children know 30 years ago, they were really the first black and brown kids to go to some of these predominantly white spaces. So there were struggles there, but there was also opportunity for growth in terms of how New Hope could better support our kids when they left us to go to some of these other schools. So we created what was called the Alumni Support Office. There's three people in that office right now who spend 95% of their time on the campuses of the other schools to stay connected with the kids, to act as that bridge, to also act as a cheerleader, but then to also act as an advocate so that the children don't lose themselves in these spaces so that their identity can remain and then also so that they can cross the finish line. So with that particular model, we've had great success. Over the last 30 years, we have a 99.9% graduation rate from high school. 99.9% of our kids get accepted into college, 70% of which are actually working on their college degree or post-secondary. So I'd like to think it was a combination of the New Hope Scholarship opening the door, but then also that continued support that the organization offers all the way through to the finish line. Jon: Well, it's such a beautiful example of building the kingdom because it's not just a gift to your students, it's a gift to those campuses that were impoverished by the lack of diversity. They were not the kingdom because they were only serving a segment of the population. And so you enrich those campuses with the gift of your students. And so that's always one of the things when we study Brown vs Board of Education and the language of that, it's always like, well, how the black and brown kids are being harmed. And the counter argument to that is, all of the students who were not able to be exposed to different cultures and different kinds of kids and people within their own community, that's impoverishing to everyone. So you have been a gift financially in the scholarship to those schools, but to send kids out who are well-prepared in an academically rigorous setting with a heart grounded in Christ, like what a beautiful gift that is to Memphis. And so sometimes we hear all of the polarizing stories and the separation, and even in school choice discussions, it's this othering of, "how could you be for that or how could you be for this?" And it's like, "No, we want each kid to become more like Christ." And we do that best when we do that in community. And I feel like that's what you're living out. Now. Joi, can you talk a little bit about that experience of going to ECS? We've worked with ECS, a really fascinating school. How helpful was that office to you? Obviously you were successful, you went on to college, you're part of that 99.9% that Lionel talked about, but what was that experience like as a student? Joi: Honestly, it was really difficult. When I graduated, it was still in the early years of our alumni scholarship or support office, and so they were really still trying to understand how to get involved and be on the campus and really understand the difficulties we were experiencing as alumni going to these schools, because as Lionel stated, that New Hope is a predominantly black and brown school. And so when you leave this place and go to a predominantly white school, I mean, when I say culture shock, that's seriously what I was feeling as a seventh grader. We're already teenagers and crazy and feeling all kinds of ways. And so being in a completely new environment without my family really, we went through kindergarten through sixth grade together. And so leaving them and being placed in a completely new situation, it was really hard. It was really, really difficult. But the ASO office, they were there and they walked with me through all of those obstacles and difficulties and challenges that I faced, and they really encouraged me to just keep going because I was going to come out gold in the end. Even though it was some hard times, there was a lot of beauty in that as well. I tell a lot of people, the ECS definitely helped me academically. I mean, when it came to college, I was so ready. I didn't even blink to some of the work that they were throwing at me. But also spiritually. I mean, it really gave me that foundation of the Bible and knowing these verses and scriptures. Whenever I'm in these science classes or philosophy classes, and they really want to deter you from thinking that Jesus is the Savior and he is the creator, it really just gave me a foundation to know who I am, whose I am, I'm a daughter of the King, and it just really gave me a push to really get through everything. So I think I came out gold from doing all of that and trying to navigate it. Jon: Yeah, that joy through struggle is something that I think our current students have a hard time understanding. I mean, we want adversity. We don't want trauma. And so certainly going outside of your comfort zone to a new campus with support, that's adversity. We don't want it to bleed into trauma because I think through that adversity, we grow and become more of who we're created to be. And that's part of learning. I mean, that's the zone of proximal development. It's where you're at on your own versus what you can do with others through struggle, and that's where real joy is, and that's where transformation happens. So you would do some interesting things, Lionel, at your school with the forest and the farm. These aren't typical things that you think of in urban settings. Can you talk a little bit about what you're doing there and what the idea behind all that is? Lionel: Yeah, it was 2013, Mary Leslie Ramsey, who was the teacher that came up with the idea. We had recently been gifted the land from Habitat for Humanity, it's right across the street. They wanted to actually turn it into a subdivision, but found out it was on a floodplain, so couldn't do anything with it, so they gave it to us. She woke up one day with the head of school at the time and said, "Hey, the Lord has given me a vision. Do you see it? Do you see it?" And he kept saying, "I don't see a thing," because there was nothing there. And she said, "No, do you see this farm and this forest?" So she talked him into it, and obviously we didn't have a budget at the time to get it started. So we partnered with the Memphis Botanic Garden and they gave us all of the plantings that they were going to throw away. And it just really started with this small idea. Since Frayser is a fresh food desert, and the majority of our kids are either apartment dwellers or they don't necessarily go outside like they should, Mary Leslie just, she had the idea, "Okay, we've got to get our kids outside and we've got to expose them to something completely different than what they're used to." So that's when the farm and the forest was birthed. Currently, it is sitting on about five and a half acres. About one and a half of those acres, that's the actual farm. And it's more agricultural than it is animals. So our kids grow anything and everything from cabbage to strawberries to harvest their own honey. I mean, you name it, it is there. I'd like to think of it as the Garden of Eden because in the middle of Frayser, you wouldn't expect just this beautiful farm and forest that is there. We've got a full-time horticulturist who pours into that, and our teachers are able to go out there and do some applicable things with everything that is growing out there. With what's happening in the classroom, the forest piece is about four, four and a half acres, and we look at that as more of our play space. There are birdwatching observatories, there's about 1.7 miles of a walking trail that has been excavated there. I mean, just a beautiful space. And it's a way for our kids to really connect with our Lord. I mean, there's no better way to put your hands in the ground to plant something and just see how good God is by something coming up out of the ground. Jon: So you've got to tell me, how good are your kids at avoiding the instant gratification trap that gets really exposed in gardening. So they see something that is not even close to ripe, like that's it. I want to try it. Are they good at leaving it and letting it develop to its fullness of what the Lord wanted before they indulge? Or do they give in to that childlike instant gratification of the underdeveloped prefrontal cortex? Lionel: Yeah. Yeah, I think it's pretty developed. Jon: Okay. Lionel: Probably not at the beginning. And let me tell you why. So a part of Mary Leslie's strategy was also to give back to the Frayser community, so our kids understand the things that we plant, it's going towards a common good. So with this being a fresh food desert, every Friday, starting in late March all the way through, I'd say the end of October, we have what is called a pay what you can stand. And we invite the entire Frayser community to come in and grab as much produce as they'd like, and they can pay something or they can get it for free. So our kids know that, hey, we got to wait. We want that fruit to get ripe or those vegetables to be fully developed because it's going towards a good cause. Jon: That is so beautiful. The reason why I ask is last week I was at a school that's in a juvenile detention center down here in Texas, and they have violent youth offenders. They have quite a range of kids from age 13 to 18, and they have a garden. And in the English class, they were writing about weeds and the weeds they have in their own lives and then going out and weeding and tilling this garden. It was this beautiful lesson, but there was a very underdeveloped cucumber that one of the guys picked up and started munching for about 15 seconds. Until then, it's all out all over the ground because it was not ready. And the guy who's in charge of the garden says, "Yeah, they lose about 90% of the produce to kids not being able to delay that gratification to the point that it is ripe." And I think your point about they're doing this for someone else, that changes the calculus, that changes what it is. And now these kids are in juvenile detention through a series of tragic circumstances, bad decisions. Some of it may be related to not being able to delay gratification or not having the security of believing that something will be there the next day and not just taking what's available right now. But it was a fascinating lesson. So when you started talking about what your kids do, I was like, "Oh, I got to hear it." I had not thought about what a great lesson in delayed gratification gardening is. Because you take that too early and that thing that's going to be amazing in a week is inedible in the moment. So I love that. I love that. Joi, you're telling the story from a development fundraising perspective. Anything you want to add to what New Hope's doing that you think is particularly compelling? Joi: Yes. When I was a student at New Hope, we always craved for a middle school or a high school. We wanted to be at New Hope for as long as we possibly can. So for me to be here at New Hope, at the start of the transition of us actually bringing in a middle school, I mean, that's amazing to me. It feels like my sixth grade dreams are coming true right before my eyes. So I'm excited that I get to extend this type of opportunity to the current fifth graders who are here now. And then to the rest of the generations who are coming through, that they really get a chance to be involved and get this, it's like an incubator for Christ-Centered leadership and learning service and different activities that they get a longer chance to kind of experience that before they enter into high school where it really gets crazy. Middle school is just the beginning, but high school, I feel like we give them a chance to be prepared and cultivate their social emotional learning process needs that they have, so that when they are in those frightening or new situations, that they feel more prepared how to navigate these things. And so I think that's one of the best things that I'm excited about preparing or clearing out a new pathway for our students to really get time here with us here at New Hope. And then of course, it's our 30th anniversary. That's a huge deal. I don't know if we ever thought we would see this kind of day, but we're so blessed and thankful that we've made it. God has been with us the whole time. We've had a lot of obstacles, but we've come out on top every single time because his hand has been over us. And so I want to offer more partnerships and relationships to the community, especially right now. We have a really hectic education system going on, atmosphere in Memphis right now. So I really feel like this is a great time to amp up New Hope and tell more people about it because they are getting fearful and worried about what their child's education really will look like in the future. But we have been stable. We've been here for 30 years, and hopefully we can open our doors to more people. Jon: Yes. Love it. Love it. And the fact that you can describe middle school as a dream and not a nightmare, is a true testimony to the work of the spirit at New Hope. So love it. As a former middle school teacher and a middle school kid, I think I would have loved being at your farm and forest and in the culture you've built at New Hope. So that's a beautiful thing. We always end with a lightning round where I'll just ask a few questions and we just keep the answers to about a sentence if you can. I'm terrible at this, but if you can, that's better than me. So the first question is, what's the worst piece of advice you've ever received, as an educator or as a student, but just worst piece of advice you've ever gotten? Lionel: I guess I'll go first, Joi. Joi: Go ahead. Lionel: Honestly, I don't think I've ever gotten really bad advice. It may not have worked out because there's learning and failure. I just learned not to do that again, but I learned from it. So to answer your question, no bad advice. Jon: Well, one thing, Lionel, I would say that the piece I always give is people tell you to stay in your lane. And I feel like that's bad advice many times. And if New Hope would have stayed in its lane, you wouldn't have scholarships to send people off to school. You wouldn't exist. You wouldn't have a farm, you wouldn't have the wood. So I'm applying my bad advice that I received to New Hope as a counter example, and I'm grateful for educators that step up and speak out about, here's what we need, here's what we need to flourish, and here's what we need to do together. So I'll apply my bad advice to your good counter example. So thank you for that. Joi, what about you? Have you gotten any bad advice or are you as blessed as Lionel is to never have received bad advice? Joi: No, I think I have gotten bad advice before. Being in this new situation, raising money for an independent black school in Memphis, I think people have definitely told me that there are certain groups of people and populations I shouldn't ask money for support from or any type of activity from. But we're learning that our parents, our grandparents, the people in our community might be great people who can give and be a part of this whole mission that we have going on in New Hope. It doesn't have to be one specific person or they have to look a certain way. This is an opportunity for all. Jon: That's good. All right. Best advice you've either given or received? Joi: I will say the best advice that I think I've gotten actually come from Lionel. It was a couple of years ago, I was still in my previous job and antsy to get back home and to do work here at New Hope. And I talked to Lionel about it, "Like, why is it this not working out? I want to be here." And he told me to be still and wait on the Lord. And that's been the best advice because look where I am a couple of years later. I'm here and an opportunity to really lead in a big way, bigger than what I was trying to do earlier. So being still. Jon: Psalm 46:10, always good advice. All right. Lionel, what about you? Lionel: Yeah, you may have heard this one already, Jon. I think this advice came from my sister. About 10, 15 years ago, I had an opportunity, between two schools, to be the principal. One, was the highest performing school in the district, the other was the seventh worst performing school in the entire state of Tennessee. I was offered both jobs. Go out to the car, called my sister, I'm like, "Hey, I think I'm going to decline the worst school. I just want to go to the best school." And keep in mind, Jon, I had no experience at a failing school at all. Simple advice from her. She said, "Lionel, God has really blessed you in your career. Why don't you do the exact opposite of what you want to do and watch what God does through you?" Jon: That's amazing. Lionel: At that point, I accepted the job at the other place, and that's all she wrote. I mean, it was the best decision of my life. Jon: Yeah, love that. You have told me that. And it's always a good story to hear that again. Because I think so often I want my desires to always be aligned with Christ. And the more I am praying, the more I'm in the word, the more that is likely. But so often, my selfish desires get in the way of what He wants. And so love that. Okay. What do you see as the biggest challenge for New Hope specifically for the next 30 years? What would you say? And then we'll go back to what's your greatest hope? But we'll start with the challenge first. Lionel: Yeah. Prior to this year, it was the funding model. I mean, it's flipped on its head. 93% of our dollars came from donations. Past 30 years, we've never been in the red. Praise God, thankful for that. Now that ESA's vouchers, all of that is here, there is a path forward. So I think the challenge is how can we leverage our 30 years of experience and create more new hopes? New Hope, we serve 44 different zip codes in Memphis. In the north Memphis area is where we planted our flag, but South Memphis is the most impoverished area in the city. And my dream, my desire, my hope is that we can plant our flag in South Memphis and create a New Hope South Memphis, and then hopefully a New Hope East Memphis. So many children here, Jon, they need teaching, learning, and discipleship, and they need hope. And New Hope can certainly provide that through the gospel, but then also change that family's trajectory just through high quality academics and just building that foundation. So in short, to answer your question, the challenge is, how do we get more dollars? How do we leverage the dollars we have? How do we create these partnerships so that New Hope can grow well beyond Frayser, which is where we are now? Jon: Joi, anything you'd add to that challenge? Joi: He is the visionary leader of New Hope Christian Academy, so I stand behind him. That's our goal and vision. That's what we're doing. Jon: That's great. So then what's your greatest hope for New Hope or education in general, what's your greatest hope? Lionel: Oh, that's a loaded question, Jon. Jon: I know. We ask good ones for the lightning round and try to get you to give a parsimonious answer. Lionel: Oh. For Memphis specifically, and I think there's two parts to that. Memphis specifically, I'm hopeful that the education system will look more like the Kingdom, in particularly the private schools. Because it's not, Jon. I mean, again, New Hope and Collegiate, which is our sister school, we're the only ones that are high poverty, high concentration of black and brown children. Other schools are the complete opposite. And I always say, if you don't like diversity, you don't like heaven, you're not going to like heaven. And the thing is, I mean, I'm hopeful that in the independent school space that there will be room for growth so that it can look more like the Kingdom and that the leaders will be more Kingdom minded. As it relates to just education? We need more urban Christian education. I think that's the key. In the core of the city, we need high quality options for families because that's where the concentration of brokenness is, and in every major city in America. So I'm very hopeful, you know that the lens will look towards just again, high quality urban Christian education in cities across America. Jon: Oh, yes. Love that. Rebecca McLaughlin says, "Don't miss the fact that Christianity is the most diverse multicultural movement in the history of the world. And the church is becoming increasingly black and brown in 2025." So that's a great word and appreciate your heart behind that. Joi, anything you'd add to your hope for where things are headed? Joi: Yes. I think when people think of Memphis, their mind goes to our crime rate, our history, our music, and our food. And I think one thing about Memphis that most people miss is that this is a place with a lot of opportunity. And I'm grateful that the ESAs and EFS has made their way to the Shelby County area because crime is a big issue here. Safety is a big issue here. But I do know that that's directly related and linked to poverty. And I know that poverty can be changed with quality education. And so I think this is a great time for us to really capitalize on, now's the time. New Hope is the place for parents and community members to pour into and send people to, and maybe even replicate a school like that in their own city or their own state, that this kind of gospel and movement that we're trying to spread actually spreads everywhere. Jon: That's great. This resonates with what the Spreading Hope Network does. They're based out of Minneapolis. I'm sure they're aware of you and hopefully you're aware of them. Love the heart, love the work you're doing. Our team, they got to visit, it all came back. Bill Sterrett was enamored with the farm and the forest. Loved it. The team loved it. So anybody that gets a chance to get through Memphis and visit, I know they find a welcome team there that is just doing good work. And it's an encouragement and there's great joy in the work that we get to do with kids. So thank you for your time. Appreciate your work on our advisory board, Lionel. Joi, it's great to meet you virtually. Hopefully we'll meet you in person soon, and thanks for all you do. Joi: Sure. Thank you. Lionel: Thank you.  

Meanwhile in Memphis conversations showcase collaboration in Memphis and beyond, and today's episode kicks off an exciting mini-series within the show: Legislately with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris! This collaboration will bring together nationally-renowned experts and local leaders to amplify ways leaders in our community are learning, collaborating, innovating, and working to set Memphis and Shelby County up for success.   Today's episode is the initial installment of the Meanwhile in Memphis Legislately series, and the conversation explores juvenile justice reform with Mayor Lee Harris and Yale Law professor, Pulitzer Prize-winning author, and recent contributor to New York Times Magazine, James Forman, Jr.   Resources mentioned in this episode include: Shelby County Government Locking Up Our Own: Crime and Punishment in Black America by James Forman New York Times article "What Happened When America Emptied Its Youth Prisons" by David Muhammad National Civil Rights Museum Memphis Shelby County Schools' Hope Academy The Youth Justice and Education Center Maya Angelou Academy @ DC Jail BreakFree Education with David Domenici Why Youth Incarceration Fails: An Updated Review of the Evidence from The Sentencing Project This episode is made possible in partnership with Shelby County Government.

A handful of significant commercial real estate deals top this week's Access Louisville podcast. LBF Senior Reporter Joel Stinnett is on this week's show and tells us about the sale of the Brown-Forman Cooperage. As he reported recently. Lebanon, Missouri-based Independent Stave Co. purchased the 16-acre property at 402 MacLean Ave. from Brown-Forman for $13.66 million on May 1, according to a deed filed with the Jefferson County Clerk's Office.The site includes several storage warehouses, two equipment shops and the more than 4,000-square-foot production facility. The cooperage, which opened in 1945, produced about 2,000 barrels a day before closing this year as part of a 12% cut to Brown-Forman's global workforce.Stinnett also tells us about a Louisville company, Goodson Clothing and Supply Co., moving into new office space on Nelson Miller Parkway. We also chat about a new Wawa opening along Veterans Parkway in Clarksville, Indiana. And we discuss a couple of recently revealed plans for new speculative warehouses — one in Shelby County and another at the River Ridge Commerce Center in Jeffersonville, Indiana.In the last part of the show, we talk about the Academies of Louisville program, which aims to prepare students at Jefferson County Public Schools, for their careers post-high school. Eight years after it was implemented, a number of business and education officials are calling it a success — though a leadership change at the school certainly makes us wonder about its future. Access Louisville, sponsored by Baird, is a weekly podcast from Louisville Business First. It's available on popular podcast services including Apple Podcasts and Spotify.

Leah Litman, author of Lawless: The Supreme Court Runs on Conservative Grievance, Fringe Theories, and Bad Vibes, argues that originalism masks a partisan project, while critics counter that Roe's reversal doesn't require conspiracy. Her pop culture–infused book uses The Barbie Movie, American Psycho, and Arrested Development to advance critiques of the conservative court. Plus, the NYC mayoral debate crammed nine candidates into two chaotic hours, yielding more zingers than substance. And in the Spiel, rather than accept the usual narrative about the gutting of the Voting Rights Act, a look at actual turnout data post-Shelby County v. Holder—which suggests far less than a real-world calamity. Produced by Corey WaraProduction Coordinator Ashley KhanEmail us at ⁠⁠⁠⁠thegist@mikepesca.com⁠⁠⁠⁠To advertise on the show, contact ⁠⁠⁠⁠ad-sales@libsyn.com⁠⁠⁠⁠ or visit ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://advertising.libsyn.com/TheGist⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://subscribe.mikepesca.com/⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Youtube Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC4_bh0wHgk2YfpKf4rg40_g⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to The Gist Instagram Page: ⁠⁠⁠⁠GIST INSTAGRAM⁠⁠⁠⁠Follow The Gist List at: ⁠⁠⁠⁠Pesca⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠Profundities | Mike Pesca | Substack⁠⁠⁠⁠ Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Guests:Torie Bosch, Editor, First Opinion, STAT NewsMichelle Taylor, Shelby County Division Director for Health Services, Shelby County, TennesseeRaynard Washington, director of Mecklenburg County Public Health, Mecklenburg County, North Carolina Learn more here.Want more Tradeoffs? Sign up for our free weekly newsletter featuring the latest health policy research and news.Support this type of journalism today, with a gift. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.