Reporter
Samuel Hardiman is an enterprise reporter who focuses on government and politics. He began his career at the Tulsa World where he covered business and K-12 education. Hardiman came to Memphis in 2018 to join the Memphis Business Journal, covering government and economic development.
There are 692 articles by Samuel Hardiman :
When presenting the budget, Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the city had to make “significant tradeoffs.” From pension to healthcare and clothing, here’s a closer look at the city’s spending.
John Zeanah said an interesting phrase as he stood outside FedExForum during a City Council bus tour — he called the area the “arena district.”
Memphis Mayor Paul Young said the City of Memphis made “significant trade-offs” as it designed the city’s coming fiscal year budget.
The Tennessee General Assembly included a $50 million grant for Downtown Memphis Public Safety in the state budget passed this week.
The plaintiffs filed to dismiss them so that the planned November 2026 trial could continue as scheduled.
The lack of financial forms makes it difficult to see how key candidates have fared with donors in the past three months.
Memphis City Council members got a peek inside what will be the new Memphis Art Museum before voting to repurpose city funds for public infrastructure outside the Front Street museum.
The NAACP, represented by the Southern Environmental Law Center, filed a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI.
New documents and witnesses announced in Nichols' civil trial will aim to show use-of-force culture in MPD.
Newly filed campaign finance forms show two Shelby County Democratic mayoral candidates with far more financial resources than the rest of the crowded primary.
For most of an hour at Springdale Baptist Church in North Memphis, six of the Democratic candidates for Shelby County mayor displayed few differences. Then, the prospect of a new jail to replace the dilapidated and struggling 201 Poplar brought them to life.
Last month, the Mississippi Department of Environmental Quality Permit Board approved an xAI subsidiary’s application to erect 41 natural gas turbines.
The Daily Memphian reported the water recycling facility, a key promise the company made to local leaders and residents, was “on an indefinite pause.” Without it, xAI uses fresh drinking water to cool its Colossus data center.
Ahead of SpaceX’s IPO, it would stand to reason the cost of a water-recycling plant may be essential to the long-term health of the Memphis Sand Aquifer, but it might not be essential to a company whose books could soon come under broader public scrutiny.Related content:
Without the plant’s completion, xAI and TVA could continue drawing billions of gallons of freshwater from the aquifer, which also supplies the region’s drinking water.
The city has quietly reorganized its gun violence intervention program, part of a longer-term effort to prevent shootings before they happen.
The mayor reacts to the NBA superstar’s suggestion that the Memphis Grizzlies relocate to Nashville.
A Shelby County Board of Commissioners vote signaled the subtle progress local governments are making toward a long-term lease with the Memphis Grizzlies.
Attorneys for RowVaughn Wells, Nichols’ mother, filed a motion to dismiss the five officers from the nearly 3-year-old civil rights lawsuit.
The appraisals for the two data centers help to determine how much Elon Musk’s artificial intelligence company will pay in property taxes.
The city is still searching for a space where teenagers, once picked up by MPD, would spend time waiting for their parents.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young says the city is moving in the right direction on crime, but didn’t credit President Donald Trump or the Memphis Safe Task Force for that.
During his visit to Memphis, President Donald Trump said that Memphis is a different place because of his Memphis Safe Task Force, praising the city’s leadership along with the Task Force while noting the declining homicide rate.
“I directed the Department of War to temporarily postpone land strikes against major energy and electricity targets in Iran,” President Donald Trump said during his Memphis visit Monday, March 23.
For years, people choosing to move outside Memphis’ city limits have reshaped neighborhoods and changed spending patterns. But now, continued population loss could start to compound in the city budget.