Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland stuck to the basics in 2018 – the “brilliant at the basics” four-word slogan of his 2015 campaign for mayor and the motto of his three-year-old administration.

City Hall is looking for mandatory jail time for road-rage convictions in the 2019 session of the Tennessee Legislature and a sports book on Beale Street as well as making it easier to get title to tax-delinquent property for tax sales.

There were more than votes to count in the 2018 local elections. There were voters, early voting locations and lawsuits – six of them – against the Shelby County Election Commission.

Memphis City Council members have rejected gas, water and electric rate hikes proposed by Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. On three separate 3-7 votes Tuesday, the council voted down the rate hikes to take effect in 2019 and again in 2021 across all three divisions of the publicly owned utility.

Memphis City Council members say there were some indications of discord before the rift over filling three vacant council seats. But when the rift settled in for the rest of the year it was a surprising turn.

The Tennessee Valley Authority has extended the deadline for Memphians to comment on the future of coal ash at the Allen Fossil Plant in southwest Memphis.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland won’t officially announce his re-election bid until next month.

One year to the day that Confederate monuments were removed from two city parks, the anniversary revealed the controversy still has some unexpected life left in it among those pursuing the removal of the monuments by different methods.

Memphis City Council members put off filling three empty seats on the council Tuesday at their last meeting of the year.

There are plans to make two more Hallmark movies in Memphis next year, according to the managing partner of Graceland Holdings LLC.

The city’s long-range development plan for the next 20 years begins with what is already there, gauges the market and public sentiment and builds from there. A draft of the Memphis 3.0 plan debuted Wednesday on a city website, www.memphis3point0.com.

The Tennessee Building Commission's executive committee has approved an expansion of the Downtown Tourism Development Zone for a second convention center hotel in Memphis.

The Memphis City Council has three empty council seats to fill Tuesday. And if the 10 council members can’t break the gridlock that has delayed the appointment to the first of those vacancies, there will be more calls for special elections to fill all three.

Theryn Bond got some bad news in her quest to get the appointment to the open City Council District 6 seat.

A candlelight vigil Thursday in Health Sciences Park will mark the one-year anniversary of the removal of Confederate monuments there and from Memphis Park.

Brooks Lamb was making final edits on his book about Overton Park when he found out the Memphis Brooks Museum of Art was planning a move out of the park to Downtown Memphis.

The River Garden at Mississippi River Park has a few unexpected additions. Since the park at the Wolf River Harbor was revamped as a more active setting about a month ago, a hawk and a bobcat have taken up residence.

Charles Burson began with the certainty that he was taking pictures of what would be Hillary Clinton’s 2016 campaign march to the presidency. That belief and his political experience influenced how and where the Memphis attorney and former Tennessee attorney general framed what he shot.

Ten citizens have applied for one of the two latest vacancies on the Memphis City Council, and 16 have applied for the other.

The Memphis Branch of the NAACP says the Memphis City Council should have consistent rules for filling vacancies on the body and suggests a special election if the council remains at an impasse in filling the three open seats at its Tuesday meeting.

For the last 20 years, First Baptist Church on Broad has celebrated Thanksgiving with a dinner at the church that includes the homeless. A group of men from the church deliver hot Thanksgiving meals to around 1,000 more people that day as well.

A privately funded LED installation on Big River Crossing is seeking Memphians and tourists alike who are interested in dedicating an individual light to a person or group.

The Cannon Center for the Performing Arts is in line for up to $300,000 in emergency repairs of stage lighting and rigging and orchestra pit deficiencies that managers say put the facility at risk of turning away shows.

A naming rights deal will be sought for the new and improved Memphis Cook Convention Center. The convention center board on Thursday approved a consulting agreement that could lead to a commercial brand splashed across the updated center’s sleek-looking new exterior.

All three open positions on the Memphis City Council are in play starting Thursday at noon, the deadline for those interested in the District 6 seat and the Super District 8 Position 2 seat to file their applications with the council office.