Beale Street: Judge on Wednesday grants Performa Entertainment 30 days to produce documents for court examination. Local attorney John Ryder has been named the receiver for the court; more on that in the Commercial Appeal.

City of Memphis: A Daily News report on the dropping of Linebarger, Goggan, Blair & Sampson as the City’s delinquent tax collections agency. Collections will not go the County Trustee’s office, as the now-deceased Trustee Bob Patterson often argued for, but to the City’s legal division. The City is also taking bids for ‘tracking bracelets’ for convicted criminals to wear, from the Memphis Police Department.

UPDATED: Tennessee Right to Life: Lt. Gov. Ron Ramsey is now pushing a bill, dormant two months, to give priority to public women’s health clinics over private ones such as Planned Parenthood. (via the Tennessean’s Tennessee Politics blog) TN Right to Life applauds the move; Ramsey’s press statement. More from Fox13, WMC, Eyewitness News.

Tennessee Right to Life responds to claim against Memphis Planned Parenthood. Tax-funded agency caught circumventing State laws on suspected sex abuse of minors, parental consent on abortion. More links and information at the NashvillePost’s PostPolitics site.

Main Street Journal: From our April 2009 issue, another article now online: Mick Wright gazes upon Obama’s Brave New World. Shelby County historian Ed Williams III writes on The Way Things Were: The Shelby County Courthouse and Keeping Lean: What can we learn from Collierville? by Senior Writer Michael Roy Hollihan. Also, publisher Jonathan Lindberg on Deja Vu: What the Governor’s race of 2010 and the Senate race of 2006 have in common. You can read the Table of Contents here.

ONLINE ONLY! Main Street Journal publisher Jonathan Lindberg explains The Politics of Herenton.

POLITICS: A State House committee passed the bill closing the handgun carry permit database, on a voice vote. More on this from Fox13, WMC. Bill to limit lottery winnings of those on public assistance fails in House committee. Another committee in the House killed the Voter ID bill; more on WMC. The House Judiciary Committee has advanced three proposals for the sunsetting Tennessee Plan for appointing judges.

The Flyer’s Jackson Baker reads the entrails to divine the logic and purpose of Mayor Willie Herenton’s (presumed) candidacy for Congress.

Earth Day Activities: The Mississippi River Corridor TN will have a harbor clean-up this Saturday, April 25, beginning at 9 AM. Volunteers are needed! Sign up here. More information at their website, too. Project Green Fork is hosting a fundraiser on Sunday at Tsunami.

ARKANSAS: Pulaski County Judge Willard Proctor, who started the Cycle Breakers program, faces a hearing on his closeness to it. The BATF is now calling Dr Randeep Mann a ‘person of interest’ in the bombing attack on Dr Trent Pierce. (More here.) Further stories, from WMC, WREG (with many related links).

Winchester Farmers Market: Spring is sprung but not all the farmers markets around town limit themselves to locally-grown food. This one is international!

Workers Wanted Wednesday: From Eyewitness News, local companies with open positions!

St Jude Children’s Research Hospital: They have been awarded a $2.2 million grant from the US Department of Health and Human Services for brain tumor research.

University of Memphis: A study by the Center for Research on Women shows 90% of middle and high schools students face some form of sexual harrassment; more from Eyewitness News and the CA. The Daily Helmsman offers an large series of reports on high-tech crime in Memphis, ‘Cutting edge crime‘. President Shirley Raines met with students yesterday and confirmed they plan a 5% rise in tuition next year.

Methodist LeBonheur Healthcare: They have assigned a full-time executive, David Baytos, to lobbying effort with the MS Legislature to get legislation to build a hospital in Olive Branch. More from the Commercial Appeal.

Memphis City Schools: Pre-K registration has been extended until April 30.

The MED: There will be a ceremony today at the University of Mississippi in Oxford to honor longtime supporter and booster S. Gale Denley.

Shelby County Commission: The Commission agrees to sell its interest in the Pyramid, but amendment asks $2 million more for Health Department funding in second year. More from WREG, the Daily News and the Commercial Appeal.

Partnership Lakeland: State Senator Mark Norris is the featured guest speaker (DOC document) for Partnership Lakeland when they have their annual meeting tonight. Norris is the current State Senator for that area. He will speak on civic involvement and public service.

Downtown: The Center City Commission’s board of directors approved a 2010 budget of $3.4 million, down only slightly from this year. AT&T will renovate and remodel its buildings on Court Avenue.

AutoZone: They have won a lawsuit brought on by the US Equal Employment Opportunity Commission in a discrimination case.

Theatre Memphis: The Amazing Raise. Our Theatre. Our Town. is their kickoff event for the 2009 - 10 subscription season. It begins this Saturday, April 25. Original PR release is here. (DOC document)

Regions Morgan Keegan: Shareholders of three former mutual funds are being asked to approve the liquidation of those funds.

DeSoto County: Southaven’s Springfest kicks off today, and even has a ‘green’ connection this year! The city of Horn Lake will ameliorate the destruction of some wetlands by buying credits for two other wetlands.

Good Morning Memphis: The Memphis Black Writer’s Convention and Southern Film Festival starts today and runs through the weekend. A benefit for the American Heart Association, Go Red For Memphis, is this Saturday. How the Memphis housing market is going green. What are the great deals in this down, failing economy?

BUSINESS: Sales at Thomas & Betts fell by a quarter and earnings by one-third. MGM Mirage is accepting bids on a handful of casino properties, including two in MS; more from Eyewitness News. After closing its doors in December, Chandler Ehrlich is now declaring Chapter 7 bankruptcy.

A professional profile of Linda Warren Seely, of Memphis Area Legal Services, from the Daily News. A CA business profile of Sparco, a software / hardware / IT company in Millington, which won the state’s first Clean Energy Technology grant.

BANKING: Fifth Third Bank’s Don Abel is named TN market president.

FedEx: Teamsters say they will continue unionising efforts at FedEx Ground in spite of the recent court ruling.

TENNESSEE: Governor Phil Bredesen demonstrated alternative, clean energy technology as part of Earth Day events. The governor also called for keeping the TN Ethics Commission.

Harrah’s Hope Lodge: People travelling to Memphis for cancer surgery and treatments will soon have somewhere to stay inexpensively, and catering to their needs, thanks to the Mid-South Division of the American Cancer Society. Groundbreaking was yesterday.

International Goat Days Festival: Everybody hollerin’ goat as the future of the Millington festival is uncertain, due to the death of backer W. S. ‘Babe’ Howard.

West Memphis: Citizens are unhappy with substandard work on local, high traffic overpass. And then it gets more interesting….

MISSISSIPPI: State’s unemployment rate rises to 9.4%; more on WMC. The joint Senate-House committee working to raise the cigarette tax will meet again next week; public health groups support a big raise. Officials are working to promote the next State sales tax holiday, July 31 - August 1.

DirecTV: A Memphis customer says she and her family were threatened by a customer service rep. The Better Business Bureau has given the company a ‘C-’ rating!

Walk Against Violence: A video report from WMC on the protest walk in Cooper-Young last night. More from Eyewitness News, Commercial Appeal.

Survey Says: According to RealtyTrac, Memphis ranks 43 in foreclosure rate! And the US Census Bureau says the rate at which Americans are moving this year is the lowest since 1948.

The Gates of Memphis: Two great events and one contest. But hurry! There’s only a couple of days left.

The Shelf Life: The centennial of Eudora Welty’s birth.

Haaaaave You Read My Blog? Thoughts on American Idol and Lost.

On the Beach: The pressures of cold-calling for a job; and, thoughts on reassignment versus firing.

Because I Said So: Introducing kids to live, local, grown-up Memphis music safely and supervised with Rock-n-Romp. (via the Commercial Appeal)

The Flypaper Theory: Some surprisingly good and commonsense ideas to remake the Commercial Appeal.

The Chubby Vegetarian: He’s had to change the time on this Sunday’s cooking class at Whole Foods.

String of Theories: Rick Warren vs. Sam Harris.

Squeaky Wheel Seeks Grease: Getting ready to go to Boomershoot.

Running With Dice: The third annual Zombie Massacre, when the undead walk the Earth, is Friday. More information here.

Reginald Milton: Skepticism about ‘Congressman Herenton’.

Paul Ryburn’s Journal: Sign a lease in his building and get one month’s free rent!

Love is a Movement: Ribbon cutting time at the Uptown Community Garden.

Mick Wright: It ain’t easy goin’ green.

Notes From Memphis: The South Main Trolley Tour, renovations at the Cossitt Library, Earth Day events and more.

One Half Amazing! Advertisers are directing customers to Facebook rather than websites. Is this a good idea?

a field guide to urban memphis: Memphis’ own Keystone cops.

Brain Release Valve: We have the technology and we have the will.

Buck’s Blog: Free toilet paper and paper towels!

Complacencies of the Peignoir: Tales from the damaged economy.

Commercial Appeal: Opposition to a raft of water bills in the Legislature. A reminder of the origins of the TN Ethics Commission as legislators consider killing it. The paper finally admits to a pattern of problems at the Memphis City Schools administration and asks for … attention to detail.

Left Wing Cracker: It’s all a trick on Herenton’s part. Support the ‘gender expression’ hate crimes bill.

Life as I know it from Memphis: Crazy new chips.

Wendi C. Thomas: She calls Herenton’s announcement a ‘childish stunt’ meant as a diversion. (via the Commercial Appeal)