Zippin Pippin: Is the venerable Memphis institution about to move to Green Bay, Wisconsin? More from Fox13, the Commercial Appeal, Eyewitness News.

Memphis Police Department: Hispanic business owners feel the MPD doesn’t take their problems seriously enough; more from Fox13, the Commercial Appeal, Eyewitness News and WREG. The MPD’s “CyberWatch” intiative is proving a big success.

Feed the Children: They are coming to Memphis to team up with New Bethel Temple for the largest food giveaway in the city’s history. Hundreds of volunteers are needed.

Overton Park: A 2008 botanical report has been released to the public showing the stunning array of plant life in the Old Forest, including hundreds of unique, native species.

Politics: Arkansas Senator Blanche Lincoln’s approval rating is now 27%.

Republican gubernatorial candidate Ron Ramsey wants to legalise campaign contributions from corporations? Did you know Bill Gibbons is a JoggleBugger?

In the Sixth District Congressional race, while Lou Ann Zelenick has raised more money, Jim Tracey has raised more from other people than himself. The Rothenberg Report looks at the Sixth and Eighth District races, and Arkansas’ First and Second Districts. The Commercial Appeal reports on campaign finance disclosures in West Tennessee.

Why Don McLeary wants to get back the State Senate seat he lost after switching parties.
The Tennessee Firearms Association reviews some of the 2009 gun rights bills being revived in the 2010 session.

Memphis Symphony Orchestra: Retiring director David Loebel will be going to the New England Conservatory in Boston.

Briarcrest Christian School: The success of the school, with the largest private enrollment in the County, is keeping expansion dreams alive in the down economy.

Tennessee: The Speaker of the House, Kent Williams, is proposing cutting unemployment benefits as a way to slow depletion of the Unemployment Fund. Thirteen years ago, legislators and district attorneys around the state pressed for tough anti-gang laws and they still haven’t used them! More on this in the Daily News.

DeSoto County: Olive Branch’s Neighborhood Watch program focuses on the basics. Officials are already planning for the economic and development impact of I-269.

Tea Party National Convention: Sarah Palin in the USATODAY on why she’s appearing. Fox News on the troubles preceding the event. NPR profiles early tea party mover and shaker Keli “Liberty Belle” Carender. From the Christian Science Monitor, crafting an electable platform.

Harold Ford Jr: Senator Kirsten Gillibrand now has a “tracker” following Ford’s appearances and he calls her “young lady”. Wonkette asks why Ford keeps “smearing” himself. Was Stephen Colbert’s treatment of Ford (see below) funny or unfair? New York’s Hispanic Federation is criticising Ford on his immigration record and a Huffington Post blogger calls him “sexist”.

Ford has started his own New York blog, run by Chris D. Jackson, also formerly of TN. Harold Ford Jr appeared Monday night on The Colbert Report. Reports on that from the Politico, New York Daily News.

Survey Says: Morgan Keegan was ranked number one for stock-picking. The number of new home contracts rose slightly in December.

NEW: Main Street Journal January 2010 Issue: Timely in light of Monday’s State budget presentation, senior writer Michael Roy Hollihan looks at the perfect storm of real crisis that could be forming in our State’s higher education funding.

The Regional Medical Center: Board members were not happy with the (unhappy) news from the new State budget. More on the bad news budget; and from WMC, WREG.

In other MED news, an upcoming Consumer Reports study finds the state’s highest level of a particular type of hospital-induced blood infection.

Mid-South Food Bank: More people than ever are being served.

Second Amendment: A proposed public gun range is upsetting the neighborhood.

State of the State Speech & Budget: Some reactions from around the state on the speech, via the Tennessean. On the same day of his speech, new payer rate cuts went into effect for TennCare. Legislators wonder how they’ll sell some fee and tax increases to their constituents; more from WMC.

Turrell, Arkansas: Still no operating budget for the town that exists only in limbo.

Vanderbilt University: A Muslim chaplain, Awadh A. Binhazim, who affirmed that if Islamic law made homosexuality illegal he had a duty to impose capital punishment, is now in hot water with the university. (Includes link to YouTube video of the chaplain’s statement.)

Business: UPS reported substantial 4Q profits. Breakaway Running is closing one Memphis-area store and opening another. Pottery Barn is closing its Wolfchase store.

People in Business, from the Daily News. And, from the Commercial Appeal, People in Business and What to Do.

Medtronic: The company spent almost $1 million in lobbying just for the fourth quarter.

FedEx: T. Michael Glennexecutive vice president, market development and corporate communications, spoke to the Traffic Club of Memphis about managing a quality brand.

Downtown: The number of restaurants is up over last year. The Center City Commission’s Design Review Board meets today. The new Courtyard by Marriot hotel is now open.

Memphis City Hall: Eighteen flags flying in the plaza, representing honored countries of Memphis in May, are in shameful tatters.

West Tennessee: The 2010 Tennessee Grain & Soybean Producers’ Conference will be held Thursday in Dyersburg. (via the Dyersburg State Gazette)Union City police are warning people to not let their Super Bowl parties spill out onto the roads. (via NWTN Today) State Route 436 will be almost completely closed for two years.

Bartlett: Changing the municipal court schedule from Monday afternoon to Monday morning is more difficult than you’d think.

Financial: The Bank of Fayette County gets its dream, at a slightly different location.

Mississippi: Personhood Mississippi is trying to buy some time in their ballot signature collection effort; further reports from the Commercial Appeal. The law to require prescriptions for some cold medicines is going to the governor for his signature; more from the Commercial Appeal. The Legislature is also proposing “abstinence plus” sex education. The state’s NAACP chapter is opposed to proposals to merge historically black colleges. Henry Ross is the second Republican candidate to enter the First US Congressional District race. The Outdoors Without Limits program gives developmentally and physically challenged kids an opportunity to experience the outdoors/hunting life. A look at the State’s “Safe Haven” law.

Memphis Shelby Inform: He’s blunt: Is The MED going to survive?

LeftWing Cracker: He’s says the County mayor’s race just got interesting.

I’ll be the one in heels: She finally finds a TV show about people who work like her.

Doug Johnson at Work: Some informed thoughts on CNN v. Fox News. And he has some more — guess what? — car troubles.

Confessions of a West Tennessee Liberal: Brad has a long post on homelessness in Memphis, spending priorities, alternatives to jailing the homeless and a lot of other ideas you should at least expose yourself to!

artbutcher: In his trademark blank verse, he objects to turning the Pyramid into an art museum.

Blue Collar Republican: Donn Janes, independent/tea party candidate for the Eighth District, takes exception to a University of Memphis textbook.

Brain Release Valve: This idea — a “dark place” on the FourSquare network — I hesitate to explain further for fear of confusing you. Go and read and be boggled.

Buck Daddy’s Blog: A new feature: Tell me a joke, rules for his daughter, and some other things.

Air Traffic Mike’s: “People are dying. Children are dying. How can I not go?”

a field guide to urban memphis: Can you help an Idealist?

Commercial Appeal: Thoughts on trying high value terrorism targets. Defending The MED’s value against the devaluation in Governor Bredesen’s budget.

Thomas G. McGowan: Lauding President Barack Obama for his skills at facilitating dialogue. (via the Commercial Appeal)