City School Funding: The City Council is considering hiring a CPA to help sort out the complex budget demands a full payment settlement with MCS might require. Some Council members are meeting with County mayor Joe Ford to work out a swap involving The MED and MCS funding and so have delayed a vote on funding The MED; Ford spoke to the City Council. The City may have to cut 500 jobs to balance the budget. The special committee on school funding is being revived now.

City of Memphis: Still more on the State/Federal lawsuit against the City over “seeking damages under the federal Clean Water Act and the state Water Quality Control Act,” over wastewater treatment and discharge.

Ninth Congressional District: Is it really intended as a “black” district? Mayor A C Wharton criticises Willie Herenton’s racialist campaign.

Zippin Pippin: The Flyer looks at the role of County Commissioner Steve Mulroy in the sale of the bit of Memphis history. More from Eyewitness News.

Memphis Police Department: A police officer, who was acting as a school resource officer for Memphis City Schools, has been accused of raping a student at Fairley High. More from Eyewitness News, WMC.

Rebuild Government: Tom Guleff, candidate for Shelby County mayor, is asking Rebuild Government executive director Brian Stephens to step down from his position on the Shelby County Election Commission while he’s involved with the “new government for Shelby County” group. Guleff also heads a “no consolidation” group (Facebook page) and website. Rebuild Government website here.

Blogging: Via Taxing Tennessee, Five ways blogger can use OpenCongress.org to investigate and report on Congress, bills, spending, etc.

Politics: State Representative Curry Todd introduced legislation that requires restaurants serving alcohol to report their monthly food sales; it could shut down some Beale Street restaurants. Senator Bill Ketron introduced a bill to make voting overseas easier for troops on deployment. The House has delayed until April 1 any action on the red light traffic camera bill. A bill is working in the House to add motorcycles to the State’s “lemon laws”.

Eighth Congressional District Republican candidate Dr Ron Kirkland claims to have raised over $360,000 in a single month. In the Third District, the Club for Growth is endorsing Republican (and former TN Republican Party chair) Robin Smith.

Tea party convention organiser Judson Phillips talks about the things that didn’t happen last weekend. New Rasmussen polling data on the tea party movement.

“Fair tax” advocates Tennesseans for Fair Taxation have announced a slate of bills that will tax middle and upper income people more heavily. The chairman of the TN Democratic Party, Chip Forrester, criticises a bill that has about a dozen Dem co-sponsors.

Encomia from Rep. Steve Cohen and Harold Ford Jr on the death of Rep. John Murtha.

Interim County Commissioner John Pelliciotti will run for a different seat on the commission.

Memphis City Schools: Fox13 looks at the chaning way teachers will be graded soon. Following violence and brawling at recent school games, MCS made a recent Craigmont/Raleigh-Egypt game “closed”.

Harold Ford Jr: Take a look inside Ford’s old New York apartment, as he tries to sell it. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand is circulating a video of Ford talking about Wall Street bonuses. The New York Daily News finds the old campus columns Ford wrote as an undergrad at UPenn.

Germantown: The City unveiled a newly redesigned website recently. More information on the proposed storm water management plan. (stories via the Germantown News) The library and city hall will be closed for President’s Day, Monday.

DeSoto County: Snow days could mean one day less of Spring Break or a Saturday school day later this year; more in the Commercial Appeal. A public hearing has been set for next month for the Certificate of Need by Methodist Healthcare for a new hospital in Olive Branch. Organisers continue to gather signatures for an incorporation petition for a Town of Lewisburg.The Church Road corridor in Southaven is slowly developing into a business/commercial area.

Shelby County School Board: Member Teresa Price will not seek re-election.

NEW: Main Street Journal January 2010 Issue: Editor and publisher Jonathan Lindberg looks at the game-changing nature of Sheriff Mark Luttrell’s mayoral run.

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.

Overton Square: The whole controversy has died quietly as the developer and grocer have dropped the project.

Hospital Tax: More on the proposed hospital revenue tax to help out TennCare. More in the Nashville Tennessean.

Memphis Animal Shelter: Former director Ernest Alexander has waived extradition from Albuquerque, New Mexico.

Phtosa Dennis: The Shelby County jail employee is now suspected in another robbery. And an incident at a Tunica casino may also be involved. More from Fox13, Eyewitness News, WMC.

Memphis City Schools: More on the snow days that will have to be made up later this schools year; WMC. Next year, MCS will finally take over Chimneyrock Elementary school and take in students from Dexter Elemenatry.

National Black Farmers Association: The settlement of a discrimination case has been prolonged and convolute and farmers just want their settlement money, which is long overdue.

Shelby County Jail: A deputy jailer, Phtosa Dennis, has been charged with bank robbery. More from WMC, WREG.

Arkansas: Cold air is compounding the ice and snow problems the state is already under. The State House passed a bill to keep constitutional and elected officers’ pay flat next fiscal year.

Business: Bad weather is good business for local auto body repair shops the Commercial Appeal reaches the same thought. Con-way Freight has reorganised its sales regions, creating one around Memphis. LaQuinta Inns & Suites has named Hatchett Hospitality as an approved vendor for a wide variety of services. NexTek, an information technology company, is expanding into Nashville.

From the Daily News, People in business. From the Commercial Appeal, What to Do and People in Business.

Colgan Air: They were the focus of a PBS Frontline program on regional passenger airline safety that aired last night.

Eye Specialty Group: Doing the right thing — turning in a partner engaging in Medicaid fraud — has cost the practice hundreds of thousands of dollars and more besides. And the guilty doctor, Dr Seth Yoser, continues to practice.

Delta Air Lines: The deal that was being courted with Japan Airlines has fallen through as they decide to stay with American.

Tennessee: Budget cuts could have significant effects on the State’s woodlands, including wildfires and invasive insects, without foresters to fight them. Governor Phil Bredesen demands alternatives to funding, rather than “I don’t like this.” While most Counties’ finances are available online, not so for Shelby and other large counties! Today is the deadline for applying for the vacancy on the Judicial Nominating Commission. The Summer Food Service Program needs volunteers. Tennessee may be two years coming out of the recession.

Commercial Appeal: Beginning in May, Valassis will be adding their RedPlum direct mail package to the ad inserts in the daily.

Millington: The City is one Board reading away from approving red light traffic cameras. (via the Millington Star)

Wolf River Greenway: The groundbreaking ceremony for the first section is today.

Mississippi: Students at Ole Miss will vote later this month on whether or not to replace the school’s mascot. Lawmakers are considering a later start to the school year. A bill to liberalise the spread of charter schools passes the State Senate, but may die in the House. The state’s rural roads may be dangerous to travel and in need of repair for a while to come. The Senate approved legislation to allow two kinds of charter schools. The Barksdale Reading Institute will search for, recruit and pay for principals in four under-performing districts. State budget cuts are releasing teen criminals from incarceration early; more from WREG.

Survey Says: In the latest SurveyMemphis, employment and residential housing were the most important concerns. January’s NFIB Index of Small Business Optimism stalled after last year’s hopeful signs. Wholesale inventories were cut by almost a percent in December.

Not High Maintenance, Just High Mileage: Half-marathons, snow balls and Osmosis skin treatment.

Steve’s Nude Memphis Blog: He rather irreverently answers some questions. (Mild MSFW warning.)

Student: Revisited: Apparently, the waiting is driving her a little mad.

The Tale of a Southern Belle: Some gift ideas for your guy on Valentine’s Day.

What is a Carbunkle Trumpet? Three years tobacco free!

Vegan Crunk: A vegetarian Mexican guacamole layer dip.

Throughly Modern Medusa: Elmwood Cemetery in the snow. Cold, haunting and dramatic.

theology & geometry: Sometimes vacations just turn out that way.

The Conservative Zone: He’s been busy, busy, busy.

Commercial Appeal: How will Green Bay be able to make the Zippin Pippin a profitable venture in their amusement park? As the ranks of the hungry grow, the Mid-South Food Bank needs your help.

Bryce Ashby and Michael J. LaRosa: America has a moral imperative to provide health care to anyone inside our borders. (via the Commercial Appeal)

Jen-sized: She posts audio files of the songs she sings to her cats.

I Love Memphis: She has lunch at the India Palace on Poplar.

Downtown Memphis Blog: Some lovely, colorful photos of icy Downtown Monday night.

Born-Again Hippies: A long and overheated post on the tea party convention and Sarah Palin.

AlphaPatriot: Your (political) joke of the day.