While television reporters delight in doing stand-ups while wading through water, the truth is, only a tiny percentage of the city of Memphis has been affected by flooding. But with images of the swollen Mississippi River driving tourists away from Beale Street, the city’s famed party strip is dry and far too sober
Tag Archives: mississippi
Memphis: Tourists Flock to See River’s Rising Waters
“Welcome to Memphis,” boomed Ben Outlaw, the airport Hertz rental car bus driver, over the speaker system, “home of barbeque, the Civil Rights Museum, riverboats, Graceland and the 100-year flood. You can’t beat that!” Indeed, regional tourists flocked to Memphis on Monday as the Mississippi River began to crest at 48 ft
In Mississippi: After the Killer Tornado, An Abiding Faith
The post office is gone.
At Least 15 Dead as Storms Pound South
A wave of thunderstorms with winds blowing near hurricane force strafed the South on Wednesday, killing at least 15 people from Arkansas to Alabama, including a father struck by a tree while protecting his daughter at a Mississippi campsite.
On Civil War Anniversary, Confederate Group Stirs Debate
In 1867, former Confederate General Nathan Bedford Forrest became the first Grand Wizard of a newly formed organization called the Ku Klux Klan. Forrest had been a slave trader before the Civil War; he was also the commanding officer during a battle known as the “Fort Pillow massacre” in Tennessee at which some 300 black Union troops were killed in 1864.
Engineers: Bay Bridge woes show need for critical action
Joe Marshall was cruising across the San Francisco-Oakland Bay Bridge when a piece of steel and a giant cable crashed down. He’s worried about what he calls “fracture-critical” bridges: roughly 460 bridges across the country that are in dire need of repairs.
Biden shares stage with heavy hitters
In Washington, power is measured by access to the president, and as Barack Obama’s team fills up with heavyweights, some are wondering if Vice President-elect Joe Biden is running out of room. Bush: Good evening
High praise for football player who disarmed girl with gun on bus
A Mississippi high school quarterback is being hailed as a hero for saving a school bus full of elementary and high school students from a gun-wielding girl.
Dozen bombings in Iraq kill at least 6, wound 85
Bombings rocked Iraq on Thursday, killing at least six people and wounding at least another 85, an Iraqi official told CNN.
Getting Real About the High Price of Cheap Food
Correction Appended: Aug. 20, 2009 Somewhere in Iowa, a pig is being raised in a confined pen, packed in so tightly with other swine that their curly tails have been chopped off so they won’t bite one another. To prevent him from getting sick in such close quarters, he is dosed with antibiotics.