A nineteen-year-old brain tumor patient was returning home on June 30, after her last treatment at St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, when a bloody encounter at Memphis International Airport turned celebration into disaster. After setting off the metal detector, the disabled young woman was confused by the demands…

A Tennessee woman in the middle of having a home security system installed because she was afraid of a violent, abusive ex-boyfriend subsequently confirmed her own reasoning by discovering him under her bed. After seeing Tony Joe Gunter lying in wait, the woman shot him in the foot while shouting at the security…

Republican state congresswoman Susan Lynn recently introduced a bill in Tennessee’s House of Representatives that would force public school students, kindergarten through 12th grade, to use the bathroom corresponding with the sex assigned to them at birth. Although she has not shifted her perspective on this issue,…

Bodies that received graveside services at Galilee Memorial Gardens near Memphis, Tennessee have been missing for years. And now the relatives of the deceased are suing its former owner.

Welcome to Big Time Small-Time Dicks, a regular column on The Slot that explores local politicians, small-town scandals, and everything else making life miserable on a local level. Know a small time person who is a big time dick we should feature? Email us.

Tennessee’s House Majority Whip Jeremy Durham has resigned from his leadership position after The Tennessean reported that he had sent inappropriate text messages to several female employees.

Anna Yocca, the 31-year-old Tennessee woman charged with attempted murder for attempting to terminate her pregnancy with a coat hanger, has pleaded not guilty. Yocca is being held on a $200,000 bond and was recently appointed a public defender.

A little under two years ago, Tennessee passed Senate Bill 1391, making it a crime to have taken narcotic drugs while pregnant, if the infant is born addicted to narcotics or “harmed by” them. While 28 women have been charged under the law, and one sentenced to jail time, there’s no evidence it’s worked to reduce the…

Some county jails in Tennessee are now providing long-acting, reversible birth control to inmates who request it. Although the program is, as far as we know, entirely voluntary, it’s being framed as a controversial choice by a local news station, which insinuates that it’s a waste of taxpayer money.

Sarah Ray was on the way to celebrate her nuptials when duty called. The off-duty paramedic had just said “I do” when she received a call that turned her wedding day from joy to a tragedy—her father and grandparents had been in a car crash on their way to the reception.

A Tennessee woman is claiming that The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks, a biography of a black woman whose cervical cancer cells were taken without her consent and used for medical research (a book available in nearly every airport), is “pornographic.” Jackie Sims says her 15-year-old son shouldn’t have been assigned…

One person has died after several shots were fired at the Carmine Hickory 8 movie theater just outside Nashville, Tennessee Wednesday afternoon, according to reports. Another victim may have sustained hatchet wounds.

Encouraging folks not to drink and drive is a good idea with many ways of implementation. You could make it harder to drink, you could make it harder to drive, you could make it easier to get home. Or, you could simply remind young men of the danger that they might fuck a girl who isn’t really that hot. That’s what…

In January of this year, Cory Batey and Brandon Vandenburg, both football players at Vanderbilt University, were convicted of raping a fellow student in 2013. Now, as the sentencing phase begins, Vandenburg’s attorney is moving for a mistrial, arguing that the jury foreman failed to disclose that he was a victim of…

The Park Ranger parks his truck and steps over to my tent as gingerly as he could in his heavy boots. “Hello? Hey.” I poke my head out and look up to see him sporting the beige uniform of woodsy authority. The light behind him, dappled through the trees, is fading from gold to dark blue.

So many things happened in 2009. President Obama was inaugurated. Bea Arthur and Michael Jackson both died. Swine flu was a global pandemic. It was also the year a pork roast that was recently served to high school students had made its first appearance. The vintage meat had been frozen for six years before it was…

So far, our (hungover, sleep deprived) heroes are, in relative terms, coasting: none of the usual van trouble, broken cell phones, or robberies of tours past. This is not to say that all is right with the stars. Let’s watch as they cross an invisible border to a magical land where people still smoke cigarettes…

Sure, every place is fucked up in some regard. Every place has a story of awfulness in its past or present. But some places are notoriously backwards, and if you’re from one of them, you might carry the irreconcilable tension of loving and loathing it for life. Even when you move away. Especially when you move away.