Our man Jeramia is breaking his web mold and is currently blogging live from inside the courtroom at the Edmund Ford trial. Jury selection is underway now, but you can bet the man with the leather fedora will make this trial wrought with priceless sound bites and political fodder as soon as things really get cookin’.

Check it out:

I find the MPD’s new Real Time Crime Map both cool and frightening. I’m not sure if there are surprisingly few crimes or a surprisingly large number of crimes.

Click here to see the unsettling results for yourself and here to see all the other whiz-bang features.

It’s always foolish to pretend you know the mind of Mayor Willie Herenton, but didn’t his speech feel like it was designed to position him as the only savior for our city schools?

Doesn’t it seem entirely possible that this speech was designed to encourage popular support for his return to MCS? He spent a lot of time contrasting the schools during his tenure with the schools now. Now, he said, it’s going to take a man to fix the schools, it’s going to be hard work, it’s going to take vision and a real leader.

After all, that’s why the Atlanta district wanted him years ago. Because they saw that he had vision and had the toughness and political savvy to get things done.

He said numerous times that he wasn’t interested in the superintendent’s job. In fact, he said once that he was never interested in the job. But, it sure felt like a pitch for the job to me.

And doesn’t it seem Orwellian to say “I’ve always said that I’m not a candidate for the superintendentship” when just months ago he was telling everyone that he was interested in the superintendentship.

Very strange.

From the UK Times Online:

More than 2,000 Britons will flock to Memphis for the Beale Street Music Festival this week as record numbers of UK residents make a pilgrimage to the city, dubbed the ‘Liverpool of America’. . .Britain is expected to dispatch a record 100,000 pilgrims to the city this year, more than any other nationality after America, with Elvis Week in August likely to prove a big draw.

Andrew Sullivan and Ross Douthat are questioning one of the new ads in the never-ending race for Mississippi’s 1st congressional district.

They both have the ad on their blogs.

Marine scientists in New Zealand on Tuesday were thawing the corpse of the largest squid ever caught to try to unlock the secrets of one of the ocean’s most mysterious beasts.

No one has ever seen a living, grown colossal squid in its natural deep ocean habitat, and scientists hope their examination of the 1,089-pound, 26-foot long colossal squid, set to begin Wednesday, will help determine how the creatures live. The thawing and examination are being broadcast live on the Internet.

Check out our SQUIDCAM - pretty weird stuff. Suddenly craving calimari…

It’s been quiet on the OnMemphis front, I think we all have spring fever & are too easily distracted by the sunshine. Sorry about that… but I’m sure you can relate.

On the Tiger front, looks like Rose & CDR are following their destinies… I hope the NBA Draft treats them well. And Antonio Anderson, one of the greatest unsung Tigers on the team, will be “testing the NBA waters” as well… I’d hate to not see him next season, so I’m hoping the experience improves his game so he can come back for an exciting 2008/2009 season! Go Tigers!

On a totally different note, I really had to choke back the bile on this story: The City of Memphis may cut funding to Memphis City Schools to avoid raising property taxes. I know the city is not obligated to fund the schools, but the idea of forcing our already struggling school system to “cut the fat” out of their budget doesn’t set well with me. Let’s define “fat,” shall we? FAT= extra-curricular programs? additional security? support for teachers? arts & music? teacher wages? books? computers? building upgrades? the schools themselves? I mean really - why don’t we just have 9-month TCAP workshops & set our kids loose with the valuable skill of filling in bubble sheets. I don’t know about you, but I’m VERY curious to see how the school system defines “fat” if the city’s funding cut is passed.

Other notes: Stouffer the cat (very disturbing), Happy Birthday! I’m getting a hooker, more Mississippi mud (slinging, that is).

Oh, and by the way, Left Wing Cracker has a great idea.

This picture ruined my night Monday. Really brought it home, ya’ know?

But then this picture made my day on Tuesday.

Yeah, the Tigers lost, but no matter what -  they’re the winningest team in NCAA history and they gave us a great year. They gave us something we’ll be talking about for the rest of our lives. And wasn’t it fun?

But more importantly, I think the team finally escaped its undeserved thug image. A FOX photographer, who followed the team during the entire tournament, said that by the end of it all they had impressed all the national journalists with their good nature. I think their stories started to reflect that too.

CDR had the best line of the whole tournament. During a press conference, he brought up the team’s image and their tattoos, etc. Finally, he said (and I’m paraphrasing here) : I’m sure some player at Stanford has a tattoo also.

Go Tigers Go!