Editor: The Commercial Appeal is committed to doing impact journalism

When you read The Commercial Appeal, you'll often get a menu of offerings, from government and education beat coverage to stories on the Memphis Tigers, Grizzlies or preps sports. And, of course, you'll get stories on Memphis' vibrant food and entertainment scenes.

But you'll also get journalism that reveals something you likely did not know and that others may not want you to know. These so-called impact stories, also known as watchdog and accountablility journalism, are what define a news organization. We also strive to provide explanatory stories that help put issues in context and explain why something is important.

Those stories are among the most important things we do at The Commercial Appeal. And my CA colleagues do them well. We strive to make our community better through our impact journalism.

Throughout the USA Today Network at our sister newspapers, such impact journalism is vital to improving the communities where we live and work.

What follows are excerpts of seven stories from 2022 that underline this newspaper's commitment to making a difference in Memphis, told by journalists at The Commercial Appeal:

Pastor, restaurateur Greg Diaz posted job ads implying he'd bring Mexican cooks to U.S. illegally

Rev. Greg Diaz is one of the best-known Hispanic religious and business leaders in Memphis. He's pastored the Nueva Direccion church in southeast Memphis for years, operated a center for children of immigrants and runs the new high-end Mexican restaurant Uncle Goyo’s in Germantown and the popular TACOnganas taco trucks, Daniel Connolly reported in this story for subscribers.

But in job advertisements posted on Facebook in 2021 and 2022, Diaz asked taco cooks living in Mexico to come work for him in Memphis six days a week, 12 hours a day, and he strongly implied he was willing to bring them to the United States illegally.

At least three of the advertisements included the phrase, “El viaje no es con visa pero 100% seguro,” which means “The trip is not with a visa but 100% safe.”

Joris Ray left MSCS. His sister remains a high-ranking director

Her promotion announcement was noticeable because it lacked the word “interim.” The new department leader had a professional district headshot. Although she was on payroll, the interim director had not been working in the department for several months.

She was also the superintendent’s sister.

In the three years Joris Ray was the superintendent of Memphis-Shelby County Schools, his sister, Carol Richardson, was hired into the district, promoted to a permanent director level position days after accepting an interim role, and provided a salary 49% higher than her predecessor, Laura Testino reported.

More:Joris Ray left MSCS. His sister remains a high-ranking director

Three people with knowledge of the situation interviewed by The Commercial Appeal describe an employee who took an atypical path to her role overseeing the English as a Second Language department last year. Her leadership impacted the culture of the ESL department, they said, which had previously been known for low turnover and a director’s open door.

'Dedicated and loyal:' MSCS' Joris Ray once supervised, evaluated woman who is subject of alleged affair

Memphis-Shelby County Schools Superintendent Joris Ray is alleged to have had an affair with a woman he once directly supervised and for whom he wrote favorable performance evaluations, new documents show, Laura Testino reported in this story for subscribers. 

The woman, who is named in divorce records for Ray, worked for several years as a secretary in a department Ray oversaw.

Additional records show Ray wrote favorable evaluations for the woman. After her first year on the job, in 2005, a signature matching Ray's appears on a document calling her a "dedicated and loyal employee" who he would never hesitate to recommend for future employment.

'Some people are going to lose their property': Plans for Klondike neighborhood spark worry

The view south from Friendship Baptist Church at the corner of Vollintine Avenue and Randle Street shows the change on the horizon. The lit-up tower of Crosstown Concourse, which Klondike residents still call the Sears building, looms just one mile to the south.

Coming change brought 50-plus residents to the church on a recent Thursday night. How that change is going to affect them lingered in their minds.

The residents came to hear about the plan for a tax-increment-financing district in Klondike. The TIF district is part of the plans from the Klondike Partnership — a group of nonprofit development partners that includes The Works, Neighborhood Preservation Inc. and Urban Renaissance Partners, Katherine Burgess and Samuel Hardiman reported.

More:Klondike TIF district moves forward despite fears of resident displacement

Together, the partnership, by its own accounting, has — through a maze of different general partnerships and other means — purchased more than 400 properties in Klondike and invested more than $13 million. The Works plans to start work on redeveloping Northside High School — a $76 million project by itself.

This is why a Memphis city councilman worked to save a gas station the neigborhood didn't want

Last winter, JB Smiley Jr. worked hard to save flagging plans for a gas station in Memphis' Binghampton neighborhood, Samuel Hardiman reported in this story for subscribers.

He first voted for it, and then, when it was defeated, sought to revive the project, getting his colleagues on the Memphis City Council to reconsider before it failed again on Jan. 18. In the time between Smiley saving the project in December 2021 and its eventual defeat in January 2022, the developer purchased the land.

The developer, Ran Management, LLC, a Collierville-based gas station development company, through a political action committee, had donated $3,000 to Smiley more than a year earlier. And the company hired attorney Julian Bolton, one of Smiley's political mentors and the treasurer for his gubernatorial and council campaign accounts, to lobby the Memphis City Council.

Why does Memphis' infrastructure keep failing? Mother Nature and disinvestment

For the third time in three winters, Memphis' infrastructure has failed, Samuel Hardiman reported in this recent story.

In 2021, a deep prolonged cold resulted in a seven-day boil advisory. Twelve months later, in February, an ice storm hit MLGW's vulnerable distribution network in a tree-laden city. Tens of thousands were without power for days.

Then, last week, just about 10 months after the ice storm, in the days before the Christmas holiday, the city endured rolling blackouts and a six-day-long boil advisory. The results are unmistakable — when temperatures fall, Memphis infrastructure fails, and the disinvestment has seen over decades rears its head.

More:Why does Memphis' infrastructure keep failing? Mother Nature and disinvestment

A beloved zookeeper among people killed as Memphis' pedestrian crisis continues

Richard Meek worked for decades as an adored zookeeper frequently found in the giraffe exhibit, or entertaining crowds of visitors with his keen knowledge of bizarre animal trivia tidbits.

Julie Maxwell had recently celebrated 35 years as a nursing assistant at Le Bonheur Children's Research Hospital, working in rooms with sick children and anxious caretakers.

More:A beloved zookeeper among people killed as Memphis' pedestrian crisis continues

Both died within 48 hours of each other from injuries sustained after a driver hit them as they walked and kept on driving.

Memphis has earned the distinction as the third deadliest city in the U.S. for pedestrians. That rating was granted by Smart City Growth after researchers compiled fatal and non-fatal data from 2016 until 2020, Micaela Watts reported.

This is just a sampling of the impact journalism we did in 2022. We will keep doing such stories this year in service of our mission to make Memphis better.

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Mark Russell is executive editor of The Commercial Appeal. You can reach him at 901/288-4509 or mark.russell@commercialappeal.com. You can also follow him on Twitter: @MarkRussell44

This article originally appeared on Memphis Commercial Appeal: impact journalism commitment The Commercial Appeal