Memphis, Super Bowl LVII, and the Year's Best Food

Memphis Police Unit Disbanded

Memphis, Tennessee, police announced Saturday they would shut down the special unit responsible for Tyre Nichols' death, one day after footage of his severe beating was released to the public. The footage sparked protests in at least a dozen cities.

Nichols, 29, was fatally beaten during a Jan. 7 traffic stop by five former officers now charged with murder (see previous write-up). The officers were part of the so-called Scorpion unit, a 40-member special task force created in 2021 to patrol high-crime areas. 

Protester groups temporarily blocked highways in Memphis and several other cities Saturday, while 1,000 Georgia National Guards were activated in Atlanta. Reports say demonstrations have remained peaceful amid heavy police presence. 

Nichols, a FedEx worker and father of a 4-year-old, was reportedly on his way home from taking photos of the sunset. Learn more about his life here. 

Superbowl LVII Set

The Philadelphia Eagles will face off against the Kansas City Chiefs in Super Bowl LVII after both teams won their respective conference championship games yesterday. 

The Eagles beat the San Francisco 49ers by a score of 31-7, making their first appearance in the title game since the 2017 season. Led by QB Jalen Hurts, Philadelphia entered the playoffs with a league-best 14-3 record, and have won both games in the postseason by at least a 20-point margin. 

Kansas City topped the Cincinnati Bengals, 23-20, on a game-winning field goal (watch here), helped by a personal foul by Bengals defensive end Joseph Ossai with eight seconds left. Chiefs QB Patrick Mahomes, playing on an injured ankle, threw for 326 yards and two touchdowns. The Chiefs return to the Super Bowl for the third time in four years. 

Glendale, Arizona, will host the championship, with singer Rihanna headlining the halftime show in her first live performance in five years. 

Australia's Lost Capsule

Officials in Western Australia scrambled over the weekend to locate a tiny radioactive capsule believed to have been dislodged from a piece of mining equipment as it was being transported for repair. The effort is expected to be exceedingly challenging; the capsule, while posing a significant radiation hazard, is less than a quarter inch in size and was lost along an 870-mile stretch of desert highway.

The tiny source contains cesium-137, and was part of a radiation gauge used to measure radioactivity in oil and gas processing plants. The device had been packed sometime in mid-January, with the absence of the capsule noticed Wednesday. Officials expressed concern someone would pick it up without realizing its purpose—the exposure risk when standing about 3 feet from the capsule is roughly equal to receiving at least 10 X-rays per hour. 

The mining company, Rio Tinto, apologized for the panic.

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