The labyrinthine legal maze employers must negotiate just to complete the hiring process often goes unnoticed.

But mistakes — large and small — result in conspicuous consequences.

Such consequences may not end in large-scale worksite raids that generate national media coverage, but they can result in a series of smaller fines that can be crippling to a midsize business.

It’s after such mistakes are found — normally through an audit — when the expertise of Greg Siskind with Siskind Sutter Law Firm, Memphis’ largest immigration law firm, would come in.

It’s an expertise that has just become more accessible to employers and their human resource departments with the release of Siskind’s new book, “The Employer’s Immigration Compliance Desk Reference.” … (read more)

It is such an auspicious week, with Memphis on the verge of change, that I decided I should sit down and talk it over with my kids. I wanted to ensure they grasped the auspiciousness, so, to be certain, I looked up what “auspicious” means before sitting them down at the family table.

These kids usually have trouble grasping bedtime, yet I had faith that the transforming days ahead would register with them.

“I have something important, something of a civic nature I’d like to discuss with you today,” I said.

At this point, my three older children stood and left the room, leaving me with 3-year-old Genevieve at the far end of the table.

“It’s just us then,” I said.

She folded her newspaper down, obviously upset that I’d taken her away from Geoff Calkins and Wendi Thomas, the only two columns she reads.

“Pardon?” she said.

I told her that there are things going on in this city that she, even at her age, should pay attention to. There are characters on the civic stage this week who deserve attention and have the ability to thrust Memphis into a national spotlight.

The ensuing dialogue went something like this: … (read more)

At Calvary Church Downtown Friday morning there was no shop talk, only good-natured banter over eggs, pancakes, sausage and coffee.

For the 10th year, Baker, Donelson, Bearman, Caldwell & Berkowitz has sponsored the Barrister’s Pancake Breakfast benefiting the Memphis branch of the Mid-South affiliate of the Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation.

“If you look around, there are judges, attorneys, the city mayor is here today, members of staff including sheriff’s deputies and representatives from the clerks association,” said Leo Bearman, shareholder of the Memphis-based law firm. “It’s really a bar association fundraiser and my law firm is happy to be the motivator.” … (read more)

As concepts go, this one has barely left the station, yet it seems to already be heading down the right track.

The Memphis Society of Model Railroaders — a 75-member, 50-year-old organization of train enthusiasts and hobbyists — has signed a letter of intent with Central Station and the Memphis Area Transit Authority to develop the Memphis Railroad & Trolley Museum inside the Downtown train station.

“In Memphis, the railroads were vitally important,” said Hugh Teaford, the model railroad society’s president. “The river took goods up and down the country, but trains brought it all inland. There are five trains that come in here now.” … (read more)

When Nick Hornby first hit big with his novel High Fidelity, it was an instant classic among young men whose affinity for pop culture and music trivia are worn on the sleeves of their black CBGB t-shirts.

With Juliet, Naked (Riverhead Books, $26), his fifth novel, it becomes apparent that his target audience is a group of men in their mid-to-late 30s who were once young men who wore their affinity for pop culture and music trivia on the sleeves of their black CBGB t-shirts. They are now, in their age of reason, able to see the folly in a life where an entire evening’s conversation might center around the importance of the track order of Nirvana’s seminal grunge album, Nevermind. The view taken of their own past selves, however, is not theirs alone, but is filtered through the eyes of their wives, girlfriends, children and ex-girlfriends.

Perhaps Hornby has aged with his audience. Perhaps he has grown just as those of us who devoured High Fidelity and laughed at (with) anyone who might plan a mix tape around a day of the week or an acquaintance’s death. Or those of us who might be obsessive over a particular artist. Say, Elvis Costello, for instance. Listening to that man’s work day in and day out until his wife pleads to “please, for the love of all that is holy, can we listen to anything else? Anything. Put on Chaka Khan for all I care.” … (read more)

The Mighty Electric St. Jude Band, a nine-piece group made up of St. Jude employees and spouses, leaves today for the ninth annual Fortune Battle of the Corporate Bands at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and Museum in Cleveland.

The event is sponsored by the National Organization of Music Merchants, Gibson Guitars, the museum and Fortune magazine.

The competition contestants were whittled from 34 bands to only eight.

“We’re excited to be included in the event,” said Brent Royer, director of creative media services for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital by day, percussionist and vocalist by night. “We got to see some of the bands at the regional qualifier in Nashville, and there were some really, really talented groups.” … (read more)

One of the first really confusing things about children for me, other than how you make a diaper stay on and how to bathe a kid in the kitchen sink and then prepare food to eat later in and around that sink, was what to do with all of the “artwork” brought home from school.

If we’re frank, it’s not very good, is it? Be honest, parents. We tell our kids how talented they are and how the drawing of a house looks “just like our house” but, in reality, the windows are all out of proportion to the structure, and you would never, ever paint your house that shade of purple.

Yet, we feel compelled to keep this … art. First, on the refrigerator with the decorative magnet they made in kindergarten which, honestly, isn’t very attractive either. Later the artwork ends up stacked at the far end of your kitchen counter. There, just above the junk drawer, shuffled in with bills, coupons and an unfinished crossword. But then what? It can’t stay there forever … (read more)

D’Army Bailey grew up enveloped in family and in the shadow of LeMoyne College, at the time a black college working primarily to train teachers.

The LeMoyne Gardens housing project bordered one side of his world and his entrepreneurial and independent grandfather the other. This was the alchemy that helped to create the D’Army Bailey of today — lawyer, judge, activist, father, husband and author.

He learned of racial strife early, listening to people talk at the neighborhood sundry and reading black publications of the day, such as the Chicago Defender, the Atlanta Daily World and the Pittsburgh Courier.

“I’d sit about and read the various black newspapers from around the country that came into this store, and it enhanced my view and sense of politics and civil rights,” he said … (read more)

Olympic gold medalist Dominique Dawes on Friday urged local Girl Scouts to do their best and fulfill their dreams.

Dawes, who won a gold medal in the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta, spoke to about 300 people at the Memphis Botanic Gardens, wrapping up a two-day visit that included an appearance at Baptist Memorial Hospital for Women on Thursday.

“When I was younger, I wasn’t confident and didn’t express myself. I wasn’t sure I could ever make an impact,” said Dawes, who sits on the Girl Scouts advisory board. “I want to encourage girls to get out and participate. I want to encourage the sport of gymnastics. You learn very quickly if it’s for you or not.”

The event was sponsored by Baptist Memorial Health Care Corp. and the Lipscomb & Pitts Breakfast Club … (read more)

Norman Dean of Cordova says people stop all the time and ask “what do you have growing there?”

What is that strange plant with its thick leaves sporting spikes that look to do harm, sending out offshoots that sprout up around it like so many children? Is it native to this area? To this planet?

The plant in question is a century plant (Agave americana), so named because it is said to bloom once every hundred years, an undertaking so strenuous that the effort eventually kills it.

This plant, which decorates the front corner of Dean’s brick Cordova home on a street lined with well-manicured lawns, measures about 5 feet tall and its width, from tip to tip of the longest of its gray-green leaves, is nearly 8 feet … (read more)