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Cyberhomes.com analyzed 7,000 ZIP codes based on a formula of housing affordability and called 38018 -- that's Cordova -- the most-affordable home market in the country for first-time home buyers. Here's how the formula works:

First we calculated how much buyers earning the median income for the ZIP could afford to spend on a home -- assuming a 20 percent down payment, 5 percent rate on a 30-year mortgage and a house payment of no more than one third of monthly income. We then compared that figure with 2009 median home sale prices for that ZIP. In ZIPs where the affordable home price is equal to the actual median sales price the affordability index is 100. Anything over 100 is affordable. Anything under 100, not so much.

With median income of $86,000 and median home price of $117,000, Cordova scored a whopping 436. The next-highest score was 85044 in Phoenix, Ariz., with 340.

One commenter on the story mentioned the flip side of housing affordability in the Memphis area:

Memphis, TN, is one of the worst cities to live in (I did for many years). Crime is skyrocketing. There are countless sexual assaults in schools, that the school officials refuse to report. The mayor is a self-servicing, glory-seeking, sleeve who keeps putting the city deeper and deeper into debt. People are leaving the city in droves.

The (London) Telegraph mentions Memphis among cities to be included in a grand experiment of urban downsizing. Dan Kildee, treasurer of Genesee County, Mich. -- which includes Flint -- and founder of the Genesee County Land Bank, wants to apply a "shrink to survive" approach to 50 cities identified in a recent study by the Brookings Institution as needing to shrink substantially. The Telegraph reports that the U.S. government and private charities are interested in the approach:

"The real question is not whether these cities shrink - we're all shrinking - but whether we let it happen in a destructive or sustainable way," said Mr Kildee. "Decline is a fact of life in Flint. Resisting it is like resisting gravity."

In flint, this approach has involved bulldozing entire blocks and letting nature take over. Other cities mentioned in the Telegraph article include Baltimore, Detroit, Philadelphia and Pittsburgh.

The Washington Independent has been covering the "shrinking cities" phenomenon closely, and has plenty of links to follow to find out more about the concept.

Sarah Goodyear at Streetsblog New York City explores Memphis' lack of quality public transit based on her visit to Downtown Memphis for the wedding of a friend (who happens to be CA online audience development specialist Kerry Crawford-Trisler). We Memphians are so unused to public transportation that hotel employees didn't even mention to Goodyear that the Main Street trolley would be a cheap and easy way to get to South Main. Goodyear also links to a Smart City Memphis post that suggests a new law from Nashville could provide Memphis with the opportunity to get its transit act together.

Beale Street manager John Elkington was in Macon, Ga., today for an open meeting on a local group's plan to develop a downtown entertainment district that would brand the city as the "Birthplace of Southern Rock." Specifically, Elkington was to "discuss the creation of an economic development plan to implement such ideas," according to a the nonprofit NewTown Macon organization.

The project would make use of more than 1 million square feet of empty property and build on a musical heritage that includes native sons Otis Redding, Little Richard and the Allman Brothers, as well as the Capricorn Records label whose roster included artists such as the Marshall Tucker Band, Wet Willie, Widespread Panic and Bonnie Bramlett.

I haven't seen anything to indicate whether Elkington and his Performa Entertainment company would actually develop the Macon project. Recall that Elkington has been involved in a mess of litigation brought by the city and the Beale Street Development Corp., who claim among other things that Elkington and Performa have improperly used Beale Street funds to finance projects in other cities.

P.S.: It's interesting how much Macon's musical heritage overlaps with Memphis'. Redding, of course, was the flagship artist for Stax Records, and Bramlett -- who recorded solo albums on Capricorn in the '70s -- was one half of another Stax act, Delaney & Bonnie with late husband Delaney Bramlett. Bonnie Bramlett appeared at last month's Beale Street Music Festival.

I didn't get around Tuesday to updating my coverage of this story, so here we go ...

Abdulhakim Muhammad, the former Memphian and Muslim convert charged in the fatal shooting of a soldier and the wounding of another last week outside a Little Rock military recruiting center, called The Associated Press collect from jail to tell his side of the story. Muhammad said he doesn't feel he's guilty, and that he doesn't consider the shooting to be murder "because murder is when a person kills another person without justified reason." The 23-year-old does, however, consider the shooting an act of revenge:

"Yes, I did tell the police upon my arrest that this was an act of retaliation, and not a reaction on the soldiers personally," Muhammad said. He called it "a act, for the sake of God, for the sake of Allah, the Lord of all the world, and also a retaliation on U.S. military"

In another chat with AP today, Muhammad said he's unaware of any plans for similar attacks against the military on American soil, but he warns of danger ahead:

The lawyer for former Memphian Abdulhakim Muhammad spoke to The Associated Press today about his client, who is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a soldier and the wounding of another Monday outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock.

Attorney Jim Hensley (pictured at right) says Muhammad left college to teach English in Yemen but became radicalized while there. Hensley further stated that the FBI hung Muhammad out to dry after he was detained (Hensley says it was because Muhammad's visa had expired; previous reports said Muhammad was using a phony Somali passport).

"Here comes the FBI, who may be able to help this guy or save his life, and then they leave and then he's got to go back in with these hardened terrorists. He's got to survive, how do you live with that?" Hensley said. "He absolutely feels that the FBI and anyone else associated with the United States government left him to the wolves, that's for certain."

ABC News has a long report about Muhammad's connections to a mosque in Columbus, Ohio, that has been known as a jumping-off point for radicals, especially Somalis, before they go overseas to fight jihad.

I have extensively updated last night's post about Abdulhakim Muhammad, who is charged with capital murder in the shooting death of a soldier and the wounding of another outside a military recruiting center in Little Rock. Any additional updates throughout the day will be appended to this post.

UPDATE: The global intelligence source STRATFOR has sent out a newsletter analysis on Muhammad that is also posted on its Web site. STRATFOR mentions the significance of Muhammad's middle name, Mujahid:

In Arabic, the word mujahid is the singular form of mujahideen, and it literally means one who engages in jihad. Although Mujahid is not an uncommon Muslim name, it is quite telling that a convert to Islam would choose such a name -- one who engages in jihad -- to define his new identity.

The analysis talks about how difficult it is for investigators to home in on "lone wolf" operatives like Muhammad, and how this reality may have tied the FBI's hands in investigating Muhammad after his return from Yemen:

I'll sign off today with a positive story of a former Memphian making progress in turning around one of Chicago's most troubled public schools. The New York Times mentions Jammie Poole, a former girls basketball coach at Melrose High, in this story about efforts to reshape failing schools around the country. Education Secretary Arne Duncan wants to use some of the policies that he used as Chicago's education CEO on a national level. Poole was recruited and trained by the nonprofit Academy for Urban School Leadership for the ambitious task of remaking Orr Academy High School. The effort was met with skepticism from students and community leaders alike, but now Poole is being hailed for his success. NPR interviewed him in a similar story last year.

Could something like the AUSL tried in Chicago work with some of Memphis' most-troubled schools? Education consultant Bryan Hassel tells the Times that results have been mixed:

"A lot of these school turnarounds are going to fail because the work is so difficult," Mr. Hassel said. "But as a nation, we'll never have the capacity to do this work successfully until we make the commitment."

The news about Abdulhakim Muhammad, who was charged with capital murder today in the shooting death of a soldier and the wounding of another at a military recruiting center in Little Rock, is getting more ominous by the minute.

AP's latest write-through (7:13 p.m. CDT) adds that Muhammad may have considered other targets, "including military sites and Jewish organizations in the Southeast."

ABC News reports on investigators' focus on Muhammad's travel and associations:

Yemen and Somali are known hotbeds for terrorism. Columbus, Ohio, has been an area of domestic concern for authorities who have observed a number of Somali Americans traveling from there to Somali to wage jihad.

Eyewitness News in Memphis tracks down some personal background on Muhammad, who grew up in the Raleigh area of Memphis as Carlos Bledsoe before his conversion to Islam.

Amid reports that Muhammad "admitted shooting the soldiers 'because of what they had done to Muslims in the past,'" as AP quoted deputy prosecutor Scott Duncan, conservative blogs like Power Line are asking for liberal critics of Bush-era war-on-terror policies to take responsibility for the alleged shooter's actions.

UPDATE: (1:16 p.m. CDT) The New York Times moved a story late last night that has more important details. Some commenters at commercialappeal.com have wondered why Muhammad wasn't under surveillance after returning to the U.S. from Yemen, where he had been arrested for using a fake Somali passport. The Times explains:

The episode in Yemen prompted a preliminary inquiry by the Federal Bureau of Investigation and other American law enforcement agencies into whether the man, Abdulhakim Mujahid Muhammad, had ties to extremist groups, the officials said. But that investigation was inconclusive, they said, leaving the bureau with insufficient evidence to wiretap his phone or put him under surveillance.

The Times also cites Little Rock police saying that 23-year-old Muhammad, formerly Carlos Bledsoe, converted to Islam "possibly as a teenager living in (Memphis) Tennessee."

AP uncovers an FBI memo that says the bureau and the Department of Homeland Security notified law enforcement in a number of cities, including Memphis, that Muhammad had been researching different sites for possible targeting.

Fox News links Muhammad to other cases of American Muslim converts involved in attacks against U.S. targets.

Further updates will be made throughout the day in this post.

President Barack Obama mentioned Memphis today during his speech announcing the administration's new cybersecurity policy. The theme of the remarks was that the blessings of the interconnected digital age also can be a curse: The networks we depend on are vulnerable to attacks that could be crippling to the economy. A highly networked just-in-time delivery service like, say, FedEx would be among those threatened. Here's what Obama said:

This is a matter, as well, of America's economic competitiveness. The small businesswoman in St. Louis, the bond trader in the New York Stock Exchange, the workers at a global shipping company in Memphis, the young entrepreneur in Silicon Valley -- they all need the networks to make the next payroll, the next trade, the next delivery, the next great breakthrough. E-commerce alone last year accounted for some $132 billion in retail sales.

The Politico has video of the speech.