Reporter
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for more than 40 years.
There are 3682 articles by Bill Dries :
The MSCS board has a history of lots of citizens showing up at its meetings in a bad mood. The political roundup also tracks how the city’s D.C. representatives voted on the plan to keep the federal government open. Meanwhile, the city council will meet at 4 p.m. in the new year instead of 3:30 p.m.
In a “Behind the Headlines” interview that will air Dec. 27 on WKNO, State Senator London Lamar talked about her Facebook post about Tuesday’s emotional school board meeting.
All of those pardoned by the governor have been out of prison for at least five years.
The proposed gates have been met with opposition, with an attorney for those in surrounding neighborhoods saying it gives “at least the appearance of being elitist and exclusionary.”
The saga of Willie Herenton’s 1979 selection by the school system has influenced the pick of every superintendent since.
In addition to the More for Memphis debate, the Shelby County Commission voted down redistributing county pay raises, and dealt with other fiscal matters.
There were no votes opposing the new Frayser high school, but word that the Memphis-Shelby County Schools board will vote on a possible ouster of Superintendent Marie Feagins cast a long shadow over the discussion.
The last City Council meeting of 2024 also includes the return of a pair of Chickasaw Gardens street closings to the agenda and the appointment of a new city public works director.
The Shelby County Commission met for a retreat where the aim was to get at the working relationship among the body of 13. That relationship has been rocky during the first half of the group’s four-year term.
The last County Commission meeting of 2024 is likely to be a long one. The Monday, Nov. 16, agenda features 89 items including a set of 22 funding resolutions for the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office totaling nearly $18 million — much of it for repairs to the county jail.
The rules discussed at a Saturday, Dec. 14, retreat at Shelby Farms Park include a budget subcommittee to hash out details of budget amendments.
Paul Young offered more detail in a Behind The Headlines interview on what’s next for MPD after a scathing federal report into the department’s policies and practices.
The Justice Department report on the Memphis Police Department is the major topic on a reporters roundtable edition of “Behind The Headlines.”
The County Commission votes Monday on shifting the funding for the construction of a new Frayser high school. In committees, County Mayor Lee Harris and some Frayser students pushed to get construction started.
Shelby County commissioners discuss a $34 million shift in capital funding Wednesday, Dec. 11, from a new Cordova high school to the new Frayser high school.
Meanwhile, Democrats have a race for leader of the state party. And the Republican sponsor of the state’s ban on transgender care takes a victory lap starting in Germantown after a Supreme Court hearing on the matter.
The last Justice Department review of the MPD began a month before Donald Trump was elected to his first presidential term. Trump ended the investigation, and others like it, 10 months into his term, and the Memphis report never saw the light of day.
The Memphis City Council addressed changing fiscal needs, and approved funding shifts for a Downtown Police Command Center and annual property-tax payments by MLGW.
The lawsuit would claim that “defects in the vehicles” have contributed to a “dramatic increase in car thefts locally” that have cost the city by way of increased law enforcement.
Memphis attorneys talk about the need for free legal representation and the barriers to it on “Behind The Headlines.”
Shifts in the absentee vote totals and provisional ballots that were due in some part to the uncertainty by voters that absentee ballots could reach the Shelby County Election Commission by mail in time.
Memphis City Council members expressed support for the violence-intervention funding but delayed a vote. The council also discussed ways to overcome the stalled fight against blight.
The Memphis City Council is also expected to take up gates to the Chickasaw Gardens neighborhood and more at its next session.
Some of the vote totals changed in the set of local, state and federal races because of the addition of 250 provisional ballots counted after the Nov. 5 election night. The additional votes didn’t change the outcome in any of the races.
Shelby County Commissioners also vote on $300,000 in funding to a workforce development program that fired its director last week and discuss changes to the 6% pay raise for county employees approved in the previous budget season.