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 3660 articles by Bill Dries :
The County Commission delayed final votes Monday on every part of the budget process including setting the tax rate. Several commissioners are saying the three big capital projects in the budget might have to be prioritized. Commission votes down call for mediation in juvenile detention center disputeRelated story:
The council will take a final vote on increasing the solid-waste fee by nearly $7 a month — and it will vote on management for four Memphis museums, including the Pink Palace.
Commissioner Mick Wright said the sheriff and Juvenile Court judge need to talk about who will run the juvenile detention center. But his nonbinding resolution suggesting arbitration got voted down Monday.
The Shelby County Commission is unlikely to wrap up its budget season Monday, June 3, despite having an agenda with final votes scheduled on the budget and the property tax rate.
Justin J. Pearson opens his third campaign for the state House in a year and a half. State Senator Brent Taylor reacts to the Trump conviction, and Natalie McKinney opens her challenge of MSCS board chairman Althea Greene.
A judge set a trial date for Wanda Halbert during the first court appearance in her ouster suit. She’ll also be back in court in June for a hearing on whether she should be suspended pending the outcome of the August trial.
The city’s two U.S. senators and two congressmen had very different reactions to the former president’s conviction Thursday, May 30, in New York on all counts of falsifying business records. New York jury finds Donald Trump guilty on all 34 felony countsRelated content:
Most of the amendments to the budget approved in committees would be funded out of the county’s general fund and throw Mayor Lee Harris’ proposal out of balance if the full commission approves them.
Amid an ethics complaint into her employment, Memphis City Councilwoman Michalyn Easter-Thomas has resigned from her job at Memphis River Parks Partnership.
The Riverview Community Center got a $2.3 million renovation that includes more natural light in the gym and rooms for exercise, games and computers along with a new exterior.
Paul Young said the city’s strategy for crime suppression includes “criminal activity disruption” along with focusing police and city blight efforts in high-crime areas.
The attempt to oust Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert from office is in Circuit Court for a preliminary hearing May 31. The arguments filed by both sides in the suit show the case will be about legal definitions of willful neglect.
Here’s a history of previous local ouster cases including the one that ousted E.H. Crump from the mayor’s office in 1916, a Shelby County Sheriff shortly after that and a Shelby County commissioner in the 1960s.
Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Gloria Johnson campaigns in Memphis over the long holiday weekend and hopes Democrats throw national support behind her effort to upset incumbent Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn.
Church Health founder Dr. Scott Morris talks on “Behind The Headlines” about the 37-year-old institution he founded and how complex it has become in an era of big medicine and big health-care institutions.
John Gillespie questioned MPD’s policies in a Thursday news release. He and Brent Taylor sponsored the law that bans police departments from not pulling someone over when they have reasonable suspicion the person violated the law.
Republican state Senator Brent Taylor told a group of 50 at the Whitehaven Republican Club that school leaders should “keep quiet” about not using a state law that allows for teachers to carry guns at schools.
The Memphis City Council looked at alternatives to Mayor Paul Young’s proposed 75-cent city property-tax hike Tuesday, as well as an assortment of other issues. ‘A tough push:’ Council skeptical of adding suburban votes to MLGW boardRelated story:
The City Council Scorecard looks at the April surprise that scuttled plans by Mayor Paul Young for a budget proposal with no property-tax hike.
The ordinance that sets the county property tax rate still has a blank where the rate goes. But commissioners approved Tuesday where the pennies on the tax rate go based on keeping the $3.39 rate the same.
The council takes the second of three votes Tuesday, May 21, on raising the city’s monthly solid-waste fee and decides six wages disputes between the city administration and labor unions.
The County Commission has several Shelby County Sheriff’s Office items to vote on Monday, from emergency money for new jail door locks to calling for collaboration on what happens next at the juvenile detention center on Old Getwell Road.
City Council members talked Thursday, May 16, about at least whittling down the tax hike proposed by Mayor Paul Young, with discussing other revenue sources, during a town hall forum at New Salem Baptist Church in South Memphis.
“We consider it to be defunding police,” a Shelby County Sheriff’s Office official said of a proposed budget that cuts 441 vacant positions from the Sheriff’s office, a $31.4 million impact.
Wanda Halbert says she’s working on a plan, but she said her reports may still be late or inaccurate, the software auditors recommended doesn’t work for her office and the county is not funding her enough.