Reporter
Bill Dries covers city and county government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for almost 50 years covering a wide variety of stories from the 1977 death of Elvis Presley and the 1978 police and fire strikes to numerous political campaigns, every county mayor and every Memphis Mayor starting with Wyeth Chandler.
There are 3805 articles by Bill Dries :
The last day of early voting in state Senate District 32 is followed by the March 12 election day for the seat covering eastern Shelby County and all of Tipton County. Early voter turnout appears to be about where it was in the January special primary elections.
The Mississippi River at Memphis is past its crest as of Monday, but the level is still over 40 feet on the river gauge.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's remarks at the University of Memphis Thursday went short on budget specifics for local projects and longer on his conservative philosophy for state government, but he stopped short of saying he would sign the "fetal heartbeat" abortion bill that cleared the state House earlier in the day.
Almost half the signatures processed so far to put a city sales tax hike on the ballot this year have been judged invalid, according to the Shelby County Election Commission.
Voters in eastern Shelby County and Tipton County go to the polls Tuesday to decide who will take the state Senate District 32 seat formerly held by Mark Norris.
Monday was “311 Day” at City Hall, and the city’s 311 operation and call center was open to the media to draw awareness to the call and app service that began in 2013.
The race for Memphis Mayor has three front-line contenders on the way to the spring and summer heart of the 2019 campaign. And the trio of Sawyer, Herenton and Strickland shows some differences that reflect divergent views of the city's future beyond who wins and who loses.
The city of Memphis is suing 21 opioid manufacturers and distributors in a federal lawsuit claiming “opioid addiction is ravaging Memphis.”
Covington business owner Paul Rose claimed the district seat on both sides of the Tipton-Shelby county line with nearly 90 percent of the district-wide vote.
Democratic presidential contender Elizabeth Warren will make an early campaign stop in Memphis Sunday at Douglass High School.
Mayor Jim Strickland's administration conceded a "clerical error" in its minority spending numbers Thursday, saying the city actually spent 17.7 percent of its money in 2018 with women- and minority-owned businesses rather than the 24 percent previously touted by Strickland.
Tennessee’s two Republican U.S. senators split Thursday in the chamber’s vote on a resolution blocking President Donald Trump’s declaration of a national emergency to fund a border wall with Mexico.
After a party reorganization in 2017 and a Democratic sweep of countywide offices in the 2018 elections, Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Corey Strong says it is time for another leader of the local party.
The $11 million renovation of a Frayser apartment complex owned by The Works, a South Memphis community development corporation, is an indication that the coordinated fight against blight in the city has moved beyond one single-family home at a time.
The circa-1836 home of Irish immigrant Eugene Magevney is open for tours Fridays through April 12 and has plans as well as a wish list for a more active future.
U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren drew a crowd of more than 400 in North Memphis for the first Memphis appearance by a presidential hopeful in advance of the Tennessee presidential primaries of March 2020.
Former Memphis City Schools board member Jeff Warren is running for a super district council seat, citing his experience as a family physician and as a school board member as terms were set for the merger of public education in Shelby County.
Memphis City Council member Berlin Boyd has amended his disclosure to include his job with FedEx Logistics on a form dated last week on the council's website.
A Graceland master plan that does not include an arena tops Tuesday's Memphis City Council agenda. Also on the agenda is the Poplar Arts Lofts project and a discussion about urban art.
The council also delayed the first of three votes on the Memphis 3.0 land use and development guidelines and approved the Poplar Arts Lofts project. And the council got a first hand look at the FedEx "same day bot" to be tested on Memphis streets this summer.
Memphis singer/songwriter-turned-pastor John Kilzer has died. He was 62.
The Mississippi River is forecast to rise slightly this week before beginning a drop to below flood stage by the end of the month. But the agencies that watch the flow of the river remain in "flood fight" status, given historic flooding to the north.
The political battle over MLGW rates and calls for upgrades in the utility's infrastructure shows every sign of returning for another budget year.
In a largely symbolic gesture, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi is taking back its endorsement of Democratic state Representative Joe Towns of Memphis in last year's primary and general elections because of Towns' recent vote in favor of the “fetal heartbeat” bill.
Mayor Jim Strickland will propose 3 percent raises for commissioned Memphis firefighters and police officers in the budget proposal he takes to the City Council next month.