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 3902 articles by Bill Dries :
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Memphis Police Director Michael Rallings talked about further police reform efforts at a Tuesday briefing that was partially an answer to critics of Strickland's first set of reforms.
Black Lives Matter is a seven-year-old movement with an ambitious platform beyond the protests of police abuses with which it has been most associated. And in the past month of protests, activists and academics locally have seen reaction to it shift — a shift explored on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast and a recent Hooks Institute forum.
The scorecard also tracks votes on paid sick leave laws at the state level and council action on a restaurant accused of racial discrimination.
The coalition of 150 local nonprofits issued a call for change two weeks ago. But they say they have seen little indication of movement and will continue to press their demands.
The city's top elected Democrat talked about Barr's coming appearance before the House next month and the police reform debate in Washington and in the streets of Memphis.
Clerk Wanda Halbert says the seven locations will operate differently. They'll have appointments, and people will wait in their cars before being called into the office. Halbert warns there could be long lines and few employees at the counter until social distancing partitions are installed. The one-week shutdown was the second for the office since the global pandemic was declared in mid-March.
Nine ministers – who were all involved in the set of private meetings with the mayor that lead up to his City Hall announcement Thursday regarding moves toward police reform – put out a letter Friday critical of the reforms Strickland had announced.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has signed the ordinance that requires masks or face coverings inside public places within the city.
The county mayor also said in a "Behind The Headlines" interview that he has no regrets about his budget proposal that the commission rejected, which included a wheel tax hike with some budget cuts and an ambitious five-year plan to fund new school construction.
The Shelby County Commission is planning to install plexiglass barriers when it returns to its chambers next month. The Memphis City Council is making arrangements to find a new temporary meeting place. Its City Hall chambers are still undergoing a renovation that began before the pandemic.
The press conference comes after a month of private discussions with community and religious leaders and a move toward police reforms by the Memphis City Council as well as the Shelby County Commission.
Bellevue Baptist Church in Cordova is replaced by Briarwood Church among the 26 locations that open for July 17 for the early voting period in advance of the Aug. 6 election day. State and federal primaries as well as county general elections are on the ballot. And more than 5,000 citizens have applied so far to vote by absentee ballots in the election.
Shelby County Property Assessor Melvin Burgess Jr. said the $1.4 million tax abatement Comcast received wasn't what such incentives were intended for. It’s the second time Burgess has criticized EDGE tax incentives.
The federal agency’s formal response to the draft report released last month says Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division could lose $260 million a year if it drops TVA to go with another electric power supplier.
The nonbinding resolutions approved by the Shelby County Commission call for adoption of “8 Can’t Wait” use of force measures for law enforcement and call racism a pandemic with associated health issues for people of color.
What was already a challenging budget year was complicated in county government by the pandemic's economic damage and a decision by the County Commission to reject the budget proposal by County Mayor Lee Harris. The commission rejected a proposed 8-cent property tax rate hike.
In Whitehaven to launch a mask distribution effort and social media campaign, Mayors Harris and Strickland said the local effort has waned since Memorial Day. Harris says possibly going back to Phase 1 is about more than "raw numbers." Strickland says despite an increase in hospitalizations, a field hospital is a long way from being activated.
The commission takes up the budget again Monday, June 22, at its regular meeting, a week after voting to use $16.5 million in the county reserves to balance expenditures and revenues. But since then, questions have emerged about the changes the commission made.
Internal emails show disagreements between the county administration and some of the countywide elected officials outside the administration of Mayor Lee Harris about budget cuts and other changes to the consolidated county budget for the fiscal year that begins July 1.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Sarah Lockridge-Steckel talked about the frustrations that prompted local nonprofits to issue a call for action.
Exploring the possibility of voting absentee for the first time? Here's a guide to what to expect and the new qualification added to the application by court order.
A city task force on public safety started its work this week with several calls for hiring local in the police and fire ranks. Meanwhile, an effort to remove from the Nov. 3 election ballot a proposal for allowing the city to hire police and firefighters who live outside the county may be picking up momentum.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruling Thursday that re-established the program the Trump administration tried to rescind affects 1,800 Memphians, many of them considered “essential” workers in the current pandemic.
Enforcing the ordinance requiring face coverings at indoor public places relies on business owners' participation, says sponsor of city council measure.
The encounter was the same day Strickland met for a third time with a group of religious leaders on possible police reforms. There wasn't much agreement in the discussion on the mall outside City Hall.