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 3900 articles by Bill Dries :
The Memphis City Council could vote this week to require citizens to wear face masks in public places. The facial coverings have touched a political nerve and divide, although proponents of the push for masks say it's not political.
The latest in the series of four marches so far began Saturday from the National Civil Rights Museum and saw calls for action in the wake of George Floyd's death in police custody in Minneapolis. The Memphis march was peaceful. But hours later a smaller group of people clashed with police at Beale and Main after the entertainment district closed for the night.
A short podcast this week brings updates on several political topics, as non-COVID issues began to move back into prominence and an uneasy coexistence with the pandemic.
Leaving the Tennessee Valley Authority could produce up to $150 million a year in savings for Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. But there are also costs to consider in the numbers-heavy first draft of a report released Friday on a possible move away from TVA.
The first draft report, which MLGW will release by Friday, likely won't outline a simple unplugging from TVA and plugging in somewhere else. MLGW's president and CEO said in a "Behind the Headlines" interview it's a risky move without the utility generating some of its own power. And two Entergy executives nearby back him on that assertion.
Despite COVID-19 cases continuing to spread statewide, with Tennessee counting 373 more Thursday, Gov. Bill Lee is rejecting a request by the Tennessee Black Caucus to issue an executive order allowing universal absentee voting.
The city’s nearly century-old relationship between Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division and the Tennessee Valley Authority reaches a critical point with some options, thanks to hard past negotiations.
The review by the council budget committee continued Wednesday with no major changes to the $708.8 million operating budget proposed by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. The full council is scheduled to take final votes on the budget and a stable city property tax rate next week.
Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter said Shelby County could conduct 2,400 tests a day, but many sites lack people who want the tests -- some are at only 40% of capacity.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer also talked about the rift between the Democratic county mayor and the eight-vote Democratic majority on the commission.
Gov. Bill Lee's Office isn't worried about President Donald Trump’s demand for houses of worship to open, saying he never ordered churches to close but did urge alternative services to avoid spreading COVID-19.
Shelby County Commissioner Tami Sawyer talks about the County Commission’s budget struggle, almost two years in office with a Democratic majority and the politics of face masks.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris made the announcement Friday at the end of an eventful week that includes a lawsuit over COVID-19 cases at the Shelby County Jail, calls for testing at the correctional center and a sit-in by jail prisoners with the virus as they were moved out of isolation.
The president and CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority, during an appearance on "Behind The Headlines," also panned a set of four studies touting much broader savings if MLGW cuts ties to the federal agency. Lyash is pushing a 20-year renewal contract with a 3% signing bonus and TVA aid in helping MLGW generate its own solar power.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said the county will continue to expand efforts to make prisons and jails safe.
The details of the winning proposal for the new voting machines were made public Thursday with the signature of Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris. Still to come is approval of funding by the Shelby County Commission.
Mayor Jim Strickland’s proposal to expand testing moves the city closer to a more ambitious scaling up of COVID-19 testing as local health experts explore an even broader scale for the long term.
”What we do this weekend will have an effect on what we do later,” said health officer Dr. Bruce Randolph.
Cheryl Patterson says the utility board makes the first decision on whether MLGW stays or leaves TVA.
Wearing a mask or facial covering, and whether it should be mandated or suggested, is one of the ongoing debates as people emerge into the public arena as part of the COVID-19 recovery.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland uses some basketball analogies and looks at the idea of a denser city post-pandemic. Meanwhile, Shelby County Health Dept. Director Alisa Haushalter pushes back on the idea of refusing to give your address if you test positive.
Director Alisa Haushalter said hiring at the health department can call attention to public health’s role.
The city council approved a resolution that asks the mayor to seek specific information on what it would take for MLGW to break ties with TVA and pursue another electric power supplier. But the effort will wait at least until a first draft of a comprehensive report commissioned by MLGW is released May 29.
The call for an executive order by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is the latest, including three lawsuits pending in Nashville. Lee has said he will not issue an executive order dropping state law's present restrictions on the mail-in ballots.
The testing money would come from the city's $113.6 million allocation of federal CARES Act funding. Strickland's proposal, presented Tuesday to the Memphis City Council, also includes an immediate $2.7 million to beef up health department contact tracing and long-term city funding of the health department beyond that.