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 4016 articles by Bill Dries :
A critic of the Strickland administration, the Rev. Earle Fisher, says on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that he hopes Mayor Jim Strickland's talks with religious leaders produce solutions. But he also expressed skepticism, as some of those in the group have accused police of using excessive force in the city's first George Floyd protest.
One of the organizers of the 2019 People’s Convention says while a lot has happened since the gathering ahead of the 2019 city elections, not a lot has changed including calls in June of 2019 for a change in police policies.
The call to "defund" police during three weeks of daily protests in Memphis has grown as action moves from marches to specific issues. The terms doesn't always mean the same thing to everyone, however.
The sheriff's appearance comes a week after a clash on the commission over two attempts to cut funding in his budget and reallocate it. The commission appears to be about $5 million away from balancing the budget. But there are lots of questions about whether the movement of line items can be applied to the red ink.
The latest edition of our City Council Scorecard, going back to the start of May, gets the council votes on the record for the end of the budget season and other issues that will endure beyond the first budget season for six of the 13 council members.
The ministers who signed the letter include two who have been meeting with Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland in a review of police procedures. They specifically questioned the law enforcement response to the first local protest over the death of George Floyd that ended with five arrests.
Faith Morris of the National Civil Rights Museum and Archie Willis of ComCap Partners talk on "Behind The Headlines" about two and a half weeks of protest in Memphis and the difference it represents in the city's history of protest.
Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter says despite the recent spike in daily confirmed cases, she sees little reason to put off a move to Phase 3 on Monday.
Shelby County Health Dept. director Alisa Haushalter opened Thursday’s briefing with some thoughts on Phase 3.
Memphis-Shelby Crime Commission president also talked about calls to defund police departments, the difficulty in prosecuting police officers and the new requirement for police to intervene when another officer is abusing his or her power.
The Memphis City Council is considering four proposals in response to the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody and calls for law enforcement reform nationally since Floyd’s death.
Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter said most of the 133 deaths in Shelby County are from nursing home clusters and outbreaks.
We start an ongoing scorecard of Shelby County Commission votes with a pair of budget season amendments and the latest incursion into a seven-year controversy about who gets the health insurance contract for 5,000 county employees.
The first reception to the council resolutions presented Tuesday comes with a record of past resistance that indicates it probably won't be as easy as a council vote. The resolutions are advisory.
Council members expressed alarm at the rise in the daily COVID-19 case count locally and are prepared to call a special meeting Friday to enact a mask requirement in public places within Memphis.
The “Justice in Policing Act” was introduced in the House Monday. Hearings before the House Judiciary Committee, including U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, begin Wednesday.
The plan to balance the county budget came apart when the commission put too much weight on the idea that federal reimbursements for county dollars spent on the pandemic freed up about $4.8 million. It didn't. Then a move to cut the sheriff's department budget brought two weeks of protest over the George Floyd incident into the discussion.
The chief of staff to Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris talks about her son's coming transition as a young black man and worries about what will happen when he encounters police. The city's police director says his officers are not the enemy.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has lifted the citywide curfew.
A grieving mother's account, and a man who says he participated in the 1968 I Am A Man march add poignancy to Sunday evening demonstrations.
Bobby White, a native Memphian with experience behind the scenes in local government and politics, talks about what more than a week of daily protests in the city means for future decisions on how the police do their jobs.
Bobby White says oversight of police by the police director isn't enough, no matter how good or well-intentioned the director is.
The curfew, renewed on a daily basis by executive order, has been in effect since Monday.
The leader of the consulting team that drafted a plan for MLGW potentially getting power from providers other than TVA said even the “worst outcome” in the report shows savings for MLGW.
No protest was planned for the evening of Thursday, June 4, 2020, but one occurred anyway after a civil disobedience class at the National Civil Rights Museum. The Daily Memphian followed events with photos, videos and stories.