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 :
Michalyn Easter-Thomas upset incumbent District 7 council member Berlin Boyd by a wide margin in runoff elections Thursday. And In District 1, challenger Rhonda Logan upset incumbent Sherman Greer.
A federal judge has denied the city’s motion to modify the 41-year old consent decree barring political surveillance by the Memphis Police Department.
MLGW brass, TVA leaders and Memphis City Council members met Wednesday at City Hall for the latest discussion in a decision the utility and the city are expected to make in 2020.
The races in District 1 and District 7 close out the 2019 election year in Memphis politics with hard fought contests reflecting political combat before the election season started.
Here is everything you need to know about participating in the last election day of 2019 – the dos and don'ts, what to expect and what's next.
As the city of Memphis prepares to mark its 200th anniversary, the Chickasaw Nation is finding the story of its origins in a part of the city Native Americans left 500 years ago.
Memphis City Council members are moving toward an ordinance banning hand-held cell phone use in cars that will mirror state law on the matter.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, Jim Strickland campaign consultant Steven Reid talked about the blip in polling and said challenger Tami Sawyer never split the African American vote as rival and former Mayor Willie Herenton repeatedly charged during the campaign.
Most of the early vote in the two Memphis City Council runoff races was in the District 7 matchup between incumbent Berlin Boyd and challenger Michalyn Easter-Thomas.
In its first year, the park has made some changes to adapt to the way Memphians are using it. It's also a "glimpse of the future" for similar changes along the city's riverfront says Memphis River Parks Partnership president Carol Coletta.
Planning and Development Director John Zeanah said on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that federal funding announced this week for the Downtown-University of Memphis corridor promises to change the image of public transit in the city.
The five voting locations in two runoff city council races open Saturday for the last day of early voting. Election day is Nov. 14.
Planning and Development director John Zeanah talks about carbon emissions goals for the city, why the bus rapid transit corridor to come will be a different kind of bus ride and the climate change debate.
A Thursday forum on a consent decree forbidding political surveillance by Memphis police, and the city's request to modify it, drew plenty of concerns.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said on "Behind The Headlines" he would veto an attempt by the county to take a share of the revenue from a city sales tax hike approved by voters to restore fire and police benefits.
Within days of General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton telling his staff he would not seek re-election, one county commissioner has filed a petition for the clerk’s job.
A new interactive city website offers a deeper dive into city government data.
With three meetings left in the four-year term of office of city council members, and at least four new council members coming January, the council is lining up several items for action by the end of 2019.
City council members got their first look at not only the MLGW budget that includes rate hikes but the efficiency study that is being used to leaven the impact of the rate hikes. The council reviews all of it again in two weeks and could also vote at the Nov. 19 council session.
The City Council gets its first detailed look Tuesday at a Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division rate hike proposal and talks with Mayor Jim Strickland about next steps in restoring benefits to police and firefighters.
The only countywide elected office on the ballot in 2020 will be a race without an incumbent if Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton does not seek re-election.
Leon Blackmon, a former analyst with Housing and Community Development, allegedly steered $1.6 million in contracts to mow vacant lots to family and friends over a seven-year period. Half of the lots were being mowed by the city or next-door neighbors.
The race for mayor in particular highlighted different kinds of change at work in the city's politics, from cutting edge to much more gradual changes begun 12 years ago. With the winners and losers decided, the different kinds of change remain in play.
The plan goes to a tough audience of City Council members Tuesday for a first look. The council has twice in the past two years rejected such rate hike requests from MLGW after debating the right balance between rate hikes in a poor city and the need to update the utility's infrastructure for one of the city's most basic services.
Newly re-elected Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland joins reporter Bill Dries and host Eric Barnes to talk about his second term, tax incentives, Tom Lee Park and more.