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 3806 articles by Bill Dries :
Richard W. Smith, the outgoing chamber board chairman and FedEx Express vice president, defended the use of tax incentives for economic development gains during an extended "Behind The Headlines" interview.
The City of Memphis has $5.6 million, most of it in federal funding, to test for and remove lead paint from up to 350 single-family homes and multi-family housing units in the city and county built before 1978.
The decisions at Tuesday’s council session would remove two items from the agenda of the council that leaves office at the end of the month. Other items are straddling the New Year’s line between the council leaving office and the new council that takes office in January.
During a visit to Memphis Sunday for a Rosa Parks Day proclamation, Gov. Bill Lee said he is willing to work with legislators on the best use of federal TANF funding that will likely include some kind of reserve funding level.
The third of our four-part survey of the 200 people, places and events that have made Memphis what is was, what it is and what it could be.
Southwest Tennessee Community College is willing to try again when it comes to hosting an early college high school after it and Shelby County Schools pulled the plug on a charter school approach.
The new City Council that takes office in January and the transition from candidate to elected official, along with Smiley’s views on residency requirements, MLGW rate hikes and “scare tactics.”
Shelby County was formed 200 years ago Nov. 24 by an act of the Tennessee Legislature. The county took in more territory than it does today. The official designation touched off controversies that saw the county seat moved out of Memphis four years later as the city struggled before beginning to grow.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, incoming City Council member J.B. Smiley Jr. said he would like to have a voice in the current council's decision about residency requirements. But he said he accepts if the referendum on the matter is approved by the current council before members leave office. He also said concerns about reliability if MLGW breaks ties with TVA might be a "scare tactic."
On Behind The Headlines, Memphis River Parks Partnership President Carol Coletta offered few clues about what the mediation over the redesign of Tom Lee Park will mean.
Mayor Jim Strickland officially unveiled plans Thursday for the naming rights of the Renasant Convention Center. The 10-year deal with renewals clauses should pay about half of the $2 million in the red that convention center operates at annually, according to Strickland.
The council approved a November 2020 referendum on a residency requirement for police and fire fighters Tuesday on the first of three votes.
Tom Intrator, 18 S. Main developer, took the concept of aligned development to City Council members Tuesday as they reviewed a unique tax incentive for the $1.1 billion project that is a PILOT used like a TIF.
Memphis City Council members have paperwork on their agenda Tuesday for the second convention center hotel project, changes to the Union Row project incentives and a supplement to the Pinch District redevelopment.
A public comment session Monday at the Central Library drew several dozen people and plenty of reminders of the city's long-running debate about the bus system run by the Memphis Area Transit Authority. The corridor has almost all of the $74 million to build the Union and Poplar corridor that would start operations in 2024.
Memphis Public Libraries are doing away with one of the basics of public libraries -- fines for books that are returned past their due date.
The Sunday afternoon Mass recalled the 1939 milestone at the neighboring Magevney House and the ecumenical spirit that led to the city's first Catholic parish that followed. St. Peter's pastor also reminded parishioners that faith is not without divisions and controversy but is also about unity.
An October federal indictment of Blake Owens and four others for allegedly dealing heroin and fentanyl is a major drug case. It's also part of a 25-year saga that includes real estate, strip clubs, kidnapping, racketeering, wiretaps and a plea by Owens in 2006 for federal prison officials to release him somewhere other than Memphis.
General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton Jr. has a little less than a year left in office and will not seek re-election next year. Before his exit, Stanton says he has a few goals to accomplish.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, outgoing council Chairman Kemp Conrad discusses Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division rate hikes and a recent visit to Hungary.
Memphis City Council chairman Kemp Conrad talks about the new council that takes office in January, the current council’s end-of-term agenda, why the new CLERB proposal can wait and a sobering moment during his recent trip to Hungary.
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.