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 3979 articles by Bill Dries :
The city's elected representatives in Washington reacted in different ways to the Senate impeachment trial of President Trump set to begin next week. Meanwhile, they have found rare common ground on the passage of the USMCA trade agreement.
Just City executive director Josh Spickler said on the WKNO program “Behind The Headlines” that Juvenile Court needs more resources for children in detention. But he said the question of which children and how many wind up in detention or tried as adults should take priority over the details of the bricks and mortar.
2020 Campaign Round Up: Bill Hagerty has the president’s backing while Dr. Manny Sethi says Hagerty is a “Washington insider.”
The court fight over Memphis City Hall’s plan to cut off sewage treatment for Horn Lake and Southaven, Mississippi, in 2023 is so far playing out on both sides of the state line.
The $10 million sought over several years by Epicenter didn't have enough support on the city council despite a guaranteed return. The pitch is part of a "movement" to encourage more sources of local capital for made-in-Memphis ventures. But the use of pension money hit a barrier with many on the council.
The utility expected all power to be restored to customers by midnight Monday. Presidents Island had the most sustained damage, with numerous power poles broken or uprooted by straight-line winds.
Republican Charlotte Bergmann, who is seeking to once again challenge Democratic Cong. Steven Cohen this election year, kicked off her campaign this weekend at a gun-shooting range. Other contenders in other primary races on the August 6 ballot are making their moves as well.
Chase Carlisle, one of six new City Council members, talked on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about the differences of opinion at the first council session of the new term.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris discusses MATA funding, the refugee resettlement plan and more with Bill Dries, reporter for The Daily Memphian, and host Eric Barnes.
City council member Chase Carlisle talks about the start of the new council’s four-year term of office and the Downtown-Midtown development boom and what that could mean for areas of disinvestment.
On Behind The Headlines, Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said if the County Commission approves a wheel tax hike for the city's bus system, he would like to see a renewal provision requiring the commission to vote on whether to continue it every decade.
The original electric rate hike proposal voted down by the City Council last month was replaced Jan. 8 with a Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division proposal that is two cents lower on the average monthly residential bill.
The second-term slate of 13 Jim Strickland administration directors and chiefs drew some resistance from several council members in committee sessions Tuesday at City Hall. The decision to delay the vote on the slate for two weeks saw some of the new council members on different sides of the question at their first council meeting.
Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division is proposing a new electric rate hike that would be less steep than an earlier proposal in the first of three years, but about the same overall. Meanwhile, some city council members want to pair the rate hike decision with whether MLGW cuts its ties with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
The Daily Memphian's primer on the ground rules, customs, proverbs and unwritten rules that keep City Hall running.
House Speaker Cameron Sexton was in Collierville Monday evening to attend a fundraiser for Collierville state Rep. Kevin Vaughan. The legislative session that begins next week will be Sexton's first regular session since becoming speaker this past summer.
The old council rejected a multi-year electric rate hike at its last meeting of the term last month. The new council talks compromise Tuesday in committee sessions with MLGW brass.
From Phyllis Tickle and Sam The Sham to Morgan and Keegan and the schools merger and demerger, we round out the Memphis 200 with suggestions from readers on the people, places and events that have made Memphis over the last 200 years.
The first City Council meeting of 2020 next week will include a review of the two new appointees and 13 returning division directors and chiefs.
We review the city election year, the third car fee and whether a half-cent sales tax hike will restore benefits for police and firefighters.
The Memphis mayor said the new corp would start with 25 young adults picking up litter part-time for $12 an hour as they work toward high school diplomas and college degrees.
Cohen spoke at City Court Clerk Myron Lowery's 29th annual prayer breakfast Jan. 1, saying House Speaker Nancy Pelosi could ultimately decide to pass on a Senate trial on impeachment resolutions against President Donald Trump.
The Memphis mayor promised details at his Wednesday oath of office ceremony on a city effort aimed at "opportunity youth" between the ages of 16 and 24.
Since March 2018, the City of Memphis has been saying it intends to end the 1970s-era agreement to treat wastewater in a North Mississippi sewer district that predates the incorporation of Southaven.