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 :
The City Council votes Tuesday, Feb. 6, on extending the city’s health insurance coverage for council members who serve two terms. The calculations are complex and the authority for such a move is controversial. Opinion: Council health care proposal ‘is as ludicrous as it is ... offensive’Related content:
Rosenfeld’s retirement is effective immediately, with the MATA board announcing deputy CEO Bacarra Mauldin starts as interim CEO Thursday, Feb. 1. Rosenfeld has led the city’s bus system since January 2017.
Weaver has been with the festival for 25 years, most recently as chief financial officer. The MIM board announced the decision Thursday, Feb. 1, as longtime president and CEO Jim Holt officially retires.
Leaders of two local nonprofits say on “Behind The Headlines” that business leaders are wrong in their call to the state to enact changes to bail reform and fund tourism safety measures to the tune of $50 million.
The commission may put off immediate funding for the prosecutors office until budget season. Meanwhile, commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. continues to threaten legal action against other commissioners — the second time in less than a week.
Tennessee Republican Party chairman Scott Golden talks in an “On The Record” podcast about the presidential primaries and general election races.
The former local Democratic Party chairman announced his bid for Congress ahead of the Monday, Feb. 5, opening of the period to check out petitions to get on the Aug. 1 state and federal primaries ballot.
The City Council has a few more votes on Mayor Paul Young’s remaining appointees to his leadership team and some questions on the interim status of Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis.
The archive of 60 years of Ernest Withers’ photographs joins the national set of historic places as the Beale Street entertainment district marks 10 years of operation and management by the Downtown Memphis Commission.
In other action Tuesday, the council approved the reappointment of Robert Knecht as the city’s public-works director.
Madden has been with Mayor Jim Strickland since he took office in 2016. She leaves City Hall next week to work with Ford’s BlueOval City joint venture.
MSCS’ Board of Education announced Marie N. Feagins as the school district’s new superintendent.
The incumbent’s attendance record and the backlog of criminal court cases are issues in the race in the four-way Democratic primary for General Sessions court clerk. The winner of the Republican primary was decided at the filing deadline last year.
The movie by Last Bite Films makes its debut Feb. 16 at the Halloran Centre at a fundraiser for Memphis River Parks Partnership. Meanwhile, the filmmakers are working on a documentary about the life of Tom Lee.
The issuing of qualifying petitions to get on the August ballot overlaps with the start of early voting in the March election. Here’s who has a petition out in the first week of petitions for the August election.
On the ballot are the Tennessee Republican and Democratic presidential primaries and countywide primaries for General Sessions Court Clerk.
Early voting in 2024’s first election in Shelby County begins Wednesday, Feb. 14. The Tennessee presidential primaries top the ballot, but Memphis voters haven’t seen much of the presidential campaigns this year.
Memphis Mayor Paul Young says the city’s new public safety director is a position that will consolidate the city’s response to violent crime. Young talked about that and other crime issues on WKNO-TV’s “Behind The Headlines.”
The current council inherited the controversial extension of health insurance coverage for itself from the previous group.
After several moves to delay or table the measure, it failed without getting a single yes vote.Related story:
“The creation of an MSCS Peace Force will provide proactive and preventative measures for maintaining school safety and disrupt the school to prison pipeline,” a document filed with the County Commission reads.
Turnout through the first five days of early voting in the Democratic primaries shows to be half of what it was four years ago at the same time.
Young said in an interview on WKNO-TV’s “Behind the Headlines” the budget will be “more firmed up” in the coming months. He will take a budget proposal to the Memphis City Council in May.
Here is a brief history of the scandal surrounding the 25-year tenure of Georgia Tann as the head of the Tennessee Children’s Home Society in Memphis.
County Commissioner Henri Brooks found out three years ago she was adopted through the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, a notorious black-market adoption operation. Her lawsuit against the state could open a “floodgate.”