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 :
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn was in Memphis Wednesday and talked with The Daily Memphian about crime, a proposal she is sponsoring to strip federal funds from cities with a no-cash bail policy and whether Memphis is a “soft-on-crime” city.
The son of Martin Luther King Jr. returns to Memphis on the anniversary of his father’s assassination for the National Civil Rights Museum’s annual commemoration.
The April 4 deadline to get on the August ballot saw action in races for five seats on the school board. In primaries for Shelby County state legislative seats, four incumbents won reelection at the deadline.
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. David Kustoff, both Republicans, and Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen all face challengers in the August primaries as well as the November general election.
President Bill Hardgrave wants to make the U of M “the most transfer-friendly university in the country.”
Fifty-six years to the day of his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son stood on the balcony where his father was fatally wounded in 1968 and talked about the movement King led in the here and now. MLK III says current times and painful memories bring him to MemphisRelated story:
The study would cost $250,000, and the new center $18.6 million. County Mayor Lee Harris meanwhile has said the diversion center is a more immediate priority that could help with conditions in the current jail.
The council move comes as Mayor Paul Young prepares to fill the newly created position of city public safety director. Meanwhile, Young takes some changes in the current city budget to the council Tuesday, April 9, which may be clues to his budget for the new fiscal year.
Mayor Paul Young and Interim Chief C.J. Davis support a Memphis City Council ordinance to create a philanthropic and research foundation that would take private donations and put them toward the city’s public safety efforts.
County commissioners approved $18.6 million in funding to plan and build the diversion center. The jail study was an easier call at $250,000. The separate votes on the two projects came with very different timelines and expectations.
The East Memphis nature center’s new area is designed for unstructured play. Meanwhile the museum system overseeing Lichterman and several other several other city-owned attractions continues to move toward a private board and day-to-day control.
Riverside Drive closes, as it has for decades, on April 22. But Tom Lee Park will be partially open between the Riverbeat and SmokeSlam events in May.
St. Paul and the Broken Bones will headline the inaugural SmokeSlam barbecue contest. The lineup also includes rap, rock and funk.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and others respond to the death of the Memphis police officer slain Friday, April 12 in the line of duty. Memphis Police officer killed in the line of duty: What we knowRelated stories:
“I think it’s time for us to step into a new reality,” he told a crowd of several hundred at Mount Vernon Baptist Church. “I’m going to ask for a tax increase.”
Memphis-Shelby County Schools saw the percentage of its students considered “chronically absent” jump from 18.4% in the school year before the COVID-19 pandemic to 28.9% in the school year after the pandemic.
The percentage of students who are chronically absent from schools jumped dramatically in Memphis from the 2018-19 school year to the 2022-23 school year. It’s a national trend that’s also seen in the area’s suburban schools. Chronic absenteeism: Myriad of issues keep MSCS students homeRelated story:
The separate I-55-Crump Boulevard roundabout currently under construction just east of the old Memphis-Arkansas Bridge got a lot of attention at the first public hearing on the new bridge, planned for just south of the existing one.
A reporters roundtable on “Behind The Headlines” talks about Mayor Paul Young’s property tax hike proposal, new figures showing a drop in crime and first moves by the new MSCS superintendent.
Lonnie Robinson, one of the artists who worked on new stained-glass images for Historic Clayborn Temple, talks on the “On The Record” podcast about bringing images of the 1968 sanitation-workers strike to the landmark’s windows.
While past votes on County Clerk Wanda Halbert’s office and its problems have been unanimous, Monday’s vote may not be. The commission also tries to take a final vote on changes to Shelby County Land Bank after delays.
Tom Lee Park is expected to welcome its 500,000th visitor this month, eight months after its formal opening on the Labor Day weekend. The park closes next Sunday for the Riverbeat load-in, but will reopen partially between the music festival and the SmokeSlam barbecue contest.
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Germantown, is also running unopposed in his August primary after the state GOP kicked perennial contender George Flinn out of the primary.
In addition to a property-tax hike, Mayor Paul Young is also expected to rearrange some city priorities in his first budget as mayor.
The commission also killed an appeal by an Eads developer seeking to start on a multi-phase project and a tie-in to the City of Memphis sewer system.