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 early voter turnout between Shelby and Tipton Counties for Thursday's special primary election for state Senate District 32 is closer than usual in the district that crosses county lines.
The city council approves $50 million in financing for a Union Row garage with Bird Box analogies during the debate. The council also heard a new plan Tuesday for an MLGW multi-year rate hike that would delay the increase for this calendar year.
The federal holiday honoring civil rights leader Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. included a new grant program for neighborhoods, calls for reparations, questions about who interprets King's legacy and City Hall honors for 10 women activists.
After rejecting an MLGW rate hike proposal in December, Memphis City Council members review three alternative options Tuesday toward infrastructure upgrades for the gas, electric and water sectors of the utility.
The CEO of Nuclear Development LLC said Memphis is at a crossroads for a potential shift away from TVA as the city's electrical power supplier with recent rate hikes proposed by MLGW. The coming city council decision on the rate hikes could intersect with the push by Nuclear Development.
Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner says a new juvenile detention center shouldn't be "undersized." On "Behind the Headlines," Bonner said he is committed to a smaller number of children in such a center.
The incoming superintendent of Shelby County Schools prepares to take the helm with a transition that includes a further move by SCS into issues of equity.
A petition drive for a city sales tax hike referendum to restore police and firefighter benefits cut four years ago has become more complex now that the petition signatures are being verified.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says his bid for a second term as mayor seeks to go beyond the "brilliant at the basics" mantra of his 2015 campaign to get into the stubborn issues of crime and poverty.
Retiring TVA president Bill Johnson told a Memphis group Tuesday that the federal power provider is the best value for MLGW, its largest customer, beyond the electricity the utility buys from TVA.
Republican voters in Tipton County make up most of the first week early voting turnout in the special primary elections for state Senate District 32.
The three newest Memphis City Council members may be a good indication of a change in who runs for the council in the 2019 city elections.
Alan Curtis, president of the Eisenhower Foundation, was in Memphis last week to talk about an update of the landmark Kerner Commission report on 1968 riots.
State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris became federal judge Mark Norris at a formal ceremony Friday Downtown -- part of a larger season of transition in politics.
U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander wants to ditch border wall talks between the president and Democratic leaders and instead start moving toward a Senate vote with amendments. That's provided President Donald Trump agrees to reopen the federal government for three weeks while such a bill would be amended and discussed.
The city has plans to add a median strip, bike lanes and landscaping on the block of Union Avenue between Marshall and Manassas streets. The changes will connect with a longer stretch of road on Manassas that is something of a proving ground for lots of similar features.
Shelby County Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn is reviewing the idea of an expungement court docket to speed the process of wiping clean the criminal records of offenders who have stayed out of trouble for five years.
The federal government is shutdown but plans continue by local transportation agencies for new federal funding starting in 2020. The projects range from repaving the roads most used by the city's heaviest truck traffic to better pedestrian crossings.
Memphis City Council members back the general plan for sports betting on Beale Street, but they want to see what kind of split of revenue is proposed when it comes down to a specific bill in Nashville.
Sherman Greer, an administrator at Southwest Tennessee Community College, is the new District 1 member of the Memphis City Council.
The first Memphis City Council meeting of the new year could see a second look and some revisions to proposed rate hikes from MLGW the council rejected at year's end.
After a break for the holidays, Memphis City Council members try again Tuesday to fill three vacancies. If the council is still gridlocked, the next move could be to put the three council seats to voters in a special election.
For the third time in seven years, Memphis and Shelby County are mounting a tire redemption and recycling drive that has some strict rules of the road based on the first two tries.
Almost four months after it closed because of a rat infestation, Kirby High School reopens Monday to students who spent most of their first semester spread across three other campuses. The school returns with some new features and technology it didn't have before.
Chief city prosecutor Teresa Jones is Mayor Jim Strickland's nominee for a vacant city court judge's position.