Criminal justice reform part of Gov. Lee’s Memphis itinerary this week
Gov. Bill Lee is in Memphis Tuesday into Wednesday morning for a series of stops, including signing the bill that eliminates the state fee to expunge criminal records.
Bill Dries
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 3895 articles by Bill Dries :
-
June 2019
-
City of Memphis -
Metro People’s Convention endorses Tami Sawyer for mayor
The convention at the Paradise Entertainment Center in South Memphis Saturday drew no city council incumbents before a group of 600 to the nightclub, with about 200 participating in the process that stretched over six hours.
-
Metro People’s Convention gauges impact of new generation of activism
The Saturday gathering in South Memphis will include endorsements in the October Memphis elections. But its organizers hope the platform will be just as strong as the appeals from different candidates.
-
City of Memphis MICAH organizer says quest for equity larger than who wins elections
Rev. Ayanna Watkins says on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast the group is working on its own and within the political process toward change that is part evolution and part disruption.
-
City of Memphis Short-term aquifer effort moves to long-term objectives
As a University of Memphis effort to better map the Memphis aquifer's breaches gets underway, others calling attention to threats to the underground water source want to see a groundwater authority for the region.
-
City of Memphis List of contenders in Memphis elections nears 100
With six weeks left to file qualifying petitions, the number of likely candidates in Memphis elections is on par with four years ago, with a dozen contenders having pulled petitions for the city mayor's race so far.
-
Arlington Arlington elections field light 2 weeks from being set
The race for Arlington mayor has three prospective contenders so far, with incumbent Mike Wissman facing at least two challengers on the Sept. 19 ballot.
-
City of Memphis Greenspace taking wait-and-see approach to sell Forrest statue in wake of court ruling
There is no immediate move to sell Confederate monuments removed from two Memphis parks until all appeals by Sons of Confederate Veterans, which is contesting the sale of the parks and the statues' removal, are exhausted.
-
City of Memphis Budget votes breeze through City Council, Beale Street cover charge extended
The City Council stuck with a compromise 4% pay raise for police and firefighters and kept the city property tax rate at $3.19, but also extended a controversial cover charge for Beale Street on summer weekends.
-
City of Memphis Appeals court sides with Memphis over sale of Confederate monuments
The Tennessee Court of Appeals has ruled the Sons of Confederate Veterans organization has no case to preserve two Memphis parks and the Confederate monuments removed from them in 2017.
-
Metro Memphis 3.0 federal lawsuit dismissed
The legal challenge to the Memphis 3.0 plan has been dismissed in Memphis Federal Court.
-
City of Memphis People’s Convention gets RSVP from 18 candidates for Saturday gathering
Two mayoral contenders are among those confirmed for the South Memphis gathering built around a platform and endorsements in some, if not all, of the races on the Oct. 3 Memphis ballot.
-
City of Memphis City Council could finalize 2019-2020 budget Tuesday
Two council members expressed concerns last week about the Strickland administration's "brilliant at the basics" philosophy, but that probably won't affect votes on a 4% raise for police and firefighters.
-
Metro Memphis’ month-long party a backdrop for park dispute
As a successful Memphis in May International Festival unfolded in Tom Lee Park, there was plenty of symbolism and drama building in the controversy over what happens next to the30-acre Downtown Memphis park.
-
-
May 2019
-
Metro Malone: County funding for new voting machines should come with no strings attached
The president of the city's longest running civil rights organization commented on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast about the funding, voter registration lawsuits and leaving her post this fall.
-
City of Memphis Review of MLGW-TVA relationship could mean ‘variety of changes’
A member of the advisory group to MLGW on such a plan says on "Behind the Headlines" the complex undertaking could hold several changes beyond who supplies wholesale electric power to the local utility.
-
Council set to vote on compromised 4% raise for firefighters, police
A proposed 4% public safety raise goes to the full City Council Tuesday for a final vote as part of an amended budget with no property tax hike for the fiscal year that begins July 1. There could be more budget changes at the council session.
-
City of Memphis 66 pull qualifying petitions for Memphis election
Ten of the 13 City Council members are expected to seek a return to the body on the Oct. 3 ballot. Eight incumbents already have their petitions circulating ahead of a July 18 deadline to file.
-
Shelby County Harris survives attempt to remove him as local Democratic chairman
The vote at a special party meeting Tuesday evening in Hickory Hill marks what amounts to the second confidence vote in Michael Harris since he ran unopposed for chairman at the April local party convention.
-
Downtown Marker honors role of Chinese in Memphis history
The marker south of Beale Street marks the site of a Chinese association founded in Memphis in the 1920s. It is also a testament to the impact of the Chinese Exclusion Act that remained in place for 60 years in America.
-
City of Memphis Memphis budget season offers different path to resolution
The city council still has some difficult decisions to make. But past budget seasons show there is also still some compromise possible between what the mayor proposed and what the council decided last week.
-
City of Memphis Strickland puts Tom Lee Park mediation on hold for study of park terrain
Mayor Jim Strickland wants the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to study planned changes to Tom Lee Park, adding contour to the mostly flat park. But Strickland said he remains committed to the idea of a park that is more active year-round.
-
City of Memphis Weinshanker says city, Grizzlies holding up council OK on Graceland expansion
In a "Behind The Headlines" interview, the managing partner of Graceland says the Memphis Grizzlies front office is blocking the deal over 80,000 square feet of new soundstages that it contends could be used as a new arena competing with FedExForum.
-
City of Memphis Bicentennial day marked on Mud Island and in Orange Mound
Local leaders cut the ribbon Wednesday on a new social media icon on Mud Island, and Orange Mound celebrated Memphis' bicentennial day by marking 100 years since it was annexed by the city.
-
City of Memphis Price of police and fire pay raises approved by council put at $5 million
The decision by the council to side with unions over the administration in impasse proceedings is hardly unprecedented. But finding the money in the budget sometimes takes the council and mayor around the impasse procedure.
-