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 3805 articles by Bill Dries :
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland says a month ago, Electrolux executives assured him their Memphis plant would stay open and even expand to include new product lines. With word of the plant closing in 2021, he told The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast the city, county and state "overpaid" in terms of incentives.
Putting together the comprehensive 20-year Memphis 3.0 development plan required trying to change some ideas about what it means to encourage development in very different parts of a diverse city.
With just enough votes, the Memphis City Council approved a resolution that will post the financial disclosure reports of each council member next to his or her bio on the city's website.
A new "People's Convention" is being organized to run a slate of candidates in the 2019 Memphis elections. It shares some features of the 1991 gathering that backed Willie Herenton's historic bid for mayor, but there are some significant differences as well.
A city council resolution on the financing of a second convention center hotel added to Tuesday's agenda is an answer to changes in a lawsuit filed by the owners of the city's original convention center hotel recently.
Memphis city council members again delayed approval of Memphis Light, Gas and Water rate increases Tuesday, instead urging the utility to make its case to the public for an infrastructure overhaul before the council tries again later this month.
The Shelby County results in the special primary elections for state Sen. District 32 are certified and dates for early voting in the special general election are set.
Memphis City Council members are expected to vote Tuesday on a set of gas, electric and water rate hikes that would raise the average residential utility bill 10.5 percent over a five-year period with no rate hike until January 2020.
Memphis Light Gas and Water Division president and CEO J.T. Young said the utility will move ahead with a more detailed “integrated resources plan,” following Friday's presentation of the results of a study conducted by GDS Associates Inc.
The MLGW board gets its first look at a report on possibly buying electricity from someone other than TVA at a special meeting Friday.
Breaking the city's development boom outside of Downtown and Midtown is the goal Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland outlined Monday in his election year state of the city address -- a difficult goal shared by Strickland's predecessor in the mayor's office.
More than 50 years since City Hall opened for business, the marble slabs that define its seven-story exterior are again a problem. It's just one of the challenges facing the aging building that houses city government.
The start of a Memphis Public Libraries lecture series on the city's bicentennial draws a standing-room-only crowd, while the Memphis Pink Palace museum prepares for a March opening of its own bicentennial exhibit.
The rhetoric of the city's four elected representatives in Washington reflected their parties. But one voted with the other side on the last vote before President Trump announced Friday the end of the federal government shutdown.
The Greater Memphis Chamber and the Economic Development Growth Engine organization are expected to roll out their new economic development strategy next month.
Covington businessman Paul Rose bested three rivals from Shelby County to take the Republican primary in the special primary election for state Senate District 32 Thursday.
The Memphis Branch NAACP called Thursday for the Shelby County Commission to approve funding to begin planning and design of a new juvenile detention center. The leader of the civil rights organization is a former county commissioner who clashed with the court in the past over some of the issues giving current commissioners pause.
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.