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 :
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.
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.