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 3806 articles by Bill Dries :
The District 1 and District 7 council runoff elections are each a matchup between an incumbent and a challenger. The two runoffs end the city's election year and set the mix of new and returning council members on the 13-member body.
Rev. Earle Fisher and Sijuwola Crawford talked about the blue wave of the 2018 county elections and the money that fueled a different outcome in the 2019 nonpartisan city elections on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast.
Authors Judy Christie and Lisa Wingate, whose recent book "Before and After" tells the story of children adopted through the Tennessee Children’s Home Society, drew a crowd over the weekend, including many whose lives were affected by the home.
Republican U.S. Senate contender Bill Hagerty was among those pushing the president's re-election campaign. Gov. Bill Lee talked about criminal justice reform and education reform as efforts that are beyond ideology. Lee also never mentioned President Donald Trump during his remarks at the Tuesday gathering.
A letter from eight commissioners is the latest entry in a long-running debate about voting locations. Through Monday, Oct. 28, 84 early votes had been cast in the two council district contests. Early voting continues through Nov. 9 and election day in Districts 1 and 7 is Nov. 14.
The Election Commission considered changing the hours for early voting to open all six sites in the city council runoff races ahead of Friday. But the commission decided instead to set a policy on the issue in future elections.
Nigerian activist Hafsat Abiola, entertainer John Legend and feminist icon Gloria Steinem talked of past struggles and present challenges and the ties between them as they were Wednesday in Memphis.
The five early voting sites opening Friday join a single early voting site Downtown that was open for the first week of the voting period.
On "Behind The Headlines," Jim Strickland says the city should be able to fund the restoration of benefits with the recently approved half cent sales tax hike for several years. Beyond that, expenses will probably exceed revenues, which is something he and the city council will discuss Tuesday.
Memphis Light Gas and Water Division president CEO J.T. Young talks about the report recommending a cut in more than 300 employees, other savings and the rate hike proposal he is about to take to City Hall.
Newly re-elected Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland joins reporter Bill Dries and host Eric Barnes to talk about his second term, tax incentives, Tom Lee Park and more.
The plan goes to a tough audience of City Council members Tuesday for a first look. The council has twice in the past two years rejected such rate hike requests from MLGW after debating the right balance between rate hikes in a poor city and the need to update the utility's infrastructure for one of the city's most basic services.
The race for mayor in particular highlighted different kinds of change at work in the city's politics, from cutting edge to much more gradual changes begun 12 years ago. With the winners and losers decided, the different kinds of change remain in play.
Leon Blackmon, a former analyst with Housing and Community Development, allegedly steered $1.6 million in contracts to mow vacant lots to family and friends over a seven-year period. Half of the lots were being mowed by the city or next-door neighbors.
The only countywide elected office on the ballot in 2020 will be a race without an incumbent if Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton does not seek re-election.
The City Council gets its first detailed look Tuesday at a Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division rate hike proposal and talks with Mayor Jim Strickland about next steps in restoring benefits to police and firefighters.
City council members got their first look at not only the MLGW budget that includes rate hikes but the efficiency study that is being used to leaven the impact of the rate hikes. The council reviews all of it again in two weeks and could also vote at the Nov. 19 council session.
With three meetings left in the four-year term of office of city council members, and at least four new council members coming January, the council is lining up several items for action by the end of 2019.
A new interactive city website offers a deeper dive into city government data.
Within days of General Sessions Court Clerk Ed Stanton telling his staff he would not seek re-election, one county commissioner has filed a petition for the clerk’s job.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris said on "Behind The Headlines" he would veto an attempt by the county to take a share of the revenue from a city sales tax hike approved by voters to restore fire and police benefits.
A Thursday forum on a consent decree forbidding political surveillance by Memphis police, and the city's request to modify it, drew plenty of concerns.
Planning and Development director John Zeanah talks about carbon emissions goals for the city, why the bus rapid transit corridor to come will be a different kind of bus ride and the climate change debate.
The five voting locations in two runoff city council races open Saturday for the last day of early voting. Election day is Nov. 14.
Planning and Development Director John Zeanah said on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that federal funding announced this week for the Downtown-University of Memphis corridor promises to change the image of public transit in the city.