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 3662 articles by Bill Dries :
Janet Hooks, the county commission’s special adviser to Clerk Wanda Halbert, also says the commission should restore $1 million in funding to Halbert’s office that it cut earlier so she can fill positions with new employees instead of moving existing employees around.
Here are a few ways to track who is running for which office during this busy campaign season.
The plan voted down would have created a Cordova-centric council district. The defeat leaves in place a set of minimal changes ahead of the October Memphis ballot where nine of the 13 council members are seeking re-election.
The council also takes a final vote on “party bus” regulations and gets a look at a long-term lease of the new Leftwich Tennis Center with the University of Memphis.
Four county commissioners — two from each political party — met Sunday, June 11, with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris for four hours. They came up with a compromise that has a wheel-tax hike back in play after it was rejected by the commission earlier this month. But property tax hikes are also in play.
The D.C. Scorecard shows partisan lines still intact among the city’s four representatives on the espionage indictment against Donald Trump. Also, Cohen talks Memphis to Nashville Amtrak service, while Kustoff talks workforce at Le Bonheur.
Former Shelby County Commissioner Sidney Chism’s annual summer political picnic returned June 10. It was also the last day of early voting for the special primary elections in state House District 86. And Martin Luther King III came through Memphis last week in a summer bus tour across the country.
The long-awaited and discussed office of the Shelby County Clerk at 3785 Riverdale Road opened this week after many delays.
After three seasons — the last filmed entirely in Memphis — Dwayne Johnson’s NBC sitcom “Young Rock” ends.
The conservancy is the latest in efforts to return the Coliseum to use after it was mothballed by the city 16 years ago. It is the first proposal since Mayor Jim Strickland called for the Coliseum’s demolition to make way for a new $52 million, 10,000-seat soccer stadium.Related story:
The forum at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church drew nine candidates and a crowd of more than 100 Thursday, June 8.
Here’s a roundup of some other items on Monday’s Shelby County Commission agenda, which was overshadowed by budget deliberations and votes on the wheel-tax hike.
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris talks about the defeat of his wheel-tax proposal on The Daily Memphian’s “On The Record” podcast and has harsh words for Shelby County Commissioners.
The proposed wheel-tax hike, to fund the rebuilding of Regional One Health’s campus and new Frayser and Cordova high schools, fell two votes short of the nine votes needed. It was then one vote short in a late attempt to keep the funding option alive.
Lee and a group of around 30 elected officials, TDOT employees and construction workers stood near the Crump Boulevard overpass, which is where a new roundabout is being built. The project has been talked about in some shape or another for more than 20 years. Gov. Lee talks drag law court ruling, Sen. Hagerty talks debt ceiling voteRelated story:
The multi-year project includes the construction of a new roundabout and is designed to allow I-55 traffic to avoid the “cloverleaf” at Crump.
Halbert has talked of opening a new clerk’s office on Riverdale Road since late last year. The “soft opening” means the office won’t be fully staffed.
Gov. Bill Lee and U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty talked about several topics, including the federal court ruling declaring the state’s ban on drag shows unconstitutional and the federal debt ceiling.
The field for Memphis is a contrast in terms of how the candidates are pacing themselves. The trick is not let rivals determine how you run. Meanwhile, lots of petitions in the mayor’s race and council races are out but few are filed at this point.
The $50 wheel tax hike on the County Commission agenda is key to Mayor Lee Harris’ plan to finance $350 million toward rebuilding the Regional One Health campus and building two new high schools.
Shelby County Commission chairman Mickell Lowery says on WKNO’s “Behind The Headlines” that he’s counting votes on a proposed wheel tax hike that faces a critical commission vote Monday, June 5.
The D.C. Scorecard tracks a rare crossing of partisan lines among the city’s representatives in Washington on the debt ceiling compromise. They voted along partisan lines on a Republican attempt to stop the Biden administration’s student loan forgiveness plan.
The stadium will be the first turf football field for the Memphis-Shelby Police Athletic League, with $500,000 in funding in place toward goal of $8 million.
A top aide to Shelby County Property Assessor Melvin Burgess says opposition to a two-year reappraisal cycle among the county’s seven mayors two years ago has changed as local governments take a revenue hit on sales ratio calculations.
The City of Memphis pushed back the opening of its public pools a week this summer, partly due to a nationwide lifeguard shortage.