MIM survey: Most barbecue teams want to move to Liberty Park
More than three-fourths of those who participated in an email survey said they want to move Memphis in May’s annual barbecue contest to Liberty Park.
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 3806 articles by Bill Dries :
-
October 2023
-
Downtown -
City of Memphis City Council considers bringing back runoff provision in mayor’s race
The council is still considering partisan city primaries for the 2024 ballot, but did not vote on any proposal Tuesday. Here’s a rundown of other council matters.
-
Shelby County County Commission to take final votes on police reform measures
Also on the commission agenda Monday, Oct. 2, are locations for a group of 30 surveillance cameras in the district of commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. One of the cameras is to be placed across the street from where he lives.
-
-
September 2023
-
Behind The Headlines Behind the Headlines: Program pushes pre-K for 2-year-olds from high-poverty areas
A year-old program to get children in poverty into pre-kindergarten classes earlier is part of a discussion on “Behind The Headlines” that took in larger questions.
-
Elections Four mayoral candidates spent $1.76M combined over summer
None of the other 13 Memphis mayoral candidates on the ballot were in six figures, but these four spent six-figure sums on their campaigns throughout the summer.
Related story:
Election season’s final act starts as curtain goes down on early voting
-
Elections Election season’s final act starts as curtain goes down on early voting
The last day of early voting is Saturday, Sept. 30, at 18 sites across the city. Next, the Oct. 5 election day will close out the campaigns for Memphis mayor and all 13 seats on the Memphis City Council.
-
Downtown Memphis 1968 glows in stained glass at Clayborn Temple
An ongoing renovation of the historic church was paused Thursday, Sept. 28, for a look at new stained-glass images of the city’s turmoil in the 1968 sanitation workers’ strike.
-
Premium
EducationChapter Six: The legacy of Plan Z busing that integrated Memphis schools
The sixth and final chapter of The Daily Memphian’s series on the 50th anniversary of court-ordered busing within Memphis City Schools looks at the end of busing for integration, the legacy of Plan Z and its impact on Memphis in the 21st century.
-
Premium
EducationChapter Five: The effects of Plan Z busing roll across Memphis
The latest chapter in The Daily Memphian’s oral history on the 50th anniversary of busing in Memphis City Schools moves into the years of the late 1970s and early 80s.
-
Elections Political Roundup: Early voting is up, as heat rises in mayoral, council races
More than 31,000 Memphians had voted early through Tuesday, Sept. 26, passing the totals for the same period during 2015 and 2019 city elections.
-
City of Memphis Memphis unveils $750 million fiber plan with goal of covering low-income areas
City would chip in $7 million to help low-income residents afford fiber — plus $15 million over 40 years to own part of the fiber’s capacity.
-
Premium
EducationChapter Four: Busing’s turbulent first year comes to a close
Memories of that first year under Plan Z still linger for those who lived through it.
-
Premium
EducationChapter Three: Plan Z busing begins
The third chapter of The Daily Memphian’s oral history marking the 50th anniversary of busing in Memphis City Schools covers the arrival of Plan Z, the comprehensive plan to bus 39,000 children to racially integrate most of the city’s public schools.
-
Premium
EducationChapter Two: Busing begins
This second part of The Daily Memphian’s oral history series marking the 50th anniversary of Plan Z begins with prophetic words from McRae’s December 1971 ruling that set the stage for Plan A’s implementation.
-
Premium
Education50 years after busing began, the area’s early school integration efforts are still shaping modern Memphis
Half a century ago this month, 39,000 Memphis children — about a third of the then-Memphis City Schools system — were told to board school buses and continue their education at new schools in an effort to racially integrate them.
Related story:
-
City of Memphis Strickland to propose new police review board, broadband plan
The proposals both go to Memphis City Council members Tuesday, Sept. 26, for discussion and could be added to the afternoon agenda for the first of three votes. The proposals come as Strickland has three months left in office.
-
Downtown ‘Fishing for lives': Tom Lee’s story told by Grammy-winning poet J. Ivy
J. Ivy has written and performed a new piece about Tom Lee to mark the opening of the redesigned riverfront park named in Lee’s honor. The work is the first in a series commissioned by the Mellon Foundation.
-
Behind The Headlines Mayoral candidate Bonner says he’d ‘bring a unique perspective’ to managing the police
The full “Behind The Headlines” interview with Shelby County Sheriff and mayoral contender Floyd Bonner Jr. includes the candidate saying his law enforcement background will directly affect his relationship with whoever he would appoint as police director.
-
Premium
NeighborhoodsWhitehaven Cold War relic gets historical marker
The underground fall-out shelter in the gated Lion’s Gate community was built in the early 1960s by Memphis radio and television pioneer Hoyt Wooten.
-
Public Safety Bonner claims Freeman video release was illegal and politically motivated
“That video should not have been released,” Bonner said in an interview on the WKNO-TV program “Behind The Headlines.”
-
fifth anniversary
MetroThe Daily Memphian writers share their favorite stories
The Daily Memphian celebrates its fifth anniversary by asking long-term writers to share a few of their favorite stories. Here are those stories and why the authors chose them, in their own words.
-
Elections 2020 letter feeds Kiel-Spinosa clash in District 5 council race
A 2020 open letter signed by more than 100 leaders of local nonprofits has become a flashpoint in the most expensive race for a city council seat on the Oct. 5 ballot.
-
City of Memphis Political Roundup: Early voting, a blue wave strategy and a sign removal blitz
The opening day of early voting in Memphis elections posts numbers closer to opening day in 2015 than 2019. Also in the round up, trying to apply a “blue wave” strategy to nonpartisan city elections.
-
Elections Herenton says city lacks ‘transformational’ mayor
Former Mayor Willie Herenton talks on “Behind The Headlines” about his bid to return as mayor, a recent discussion he had with millennials and his leadership of MPD.
-
Elections Early voting in Memphis city election begins Friday
Early voting begins Friday, Sept. 15, with a large field of 17 mayoral candidates.
Related story:
-