City of Memphis
Long-awaited Riverdale clerk’s office quietly doing business
The long-awaited and discussed office of the Shelby County Clerk at 3785 Riverdale Road opened this week after many delays.
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 4078 articles by Bill Dries :
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June 2023
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City of Memphis -
Arts & Culture ‘Young Rock’ cut short: NBC cancels Memphis-based TV show
After three seasons — the last filmed entirely in Memphis — Dwayne Johnson’s NBC sitcom “Young Rock” ends.
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City of MemphisConservancy could save Mid-South Coliseum
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.
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Elections Bonner makes first mayoral forum appearance as crime, change dominate discussion
The forum at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church drew nine candidates and a crowd of more than 100 Thursday, June 8.
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Shelby County Criminal Court backlog measures OK’d, two-year reappraisals stayed
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.
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Shelby County Harris: Property-tax hike may be next for Regional One rebuild
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.
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Shelby County Shelby County Commission votes down wheel-tax hike twice in one night
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.
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State Government Lee says state needs to move faster on highway projects
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.
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Gov. Lee talks drag law court ruling, Sen. Hagerty talks debt ceiling vote
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Metro I-55 bridge will close this weekend
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.
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Shelby County Halbert touts ‘soft opening’ Tuesday of clerk’s Riverdale office
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.
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State Government Gov. Lee talks drag law court ruling, Sen. Hagerty talks debt ceiling vote
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.
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City of Memphis Political Roundup: Whitehaven mayoral ‘meet and greet’ and special early voting
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.
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Shelby County Wheel tax hike proposal rolls or goes flat with critical Monday vote
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.
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Behind The Headlines Behind the Headlines: County Commission chair counts votes on wheel-tax hike
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.
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State Government D.C. Scorecard: Raising the debt ceiling and a move to block student loan forgiveness
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.
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North Memphis ‘Super Bowl’ renovation of Frayser stadium to begin this month
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.
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Shelby County New push for two-year property reappraisals
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.
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City of Memphis Memphis Parks’ outdoor pools set to open Saturday
The City of Memphis pushed back the opening of its public pools a week this summer, partly due to a nationwide lifeguard shortage.
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May 2023
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City of Memphis Political Roundup: Young opens HQ in Poplar Plaza, Wharton on name recognition
Mayoral contender and Downtown Memphis Commission president Paul Young drew a crowd of around 150 Saturday, May 27, to his campaign headquarters at Poplar Plaza — the first among the contenders.
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City of MemphisCity Council Scorecard: Changing the city court clerk and tabling residency
The council scorecard looks at two key votes at the May 16 council session, both on issues connected to the October Memphis ballot.
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Behind The Headlines Behind the Headlines: Reporter’s roundtable discusses Greenlaw Community Center
The change in position on enforcing a youth curfew and how Greenlaw Community Center might figure into that is among the topics discussed on a “Behind The Headlines” reporter’s roundtable.
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Elections Herenton kicks off mayoral bid with emphasis on experience, crime
Former Mayor Willie Herenton’s seventh bid for mayor is being framed as a reelection effort and relies heavily on his experience as the longest serving mayor in the city’s history.
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Public Safety FBI confirms search warrant for Ford family home
The Federal Bureau of Investigation served a court-authorized search warrant at an address associated with Shelby County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. Thursday morning.
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City of Memphis 25 contenders pull October election petitions on opening day
If the last two city elections are any guide, the opening day total for qualifying petitions will be about a third of those who ultimately file for the 15 city offices by the July 20 deadline.
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Elections Candidates for 2023 Memphis city elections start pulling petitions to run
The opening day crowd to get petitions at the Election Commission’s Downtown office had a few surprises, a party bus and even some camaraderie among competing candidates.
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