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 3909 articles by Bill Dries :
The Memphis In May International Festival is calling off the Beale Street Music Festival in May as the Memphis City Council considers urging a Christmas week “safer at home” order.
The Memphis City Council will consider asking health officials for another lockdown just before Christmas, but suburban mayors adamantly oppose such action.
Several dozens activists and organizers working for Democratic candidates in the 2020 elections have drafted a “roadmap to renewal” for the state party. A Memphis organizer talks about the roadmap on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. The recommendations come as the party prepares to elect a new statewide leader in January.
The commission is taking final votes on an ordinance that would let Shelby County Health Department levy fines for COVID violations, and a requirement for Shelby County Sheriff’s Department to get commission approval to acquire surplus military equipment and weapons.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee again refused to order a statewide mask mandate Sunday, Dec. 20, instead ordering a statewide limit on indoor public social gatherings of no more than 10 people excluding homes and churches.
A revised health directive released Monday, Dec. 21, by the Shelby County Health Department is better than a draft leaked to the media earlier, suburban and county leaders say, but still causes some concerns. Related story: New, restrictive health directive out, effective Dec. 26
Shelby County commissioners voted Monday, Dec. 21, to support a health department directive announced earlier in the day and, in a separate vote, to give the health department the authority to cite and fine business owners for violating the directive.
The delay in the final vote on requiring County Commission approval for the sheriff to acquire surplus military hardware came after Sheriff Floyd Bonner complained he hadn’t been consulted. County Mayor Lee Harris disputed that assertion.
The council action wasn’t unanimous and it follows a split vote the day before by the Shelby County Commission expressing support for the countywide directive that takes effect the day after Christmas.
The National Civil Rights Museum is closed until further notice because of the new countywide health directive.
The city’s representatives in the U.S. Senate split on the bipartisan $900 billion package while the city’s two Congressmen both voted for the bill.
The last County Commission meeting of the year included important decisions on governing in a pandemic, with a path to nine votes through compromise and the fine print of the newest health department directive.
The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast offers a review of the year 2020 centered on four major events. Three of the four were national in scope. The fourth is a local story that has broad implications for the gap between aspirations and the reality of governing.
The Daily Memphian City Council Scorecard tracked 48 key council decisions in the current council’s first year in office. These are five significant decisions made that promise to have an impact on what happens in 2021.
The two Republican U.S. senators representing Tennessee have not commented on the override of the Defense Authorization Act veto by Trump or the move to boost stimulus checks from $600 to $2,000 per person.
From an ongoing budget battle to police reform and new voting machines, these are five critical votes by the Shelby County Commission in 2020 as chronicled in The Daily Memphian’s County Commission Scorecard.
The two Republicans are part of a group of 11 Republican Senators and Senators-elect who are calling for a Congressional investigation and audit of presidential election results in battleground states won by President-elect Joe Biden.
The first online council meeting of the year comes with some changes in committee chairmanships and votes on down-zoning two parts of Summer Avenue as well as new penalties for illegal street racing.
The museum has been closed to the public during the COVID-19 pandemic while the Mud Island River Park has been open to visitors.
In the discussion with Memphis City Council members Tuesday, Jan. 5, the police director said he can’t carry out plans of a city task force to reopen several community policing centers given the pandemic. He got immediate pushback from several council members.
By a narrow 7-6 vote, the Memphis City Council has changed the default speed limit on city streets without speed limit signs from 30 miles an hour to 25 miles an hour.
With a virtual groundbreaking ceremony before Christmas, actual construction work began Tuesday, Jan. 5, on the Tom Lee Park project.
Grants for distressed businesses also got a share of the funding after a council debate. And the council mediated a call by a restaurant owner to MLGW to work out payment plans with the industry.
Harris took the proposal for grants of $1,000 per qualified worker to commission committee sessions Wednesday, Jan. 6.