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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 3665 articles by Bill Dries :
The bill follows a City Council decision late last year to remove a referendum question that would have allowed Memphis police and firefighters to live outside Shelby County.
The protest of several dozen along the Poplar Corridor came before the aborted attempt in Washington D.C. to certify the Electoral College results that ended in violence.
Here is the latest from the city’s representatives in the U.S. House and Senate.
The House and Senate kept late hours, resuming the Electoral College certification after a violent protest shut down the process into Wednesday evening. The session continued until just before dawn Thursday.
The Shelby County Commission votes Monday, Jan. 11, on the proposed $2.5 million fund drawn from county reserves.
Former local Democratic party Chairman Corey Strong, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the Georgia model of bringing activists and organizers into the state party machinery will take time — probably six to 10 years to take Tennessee from red to purple.
The Daily Memphian’s City Council Scorecard opens the new year with two council decisions — one on a familiar issue in council discussions. The other is a close vote on a lower speed limit.
Dr. Stephen Threlkeld, one of the city’s leading experts on the COVID-19 virus, says state and local officials need to figure out a vaccine pipeline that can keep the vaccine coming while not forgetting about the importance of testing.
The $8.6 billion waiver must be approved by the Tennessee General Assembly and sets a cap on TennCare funding with the state keeping a share of any savings if its spending comes in below the cap.
The commission votes Monday, Jan. 11, on a $1.2 million relief fund for restaurant workers. The fund’s fate could point the way toward a greater change in the priorities of county government called for by the Democratic county mayor and majority on the commission.
But the mayor says he is willing to work with the City Council and says the conflicting wording in two resolutions the council approved last month could “work together” to get more funding to public transportation, mobility and parking projects.
Republican commissioners said their “no” votes were because of concerns about the use of county reserves to create the $2.5 million fund. Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris is asking Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to reimburse the county funding with state money.
A proposal by Commissioner Tami Sawyer to require County Commission approval for any sheriff to acquire surplus federal military equipment was postponed.
Shelby County commissioners will meet in special session next week to vote on a transfer of $300,000 from the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office budget to the county attorney’s office.
Cohen, who was among the speakers during debate Tuesday, said: “It is the political equivalent of shooting somebody on Fifth Avenue and getting away with it.”
The city’s two U.S. House Representatives offered different perspectives on the accusation that President Donald Trump incited an insurrection that interrupted the Electoral College vote count with violence that killed five people one week ago. Related: Cohen, Kustoff go different ways on House 25th Amendment vote
The Daily Memphian tracking of significant County Commission votes marks the first meeting of the year with more than a few looks down the road to the spring budget season.
A crosswalk with the words Black Lives Matter would cross Cooper Street at Monroe Avenue near Hattiloo Theatre under a plan approved Wednesday, Jan. 13, by the Memphis Public Art Review committee.
The two mayors, in an extended interview on “Behind The Headlines,” say new vaccines that don’t require two doses or sub-zero refrigeration could work better for meeting the need countywide.
The Congressman from Germantown told The Daily Memphian he believes Trump’s remarks just before the Capitol insurrection fueled the violence that claimed five lives. Kustoff also indicated it might be time to change the Congressional Act that allowed the electoral college challenge he supported.
Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Scott Golden, on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, says the map to winning Tennessee may have changed with some suburban areas turning purple.
Hendrell Remus is the first Black chairman of the state party and a veteran political operative in Memphis who recently moved to Nashville. He got the votes for chairman Saturday on a pledge to shake the state Democratic Party from its traditional Nashville orientation to a more grass roots and statewide approach.
The Memphis Democrat took fire the day before the presidential inauguration for comments about the political leanings of National Guardsmen and an outspoken Republican Congresswoman from Colorado.
Kustoff announced Tuesday he will self-quarantine and continue working remotely.
Men and women who complete soft job skills programs backed by the city of Memphis will get a chance at jobs with the Kroger Delta Division Distribution Center.