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 :
University of Memphis historian Beverly Bond says there are important differences between the contested presidential election of 1876 that ended Reconstruction and the contested 2020 election. But there are some broader connections between the reactions then and now.
The new Tennessee Democratic Party chairman says on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast that challenging Republican majorities in the Tennessee Legislature will take longer.
On “Behind The Headlines,” Doug McGowen, the city’s chief operating officer, and Dr. Jon McCullers of UTHSC said multiple plans to vaccinate more than 600,000 people in Shelby County are ready to be used and adjusted to roll with the circumstances.
The plan was outlined in a Thursday State of the City speech by Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland. Strickland also outlined two violent crime intervention programs.
The resolutions were discussed as commissioners watched the presidential inauguration while working through committee agendas. The full commission votes on the matters Monday.
Sawyer wants to examine the ground rules for awarding the most-used tax incentive in Memphis economic development and the results of past or ongoing PILOTs.
In a brief special meeting Wednesday, Jan. 20, Shelby County commissioners approved a $300,000 transfer of funds to pay legal expenses in a wrongful death lawsuit.
The criminal complaint alleges Robinson and two others swindled money from someone who thought he was paying tuition to attend Robinson’s health care school.
Here are the moves the city’s four representatives in Washington, D.C. have made in the historic gap between certifying the Electoral College vote and Wednesday’s inauguration, with a Capitol insurrection in between and plenty of political volatility still around. Related story: Cohen draws fire for National Guard questions and Boebert sighting
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.
Kustoff announced Tuesday he will self-quarantine and continue working remotely.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
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
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.”
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.
A proposal by Commissioner Tami Sawyer to require County Commission approval for any sheriff to acquire surplus federal military equipment was postponed.
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.
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.
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.