City combines regular and recycled garbage pickup to deal with COVID absences
The city estimates a quarter of solid waste crews have the COVID virus and are in quarantine.
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 3900 articles by Bill Dries :
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December 2020
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City of Memphis -
Shelby County Statewide mask mandate and Medicaid expansion top county commission agenda
The commission also votes on funding for a public health coordinator’s position at the Shelby County Health Department as part of the ongoing discussion about the county’s pandemic response.
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Podcast
ElectionsAlexander Exit Interview: Trump’s influence on GOP will continue
Sen. Lamar Alexander also said President Donald Trump has a record to be proud of during the interview on The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast. And he said he carried Memphis in his five statewide general election wins by campaigning everywhere in the county, not just the Republican suburbs.
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Metro One lane of Riverside each way closed for start of cut-bank construction
The cut-bank bluff design is the first of the changes to Tom Lee Park and the surrounding area Downtown by the Memphis River Parks Partnership.
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State Government DeBerry to be adviser to governor
The veteran state legislator will have an office on Capitol Hill in Nashville as part of the governor’s cabinet.
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City of Memphis For Terri Lee Freeman, leaving rights museum ‘a personal decision’
National Civil Rights Museum president Terri Lee Freeman is leaving in February to lead a museum in Baltimore. She arrived at the helm of the museum just as the city’s new activism began to surface.
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City of Memphis Food Bank CEO: We’ve seen people who’ve ‘never been in a food line’
Leaders of the Metropolitan Inter-Faith Association and Mid-South Food Bank talked on “Behind The Headlines” about how the pandemic has changed their distribution models.
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City of Memphis City Council Scorecard: Masks, decorum, bottled water and lobbying
The next-to-last council meeting of the year saw some votes change, the simple become complex and the obvious spelled out. There was also a rare slip that saw an item that appeared to fail win approval after all.
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Shelby County Haushalter grilled by commissioners about Curtis Givens’ party
Commissioners questioned the Health Department’s response to the tent party in Hickory Hill Saturday that drew hundreds of people. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter indicated there will probably be some changes but that there are limits on what her department can do. Later in the day there were some changes in that.
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Elections Alexander exits Senate with defense of filibuster, call for change
The senator from Tennessee told colleagues on the Senate floor Wednesday that being a senator is like “joining the Grand Ole Opry and not being allowed to sing.”
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City of Memphis Council bottled water resolution bobs back to surface
A voting miscue Tuesday was reversed Wednesday with the passage of the resolution that directs the mayor to draw up a plan to end the use of any city money to buy bottled water.
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Health Care City Council unites on statewide mask mandate
The council voted unanimously Tuesday to urge a statewide mask mandate, and several council members said their earlier vote against the city’s mask ordinance was wrong.
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City of Memphis City lobbying disclosure voted down by City Council
The measure by council member Chase Carlisle was one vote short of the seven needed. It failed after a council debate that included one council member remembering his own brush with corruption charges. Others argued the proposal was arbitrary and cumbersome.
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City of Memphis Decorum guide gets modest tweaking as council discovers limits of disciplining one of its own
Council Chairwoman Patrice Robinson said council members who behave badly, as council member Edmund Ford Sr. did two weeks ago, can’t be removed or suspended. And restoring order is “a question of judgment” by the chairperson.
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City of Memphis Task force recommends Memphis police number of 2,500
The number is smaller than the ranks of 2,800 previously pushed by Mayor Jim Strickland and Police Director Michael Rallings.
Related story: Survey seeks community input on next Memphis police director
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City of Memphis Council ethics complaint against Ford to be dropped
The outburst by City Council member Edmund Ford Sr. two weeks ago still raises questions about how to apply rules of conduct to elected council members. And it’s a discussion past councils have had about Ford and others on the body.
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November 2020
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Food Restaurateurs seek data and dialogue from Health Department
The Memphis Restaurant Association wants to know why the Health Department rules continue to change for restaurants, and calls for better communication from health officials.
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Shelby County Shelby County Commission Scorecard: Monterey Estates, reserves and Shelby Farms Park
The Commission Scorecard looks at three votes by the body on issues that were more complex than the vote totals might reflect, starting with four new homes in Capleville.
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Elections Certified vote count changes no outcomes, reflects 65% Shelby County turnout
The two closest races on the Nov. 3 ballot got a bit closer but with nearly 80% of the votes cast during early voting, Election Day was a mere 14% of the countywide turnout.
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Shelby County Health officials: New restrictions a compromise to head off holiday surge
A group of two dozen business owners were critical of the new restrictions, telling county commissioners they will destroy businesses already on the edge. Some argued they are worse than the problems posed by the virus. Meanwhile, the first vaccine shipments could arrive in mid-December.
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Elections Alexander to Trump: ‘People remember the last thing you do’
The Monday, Nov. 23 appeal to Trump is Alexander’s second in four days and came hours before the Trump administration signaled it will begin work on the transition with President-elect Joe Biden and his team.
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Shelby County County Commission may offer first reviews of pandemic restrictions
The Monday commission session also features a move toward a new disparity study in awarding county government contracts and a decision on increasing county funding to the conservancy that operates and maintains Shelby Farms Park on county land.
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Podcast
ElectionsVoter alliance uses familiar political tools for nonpartisan outreach
The Shelby County Voter Alliance is working after its debut effort in the presidential general election cycle to hold the interest of voters through 2021.
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City of Memphis Motion filed to begin process of moving Forrest remains
No location has been decided on for the re-interment, according to SCV leader Lee Millar. But court documents suggest the remains and equestrian statue of Forrest removed from Health Sciences Park could be bound for a new National Confederate Museum in Columbia, Tn.
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Elections Alexander says presidential transition should begin
The U.S. Senator from Tennessee says there’s a “good chance” Biden is the next president.
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