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 4150 articles by Bill Dries :
No date has been set for the return to City Hall by the council but it comes as budget season approaches. Meanwhile, the city’s political scene remains active, as chronicled in The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast.
The seven flagpoles on the Mud Island River Park’s southern end were removed this week. The park, beloved as a memory that in some ways may be too faithful to its 1980s trappings, will get some much-needed maintenance this spring.
Corker surfaced as former President Donald Trump was leaving office, prompting speculation Corker may be looking at a presidential bid in 2024 or some other bid for elected office in the 2022 midterm elections.
The co-leaders of the countywide vaccination distribution effort talked on “Behind The Headlines” about a move this week to no appointments for some and why the federal vaccination presence at the Fairgrounds is unique.
Ashley Cash led the team that developed the comprehensive Memphis 3.0 plan that covers residential and commercial development across the city.
The $60 million capital campaign to remake Tom Lee Park reached the 80% mark Thursday, April 8, with $3.2 million in funding commitments from three health care corporations as well as AutoZone and First Horizon Foundation.
City also giving MATA riders free rides to Pipkin and making blocks of slots available to groups, including businesses.
The City Council voted Tuesday, April 6, to approve a consultant’s contract that is the next step leading to recommendations by the end of this year. But there was some dissent on the council before the vote.
On April 10, the city could terminate its contract with Waste Pro for poor service or determine that Waste Pro has made good on dealing with the backlog of trash. The council voted Tuesday calling on the administration to cancel the city’s contract.
City Council also endorsed a general plan for athletic fields by Christian Brothers University on 7 acres at the intersection of Avery Avenue and South Hollywood.
A timetable for the Fairgrounds conversion has the new youth sports complex opening in the fall of 2022.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland announced Monday, April 5, that he is appointing police Deputy Director Mike Ryall as interim director effective immediately.
The April 6, council session includes a vote on $75 million in revenue bonds for the Fairgrounds renovation as well as a vote on the $520,000 contract to explore alternatives to TVA as MLGW’s electric power supplier. And council members review a month of vocal complaints about trash pickup.
Memphis River Parks Partnership has city administration approval for a plan to slow traffic on Riverside Drive while keeping it open to auto traffic.
The river park’s closing last year due to the pandemic allowed Memphis Parks Partnership to save some money that is going into improvements, such as repairing the Riverwalk and resodding the south lawn.
Rev. Keith Norman of Baptist Memorial Health Care and Meritan CEO Melanie Keller talked about the vaccine outreach to the homebound and homeless on “Behind The Headlines.”
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, state Rep. Mark White acknowledges the bill doesn’t address many of the complexities of the local schools merger and demerger that kept the three namesake Germantown schools in the Shelby County Schools system.
Social justice group seeks to be part of the discussion and decisions about police reforms and the selection of the next Memphis Police director.
The Thursday, April 1, press release from the company is the latest salvo in an exchange between the city and the company that went public last week.
Tutor says the next local party chairman has a chance to win back countywide offices in 2022 that Republicans lost due to what Tutor says was the result of anti-Trump sentiment.
Six Cordova homeowners have filed a civil lawsuit against the city and MLGW seeking $38.8 million in damages for a group of 35,000 households.
The $520,000 consulting contract is a close but not exact match of the one the City Council rejected last October. The rejection stalled the process of considering an exit from TVA by six months. The new contract goes to the council for approval next week with price estimates due by the end of this year.
A February exchange of letters between County Mayor Lee Harris and County Commission Chairman Eddie Jones shows there are difficult questions about whether the legislative duties of Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. should be limited when he hasn’t been charged with a crime.
If approved by the Memphis City Council, Carolyn Watkins would fill the vacancy created by the January death of City Court Judge Teresa Jones.
Better weather and a relentless barrage of complaints about garbage piling up seem to have been the breaking point in the city’s relationship with Waste Pro USA. The chairman of the City Council said it felt like the private waste company was “stringing us along.”