Reporter
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 3662 articles by Bill Dries :
It's been a month since a county government budget was approved for the fiscal year that began July 1. But until that detailed budget is printed in black and white, there is still some wrangling underway, some distrust and the hiring freeze the county imposed may be melting.
Taking a question about past criminal convictions off the county's job application involves a set of complex rules for hiring those with a criminal past. The new ordinance pushes the consideration to later in the hiring process.
Officials hope to process absentee voting applications the same day they arrive up to Thursday's deadline to apply. Meanwhile, in-person early voting continues through Saturday, Aug. 1, at 26 locations. Election day is Aug. 6.
Also on the agenda for Monday, July 27, is a vote on creating a county health board that commission Chairman Mark Billingsley is seeking to delay. And the commission elects a new chair for the next year as it nears the two-year mark of its current four-year term.
Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter's county health board proposal is drawing some resistance from suburban leaders who want to know more about its powers. The last county health board was abolished in 1909 and was no stranger to controversy.
On The Daily Memphian Politics Podcast, the County Commission chairman says the differences between the two don't appear to extend to the rest of the commission. Mark Billingsley also said he hopes to move to lift the county hiring budget freeze once there is a reconciliation of the budget approved by the commission last month after rejecting Mayor Lee Harris's original proposal.
Two local leaders in the pandemic fight said on "Behind The Headlines" there would be a stronger-than-usual push for flu vaccinations. Shelby County Health Department Director Alisa Haushalter also said the role of schools in the pandemic makes reopening them – virtually or in person – an important part of battling the virus.
The council's Glenview cell tower vote and a series of Black Lives Matter proposals setting the stage for some renamings of public places are the latest entries in our ongoing scorecard of council roll call votes.
The turnout totals from the Shelby County Election Commission also show the first indications of a massive absentee voter turnout as election officials expect to catch up to a backlog of absentee applications by Friday.
Hargett called for more federal funding for election procedures in the pandemic without Washington putting any conditions on state election officials in the process. Lawmakers questioned him closely on the state's opposition to expanded absentee balloting even after it was ordered by a state court.
The reopening is one of several measures the city is announcing or considering this week in what looks like a new round of measures in the four-month-old pandemic
So far, the return by voters of the unusually high number of the mail-in ballots hasn't shown up in the early voting turnout figures. Shelby County Elections Administrator Linda Phillips told county commissioners Wednesday, July 22, that some absentee voters may not complete their ballots because they are expecting to see the presidential general election that is on the November ballot.
Memphis City Council members voted down a new cell tower in the Glenview Historic District Tuesday, July 21, after objections from homeowners, including three council members.
The Poplar Avenue name change to Black Lives Matter Avenue will be among the items the renaming commission considers. The trio of related measures met with mixed results at Tuesday's Memphis City Council session. An ordinance to give the council final approval of any names changes of streets, parks and public places may get some legal rewording before its first of three votes next months.
The deadline to request an absentee ballot is July 30, so more ballot requests are on the way. Meanwhile, a total of 12,314 Shelby County voters have cast their ballots -- absentee and through in-person early voting -- in the first three days of the period that runs through Aug. 1. Election day is Aug. 6.
Two proposals on the city council agenda Tuesday would change the rules for naming and renaming streets, parks and other places. It's part of a slate of council proposals that has grown larger than police reform to include changing city government priorities. The effort is being led by a renaming of one of the most well-known addresses in the city.
The responses from candidates in the five school board races on the Aug. 6 ballot got lively during two forums sponsored by Chalkbeat Tennessee and the social justice organization MICAH.
Mauricio Calvo’s withdrawal accented the opening day of early voting in Memphis. Preliminary numbers show more than 5,000 people voted early Friday. In getting out of the District 5 school board race, Calvo cited his duties as executive director of Latino Memphis and the disproportionate impact the COVID-19 pandemic is having on Latino Memphians.
During the half-hour online event Friday evening, Trump called Tennessee's Republican Senate primary "a real primary" -- an apparent reference to the tightening race between the former U.S. ambassador to Japan and Dr. Manny Sethi of Nashville.
Here are the basics you need to know in order to vote early and make sure your ballot has all of the races it is supposed to have, including district races.
More than 13,000 Shelby Countians had requested absentee ballots through Wednesday.
Early voting across Shelby County in advance of the Aug. 6 election date resumes Monday, July 20, after the first two days drew nearly 8,000 voters.
The restored columns of the circa 1840s Pillow-McIntyre House at Adams and Orleans were reinstalled last week, signalling at turn in fortunes for a sometimes forgotten house with some secrets.