Reporter
Bill Dries covers city government and politics. He is a native Memphian and has been a reporter for more than 40 years.
There are 1437 articles by Bill Dries :
Those maintaining the city's flood counter measures said the March flooding at Memphis tested the system and the system passed. But they also said the frequency of high water requires vigilance.
The effort to map breaches in the clay layers protecting the city's underground water supply will also include longer-term goals like the best placement of wells and how the aquifers move.
As Explore Bike Share marks its first year in May, City Hall will weigh proposals by the nonprofit, two electric scooter shared mobility companies and any other companies that want permanent city permits to operate within Memphis.
Loews says it is moving ahead with a hotel in Civic Center Plaza across from City Hall. Meanwhile, THM indicated Friday it intends to turn the 100 North Main building into a 500-room hotel.
The former mayor drew several hundred people to southwest Memphis as his opens his challenge of incumbent mayor Jim Strickland on the Oct. 3 city ballot.
The interfaith gathering came 51 years to the day of the original gathering. Rev. James Lawson, who spoke at the original Memphis Cares, said Sunday Memphis can be "a different kind of city a generation from now."
The balloting among party leaders Saturday appears to be a choice between Michael Harris and state Sen. Raumesh Akbari after state Rep. London Lamar withdrew Thursday.
Harris was unopposed and by a narrow vote got the majority needed after answering lots of questions about the recent suspension of his law license. The vote also included lots of evidence of different factions within the party that was reformed in 2017.
Richard Halliburton, a Memphis adventure travel writer from a past era, has turned up in a new series of spy novels as himself. The author researched Halliburton's life and his journals at the Rhodes College Halliburton archives.
The interim superintendent of Shelby County Schools said on Behind The Headlines that a plan to consolidate and relocate some schools on a massive scale should also be accompanied by better school programs and more academic offerings to students.
The landscape of considerations includes a close reading of the city charter, the role of a "balancing authority" and where the electric power comes from.
During the annual observance, civil rights veteran and icon Rev. James Lawson also talked about his invitation for King to come to Memphis in behalf of sanitation workers and the "politics of assassination."
The Downtown Memphis Commission is negotiating with the tour company it forced out of the W.C. Handy House in February, while the musician's family continues to push for changes after years of complaints the property is being ignored.
The Democratic state Representative got into the race just before a Wednesday deadline for nominations as another contender dropped out and a contender who stayed in the race faces questions about a suspended law license. The party's grass roots council makes its decision Saturday.
The People’s Convention, set for later this month to assemble a platform and back candidates in the 2019 Memphis elections, is being pushed back to later in the spring or early summer by organizers.
The Memphis City Council also delayed votes once again Tuesday on the first reading of the Memphis 3.0 plan and an agreement between the city and Graceland on Graceland expansion plans.
The City Council is scheduled Tuesday to take the first of three votes on the Memphis 3.0 plan and to vote on the agreement between the city administration and Graceland for further expansion of Graceland’s Whitehaven campus.
Explore Bike Share changes, effective Monday, are aimed at drawing more riders and making access to the bike system available to more citizens.
Shelby County Democratic Party chairman Corey Strong says local Democrats made a good start in the 2018 county elections, sweeping every countywide office on the ballot and improving the Democratic majority on the Shelby County Commission to eight seats.
Three Democratic state legislators from Memphis say on "Behind The Headlines" that the dollar figures in Gov. Bill Lee’s school voucher proposal aren’t enough to protect the per pupil funding to the public schools from which those children would exit.
The Saturday Shelby County Democratic Party convention is the first of two gatherings to elect the party's leadership for the next two years including a new party chairman to be elected at a later meeting.
The public becomes more willing to accept the four-page summary letter of the Mueller Report the longer it takes for the full report to be released, Democratic U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen said Friday during a town hall meeting.
Memphis City Council Chairman Kemp Conrad says the three-year goal of ending "street homelessness" could include a city shelter.
Tennessee education leaders can now track glitches with the revamped TNReady testing system in real time. But the state education commissioner says she still must decide whether to throw the switch or wait another year to resume online achievement tests.
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland has renewed talk of a “freshwater institute” on Mud Island to research the Memphis aquifer, which is the source of the city’s drinking water, and the Mississippi River.