Bill Dries
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 1628 articles by Bill Dries :
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October 2018
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City of Memphis When the first day of early voting in advance of the Nov. 6 election day had ended Wednesday, Shelby County election commissioner Norma Lester offered her verdict on how it went with a brief Facebook post. “Don’t know any other way to say it except the first day of Early Voting was absolute HELL!” she wrote. “Hoping for a better Second day.” -
City of Memphis Ballot Basics: Memphis’ three city charter referendums
Here are the three city charter amendment referendums on the Nov. 6 ballot in Memphis in the order that they appear on the ballot. -
Business City panel begins closer look at economic development fees
The city committee trying to build a better way of pursuing economic development will meet later this month with the two organizations that play the major roles in the existing system – the Greater Memphis Chamber and the Economic Development Growth Engine. -
Business Chamber leaders talk public policy and private competition
Public policy and competition in the business world can co-exist with business taking the lead in creating new jobs, says one of the new set of leaders of the Greater Memphis Chamber. -
City of Memphis Fairgrounds TDZ plan goes to Nashville next month
Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland's administration will take its Tourism Development Zone plan for the Fairgrounds to the Tennessee Building Commission for approval next month. -
City of Memphis ‘Drafting error’ in term limits question draws fire from Herenton
A “drafting error” in the city referendum that would extend city council and mayoral term limits from two consecutive terms to three would bar former Memphis mayor Willie Herenton from running for mayor again in 2019. -
City of Memphis Freedom Awards match turbulence of 1968 with today
Former Vice President Joe Biden told several thousand people at the National Civil Rights Museum Freedom Awards Wednesday, Oct. 17, that the gains made by the movement honored in the museum are “under siege.” “Once again, we need your energy,” Biden said as he accepted the award at the Orpheum theater. -
Shelby County Shelby County Election Commission sifts through incomplete voter forms
The Shelby County Election Commission won’t finish entering a flood of approximately 24,000 voter registration applications onto voter rolls by the time early voting starts Wednesday, Oct. 17. -
City of Memphis Early voting in Shelby County opens in midterm elections
Shelby County voters begin casting ballots in the last election of 2018 Wednesday, Oct. 17, as early voting opens before the Nov. 6 election day. The 27 early voting sites across Shelby County are all open from Wednesday through Nov. 1. The midterm general election cycle typically sees a higher turnout than the August county general and state and federal primary elections. -
City of Memphis Jackson: Midterms about ‘mood to fight back’
Rev. Jesse Jackson knows the National Civil Rights Museum well. The two-time Democratic presidential contender, close associate of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and leader of the merged civil rights groups Rainbow-PUSH has been there often since the museum opened in 1991. -
City of Memphis Riverfront survey finds support for Riverside Drive lane closures
Additional parking along Riverside Drive, better access to the riverfront and improved safety are more important than keeping the Downtown thoroughfare at four lanes, a new survey for the Memphis River Parks Partnership shows. -
City of Memphis Rhodes Democratic and Republican leaders push issues
When Jess Gaughan spoke last month at the start of an aborted debate that became a forum for Democratic Senate nominee Phil Bredesen at Rhodes College, the leader of Rhodes' Democrats didn’t get the same attention she might have. -
City of Memphis November ballot questions join long line in last decade
Voters in Shelby County have decided 52 referendums in the last decade of elections, from wine sales in food stores to the formation of suburban school systems to amendments to the Tennessee Constitution. -
City of Memphis Memphis firehouses start pilot foster dog program
Two Memphis fire stations are fostering dogs in a pilot program with Memphis Animal Services that is drawing inquiries from other fire departments and requests from other firehouses in the city. The stay at the fire stations could be two to three weeks before the dogs are transported to other cities for adoption there. -
Breaking News
MetroSenate confirms Norris as federal judge
Tennessee state Senate Republican leader Mark Norris of Collierville was confirmed Thursday, Oct. 11, as a federal judge for the Western District of Tennessee. -
City of Memphis Sierra Club rips Bellefonte Nuclear proposal
The Tennessee chapter of the Sierra Club says a proposal to end Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division’s ties to the Tennessee Valley Authority and instead buy electricity from a renovated Bellefonte Nuclear Plant in Alabama is “pie in the sky.” -
City of Memphis Kyle rules charter referendums stay on November ballot
Questions on three city charter changes will stay on the Nov. 6 ballot. Shelby County Chancellor Jim Kyle denied Thursday a legal motion by critics of the referendums to remove them from the ballot as misleading and in violation of state law. -
City of Memphis Bellefonte plan swims in political currents
Memphis City Council members never got a chance to see the video made by backers of a move to make a renewed Bellefonte Nuclear Plant the major supplier of electrical power to Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division. -
City of Memphis Bellefonte-powered MLGW pitch generates doubts, questions
The former chief operating officer of the Tennessee Valley Authority wants Memphis Light Gas and Water Division to drop TVA as its electrical power supplier in five years. -
City of Memphis City Council approves New Bellevue development by Hein Park
Memphis City Council members approved a New Bellevue Baptist Church sanctuary and set of 17 single-family homes Tuesday, Oct. 9, on 4.6 acres of land on the border of the Hein Park subdivision. -
City of Memphis Kavanaugh protest mirrors ongoing national debate
A group of 50 protesters and a few dissenters outside the Peabody Place office building Downtown Monday evening played out the ongoing national debate over the Senate confirmation of U.S. Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh. And it came with a brief tug of war over a megaphone at the rally organized by Ama Ehrmann that drew leaders of the Indivisible Memphis organization. -
City of Memphis Council to discuss pending vacancies, rapid bus route, TBI investigations
Memphis City Council members could discuss the process of filling three upcoming vacancies on the body when they meet Tuesday, Oct. 9. -
City of Memphis Figures mark county’s voting population on eve of registration deadline
Shelby County registered 5,768 new voters from December 2017 to May 2018, according to the most current Shelby County Election Commission numbers. -
City of Memphis Arkansas levee trail open for October
The 73-mile Big River Levee Trail that runs between West Memphis and Marianna, Arkansas, is open to bikers and hikers for the month of October, the St. Francis Levee Board announced this week. -
City of Memphis Convention Center rebid benefits from more labor, different details
The city has changed some materials for interior and exterior renovations of the Memphis Cook Convention Center and is benefiting from a slower pace of construction that had put a higher labor cost on the $175 million project.
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