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 4048 articles by Bill Dries :
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.
For the first time since Feb. 18, the Mississippi River at Memphis is expected to go below flood stage sometime Friday.
The $5 million Cossitt Library renovation could get started later this spring, with an emphasis on spaces for gathering and creativity within the walls of the city's first library.
Memphis City Council members met Tuesday in Chattanooga with Tennessee Valley Authority officials.
Despite the high hopes of some for the proposed Memphis 3.0 land use and development plan, there are some basic concerns and some criticism about how the land use and development guidelines will be used.
The Mueller report hasn’t been released publicly, but local representatives in the U.S. House and Senate have differing views based on what they know about it.
Retired Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Janice Holder has been appointed to mediate talks between Memphis in May International Festival and the Memphis River Parks Partnership over plans to redesign Tom Lee Park.
Archaeologist Guy Weaver wants to make sure the city's past is not lost in developing for the future.
With small gatherings and fundraisers, the 2019 Memphis City Council races are coming to life. But the contenders are still watching each other closely to see which races get crowded before they put it in writing.
City Housing and Community Development director Paul Young says the $1 billion Union Row project is a direct result of the city's efforts to leverage federal and city funding in the South City area, stretching from the south area of Downtown into South Memphis.
Several new events around the city into November offer those outside Memphis a glimpse of the city's creative and innovative future as a welcome mat to the Memphis experience, including its struggles.
Memphis City Council member Joe Brown is running for City Court clerk.
Mayor Jim Strickland will propose 3 percent raises for commissioned Memphis firefighters and police officers in the budget proposal he takes to the City Council next month.
In a largely symbolic gesture, Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi is taking back its endorsement of Democratic state Representative Joe Towns of Memphis in last year's primary and general elections because of Towns' recent vote in favor of the “fetal heartbeat” bill.