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 4213 articles by Bill Dries :
An AmeriCorps team of eight is at Overton Park and Shelby Forest for a month to go after invasive plants just before spring arrives. Meanwhile, the Overton Park Conservancy has drawn some attention for some seasonal changes in the Old Forest after the recent rains.
Shelby County Republican Party chairman Chris Tutor says his conservative views expressed at a party convention Sunday are his own beliefs but don't reflect the platform of the local party as it rebuilds.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee made his second trip to the city in as many weeks to announce Tuesday JNJ Logistics will move its headquarters and expand in Parkway Village at the site of the old Delta Square shopping center.
An early look at Mayor Jim Strickland's still forming budget proposal to come in April shows in 2026 the city will be paying $40 million less in debt. Meanwhile, the budget plan will mark the city's final of five installments toward an annual pension liability payment estimated at around $78 million going forward.
The Mississippi River at Memphis is expected to crest at 41 feet next week, the fourth-highest level ever recorded on the Memphis gauge. Flood control measures move to checking levees starting Tuesday, with the river level well below the record 1937 flood and the 2011 flood.
Chris Tutor, the new chairman of the Shelby County Republican Party, says it will be hard to rebuild the local party after a Democratic sweep of county elections last year.
Josh Whitehead discusses the evolution of planning and development in Memphis on The Daily Memphian Politics podcast.
Former Memphis Mayor Willie Herenton takes a few jabs at current Mayor Jim Strickland, who says he loves the smell of freshly poured asphalt, as both hold campaign events on the same night. Meanwhile, developer Chase Carlisle says he will make a bid for a super district council seat as District 6 council contender Davin Clemons opens his campaign.
U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen of Memphis says despite differences over the capitol's Forrest bust, he has a better relationship so far with Republican Gov. Bill Lee than Lee's predecessor, Bill Haslam.
MLGW president and CEO J.T. Young says the utility will talk with some alternate electric providers as it weighs a long-range examination of ending or altering its 80-year relationship with TVA.
The city is taking 29 blighted properties to Environmental Court, and in some cases the defendant is the address of the property as the city seeks to find the real owner. The new provision in the state law allows the move, which sets the stage for the appointment of a receiver by the court.
The Memphis River Parks Partnership plan for a redevelopment of Tom Lee Park got a close look and lots of questions as well as a few suggestions from city council members this week.
Early voting is underway in the special general election for state Senate District 32. The district covers eastern Shelby County and all of Tipton County.
The Shelby County Election Commission will not appeal a state order barring the use of instant-runoff voting in the 2019 city elections. It is the last major decision of an election commission that is getting three new members.
The plan for multiyear MLGW gas, electric and water rate hikes was rejected Tuesday by the Memphis City Council. It's the second year the council has gone instead for smaller one-year rate hikes – this time a 3 percent hike in water rates starting next month.
The Memphis City Council gave final approval to the de-annexation of South Cordova Tuesday.
Russell Sugarmon, civil rights icon, political strategist and retired judge who fought racial injustice in his hometown of Memphis, dies at 89.
The last in a set of five de-annexations, South Cordova, goes to the Memphis City Council Tuesday for a final vote and probably more debate than the council had with the four other de-annexations.
Memphis City Council members will try again Tuesday to make a final decision on Memphis Light, Gas and Water Division's rate hikes in an atmosphere that has come to also include questions about the future of the utility’s 80-year relationship with the Tennessee Valley Authority.
A study commissioned by the environmental group Friends of the Earth charts a course for MLGW to sever its historic ties with TVA in five years without the cost of building new transmission lines for electric power from new sources.
The late Carroll T. Dozier, the first bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Memphis, is among 42 priests named this week by the Catholic Diocese of Richmond, Virginia, as having a "credible and substantiated" allegation of child sexual abuse against him.
Tennessee education commissioner Penny Schwinn makes stops at two Shelby County High Schools just days after taking the state's top education post.