New rules for solar farms get rewrite by County Commission
The commission also killed an appeal by an Eads developer seeking to start on a multi-phase project and a tie-in to the City of Memphis sewer system.
Bill Dries
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 :
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April 2024
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Shelby County -
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City of MemphisYoung to take property-tax hike to City Council Tuesday
In addition to a property-tax hike, Mayor Paul Young is also expected to rearrange some city priorities in his first budget as mayor.
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Elections Political Roundup: Who’s running for school board and a colorful school voucher map
U.S. Rep. David Kustoff, R-Germantown, is also running unopposed in his August primary after the state GOP kicked perennial contender George Flinn out of the primary.
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Downtown Riverside Drive closes in preparation for Riverbeat
Tom Lee Park is expected to welcome its 500,000th visitor this month, eight months after its formal opening on the Labor Day weekend. The park closes next Sunday for the Riverbeat load-in, but will reopen partially between the music festival and the SmokeSlam barbecue contest.
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Shelby County County Commission to vote on holding Halbert to corrective action plan
While past votes on County Clerk Wanda Halbert’s office and its problems have been unanimous, Monday’s vote may not be. The commission also tries to take a final vote on changes to Shelby County Land Bank after delays.
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Visual Arts Memphis sanitation-strike scenes seen through stained glass
Lonnie Robinson, one of the artists who worked on new stained-glass images for Historic Clayborn Temple, talks on the “On The Record” podcast about bringing images of the 1968 sanitation-workers strike to the landmark’s windows.
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Behind The Headlines Reporters address what elements might add up to property-tax hike
A reporters roundtable on “Behind The Headlines” talks about Mayor Paul Young’s property tax hike proposal, new figures showing a drop in crime and first moves by the new MSCS superintendent.
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Transportation & Logistics TDOT asks for public input on new I-55 bridge
The separate I-55-Crump Boulevard roundabout currently under construction just east of the old Memphis-Arkansas Bridge got a lot of attention at the first public hearing on the new bridge, planned for just south of the existing one.
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EducationChronic absenteeism: Counting missing students in the Memphis area
The percentage of students who are chronically absent from schools jumped dramatically in Memphis from the 2018-19 school year to the 2022-23 school year. It’s a national trend that’s also seen in the area’s suburban schools.
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Chronic absenteeism: Myriad of issues keep MSCS students home
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EducationChronic absenteeism: Myriad of issues keep MSCS students home
Memphis-Shelby County Schools saw the percentage of its students considered “chronically absent” jump from 18.4% in the school year before the COVID-19 pandemic to 28.9% in the school year after the pandemic.
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City of Memphis Mayor Young to propose property-tax hike, says city faces $30M shortfall
“I think it’s time for us to step into a new reality,” he told a crowd of several hundred at Mount Vernon Baptist Church. “I’m going to ask for a tax increase.”
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Public Safety Leaders react to death of Memphis police officer Joseph McKinney
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and others respond to the death of the Memphis police officer slain Friday, April 12 in the line of duty.
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Memphis Police officer killed in the line of duty: What we know
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Downtown SmokeSlam barbecue contest announces music lineup, opens ticket sales
St. Paul and the Broken Bones will headline the inaugural SmokeSlam barbecue contest. The lineup also includes rap, rock and funk.
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Downtown Riverside Drive to close — but Tom Lee Park will stay open — during most of May
Riverside Drive closes, as it has for decades, on April 22. But Tom Lee Park will be partially open between the Riverbeat and SmokeSlam events in May.
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City of MemphisLichterman Nature Center moves to private control with ‘Discovery Forest’
The East Memphis nature center’s new area is designed for unstructured play. Meanwhile the museum system overseeing Lichterman and several other several other city-owned attractions continues to move toward a private board and day-to-day control.
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Shelby County County Commission approves funding for mental health diversion center, jail study
County commissioners approved $18.6 million in funding to plan and build the diversion center. The jail study was an easier call at $250,000. The separate votes on the two projects came with very different timelines and expectations.
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City of Memphis Proposed public-safety foundation gets support from Young, Davis
Mayor Paul Young and Interim Chief C.J. Davis support a Memphis City Council ordinance to create a philanthropic and research foundation that would take private donations and put them toward the city’s public safety efforts.
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Public Safety Memphis looks to mirror Atlanta public safety office
The council move comes as Mayor Paul Young prepares to fill the newly created position of city public safety director. Meanwhile, Young takes some changes in the current city budget to the council Tuesday, April 9, which may be clues to his budget for the new fiscal year.
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Shelby County County Commission weighs new jail study, mental health diversion facility — or both
The study would cost $250,000, and the new center $18.6 million. County Mayor Lee Harris meanwhile has said the diversion center is a more immediate priority that could help with conditions in the current jail.
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City of Memphis MLK’s son calls for ‘a higher road’ from balcony where his father died
Fifty-six years to the day of his assassination, Martin Luther King Jr.’s son stood on the balcony where his father was fatally wounded in 1968 and talked about the movement King led in the here and now.
Related story:
MLK III says current times and painful memories bring him to Memphis
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Behind The Headlines As college-age population falls, Hardgrave says U of M competing with companies like Amazon
President Bill Hardgrave wants to make the U of M “the most transfer-friendly university in the country.”
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Elections Who’s running in Tennessee’s U.S. Senate, House primaries
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn and Rep. David Kustoff, both Republicans, and Democratic Rep. Steve Cohen all face challengers in the August primaries as well as the November general election.
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Elections School board races busy at filing deadline for August ballot
The April 4 deadline to get on the August ballot saw action in races for five seats on the school board. In primaries for Shelby County state legislative seats, four incumbents won reelection at the deadline.
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City of Memphis MLK III says current times and painful memories bring him to Memphis
The son of Martin Luther King Jr. returns to Memphis on the anniversary of his father’s assassination for the National Civil Rights Museum’s annual commemoration.
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City of MemphisBlackburn talks legislation, bail reform and ‘soft-on-crime’ cities
U.S. Sen. Marsha Blackburn was in Memphis Wednesday and talked with The Daily Memphian about crime, a proposal she is sponsoring to strip federal funds from cities with a no-cash bail policy and whether Memphis is a “soft-on-crime” city.
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