County Commission moves into budget season
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris has proposed a property tax rate for the new fiscal year that starts July 1 but the commission may leave the ordinance setting the new tax rate blank for now.
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 3845 articles by Bill Dries :
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May 2025
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Shelby County -
Metro Political Roundup: ‘Some of these devils want me to be gone,’ Ford Jr. said
Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr. calls out political rivals, campaigning for 2026 has already started and county budget hearings will be missing a lot of key people.
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Behind The Headlines Federal funding cuts accelerate uncertainty for Memphis nonprofits
The leaders of two local safety-net nonprofits are watching Washington as closely these days as they watch a long list of clients and the bank balance of their organizations.
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South Memphis Southwest Twin Drive-In redevelopment breaks ground
The old drive-in movie site in Southwest Memphis will have a police precinct and a public library with plans for private development modeled on the 5-year-old Raleigh Springs Town Centre.
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City of Memphis National Response Team heading to Clayborn Temple on Thursday
The Memphis Fire Department said it and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have been conducting “extensive off-site work, including detailed witness interviews and thorough video analysis.”
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Shelby County County Ethics Commission reactivation dies quick, quiet death
Commissioner Michael Whaley withdrew an ordinance that would have downsized the Ethics Commission in order to get the group to meet — something it hasn’t done in years.
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Shelby County Harris proposes lower property tax rate, $5 wheel tax hike
Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris says his budget proposal for the new fiscal year will reduce the county property tax rate by 20% and raise the county wheel tax by another $5.
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Shelby CountyFractured ties between Shelby County mayor, Commission could make budget season bumpy
The Shelby County government budget season opens Wednesday, May 14, in County Commission committee sessions. There is more than dollar figures and the county property tax rate at stake.
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MetroOn Tom Lee Day, poets embody his spirit and his home becomes historic
A century to the day that Tom Lee rescued 32 people from the Mississippi River, the Memphis hero was honored across the city. “To see a man that did so much so long ago still be recognized today — It’s awesome.”
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MetroCory Booker visits Memphis
The U.S. senator from New Jersey sat down for an exclusive interview with The Daily Memphian before delivering the commencement address to the University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law graduating class.
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North Memphis Tom Lee Centennial concludes with pop-up museum in Klondike
The museum on the larger history of the Klondike area is in an old bank building on Jackson Avenue, about a block from the house where Tom Lee lived the last 27 years of his life.
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City of MemphisI-55 roundabout partially opens to traffic, new bridge next
The $111 million roundabout near Downtown separates Interstate 55 traffic from local traffic and has been discussed for more than 15 years.
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: Tom Lee’s legacy
Tom Lee’s story endures because it has avoided the racial trip wires and political calculations of his time. It appeals to Memphians as part of a larger undercurrent in the city’s history.
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Metro The Making of a Hero: Overview of The Daily Memphian’s series on Tom Lee and the M.E. Norman
100 years after the M.E. Norman capsized and Tom Lee rescued 32 people, The Daily Memphian tells the story of the disaster, Tom Lee and how the story has faded and returned to prominence in recent years.
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City of Memphis City Council takes first step to rein in Downtown parking garages
The City Council tries to regulate Downtown parking garages and short-term rentals.
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: Tom Lee, E. H. Crump and race
The civic praise and pride in Tom Lee had its roots in political manipulation by white leaders. But Lee’s place in Memphis history has endured despite the daunting racism of the times in which he lived.
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Metro Noisy debate doesn’t deter County Commission from ethics vote
The vote brought to the surface deep differences the body has with Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, and one commissioner brought a plastic bag filled with house shoes.
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: After fading, Tom Lee’s story resurfaces
Forty years after he died, a group of descendants and others began to reassemble the scattered puzzle pieces of Tom Lee’s heroism.
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The Making of a Hero: The bend that took down the M.E. Norman riverboat
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: The bend that took down the M.E. Norman riverboat
The series of turns in the Mississippi River just south of Memphis has claimed boats before and was known for strong currents. It has changed in the century since the M.E. Norman capsized and sank to the river’s muddy bottom.
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Education County Commission to vote on putting all MSCS seats on ballot
The ordinance is possible because of a state law passed in the Tennessee Legislature this year that enabled local legislative bodies to do that in Shelby and Knox counties.
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City of Memphis Parking garage plan gets first Council vote
Memphis City Council members take the first of three votes Tuesday, May 6, on a proposal to fine the owners of Downtown parking garages who don’t maintain safety standards and pick up their trash.
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: What was happening in Memphis in May 1925?
Here’s a look at what was happening in Memphis in May of 1925 as an engineers’ convention, that included a riverboat cruise south on the Mississippi River, met in Downtown Memphis.
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What Calvin Coolidge told Tom Lee at White House
The Making of a Hero: What happened to Tom Lee after the river rescue
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: What happened to Tom Lee after the river rescue
When Tom Lee arrived on the Memphis riverfront May 9, 1925, the morning after that long night, he began encountering people who already knew his name and knew the bravery of what he’d done.
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Shelby County County ethics proposals could face ‘can of Raid’ and ‘house shoes’
Two ethics proposals return to the Shelby County Commission Monday. County Commissioner Edmund Ford Jr., who faces criminal charges himself, is accusing others of wrongdoing.
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MetroThe Making of a Hero: What Calvin Coolidge told Tom Lee at White House
A decade after the meeting, an unbylined column in The Commercial Appeal offered a reason behind Tom Lee’s decision to cut short his visit to the nation’s capital.
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