City Hall, County Government and political coverage for The Daily Memphian. Tweets are from reporter Bill Dries.

Memphis, Tenn.
Joined December 2010
"Now in those days, the Yankee dugout was behind third base; Not first base as it is now and as I'm passing Ty Cobb on the way in, he says to me: "You get in my way again, you fresh gusher, and I'll step on your face." I hadn't said a word to Cobb, and I still didn't. Hell, this is Ty Cobb. But Ruth, who was coming in from left field, wanted to know what Cobb had said. "Well kid," Ruth said, he called everybody kid: "The next time he come to bat call him a penny pincher." I'd never heard that word before, but just from the way everybody on the bench started to laugh I had a pretty good idea what it meant. What I didn't know was that Cobb had a reputation for being a very tight man with a dollar and had been ready to fight at the drop of a "Penny pincher" for years. Well naturally I can't wait for him to get up again so I can go to work on him and holy cow, he turns in the batter's box, pointing his finger, and the umpire has to restrain him. Now the game is over and the umpires don't have a care any more. Both clubs have to use the third-base dugout to get to the locker room, and Ty Cobb races over to cut me off. He's out to kill me, and I'm looking for a place to run because I am not about to tangle with Mr. Cobb. Finally, Babe came running in and put his arm around Cobb and he's kind of grinning at him and settling him down. "Now what are you going to do Ty? You don't want to hit the kid, do you?" And while Babe has his attention - boom - I'm up the stairs like a halfback and into the locker room." "Nice Guys Finish Last." Leo Durocher. Leo Durocher was a shortstop on two of the most famous World Series winners in history: The "Murderers’ Row" Yankees of 1928 and the "Gashouse Gang" Cardinals of 1934. Leo did not get along with Yankee great Babe Ruth. By the time Leo Durocher had broken into baseball, he was skilled at cheating in cards, hustling people and collecting debts. In 1925 he was playing in the minors with the Hartford A league club when Hartford Manager Paddy O’Connor caught him red handed with marked bills that he suspected his young shortstop would steal. Reports of missing money from other ball players pointed towards their young and brash shortstop. With his teammates wanting to beat him to a pulp, O’Connor insisted the Durocher remain with the club until the pennant race was over, with the promise that he’d get rid of him once the season ended. Hartford won and O’Connor kept his word, selling off Durocher to the Yankee organization for $12,000. Leo hated and humiliated Ruth and called him a dummy. Ruth claimed that Leo stole his watch, and bench jockeys for years would harass Leo by asking what time it was. "Jesus Christ why would I take a few bucks from him. If I was gonna steal from the fat guy, I would have stolen his Packard." Leo Durocher. Ruth called the good-field/no-hit Durocher the “All-American Out” and suggested that Leo become a switch hitter so he could bat .400, two hundred from each side of the plate. "Losing Leo Durocher was like losing either an old friend or an old enemy. You could take your pick." Bob Broeg at the time of Durocher’s death in 1991.
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Bill Dries DM retweeted
Paul McCartney and John Lennon in full leather, facing off with their guitars in Albert Marrion's studio in Wallasey, near Liverpool, on December 17, 1961. This was the Beatles' first professional photo session. Brian Epstein had just started managing the band and called Marrion, a local wedding and portrait photographer who had shot his brother Clive's wedding. Marrion later recalled that it was pouring with rain that Sunday morning, that John and Paul joked and laughed through most of the session, and that Lennon kept calling him "Curly." He took about thirty frames and threw out many because John and Paul were acting up and spoiling the pose. Seventeen photos survive, and one became the cover of Mersey Beat magazine in January 1962. George Harrison and drummer Pete Best were in the session too, just out of this frame. Two weeks later the band auditioned for Decca in London, and within a year Epstein had them out of leather and into suits, with Ringo Starr behind the kit. Photo by Albert Marrion. 🪲 Albert Marrion was a wedding photographer who only took the job as a favor to Brian Epstein. Do you prefer the leather-clad Beatles or the suited Beatles? 🪲
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Bill Dries DM retweeted
The rights holders of more than 250 Elvis Presley songs are suing the Claude chatbot creator.  Read more: dailymemphian.com/section/ar… ✍️ Story by Elle Perry 📷 The Daily Memphian
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Bill Dries DM retweeted
Trump, to an audience member: I love you too, darling. I have no idea where you are, but you sound good to me. Oh, there she is. I do love you, actually. I'll get myself into political trouble. They have beautiful women in Mississippi, I can tell you. We love you, Donald. They're so beautiful. It's crazy. But you know, I'm not allowed to say that a woman's beautiful because that's usually the end of your political career, so I will not say it. Excuse me for saying that you're beautiful, darling.
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County Commission meeting is adjourned at 6:09pm...
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Commission votes down resolution to drop County Commission as plaintiffs from lawsuit contesting state takeover of MSCS. 4-8 party line vote with Huett-Garcia absent.
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Still to come, vote on MSCS state takeover lawsuit
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Done without objection.
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Brooks also moves to punt moratorium ordinance on 1st reading to Nov. 18 as well.
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Ordinance on data center regulations and rules is delayed on first reading to Nov. 18 for a public meeting. Done without objection.
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Still to come are votes on data centers and the MSCS takeover lawsuit.
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Rebekka Terrell is appointed judicial commissioner on the first ballot, filling the second vacancy on today's agenda.
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Commissioners: use your microphones. Roll call votes are hard enough to follow. Some of you are in your second terms and still don't do these votes on mic.
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Scot Bearup is selected as new judicial commissioner on first ballot. First of two vacancies to be filled today.
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County Commissioners send $1.3m consultant's contract for relatively new Oracle software system back to committee for review in three weeks. Commissioners say "inundated" with complaints from across Shelby County government.
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The people of Serbia have spoken and voted for change. This historic election reaffirms the centrality of the democratic process and represents a loss for Vladimir Putin. The results give us great hope for stronger cooperation between our two nations and a more stable security environment for the region.
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8 of 13 present so far.
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