Former Nashville Council member Anthony Davis was sworn in yesterday as the new state representative for District 51, the Tennessee Tribune reports. Davis succeeds Bill Beck, who died unexpectedly from a heart attack last month. District 51 encompasses parts of downtown Nashville, the Gulch, Germantown, East Nashville, Madison, Donelson and Inglewood. Davis previously served on the Nashville Metro Council for eight years.

The Tennessee Department of Revenue will hold a free webinar on July 25 at 9 a.m. CDT to discuss recent legislative changes made to state tax laws during the 2023 General Assembly session. The webinar is one in a series of educational sessions held by the department each month. Learn more or register for the July session.

Tune in tomorrow at noon CDT for a free webinar presented by the TBA Committee on Racial and Ethnic Diversity and hear panelists discuss the life of an in-house attorney. Participants, representing government, corporate and educational settings, will describe how they manage outside counsel, work-life balance and the changing legal landscape. Considerations such as the closeness of clients and expectations of response time also will be discussed. Register to attend here. One hour of general CLE credit is available for a $50 processing fee.

Make plans now to join the TBA for the 2023 Animal Law Forum, set for Sept. 22 at the Nashville Zoo. This annual favorite will feature topics relevant to several practice areas, including general ethics, pets in divorce, veterinarian liability, crimes against animals, conservation and more. Breakfast, lunch and zoo admission are included, with an extended lunch break in the savannah and an optional walk around the zoo.

Registration is now open for the TBA’s 37th Annual CLE Ski set for Jan. 20-25, 2024, in Snowmass, Colorado. The CLE package offers 15 hours of credit in a variety of practice areas while allowing time to enjoy the beautiful slopes and one of Colorado's premier ski resorts. Participants will stay at The Stonebridge Inn, located in the heart of Snowmass Village just 10 miles from Aspen and central to four remarkable ski areas: Snowmass, Aspen Highlands, Aspen Mountain and Buttermilk. An opening reception on Jan. 20 will kick off this year's program. Reserve your spot now or learn more in the online CLE course catalog.

The Montgomery County Commission has approved a $180,600 grant from the Tennessee Mental Health Court Program to launch a new mental health court in the county, News Channel 5 reports. The county had previously received a $232,000 grant for the court. The program will be voluntary for residents of the county facing criminal charges, said Circuit Court Judge Katy Olita. Some offenses will be excluded, including all Class A felonies. Sharita Brown will be the court's coordinator. The new court will begin taking applications on Sept. 7.

The Department of Education last week began notifying more than 804,000 borrowers that they will have a total of $39 billion in federal student loans automatically forgiven. The move comes after the U.S. Supreme Court found that the administration exceeded its authority in creating a loan forgiveness program that would have benefitted 43 million individuals and forgiven up to $400 billion. The Education Department reports that the new plan relies on the Higher Education Act, which allows it to adjust qualifying payments that were not properly credited to student accounts. In a press release about the action, the department said the move is intended to “address historical failures in the administration of the Federal student loan program in which qualifying payments … should have moved borrowers closer to forgiveness [but] were not accounted for.”

The Metro Nashville Police Department plans to leave $5.25 million in new state funding for school resource officers (SRO) on the table, saying the agency does not have capacity to staff the district’s 70 public elementary schools. Instead, the department will seek $3.38 million in state grant funding to support existing positions at middle and high schools. For elementary schools, it will continue its previous policy of conducting patrols around campuses, the Tennessean reports. The state SRO funding was approved in the wake of the deadly shooting at The Covenant School in March.

The State Building Commission last week approved the first steps in a plan by Department of Children’s Services (DCS) to open a new transitional facility for kids coming into custody and to expand and add more security to buildings that house delinquent youth. Tennessee Lookout reports that the commission approved the initial phase of a $19 million expansion in institutional space. In the near term, this will allow the agency to add more than 100 beds, including 24 at a temporary assessment center. A Nashville facility that houses about 50 teenage boys also will get more security. Commissioner Margie Quin called the action a “positive step toward mitigating the statewide youth placement crisis.”

The U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee is scheduled to vote this week on a measure that would impose a binding ethics code on the U.S. Supreme Court. The committee chair tells the Associated Press that it is time for the justices to bring their conduct in line with the ethical standards of other branches of government. The news outlet has been releasing investigative pieces that show the justices, regardless of ideological stripes, have engaged in activity that raises ethical concerns. The legislation being considered would require the court to adopt an ethics code. One Republican on the committee said Congress should leave the matter to the court given concerns around the separation of power.