An all new episode of the TBA's BarBuzz podcast is now streaming with special guest host Terica Smith! An assistant district attorney for the 26th Judicial District and the new TBA YLD president, Smith joins the show to talk about legal news, upcoming events and more! BarBuzz is part of the TBA Podcast Network and can be found on the TBA’s website or anywhere you listen to podcasts by searching the show's title or “Tennessee Bar Association."

Tennessee Justice for Our Neighbors will host a free seminar titled Advocating for Our Immigrant Neighbors on May 29 from 2 to 5 p.m. CDT via Zoom. JFON attorneys will provide an overview of the U.S. immigration system, including how an individual might change their immigration status and the most frequent obstacles to a status change. Participants will learn how to screen an individual for potential immigration relief and best practices in representing clients in immigration matters. Get registered through JFON’s website.  

Online news website “MLK50: Justice Through Journalism” is suing the City of Memphis for not sending it media advisories regarding Mayor Jim Strickland’s administration, the Daily Memphian reports. The suit was filed in March on behalf of MLK50 founder, editor and publisher, Wendi Thomas, by The Reporters Committee for Freedom of the Press. The complaint alleges Thomas noticed in October that she had been left off an email advisory for a city press conference and, after sending multiple email requests to be included, received no response from the city and is still not receiving the advisories. Thomas is seeking an injunction that requires the city to add her and MLK50 to the advisory list and another injunction requiring the city to have specific standards and a policy for who is included on the list. RCFP attorney Paul McAdoo in a press release said it is “flatly unconstitutional for the city to disrupt and interfere with Ms. Thomas’s ability to gather and report the news because it doesn’t like the content of her reporting.”

An emergency motion was filed today by two libertarian groups on behalf of four parents who are pushing for the implementation of Gov. Bill Lee’s education savings account program, WPLN reports. Chancellor Anne Martin earlier this month deemed the program unconstitutional because it violated the state’s “home rule” amendment since it only applied to two counties without their consent. But, in today’s emergency motion, the Beacon Center of Tennessee and the Institute for Justice argued the amendment was misapplied because the voucher law doesn’t apply to school districts. The groups are now asking the Tennessee Court of Appeals to allow for the implementation of the program while it decides whether the program is constitutional. The Court of Appeals has not yet scheduled a hearing date.

Eight boxes of reel-to-reel tapes labeled “George Jones albums” sat forgotten in a New Orleans bank vault for nearly 30 years. The boxes were rediscovered six years ago by a Louisiana federal court clerk after he inventoried the vault used by the U.S. District Court of Eastern Louisiana for storage. The clerk soon learned the tapes originally belonged to David Snoddy and Donald Gilbreth—men who were partners in the music industry and also the drug trade. After Snoddy and Gilbreth were arrested on drug trafficking charges, the tapes, which they claimed were master copies of 1966 live performances by George Jones and the Jones Boys, were used as collateral to post bail. The Knoxville News Sentinel tells the full story of the tapes, which were allegedly valued at $1.2 million in 1984, and the ongoing legal battle that brought them back to Benton County, Tennessee.

The Knox County Sheriff’s Office has renewed its partnership with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to enforce federal immigration laws, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. The county’s involvement in the controversial 287(g) program was set to expire next month, but Sheriff Tom Spangler signed the renewal and is now awaiting federal approval. Knox and Greene counties are the only jurisdictions in Tennessee operating under the 287(g) agreement, which gives deputies federal authority to conduct immigration screenings and to detain immigrants who entered the country illegally. The program, which Knox County opted into in 2017, originally had to be renewed each year, but the current agreement will now last until terminated by one of the agencies. 

Metro Nashville Police have made an arrest after a toy practice target was placed in the front yard of NAACP President Keith Caldwell, the Tennessean reports. Roy E. Brown admitted to police that he placed the target in Caldwell’s yard because he thought it looked like a flower and would look nice there. Caldwell, a local pastor, signed a state misdemeanor citation that charged Brown with intimidation, but in a Facebook post, said he would advocate for the case to be heard in mental health court. He also said he did not think the target was meant to be racial. Brown’s booking date is Aug. 14.

The 2020 Family Law Forum is now available in a convenient 1-Click online package. The four-hour program covers guardian ad litem essentials, key issues in family law during the COVID-19 pandemic and extensive revisions to the Child Support Guidelines that took effect earlier this week. Those revisions include changes to policies surrounding what happens when a stepparent has health insurance coverage for the child and whether a person can claim voluntary unemployment while incarcerated. Visit the TBA course catalog to see all available online courses.  

Chattanooga native and former Tennessee Valley Authority Chairman S. David Freeman has died after suffering a heart attack at the age of 94. Freeman worked for the TVA from 1948 to 1961, during which time he earned his law degree from the University of Tennessee College of Law. Former President Jimmy Carter appointed Freeman to the TVA board in 1977 and he served as chair from 1978 until 1981. He was a champion of renewable energy, energy efficiency and clean transportation policies and advised Presidents Johnson, Nixon and Carter and the Senate Commerce Committee on energy policy. After retiring from full-time work at the age of 85, Freeman co-authored a book called "All-Electric America" that is said to make the case that an all-electric, all-renewable society by 2050 is both necessary and achievable. Read more from the Knoxville News Sentinel.

Descendants of former Confederate cavalryman Nathan Bedford Forrest filed a motion to dismiss their 2018 lawsuit against the City of Memphis and Memphis Greenspace, the Commercial Appeal reports. The suit’s dismissal means there are no remaining legal conflicts over the 2017 removal of the Nathan Bedford Forrest statue and another of former Confederate president Jefferson Davis. The filing also paves the way for Memphis Greenspace to move forward with proceedings to have Forrest and his wife reinterred. In December, the statue of Forrest was returned to the family and Sons of Confederate Veterans as part of a private agreement between those groups and Greenspace. The statue’s location is currently unknown, but it is expected to be reunited with the bodies.