"This is about transformation," Criminal Court Judge Tom Greenholtz said to 11 former drug addicts who on Monday graduated from Hamilton County’s Drug Court. The Times Free Press reports the Drug Court, an 18-month program, was created in 2005 and currently has more than 100 participants.

East Tennessee State University students and faculty had a hand in the failure of a Washington County anti same-sex marriage resolution before the County Commission, Johnson City Press reports. The resolution failed this morning after a nearly seven-hour debate with hundreds of residents and students in attendance. County Commissioner Forrest Boreing said he will not attempt to reintroduce a similar measure.

The state Senate on Monday passed a bill to nullify a local-hire rule that requires at least 40 percent of work hours on certain Nashville construction projects go to Davidson County residents. Nashville residents in August approved the measure, and the move to nullify it drew criticism from Nashville Democrat Sen. Jeff Yarbro. “I think that we should be a little more reluctant than this to go in and overturn the will of the voters,” he said. Attorney General Hebert Slatey issued an opinion in October stating that the rule violates state law. Read more from The Tennessean. 

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The Tennessee House and Senate in a joint session this evening unanimously confirmed Roger Page to the Tennessee Supreme Court. Page received recommendations last week from the House Judicial Confirmation Ad Hoc Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee. His confirmation in a joint session is the first under the General Assembly’s newly adopted judicial confirmation process. 

This is a premises liability case. Appellant Homer McCaig sustained multiple injuries while operating an all-terrain vehicle (ATV) on Appellee Roy Whitmore‘s property. The trial court determined that Mr. Whitmore owed no duty to the McCaigs based on the Tennessee Recreational Use Statute (?TRUS?), Tennessee Code Annotated Sections 70-7-101 et seq. The trial court granted summary judgment in favor of the Appellee based on its determination that no exceptions to the statute were applicable. Discerning no error, we affirm and remand.

This is a Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 9 interlocutory appeal. Appellant The University of Tennessee appeals the trial court?s denial of its Tennessee Rule of Civil Procedure 12.02(1) motion to dismiss Appellee?s Tennessee Human Rights Act (“THRA”) claim for discrimination. Appellee, a student enrolled in The University of Tennessee Health Science Center?s College of Nursing, was dismissed from the program after receiving a failing grade in the clinical portion of her studies.

This appeal arises from the termination of a mother?s and a father?s parental rights. On a petition for dependency and neglect, the juvenile court on an emergency basis removed the child from the parents. The parents later stipulated that the child was dependent and neglected, and the court made a finding that the child was a victim of severe child abuse at the hands of both parents.

Father filed a petition to reduce child support. Mother sought to have their almost eighteen- year-old daughter testify that she did not intend to exercise visitation with Father to the extent previously ordered by the court after she turned eighteen. The court refused to let her testify. The trial court used the number of days of parenting time previously ordered in calculating child support instead of zero. The trial court also ordered Mother to pay a portion of Father’s attorney’s fees. Mother appeals these issues.

The Defendant, Zachary James Pence, was found guilty by an Anderson County Circuit Court jury of aggravated rape of a child, a Class A felony, aggravated child abuse, a Class A felony, and child abuse, a Class D felony. See T.C.A. §§ 39-13-531 (2014), 39-15-402 (2010) (amended 2011, 2012), 39-15-401 (2010) (amended 2011). The trial court sentenced the Defendant to concurrent terms of sixty years for the aggravated rape of a child conviction, twenty-five years for the aggravated child abuse conviction, and two years for the child abuse conviction.