The Tennessee Senate will likely go along with minor changes made to the wine in food stores bill passed today by House of Representatives, the Commercial Appeal reports. The bill allows towns, cities and counties with liquor stores or liquor by the drink to start holding public referendums this November to decide whether to permit local food stores to sell wine.

Cumberland University and the Wilson County Election Commission are working together to improve the voting experience in Wilson County. Students in Eric Landis' MBA class have teamed with the election commission on a project to gather data on how long it takes to vote a ballot. The Aug. 7 general election ballot will include 15 judicial offices and all Wilson County offices except property assessor. Along with the general election, there will be a federal and state primary for all state legislative offices, governor, U.S. House and U.S. Senate. “The August ballot will have a large number of races on it,” administrator of elections Phillip Warren told the Tennessean. “This research helps us be prepared and have adequate voting machines at the polls on Election Day.”

A handful of candidates beat the noon deadline today to file for the May 6 Shelby County primary. The Election Commission was working shortly after the deadline on the list of filed candidates that it regularly updates on its website. Commission chairman Robert Meyers said he hopes to have signatures on the filed petitions verified within 48 hours. Candidates have until Feb. 27 to withdraw from the primary. The Commercial Appeal has more.

Keta J. Barnes formally announced her bid for re-election as the presiding judge of the Smyrna Municipal/General Sessions Court, the Daily News Journal reports. “I want to thank each of you for your faith and trust in me,” the judge said in her press release. “I ask for your continued support as I seek to retain the office of Smyrna town judge.”

“To Kill a Mockingbird” author Harper Lee has settled the federal lawsuit she filed against the Monroe County Heritage Museum in her south Alabama hometown over its sale of souvenirs featuring her name and the title of her book, the Commercial Appeal reports. The settlement notice came days after a judge refused to dismiss the lawsuit, filed last fall, which said the museum uses Lee's name and the title of her Pulitzer Prize-winning novel without compensating her.

Child support magistrate Lu Ann Ballew — who was fired for changing a child’s name from Messiah to Martin — has picked up a petition to run for sessions judge. Ballew’s decision to change the child’s name was overruled, and Circuit Judge Duane Sloan fired her from her appointed job. She has been cited by the Board of Judicial Conduct and faces a hearing next month. Ballew has picked up a petition to run for the post being vacated by the retirement of Sessions Judge Ben Strand, based in Dandridge. There are four other candidates in the race, the Metro Pulse reports.

In an editorial, the Daily News Journal criticizes the plaintiffs of the ongoing Murfreesboro mosque lawsuit for wasting county taxpayer’s dollars. Rutherford County already has spent more than $340,000 for its defense in a lawsuit that continues to challenge the right of the Islamic faithful to build a mosque on Veals Road, the newspaper writes. The county won a state appeal that overturned the decision of Chancellor Robert Corlew that the county did not provide adequate public notice about consideration of the development plans for the mosque. Plaintiffs are now taking their appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Attorney Adam Dread will run on a Republican ballot for General Sessions judge instead of as a Democrat. The former at-large Metro councilman is part of a crowded field running for General Sessions Judge Division IX. He said yesterday that he had learned a Davidson County Democratic Executive Committee member questioned his credentials and was leading the challenge to remove him from the ballot. Dread told the Tennessean, “It has always been my belief that judicial races should be non-partisan, as you are running to be an ‘impartial’ judge.”

Spence Roberts Bruner was temporarily suspended from the practice of law on Feb. 19 for failing to respond to the board regarding a complaint of misconduct. Download the BPR notice.

According to the Chattanooga Times Free Press, lawmakers in Georgia say they have instructed state Attorney General Sam Olens to file suit in the U.S. Supreme Court if Tennessee doesn’t agree to give up 1.5 square miles near Dade County so a pipeline could be bult to pump up to 1 billion gallons of water a day from Nickajack Lake. Georgia legislators say Tennessee can have 66.5 square miles of land — and its 30,817 residents — that they claim a surveyor misdrew when creating state lines almost 200 years ago. The ongoing debate was covered in a 2008 issue of the Tennessee Bar Journal.