Gov. Bill Haslam is urging legislators to step carefully when it comes to enacting new abortion laws, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. His comments came in response to questions about a bill pre-filed by Rep. Rick Womick, R-Rockvale, for the 109th General Assembly. Womick's legislation would require that women seeking to terminate their pregnancies first undergo an ultrasound of the fetus or hear a physician's lecture. A somewhat similar North Carolina law was ruled unconstitutional last month by the Fourth U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals for violating doctors' First Amendment guarantees of free speech. "I think anything we do, we should pay attention to what's been ruled legal or not in other states," Haslam told the Times Free Press. "Let's not go charging up hills that other folks have charged up and have found were outside the law."

A personal tragedy inspired Rep. Bud Hulsey to push for stiffer penalties for people who kill someone while driving impaired, WCYB reports. Hulsey’s friend and former state Rep. Mike Locke died in June when he was hit by a man charged with drunk driving along Fort Henry Drive in Kingsport. According to Hulsey, the sentence for vehicular homicide while impaired is 3-12 years. He wants to consider a fixed sentence with a specific amount of time served for those who kill someone while driving impaired.

The Tennessee Tribune has named recently elected District Attorney General Glenn Funk its 2014 “Man of the Year,” the Tennessean reports. Publisher Rosetta Miller Perry said the newspaper was confident Funk “will blend faith, fairness and equity as he pursues justice."

The Tennessee Supreme Court will bring oral arguments to the Niswonger Performing Arts Center next week as part of the Court’s SCALES program. SCALES (Supreme Court Advancing Legal Education for Students) was started in 1995 to provide an opportunity for students to experience firsthand the path a Supreme Court case follows. High school students from 11 Greeneville-area schools are expected to participate in the Jan. 7 event.

The Supreme Court is moving toward a full and free-access system for all documents filed in cases before the Justices — a system expected to be working “as soon as 2016,” Chief Justice John G. Roberts, Jr., revealed in his annual year-end report on the federal judiciary. The Court already receives some of its filings electronically, but the present arrangements do not include all filings. The Chief Justice’s annual report was dominated by a theme of technological advances and their impact on the operation of the courts, SCOTUSBlog reports.

The U.S. Justice Department and Memphis-based Verso Paper Corp. have reached a settlement that will allow Verso to move ahead with its $1.4 billion acquisition of NewPage Holdings Inc. The settlement terms became formal Wednesday. They require NewPage to sell its paper mills in Biron, Wis., and Rumford, Maine, to a subsidiary of Catalyst Paper Corp. The Memphis Daily News has more.

The Tennessee Republican Party spent more money helping elect candidates in Colorado and North Carolina than the Tennessee Democratic Party spent to elect its own candidates in the days leading up to the Nov. 4 election, the Tennessean reports. The state GOP sent $108,664 to the Colorado Republican Party on Oct. 17 and $22,000 to North Carolina's GOP on Oct. 30. In comparison Tennessee Democrats spent about $104,000 in the days leading up to and immediately after the general election, according to federal election filings. All told, the Tennessee GOP spent more than $220,000 to elect candidates in states where there were competitive races for U.S. Senate. In each of those states, the Republican won, helping the GOP move into the majority in the nation's upper chamber.

Deborah Tate has been named the Director of the Administrative Office of the Courts by the Tennessee Supreme Court, the AOC reports. Tate is a former Federal Communications Commissioner twice nominated by President George W. Bush and unanimously approved by the U.S. Senate. She began her professional career in Tennessee state government serving as assistant legal counsel and senior policy advisor to former Tennessee governors Don Sundquist and Sen. Lamar Alexander. Tate will replace Bill Young, who was appointed Associate Chief Deputy Attorney General late last year.

Attorney Jason Long shares personal anecdotes and discusses various New Year’s traditions from across the world in the January issue of the Knoxville Bar Association’s monthly publication DICTA. “Depending on your religion and nationality, you may or may not celebrate Christmas, Valentine’s Day, Halloween, or the 4th of July,” Long writes. “However, New Year’s celebrations are universal. Every culture on the planet recognizes the importance of another rotation around the sun. In that sense, New Year’s Eve (whether celebrated on December 31 or not) is the celebration that binds humanity and unites us as humans.”

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed tomorrow for New Year’s Day. The offices will re-open Friday, Jan. 2.