Bill Young has been appointed administrative director of the Administrative Office of the Courts by the Tennessee Supreme Court. Young — who has served as solicitor general in the Tennessee Attorney General’s office for more than two years — will take on the position held by Libby Sykes, who announced her retirement in August after 27 years in state government. “Bill Young’s years of experience in the attorney general’s office, especially as solicitor general, and in the private sector, as general counsel for BlueCross BlueShield, place him in good stead to lead the administration of the judiciary for years to come,” said Tennessee Supreme Court Chief Justice Gary Wade.

The Republican State Leadership Committee announced yesterday it plans to spend $6 million to recruit 300 women to run for office in the next election cycle. According to Memphis Daily News, the nation’s largest caucus of Republican state leaders is hoping to get at least 150 elected next year. "The whole point of this ... is to find qualified women who would like to be asked and would like to have the support of an organization like this," said Tennessee House Speaker Beth Harwell, R-Nashville.

The Tennessee Ethics Commission has declined to fine political advisor Tom Ingram and his partner Marcille Durham for failing to disclose of lobbying relationship, the Tennessean reports. Commissioners decided not to penalize Ingram and Durham for not filing paperwork in 2012 and 2013 showing they had been hired to lobby for Hillsborough Resources, a firm hoping to win permission to mine on public land on the Cumberland Plateau, eliminating the serious allegations that Ingram exhibited inappropriate influence over Gov. Bill Haslam and Mayor Karl Dean’s administrations.

A federal appeals court ruled yesterday that a lawsuit accusing Internet giant Google of illegal wiretapping could proceed, the New York Times reports. The ruling has its origins in a much-publicized Google initiative, Street View, which tried to map the inhabited world. In addition to photographs, Street View vehicles secretly collected e-mail, passwords, images and other personal information from unencrypted home computer networks. “This is an important opinion for privacy rights,” said Nashville attorney Kathryn E. Barnett of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein, one of the law firms working for the plaintiffs. “It says that when you are in your home, you have a right to privacy in your communications. Someone just can’t drive by and seize them.”

Attorney Jeff Yarbro appears to be stepping up his campaign as the race in Senate District 21 gets heated. According to the Tennessean political blog, Yarbro sent out a mass email to potential supporters yesterday laying out portions of his platform, asking for donations and urging recipients to get involved in his campaign. A third Democrat, long-time activist Mary Mancini, has been weighing whether to get into the race with Yarbro and Metro Councilman Jason Holleman.

BP and the federal government have offered conflicting estimates of how much oil spilled into the Gulf of Mexico after the blowout of the company's Macondo well triggered a deadly explosion, WDEF News 12 reports. In a court filing yesterday, BP urged U.S. District Judge Carl Barbier to use an estimate of 2.45 million barrels in determining how much oil spilled into the Gulf and calculating any Clean Water Act fines. Department of Justice experts estimate around 4.2 millions barrels in the spill. The second phase of the trial to determine how much more money BP and its contractors owe for the disaster resumes Sept. 30.

Joshua Kirkwood, a Montgomery County soldier deployed overseas, filed a 56-page complaint in U.S District Court in Nashville after being stricken with fungal meningitis from a spinal steroid treatment he had undergone in Nashville. Kirkwood has become the third Tennessee victim of the nationwide fungal meningitis outbreak to be identified for the first time this week. Kirkwood had already been deployed in mid-September when someone from the clinic left a message on his voice mail inquiring about how he was doing. “No one told Mr. Kirkwood that he was at risk of contracting fungal meningitis,” according to the complaint. Named as defendants in the suit are the individual owners of the New England Compounding Center, the now-shuttered company blamed by state and federal regulators for shipping fungus-tainted steroids to health facilities across the country, the Saint Thomas Outpatient Neurosurgical Center and the Howell Allen Clinic, part owner of the outpatient center. The Tennessean has the story. 

The Tennessee Supreme Court ruled today that persons found in criminal contempt under the general contempt statute have not been convicted of a criminal offense and may not obtain post-conviction relief from such criminal contempt findings. In its opinion today, the court upheld the Court of Criminal Appeals decision, noting the distinction between a conviction of a criminal offense and a finding of criminal contempt under the general contempt statute. While both may result in a punishment of jail time, Tennessee law does not define contempt as a criminal offense, or equate a finding of criminal contempt with a conviction of a criminal offense. The opinion concerns the case Tracey Ross Baker v. State of Tennessee.

The legal sector added 2,700 jobs in August, the Wall Steet Journal law blog reports. According to U.S. Labor Department’s latest monthly report, that is the second highest single-month jump in the past year but still well below pre-recession employment levels. Overall, the sector added 6,300 jobs over the past year at an average monthly gain of 500 jobs. 

Judge William E. (Bill) Higgins has been elected by his fellow judges as presiding judge over the Davidson County Sessions Court. The presiding judge is responsible for developing the rules for the conduct and administration of the courts as well as conducting meetings of all the judges to discuss problems or issues pertaining to court operation. He also will prepare and submit the budget of the courts to the Nashville Metro Council. “I am honored to be elected,” he said in a press release. “I want to assure that we manage the courts to make sure that we remain accessible as “The Court of First Resort” to serve as the basic foundation for our community’s justice system.”