Newly appointed U.S. Secretary of Commerce Penny Pritzker will travel to Nashville this week to meet with business leaders, primarily in music publishing, as part of a listening tour that has included stops in Colorado, Connecticut and upstate New York. Pritzker’s Nashville trip will take her to Loud Recording Studios to meet with heads of the Recording Industry Association of America and Sony Music. The Commerce Secretary also plans to see the Nashville Entrepreneur Center. Nashville Public Radio has the story.

Lawyers both inside and outside the Pilot Flying J fuel rebate criminal probe say that although there will be some charges, racketeering charges are not likely to be brought against upper-echelon employees, Knoxnews reports. Attorneys agree that federal authorities are not likely to pursue a criminal RICO prosecution, which gives the government tools to shut down a suspected racketeering firm long before any criminal prosecution is pursued. “RICO is broadly written,” University of Tennessee law professor Dwight Aarons said.

Confusion and concern surrounds a new state law that rewrites a portion of the law on bail bonds by allowing bondsmen to avoid liability once a defendant is found guilty or pleads guilty. Bondsmen will no longer remain liable until a defendant is actually sentenced. Defense lawyers and prosecutors are calling it a nightmare, while bondsmen say the judges of Davidson County are extorting them and usurping the legislature’s power. The new law prompted judges of Davidson County’s criminal court to issue a rare emergency order, which remains in effect indefinitely, requiring that bondsmen at least notify their clients of plans to revoke the bonds. It sets different requirements for bonds in effect before the May 6 effective date of the new law. The Tennessean has the story.

At a gathering last week two district attorney generals thanked officers of the Multi-Jurisdictional Violent Crime and Gang Task Force for their hard work over the last year. Garry Brown, district attorney general for the 28th Judicial District, and Jerry Woodall, district attorney general for the 26th Judicial District, spoke at the event at the University of Memphis to honor the force, the Jackson Sun reports.  Woodall and Brown formed the task force with the goal of combining the efforts and manpower of multiple agencies to catch criminals faster than one jurisdiction acting alone.

Nelson Mullins Riley & Scarborough LLP has moved into a 17,000-square-foot office space at One Nashville Place at Fourth Avenue and Commerce Street. Although about the same size in square footage as the firm's previous office at the Regions Center, managing shareholder Larry Papel noted that the new space is "lighter and brighter and newer and nicer." The new space can accommodate up to 25 attorneys. Nelson Mullins, which opened in 2012 with six attorneys, added two more in April of this year and expects to add at least three more attorneys within the next few months. The Nashville Business Journal has the story.

The Department of Justice recently investigated Sherman Dixie Concrete Industries, Hanson Building Products and Oldcastle Precast, Inc. for signing off on Tennessee roads projects that were not built to specifications. According to WSMV, walls and basins didn't have enough rebar, and some of the rebar wasn't put in the right place. The companies recently settled the case, and a Justice Department spokesperson said the investigation sends "a strong message to those who would seek to substitute inferior products in transportation-related projects."

President Barack Obama has endorsed a bipartisan Senate effort Tennessee Republican Sen. Bob Corker helped craft that seeks to strengthen America’s housing finance system and shield taxpayers from bearing the brunt of future economic meltdowns. Some five years after the mortgage crisis struck government-sponsored enterprises Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and required a $200 billion federal bailout, Obama said it’s time to reduce government’s risk in any future crisis. Corker told the Chattanooga Times Free Press that it gives him "hope that we actually deal with Fannie and Freddie before the political season begins this January and makes it very difficult for anything to occur.”

John C. Rambo has been appointed as chancellor in the First Judicial District in east Tennessee by Gov. Bill Haslam, replacing Chancellor G. Richard Johnson who resigned effective June 30. The First Judicial District serves Washington, Unicoi, Carter and Johnson counties. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more about Rambo’s appointment.

Williamson County Commissioner Travis Hawkins has turned down the job of Spring Hill’s new city attorney, the Tennessean reports. Mayor Rick Graham has been trying to negotiate an employment contract with Hawkins during the past week, but the potential for a conflict with Hawkins’ elected position as a county commissioner remained the sticking point. The board will take up the issue of how to go about choosing a new city attorney at its Aug. 12 work session.

The U.S. House of Representatives approved legislation by a vote of 232-185 today to prevent the Internal Revenue Service from implementing any part of President Barack Obama’s health care law, WATE reports. Sponsor Rep. Tom Price, R-Georgia, said, "We simply want patients and families and doctors to be in charge of health care, not Washington, D.C., and not the IRS." Today's debate marked the 40th time the GOP-controlled House has voted to repeal all or part of the health care reform. Most of the measures have languished in the Democrat-controlled Senate.