While area Democrats planned a traditional welcome for President Barack Obama’s visit to Chattanooga yesterday, Republicans and the Chattanooga Tea Party were not so welcoming according to Knoxnews. The Tennessee Republican Party began airing a television ad Monday declaring that Tennessee is a success “not because of [Obama’s] liberal policies, but in spite of them.” In a statement, state Republican Chairman Chris Devaney insisted the ad “isn’t about President Obama or his feckless leadership on jobs and the economy — everyone is well aware of that dismal record. Instead, this ad is about the great things happening here in Tennessee because of Republican leadership.” The president was in town to tour the Amazon fulfillment center and discuss job creation.

During a hearing before the U.S. Senate Judiciary Committee today, the National Security Agency sought to reassure Congress that its surveillance powers were rigorously monitored and narrowly crafted while leaving open the possibility of some new limitations, the Citizen Tribune reports. Facing unexpectedly harsh opposition from both parties over a once-secret program that captures the phone records of every American, the administration said it wanted to work with lawmakers interested in putting limits on that authority. "We are open to re-evaluating this program in ways that can perhaps provide greater confidence and public trust that this is in fact a program that achieves both privacy protections and national security," said Robert Litt, counsel to the Office of the Director of National Intelligence.

The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit ruled that for-profit companies do not have religious rights, the Wall Street Journal Law Blog reports. The ruling departs from a decision in June by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 10th Circuit, which ruled that craft chain Hobby Lobby Stores Inc. and Christian bookstore chain Mardel Inc. have the right to challenge a part of President Barack Obama’s 2010 health care overhaul — namely, the requirement that employee health benefit insurance plans include free contraceptive coverage.

The City of Chattanooga recently received a $240,000 state grant for the research and planning of a Family Justice Center, a resource center for victims of domestic violence and sexual abuse, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports.  “Mayor (Andy) Berke made it clear that public safety is his number one issue and a part of that is domestic violence,” spokeswoman Lacie Stone said. “It’s a critical part of his agenda ... it is very important to Berke.”

Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she is not surprised that Southern states have pushed ahead with tough voter identification laws and other measures since the Supreme Court freed them from strict federal oversight of their elections. In an interview with The Associated Press, Ginsburg said that Texas' decision to implement its voter ID law hours after the court struck down a key provision of the Voting Rights Act last month was powerful evidence of an ongoing need to keep states with a history of voting discrimination from making changes in the way they hold elections without getting advance approval from Washington. “The notion that because the Voting Rights Act had been so tremendously effective we had to stop it didn't make any sense to me," Ginsburg said in a wide-ranging interview late Wednesday in her office at the court. "And one really could have predicted what was going to happen."

In response to the not-guilty verdict for George Zimmerman in the shooting death of Trayvon Martin, the state legislature’s Black Caucus last week called for a review of the so-called “stand your ground” statute Tennessee has on the books. "Over the next few months, we will work with our fellow Representatives to review Tennessee’s ‘stand-your-ground’ law to determine whether portions of the law need to be repealed or replaced in order to ensure the safety of all Tennessee residents,” Rep. Larry Miller, a Democrat from Memphis and chairman of the Black Caucus, said in a July 17 statement. The Murfreesboro Post has the story.

Oilfield services giant Halliburton will plead guilty to destroying computer test results that had been sought as evidence in the Deepwater Horizon disaster, WCYB reports. Company officials threw out test results that showed "little difference" between the number of devices Halliburton said was needed to center the cement casing in the well at the heart of the disaster and the number well owner BP installed, according to court papers. Halliburton has agreed to pay the maximum fines available, be put on probation for three years and cooperate with federal agencies that are still investigating the spill, the Justice Department said in a statement announcing Thursday's agreement. Halliburton is the last of the three major players to admit criminal wrongdoing in the 2010 blowout and resulting oil spill. BP has admitted to manslaughter and 13 other criminal counts and agreed to pay $4 billion in fines, while Transocean admitted to violating the Clean Water Act and paid $1.4 billion in civil and criminal penalties.

The federal Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation issued no ruling yesterday in a fight over lawsuits filed against Pilot Flying J, Knoxnews reports. The hearing before the panel centered on the question of whether suits filed against the company in various judicial districts should be consolidated. Last week, Pilot reached a settlement with eight plaintiffs in connection with an alleged rebate fraud scheme by the Knoxville-based chain of truck stops. Other plaintiffs have not joined the settlement, though, and they are pushing to consolidate the cases in a different location. 

Knox County Mayor Tim Burchett told WATE News 6 that state conservatives approached him to challenge Sen. Lamar Alexander in his 2014 reelection bid. Burchett says the possibility is flattering and a run in 2014 is something to look at. But he adds that he has no immediate plans to challenge Alexander in next year's election.

Pro athletes say they are ready to go to court over Tennessee’s tax on hockey and basketball players, Nashville Public Radio reports. At a hearing Thursday, lawmakers listened to arguments for and against repealing the state’s so-called “jock tax,” which is the highest in the nation by most measures. Twenty states tax professional athlete salaries, but most use a percentage. Tennessee’s levy is a straight fee – $2,500 per game with a cap of $7,500. That goes for both home and visiting teams. According to the NHL Players Association, 43 percent of athletes don’t even make $2,500 per game. The money has effectively gone to the respective team ownership groups, which have management organizations to run their city-owned arenas. The funding is supposed to go toward attracting concerts to the facilities through subsidies, though lawmakers note there is very little public accountability for how the money gets spent.