A new documentary highlighting the history of the Tennessee State Capitol was released earlier this month as the first part of a project that eventually will include a virtual tour of the Capitol building and its grounds, and feature stories about the building and influential people in Tennessee history.?? When completed, the entire project will be burned onto DVDs that will be distributed to schools throughout the state. The project is a result of the Tennessee General Assembly's approval of Public Chapter No. 557, sponsored by Representative Jim Coley and Senator Ken Yager. The Administrative Office of the Courts has more.

The law license of Barbara S. Freemon of Nashville was suspended by the Tennessee Supreme Court for one year. A petition for discipline was filed against Freemon on March 8, based upon two complaints. The first complaint alleged that Freemon, who agreed to serve as trustee for an inter vivos trust set up to manage her brother’s assets, did not return the trust assets to the named beneficiaries upon his death. The second complaint alleged that Freemon accepted a non-refundable fee to represent clients in a codes dispute, promising to file an action within 45 days. Freeman failed to file any action on their behalf yet refused to refund the full fee to the clients. Download the BPR notice.

U.S. Magistrate Clifford Shirley temporarily blocked the release of a file detailing the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation’s probe of former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner, who resigned amid a prescription painkiller scandal. The families of torture-slaying victims Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom and the Knoxville News Sentinel have been fighting to make the file public but have been stymied by a state law specifically exempting TBI files from the Open Records Act.

The Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee approved the Employment Non-Discrimination Act by a 15-7 vote Wednesday morning, giving gay Americans a victory in their long fight against workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation. The legislation would prohibit employers from firing or refusing to hire people based on their sexual orientation or gender identity -- extending workplace protections that already apply to race, religion, gender, national origin, age and disability. Even if the bill passes the Senate, it will face a tough time in the House, the Nashville Business Journal reports.

Gov. Bill Haslam defended his ties to political advisor Tom Ingram after published emails showed the lobbyist’s efforts to influence senior officials in his administration, the Tennessean reports. Haslam and his chief of staff, Mark Cate, said Ingram and his firm had no special access to the governor or his advisers. Emails obtained and released by WTVF-TV show Cate, Ingram and his partner discussing the firm’s clients over weekends and holidays, as well as when Cate was traveling in the Bahamas. Haslam did not deny that Ingram had lobbied his staff while also being kept on retainer, but he said those efforts were not inappropriate. “The question is, did anything happen there that shouldn’t have happened?” Haslam said. “I don’t think it has.”

Tennessee GOP House members remain critical of the immigration reform bill that their fellow Tennessee Republicans, senators Bob Corker and Lamar Alexander, helped pass in the Senate. The House Republican Conference meets today to decide what, if any, route to take on the issue. Congressional Democrats insisted Tuesday they will not agree to any immigration bill that lacks a path to citizenship for the 11 million immigrants living illegally in the United States. The Tennessean has more.

An opinion piece in the Tennessean examines the new global world -- quite literally -- of journalism that is challenging both the notions and definitions of a free press and who is a journalist. Gene Policinski, vice president and executive director of the First Amendment Center, uses Glenn Greenwald as an example of this new challenge: Greenwald is a writer for the British newspaper The Guardian who lives most of the time in Brazil and is a central figure in the sensational disclosures of covert surveillance programs conducted by the U.S. Policinski points out the plight of First Amendment advocates and government advocates of a proposed national “shield law” protecting journalists and sources, who face a thorny problem of deciding in upcoming months who is covered by that law and who is not.

Congressional GOP leaders called Tuesday for a delay in requiring that individual Americans carry health insurance. If the White House can grant a one-year delay for employers -- as the administration did just last week -- individuals should get the same consideration, House Speaker John Boehner of Ohio and other senior Republicans said in a letter to the president. White House spokesman Jay Carney said the administration has no intention of delaying the individual mandate. The Chattanooga Times Free Press has the story.

Need help determining when you are giving legal advice and when it's just legal information? The Tennessee Access to Justice Commission has developed guidelines to help. Originally intended to provide assistance to court staff and attorneys assisting in self-help centers, the guidelines grew to become something that anyone assisting self represented litigants could use. The Tennessee Supreme Court has now endorsed this policy, which the commission's Self-Represented Litigants Advisory Committee developed. Learn more at the court's access to justice website, www. justiceforalltn.com.

Two more trucking companies have filed lawsuits against Pilot Flying J, Knoxnews reports. R&R Transportation, a company based in Audubon, Minn., filed a suit alleging that Pilot and several of its executives had committed fraud against R&R in connection with rebates owed to the company, and had engaged in racketeering activity. Townes Trucking, of Coffeeville, Miss., filed a suit alleging that it was defrauded by Pilot in connection with diesel rebates. Both lawsuits were filed on July 3 and cited an affidavit that was issued in connection with the ongoing federal investigation, which became public in April.