A proposed constitutional amendment to ban a state income tax in Tennessee passed the House on Monday and will go before the voters next year, the Memphis Daily News Reports. The chamber voted 88-8 in favor of the measure, sponsored by Republican Rep. Glen Casada of Franklin. The amendment would also ban payroll taxes by the state or local governments.

The state Senate approved a bill today closing public and media access to Tennessee’s handgun-carry permit records in most cases, making confidential the identities of nearly 400,000 citizens licensed to go armed in public. The Senate added an amendment providing limited circumstances when the public may ask if a specific individual who has some brush with the law has a permit, which sends the bill back to the House for concurrence with the amendment only. The Commercial Appeal has the story.

David Rivera has been named acting U.S. attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee, replacing Jerry Martin who left office to create a Nashville office for Robbins Geller Rudman & Dowd. Rivera is a veteran federal prosecutor who worked in federal prosecutors’ offices in Puerto Rico, Florida and New York, and has been recognized for work on prosecutions of international drug trafficking organizations as well as his work on public corruption and economic fraud cases. Knoxnews has the story.

Former Knox County Criminal Court Judge Richard Baumgartner has been sentenced to six months in jail for lying to cover up his pill-supplying mistress’ drug dealing, according to Knoxnews. U.S. District Judge Ronnie Greer refused Baumgartner’s attorneys' plea for probation, saying that not ordering Baumgartner to prison would undermine the justice system. Defense attorney Donald Bosch said he will file a motion to stay the sentence pending appeal.

The budget amendment (#271) that strips all of the state funding -- $3.3 million -- from legal aid, transfers responsibility for administration of all appointed counsel and guardians ad litem to the state public defenders conference, and eliminates funds included in the Governor’s budget amendment to make up for chronic underfunding of the Davidson and Shelby county public defenders’ offices remains on the committee's active agenda. 

At the Senate Budget subcommittee meeting last night, amendment sponsor Sen. Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, indicated that he wants to continue discussion of the matter, but emphasized concern about the money for Nashville and Memphis. The subcommittee is expected to again take up consideration of amendments at 9:30 a.m. on Wednesday.

A bill that would create a loophole so compounding companies from all states could bypass patient-specific prescription requirements during drug shortages is being neither endorsed nor opposed by the Tennessee Health Department, the Tennessean reports. The proposal, which passed the Senate last week, would allow health care providers to obtain compounded drugs without having to identify a patient in cases where a product “is not commercially available.” The state’s chief medical officer Dr. David Reagan said the agency recognizes the difficulty of balancing measures to prevent another fungal meningitis outbreak with efforts to ease drug shortages. “You’ve got competing priorities here,” Reagan said. “You have an unprecedented number of drug shortages in this country and in this state. It is really difficult to understand how pervasive this has become. It is a real need and a real issue that is occurring at the same time as this other real need and issue about the sterility and safety of these compounded products.” The House has yet to schedule a vote. 

John E. Clemmons’ law license has been temporarily suspended. The Tennessee Supreme Court found that Clemmons misappropriated funds to his own use and that his continued practice of law poses a threat of substantial harm to the public. Effective April 2, Clemmons is precluded from accepting any new cases and he must cease representing existing clients by May 2. Download the BPR notice.

Attorney Marin L. Howe of Dyersburg was suspended April 5 based upon 11 client complaints alleging he accepted fees and then neglected client’s cases and that he failed to communicate with clients and the Board. Another complaint was filed for his failure to provide the Court with advance notice of his suspension for noncompliance with continuing legal education requirement. Download the BPR notice.

Knoxville GOP Senator Stacey Campfield has been defiant in defending comments he posted on his blog that led to a $750,000 libel lawsuit, the Tennessean reports. In a deposition attached to a court filing last week, Campfield argued that he had no reason to believe the information about Democratic candidate Roger Byrge was inaccurate when he published the blog post. Campfield also said it was unlikely he would be able to pay any settlement. “Like I’ve got any money to give it even if you win,” Campfield said in the deposition taken in April 2011.

Union groups on Monday blasted Gov. Bill Haslam’s plan to create a new workers’ compensation office and place it under the troubled the Department of Labor and Workforce Development, the Tennessean reports. “We are calling on the governor to put the brakes on moving such a vital process for injured Tennessee workers into the most dysfunctional department in the state,” the Tennessee AFL-CIO Labor Council said in a statement. The bill, which has already cleared the Senate and is progressing in the House, would completely overhaul the workers’ comp program by moving claims out of the courts.