General Services Commissioner Steve Cates is recommending Gov. Bill Haslam sell six building across the state including the State Building and James R. Mapp Building in Chattanooga, claiming the buildings are “functionally obsolete” and should be sold given the costs for renovation and operations. The Chattanooga Times Free Press reports that the estimated cost of fixing the State Building is $8.49 million and $3.5 million to renovate the structural problems to the Mapp Building. Haslam said he has not made a decision yet and will have to weight the cost-savings against the “impact on the community” on all six structures.

Republican nominee Charles Beasley, who died on Oct. 12, beat out Democratic incumbent Walter Sansing for a seat on the Bibb County Commission in Alabama, the Chattanooga Times Free Press reports. Probate Judge Jerry Pow said voters probably didn’t know Beasley had died before the election and since the ballots were printed before his death, they couldn’t be changed before the vote. Beasley carried 52 percent of the vote.

The Texas Supreme Court has lifted the suspension of Aransas County Court-at-Law Judge William Adams, who was shown on video beating his then-16-year-old daughter with a belt for illegally downloading music. Adam’s older daughter uploaded the video to Youtube last year, but since the video was from 2004, the Aransas County district attorney said too much time has passed to bring criminal charges. News Channel 9 has the story.

The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has approved a Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) plan for the final cleanup phase of the 2008 Kingston Fossil Plant ash spill. According to Knoxnews, officials from the TVA, EPA, and Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation will make a presentation and answer questions at a public meeting next Thursday in Kingston.

Congressional lawmakers have issued a subpoena for the director of the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to the deadly meningitis outbreak, the Elizabethton Star reports. The subpoena came after a lawyer for Barry Cadden, co-founder of New England Compounding Center --  where the contaminated steroid shots were distributed from -- told lawmakers he would not voluntarily attend a congressional hearing.

Two months before the legislative session begins, Tennessee lawmakers are preparing for a battle over education in the upcoming season, the Tennessean reports. Republican leaders support stripping local school boards of their authority to approve charter schools and granting private-school vouchers to families who couldn’t otherwise afford to pay tuition. Democrats oppose both ideas, but the GOP heavily dominates both the state House and Senate.

The Supreme Court appears divided on two cases limiting class-action lawsuits against biotech company Amgen Inc. and cable provider Comcast Corp. Class actions increase pressure on businesses to settle suits because of the cost of defending them and the potential for very large judgments. Amgen and Comcast are seeking requirements for plaintiffs to prove more of their case earlier in the process in order to reduce the number of class-action suits. The court should decide both cases by June. The Memphis Daily News has the story. 

Pleasant View city court judge Gregory D. Smith recently spoke on judicial ethics at the Tennessee Municipal Judges Conferences Annual Conference in Nashville, the Leaf Chronicle reports. The conference had commissioned Smith to write a municipal judges’ bench book for distribution to the 250 municipal judges across Tennessee. About 120 judges were present.

A ceremony to unveil a portrait of retired Judge George H. Brown, Jr. will be held on Nov. 15 at 4 p.m. in the lobby of Brinkley Plaza. Hors d’oeuvres from Felicia Suzanne’s will be served. Judge Brown was the first African-American Justice on the Tennessee Supreme Court and served as a Circuit Court Judge for the 30th Judicial District from 1983-2005. Since his retirement, he has been an active neutral in both mediation and arbitration cases. All members of the legal profession are invited to attend the ceremony.

The Chattanooga office of Legal Aid of East Tennessee (LAET) has received an anonymous grant of $34,000 to help fund its work in assisting low-income Chattanoogans appeal the denial of unemployment benefits in 2013. This is the third of such anonymous awards, which helped LAET Chattanooga office win more than $1 million on appeal in unemployment insurance benefits for clients who were initially denied their claim by the state. Read the press release.