Jillian Ludwig, a Belmont University freshman, died Tuesday after being hit by a stray bullet while walking in a park a mile from campus in Nashville, reports the Tennessean. Shaquille Taylor was arrested and charged after an informant, video evidence and an alleged confession linked him to the shooting. Metro police said Taylor appeared to be shooting at a nearby car when a stray bullet struck Ludwig. Taylor was previously charged with aggravated assault and was ultimately found by three doctors to be incompetent to stand trial but did not meet the state standards for involuntary commitment.

The federal judiciary estimates it can maintain operations for three weeks if Congress fails to pass legislation to avert a government shutdown, reports Reuters. The new estimate is up from two weeks, which the judiciary said it could operate for the last time Congress came close to missing a funding deadline. The new projection was released Tuesday after Republicans met to discuss stopgap options to temporarily fund the government. Current funding expires Nov. 17. The judiciary says it would be able to maintain operations temporarily during a government shutdown by relying on fees and other available balances.

A Black former top lawyer at the U.S. Department of Labor has sued the department claiming he was fired in retaliation for repeatedly complaining about widespread race discrimination against attorneys there, reports Reuters. Oscar Hampton, who formerly served as a regional solicitor in Philadelphia, filed suit in federal court Tuesday seeking to get his job back and force the department to overhaul what he alleges are anti-discrimination policies. The suit also alleges that he and other Black lawyers faced systemic discrimination at the department.

Most of Metro Nashville's chosen members reacquainted themselves with the Nashville Airport Authority at a special-called meeting on Monday, according to the Nashville Business Journal. The locally appointed board was reinstated by the courts at the end of October. Members, under the leadership of Nashville attorney Joycelyn Stevenson, re-examined nearly 20 votes that the state board took during its four months in power but did not make any final decisions to ratify or undo any of them. The board will meet again on Nov. 15 for its regularly scheduled meeting. Stevenson, former executive director at the Tennessee Bar Association, is managing shareholder for the Nashville office of Littler Mendelson.

Tennessee Attorney General Jonathan Skrmetti and a bipartisan coalition of state attorneys general have joined the United States’ civil antitrust lawsuit against Agri Stats Inc. for organizing and managing anticompetitive information exchanges among broiler chicken, pork and turkey processors. The suit alleges that Agri Stats collected and distributed competitively sensitive information related to price, cost and output among competing meat processors, which resulted in higher prices for American consumers. Read more in a news release.

The city of Chattanooga has entered into a three-year consent decree with the federal government following allegations that public officials discriminated against people with disabilities, and violated federal civil rights law and the federal Fair Housing Act. Under the agreement, city staff will undergo training and the city will pay a penalty and a payout to a nonprofit that sought to open a house for four individuals with disabilities, Tennessee Lookout reports. The city denied it discriminated against the individuals or violated laws, but agreed to the consent decree to avoid litigation. A judge still must approve the agreement.

For the first time since 1986, Knoxville will have a new municipal judge with the election of Tyler Caviness, KnoxNew reports. Incumbent John Rosson, age 76, ran on his record of experience. Caviness, a 32-year-old attorney, advocated for change throughout the campaign. He won 61.5% of the vote, promising to update the city court website and offer more accessibility in the courtroom. “I believe that treating people equally matters, and that we should prioritize that in our government offices. That is really what started this campaign,” Caviness said in his victory speech. Caviness served as a Knox County public defender before moving to the private sector and eventually starting his own practice. In a statement after conceding, Rosson said he would return to representing personal injury clients in his law practice.

Nashville Chief of Police John Drake yesterday confirmed the authenticity of documents purporting to be the writings of the Covenant School shooter, the AP reports. Drake said he was “greatly disturbed” by the unauthorized release of three pages from the shooter who killed six people at The Covenant School in March. He also announced that the department “is extremely serious about the investigation to identify the person responsible." Early yesterday, conservative commentator Steven Crowder released three images of Audrey Hale’s writings. Lawsuits are ongoing as to whether Hale’s writings should be released. In other news, Crowder said yesterday that he did not pay for the documents. WKRN reports on that development.

The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security has awarded 19 grants statewide this year to improve security at religious institutions, including four recent grants for Jewish centers in Knoxville, WBIR reports. The funds are part of a $750,000 budget appropriation for the Houses of Worship Security Grant Program. Applicants are required to demonstrate the threat and vulnerability to their organization as well as how funding would address gaps and deficiencies in current programs and capabilities. The move comes as a number of governors are calling on Congress to increase funding for security at places of worship, the Associated Press reports. The governors say the funding is needed to address growing concerns about the safety of Jewish and Muslim communities amidst the ongoing Israel-Hamas war.

A new online database of federal judges’ financial disclosure reports has been plagued with delays in the fillings being made public, hampering a tool mandated by a bipartisan bill meant to bring greater transparency to the courts. Around 2,500 federal judges and U.S. Supreme Court justices are required to file annual disclosure reports. Yet as of this week, one year since the database was unveiled, it contained only 1,138 annual reports for 2022 and 1,943 for 2021, according to Fix the Court. Reuters has more on the story.