The investiture ceremony for U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Rachel Ralston Mancl will be held Sept. 29 at 1:30 p.m. EDT with a reception to follow. The events will take place at the James H. Quillen United States Courthouse, 220 West Depot St., Greenville 37743. View the invitation and RSVP to manclinvestiture@gmail.com by Aug. 30 to attend. Mancl was sworn in at a private ceremony in April 2022. She succeeds Chief Judge Shelley D. Rucker who had been the acting bankruptcy judge in Greeneville since former Chief Bankruptcy Judge Marcia Phillips Parsons retired in September 2020.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has updated its policy manual to clarify how it will apply the extraordinary circumstances exception to the “sought to acquire” requirement under the Child Status Protection Act (CSPA) in light of a Feb. 14, 2023, policy change. The CSPA protects certain beneficiaries from losing their eligibility for immigrant visas and adjustment of status because they age during the immigration process and no longer qualify as a child for immigration purposes. On Feb. 14, USCIS issued policy guidance updating when an immigrant visa becomes available for the purpose of calculating an applicant’s CSPA age. The full press release and policy manual update can be accessed on USCIS's website.

Trial judges in the 20th Judicial District have re-elected Judge Angelita Blackshear Dalton as the courts’ presiding judge. Her new term will begin on Sept. 1. Dalton replaced Judge Phil Smith in the role after his death in September 2022. She earned her law degree from the University of Toledo College of Law and began practicing law with the Davidson County District Attorney General’s Office in 1997. In 2006, she was elected to the Davidson County General Sessions Court and then in 2017, Gov. Bill Haslam appointed Dalton to the Davidson County Criminal Court. Dalton also serves as the presiding judge of the Tennessee Women’s Residential Recovery Court. Read more in a release from the court.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) has launched a new online form for individuals, attorneys and accredited representatives to request an in-person appointment at their local field office without having to call the USCIS Contact Center. It is not a self-scheduling tool and individuals cannot schedule their own appointments with USCIS, but it does allow individuals or legal representatives to request an in-person appointment at a field office; the USCIS Contact Center will review submitted forms and the availability of in-person appointments at a specific field office, then confirm and schedule the individual for an available in-person appointment date and time. Read the full press release here.

On Aug. 28, 1963, more than a quarter million people walked in the historic “March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom” — the same march that saw the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. give his famous “I Have a Dream” speech. Now, 60 years later, the march was recreated Saturday to highlight the fight still ahead for equality. The 1963 march helped lead to a host of new laws, including the passage of the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Read more about the genesis of the march and its legacy from The Hill, and what current day organizers hoped to achieve with Saturday’s event from the Associated Press.

The American Bar Association (ABA) has announced creation of the Task Force on Law and Artificial Intelligence to examine the impact of AI on law practice and the ethical implications for lawyers. The task force will explore emergent issues including use in legal education, utilization to increase access to justice, risks posed by the technology and ways to mitigate risks. The goal of the effort is to provide practical information that lawyers need to navigate this complex technology. Read more about the task force.

ROGERS, Circuit Judge. Defendant Eduardo Velasquez was convicted of conspiracy to use interstate commerce to commit murder-for-hire, in violation of 18 U.S.C. § 1958(a). After a remand from our panel, the only substantial remaining issue is whether the district court erred by denying Velasquez a sentencing guideline reduction under U.S.S.G. § 2X1.1(b)(2), which provides for a three-level decrease “unless the defendant or a co-conspirator completed [or was about to complete] all the acts the conspirators believed necessary on their part for the successful completion of the substantive offense[.]” On remand, the district court denied the three-level reduction, based upon its determination that Velasquez completed the underlying offense of using interstate commerce with intent to commit murder-for-hire. Denial of the § 2X1.1(b)(2) reduction was correct, however, for a more fundamental reason. The cross-reference in U.S.S.G. § 2X1.1(c) provides that when the “conspiracy is expressly covered by another offense guideline section, apply that guideline section.” The guideline that covers Velasquez’s case—as we held in our previous opinion—is U.S.S.G. § 2A1.5, which expressly covers conspiracy to commit murder. U.S.S.G. § 2X1.1(b) is accordingly not applicable to Velasquez in the first place.

The judgment of the district court is affirmed.

This is an appeal from a final order entered on November 23, 2022. The Notice of Appeal was not filed with the Appellate Court Clerk until June 27, 2023, more than thirty days from the date of entry of the order from which the appellant is seeking to appeal. Because the Notice of Appeal was not timely filed, we have no jurisdiction to consider this appeal.

The U.S. Department of Justice will hold two public meetings this week in Memphis in connection with its pattern or practice investigation into the Memphis Police Department. The first event will take place Wednesday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CDT at the National Civil Rights Museum, 450 Mulberry St., Memphis 38103. The second meeting will take place Thursday from 6:30 to 7:30 p.m. CDT at Mississippi Boulevard Christian Church, 70 N. Bellevue Blvd., Memphis 38104. Those planning to attend one of the events are asked to register online. Those unable to attend either of these forums, can speak to a DOJ team member on a walk-in basis at various public libraries throughout the city. See the attached event flyer for times and locations.

Appellant appeals the trial court’s judgment finding that she breached a contract and ordering her to pay $3,343.10 in contractual damages. On appeal, Appellant has failed to comply with Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 27(a) and Rule 6 of the Rules of the Court of Appeals of Tennessee. Substantive review is also precluded by the lack of a transcript or statement of the evidence as required by Tennessee Rule of Appellate Procedure 24. Accordingly, this appeal is dismissed.