In a first step to remove Shelby County Clerk Wanda Halbert, State Rep. Mark White, R-Memphis, says he will soon file a bill that would make it easier to trigger a recall election, the Commercial Appeal reports. Halbert, who was elected in August with 49% of the vote, has recently been criticized for a months-long backlog in the mailing of license plates, which she now says has been resolved. To deal with that backlog, Halbert closed the clerk’s office for two weeks. She faced further backlash after making a trip to Jamiaca during the first week’s closure. “Citizens of all community deserve the best from their elected officials,” White said in a news release. “The issues that have plagued the Shelby County Clerk’s Office are simply unacceptable. The bill would reduce the number of signatures needed for a recall election and would require a county legislative body to pass a resolution of no confidence of the officer at center of the recall election. According to the Daily Memphian, Halbert says she shouldn’t be subject to a modified state recall election bill because she is a whistleblower.

Tennessee State Rep. John Ragan, R-Oak Ridge, chair of the Legislature's Joint Government Operations Committee, has been advising multiple Tennessee universities to not adopt a new Biden administration proposal to protect LGBT and transgender individuals as a protected class under Title IX. Among the schools receiving the letter was East Tennessee State University, which announced Sept. 2 that its protections would remain in place. University of Tennessee President Randy Boyd tells the Daily Beacon that nothing has changed there and he does not believe current policies break either state or federal law. Before leaving office, former Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery filed a lawsuit seeking to stop the directive. A federal judge in Knoxville blocked the policy so Ragan says it is not in force in Tennessee, Tennessee Lookout reports.

Rape kits in Tennessee can sit for nearly a year before getting tested, while the rapist is free to attack again, WKRN reports. Yesterday, state Democrats promised legislation to “fully fund” the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) to eliminate that backlog. The issue recently resurfaced in the news after Memphis kindergarten teacher Eliza Fletcher was killed, and DNA from her crime scene matched a 2021 rape. The earlier kit had been sitting in a lab for nearly a year before it was tested. Memphis police blamed the TBI while the TBI blamed Memphis police for not ordering “rushed” testing. Ultimately though, the TBI confirmed a typical case might not be tested for a year because they do not have enough staff.

Former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada and his former chief of staff Cade Cothren were seeking a six-month delay in their trial, but U.S. District Judge Eli Richardson today doubled that time, rescheduling the proceedings for Oct. 3, 2023. A pre-trial conference is now scheduled for Sept. 22, 2023. Richardson also directed that all pretrial motions be filed no later than six weeks prior to trial, Tennessee Journal reports. The trial was originally set to start next month.

Senate Speaker Randy McNally, R-Oak Ridge, and House Speaker Cameron Sexton, R-Crossville, are assembling a special committee to study sentencing and violent crime following several instances of violent deaths in Memphis, the Nashville Post reports. The committee will review the “supervision, investigation, and release of individuals who commit crimes in this state” and “recommend whether there is a need for legislative action to provide additional safeguards to protect the public from those who repeatedly violate criminal laws.” The committee will include co-chairs Sen. Ed Jackson and Rep. Bud Hulsey, plus Sens. Richard Briggs, Todd Gardenhire, Bill Powers and Jeff Yarbro, and Reps. Clay Doggett, Andrew Farmer, William Lamberth, Lowell Russell and Antonio Parkinson.

A trial date of Oct. 25 has been set for former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada, WPLN reports. The Williamson County Republican pleaded not guilty Tuesday in federal court to involvement in a kickback scheme that funneled money from the General Assembly. Casada is facing charges alongside his former chief of staff, Cade Cothren. Both were indicted Tuesday on federal charges and pleaded not guilty at their initial court appearances.

Juvenile justice advocates in Shelby County are pushing for a “third way” when it comes to sentencing juveniles, Local Memphis reports. Currently, juveniles are either transferred to adult court, where they face major sentencing for violent crimes, or they are released when they turn age 19 and are no longer under juvenile court jurisdiction. Advocates argue that a “blended sentence” — which would allow juvenile sentences to be extended through age 21 — would offer a better chance of rehabilitation. State Rep. G.A. Hardaway, D-Memphis, said yesterday he will introduce legislation this fall to make the county a pilot program for a blended sentencing program.

State Rep. Andrew Farmer says he was caught off guard in circuit court a week ago when the judge started moving offenders off Community Corrections into state probation. “It just blew my mind,” says Farmer, a Sevierville Republican who chairs the state House Civil Justice Committee and serves on the Criminal Justice Committee. The judge overseeing the case in question said the legislature had cut funding for Community Corrections, leaving him no option but to shift non-probatable people out of the long-running program. Farmer says the legislature has taken no such action, and in fact, had encouraged the Department of Correction to keep the Community Corrections program in place. Sen. Todd Gardenhire, chairman of the Fiscal Review Committee, is promising to hold hearings on the administration’s handling of the program when the legislature reconvenes. Tennessee Lookout has more on the story. In a previous piece, the news source looked at how the Community Corrections program works.

Outgoing state Sen. Mike Bell, R-Riceville, will resign his seat early to take a job as senior advisor for legislative affairs and policy with the Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency (TWRA), the Tennessean reports. Bell announced earlier this year he’d be leaving his position after nearly 16 years in the legislature. He was elected to the state House in 2006 and then the state Senate in 2010. Bell’s District 9 seat was redrawn as part of redistricting this year and is now considered District 1. He previously chaired the Senate Government Operations Committee, which oversees all the state government agencies and departments, including the TWRA.

Tennessee's next state attorney general, Jonathan Skrmetti, is coming under criticism from Democratic legislators unhappy with recent comments that he might create a new special unit to handle suits against the federal government. Tennessee Senate Minority Leader Jeff Yarbro, a Nashville Democrat, said the "barrage of partisan, multistate litigation by attorneys general is a new phenomenon," and noted that the state had sued the federal government “17 times in the last 18 months.” Skrmetti has said the purpose of the unit would be to protect the agency's "nonpartisan" attorneys who do not want to work on ideological cases. Chattanooga Times Free Press has the story.