Tennessee prison guards will receive a pay raise in a slew of state employee salary increases announced last night by Gov. Bill Haslam during his State of the State Address. The Republican governor, unveiling a $34.8 billion budget, focused much of his annual speech on education investment and revealing plans to invest $261 million in new money for K-12 education in areas ranging from teacher pay to adding a 12th month of state funding for teacher health insurance. Last year, he proposed expanding Medicaid to an additional 280,000 Tennesseans through the Affordable Care Act, but no mention of that was made in Monday's speech. Read more from the Times Free Press.

U.S. Rep. Stephen Fincher, R-Tenn., said today that he will not seek re-election, The Commercial Appeal reports. Five Republican candidates announced they will run for his seat: State Sen. Brian Kelsey, R-Germantown; George Flinn, a Memphis radiologist; Tom Leatherwood, Shelby County Register of Deeds; David Kustoff, former U.S. attorney; and Steve Basar, Shelby County Commissioner.

Davidson County Election Commission Chairman Ron Buchanan announced today plans to resign amid a WSMV investigation questioning the commission’s expenses. Buchannan’s resignation comes after he called a WSMV female reporter an obscenity for allegedly violating interview guidelines. “I said it. I meant it. I still mean it,” Buchanan said. “That was the one word that I could think of that accurately conveyed what I was thinking at that time." Read more from The Tennessean. 

Gov. Bill Haslam plans to pay back $260 million the state borrowed from its highway fund during the recession and present plans for spending a half-billion dollar revenue surplus during his State of the State Address on Monday, the Knoxville News Sentinel reports. "Our object in this budget will be to spend those dollars on places where the state has either underinvested in the past — and I would say education is at the top of that list,” Haslam said. 

Gov. Bill Haslam has not clarified whether his upcoming budget will include new positions to help clear hundreds of open records requests. However, the Republican governor said he did recognize the need to clear the backlog. Comptroller Justin Wilson requested nearly $265,000 in the budget to help with the increasing requests for information, the Associated Press reports.

President Barack Obama announced yesterday a ban on solitary confinement for juveniles in federal prisons. “It has been linked to depression, alienation, withdrawal, a reduced ability to interact with others and the potential for violent behavior,” the president wrote in an op-ed posted Monday evening on The Washington Post’s website. The new rules also prohibit the use of solitary confinement for prisoners who commit “low-level infractions.”

The Leaf-Chronicle features a profile on Roger Nell, a candidate for Circuit Court Judge Part III. Nell currently serves as 19th Judicial District Public Defender after being appointed to the position in 2000 by former Gov. Don Sundquist. “While I have broad experience in law, extensive experience in criminal law sets me apart,” Nell said.

Nearly 10 percent of college graduates surveyed in a poll believe Judith Sheindlin, known as “Judge Judy” on her television show, serves on the U.S. Supreme Court. The poll, conducted by the American Council of Trustees and Alumni, also found that 60 percent of college graduates could not correctly identify a requirement for ratifying a constitutional amendment. Results from the poll are detailed by the council in "A Crisis in Civic Education." Read more from CNN.

The ABA Journal highlights a new paper, "The Declining Dominance of Lawyers in U.S. Federal Politics," which argues that fewer lawyers are participating in Congress because they are being “squeezed out” by those who have made politics a career. While nearly 80 percent of members of Congress were lawyers inthe mid-19th century, today that number is less than 40 percent. Nick Robinson, a visiting lecturer at Yale Law School and author of the study, also says that financial incentives of corporate law practice may keep lawyers in private practice. 

The Commercial Appeal discusses the potentially “dramatic” race between U.S. Rep. Steve Cohen, D-Tenn., and state Sen. Lee Harris, D-Memphis. Harris announced last week that he is seriously considering challenging the five-term congressman. Cohen said it would be a “serious political blunder” for Harris to enter the race.