The Tennessee Highway Safety Office, a division of the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, on Thursday announced $33.5 million in federal grant funds to be distributed statewide from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the 2025–2026 federal fiscal year. Over 415 federal grants exceeding $33 million in total have been awarded to law enforcement agencies and highway safety partners across Tennessee and $3 million in media grant funds will be allocated for statewide highway safety education and public awareness campaigns. “These funds will be used to increase traffic safety education, public awareness, advocacy, training, and enforcement initiatives to improve driver behavior and protect Tennessee roadways. These partnerships are essential to saving lives as we strive toward zero deaths,” said Commissioner Jeff Long. To view the list of grant awards and recipients, click here.

President Donald Trump said during an interview with a conservative Memphis radio host that he would consider deploying the National Guard or federal troops to Memphis to help reduce crime, Action News 5 reports. Trump said Memphis would be “early on the list” of cities where the federal government could step in. State Sen. Brent Taylor, R-Memphis, who launched the #MakeMemphisMatter initiative to raise awareness about crime-reduction efforts, told the news outlet he would welcome federal assistance, citing the impact of a federal takeover in Washington, D.C. But Rep. London Lamar, D-Memphis, said such intervention would not solve the root causes of crime: “We need to truly make an investment on making sure families can feed themselves, clothe themselves and have affordable housing and what you will see is crime going down.”

Reports of gambling addiction in Tennessee have climbed since the state legalized online sports betting five years ago. According to WKRN, calls to the state’s REDLINE — a resource for substance misuse treatment referrals — jumped from 477 in fiscal year 2023 to 746 in 2024 before dipping to 659 in 2025. Tax revenue from sports betting, which rose from $1.2 million in fiscal year 2023 to $4.3 million in the most recent budget, funds treatment through the University of Memphis Gambling Clinic. Across its three locations, 40% of the clinic’s clients are from Middle Tennessee.

A Shelby County department head and his wife allegedly “misappropriated” more than $625,000 in public funds, the Tennessee Office of the Comptroller said Aug. 28. DeAndre Brown and his wife Vinessa Brown were both arrested Wednesday on 12 felony charges related to theft, money laundering and computer crimes, The Daily Memphian reports. The office also said its investigation identified more than $755,000 in “questionable disbursements” made by the couple that had no supporting documentation. DeAndre Brown, a convicted felon who was pardoned by Gov. Bill Lee in 2023, was appointed head of the Shelby County Office of Re-Entry in 2021, a department that helps formerly incarcerated people reintegrate into society. Investigators said the Browns diverted funds from their nonprofit, Lifeline to Success, to pay themselves improper compensation, make personal purchases such as meals, retail goods and a trip to Jamaica, and transfer money to other entities, including a church founded by DeAndre Brown. The comptroller’s report cited loose financial controls and violations of funding agreements as factors that allowed the misuse of money. Both Browns remained jailed Thursday on $100,000 bonds each.

The Tennessee Bar Association will be closed Monday in observance of Labor Day. The office will reopen on Tuesday at 8 a.m. CDT. Visit the TBA.org website for information on CLE or other TBA programs and for staff contact information.

The 2025 Equal Justice University (EJU) was held this week at the Embassy Suites in Murfreesboro with the theme "Moving Forward Together." The event included award and recognition events, CLE programs, committee and task force meetings and networking events. EJU, hosted by the Tennessee Alliance for Legal Services (TALS), is the annual gathering of hundreds of lawyers, advocates, social worker professionals and pro bono attorneys involved in providing civil legal assistance and access to justice across Tennessee. Speakers during the conference included TBA President Heidi Barcus, Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Mary L. Wagner and Sharon Roberson, president & CEO of the YWCA of Nashville & Middle Tennessee. Past TBA President Jim Barry also shared brief updates from the Drowota Trust.

Barcus was the featured speaker at EJU's Leadership Luncheon, sponsored by the TBA, where she thanked those working in the access to justice field and said the TBA is proud to be part of a collaborative effort to provide quality and accessible legal services across the state. Barcus acknowledged that legal aid is currently navigating growing client needs amid threats to funding. She recognized legal service organizations in the state for working together to build long-term strategies to help support clients and their families. "Through these challenges, you — and your teams, staff and volunteers — are continuing to provide life-changing legal services to those in need, every day," she said.

Barcus closed by noting the importance of educating and engaging Tennessee lawyers around the many ways to support legal services. She said "there is no shortage of needs or opportunities for attorneys, mediators, paralegals, students, to actively engage in support for legal services. We want to promote and help lawyers engage with meaningful opportunities to support" legal aid organizations. See photos from the luncheon and look for a wrap up of awards presented at the conference in TBA Today next week.

Three of the five former Memphis police officers charged and convicted in connection with the 2023 death of Tyré Nichols are getting a new federal trial, The Daily Memphian reports. U.S. District Judge Sheryl Lipman ruled that Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith will get a new trial based on comments U.S. District Judge Mark Norris made just days after their 2024 federal trial ended. Norris, who had presided over the case since its inception, recused himself in June. Lipman also granted a motion from the newspaper to unseal records in the case, including the reason for the recusal. The paper reports those records show that Norris said he could not meet with anybody from the Memphis Police Department about an investigation into the attempted murder of one of his law clerks because it is “infiltrated to the top with gang members.” Attorneys for Bean, Haley and Smith argued that comment violated their due process rights and that Norris should have recused himself from the case before the trial.

SUTTON, Chief Judge. Two Hillsdale College students filed separate complaints that individual classmates sexually assaulted them. At the end of an allegedly inadequate discipline and investigation process, they sued Hillsdale for negligence, intentional infliction of emotional distress, and discrimination. The district court dismissed their complaint for failing to state a claim. We affirm.

The Defendant, Marcus Levon Somerville, appeals from his convictions for two counts of aggravated assault, contending that the trial court abused its discretion by denying his requests for judicial diversion and alternative sentencing. Additionally, he notes that the record is devoid of any proof that he affirmatively entered a guilty plea. After review, we agree that the Defendant never pled guilty to these offenses, rendering his convictions void as a matter of law. Accordingly, the judgments of the trial court are reversed, the Defendant’s convictions are vacated, and the case is remanded for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

The Defendant, Michael Chad Owens, appeals his DeKalb County convictions for the sale and delivery of heroin and methamphetamine and resulting forty-five-year effective sentence. Specifically, the Defendant challenges that (1) the State failed to sufficiently establish the chain of custody for the narcotics; (2) the evidence was not sufficient to sustain his convictions due to chain of custody issues; (3) his right to confrontation was violated when the confidential informant (“CI”) involved in the controlled buys did not testify at trial; (4) the probative value of the admitted photograph of the CI was substantially outweighed by its danger of unfair prejudice; (5) the Defendant’s alleged impairment at trial prejudiced the jury against him; (6) his sentences are excessive; and (7) the fines imposed by the trial court are excessive. After review, we remand the case to the trial court for a hearing with regard to the fines and for entry of corrected judgment forms reflecting the sentence and fine for each conviction. We affirm the judgments of the trial court in all other respects.