Nashville mayor pleads guilty to theft, resigns from office
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry today pleaded guilty to a theft charge tied to her affair with her former police bodyguard, Rob Forrest, then resigned from office. She agreed as part of a plea bargain to reimburse the city $11,000 and serve three years on probation.
The deal also called for her resignation and she officially announced that at a news conference following her court appearance.
Gummy bear bust goes sour with TBI testing
District Attorney General Jennings Jones is dropping all charges against more than 20 Rutherford County business owners who were arrested and saw their stores padlocked earlier this month in what officials called “Operation Candy Crush,” reports the Murfreesboro Post. Officers thought the businesses were selling gummy bears and other candies coated with marijuana-laced cannabis oil, but Jones says TBI testing of the products was “inconclusive.”
TN woman arrested trying to break into White House — again
A Tennessee woman who was convicted last year of trying to climb a White House barrier was arrested again Friday after authorities said she drove a vehicle into a barricade near the executive mansion and was found with a gun in her hand, reports the Washington Post.
More than 3,700 probation or parole violators now at large in TN
More than 3,700 convicted criminals under the community supervision of the Tennessee Department of Correction are now at large, according to state records reported by WJHL-TV. TDOC confirmed all of those people are in “warrant status” for violating the terms of their probation or parole.
Eight state prison employees fired in contraband smuggling probe
Eight employees at the Morgan County Regional Correctional Complex have been fired in an ongoing probe started after an inmate breached the state prison’s perimeter, only to return in an apparent effort to smuggle contraband into the prison, reports the Times Free Press.
David Kernell, who as UT student hacked Sarah Palin’s email account, dead at age 30
David Kernell, the son of a former Tennessee legislator from Memphis who guessed his way into Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin’s personal email account in 2008, has died in California at age 30, reports the Commercial Appeal.
Former TVA manager gets probation in plot to provide nuclear info to China
A former senior manager for the Tennessee Valley Authority, recruited by an operative for the Chinese government seeking to buy information on American nuclear information, will avoid any time in prison for his activity, reports the News Sentinel.
Chief U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan on Thursday turned aside a bid by federal prosecutors to have nuclear scientist Ching Ning Guey, 63, imprisoned and instead sentenced the former TVA executive to a three-year probationary term.
Guey was among a half dozen nuclear engineering experts working in the American nuclear power production industry who were recruited by operative Szuhsiung “Allen” Ho, 67, as part of what Assistant U.S. Attorney Charles Atchley Jr., has called a plot by China to garner nuclear technological know-how the country was not allowed to access.
But Guey appears to be the only one of those experts who was charged, and court records indicate it was Guey who agreed to help prosecutors snare Ho, who has since confessed guilt and provided the U.S. government with intelligence on China’s nuclear production capabilities.Ho was sentenced last year to a two-year prison term.
Court records show Ho recruited Guey in 2013 to travel to the People’s Republic of China and, on China’s dime, speak at a “technological exchange” at which he disclosed three reports on nuclear safety analysis. He was paid $15,500, which he has since forfeited to the federal government, according to statements in court.
The reports he provided were not classified but fell under the regulatory auspices of a law that bars certain countries considered nuclear bad actors, including China, from gleaning without permission of the federal government.
Appeals court finds $250 DUI fine — used in financing TBI — unconstitutional
An appeals court has ruled unconstitutional a state law that requires every person convicted of DUI through a blood or breath test pay a fee that that helps fund the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, reports the Associated Press.
Tuesday’s ruling by the Court of Criminal Appeals in Knoxville says the $250 fee violates due process and calls into question the trustworthiness of test results obtained by the bureau’s forensic scientists. State law requires the money to go to the bureau’s intoxicant testing fund.
Haslam unveils legislation on juvenile justice reform, UT board downsizing
Press release from the governor’s office
NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam today announced his legislative agenda for the 2018 session, continuing his focus on leading the nation in jobs, education, and efficient and effective government.
