The Associated Press

In an effort to prod more attorneys to provide free legal assistance to people who can't afford a lawyer, the Tennessee Supreme Court has announced it will begin giving special recognition to lawyers who spend at least 50 hours doing pro bono work. 

Tennessee House leaders who last year fended off a bill to overrule businesses seeking to ban firearms in their parking lots appear to be giving up the fight. House Majority Leader Gerald McCormick says he and fellow Republicans just want to put the measure behind them so they can move on to other more pressing issues.  

A Prohibition-era ban on the sale of alcohol at Kentucky’s restaurants, bars and retail stores on Election Day would be lifted under legislation the Senate passed Tuesday.  The measure would allow alcohol sales during the hours that polls are open.  It’s will now be taken up by the House.  Kentucky and South Carolina are the only two states that have such bans in place. In the past five years, similar bans have been lifted in Delaware, Idaho, Indiana, Utah and West Virginia.  Similar measures filed in the Commonwealth in past years have failed.

The Kentucky House passed a bill Tuesday requiring criminal background checks for prospective nursing home employees.  Applicants' names and fingerprints would be run through state and national databases.  Bill sponsor, Democrat Carl Rollins, says the Commonwealth would get $3 million in federal grant money to initiate the program and fund it until May 2014. The program would then cost the state about a million a year.  

A tax amnesty program is being credited with pushing up General Fund revenue by 3.8 percent in January. State Budget Director Jane Driskell says individual income tax revenue rose by more than 35 percent and corporate income tax receipts rose nearly 83 percent as those who took advantage of the amnesty offer paid up.

Pension reform legislation that passed in the Senate last week is undergoing changes in the House. House Speaker Greg Stumbo says he expects some of the proposed changes to be unveiled this week.

The version that cleared the Republican-controlled Senate requires the state to make its full contribution to the pension system but doesn't identify a funding source to do that. Stumbo says the Democratic-led House wants a designated funding source.

The Kentucky House has passed a bill that would allow people convicted of low-level felonies to apply to remove them from their criminal records. The Monday vote was 78-19. The proposal would allow people to expunge felonies that carry sentences of one to five years in prison.

Kentucky lawmakers are again considering a telephone deregulation bill that drew heavy opposition last year before it was withdrawn. The Senate Economic Development, Tourism and Labor Committee passed the bill Monday, sending it to the full Senate for consideration.

Kentucky’s junior Republican U.S. Sen. Rand Paul says actress and activist Ashley Judd, who’s considering a run against Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, doesn't represent Kentucky or even live in the state. Paul made the comments Sunday on CNN's "State of the Union" when asked about potential 2014 challengers to McConnell.

The debate over the Kentucky law allowing 16 year olds to drop out of high school with parental permission is coming up again in this year's legislative session. Gov. Steve Beshear and his wife, Jane, along with a bevy of education officials, say lawmakers should support a bill that would gradually raise the legal dropout age from 16 to 18. It has failed in past sessions.