Reaction to the Supreme Court’s 6-3 vote overturning Roe v. Wade last week ranged from rage to celebration, with abortion rights advocates decrying the decision while anti-abortion forces moving to restrict access as quickly as possible.

On the state level, the Tennessee attorney general’s office filed an emergency motion within hours of the announcement asking a federal appeals court to let the state immediately begin banning abortions as early as six weeks into pregnancy.

The state also has a trigger law that was written to ban nearly all abortions if Roe v. Wade was overturned. Tennessee is one of 13 states to have such laws ready for this decision.

That ban cannot take effect until 30 days after the June 24 U.S. Supreme Court ruling. But the six-week ban, passed in 2020, was reinstated Tuesday when the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated an injunction holding it back pending a legal challenge.

Planned Parenthood plans to keep providing abortions for now, says Ashley Coffield, CEO of Planned Parenthood of Tennessee and North Mississippi. The Planned Parenthood centers she oversees are fully booked with abortion patients through July 1, after which Coffield expects Tennessee to be under the six-week ban.

Coffield said the facilities will still provide other health services and will help guide women to accessible abortion services elsewhere.

“Let me very clear: Banning abortion will cause a public health crisis,” she said. “And we will not forget that the Tennessee and Mississippi lawmakers who have systematically rolled back our rights and bartered our bodies for votes are the ones who got us here.”

Meanwhile, Tennessee Right to Life celebrated the many years of organizing and lobbying it took to get to this point.

“We stand on the shoulders of those who in 1973 refused to accept that Roe v. Wade and legalized abortion were the law of the land,” Tennessee Right to Life President Stacy Dunn said at a June 24 news conference at the state Capitol.

July 5 is deadline for Aug. 4 election

Tennesseans who want to cast a ballot in the Aug. 4 State and federal primary and state and county general election must register or update their voter registration before the voter registration deadline on Tuesday, July 5.

Registering to vote, updating your address or checking your registration status can be done at GoVoteTN.gov.

Election Day registration is not available in Tennessee.

Early voting will be held July 15-30. The deadline to request an absentee by-mail ballot is July 28.

VUMC, 23andMe find genetic link for rhythm

Researchers at Vanderbilt Genetics Institute, in collaboration with personal genomics and biotechnology company 23andMe, have made a significant discovery about the biological underpinnings of musical rhythm, according to a new study.

“Tapping, clapping and dancing in synchrony with the beat – the pulse – of music is at the core of our human musicality,” says Reyna Gordon, Ph.D., associate professor in the Department of Otolaryngology – Head and Neck Surgery and co-director of the Vanderbilt Music Cognition Lab.

The study, published in the journal Nature Human Behaviour, is the first large-scale genome-wide association study of a musical trait. Gordon and Lea Davis, Ph.D., associate professor of Medicine, both co-senior authors on the findings, along with Maria Niarchou, Ph.D., research instructor in the Department of Medicine and first author of the paper, co-led a team of international collaborators in novel groundwork toward understanding the biology underlying how musicality relates to other health traits.

The study identified 69 genetic variants associated with beat synchronization – the ability to move in synchrony with the beat of music. Many of the variants are in or near genes involved in neural function and early brain development.

“Rhythm is not just influenced by a single gene – it is influenced by many hundreds of genes,” Gordon says.

Baker Donelson among ‘Best’ firms for women

Baker Donelson was named to the prestigious list of “Best Law Firms for Women” by Seramount, now part of EAB. This is the sixth consecutive year the firm achieved this recognition, which honors the top 50 firms that utilize best practices in recruiting, retaining, promoting and developing women lawyers.

Highlights from this year’s list include a significant increase in the percentage of women managing partners; more multicultural women at every level; and increased competition in hiring and retention, with law firms stepping up their family-friendly benefits.

“Baker Donelson is steadfast in our long-standing commitment to achieve complete gender parity at every level of leadership and shareholder status,” says Christy Tosh Crider, chair of Baker Donelson’s Women’s Initiative and chair of the Firm’s Health Care Litigation Group. “We are so proud of being named a Best Law Firm for Women for six consecutive years, but there is no time to rest after celebrating. We must keep up the rewarding work of ensuring that every talented attorney is brought along.”

Through its Women’s Initiative, Baker Donelson has implemented numerous key initiatives designed to create an environment where female attorneys thrive, including an industry-leading parental leave policy, a firm-wide mentoring program for women, a program that awards business development grants to women attorneys, and a training program designed to help women attorneys achieve equity shareholder status.

“Our Best Law Firms for Women continue to improve in many critical areas,” says Subha V. Barry, president of Seramount. “Our firms recognize the importance of recruiting and retaining this important talent pool and have developed the family-friendly benefits to prove it. All of these combined are important steps toward parity.”

MTSU solar boat, lunar rover teams score well

MTSU finished first in three categories and fourth overall at 2022 Solar Splash.

-- Photograph Provided

The MTSU solar boat team received finished fourth overall at the 2022 Solar Splash competition held recently in Springfield, Ohio.

The Blue Raiders also finished first for Outstanding Workmanship, Outstanding Hull Design and Drive Train Design along with a third place in the 300-meter sprint event.

Solar Splash is the world championship of collegiate solar boating, taking place across five days at Champions Park Lake adjacent to the Clark County Fairgrounds. Cedarville University, the host school, claimed top overall honors.The event provides a showcase for students’ innovative boat designs and gives awards for endurance, sprint and slalom on-the-water events, plus awards for technical reports, video presentation, workmanship and engineering design.

“These (workmanship and design) awards are huge,” says Saeed Foroudastan, student mentor, director of the MTSU Experimental Vehicles Program and associate dean in the College of Basic and Applied Sciences. “Because we are an engineering school, winning the engineering design is important to us. The industry judges came in. They looked at all of the solar boats there and they chose us to get those three engineering design awards.”

Team captain Hunter Hudson of Nashville says: “It had been an excellent demonstration of teamwork, what MTSU can accomplish as a school when students from interdisciplinary backgrounds work together to accomplish a common goal, how prestigious our engineering department is and how well we did throughout the competition in all the events.”

Team members include junior Morgan Olsen of Brentwood, senior Riley Frye of Lynnville, senior technology specialist Ben Garrettson, sophomore Tyler Burns of Murfreesboro, junior Hunter McMath of Hohenwald, senior Dan Hannett of Tampa, Florida, and laboratory director Rick Taylor of Murfreesboro.

HMC Civil Rights Law heralds name change

HMC Civil Rights Law, a law firm focused on employment discrimination cases, has been renamed. Formerly known as Collins & Hunter, the firm has changed its name to reflect new management and ownership.

The firm’s attorneys have a history of helping those who have been discriminated against, especially in cases of ADA violations, race discrimination, sexual harassment, wrongful termination, Title IX, sexual assault and more. They routinely try cases before a jury in State and federal courts and have successfully argued appeals at the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals.

“The firm’s level of energy for this change has been a joy to be a part of, and I am really excited for this next chapter of our growth,” The firm’s founder and principal, Heather Moore Collins, says of the change. “We have a lot of strategic initiatives planned, and I am thrilled to be walking through this with our team.”

Attorneys Ashley Walter and Caroline Drinnon are continuing in their capacity as associate attorneys, while Erica Runnels remains as office manager & trial paralegal. Shanisha Cooper also is continuing her role as EEOC & discovery paralegal.

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