News

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Governor Bill Haslam has signed two bills that received a lot of attention in the most recent legislative session.

Haslam announced today that he's signed the latest revision to Tennessee's ignition interlock law. It will now apply to more drunken drivers.

Currently, ignition-locking devices, which force drivers to pass breath tests to start vehicles and keep them running, are required for DUI offenders whose blood alcohol level topped 0.15 percent.

ELIZABETHTON, Tenn. (AP) — An Australian who was hiking the Appalachian Trail in eastern Tennessee has died.

Authorities said 71-year-old George Walls Grant from Collie, Western Australia, fell ill while hitchhiking to a market on Monday.

The Johnson City Press (http://bit.ly/16BMTKp ) reported motorist James Self noticed Grant was having a medical problem and took him to a rescue squad station. An ambulance took Grant to a hospital emergency room, where he was pronounced dead.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Tennessee’s housing market cooled in the first quarter, even while job creation accelerated.

A first quarter analysis by the Business and Economic Research Center at Middle Tennessee State University shows that home construction fell by just over four percent compared to the final quarter of 2012. Home sales stalled and foreclosures are on the rise again.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Many of the recently released case files of children who died or nearly died after being under the supervision of the Tennessee Department of Children's Services were not filled out until months after a child's death.

The Tennessean has now reviewed 36 of the 42 records of cases released at a hearing on Friday by a Davidson County judge. The newspaper also found that many of the records lacked legally required information.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) -- Mid-state cycling enthusiasts will participate Wednesday in a national day of remembrance for riders who’ve been killed in traffic accidents in the past year.

A total of eight cyclists died in Tennessee during 2012, while five died during 2011. A single rider has died so far in 2013.

A student cyclist attending Middle Tennessee State University was killed in February. Twenty year-old Timothy Martin was struck and killed while walking his bike across Rutherford Blvd not far from the MTSU campus.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A southern Kentucky man is being retried in the torture slayings of a young Knoxville couple.

The second trial of George Thomas begins Monday in Knoxville before a jury selected in Nashville. Thomas is one of four defendants convicted in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Channon Christian and Christopher Newsom in January 2009.

Thomas was convicted in December 2009, but the trial judge abruptly left the bench without affirming the jury's verdict. Judge Richard Baumgartner was later convicted on charges related to his abuse of painkillers.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  There has been a lot of talk lately about cloning. You know, recreating extinct plants or animals.

But here’s an interesting bit of news about bringing something back from the dead: A team at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) has re-created the very first web page, designed in 1992 by Sir Tim Berners-Lee. And unlike the first connections, which were pretty much limited to universities and government agencies, today anyone can go to the CERN web site and see what was going on a little more than 20 years ago.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee’s attorney general says legislation requiring anyone recording images of animal abuse to submit unedited footage or photos to law enforcement within 48 hours is constitutionally suspect.<?xml:namespace prefix = o />

Attorney General Robert Cooper says in an opinion issued yesterday that the bill is questionable on three grounds, including that its "reporting requirement could be found to constitute an unconstitutional burden on news gathering. "

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  A Nobel Prize medal has found a new home here in Middle Tennessee.

Thursday afternoon the family of the late Nobel Laureate James M. Buchanan presented his 1986 Nobel medal in economics to Middle Tennessee State University.

Buchanan was a Tennessee native and 1940 graduate of then Middle Tennessee State Teacher’s College. He went on to do ground-breaking research at the intersection of economics and politics.

Dr. Barbara S. Haskew, a former MTSU Provost, was among those lauding Buchanan in Thursday’s ceremony.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Tennessee Senator Lamar Alexander is ratcheting up his confrontation with the U.S. Army Corp of Engineers over a ban on fishing below Corp dams along the Cumberland River. 

The Senator is threatening the Corp's funding over the dispute.

During a senate subcommittee hearing Wednesday, Alexander lectured Assistant Secretary of the Army Jo-Ellen Darcy and Corp Commander Lt. General Thomas Bostick.