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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) --  Pulitzer Prize winning columnist Leonard Pitts Jr. is making an appearance Wednesday in Middle Tennessee.

Pitts will deliver a speech in the State Farm Lecture Hall on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University Wednesday afternoon.

Pitts is a syndicated columnist for the Miami Herald and author of three books. His 2004 Pulitzer citation reads in part that Pitts writes, “fresh, vibrant columns that speak, with both passion and compassion, to ordinary people on often divisive issues.”

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Gov. Bill Haslam is abandoning his proposal to do away with average class size restrictions in Tennessee.

The Republican governor's decision Wednesday comes amid fears raised by educators and parents that the change would lead to more classrooms being filled to capacity. 

Here’s what Rutherford County Director of Schools Harry Gill told WMOT about the Governor's bill.

"To expect more, and at the same time increase the load on teachers is ludicrous, and I think that's pretty much the consensus among superintendents."

MURFREESBORO, Tenn (WMOT)  --  WMOT News has been telling you this week about a three day training seminar held at the World Outreach Church in Murfreesboro. That training concluded Wednesday afternoon.

The seminar was conducted by Strategic Engagement Group, a company that believes the American people are under threat from a coordinated, global Muslim conspiracy involving all 56 of the world’s Islamic nations.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — The NAACP in Chattanooga is helping lead a statewide effort to recruit black ministers to get out the vote.

Joe Rowe is vice president of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County NAACP. Rowe says he’s contacted all 42 chapters of the Tennessee NAACP, as well as a number of youth organizations, and ministers statewide to promote a plan to increase voter participation.

From now until the presidential election in November, the NAACP will organize marches, host voter registration drives and offer transportation to the polls.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — An attempt to move the Occupy Nashville protest from the state Capitol to the city's Public Square was short-lived.

One tent was set up on the lawn of the city government headquarters Monday night. According to an Occupy spokesperson, seven Metro Nashville police cruisers arrived at the site early Tuesday morning and officers told tent dweller Matt Hammill a local ordinance barred camping there.

Hammill packed up his tent and left.