News

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  A mid-state professor says a technology arms-race may develop between news organizations and the government following last week’s revelation that the U.S. Department of Justice secretly accessed the phone records of 20 reporters.

Dr. Larry Burriss is an attorney specializing in media law and teaches journalism at Middle Tennessee State University. He says the New Yorker Magazine has already developed what it’s calling a “hack-proof” system to protect its sources.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (AP/WMOT)  --  Bonnaroo released a  new economic impact study Monday indicating the annual music festival contributes more than $50 million dollars to Middle Tennessee’s economy each year.

Greyhill Associates of New York conducted the study, which says festival goers directly spend about $36 million annually, while also generating indirect expenditures amounting to $15 million.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Metro Nashville held a ribbon cutting ceremony Monday morning for its new Music City Center convention facility.

The official opening actually came on the second day festivities marking the center’s completion.

Officials say about 15,000 visitors turned out Sunday to tour the new facility, enjoy live music, and try out an indoor zip line.

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.