News

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Middle Tennessee State University announced Friday that it has purchased the former Middle Tennessee Medical Center property for just over $11 million dollars.

The hospital moved to a new $267 million facility in 2010.  MTMC has been looking for a buyer ever since, and President Gordon Ferguson says he always hoped it would be MTSU.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The owner of a Maryville pill mill who jumped bond during her federal trial for conspiracy, drug charges and money laundering has been sentenced to spend more than 21 years in federal prison.

The Knoxville News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/Zwo9hZ) U.S. District Judge Tom Varlan on Thursday also ordered all of Tammy Guzman's assets forfeited.

The 42-year-old was convicted earlier this year in a pills-for-cash scheme at her Maryville Pain Consultants clinic that netted at least $2 million over two years.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A private high school in Nashville has been closed after receiving some type of threat.

WSMV-TV reports (http://bit.ly/ZDw6xZ) all campus activities at Father Ryan High School were canceled Friday after police informed school officials of the threat.

Officials have said only that the threat was posted online in some form.

KNOXVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A U.S. State Department worker and former copy editor at the Knoxville News Sentinel is recovering in the U.S. after she was wounded in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan.

The News Sentinel reports (http://bit.ly/XKyWo7 ) that Kelly Hunt was one of a group on a goodwill mission to deliver textbooks to students at a school on April 6 when a suicide bomber drove an explosives-laden vehicle into their convoy.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  The Murfreesboro Symphony Orchestra will bring its 31st season to a close this evening with a performance entitled The Majesty of Tchaikovsky.

Maestro Joseph Lee will conduct as the orchestra performs the “Romeo and Juliet Fantasy Overture” and the “Symphony No. 4 in F Minor.”  

Maestro Lee says the orchestra will also be hosting a special guest.

MURFREESBORO, TN (WMOT) – Convicted murderer Shanterrica Madden is appealing her conviction in the stabbing death of MTSU basketball standout Tina Stewart.

Madden's defense attorney, Joe Brandon Jr., filed an appeal Wednesday to the Tennessee Court of Appeals.

Madden stood trial in May of 2012 in Murfreesboro on a charge of first degree murder. Jurors returned a verdict of second-degree murder.

Police say she stabbed her former roommate, Stewart,  in 2011 as the two women first argued then fought in their off-campus apartment.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — Strong thunderstorms are expected to develop across Tennessee today and tonight and some could become severe.

The National Weather Service says stormy weather will move into the state this afternoon as a squall line moves eastward out of Arkansas.

Nashville based meteorologist Tom Johnstone says the biggest risk is in West Tennessee as the storm’s squall line moves across the state.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Mothers Against Drunk Driving is urging parents to talk with their children about underage drinking following the release of new data that says two-thirds of alcohol related teen deaths are not the result of traffic fatalities.

MADD has designated this Sunday “PowerTalk 21 Day:” a day for parents to have that long overdue conversation about underage drinking.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI says suspicious letters sent to President Barack Obama and Sen. Roger Wicker are related and are both postmarked out of Memphis, Tenn., dated April 8.

The FBI says the substance in both letters have preliminarily tested positive for ricin, a potentially fatal poison.

In an intelligence bulletin obtained by The Associated Press, the FBI says the letters both say: "To see a wrong and not expose it, is to become a silent partner to its continuance." Both letters are signed, "I am KC and I approve this message.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  One of the nation’s foremost forensic blood-spatter experts is scheduled to make a presentation in the mid-state.

Middle Tennessee State University will welcome forensic specialist Paulette Sutton to the campus as the keynote speaker for the school’s annual Forensic Institute conference.

Sutton is a University of Tennessee grad who now consults on cases worldwide. She started her career as a crime lab technologist, but developed a fascination with blood-spatter while visiting crime scenes.