Mike Osborne

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Blue Raiders baseball kicks off its 96th season this weekend.

MTSU will take on Kansas Saturday afternoon beginning at 3 p.m. The 2012 baseball season at MT is the 25th under the direction of head coach Steve Peterson.

Noting that Middle Tennessee had a losing season last year, Coach Peterson says his team has something to prove in 2012.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.  (WMOT)  --  A terrorism training seminar sponsored by the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office this week doesn’t appear to follow guidelines for such training as set out by the Department of Homeland Security.

In a best practices brief produced by DHS and the National Counterterrorism Center, it states that terror training should "focus on behavior, not appearance or membership in particular ethnic or religious communities."

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.”

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.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.  (WMOT)  --  A representative of a national Islamic group says a company conducting training this week for deputies with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office views all Muslims as a threat.

          Trainers with Strategic Engagement Group (SEG) are conducting a seminar today and tomorrow at Murfreesboro’s World Outreach Church for about 100 police officers. On its website, SEG says that a coordinated, world-wide Islamic conspiracy to subvert the U.S. Constitution and subjugate the American people is underway.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn.  (WMOT)  --  More than 100 Tennessee law enforcement officers, including deputies with the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office, are being trained this week in Murfreesboro by an organization that believes an Islamic insurgency is underway in the United States.

          The training sessions are being held each day through Wednesday at the World Outreach Church on New Salem Highway. The Tennessee Freedom Coalition (TFC) is scheduled to host a one-time seminar beginning this evening at 6:30 p.m. featuring the same training group at the same location.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn  (WMOT)  --  More than 100 students gathered on the Vanderbilt campus this morning to protest changes the university recently made to its policies governing student organizations.

The new policies require that, to remain certified, student organizations must allow any student to join and also allow all-comers to stand for leadership positions in the group.

The policy is being contested, largely by Christian groups, that insist their officers must be students who share their core beliefs.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  Former Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor spoke to an overflow crowd here on the campus of Middle Tennessee State last night.

WMOT student reporter Charity Dunn was there and says the lecture hall filled early and a line formed for an overflow room with a video feed.

The former justice, and the first woman appointed to the nation’s highest court, gave a wide-ranging and surprisingly entertaining talk that had the crowd laughing repeatedly. O’Connor shared a number of biographical details, including memories of her childhood.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  The Blue Raider men and women both pulled out hard won victories last night over North Texas in Denton. 

The MTSU men's basketball team withstood a late rally by the Mean Green to hold on for a 68-66 victory. The men now have a 21-3 overall record and a 10-0 standing in the Sun Belt Conference, marking the best league start in school history. 

The Lady Raiders game also went down to the wire, with the MT women eaking out a 70-68 victory to extend their winning streak to 12 games.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn (WMOT)  --  What will religion and spirituality look like in years to come?  That’s the big question being explored this weekend during the “Big I” conference being held at the Wisdom House at the Scarritt-Bennett Center in Nashville.

More than 20 speakers from across the nation and representing different faith backgrounds will be on hand to offer their insights. The conference will include both formal presentations and opportunities for attendees to interact with the featured speakers.