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NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP/WMOT) — A large group of Middle Tennessee veterans are getting an all-expenses-paid trip to Washington D.C.

About 100 vets and their guardians will depart from Nashville International Airport today on a so-called “honor flight” to visit the World War II Memorial  in the nation’s capital.

The Nashville non-profit Music City Honor Flight is paying for the excursion as a way to thank the veterans for their war-time service.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn (WMOT)  -- State Commissioner of Safety and Homeland Security, Bill Gibbons, will appear this week at an organized crime symposium that begins Tuesday on the campus of Middle Tennessee State University.

Entitled “Technology, Trafficking and Terrorism,” the 2012 Organized Crime Symposium is free and open to the public.

The seminar is sponsored by MTSU’s Forensic Institute for Research and Education and will tackle the difficult subjects of the sex trafficking of women and children, along with the increasingly sophisticated use of technology by gangs.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn (WMOT)  – The murder trial for Shanterrica Madden gets underway this week, 14 months after she was arrested in connection with the death of fellow MTSU student Tina Stewart.

WKRN-TV reports that jury selection for the trial will get underway Monday in Chattanooga. Judge Don Ash agreed to bring a jury in from Chattanooga to hear the case after Madden’s attorney complained that the local jury pool had been tainted by extensive press coverage of Stewart’s death.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT) – It’s graduation season for area universities. Austin Peay State, Trevecca, Lipscomb, and Middle Tennessee State University all held commencement ceremonies over the weekend.

MTSU, Tennessee’s largest undergraduate institution, reached a special milestone when it granted a degree to its 100,000th four-year student on Saturday.

MTSU graduated more than 2500 students, including more than 2,100 undergraduates and over 400 graduate students.

The 2012 commencement ceremonies also marked the conclusion of MTSU’s centennial celebration.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  The Tennessee Board of Regents has named a new President for Tennessee Tech University in Cookeville. The Regents have awarded the post to Phillip Oldham. 

Dr. Oldham is currently serving as provost and senior vice chancellor for Academic Affairs at U.T. Chattanooga. He'll replace current TTU President Bob Bell, who plans to retire in July after 12 years as the school’s leader.

TBR Chancellor John Morgan says Oldham’s background in science is timely.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  A Tennessee researcher is helping answer the question: Why do Americans of color generally die of disease at higher rates than whites?

It’s widely recognized that white Americans are more likely to survive life-threatening illness than people of color. For example, black children are less likely to survive cancer than white children. The question that researchers are still struggling with is exactly why.