Tagged: tennessee

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  A video created by a Woodbury woman is getting national and international attention.

Lacey Buchanan recently recorded a simple, home-made video about her son Christian. The boy was born with severe birth defects. Christian has no eyes and a cleft lip and palette were repaired soon after birth.

Buchanan uses hand drawn note-cards and family photos to tell baby Christian’s story during the seven minute video.

While she never speaks, a range of emotions flash across Buchanan’s face: joy when she speaks about her son’s infectious laugh; sadness and perhaps a bit of anger when she recalls a stranger once telling her that she was cruel for not aborting such a badly handicapped child.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Six of the 18 Tennessee schools honored this week for academic gains are located here in the Mid-State. Two are located in Rutherford County.

Principal Barbara Sales of Murfreesboro’s Hobgood Elementary and Principal Andra Helton of Rutherford County’s Thurman Francis Elementary picked up “Value-Added Achievement Awards” for their schools on Monday.

The awards are based on data tracked by the Tennessee Department of Education and indicate schools that show significant improvement in test scores year-over-year.

Hobgood Principal Barbara Sales said a dedicated staff and faculty is the key to her school’s success.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  --  Crime on the campuses of Tennessee’s schools continues to fall.

The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation says simple assaults were the most commonly reported offense in the state’s K-12 schools last year. Kristin Helm is with the TBI.

“Crimes against person’s actually decreased by 4.3 percent, and crimes against property decreased 8.2 percent, which gives an overall decrease of crime committed at school by about 5.5 percent from 2010 till 2011.”

Aggravated assaults were up slightly to 331 incidents and there was one murder reported in 2011.  Memphis police arrested a student in the stabbing death of a private school principle last August.

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  -- WMOT is asking news makers to review the work of the just-completed 107th Tennessee General Assembly. Today the views of 13th District Republican Senator Bill Ketron of Murfreesboro.

Ketron describes the just ended state assembly as a “spectacular session.” He says that he and his fellow legislators passed a number of significant bills and still managed to end the session early.

“You know we cut a billion dollars…almost a billion dollars out of the budget and still kept our core services and kept the state going. We put money in the rainy-day fund because we know next year is going to be even tougher, because all the federal dollars have dried up; the stimulus packages, etcetera, have gone away.”

MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WMOT)  -- WMOT News is asking news makers from across the political spectrum to offer their take on the just-completed 107th Tennessee General Assembly. Today the views of Eben Cathey of the Tennessee Immigrant and Refugee Rights Coalition.

Cathey says the Coalition counts as a legislative victory the defeat of a bill that would have made harboring or transporting an undocumented person a felony. He says the Council is happy that it’s worst fears for the legislative session were not realized.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — State officials are promoting motorcycle safety awareness month as motorcycle fatalities rise in Tennessee.

Thirty-eight motorcyclists have died in state crashes this year, up 31 percent from 2011.

Tennessee Department of Transportation spokesperson Deanna Lambert says the unseasonably warm weather may be partially to blame for the increase.

“A lot of people are taking advantage of the nice weather, getting out there and riding their motorcycles, or just kind of getting out for a weekend drive. So I really think there’s just more people on the road and you really kind of have to take that into consideration and use caution. We haven’t even gotten into the summer months yet.”

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.

Tennessee’s highest ranking military officer, Major General Max Haston, was on hand for the departure of a recent Honor Flight, and noted that World War II era veterans are now dying at the rate of several thousand a day.