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MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WSMV) - The U.S Attorney’s Office in Middle Tennessee announced the arrest of a woman who allegedly threatened to kill Senator Marsha Blackburn. The release states that 22-year-old Penelope Convertino left a voice message at Sen. Blackburn’s office in Nashville on May 30, 2025. In the message, Convertino stated: “My name is mother**ker and I’m gonna kill Marsha Blackburn. I’m gonna shoot her with a gun. I’m gonna blow up her head on national TV. She will literally have brains splattered behind her because she will not be a person. She will be a dead f**king body.”...

Authorities in Tennessee announced Friday that they believe a sheriff who inspired the movie "Walking Tall" is responsible for his wife's death in 1967. During a news conference Friday, officials with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation said there were "inconsistencies" in statements from Sheriff Buford Pusser following the 1967 murder of his wife, Pauline. “It’s been said that the dead can’t cry out for justice. It is the duty of the living to do so. In this case, that duty has been carried out 58 years later,” said District Attorney General Mark Davidson for the 25th Judicial District. Blood splatter...

Cracker Barrel's co-founder has delivered a scathing critique of the restaurant chain's CEO after a botched rebranding. Tommy Lowe, 93, accused Julie Felss Masino of failing to grasp what Cracker Barrel stands for, pointing to her previous stint at Taco Bell. 'They're trying to modernize to be like the competition. Cracker Barrel doesn't have any competition,' Low, who co-founded Cracker Barrel with the late Dan Evins in Lebanon, Tennessee in 1969, told WTVF. 'I heard she was at Taco Bell. What's Taco Bell know about Cracker Barrel and country food? They need to work on the food and service and...

A renewed investigation into the unsolved 1967 murder of the wife of McNairy County, Tenn. sheriff Buford Pusser debunks what has for decades been depicted in movies and implicates the long-dead lawman in his wife’s shooting. The sheriff, who died in a 1974 car crash, long said Pauline Pusser went with him on a call on Aug. 12, 1967 when a car pulled up alongside them and shots were fired, killing her and leaving Buford shot in the face. She was 33. The scene was depicted in the 1973 movie “Walking Tall,” with Buford Pusser depicted by Joe Don Baker....

Today, August 25, Tennessee Right to Life and pro-life Tennesseans are celebrating three years of the Human Life Protection Act being in effect. The law was passed in 2019 in anticipation of the overturning of Roe v Wade, saying that if/when Roe was overturned then Tennessee’s pre 1973 protections would be restored, and aborting children would once again be against the law. On June 24, 2022, the Supreme Court did just that in the Dobbs decision and returned the responsibility of protecting unborn children back to the states. Tennessee was ready and the law took effect August 25, 2022. “Before...

Brian Harris, whose decades as leader and lobbyist for the anti-abortion group Tennessee Right to Life were instrumental in ushering in the state’s 2022 near-total abortion ban, died Saturday at his home in South Carolina after an extended illness. He was 57. Harris served as president of Tennessee Right to Life for 23 years after leaving behind the aspiring musician career that first brought him from Indiana to Tennessee and taking over a dormant Nashville chapter of the organization in 1992. Harris went on to transform Tennessee Right to Life into a powerful statewide political force whose candidate endorsements and...

MSNBC host Jonathan Capehart almost lost his cool on Saturday when discussing the backlash against Cracker Barrel’s redesigned logo. During an episode of MSNBC’s “The Weekend,” Capehart and co-host Eugene Daniels criticized those outraged over the restaurant’s recent logo redesign, arguing that the backlash is a waste of time and another excuse for MAGA supporters to play the victim. “There are real things people are concerned about, and they’re losing their minds over a redesign. What the — See? I’m trying not to curse,” Capehart told his co-host. The Tennessee-based restaurant chain angered people on social media last week when...

A mysterious headless corpse was found rotting in a wooded strip flanked by two fast-food joints in Tennessee — and cops have no idea how long it had been there, according to reports. Authorities responded to the grim scene after a women stumbled upon a cluster of heavily decomposed bones in the woods behind a McDonald’s and Waffle House in Nashville Friday morning, WSMV reported. A severely crumbling skull was then found roughly 100 feet from the gruesome decapitated remains, according to the Metro Nashville Police Department. “It is unclear at this point who this person is, how this person...

An American pastor living in South Africa was reportedly kidnapped from his church mid-sermon by a group of masked gunmen who stole from congregants and whisked the cleric away in his own truck. Josh Sullivan, a 45-year-old Tennessee native, was taken away at gunpoint Thursday night when four men broke into the Fellowship Baptist Church in Motherwell while the pastor was preaching to a congregation of roughly 30 people, which included his wife and six children, multiple outlets reported. The alleged kidnappers, who also stole two cell phones from churchgoers, then sped off with the clergyman in his silver Toyota...

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga went into lockdown on Thursday afternoon after an alert was sent out reporting a possible active shooter. The alert stated, per WSMV, "Run. Hide. Fight." The university reported the possible active shooter as being at the University Center or the school’s library. The Chattanooga Police Department said they are working with campus police to investigate reports of shots fired, and authorities said they have not found any victims at this time. All City of Chattanooga buildings are in lockdown along with campus buildings. This is a breaking story. Please refresh the page for updates.

Bobby Dodge, a Tennessee small‑business owner, is running in the special election for the state’s 7th Congressional District, seeking to become the first member of Congress associated with Elon Musk’s America Party, despite the group not having ballot access in Tennessee or any other state. Dodge announced his candidacy on Thursday, August 14, stating in a press release that he wants to be a voice for Americans frustrated with partisan gridlock and will focus on fiscal discipline, government accountability, and pragmatic reforms. His background includes studies in political science, an internship on Capitol Hill, and volunteer work at the Reagan...

In a shameful act of vandalism, the grave of Captain William Lytle, a Revolutionary War hero, was found destroyed in a Murfreesboro, Tennessee, graveyard, leading local patriots to set up a GoFundMe in support of the grave’s restoration, along with repairs to other surrounding headstones that were vandalized. For background, on August 13, 2025, local press accounts confirmed that the grave of Captain Lytle, along with headstones belonging to members of his family, was found destroyed, with local members of the Tennessee Society of the Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) responding by working to restore the site as quickly...

Scopes: Same Debate, Different World This year marks the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Scopes “Monkey” Trial, in which an ACLU-led attempt to overturn a Tennessee law banning the teaching of evolution in schools turned into a nationally broadcasted showdown between creationism and Darwinism. Understandably, the Scopes trial is often viewed through the lens of current debates surrounding evolution, creationism, and intelligent design. But the “past is a foreign country,” and it’s often a mistake to try to fit history into the mold of the present. Historian Edward B. Davis’s new critical anthology Protestant Modernist Pamphlets: Science and Religion in...

BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WSMV) - The Brentwood Police Department said they are wanting to speak with potential victims and anyone with information on the allegations against a former Christian band’s lead singer. An independent Christian news organization, The Roys Report, reported on June 4 that former Newsboys lead singer Michael Tait allegedly groomed and sexually assaulted multiple people. The news organisation reported that his alleged “predatory pattern” as well as substance and alcohol abuse dates back as early as 2004. Days after the report came out, Tait took to social media admitting to using and abusing both cocaine and alcohol. He...

After a daylong manhunt, police in Athens, Tennessee, have made an arrest in a shooting downtown on Wednesday that killed one and wounded another. Carlos A. Quintana was captured by Bradley County and McMinn County deputies, federal Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms agents, Athens police, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation, U.S. Marshals Service and others, according to a statement from McMinn County Sheriff Joe Guy. Quintana, 24, was located at a residence in northeast Bradley County, Guy said. Court orders include requirements for an ankle monitor if Quintana makes bail. Quintana has been detained for investigation by Immigration and Customs Enforcement...

It’s official! I’m running for Governor to ensure Tennessee is America’s conservative leader for this generation and the next. I would be honored to have your support. #TNGov

The man wanted in the killings of the parents, grandmother and uncle of an infant found abandoned in a front yard last week has been arrested, police in Tennessee said.Austin Robert Drummond, 28, was taken into custody amid a search on Tuesday, police in Jackson said in a social media post. Police later released a photo of Drummond standing in a wooded area wearing a dark hooded sweatshirt and looking into the camera.Drummond’s arrest came shortly after police had warned residents to stay inside their homes, having received a report that he was spotted in a neighborhood. Jackson is more...

LAKE COUNTY, Tenn. — A suspect in the deaths of four people whose bodies were found in northwest Tennessee was identified by authorities Thursday. Special agents with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation say 28-year-old Austin Robert Drummond is wanted in the killings. 4 bodies found in TN identified amid abandoned baby investigation Drummond is wanted on warrants for four counts of First Degree Murder, one count of Aggravated Kidnapping, four counts of Felon in Possession of a Firearm, and one count of Possession of a Firearm During the Commission of a Dangerous Felony.

BREAKING: Maryland federal judge Paula Xinis has just issued an order that will block ICE from arresting “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia upon his release on bail in Tennessee for his federal human trafficking charges. Judge Xinis is also ordering a 72 hour pause on any effort… pic.twitter.com/JKBfwnPrB8— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) July 23, 2025

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WSMV) - A former reality TV star from Middle Tennessee was arrested at a Walmart on Friday after she attacked another person with a sock filled with rocks, according to an arrest affidavit. On Friday, July 18, officers with the Metro Nashville Police Department were called to 3035 Hamilton Church Road in reference to the alleged assault. Officers spoke with the victim, who said she was using the self-checkout when the suspect, 21-year-old Diamond Tankard, came from behind and grabbed her by the hair. After the attack, the victim said Tankard took her $1,500 iPhone 14 and her...