VOL. 44 | NO. 21 | Friday, May 22, 2020
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt has removed the interim title, making Candice Storey Lee the first woman to become an athletic director in the Southeastern Conference.
STATE GOVERNMENT
State revenues for April fell dramatically as the COVID-19 pandemic’s financial impact hit Tennessee.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
With Nashville recently marking the 60th anniversary of the successful sit-in campaigns that integrated downtown businesses, permit me to deliver a civil rights pat on the back to my native Mississippi.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The horizontal property regime continues to baffle Realtors, homebuyers and even attorneys at times. In essence, a horizontal property regime is a legal device by which two residences can be built upon a single lot, or a parcel of land, that previously had one house.
NEWSMAKERS
Charles W. “Chuck” Cagle, shareholder and chair of the education law and government relations practice group at Lewis Thomason, has been appointed as Tennessee representative and counsel to the Council of Administrators in Special Education.
BRIEFS
The annual Freelance Economic Impact Report by Fiverr International Ltd. reports Nashville and Austin continue to grow faster in both population and revenue than all other cities.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Vehicle sales hit a record low in April as most Americans stayed home and countless dealerships closed due to the coronavirus crisis. But as a number of businesses begin to open, those who are in need of a vehicle may find that this might be a good time to shop.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Reverse mortgages allow older homeowners to turn part of their home equity into tax-free cash, using a loan that doesn’t have to be paid back until they die, sell or move out.
CAREER CORNER
This pandemic could not come at a worse time for those of you in the middle of your college education.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
It’s our new normal: Tens of millions of Americans are unemployed or on a reduced income. We’re social distancing and spending more time at home. But one thing hasn’t changed – debts still have due dates.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music singer Morgan Wallen apologized Sunday following his weekend arrest on public intoxication and disorderly conduct charges.
AUTO INDUSTRY
KARLSRUHE, Germany (AP) — A German court has ruled that Volkswagen must buy back cars from owners of its diesel cars equipped with software that evaded emissions testing — but consumers must accept the current value of the car based on the mileage they drove since buying it, not the purchase price.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — It's back to the future as NASA astronauts launch again from the U.S. — aboard a retro-style "Right Stuff" capsule.
It all started with the dream of growing a rose on Mars.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization said Monday that it will temporarily drop hydroxychloroquine — the anti-malarial drug U.S. President Trump says he is taking — from its global study into experimental COVID-19 treatments, saying that its experts need to review all available evidence to date.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many laid-off workers who lost health insurance in the coronavirus shutdown soon face the first deadlines to qualify for fallback coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Sunday further limited travel from the world's coronavirus hotspots by denying entry to foreigners coming from Brazil, which is second to the U.S. in the number of confirmed cases.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BEIJING (AP) — China demand Monday that Washington withdraw export sanctions imposed on Chinese companies in the latest round of a worsening conflict over technology, security and human rights.
BERLIN (AP) — The European Union's top diplomat has called for the bloc to have a "more robust strategy" toward China amid signs that Asia is replacing the United States as the center of global power.
NEW YORK (AP) — Many business owners are changing the way they make money as they attempt to recoup revenue lost to the coronavirus outbreak.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German airline Lufthansa said Monday it has received approval for a 9 billion-euro ($9.8 billion) "stabilization package" from a government support fund to keep the company going through the turbulence from the coronavirus outbreak, but cautions the deal has not been approved by the European Union's executive commission.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidential politics move fast. What we're watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Donald Trump doesn't like the message, he shoots the messenger.
FRIDAY, MAY 22
VANDERBILT SPORTS
Southeastern Conference schools will be able to bring football and basketball players back to campus for voluntary activities starting June 8 at the discretion of each university.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — A group of Power Five coaches led by Michigan's Erik Bakich is proposing a later start to the college baseball season to trim expenses in the post-coronavirus era, make the game more fan friendly and reduce injury risk to players.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Recording Academy has released a new recording of John Prine's "Angel From Montgomery" with proceeds going to support the MusiCares COVID-19 Relief Fund.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Rep. Bruce Griffey's hearing is iffy and getting worse with age.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Friday promised business leaders that he would send the National Guard to help their companies with COVID-19 testing should they ask for it.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are extending free pandemic child care for essential workers until mid-August, while letting more categories of workers qualify for the program.
HEALTH CARE
U.S. regulators on Friday approved a birth control gel that works in a new way to prevent pregnancy.
COURTS
"Full House" star Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, pleaded guilty Friday to paying half a million dollars to get their two daughters into the University of Southern California as part of a college admissions bribery scheme, but a judge has not decided whether he'll accept the deals they made with prosecutors.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge threw out a lawsuit on Friday from a coalition of states, environmental groups and American Indians which sought to revive an Obama-era moratorium against U.S. government coal sales on public lands in the West.
NASHVILLE (AP) — School voucher advocates are asking the Tennessee Supreme Court to take up the case of a lawsuit challenging the constitutionality of a program that would let parents use public tax dollars for private school tuition.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — "A Trump enemy statement," he said of one study.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he has deemed churches and other houses of worship "essential" and called on governors across the country to allow them to reopen this weekend despite the threat of spreading the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of insisting the Washington, D.C., area is not ready to end its pandemic-induced lockdown, Washington Mayor Muriel Bowser now says the numbers are pointing to the start of a gradual reopening process at the end of the month.
LONDON (AP) — British researchers testing an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus are moving into advanced studies and aim to immunize more than 10,000 people to determine if the shot works.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The International Monetary Fund said Thursday it has reached an agreement with authorities in Ukraine to allocate $5 billion to help the country cope with the economic fallout of the coronavirus outbreak.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street shook off a weak start and ended a wobbly day mostly higher.
ARMONK, N.Y. (AP) — IBM told the Wall Street Journal it is laying off an undisclosed number of workers across the U.S.
Have you been missing something amid the lockdowns and stay-at-home orders? No, not human contact. Not even toilet paper.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Much of the country remains unlikely to venture out to bars, restaurants, theaters or gyms anytime soon, despite state and local officials across the country increasingly allowing businesses to reopen, according to a new survey by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reconsideration of jobless aid is fast becoming the focus of congressional debate over the next virus aid package
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reconsideration of jobless aid is fast becoming the focus of congressional debate over the next virus aid package
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray has ordered an internal review into possible misconduct in the investigation of former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, the bureau said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday turned an early Memorial Day remembrance of fallen U.S. service members into a quasi reelection campaign rally with bikers on the White House lawn.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The attorney working with Tara Reade, the former Joe Biden Senate staffer who alleged he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s, said Friday he is no longer representing her, just two weeks after he first began working with her.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Friday condemned China's effort to take over national security legislation in Hong Kong, calling it "a death knell for the high degree of autonomy" that Beijing had promised the territory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump won at least a temporary reprieve from the Supreme Court earlier this week in keeping secret grand jury materials from the Russia investigation away from Democratic lawmakers. The president and his administration are counting on the justices for more help to stymie other investigations and lawsuits.
THURSDAY, MAY 21
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee reached its highest monthly unemployment rate ever in April as the state managed public safety concerns raised by the new coronavirus outbreak by closing nonessential businesses, a move that has led to more than a half-million jobless claims.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are using $5.7 million from the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal settlement for transit bus replacements in three cities.
COURTS
"Full House" Actress Lori Loughlin and her fashion designer husband, Mossimo Giannulli, agreed to serve prison time as part of a plea deal in the college admissions bribery case, according to court papers filed Thursday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee-based Rinova The Wellness Group has agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The U.S. economy and housing market had set homebuilders up for a strong 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing homes plunged 17.8% in April with the real estate market still in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates eased this week in a housing market battered by the shutdown spurred by the coronavirus pandemic. Rates hovered near all-time lows as the benchmark 30-year home loan stayed below 3.30% for the fourth straight week.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — For the first time in nearly a decade, U.S. astronauts are about to blast into orbit aboard an American rocket from American soil. And for the first time in the history of human spaceflight, a private company is running the show.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Views of how government at all levels is handling the coronavirus outbreak in the U.S. have deteriorated somewhat over the past month, as a growing minority of Americans prefer that states lift restrictions on social and economic life.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials are invoking a rarely used provision of American law that would shield companies from antitrust regulations to help the country from again running out of medical supplies in a pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — We are becoming a nation of amateur actuaries, calculating the risk of restarting our lives.
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — The Abbott Terrace Health Center in Waterbury, where 41 residents have died from the coronavirus, has been cited by regulators for infection control violations and fined three times by the state and federal governments over the last several years. It has the lowest nursing home overall rating issued by the federal government — one star, for "much below average."
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are ending lower on Wall Street as tensions flared again between the U.S. and China and as more dismal news came out detailing economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Efforts to forecast the U.S. economy's path to recovery from the current deep downturn face "a whole new level of uncertainty," Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits in the two months since the coronavirus took hold in the U.S. has swelled to nearly 39 million, the government reported Thursday, even as states from coast to coast gradually reopen their economies and let people go back to work.
NEW YORK (AP) — Late last year, Best Buy began testing curbside pickup at select stores as a way to respond to customer needs.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Thursday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
Fast food restaurants — well equipped for drive-thru and takeout service — have fared better than sit-down restaurants as the coronavirus pandemic gripped the U.S., but that gap could start to close as dining rooms reopen.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's warned Thursday that it could lose more than a $1 billion and see sales fall at least 45% during its first fiscal quarter after the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed retail operations nationwide.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday railed against mail-in balloting that in some cases has been promoted by his own reelection campaign, alleging without evidence that it leads to "total election fraud." A day earlier, Trump threatened to pull federal money for states that support the practice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the coronavirus pandemic stretches on, Americans' views of the federal and state government response to the crisis are starting to sour — yet President Donald Trump's personal approval rating has remained steady.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is putting forth a false "choice" when he boasts about a program aimed at improving veterans' health care by steering more patients to the private sector.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate considers itself world's greatest deliberative body, but it's debating almost anything but the coronavirus as Americans confront a crisis unlike any in modern history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided Senate confirmed John Ratcliffe as director of national intelligence on Thursday, with Democrats refusing to support the nomination over fears that he will politicize the intelligence community's work under President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bitterly divided Senate panel voted along party lines Thursday to advance President Donald Trump's choice to head the Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded international broadcasters that have been the subject of harsh criticism from the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that Russian violations make it untenable for the U.S. to stay in a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct observation flights over each other's territory, but he hinted it's possible the U.S. will reconsider the decision to withdraw.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's longtime personal lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen was released from federal prison Thursday to serve the remainder of his sentence at home, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.