VOL. 43 | NO. 7 | Friday, February 15, 2019
Is a sports marketing exec who’s never run a college program just what Vanderbilt needs?
Malcolm Turner has known one precious mentor all of his life. Another was part of his life for an all-too-brief span.
Few people in Nashville know Vanderbilt athletics director Malcolm Turner as well as Donelson resident Tommy Smith.
Some of the comments about Vanderbilt’s hiring of Malcolm Turner as athletics director:
NASHVILLE AREA
As Nashville gets its newly formed community oversight board up and running, some are accusing Republican state lawmakers of trying to gut the powers these police monitors need to be effective.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
The Vanderbilt trauma surgeon neatly put his finger on what, to me, was the real puzzler for the evening:
JIM MYERS: CULINARITY
With apologies to both Shakespeare and Star Trek fans, the theme for my first Ledger column, “By Any Other Name,’’ hints at the peculiar challenge of naming things.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
How important is home ownership? It is something everyone should attempt?
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, January 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell this week to a 12-month low, an enticement for prospective homebuyers in the upcoming season.
NEWSMAKERS
Ruby Z. Shellaway, an attorney who has held key roles in higher education, federal government and in the private sector, has been named vice chancellor, general counsel and university secretary at Vanderbilt University.
BRIEFS
Nashville business leaders and philanthropists Pam and Phil Pfeffer have made a significant investment in Lipscomb University’s College of Business to establish the Pfeffer Graduate School of Business, Lipscomb University President L. Randolph Lowry says.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Two of the best-selling small SUVs on the market today are the Honda CR-V and the Toyota RAV4, with the CR-V being Edmunds’ top-ranked small SUV.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Buy-buy. If you’re in retail, those words cause mixed feelings. They’re what you wish people are doing, but they sound like what people are saying. Here’s the evidence: Toys R Us, Sears, Macy’s, wow. What’s going on? Better question, as author Mark Pilkington asks in “Retail Therapy,” how can we stop it?
PERSONAL FINANCE
Plenty has been written about American workers’ failure to plan adequately for retirement. Their employers seem to be doing an even worse job.
CAREER CORNER
It’s the month of love, and I hope you had a happy Valentine’s Day. Every year, I write a column about why it’s important to love your job. This year, let’s look at it another way.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
From their TVs to their phones, consumers are bombarded with thousands of ads, videos and images that leave their eyes tired and your brand fighting for attention.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly half of Tennessee students enrolled in higher education during the 2016-2017 school year needed some sort of remedial classes during their first year of college, according to new state data.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation says its top state parks official has been fired over allegations of workplace misconduct.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Pekke Rinne and Viktor Arvidsson gave Nashville more of the same Thursday night. A little extra from newcomer Brian Boyle helped make the difference.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is spending big to give coach Jeremy Pruitt a more experienced staff with some familiar faces.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican lawmakers in Tennessee have introduced a wide range of anti-abortion legislation following newly elected Gov. Bill Lee's promise to support any bill reducing the number of abortions throughout the state.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has returned to work at the building for the first time since lung cancer surgery in late December.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new Tennessee attorney general opinion says judges can apply hate crime enhancements when sentencing cases that target transgender individuals.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The attorney for a white police officer charged with fatally shooting an armed black man is calling for legal discovery documents to be sealed from the public.
REGION
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority board voted Thursday to close a coal-fired power plant in Kentucky, rejecting pressure from President Donald Trump and U.S. Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell in a move that will further reduce its dependence on coal.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a year in space put astronaut Scott Kelly's immune system on high alert and changed the activity of some of his genes compared to his Earth-bound identical twin.
ENVIRONMENT
Under pressure from Congress, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it would move toward setting safety limits for a class of highly toxic chemicals contaminating drinking water around the country. Environmentalists, congressional Democrats and state officials countered that the agency wasn't moving fast enough.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Memphis, Tennessee facility that distributes retail products for Verizon says it is closing.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 400 points Friday as renewed optimism over trade talks between the U.S. and China put investors in a buying mood.
Amazon's breakup with New York was still fresh when other cities started sending their own valentines to the online giant.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon jilted New York City on Valentine's Day, scrapping plans to build a massive headquarters campus in Queens amid fierce opposition from politicians angry about nearly $3 billion in tax breaks and the company's anti-union stance.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — It's been a complicated few weeks for Amazon, what with its abrupt pullout from a massive New York City development, extortion claims related to intimate photos taken by its founder Jeff Bezos and increasing antitrust scrutiny in Europe .
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production fell 0.6 percent in January, stemming in large part from an 8.8 percent plunge in the making of motor vehicles and auto parts.
BEIJING (AP) — President Donald Trump said that "there's a possibility" he would extend a March 2 deadline in trade talks with China if the two countries are closing in on a deal.
MOSCOW (AP) — A veteran U.S. investment fund manager was detained in Moscow on Friday and faces fraud charges in a case that's likely to rattle the Russian business community.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite President Donald Trump's tough talk on trade, his administration has granted hundreds of companies permission to import millions of tons of steel made in China, Japan and other countries without paying the hefty tariff he put in place to protect U.S. manufacturers and jobs, according to an Associated Press analysis.
Amazon dumps NYC headquarters and its promised 25,000 jobs
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average tax refund and the total amount of refunds issued declined for the second straight week, potentially intensifying a political flashpoint seized by Democrats as proof that the Republican-written tax law hurts the middle class.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks drifted to a mixed finish on Wall Street as losses for banks and consumer products makers outweighed gains elsewhere in the market.
NEW YORK (AP) — The nine companies and organizations tasked with servicing the accounts of the nation's 30 million student loan borrowers repeatedly failed to do their jobs properly over a period of years and their regulator neglected to hold them responsible, a new report finds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week but remains at levels low enough to show that most workers enjoy job security.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales fell in December, posting the biggest drop since September 2009 and delivering more evidence that last year's holiday sales fizzled unexpectedly. Even e-commerce suffered a big setback.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May suffered an embarrassing defeat by lawmakers Thursday in a vote that left her bid to secure a European Union divorce deal stuck between an intransigent EU and a resistant U.K. Parliament — with Brexit just six weeks away.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell for a second straight month in January as energy costs fell sharply again. The monthly declines were more evidence that inflation remains under control.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defiant in the face of a stinging budget defeat, President Donald Trump declared a national emergency Friday to get more federal dollars for his long-promised wall at the U.S.-Mexico border, relying on a broad interpretation of his powers that was certain to trigger stiff legal challenges.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday declared a national emergency at the southern border while acknowledging that rapid construction of a wall is not a necessity, but rather his preference. In justifying the extraordinary step, he brushed aside his administration's conclusions that drugs come into the country primarily at official points of entry, not over remote territory that a barrier could seal off.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's declaration of a national emergency to build his long-promised border wall ends one political problem for the White House and its allies on Capitol Hill, but launches another.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday barred longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone from making public comments that could influence potential jurors in the criminal case brought by the special counsel in the Russia probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he will spend about $8 billion to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. It's a far greater sum than the roughly $1.4 billion Congress set aside for that purpose in legislation Trump is expected to sign to prevent another partial government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If President Donald Trump declares an emergency to build the wall with Mexico, he still needs money to pay for it. And shifting money from other accounts to deliver the $5.7 billion he wants is not without political problems.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not just about President Donald Trump's border wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first two Democratic presidential debates for the 2020 election will have two heats with room for a total of 20 candidates who meet certain polling or grassroots fundraising thresholds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe said in an interview aired Thursday that he worried that investigations into President Donald Trump's ties to Russia and possible obstruction of justice would be shut down after Trump fired FBI Director James Comey.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley says he's praying that President Donald Trump will sign the border security deal into law to prevent a government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort intentionally lied to investigators and a federal grand jury in the special counsel's Russia probe, a judge has ruled.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday confirmed William Barr as attorney general, placing the veteran government official and lawyer atop the Justice Department as special counsel Robert Mueller investigates Russian interference in the 2016 election.