VOL. 43 | NO. 46 | Friday, November 15, 2019
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
With the Lone Ranger hi-yo-ing Silver on the TV in the back room of the comfortable home on Caldwell Avenue, Alvin M. Fitzgerald Sr. beckons me past the porch pots filled with fresh, bright artificial flowers and into his home of 56 years.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Despite low inventory, the area reported a 16% increase in total transactions in October compared to October 2018, Greater Nashville Realtors sales data reveals. Unit sales hit 3,742 last month, an increase from 3,216 during the previous October.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, October 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates rose this week amid optimism over prospects for the U.S. economy. Rates remain at historically low levels, however, as an incentive to prospective homebuyers.
TENNESSEE TITANS
The “elephant” in Nissan Stadium was much more prevalent than usual during Sunday’s improbable win by the Titans over the Kansas City Chiefs.
Since the Titans are on their bye week, we will revamp the four downs feature to reflect four areas of analysis about the team, rather than finding specific things related to an opponent.
The NFL goes on, even if the Titans are idle. This week’s schedule has some intriguing matchups worth watching and games that will affect the Titans’ position in the standings and rankings.
UT SPORTS
New entry plazas, restroom upgrades, donor lounge among improvements
The University of Tennessee has been given the green light to continue renovating Neyland Stadium.
NEWSMAKERS
James H. Maners, Jianne D. McDonald, Wilson Roe Moore and Alexandra M. Ortiz have joined Butler Snow’s Nashville office. Maners and Ortiz will practice with the firm’s commercial litigation group, McDonald will practice with the firm’s health law group and Moore will practice with the firm’s business services group.
BRIEFS
ARCHITECT Magazine has ranked Nashville-based Hastings Architecture No. 3 overall in its 2019 Architect 50 ranking.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Between 2 inches and 3 feet. That’s the average distance between you and your cellphone when it’s not in your hand because you must have it close.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Adaptive cruise control, once only seen on luxury vehicles, has now become increasingly available on entry-level models. For example, nearly every new Honda and Toyota vehicle comes with this feature as standard equipment.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Most parents in the U.S. provide some sort of financial support to their adult children, multiple surveys have found. But often, financial aid goes the other way.
CAREER CORNER
I’ve never seen a time in which we were more divided as a nation. Oddly, the job search also has become divided.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — New business filings in Tennessee increased by 8.2% last quarter compared to the same time frame last year.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee’s education commissioner says the state’s new school vouchers for private education will be considered federally taxable income for parents.
The number of foreign students coming to U.S. colleges and universities continued to fall last year, according to a new report, but the Trump administration says the drop should be blamed on high tuition costs and not students’ concerns over the nation’s political atmosphere.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 60% of U.S. Superfund sites are in areas vulnerable to flooding or other worsening disasters of climate change, and the Trump administration’s reluctance to directly acknowledge global warming is deterring efforts to safeguard them, a congressional watchdog agency says.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation’s partisan divide is evident when Americans are asked about what should be done to help the nation’s struggling local news industry.
TRANSPORTATION
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Airbus nailed down $20 billion in new plane orders on the second day of the Dubai Airshow after previous rounds of the biennial showcase saw its competitor Boeing take the lion’s share of deals.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Warren’s proposal to gradually move the country to a government-funded health care system has further inflamed the debate over “Medicare for All,” likely ensuring the issue will play a significant role in this week’s Democratic presidential debate.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Novel drugs may offer fresh ways to reduce heart risks beyond the usual medicines to lower cholesterol and blood pressure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is backing away from the idea of banning most flavored e-cigarettes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is ramping up its push to get a bill through Congress that curbs prescription drug costs, feeling a new urgency as the impeachment investigation advances amid the 2020 election campaign.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union on Monday turned its bargaining focus to Fiat Chrysler, raising the possibility of another strike against a Detroit automaker.
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford is unveiling its first all-electric SUV, marking the start of an avalanche of battery-powered vehicles coming from mainstream and luxury automakers during the next two years that industry analysts say will boost electric vehicle sales.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government has failed to stop China from stealing intellectual property from American universities and lacks a comprehensive strategy for dealing with the problem.
The Trump administration has extended for 90 more days a limited reprieve on U.S. technology sales to Huawei.
PRAGUE (AP) — The Czech government has approved a plan to adopt a tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon, Facebook and Apple.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts is ordering an indefinite delay in the House of Representatives’ demand for President Donald Trump’s financial records to give the Supreme Court time to figure out how to handle the high-stakes dispute.
MEMPHIS (AP) — The daughter of a man executed 13 years ago for murder does not have legal standing to seek DNA testing of evidence in the case, a Memphis judge ruled Monday, but the judge also said the ruling wasn’t based on the merits of the claims.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended a wobbly day with tiny gains on Wall Street, enough to nudge major indexes to more record highs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump summoned Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell to the White House on Monday to discuss the economy and interest rates — issues on which Trump has repeatedly attacked the Fed.
What’s eating yogurt? Despite shelves full of new varieties — from Icelandic to Australian to coconut-based — U.S. yogurt sales are in a multiyear slump.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday replaced the head of the Vatican’s financial watchdog agency amid continuing fallout from a controversial Vatican police raid on the agency’s offices that jeopardized the Holy See’s international financial reputation.
HP Inc. says its board has rejected a roughly $33.5 billion takeover offer from Xerox.
TOKYO (AP) — Online services Yahoo Japan and Line Corp. have announced they are merging.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats have released a temporary government-wide funding bill to forestall a shutdown and give negotiators through Dec. 20 to try to hash out details of more than $1.4 trillion worth of unfinished spending legislation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House of Representatives’ top lawyer told a federal appeals court Monday that the House is investigating whether President Donald Trump lied to special counsel Robert Mueller, and the attorney urged the judges to order the release of still-secret material from Mueller’s investigation.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Boris Johnson faced new questions Monday about his relationship with an American businesswoman who allegedly received favors and public funds while Johnson was the mayor of London.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. State Department officials were informed that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was feeling pressure from the Trump administration to investigate former Vice President Joe Biden even before the July phone call that has led to impeachment hearings in Washington, two people with knowledge of the matter told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight witnesses. Five hearings. Three days. The Trump impeachment inquiry is charging into a crucial week as Americans hear from some of the most important witnesses closest to the White House in back-to-back-to-back live sessions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment hearings are entering a crucial second week as Democrats are set to hear from eight additional witnesses about President Donald Trump’s dealings with Ukraine. Three State Department officials have already testified about their concerns as Trump pushed Ukraine to investigate Democrats and withheld military aid from the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Monday he might be willing to offer written testimony in the House impeachment inquiry over whether he pressured Ukraine’s president to investigate Joe Biden and his son while withholding aid to the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all the talk about Ukraine in the House impeachment inquiry, there’s a character standing just off-stage with a dominant role in this tale of international intrigue: Russia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Truth was lost in the first round of historic impeachment hearings as President Donald Trump launched a tweet attack on a senior U.S. diplomat that distorted reality and Republicans cried foul, claiming improper stifling of questioning that wasn’t so.
FRIDAY, NOV. 15
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of a giant private prison company says his firm is prepared for the “worst case scenario” should a Democratic presidential candidate win the 2020 election and attempt to abolish private involvement in the prison sector.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The ride-sharing company Lyft says it’s removing its scooters from Nashville, Tennessee by the end of the month.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Swift said Thursday that she may not perform at the American Music Awards and may have to put other projects including a forthcoming Netflix documentary on hold because the men who own her old recordings won’t allow her to play her songs.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason is trying to get the Commodores to focus on the immediate task of playing Kentucky with three games left in a disappointing season.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Jacob Gilyard already had six steals, but wasn’t about to take all the credit for the last, and biggest, one.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — German automaker Audi says former BMW executive Markus Duesmann is to become its new chief executive.
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Volkswagen plans to donate $1.25 million to help expand Cherokee National Forest near the company’s Chattanooga plant and offer community grants.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Roger Stone, a longtime friend and ally of President Donald Trump, was found guilty Friday of witness tampering and lying to Congress about his pursuit of Russian-hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton’s 2016 election bid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says it will referee a high-profile copyright dispute between technology giants Oracle and Google. Oracle says it wants nearly $9 billion from Google.
TECHNOLOGY
Twitter says its new ban on political ads will cover appeals for votes, solicitations for campaign contributions and any political content.
LONDON (AP) — The British Labour Party's latest plan for public ownership of big industries sent shivers through the telecoms sector Friday with an electoral promise to nationalize part of the former phone monopoly BT to provide free fiber optic broadband.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei is selling its first folding smartphone without Google apps or U.S.-made processor chips following sanctions imposed by Washington.
HEALTH CARE
U.S. regulators on Friday approved a new medicine that can help reduce extremely painful sickle cell disease flare-ups.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Warren announced Friday that she won’t immediately push to give every American government-funded health care and instead will work to oversee passage of a sweeping “Medicare for All” program by the end of her third year if elected president — a significant step away from a plan she’s long championed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — New rules from the Trump administration on Friday would require insurers and hospitals to disclose upfront the actual prices for common tests and procedures to promote competition and push down costs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing at all-time highs after U.S. officials said they’re making progress in the latest push for a trade agreement with China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve says corporate debt remains at historically high levels but overall the U.S. financial system is resilient, a view in sharp contrast to the problems that led to the 2008 financial crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans stepped up their shopping last month, spending more online and buying more cars, evidence that consumers can still drive the economy’s growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A strike at General Motors pushed U.S. manufacturing production lower in October, adding to the troubles confronting American industry.
BEIJING (AP) — China’s government has issued a plan to promote high-tech manufacturing after discarding a strategy that helped trigger a tariff war with Washington.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon is protesting the Pentagon’s decision to award a $10 billion cloud-computing contract to Microsoft, citing “unmistakable bias” in the process.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. Ukraine Ambassador Marie Yovanovitch provided chilling detail Friday in Trump impeachment hearings of being suddenly ousted from her post and feeling threatened upon learning President Donald Trump had denounced her in a phone call to Ukraine’s president. In that call, Trump assailed her as “bad news” and said she was “going to go through some things.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — Day Two of public hearings in the House impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump featured a career diplomat with a soft voice and a powerful story.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Friday that a U.S. diplomat was responsible for Somalia’s descent into chaos decades ago, a tweet that Democrats branded witness intimidation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department official who has drawn praise for speaking out in the past about problems in the Foreign Service was expected to testify Friday to House impeachment investigators about a conversation he overheard President Trump having about “investigations” in Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump released the rough transcript Friday of a congratulatory phone call he had with the incoming president of Ukraine, holding it out as evidence that he did nothing wrong. Instead, the memorandum shows how White House descriptions of Trump’s communications with foreign leaders at times better reflect wishful thinking than the reality of the interactions.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York billionaire Michael Bloomberg, who is deciding whether to launch a Democratic presidential bid, is pouring $100 million into an online advertising campaign attacking President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine watched in disbelief as her reputation was publicly sullied in a slow-burning campaign to discredit her. She was unceremoniously ousted from her job even as her boss assured her she had done nothing wrong.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee says the U.S. Department of Justice is investigating Florida Rep. Ross Spano over accusations of campaign finance violations.
THURSDAY, NOV. 14
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has signed three top-40 prospects to produce a recruiting class ranked fourth nationally.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
The Country Music Association Awards almost fully honored and highlighted the women of country music — whose songs have been heavily dismissed on country radio over the years — until two words were uttered when they named its entertainer of the year: Garth Brooks.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Complete list of winners from the 2019 Country Music Association Awards, held Wednesday at the Bridgestone Arena in Nashville, Tennessee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — When it comes to buying a new car, the latest and greatest may not be the most dependable.
BERLIN (AP) — German automaker Daimler says it plans to slash costs 1.4 billion euros ($1.54 billion) by cutting every tenth managerial position and other austerity measures.
ROME (AP) — Ferrari has unveiled a new sports coupe aimed at enticing new buyers and competing with the Porsche 911, part of an overhaul of its model lineup by 2022.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health advisers are recommending broader use of a prescription-strength fish oil drug to help prevent heart problems.
TECHNOLOGY
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis called Thursday for Facebook, Apple, Microsoft, Google and other tech companies to urgently take measures to remove child porn from the web and prevent children from accessing pornography online.
HEALTH CARE
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says she wants to see Congress pass President Donald Trump’s revamped North American free trade deal this year.
A day of listless trading on Wall Street ended Thursday with another record high for the S&P 500.
NEW YORK (AP) — Senator Elizabeth Warren’s fight with Wall Street escalated when billionaire investor Leon Cooperman called the presidential candidate’s proposal to put a new tax on the nation’s wealthiest people a plan to “penalize success” and said her ideas “made no sense.”
WASHINGTON (AP) — China is lifting a five-year ban on U.S. poultry, a goodwill gesture at a time when the world’s two biggest economies are trying to finalize a tentative trade deal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell on Thursday urged Congress to tackle the growing budget deficit but also underscored the current health of the nation’s economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — WeWork racked up $1.25 billion in losses in the third quarter as it geared up for, and ultimately scuttled, its debut as a public company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices rose 0.4% in October, the biggest jump in six months, reflecting a surge in energy costs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is offering some holiday cheer heading into the crucial Christmas shopping season even as many of its traditional peers struggle.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to block a subpoena for his tax returns, in a test of the president’s ability to defy investigations.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are refining part of their impeachment case against the president to a simple allegation: Bribery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A second U.S. Embassy staffer in Kyiv overheard a cellphone call between President Donald Trump and his ambassador to the European Union discussing a need for Ukrainian officials to pursue “investigations,” The Associated Press has learned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deputy to outgoing Energy Secretary Rick Perry told lawmakers Thursday that he had no role in the Ukraine matters now at the heart of the House’s impeachment investigation as he tried to distance himself from the controversy with the Senate considering his Cabinet nomination.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With historic impeachment hearings underway, Democrats and Republicans are hardening their arguments over the actions of President Donald Trump as they set out to win over a deeply polarized American public.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several more witnesses scheduled to testify in the House impeachment hearings over the next week are expected to say they too worried about President Donald Trump’s push for Ukraine to investigate Democrats as the U.S. withheld military aid from the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Deval Patrick announced Thursday he is running for president, making a late entry into the Democratic race less than three months before primary voting begins.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a sharply divided country, here's something many Americans agree on: It's hard to know what's a true and honest fact.
LONDON (AP) — Britain’s Brexit Party has failed to reach a tactical voting pact with the ruling Conservatives, saying Thursday that it will field 300 candidates in next month's election to force Prime Minister Boris Johnson to deliver on his promise of a clean break with the European Union.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest official to lead the Department of Homeland Security has been sworn in.