VOL. 42 | NO. 6 | Friday, February 09, 2018
Medical marijuana legislation sponsored by Rep. Jeremy Faison is hitting a hurdle with gubernatorial candidate U.S. Rep. Diane Black opposing it and her husband trying to kill the measure.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Father Time can be a cruel beast, and the results can be unbearable when he teams with the Grim Reaper, as happened last week with the death of veteran Realtor Susan Kelton.
PREDATORS
In eight previous NHL seasons, Predators defenseman P.K. Subban has already earned the league’s best defenseman award, twice been named a first-team all-star and helped guide his teams into three conference championships.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
With the Super Bowl in the books and another NFL season come and gone, it will soon be time to prepare for the 2018 season.
NEWSMAKERS
Fifth Third Bank has named Greg Hays as vice president and mortgage area sales manager for the Tennessee market.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Just a handful of automakers offer three-row luxury SUVs. If you want one with robust towing capabilities, your choices narrow even further. Within that group are two well-known domestic models: the 2018 Cadillac Escalade and 2018 Lincoln Navigator.
CAREER CORNER
The biggest game changer in the hiring space this year will be diversity, according to LinkedIn’s 2018 Global Recruiting Trends report, in which 9,000 recruiters and hiring managers from around the world expressed opinions.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
There is perhaps no greater scrutiny that a brand faces than during the biggest U.S. sporting event of the year. Courageous brands bet big that their ad will win hearts and minds, but alas, only 36 percent of Super Bowl ads earned favorable ratings from our team of advertising professionals, likely making for some uncomfortable ad execs on the hot seat Monday morning.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — President Donald Trump has nominated a federal laboratory official in Tennessee to serve as deputy administrator for defense nuclear nonproliferation at the U.S. Department of Energy.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — The outlook from U.S. builders is being buoyed by a strong job market and a sizzling hot economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates jumped this week to their highest level in nearly four years, a sign that the prospect of higher inflation is steadily increasing the cost of borrowing to buy a home.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state analysis says legislation seeking to require certain able-bodied TennCare recipients to work, volunteer or attend school would affect 86,400 people and cost the state $18.7 million annually.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology companies are leading stocks higher in morning trading Thursday, putting the market on track for its fifth gain in a row. A brief dip in the late morning put U.S. indexes into the red for a few minutes, but stocks were higher again shortly before noon. Apple and Cisco were among the big winners in tech, while industrial companies including Boeing also rose. Energy company continued to struggle. The gains helped erase part of the steep losses the market suffered over the past two weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose 0.4 percent in January, the biggest increase since November, as a big jump in energy prices offset a small decline in the cost of food.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory output was unchanged in January for the second straight month after three months of healthy gains.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Fifty years after the federal Fair Housing Act banned racial discrimination in lending, African Americans and Latinos continue to be routinely denied conventional mortgage loans at rates far higher than their white counterparts.
Across America, a troubling pattern emerges in data analyzed by Reveal from The Center for Investigative Reporting: Nearly two-thirds of mortgage lenders denied home loans for people of color at higher rates than for white people. But among the 6,600 U.S. lenders, some banks stood out for particularly extreme practices.
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's will soon banish cheeseburgers and chocolate milk from its Happy Meal menu in an effort to cut down on the calories, sodium, saturated fat and sugar that kids consume at its restaurants.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber CEO Dara Khosrowshahi is focused on cutting the company's massive losses and "getting the love back" after a year of damaging revelations about the ride-hailing service's sometimes heartless treatment of its employees, drivers, regulators and rivals.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's first chief of staff says all those reports about chaos in the early days of the Trump White House were true — and then some.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says it appears the suspect in Florida's deadly school shooting was "mentally disturbed."
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 14
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville's internal auditing office will investigate travel and overtime expenses being questioned because of Mayor Megan Barry's affair with the former head of her security detail.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Republican-led House committee has unanimously voted down legislation to let Tennessee handgun permit holders bring guns most places, including hospitals and professional sports arenas.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee comptroller's report says Memphis officials followed state open meetings law when they sold two parks to a nonprofit, which removed three Confederate statues.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Two Republican U.S. Senators from Tennessee have introduced a resolution honoring the 50th anniversary of the sanitation workers strike that brought civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. to Memphis.
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Robert Gillespie is no longer part of Tennessee's coaching staff after serving as running backs coach for the last five seasons.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Working overtime is becoming commonplace in Nashville.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health care spending will keep growing faster than the overall economy in the foreseeable future, squeezing public insurance programs and employers who provide coverage, the government said Wednesday.
CLEVELAND (AP) — The number of lawsuits continues to grow in a combined federal challenge of drug companies' role in the opioid crisis.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors saw some new hints that inflation is increasing on Wednesday, but they still sent banks, technology firms, and consumer-focused companies climbing. That was a big change after the market's inflation-inspired plunge earlier this month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation pressures appear to be building in the U.S. economy, a prospect that is heightening anxiety about potentially higher borrowing rates that could slow economic growth.
Ride-hailing giant Uber's full-year net loss widened to $4.5 billion in 2017 as the company endured a tumultuous year that included multiple scandals, a lawsuit alleging the theft of trade secrets and the replacement of its CEO.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans pulled back on buying cars, furniture and other goods in January, pushing retail sales down by 0.3 percent, the biggest decline in 11 months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices, excluding the volatile food and energy categories, rose 0.3 percent last month. That was the biggest climb in a year and has intensified inflation fears in financial markets.
BERLIN (AP) — How best to get cleaner air? Some officials in Germany want residents to leave their polluting cars at home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After nearly a decade of being all but invisible, inflation — or the fear of it — is back.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is signaling his openness to a 25-cent fuel tax increase to help pay for his infrastructure proposal in a meeting with members of Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump White House's handling of abuse charges against men in its midst is frustrating prominent Republican women as the party's yearslong struggle to attract female voters stretches into the 2018 midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he envisions a manufacturing revival, President Donald Trump is telling lawmakers the U.S. has a vast, idle labor pool itching to go to work. That's a mirage.
TUESDAY, FEBRURY 13
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A clean-energy advocacy group wants an investigation after the Tennessee Valley Authority bought two corporate jets, a Mercedes-Benz helicopter and another plane.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill in Tennessee would limit the ability of state licensing boards to deny occupational licenses based on the criminal history of applicants.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee House has passed a bill that would require doctors to offer women who are getting abortions a look at an ultrasound, if one was performed beforehand.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — New Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel has finalized his coaching staff.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Former Tennessee director of football operations Chris Spognardi has received judicial diversion that eventually could enable the criminal misconduct charge against him to be expunged.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's campaign said Tuesday that anyone who thinks she can't win the general election in Tennessee's U.S. Senate race is a "plain sexist pig."
NASHVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee at Knoxville's chancellor has drawn scrutiny during a Republican-led legislative meeting for attending a fundraiser that generated $300,000-plus for the school's LGBT center.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some Medicare beneficiaries would face higher prescription drug costs under President Donald Trump's budget even as the sickest patients save thousands of dollars, a complex trade-off that may make it harder to sell Congress on the plan in an election year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — General Motors said Tuesday it will close an underutilized factory in Gunsan, South Korea, by the end of May as part of a restructuring of its operations.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose for the third day in a row Tuesday, led by banks, retailers and technology companies. The rebound over the last few days follows a harrowing drop of more than 10 percent over the previous two weeks.
KIRKLAND, Wash. (AP) — Bill and Melinda Gates, as the world's top philanthropists, are rethinking their work in America as they confront what they consider their unsatisfactory track record on schools, the country's growing inequity and a president they disagree with more than any other.
PARIS (AP) — A leading energy watchdog says that the boom in U.S. oil production is reminiscent of the rise in output that eventually led to the 2014 crash in crude prices.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is targeting federal funding for studying and tracking climate change while boosting the continued burning of planet-warming fossil fuels.
With the first primaries of the 2018 elections less than a month away, you might expect federal officials to be wrapping up efforts to safeguard the vote against expected Russian interference.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new U.S. intelligence report predicts Russia will meddle in this year's midterm elections as it pursues bolder cyber operations and false information campaigns against America and its allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's two top leaders put on a show of comradery as their chamber launched its immigration debate, but also laid down markers underscoring how hard it will be to reach a deal that can move through Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One clear principle runs through President Donald Trump's emerging economic policy: Debt is good.
President Donald Trump has sent Congress a proposal to spend $4.4 trillion in the 2019 budget year, which begins in October. Five things to know about his budget proposal:
Highlights from President Donald Trump's budget for fiscal year 2019, released Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Koch brothers are spending millions to attack two vulnerable Democrats for voting against the Republican tax overhaul.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 12
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — The infrastructure plan outlined by President Donald Trump on Monday suggests studying whether the nation's largest public utility should sell its transmission assets, which Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander called "a looney idea" with "zero chance of becoming law."
SPORTS
NEW YORK (AP) — There's a buzz at Belmont — the Bruins are in the AP Top 25 for the first time in school history.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Daryle Singletary, who sang songs like "I Let Her Lie" and "Too Much Fun," has died.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A political committee whose radio ad used toilet-flushing sounds to attack Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black received $200,000 from a donor to Randy Boyd's rival campaign for governor.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee organization is working on a statewide event to oversee 25,000 volunteers planting 250,000 trees later this month.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's 2019 budget is renewing calls for repealing and replacing former President Barack Obama's health care law. But there's little evidence that Republican leaders have the appetite for another battle over "Obamacare."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump makes big promises to reduce prescription drug costs, but his administration is gravitating to relatively modest steps such as letting Medicare patients share in manufacturer rebates.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks powered higher Monday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average up 410 points, as the market clawed back more of its massive losses from the previous two weeks.
LONDON (AP) — 21st Century Fox has offered to insulate Sky's news operations from the influence of Rupert Murdoch and his family to win approval of its bid to take over the London-based pay TV company.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump unveiled a $4.4 trillion budget for next year that heralds an era of $1 trillion-plus federal deficits and — unlike the plan he released last year — never comes close to promising a balanced ledger even after 10 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sent Congress a sweeping plan Monday to rebuild the nation's depleted roads and bridges — then immediately raised doubts about how committed he was to delivering on that campaign promise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he's planning to announce a "reciprocal tax" on countries that take advantage of the United States on trade, with more details to be released later this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate begins a rare, open-ended debate on immigration and the fate of the "Dreamer" immigrants on Monday, and Republican senators say they'll introduce President Donald Trump's plan. Though his proposal has no chance of passage, Trump may be the most influential voice in the conversation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Jennifer Willoughby and Colbie Holderness stepped forward to tell the story of how they were physically, verbally and emotionally abused by their ex-husband, who had since become a top White House aide, President Donald Trump had nothing but good things to say about the man they had accused of domestic violence.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 9
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Nashville community group has filed an ethics complaint alleging that Mayor Megan Barry's extramarital affair with the then-head of her security detail unduly influenced her criminal justice policy.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Eighteen states, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other groups are urging an appeals court to overturn a coal ash cleanup order at a federal utility's Tennessee plant.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director Mark Gwyn says he will retire this summer.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A top adviser to U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn's Senate campaign says the Republican has reserved nearly $1 million for a statewide TV advertising buy before the Aug. 2 primary.
SPORTS
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — Mike Hoffman's 100th career goal was a real gem.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt football coach Derek Mason has added four assistants to his staff.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The 10 assistants and the strength coach on new Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt's staff will make a combined annual total of nearly $6.5 million.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Uber has settled a lawsuit alleging that it ripped off self-driving car technology from Google's autonomous vehicle division.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter made money for the first time in its nearly 12-year history, a milestone that satisfied investors in the short term but might not resolve the company's broader problems any time soon.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — A perk from U.S. tax reforms is helping lift Nissan's fiscal third quarter profit, although costs had to be earmarked and sales were dented by news of improper vehicle inspections at its plants in Japan.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped a day of wild swings Friday with a late-afternoon rally that reversed steep early losses and sent the Dow Jones industrial average 330 points higher. Even with the rebound, this was the worst week for the market in about two years.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market isn't the only thing dropping. Bonds, which are supposed to be the safe part of every investor's portfolio, have faltered, too.
Amazon's next move may be to shake up the shipping industry.
FREEPORT, Maine (AP) — L.L. Bean's generous return policy is going to be a little less forgiving: The company, which has touted its 100 percent satisfaction guarantee for more than a century, is imposing a one-year limit on most returns to reduce growing abuse and fraud.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wall Street has thrown a rather sour welcoming party for Jerome Powell. On Monday, Powell's very first day as Federal Reserve chairman, the Dow Jones industrial average suffered its worst percentage drop since 2011.
Airlines bumped passengers off flights at the lowest rate on record last year after United Airlines was pilloried when a passenger was dragged off a full plane.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is bringing its speedy delivery to Whole Foods. The online retail giant plans to roll out two-hour delivery at the organic grocer this year to those who pay for Amazon's $99-a-year Prime membership. It is the company's biggest move since it bought the organic grocer last year.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the biggest budget the Pentagon has ever seen: $700 billion. That's far more in defense spending than America's two nearest competitors, China and Russia, and will mean the military can foot the bill for thousands more troops, more training, more ships and a lot else.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House moved swiftly early Friday to reopen the federal government and pass a $400 billion budget deal, overcoming opposition from both liberal Democrats and tea party conservatives to endorse enormous spending increases despite looming trillion-dollar deficits.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Again? Yup. While you were sleeping, Congress was shutting down the government in a new but familiar display of dysfunction. It's the second time this year lawmakers have let funding lapse while they staged standoffs intended to draw attention to their causes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed a $400 billion budget deal that sharply boosts spending and swells the federal deficit, ending a brief federal government shutdown that happened while most Americans were home in bed and most government offices were closed, anyway.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans rode the tea party wave to power eight years ago on a message of fiscal responsibility and attacking budget deficits, and kept at it during President Barack Obama's two terms. That was then.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers pushed to enact a massive budget deal Thursday along with a stopgap temporary measure to prevent a government shutdown at midnight. The measure appeared set to sail through the Senate in anticipation of the House sending it to President Donald Trump by day's end.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans rode the tea party wave to power eight years ago on a message of fiscal responsibility and attacking budget deficits, and kept at it during President Barack Obama's two terms. That was then.
NEW YORK (AP) — If Sean Hannity had been working in the 1970s, his Fox News Channel colleague Geraldo Rivera believes that President Richard Nixon would have never needed to resign because of the Watergate scandal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead the IRS is Charles Rettig, a tax lawyer from Beverly Hills, California.