VOL. 43 | NO. 28 | Friday, July 12, 2019
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Dig around in laws much and you turn up some doozies. For example, the book “Planet Cat” asserts that in Natchez, Mississippi, “cats may not drink beer.”
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
No, Hank didn’t do it this way
The Roadhouse Rambler – a guitar leaning against the nearest wall – looks across the kitchen table in the tidy home his phone company career helped buy. His smiling eyes wander back to dusty Oklahoma.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Now that the U.S. Supreme Court has said federal courts won’t rule on cases involving political gerrymandering, voters who don’t like the way their legislative districts are drawn will have to turn to state courts or to the gerrymandered legislatures themselves to change things.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
As the years float by and trends come and go, the questions frequently asked by buyers and sellers of their agents remains fairly constant. In many cases, the answers are blowing in the wind, while in others, most Realtors agree on the responses.
REAL ESTATE
The number of residential units sold in Nashville and Davidson County dropped slightly as average prices soared.
Top residential real estate sales, June 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top commercial real estate sales, June 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates were mostly unchanged this week amid signals from the Federal Reserve that it is preparing to cut interest rates soon.
UT SPORTS
Most Maryville residents would have been happy for Tee Hodge no matter where he decided to play football in college.
NEWSMAKERS
Bass, Berry & Sims has formed a higher-education practice group with the addition of former Vanderbilt University General Counsel Audrey Anderson.
BRIEFS
Ascension Saint Thomas and Nashville-based Contessa are joining together to offer Home Recovery Care, an emerging health care option that brings inpatient care to patients’ homes.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Get ready to do a lot more talking to your car. Smartphone personal assistants – Apple’s Siri, Amazon’s Alexa and Google’s Assistant, for example – can be used for a variety of tasks.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Many families struggle to pay college expenses for one or two children. Certified financial planner Sarah Carlson, mother of two sets of twins, will soon have all four of her children in college at the same time.
CAREER CORNER
I was taught long ago the most-qualified and hardest-working candidate gets the job. Turns out that’s just not so at many companies.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee speaker candidates are meeting with freshman House lawmakers in order to drum up support as the caucus prepares to nominate a new leader later this month.
FRANKLIN (AP) — Weeks before he's expected to resign, Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada has asked a judge to relieve him of paying alimony because he says he can no longer afford the approximately $4,000 monthly payments.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil liberties groups on Wednesday asked for a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration's effort to effectively end asylum at the U.S.-Mexico border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Paul Stevens moved left as the Supreme Court shifted to the right during his nearly 35 years as a justice.
HEALTH CARE
CLEVELAND (AP) — Newly released federal data shows how drugmakers and distributors increased shipments of opioid painkillers across the U.S. as the nation's addiction crisis accelerated from 2006 to 2012.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nuclear Regulatory Commission staff is recommending that the agency cut back on inspections at the country's nuclear reactors, a cost-cutting move promoted by the nuclear power industry but denounced by opponents as a threat to public safety.
TECHNOLOGY
BRUSSELS (AP) — While the U.S. Congress talks about reining in big tech companies, Europe is taking action.
Big Tech faced tough questions this week as federal lawmakers focused on issues of potentially anticompetitive behavior by technology giants and expressed bipartisan skepticism over Facebook's plan for a new digital currency.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home construction slipped last month as an uptick in the building of single-family homes was offset by a big drop in apartment construction.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's latest nationwide survey reveals that despite growing worries about the impact of President Donald Trump's trade battles, the overall economy remained solid.
CHANTILLY, France (AP) — The Trump administration is objecting to France's plan to tax Facebook, Google and other U.S. tech giants, a rift that's overshadowing talks between seven longtime allies this week on issues ranging from digital currencies to trade.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The United States will "do what it can" to help resolve festering trade and political disputes between South Korea and Japan, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday after a series of meetings with Seoul officials.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a remarkable political repudiation, the Democratic-led U.S. House voted to condemn President Donald Trump's "racist comments" against four congresswomen of color, despite protestations by Trump's Republican congressional allies and his own insistence he hasn't "a racist bone in my body."
TUESDAY, JULY 16
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A conservation group says a tiny fish no longer should be a federally protected species.
NASHVILLE (AP) — U.S. Ambassador to Japan Bill Hagerty is currently in the process of resigning his position as he prepares to run for Tennessee's open U.S. Senate seat.
LORETTO (AP) — Police in Tennessee are asking residents not to toss drugs down the toilet, saying it could lead to "meth-gators" and stoned waterfowl.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two early candidates in Tennessee's open U.S. Senate race have posted six-figure fundraising hauls.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — Toyota has been ordered to pay nearly $16 million to a Southern California dealer who alleged the company's Prius recalls didn't fix safety problems.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Under sharp criticism from senators, a Facebook executive on Tuesday defended the social network's ambitious plan to create a digital currency and pledged to work with regulators to achieve a system that protects the privacy of users' data.
TRANSPORTATION
A man who lost his wife, mother-in-law and three young children in the crash of a 737 Max in Ethiopia says Boeing should scrap the plane and top executives should resign and face criminal charges.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Drivers for companies like Uber and Lyft in New York City can be banned from displaying advertisements in their vehicles, a federal appeals court said Tuesday.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A U.S. judge lowered a jury's damage award from $80 million to $25 million for a California cancer victim who used Monsanto's Roundup weed-killer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is blasting a World Trade Organization decision that could let China levy sanctions on the United States.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended a five-day winning streak on Tuesday as investors cautiously assessed the first big round of corporate earnings reports.
PARIS (AP) — Finance officials from the Group of Seven rich democracies will weigh risks from new digital currencies and debate how to tax tech companies like Google and Amazon when they meet this week in the Paris suburb of Chantilly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Christine Lagarde is resigning as managing director of the International Monetary Fund in light of her nomination to be the next president of the European Central Bank.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose at a solid pace last month, providing crucial support to the economy at a time when other drivers of growth have faded.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production was flat in June, as a slump in utilities was offset by gains in output by factories and mining.
NEW YORK (AP) — Banking giant JPMorgan Chase & Co. said Tuesday that its second quarter profits grew by 16% from a year ago, helped by lower taxes and the ability to charge businesses and consumers more to borrow money.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Colonial-era Korean workers want a court to allow the South Korean government to sell assets of their former Japanese employer so they can be compensated for forced labor decades ago.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-led House has voted to condemn President Donald Trump's tweets telling four Democratic congresswomen of color to "go back" to their countries of origin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — No more Instagram for Roger Stone. Facebook and Twitter are out, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump called on fellow Republicans Tuesday to stick with him, "not show weakness" and oppose a House resolution condemning his tweets urging four Democratic congresswomen of color to return to their countries. His comments, he insisted, "were NOT Racist."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayer-funded family planning clinics must stop referring women for abortions immediately, the Trump administration says, declaring it will begin enforcing a new regulation hailed by religious conservatives and denounced by medical organizations and women's rights groups.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A one-time business partner of former national security adviser Michael Flynn lied to hide the fact that he and Flynn were secretly working on behalf of the Turkish government to advance its agenda, prosecutors said Monday.
MONDAY, JULY 15
MIDSTATE
HENDERSONVILLE (AP) — Officials say a winning Powerball ticket sold in Hendersonville is worth $198 million.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee defensive lineman Derrick Morgan says he's retiring after playing nine NFL seasons for five head coaches.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration says its new regulation barring taxpayer-funded family planning clinics from referring women for abortions is taking effect immediately.
Joe Biden is taking an aggressive approach to defending the Affordable Care Act, challenging not just President Donald Trump but also some of his rivals for the Democratic presidential nomination who want to replace the current insurance system with a fully government-run model.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the 2008 financial crisis accelerated major changes in the U.S. and global economies, leading to slower growth, lower inflation and lower interest rates.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Contract talks between the United Auto Workers and Detroit's three automakers kicked off with the union president departing from the traditionally friendly tone by telling Ford executives that workers want a bigger share of the companies' record profits.
TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — American Airlines said Sunday that it will keep the Boeing 737 Max plane off its schedule until Nov. 3, which is two months longer than it had planned.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says the Trump administration has "very serious concerns" that the new digital currency planned by Facebook could be used for illicit activity such as money laundering, human trafficking and financing terrorism.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A wobbly day of trading ended with meager gains for U.S. stock indexes on Monday, enough to nudge them further into record territory, as the curtain rose on what's expected to be the weakest earnings reporting season in years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is requiring products "Made in America" to be made using more American components if they are to be used by the government.
NEW YORK (AP) — The market for small businesses cooled for the third straight quarter during the spring as tariffs from the trade war with China made some sellers and buyers uneasy about making a deal.
BEIJING (AP) — China's economic growth sank to its lowest level in at least 26 years in the quarter ending in June, adding to pressure on Chinese leaders as they fight a tariff war with Washington.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — In his strongest comments yet on a growing trade dispute, South Korea's president urged Japan on Monday to lift recently tightened controls on high-tech exports to South Korea, which he said threaten to shatter the countries' economic cooperation and could damage Japan more than South Korea.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency skirted some of its usual procedures and ethics rules when it overhauled key agency advisory boards, slashing the numbers of academic scientists on the panels and appointing more industry figures, the Government Accountability Office said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unfazed by widespread criticism, President Donald Trump on Monday intensified his incendiary comments about four Democratic congresswomen of color, urging them to get out if they don't like things going on in America. They fired back at what they called his "xenophobic bigoted remarks" and said it was time for impeachment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans remained largely silent after President Donald Trump said over the weekend that four women of color in Congress should "go back" to the countries they came from. By Monday, some in the party were speaking up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two close U.S. allies are condemning President Donald Trump's incendiary weekend tweets about four Democratic congresswomen.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday asked the Senate to confirm Mark Esper as the successor to former Defense Secretary Jim Mattis, whose resignation last December opened an unprecedented period of senior-level instability at the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reversing decades of U.S. policy, the Trump administration said Monday it will end all asylum protections for most migrants who arrive at the U.S.-Mexico border — the president's most forceful attempt to block asylum claims and slash the number of people seeking refuge in America.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pennsylvania's message was clear: The state was taking a big step to keep its elections from being hacked in 2020. Last April, its top election official told counties they had to update their systems. So far, nearly 60% have taken action, with $14.15 million of mostly federal funds helping counties buy brand-new electoral systems.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is spreading falsehoods on issues of race, immigration and American-ness, exhorting four non-white female lawmakers to "go back" to where they came from and crying foul over his failed bid to add a citizenship question to the 2020 census.
FRIDAY, JULY 12
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The National Museum of African American Music will receive $6 million from Nashville's Convention Center Authority.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee is remaining mum on details surrounding a recent conversation he had with a Tennessee lawmaker accused of sexual misconduct.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam won't run for the U.S. Senate seat being vacated by GOP Sen. Lamar Alexander, a move sure to draw new interest in the race from other would-be candidates.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's U.S. Rep. Mark Green is the latest Republican contender to say he won't run for the state's open U.S. Senate seat in 2020.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
MIAMI (AP) — Vanderbilt outfielder J.J. Bleday, the fourth overall pick in last month's amateur draft, agreed to a minor league contract with the Miami Marlins that includes a $6.67 million signing bonus.
UT SPORTS
Former Tennessee Titans All-Pro defensive lineman Albert Haynesworth says on social media that he needs a kidney transplant.
EDUCATION
SEATTLE (AP) — Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch's powerful network that's known for influencing state policy is now targeting education issues like school choice as the movement battles a new wave of hostility from Democrats who oppose charter schools and private school vouchers that use taxpayer money.
One of the nation's largest teachers' unions sued the U.S. Education Department on Thursday over a federal program that promises to forgive student loans for public workers but has been beset by problems.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — After two setbacks this week, President Donald Trump is now focusing his drive to curb drug costs on congressional efforts aimed at helping people on Medicare and younger generations covered by workplace plans.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is allowing a once-prohibited farm pesticide back on the market over objections from beekeepers.
BERLIN (AP) — A panel of economists advising the German government is recommending that the country should put a price on carbon emissions if it wants to meet its targets for reducing the amount of greenhouse gases being released into the atmosphere.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Volkswagen will sink $2.6 billion into a Pittsburgh autonomous vehicle company that's mostly owned by Ford as part of a broader partnership on electric and self-driving vehicles, the companies confirmed Friday.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The FTC has voted to approve a fine of about $5 billion for Facebook over privacy violations, the Wall Street Journal reported Friday. The report cited an unnamed person familiar with the matter.
SHENZHEN, China (AP) — The chairman of Huawei said Friday the Chinese tech giant has yet to see any benefit from President Donald Trump's promise to allow U.S. companies to sell some components to the company and called on Washington to remove it from a security blacklist.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google contractors regularly listen to and review some recordings of what people say to artificial-intelligence system Google Assistant, via their phone or through smart speakers such as the Google Home.
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon will provide technical training to about one-third of its U.S. workforce, both to address the need for more skilled workers and to better compete against rivals.
TRANSPORTATION
Harley-Davidson is releasing details about the electric motorcycle it's rolling out this year that it hopes will capture the imagination of a new generation of riders and put a charge into its diminishing sales.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The attorney general for Washington D.C. has issued subpoenas to the National Rifle Association and its related charitable foundation as part of an investigation into allegations of financial misconduct inside the powerful gun lobbying organization.
LONDON (AP) — Consumer products company Reckitt Benckiser says it will pay $1.4 billion to resolve U.S. investigations into the marketing of an anti-addiction drug by a subsidiary.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The major U.S. stock indexes closed at record highs on Friday, with the S&P 500 ending above 3,000 for the first time. The market was driven higher by technology, consumer discretionary and industrial company stocks, which more than offset the drop in drugmakers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices rose modestly in June, another sign that inflationary pressures remain subdued.
BEIJING (AP) — China's trade with the United States plunged last month as a tariff war battered exporters on both sides of the Pacific Ocean.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit increased by $140 billion during the first nine months of this budget year to $747.1 billion as government revenues and spending both hit records.
A turbulent day on Wall Street ended in the record books Thursday as the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbed above 27,000 for the first time and the S&P 500 index hit another all-time high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell, testifying for a second day before Congress, said Thursday that the economy is in a "very good place" despite headwinds and that the Fed is prepared to do what it can to "keep it there."
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a shift from just a few months ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell is worried that too-low inflation could persist for a while — and undercut the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices rose just 0.1% in June, as cheaper gas prices were offset by higher rents and auto costs.
PARIS (AP) — France on Thursday adopted a pioneering tax on internet giants like Google, Amazon and Facebook despite U.S. threats of new tariffs on French imports if Paris went ahead with the plan.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea is seeking U.S. help in a bitter diplomatic row with fellow American ally Japan over its moves to tighten controls on high-tech exports.
LONDON (AP) — Virgin Group founder Richard Branson has warned that the pound's value would fall to that of the dollar if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal — a stark prediction that will fuel worries about the economic pressures facing the country.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was defiant and declarative Friday, with all the hammer-on-anvil subtlety that has charted a now-familiar pattern of his presidency: create a crisis, retreat, declare victory, move on.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After failing to get his citizenship question on the census, President Donald Trump now says his fallback plan will provide an even more accurate count — determining the citizenship of 90 percent of the population "or more." But his plan will likely be limited by logistical hurdles and legal restrictions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says a nationwide immigration enforcement operation targeting people who are in the United States illegally will begin Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor Secretary Alexander Acosta said Friday he is resigning following renewed scrutiny of his handling of a 2008 secret plea deal with wealthy financier Jeffrey Epstein , who is accused of sexually abusing dozens of underage girls.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that she wants to complete a deal with President Donald Trump this month that would raise the government's borrowing limit and set spending levels for the coming budget year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When he resigned as defense secretary last December, Jim Mattis thought it might take two months to install a successor. That seemed terribly long at the time.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump criticized former Republican House Speaker Paul Ryan on Friday, calling him a "baby" and a "terrible speaker," who didn't know what he was doing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used a White House conference Thursday to applaud far-right social media provocateurs even as he conceded that some of them are extreme in their views.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — The first shipment of a Russian missile defense system has arrived in Turkey, the Turkish Defense Ministry said Friday, moving the country closer to possible U.S. sanctions and a new standoff with Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a week after insisting that he was "absolutely moving forward," President Donald Trump abandoned his effort to insert a citizenship question into next year's census.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress might need to extend the government's crucial ability to borrow money before leaving the Capitol for its August recess, Trump administration officials said Wednesday. The timetable would heap extraordinary pressure on lawmakers to cut a deal on a measure that usually requires lengthy and politically delicate negotiations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The abrupt resignation of Britain's ambassador to the United States over leaked cables critical of the Trump administration may have jolted official Washington, but it's unlikely to have a lasting impact on the U.S.-British relationship or diplomatic practice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A nationwide immigration enforcement operation targeting people who are in the United States illegally is expected to begin this weekend after it was postponed last month by President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's July Fourth event has drained a special fund used to provide security and protect the nation's capital from terrorist threats.