VOL. 45 | NO. 6 | Friday, February 5, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates were flat this week, staying near record lows as the economy remains burdened by the coronavirus pandemic.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Whatever adjectives might be attached to Dolly Parton – and many come to mind – “underappreciated” would not seem to apply.
NEWSMAKERS
Bass, Berry & Sims has hired 15 new attorneys, 10 of whom are located in Nashville. They are, grouped by specialty:
BRIEFS
The city of Columbia and the Maury County Bridle and Saddle Club – organizers for the annual Mule Day Parade and festivities – have announced the cancellation of Mule Day 2021, which had been planned for April 8-11. The decision was made after consideration of all potential options, and included input and recommendations from local health and public safety officials.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The 2020 Tesla Model Y is an intriguing pick for an electric SUV. It has a relatively small footprint but provides cavernous passenger and cargo space. And with a current entry price of $43,190, including destination and handling fees, it’s also one the most affordable electric SUVs around.
PERSONAL FINANCE
A singular crisis has led to extraordinary relief options for borrowers. Interest and payments have been paused on federal student loans. Homeowners can request nearly a year of mortgage forbearance. Credit card issuers and other lenders dramatically expanded hardship programs.
CAREER CORNER
February is one of my favorite months. It’s a time when we focus on love and happiness. People are more kind to one another. We think about what is going well in our personal lives and dream of new beginnings.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Assume this position. Feet up, head back, fingers laced over your belly. Eyes shut. Teeth unclenched.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
I’m writing this between my daughter’s diaper changes, bottle breaks and naps, as well as my own weepy fits of anxiety and despair. Our day care closed because of a COVID-19 case, so our baby gets to gurgle at my husband and me as we stare at our computers – tense shoulders at ears – and attempt to work.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Grammy-winning singer songwriter Jason Isbell says he is going to donate money that he makes from Morgan Wallen's cover of his song "Cover Me Up" to the NAACP.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Mathieu Joseph enjoyed a very happy birthday, even if he couldn't play in front of his favorite fans.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Campaign finance officials offered little sympathy Wednesday to a Tennessee Republican lawmaker who said he was unable to complete a recent election finance report due the FBI confiscating all his campaign files.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday that transgender girls should be banned from playing on middle and high school sports teams or they will "destroy women's sports."
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee psychologist was sentenced to more than three years in prison for fraudulently billing excessive hours of services, sometimes totaling more than 24 hours a day, a federal prosecutor said.
TRANSPORTATION
CHICAGO (AP) — United Airlines said Wednesday it will buy up to 200 small electric aircraft to help customers in urban areas get to the airport.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota says it will roll out two new battery-electric vehicles and one plug-in gas-electric hybrid in the U.S. this year as the parade of new EVs continues.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' profit fell 4.5% in 2020, but a strong second half more than offset the effects of pandemic-related factory closures and a costly air bag recall.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota reported a 50% jump in its October to December profit Wednesday, underlining a solid recovery at the Japanese automaker from the damage of the coronavirus pandemic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal authorities are investigating a massive counterfeit N95 mask operation in which fake 3M masks were sold in at least five states to hospitals, medical facilities and government agencies. The foreign-made knockoffs are becoming increasingly difficult to spot and could put health care workers at grave risk for the coronavirus.
GENEVA (AP) — Independent experts advising the World Health Organization on Wednesday recommended the use of AstraZeneca's vaccine even in countries that turned up worrying coronavirus variants in their populations.
NEW YORK (AP) — About 1 in 3 Americans say they definitely or probably won't get the COVID-19 vaccine, according to a new poll that some experts say is discouraging news if the U.S. hopes to achieve herd immunity and vanquish the outbreak.
WUHAN, China (AP) — A World Health Organization team is leaving China on Wednesday after gaining some new insights into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic that has now killed more than 2.3 million people worldwide — but with the major questions still unanswered.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top official expressed regret for creating a row with Britain last month when the bloc briefly considered applying an emergency restriction on exports of COVID-19 vaccines also to the U.K.'s Northern Ireland.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The major U.S. stock indexes edged mostly higher in afternoon trading Wednesday, a day after the S&P 500 ended a six-day winning streak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government's budget deficit hit $735.7 billion through the first four months of the budget year — an all-time high for the period — as a pandemic-induced recession cut into tax revenues while spending on COVID relief measures sent outlays soaring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Wednesday underscored the Fed's commitment to reducing unemployment to multi-decade lows, where it stood before the pandemic, while signaling little concern about the risk of potentially high inflation or financial-market instability.
The Biden administration has "indefinitely" shelved a proposed U.S. takeover of the popular video app TikTok, according to a Wall Street Journal report. Last year, the Trump administration brokered a deal that would have had U.S. corporations Oracle and Walmart take a large stake in the Chinese-owned app on national-security grounds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices rose 0.3% in January, led by a surge in energy. But even though the gain was the biggest monthly increase since July, inflation gains over the past year have remained modest.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The world's biggest shipping company, Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, on Wednesday reported a sharp rise in earnings for the fourth quarter, when global demand for goods rebounded from an earlier slump caused by the coronavirus pandemic.
A resurgent coronavirus slowed Coca-Cola's recovery in the fourth quarter, and the company said the slump has continued into this year.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday approved a 672.5 billion euro ($815 billion) recovery package of loans and grants to help member nations recover more quickly from the coronavirus pandemic, but countries will not receive the money for several months.
Aunt Jemima is making her last batch of pancakes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors in Donald Trump's impeachment trial said Wednesday they would prove that Trump was no "innocent bystander" but the "inciter in chief" of the deadly attack at the Capitol aimed at overturning his election loss to Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At a break in Donald Trump's impeachment trial, many Republicans appeared indifferent to the Democratic prosecutors' case that the former president incited the violent attack on the Capitol Jan. 6 — and made clear they were unlikely to convict.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered new sanctions against the military regime in Myanmar, taking action after the military this month staged a coup in the Southeast Asian country and arrested de facto leader Aung San Suu Kyi and other senior politicians.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats will begin two days of arguments in Donald Trump's second impeachment trial, trying to convince skeptical Republicans that the former president alone was responsible for inciting his mob of supporters who broke into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6 and interrupted the presidential electoral count.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump will stand trial for impeachment after the Senate rejected arguments from the former president's lawyers that the chamber cannot move forward because he is no longer in office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump stretched beyond the facts when they argued there's an open-and-shut case that the Constitution bars impeaching former presidents. That question is not settled, though the weight of legal views contradicts the Trump team's assertions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the lawyers heading former President Donald Trump's defense at his second impeachment trial did what Trump himself has not: conceded Joe Biden won the presidential election. —
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats muscled past Republicans on portions of President Joe Biden's pandemic plan, including a proposed $130 billion in additional relief to help the nation's schools reopen and a gradual increase of the federal minimum wage to $15 an hour.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden visited the Pentagon on Wednesday for the first time as commander in chief, taking stock of the military as it pivots from the turmoil of the Trump years and focuses to an unusual degree on domestic and internal issues.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee has set a confirmation hearing for Merrick Garland, President Joe Biden's nominee for attorney general.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 9
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has hired North Dakota State's AJ Blazek as his new offensive line coach and John Egorugwu from the NFL's Buffalo Bills as his linebackers coach.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tampa Bay Lightning made sure Curtis McElhinney's first start in net since last March went as smoothly as possible.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee offered a cautious message of hope Monday in a state drastically upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, unveiling his administration's top legislative priorities and spending plan for the upcoming year to lawmakers.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Thank you very much. Lieutenant Governor McNally, Speaker Sexton, Speaker Pro Tem Haile, Speaker Pro Tem Marsh, Members of the 112th General Assembly, Justices, Constitutional Officers, fellow Tennesseans:
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee on Monday unveiled his $41.8 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year. The spending plan includes increases for teacher pay and more funds for COVID-19 relief efforts, buoyed by better-than-expected revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic. The budget proposal needs ultimate approval from the Republican-dominant General Assembly. Here's a look at the highlights:
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Department of Correction Commissioner Tony Parker will serve as the president of the American Correctional Association.
REGION
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Small minority-owned businesses have often struggled to gain access to capital and other tools to grow, a challenge made more daunting by the economic upheaval of the coronavirus pandemic. But a new effort announced Tuesday aims to address those disparities in pockets of the nation long gripped by poverty.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of civil rights and advocacy organizations are calling on the Biden administration to immediately halt federal executions after an unprecedented run of capital punishment under President Donald Trump and to commute the sentences of inmates on federal death row.
TRANSPORTATION
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The pilot who crashed the helicopter carrying Kobe Bryant, killing all nine aboard, made a series of poor decisions that led him to fly blindly into a wall of clouds where he became so disoriented he thought he was climbing when the craft was plunging toward a Southern California hillside, federal safety officials said Tuesday.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Fox News Media CEO Suzanne Scott signed a new contract Tuesday and the company said it will continue its "center right" programming mix despite a recent ratings slump and legal fight against its flagship Fox News Channel.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jill Biden is pushing free access to community college and training programs, saying the schools will be an important part of Biden administration efforts to rebuild the economy.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Nissan reported Tuesday losses for the fiscal third quarter, as its sales were hit by the coronavirus pandemic and its brand image continued to take a beating from the financial misconduct scandal centered on its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
TOKYO (AP) — Honda reported Tuesday its fiscal third quarter profit more than doubled to 284 billion yen ($2.7 billion) despite the coronavirus pandemic as auto sales grew in Japan and the U.S.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
LONDON (AP) — Anyone arriving in England and found to have lied about a recent visit to a country on the British government's travel ban list faces up to 10 years in prison under new tough coronavirus border policies announced Tuesday.
WUHAN, China (AP) — The coronavirus most likely first appeared in humans after jumping from an animal, a team of international and Chinese scientists looking for the origins of COVID-19 said Tuesday, dismissing as unlikely an alternate theory that the virus leaked from a Chinese lab.
ROME (AP) — The Vatican is calling for a new paradigm of care for older people after what it calls the "massacre" wrought by the coronavirus pandemic, which has disproportionately killed people living in nursing homes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended a wobbly day with mixed results, ending a six-day winning streak for the S&P 500 even as the Nasdaq eked out another record high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of his first acts as new chairman of the Senate Energy Committee, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Tuesday urged President Joe Biden to reconsider his executive order revoking a presidential permit for the long-delayed Keystone XL oil pipeline, siding with Republican critics who say Biden's action will cost thousands of high-paying jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former labor leader and Obama administration official was elected Tuesday to serve as chair of the U.S. Postal Service Board of Governors, marking the first step in a potential shakeup under President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers cut back sharply on hiring in December, particularly industries slammed by the pandemic such as restaurants and hotels, as virus infections soared and governments responded with tighter restrictions.
As the world grappled with COVID-19, a recession and a racial reckoning, the ultrawealthy gave to a broader set of causes than ever before — bestowing multimillion-dollar gifts on food pantries, historically Black colleges and universities and organizations that serve the poor and the homeless, according to the Chronicle of Philanthropy's annual rankings of the 50 Americans who gave the most to charity last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats proposed an additional $1,400 in direct payments to individuals as Congress began piecing together a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that tracks President Joe Biden's plan for battling the pandemic and reviving a still staggering economy.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The family of a novice stock trader who killed himself after mistakenly believing he lost more than $700,000 are suing Robinhood Financial, claiming the popular stock-trading platform's business practices "directly" led to their son's death.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats opened Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial Tuesday by showing the former president whipping up a rally crowd to march to the Capitol and "fight like hell" against his reelection defeat, followed by graphic video of the deadly attack on Congress that came soon after.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump's historic second impeachment trial will force the Senate to decide whether to convict him of incitement of insurrection after a violent mob of his supporters laid siege to the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump's second impeachment trial begins on Tuesday, a solemn proceeding that will force lawmakers to relive the violent events of Jan. 6 as House Democrats prosecute their case for "incitement of insurrection."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's choice to the lead the Office of Management and Budget apologized Tuesday for spending years attacking top Republicans on social media as she tried to convince senators she'll leave partisan politics behind if confirmed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department will ask U.S. attorneys who were appointed by former President Donald Trump to resign from their posts, as the Biden administration moves to transition to its own nominees, a senior Justice Department official said Monday.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said Tuesday that the 27-nation bloc must take a firm stance in its future relations with Russia including through the use of new sanctions, in the wake of the jailing of opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
BEIJING (AP) — Zeng Jiajun, a former tech worker, fell in love with social media app Clubhouse, a window through the ruling Communist Party's pervasive censorship, after listening to a freewheeling discussion between members of China's Uighur minority and Han majority that wound up lasting 12 hours.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8
NASHVILLE AREA
Dr. Alex Jahangir, Nashville’s COVID-19 Taskforce Chair, announced today plans for Davidson County to enter Phase 1B of the State’s COVID vaccine plan that includes schools, and will also begin scheduling vaccine appointments for those 70 years and older.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has hired two more staff members, with former NFL wide receiver Earl Bennett as director of player development at his alma mater and Kaelene Curry director of mental performance.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee will deliver his third annual State of the State address to lawmakers on Monday.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of the Tennessee State Guard is turning over command and retiring from the state Military Department.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Polluters must step up their commitments to cutting greenhouse gas emissions before a crucial climate summit in November, U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres said Monday.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A Florida businessman whose fraud-busting business was exposed as a fraud itself was sentenced Monday to a year and a day in prison in a case in which prosecutors said Rudy Giuliani was hired as a consultant to attract investors.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization said Monday the emergence of new COVID-19 variants has raised questions about whether or not existing vaccines will work, calling it "concerning news" that the vaccines developed so far may be less effective against the variant first detected in South Africa.
Parents of schoolchildren learning from home shouldn't necessarily count on reclaiming the dining room table any time soon.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia issued updated statistics Monday on coronavirus-linked deaths which showed that 162,429 people with COVID-19 died last year, a number far higher than previously reported by government officials.
TAMPA, Fla. (AP) — So much for the mayor's order requiring masks at Super Bowl parties. Throngs of mostly maskless fans took to the streets and packed sports bars as the clock inside Raymond James Stadium ticked down on a hometown Super Bowl win for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — They are the annual journeys of late winter and early spring: Factory workers in China heading home for the Lunar New Year; American college students going on road trips and hitting the beach over spring break; Germans and Britons fleeing drab skies for some Mediterranean sun over Easter.
JOHANNESBURG (AP) — South Africa is considering giving a COVID-19 vaccine that is still in the testing phase to health workers, after suspending the rollout of another shot that preliminary data indicated is not effective at preventing mild to moderate illness from the variant dominant in the country.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stocks notched more gains and pushed to new highs Monday, extending a winning streak that just gave the market its best weekly gain since November.
NEW YORK (AP) — During this year's Super Bowl, the Tampa Bay Buccaneers reigned supreme on the field. During advertising's biggest night, there were hits and misses as well. Overall, this year's crop of Super Bowl ads focused on light humor that strove to entertain and connect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Sunday the country was still in a "deep hole" with millions of lost jobs but that President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief plan could generate enough growth to restore full employment by next year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Increasing the minimum wage to $15 an hour would reduce the number of Americans living in poverty and boost wages for millions of Americans while adding to the federal debt and joblessness, a new report from the Congressional Budget Office projects.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Only a fragment of Americans believe democracy is thriving in the U.S., even as broad majorities agree that representative government is one of the country's bedrock principles, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday blasted the impeachment case against him as an act of "political theater" and accused House Democrats on the eve of the former president's trial of exploiting the chaos and trauma of last month's Capitol riot for their party's gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States announced plans Monday to reengage with the much-maligned U.N. Human Rights Council that former President Donald Trump withdrew from almost three years ago, as the Biden administration reverses another Trump-era move away from multilateral organizations and agreements.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State George P. Shultz, a titan of American academia, business and diplomacy who spent most of the 1980s trying to improve Cold War relations with the Soviet Union and forging a course for peace in the Middle East, has died. He was 100.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 5
TENNESSEE TITANS
ATLANTA (AP) — Josh Evans, a defensive tackle who started for the Tennessee Titans in the 2000 Super Bowl, has died. Evans was 48.
PREDATORS
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored in regulation and overtime, and the Nashville Predators beat the Florida Panthers 6-5 on Thursday night.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hall of Fame songwriter Jim Weatherly, who wrote "Midnight Train to Georgia" and other hits for Gladys Knight, Glen Campbell and Ray Price, has died. He was 77.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Tennessee slowly begins to loosen restrictions on who may receive the COVID-19 vaccine, Nashville on Friday had the strictest eligibility to receive the dose in the entire state.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new museum two decades in the making is telling the interconnected story of Black musical genres through the lens of American history.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission received more than 35,000 reports of fraud in Tennessee in 2020, resulting in more than $40.6 million in losses, the agency said.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's highest court on Thursday agreed to take up an appeal of a lawsuit challenging the legality of a school voucher program allowing parents to use public tax dollars for private school tuition.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE(AP) — Tennessee officials say a Spanish car part maker will invest $42 million to open a new plant in Chattanooga expected to create 240 more jobs.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday that it will cut shifts at two of its U.S. manufacturing plants next week, due to the worldwide chip shortage that has also impacted other automakers.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations says American billionaire Michael Bloomberg has been reappointed as a special envoy to engage governments and businesses in tackling the threat of global warming.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Coronavirus cases have dropped at U.S. nursing homes and other long-term care facilities over the past few weeks, offering a glimmer of hope that health officials attribute to the start of vaccinations, an easing of the post-holiday surge and better prevention, among other reasons.
TORONTO (AP) — Prime Minister Justin Trudeau tried Friday to reassure Canadians his plan to vaccinate them is working despite mounting criticism his government is not getting vaccines soon enough.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon will deploy more than 1,100 troops to five vaccination centers in what will be the first wave of increased military support for the White House campaign to get more Americans inoculated against COVID-19.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — The Canadian government has extended a ban on cruise ships through February 2022, which is expected to block trips from visiting Alaska this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Despite its world-class medical system and its vaunted Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the U.S. fell behind in the race to detect dangerous coronavirus mutations. And it's only now beginning to catch up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than half of America reluctant or flatly opposed to getting a COVID-19 vaccine, a VIP-filled video call on Thursday targeted the nation's military families with an urgent plea: Get the shot.
Coronavirus deaths in the United States surpassed 450,000 on Thursday, and daily deaths remain stubbornly high at more than 3,000 a day, despite falling infections and the arrival of multiple vaccines.
Johnson & Johnson asked U.S. regulators Thursday to clear the world's first single-dose COVID-19 vaccine, an easier-to-use option that could boost scarce supplies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street closed out a winning week Friday as the S&P 500 notched its fifth gain in a row and its biggest weekly increase since November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers increased their borrowing in December by $9.7 billion, as Americans took out loans to buy autos or finance their educations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden laid out his case Friday for moving fast and without Republicans, if necessary, to pass $1.9 trillion in coronavirus relief, armed with new signs of economic strain brought on by the continuing pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's employers barely added jobs last month, underscoring the viral pandemic's ongoing grip on the economy and likely adding momentum to the Biden administration's push for a bold rescue aid package.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The struggles that have afflicted the American job market since the viral pandemic tore through the economy nearly a year ago are keeping a tight lid on hiring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit rose 17.7% last year to $679 billion, highest since 2008, as the coronavirus disrupted global commerce and confounded then-President Donald Trump's attempts to rebalance America's trade with the rest of the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top financial markets regulators say they will look into whether recent stock market turbulence is an indication that current trading practices are not doing enough to protect investors.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Unemployment agencies across the country were bombarded with so many claims during the pandemic that many struggled to distinguish the correct from the criminal.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's top trade official is dropping her bid to become the next director-general of the World Trade Organization, making it likely the job will go to former Nigerian finance minister Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala. She would become the first woman to lead the organization.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — Malaysia and Indonesia on Friday agreed to coordinate and strengthen their campaign against they say is international discrimination against palm oil, the countries' main commodity.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading back to his home in Delaware on Friday to spend the weekend with his wife and family, even as the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention recommends that Americans forgo travel because of the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — About two-thirds of Republicans say Joe Biden was not legitimately elected president, according to a new poll conducted barely two weeks after he was inaugurated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene lashed out Friday at "morons" in both parties who voted to kick her off her committees, a day after the House meted out the unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she'd earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans say former President Donald Trump bears at least some blame for the Capitol insurrection, and about half say the Senate should vote to convict him at the end of his impeachment trial.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A fiercely divided House has tossed Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene off both her committees, an unprecedented punishment that Democrats said she'd earned by spreading hateful and violent conspiracy theories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Freshman Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, a Georgia Republican, has been stripped of her committee assignments by the House Democratic majority over racist remarks, her embrace of conspiracy theories and her past endorsement of violence against leading Democratic officials.
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 4
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee U.S. Rep. Jim Cooper's wife died Thursday "after years of struggling with Alzheimer's," the Democrat's office announced.
NASHVILLE AREA
The Iroquois Steeplechase has been rescheduled to run on Saturday, June 26, at Percy Warner Park.
COURTS
MIAMI (AP) — A voting technology company is suing Fox News, three of its hosts and two former lawyers for former President Donald Trump — Rudy Giuliani and Sidney Powell — for $2.7 billion, charging that the defendants conspired to spread false claims that the company helped "steal" the U.S. presidential election.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's attorney general on Thursday sued Food City over claims that the supermarket chain's pharmacies intentionally profited from the opioid epidemic by unlawfully selling tens of millions of prescription opioids in the state.
The business consultant McKinsey & Company agreed to pay nearly $600 million for its role in consulting businesses on how to sell more prescription opioid painkillers amid a nationwide overdose crisis.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — With Democrats in charge of Congress and the White House, progressive lawmakers including Sen. Bernie Sanders and Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez are pushing the Biden administration to act ever more aggressively on climate change.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's nominee to run the Environmental Protection Agency pledged Wednesday to "move with a sense of urgency on climate change" and other priorities, while working with lawmakers from both parties to protect the environment.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A judge says U.S officials downplayed climate change impacts and other environmental costs from the expansion of a massive coal mine near the Montana-Wyoming border, in a case that could show how far the Biden administration is willing to go to unwind his predecessors' decisions.
MEDIA
A pro-China network of fake and imposter accounts found a global audience on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter to mock the U.S. response to the COVID-19 pandemic as well as the deadly riot in Washington that left five dead, new research published Thursday found.
LONDON (AP) — U.K. regulators stripped China's state TV channel of its national broadcasting license on Thursday, after an investigation cited lack of editorial control and links to China's ruling Communist Party.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The Australian prime minister said he had a "constructive" meeting on Thursday with the head of Google after the tech giant threatened to remove its search engine from Australia over plans to make digital platforms pay for news.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. lost $1.28 billion last year as it dealt with the coronavirus pandemic that forced it to shut down U.S. factories for about two months.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
When the coronavirus forced churches to close their doors and give up Sunday collections, the Roman Catholic Diocese of Charlotte turned to the federal government's signature small business relief program for more than $8 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as President Joe Biden meets with senators and works the phones with Capitol Hill to push for a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package, his team is increasingly focused on selling the plan directly to voters.
A broad rally on Wall Street Thursday added to the market's solid gains this week and pushed the S&P 500 and Nasdaq composite to all-time highs.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — GameStop and a handful of other stocks whose meteoric rise last month shocked Wall Street began falling back to Earth this week.
More than two dozen philanthropic organizations and corporations on Thursday launched the California Black Freedom Fund, a $100 million, five-year initiative that they say will provide resources to Black-led organizations in the state that are seeking to eradicate systemic racism.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity in the October-December quarter fell by the largest amount in 39 years as the coronavirus pandemic roiled the labor market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits declined to 779,000 last week, a still-historically high total that shows that a sizable number of people keep losing jobs to the viral pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned of "tough months ahead" with COVID-19 continuing to flare, making it critical that Congress pass President Joe Biden's $1.9 trillion relief package.
SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing Co. has said it will outsource a significant amount of information technology work to Dell starting in April, including support of cloud services, databases and information technology. The move is expected to eliminate 600 jobs.
NEW YORK (AP) — As the U.S. economy undergoes an uneven recovery from the virus pandemic, many small business owners face a tough decision on whether and when to take on employees.
NEW YORK (AP) — In 1995, few could imagine that the modest online bookstore built by Jeff Bezos would turn into a $1.7 trillion behemoth that sells everything from diapers to sofas, produces movies, owns a grocery chain and provides cloud computing services to businesses all over the globe.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England kept its key interest rate on hold Thursday amid rising optimism over the British economy's prospects later this year in the wake of the rapid rollout of coronavirus vaccines.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's governing parties have agreed on more help for families with children and people on benefits, as well as tax help for companies, as they try to keep Europe's biggest economy on course to grow out of the pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Thursday asked Donald Trump to testify under oath for his Senate impeachment trial, challenging him to respond to their charge that he incited a violent mob to storm the Capitol. A Trump adviser said the former president won't testify.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Embattled Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, facing a House vote to strip her of committee assignments, said Thursday that she regrets some "words of the past," but she did not explicitly apologize for her racist and violent rhetoric.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy is claiming he's unfamiliar with an extremist conspiracy theory whose adherents joined the violent assault on Congress and hunted for his members as well as Democrats. He says he's not even learned how to pronounce it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday said the days of the U.S. "rolling over" to Russian President Vladimir Putin are gone as he called for the immediate release of Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday called for a confrontation of the "political extremism" that inspired the U.S. Capitol riot and appealed for collective strength during such turbulent times in remarks at the National Prayer Breakfast, a Washington tradition that asks political combatants to set aside their differences for one morning.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks into a new administration, a majority of Americans say they have at least some confidence in President Joe Biden and his ability to manage the myriad crises facing the nation, including the raging coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is sending a message to his messengers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans will be forced to go on the record, defending or rebuking Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who has drawn bipartisan condemnation over her embrace of far-right conspiracy theories, racist comments, as well as her past endorsement of violence against Democrats.