VOL. 45 | NO. 35 | Friday, August 27, 2021
MEDIA
The Nashville Ledger won seven first-place awards Friday in the Tennessee Press Association’s 2021 newspaper contest sponsored by the University of Tennessee.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Quantifying the on-field impact that Floyd Reese had on the Tennessee Titans franchise is easy enough. With 111 victories in 13 seasons as the team’s general manager, and its only Super Bowl appearance to date, it is easy to see the contributions of Reese, who died last week at 73.
The death of Floyd Reese Saturday bought comments and memories from his many former players and co-workers.
First down. Deal with COVID: It’s back to Zoom meetings for coach Mike Vrabel, now in quarantine from a positive COVID-19 test. That also means assistant coaches will have to run the practices and decisions involving roster cuts and playing time in the preseason finale against the Bears will have to be done by proxy unless Vrabel can have two negative tests in a 48-hour span.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee general manager Jon Robinson made a plea Thursday for people to get the "life-saving" COVID-19 vaccination as the Titans' virus outbreak grew to nine including quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
NEWSMAKERS
Centerstone, a national provider of behavioral health and addiction services, has announced chief financial officer Steve Holman will retire at the end of the year.
BRIEFS
Bone McAllester Norton PLLC, one of Nashville’s largest law firms, will combine with Spencer Fane, an Am Law 200 ranked law firm with offices in 20 cities nationwide.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
One of the challenges people have with electric vehicles is figuring out how much they cost to operate. The price of fully charging an electric vehicle’s battery can vary wildly depending on when and where you charge it. For the bigger picture, you should also include the amortized cost of buying and installing a home charging station and the rates your utility company charges.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Losing income is never easy, but it’s become increasingly common over the last year and a half: Pew Research Center found 44% of U.S. adults say their household has experienced either job loss (including temporarily) or a pay cut since the beginning of the pandemic, with Hispanic and Asian adults most likely to say so.
The debate over student loan debt often neglects a significant group: Parents.
SPORTS
Penny Hardaway believes the new name, image and likeness rules helped him land another top recruiting class at Memphis.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Heavy rains from Hurricane Ida have forced Bonnaroo Music & Arts Festival in Tennessee to cancel as organizers say the waterlogged festival grounds are unsafe for driving or camping.
COURTS
A federal bankruptcy judge is expected to rule Wednesday on whether to accept a settlement between OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma, the states and thousands of local governments over an opioid crisis that has killed a half-million Americans over the last two decades.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House officials are outlining plans to build and restore more than 2 million homes, a response to the volcanic rise in housing prices over the past year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Southeastern Conference officials are trying to get back to normal on football game days, with stadiums filled with fans and grills being fired up outside, even in a portion of the country where the states have among the lowest COVID-19 vaccination rates.
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency wants detailed information on how Tesla's Autopilot system detects and responds to emergency vehicles parked on highways.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — The pilots' union is suing Southwest Airlines, saying that rules the airline put into place before and during the pandemic have changed pay rates and working rules, in violation of federal labor law.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has thrown out a Trump-era rule that ended federal protections for hundreds of thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways and left them vulnerable to pollution from nearby development.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BERLIN (AP) — The World Health Organization on Wednesday inaugurated a new "hub" in Berlin that aims to help prepare the globe better to prevent future pandemics.
PARIS (AP) — France on Wednesday started administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccine to people over 65 and those with underlying health conditions as the delta variant spreads in the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — This summer's coronavirus resurgence has been labeled a "pandemic of the unvaccinated" by government officials from President Joe Biden on down.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks eked out some modest gains on Wall Street Wednesday, enough to nudge the Nasdaq composite index to another all-time high.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The OPEC oil producers' cartel and allied non-member countries led by Russia signed off Wednesday on gradually increasing production as the global economy and demand for fuel continue to recover from the worst of the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in U.S. manufacturing accelerated in August despite the fact that companies were still struggling with supply chain problems.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government has collaborated on a new internet site to help more Americans apply for and receive the expanded child tax credit, a monthly payment of as much as $300 per child that was part of the coronavirus relief package.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A defensive President Joe Biden called the U.S. airlift to extract more than 120,000 Americans, Afghans and other allies from Afghanistan to end a 20-year war an "extraordinary success," though more than 100 Americans and thousands of others were left behind.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden glossed over his broken promise to keep U.S. troops in Afghanistan until the last Americans are out and offered the faint assurance — even with the last U.S. planes gone — that it's never too late for U.S. citizens to leave.
MEQUON, Wis. (AP) — A loose network of conservative groups with ties to major Republican donors and party-aligned think tanks is quietly lending firepower to local activists engaged in culture war fights in schools across the country.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — The GOP-controlled Texas Legislature passed a broad overhaul of the state's election laws Tuesday, tightening already strict voting rules and dealing a bruising defeat to Democrats who waged a monthslong fight over what they argued was a brazen attempt to disenfranchise minorities and other Democratic-leaning voters.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 31
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has named Ken Seals as the Commodores' starting quarterback for the opener against East Tennessee State.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Rain from Tropical Depression Ida temporarily hampered cleanup efforts Tuesday for a rural Tennessee community ravaged by recent deadly flooding, but the extra dousing brought on no new flooding so far, authorities said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hundreds of Tennessee National Guard soldiers are responding to Hurricane Ida to help with relief and recovery operations in Louisiana, officials said.
ENVIRONMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The snail darter, a tiny fish that notoriously blocked a federal dam project in Tennessee decades ago, should no longer be on the endangered species list, federal officials announced on Tuesday.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Attorneys general from 20 states sued President Joe Biden's administration Monday seeking to halt directives that extend federal sex discrimination protections to LGBTQ people, ranging from transgender girls participating in school sports to the use of school and workplace bathrooms that align with a person's gender identity.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices jumped by a record amount in June as homebuyers competed for a limited supply of available houses, the latest evidence that the housing market remains red-hot.
TECHNOLOGY
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's National Assembly approved legislation on Tuesday that bans app store operators such as Google and Apple from forcing developers to use their in-app payment systems.
BERLIN (AP) — Google said Tuesday that it is investing 1 billion euros ($1.2 billion) by 2030 to expand its cloud computing infrastructure in Germany and to increase the use of renewable energy.
MEDIA
BEIJING (AP) — Hugely popular online games and celebrity culture in China are the latest targets in the ruling Communist Party's campaign to encourage the public to fall in line with its vision for a powerful, more wholesome country.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Google is once again postponing a return to the office for most workers until mid-January, in addition to requiring all employees to be vaccinated once its sprawling campuses are fully reopened.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Mothers of two Tennessee children with serious illnesses asked a federal judge Monday to block an order by the governor allowing parents to opt out of coronavirus-related mask requirements in schools, arguing that it endangers kids with health conditions and hurts their ability to attend in-person classes.
HONOLULU (AP) — Seeking to beat back a COVID-19 surge, Honolulu will soon require patrons of restaurants, bars, museums, theaters and other establishments to show proof of vaccination or a recent negative test for the disease, the city's mayor said Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended a wobbly day with mixed results on Wall Street Tuesday, but the S&P 500 still managed to close out August with a solid gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a season of daunting wildfires and flooding, the Biden administration is taking an initial step to assess how climate change could harm financial markets — planning to launch on Tuesday a 75-day comment period on how the impacts could reshape the insurance sector.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence fell in August to the lowest level since February amid rising concerns about the rapidly spreading delta variant of the coronavirus and worries about higher inflation.
Nancy Campos' back ached as she loaded more than 100 Amazon packages onto her truck. The 59-year-old grandmother, a mail carrier for the U.S. Postal Service, had worked 13 days in a row without a lunch break, and now she was delivering on the Martin Luther King Jr. holiday to keep up with a never-ending flow of boxes.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Consumer prices spiked higher than expected in Europe in August, boosted in large part by more expensive fuel. Economists say the jump is temporary, but it could raise questions about how persistent higher inflation might turn out to be.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's economy grew by 20.1% in the April-June quarter from the same period a year earlier, when it suffered a record contraction, the government announced Tuesday, raising hopes of an economic recovery.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Social Security and Medicare, the government's two biggest benefit programs, remain under intense financial pressure with the retirement of millions of baby boomers and a devastating pandemic putting increased pressures on the two programs' finances.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Faced with tough questions about leaving Afghanistan, including Americans left behind, President Joe Biden planned to address the nation Tuesday about the way forward after 20 years of U.S. war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the final five U.S. military transport aircraft lifted off out of Afghanistan, they left behind up to 200 Americans and thousands of desperate Afghans who couldn't get out and now must rely on the Taliban to allow their departure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the final stream of U.S. cargo planes soaring over the peaks of the Hindu Kush, President Joe Biden fulfilled a campaign promise to end America's longest war, one it could not win.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is asking social media and telecommunications companies to preserve phone or computer records for hundreds of people who were potentially involved with efforts to "challenge, delay or interfere" with the certification that day of President Joe Biden's victory or otherwise try to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
MONDAY, AUGUST 30
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans' virus outbreak has grown again with starting right guard Nate Davis added to the reserve/COVID-19 list Monday.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — There's more uncertainty than usual surrounding the AFC South, and it extends beyond Houston quarterback Deshaun Watson.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The closest Derrick Henry, A.J. Brown and Julio Jones got to playing this preseason came when they put on their uniforms before kickoff. Ryan Tannehill watched the preseason finale in quarantine and had plenty of company.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed forward Eeli Tolvanen to a three-year, $4.35 million deal.
SPORTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Southeastern Conference teams that don't have enough available players will have to forfeit games this year.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Josh Heupel has named Joe Milton as the Volunteers' starting quarterback four days before the season opener against Bowling Green.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A dozen historically Black colleges and universities will join Tennessee State University's national coding hub as community centers, the school said.
REAL ESTATE
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Six months after Congress approved spending tens of billions of dollars to bail out renters facing eviction, South Carolina was just reaching its first tenants. All nine of them.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — Leaded gasoline has finally reached the end of the road, the U.N. environment office said Monday, after the last country in the world to use it stopped selling the highly toxic fuel.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday launched a new health office that will prod hospitals to cut carbon emissions, aiming to provide greener, more environmentally friendly medical care.
MEDIA
BEIJING (AP) — China is banning children from playing online games for more than three hours a week, the harshest restriction so far on the game industry as Chinese regulators continue cracking down on the technology sector.
TOURISM
BEIJING (AP) — Universal Studios announced Monday that its first theme park in China will open in the country's capital in September.
COURTS
The Education Department on Monday opened civil rights investigations into five Republican-led states that have banned or limited mask requirements in schools, saying the policies could amount to discrimination against students with disabilities or health conditions.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hundreds of students across Tennessee have been forced to quarantine or isolate due to the COVID-19 outbreak, forcing some schools to close their classrooms while others temporarily switch to virtual learning.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union plans to recommend that its member states reinstate restrictions on tourists from the U.S. because of rising coronavirus infection levels in the country, EU diplomats said Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks wound up mixed on Wall Street Monday, with the S&P 500 index managing just enough of a gain to mark another record high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With more than 1 million customers in Louisiana and Mississippi having lost power, Hurricane Ida is sure to take a toll on the energy, chemical and shipping industries that have major hubs along the Gulf Coast. But the impact on the overall U.S. economy will likely be modest so long as damage estimates don't rise sharply and refinery shutdowns are not prolonged, economists say.
NEW YORK (AP) — PNC Bank is the latest large U.S. financial services company to increase wages in a bid to keep and attract employees, raising its minimum wage to $18 an hour while also giving higher-paid workers a bump in pay.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States completed its withdrawal from Afghanistan late Monday, ending America's longest war and closing a chapter in military history likely to be remembered for colossal failures, unfulfilled promises and a frantic final exit that cost the lives of more than 180 Afghans and 13 U.S. service members, some barely older than the war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's 20-year war in Afghanistan entered its final hours Monday with the last Americans seeking to be evacuated and the U.S. military preparing to end its airlift and depart the Taliban-controlled capital.
It's a common refrain from some of those charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol and their Republican allies: The Justice Department is treating them harshly because of their political views while those arrested during last year's protests over racial injustice were given leniency.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 27
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Drummer Kenny Malone, a prolific session player who played on hits for Dolly Parton, Merle Haggard and many others, has died. He was 83.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Cummins Falls State Park in Middle Tennessee has been named state park of the year.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton announced the members selected to serve on the House's redistricting committee.
MIDSTATE
WAVERLY (AP) — Twenty people who died in a Tennessee flood have had their funerals paid for by an anonymous donor, a funeral home manager said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville-based helicopter pilot Joel Boyers had just finished helping his fiancee earn her pilot's license on Saturday morning, and they were heading home to celebrate, when he received a frantic call from a woman in Pennsylvania. Her brother's home in Waverly, Tennessee, was underwater and he was trapped on a roof with his daughters. Could Boyers help?
NASHVILLE (AP) — When deadly floods knocked out all communications but radio in rural Tennessee last weekend, an emergency official took advantage of a new system developed for this kind of emergency: He redirected 911 calls to several cellphones in a neighboring city.
COURTS
A federal bankruptcy judge on Friday urged states that oppose a settlement plan with Purdue Pharma to try to work out differences with the OxyContin maker before he issues a ruling next week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court's conservative majority is allowing evictions to resume across the United States, blocking the Biden administration from enforcing a temporary ban that was put in place because of the coronavirus pandemic.
TECHNOLOGY
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese regulators will exercise greater control over the algorithms used by Chinese technology firms to personalize and recommend content, the latest move in a regulation spree across the internet sector.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines will reduce flights for the rest of the year as it tries to restore an operation that stumbled over the summer and now faces lower demand because of the rise in coronavirus cases.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials offered new hope for the safety of U.S. schoolchildren threatened by COVID-19 on Friday as Gulf Coast hospitals already full of unvaccinated patients braced for the nightmare scenario of a major hurricane causing a wave of fractures, cuts and heart attacks without enough staff to treat the injured.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence agencies remain divided on the origins of the coronavirus but believe China's leaders did not know about the virus before the start of the global pandemic, according to results released Friday of a review ordered by President Joe Biden.
HONOLULU (AP) — Kuulei Perreira-Keawekane could barely breathe when she went to a Hawaii emergency room. Nausea made it difficult for her to stand and her body throbbed with pain.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — By early next week, New Zealanders should know if their government's strict new lockdown is working to stamp out its first coronavirus outbreak in six months.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied to more record highs Friday after the head of the Federal Reserve said it's still far from pulling interest rates off the record low that has helped the market soar, even if it does begin dialing back its support for the economy later this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is forecasting that this year's budget deficit will be $555 billion lower than it estimated back in May, helped by an economy that is rebounding more quickly than had been expected.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve will start dialing back its ultra-low-rate policies this year as long as hiring continues to improve, Chair Jerome Powell said Friday, signaling the beginning of the end of the Fed's extraordinary response to the pandemic recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in U.S. consumer spending slowed in July to a modest increase of 0.3% as infections from the delta variant spread, while inflation over the past 12 months hit its fastest pace in three decades.
NEW YORK (AP) — Peloton's shares skidded in aftermarket trading Thursday after the exercise bike and treadmill company posted a loss for its most-recent quarter, showed slower revenue growth, and cut the price of its most-popular product.
Peloton has been subpoenaed by the Justice Department and the Department of Homeland Security for documents and other information related to its reporting of injuries associated with its exercise equipment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the riot at the U.S. Capitol issued sweeping document requests on Friday to social media companies, expanding the scope of its investigation as it seeks to examine the events leading to the Jan. 6 insurrection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — By promising to strike the extremists who killed 13 Americans and dozens of Afghans, President Joe Biden now confronts the reality of finding and targeting them in an unstable country without U.S. military and intelligence teams on the ground and no help from a friendly government in Kabul.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders has long argued, but not proved, that his big government populism can win over voters in the largely white, rural communities that flocked to Republican Donald Trump in recent elections.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 26
MIDSTATE
WAVERLY (AP) — The body of the final person missing from a devastating weekend flood in Middle Tennessee was recovered on Wednesday, prompting the search for victims to be suspended as the head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured the area.
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — IGT Technologies Inc. has announced it will invest nearly $4 million to expand its Knoxville operation, creating 200 new jobs.
TELFORD, Tenn. (AP) — A Korean manufacturer of auto parts is making its first expansion into the U.S. in Tennessee, state officials said.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police officers who were attacked and beaten during the Capitol riot filed a lawsuit Thursday against former President Donald Trump, his allies and members of far-right extremist groups, accusing them of intentionally sending a violent mob on Jan. 6 to disrupt the congressional certification of the election.
EDUCATION
The Education Department announced Thursday it will forgive student debt for more than 100,000 borrowers who attended colleges in the now-defunct ITT Technical Institute chain but left before graduating.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some of the country's leading technology companies have committed to investing billions of dollars to strengthen cybersecurity defenses and to train skilled workers, the White House announced Wednesday following President Joe Biden's private meeting with top executives.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
The U.S. is projected to see nearly 100,000 more COVID-19 deaths between now and Dec. 1, according to the nation's most closely watched forecasting model. But health experts say that toll could be cut in half if nearly everyone wore a mask in public spaces.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee's most populous county has reached the highest number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients since the pandemic started a year and a half ago, officials said Thursday.
Kentucky and Texas joined a growing list of states that are seeing record numbers of hospitalized COVID-19 patients in a surge that is overwhelming doctors and nurses and afflicting more children.
NEW YORK (AP) — Half of American workers are in favor of vaccine requirements at their workplaces, according to a new poll, at a time when such mandates gain traction following the federal government's full approval of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Children now make up 36% of Tennessee's reported COVID-19 cases, marking yet another sobering milestone in the state's battle against the highly contagious delta variant, Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey said Wednesday.
What is a COVID-19 vaccine passport, and do I need one? "Vaccine passports" are digital or paper documents that show you were vaccinated against COVID-19, and could help you get into a growing number of places.
MIAMI (AP) — Joel Steckler was eager for his first cruise in more than a year and a half, and he chose the ship that just two months ago became the first to accept passengers again after a long pandemic shutdown.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan suspended use of about 1.63 million doses of Moderna vaccine Thursday after contamination was found in unused vials, raising concern of a supply shortage as the country tries to accelerate vaccinations amid a COVID-19 surge.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology and communication companies led a broad sell-off on Wall Street Thursday following deadly suicide attacks at the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Not long ago, anticipation was high that Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell might begin to sketch out a plan this week for the Fed to start pulling back on its support for an economy that has been steadily strengthening.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose for the first time in five weeks even though the economy and job market have been recovering briskly from the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a robust 6.6% annual rate last quarter, slightly faster than previously estimated, the government said Thursday in a report that pointed to a sustained consumer-led rebound from the pandemic recession. But worries are growing that the delta variant of the coronavirus is beginning to cause a slowdown.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is pressing ahead with the evacuation of Americans and others from Afghanistan after attacks that killed at least 12 U.S. servicemembers and dashed hopes of ending the 20-year U.S. war without further bloodshed. As many as 1,000 Americans and many more Afghans are still struggling to get out of Kabul.
KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — Two suicide bombers and gunmen attacked crowds of Afghans flocking to Kabul's airport Thursday, transforming a scene of desperation into one of horror in the waning days of an airlift for those fleeing the Taliban takeover. At least 60 Afghans and 12 U.S. troops were killed, Afghan and U.S. officials said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A world away from the evacuation violence in Afghanistan, President Joe Biden was meeting Thursday with a bipartisan group of governors from across the U.S. who have said they want to help resettle Afghans fleeing their now Taliban-ruled country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Israeli Prime Minister Naftali Bennett have postponed their White House meeting as Biden focused his attention on dealing with the aftermath of deadly explosions near the Kabul airport that targeted U.S. troops and Afghans seeking to flee their country after the Taliban takeover.