VOL. 38 | NO. 3 | Friday, January 17, 2014
REALTY CHECK
The numbers from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors (GNAR) for 2013 are in, and sales were up 18 percent compared to 2012. Pending sales, normally a solid indicator of things to come, are up as well.
REAL ESTATE
Top 2013 residential real estate transactions for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
TERRY McCORMICK
The Tennessee Titans made the only sensible move they could make in hiring Ken Whisenhunt. With the hire, the Titans have not only managed to land a head coach with solid credentials – if you can take the Arizona Cardinals to the Super Bowl, then you’ve performed enough miracles to earn sainthood – they’ve also re-energized a fan base that, quite frankly, had eroded nearly to the point of not caring.
NEWSMAKERS
The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors has appointed Jarron Springer, current president of the Tennessee Grocers & Convenience Store Association, as its new chief executive officer, effective Feb. 1.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You haven’t had to hit the alarm for quite a few months now.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Ask anyone in business about their biggest competition, and they’ll likely offer the name of a rival company.
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
The S&P 500 has been the world’s performance bell cow since the great recession on the relative strength of the U.S. economic recovery.
I SWEAR
“Ladies and gentlemen, if he who made the sun and the moon and hung the stars on high could be merciful and just, then so can you.” Thus began the closing argument of a defense attorney.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
It’s a new year. I think it’s time for learning some new cooking terms – in a manner of speaking. The more advanced our modern cooking and terminology becomes, the farther away we get from what our ancestors dished up. So this is a glimpse of the past. But don’t think this will be boring, or something you’ve heard before.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The full Senate is scheduled to vote next week on a proposal to allow wine to be sold in Tennessee supermarkets, while a House committee that killed last year's version is set to consider reviving the measure.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican state lawmakers have proposed a school voucher bill they hope will be acceptable to Gov. Bill Haslam, who has repeatedly said he favors a more limited version of the program that gives parents another option for educating their children.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state attorney general's office is appealing a ruling by a Nashville judge that the seven-man, two-woman makeup of a state commission is discriminatory and makes the commission invalid.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Co.'s new CEO Mary Barra says she will largely keep in place the plans of her predecessor, from a restructuring in Europe to a focus on improving profit margins. But she hopes to accelerate that progress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nissan went too far with a TV commercial that depicts its Frontier pickup truck powering up a sandy hill to save a struggling dune buggy, according to the Federal Trade Commission.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota remained the top-selling automaker for a second year in a row, beating U.S. rival General Motors by some 270,000 vehicles in 2013, and set an ambitious target to sell more than 10 million vehicles this year.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's uninsured rate dropped modestly this month as the major coverage expansion under President Barack Obama's health care law got underway, according to a closely watched survey released Thursday.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Young Americans from low-income families are as likely to move into the ranks of the affluent today as those born in the 1970s, according to a report by several top academic experts on inequality.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of the economy's health rose modestly in December, suggesting that growth will remain steady early this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing U.S. homes edged up slightly in December, helping to lift sales for the year to the highest level in seven years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits ticked up 1,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 326,000, a level consistent with steady job gains.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are falling broadly Thursday after several companies issued disappointing earnings and forecasts. Investors also worried about a slowdown in China after a survey suggested that manufacturing in the world's second-largest economy was contracting.
The price of oil hovered around $96 a barrel Thursday, with gains capped by lackluster economic data from China and a report of rising U.S. stockpiles of crude.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages changed little this week.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — In a charm offensive to the global political and business elite, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani set lofty ambitions for his country, including becoming one of the world's top 10 economies.
HELSINKI (AP) — The Nokia handsets business that Microsoft is due to take over saw sales continue to slide in the fourth quarter as its Lumia smartphones failed to draw business away from larger competitors like Apple and Samsung.
BEIJING (AP) — China's Lenovo Group is buying IBM's server business for $2.3 billion, expanding a product line-up dominated by PCs, tablets and smartphones.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix's fourth-quarter earnings soared six-fold as the Internet video service added another 2.3 million U.S. subscribers to burnish its status as one of the world's most popular entertainment outlets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration says it is conducting new studies of the safety of caramel coloring in soft drinks and other foods, even though previous research has shown no identifiable health risk.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharply divided government task force that reviewed the National Security Agency's surveillance program for four months has urged President Barack Obama to shut down the agency's bulk collection of phone data and purge its massive inventory of millions of Americans' calling records, The Associated Press has learned.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 22
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Legislation that would let students at public colleges and universities use their campus identification card to vote is dead this session.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Child car seats would for the first time have to protect children from death and injury in side-impact crashes under regulations the government is proposing, The Associated Press has learned.
DETROIT (AP) — Subcompact cars fared poorly in new crash tests performed by an insurance industry group.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are little changed after a mixed batch of company earnings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new top tax rate, higher Medicare taxes and the phaseout of deductions and exemptions could mean higher tax bills for wealthier Americans this year. Legally wed same-sex couples, meanwhile, may find the true meaning of the marriage penalty.
NEW YORK (AP) — Activist investor Carl Icahn says he has purchased $500 million worth of Apple stock in the past couple of weeks to bring his total holdings in the company to more than $3 billion.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Leaders gathered in the Swiss ski resort of Davos are pushing for nations worldwide to shift to cleaner energy sources as the best way to contain global warming and re-energize the global economy.
The price of oil rose above $95 a barrel on Wednesday amid expectations for solid demand and weaker supply, particularly in Asia and Europe.
NEW YORK (AP) — It doesn't surprise experts that some debit and credit card numbers stolen from Target's computer systems may have surfaced among nearly 100 fake credit cards seized by police in Texas this week.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 21
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposed deal to allow supermarket wine sales in Tennessee is drawing criticism for trying to exclude big box retailers and convenience stores.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam has declared a state of emergency in order to lift restrictions on the transportation of propane in Tennessee as subfreezing temperatures hit the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The head of an initiative to turn around Tennessee's lowest performing schools is being criticized for stating that charter schools shouldn't be responsible for diversity.
MIDSTATE
LEBANON (AP) - Cracker Barrel says it will hold a special meeting in April so that it can avoid having one of its activist shareholders seek a special meeting.
NASHVILLE AREA
MURRAY, Ky. (AP) — An online college textbook rental company is in the process of moving its executive management team to Brentwood from Murray, Ky.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University is launching a new master's degree in education for private school leadership.
NASHVILLE (AP) — U.S. Agriculture Deputy Secretary Krysta Harden is scheduled to visit two Tennessee universities this week to discuss the need for Congress to pass a comprehensive food, farm and jobs bill.
HEALTH CARE
The health care overhaul's reach stretches far beyond the millions of uninsured Americans it is expected to help. It also could touch everything from the drug choices to doctor bills of people who have insurance through work.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hopes are rising that consumers will drive stronger growth in 2014 after they stepped up spending at the end of last year in the United States and Europe.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Standard & Poor's 500 index logged a small gain Tuesday on a mixed day for the stock market.
The price of oil rose Tuesday after China's central bank injected credit into the financial system to offset concerns about slower economic growth, and experts raised their forecast for global crude demand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher-income Americans and some legally married same-sex couples are likely to feel the biggest hits from tax law changes when they file their 2013 returns in the next couple of months. Taxpayers also will have a harder time taking medical deductions.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — With the worst of the global financial crisis behind them, CEOs are ready to move on from the fight for survival their businesses have been in for the past few years, a survey found Tuesday.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — A Vatican monsignor already on trial for allegedly plotting to smuggle 20 million euros ($26 million) from Switzerland to Italy was arrested Tuesday in a separate case for allegedly using his Vatican bank accounts to launder money.
NEW YORK (AP) — Verizon says it posted fourth-quarter net income of $5.07 billion, helped by the continued addition of more wireless devices to its network.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Delta is reporting better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit as fares and traffic rose.
MONDAY, JANUARY 20
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - After years of bitter legislative fights over efforts to allow Tennessee grocery stores to sell wine, groups representing liquor stores and supermarkets are nearing an agreement that would give the measure its best ever chances of becoming law.
NASHVILLE AREA
PASADENA, Calif. (AP) - Eddie George was too busy charging through defenses as an NFL running back to stop and inspect the stadium turf. Now retired, he's turning a critical eye to home building and design as a judge on a new reality television show.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — World markets were lackluster Monday amid concerns about slowing economic growth in China and more poor earnings from banks. Wall Street was closed for a holiday.
The price of oil fell below $94 a barrel Monday after a report showed China's economic growth declined in the last quarter of 2013.
LONDON (AP) — Trust in elected leaders has fallen sharply, a global survey revealed Monday, citing the protracted budget battle in Washington that nearly saw the U.S. default on its debts and Europe's stuttering response to its debt crisis as key reasons for the drop.
BEIJING (AP) — China's economic growth decelerated in the final quarter of 2013 and appears set to slow further, adding to pressure on its leaders to shore up an expansion as they try to implement sweeping reforms.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The opening of Postal Service retail centers in dozens of Staples stores around the country is being met with threats of protests and boycotts by the agency's unions.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several of the key surveillance reforms unveiled by President Barack Obama face complications that could muddy the proposals' lawfulness, slow their momentum in Congress and saddle the government with heavy costs and bureaucracy, legal experts warn.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 17
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Jim Kyle has announced he will run to fill a vacancy in the chancery court in Memphis.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said Thursday he will support a school voucher bill this legislative session that's similar to a limited measure he proposed last year, even though other GOP lawmakers say they'd like to see something a little broader.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday proposed legislation that would require a prescription to obtain more than a 20-day supply of cold medicines used to make methamphetamine.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Counties in Tennessee, Kentucky, Louisiana and West Virginia are joining a federal program designed to help persistently poor rural communities take advantage of government resources.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - The International Black Film Festival of Nashville will begin accepting entries for this year's film festival on Wednesday.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A panel that helps decide whether appeals court judges can keep their jobs has voted to give 22 members of the state appeals courts and Supreme Court positive recommendations. That means they will stand for simple yes-no retention votes in the August election.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cybersecurity concerns over President Barack Obama's health care website have been cleared up through testing, a government security professional who initially had qualms about the system assured lawmakers Thursday.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised more jobs in November and more Americans quit, positive signs for millions who are unemployed and looking for work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory output rose for a fifth straight month in December, as manufacturers cranked out more cars and trucks, appliances and processed food. The gains suggest factories gave economic growth a strong boost at the end of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home construction slowed in December but ended 2013 with the best showing since the housing bubble burst.
NEW YORK (AP) — The security breach that hit Target Corp. during the holiday season appears to have been part of a broader and highly sophisticated scam that potentially affected a large number of retailers, according to a report published by a global cyber intelligence firm that works with the U.S. Secret Service and the Department of Homeland Security.
NEW YORK (AP) — Weak earnings from big U.S. companies are nudging the stock market lower.
The price of oil rose slightly Friday and finished the week 2 percent higher on signs of rising demand in the U.S., the world's biggest oil consumer.
NEW YORK (AP) — General Electric Co. says its net income rose 5 percent in the fourth quarter on rising profits from the sale of aircraft engines, oil and gas drilling equipment and appliances.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of flying continues to climb, with the average domestic roundtrip ticket, including tax, reaching $363.42 last year, up more than $7 from the prior year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his final public appearance as chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben Bernanke took a moment to reflect on the 2008 financial crisis and compared it to surviving a bad car crash.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates for fixed mortgages declined this week, edging closer to historically low levels.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Best Buy said Thursday it had disappointing sales during the holiday shopping season, raising concerns about the consumer electronic retailer's ability to turn around its business.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking to calm a furor over U.S. surveillance, President Barack Obama on Friday called for ending the government's control of phone data from hundreds of millions of Americans and immediately ordered intelligence agencies to get a secretive court's permission before accessing such records. Still, he defended the nation's spying apparatus as a whole, saying the intelligence community was not "cavalier about the civil liberties of our fellow citizens."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Barack Obama a $1.1 trillion government-wide spending bill Thursday, easing the harshest effects of last year's automatic budget cuts after tea party critics chastened by October's partial shutdown mounted only a faint protest.