VOL. 42 | NO. 3 | Friday, January 19, 2018
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Springfield resident Felicity Palma struggled mightily when she moved to Tennessee from Florida two years ago after suffering health problems and losing her job.
An East Tennessee lawmaker is trying breathe life into his “heartbeat bill” this session of the General Assembly despite an odd mix of opposition from pro-life forces and Democrats.
With a grade-changing scandal at Trezevant High rocking Shelby County Schools, Rep. Antonio Parkinson is pushing legislation designed to put a harsh “deterrent” on illicit transcript changes: criminal prosecution.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The lanky, country bassist knows cowboy boots demonstrate both the soles and the soul of his craft, so he’s not going to entrust them to just any old shoe repairman.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The Nashville area set a new record for home sales in 2017 with 40,482, Greater Nashville Realtors statistics show, a number so strong it might have evoked a “Whoa Nelly!” from revered and now-departed sportscaster Keith Jackson.
REAL ESTATE
There were 735 homes selling for $1 million or more in Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Sumner and Wilson counties in 2017, according to Chandler Reports.
Top residential real estate sales, December 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
2017 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
December 2017 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rates on long-term home loans rose this week to the highest level in months.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
Mike Mularkey is loyal to his coaches and his coaching philosophies, though probably to a fault, as it appears that was a huge part of why he was fired as the Tennessee Titans head coach on Monday morning.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
The past has been good to Vanderbilt’s men’s basketball team. The future looks outstanding. It’s the present, however, that’s not so pretty, which is the challenge facing Commodores seniors Matthew Fisher-Davis, Riley LaChance and Jeff Roberson.
NEWSMAKERS
Littler, the world’s largest employment and labor law practice representing management, has named Rachel Ross Rosenblatt a shareholder in its Nashville office. Rosenblatt is one of 28 attorneys elected to shareholder status across Littler’s U.S. offices, effective January 1, 2018.
BRIEFS
The Nashville-Davidson-Murfreesboro-Franklin area is the eighth-best-performing city in the U.S., according to the Milken Institute’s Best-Performing Cities 2017 Index.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Artificial intelligence that controls your infotainment screen. A vehicle that can read your brain. Cars that can see around blind corners. These are some of the automotive tech highlights of Winter Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Southern rock icons Lynyrd Skynyrd will kick off their final tour May 4 in West Palm Beach, Florida, more than 40 years after the band's debut album was released.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is scheduled to deliver his final State of the State speech.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Burger King is delivering its own hot take on a regulatory showdown that has enflamed the U.S., using a flame-grilled Whopper.
REGION
ATLANTA (AP) — As Atlanta vies to entice Amazon to build its second headquarters in the South's corporate capital, details of a massive proposed development are coming into view from public records:
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back their purchases of new homes in December as harsh winter weather dampened demand.
COURTS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — For years, Laura Wasser has been one of the go-to divorce attorneys when Hollywood power couples break up.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
TOKYO (AP) — Stocks mostly edged up Thursday despite a drop in Asian benchmarks as investors weighed the potential impact of a sharp drop in the dollar this week.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The dollar languished near three-year lows against the euro Thursday after U.S. Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin doubled down on his view that a weaker U.S. currency is good for the country's economy, at least in the short-term.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's been 365 days since the Dow Jones industrial average first crossed 20,000, and it's already up another 30-plus percent as the stock market's relentless rise to records keeps going.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Apple Inc. and Ivanka Trump's brand both rely on Chinese suppliers that have been criticized for workplace abuses. But when it comes to dealing with those problems, they've taken different tacks.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he's open to an immigration plan that would provide a pathway to citizenship for hundreds of thousands of young people who were brought to the country as children and are now here illegally.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump declared he's "looking forward" to being questioned — under oath — in the special counsel's probe of Russian election interference and Trump's possible obstruction in the firing of the FBI director.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deal that ended the government shutdown also further cut taxes, adding billions more to the national deficit.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The city council of Tennessee's capital has voted to phase out non-owner-occupied short-terms rentals in residential neighborhoods.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University is undertaking a $600 million project to add four new residential colleges by 2023.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker has dropped a push to require prominent labeling of driver's licenses held by people without permanent residency status.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Candidates for governor in Tennessee largely agreed on broad issues facing education during the race's first televised forum Tuesday, except for a partisan split on in-state tuition for immigrants whose parents brought or kept them in the country illegally.
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee athletics department officials accepted trips and entertainment from a vendor and prospective vendor, according to the state comptroller's office.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Down a goal late in the third period in the second game of a back-to-back, the Tampa Bay Lightning looked to captain Steven Stamkos and he got the tying score. Yanni Gourde then came through in overtime.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department ramped up pressure Wednesday on so-called sanctuary cities seeking public safety grant money, warning state and local officials they could be legally forced to prove they are cooperating with federal immigration authorities.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home sales slid 3.6 percent in December, as rising prices and a declining number of available properties stifled purchases.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — German daily Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung reports that automakers Daimler and BMW plan to merge their rival car-sharing services.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks bounced up and down and finished mostly lower Wednesday as technology companies slumped. Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross discussed a more nationalist trade stance, with uncertain effects for the market. The dollar, already at three-year lows, got even weaker.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The U.S. treasury chief welcomed a weaker dollar on Wednesday, breaking with a decades-long commitment by the U.S. government to back a strong dollar.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — The United States is committed to free and fair trade while bracing itself for possible retaliation from China over new tariffs, top U.S. Cabinet members said Wednesday, ahead of a much-ballyhooed visit by President Donald Trump to the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
BOSTON (AP) — General Electric is being investigated by federal regulators for a $15 billion hit it took to cover miscalculations made by an insurance unit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It would seem like a pretty good time to take over as chairman of the Federal Reserve.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us, squeezed by Amazon.com and huge chains like Walmart, will close 20 percent of its U.S. stores — including the location at 5731 Nolensville Road in nashville — or 180 locations, within months.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators from both parties started a fresh search Wednesday for compromise immigration legislation, but leaders conceded that the effort won't be easy and were already casting blame should the effort falter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Democrat Chuck Schumer has pulled back an offer of $25 billion for President Donald Trump's long-promised southern border wall, as lawmakers scrambled to figure out how to push a deal to protect 700,000 or more so-called Dreamer immigrants from deportation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions was questioned for hours in the special counsel's Russia investigation, the Justice Department said, as prosecutors moved closer to a possible interview with President Donald Trump about whether he took steps to obstruct an FBI probe into contacts between Russia and his 2016 campaign.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23
MUSIC INDUSTRY
ATLANTA (AP) — Some of the nation's largest recording studios have joined forces in an effort to stop a music streaming service aimed at fitness enthusiasts from using songs by Beyonce, Justin Bieber, Green Day and other stars.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Six of the seven leading candidates for governor in Tennessee are meeting for a televised forum on education.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an ironic twist, the Trump administration's embrace of work requirements for low-income people on Medicaid is prompting lawmakers in some conservative states to resurrect plans to expand health care for the poor.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal appeals court has tossed out a roughly $210 million deal to compensate owners and leaseholders of dozens of Hyundai and Kia models with overstated gas mileage figures.
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) – Elon Musk will remain at Tesla Inc. under a 10-year, all-or-nothing pay package that demands massive growth.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology and consumer-focused companies led U.S. stocks to more records Tuesday. Netflix, at the center of both groups, soared after saying it gained more than 8 million subscribers at the end of 2017.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's move Tuesday to tax imported solar cells and washing machines is meant to make good on his vow to reverse decades of U.S. support for free trade and to protect American jobs from foreign competition.
LONDON (AP) — British regulators said Tuesday that 21st Century Fox's takeover of London-based pay TV company Sky is not in the public interest because it would give Rupert Murdoch too much control over the country's news media. But they offered remedies that may pave the way for the deal go ahead.
NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan is boosting wages, opening new branches and hiring thousands of new workers citing improved economic performance and sweeping changes to the U.S. tax code.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is signing a measure Tuesday imposing tariffs on imported solar-energy components and large washing machines in a bid to help U.S. manufacturers.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi warned Tuesday against a new wave of protectionism, saying that trade barriers pose a danger to the world on a par with climate change and extremist attacks.
NATIONAL POLITICS
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau says Canada and the remaining 11 countries of the Trans-Pacific Partnership have agreed to a revised trade agreement.
NEW YORK (AP) — The first government shutdown of Donald Trump's presidency spanned 69 hours.
The deal to break through the Senate stalemate over immigration and border security that shut down the government is a bare-bones accord. It provides temporary funding to keep the government operating for just under three weeks.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam is touting a $30 million plan that focuses on prevention, treatment and law enforcement to attack an opioid epidemic that kills three Tennesseans a day.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is slated to unveil a plan to combat the state's opioid epidemic.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Mike Vrabel says nobody's ever really ready to be a head coach for the first time in the NFL. The Tennessee Titans' newest coach feels like he is as ready as possible thanks to the men he's worked with in the league.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators are starting to see why they signed Nick Bonino as a free agent.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal audit estimates Tennessee's Medicaid program overpaid managed care organizations by $2.7 million over seven years for patients who were already dead.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided Monday with police over partygoers in a dispute about arrests at a 2008 bash at a vacant home that had been turned into a makeshift strip club.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix once fought fiercely for net neutrality, fearing that its online video service would suffer if internet providers were free to discriminate against it.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Hefty gains for energy and technology companies helped U.S. stocks set more records Monday. Drugmakers announced two major deals worth about $20 billion and smaller-company stocks climbed after the Senate reached a short-term deal to end the government shutdown.
DALLAS (AP) — Solar energy is booming in the United States, but companies riding the wave fear that President Donald Trump could undercut them this week if he decides to impose new tariffs on imported solar panels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund is upgrading the outlook for the world economy, noting surprisingly strong growth in Europe and Asia and predicting that U.S. tax cuts will give the American economy a short-term boost.
SEATTLE (AP) — No cashiers, no lines, no registers — this is how Amazon sees the future of in-store shopping.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — In Davos this week, participants can experience "a day in the life of a refugee." Or hear about ways to uphold the Paris climate accord and promote free trade. Or rub elbows with any number of leaders of African countries.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Advances in technology have already reshaped stock trading, and now investors with TD Ameritrade can trade stocks around the clock during the week.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sped toward reopening the government Monday, as Senate Democrats dropped their objections to a temporary funding bill in return for assurances from Republicans leaders that they will soon take up immigration and other contentious issues.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The Pennsylvania Supreme Court struck down the state's congressional map Monday, granting a major victory to Democrats who charged that the 18 districts were unconstitutionally gerrymandered to benefit Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is defending a tough new ad by President Donald Trump's re-election campaign that says Democrats will be "complicit" in any killings committed by immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon narrowed its search for a second headquarters city Thursday to 20 locations – including Nashville – concentrated mostly in the East and the Midwest. Toronto made the list as well, as the company kept its international options open.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — State Sen. Ferrell Haile will take over duties as Tennessee Senate speaker pro tempore.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two Republican lawmakers have introduced legislation to make medical marijuana legal in Tennessee, but only in oil-based products.
COURTS
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — A former sales executive for the truck stop chain Pilot Flying J has testified that he told the company's former president colleagues had cheated a trucking company.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A health care forum showed a partisan split in the governor's race over Medicaid expansion, with Democrats ranking it their top priority and Republicans opposing it or espousing other priorities.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Airbnb will now be able to collect and pay sales tax on behalf of its renters in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state of Tennessee has announced dozens of grants to improve computer and online skills and access to broadband services at libraries.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Despite missing the first three months of the season, Ryan Ellis looks to be in top form already for the Predators.
REGION
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — Southerners awaited a big thaw that would end days of icy roads, broken pipes, snow and numbing cold after a fierce winter storm blasted their normally mild region.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators have released models from 14 different automakers that are being recalled to replace potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators.
HEALTH CARE
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Several major not-for-profit hospital groups are trying their own solution to drug shortages and high medicine prices: creating a company to make cheaper generic drugs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving to solidify its standing with social conservatives, the Trump administration is creating an office to protect the religious rights of medical providers, including those who oppose abortion.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Retailers and consumer goods companies led U.S. stock indexes higher in late-afternoon trading Friday, on track to end the week with a gain. Energy companies were the biggest laggard as the price of crude oil declined. Utilities also fell as bond yields rose to their highest level in more than three years. Investors were monitoring developments in Washington ahead of a possible federal government shutdown this weekend.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's top official on financial regulation is putting forward a wide-ranging agenda for improving the way the nation's banks are regulated, saying he wants to focus on "efficiency, transparency and simplicity."
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is boosting the price of its monthly Prime membership fees for new and existing members by nearly 20 percent.
PARIS (AP) — U.S. oil production is booming and is forecast to top that of heavyweight Saudi Arabia and rival Russia this year, a global energy agency said Friday.
ATLANTA (AP) — Recognizing a global waste problem, Coca-Cola will attempt to collect and recycle a bottle or can for every one that it sells within 12 years.
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines says for safety reasons it will require owners of service and support animals to provide more information before their animal can fly in the passenger cabin, including an assurance that it's trained to behave itself.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Earth last year wasn't quite as hot as 2016's record-shattering mark, but it ranked second or third, depending on who was counting.
NEW YORK (AP) — Higher bond yields are finally here, and investors have to consider what, if any, changes to make to their portfolios.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline announced Thursday that it will proceed with its plans to build the pipeline according to an alternative route approved by Nebraska authorities and that it hopes to begin construction next year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Groundbreakings on new homes fell 8.2 percent in December, with builders ending 2017 by slowing down their construction of single-family houses.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer met Friday afternoon in an eleventh-hour effort to avert a government shutdown, with a bitterly divided Washington locked in stare-down over federal spending and legislation to protect some 700,000 younger immigrants from deportation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Injecting confusion into already perilous shutdown negotiations, President Donald Trump undercut his own administration's stance by tweeting Thursday that a children's health insurance program should not be part of a short-term budget agreement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's new policy allowing state work requirements for Medicaid recipients is legally questionable, more than two dozen Democratic senators said Thursday, framing an argument likely to be aired in court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For all his errant swings at the facts, President Donald Trump sometimes gets it just right.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Key senators and farm groups are trying to fix a provision in the federal tax overhaul that gave an unexpected tax break to farmers who sell their crops to cooperatives rather than regular companies.