VOL. 48 | NO. 3 | Friday, January 19, 2024
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Aaron Joyce and his wife, Mary, have founded one of the most successful real estate teams in the area. In addition to their real estate fame, the couple can be found at numerous star-studded events around town including Ringo Starr’s recent induction into the Musician’s Hall of Fame.
REAL ESTATE
Top Davidson County residential real estate sales for 2023, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell this week to its lowest level since May, welcome news for prospective homebuyers facing rising home prices and intense competition for relatively few properties on the market.
TENNESSEE TITANS
As the Tennessee Titans work to replace the recently fired Mike Vrabel, it might be a good idea to examine just how attractive this coaching situation is when compared to the other jobs that are open – or might still come open – in the NFL:
So far, the Titans have made contact with nine different coaches about their head coaching vacancy. Here is a brief synopsis of those coaches:
We made it through the wild-card round with a 5-1 record, with only the Cleveland Browns failing to come through. The Browns collapsed in the second half, eventually falling to the upstart Texans 45-14.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
It’s been road sweet road, not home sweet home, for the Predators lately.
At 21 years old and with fewer than 100 NHL games to his credit, Luke Evangelista is still young by a couple of different standards, but he’s a player the Predators are counting on to provide offense. He scored just two goals in December, but he has already surpassed that total since the calendar has turned to 2024.
The Predators are closing out January with a stretch of six of eight road games leading up to the nine-day break in early February. The league’s All-Star break goes from Feb. 1-4, and then the Predators bye week kicks in after that until they return to the ice Feb. 9.
NEWSMAKERS
The law firm of Baker Donelson has added former Tennessee Senate senior legislative adviser Jacob D. Baggett as a public policy adviser in the firm’s Nashville office.
BRIEFS
Gov. Bill Lee has unveiled new legislation designed to protect songwriters, performers and other music industry professionals against the potential dangers of artificial intelligence.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The 2024 Chevrolet Blazer EV is one of the most intriguing electric vehicle debuts this year. It’s about the same size as Chevy’s midsize gas-powered Blazer SUV but otherwise has nothing mechanical in common.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You need a hand there? A little help? You know where to find it. Your contacts list is full of people who’ll lend a hand, make repairs, offer assistance, lift and oomph. You know people who’ll run to your side when you need them and you know others, as in the new book “Rental Person Who Does Nothing” by Shoji Morimoto, who’ll just stand around and watch.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
At the start of 2022, I panicked after realizing I was in my early thirties with only about $4,000 saved for retirement. Once the panic subsided, my solution was to use side hustles to fast-track my retirement savings. Within two years, I was able to use my freelance and 9-to-5 income to grow my retirement savings by over $100,000. Here are some strategies I used to achieve my goal.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have hired Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their head coach, tasked with trying to turn them back into winners and groom Will Levis into their franchise quarterback.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state's toughened voting rights restoration policy requires people convicted of a felony to get their gun rights restored before they can become eligible to cast a ballot again, Tennessee's elections office said Tuesday, confirming a mandate that officials had been debating internally.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Chris Young was arrested at a Nashville bar after an alleged altercation with Alcoholic Beverage Commission agents who were doing compliance checks, according to court documents.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys extremist group members was sentenced on Wednesday to six years in prison after he berated and insulted the judge who punished him.
ELECTION 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, the centrist group No Labels has stockpiled cash and diligently worked to secure ballot access for a potential third-party presidential bid, striking fear among allies of President Joe Biden that the effort could siphon away votes and hand the White House to Donald Trump.
Donald Trump and President Joe Biden have won the New Hampshire primaries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More people cast votes in Tuesday's contest between former President Donald Trump and former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley than in any previous presidential primary of either party in New Hampshire's history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden picked up an endorsement from the United Auto Workers union Wednesday, an important boost to the Democratic president's reelection bid as he pushes to sway blue-collar workers his way in critical auto-making swing states such as Michigan and Wisconsin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump had rock-solid support from the party faithful in his primary victory Tuesday, with even most backers of rival Nikki Haley acknowledging the GOP belongs to him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — This time, New Hampshire didn't surprise.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon-owned Ring will stop allowing police departments to request doorbell camera footage from users, marking an end to a feature that has drawn criticism from privacy advocates.
EDUCATION
NEW YORK (AP) — A new version of the federal student aid application known as the FAFSA is now available to all college applicants for the 2024-2025 school year.
TRANSPORTATION
The leaders of United Airlines and Alaska Airlines took turns Tuesday blasting Boeing over manufacturing problems that have led to the grounding of more than 140 of their planes, with United's CEO saying his airline will consider alternatives to buying a future, larger version of the Boeing 737 Max.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix registered its third-consecutive quarter of accelerating subscriber growth in the final three months of 2023, closing out a comeback year that included a crackdown on viewers freeloading on the video-streaming service and a smattering of price hikes.
BANGKOK (AP) — Riot Games, the developer of the popular "League of Legends" multiplayer battle game, is joining other tech companies that have been trimming their payrolls with a layoff of 11% of its staff.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — The Biden administration proposed banning another type of bank "junk fee" on Wednesday, targeting fees that are typically charged by banks when a transaction is declined in real time.
GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland's financial markets authority is getting a new chief executive as the rich Alpine country looks at ways to strengthen regulations after UBS hurriedly took over ailing rival Credit Suisse last year partly to prevent a global banking meltdown.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — After an extended period of gloom, Americans are starting to feel better about inflation and the economy — a trend that could sustain consumer spending, fuel economic growth and potentially affect President Joe Biden's political fortunes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street ended mixed after strong gains for Netflix and some influential technology stocks helped offset losses across much of the U.S. stock market.
NEW YORK (AP) — Recent mass layoffs from technology and media companies, including eBay, Riot Games and the Los Angeles Times, might have you thinking about your job security.
LONDON (AP) — Online retailer eBay Inc. will cut about 1,000 jobs, or an estimated 9% of its full-time workforce, saying its number of employees and costs have exceeded how much the business is growing in a slowing economy. It marks the latest layoffs in the tech industry.
A bunch of companies in the technology sector have been laying off some of their employees recently after quickly ramping up hiring during the COVID-19 pandemic while people spent more time and money online.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden have extended an invitation to attend the president's State of the Union address to a Texas woman who sued her state and lost over the ability to get an abortion to end a wanted pregnancy.
BEIJING (AP) — China, the world's biggest exporter, says it is deeply concerned about tensions in the Red Sea that have upended global trade by forcing many shippers to avoid the Suez Canal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military struck three facilities in Iraq and two anti-ship missiles in Yemen operated by Iranian-backed militias that have attacked U.S. personnel and ships in the region as the United States tries to keep the Israel-Hamas war from spilling over into a wider conflict.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 23
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have agreed to hire Cincinnati Bengals offensive coordinator Brian Callahan as their head coach, a person familiar with the decision told The Associated Press on Monday.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe scored a goal and added an assist to give the Florida Panthers a 4-1 victory over the Nashville Predators on Monday night.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Memphis' water company lifted a boil-water advisory for more than 600,000 people on Tuesday, five days after the precaution was put in place due to freezing temperatures that caused pipes to break throughout the southern city.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington's federal appeals court on Tuesday rejected Donald Trump's request to reconsider a gag order restricting the former president's speech in the case charging him with plotting to overturn the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump was threatened with expulsion from a courtroom last week by a judge angry over the former president's behavior in a defamation case brought by a writer who accuses him of sexual abuse.
ELECTION 2024
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump is aiming for a commanding victory Tuesday in New Hampshire, securing a sweep of the first two Republican primary races that would make a November rematch with President Joe Biden look more likely than ever.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris will share the stage on Tuesday in Virginia as they campaign for abortion rights, a top issue for Democrats in an election expected to feature a rematch with Donald Trump, the former Republican president.
PERSONAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS wants to rewrite its complicated letters to taxpayers and speak to people in plain English.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators have barred TurboTax maker Intuit Inc. from advertising its services as "free" unless they are free for all customers, or if eligibility is clearly disclosed.
ENTERTAINMENT
NEW YORK (AP) — After a tumultuous movie year marred by strikes and work stoppages, the Academy Awards showered nominations Tuesday on Christopher Nolan's blockbuster biopic, "Oppenheimer," which came away with a leading 13 nominations.
BEVERLY HILLS, Calif. (AP) — A list of nominees to the 96th Academy Awards, which were announced Tuesday in Beverly Hills, California.
WWE's weekly television show "Raw" will move to Netflix next year as part of a major streaming deal.
It is a name that has become almost synonymous with professional wrestling but its bearer, Dwayne Johnson, has never legally owned "The Rock."
BANGKOK (AP) — Riot Games, the developer of the popular "League of Legends" multiplayer battle game, is joining other tech companies that have been trimming their payrolls with a layoff of 11% of its staff.
MEDIA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The Los Angeles Times plans to lay off 94 newsroom employees — one-fourth of its newsroom staff — starting Tuesday, a number that is substantial but less than feared, the head of the journalists union said.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — The influx of generative artificial intelligence software is transforming small businesses.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese automaker that cheated on safety tests for decades said Monday it doesn't expect to resume shipping cars any time soon.
TRANSPORTATION
The United Airlines CEO says he is "disappointed" in ongoing manufacturing problems at Boeing that have led to the grounding of dozens of United jetliners, and the airline will consider alternatives to buying a future, larger version of the Boeing 737 Max.
United Airlines said Monday it will lose money in the first three months of this year as it deals with the grounding of its Boeing 737 Max 9 planes after a panel blew out of a Max jetliner this month.
DALLAS (AP) — Pilots at Southwest Airlines have overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will raise their pay rates by nearly 50% by 2028, becoming the last group of pilots at the nation's four biggest airlines to score huge raises.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street held at its record high as earnings reporting season for big U.S. companies got going.
TikTok is laying off dozens of workers in its advertising and sales unit, becoming the latest tech company to trim roles in the new year.
Unions commanded big headlines last year, but that didn't translate into higher membership rates, according to government data released Tuesday.
PARIS (AP) — France's privacy watchdog said Tuesday that it slapped Amazon 's French warehouse business with a 32 million euro fine ($35 million) for using an "excessively intrusive sytem" to monitor worker performance and activity.
CHICAGO (AP) — An accounting investigation is under way at Archer Daniels Midland and the top financial executive at the agribusiness giant has been placed on administrative leave.
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A federal appeals court has ordered the appointment of an independent examiner in the bankruptcy case of FTX amid concerns about widespread fraud preceding the collapse of the multibillion-dollar cryptocurrency exchange.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
TORONTO (AP) — Canada's government is preparing for the possibility that Donald Trump could reach the White House again and the "uncertainty" that would bring, Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate negotiators were laboring Monday to win wide support for a deal on border policy as they entered what could be a pivotal stretch for a painstakingly negotiated compromise that could open the door for Republican votes to replenish U.S. wartime aid for Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time since Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin established the international group to support Ukraine in April 2022, the United States is hosting the monthly gathering of about 50 countries out of money, unable to send the ammunition and missiles that Ukraine needs to fend off Russia's invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. and British militaries bombed multiple targets in eight locations used by the Iranian-backed Houthis in Yemen on Monday night, the second time the two allies have conducted coordinated retaliatory strikes on an array of the rebels' missile-launching capabilities.
MONDAY, JANUARY 22
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans interviewed former Stanford coach David Shaw in person on Sunday, making him the 10th different candidate for their head coaching vacancy.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Memphis residents spent their fourth day boiling water for drinking, brushing their teeth and preparing food on Monday as repair crews worked to fix broken pipes in hopes of easing the stress caused by a week of sub-freezing temperatures, snow and ice in this southern city.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — With former President Donald Trump soon to take the witness stand, a juror's illness forced a last-minute delay Monday of a defamation trial over his comments about E. Jean Carroll, the writer who claims he sexually assaulted her in the 1990s.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court on Monday allowed Border Patrol agents to cut razor wire that Texas installed on the U.S.-Mexico border, while a lawsuit over the wire continues.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will hear an appeal from Oklahoma death row inmate Richard Glossip, who has steadfastly maintained his innocence and averted multiple attempts by the state to execute him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a former business partner of presidential son Hunter Biden who was seeking to overturn his criminal conviction for securities fraud.
ELECTION 2024
ROCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump set aside months of criticism and mockery of Ron DeSantis on Sunday night, celebrating his onetime Republican rival as his newest supporter after the Florida governor ended his presidential campaign and endorsed the former president.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — As she addressed a crushing crowd of volunteers and media at Donald Trump's New Hampshire headquarters on Saturday, New York Rep. Elise Stefanik received a welcome chant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The race for the Republican and Democratic presidential nominations will converge in New Hampshire on Tuesday in the first primary election of the season — though on the Democratic side, the contest may count only for bragging rights.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Republican presidential front-runner Donald Trump said recently that he was "proud" to have a hand in overturning the abortion protections enshrined in Roe v. Wade, Democratic pollster Celinda Lake took it as a political gift, thinking to herself, "Oh my God, we just won the election."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is taking center stage in the Democrats' renewed push for abortion rights during this year's election and she will mark the 51st anniversary of the Roe v. Wade ruling on Monday in Wisconsin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Republican presidential candidate and ex-Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson endorsed Nikki Haley on Saturday, days before she tries to take on frontrunner Donald Trump in the New Hampshire primary.
REAL ESTATE
ATLANTA (AP) — With a runup in home values sparking higher property taxes for many Georgia homeowners, there is a groundswell among state lawmakers in this election year to provide relief.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese automaker that cheated on safety tests for decades said Monday it doesn't expect to resume shipping cars any time soon.
ENVIRONMENT
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The nation's rivers and streams remain stubbornly polluted with nutrients that contaminate drinking water and fuel a gigantic dead zone for aquatic life in the Gulf of Mexico, according to a recently released Environmental Protection Agency assessment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Most stocks rose on Wall Street Monday to build on its all-time high reached last week.
DALLAS (AP) — Pilots at Southwest Airlines have overwhelmingly approved a new contract that will raise their pay rates by nearly 50% by 2028, becoming the last group of pilots at the nation's four biggest airlines to score huge raises.
Macy's is rejecting a $5.8 billion takeover offer from investment firms Arkhouse Management and Brigade Capital Management, saying they didn't provide a viable financing plan.
NEW YORK (AP) — JetBlue and Spirit Airlines said Friday they will appeal a federal judge's ruling this week that blocked their plan to combine into a single carrier.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
JERUSALEM (AP) — Iran is "very directly involved" in ship attacks that Yemen's Houthi rebels have carried out during Israel's war against Hamas, the U.S. Navy's top Mideast commander told The Associated Press on Monday.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 19
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans made Philadelphia offensive coordinator Brian Johnson their eighth coaching candidate interviewed virtually Friday in their search for a new coach.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Ryan O'Reilly had a power-play goal and an assist, Gustav Nyquist also scored and the Nashville Predators beat the Los Angeles Kings 2-1 on Thursday night.
COURTS
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine's secretary of state is appealing a judge's ruling that put on hold her decision to remove former President Donald Trump from the ballot until the U.S. Supreme Court rules on a similar case in Colorado.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump on Thursday urged the Supreme Court "to put a swift and decisive end" to efforts to kick him off the 2024 presidential ballot over his efforts to overturn his 2020 election loss.
NEW YORK (AP) — With former President Donald Trump no longer in the courtroom Thursday, a columnist who accused him of sexually attacking her concluded her testimony with an emphatic denial that she had benefited from the publicity that followed the allegations.
HEALTH CARE
Federal health officials are expanding a warning about salmonella poisoning tied to charcuterie meat snack trays sold at Sam's Club and Costco stores.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — On the surface, you wouldn't think the platform beneath a new generation of automobiles has anything to do with politics and elections.
Ford is cutting production of the F-150 Lightning electric pickup after weaker-than-expected electric vehicle sales growth.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Mississippi lawmakers on Thursday gave broad, bipartisan approval to state incentives for a factory that will manufacture batteries for electric vehicles — a project that promises 2,000 jobs with an average salary of about $66,000.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Apple has promised to open up its tap-and-go mobile payment system to rivals, the European Union said Friday, as the U.S. tech company seeks to resolve an antitrust case and avoid a fine that potentially could be worth billions.
WEATHER
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anyone who has lived through a natural disaster and then applied to the federal government for assistance knows that it can be a lengthy, frustrating and bureaucratic process. New rules announced Friday by the federal agency in charge of emergency management aim to simplify and speed up the process.
MEDIA
The publisher of Sports Illustrated has notified employees it is planning to lay off a significant portion — possibly all — of the outlet's staff after its license to use the iconic brand's name in print and digital was revoked.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street returned to record heights Friday to cap a punishing, two-year round trip dogged by high inflation and worries about a recession that seemed inevitable but hasn't arrived.
NEW YORK (AP) — Retail layoffs are hitting especially hard this week.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Business and political elites descended on the Swiss Alpine snows of Davos to suss out "rebuilding trust" in a splintering world. If there's any takeaway from the World Economic Forum's annual meeting — boldly touting that theme — it's that we still have a long way to go.
NEW YORK (AP) — The world might see its first trillionaire sooner than you think. And that puts a spotlight on today's richest 1%.
Wendy's Co. named a longtime PepsiCo executive as its new CEO on Thursday.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Ice cream maker Ben & Jerry's has reached its first contract agreement with workers at a retail shop in the Vermont city where it was founded after the employees petitioned to unionize last year, Scoopers United and the brand announced Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed a short-term spending bill that keeps the federal government operating until early March.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a year after a generational victory for their movement, opponents of abortion rights are rallying in the nation's capital on Friday with an eye on presidential elections that could be heavily influenced by abortion politics.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces on Thursday conducted a fifth strike against Iranian-backed Houthi rebel military sites in Yemen as President Joe Biden acknowledged that the American and British bombardment had yet to stop the militants' attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hunter Biden has agreed to appear before House Republicans for a private deposition next month, ending months of defiance from the president's son, who had insisted on testifying publicly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress sent President Joe Biden a short-term spending bill on Thursday that would avert a looming partial government shutdown and fund federal agencies into March.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 18
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans announced Thursday they had finished a virtual interview with Carolina Panthers offensive coordinator Thomas Brown, making him the sixth different person to talk to Tennessee about its open head coaching job.
MOBILE, Ala. (AP) — Tennessee Titans defensive line coach Terrell Williams and New York Jets defensive coordinator Jeff Ulbrich will serve as head coaches at the Senior Bowl.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Country music star Reba McEntire will grace next month's Super Bowl stage to sing the national anthem while Post Malone will perform "America the Beautiful."
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Taylor Swift leads the 2024 iHeartRadio Music Awards nominations with nine, followed closely by Jelly Roll, SZA, and 21 Savage with eight. Behind them is Olivia Rodrigo, who received seven.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — At least 14 deaths in Tennessee have been linked to a storm system that blanketed the state in snow and sent temperatures plummeting as bitterly cold weather kept an icy grip Thursday on a swath of the U.S. from Oregon to the Northeast.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal judge overseeing the 2020 election interference case against Donald Trump on Thursday rejected his lawyers' bid to hold special counsel Jack Smith's team in contempt for actions prosecutors took after the judge put the case on hold. But the judge said no further "substantive" court filings should be submitted without permission.
NEW YORK (AP) — With former President Donald Trump no longer in the courtroom Thursday, a columnist who accused him of sexually attacking her concluded her testimony with an emphatic denial that she had benefited from the publicity that followed the allegations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Supreme Court justices on Wednesday voiced support for weakening the power of federal regulators, but it was not clear whether a majority would overturn a precedent that has guided American law for four decades over everything from the safety of food and drugs to environmental protection.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump was threatened with expulsion from his Manhattan civil trial Wednesday after he repeatedly ignored a warning to keep quiet while writer E. Jean Carroll testified that he shattered her reputation after she accused him of sexual abuse.
ELECTION 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top No Labels leader said Thursday that Republican presidential contender Nikki Haley "would deserve serious consideration" for the group's nomination if it decides to run a third-party candidate for president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's reelection team is preparing a nationwide series of events and an advertising campaign focused on the battle over abortion rights, highlighting what Democrats believe will be a potent political weapon against likely Republican nominee Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is a New Hampshire primary without the frontrunner on the ballot and no delegates up for grabs still a New Hampshire primary? Depends on who you ask.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is going to North Carolina on Thursday to highlight $82 million in new investments that would connect 16,000 households and businesses to high-speed internet.
PORTSMOUTH, N.H. (AP) — Dan Steele knows what a long day in court is like. So he was extra appreciative on Wednesday that former President Donald Trump journeyed to New Hampshire after spending the day in a New York courtroom, where he sat defiantly during his trial to determine damages for defaming a magazine writer after she accused him of sexual assault.
ENERGY
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia, a capital for electric vehicle production, needs to increase its supply of electricity produced without burning fossil fuels in order to meet industries' demand for clean energy, Gov. Brian Kemp told world business leaders Thursday.
HEALTH CARE
Shares of Humana tumbled Thursday after the health insurer said it was dealing with higher-than-expected costs from its Medicare Advantage customers, forcing it to chop profit expectations.
TRAVEL
A winter storm made its way across the eastern half of the United States on Wednesday, snarling traffic in the air and on the highways.
TRANSPORTATION
HYDERABAD, India (AP) — India's newest airline will buy 150 Boeing 737 Max aircraft, in the first major announced sale for the manufacturer since a panel blew out of another Max model in midflight earlier this month, the airline announced Thursday.
Federal officials have briefed a congressional committee on their investigations into a jetliner that lost a panel of its fuselage in midflight this month and revealed that airlines have inspected 40 identical Boeing planes.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Smartphones could get much smarter this year as the next wave of artificial intelligence seeps into the devices that accompany people almost everywhere they go.
Apple says it will disable a blood-oxygen monitoring feature on its two most popular watches in the U.S. beginning Thursday to comply with a court-ordered revival of a sales ban stemming from a patent dispute.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — An estimated 320 journalists around the world were imprisoned because of their work toward the end of 2023, according to a report issued Thursday by the Committee to Protect Journalists, which called it a disturbing attempt to smother independent voices.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Newly unredacted documents from New Mexico's lawsuit against Meta underscore the company's "historical reluctance" to keep children safe on its platforms, the complaint says.
MILITARY
TOKYO (AP) — Japan signed a deal with the United States on Thursday to purchase up to 400 Tomahawk cruise missiles as part of its ongoing military buildup in response to increased regional threats.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street bounced back Thursday and recouped almost all the losses it suffered earlier in the week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart Inc. is raising the starting base pay for store managers, while redesigning its bonus plan that will put more of an emphasis on profits for these leaders.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week fell to its lowest level in more than a year, underscoring the resilience of the labor market despite elevated interest rates that are intended to cool the economy.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Artificial intelligence is easily the biggest buzzword for world leaders and corporate bosses diving into big ideas at the World Economic Forum's glitzy annual meeting in Davos. Breathtaking advances in generative AI stunned the world last year, and the elite crowd is angling to take advantage of its promise and minimize its risks.
BRASILIA, Brazil (AP) — In recent weeks, lawmakers in the United States and the United Kingdom have sent letters to the Securities and Exchange Commission cautioning against the listing of JBS, the world's largest meatpacking company, on the New York Stock Exchange.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — On the first business day of the new year, Missouri Treasurer Vivek Malek began accepting applications for about $120 million of state-subsidized, low-interest loans to small businesses, farmers and affordable housing developers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to create a bipartisan commission that would tackle the nation's soaring debt and make policy recommendations to Congress won approval Thursday from a House committee.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted on Thursday to extend current federal spending and keep the government open, sending a short-term measure to the House that would avoid a shutdown and push off a final budget package until early March.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. forces on Thursday conducted a fifth strike against Iranian-backed Houthi rebel military sites in Yemen as President Joe Biden acknowledged that the American and British bombardment had yet to stop the militants' attacks on vessels in the Red Sea that have disrupted global shipping.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Laying the groundwork for the impeachment of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, a House committee on Thursday heard from parents whose tearful testimony sought to link government border policy to their daughters' deaths and from a law professor warning off the effort.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military fired another wave of ship- and submarine-launch missile strikes against Houthi-controlled sites Wednesday, U.S. Central Command said, marking the fourth time in days it has directly targeted the group in Yemen as violence that ignited in the wake of the Israel-Hamas war continues to spill over in the Middle East.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hosted top congressional leaders at the White House to underscore Ukraine's security needs as it continues to fight Russia's nearly two-year-old invasion, hoping to add momentum to efforts to pass $110 billion in stalled aid to Ukraine, Israel and other U.S. allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's been nearly two years since the United States and its allies froze hundreds of billions of dollars in Russian foreign holdings in retaliation for Moscow's invasion of Ukraine. That roughly $300 billion in Russian Central Bank money has been sitting untapped as the war grinds on, while officials from multiple countries have debated the legality of sending the money to Ukraine.