VOL. 43 | NO. 4 | Friday, January 25, 2019
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The American dream, the stuff that keeps our country great, thrives on the edge of an industrial cliff overlooking Radnor Yard, in a tidy space where a band of brothers – literally – daily provide pizza from recipes learned in the years since they became accustomed to witnessing death, even their mother’s, while escaping Saddam Hussein.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The Nashville area had 39,514 total real estate sales in 2018, 968 less than record-setting 2017, marking a 2.4 percent decrease, Greater Nashville Realtors figures show.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates held steady this week for the second straight week, sticking at their lowest levels in nine months after six weeks of decline.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Wanted: One dynamic, transformational type player who regularly affects the outcome of games. After watching the NFL playoffs unfold, it’s obvious the key to winning championships is having game-changing players in skill positions, preferably on the offensive side of the football.
PREDATORS
November was hard on the Predators, but things improved drastically during an 11-day span in December and January.
NEWSMAKERS
Erin Palmer Polly, an attorney at Butler Snow LLP in Nashville and immediate past president of the Nashville Bar Association, will serve as the chair for its 2019 Campaign for Equal Justice, an annual initiative that raises funds for the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
BRIEFS
Adams and Reese has announced the consolidation of its Nashville operations in the firm’s downtown location.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
As ice and snow envelop many of America’s roads this winter, all-wheel-drive vehicles become more desirable than their two-wheel-drive counterparts. And all-wheel drive’s extra traction makes it easier to accelerate, especially on icy hills.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Recessions are like natural disasters: They’re inevitable, but smart preparation may reduce the impact on you.
CAREER CORNER
You’ve decided you want to get a job. The first thing you may want to do is update your LinkedIn profile.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A prosecutor says a pathology laboratory has agreed to pay $63.5 million to settle claims that its relationships with referring doctors violated federal kickback law.
HEALTH CARE
A new report estimates that nearly half of all U.S. adults have some form of heart or blood vessel disease, a medical milestone that's mostly due to recent guidelines that expanded how many people have high blood pressure.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took to Twitter on Thursday to ratchet up his demands on his long-stalled border wall, appearing to sour on congressional talks aimed at striking a deal with Democrats that he could sign.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Democrats' gains in state legislatures didn't end with last November's elections.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BOSTON (AP) — After years of belt-tightening and spinoffs that ate into both revenue and profit, General Electric Co. reported fourth-quarter net income of $761 million, sending shares up 10 percent in at the opening bell.
WASHINGTON (AP) — No televised roundtables with Cabinet secretaries. No freewheeling speeches from the Oval Office. No shouted comments on his way to Marine One.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is voicing optimism before he meets with representatives from China for trade talks Thursday.
LONDON (AP) — A key member of Prime Minister Theresa May's government acknowledged Thursday that Britain's exit from the European Union may have to be delayed if negotiations on a divorce deal drag on.
Federal immigration officials are force-feeding six immigrants through plastic nasal tubes during a hunger strike that's gone on for a month inside a Texas detention facility, The Associated Press has learned.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Music City will put its stamp on the NFL draft.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republican Gov. Bill Lee and the top two GOP state lawmakers say they support a push to ban abortion once a fetal heartbeat is detected, as early as six weeks into a woman's pregnancy.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University's baseball stadium is set to start pouring beer for fans, but only in a premium section of the ballpark.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Kentucky coach John Calipari insisted he worked harder in the second half, even though his Wildcats led by 30 at halftime and P.J. Washington already had a double-double.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in December with affordability pressures causing interest from would-be buyers to fall.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. sold 10.59 million vehicles globally last year, fewer than the 10.83 million delivered by German rival Volkswagen AG, the Japanese automaker said Wednesday.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, in his first interview since his arrest in November, blamed fellow executives opposed to forging closer ties with the automaker's French alliance partner Renault for scheming against him, the Japanese newspaper Nikkei reported Wednesday.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple says Facebook can no longer distribute an app that paid users, including teenagers, to extensively track their phone and web use.
COURTS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco found Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. violated its probation in a criminal case stemming from a deadly gas explosion in 2010 and berated the utility Wednesday for not doing enough to prevent its equipment from causing more wildfires.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks added to their gains on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve sent a strong signal that it was in no hurry to continue raising interest rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is keeping its key interest rate unchanged and signaling that it could leave rates alone in coming months given global economic pressures and mild inflation. The Fed also says it's prepared to slow the reduction of its bond holdings if needed to help the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added a solid 213,000 jobs in January, a private survey found, signaling that the partial government shutdown and trade war concerns that have roiled financial markets aren't discouraging companies from hiring more people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Chinese negotiators start two days of high-level talks Wednesday aimed at settling a six-month trade war that has weakened both sides, shaken financial markets and clouded the outlook for the global economy.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Nasdaq has made an offer to acquire the Oslo stock exchange, the last trading place in the Nordic-Baltic region it doesn't own.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump Organization, responding to claims that some of its workers were in the U.S. illegally, said on Wednesday that it will use the E-Verify electronic system at all of its properties to check employees' documentation.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Capitol Hill negotiators are hopeful of an agreement as they officially kick off talks Wednesday on a homeland security spending bill stalled over funding for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at his intelligence chiefs on Wednesday after they told Congress that North Korea is unlikely to dismantle its nuclear arsenal and that the Iran nuclear deal is working.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 23
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Predators forward Austin Watson has been suspended without pay as part of the NHL's substance abuse program.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's annual estimated cost for its needed public infrastructure improvements is now nearly $50 billion, marking an increase for the third straight year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park has resumed regular operations after the end of the partial federal government shutdown.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose at a slower pace in November, as sales have tumbled and affordability has deteriorated for many would-be buyers.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple hoped to offset slowing demand for iPhones by raising the prices of its most important product, but that strategy seems to have backfired after sales sagged during the holiday shopping season.
Apple has disabled a group-chat function in FaceTime after users said a software bug could let callers activate another person's microphone remotely.
LONDON (AP) — European Union authorities warned Facebook, Google and Twitter on Tuesday that they need to work harder to combat fake news ahead of upcoming bloc-wide parliamentary elections.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Republican lawmaker said Tuesday he plans to investigate price spikes in the cost of insulin for people with diabetes as Congress opened hearings on the high cost of prescription drugs.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of a Midwest cold spell, President Donald Trump is pleading for global warming to come back, but it never went away.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. criminal charges against Chinese electronics giant Huawei have sparked a fresh round of trans-Pacific recriminations, with Beijing demanding Tuesday that Washington back off what it called an "unreasonable crackdown" on the maker of smartphones and telecom gear.
Stocks posted an uneven finish on Wall Street Tuesday, handing the S&P 500 index its second decline in a row.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence tumbled this month to its lowest reading in a year and a half, tested by the partial government shutdown and roiling financial markets. Still, consumer spirits remain robust by historic standards.
BEIJING (AP) — China called on the U.S. government on Tuesday to "stop the unreasonable crackdown" on Huawei after the United States stepped up pressure on the tech giant by indicting it on charges of stealing technology and violating sanctions on Iran.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Faced with potentially ruinous lawsuits over California's recent wildfires, Pacific Gas & Electric Corp. filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday in a move that could lead to higher bills for customers of the nation's biggest utility and reduce the size of any payouts to fire victims.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has approved U.S. soybean exports to be used in the production of biofuels in an effort to boost such imports following last summer's trans-Atlantic meeting between President Donald Trump and his EU Commission counterpart Jean-Claude Juncker.
LONDON (AP) — The British Parliament was set to vote on competing Brexit plans Tuesday, with Prime Minister Theresa May desperately seeking a mandate from lawmakers to help secure concessions from the European Union.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A border security compromise that Congress hopes to produce doesn't have to include the word "wall," the top House Republican said Tuesday, signaling a rhetorical retreat from a term that President Donald Trump made a keystone of his presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Roger Stone, a longtime adviser and confidant of President Donald Trump, pleaded not guilty Tuesday to felony charges in the Russia investigation after a publicity-filled few days spent slamming the probe as politically motivated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The public continues to give President Donald Trump his best ratings on the economy, but a new poll finds the share who approve of how he's handling that issue has slipped since last fall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump learned over the past month a valuable Washington lesson that old-timers like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell learned long ago: Shutdowns never work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The special counsel's Russia probe is "close to being completed," the acting attorney general said Monday in the first official sign that the investigation may be wrapping up.
MONDAY, JANUARY 28
NASHVILLE AREA
Nashville’s tourism industry broke another record with 15.2 million visitors to the city in 2018, an increase of almost 5 percent over 2017’s 14.5 million visitors, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced today.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state of Tennessee plans to invest $1 million in an upcoming Ken Burns documentary on country music.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department unsealed criminal charges Monday against Chinese tech giant Huawei, two of its subsidiaries and a top executive, who are accused of misleading banks about the company's business and violating U.S. sanctions.
HENDERSONVILLE (AP) — Prosecutors have dropped a case against a Hendersonville police officer who was arrested and charged with driving under the influence.
BANKING
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A Tennessee-based bank is exiting the Virginia market to focus on high-growth markets in the Carolinas, Florida and its home state.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan Motor Co. said Monday it has received an inquiry from the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, suggesting investigations into dealings by its former chairman Carlos Ghosn could expand beyond Japan.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's economic and community development commissioner has found his new rural assistant commissioner from within his department.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Facebook said Monday it is tightening requirements for political ads in the European Union ahead of bloc-wide elections scheduled for the spring, its latest effort to fight misinformation and increase transparency on its platforms.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — It might seem counterintuitive, but the dreaded polar vortex is bringing its icy grip to the Midwest thanks to a sudden blast of warm air in the Arctic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock indexes sank Monday after twin announcements highlighted how much China's slowing economic growth is hurting profits for U.S. companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The director of the National Economic Council is rejecting a Congressional Budget Office assessment showing slowed growth following a five-week government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government shutdown will cause slight permanent harm to the economy — about $3 billion — according to a report Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government report released Monday says that the U.S. budget deficit is set to hit $897 billion this year and predicts that economic growth will slow as the effects of President Donald Trump's tax cut on business investment begin to drop off.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chairman Jerome Powell is likely to refer this week to a word he's been using to describe the Federal Reserve's latest approach to interest rates: "Patient."
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — With gloom spreading over the economy of the 19 countries that use the euro, European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said Monday that much of the drag on growth would ease if "clarity and peace" were to break out in the trade dispute between the U.S. and China.
LONDON (AP) — Pro-Brexit British lawmakers were mounting a campaign Monday to rescue Prime Minister Theresa May's rejected European Union divorce deal in a parliamentary showdown, as major retailers warned the U.K. could face food shortages if it leaves the bloc without an agreement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is closely eyeing efforts in Europe to set up an alternative money payment channel to ease doing business with Iran and avoid running afoul of sanctions the U.S. has levied on the Islamic republic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department on Sunday announced it was lifting sanctions on three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska. The move comes despite an effort in Congress to block the action with many lawmakers concerned that the Trump administration is not being tough enough on Russian President Vladimir Putin and his allies.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley and Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal are proposing that special counsel Robert Mueller be required to submit a report to Congress and the public when his Russia investigation is complete.
SEATTLE (AP) — For a businessman who grew a small coffee roaster into an inescapable global chain, who ensured that even his part-time workers had benefits and who has given about $150,000 to Democratic campaigns, former Starbucks Chairman Howard Schultz is generating tepid — or even hostile — responses within the party as he weighs a presidential bid in 2020.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said the odds congressional negotiators will craft a deal to end his border wall standoff with Congress are "less than 50-50."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential primary is jolting to life without a traditional mainstay: the big money donor class. More specifically, their contribution checks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans disapprove of the way President Donald Trump is handling U.S. foreign policy and about half think the country's global standing will deteriorate during the next year, according to new poll that highlighted the nation's partisan divide on foreign issues.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Forced to back down on a government shutdown, President Donald Trump is shifting his story regarding his campaign promise to build a border wall. He's also once again inflating the number of immigrants in the U.S. illegally.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 25
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Applicants for the uniform bar exam who might not be able to take it in Washington, D.C., because of the shutdown can apply to take it in Nashville instead.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's newly signed executive orders show that he will largely follow his Republican predecessor's footsteps when it comes to ethics disclosure, transparency and non-discrimination employment practices.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's administration plans to focus on K-12 education, criminal justice reform, mental health, health care and rural economic development as agency hearings begin on the new governor's state budget.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have a March court date in an appeal of their dismissed lawsuit against the federal government over the refugee resettlement program.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville's power and water utilities are offering relief to federal workers furloughed by the government shutdown.
REGION
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — A rocket company founded by Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos broke ground Friday on a new $200 million engine plant in north Alabama.
PREDATORS
Nashville Predators defenseman P.K. Subban has found a way to go beyond his more than 1.1 million followers on Twitter and 844,000 more on Instagram.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's athletics department has reported a budget deficit of nearly $6.5 million for the 2018 fiscal year, thanks partly to hefty buyouts for former football coach Butch Jones and athletic director John Currie.
SPORTS
MURRAY, Ky. (AP) — Belmont gave Rick Byrd his 700th victory with the Bruins and handed Murray State its first conference loss, 79-66, on a Thursday night when star Racers point guard Ja Morant was hobbled with an ankle injury.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SPRING HILL (AP) — General Motors says it plans to invest another $22 million in its Tennessee manufacturing facility to build more engines.
PARIS (AP) — The board of French carmaker Renault on Thursday named two new leaders to replace industry veteran Carlos Ghosn, who resigned after weeks of detention in Japan.
TECHNOLOGY
Robots aren't replacing everyone, but a quarter of U.S. jobs will be severely disrupted as artificial intelligence accelerates the automation of existing work, according to a new Brookings Institution report.
ENVIRONMENT
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — World Bank chief Kristalina Georgieva urged the global elites to take a simple step to understand the urgency of combating climate change: "Get the picture of your children, your grandchildren in front of you."
WASHINGTON (AP) — While Earth was a tad cooler last year than the last couple of years, it still was the fourth warmest on record, a new analysis shows.
TRANSPORTATION
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration reported delays in air travel Friday because of a "slight increase in sick leave" at two East Coast air traffic control facilities.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street but still wound up with a weekly loss, ending a four-week winning streak.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — While domestic woes sidelined major figures like U.S. President Donald Trump, this year's gathering of the global elites in the Swiss ski resort of Davos showcased divisions on pressing issues like trade and the environment.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hall of Fame quarterback Joe Montana, looking to hit pay dirt in the legal marijuana industry, is part of a $75 million investment in a pot operator, it was announced Thursday.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is reducing the size of its workforce assigned to driverless car technology as the company reorganizes amid weakening sales of iPhones, its biggest moneymaker.
WASHINGTON (AP) — From power restaurants in Washington and a belt-buckle maker in Colorado to a brewery in California, businesses that count heavily on federal employees as customers are feeling the punishing effects of the government shutdown.
DAVOS, Switzerland (AP) — Europe's divisions were on display Thursday at the World Economic Forum as hundreds of protesters descended on the Swiss ski resort of Davos to lambast the elite attendees for caring more about their balance sheets than the state of the world.
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines said Thursday that it earned a fourth-quarter profit of $319 million, slightly higher than analysts expected, as strong travel demand helped the carrier overcome higher fuel prices.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank head Mario Draghi said the bank is ready to use all its monetary levers in case the current economic slowdown takes a turn for the worse.
A new shopping platform announced Thursday at the World Economic Forum aims to change the way we buy many brand-name products.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking jobless benefits dropped last week to the lowest level since November 1969, a sign the job market remains strong despite the partial government shutdown, now in its fifth week.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Submitting to mounting pressure and growing disruption, President Donald Trump agreed to a deal Friday to reopen the government for three weeks, backing down from his demand that Congress give him money for his border wall before federal agencies get back to work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected to quickly pass legislation that would temporarily reopen the government after President Donald Trump announced a deal to end the record 35-day partial federal shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS' workforce will return to full strength under the short-term deal to reopen the government struck Friday by President Donald Trump and congressional leaders. But the disruption from the partial shutdown and the recent absence of a large contingent of recalled IRS employees mean the possibility of delayed tax refunds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shouting "FBI, open the door," authorities arrested Roger Stone, a confidant of President Donald Trump, before dawn Friday in a criminal case that revealed that senior members of the Trump campaign sought to benefit from the release of hacked emails damaging to Hillary Clinton.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The early days of the Democratic primary campaign are highlighting the party's diversity as it seeks a nominee who can build a coalition to take on President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House spokeswoman Sarah Huckabee Sanders says the administration wants to negotiate a government shutdown deal but is not saying how much President Donald Trump wants as a "down payment" on his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican and Democratic leaders hunted Friday for a way to halt the 35-day partial government shutdown, but remained at odds over President Donald Trump's demand that any compromise include money for his coveted border wall.
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) — Some U.S. diplomats in Venezuela headed for the Caracas airport early Friday amid a political power struggle between President Nicolas Maduro and an opposition leader who has declared himself interim president.
MCLEAN, Va. (AP) — Potential Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg said Friday that Donald Trump's presidency "cannot be helped" and was "dangerous" for the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort will make his first court appearance in months on Friday as prosecutors and defense lawyers argue over whether the former Trump campaign chairman intentionally lied to investigators, including about sharing polling data with a business associate the U.S. says has ties to Russian intelligence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says "all options are on the table" as the U.S. seeks to push Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro to give up power. But the reality is much more complicated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A splintered Senate swatted down competing Democratic and Republican plans for ending the 34-day partial government shutdown on Thursday, leaving President Donald Trump and Congress with no obvious formula for halting the longest-ever closure of federal agencies and the damage it is inflicting around the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Elizabeth Warren is proposing a so-called ultra-millionaire tax as she vies for the 2020 Democratic presidential nomination.
NEW YORK (AP) — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross, one of the richest people in President Donald Trump's Cabinet, questioned Thursday why furloughed federal workers were using food banks instead of taking out loans to get through the monthlong partial government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee has subpoenaed President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer Michael Cohen, his attorney said Thursday, and Cohen intends to comply with the interview demand related to the Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Interior Department is proposing restrictions on public records requests, drawing a challenge from a Democratic lawmaker who says the move would undermine transparency
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Russia investigation snared another associate of President Donald Trump with the arrest Friday of self-described political "dirty trickster" Roger Stone.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a publicity-filled weekend spent asserting his innocence and slamming investigators, Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone will appear before a federal judge who may look to muzzle him as the case moves forward.