VOL. 46 | NO. 4 | Friday, January 28, 2022
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, December 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
TENNESSEE TITANS
By now, some of the sting of the Titans again blowing a No. 1 playoff seed has dissipated as reality has set in that yet again this team will not be in the Super Bowl.
Derrick Henry is still the king, but the Titans might have erred in relying on him in his return Saturday.
Kansas City won a playoff game for the ages in knocking off the Buffalo Bills in overtime, becoming the only home team to win in the second round. And the 49ers ended Aaron Rogers’ season. The NFL will have a hard time matching the quality and closeness of last week’s games, but it should be fun.
NEWSMAKERS
Bass, Berry & Sims has added Roy Wyman as a member and Colton Driver and Wesley McCulloch as associates in the Nashville office. Each attorney focuses his practice on complex data privacy and cybersecurity matters, bolstering the firm’s privacy and data security offerings within its Intellectual Property and Technology Practice Group.
BRIEFS
As growth continues throughout Davidson County, Metro Nashville Codes and Building Safety Administration issued more than 14,600 building permits in 2021 valued at nearly $5.5 billion, a $900 million increase compared to 2021.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The chip and supply chain shortages of 2021 have been difficult for automakers and consumers alike. But something positive has emerged from the chaos for 2022: More new car introductions.
PERSONAL FINANCE
The late Pamela Hixon of Leipsic, Ohio, was eager to retire from her job running a hospice agency. Soon after she quit, however, Hixon spiraled into depression and anxiety. She sought help from counselors and her pastor, but it wasn’t enough. Six months after retiring, she took her own life.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
The opportunity to make money while we sleep is one few of us would turn down. And passive income, at face value, suggests we can do just that.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored twice and Juuse Saros made 30 saves in the 100th win of his NHL career, leading the Nashville Predators to a 4-2 victory over the Vancouver Canucks on Tuesday night.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Metro Council has approved a pilot program to bring license plate readers to the city's streets for six months, despite widespread community opposition.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Senate voted Wednesday to remove Democratic Sen. Katrina Robinson from office because of her recent wire fraud conviction, the first time the chamber has removed a senator since at least the Civil War. She angrily denounced her expulsion as a "procedural lynching."
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is reaching out for Republican support for his eventual Supreme Court nominee, inviting the GOP's top Judiciary Committee senator to the White House Tuesday along with the panel's Democratic chairman and phoning Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for a one-on-one discussion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Neil Gorsuch is speaking this weekend to the conservative legal group that boosted his Supreme Court candidacy, in a session at a Florida resort that is closed to news coverage.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Drivers, beware: Speed cameras could be on their way to a location near you thanks to President Joe Biden's infrastructure law.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday proposed including nuclear energy and natural gas in its plans for building a climate-friendly future, dividing member countries and drawing outcry from environmentalists as "greenwashing."
HEALTH CARE
President Joe Biden is committing to reduce the cancer death rate by 50% — a new goal for the "moonshot" initiative against the disease that was announced in 2016 when he was vice president.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
DALLAS (AP) — Airline and tourism groups are pushing to eliminate the government requirement that international travelers provide a negative test for COVID-19 before boarding a U.S.-bound plane.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Army said Wednesday it will immediately begin discharging soldiers who have refused to get the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine, putting more than 3,300 service members at risk of being thrown out soon.
GENEVA (AP) — Late-night disco partying. Elbow-to-elbow seating in movie theaters. Mask-free baring of faces in public, especially in Europe and North America: Bit by bit, many countries that have been hard-hit by the coronavirus are opening up and easing their tough, and often unpopular, restrictive measures aimed to fight COVID-19 even as the omicron variant — deemed less severe — has caused cases to skyrocket.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Wednesday, putting major indexes on track to extend their weekly gains. The S&P 500 rose 0.9% and the Nasdaq added 0.5%.
NEW YORK (AP) — The number of Americans looking to start their own business is on the rise, as the coronavirus pandemic creates opportunities for some would-be entrepreneurs.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Oil cartel OPEC and allied producing countries are sticking with cautious increases in the amount of oil they send to the global economy, a decision likely to support prices that are near seven-year highs amid fears of a Russian military move against Ukraine.
NEW YORK (AP) — Food delivery workers in New York City, fresh off winning rights to transparency in tipping and the use of restaurant bathrooms, joined with ride-share drivers Tuesday in pressing for more protections, including better wages, health care and the right to unionize.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Google's digital advertising empire turned in another strong performance during the holiday shopping season, propelling a 36% increase in its corporate parent's profit during the final three months of 2021.
TOKYO (AP) — Sony's profit for the quarter through December edged up 11% on healthy sales from its film division, including the new Spider-Man movie, the Japanese electronics and entertainment company said Wednesday.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation fed by high oil and gas prices hit record levels in Europe for the third month in a row, extending pain for consumers and sharpening questions about future moves by the European Central Bank.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is having Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer over to the White House on Wednesday to talk about how to fill an upcoming vacancy on the Supreme Court, according to a person familiar with the negotiations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Illegal guns are flooding the streets. Teenagers are being murdered. And alarming numbers of police officers have been shot dead.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democrats' fragile hold on the Senate majority became even more tenuous Wednesday with the sudden illness of New Mexico Sen. Ben Ray Luján, which sent shock waves through the party and threatens President Joe Biden's Supreme Court pick and already lagging legislative agenda.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump's relentless, false claims about the 2020 presidential election have sparked fresh urgency in Congress — and in both parties — for changing the Electoral Count Act to ensure no one can undo a future presidential election.
CONROE, Texas (AP) — There was something different next to the "TRUMP WON!" T-shirts, the "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN" hats and the "LET'S GO BRANDON" flags for sale at former President Donald Trump's recent Texas rally: a collection of "DeSantis 2024" bumper stickers.
LONDON (AP) — The British government set out plans Wednesday to shift power and wealth to the left-behind regions of the country, a long-standing promise to the working-class voters who helped put Prime Minister Boris Johnson in office.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 1
RELIGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee pastor Willie McLaurin has been named interim president and CEO of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, becoming the first African American to lead one of the denomination's ministry entities in its more than 175-year history.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee promised on Monday in his fourth annual address to lawmakers to boost education funding, invest in infrastructure projects and funnel more money to the state's law enforcement agencies.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's State of the State speech, as prepared for delivery Monday night.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee on Monday unveiled his $52.5 billion budget proposal for the upcoming fiscal year, an increase from the $41.8 billion budget that the Republican proposed for the current year. The 2022-23 spending plan includes increases for law enforcement, education, state workers, roads and more, buoyed by better-than-expected revenues during the COVID-19 pandemic and federal coronavirus recovery funding. The wide-ranging plan also includes money to make Juneteenth a state holiday. The budget proposal needs ultimate approval from the Republican-dominant General Assembly. Here's a look at the highlights:
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Neil Young vs Joe Rogan seems like the strangest of cultural clashes.
COURTS
The attorneys general for eight holdout states and the District of Columbia are close to reaching a new settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would require members of the family who own the company to increase their contribution to the deal, according to a court filing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Enough already with the Supreme Court justices with Harvard and Yale degrees. That's the message from one of Congress' top Democrats to President Joe Biden, and a prominent Republican senator agrees.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Affordable Care Act — "Obamacare" — has inspired many exaggerated claims through the years, both from fans and foes. Now President Joe Biden is adding his own.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — A bill that would have created the nation's only government-funded universal health care system died in the California Assembly on Monday as Democrats could not gather enough support to bring it for a vote ahead of a legislative deadline.
BANKING
A once-ambitious but now faltering Facebook-backed digital currency project known as Diem is dead, its assets sold to bank holding company Silvergate Capital.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Vehicles were scarce due to a global shortage of computer chips, but that drove prices up and helped General Motors increase its net income 56% last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. traffic deaths surged in the first nine months of 2021 to 31,720, the government reported Tuesday, keeping up a record pace of increased dangerous driving during the coronavirus pandemic.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Workers at a General Motors plant in northern Mexico were voting Tuesday on whether to form one of the first truly independent auto labor unions in Mexican history.
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla is recalling nearly 54,000 cars and SUVs because their "Full Self-Driving" software lets them roll through stop signs without coming to a complete halt.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota has settled a lawsuit that blamed overwork and harassment for the suicide of one of its employees.
DETROIT (AP) — Some of Tesla's loyal band of devotees and CEO Elon Musk say the White House has been unfairly snubbing America's top-selling electric vehicle brand in its support for EVs as a way to fight climate change — and they're making their discontent known.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times said on Monday that it has bought Wordle, the free online word game that has exploded in popularity and, for some, become a daily obsession.
NEW YORK (AP) — Following protests of Spotify kicked off by Neil Young over the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, the music streaming service said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing the virus.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators are urging drugmaker Pfizer to apply for emergency authorization for a two-dose regimen of its COVID-19 vaccine for children 6 months to 5 years old while awaiting data on a three-dose course, aiming to clear the way for the shots as soon as late February, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, in letters to seven governors, is reaffirming the need for members of their states' Army and Air National Guards to get the mandatory COVID-19 vaccine or lose their Guard status.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Tuesday, getting February off to a decent start after a miserable January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers stepped up their search for workers in December despite the looming impact of the omicron wave of coronavirus infections.
Exxon Mobil returned to a profit in its fourth quarter as demand for oil continues to improve.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's more than half-million fast food workers would get increased power and protections under a first-in-the-nation measure approved by the state Assembly on Monday.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia's government said Tuesday it will spend more than $1 billion on converting research ideas into commercial hits as it looks to improve the economy with an election looming.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Uganda and a group of investors on Tuesday announced their decision to finally proceed with oil production following years of setbacks that threatened the East African country's efforts to become an oil exporter.
BERLIN (AP) — German beer sales dropped another 2.2% last year, with the coronavirus pandemic again weighing on brewers after sales tumbled 5.5% in 2020, official figures showed Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden hosted both parties' Senate Judiciary Committee leaders at the White House on Tuesday as Democrats worked to gain significant GOP support for his Supreme Court nominee — a steep challenge in a Senate that has been sharply and bitterly divided over the past three confirmations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Joe Manchin declared Tuesday that President Joe Biden's vast social and environment bill is "dead," using his strongest language to date to underscore that any revival of Democrats' top domestic priorities would have to arise from negotiations that are now moribund.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The threat to the West from the Chinese government is "more brazen" and damaging than ever before, FBI Director Christopher Wray said Monday night in accusing Beijing of stealing American ideas and innovation and launching massive hacking operations.
LONDON (AP) — Caught partying during a pandemic, British Prime Minister Boris Johnson bought himself some breathing space with an apology and a promise to change. But his troubles are far from over.
MONDAY, JANUARY 31
STATEWIDE
GREENEVILLE (AP) — There are millions of stars in the night sky, but not all of them emit the same amount of light.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will meet with Senate Judiciary Committee leaders on Tuesday to discuss the upcoming U.S. Supreme Court vacancy and the president's promise to nominate a Black woman to the high court. Aides said Biden's list of potential candidates is longer than three.
EDUCATION
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — For teachers at a middle school in New Mexico's largest city, the first inkling of a widespread tech problem came during an early morning staff call.
HEALTH CARE
BOSTON (AP) — Pharmaceutical distributor Cardinal Health Inc. has agreed to pay more than $13 million to resolve allegations that it violated federal law by paying kickbacks to some doctors' offices, federal authorities said Monday.
Patients worried about getting hit with an unexpected bill after emergency care gained a layer of protection this month from a new federal law.
TRANSPORTATION
Boeing said Monday that Qatar Airways ordered up to 50 large cargo planes and committed to buying up to 50 Boeing 737 Max jets, a huge win for the U.S. aircraft maker over European rival Airbus.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a reversal of a Trump-era action, the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday it will resume enforcement of a rule that limits power plant emissions of mercury and other hazardous pollutants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Housing and Urban Development has laid out new guidelines for the disbursal of $2 billion in disaster-relief block grants, with an emphasis on climate-change mitigation and equity for underserved communities.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations often still tax and subsidize their energy sources in contradiction with their committed climate goals, and a majority spend more supporting fossil fuels than renewables.
MEDIA
CHICAGO (AP) — The combination of two storied Chicago news brands has created one of the country's largest local nonprofit news organizations.
BELLEVUE, Wash. (AP) — PlayStation-maker Sony is escalating its competition with Xbox-maker Microsoft by buying the video game studio behind one of Xbox's hit games.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators on Monday granted full approval to Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine, a shot that's already been given to tens of millions of Americans since its emergency authorization over a year ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — Following protests of Spotify kicked off by Neil Young over the spread of COVID-19 vaccine misinformation, the music streaming service said that it will add content advisories before podcasts discussing the virus.
More than a year after a bout with COVID-19, Rebekah Hogan still suffers from severe brain fog, pain and fatigue that leave her unable to do her nursing job or handle household activities.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks notched broad gains Monday, but still posted their worst monthly loss since the early days of the pandemic, as Wall Street closes a tumultuous January wracked by worries that imminent interest-rate hikes will make everything in markets more challenging.
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil is restructuring its business into three divisions and moving its headquarters 250 miles south from Irving, Texas, to its campus north of Houston.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden urged U.S. governors on Monday to ramp up their construction plans as his administration rolled out a guidebook for accessing the nearly $1 trillion made available by the bipartisan infrastructure deal.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European economy slowed noticeably at the end of last year as surging COVID-19 cases driven by the omicron variant piled on top of supply shortages and rising energy prices that dented consumer purchasing power. The result: An economic winter of discontent that may not lift until later this year.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's economy is projected to grow 8% to 8.5% in the financial year beginning April 1, signaling a strong recovery after it was slammed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — NBA player Steph Curry and musical artists H.E.R. and Jennifer Lopez are among celebrities who have joined a national nonpartisan voting initiative launched by Michelle Obama as the effort gears up for the November congressional elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. worked Sunday to ramp up diplomatic and financial pressure on Russia over Ukraine, promising to put Moscow on the defensive at the U.N. Security Council as lawmakers on Capitol Hill said they were nearing agreement on "the mother of all sanctions."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is hosting the ruling leader of Qatar at the White House on Monday as he looks for the gas-rich nation to step up once again to help the West as it faces the prospect of a European energy crunch if Russia invades Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and U.S. officials have threatened Russia with financial sanctions carrying "severe consequences" if it invades Ukraine, but so far plenty of people have been prime targets for Western pain.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 28
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has promoted Joey Lynch to offensive coordinator and hired Alex Bailey as wide receivers coach.
PREDATORS
McDavid gets shootout winner, puts Oilers over Predators 3-2
STATE GOVERNMENT
State and local governments lost at least $117 billion of expected revenue early in the pandemic, according to an Associated Press analysis, but many are now awash in record amounts of money, boosted partly by federal aid.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Sixty-two Tennessee counties, cities and towns will receive more than $28 million in development grants to help the communities with improvements in housing, infrastructure, and health and safety, state officials said.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the nearly 30 years that Justice Stephen Breyer has spent on the Supreme Court, it has been conservative, then more conservative and now much more conservative.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a U.S. Senate that was upended by toxic Supreme Court battles during the Trump era, the confirmation of President Joe Biden's pick has the potential for something else: a return to calmer political normalcy.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are taking applications to fill two imminent vacancies on the eastern section of the Court of Criminals Appeals.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has an opportunity for a reset on climate policy after a federal judge rejected an administration plan to lease millions of acres in the Gulf of Mexico for offshore oil drilling.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hoping to buy a home that fits your needs and budget in the next few weeks? You might want to settle in for a long search.
TECHNOLOGY
A federal appeals court has upheld California's net neutrality law, rejecting an attempt by telecommunications industry groups to prevent the state from enforcing it.
Federal safety regulators say they have cleared the way for Verizon and AT&T to power up more towers for new 5G service without causing radio interference with airplanes.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Google will invest up to $1 billion in partnership with India's Airtel to provide affordable access to smartphones to over a billion Indians and speed up use of cloud-based computing for business, the two companies said on Friday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — How many times can I reuse my N95 mask? It depends, but you should be able to use N95s and KN95s a few times.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street ended a volatile week of trading Friday with a late-afternoon buying spree that gave the major stock indexes their biggest gains of the year and snapped a three-week losing streak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of prices that is closely tracked by the Federal Reserve rose 5.8% last year, the sharpest increase since 1982, as brisk consumer spending collided with snarled supply chains to raise the costs of food, furniture, appliances and other goods.
Caterpillar's sales surged in the final quarter of the year despite ongoing disruptions in the global supply chain that have hit almost every sector of the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Visa's fiscal first-quarter profits rose 27%, as improving economies worldwide, as well as more people using digital payments, helped lift the company's fortunes.
The Home Depot on Thursday named a veteran executive as its new CEO.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Swedish low-cost fashion brand Hennes & Mauritz AB said Friday that its net sales in local currencies have increased by 8% in the fourth quarter of 2021 to 56 billion kronor ($6 billion) back at pre-pandemic level with the full year net sales increasing by 6% to 199 billion kronor ($21 billion).
BERLIN (AP) — The German economy shrank by 0.7% in last year's fourth quarter amid a resurgence in coronavirus infections and new restrictions, official figures showed Friday.
BERLIN (AP) — German exports to the U.K. dropped another 2.5% last year, the first full year of Brexit, following a huge decline in 2020 in the first stage of the coronavirus pandemic, according to official figures released Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection subpoenaed more than a dozen individuals Friday who it says falsely tried to declare Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 election in seven swing states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said Friday the buildup of Russian forces along Ukraine's border has reached the point where President Vladimir Putin now has a complete range of military options, including actions short of a full-scale invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a break from the past, the U.S. and its allies are increasingly revealing their intelligence findings as they confront Russian preparations for invading Ukraine, looking to undercut Russian President Vladimir Putin's plans by exposing them and deflecting his efforts to shape world opinion.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 27
STATEWIDE
ATHENS (AP) — A Tennessee school district has voted to ban a Pulitzer Prize-winning graphic novel about the Holocaust due to "inappropriate language" and an illustration of a nude woman, according to minutes from a board meeting.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee residents are invited to reserve native trees to plant during the state's annual "Tennessee Tree Day" event on March 19.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A company that makes composite decking, railing and cladding plans to set up a new facility in Columbia that is expected to create 310 new jobs.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Titans outside linebacker Harold Landry and Minnesota Vikings right tackle Brian O'Neill have been selected as injury replacements for the Pro Bowl.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden strongly affirmed Thursday that he will nominate the first Black woman to the U.S. Supreme Court, declaring such historic representation is "long overdue" and promising to announce his choice by the end of February.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Stephen Breyer's impending retirement from the Supreme Court gives President Joe Biden his first pick at a time when the American public has increasingly negative views of the high court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer's retirement gives President Joe Biden a chance to make his first nomination to the high court. It's also a chance for Biden to fulfill a campaign promise to nominate the first Black woman to be a justice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has denied a news media coalition's request for public access to records of court-ordered community service by one of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats who have played defense for the last three Supreme Court vacancies plan to move swiftly to replace retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, using the rapid 2020 confirmation of Justice Amy Coney Barrett as a new standard.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Senate Democrats are expected to move quickly to fill the seat of retiring Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, seizing the chance to energize their voting base ahead of November's midterm elections, when control of Congress will be at stake.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is eyeing at least three judges for an expected vacancy on the Supreme Court as he prepares to quickly deliver on his campaign pledge to nominate the first Black woman to the nation's highest court, according to aides and allies.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — The French-Japanese auto alliance of Renault and Nissan plans to invest 23 billion euros ($26 billion) in electric vehicle technology over the next five years, the companies said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is vowing to help stem rising traffic fatalities, releasing a broad-based strategy aimed at reducing speed, redesigning roads and boosting car safety features such as automatic emergency braking.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines posted a narrow $68 million profit for the fourth quarter, aided by full flights during the holidays, but the airline warned Thursday that it expects to lose money in the first three months of 2022.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Tata Sons, India's oldest and largest conglomerate, has regained ownership of Air India, the country's debt-laden national carrier.
BANKING
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Deutsche Bank said Thursday it reaped its best annual profit in a decade in 2021 and put most of the costs of its wrenching, years-long restructuring behind it. The bank underlined its recovery by announcing a dividend for 2021 and a 300 million-euro ($338 million) stock buyback to return money to shareholders.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — MSNBC announced Thursday that business journalist Stephanie Ruhle will replace Brian Williams on the nightly newscast "The 11th Hour," and that "Morning Joe" will expand to four hours.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 14.5 million Americans are getting private health insurance for this year under the Obama-era health law, thanks to help from the Biden administration.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Department of Health and Human Services is failing to meet its responsibilities for leading the nation's response to public health emergencies including the coronavirus pandemic, extreme weather disasters and even potential bioterror attacks, a nonpartisan congressional watchdog said in a sobering report Thursday.
LONDON (AP) — Most coronavirus restrictions including mandatory face masks were lifted in England on Thursday, after Britain's government said its vaccine booster rollout successfully reduced serious illness and COVID-19 hospitalizations.
Health care workers in about half the states face a Thursday deadline to get their first dose of the COVID-19 vaccine under a Biden administration mandate that will be rolled out across the rest of the country in the coming weeks.
MENDON, Mass. (AP) — A Boston hospital is defending itself after a man's family claimed he was denied a new heart for refusing to be vaccinated against COVID-19, saying most transplant programs around the country set similar requirements to improve patients' chances of survival.
ATLANTA (AP) — Early in the pandemic, Ryan Wilson was careful to take precautions — wearing a mask, not really socializing, doing more of his shopping online.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks gave up an early rally and closed lower on Wall Street Thursday as a streak of market volatility continued.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew last year at the fastest pace since Ronald Reagan's presidency, bouncing back with resilience from 2020's brief but devastating coronavirus recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week following three straight increases amid a surge in cases of the omicron variant of COVID-19.
TOKYO (AP) — Mitsubishi Heavy Industries and the Japan Atomic Energy Agency have signed an agreement to participate in a next-generation nuclear energy project with TerraPower, a company started by Bill Gates.
McDonald's ended 2021 on a high note with U.S. customers spending more and fewer restaurant closures in Europe from coronavirus restrictions.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday stepped up its dispute with China as it took an economic spat over exports from member state Lithuania to the world trade's governing body and accused Beijing of seeking to undermine the 27-nation bloc's single market.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. rejection of Russia's main demands to resolve the crisis over Ukraine left little ground for optimism, the Kremlin said Thursday, while adding that dialogue was still possible.