VOL. 44 | NO. 5 | Friday, January 31, 2020
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Two weeks ago, I mentioned that Bob Harwood, a homebuilder with some 600 homes under his toolbelt, had recommended that anyone working in the residential real estate world should read the book “Never Home Alone.” In spite of his vast knowledge of construction, Harwood possesses an unquenchable thirst for knowledge.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, December 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top commercial real estate sales, 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates continued to fall this week, breaching already historically low levels and offering an incentive to potential homebuyers.
TENNESSEE TITANS
As the Tennessee Titans enter the offseason, it would appear to be a given that they need to bring back both quarterback Ryan Tannehill and running back Derrick Henry.
The Tennessee Titans have 18 unrestricted free agents and one restricted free agent in Tye Smith. All will be on the free agent market come March unless extensions are signed or the Titans use the franchise or transition tag on one or two of them.
SPORTS
Ellie Harmeyer might be the Ohio Valley Conference’s best player, but she’s much more interested in Belmont finishing as the league’s best team.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville law firm of Dodson Parker Behm & Capparella PC has added James Walker to the firm as an associate.
BRIEFS
Belmont University and Watkins College of Art have announced their intent to merge, with Watkins College of Art beginning a transition to Belmont’s campus following the completion of this academic year.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Nearly every time a hotly anticipated new or redesigned vehicle first hits dealer lots, a number of enterprising dealerships will take the opportunity to make some additional profit. The good news for consumers is that there are ways around these markups.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Vanderbilt Commodores surprised first-year coach Jerry Stackhouse at the locker room door, spraying him from water bottles along with dumping a bucket of Gatorade on him in celebration.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Candice Storey Lee won't talk about how long she might be in charge of Vanderbilt's athletic department, having already made history as the first black woman to hold that job in the Southeastern Conference.
UT SPORTS
The Southeastern Conference dominated the recruiting landscape even more than usual this year.
HEALTH CARE
BEIJING (AP) — Airlines are extending their suspension of flights to mainland China, while more retailers are putting an estimate on the economic damage they expect to incur from the virus outbreak in China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Governors of both major political parties are warning that a little-noticed regulation proposed by President Donald Trump's administration could lead to big cuts in Medicaid, reducing access to health care for low-income Americans.
TECHNOLOGY
Shares in Twitter jumped Thursday after the social media company said its revenue growth and user numbers exceeded forecasts in the latest quarter, though profit fell.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei accused U.S. phone carrier Verizon of violating its patents in a lawsuit filed Thursday, broadening efforts to defend company's business in the United States amid government sanctions.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — Record U.S. sales of Ram trucks and the launch of the new Jeep Gladiator helped fourth-quarter profits at Fiat Chrysler Automobiles grow by more than a third, the U.S.-Italian company reported Thursday.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's top automaker Toyota raised its annual forecast Thursday after cost cuts and healthy sales quadrupled quarterly profits from the previous year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity rebounded in the final three months of last year, helping to boost productivity growth for the year to the best showing in nearly a decade.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde has warned that the world's central banks have less room to stimulate the economy in case there's a recession.
BEIJING (AP) — China cut tariffs on $75 billion of U.S. imports including soybeans, pork and auto parts Thursday in a trade truce with Washington while Beijing struggles with a costly virus outbreak.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump unleashed his fury against those who tried to remove him from office at a prayer breakfast Thursday, a day after his acquittal by the Senate in his impeachment trial.
MIAMI (AP) — Six American oil executives under house arrest in Venezuela were rounded up by police hours after President Donald Trump met Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro's chief opponent at the White House, according to family members of the men.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Years from now, will you remember where you were and what you were doing when President Donald Trump was impeached? Have you forgotten already?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled Senate acquitted President Donald Trump on two impeachment charges Wednesday amid Republican complaints about what they called a rushed process and Democratic claims that Trump is a threat to democracy. The historic, three-week trial proceeded largely along partisan lines, with just one senator — Republican Mitt Romney of Utah — breaking with his party.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump won impeachment acquittal in the U.S. Senate, bringing to a close only the third presidential trial in American history with votes that split the country, tested civic norms and fed the tumultuous 2020 race for the White House.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pete Buttigieg and Bernie Sanders are nearly tied in the Iowa Democratic caucuses, with nearly all results counted in a contest marred by technical issues and reporting delays.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 5
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Civil rights activists are challenging a Tennessee court rule that says people who have been jailed can't get their bail bond deposit back when their case is finished until court costs and other fees are removed first.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Almost three dozen big companies and more than 100 small businesses in Tennessee on Wednesday predicted economic backlash from a newly enacted state adoption law and other proposals that target LGBT people, with one company saying plans to add jobs in Nashville are "in doubt" over the legislation.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A day after Gov. Bill Lee boasted he was proposing the largest investment in teacher pay in Tennessee history, top administration officials acknowledged the addition wouldn't necessarily result in big pay raises for the state's educators.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Disgraced former Tennessee House Speaker Glen Casada confirmed Tuesday that he will run for reelection this year.
PREDATORS
WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Mikael Granlund scored 1:11 into overtime, lifting the Nashville Predators to a 2-1 victory over the Winnipeg Jets on Tuesday night.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Despite a 40-day strike by factory workers and slumping sales in the U.S. and China, General Motors still made money last year.
BEIJING (AP) — Automakers are considering whether to resume operations in China amid efforts to contain a virus outbreak while the impact on other companies spreads.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s profit last year plunged by more than $3.6 billion, weighed down by slowing U.S. sales, the cost of a botched SUV launch and some big pension expenses.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Britain's government announced Wednesday that it is considering a change in the way the BBC is funded that would hit the coffers of the nation's public broadcaster.
HEALTH CARE
American Airlines said Tuesday it has suspended flights to Hong Kong through Feb. 20 due to weak demand , and United Airlines will do the same next weekend.
TECHNOLOGY
Payment service Venmo joined YouTube and Twitter on Wednesday in demanding that a facial recognition company stop harvesting user images to identify the people in them, which the startup does as part of its work with police.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Health care and financial stocks led another milestone-setting rally on Wall Street Wednesday, extending the market's gains for the week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — About a year ago, Federal Reserve officials were nervous. Markets were cratering. Fear about a trade war was rising. The officials needed to know if the turmoil was chilling consumer spending. Problem was, a partial shutdown of the government had halted the release of most economic data.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services companies grew at a slightly faster pace in January than the previous month, an indicator of continued steady expansion of the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies added 291,000 jobs in January, a big increase from December, but much of that strength likely reflected unusually warm weather during the month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit fell for the first time in six years in 2019 as President Donald Trump hammered China with import taxes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump won impeachment acquittal Wednesday in the U.S. Senate, bringing to a close only the third presidential trial in American history with votes that split the country, tested civic norms and fed the tumultuous 2020 race for the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is on the verge of acquittal by the Senate, bringing an end to only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history in a vote at the start of the tumultuous campaign for the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's national security adviser warned Palestinians on Wednesday that Israeli settlements will continue to expand because rising anti-Semitism around the world means more Jews will immigrate to Israel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Chris Wray avoided a direct answer Wednesday when asked if President Donald Trump had asked him for investigations into political opponents, saying only that no one had requested probes based on anything other than "the facts, the law and proper predication."
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least 138 people deported to El Salvador from the U.S. in recent years were subsequently killed, Human Rights Watch says in a new report that comes as the Trump administration makes it harder for Central Americans to seek refuge here.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Standing before a Congress and a nation sharply divided by impeachment, President Donald Trump used his State of the Union address to extol a "Great American Comeback" on his watch, just three years after he took office decrying a land of "American carnage" under his predecessor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The "great American comeback" President Donald Trump claimed in his State of the Union speech drew on falsehoods about U.S. energy supremacy, health care and the economy as well as distortions about his predecessor's record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer used Democrats' response to President Donald Trump's State of the Union address to swivel from impeachment to working-class voters' worries, saying her party is focusing on easing health care costs and other pocket-book concerns.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is on the verge of acquittal by the Senate, an end to only the third presidential impeachment trial in American history but coming at the start of a tumultuous campaign for the White House.
ELECTION 2020
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Pete Buttigieg held a slight lead over Bernie Sanders in the opening contest of the Democratic race for the presidential nomination, according to partial results released by the Iowa Democratic Party.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Joe Biden's third presidential bid enters a critical stretch after a disappointing finish in the Iowa caucuses sent the former vice president on to New Hampshire with a skittish donor base, low cash reserves and the looming threat of billionaire rival Michael Bloomberg and his unlimited personal wealth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Democrats were drawn to two faces of change. After a daylong delay, partial results from the state's Democratic caucuses showed Pete Buttigieg, the former mayor of South Bend, Indiana, with a narrow lead over Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders.
TUESDAY, FEB. 4
MUSIC INDUSTRY
FRANKLIN (AP) — The organizers of an annual festival in Tennessee have been sued over allegations they didn't pay an audio-visual company that provided equipment for the event.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Malcolm Turner has resigned as Vanderbilt athletic director after one year on the job, and Candice Storey Lee has been named interim athletic director effectively immediately.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Republican-led legislative panel has decided not to decide, for now, whether it thinks a bust of a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader should be removed from the Tennessee Capitol.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee declared Monday that his proposal to funnel an additional $117 million to K-12 teacher salaries would be the largest investment in teacher pay in Tennessee history.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee's top priorities in his latest spending plan would boost K-12 teach pay, extend postpartum health insurance for Tennessee's low-income women, encourage employers to hire more former inmates and more.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Here is the full text of Gov. Bill Lee's second annual State of the State address as prepared for delivery to a joint convention of the Tennessee General Assembly on Monday:
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department official leading the investigation of big tech companies' market dominance is stepping aside from the department's Google probe because of his previous lobbying work for Google as a private attorney.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal antitrust regulators say a proposed merger that would combine old-school shaving company Schick with upstart Harry's would end up costing consumers some skin.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Walgreens will pay $7.5 million to settle with California authorities after an employee was criminally charged with impersonating a pharmacist and illegally filling more than 745,000 prescriptions in the San Francisco Bay Area.
ENVIRONMENT
DRAKESBORO, Ky. (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority has shut down its last coal-fired unit at a western Kentucky power plant.
LONDON (AP) — Britain announced Tuesday that it plans to ban the sale of new gas and diesel cars by 2035 — five years earlier than its previous target — in a bid to speed up efforts to tackle climate change.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hyundai Motors is suspending production in South Korea, a sign that the economic fallout from China's viral outbreak is spreading.
DETROIT (AP) — Eight months after it seemed headed for the corporate junkyard, Tesla is now worth more than General Motors, Ford and Fiat Chrysler combined, even though the Big Three together sell more cars and trucks in two weeks than Tesla does in a whole year.
MILAN (AP) — Italian luxury sports car maker Ferrari on Tuesday reported that its profits last year sank 11% as it shifted its geographical footprint, but raised its forecasts for 2020.
HEALTH CARE
Royal Caribbean has canceled eight cruises out of China through early March and is taking more precautionary steps because of the virus outbreak that began in China.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Disney said its Disney Plus streaming service reached nearly 29 million paid subscribers in less than three months, an impressive start for what the company has positioned as its future as more people drop cable subscriptions.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's said Tuesday it is closing 125 of its least productive stores and cutting 2,000 corporate jobs as the struggling department store tries to reinvent itself in the age of online shopping.
Technology companies led a broad rally on Wall Street Tuesday that drove the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 400 points higher and gave the S&P 500 its best day in more than five months.
BEIJING (AP) — Global business is catching a chill from China's virus outbreak. Mink breeders in Denmark called off a fur auction because Chinese buyers can't attend due to travel curbs imposed to contain the disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For companies bracing for losses from China's viral outbreak, the damage has so far been delayed, thanks to a stroke of timing: The outbreak hit just when Chinese factories and many businesses were closed anyway to let workers travel home for the week-long Lunar New Year holiday .
WASHINGTON (AP) — A portrait of a robust U.S. economy is sure to take center stage Tuesday night when President Donald Trump gives his third State of the Union address. It is an economy that has proved solid and durable, yet hasn't fulfilled many of Trump's promises.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday slammed House Democrats' drive to impeach President Donald Trump as "the most rushed, least fair, and least thorough" in history and said he will vote to acquit Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Who's clapping now? On the brink of his Senate acquittal, President Donald Trump will be unleashing "relentless optimism" during his third State of the Union address, a speech designed to pivot from his impeachment to his drive for reelection. Trump is speaking from a position of strength, with nearly complete control of the Republican Party. The theme of his speech: "The Great American Comeback."
ELECTION 2020
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Clouded by doubts on a chaotic day-after, Democratic Party officials planned to release a majority of Iowa's delayed presidential caucus results by late Tuesday, according to details shared with campaigns on a private conference call.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A new mobile app was supposed to help Democratic officials quickly gather information from some 1,700 caucus sites throughout Iowa. Instead, a "coding issue" within the app is being blamed for delays that left the results unknown the morning after the first-in-the nation presidential nominating contest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy, endorsed Joe Biden on Tuesday, calling the former vice president Democrats' "best bet to win the White House."
MONDAY, FEB. 3
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Monday will unveil his top priorities for the 2020 legislative session, as well announce as his spending proposal for the upcoming fiscal year during his second annual address in front of Tennessee's lawmakers.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials in a Tennessee county have destroyed public records that were being sought by a newspaper.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the U.S. steps up its response to the coronavirus outbreak, the Department of Homeland Security is warning airline passengers that their flights may wind up rerouted if officials discover mid-flight that someone onboard has been in China in the last 14 days.
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization chief has traveled a dozen times to monitor the Ebola response in violence-marred eastern Congo. But when he planned to visit China's capital last week over a new viral outbreak emerging from central Hubei province, his daughter got worried.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spending on U.S. construction projects edged down a slight 0.2% in December, closing out a year when total construction registered its first annual decline in eight years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose in much of the world Monday and recovered some of their losses from earlier weeks, but markets are still far from giving the all-clear on the virus that has spread to more than 20 countries and infected more than 17,000 people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories expanded unexpectedly last month, snapping a five-month losing streak.
PICKETT, Wis. (AP) — At Rosendale Dairy, each of the 9,000 cows has a microchip implanted in an ear that workers can scan with smartphones for up-to-the-minute information on how the animal is doing — everything from their nutrition to their health history to their productivity. Feed is calibrated to deliver a precise diet and machines handle the milking. In the fields, drones gather data that helps bump up yields for the row crops grown to feed the animals.
NEW YORK (AP) — In the real world, political primaries are looming, impeachment is ongoing and heavy news never seems to stop. But during commercial breaks in the Super Bowl, advertisers did their best to serve up an antidote heavily spiked with fun.
A consortium of buyers, including mall owners Simon Property Group, Brookfield Property Partners, are bidding $81 million for Forever 21, the ubiquitous mall staple that filed for bankruptcy protection in September.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Closing arguments Monday in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial were directed more toward history than to sway the outcome, one final chance to influence public opinion and set the record ahead of his expected acquittal in the Republican-led Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's impeachment trial heads toward a historic conclusion this week, with senators all-but-certain to acquit him on charges of abuse of power and obstruction of Congress after narrowly rejecting Democratic demands to summon witnesses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration says in a court filing that two dozen emails revealing details of President Donald Trump's decision-making regarding withholding military assistance to Ukraine, which goes to the heart of his impeachment, are protected from a lawsuit under "presidential privilege."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's impeachment defense appears to have cleared the bar as far as his fellow Republicans are concerned. But its adherence to the facts is another matter.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — The deadline is Monday for voters to register in Tennessee to cast a ballot in the March presidential primary.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Iowa caucuses are never simple.
YouTube is making clear there will be no "birtherism" on its platform during this year's U.S. presidential election — a belated response to a type of conspiracy theory more prevalent in the 2012 race.
FRIDAY, JAN. 31
MUSIC INDUSTRY
HENDERSONVILLE (AP) — The lakefront property in Tennessee where Johnny and June Carter Cash lived for more than 30 years has been sold for $3.2 million.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state's Department of Environment and Conservation on Thursday announced that Dunbar Cave State Park has been selected as the 2019 Tennessee State Park of the Year.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University and the Nashville Predators announced on Thursday a partnership that will kick off with a "$1 Million in 1 Month" fundraising campaign for scholarships at the historically black university.
PREDATORS
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — New coach John Hynes got more than a measure of satisfaction against his former team Thursday when the Nashville Predators beat the New Jersey Devils in a wild game.
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — Major League Soccer and its new Nashville team say Mayor John Cooper refused Thursday to commit to moving ahead with a stadium plan approved under the previous mayor.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — State economic development officials have sued to reclaim more than $1.2 million in incentives awarded to a snack food company that committed to create 273 jobs in Tennessee, but shuttered the facility there after filing for bankruptcy and selling its assets to another company in 2017.
LEBANON (AP) — A white Tennessee judge has apologized after saying in open court that he was "going to work like a regular white man" and not "a slave."
HEALTH CARE
Washington (AP) — The United States on Friday declared a public health emergency because of a new virus that hit China and has spread to other nations.
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. advised against all travel to China as the number of cases of a worrying new virus spiked more than tenfold in a week, including the highest death toll in a 24-hour period reported Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Delta Air Lines and American Airlines are suspending all flights between the U.S. and China as the coronavirus outbreak spreads. American Airlines says it is suspending flights beginning Friday through March 27. Delta says its suspension will not take effect until Feb. 6 to ensure that customers looking to exit China can do so. Delta's suspension will last until April 30. Other U.S. carriers have curtailed service to China, while several European airlines have suspended it altogether.
NEW YORK (AP) — In Bangladesh's biggest airport, workers held up digital thermometers to passengers' heads. A beeping alarm sounded as a passenger walking through a thermal scanner registered a fever.
MEDIA
ATLANTA (AP) — Anne Cox Chambers, a newspaper heiress, diplomat and philanthropist who was one of the country's richest women, died Friday at the age of 100.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The stock market got off to roaring start in January, until a virus outbreak that started in China wiped out its gains.
NEW YORK (AP) — Need more proof that Amazon is big? It came this week.
NEW YORK (AP) — This year's Super Bowl won't be a politics-free zone, as both President Donald Trump and Democratic presidential candidate Michael Bloomberg will air campaign ads during the game.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer spending slowed in December as Americans spent more on prescription drugs and health care services but those gains did not offset a sharp slowdown in spending on new cars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' pay and benefits rose at a solid pace last year, but at a slower rate than in 2018, the Labor Department said Friday.
TOKYO (AP) — Will Mario follow in the steps of Mickey Mouse? Japanese video game maker Nintendo Co. said Friday it is bullish about profiting from its characters by mirroring the historical appeal of the Disney franchise.
LONDON (AP) — The eurozone economy, which is made up of the 19 countries that use the euro currency, ended 2019 with a whimper and recorded its worst year of growth since it was mired in a debt crisis in 2013.
PARIS (AP) — Courts in Britain and France are considering Friday whether to accept a plea deal that could cost Airbus up to $4 billion and end years of corruption investigations.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In May 2019, President Donald Trump asked then-national security adviser John Bolton to help make sure Ukraine's newly elected leader met with Rudy Giuliani about investigations he sought into Democrats, according to an unpublished manuscript of Bolton's book.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is considering pushing off final acquittal in President Donald Trump's impeachment trial until next week under a proposal being negotiated Friday by party leaders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration announced Friday that it was curbing legal immigration from six additional countries that officials said did not meet security standards, as part of an election-year push to further restrict immigration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jay Sekulow, one of President Donald Trump's lead attorneys during the impeachment trial, is being paid for his legal work through a rented $80-a-month mailbox a block away from the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday canceled an Obama-era prohibition on the use of anti-personnel landmines outside of the Korean peninsula.
Older men in Arkansas might see a close-up photo of President Donald Trump pumping his fist in the air, along with a message asking them to donate $30 to his campaign for a Super Bowl commercial.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An end to President Donald Trump's impeachment trial appears closer after one influential Republican senator said he would not support a call for more witness.
THURSDAY, JAN. 30
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's top officials remained encouraged Thursday after reviewing the Trump administration's plan to transform Medicaid funding into block grants, arguing that the state's related but separate proposal is on the right track for approval.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration Thursday offered states more control over Medicaid spending for some of their poorest residents, but first governors must accept a limit on how much the feds kick in.
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's office sought to downplay potential consequences over an anti-LGBT adoption proposal, multiple big companies reached out to his administration warning the state's reputation would suffer if the Republican were to enact it.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee is encouraging all Tennessee residents to participate in the U.S. Census in a new public service announcement.
SPORTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference schools each received more than $44.6 million in total revenue distributed by the league, a seven-figure increase from the previous fiscal year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The Hummer, once a gas-guzzling target for environmentalists, is making a comeback. But this time around it won't burn fuel or spew greenhouse gases.
TOKYO (AP) — German automaker Volkswagen has kept its lead as the world's largest automaker after Japanese rival Toyota announced it sold fewer vehicles last year.
HEALTH CARE
DALLAS (AP) — The pilots' union at American Airlines sued to block the carrier from flying to China and told members not to operate flight there because of the spreading coronavirus outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump regaled a friendly New Jersey campaign crowd with his thoughts about with his thoughts about impeachment, the economy, the border wall, local politics and much more.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — European countries stepped up efforts Thursday to contain the virus sweeping through central China, sending a chartered airliner there to evacuate hundreds of European citizens, scrapping more commercial flights to Chinese destinations and keeping some 7,000 people on a cruise ship while one possibly infected passenger got tested.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major U.S. stock indexes finished higher Thursday after a late burst of buying led by technology and financial companies reversed an early slide.
NEW YORK (AP) — It was another prime Christmas for Amazon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross suggested Thursday that the viral outbreak in China might offer an unexpected benefit for the U.S. economy: It could encourage American manufacturers in China to return to the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve approved a proposal Thursday to loosen a financial-crisis era rule that prevents banks from investing in venture capital funds.
LONDON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the U.S. and Britain would retain and enhance their special relationship once the U.K. leaves the European Union this week. He also said that American unhappiness with the British decision to allow the Chinese tech company Huawei to play a role in the country's high-speed wireless network would not affect broader ties.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England on Thursday opted against cutting interest rates amid signs of improvement in the British economy in the run-up to Britain's imminent departure from the European Union.
LONDON (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that the U.S. and Britain would retain and enhance their special relationship once the U.K. leaves the European Union this week. He also said that American unhappiness with the British decision to allow the Chinese tech company Huawei to play a role in the country's high-speed wireless network would not affect broader ties.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a moderate 2.1% annual rate in the final three months of 2019, capping a year when a weak global landscape and a sharp pullback in business investment resulting from President Donald Trump's trade fights combined to slow growth.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's defense lawyer Alan Dershowitz now says his headline-dominating argument against impeaching the president has been distorted.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alan Dershowitz delivered a stunning defense of President Donald Trump in the Senate that would essentially make it impossible to impeach a president for anything he might do to boost his reelection prospects. It was a contention quickly and forcefully denounced by a range of legal scholars and historians who said there were clear limits on presidential authority.