VOL. 43 | NO. 1 | Friday, January 4, 2019
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
With 2018 in the books, the real estate community can set its sights on the year ahead, which should rank in the top three years of all time in terms of units sold in the area.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell this week, starting the year with an inducement to prospective homebuyers.
TENNESSEE TITANS
The Tennessee Titans head into an offseason full of questions after Sunday night’s elimination loss to the Indianapolis Colts.
The first round of the NFL playoffs begin Saturday, beginning with a matchup of two Titans' division opponents, the Colts and Texans. Here's how the first round looks:
UT SPORTS
The basketball court had always been a safe space for Davonte Gaines. It was a way to escape the violence and keep him from running with the wrong crowd.
NEWSMAKERS
Michael Schwegler has joined Stites & Harbison’s Real Estate & Banking Service Group as a member of the firm.
BRIEFS
Franklin Synergy Bank will open its newest branch in Franklin, 5040 Carothers Parkway, Suite 109 in the Carothers Crossing development.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The average monthly payment for a new car is hovering around $530, the most recent Experian auto finance report reveals. The average lease payment is $430. While these payments will fit some budgets, they’re painfully steep for others.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
It doesn’t make sense. It doesn’t make cents, either, how your workload and your banking account can be so far apart, monetarily. Each payday, your check does a disappearing act almost before you’ve seen it, and you’d like to know why. In “None of My Business,” P.J. O’Rourke tries to explain, but it’s complicated.
CAREER CORNER
Happy 2019! I think we can all agree that 2018 was a tricky year. But, it’s time to start fresh. It’s time to refocus on an awesome New Year’s resolution: finding a new job.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
For many business-to-business (B2B) companies, the ability to grow correlates directly with the ability to effectively expand the sales team.
PREDATORS
CHICAGO (AP) — Nashville's top line is back together again, and that's a big deal for the surging Predators.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — After missing each of his four shots in a scoreless first half, Rayshaun Hammonds found a positive attitude.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates continued to fall this week, reaching their lowest levels in nine months.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn, who is being held on charges of falsifying financial reports, was ill with a fever, his lawyer Motonari Ohtsuru said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fiat Chrysler will pay more than $650 million to settle allegations that it cheated on emissions tests involving more than 104,000 Jeep SUVs and Ram pickup trucks, a person with the knowledge of the settlement told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Thursday it is cutting jobs in Europe as it reshapes its business to focus on more profitable commercial trucks and SUVs while shifting production to electric cars over the longer term.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford's aging Explorer big SUV is getting a major revamp as it faces growing competition in the market for family haulers with three rows of seats.
LONDON (AP) — Jaguar Land Rover said Thursday it will cut 4,500 jobs as the carmaker addresses slowing demand in China and growing uncertainty about the U.K.'s departure from the European Union.
HEALTH CARE
SEATTLE (AP) — Doctors who specialize in female pelvic medicine say lawsuits by four states, including Washington and California, over products used to treat pelvic floor disorders and incontinence might scare patients away from the best treatment options — or maybe even push the products off the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Challenging the Trump administration on a top consumer issue, leading congressional liberals are proposing legislation that would radically reduce U.S. prescription drug bills by linking prices to lower costs in other countries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Is the pain stabbing or burning? On a scale from 1 to 10, is it a 6 or an 8?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Airline stocks are falling as American Airlines says fourth-quarter revenue and full-year profit will be lighter than expected.
NEW YORK (AP) — Unemployment hasn't been so low in years, wages are rising, consumer confidence is high and gasoline is cheap, all creating high expectations for department stores this holiday season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Forget about "What have you done for me lately?" The big question investors will be asking companies this upcoming earnings season is: What will you do next?
BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China gave no indication of their next step after wrapping up talks aimed at resolving a tariff fight that threatens to chill global growth.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Disruptions to air travel are possible if Britain leaves the European Union in March without a deal, the head of the leading association for airlines around the world warned Thursday.
GENEVA (AP) — Officials in Davos have authorized a protest by a Socialist youth group against U.S. President Donald Trump and other expected attendees of the annual World Economic Forum in the Swiss ski resort this month.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is taking the shutdown battle to the U.S.-Mexico border, seeking to bolster his case for the border wall after negotiations with Democrats blew up over his funding demands.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 9
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov.-elect Bill Lee is giving up control of his heating, cooling, plumbing and electric business that generates $225 million a year and placing his company holdings in a blind trust.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have re-elected the state treasurer and comptroller to their sixth two-year terms.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov.-elect Bill Lee has announced he's appointed Tennessee's only female Court of Appeals judge to serve as one of his senior advisers.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have hired Frank Piraino away from Boston College as their new strength and conditioning coach.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Jim Chaney is returning to Tennessee for a second stint as the Volunteers' offensive coordinator after spending the last three seasons at Georgia.
AUTO INDUSTRY
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Nissan is showing the beefed up version of its hit Leaf electric car as the Japanese automaker seeks to distance itself from the arrest of its star executive Carlos Ghosn.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials expressed increasing worries when they met last month, as they grappled with volatile stock markets, trade tensions and uncertain global growth. The threats, they said, made the future path of interest rate hikes "less clear."
LONDON (AP) — Britain's battle over Brexit turned into political trench warfare between Parliament and the government Wednesday, as Prime Minister Theresa May brought her little-loved EU divorce agreement back to lawmakers who appear determined to thwart her plans.
BEIJING (AP) — Three days of U.S.-Chinese talks aimed at ending a costly tariff battle wrapped up Wednesday in an optimistic atmosphere after President Donald Trump said they were "going very well!"
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks cinched their fourth consecutive gain Wednesday as indexes around the world build on their early 2019 rally. The gains for U.S. indexes faded slightly after President Donald Trump and Democratic leaders said Trump cut short a meeting on ending the partial shutdown of the federal government.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump stalked out of his negotiating meeting with congressional leaders Wednesday — "I said bye-bye," he tweeted soon after — as efforts to end the 19-day partial government shutdown fell into deeper disarray over his demand for billions of dollars to build a wall on the U.S.-Mexico border. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers now face lost paychecks on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein, who appointed special counsel Robert Mueller and remains his most visible Justice Department protector, is expected to leave his position soon after William Barr is confirmed as attorney general, a person familiar with the plans said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional Democrats said President Donald Trump "has chosen fear" in his drive to build a southern border wall and called on him to reopen the government shuttered because of the standoff over his demand for money for the barrier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump urged congressional Democrats to fund his long-promised border wall in a somber televised address that was heavy with dark immigration rhetoric but offered little in the way of concessions or new ideas to break the standoff that has left large swaths of the government shuttered for 19 days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his prime-time speech to the nation, President Donald Trump declared a border crisis that's in sharp dispute, wrongly accused Democrats of refusing to pay for border security and ignored the reality of how drugs come into the country as he pitched his wall as a solution to varied ills.
WASHINGTON (AP) — William Barr once advised that a president didn't need Congress' permission to attack Iraq, that his administration could arrest a foreign dictator and that the FBI could capture suspects abroad without that country's consent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort shared polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with a business associate accused of having ties to Russian intelligence, and prosecutors say he lied to them about it, according to a court filing .
TUESDAY, JANUARY 8
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic Nashville attorney and former Army helicopter pilot James Mackler is the first candidate to announce a 2020 bid for the seat Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander will leave after his term.
NASHVILLE AREA
Sun Country Airlines is adding three seasonal nonstop routes from Nashville International Airport to its growing network, including Los Angeles, Portland, and Providence with fares as low as $69 one-way.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The 2019 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival will feature Childish Gambino, Post Malone, Cardi B, the Lumineers and multiple sets from Phish.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers have officially voted in their top legislative leaders to oversee the House and Senate for the next two years.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are preparing to kick off the 111th General Assembly, ushering with it a new governor and a booming freshman class poised to tackle the state's most high-profile issues while also setting the budget.
PREDATORS
TORONTO (AP) — Toronto coach Mike Babcock said the Maple Leafs got schooled by Nashville.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Green Bay Packers are turning to fast-rising offensive whiz Matt LaFleur to aid Aaron Rodgers and end a two-year absence from the postseason.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — The former chairman of Japan's Nissan Motor Co., Carlos Ghosn, denied any wrongdoing and proclaimed his loyalty to the company at a court hearing in Tokyo on Tuesday.
HEALTH CARE
Ads for prescription drugs appeared 5 million times in just one year, capping a recent surge in U.S. medical marketing, a new analysis found.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks climbed for the third day in a row Tuesday as the latest round of trade talks between Washington and Beijing continued. It's the longest winning streak for U.S. indexes since late November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank is downgrading its outlook for the global economy this year, citing rising trade tension, weakening manufacturing activity and growing financial stress in emerging-market countries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans slowed their pace of borrowing slightly in November, but it still grew by a robust $22.1 billion. Solid auto and student loans offset some of the decline in the category that covers credit cards.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings fell in November from the previous month, but the number of available positions remained healthy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears received another lifeline Tuesday when the company's chairman and largest shareholder promised to line up the necessary financing to keep the struggling department store chain afloat.
NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung expects its quarterly operating profit to fall 29 percent compared with last year, potentially unsettling a tech sector already skittish about slowing global economic growth.
DALLAS (AP) — The partial government shutdown is starting to affect air travel. Over the weekend, some airports had long lines at checkpoints, apparently caused by a rising number of security officers calling in sick while they are not getting paid.
BEIJING (AP) — Talks between the U.S. and China on ending their tariff war were ending their second day Tuesday without word on whether they've made any progress, as an official newspaper warned not to push Beijing too hard.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday refused to block a grand jury subpoena that may be part of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation. The subpoena for information was issued to an unidentified company owned by a foreign government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer will give the Democratic response to President Donald Trump's remarks to the nation Tuesday on his proposed wall on the U.S.-Mexico border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With no breakthrough in sight, President Donald Trump will argue his case to the nation Tuesday night that a "crisis" at the U.S.-Mexico border requires the long and invulnerable wall he's demanding before ending the partial government shutdown. Hundreds of thousands of federal workers face missed paychecks Friday as the shutdown drags through a third week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says there is a security crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border that can be addressed only by spending $5.7 billion on a wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's recent claim that his predecessors endorsed his idea of a wall at the Mexican border got no support from the ex-presidents' club.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his officials persist in promoting the discredited notion that terror suspects are pouring into the U.S. from Mexico by the thousands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is weighing using a national emergency declaration to circumvent Congress and the budget stalemate and force construction of the president's long-promised southern border wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans' first bill of the new Congress aims to insert the legislative branch into President Donald Trump's Middle East policy — but also tries to drive a wedge between centrist and liberal Democrats over attitudes toward Israel.
MONDAY, JANUARY 7
STATEWIDE
FLAG POND (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam has renamed a state park to honor Tennessee's senior U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PARIS (AP) — The son of former Nissan chairman Carlos Ghosn said in an interview published Sunday that people will be surprised when his father, detained since Nov. 19 for allegedly falsifying financial reports, recounts his version of events to a Tokyo court on Tuesday.
BEIJING (AP) — Tesla Inc. broke ground Monday for a factory in Shanghai, its first outside the United States.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A woman who says she was a 16-year-old sex trafficking victim when she killed a man in 2004 was granted clemency Monday by Tennessee's governor and soon will be released from prison.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg is missing arguments for the first time in more than 25 years as she recuperates from cancer surgery last month, the Supreme Court said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday reprimanded an attorney for a Russian company accused of interfering in the 2016 presidential election, saying his references to Looney Tunes and "Animal House" in recent court filings are inappropriate.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose again Monday, led by gains in retailers and smaller companies after a report showed strong orders last month for service-sector companies, where most Americans work. Investors were also encouraged by the resumption of trade talks between the U.S. and China.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon, which is opening an operation center and adding 5,000 high-paying jobs in Nashville this year, has eclipsed Microsoft as the most valuable publicly traded company in the U.S. as a see-sawing stock market continues to reshuffle corporate America's pecking order.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jim Yong Kim, the president of the World Bank, announced Monday he is resigning at the end of January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. service firms grew in December at the slowest pace in five months, a possible indication that various headwinds from turbulent markets to trade tensions could be having an impact on economic activity.
NEW YORK (AP) — What's in a name? For MasterCard, not enough to keep it in the logo.
LONDON (AP) — Britain is testing how its motorway and ferry system would handle a "no-deal" Brexit by sending a stream of trucks from a small local airport to the port of Dover — even as some legislators try to pressure the government to rule out the scenario.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With no weekend breakthrough to end a prolonged partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is standing firm in his border wall funding demands and newly empowered House Democrats are planning to step up pressure on Trump and Republican lawmakers to reopen the government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The partial government shutdown is spotlighting the limitations of President Donald Trump's erratic negotiating style.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Feeling the pressure of investigations and a partial government shutdown, President Donald Trump is playing loose with the facts regarding hush payments made by his former attorney Michael Cohen to two women and is changing his story on his promise to build a concrete border wall paid for by Mexico.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 4
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The company that administers Tennessee's problem-plagued student assessment testing program says it still plans on throwing its hat in the ring to secure a new state contract so they can continue overseeing the same service in the fall.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's top Republican lawmakers say the state's biggest county, which includes Memphis, isn't following a new law that prohibits local authorities from requiring a warrant or probable cause before complying with federal immigration detainers.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Pringles says it erroneously overpaid its Tennessee taxes by $2.1 million and the company known for its potato chips is suing the state to recoup the money.
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal utility that serves parts of seven southeastern states says 2018 was the wettest year on record in the Tennessee Valley.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Democratic-controlled House has moved toward defending former President Barack Obama's health care law against a federal court ruling that the statute is unconstitutional, part of the party's effort to use the issue to embarrass Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic attorneys general on Thursday appealed a federal court ruling that the Affordable Care Act is unconstitutional, as new enrollment numbers underscored the staying power of the Obama-era law.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Sales of new vehicles in the U.S. rose slightly in 2018, defying predictions and highlighting a strong economy.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors has promoted product development chief Mark Reuss (Royce) to company president.
TECHNOLOGY
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Fewer Marriott guest records than previously feared were compromised in a massive data breach, but the largest hotel chain in the world confirmed Friday that approximately 5.25 million unencrypted passport numbers were accessed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Behind Apple's disconcerting news of weak iPhone sales lies a more sobering truth: The tech industry has hit Peak Smartphone, a tipping point when everyone who can afford one already owns one and no breakthroughs are compelling them to upgrade as frequently as they once did.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Global stocks soared Friday and reversed the big losses they suffered just a day earlier. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rallied 746 points in the latest twist in a wild three months for markets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Friday that he will not resign if asked to do so by President Donald Trump, and that he is prepared to be patient in deciding when to raise interest rates again.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers dramatically stepped up their hiring in December, adding 312,000 jobs in an encouraging display of strength for an economy in the midst of a trade war, slowing global growth and a partial shutdown of the federal government.
BEIJING (AP) — American envoys are due in Beijing for talks Monday in a tariff battle over Chinese technology ambitions that threatens to hobble global economic growth.
LONDON (AP) — With Britain just 12 weeks away from the day it is meant to leave the European Union, one thing is becoming clear — uncertainty over what Brexit will mean is hurting the economy.
BEIJING (AP) — Apple's $1,000 iPhone is a tough sell to consumers in China unnerved by an economic slump and the trade war with the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories grew last month at the slowest pace in more than two years, with some manufacturers complaining about the impact of President Donald Trump's contentious trade policies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added a robust 271,000 jobs in December, according to a private survey.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told congressional leaders he'd keep the government closed "for a very long period of time, months or even years." That's according to Democratic leader Chuck Schumer, who was among those meeting with Trump at the White House on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An ethics watchdog group asked the Justice Department on Friday to investigate whether President Donald Trump's daughter Ivanka violated federal conflict-of-interest law by promoting an Opportunity Zone tax break program from which she could potentially benefit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the second time in three days, congressional leaders arrived at the White House Friday for talks with President Donald Trump amid signs of growing Republican unease over the prolonged partial government shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is pushing back on talk by some House Democrats of impeaching him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are unveiling a comprehensive elections and ethics reform package that targets what they call a "culture of corruption in Washington" and aims to reduce the role of money in politics.
WASHINGTON (AP) — On their first day in the majority, House Democrats have passed a plan to re-open the government without funding President Donald Trump's promised border wall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Everywhere President Donald Trump looks, he sees a wall.
As much of the U.S. government remains shut down over President Donald Trump's insistence on funding for his border wall, nearly half of Americans identify immigration as a top issue for the government to work on this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House and Senate have convened for the 116th Congress with the most diverse class of lawmakers in history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — They've got the keys to the offices, new paint inside and parties to attend. But on Thursday, the work was beginning when 535 members of the 116th Congress solemnly swear to govern the divided nation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The partial government shutdown entered a 13th day Thursday with House Democrats prepared to pass their plan to reopen government and President Donald Trump accusing them of playing politics with an eye on the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Pelosi knew this moment would come, even if others had their doubts — or worked to stop her.