VOL. 47 | NO. 2 | Friday, January 6, 2023
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate rose for the second straight week following six weeks of declines that had given prospective homebuyers a glimmer of hope.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Behind the scenes look at surprise, 11th-hour move
Josh Dobbs had waited six years for a chance to show what he could do as an NFL starting quarterback. And the turn of events that it took to make that happen on very short notice made his performance all the more remarkable.
Six-game losing streaks have a way of overshadowing positive achievements, but safety Kevin Byard continues to show up in a big way, trying to will the Tennessee Titans to the postseason.
The Titans played their cards close to the vest against Dallas, choosing to rest Derrick Henry, Jeffery Simmons and Denico Autry among others to give themselves the best shot to win in Jacksonville and claim a playoff berth with a paltry 8-9 record. Let’s examine the keys for Tennessee to pull this off.
UT SPORTS
Following Tennessee’s Orange Bowl victory against Clemson, Josh Heupel dropped the term “freaky bright” while speaking with the media. The Vols head coach wasn’t talking about the uniforms that dotted the Hard Rock Stadium field in Miami. No, Heupel was referring to the trajectory of Tennessee’s program.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Joey Halzle has been promoted from quarterbacks coach to the sixth-ranked Volunteers' new offensive coordinator, Tennessee coach Josh Heupel announced Thursday.
NEWSMAKERS
Bayard “Bud” Walters, president, Cromwell Group, Inc., and Deborah A. McDermott, CEO, Standard Media Group, both of Nashville, were honored by the Library of American Broadcasting recently during its annual Giants of Broadcasting and the Electronic Arts Award Luncheon in New York City.
BRIEFS
When multiple pharmaceutical companies objected to Tennessee using their drugs to kill death row inmates several years back, the scramble to find lethal injection chemicals needed to carry out state-sanctioned executions grew frantic.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
You wanted a luxury car and a spa package for Christmas but got neither? Take matters into your own hands and combine the two. The experts at Edmunds have gathered six vehicles with notable spa-like features for a blissful drive.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The new calendar is already in your face. Lose 10 pounds, stop smoking, quit sugar, end that bad habit once and for all, you have great intentions but zero motivation.
PERSONAL FINANCE
When a power outage knocked out electricity to a multistate region in 2003, Gabriella Barthlow, a financial coach in the Detroit area, was prepared. She had enough money on hand to buy food for herself and her two young children, plus put gas in her car in case they needed to leave home.
CAREER CORNER
It’s a new year and a new opportunity to find the career that is meant for you. January is the perfect time to begin to set new goals, and look toward the future. So, what can you expect from 2023?
MILLENNIAL MONEY
With a new year ahead and the holiday fanfare behind, this is a great time to set money goals, especially if you recently spent a lot on gifts and travel and want to get your finances in shape.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Santiago Vescovi and Julian Phillips each scored 15 points as No. 5 Tennessee recovered from a halftime deficit to pull out a 77-68 victory over Vanderbilt on Tuesday night.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — Singer and harmonica player John Nemeth, vocalist Shemekia Copeland, country blues artist Rory Block, and guitarist Eric Gales are among the top nominees for this year's Blues Music Awards.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee House is offering the public use of an online platform that makes it easier to read proposed amendments to bills.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers reelected the state's comptroller and treasurer to new two-year terms on Wednesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers kicked off their annual legislative session on Tuesday, where they'll spend the next few months finalizing the state's upcoming budget as well as debating issues from abortion ban exceptions to express toll lanes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee secretary of state is encouraging victims of human trafficking, stalking, domestic abuse or any sexual offense to protect their addresses from public disclosure under a free state program.
COURTS
DOVER, Del. (AP) — The judge presiding over the bankruptcy of cryptocurrency exchange FTX Trading is allowing the company to maintain a veil of secrecy over the names of its customers and creditors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — New York can for now continue to enforce a sweeping new law that bans guns from "sensitive places" such as schools, playgrounds and Times Square, the Supreme Court said Wednesday, allowing the law to be in force while a lawsuit over it plays out.
TRAVEL
NEW YORK (AP) — Thousands of flights across the U.S. were canceled or delayed Wednesday after a government system that offers safety and other information to pilots broke down, stranding some planes on the ground for hours.
BEIJING (AP) — The Chinese air travel regulator is preparing to allow airlines to fly more routes between China and the United States following the lifting of anti-virus travel restrictions, state TV reported Wednesday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The head of the National Transportation Safety Board expressed concern Wednesday about the safety risks that heavy electric vehicles pose if they collide with lighter vehicles.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon formally dropped its COVID-19 vaccination mandate Tuesday, but a new memo signed by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin also gives commanders some discretion in how or whether to deploy troops who are not vaccinated.
ENERGY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The nation's largest public utility has decided to build a new natural gas plant despite concerns from the Environmental Protection Agency that its analysis of alternatives is faulty and that the project is at odds with President Biden's clean energy goals.
ATLANTA (AP) — A South Korean solar panel maker will invest more than $2.5 billion to build factories in Georgia, hiring 2,500 new employees and making components usually manufactured outside the United States, the company announced Wednesday.
TECHNOLOGY
LAS VEGAS (AP) — From electric cars and boats to wireless TVs to the latest phones and tablets, there was a wide range of innovations on display at the CES tech show in Last Vegas last week. Some of it aimed to solve big real world problems. Some of it aimed to make your life more fun. And some of it was just a little out there.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed higher on Wall Street as investors made their final moves ahead of a highly anticipated report on inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For months, the outlook for the U.S. economy has been a mostly bleak one: Inflation hitting a four-decade high, consumer spending weakening, interest rates surging. Most economists penciled in a recession for 2023.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Chickens may not be able to fly very far, but the price of eggs is soaring.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Japan plan to boost military and security cooperation as their top national security officials hold talks on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Wednesday opened their long-promised investigation into President Joe Biden and his family, wielding the power of their majority to demand information from the Treasury Department and former Twitter executives as they lay the groundwork for public hearings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is beginning to see "a light at the end of the tunnel" of its customer service struggles, thanks to tens of billions of new money from the Democrats' climate and health law and the authority to hire more people, according to an independent watchdog within the agency.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Spurred into action by a major corruption scandal, the European Parliament president wants to prevent former lawmakers from lobbying on behalf of businesses or governments soon after they leave office and to make public the names of current members who break assembly rules, a parliamentary official said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is on track to max out on its $31.4 trillion borrowing authority as soon as this month, starting the clock on an expected standoff between President Joe Biden and the new House Republican majority that will test both parties' ability to navigate a divided Washington, with the fragile global economy at stake.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said he was surprised when informed that government records were found by his attorneys at his former office space in Washington. He was asked about the issue after the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee requested that the U.S. intelligence community conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The volume of classified documents is vastly different, the circumstances of discovery worlds apart.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The infighting was so intense a year ago that Democrats who controlled both the White House and Congress couldn't win support for a sweeping social spending package that was the party's top legislative priority. President Joe Biden, meanwhile, was viewed skeptically enough that some of his fellow Democrats questioned the wisdom of him seeking reelection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has again extended government protection to former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo and one of his top Iran aides due to persistent threats against them from Iran.
UKRAINE
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A price cap and European Union embargo on most Russian oil have cut into Moscow's revenue from fossil fuels, but the Kremlin is still earning substantial cash to fund its action in Ukraine because the $60-per-barrel cap was "too lenient," researchers said Wednesday.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 10
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — A hot goalie is difficult to overcome, which the Ottawa Senators found out Monday night.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Kendrick Lamar is returning to Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival this summer along with headliners Foo Fighters and electronic duo ODESZA.
MIDSTATE
In-N-Out Burger officials today announced the company’s plan to invest $125.5 million to establish an eastern territory office in Franklin, which represents In-N-Out’s first expansion east of Texas.
LA VERGNE Tenn. (AP) — Officials in La Vergne have fired five officers and suspended three others following a sex scandal at the police department.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Tuesday will kick off their annual legislative session, where they'll spend the next few months finalizing the state's upcoming budget, debating abortion ban exceptions and considering express toll lanes among other policy decisions.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, a longtime executive for Donald Trump 's business empire was taken into custody Tuesday to begin serving a five-month jail term for dodging taxes on $1.7 million in job perks — a punishment the judge who sentenced him said was probably too lenient.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is proposing changes to how it runs federal prisoners' deposit accounts in an effort to make sure victims are paid restitution, including from some high-profile inmates with large balances.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A far-right internet personality who streamed live video while he stormed the U.S. Capitol was sentenced on Tuesday to two months of imprisonment for joining the mob's attack on the building.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A jury has been chosen for the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four other members of the far-right extremist group charged with plotting to stop the transfer of presidential power by attacking the U.S. Capitol after the 2020 election.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday it is awarding $100 million in competitive grants for projects that advance environmental justice in communities disproportionately affected by industrial pollution and other hazards.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — TikTok's CEO met Tuesday with European Union officials about strict new digital regulations in the 27-nation bloc as the Chinese-owned social media app faces growing scrutiny from Western authorities over data privacy, cybersecurity and misinformation.
TRANSPORTATION
DETROIT (AP) — Traffic crashes in the U.S. cost society $340 billion in one year, or just over $1,000 for each of the country's 328 million people, according to a study by safety regulators.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines announced a number of executive promotions on Monday, days after announcing that last month's service meltdown will cost the company up to $825 million, but none of the changes involved the highest ranking officers.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is moving forward with a proposal that would lower student debt payments for millions of Americans now and in the future, offering a new route to repay federal loans under far more generous terms.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Graduate teachers and researchers at Yale University overwhelmingly voted to unionize, according to results released Monday.
ENERGY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe has dodged an energy apocalypse this winter, economists and officials say, thanks to unusually warm weather and efforts to find other sources of natural gas after Russia cut off most of its supply to the continent.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ticked higher in quiet trading on Wall Street Tuesday, ahead of some potentially market-moving reports scheduled for later in the week.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Vendors selling hiking apparel, e-bikes, zippers and other outdoor gear gathered in Utah this week for what has long been one of the country's largest trade shows catering to the recreation industry, marking its return to the deeply Republican state after a four-year boycott over its land management stances.
Labor organizers hope this will be the year that Starbucks' U.S. workers finally negotiate a union contract. But with bargaining at a standstill and thousands of employees still unconvinced of the union's value, that outcome is uncertain.
GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss town of Davos will host 52 heads of state and government and nearly 600 CEOs as the World Economic Forum hosts its annual meeting in the Alps next week, organizers said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The global economy will come "perilously close" to a recession this year, led by weaker growth in all the world's top economies — the United States, Europe and China — the World Bank warned on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has only a limited role to play in combating climate change, Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday, a stance that puts him at odds with environmental activists who have pushed central banks worldwide to take steps to restrict lending to energy companies.
Bed Bath & Beyond's fiscal third-quarter sales fell 33% as the home goods company struggles to strike the right balance with its shoppers.
MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — Equipment manufacturer John Deere and the American Farm Bureau Federation have signed a memorandum of understanding that ensures farmers and ranchers have the right to repair their own farm equipment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are moving Tuesday to swiftly establish the marquee investigations of their new majority, voting to create panels focused on China and what they assert is rampant abuse of power in the federal government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Ethics Committee was asked Tuesday to investigate Rep. George Santos, the newly-elected Republican from New York who has admitted to lying about his job experience, college education and even family heritage, and now faces questions about his campaign financial disclosures.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee has requested that the U.S. intelligence community conduct a "damage assessment" of potentially classified documents found in the Washington office space of President Joe Biden's former institute,
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans began their tenure in the majority Monday by passing a bill that would rescind nearly $71 billion that Congress had provided the IRS, fulfilling a campaign promise even though the legislation is unlikely to advance further.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Electing the House speaker may have been the easy part. Now House Republicans will try to govern.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is reviewing a batch of potentially classified documents found in the Washington office space of President Joe Biden's former institute, the White House said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers no longer have to walk through metal detectors before gaining access to the House floor. And any time they do vote, they will have to do so in person — no more voting by proxy from home.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 100 Ukrainian troops will head to Oklahoma's Fort Sill soon to begin training on the Patriot missile defense system, two U.S. officials said Tuesday.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces are escalating their onslaught against Ukrainian positions around the wrecked city of Bakhmut, Ukrainian officials said, bringing new levels of death and devastation in the grinding, monthslong battle for control of eastern Ukraine that is part of Moscow's wider war.
MONDAY, JANUARY 9
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans enter the offseason at their earliest point since the 2018 season with more questions than wins, and they must hire a general manager before they can start figuring out their future.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — All Joshua Dobbs had to do was protect the football.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Tennessee lawmakers head into an annual legislative session on Tuesday, some fights are already underway — over whether the state's strict abortion ban needs exceptions, if express toll lanes and electric vehicle fee hikes can help solve roadwork needs, and how restrictive Republicans want the law to be regarding transgender youth health treatment.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The inauguration for Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's second term is set later this month.
COURTS
ATLANTA (AP) — The special grand jury in Atlanta that has been investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies committed any crimes while trying to overturn his 2020 election loss in Georgia has finished its work, bringing the case closer to possible criminal charges against Trump and others.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday revived claims by a Texas inmate who has the rare support of the state prosecutor's office that put him on death row.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an Israeli spyware maker's bid to derail a high-profile lawsuit filed by the WhatsApp messaging service.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A tweet from Elon Musk indicating that Tesla might allow some owners who are testing a "Full Self-Driving" system to disable an alert that reminds them to keep their hands on the steering wheel has drawn attention from U.S. safety regulators.
DETROIT (AP) — The number of traffic deaths on U.S. roadways fell slightly during the first nine months of 2022, but pedestrian and cyclist deaths continued to rise.
TECHNOLOGY
LAS VEGAS (AP) — From an AI oven that promises to warn you when your food is about to burn to a mixing bowl designed to take the hassle out of tracking calories, food tech was a key theme at this year's CES tech show in Las Vegas.
ENVIRONMENT
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The mottled bright green leaves of a pothos plant stood out against the flashy expanse of electric vehicles and smart products at the CES tech show in Las Vegas this year. This particular version of the familiar houseplant was bioengineered to remove 30 times the amount of indoor air pollutants of a typical house plant, according to Neoplants, the Paris-based company that created it.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks were mixed Monday at the start of a week with a few events that could shake markets, including updates on inflation and the health of corporate profits.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company continues selling off its BYD shares despite the positive comments he has made about the Chinese electric car maker in the past, but Berkshire Hathaway remains a major shareholder.
Former McDonald's CEO Stephen Easterbrook has been charged by federal regulators with making false and misleading statements to investors about the circumstances of firing by the burger giant in November 2019.
LONDON (AP) — U.K. government ministers are meeting trade union leaders on Monday in a bid to end a wave of strikes that has hobbled the rail network and strained the overburdened health system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After an epic 15-ballot election to become House speaker, Republican Kevin McCarthy faces his next big test in governing a fractious, slim majority: passing a rules package to govern the House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Postal Service delivered more than 54 million ballots for the midterm election, with nearly 99% of ballots delivered to election officials within three days, officials said Monday.
UKRAINE
MEXICO CITY (AP) — The Biden administration said Monday that Iran's sale of lethal drones to Russia for use in its ongoing invasion of Ukraine means the country may be "contributing to widespread war crimes."
Russian authorities on Monday announced parallel criminal probes against a famous actor critical of the war in Ukraine and a philanthropist who supports the Russian opposition, the latest in a months-long, sweeping crackdown on dissent.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Monday opted out of a European convention on fighting corruption, a move that comes in the wake of its withdrawal from the Council of Europe following start of Moscow's military action in Ukraine.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 6
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The shots came at such a rapid pace that Nashville goalie Juuse Saros didn't have a chance to assess the chaos in front of him.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Grammy-winning sound engineer accused of kidnapping and threatening his wife and stepdaughter at gunpoint in Tennessee was fatally shot by police, authorities said.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee said the Tennessee Supreme Court will likely wait for the state to finalize changes to its lethal injection process before it schedules future executions, after a blistering report found multiple flaws in how inmates are put to death.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Friday approved a closely watched Alzheimer's drug that modestly slows the brain-robbing disease, albeit with potential safety risks that patients and their doctors will have to carefully weigh.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Flying cars and self-driving vehicles always get attention at the CES gadget show in Las Vegas, but this year electric recreational boats are making bigger waves.
DETROIT (AP) — When a futuristic-looking electric Ram pickup truck goes on sale next year, it will hardly be the first in line.
DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis CEO Carlos Tavares says his company has to work on cutting costs globally in order to keep electric vehicles affordable for the middle class.
MEDIA
Personal emails linked to 235 million Twitter accounts hacked some time ago have been exposed according to Israeli security researcher Alon Gal — making millions vulnerable to having their accounts compromised or identities exposed if they have used the site anonymously to criticize oppressive governments, for instance.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Former national security adviser Michael Flynn had his Twitter account reinstated on Friday as the United States marked the two-year anniversary of the Jan. 6 insurrection.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is proposing lower limits for a deadly air pollutant, saying tougher standards for soot from tailpipes, smokestacks and wildfires could prevent thousands of premature deaths a year.
TRAVEL
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will provide free Wi-Fi service on most of its U.S. flights starting in February, CEO Ed Bastian announced Thursday at the CES technology trade show.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street rallied amid hopes inflation may continue to cool and the Federal Reserve may ease up on its interest rate hikes following some mixed readings on the U.S. economy.
ROME (AP) — Global prices for food commodities like grain and vegetable oils were the highest on record last year even after falling for nine months in a row, the U.N. Food and Agriculture Organization said, as Russia's war in Ukraine, drought and other factors drove up inflation and worsened hunger worldwide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's employers added a solid 223,000 jobs in December, evidence that the economy remains healthy even as the Federal Reserve is rapidly raising interest rates to try to slow economic growth and the pace of hiring.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines anticipates a money-losing fourth quarter after a winter storm and technology meltdown led to nearly 17,000 canceled flights and stranded hundreds of thousands of holiday travelers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leader Kevin McCarthy flipped 15 colleagues to support him in dramatic votes for House speaker on Friday, making extraordinary gains on the fourth day and the 12th and 13th ballots of a grueling standoff that was testing American democracy and the Republicans' ability to govern.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Such are the fractures in the country, between the political parties and inside the Republican Party itself, that one time-honored specialty of Washington — memorializing and coming together over national trauma — isn't what it used to be.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rest easy, America ... we got this. What others see as dysfunction and chaos, many of Rep. Kevin McCarthy's opponents see as democracy at work.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The impact of Russian President Vladimir Putin's order for his forces in Ukraine to observe a unilateral, 36-hour cease-fire was in doubt Friday after Kyiv officials dismissed the move as a ploy but didn't clarify whether Ukrainian troops would follow suit.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany aims to supply around 40 Marder armored personnel carriers to Ukraine in this year's first quarter, the government said Friday.
THURSDAY, JANUARY 5
VANDERBILT SPORTS
The Masters expanded its reach to elite amateurs on Thursday when it offered a special invitation to NCAA champion Gordon Sargent, the first time in more than 20 years an amateur received such an invitation.
SPORTS
Jordynn Cromartie entered her senior year of high school facing a daunting choice, one countless other Black gymnasts have faced for decades.
NASHVILLE SC
CARSON, Calif. (AP) — The LA Galaxy have signed MLS veterans Chris Mavinga and Jose "Memo" Rodriguez.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge has ordered Gov. Bill Lee's administration to release consultant reports that recommend how to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic — documents the state argued should remain secret under public records law.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency lending platform Celsius Network misled investors, leading them "down a path of financial ruin," New York Attorney General Letitia James said Thursday in a lawsuit against Alex Mashinsky that seeks to ban him from doing business in the state.
TRAVEL
DALLAS (AP) — With its flights running on a roughly normal schedule, Southwest Airlines is now turning its attention to repairing its damaged reputation after it canceled 15,000 flights around Christmas and left holiday travelers stranded.
ENERGY
BENGALURU, India (AP) — The government has approved $2.3 billion to support production, use and exports of green hydrogen, aiming to make India a global hub for the nascent industry.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Mercedes-Benz says it will build its own worldwide electric vehicle charging network starting in North America in a bid to compete with EV sales leader Tesla.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Sony unveiled a new high-tech prototype car it will produce in partnership with Honda at the CES tech show Wednesday.
TECHNOLOGY
The term "metaverse" is the latest buzzword to capture the tech industry's imagination — and while Facebook parent Meta is the best-known entrant into this futuristic virtual concept, it's certainly not the only one.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — CES is not allowing Russian companies to display their products at the annual tech show because of the country's invasion of Ukraine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks fell broadly on Wall Street and Treasury yields rose after another hot reading on the job market raised worries that the Federal Reserve will need to continue inflicting pain on the economy to fight inflation.
NEW YORK (AP) — Exercise equipment maker Peloton Interactive has agreed to pay roughly $19 million in fines related to its delay in reporting a defect for its treadmills that caused one death and multiple injuries, the federal consumer watchdog said Thursday.
The Federal Trade Commission proposed a rule Thursday that would ban U.S. employers from imposing noncompete clauses on workers, a sweeping measure that could make it easier for people to switch jobs and deepen competition for labor across a wide range of industries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for jobless benefits fell to the lowest level in more than three months last week, reflecting a still-robust job market despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to cool the economy and bring down decades-high inflation.
NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling Bed Bath & Beyond warned on Thursday that the home goods retailer may need to file for bankruptcy as sales continue to drop and it struggles to attract shoppers.
A huge opioid settlement dragged Walgreens to a $3.7 billion loss for the first quarter, but the drugstore chain still beat Wall Street forecasts.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — For a third day, divided Republicans left the speaker's chair of the U.S. House sitting empty Thursday, as party leader Kevin McCarthy failed and failed again in an excruciating string of ballots to win enough GOP votes to seize the chamber's gavel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday the U.S. would immediately begin turning away Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans who cross the border from Mexico illegally, his boldest move yet to confront the arrivals of migrants that have spiraled since he took office two years ago.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday will present the nation's second highest civilian award to 12 individuals involved in defending the Capitol during the insurrection on Jan. 6, 2021, and safeguarding the will of American voters in the 2020 presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday signed into law a bill aimed at easing the cost for prisoners to call family and friends.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Republicans continue to squabble over who will be the next speaker, there are essentially no members in the U.S. House of Representatives — only members-elect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nevada's most populous county has provided the U.S. Justice Department special counsel with correspondence that shows lawyers for then-President Donald Trump raising concerns about the integrity of the 2020 voting process that were later deemed baseless, according to documents obtained by The Associated Press.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will send Ukraine nearly $3 billion in military aid, in a massive new package that will for the first time include several dozen Bradley fighting vehicles, U.S. officials said Thursday, in the Biden administration's latest step to send increasingly lethal and powerful weapons to help Ukraine beat back Russian forces.
CHISINAU, Moldova (AP) — The U.S. will provide $30 million in aid to Moldova to help the small country tackle an energy crisis and other economic hardships "caused by the Kremlin's unprovoked and unjustified war" against Ukraine, a U.S. government aid agency said Thursday.
PARIS (AP) — The French Defense Ministry said Thursday it will soon hold talks with its Ukrainian counterpart to arrange for the delivery of armored combat vehicles in what France's presidency says will be the first time this type of Western-made wheeled tank destroyer will be given to the Ukrainian military.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The fate of a devastated salt-mining town in eastern Ukraine hung in the balance Wednesday as Ukraine said its forces were holding out against a furious Russian onslaught in one of the fiercest and costliest recent ground battles of the nearly 11-month war.