VOL. 45 | NO. 42 | Friday, October 15, 2021
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Some have designated the crane as the official bird of Nashville. The skyline is decorated with the machinery swinging through the heights of the city, now spreading their wings into Midtown, down West End and into SoBro.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, September 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term mortgage rates jumped this week, with the benchmark 30-year loan again breaching 3%.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Titans’ secrecy leads to suspicion of mishandling
Last week, there was some refreshing candor from the Tennessee Titans camp.
Kevin Byard has talked at length this year about the Titans needing to force more turnovers. Now he’s leading by example.
The stakes get a little higher when the Titans host the Buffalo Bills this week on Monday Night Football. The Bills probably haven’t forgotten the 42-16 smackdown the Titans put on them last year in a rare Tuesday night game. The game had been rescheduled due to the Titans’ COVID-19 outbreak.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Titans wide receiver Julio Jones returned to practice Wednesday after missing the past two games with an injured hamstring.
UT SPORTS
Lane Kiffin slipped out of Knoxville in the dead of night, leaving burning mattresses, police barricades and expletive-screaming students in his wake.
NEWSMAKERS
Rachel Schaffer Lawson has joined Dickinson Wright PLLC’s Nashville office as of counsel.
BRIEFS
Condé Nast Traveler has announced the results of its annual Readers’ Choice Awards with Nashville International Airport named as the Ninth Best Airport in the U.S.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The Toyota Tacoma has been the most popular midsize truck sold in America through the first half of 2021. It’s also one of Edmunds’ most highly rated models in the category.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Emergency preparedness experts recommend that you have a “go bag” and a “stay bin” for disasters: Kits with supplies to help you survive a few days if you have to evacuate your home or shelter in place.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
In retrospect, it was such a small thing. Any other day, that nearly-inconsequential little annoyance at work might not have bothered you. This time, it did, though, and that was it. You had no more cares to give, and you were done, immediate action was required.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Matt Duchene and Tanner Jeannot scored in the third period to give the Nashville Predators a 2-1 victory over the Los Angeles Kings on Tuesday night.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans just passed their biggest test this season even with an injury report that grows with each passing game.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday committed to spending nearly $900 million on state incentives, infrastructure upgrades and more as part of a sweeping plan with Ford Motor Co. to build an electric vehicle and battery plant near Memphis.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee labor officials say they are unable to reject a federal rule designed to protect health care workers from COVID-19 despite receiving stern instructions earlier this week from Republican lawmakers to do so.
REGION
SOMERSET, Ky. (AP) — The Lake Cumberland region of southern Kentucky will get another tourist attraction once a new bourbon distillery opens.
COURTS
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Tennessee doctor who pleaded guilty to causing the overdose death of a patient by illegally prescribing the painkiller hydrocodone has been sentenced to 20 years in federal prison.
HEALTH CARE
A new Alzheimer's drug from Biogen brought in only $300,000 in sales during its first full quarter on the market, extending a slow debut complicated by coverage questions and doctor concerns.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Record electric vehicle sales last summer amid a shortage of computer chips and other materials propelled Tesla Inc. to the biggest quarterly net earnings in its history.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top official on Wednesday exhorted the 27 member nations to wean themselves off natural gas not only to speed the transition to clean energy but also to make the bloc a more independent player in the world.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Britain's competition watchdog fined Facebook 50.5 million pounds ($69.4 million) on Wednesday for violating rules during the U.K. investigation into the social media giant's purchase of Giphy.
Netflix posted sharply higher third-quarter earnings Tuesday thanks to a stronger slate of titles, including "Squid Game," the dystopian survival drama from South Korea that the company says became its biggest-ever TV show.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Wednesday signed off on extending COVID-19 boosters to Americans who got the Moderna or Johnson & Johnson vaccine and said anyone eligible for an extra dose can get a brand different from the one they received initially.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Children ages 5 to 11 will soon be able to get a COVID-19 shot at their pediatrician's office, local pharmacy and potentially even their school, the White House said Wednesday as it detailed plans for the expected authorization of the Pfizer shot for elementary school youngsters in a matter of weeks.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines will let unvaccinated employees keep working past early December instead of putting them on unpaid leave if they apply for an exemption on medical or religious grounds.
LONDON (AP) — Under pressure from rising infections and alarmed health experts, the British government on Wednesday urged millions of people to get booster vaccine shots but resisted calls to reimpose coronavirus restrictions such as mandatory mask-wearing.
LONDON (AP) — The World Health Organization said there was a 7% rise in new coronavirus cases across Europe last week, the only region in the world where cases increased.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's coronavirus deaths surged to another daily record Wednesday as soaring infections prompted the Cabinet to suggest declaring a nonworking week to stem contagion.
NHL Commissioner Gary Bettman let out a faint cough and assured those seated at least 6 feet away that it was allergies, not COVID-19. He had tested negative for the coronavirus three times in the previous week.
PHENIX CITY, Ala. (AP) — Sometimes when she's feeding her infant daughter, Amanda Harrison is overcome with emotion and has to wipe away tears of gratitude. She is lucky to be here, holding her baby.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended higher on Wall Street Wednesday, bringing the S&P 500 to the brink of another record high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reports that the economy faced a number of headwinds at the start of this month, ranging from supply-chain disruptions and labor shortages to uncertainty about the delta variant of COVID.
NEW YORK (AP) — After struggling to hire workers for its outlet store in Dallas, Balsam Hill finally opened on Sept. 1. But the very next day, the online purveyor of high-end artificial holiday trees was forced to close after four of its five workers quit.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin jumped to a record high Wednesday morning, topping $66,000, as it rides a wave of excitement about getting further mainstreamed by the financial establishment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the third time this year, Senate Democrats on Wednesday tried to pass sweeping elections legislation that they tout as a powerful counterweight to new voting restrictions in the states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The senator leading a probe of Facebook's Instagram and its impact on young people is asking Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the panel that has heard far-reaching criticisms from a former employee of the company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scaling down his ambitious domestic agenda, President Joe Biden has described a more limited vision to Democratic lawmakers of his $2 trillion package for addressing climate change and expanding social services.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden headed to his hometown Wednesday to highlight the middle class values of his $2 trillion domestic agenda package, now scaled back but still an unprecedented attempt to expand social services for millions as well as tackle the rising threat of climate change.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection voted unanimously to hold former White House aide Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress after the longtime ally of former President Donald Trump defied a subpoena for documents and testimony.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 19
VANDERBILT SPORTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Kentucky is the favorite to win the Southeastern Conference title, while defending champion Alabama is picked to finish second in voting among a panel of national and league media.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Derrick Henry showed once again how important he is to the Tennessee Titans.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Buffalo Bills have seen Josh Allen run for first down after first down since coming into the NFL in 2018.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan was carted off the field strapped to a backboard after taking a hit to his head and neck area Monday night against the Buffalo Bills.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Attorney General Herbert Slatery on Monday blasted a proposed ballot initiative to require that the attorney general be confirmed by state lawmakers after the current process of selection by the state Supreme Court, saying it "would be a shame" to make the position a "political office."
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook is paying a $4.75 million fine and up to $9.5 million to eligible victims to resolve the Justice Department's allegations that it discriminated against U.S. workers in favor of foreigners with special visas to fill high-paying jobs.
NASHVILLE (AP) — When Republican lawmakers in Tennessee blocked a policy to ease up on low-level marijuana cases, Nashville's top prosecutor decided on a workaround: He just didn't charge anyone with the crime.
JACKSON (AP) — Five applicants will be considered for an opening in the Court of Criminal Appeals Western Section, the Tennessee Supreme Court said.
REGION
Declaring an impasse in contract talks with striking union workers, global spirits producer Heaven Hill said Monday it will start hiring permanent replacement workers for bottling and warehouse operations in Kentucky.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. home construction fell 1.6% in September as builders continue to be tripped up by supply chain bottlenecks.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — Regulators are stepping up scrutiny of the United Kingdom's music streaming market to see whether there is enough competition after lawmakers outlined concerns that major online platforms like Spotify may be too dominant.
ENVIRONMENT
LONDON (AP) — A group comprising dozens of nations particularly vulnerable to the effects of global warming have laid out their key demands ahead of the upcoming U.N. climate summit in Glasgow.
Philanthropist Laurene Powell Jobs is gearing up to invest $3.5 billion into climate-focused initiatives in the next 10 years. But if the donation patterns of her foundation continue, the public might never know where that money is going.
LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom announced plans Tuesday to stop installing home heating that uses fossil fuels by 2035 as the government hosted a meeting aimed at attracting billions of dollars in foreign investment for green projects in Britain.
MEDIA
HONG KONG (AP) — For nearly seven years, LinkedIn has been the only major Western social networking platform still operating in China. People like 32-year-old Jason Liu view it as an important career enhancing tool.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — For more than 55 years, Medicare has followed a simple policy: covered benefits are the same, no matter if you're rich, poor, or in-between.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Health regulators on Tuesday unveiled their proposal to allow Americans to buy hearing aids without a prescription, a long-awaited move intended to make the devices more accessible to millions of people with hearing problems.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal health officials are rethinking their approach to controlling salmonella in poultry plants in the hope of reducing the number of illnesses linked to the bacteria each year, and on Tuesday the U.S. Department of Agriculture will announce several steps it plans to take to achieve that goal.
Johnson & Johnson is raising its 2021 profit forecast again after growing sales of the cancer treatment Darzalex and other drugs pushed it past Wall Street's third-quarter earnings expectations.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are expected to authorize the mixing and matching of COVID-19 booster shots this week in an effort to provide flexibility for those seeking to maintain protection against the coronavirus.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia registered another daily record of coronavirus deaths Tuesday as rapidly surging infection rates raised pressure on the country's health care system and prompted the government to suggest declaring a nonworking week.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — New Zealand counted its most new coronavirus cases of the pandemic Tuesday as an outbreak in its largest city grew and officials urged vaccinations as a way out of Auckland's two-month lockdown.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street Tuesday, giving the S&P 500 its fifth straight gain and getting it closer to the record high it set in early September.
NEW YORK (AP) — Proctor & Gamble is raising prices on a range of goods as higher commodity and freight costs are set to take a bite out of its profits.
Power shortages are turning out streetlights and shutting down factories in China. The poor in Brazil are choosing between paying for food or electricity. German corn and wheat farmers can't find fertilizer, made using natural gas. And fears are rising that Europe will have to ration electricity if it's a cold winter.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a centerpiece of President Joe Biden's climate change strategy all but dashed, Democratic lawmakers headed to the White House Tuesday searching for new ways to narrow and reshape what had been his sweeping $3.5 trillion budget plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's Washington's enduring question: What does Joe Manchin want?
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee tasked with investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection is moving swiftly Tuesday to hold at least one of Donald Trump's allies in contempt as the former president is pushing back on the probe in a new lawsuit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee tasked with investigating the deadly Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol has been ramping up its efforts in recent weeks, issuing subpoenas to nearly 20 individuals, including four of former President Donald Trump's advisers and associates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday sought to block the release of documents related to the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection to a House committee investigating the attack, challenging President Joe Biden's initial decision to waive executive privilege.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says that the economic and financial sanctions the United States has employed over the past two decades to battle global terrorism, nuclear proliferation, drug cartels and other threats need to adapt to a rapidly changing financial world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A child of working-class Jamaican immigrants in the Bronx, Colin Powell rose from neighborhood store clerk to warehouse floor-mopper to the highest echelons of the U.S. government. It was a trailblazing American dream journey that won him international acclaim and trust.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 18
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Southeastern Conference has fined Tennessee $250,000 for fans stopping the Volunteers' game with Mississippi for about 20 minutes throwing water bottles, beer cans, pizza boxes, hot dogs, a plastic mustard bottle and at least one golf ball onto the field late in the game.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Titans running back Derrick Henry has a simple test for how sore he is after plowing through and over NFL defenders.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music star Luke Bryan has taken home the top prize at the CMA Awards, but he'll step into a larger role when he hosts the awards show in November.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ronnie Tutt, a legendary drummer who spent years playing alongside Elvis Presley and teamed up with other superstars ranging from Johnny Cash to Stevie Nicks, has died. He was 83.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is poised to spend approximately $900 million of its tax revenues on incentives, infrastructure projects and more under an agreement with Ford Motor Co., which has announced plans to build an electric vehicle and battery plant near Memphis.
MEDIA
Sinclair Broadcast Group, which operates dozens of TV stations across the U.S., said Monday that some of its servers and work stations were encrypted with ransomware and that data was stolen from the company's network.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is asking the Supreme Court to block the Texas law banning most abortions, while the fight over the measure's constitutionality plays out in the courts.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal judge has limited the ability for now for the nonprofit running Oak Ridge National Laboratory to place employees on unpaid leave who receive exemptions to a COVID-19 vaccine requirement.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Global automakers and tech companies are stepping up the pace when it comes to building factories and prepare for what many believe will be a fast-moving transition from internal combustion engines to electric vehicles.
HELSINKI (AP) — The Chinese-controlled Swedish car maker Volvo Cars will make a return as a listed company after a hiatus of more than two decades following an initial public offering and share listing in Sweden later this month.
LONDON (AP) — Ford Motor Co. plans to spend up to 230 million pounds ($315 million) to turn a transmission factory in northwest England into a plant that will make electric power units for cars and trucks sold throughout Europe.
TAIPEI, Taiwan (AP) — The Taiwanese company that manufactures smartphones for Apple Inc. and other global brands announced plans Monday to produce electric cars for auto brands under a similar contract model.
ENVIRONMENT
The Ford Foundation, one of the largest private foundations in the United States, announced Monday that it will divest millions from fossil fuels, following similar investment decisions made by other sizable foundations in recent years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is launching a broad strategy to regulate toxic industrial compounds associated with serious health conditions that are used in products ranging from cookware to carpets and firefighting foams.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TOKYO (AP) — Almost overnight, Japan has become a stunning, and somewhat mysterious, coronavirus success story.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's total number of coronavirus infections has topped 8 million, more than 5% of the population, and the daily infection toll hit a new record.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks wobbled to a mixed finish on Wall Street Monday as the market's momentum slowed down following its best week since July.
NEW YORK (AP) — Interested in Bitcoin but don't want to open a crypto trading account? Wall Street has something for you.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. House lawmakers are threatening to seek a criminal investigation of Amazon, saying the tech giant has one "final chance" to correct previous testimony by executives on its competition practices.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. industrial production fell 1.3% in September, much more than expected as the lingering effects of Hurricane Ida continue to stymie activity.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) — Farmers and Deere & Co. suppliers are worried about what the strike at the tractor maker's factories will mean for their livelihoods.
LONDON (AP) — Facebook said it plans to hire 10,000 workers in the European Union over the next five years to work on a new computing platform that promises to connect people virtually but could raise concerns about privacy and the social platform gaining more control over people's online lives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Commerce Secretary Gina Raimondo only wears watches made by Bulova — a company that laid off her scientist father, closed its Rhode Island factory and moved production to China in 1983.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHIINGTON (AP) — Colin Powell, former Joint Chiefs chairman and secretary of state, has died from COVID-19 complications, his family said Monday. He was 84.
WASHINGTON (AP) — World figures are reacting to the death of Colin Powell, a Vietnam War veteran who rose to the rank of four-star general and became the first Black chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and then secretary of state. Powell died Monday of COVID-19 complications at age 84.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is entering a crucial two weeks for his ambitious agenda, racing to conclude contentious congressional negotiations ahead of both domestic deadlines and a chance to showcase his administration's accomplishments on a global stage.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 15
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Seattle Kraken wound up having to wait longer to play their first regular-season game on home ice than they did their first victory.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has posted another month of positive revenue numbers in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic.
RELIGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A top Southern Baptist Convention administrator is resigning amid internal rifts over how to handle an investigation into the SBC's response to sexual abuse, a decision that underscores the broader ongoing turmoil in the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A commission tasked with studying potential changes to the Supreme Court has released a first look at its review, a draft report that is cautious in discussing proposals for expanding the court but also speaks approvingly of term limits for justices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts has rejected a Supreme Court appeal by the St. Louis-based natural gas company Spire Inc. to allow it to keep operating a pipeline through Illinois and Missouri.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking steps to address the economic risks from climate change, issuing a 40-page report Friday on government-wide plans to protect the financial, insurance and housing markets and the savings of American families.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nippon Steel Corp. is suing Toyota Motor Corp. over a patent for a technology used in electric motors in a rare case of legal wrangling between Japan's top steelmaker and top automaker over intellectual property.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health advisers endorsed a booster of Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine Friday, citing growing worry that Americans who got the single-dose shot aren't as protected as those given two-dose brands.
U.S. health advisers said Thursday that some Americans who received Moderna's COVID-19 vaccine at least six months ago should get a half-dose booster to rev up protection against the coronavirus.
LONDON (AP) — British health officials said Friday that 43,000 people may have been wrongly told they don't have the coronavirus because of problems at a private laboratory.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — European Union agencies are launching a year-long operation to crack down on fraud targeting the bloc's multibillion-euro COVID-19 pandemic recovery fund, EU police agency Europol announced Friday.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's daily tolls of coronavirus infections and deaths surged to another record on Friday, a quickly mounting figure that has put a severe strain on the country's health care system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended higher again on Wall Street Friday, giving the S&P 500 its best week since July. The benchmark index added 0.7% and ended the week up 1.8%.
NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs' profits jumped 60% in the third quarter, as the deal-making bonanza that dominated financial markets this summer brought in hundreds of millions of dollars in fee revenue for the investment bank.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans continued to spend at a solid clip in September even while facing sticker shock in grocery aisles, car lots and restaurants as snarled global supply chains slow the flow of goods.
Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Corp. has confirmed it is planning to build a computer chip factory in Japan.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a year out of the White House, Donald Trump continues to circle the Republican Party, commanding attention and influence as he ponders another run for the presidency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden was set to highlight his plan to lower the cost of child care for most American families as he makes the case for his stalled social spending bill during a visit to Connecticut on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has moved aggressively against close Trump adviser Steve Bannon, swiftly scheduling a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against the former White House aide after he defied a subpoena.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Bill Clinton was admitted to a Southern California hospital with an infection but is "on the mend," his spokesman said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe has won back his full pension as part of a settlement of his lawsuit arising from his firing during the Trump administration more than three years ago, his lawyers announced Thursday.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 14
VANDERBILT SPORTS
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — There may be debate over the Southeastern Conference's top team this season. After Saturday, though, there should be little doubt about who's at the bottom when Vanderbilt faces South Carolina.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee solar energy firm has bought an organization that helps companies offset their carbon emissions by funding new solar farms, both of which a former governor helped establish.
DETROIT (AP) — A second person has been killed by an exploding air bag inflator made by a Tennessee company that has been under investigation by a federal agency for more than six years without any resolution.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The federal government is funding organizations that illegally discriminate against LGBTQ candidates to become foster care parents for unaccompanied refugee children, a lawsuit filed Wednesday alleges.
HEALTH CARE
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) — UnitedHealth's Optum division continues to outperform and after putting up better-than-expected numbers for the third quarter, the nation's largest health insurer raised its outlook for 2021 for the third time.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seven major offshore wind farms would be developed on the East and West coasts and in the Gulf of Mexico under a plan announced Wednesday by the Biden administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Crucial U.N. climate talks next month likely will end short of the global target for cutting coal, gas and oil emissions, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry says, after nearly a year of climate diplomacy that helped win deeper cuts from allies but has so far failed to move some of the world's biggest polluters to act fast enough.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators say they are cracking down on "an explosion" of businesses' use of fake reviews and other misleading messages to promote their products and services on social media.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The consortium of journalists behind the Pegasus Project investigation into malware from Israel-based NSO Group that provided further evidence that it was used to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents, won the top European Union journalism prize Thursday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Near the Twizzlers and Sour Patch Kids at It'Sugar are random items — fidget toys, fruit-shaped soft jelly candies — that earned a spot on the candy store's shelves because they went viral on TikTok.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration said Thursday it will ask its outside experts to meet in late November to scrutinize Merck's pill to treat COVID-19.
GENEVA (AP) — A top U.S. trade official said Thursday the Biden administration remains committed to an easing of rules that protect the technology behind coronavirus vaccines so that they can be produced more widely.
U.S. health advisers are debating if millions of Americans who received Moderna vaccinations should get a booster shot -- this time, using half the original dose.
CHICAGO (AP) — The head of the Chicago police officers union has called on its members to defy the city's requirement to report their COVID-19 vaccination status by Friday or be placed on unpaid leave.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia on Thursday recorded the highest daily numbers of coronavirus infections and deaths since the start of the pandemic, a rapidly surging toll that has severely strained the nation's health care system.
DENPASAR, Indonesia (AP) — The Indonesian resort island of Bali reopened for international travelers to visit its shops and white-sand beaches for the first time in more than a year Thursday — if they're vaccinated, test negative, hail from certain countries, quarantine and heed restrictions in public.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks rallied on Wall Street Thursday as the market shook off several days of wobbly trading.
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — Domino's, a company seemingly tailormade for a pandemic, has not been spared from a phenomenon plaguing almost every employer this summer: A severe shortage of workers.
LONDON (AP) — A work by British street artist Banksy that sensationally self-shredded just after it sold at auction three years ago fetched 18.5 million pounds ($25.4 million) on Thursday, a record for the artist.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation at the wholesale level rose 8.6% in September compared to a year ago, the largest advance since the 12-month change was first calculated in 2010.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's good to be a bank right now.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to its lowest level since the pandemic began, a sign the job market is still improving even as hiring has slowed in the past two months.
MOLINE, Ill. (AP) — More than 10,000 Deere & Co. workers went on strike Thursday after "the company failed to present an agreement that met our members' demands and needs," the United Auto Workers union said in statement.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection has set a vote to recommend criminal contempt charges against former White House aide Steve Bannon after he defied the panel's subpoena on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are set to try again to advance a sweeping elections and voting overhaul bill, testing objections from Republicans with a vote planned for next week, Majority Leader Chuck Schumer announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer warned fellow Democrats on Thursday they "must put aside our differences" as the party struggles to coalesce around President Joe Biden's huge but now-scaled-back package of social services and climate change strategies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Pope Francis when he visits the Vatican later this month as part of a five-day swing through Italy and the U.K. for global economic and climate change meetings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Progressive leaders in Congress are warning colleagues against a "false choice" over what to keep or cut as Democrats scale back President Joe Biden's now-$2 trillion package of social services and climate change strategies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol has issued a subpoena to a former Justice Department lawyer who positioned himself as an ally of Donald Trump and aided the Republican president's efforts to challenge the results of the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Israel said Wednesday they are exploring a "Plan B" for dealing with Iran if the Islamic Republic does not return in good faith to negotiations to salvage the languishing landmark 2015 nuclear deal.