VOL. 38 | NO. 42 | Friday, October 17, 2014
Janet Miller on her jump to Colliers, future of Midstate development
Ask Janet Miller about her remarkable career at the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce and she’ll likely attribute it to good timing or pass credit onto others.
STREET LEVEL
The gentle soul who used to get his hair cut by an Everly Father a couple of doors down – and who pumped 100 percent pure gas to keep country immortal Ernest Tubb movin’ on – has enjoyed the last four-plus decades next to what used to be called Hailey’s Shopping Center.
REALTY CHECK
Last week The Greater Nashville Association of Realtors (GNAR) released the sales information for the area for September, and the numbers were staggering, with sales up 19 percent.
REAL ESTATE
September and third quarter 2014 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Titans coach Ken Whisenhunt says Jake Locker is still his starting quarterback.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE – Bud Ford usually had no problem wearing the orange blazer in his early days as assistant sports information director at the University of Tennessee.
NEWSMAKERS
Margaret Behm, principal at Dodson, Parker, Behm and Capparella, P.C., will serve as the 2015 campaign chair of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands’ Campaign for Equal Justice.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Fans of Honda’s innovative and spacious Fit hatchback will love what the car becomes for 2015 - quieter inside, more powerful and yet more fuel efficient, more refined in its ride, roomier and better equipped.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
If you’re writing lackluster headlines, you are wasting your time developing marketing content that will never be read.
CAREER CORNER
With football season underway and basketball season beginning, questions have started to arise about working in professional sports. Let’s be honest. Who wouldn’t want to get up and go to work for their favorite sports franchise? Every day would be fun and exciting – and we might even meet a few of the players!
I SWEAR
In a 1912 poem, Ezra Pound wrote, “Winter is icumen in.” Pound’s “Ancient Music” parodies a 13th century Anglo-Saxon poem that begins “Sumer is icumen in” (sic). Hardly a novel idea: “Here comes winter.” Happens every year, no? We want to prepare.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
The Arkansas State Fair is here and, as usual, brings the best of Arkansas right to our front door, including a commercial wine competition, livestock shows, petting zoos, a gator show (watch as the Swampmaster catches an 8-foot, 200-pound alligator with his bare hands!), a Gold Metal Flour cookie contest, a fairy queen pageant, a junior fairy queen pageant, an Arkansas Farm Bureau rice-cooking contest, a Petit Jean Meats cooking contest, a military appreciation day, a pie competition, and a BBQ competition – to name just a few.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 22
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose sharply in early trading Thursday, driven by encouraging earnings from companies including Caterpillar, 3M and General Motors. Investors were also encouraged by some positive manufacturing news out of Europe.
DALLAS (AP) — More passengers and lower fuel prices are pushing Southwest Airlines to record profits, and the airline expects an even bigger break at the gas pump this winter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A gauge designed to predict the economy's future health posted a solid increase in September after no gain in the previous month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits rose last week after falling to a 14-year low the previous week. Despite the increase, weekly applications remain at historically low levels that suggest hiring is gaining steam.
DALLAS (AP) — Saving a nickel or a dime per gallon might not seem like much to the average motorist, but for airlines that burn hundreds of millions of gallons of fuel every month, it adds up quickly.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Voters may not know it, but the millions of dollars paying for ads on ballot measures they will consider next month come from large companies and national advocacy groups.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Two U.S. senators are calling on regulators to issue a nationwide recall of cars with faulty air bags made by Takata Corp., questioning why automakers have been allowed to limit recalls to only certain locations with high humidity.
DETROIT (AP) — Big profits from rising SUV and truck sales in North America helped General Motors nearly double its third-quarter net profit and more than offset its struggles in Europe and South America.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Supporters and opponents of a proposed amendment to the Tennessee Constitution to give lawmakers more power to regulate abortion are flooding the television airwaves to try to influence voters ahead next month's election.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee health care officials say they have implemented appropriate practices to handle any Ebola cases.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The parent company of First Tennessee bank has acquired a Raleigh, North Carolina financial company.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 22
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell broadly on Wednesday, snapping a four-day winning streak for the Standard & Poor's 500 index, as investors shaken by recent swings in the market sold some of their holdings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices edged up slightly in September, with the overall increase held back by a third straight monthly decline in gasoline prices. The tiny gain was the latest evidence that inflation remains benign.
MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx expects another record for holiday-season deliveries.
REGION
Associated Press -- Over the course of 80 years, the unusual "See Rock City" advertising campaign led to as many as 900 painted barn roofs at its peak with surprisingly effective results. But as Americans turned to interstates for travel and began bypassing back roads, the roadside attraction known as Rock City began maintaining fewer sign, leaving the paint on the remainder to fade and the barns to slowly rot.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE,(AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam on Wednesday laid out a process for a public review of the state's K-12 academic standards in English and math amid continuing discussion about Common Core.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Methodist pastor who became a gay rights activist after he was disciplined for officiating at his son's wedding to another man will soon find out whether he can remain an ordained minister in the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government has told BMW to reduce the gas mileage estimates on the window stickers on four of its Mini Cooper models after an audit found the figures were overstated.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — After more than five years of stock market gains, investors could be forgiven for worrying that big sell-offs may be the harbingers of bigger slumps.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes rose Tuesday, putting the market on track for a fourth gain in a row, following an encouraging report on the Chinese economy as well as strong quarterly results from Apple and other big companies. Stocks continued to recover from last week's plunge.
Turner pulls CNN from Dish as pact deadline passes
NEW YORK (AP) — Staples says that it is looking into a potential credit card data breach and that it has been in touch with law enforcement officials about the issue.
WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (AP) — Higher cigarette prices helped Camel cigarette maker Reynolds American Inc.'s net income rise 2.2 percent in its third quarter.
ATLANTA (AP) — Coca-Cola reported a lower profit and revenue in the third quarter as global soda volume remained flat.
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's says its profit and sales declined as the world's biggest hamburger chain saw customer traffic fall around the world.
New rules on banks' risk in mortgage bonds eased
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates fell in 31 U.S. states in September, including in many where incumbent governors and senators face tough re-election campaigns. The report is the final data on state unemployment before the Nov. 4 elections.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. homes sold in September at their fastest clip this year, a sign that the housing market is shaking off a slowdown that began in the middle of 2013.
COURTS
Judge grants motion to strike Summitt reference
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Members of the state chapter of the NAACP and other health care advocates held a mock funeral across from the state Capitol in Nashville to characterize lives they say will be lost if Medicaid is not expanded in Tennessee.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 20
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market marched higher Tuesday, giving the Standard & Poor's 500 index its best day of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses were much less likely to boost pay in the third quarter than in previous months, even as hiring remained healthy, a sign that wage gains may remain weak in the coming months.
NEW YORK (AP) — IBM will pay $1.5 billion to Globalfoundries in order to shed its costly chip division.
The Associated Press: Hedge fund Elliott Management Corp. said Friday it is seeking seats on Family Dollar's board in an effort to get the retailer to reconsider a rebuffed buyout bid.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — While Republicans in Congress shout, "Repeal Obamacare," GOP governors in many states have quietly accepted the law's major Medicaid expansion. They just don't see the law going away, even if their party wins control of the Senate in the upcoming elections.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is recalling 247,000 vehicles in high-humidity areas as an air bag problem that has plagued most of the auto industry continues to widen.
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are warning owners of more than 4.7 million vehicles that have been recalled for air bag problems to get them repaired immediately.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Cord cutters rejoiced last week after HBO and CBS announced plans to sell stand-alone streaming services, a move that cable and satellite television providers have resisted for years. Customers tired of paying big fees for hundreds of channels they never watch just to have access to a few favorite shows might be expected to start cancelling cable service in droves. Get Netflix, throw in HBO, add a network here and there — why would anyone sign up now for cable?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple says it sold 39.3 million iPhones in the last quarter, or 16 percent more than a year ago, which is a record for the quarter. That's partly due to excitement over new iPhone 6 and 6 Plus models that Apple began selling last month.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Lamar Alexander's campaign spending in his bid to represent Tennessee in U.S. Senate for a third term now tops $8 million. By comparison, the former governor and two-time presidential candidate spent $4.5 million on his entire Senate bid in 2008.
Associated Press: After defeating his Republican primary opponent by a mere 38 votes, scandal-ridden U.S. Rep. Scott DesJarlais appears to be only one of Tennessee's nine incumbent House members to face a serious challenge in the general election.
CUMBERLAND CITY, Tenn. (AP) — A coal-fired power plant operated by the Tennessee Valley Authority has been shut down and won't produce electricity for two months because of planned maintenance.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 17
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Governor's Highway Safety Office is teaming up with the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to spread awareness about teen driver safety.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is asking the federal government for $70 million to help the communities of Nashville and Shelby County expand pre-kindergarten education.
TECHNOLOGY
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple's skinnier iPads and flashy big-screen iMac are sleek and stunning. But the tech giant is making a bigger strategic bet with next week's launch of Apple Pay — the mobile pay service aimed at turning your iPhone into your wallet.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple unveiled a thinner iPad Thursday with a faster processor and a better camera as it tries to drive excitement for tablets amid slowing demand. The company also released an update to its Mac operating system and introduced a high-resolution iMac model that might appeal to heavy watchers of television over the Internet.
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director James Comey warned in stark terms Thursday against the push by technology companies to encrypt smartphone data and operating systems, arguing that murder cases could be stalled, suspects could walk free and justice could be thwarted by a locked phone or an encrypted hard drive. Privacy advocates called the concerns exaggerated and little more than recycled arguments the government has raised against encryption since the early 1990s.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction firms broke ground on more apartment complexes in September, pushing up the pace of U.S. homebuilding.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sounded an alarm Friday about widening economic inequality in the United States, suggesting that America's longstanding identity as a land of opportunity was at stake.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market capped a turbulent week with a big gain Friday, a sign of renewed investor confidence after days of gloomy economic news.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Beyond the turmoil shaking financial markets, the U.S. economy remains sturdier than many seem to fear.
NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan Stanley's third-quarter net income nearly doubled, helped by strength in its institutional securities and wealth management divisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If you thought last winter was a horror show, with cold blasts from the polar vortex and a lack of California rain, here's some good news: No sequel is expected this year, federal forecasters say.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A firm accused of fraud will pay a $1 million penalty in what federal regulators say is the first case of market manipulation brought against a high-speed trading firm.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is announcing a government plan to tighten security for the debit cards that transmit federal benefits like Social Security to millions of Americans.
CHICAGO (AP) — Dietary supplements containing potentially dangerous prescription drug ingredients may still be for sale even years after safety recalls, a study found.