VOL. 40 | NO. 43 | Friday, October 21, 2016
From hippie commune to smaller, thriving collective community
THE FARM – Marijuana smoking used to be considered a sacrament for the original 320 hippie refugees whose gypsy caravan of white school buses pulled onto this Lewis County acreage 45 years ago, giving birth to a commune that continues to go by the simple name “The Farm.”
THE FARM – The free and freeing (and sometimes free-wheeling) nature of life on The Farm is perhaps one reason the clumps of flowers have not been removed to make space in Douglas Stevenson’s 50-by-100-foot veggie garden.
THE FARM – James and Judith Dodge were a part of the original caravan of settlers to arrive here in 1971. He’s 69, she’s 70. “I’ll be 70 soon enough,’’ he adds, diplomatically as the two settle in at their dining room table in a home made entirely of materials picked up in yard sales and on Craigslist.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Nashville resident Jennifer Murray is caught in the snare of uncertainty looming over Tennessee health insurance coverage. Self-employed as a health care consultant, the single 48-year-old bought individual coverage through BlueCross BlueShield Tennessee’s marketplace plans each year since the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014. The company offered the widest range of physicians, and its insurance was accepted in most places.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Jonathan Smoke, an economist with Realtor.com, spoke to the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors at the group’s annual convention last week and showered the membership with graphs, numbers, statistics and other information about the national market, all the while citing Nashville’s numbers as much better than those of other markets.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Based on the events last weekend at Neyland Stadium, I think it’s safe to say the rehabilitation process is almost complete for Lane Kiffin.
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
Tennessee’s football team is spending this week’s open date trying to get healthy after a rugged four-game stretch of SEC football in which they defeated Florida and Georgia and lost to Texas A&M and Alabama.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
A single two-point victory at home over the worst team the NFL has to offer this season might not sound like much of an accomplishment.
Don't let their Luck run out. The Titans pass rush, led by Brian Orakpo (seven sacks) has been tenacious with 12 sacks in the past two games. The Colts have had issues protecting Andrew Luck this season.
NEWSMAKERS
Chas. Hawkins Co., Inc. has named Lewis Agnew as president of the independent commercial real estate company. Bill Hawkins, who has been president since 2004, will be moving into the role of chairman of the company.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The refined 2017 Genesis G90 luxury sedan is Hyundai’s foray into the luxury brand market and the first new entry in the U.S. since Tesla in 2004.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Imagine you’re a football player and your coach shows you a new play by drawing it out on the white board. He asks you to execute the play in the next game without ever practicing it.
I SWEAR
One of my I Swear Crossword test-solvers – a male musician from San Francisco by way of New York City – wrote, with regard to the current puzzle, “I don’t think I understand the quip.”
CAREER CORNER
Whenever I meet a job seeker, I inevitably ask a question that makes them pretty uncomfortable.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is heading to Germany next week on a trade trip.
ATLANTA (AP) — Deer hunting season is on the way, but fans of venison might not have to trek out into the woods this year to get their fix.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates declined this week, moving closer to historically low levels.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen raised its earnings outlook Thursday after bouncing back to a profit of 2.34 billion euros ($2.55 billion) in the third quarter from a large loss a year earlier, when it took a big charge from its car emissions scandal.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter, seemingly unable to find a buyer and losing money, is cutting about 9 percent of its employees worldwide.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sale or no sale, Twitter users are bound to see changes as the beleaguered communications service tries to broaden its appeal to more people and advertisers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week, a sign that businesses are holding onto their workers and hiring is likely solid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods dipped slightly in September as a key category that tracks business investment fell by the largest amount in seven months.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are edging lower Thursday morning as industrial companies like defense contractor Raytheon fall. Bond yields are jumping and investors are selling utility and real estate companies. Chipmaker Qualcomm said it will buy competitor NXP Semiconductors for $38 billion.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 26
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Comcast is suing Nashville over an ordinance that changed the area's policy regarding utility poles.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans bought new homes in September, a sign that demand remains strong despite a shortage of properties on the market.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam is hitting the campaign trail on behalf of fellow Republicans in closely divided districts.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Kenny Chesney will receive the Pinnacle Award during the 50th annual Country Music Association Awards, joining Garth Brooks and Taylor Swift as the only recipients.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Microsoft plans to bring three-dimensional tools to computing experiences long done in two dimensions as it eyes the needs of the next generation of users.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota is recalling about 5.8 million vehicles in Japan, Europe, China and other countries to replace potentially deadly Takata air bag inflators.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling nearly 412,000 older SUVs worldwide to fix fuel leaks that could cause fires.
DETROIT (AP) — Subaru is recalling more than 100,000 of its top-selling models in the U.S. because a turbocharger air pump can run continuously, overheat and could cause fires.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks dodged bigger losses and finished barely lower on Wednesday. Health care companies fell and Apple pulled technology companies down, but banks rose.
GENEVA (AP) — The global gap in earnings between men and women will not be closed for another 170 years if current trends continue, according to a new report from the World Economic Forum.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — After stumbling in 2016, Apple is betting on a better year ahead.
ATLANTA (AP) — Coca-Cola's profit fell 28 percent in the third quarter, but its results still beat Wall Street expectations.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Violent gunmen still menace pick-and-shovel miners in eastern Congo, a new report finds, despite years of efforts to loosen their grip by local reformers, Western activists and companies like Apple and Intel that use minerals from the African region in their products.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 25
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Google has launched its home delivery service across Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Bloomberg Philanthropies and the Aspen Institute are leading a year-long effort with Nashville and nine other cities around the world to accelerate their efforts to prepare for the arrival of self-driving cars.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 480,000 Tennesseans have cast ballots through the first four days of early voting, up from the 388,000 who had gone to the polls through the same period four years ago.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Armada Nutrition has announced it is expanding its Spring Hill operations, investing $2.1 million and creating 310 new jobs over the next five years.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is leaving the White House in a few months, but the troubles of his namesake health care law continue to make headlines. With premiums rising by double digits and many consumers scrambling to replace coverage because their insurer bailed out, the 2017 sign-up season that starts Nov. 1 looks challenging.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices climbed at a solid pace in August as more home buyers competed for fewer available properties.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Intelligence Director James Clapper says it appears that a "non-state actor" was behind a massive cyberattack last week that briefly blocked access to websites including Twitter and Netflix.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge in San Francisco has approved a nearly $15 billion court settlement of most claims against Volkswagen for its emissions-cheating scandal.
DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday approved a settlement between Volkswagen AG and about 475,000 owners of diesel cars that don't meet U.S. emissions standards.
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — The top executive overseeing connected vehicles at Nissan and Renault believes the benefits of developing a common technology for connectivity within the Japanese and French auto partnership outweigh the risks of sustaining huge damage from a possible defect or cyberattack.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors reported a record third-quarter profit that doubled results in the same period a year ago, despite falling sales and market share in the U.S.
DENVER (AP) — Anheuser-Busch says it has completed the world's first commercial shipment by self-driving truck, sending a beer-filled tractor-trailer on a journey of more than 120 miles through Colorado.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Shaky results from consumer companies dragged the U.S. stock market lower on Tuesday as well-known names like appliance maker Whirlpool and athletic apparel maker Under Armour suffered their worst losses in years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Event planner Beth Bernstein decided she had had enough with Donald Trump after his 2005 hot-mic boasts about groping women came to light earlier this month. She removed photos of weddings she had thrown at a Trump hotel in Chicago from her website, wrote to hotel staff to remove her from the list of "preferred vendors" and posted a sort of call to arms on her blog.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are intent on keeping out a provision from the annual defense policy bill that they say would undercut protections against workplace discrimination based on sexual or gender orientation.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 24
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - State Sen. Mark Green, one of the leading contenders for Tennessee governor in 2018, says he is re-thinking financial ties to a company run by a prominent GOP donor who settled a federal fraud case involving the military health care program.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University has received designation as a Google School through a partnership with the tech company.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Lexus, Toyota and Buick are the most reliable brands in Consumer Reports' latest survey, a reward for their conservative approach to new technology.
DETROIT (AP) — The government's highway safety agency says automakers should make cybersecurity part of their product development process by assessing risks and designing in protections.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping Tuesday as corporate earnings dominate the news and consumer companies like athletic apparel maker Under Armour and appliance maker Whirlpool absorb their largest losses in years. However strong results for household goods maker Procter & Gamble are sending its stock higher.
CHICAGO (AP) — It was a striking image. A photo of an 89-year-old man hunched over, struggling to push his cart with frozen treats. Fidencio Sanchez works long hours every day selling the treats because he couldn't afford to retire. The photo and his story went viral and thousands of people donated more than $384,000 for his retirement.
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T and Time Warner are playing up how their $85.4 billion merger will lead to innovative new experiences for customers. But analysts, public-interest groups and some politicians are far from convinced.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Online brokerage TD Ameritrade is buying Scottrade in a $4 billion cash-and-stock deal that would significantly expand its branch network at a time when many financial firms are expanding automated adviser programs.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 21
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's preliminary unemployment rate for September has risen in the state's latest reports.
SPRING CITY (AP) — A Tennessee reactor is now complete, making it the nation's first new nuclear generating plant of the 21st century.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week for a second straight week, reaching their highest levels since June.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans bought homes in September, many for the first time, despite a persistent shortage of properties for sale.
AUTO INDUSTRY
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Missouri has received $8.7 million from Volkswagen as part of a multibillion-dollar national settlement over the automaker's emissions cheating scandal.
DETROIT (AP) — Electric car maker Tesla Motors has plans to get into the ride-hailing and sharing businesses.
HEALTH CARE
MIAMI (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday defended his namesake health care program, long a target of Republicans and recently criticized by some Democrats, saying millions of Americans "now know the financial security of health insurance" because of the Affordable Care Act.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple says it has been buying Apple chargers and cables labeled as genuine on Amazon.com and has found nearly 90 percent of them to be counterfeit.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The major U.S. stock indexes closed mostly lower Friday, capping a day spent wavering between small gains and losses.
LONDON (AP) — Cyberattacks on a key internet firm repeatedly disrupted the availability of popular websites across the United States Friday, according to analysts and company officials. The White House described the disruption as malicious.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Striking Jim Beam workers at two Kentucky distilleries have accepted a contract offer, ending a walkout that lasted nearly a week.
LONDON (AP) — British American Tobacco is offering to take over Reynolds American Inc. in a $47 billion deal that would create the world's largest publicly traded tobacco company and try to make up for a decline in smoking in the U.S. and Europe.
NEW YORK (AP) — More Americans have access to a checking or savings account, according to a survey released Thursday by federal regulators, a sign that the improving economy is helping lift the nation's poorest households.
Snoopy has been handed the pink slip. After 31 years (almost 170 dog years) as the face of insurance giant MetLife Inc., the company said Thursday that it is launching a new global branding effort, marking the end of a long relationship with Charlie Brown's beagle and the Peanuts crew.
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A labor union that has demonstrated against Wal-Mart Stores Inc. asked the Arkansas Supreme Court Thursday to reverse a judge's decision barring it from entering the retail giant's property for anything other than shopping.
MILAN (AP) — The terror threat in Europe, a strong dollar and uncertainty over the U.S. presidential elections have eroded the confidence of the globe's big-spenders, holding luxury purchases flat in 2016, according to a study released Thursday.