VOL. 46 | NO. 43 | Friday, October 28, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Veteran Realtor Jim Owens has died, forever changing the personality of real residential real estate in the Nashville area. Owens was opinionated, never in doubt and usually right. With a military background that ultimately led to his death, he negotiated real estate with an old school attitude, yet he embraced new technology and strongly embraced the Realtors Code of Ethics.
TENNESSEE TITANS
If you play fantasy football, you probably won’t be scouring the Tennessee Titans roster for much help beyond the obvious choice with Derrick Henry.
The Titans had a little trick up their sleeves Sunday to help shore up a leaky pass defense. The Titans knew Amani Hooker had cleared the concussion protocol and would be available.
The Titans have once again put themselves in a good spot in the AFC South, sweeping the Colts and putting distance between themselves and the rest of the division. That quest to rule the South continues this week when they go back on the road to face the Houston Texans.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ryan Tannehill walked out wearing sneakers Wednesday to talk to reporters with no hint of a limp.
UT SPORTS
Many athletes profess to be students of the game. It’s true for University of Tennessee punter/kickoff specialist Paxton Brooks on many levels.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — More than just bragging rights will be on the line Saturday night between Tennessee and Kentucky.
NEWSMAKERS
The Tennessee Health Care Hall of Fame recently inducted its 2022 class. New inductees are:
BRIEFS
Unemployment in Tennessee remained unchanged between August and September, the Department of Labor and Workforce Development reports.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Acura has brought the enthusiast favorite Integra nameplate back to the market after a two-decade hiatus. It now takes the form of a hatchback sedan rather than the hatchback coupe most people might remember. It offers roomy seating, standard turbocharged power and many helpful driver assistance features.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The big, red-brick building down the road is where you get your groceries.
CAREER CORNER
Happy Halloween! In celebration, I want to share one of my frightening job interview stories.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
As prices on goods and services soar, every bit of value squeezed from credit cards helps.
UT SPORTS
Tennessee, Ohio State, Georgia, and Clemson were the top four teams in the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season released Tuesday night, four days before the Volunteers and Bulldogs square off on the field.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
EDMONTON, Alberta (AP) — Evander Kane had a hat trick, Connor McDavid added two goals and two assists, and the Edmonton Oilers beat the Nashville Predators 7-4 on Tuesday night.
ELECTION 2022
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than 200 votes have been cast in the wrong races in Nashville since early voting began in Tennessee, election officials confirmed Wednesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Democratic state senator from Tennessee who is running to represent the Nashville area in Congress says her husband has stage 4 cancer.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — The call went out from leaders in the medical marijuana industry: Money was needed for a Missouri ballot initiative to legalize recreational cannabis for adults. Their colleagues responded.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk said Wednesday that Twitter will not allow anyone who has been kicked off the site to return until it sets up procedures on how to do that, a process that will take at least a few weeks.
NEW YORK (AP) — Days after taking over Twitter and a week before the U.S. midterm elections, billionaire Elon Musk has positioned himself as moderator-in-chief of one of the most important social media platforms in American politics.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers who aided former President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election regarded an appeal to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas as a "key" to their success, according to emails provided to congressional investigators and made public Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump has settled a lawsuit filed by a group of protesters who say they were roughed up by the Republican's private security guards during his 2015 presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days after the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection, Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes tried to get a message to then-President Donald Trump that urged him to fight to stay in power and "save the republic," according to trial testimony on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters opposed to the Supreme Court's decision overturning abortion rights briefly interrupted arguments at the court Wednesday and urged women to vote in next week's elections.
JACKSON (AP) — A man has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison for shooting two deputy U.S. Marshals during a standoff at a duplex in West Tennessee, prosecutors said.
CVS Health has announced an agreement in principle that would make it the first major pharmacy chain to reach a nationwide settlement of lawsuits over how it handled prescriptions for powerful and addictive prescription opioid painkillers that are linked to an overdose epidemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for a man on Arizona's death row told the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday that jurors in the case were wrongly told that the only way to ensure the man would never walk free was to sentence him to death.
ENERGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it is making $4.5 billion available through a low-income home energy assistance program to help with heating costs heading into what is expected to be a brutal winter.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — The German government said Wednesday that it plans to make plastic manufacturers contribute to the cost of cleaning up litter in streets and parks.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is warning that many of the financial institutions it oversees are moving too slowly to shield themselves and Europe's banking system from the impact of climate change, and it is setting new deadlines to meet those requirements.
LONDON (AP) — U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak on Wednesday said he will attend this month's U.N. climate summit in Egypt, reversing a decision to skip it that had drawn criticism at home and abroad.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s top quality executive is retiring as the company continues to struggle with high warranty claims and reliability issues.
BANKING
DOVER, Del. (AP) — The former president of the only financial institution to be criminally charged in connection with the federal bank bailout program in the wake of the 2008 financial crisis has reached a settlement with federal securities regulators in a related civil action.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed broadly lower on Wall Street after Federal Reserve Chief Jerome Powell signaled that it's too early for the central bank to consider pausing its interest rate increases, though it may slow them down.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve pumped up its benchmark interest rate Wednesday by three-quarters of a point for a fourth straight time to fight high inflation but hinted that it could soon reduce the size of its rate hikes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Below is the statement the Fed released Wednesday after its policy meeting ended:
NEW YORK (AP) — Mortgage rates continue to jump, home sales slump and credit cards and auto loans increase. Savings rates are slightly juicier, though.
Airbnb reported a record $1.21 billion profit for the third quarter as bookings and average daily rates increased, and the company said Tuesday that demand for short-term rentals remains strong despite uncertainty over the economy.
CVS Health booked a third-quarter loss of more than $3 billion after setting aside money for a potential opioid litigation deal but still beat expectations and raised its 2022 forecast.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of reassuring talk about America's economy and inflation, President Joe Biden is turning to a darker, more urgent message, warning in the final days of midterm election voting that democracy itself is under threat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was his last stop of the day on a West Coast swing, a backyard fundraiser at a TV producer's home in Los Angeles, and President Joe Biden was telling the crowd how tough the past few years have been.
ELM CITY, N.C. (AP) — The man entrusted with promoting President Joe Biden's $1 trillion infrastructure plan barreled into this North Carolina town of 1,200 with the same rumbling intensity as the passing freight trains that shake anyone sitting in a chair.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Saudi Arabia has shared intelligence with American officials that suggests Iran could be preparing for an imminent attack on the kingdom, three U.S. officials said Tuesday.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Wednesday accused North Korea of covertly shipping a "significant number" of artillery shells to Russia in support of its invasion of Ukraine.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — Elon Musk has given assurances to Ukraine that he will keep funding its access to a crucial satellite network providing Kyiv with battlefield and humanitarian communications in its war with Russia, a senior Ukrainian official said Wednesday.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish soldiers began laying razor wire Wednesday along Poland's border with the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad after the government ordered the construction of a barrier to prevent what it fears could become another migration crisis.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia agreed Wednesday to resume its participation in a deal brokered by Turkey and the U.N. to keep grain and other commodities moving out of Ukraine's ports during Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Turkey's president said.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. Security Council scheduled a vote Wednesday on a resolution that would establish a commission to investigate unfounded Russian claims that Ukraine and the United States are carrying out "military biologcal" activities that violate the convention prohibiting the use of biological weapons.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 1
NASHVILLE SC
Major League Soccer today announced that Nashville SC midfielder Hany Mukhtar has been named the 2022 Landon Donovan MLS Most Valuable Player, after winning the MLS Golden Boot presented by Audi during his record-breaking season.
UT SPORTS
Just in time for its biggest test of the season against No. 2 Tennessee's top-ranked offense, top-ranked Georgia's defense has lost outside linebacker Nolan Smith to a season-ending injury.
Even before the first College Football Playoff rankings of the season are unveiled Tuesday night, it is clear which teams still have a chance to play for a national championship.
Tennessee scores so many points so fast that the defense tends to be overshadowed, ignored until someone wonders how the Volunteers can play so many minutes a game.
TENNESSEE TITANS
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel offered handshakes and high-fives to his players as they exited Nissan Stadium following a victory two weeks ago.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have two-time rushing champ Derrick Henry and a punishing defense, so the two-time AFC South division winners are leaning into their strengths right now.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Fresh off one of her biggest album launches of her career, Taylor Swift announced a new U.S. stadium tour starting in 2023, with international dates to follow.
ELECTION 2022
NASHVILLE (AP) — Jason Martin has spent more than two years trying to get Gov. Bill Lee's attention in Tennessee — first, as the critical care doctor urging more action against the COVID-19 pandemic, and now, as the Democratic nominee for governor trying to knock the Republican out of office.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A man accused of intentionally setting fire to a Tennessee Planned Parenthood clinic and of firing shots later at a federal courthouse died months ago, officials announced Monday in disclosing both the man's death and the allegations.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday cleared the way for Sen. Lindsey Graham's testimony in a Georgia investigation of possible illegal interference in the 2020 election by then-President Donald Trump and his allies in the state.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's election as president was a wake-up call — not just for the political establishment, but also for the company synonymous with him, his wealth and his fame, a top executive testified Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday put a temporary hold on the handover of former President Donald Trump's tax returns to a congressional committee.
NEW YORK (AP) — For years, as Donald Trump was soaring from reality TV star to the White House, his real estate empire was bankrolling big perks for some of his top executives, including apartments and luxury cars.
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Monday declined to dismiss a defamation lawsuit filed against former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani by two women who served as election workers in Georgia in November 2020.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge has blocked Penguin Random House's proposed purchase of Simon & Schuster, agreeing with the Justice Department that the joining of two of the world's biggest publishers could "lessen competition" for "top-selling books." The ruling was a victory for the Biden administration's tougher approach to proposed mergers, a break from decades of precedent under Democratic and Republican leadership.
ENVIRONMENT
ST. PAUL, Minn. (AP) — The political fight is only getting fiercer over whether it's financially wise or "woke" folly to consider a company's impact on climate change, workers' rights and other issues when making investments.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — The philanthropic arm of Ford Motor Co. said Tuesday it is giving $1 million to help West Tennessee communities improve infrastructure as they prepare for the automaker's electric truck and battery factory.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota said Tuesday that its profit fell 31% in the last quarter as a shortage of computer chips offset foreign exchange gains from a weaker yen.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — The vast majority of Americans will find multiple options for health insurance coverage for 2023 on HealthCare.gov after open enrollment began Tuesday under the Affordable Care Act.
Pfizer's COVID-19 treatment helped the pharmaceutical giant balance tumbling international sales for its coronavirus vaccine and top third-quarter expectations.
New research shows vaccinating pregnant women helped protect their newborns from the common but scary respiratory virus called RSV that fills hospitals with wheezing babies each fall.
Johnson & Johnson is spending more than $16 billion to move deeper into treating heart disease and continue a shift started last year away from its consumer health roots.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks gave up early gains and ended lower on Wall Street after an unexpectedly strong report on the job market raised concerns that the Federal Reserve will need to keep the pressure on inflation with aggressive interest rate increases.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Help-wanted signs are everywhere. Employers are posting nearly two job openings for every unemployed American. Hiring is on track for its second-strongest year in government records dating to 1940. And the economy grew solidly over the summer.
Shares of Uber surged Tuesday after the company said there is little evidence that Americans are pulling back on hailing rides or ordering food deliveries despite soaring inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in September, suggesting that the American labor market is not cooling as fast as the inflation fighters at the Federal Reserve hoped.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday accused oil companies of "war profiteering" as he raised the possibility of imposing a windfall tax on energy companies if they don't boost domestic production.
LONDON (AP) — BP's earnings more than doubled in the third quarter as the London-based energy giant benefited from high oil and natural gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Oil giant Saudi Aramco on Tuesday reported a $42.4 billion profit in the third quarter of this year, a 39% bump buoyed by the higher global energy prices that have filled the kingdom's coffers but helped fuel inflation worldwide.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is heading to Florida to underline the contrast between the Democratic and Republican agendas, blasting the GOP over proposals to undo prescription drug price caps and change Social Security and Medicare.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least three Republicans running for the U.S. House attended the "Stop the Steal" rally on Jan. 6, 2021, and made their way toward the U.S. Capitol during the insurrection to stop Joe Biden's election.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The decorative candles Yaroslav Vedmid bought more than a year ago were never meant to be lit, but the dried wax that now clings to them attests to how they've been used almost nightly — a consequence of power cuts across Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Experts from the United Nations' nuclear power agency inspected two sites in Ukraine on Tuesday that Russia identified in unfounded claims that Ukrainian authorities were manufacturing radioactive "dirty bombs."
MONDAY, OCTOBER 31
TENNESSEE TITANS
HOUSTON (AP) — Derrick Henry was feeling it Sunday, running all over the Houston Texans like he has so many times before. At one point he turned to his rookie quarterback with a simple but pointed message.
STATEWIDE
MARYVILLE (AP) — Leslee Kathryn Buhler Alexander, the wife of former Tennessee governor and U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander and a longtime family and children's health advocate, has died at age 77, her family said Sunday.
REGION
Campari Group, owner of the iconic Wild Turkey brand, said Monday it will add to its Kentucky bourbon portfolio by taking a majority stake in Wilderness Trail Distillery.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused of attacking House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband with a hammer told police he wanted to hold the Democratic leader hostage and "break her kneecaps" to show other members of Congress there were consequences for their actions, authorities said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man who stormed the U.S. Capitol with other members of the far-right Oath Keepers testified Monday that he believed they were participating in a historic "Bastille-type event" reminiscent of the French Revolution.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is going to the Supreme Court, again, this time to try to stop his tax returns from being handed to a congressional committee.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump is lashing out at the judge handling the New York attorney general's fraud lawsuit against him and his company, calling him "vicious, biased, and mean" in a social media post just days before the case's first court hearing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected Turkey's bid to shut down lawsuits in U.S. courts stemming from a violent brawl outside the Turkish ambassador's residence in Washington more than five years ago that left anti-government protesters badly beaten.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of the Supreme Court's conservative majority are questioning the continued use of affirmative action in higher education in lengthy arguments Monday in which the justices are wrestling with difficult questions of race.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Supreme Court that is the most diverse in history will hear two cases Monday challenging the use of affirmative action in higher education. It's a topic a number of the justices have already said a lot about.
MEDIA
Billionaire Elon Musk is already floating major changes for Twitter — and faces major hurdles as he begins his first week as owner of the social-media platform.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans can begin selecting their 2023 health insurance plans on HealthCare.gov on Tuesday, as the Biden administration pushes to keep the number of uninsured Americans at a record low.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heading into next week's midterm elections, many Republican candidates are seeking to capitalize on voters' concerns about inflation by vilifying a key component of President Joe Biden's climate agenda: electric vehicles.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is bringing together three dozen nations, the European Union and a slew of private-sector companies for a two-day summit starting Monday that looks at how best to combat ransomware attacks.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended lower on Wall Street, but major indexes still wound up with big gains for October, including the best month for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1976.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday will raise the possibility of imposing a 'windfall tax' on energy companies, as his administration aims to combat high gas prices just days before the midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve may reach a turning point this week as it announces what's expected to be another substantial three-quarter-point hike in its key interest rate — its fourth straight.
NEW YORK (AP) — Starting this week, job-seekers in New York City will have access to a key piece of information: how much money they can expect to earn for an advertised opening.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Inflation hit a new record in the 19 countries that use the euro currency, fueled by out-of-control prices for natural gas and electricity due to Russia's war in Ukraine. Economic growth also slowed ahead of what economists fear is a looming recession, largely as a result of those higher prices sapping Europeans' ability to spend.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Reports of people watching ballot boxes in Arizona, sometimes armed or wearing ballistic vests, raise serious concerns about voter intimidation, the Justice Department said Monday as it stepped into a lawsuit over the monitoring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is moving forward with an overhaul of several student debt forgiveness programs, aiming to make it easier for borrowers to get relief if they are duped by their colleges or if they put in a decade of work as public servants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Biden administration official on Monday pushed back against growing criticism from Iranian American activists who are calling on the White House to abandon its efforts to resurrect the Iran nuclear deal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, on Monday were hosting the children of local firefighters, nurses, police officers and National Guard members for trick-or-treating at the White House on Halloween. But it was shaping up to be a soggy affair.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A massive barrage of Russian strikes on Monday morning hit critical infrastructure in Kyiv, Kharkiv and other cities, knocking out water and power supplies in apparent retaliation for what Moscow alleged was a Ukrainian attack on its Black Sea Fleet over the weekend.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia resumed its blockade of Ukrainian ports on Sunday, cutting off urgently needed grain exports to hungry parts of the world in what U.S. President Joe Biden called a "really outrageous" act.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 28
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Jerry Lee Lewis, the untamable rock 'n' roll pioneer whose outrageous talent, energy and ego collided on such definitive records as "Great Balls of Fire" and "Whole Lotta Shakin' Goin' On" and sustained a career otherwise upended by personal scandal, died Friday morning at 87.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Roman Josi had a goal and two assists, and the Nashville Predators defeated the St. Louis Blues 6-2 on Thursday night to stop their five-game losing streak.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Historical Commission is taking applications for awards to honor people or groups that work to study and preserve Tennessee's heritage.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — An attorney for a death row inmate in Tennessee who cut off his penis shortly after asking to be placed on suicide watch filed a complaint against prison officials Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's taken just three days to seat a jury of 12 people in the tax fraud trial of Donald Trump's company — surprising even some people involved in the case who thought it would take at least a week to find an impartial panel in heavily Democratic New York City.
The Georgia prosecutor investigating possible illegal election interference in the 2020 election said Thursday that the Supreme Court should not stand in the way of U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham's testimony to a grand jury.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers and member countries reached a deal to ban the sale of new gasoline and diesel cars and vans by 2035.
MEDIA
Twitter's unending fight against spam accounts is now a problem for new owner Elon Musk, who pledged in April to defeat the bot scourge or "die trying!"
On Oct. 4, Elon Musk reversed himself and offered to honor his original proposal to buy Twitter for $44 billion — a deal he had spent the previous several months trying to wriggle out of. He made the latest offer just two weeks before a Twitter lawsuit aimed at forcing Musk to go through with the deal was scheduled to go to trial in Delaware Chancery Court. After receiving Musk's offer, Twitter said it intends to close the transaction.
PERSONAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS said Thursday it has hired an additional 4,000 customer service representatives who are being trained to answer taxpayer questions during the 2023 tax filing season.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve remained painfully high last month, the latest sign that prices for most goods and services in the United States are still rising steadily.
Oil companies brought in staggering profits once again as people worldwide struggled with high gasoline and energy prices.
Exxon Mobil broke records again with its profits in the third quarter, raking in $19.66 billion in net income.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon returned to profitability over the summer after two consecutive quarters of losses, but its stock fell sharply in after-hours trading due to weaker-than-expected revenue and disappointing projections for the current quarter.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Businesses are increasingly worried about the renewed threat of a railroad strike after two unions rejected their deals, and they want the Biden administration and Congress to be ready to intervene.
BERLIN (AP) — The German economy grew in the third quarter, an unexpectedly positive performance powered largely by private spending, official figures showed Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The intruder who attacked House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband in their San Francisco home was searching for the Democratic leader, shouting "Where is Nancy, where is Nancy?" before assaulting Paul Pelosi with a hammer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's husband, Paul, was "violently assaulted" by an assailant who broke into their San Francisco home early Friday, and he is now in the hospital and expected to make a full recovery, said her spokesman, Drew Hammill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaking last year on the House floor, Democratic Rep. Tim Ryan angrily bemoaned the lack of bipartisanship after the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection and said Republican opposition to an investigative commission was a "slap in the face" to the law enforcement officers assaulted by then-President Donald Trump's supporters that day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will cast his midterm election ballot this weekend in his home state of Delaware, where in-person early voting begins Friday.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is sending Ukraine a new $275 million package of weapons and other aid, in a move to bolster the effort to drive Russian forces out of key areas in the south as the winter closes in, U.S. officials said Thursday.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.S. and its Western allies on Thursday dismissed Russia's claims that banned biological weapons activities are taking place in Ukraine with American support, calling the allegation disinformation and fabrications.
BAKHMUT, Ukraine (AP) — Russian soldiers pummeling a city in eastern Ukraine with artillery are slowly edging closer in their attempt to seize Bakhmut, which has remained in Ukrainian hands during the eight-month war despite Moscow's goal of capturing the entire Donbas region bordering Russia.
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 27
EAST TENNESSEE
GATLINBURG (AP) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park officials have closed a couple of trails until further notice to allow a large concentration of black bears to feed on acorns.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee senator accused of violating federal campaign finance laws requested a hearing Thursday to change his not guilty plea after initially criticizing the charges as a political witch hunt.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A white former Nashville police officer who pleaded guilty to fatally shooting a Black man from behind as the man was fleeing on foot has been released from jail, his attorney confirmed Thursday.
A Tennessee man who dragged a police officer into a mob of rioters, initiating one of the most harrowing acts of violence during the U.S. Capitol attack, was sentenced on Thursday to more than seven years in prison.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate topped 7% for the first time in more than two decades this week, a result of the Federal Reserve's aggressive rate hikes intended to tame inflation not seen in some 40 years.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — All summer long, Aleen Hudson kept looking for a new minivan or SUV for her growing passenger shuttle service.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford said Wednesday that it is disbanding Argo AI, an autonomous vehicle company that it co-owns with Volkswagen.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 400 school districts spanning all 50 states and Washington, D.C., along with several tribes and U.S. territories, are receiving roughly $1 billion in grants to purchase about 2,500 "clean" school buses under a new federal program.
TECHNOLOGY
Hunting down your enemies on the bustling streets of Amsterdam, along the U.S.-Mexico border or in a Middle Eastern fishing village is just part of the intense action in the latest Call of Duty video game.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marlboro-maker Altria has a new partner in its effort to bring a heat-not-burn cigarette to the U.S. market, one week after exiting a similar deal with its sister company, Philip Morris International.
BEIJING (AP) — Seagate Technology said Thursday the U.S. Department of Commerce has warned it may charge the computer hard-drive maker with violating restrictions on exports of high-tech products to China.
BANKING
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss bank Credit Suisse unveiled Thursday a "radical strategy" aimed to overcome a string of recent troubles that have dented its reputation, involving cost cuts, staff reductions, steps to lower risk and a cash infusion through a share purchase from a leading Saudi bank.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended mixed on Wall Street as weakness in several tech companies offset gains in other parts of the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a 2.6% annual rate from July through September, snapping two straight quarters of contraction and overcoming high inflation and interest rates just as voting begins in midterm elections in which the economy's health has emerged as a paramount issue.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly more Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market remains one of the healthiest parts of an uneven U.S. economy.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The head of the European Central Bank says the 19-country eurozone economy is expected to weaken the rest of the year and into next.
Facebook parent Meta on Wednesday reported that its revenue declined for a second consecutive quarter, hurt by falling advertising sales as it faces competition from TikTok's wildly popular video app.
LONDON (AP) — Shell's earnings more than doubled in the third quarter, fueling the debate over taxes on energy producers' windfall profits as they have benefited from high oil and natural gas prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Southwest posted record operating revenue in its third quarter as travelers returned in force over the summer.
McDonald's reported strong sales in the third quarter as it raised prices and used offers on its app to draw in customers
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is making available $759 million in grants and loans to enable rural communities to access high-speed internet, part of the broader $65 billion push for high-speed connectivity from last year's infrastructure law.
MANHATTAN BEACH, Calif. (AP) — The rapper formerly known as Kanye West was escorted out of the California-based headquarters of athletic shoemaker Skechers after he showed up unannounced Wednesday, a day after Adidas ended its partnership with the artist following his antisemitic remarks.
ELECTION 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to travel to New Mexico next week, days before the Nov. 8 midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As U.S. spy agencies ramped up their work to catch foreign meddling in this year's election, a team of CIA experts studied lessons learned from the contentious 2020 vote. Unexpectedly, their report sparked a controversy within parts of the intelligence community.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. doesn't have a government agency that tells the nation who's won an election right away. Every state has its own process for counting votes, and news organizations play a key role.
SEATTLE (AP) — A Washington state judge on Wednesday fined Facebook parent company Meta nearly $25 million for repeatedly and intentionally violating campaign finance disclosure law, in what is believed to be the largest campaign finance penalty in U.S. history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Election Day is 12 days away. But in courtrooms across the country, efforts to sow doubt over the outcome have already begun.
FRANKLIN (AP) — Texas Sen. Ted Cruz on Wednesday lambasted Democrats' leadership on inflation, crime and foreign policy as he urged Tennessee voters to send Republican Andy Ogles to Congress.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — China remains the greatest security challenge for the United States despite Russia's war in Ukraine, and the threat from Beijing will determine how the U.S. military is equipped and shaped for the future, according to a new Pentagon defense strategy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is zeroing in on a largely economic-focused message amid raging inflation and recession risks Thursday as he takes his closing argument for the November midterm elections to a top congressional battleground and tries to reassure restive voters around the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's chief of staff violated the law by retweeting a political message on his government Twitter account, and a warning letter was sent to him, according to a memo from the Office of Special Counsel. Top aide Ron Klain "got it wrong this time" and will be more careful, the White House said Thursday.