VOL. 41 | NO. 40 | Friday, October 6, 2017
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Some details of the GOP tax reform proposal were released last week, and the National Association of Realtors is not happy.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota will be a game-time decision for Sunday's matchup against the Dolphins.
The Tennessee Titans season might have flashed right before their eyes this past Sunday.
Titans offensive line vs. Dolphins defensive line. The Titans offensive line has to control the tempo in this game, no matter which quarterback – Marcus Mariota or Matt Cassel – plays on Sunday. The likes of Dolphins pass rushers Ndamukong Suh and Cameron Wake could make life miserable for the Titans QB. It puts the impetus on Taylor Lewan, Jack Conklin and company to get the job done.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
If/when Butch Jones is fired at Tennessee, a number of reasons will be cited. Among them:
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
Tennessee’s football players are on fall break this weekend during the open date.
NEWSMAKERS
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. has hired Shannon Quinn as president, original equipment tire sales, U.S. and Canada, Bridgestone Americas Tire Operations. Quinn succeeds Mike Martini, who recently retired after a 40-year career with Bridgestone Americas.
BRIEFS
Nashville-based United Derm Partners, a dermatology practice management firm, has added Vitalogy Skincare to its group of partner practices.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Sixty-three percent of marketers find generating traffic and leads to be their biggest challenge, according to HubSpot’s State of Inbound 2017.
CAREER CORNER
One of the worst feelings you can have at work is being trapped with no way out. I meet professionals every day who feel chained to their job, who are very often in unhealthy situations that make them miserable each and every day.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — CMT is forgoing formal award presentations during this year's Artists of the Year show and devoting the entire live show to "a night of hope and healing through the power of music" following a mass shooting at a country music festival in Las Vegas.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota says he feels a lot better than a week ago. Whether he plays Monday night against the Indianapolis Colts will depend on how much Mariota can move around.
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee county's school board has voted to keep protections for LGBT students and employees in place.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee forestry officials say outdoor burning permits will be required as the state heads into wildfire season.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee native Katie Hill has been hired on as the new communications director for former President Barack Obama.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term mortgage rates rose for a second straight week as the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate increased to 3.91 percent, from 3.85 percent a week ago.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Frustrated by failures in Congress, President Donald Trump will try to put his own stamp on health care with an executive order Thursday that aims to make lower-premium plans more widely available.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — Oil company Shell has signed an agreement to buy electric vehicle charging firm NewMotion. It did not disclose terms.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are slipping in early trading Thursday as retailers and communications and media companies decline. Women's clothing retailer J. Jill is tumbling after it slashed its forecast for the third quarter. AT&T is falling after it said it expects to lose DirecTV subscribers, while cable company Charter and entertainment conglomerate Viacom are down on reports that Viacom channels may go off the air in the New York area because of a contract dispute.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer people sought unemployment benefits last week as the impact of last month's hurricanes on the U.S. economy fades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rising energy costs led prices at the wholesale level to climb 0.4 percent in September — a bout of inflation that happened in the wake of Hurricane Harvey closing a critical number of U.S. gasoline producers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The North American Free Trade Agreement is in its 23rd year. But there are growing doubts that it will survive through its 24th.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at hurricane-devastated Puerto Rico on Thursday, insisting that federal help will be limited and blaming the U.S. territory for its financial struggles. The broadside came as the House headed toward passage of a $36.5 billion disaster aid package, including assistance for Puerto Rico.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is on track to backing President Donald Trump's request for billions more in disaster aid, $16 billion to pay flood insurance claims and emergency funding to help the cash-strapped government of Puerto Rico stay afloat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's tax overhaul package is getting resistance from an unusual alliance of interests opposed to his plans to scrap the federal deduction for state and local taxes.
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Twitter is reversing a decision to keep Tennessee Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn from promoting a campaign video on that platform because of the congresswoman's statements about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The banner went up and the home team came back to win in a thrilling finish. All in all, a perfect night for the Nashville Predators and their fans.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Each year, taxpayers subsidize America's homeowners by roughly $70 billion, with the benefits flowing disproportionately to coastal areas with high incomes and pricey homes, from New York and Washington to Los Angeles and San Francisco.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California regulators took an important step Wednesday to clear the road for everyday people to get self-driving cars.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is teaming up with award-winning director Steven Spielberg for its first major push into TV programming.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes drifted back to record highs Wednesday as investors got ready for another round of corporate reports to begin. Technology, health care and household goods companies all rose.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers are advertising near-record levels of job openings, though the total slipped in August from July.
NEW YORK (AP) — Supermarket operator Kroger says it is considering selling its gas station convenience stores, such as KwikShop, Loaf 'N Jug and Turkey Hill Minit Markets.
NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Yale University's endowment has grown to a record $27.2 billion.
NEW YORK (AP) — Remember when your parents first let you shop at the mall by yourself? Amazon is trying to replicate that feeling for the digital generation.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration says coal is back and nuclear energy is cool. An unusual coalition of business and environmental groups says that should not be at the expense of natural gas and wind and solar power.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After days dominated by friction with his secretary of state and a Republican senator, President Donald Trump is trying to refocus on his top legislative priority, using a Pennsylvania visit to pitch his tax overhaul as a boon for truckers.
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 10
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The new Tennessee State Museum project has yielded more than $25 million in donations by corporations, foundations and individuals.
COURTS
CHICAGO (AP) — Muhammad Ali Enterprises on Tuesday filed a $30 million federal lawsuit against Fox Broadcasting Company, claiming Fox used without permission the late boxer's identity in a video that aired just before its broadcast of the Super Bowl last February.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned away a free-speech appeal from a former school lunch server in Minnesota who was charged with sexting a 15-year-old student.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A big jump for Wal-Mart helped the Dow Jones industrial average set a record Tuesday, while gains for other retailers and airlines sent other stock indexes higher as well.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The world economy is picking up momentum. The International Monetary Fund on Tuesday raised its forecast for global growth to 3.6 percent this year and 3.7 percent in 2018.
NEW YORK (AP) — If in a movie, Harvey Weinstein would probably cut the scenes of sexual harassment that have been described against him. They're too cliché.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is all about online, anticipating digital sales next fiscal year will rise about 40 percent and that it will double the number of U.S. curbside locations for online grocery shoppers at its stores.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Ikea will start selling furniture through third-party websites to find new ways to reach customers in the digital age, though "no decisions are made regarding what platforms/markets will be in the pilot."
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just 1 in 5 Americans want to deport young immigrants brought to the United States as children and now here illegally, the focus of a politically fraught debate between the White House and Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at Sen. Bob Corker as "Liddle' Bob Corker" on Tuesday, continuing a feud with the Tennessee Republican who's dubbed the White House an "adult day care center" and charged that Trump could be setting the nation on the path toward World War III.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested he's smarter than Secretary of State Rex Tillerson, saying in an interview published Tuesday that if Tillerson did call him a moron, as reported, the two should "compare IQ tests."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is suggesting the U.S. change its tax laws to punish organizations like the NFL if members are "disrespecting" the national anthem or flag.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as President Donald Trump's advisers encourage him to accept the realities of special counsel Robert Mueller's probe, longtime friends and allies are pushing Trump to fight back, citing concerns that his lawyers are naive to the existential threat facing the president.
MONDAY, OCTOBER 9
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee preservation group on Monday requested a state ruling that would block Nashville development plans at the foot of a Civil War fort.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville has launched a one-stop website and hotline for citizens to submit a variety of concerns to the city, from potholes to code violations.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — When singer Meghan Linsey first started her country duo Steel Magnolia, a partnership with the National Rifle Association was suggested as a way to grow their audience.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee left tackle Taylor Lewan is day to day after an MRI exam on his left knee.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has suspended starting defensive end Darrell Taylor indefinitely, the latest adversity for a team that has dropped its first two Southeastern Conference games and is coming off its most lopsided home loss since 1905.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The best quarterback on either side Sunday was Marcos Mariota, and he spent the entire game on the sideline.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Rep. Marsha Blackburn's Senate campaign announcement ad has been blocked by Twitter over a statement the abortion rights opponent makes about the sale of fetal tissue for medical research.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Rep. Stephen Fincher, a gospel singing farmer from the rural western Tennessee community of Frog Jump, is launching a statewide tour to weigh whether to join the race to succeed Republican Bob Corker in the Senate.
HEALTH CARE
The White House is working on a plan that could bring more health insurance choices and cheaper options to people buying individual and small business coverage. But the bill for this might be paid by the sick.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is finalizing an executive order that would expand health plans offered by associations to allow individuals to pool together and buy insurance outside their states, a unilateral move that follows failed efforts by Congress to overhaul the health care system.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is buying a small company that is developing Laser light sensors for autonomous cars, a move the automaker says will speed deployment of self-driving technology.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Losses for health care companies and banks left U.S. stocks lower Monday after a quiet day of trading. Industrial conglomerate General Electric skidded after announcing more changes in its leadership.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — The Nobel prize in economics has been awarded to Richard Thaler of the University of Chicago for research showing how people's choices on economic matters — whether on savings or game shows like "Deal or No Deal" — are not always rational.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — For the second consecutive year, there were no women among the 2017 Nobel prize laureates.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Corker is hardly the only Republican lambasting Donald Trump and raising dark concerns about harm the president might cause the U.S. and the world.
Nearly a year after Facebook and Google launched offensives against fake news, they're still inadvertently promoting it — often at the worst possible times.
HAZARD, Ky. (AP) — A coalition of left-leaning states and environmental groups are vowing to fight the Trump administration's move to kill an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
HAZARD, Ky. (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Monday that he will sign a new rule overriding the Clean Power Plan, an Obama-era effort to limit carbon emissions from coal-fired power plants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A powerful Republican senator cast the president of his own party as a man-child who could set the U.S. "on the path to World War III" as the two engaged in an intense and vitriolic back-and-forth bashing, a remarkable airing of their party's profound rifts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association is opposing a ban on "bump stocks" like the device used by the Las Vegas gunman to turn semi-automatic weapons into rapid-fire guns, stressing its support for more limited regulations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump told congressional leaders on Sunday that his hard-line immigration priorities must be enacted in exchange for extending protection from deportation to hundreds of thousands of young immigrants, many of whom were brought to the U.S. illegally as children.
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 6
STATEWIDE
Auto supplier Denso: $1B investment in Tennessee plant
NASHVILLE (AP) — U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn announced her campaign for U.S. Sen. Bob Corker's seat on Thursday in a video that slams the "totally dysfunctional" Senate and Republicans in particular for their failure to repeal the Affordable Care Act.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Thursday that he won't run for the U.S. Senate seat being opened with the retirement of fellow Republican Bob Corker.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term mortgage rates ticked up slightly this week as the average
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The infotainment technology that automakers are cramming into the dashboard of new vehicles is making drivers take their eyes off the road and hands off the wheel for dangerously long periods of time, an AAA study says.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks faded a bit from their record highs on Friday after telecom and energy stocks sank. The loss for the Standard & Poor's 500 index was small, but it was the first in nearly two weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's biggest business group is warning the Trump administration that a withdrawal from the North American Free Trade Agreement would be a "political and economic debacle" that would cost hundreds of thousands of U.S. jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. shed 33,000 jobs in September because of Hurricanes Harvey and Irma, which closed thousands of businesses in Texas and Florida and forced widespread evacuations. It was the first decline in nearly seven years.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Harvey Weinstein, the larger-than-life Hollywood executive and Oscar-winner, is taking a leave of absence from his own company after an explosive expose revealing decades of sexual harassment against women, from employees to actress Ashley Judd, was published in The New York Times Thursday.
The Trump administration's plans to slash corporate taxes and make other business-friendly changes to the nation's tax laws have helped lift U.S. stocks in recent weeks. And depending on which changes, if any, ultimately end up in signed into law, more companies could see bigger gains.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Dannon, the maker of Oikos yogurt, cut ties with spokesman Cam Newton on Thursday following what the company perceives as "sexist" comments the Carolina quarterback made to a female reporter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders at U.S. factories increased by 1.2 percent in August, driven by strong gains in aluminum and other metals, industrial machinery and autos.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is raising the price for its most popular U.S. video streaming plan by 10 percent— a move aimed at bringing in more money to outbid HBO, Amazon and other rivals for addictive shows such as "Stranger Things."
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a one-two punch elating religious conservatives, President Donald Trump's administration is allowing more employers to opt out of no-cost birth control for workers and issuing sweeping religious-freedom directions that could override many anti-discrimination protections for LGBT people and others.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump delivered a foreboding message Thursday night, telling reporters as he posed for photos with his senior military leaders that this might be "the calm before the storm."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Americans think refusing to stand for the national anthem is disrespectful to the country, the military and the American flag. But most also disapprove of President Donald Trump's calling for NFL players to be fired for refusing to stand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Rifle Association has joined the Trump administration and top congressional Republicans in a swift and surprising embrace of a restriction on Americans' guns, though a narrow one: to regulate the "bump stock" devices the Las Vegas shooter apparently used to horrifically lethal effect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal civil rights law does not protect transgender people from discrimination at work, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said in a memo released Thursday that rescinds guidance issued under the Obama administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The day after the presidential election, the Washington lobbying firm Brownstein Hyatt Farber Schreck touted its Republican team's "significant relationships ... with those who will steer the incoming Trump administration." It highlighted Marc Lampkin, managing partner of its Washington office and a Trump fundraiser.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed President Donald Trump's nomination of Randal Quarles to serve on the Federal Reserve, the first step in the Republican's efforts to remake the nation's powerful central bank.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal regulator announced new restrictions Thursday on the payday lending industry, a move that is likely to face resistance in Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee has voted in favor of the nomination of Notre Dame professor Amy Coney Barrett to serve on the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday passed a $4.1 trillion budget plan that promises deep cuts to social programs while paving the way for a GOP drive to rewrite the tax code later this year.