VOL. 43 | NO. 44 | Friday, November 1, 2019
Since 1991 Butch Spyridon, president and CEO of the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corporation, has been a fixture as Nashville’s unwavering champion for visitors as Nashville’s hospitality industry has evolved from niche music fans to a year-round destination for convention, business and leisure – as well as the music.
Bob Bernstein has been in business in Nashville for nearly three decades, opening up his first Bongo Java location on Belmont Boulevard 27 years ago. He recognizes he has been a part of the change and growth of Nashville but is unsure what the city’s plan is for itself, and what that means for him as a business owner.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
“Sonic fairy dust” is a phrase stuck in my head the last few days as I returned to “Abbey Road.”
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Something about being in the public eye seems to invite foot-in-mouth disease.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The next two months will be telling in the world of local residential real estate. There is the possibility that the year will end with a record-setting number of closings. Most real estate brokers say the number would be much higher with more inventory, an issue that has plagued the area since 2014.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates rose this week for the third straight week, while remaining historically low and far below their levels of a year ago.
TENNESSEE TITANS
The most interesting aspect of Tennessee Titans games is turning out to be Mike Vrabel’s weekly play-call gamble, which usually backfires, and whether the Titans’ defense can get him off the hook.
The Titans have their first two-game win streak this season and will put it to the test against the Panthers on Sunday in Charlotte.
Panthers 23, Titans 17: The Titans are back on the road and might run into problems as the Panthers will be eager to atone for the beating they took from the 49ers. Injured Panthers quarterback Cam Newton will remain on the sideline for this one.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans will be without four-time Pro Bowl defensive tackle Jurrell Casey and starting center Ben Jones against Carolina on Sunday.
NEWSMAKERS
Butler Snow attorney Joseph F. Welborn III has been named to the American College of Trial Lawyers’ Tennessee State Committee.
BRIEFS
The Tennessee Innocence Project’s inaugural fundraiser drew nearly 300 individuals raised approximately $135,000 for the organization.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The prospect of paying too much for a new vehicle often fills shoppers with dread, which explains why so many invest hours researching prices, trade-in values and interest rates. But while getting a good deal is important, it does not guarantee immunity from making the costliest financial mistake: purchasing the wrong vehicle and selling it soon afterward to buy another.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The chair you now sit in was once occupied by someone else.
PERSONAL FINANCE
When we’re given a choice about our health care plans, we often choose badly.
CAREER CORNER
The job market is the best it’s been in 50 years. You’ve heard that on the news. And, companies are struggling to find good candidates. There aren’t as many people available for work as there used to be.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Financial decisions are rarely easy, whether it's buying your first car or home or deciding whether to refinance student loans.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials with Tennessee's Medicaid program want to expand postpartum health insurance for low-income women.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Applications are now open for a new scholarship at the University of Tennessee that guarantees certain students free tuition.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's new restrictions for registering voters aren't scheduled to face trial until February 2021, likely keeping the penalties blocked through the 2020 elections.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Jerry Stackhouse was in a joking mood moments after winning his coaching debut.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PHOENIX (AP) — A new federal report into last year's fatal crash involving a self-driving car in suburban Phoenix says the Uber vehicle couldn't anticipate the actions of jaywalkers.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's top automaker Toyota said Thursday its net profit edged 1% higher in July-September as vehicle sales grew around the world.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing and Washington have agreed to reduce some punitive tariffs on each other's goods as talks on ending their trade war progress, a Chinese spokesman said Thursday, removing a possible stumbling block to a settlement.
NEW YORK (AP) — Computer and printer maker HP Inc. said Wednesday it had received a "proposal" from copier maker Xerox and has had conversations "from time to time" with the company about a potential business combination.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England warned Thursday that the British economy will grow by less than it had predicted just three months ago as it kept its main interest rate on hold at 0.75%.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Thursday denied a report that he wanted Attorney General William Barr to hold a press conference to declare he broke no laws during a July phone call in which Trump pressed his Ukrainian counterpart to investigate Democrats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats announced they will launch public impeachment hearings next week, intending to bring to life weeks of closed-door testimony and lay out a convincing narrative of presidential misconduct by Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders is adding his support to a call by some of his fellow presidential hopefuls for decriminalizing illegal border crossings, a proposal that's further exposing deep ideological divides in the Democratic primary and may prove politically treacherous for the party in the general election.
WEDNESDAY, NOV. 6
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two prominent former Tennessee governors from separate political parties lamented on Tuesday the lack of bipartisanship in current politics and agreed that getting stuff done in government sometimes requires straying from the political party line.
MIDSTATE
RUTHERFORD (AP) — A former political campaign treasurer and Tennessee Republican Party committeewoman is accused of stealing more than $65,500 from her father's campaign and pocketing insurance money from policyholders who used her family's insurance company.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have placed cornerback Malcolm Butler on injured reserve after he injured his left wrist Sunday against the Carolina Panthers.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Vanderbilt Commodores will be starting a third different quarterback when they visit No. 10 Florida this weekend.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee would no longer be the only state in the country that does not have a program offering coverage for children with significant disabilities living at home under a proposal currently being reviewed by the federal government.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart and Tesla have settled a lawsuit filed by the retail giant alleging that Tesla installed rooftop solar panels that caught fire.
DETROIT (AP) — A retired vice president of the United Auto Workers union on Wednesday became the 13th person to be charged in a widening federal investigation of alleged corruption at the union and auto companies.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The acting president of the United Auto Workers said Wednesday that a corruption scandal plaguing the union will get worse before it gets better, but that he's confident he can fix the mess and turn over a clean house to the next leader.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Automaker BMW reported Wednesday that net profit increased 11.5 percent from a year ago to 1.55 billion euros ($1.72 billion) in the third quarter, helped by a rejuvenated model line and the absence of last year's market disruptions due to troubles with diesel cars.
TECHNOLOGY
California attorney general says he has been investigating Facebook's privacy practices since 2018.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple is expanding its website on privacy with more explanations about its commitments, though its policies and practices aren't changing.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A meandering day of trading left U.S. stock indexes close to their record highs on Wednesday, as strong gains for health care companies jousted with sharp drops in energy stocks.
PARIS (AP) — When France's president wants to carry European concerns to the world stage to find solutions for climate change, trade tensions or Iran's nuclear ambitions, he no longer calls Washington. He flies to Beijing.
HAVANA (AP) — The Havana International Trade Fair is where Cuba puts the best face on its struggling economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American workers were less efficient in the July-September quarter, pushing down productivity for the first time since late 2015.
BERLIN (AP) — The German government's independent panel of economic advisers on Wednesday cut its 2020 growth forecast for Europe's biggest economy to below 1%, but said it sees no sign of a "broad, deep recession."
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A State Department envoy told lawmakers it was his "clear understanding" the U.S. government intended to withhold military aid from Ukraine until the country committed to investigations sought by President Donald Trump, including into a political rival, according to a transcript of the closed-door interview released Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors in the trial of longtime Donald Trump confidant Roger Stone told jurors Wednesday they will prove that Stone lied multiple times before congressional committees.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats will launch a major new phase of their impeachment inquiry next week with public hearings that will feature three State Department officials who have testified about their concerns about President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As House Democrats prepare for public impeachment hearings, President Donald Trump and his legal team are working to organize a defense that will rely heavily on White House attorneys and congressional Republicans to stave off the threat to his presidency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — "I now do recall." With that stunning reversal, diplomat Gordon Sondland handed House impeachment investigators another key piece of corroborating testimony Tuesday. He acknowledged what Democrats contend was a clear quid pro quo, pushed by President Donald Trump and his personal lawyer, Rudy Giuliani, with Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In transcripts of closed-door interviews released by impeachment investigators, two State Department officials recount what they remember — and what they didn't know at the time — about President Donald Trump's demands that Ukraine conduct politically motivated investigations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department's third-ranking official is expected to tell House impeachment investigators Wednesday that political considerations were behind the agency's refusal to deliver a robust defense of the former U.S. ambassador to Ukraine.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky's bitter race for governor went into overtime as Democrat Andy Beshear declared victory while Republican Gov. Matt Bevin, a close ally of President Donald Trump, refused to concede with results showing he trailed by a few thousand votes.
TUESDAY, NOV. 5
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee said Monday that his administration is gearing up to use a portion of its $732 million in reserves from a federal welfare program for families with children.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is asking state agencies to hold off on seeking money for building new facilities and other capital projects in their upcoming budget requests.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Senate candidate Bill Hagerty is rejoining a private investment firm after previously leaving the business to serve as the U.S. ambassador to Japan.
PREDATORS
DETROIT (AP) — Matt Duchene figured the Nashville Predators deserved better after scoring just once in a loss to the New York Rangers over the weekend.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House on Tuesday signaled President Donald Trump's blunt thumbs-down to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's plan allowing Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Her office's sharp retort: "Working people won't like it if he sells them out."
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee health officials say the state's infant mortality rate dropped in 2018, but it still exceeded the national rate.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union has voiced regret at the U.S. government's decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement and expressed hopes that one of the world's biggest CO2 emitters will backpedal on its decision and rejoin.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — It's the market that continues mostly upward, even though there's still plenty to worry about.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised fewer open jobs in September compared with the previous month, but the number of available positions remains high by historic standards.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in the vast U.S. service sector rebounded in October after sinking to a three-year low in September causing concern for investors and economists.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit fell in September to the lowest level in five months as imports dropped more sharply than exports and America ran a rare surplus in petroleum.
LISBON, Portugal (AP) — European Union Brexit negotiator Michel Barnier on Tuesday drew the battle lines for the upcoming free trade talks with the U.K. once it has left the bloc and warned Britain not to undercut EU standards.
NEW YORK (AP) — Workplace couples are often romanticized — think Bill and Melinda Gates or Michelle and Barack Obama. But when the relationship involves two people with unequal power, it can also be fraught with peril, especially in the #MeToo era.
BANGKOK (AP) — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Tuesday the U.S. will invest and trade more in Asia as it rolls out an American plan to support "sustainable" projects in Asia as a counterpoint to China's multibillion-dollar "Belt and Road" infrastructure initiative.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a striking reversal, a top diplomat revised his testimony in the House impeachment inquiry to acknowledge that U.S. military aid to Ukraine was being withheld until the foreign ally promised to investigate corruption as President Donald Trump wanted.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has approved an expanded military mission to secure an expanse of oil fields across eastern Syria, raising a number of difficult legal questions about whether U.S. troops can launch strikes against Syrian, Russian or other forces if they threaten the oil, U.S. officials said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is forming a special group of prosecutors and watchdogs from several agencies to fight bid-rigging, price fixing and other fraud that hurts competition in federal government contracting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is signaling it's not interested in a government shutdown when a temporary government-wide spending bill expires Nov. 21.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House investigators Tuesday asked President Donald Trump's acting chief of staff to appear before the impeachment inquiry , reaching to the highest levels of the White House as they prepare to release more transcripts from the closed-door proceedings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has accused former Vice President Joe Biden of major ethical lapses and railed against Biden's son for allegedly profiting off his father's office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It started with a warning to watch her back, that people were "looking to hurt" her. From there, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House investigators, it escalated into a chilling campaign to fire her as President Donald Trump and his allies angled in Eastern Europe for political advantage at home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House investigators released the first transcripts from the closed-door impeachment hearings into President Donald Trump, providing new details about events at the center of the inquiry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jury selection began Tuesday in the trial of Roger Stone, a longtime Republican provocateur and former confidant of President Donald Trump, who faces charges related to his alleged efforts to exploit the Russian-hacked Hillary Clinton emails for political gain.
MONDAY, NOV. 4
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Metro School officials say they shouldn't have described two men they say sought student records at a school as "immigration officials" without confirming they were.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Tennessee Govs. Phil Bredesen and Bill Haslam are participating in a discussion this week at Vanderbilt University.
TENNESSEE TITANS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The stat line was a head-scratcher, for sure.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — Ferrari has raised its earnings forecast, citing a robust third-quarter performance including a 9% increase in deliveries.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel said Sunday she wants to drastically increase the number of charging stations for electric cars in Germany to give consumers more confidence to switch over to electric from internal combustion engines.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than half of seriously ill Medicare enrollees face financial hardships with medical bills, with prescription drug costs the leading problem, according to a study published Monday.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mark Zuckerberg's social network in Washington is shrinking.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration accelerated the pace of its environmental rollbacks for the country's coal-fired power plants Monday, proposing to weaken two Obama-era rules aimed at cleaning up dangerous heavy metals and ash from coal plants and keeping them from washing into groundwater and waterways.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has told the United Nations it has begun the process of pulling out of the landmark 2015 Paris climate agreement.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average returned to a record on Monday, joining other market gauges at all-time highs, as the stock market's rally carried into a fifth week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Uber picked up the pace of its revenue growth in the third quarter, but the ride-hailing heavyweight is still losing vast sums of money.
Roger Penske was a car-loving, 14-year-old who regularly listened to the Indianapolis 500 on the radio when his father landed tickets to the 1951 race. They made the trek from Cleveland, and when Penske saw the cars zipping around Indianapolis Motor Speedway at 200 mph he fell instantly in love.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's move last year to tax imported steel triggered jeers but also cheers. Its goal — to raise steel prices — threatened to hurt the legions of U.S. manufacturers that depend on steel.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple has committed $2.5 billion to ease California's housing crisis, eclipsing similar pledges by fellow Silicon Valley giants Google and Facebook to address a lack of affordable housing in the region they call home.
NEW YORK (AP) — The market for small businesses cooled further during the third quarter as fallout from trade wars made companies look less appealing to buyers.
NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — A 16-nation trade initiative backed by China is pushing ahead as India, facing fierce domestic opposition to its market-opening requirements, has dropped out.
NONTHABURI, Thailand (AP) — The U.S. is deeply committed to doing business with Southeast Asia, Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross said Monday at a conference on the sidelines of a regional summit that President Donald Trump chose not to attend.
BALTIMORE (AP) — A strong quarter from Under Armour was overshadowed by federal investigations into the company's accounting practices.
CHICAGO (AP) — McDonald's has lost another top executive. The Chicago-based burger giant confirmed Monday that Chief People Officer David Fairhurst has left the company, effective immediately.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Laying out the anatomy of a chilling smear campaign, former U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Marie Yovanovitch told House investigators in a transcript released Monday that Ukrainian officials had warned her in advance that Rudy Giuliani and other allies of President Donald Trump were planning to "do things, including to me" and were "looking to hurt" her.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The three committees leading Democrats' impeachment probe have released the first transcripts of closed-door interviews as part of their inquiry into President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump's tax returns can be turned over to state criminal investigators by his personal accountant, a federal appeals court in New York ruled Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The whistleblower who raised alarms about President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine and touched off the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry is willing to answer written questions submitted by House Republicans, the person's lawyer says.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The lead lawyer for the National Security Council is expected to defy a subpoena on Monday to appear before House impeachment investigators, as are three other White House witnesses, following President Donald Trump's orders not to cooperate with the probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For only the fourth time in U.S. history, the House of Representatives has started a presidential impeachment inquiry . House committees are trying to determine whether President Donald Trump violated his oath of office by asking Ukraine to investigate political rival Joe Biden and his family and to investigate the country's involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The whistleblower who raised alarms about President Donald Trump's dealings with Ukraine and touched off the Democratic-led impeachment inquiry is willing to answer written questions submitted by House Republicans, the person's lawyer says.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One year from now, voters will decide whether to grant President Donald Trump a second term in office, an election that will be a referendum on Trump's vision for America's culture and role in the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is spreading misinformation about the CIA officer who blew the whistle on his dealings with Ukraine.
FRIDAY, NOV. 1
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic lawmakers are calling on top Tennessee agency heads to address questions surrounding a contentious $4 million grant fund.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Matthew Tkachuk didn't think a comeback win was possible after Calgary's terrible start.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A high-ranking United Auto Workers official is facing felony charges of embezzlement and fraud, and prosecutors say that several top union officials conspired to steal more than $1.5 million from the union.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford workers will get $9,000 each if they ratify a new four-year contract with the company, but Ford will close a factory in the deal, a person briefed on the pact said Thursday.
MILAN (AP) — Automobile shoppers across the globe are likely to see fewer vehicles and brands if the merger of Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA goes through, but the new company will be big enough to compete in a fast-changing business that requires vast sums of money to develop autonomous and electric vehicles.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending rose 0.5% in September, boosted by government and private residential projects.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday picked a cancer specialist and hospital executive to lead the Food and Drug Administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Warren on Friday proposed $20 trillion in federal spending over the next decade to provide health care to every American without raising taxes on the middle class, a politically risky effort that pits the goal of universal coverage against skepticism of government-run health care.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing at records again after a solid jobs report reassured investors that the economy was on solid footing despite President Donald Trump's trade war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturing output dropped for the third straight month in October as trade tensions and a slowing global economy took a toll on American factories.
NEW YORK (AP) — All they want for Christmas is more time.
Fitbit is being acquired by Google's parent company for about $2.1 billion, a deal that enables the search-engine company to leap into the hotly competitive market for smartwatches and health and fitness trackers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a solid 128,000 jobs in October, a figure that was held down by a now-settled strike against General Motors that caused several thousand workers to be temporarily counted as unemployed.
Amazon must decide soon if it will protest the Pentagon's awarding of a $10 billion cloud computing contract to rival Microsoft, with one possible grievance being the unusual attention given the project by President Donald Trump.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ascension of Paula White as an official member of Donald Trump's White House highlights how closely the president is relying on his inner circle of evangelical Christian supporters as he fights an impeachment probe during his reelection bid — while giving liberal evangelicals a new opening to push back at his administration's mingling of religion and policymaking.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans approve of the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump than disapprove of it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House impeachment inquiry is zeroing in on two White House lawyers privy to a discussion about moving a memo recounting President Donald Trump's phone call with the leader of Ukraine into a highly restricted computer system normally reserved for documents about covert action.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top White House official confirmed that military aid to Ukraine was held up by President Donald Trump's demand for the ally to investigate Democrats and Joe Biden but testified that there's nothing illegal, in his view, about the quid pro quo at the center of the Democrat-led impeachment inquiry.
THURSDAY, OCT. 31
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Emails cast fresh doubt on a recent claim that immigration officials visited a Nashville school asking for student records.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Judges in Germany on Thursday threw out a lawsuit by three farming families who had taken Chancellor Angela Merkel's government to court and argued that it wasn't doing enough to tackle climate change.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter announced an end Wednesday to political campaign and issue ads on its service, calling it an important step in reducing the flow of election-related misinformation.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chinese hackers with a history of state-sponsored espionage have intercepted the text messages of thousands of foreigners in a targeted campaign that planted eavesdropping software on a telecommunications provider's servers, a cybersecurity firm said.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — Fiat Chrysler and France's PSA Peugeot said Thursday they have agreed to merge to create the world's fourth-largest automaker with enough scale to confront big shifts in the industry, including a race to develop electric cars and driverless technologies.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans are going without health insurance, and stable premiums plus greater choice next year under the Obama health law aren't likely to reverse that.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing modestly lower on Wall Street, but the S&P 500 was still on track for a weekly gain after closing at record highs twice this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Annual wages and benefits for U.S. workers continued to rise at a modest pace in the third quarter, even as unemployment stays near a half-century low.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers modestly stepped up their spending in September, but their incomes grew fast enough to let them save more, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. and China are working to secure a new site to sign a tentative trade truce and the location will be announced soon.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former top White House official testified Thursday in the House impeachment inquiry that he saw nothing illegal in President Donald Trump's phone call with the Ukrainian president that is at the center of the Democrat-led investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans say President Donald Trump has little to no respect for America's democratic institutions and traditions, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a long-overdue, $209 billion bundle of bipartisan spending bills Thursday, but a bitter fight over funding demanded by President Donald Trump for border fencing imperils broader Capitol Hill efforts to advance $1.4 trillion worth of annual Cabinet agency budgets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats rammed a package of ground rules for their impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump through a sharply divided House Thursday, the chamber's first formal vote in a fight that could stretch into the 2020 election year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House on Thursday approved a resolution that formalizes the next phase of the impeachment investigation into President Donald Trump. The measure calls for public hearings and sharing evidence with the president's counsel. Republicans continue to criticize the process as a "sham."