VOL. 44 | NO. 46 | Friday, November 13, 2020
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, October 2020, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates rose this week. They remain at historically low levels, now around a percentage point below a year ago.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans handled the NFL's first COVID-19 outbreak during the season in winning fashion.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Coming into this season, the Tennessee Titans had only two punters since 1998. Now they've gone through three, plus two long snappers, in as many games.
Sometimes simpler is better. With so many new faces in new places on the defense, the Titans really had little choice but to simplify their assignments as much as possible and communicate with each other to make certain that all 11 players on the field understood what to do.
With the Titans having a short week and a Thursday night game against the Indianapolis Colts, we will forego the usual four downs and the usual game-plan slant. Instead, we will examine four areas regarding Tennessee’s season thus far.
NEWSMAKERS
New Frost Brown Todd member Jennifer Cote brings more than 15 years’ experience advising employers on employee benefit plans with a focus on employee stock ownership plans and executive compensation.
BRIEFS
Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands has partnered with Catholic Charities of Tennessee to offer assistance to individuals experiencing financial or personal hardships due to COVID-19.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Tesla recently made headlines with the beta launch of its “Full Self-Driving Capability” system, which came with a disclaimer: “It may do the wrong thing at the worst time, so you must always keep your hands on the wheel and pay extra attention to the road.”
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The hero in an old-time western always wears fancy boots. He’s also chivalrous, good to his horse, polite to ranchers and kind to small children. Bandits and even cold-blooded gunslingers are treated fairly, while the boots get scuffed but are still fancy.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Job loss, business failure, involuntary retirement, divorce, disability or the death of a breadwinner – these are just some of the ways our finances can force us to come up with a Plan B. That’s never as simple as downloading a list and ticking off completed assignments, however.
CAREER CORNER
This has been a crazy year. What we thought would be two weeks of working from home has turned into an entire year of Zoom meetings, with no end in sight.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Working with third-party debt collectors can be confusing and scary. For the more than 68 million U.S. adults with debt in collections, knowing their legal rights is crucial.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
BOSTON (AP) — The Boston Celtics loaded up on backcourt depth in the NBA draft on Wednesday night, picking Vanderbilt shooting guard Aaron Nesmith and Oregon point guard Payton Pritchard in the first round.
NASHVILLE SC
NEW YORK (AP) — Nashville SC center back Walker Zimmerman was honored Wednesday as Major League Soccer's Defender of the Year.
MIDSTATE
MURFREESBORO (AP) — Middle Tennessee State University communications students got a chance to produce a real-world advertising campaign this fall encouraging their fellow students to wear masks to stop the spread of COVID-19.
REAL ESTATE
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Sales of existing homes rose for a fifth straight month in October, the National Association of Realtors said Thursday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Mazda beat traditional winners Lexus and Toyota to win top honors as the most dependable auto brand in Consumer Reports' annual reliability survey.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — As COVID-19 spreads uncontrolled in many places, a coalition of states, health care groups and activists is striving to drum up "Obamacare" sign-ups among a growing number of Americans uninsured in perilous times.
When COVID-19 tore through Donald Wallace's nursing home, he was one of the lucky few to avoid infection.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Will social distancing weaken my immune system? In short, no.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan reported a record number of daily coronavirus infections Thursday, amid a worrying spike in a country that has been spared the worst of the pandemic and hopes to host the Olympics next year.
LONDON (AP) — University of Oxford scientists expect to report results from the late-stage trials of their COVID-19 vaccine by Christmas, a key researcher said Thursday as he discussed the team's latest findings.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment aid rose last week to 742,000, the first increase in five weeks and a sign that the resurgent viral outbreak is likely slowing the economy and forcing more companies to cut jobs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's swung to a loss and sales tumbled 22% as the department store chain struggled to bring shoppers back to stores during a pandemic.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — China's President Xi Jinping on Thursday spurned suggestions that his country might decouple or separate itself from the U.S. and other trading partners amid tension with Washington and Europe over technology and security.
LONDON (AP) — The EU's efforts to rein in the power of big tech companies such as Google and Facebook through antitrust investigations have taken too long, dulling their effectiveness, a report said Thursday.
BRUSSELS (AP) — EU leaders will on Thursday try to find ways to resolve a diplomatic dispute with members Poland and Hungary to unlock a 1.8 trillion-euro ($2.1 trillion) budget and recovery package aimed at putting the economy back on track after the pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Barack Obama's "A Promised Land" sold nearly 890,000 copies in the U.S. and Canada in its first 24 hours, putting it on track to be the best selling presidential memoir in modern history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has identified China as the country's biggest foe and the Justice Department mirrored that emphasis over the last four years with a drumbeat of cases against defendants ranging from hackers accused of targeting intellectual property to professors charged with grant fraud.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is trying to turn America's free and fair election into a muddled mess of misinformation, specious legal claims and baseless attacks on the underpinnings of the nation's democracy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Kamala Harris returned to the Senate this week for the first time as vice president-elect, her Republican colleagues offered their congratulations and Sen. Lindsey Graham greeted her with a fist bump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Getting nowhere in the courts, President Donald Trump's scattershot effort to overturn President-elect Joe Biden's victory is shifting toward obscure election boards that certify the vote as Trump and his allies seek to upend the electoral process, sow chaos and perpetuate unsubstantiated doubts about the count.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 18
SPORTS
Commissioner Greg Sankey and the Southeastern Conference have their finish line in sight: The league championship game is set for Dec. 19 in Atlanta.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A company that distributes automotive and industrial parts plans to invest $50 million in a new Tennessee facility with 250 jobs.
COURTS
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to stop expelling immigrant children who cross the southern border alone, halting a policy that has resulted in thousands of rapid deportations of minors during the coronavirus pandemic.
ENVIRONMENT
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Conservation groups are suing the Trump administration to halt the approval of a development plan for a ConocoPhillips oil project in Alaska, arguing that officials underestimated the plan's harm to local wildlife.
REAL ESTATE
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Home construction rose 4.9% in October as home building remains as one of the bright spots of the economy.
TRANSPORTATION
After nearly two years and a pair of deadly crashes, the U.S. Federal Aviation Administration has cleared Boeing's 737 Max for flight.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — After a one-month reprieve, passenger car sales in Europe slumped again in October amid new restrictions in many countries aimed at containing a resurgence of the coronavirus, the European carmakers' association reported Wednesday.
EDUCATION
MISSION, Kan. (AP) — In July, fourth-grade teacher Susanne Michael was ecstatic as she celebrated the adoption of a former student from a troubled home and two of the girl's brothers. For the festivities, Michael dressed them and her other children in matching T-shirts that read "Gotcha FOREVER."
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Overwhelmed hospitals are converting chapels, cafeterias, waiting rooms, hallways, even a parking garage into patient treatment areas. Staff members are desperately calling around to other medical centers in search of open beds. Fatigue and frustration are setting in among front-line workers.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz plans to announce new COVID-19 restrictions on Wednesday that will shut down indoor dining at bars and restaurants, close gyms and fitness centers, and put organized youth sports on hold for four weeks.
NASHVILLE (AP) — As health experts ring alarm bells at surging virus case numbers, Tennessee is just one of 14 states poised to head into the holiday season without a statewide mask mandate.
BOSTON (AP) — Dolly Parton is being celebrated in song — a rewritten version of her own "Jolene" — for her contribution to an experimental coronavirus vaccine.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City is shuttering schools to try to stop the renewed spread of the coronavirus, Mayor Bill de Blasio said Wednesday in a painful about-face for one of the first big U.S. school systems to bring students back to classrooms this fall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden says he's hopeful that Republicans in Congress will be more willing to send money to state and local governments after President Donald Trump leaves office. He's promising to make such funding a priority when he takes office in January.
Pfizer said Wednesday that new test results show its coronavirus vaccine is 95% effective, is safe and also protects older people most at risk of dying — the last data needed to seek emergency use of limited shot supplies as the catastrophic outbreak worsens across the globe.
GENEVA (AP) — Europe made up almost half of the world's 4 million new coronavirus cases last week but recorded a nearly 10% fall in infections compared to the week before, thanks in part to strict government lockdown measures that have fanned some discontent, the World Health Organization reported Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Tuesday allowed emergency use of the first rapid coronavirus test that can be performed entirely at home and delivers results in 30 minutes.
A lot of the effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus comes down to a seemingly simple concept: Wearing a mask.
TOKYO (AP) — Authorities in Japan's capital reported nearly 500 new cases of the coronavirus on Wednesday, the largest daily increase in Tokyo since the pandemic began, amid a nationwide spike in infections and as the country discusses with Olympic officials how to safely host next summer's games.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
An afternoon slump left stock indexes broadly lower on Wall Street, erasing early gains, as traders worried anew about the rapid spread of the coronavirus in the U.S.
PHOENIX (AP) — Apple will pay $113 million to settle the latest case alleging the trend-setting company duped consumers by deliberately slowing down older iPhones to help extend the life of their batteries.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple will cut its app store commissions in half for most developers beginning next year amid an intensifying debate about whether the iPhone maker has been using the fees to unfairly fatten its profits and stifle rivals competing against its own music, video, and other subscription services.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target is the latest big box U.S. retailer to show that it's prospering during the pandemic.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Low-cost carrier Norwegian Air Shuttle said Wednesday it is seeking restructuring and bankruptcy protection in Ireland, where its fleet is held, saying the decision was "in the interest of its stakeholders."
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The world's biggest shipping company, Denmark's A.P. Moller-Maersk, said Wednesday that global container volumes increased by around 1% in the third quarter, a faster rebound than expected earlier in the year.
MILAN (AP) — Sales of luxury apparel, jewelry and beauty products are set to slide by nearly a quarter this year as the pandemic wipes out more than six years of growth, according to a study released Wednesday by the consultancy Bain.
BRUSSELS (AP) — A top European Union official said Wednesday that trade talks with the United Kingdom still face "substantial work" that might spill over into next week, with a perilous deadline drawing ever closer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — President Donald Trump's campaign has paid $3 million for a recount of two heavily Democratic Wisconsin counties, saying Wednesday that they were the site of the "worst irregularities" although no evidence of wrongdoing has been presented and state elections officials have said there was none.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired the nation's top election security official, a widely respected member of his administration who had dared to refute the president's unsubstantiated claims of electoral fraud and vouch for the integrity of the vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Kevin McCarthy easily won reelection as House Republican leader, a stunning turnaround as the entire GOP leadership team was rewarded by their colleagues for reducing the Democrats' House advantage in the November election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats nominated Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday as the speaker to lead them into Joe Biden's presidency, and shortly afterward she seemed to suggest that these would be her final two years in the post.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 17
MUSIC INDUSTRY
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Recipients of the 2020 Governor's Awards in the Arts include singer-songwriters Tom T. Hall and Michael Johnathon and author Silas House, the Kentucky Arts Council announced.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gamblers in Tennessee wagered more than $27 million in the first week of the state's online sports betting program, officials said.
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority is considering moving toxin-laden coal ash from a retired plant in Memphis to one of two off-site landfills as it begins preparing for the $500 million removal project, the federal utility said Monday.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — Now at Amazon.com: insulin and inhalers.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla will be added to the S&P 500 index on Dec. 21. Based on its market value Monday, the electric car maker would be one of the top 10 companies in the benchmark index upon entry.
MEDIA
Twitter is launching tweets that disappear in 24 hours called "Fleets" globally, echoing social media sites like Snapchat, Facebook and Instagram that already have disappearing posts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEO of Twitter says the social media site flagged some 300,000 tweets as part of efforts to combat disinformation in the period around the 2020 election between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel has summoned the CEOs of Facebook and Twitter to defend their handling of disinformation in the 2020 election between President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden. But the senators are deeply divided by party over the integrity and results of the election itself.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee's largest county reported is largest daily increase in COVID-19 cases Tuesday, as health officials express concern about people with coronavirus symptoms who continue to socialize with friends, eat at restaurants and work out at gyms.
LONDON (AP) — British Airways said Tuesday that it will start testing passengers flying from the U.S. to London's Heathrow Airport for COVID-19 in an effort to persuade the British government it should scrap rules requiring most international travelers to quarantine for 14 days.
Rutte eased his country's coronavirus measures Tuesday amid falling infection rates, allowing public venues including cinemas, museums and libraries to reopen — with limitations on how many people can visit — after a two-week closure.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee reported nearly 8,000 new coronavirus cases on Monday, topping the previous record set last Monday by more than 2,000.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was pulling the "emergency brake" Monday on reopening the state's economy as coronavirus cases surge at the fastest rate since the start of the outbreak.
Who will be the first to get COVID-19 vaccines? No decision has been made, but the consensus among many experts in the U.S. and globally is that health care workers should be first, said Sema Sgaier of the Surgo Foundation, a nonprofit group working on vaccine allocation issues.
LONDON (AP) — Business leaders urged the British government on Tuesday to give them at least a week's notice over what restrictions they will face when the lockdown in England expires in early December.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks took a pause from their big rally this month that has vaulted them back to record heights.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the nationwide surge in confirmed coronavirus could slow the economy in the months ahead by discouraging consumers from spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve official widely considered a front-runner to be tapped as President-elect Joe Biden's Treasury Secretary is urging universities and government agencies to make the field of economics more inclusive.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nomination of Judy Shelton, President Donald Trump's controversial pick for the Federal Reserve, is stalled in the Senate after Vice President-elect Kamala Harris returned to the chamber to cast a key vote in a tally Tuesday.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. industrial production rose 1.1% in October, recovering much of the spring decline caused by the virus pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Retail sales in the U.S. grew a sluggish 0.3% in October, even as retailers offered early holiday discounts online and in stores.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart turned out another stellar quarter as the world's largest retailer powers through a pandemic that has felled other national chains.
As the year comes to a close Americans are still stuck at home and that has led to an explosive year for Home Depot. The most recent quarter is no exception.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese tech giant Huawei is selling its budget-price Honor smartphone brand in an effort to rescue the struggling business from damaging U.S. sanctions imposed on its parent company.
Airbnb was losing money even before the pandemic struck and cut its revenue by almost a third, the home-sharing company revealed in documents filed Monday ahead of a planned initial public offering of its stock.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden announced a raft of top White House staff positions on Tuesday, drawing from the senior ranks of his campaign and some of his closest confidants to fill out an increasingly diverse White House leadership team.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley, the longest-serving Republican senator, says he is quarantining after being exposed to the coronavirus.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — President Donald Trump's 2020 reelection campaign was powered by a cell phone app that allowed staff to monitor the movements of his millions of supporters, and offered intimate access to their social networks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of an obscure federal agency that is holding up the presidential transition knew well before Election Day that she might soon have a messy situation on her hands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the face of conclusive evidence that he lost, President Donald Trump is claiming "I won."
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 16
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Not only have the Tennessee Titans lost three of their past four games, they returned to work Monday among six AFC teams with 6-3 records.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University announced Monday that the school will limit attendance for the final two home games of the football season to families of student athletes and a group of other students due to concerns about the coronavirus.
SPORTS
The NCAA announced Monday it plans to hold the entire 2021 men's college basketball tournament in one geographic location to mitigate the risks of COVID-19 and is in talks with Indianapolis to be the host city.
MARTIN (AP) — UT Martin basketball coach Anthony Stewart was found dead Sunday just before the start of his fifth season with the Skyhawks. He was 50.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — An Army veteran who survived a suicide bomber attack, endured multiple surgeries and continues to work through memory issues was surprised with a mortgage-free home by Craig Morgan's announcement at the Grand Ole Opry.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Close to 90,000 sexual abuse claims have been filed against the Boy Scouts of America as the Monday deadline arrived for submitting claims in the organization's bankruptcy case.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hate crimes in the U.S. rose to the highest level in more than a decade as federal officials also recorded the highest number of hate-motivated killings since the FBI began collecting that data in the early 1990s, according to an FBI report released Monday.
HEALTH CARE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Federal Trade Commission is seeking to block a Memphis-based health care system from acquiring two area hospitals.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — PNC Financial Services Group Inc. said Monday it is buying the U.S. subsidiary of Spain's BBVA bank for $11.6 billion in cash.
TECHNOLOGY
BERLIN (AP) — European privacy activists have filed complaints against Apple over its use of software to track the behavior of iPhone users.
ENVIRONMENT
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The Trump administration is taking steps toward a lease sale within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, an area President-elect Joe Biden has said he would move to protect from oil and gas drilling.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the nation gripped by a resurgent coronavirus and looking to Washington for help, President Donald Trump and lawmakers in Congress have a message for struggling Americans: Just keep waiting.
From California to Pennsylvania, governors and mayors across the U.S. are ratcheting up COVID-19 restrictions amid the record-shattering resurgence of the virus that is all but certain to get worse because of holiday travel and family gatherings over Thanksgiving.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California Gov. Gavin Newsom said he was pulling the "emergency brake" Monday on the state's efforts to reopen its economy as coronavirus cases surge more dramatically than they did during a summer spike.
A second experimental COVID-19 vaccine — this one from Moderna Inc. — yielded extraordinarily strong early results Monday, another badly needed dose of hope as the pandemic enters a terrible new phase.
NEW YORK (AP) — Santa Claus is coming to the mall — just don't try to sit on his lap.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's scientific advisers plan to meet with vaccine makers in coming days even as a stalled presidential transition keeps them out of the loop on government plans to inoculate all Americans against COVID-19.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose to a record Monday for the first time in nine months, riding a swell of optimism that a vaccine may soon control the coronavirus and the economic destruction it's caused.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jay Clayton, a former Wall Street lawyer who has headed the Securities and Exchange Commission as the financial markets' top regulator during the Trump administration, is leaving the position at year's end, the SEC announced Monday.
Home Depot is reuniting with former subsidiary HD Supply, buying the company in a deal valued at about $8 billion.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union and British negotiators on Monday entered yet another tension-filled week as they sought a belated post-Brexit trade deal that needs to be vetted and get legislative approval before a Jan. 1 cutoff date.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — Bill Stocker could be considered the archetype of a conservative voter: He's a retired Marine and former police officer who voted for President Donald Trump. But he's also among the majority of South Dakota voters who broadly legalized marijuana this month.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's economy grew at an annual rate of 21.4% in the last quarter in a recovery from the shocks of the pandemic driven by both private spending and exports.
TOKYO (AP) — U.S. retailer Walmart is selling off 85% of its wholly owned Japanese supermarket subsidiary Seiyu, while retaining a 15% stake, in a deal valued at 172.5 billion ($1.6 billion), the companies said Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The CEOs of Facebook and Twitter are being summoned before Congress to defend their handling of disinformation in the 2020 presidential election, even as lawmakers questioning them are deeply divided over the election's integrity and results.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the face of conclusive evidence that he lost, President Donald Trump is claiming "I won."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Calvin Coolidge, known by some as "Silent Cal" during his time in the White House, used his autobiography to live up to his nickname. "The words of a president," he wrote in 1929 after leaving office, "have an enormous weight and ought not to be used indiscriminately."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump worked to take back an apparent acknowledgment that Joe Biden won the White House and was making clear he would keep trying to overturn the election result.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is rebelling against Democrat Joe Biden's victory in the presidential election with denial, delay and outright misrepresentation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Demonstrations over President Donald Trump's loss at the polls have resulted in charges against nearly two dozen people in Washington, including a person accused of setting off a commercial firework and four people accused in an assault that left the victim unconscious on the street.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 13
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Doug Supernaw, who had hits in the early '90s with "I Don't Call Him Daddy," and "Reno," has died. He was 60.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday appointed a new head of the state's Department of Insurance and Commerce.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is offering drive-through COVID-19 testing on Saturday in rural areas in each of the three grand divisions. The testing is part of a continuing effort to curb a rising number of COVID-19 cases in rural counties, according to a news release from Gov. Bill Lee's Unified Command Group.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials have announced a partnership to help about 500,000 people receiving unemployment benefits earn a college degree while they fulfill work search requirements.
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — The review of a federal utility's CEO compensation following President Donald Trump's criticisms of the pay scale will continue into 2021, according to its board chairman.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal judge will not block a nationwide eviction ban while Tennessee landlords pursue a legal challenge alleging the moratorium has infringed on their property rights and unfairly caused them financial harm.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — A plan championed by retiring Sen. Tom Udall to harness the nation's lands and ocean waters to fight climate change is getting a boost from President-elect Joe Biden, who has made slowing global warming a priority for his incoming administration.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling nearly 69,000 Chevrolet Bolt electric cars worldwide because the batteries have caught fire in five of them.
TOKYO (AP) — A civil court trial began Friday in Japan over Nissan's demand for 10 billion yen, or $95 million, in damages from its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
HEALTH CARE
A daily pill combining four cholesterol and blood pressure medicines taken with low-dose aspirin cut the risk of heart attacks, strokes and heart-related deaths by nearly one third in a large international study that's expected to lead to wider use of this "polypill" approach.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to deliver his first public remarks Friday since his defeat by President-elect Joe Biden, as he seeks to highlight positive developments in the race for a vaccine for the resurgent coronavirus, even as he refuses to concede the election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito sounded an alarm about restrictions imposed because of the coronavirus pandemic, saying they shouldn't become a "recurring feature after the pandemic has passed."
NEW YORK (AP) — When Chris Hyland caught the coronavirus, his ordeal went beyond being sick and exhausted — he couldn't help his business partners manage the virus's impact on their company just as the outbreak was sweeping across the world.
BOSTON (AP) — Microsoft said it has detected attempts by state-backed Russian and North Korean hackers to steal valuable data from leading pharmaceutical companies and vaccine researchers.
With COVID-19 cases and hospitalizations in the state spiking to record levels, bus drivers and teachers in quarantine, students getting sick and the holidays looming, Schools Superintendent Scott Hanback in Tippecanoe County, Indiana, made a tough decision this week.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The S&P 500 is closing at a record high for the first time since September, posting its second weekly gain in a row.
NEW YORK (AP) — Delivery giant DoorDash Inc. is planning to sell its stock to the public, capitalizing on the growing trend of consumers embracing app-based deliveries as much of the world stays home during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose moderately in October as food costs jumped by the largest amount in five months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Only a few of America's CEOs have made public statements about President Donald Trump's refusal to accept his election loss, but in private, many are alarmed and talking about what collective action would be necessary if they see an imminent threat to democracy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are flooding Georgia with cash and field operatives as they look to keep Democrats from seizing control of the Senate under President-elect Joe Biden's administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is unlikely to get sweeping health care changes through a closely divided Congress, but there's a menu of narrower actions he can choose from to make a tangible difference on affordability and coverage for millions of people.
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. President Donald Trump has stepped up a conflict with China over security and technology by barring Americans from investing in companies that U.S. officials say are owned or controlled by the Chinese military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After refusing to acknowledge President Donald Trump's loss in last week's election, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo is leaving Friday on a trip to Europe and the Middle East, to countries where leaders have all congratulated former Vice President Joe Biden for his victory.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's hard to put it any more bluntly: "There is no evidence that any voting system deleted or lost votes, changed votes or was in any way compromised."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The most powerful Republicans in Washington are standing firmly behind President Donald Trump and his unsupported claims of voter fraud for now, but new cracks emerged among GOP leaders elsewhere who believe it's time to treat Democrat Joe Biden like the president-elect he is.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 12
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of Nashville's Meharry Medical College, the oldest historically Black medical school in the country, on Thursday urged Black and Hispanic people to participate in COVID-19 vaccine trials to ensure the treatments are effective in communities that have been hit the hardest by the virus.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan posted a loss of 44.4 billion yen ($421 million) in the last quarter as the pandemic slammed profitability and the Japanese automaker fought to restore a brand image tarnished by a scandal centered on its former star executive Carlos Ghosn.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials have reached an agreement with pharmacies across the U.S. to distribute free coronavirus vaccines after they are approved and become available to the public.
With a COVID-19 vaccine drawing closer, public health officials across the country are gearing up for the biggest vaccination effort in U.S. history — a monumental undertaking that must distribute hundreds of millions of doses, prioritize who's first in line and ensure that people who get the initial shot return for the necessary second one.
Texas on Wednesday became the first state with more than 1 million confirmed COVID-19 cases, and California closed in on that mark as a surge of coronavirus infections engulfs the country.
Is it safe yet to fly during the pandemic? Public health experts say staying home is best to keep yourself and others safe from infection. But if you're thinking about flying for the holidays, you should know what to expect.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks pulled back on Thursday, amid increasing worries about worsening coronavirus counts across the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's unorthodox choice for the Federal Reserve Board of Governors, Judy Shelton, could be voted on by the Senate next week, Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is starting the 2021 budget year the way the old year ended, with soaring deficits.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Three of the globe's top central bankers said the economy continues to need help despite progress toward a COVID-19 vaccine, with U.S. Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell saying that the U.S. Congress "may have to do more" to cushion the blow from the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's top allies on Capitol Hill adopted a combative posture on COVID-19 relief on Thursday, accusing Washington Republicans of dragging their feet in acknowledging Biden's victory while doubling down on a $2 trillion-plus relief bill that's a nonstarter with congressional Republicans.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the release, after 19 months of house arrest, of a prominent American investor charged with alleged embezzlement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices were unchanged in October, the lowest reading in five months, suggesting that a price spike over the summer is beginning to fade as coronavirus cases spread.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits fell last week to 709,000, a still-high level but the lowest figure since March and a further sign that the job market might be slowly healing.
The popular video-sharing app TikTok, its future in limbo since President Donald Trump tried to shut it down earlier this fall, is asking a federal court to intervene.
LONDON (AP) — White collar staff reaping the financial benefits of working from home should be taxed to help other workers who aren't getting the same advantages, experts at Deutsche Bank said in a new report.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has spoken by phone with Pope Francis as he continues to talk with leaders around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House race was in limbo in 2000 when outgoing President Bill Clinton decided to let then-Gov. George W. Bush read the ultra-secret daily brief of the nation's most sensitive intelligence.
ATLANTA (AP) — Jon Ossoff took the stage in Columbus and looked out over a parking lot filled with cars, with supporters blaring their horns in approval as he declared that "change has come to Georgia."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham, who was just reelected in South Carolina, says he's donating $1 million of his campaign money to help two GOP senators win runoff races in neighboring Georgia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A state panel is soliciting recommendations on what should replace Virginia's Robert E. Lee statue at the U.S. Capitol.