VOL. 35 | NO. 46 | Friday, November 18, 2011
TERRY McCORMICK
I’ll admit it, I haven’t paid as much attention to the Tennessee-Vanderbilt rivalry as I used to.
NEWSMAKERS
The Kiwanis Club of Nashville, founded in 1916, has elected its officers for 2011-2012.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You’re not going to do it anymore.
I SWEAR
Unlike a day, a year, a month or a season,
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
We spent a weekend in Memphis this past month with our daughter April and her family, along with other family members and friends celebrating our soon-to-be-here grandson with a baby shower. He is expected somewhere around Dec. 1, just in time for that nice little tax write-off!
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - The union representing workers at Vanderbilt University says the base pay for workers is now above the poverty line.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee whiskey maker Jack Daniel's is donating more than $100,000 to pay for plane tickets and travel funds for soldiers at Fort Campbell, Ky., to spend the December holiday season with their families all over the country.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Public records show top state officials put off requests for portable toilets for Wall Street protesters several days before Gov. Bill Haslam cited unsanitary conditions as one of the reasons for a curfew that led to 55 arrests.
NEW YORK (AP) — During the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, according to a survey by The Associated Press.
In the first two months of the nationwide Occupy protests, the movement that is demanding more out of the wealthiest Americans has cost local taxpayers at least $13 million in police overtime and other municipal services, such as cleanup and sanitation, according to a survey conducted by The Associated Press. The AP gathered figures from 18 cities with active protests, focusing on costs through Nov. 15. Here they are, in descending order by cost:
NASHVILLE (AP) — A dinosaur exhibit has been announced at the Nashville Zoo beginning next spring.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage hovered above its record low for a fourth straight week. But cheap mortgage rates have done little to boost home sales or refinancing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At the start of the critical holiday shopping season, the economy received a dose of mixed news Wednesday.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Groupon Inc.'s stock fell below its initial public offering price for the first time as investors reassess the challenges facing the still-unprofitable online deals company in a shaky economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock futures are falling on worries about global economic growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers barely increased their spending in October but their incomes rose by the most in seven months. The rise in take-home pay could boost spending during the upcoming holiday shopping season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits ticked up slightly last week after two months of steady declines.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. business orders for long-lasting manufactured goods fell for a second straight month in October. While much of the weakness came from a big drop in demand for commercial aircraft, a key category that tracks business investment spending fell by the largest amount since January.
LONDON (AP) — Any hopes that the 17-country eurozone will avoid sliding back into recession in the wake of a debt crisis that's shown alarming signs of spreading to the bigger economies appeared to have been dashed Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Baseball's new labor deal will limit the use of smokeless tobacco by players, but not ban it during games, as some public health groups had sought.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve announced on Tuesday that it will conduct a third round of stress tests to determine if major U.S. banks can withstand a downturn in the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A tax cut that reaches 160 million Americans and government aid for the long-term unemployed will expire at the end of the year — sucking $165 billion out of the economy next year — unless Congress takes action.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michele Bachmann did not intend to be taken literally when she told the Republican presidential debate Tuesday that civil-liberties activists have taken over the interrogation of terrorists from the CIA. But even as a rhetorical point, it didn't hold water.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newt Gingrich, a political gambler his whole life, is banking on unorthodox stands on immigration, Social Security and other issues to propel him past Mitt Romney in the Republican presidential contest.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - About 900,000 people are projected to travel by car over the long holiday weekend in Tennessee and a special law enforcement crackdown will be in effect against traffic violators.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Jack Daniel's officials are toasting the defeat of a proposal to tax whiskey at its celebrated Tennessee distillery.
NASHVILLE AREA
LEBANON (AP) - Restaurant operator Cracker Barrel Old Country Store Inc.'s fiscal first-quarter earnings inched up slightly, helped by new store growth that balanced declines in revenue from stores and restaurants open at least a year.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Nashville Area Habitat for Humanity has earned the Energy Star Sustained Excellence award from the Environmental Protection Agency.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bank earnings rose over the summer to their highest level in more than four years, while the number of troubled banks fell for the second straight quarter, federal regulators reported Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew more slowly over the summer than the government had earlier estimated because businesses cut back more sharply on restocking of shelves.
NEW YORK (AP) — A downward revision of U.S. economic growth in the third quarter sent stocks lower Tuesday. Higher borrowing costs for Spain also renewed worries about Europe's debt crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who bought previously occupied homes rose slightly last month but remained at depressed levels. And more deals are being canceled at the last minute, a sign that even those who are looking to buy are worried about the housing market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A company run by the former CEO of American International Group Inc. is suing the government for $25 billion in damages over its taxpayer bailout of the big insurer.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices rose to near $98 a barrel Tuesday in Asia as traders looked to the latest U.S. crude supply reports for signs demand may be improving.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A long-running war between Democrats and Republicans over Bush-era tax cuts doomed the debt supercommittee's chances of reaching a deal. Efforts to overhaul the tax code may await the same fate as both parties gear up to make taxes a central issue in 2012 elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The deficit-reduction supercommittee failed to go big or even small. But it did succeed in conducting virtually all of its negotiations in private.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress' defense hawks insist the military should be spared from automatic cuts triggered by the failure of the supercommittee to reach a deal on reducing the deficit.
The Budget Control Act passed last August stipulates that failure of the supercommittee and Congress to act on further deficit reduction will trigger across-the-board cuts of $1.2 trillion in both defense and non-defense programs, starting in 2013. Here is a general look at how those cuts may play out through 2021 (some savings would occur after 2021):
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21
NASHVILLE AREA
SPRING HILL (AP) - General Motors announced Monday it will start building the Chevrolet Equinox at its idled Tennessee plant and will also make midsized vehicles there in the future.
NASHVILLE (AP) - An investigation into a May explosion and fire that killed three workers at a Gallatin metal powders factory found that a hydrogen gas leak came from a pipe that was not normally meant to be pressurized.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — TennCare could be in big trouble if Congress decides to decrease or stop providing matching money for provider fees.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market was not exactly surprised that a so-called supercommittee in Congress failed to reach a deal to cut the federal budget deficit. But since summer, investors have sold at the first hint of trouble.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices fell Monday on fears that the world economy will weaken and push down demand for crude.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's just about over for a special deficit-reduction supercommittee, which appears set to admit failure on Monday in its quest to sop up at least $1.2 trillion in government red ink over the coming decade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Failure by Congress' debt-cutting supercommittee to recommend $1.2 trillion in savings by Wednesday is supposed to automatically trigger spending cuts in the same amount to accomplish that job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama plans to sign a bill into law Monday that represents a rare patch of common ground for Democrats and Republicans — helping veterans find work.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18
NASHVILLE AREA
WASHINGTON (AP) — A panel of federal judges said Thursday that a bankruptcy judge's membership in Nashville's Belle Meade Country Club, which has no women or blacks as full-fledged members violates the judiciary's code of ethics.
NASHVILLE (AP) — While Occupy Wall Street camps across the country are being evicted, Nashville protesters are staying put, at least for the time being.
LOS ANGELES (AP) - Online ticket seller Fandango said Thursday that customers heading to see movies on more than 1,000 screens owned by Regal Entertainment Corp. no longer have to print out tickets - as long as they have a cellphone with a screen.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The winter weather outlook in Tennessee is for slightly warmer than normal temperatures and precipitation that is a bit above average.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The state is offering energy management workshops for K-12 schools in the next few weeks in Jackson, Knoxville and Murfreesboro.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's October unemployment rate of 9.6 percent dropped slightly from the previous month.
NASHVILLE (AP) - State Sen. Eric Stewart announced Thursday that he will seek to reclaim one of three congressional seats lost by Tennessee Democrats last year.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A gauge of future economic activity rose at solid pace in October, offering hope that the economy may see stronger growth in coming months.
Stocks finished about where they started Friday as investors balanced positive signs for the U.S. economy with a looming deadline for a deficit-cutting committee in Congress. Steep declines earlier in the week left the market with its worst weekly loss since September.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hardly a day goes by without some politician or pundit pointing out that companies are hoarding cash — roughly $3 trillion of it. If only they would spend it, the thinking goes, the economy might get better.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Little by very little, the job market is getting better.
NEW YORK (AP) — Gap Inc. said Thursday that its third-quarter profit fell 36 percent, confirming the challenges the clothing company faces heading into the holiday shopping season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on the 30-year mortgage stayed near 4 percent for the third straight week, just above the record low. But cheap mortgage rates have done little to boost home sales or refinancing.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans and Democrats on Congress' deficit-reduction supercommittee have resumed face-to-face meetings after more than a week of backbiting and stalemate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP's image as a rigidly anti-tax party is softening. Spurred by federal debt worries in Congress, the shift conceivably could reshape the Republican Party's brand ahead of the 2012 elections, forcing tough decisions by its presidential candidates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of taxpayers who take advantage of deductions for mortgage interest, charitable donations and state and local taxes would be targeted for potential tax hikes under a GOP plan to raise taxes by $290 billion over the next decade to help reduce the nation's deficit.