VOL. 44 | NO. 48 | Friday, November 27, 2020
NEWSMAKERS
MP&F Strategic Communications has promoted five members of its senior leadership team.
TENNESSEE TITANS
What doesn’t kill the Titans seems to make them stronger. Given up for done, the Titans somehow seem to save their most improbable performances for when its least expected.
If the Titans want to win the AFC South and guarantee themselves at least one home playoff game, they probably must win this week at 7-3 Indianapolis.
BRIEFS
Nashville-based The Mainland Companies, LLC, working in partnership with Chicago-based Speedwagon Capital Partners, is creating New Heights District, an urban, mixed-use opportunity zone business district on the south side of downtown Nashville.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
While most people start learning how to drive with a hand-me-down car from parents or relatives, there comes a time when they want to get their first new car. With hundreds of models to choose from, narrowing the list to just one can seem overwhelming.
CAREER CORNER
This week, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. Normally, it’s an opportunity to gather together with loved ones, eat way too much good food and watch a little football.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
‘Twas days before Black Friday when all around the country, shoppers were gearing up for a day full of shopping.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Whom should you hire? That’s a question you ask yourself often, and you strive to be fair with it by hiring the best person for the job, no matter what.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are clicking at a pretty high level offensively, and a lot of the credit goes to Derrick Henry.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower federal court to reexamine California restrictions on indoor religious services in areas hard hit by the coronavirus in light of the justices' recent ruling in favor of churches and synagogues in New York.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump has been deposed by attorneys alleging that President Donald Trump's 2017 inauguration committee misused donor funds, a new court filing reveals.
MURFREESBORO (AP) — A 53-year-old manager at a Tennessee fast food restaurant was charged with simple assault after police said he admitted to biting a teenage worker on the shoulder while on the job.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines is taking its long-grounded Boeing 737 Max jets out of storage, updating key flight-control software, and flying the planes in preparation for the first flights with paying passengers later this month.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
The U.S. recorded over 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring, while the number of Americans hospitalized with the virus has eclipsed 100,000 for the first time and new cases has begun topping 200,000 a day, according to figures released Thursday.
BOSTON (AP) — IBM security researchers say they have detected a cyberespionage effort using targeted phishing emails to try to collect vital information on the World Health Organization's initiative for distributing COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries.
WUHAN, China (AP) — In the early days in Wuhan, the first city struck by the virus, getting a COVID test was so difficult that residents compared it to winning the lottery.
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Africa's top public health official says 60% of the continent's population needs to be vaccinated against the coronavirus in the next two to three years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, registered its sixth consecutive month of expansion in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell as the nation celebrated Thanksgiving last week to a still-high 712,000, the latest sign that the U.S. economy and job market remain under stress from the intensified viral outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort and his top Capitol Hill allies cut their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a monthslong logjam and delivering much-sought aid as the tempestuous congressional session speeds to a close.
LONDON (AP) — Much like a broken record, Brexit trade talks are rumored to be poised for success on the cusp of a deadline, only to face the same old fundamental differences on fishing rights, legal oversight and fair competition that have dogged the European Union and Britain for months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Retail sales rose 5.1% in November, as spending on home furnishings and consumer electronics helped offset a drop in sales of clothing and at department stores, a widely watched industry gauge shows.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. said Wednesday it would block imports from a major Chinese producer of cotton goods because of its reliance on workers detained as part of a crackdown on ethnic minorities in China's northwest.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
LOS EBANOS, Texas (AP) — The U.S. government has been trying to take Pamela Rivas' land for a border wall since before Joe Biden was vice president.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named Tina Flournoy, a veteran Democratic strategist and aide to the Clintons, as her chief of staff, the transition team announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Up soon for President-elect Joe Biden: naming his top health care officials as the coronavirus pandemic rages. It's hard to imagine more consequential picks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is facing escalating pressure from competing factions within his own party as he finalizes his choice for secretary of defense.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Attorney General William Barr's decision to appoint a special counsel to investigate the handling of the Russia probe ensures his successor won't have an easy transition.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will award the nation's highest civilian honor on Thursday to former college football coach and political ally Lou Holtz.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The last throes of Donald Trump's presidency have turned ugly — even dangerous.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Advocates and lawyers anticipate a flurry of clemency action from President Donald Trump in the coming weeks that could test the limits of presidential pardon power.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 2
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee dismissed outside linebacker Kivon Bennett from the football team on Tuesday, hours after he was arrested during a traffic stop.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials have expanded a mental health hotline during COVID-19 times to extend support to teachers.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Federal prosecutors are seeking to restore the tossed convictions for the former president of Pilot Flying J and two of his former employees related to a rebate scheme to cheat trucking companies out of millions of dollars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday struggled with whether to require new trials for potentially thousands of prisoners in Louisiana and Oregon who were convicted by non-unanimous juries before the court barred the practice last year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
HUNTSVILLE, Ala. (AP) — Mazda Toyota Manufacturing in Huntsville is gearing up for a massive round of hiring for production workers.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
MAINZ, Germany (AP) — The email that arrived in the ancient German city of Mainz shortly before 1 a.m. in the morning marked a turning point in the global effort to deliver a reliable vaccine against the coronavirus pandemic - and for the little-known biotechnology company that helped develop it.
Nearly 37,000 Americans died of COVID-19 in November, the most in any month since the dark early days of the pandemic, engulfing families in grief, filling newspaper obituary pages and testing the capacity of morgues, funeral homes and hospitals.
NEW YORK (AP) — Health care workers and nursing home residents should be at the front of the line when the first coronavirus vaccine shots become available, an influential government advisory panel said Tuesday.
LONDON (AP) — Britain became the first country in the world to authorize a rigorously tested COVID-19 vaccine Wednesday and could be dispensing shots within days — a historic step toward eventually ending the scourge that has killed more than 1.4 million people around the globe.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday ordered the start of a "large-scale" COVID-19 vaccination of doctors and teachers late next week with the Sputnik V shot, which has yet to complete advanced studies needed to ensure its effectiveness and safety.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks shook off early losses and managed to end mostly higher on Wall Street, even as weakness in technology companies weighed on major U.S. indexes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve survey of business conditions around the country found that economic activity in several regions was slowing in November as coronavirus cases surged.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged Congress to approve COVID-19 relief funds without further delay, though Democrats continued to attack a decision by Mnuchin to allow five Fed lending programs to expire during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders swung behind a bipartisan COVID-19 relief effort Wednesday, cutting their demands for a $2 trillion-plus measure by more than half in hopes of breaking a monthslong logjam and delivering much-sought aid as a coda to a tempestuous congressional session.
CHICAGO (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday struck down two Trump administration rules designed to drastically curtail the number of visas issued each year to skilled foreign workers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shoppers on Walmart.com who pay a $98-a-year membership fee will get free shipping on orders of any size starting Friday.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Wednesday voted in favor of a "right to disconnect" from the internet and email, with around one third of people now working from home across the 27-nation bloc due in large part to coronavirus restrictions.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Australia's economy grew by 3.3% in the third quarter, rebounding from its first recession in nearly three decades as it recovered from pandemic-related shocks, according to figures released Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Lamar Alexander, a Tennessee political legend who forged a productive path as a Senate institutionalist after tours as governor and Cabinet secretary, said goodbye to the chamber on Wednesday, advising his colleagues to seek broadly backed, durable solutions to the nation's problems rather than succumb to easy partisanship.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona Democrat and former astronaut Mark Kelly was sworn into the Senate on Wednesday, narrowing GOP control of the chamber and underscoring his state's shift from red to blue.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating whether there was a secret scheme to lobby White House officials for a pardon as well as a related plot to offer a hefty political contribution in exchange for clemency, according to a court document unsealed Tuesday.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — City officials in San Francisco have banned all tobacco smoking inside apartments, citing concerns about secondhand smoke. But lighting up a joint inside? That's still allowed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's Cabinet picks are quickly running into the political reality of a narrowly controlled Senate that will leave the new Democratic administration dependent on rival Republicans to get anything done.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ron Klain has checked all the boxes of a classic Washington striver: Georgetown, Harvard Law, Supreme Court clerk and Capitol Hill staffer, White House adviser and, along the way, of course, lobbyist and lawyer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is threatening to veto a defense policy bill unless it ends protections for internet companies that shield them from being held liable for material posted by their users.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump teased running again for president in 2024 as he hosted a holiday reception at the White House on Tuesday evening.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 1
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Bank of America is contributing $1 million in a partnership with Tennessee State University to help students finish college and find employment.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Vanderbilt Commodores have only one kicker listed on their two-deep chart for this weekend's game at No. 11 Georgia, and it's Sarah Fuller, the first woman to play in a Power Five game.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee trial court judge improperly reduced a Black inmate's death sentence to life in prison last year, a state appeals court has ruled.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — U.S. construction spending jumped 1.3% in October, the fifth straight monthly increase, again on the strength of single-family home building.
EDUCATION
In a veiled swing at President-elect Joe Biden's education plans, Education Secretary Betsy DeVos on Tuesday blasted the push for free college as a "socialist takeover of higher education" that could damage the nation's economy.
A disproportionately large number of poor and minority students were not in schools for assessments this fall, complicating efforts to measure the pandemic's effects on some of the most vulnerable students, a not-for-profit company that administers standardized testing said Tuesday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — An influential scientific panel on Tuesday was set to tackle one of the most pressing questions in the U.S. coronavirus outbreak: Who should be at the front of the line when the first vaccine shots become available?
Is shopping in stores safe during the pandemic? There are ways to reduce risk, but health experts advise avoiding it when possible.
MEMPHIS, Mo. (AP) — As Dr. Shane Wilson makes the rounds at the tiny, 25-bed hospital in rural northeastern Missouri, many of his movements are familiar in an age of coronavirus. Masks and gloves. Zippered plastic walls between hallways. Hand sanitizer as he enters and exits each room.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Non-essential shops in Belgium were reopening Tuesday in the wake of encouraging figures about declining daily coronavirus infection rates and hospital admissions.
BERLIN (AP) — European regulators may approve a coronavirus vaccine developed by drugmakers Pfizer and BioNTech within four weeks, the EU's drug agency said Tuesday, a time frame that could mean the shot is rolled out first in the United States and Britain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Scott Atlas, a science adviser to President Donald Trump who was skeptical of measures to control the coronavirus outbreak, is leaving his White House post.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden says he won't immediately lift tariffs placed by President Donald Trump on many imports from China or break Trump's initial trade deal.
Stocks scored more record highs on Wall Street Tuesday, a day after the S&P 500 closed out November with its biggest monthly gain since April.
Business software pioneer Salesforce.com is buying work-chatting service Slack for $27.7 billion in a deal aimed at giving the two companies a better shot at competing against longtime industry powerhouse Microsoft.
Airbnb hopes to raise as much as $2.6 billion in its initial public stock offering this month, betting investors will see its home-sharing model as the future of travel.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday introduced top advisers he says will help his administration rebuild an economy hammered by the coronavirus pandemic, declaring, "I know times are tough, but I want you to know that help is on the way."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is defending his decision to close down a number of emergency Federal Reserve loan programs at a time when coronavirus cases are surging.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of lawmakers is putting pressure on congressional leaders to accept a split-the-difference solution to the months-long impasse on COVID-19 relief in a last-gasp effort to ship overdue help to a hurting nation before Congress adjourns for the holidays.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sephora will be replacing all cosmetics areas at Kohl's with 2,500 square foot shops, starting with 200 locations in the fall of year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories grew at a slower pace last month and there are concerns that surging coronavirus infections will endanger an economic recovery.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The OPEC oil producers' cartel was to push ahead with a new round of discussions Tuesday about how much oil to pump next year as countries wrestled over whether to extend production cuts to support prices depressed by the pandemic.
PARIS (AP) — Vendors broke out in applause in the flagship Galeries Lafayette department store in Paris as eager shoppers returned for the first time in a month, after yet another virus lockdown.
Nasdaq is seeking U.S. authority to require more diversity in the board rooms of Nasdaq-listed companies.
LONDON (AP) — The British government told businesses on Tuesday to make sure they are ready for big changes when the U.K. makes its final Brexit break from the European Union in exactly a month. But with negotiations on a free-trade deal with the bloc stuck, firms say they still don't know key details of what those changes will be.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Zoom's videoconferencing service remains a fixture in pandemic life, but its breakneck growth is showing signs of tapering off as investors debate whether the company will be able to build upon its recent success after a vaccine enables people to intermingle again.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has given extra protection to the prosecutor he appointed to investigate the origins of the Trump-Russia probe, giving him the authority of a special counsel to complete his work without being easily fired.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Tuesday the Justice Department has not uncovered evidence of widespread voter fraud that would change the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has raised roughly $170 million since his Election Day defeat, a sum garnered through a nonstop stream of solicitations that have falsely claimed the election was stolen while requesting contributions for an "election defense fund."
CHICAGO (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is considering former Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel, a substantial and somewhat divisive figure in Democratic Party politics, to serve as his transportation secretary.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's pick to lead the Office of Management and Budget is quickly emerging as a political battle that could disrupt his efforts to swiftly fill out his administration.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden has had his first look as president-elect at the President's Daily Brief, a top secret summary of U.S. intelligence and world events — a document former first lady Michelle Obama has called "The Death, Destruction, and Horrible Things Book."
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 30
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Interim Police Chief John Drake has emerged from a national search to become the permanent leader of the growing city's police force, Mayor John Cooper announced Monday.
TENNESSEE TITANS
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Derrick Henry carried the Tennessee Titans into the AFC South lead Sunday.
NASHVILLE SC
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — Pedros Santos and Gyasi Zardes scored three minutes apart early in overtime and the Columbus Crew beat expansion Nashville SC 2-0 on Sunday to advance to the MLS Eastern Conference finals.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt athletic director Candice Lee sees her first coaching search as a chance for the Commodores to start showing how committed they are to competing in Southeastern Conference football.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Southeastern Conference has named Vanderbilt kicker Sarah Fuller as the league's co-special teams player of the week after she made history becoming the first woman to play in a Power 5 conference football game.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt fired coach Derek Mason on Sunday after losing the first eight games of his seventh season, and offensive coordinator Todd Fitch will serve as the interim coach.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt's Sarah Fuller, the most famous walk-on in college football this season, isn't ready to walk away from the sport.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Spanish auto parts manufacturer is investing $94.7 million in an expansion of its Tennessee operations that is expected to create 260 new jobs over five years.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sounded skeptical Monday that President Donald Trump could categorically exclude people living in the country illegally from the population count used to allot seats among the states in the House of Representatives.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — General Motors will not be taking a stake in the electric vehicle company Nikola which announced Monday that it would scuttle one of its marquee vehicles, an electric and hydrogen-powered pickup.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The number of Americans signing contracts to buy homes fell for the second consecutive month as lack of available homes continues to stifle house hunters.
HEALTH CARE
A company has started selling the first blood test to help diagnose Alzheimer's disease, a leap for the field that could make it much easier for people to learn whether they have dementia. It also raises concern about the accuracy and impact of such life-altering news.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — Greenhouse gas emissions in the European Union have been reduced by 24% compared to 1990 levels, according to the bloc's annual climate report, but the EU said Monday it still needs to intensify efforts to keep to its target of making Europe the first climate-neutral continent by mid-century.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Wireless carriers in the U.K. won't be allowed to install Huawei equipment in their high-speed 5G networks after September 2021, the British government said Monday, hardening its line against the Chinese technology company.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Americans returning home from Thanksgiving break faced strict new coronavirus measures around the country Monday as health officials brace for a disastrous worsening of the nationwide surge because of holiday gatherings over the long weekend.
GENEVA (AP) — As several European countries have suspended access to the ski slopes to stop the spread of the coronavirus pandemic, the World Health Organization's emergencies chief said the risk of catching COVID-19 while skiing is likely minimal.
Nearly 1.2 million people passed through U.S. airports Sunday, the greatest number since the pandemic gripped the country in March, despite pleas from health experts for Americans to stay home over Thanksgiving.
Moderna Inc. said it would ask U.S. and European regulators Monday to allow emergency use of its COVID-19 vaccine as new study results confirm the shots offer strong protection — ramping up the race to begin limited vaccinations as the coronavirus rampage worsens.
The nation's top infectious disease expert said Sunday that the U.S. may see "surge upon a surge" of the coronavirus in the weeks after Thanksgiving, and he does not expect current recommendations around social distancing to be relaxed before Christmas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus vaccine inching toward approval in the U.S. is desperately anticipated by weary Americans longing for a path back to normal life. But criminals are waiting, too, ready to use that desperation to their advantage, federal investigators say.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you were to choose a word that rose above most in 2020, which word would it be?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell says that the pace of improvement in the economy has moderated in recent months with future prospects remaining "extraordinarily uncertain."
Stocks pulled back slightly from their record levels Monday as Wall Street put a quiet coda on one of its most rocking months in decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog has found that the Labor Department's widely watched weekly unemployment benefits data are providing an inaccurate reading on the number of newly laid off workers because of flaws in the government's data collection.
WILMINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Monday announced his senior economic team, including his plans to nominate the first woman to head the Treasury Department as well as a slew of liberal economists and policy specialists who established their credentials during the previous two Democratic administrations.
NEW YORK (AP) — DoorDash is looking for a valuation of nearly $30 billion when it takes itself public, reflecting how integral food delivery has become in millions of people's lives during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of shadowboxing amid a tense and toxic campaign, Capitol Hill's main players are returning for one final, perhaps futile, attempt at deal-making on a challenging menu of year-end business.
President-elect Joe Biden is expected in the coming days to name several of his most senior economic advisers, a group that includes several liberal economists and policy specialists who established their credentials during the previous two Democratic administrations.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Leaders of the OPEC oil cartel adjourned their virtual meeting Monday on future production as no agreement was announced on whether to extend output cuts into next year.
The value that Wall Street places on access to billions of bytes of data, rather than old-school stock picking, became abundantly clear Monday as two of the biggest providers of such information become one in the biggest takeover of the year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner will travel to Saudi Arabia and Qatar this week as part of negotiations to end a longtime boycott of Qatar.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump clung to false notions Sunday that Joe Biden stole the presidential election, citing thousands of votes magically switched to the president-elect and poll watchers illegally barred on Election Day, neither of which happened.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 27
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Women's soccer player Sarah Fuller will don a football uniform Saturday for Vanderbilt and is poised to become the first woman to play in a Power 5 game when the Commodores visit Missouri.
Missouri and Vanderbilt were supposed to play last month, only to have a combination of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing force the Southeastern Conference to juggle the schedule.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A prominent voucher group's outreach efforts to families of students "caused nothing but confusion" while Tennessee attempted to enact a program that would have allowed parents to use tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, a state official said in emails detailing the implementation efforts.
ENVIRONMENT
The Trump administration moved forward Friday on gutting a longstanding federal protection for the nation's birds, over objections from former federal officials and many scientists that billions more birds will likely perish as a result.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) — St. Michael's College managed to keep coronavirus cases at bay for almost two months this fall with students tested upon arrival and once every three weeks.
TUTTLINGEN, Germany (AP) — Hulking gray boxes are rolling off the production line at a factory in the southern town of Tuttlingen, ready to be shipped to the front in the next phase of Germany's battle against the coronavirus as it became the latest country to hit the milestone of 1 million confirmed cases Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With coronavirus cases surging again nationwide, the Supreme Court barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 rose to a record high Friday as investors continue to look forward to the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine and relief for the global economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The raging coronavirus pandemic kept crowds thin at malls and stores across the country on Black Friday, but a surge in online shopping offered a small beacon of hope for struggling retailers after months of slumping sales and businesses toppling into bankruptcy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The pandemic is turning this into a holiday shopping season like no other.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama-Biden administration was a charmed era for America's tech companies — a moment when they were lionized as innovators, hailed as job creators and largely left alone.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump still won't bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he's now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden's win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a few weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Monday seemed like the end of President Donald Trump's relentless challenges to the election, after the federal government acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden was the "apparent winner" and Trump cleared the way for cooperation on a transition of power.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Women's soccer player Sarah Fuller has practiced with the Vanderbilt football team, and coach Derek Mason said Wednesday she's a good option to be the Commodores kicker Saturday against Missouri.
UT SPORTS
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The NCAA has suspended Nebraska's Derrick Walker for the first 16 games of the season for a rules violation while he was at Tennessee in 2018-19.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than four decades ago, Lamar Alexander won a ticket to the governor's mansion after he walked more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) around Tennessee in a plaid shirt and hiking boots. He spent the night with 73 families and called his campaign headquarters from payphones.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will continue to hear arguments by telephone through at least January because of the coronavirus pandemic.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — The European Union is laying out new standards for data giving Europeans more control over their personal information as it seeks to counter the power of U.S. and Chinese tech companies.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines on Wednesday dropped a threat to furlough more than 1,700 pilots after they ratified a cost-cutting agreement that the airline said was needed to help it cope with a downturn caused by the pandemic.
HEALTH CARE
When it filed for bankruptcy last year, Purdue Pharma agreed to an innovative plan: It would make $200 million available immediately to help those those harmed by its signature painkiller, OxyContin, and ease the effects of the opioid crisis.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — "No New 'Movies' Till Influenza Ends" blared a New York Times headline on Oct. 10, 1918, while the deadly second wave of the Spanish Flu was unfolding.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Millions of Americans took to the skies and the highways ahead of Thanksgiving at the risk of pouring gasoline on the coronavirus fire, disregarding increasingly dire warnings that they stay home and limit their holiday gatherings to members of their own household.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors are expected Wednesday to extend a partial shutdown well into December, and discuss tightening some restrictions while allowing somewhat more generous rules for the Christmas period.
NEW YORK (AP) — Cleaning wipes are harder to find on store shelves, and businesses are reassuring customers with stepped up sanitation measures. In New York, the subway system is shut down nightly for disinfecting.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed mostly lower on Wall Street Wednesday, even as gains for technology companies pushed the Nasdaq to its first record high close since September.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At their meeting earlier this month, Federal Reserve officials discussed possible future adjustments to the central bank's monthly bond purchases to boost the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gripped by the accelerating viral outbreak, the U.S. economy is under pressure from persistent layoffs, diminished income and nervous consumers, whose spending is needed to drive a recovery from the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — When Jenna Powell gets in front of a camera, she can sell $10,000 worth of sparkly dresses and tie-dye hoodies in 40 minutes.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cannabis stocks are flying high after voters in New Jersey, Arizona and three other states cleared the way for expanding legal sales of marijuana.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers increased their spending by a sluggish 0.5% last month, the weakest rise since April, when the pandemic first erupted, and a sign that Americans remain wary with the virus resurging across the country and threatening the economy.
BERLIN (AP) — German media giant Bertelsmann said Wednesday that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster in a megadeal that would reshape the U.S. publishing industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for a second straight week to 778,000, evidence that the U.S. economy and job market remain under strain as coronavirus cases surge and colder weather heighten the risks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The second of three estimates on U.S. growth for the July-September quarter was unchanged at a record pace of 33.1%. But a resurgence in the coronavirus is expected to slow growth sharply in the current quarter with some economists even raising the specter of a double-dip recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods showed a modest gain in October but much of the strength came from a big jump in orders for military equipment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In a time of plague and raw division, President-elect Joe Biden appealed for unity Wednesday in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation asking Americans to "steel our spines" for a fight against the coronavirus that he predicted would continue for months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Competence is making a comeback.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the ravages of the novel coronavirus forced millions of people out of work, shuttered businesses and shrank the value of retirement accounts, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to a three-year low.