VOL. 35 | NO. 44 | Friday, November 4, 2011
TERRY McCORMICK
For those looking to point fingers, the Tennessee Titans organization may be partly to blame for the current situation involving Chris Johnson’s lack of rushing success.
BUSINESS & FINANCE
Middle Tennessee’s private equity industry showed no signs of slowing in the 1990s and early 2000s, but a number of factors, chiefly the recent rocky economic recession, have prevented several major firms from raising follow-up funds.
Tennessee’s TNInvestco program emerged amid much fanfare from former Gov. Phil Bredesen’s administration after Matt Kisber, then commissioner of the Department of Economic and Community Development (ECD), joined with the state General Assembly to create legislation to boost the stream of capital to the state’s inventive new companies that are in the early stage of development.
NEWSMAKERS
Centerstone, the nation’s largest not-for-profit provider of community-based mental health and addiction services, today announced that board chair Lee Ann Ingram and her husband Orrin have been named Philanthropists of the Year by the Association of Fundraising Professionals (AFP) Nashville Chapter. The couple will be honored during the chapter’s annual National Philanthropy Day (NPD) luncheon on Nov. 10 at the Hutton Hotel.
REALTY CHECK
Following the crash of the U.S. economy, the federal government decided to revamp the process through which its citizens could borrow money for the purchase of homes.
I SWEAR
“Dear Judge Vic, I’ve heard that crosswords are considered mentally healthy. Can you address this topic? Also, I’d like to work on your crosswords, but I hear they have legal themes. I worry I might not be qualified.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
This past week, we attended an American Court and Commercial Newspaper Conference (ACCN), in Baltimore, Md. We stayed in downtown Baltimore, right across the street from the Chesapeake Bay.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam will ask prosecutors to drop charges against dozens of Occupy Nashville protesters arrested last month for trespassing, his office said Thursday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Emails obtained by WTVF-TV show a top official at the Tennessee Highway Patrol was worried that the cost of raids against Occupy Nashville protesters would hurt troopers' efforts to prevent traffic fatalities this holiday season.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has served a search warrant seeking information about the operation of the office of Davidson County Clerk John Arriola.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Though still largely the domain of men, triumphs by Taylor Swift and The Band Perry at the Country Music Association Awards show that the young women of country music are finding their voices and shoving the boys out of the way.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher after unemployment claims unexpectedly dropped and worries over the debt crisis in Europe eased.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage fell below 4 percent for just the second time in history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The outlook for American jobs and trade looked a little brighter Thursday, despite growing uncertainty overseas.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — More U.S. homes entered the foreclosure process in October than in the previous month, with Florida, Pennsylvania and Indiana registering among the largest monthly increases, new data show.
LONDON (AP) — European markets recovered some lost ground Thursday as Italy's borrowing rates eased somewhat on speculation that a technocratic government led by economist Mario Monti will replace Premier Silvio Berlusconi.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans will get a rare chance to test just how deep the Democrat-controlled Senate's support for environmental regulations goes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A united Senate is ready to emphatically approve legislation aimed at helping unemployed veterans and companies doing business with the government, a measure that includes the first, tiny slice of President Barack Obama's jobs plan that is likely to become law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's claim that President Barack Obama "gave GM" to the United Auto Workers stood as one of the overstatements of the night Wednesday when Republican presidential candidates grappled with the economy in their latest debate. Several drifted from reality too in portraying regulations as a killer of jobs, if not the country itself.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 9
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's sales tax revenues grew 6.5 percent in the first quarter of the budget year, and general fund collections have come in at $57 million above projections.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University has been awarded $1.3 million to support cybersecurity research and education.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A bipartisan group of 10 U.S. senators wants to give states a way to require online retailers to collect sales taxes.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average dropped more than 350 points Wednesday after Italy's borrowing costs soared and talks collapsed in Greece on forming a new government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home prices dropped in nearly three quarters of U.S. cities over the summer, dragged down by a decline in buyer interest and a high number of foreclosures.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's Inc.'s net income surged in the third quarter as the department store chain benefited from tailoring its merchandise to local markets. The retailer also raised its full-year profit outlook Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock futures fell sharply Wednesday amid growing concerns that Italy's debt levels are unsustainable.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor unions are celebrating one of their biggest victories in decades after turning back an Ohio law that curbed collective bargaining rights for the state's public workers. The vote showed unions are still a potent political force that can't be ignored.
PARIS (AP) — The International Energy Agency warned Wednesday that the world is hurtling toward irreversible climate change and will lose the chance to limit warming if it doesn't take bold action in the next five years.
NEW YORK (AP) — As part of a federal effort to get more U.S. homes connected to broadband, cable companies will offer Internet service for $9.95 per month to homes with children that are eligible for school lunches, starting next summer.
DETROIT (AP) — Europe's economic woes are weighing on General Motors Co.'s profits.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. said Wednesday it is recalling about 550,000 vehicles worldwide — mostly in the United States — for problems that could make it harder to steer.
SINGAPORE (AP) — Oil prices hovered below $97 a barrel Wednesday in Asia as receding inflation in China added to expectations that the world's second-largest economy can continue robust growth and strong demand for crude.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration cautiously offered up more areas in the Gulf of Mexico and off Alaska's coast to oil and gas drilling Tuesday but didn't go far enough to satisfy Republicans pushing to greatly expand drilling as a way to create jobs and wean the country off foreign oil.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats and Republicans on a special deficit-cutting panel remain far apart despite new flexibility from Republicans on tax revenue increases.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is coming out against swag.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 8
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Vanguard Healthcare LLC and its subsidiary Vanguard Health Care Ancillary have settled a whistleblower lawsuit with the federal government and Tennessee over claims that the firm defrauded Medicare and Medicaid for double-billing for services provided in nursing homes.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Occupy Nashville protesters said Tuesday they're taking steps to maintain order and safety on the grounds near the state Capitol where they're camped, and anyone who doesn't adhere to the rules is removed from the group.
NASHVILLE (AP) — State prison officials are closing the Charles Bass Correction Complex-Annex in Nashville because of security concerns days after an inmate escaped.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Two courts in Nashville have backed a decision by state transportation officials to bar two guardrail companies that were implicated in corruption investigations from bidding on projects.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is still weighing the pros and cons of a school vouchers proposal, and doesn't plans to announce his position on the measure until close to the end of the year.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised more jobs in September than at any other point in the past three years, a hopeful sign that companies may step up hiring.
NEW YORK (AP) — While lawmakers in Washington debated the debt ceiling and consumer confidence dropped, more homeowners in the U.S. were having a harder time making their mortgage payments.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota said its quarterly profit slid 18.5 percent to 80.4 billion yen ($1 billion) on plunging sales caused by parts shortages from the tsunami disaster in northeastern Japan and warned it faces a new challenge from flooding in Thailand.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks turned higher Tuesday once investors got the news they had been hoping for: Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi promised to resign once a new budget was passed. The Dow Jones industrial closed up 101 points.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are soaring again, but motorists don't need to worry — yet.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Capitol Hill Republicans say the GOP members of a deficit "supercommittee" are showing flexibility on revenue hikes as the panel heads closer to its Thanksgiving deadline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sputtering Congress enveloped in an atmosphere poisoned with politics and distrust enters its final weeks of the year struggling to complete a lengthy to-do list on the budget.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court invoked visions of an all-seeing Big Brother and satellites watching us from above. Then things got personal Tuesday when the justices were told police could slap GPS devices on their cars and track their movements, without asking a judge for advance approval.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 7
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Attempts to dislodge Wall Street protesters who have occupied parks, plazas and other public spaces have helped the groups in some cities shift their message from poorly defined angst over corporate greed to more broadly understood discussions about rights to free speech and assembly.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam warned that declining gas tax revenues will be a major problem for the state's infrastructure over the next decade, but said on Monday that he doesn't plan to introduce any proposals to overhaul the system in the upcoming legislative session.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks have closed higher as investors responded to the latest twists in Europe's efforts to control its debt crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans borrowed more in September to buy cars and attend college, but they charged less to their credit cards for a third straight month. The figures suggest that consumers are growing more cautious about taking on high-interest debt in a weak economy.
MIAMI (AP) — An attorney for Bank of America says 13.2 million customers may be eligible for a settlement in a lawsuit claiming the bank charged excessive overdraft fees.
THOUSAND OAKS, Calif. (AP) — Biotech drugmaker Amgen said Monday that it plans to buy back up to $5 billion of its stock in a modified Dutch auction tender offer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The wealth gap between younger and older Americans has stretched to the widest on record, worsened by a prolonged economic downturn that has wiped out job opportunities for young adults and saddled them with housing and college debt.
ROME (AP) — Pressure mounted on Premier Silvio Berlusconi to resign so a new government could pass the economic reforms Italy needs to avoid financial disaster, as the country's borrowing rates spiked Monday and talk of early elections intensified.
SHANGHAI (AP) — GM's sales in China jumped 10 percent to a record 220,412 vehicles in October, helped by renewed demand for its minivans.
ENGLEWOOD, Colo. (AP) — Dish Network Corp. says its third-quarter earnings climbed 30 percent, as revenue rose even though the satellite television provider lost subscribers in the quarter.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just as 55 million Social Security recipients are about to get their first benefit increase in three years, Congress is looking at reducing future raises by adopting a new measure of inflation that also would increase taxes for most families — the biggest impact falling on those with low incomes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department's inspector general says he will review the Obama administration's handling of a Canadian company's request to pipe oil from western Canada to Texas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jack Abramoff can't say he wasn't warned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is promoting new ways to help veterans find jobs in a tough economy while pressing Congress to approve tax credits for businesses to hire former members of the military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican presidential candidate Herman Cain's halting response to sex harassment allegations is causing a major distraction in the GOP race and drawing attention away from his rivals' efforts to gain ground or announce initiatives.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 4
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE, Tennessee (AP) — The Nashville Predators signed Finnish goaltender Pekka Rinne to a seven-year, $49 million contract on Thursday on his 29th birthday, the largest deal in the NHL team's short history.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) - Members of Occupy Nashville delivered a letter to Gov. Bill Haslam on Thursday saying they want to collaborate with him "to achieve the best possible outcomes."