VOL. 37 | NO. 45 | Friday, November 8, 2013
REALTY CHECK
Last week was a monumental week in Middle Tennessee residential real estate as seven single-family homes and one condo closed for more than $1 million each. Williamson County boasted three $1 million-plus sales for the week and 16 for the month, while Davidson County held a slight edge with 18 closed sales in October.
TERRY McCORMICK
Shortly after the Tennessee Titans won the Jeff Fisher Bowl, thanks in large part to a resurgent running game, Chris Johnson revealed that the Titans did something they hadn’t done since the end of the Fisher Era in preparation.
NEWSMAKERS
The law firm of Bone McAllester Norton PLLC has hired Vanderbilt alumnus Bryan Pieper as the firm’s newest attorney in labor and employment law and commercial litigation.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
With more than 200 major, active social media networks cited by Wikipedia, it’s easy to get overwhelmed with all of the choices available.
I SWEAR
The Pronoun Showdown continues. I started it some weeks back, asking which of two football coaches was correct, the one who said “between me and him” or the one who said: “between he and I?”
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
This past week, some of us from work traveled to New Orleans for a conference. New Orleans, even though it has gone through a major overhaul due to Katrina, is still New Orleans. It’s full of unexpected excitement, frivolity, color and tons of little shops, both in and outdoor, in which to stroll.
REGION
The nation's largest public utility has voted to close six coal-powered units in Alabama and replace two more in Kentucky with a new natural gas plant.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam says the state has benefited from a company hired to manage its assets, despite a comptroller's report that suggests the company may have benefited from its own advice, creating a conflict of interest.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam has been presented with a slate of three finalists for an upcoming vacancy on the state Court of Appeals.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BEIJING (AP) — China's government on Thursday announced the second recall of Volkswagen vehicles this year, a setback for the German automaker following a March report by state TV that criticized its quality standards.
LAFAYETTE, Ind. (AP) — Toyota plans to stop building cars at the Subaru factory in central Indiana after the contract between the companies ends in 2016.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to pressure, President Barack Obama on Thursday announced changes to his health care law to give insurance companies the option to keep offering consumers plans that would otherwise be canceled.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama on Thursday planned to announce a fix to counter the millions of health coverage cancellations going to consumers, as the White House tried to stem Democratic impatience over a program likely to be at the center of next year's midterm elections for control of Congress.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Janet Yellen said Thursday that the U.S. economy has regained ground lost to Great Recession but still needs the Federal Reserve's support because unemployment remains too high at 7.3 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose for the second straight week amid some signs of economic strength. Still rates remain near historically low levels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people applying for U.S. unemployment benefits slipped 2,000 last week to a seasonally adjusted 339,000, the fifth straight decline that shows businesses see little need to cut jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. workers increased their productivity from July through September at roughly the same modest pace as the previous three months. Steady gains in productivity could dissuade companies from ramping up hiring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit widened in September as imports increased to the highest level in 10 months while exports slipped.
BETHESDA, Md. (AP) — Lockheed Martin is cutting 4,000 jobs, about 3.5 percent of its workforce, as the defense contractor continues to look for ways to lower costs amid reduced government spending.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were mostly higher on Thursday, but a sales slump from technology giant Cisco Systems dragged other technology stocks lower.
KUALA LUMPUR, Malaysia (AP) — Oil prices were mixed Thursday ahead of the release of data on U.S. crude stocks.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fewer U.S. homes are completing the foreclosure process and ending up repossessed by banks because investors are increasingly buying up properties when they go on sale at public auction.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. mobility for young adults has fallen to the lowest level in more than 50 years as cash-strapped 20-somethings shun home-buying and refrain from major moves in a weak job market.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores cut its annual outlook for the second time in three months as the world's largest retailer sees its low-income shoppers continue to feel squeezed around the globe.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner says a budget deal "won't happen" if Democrats keep insisting on more tax increases.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 13
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A report by the state's Fiscal Review Committee has found that refugees bring in more money to Tennessee than they cost the state in entitlements. But that's not the message some of the lawmakers who asked for the report want to hear.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The heads of two legislative committees say the process for selecting books for state schools is flawed and needs to be fixed.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The senior vice president and general manager for the Great American Country network, Sarah Trahern, has been named the new CEO of the Country Music Association.
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) - Health Management Associates said Wednesday that its new board of directors supports the sale of the hospital company to competitor Community Health Systems, which is based in Franklin, Tenn.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are asking fans coming to the Colts' game on Thursday night to bring non-perishable food with them to donate to the Second Harvest Food Bank.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of criticism over the balky rollout of the health care sign-up website, the Obama administration is releasing figures on how many people have successfully enrolled through the new federal insurance exchanges.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Shares of General Motors rose to their highest level in almost three years Wednesday after analysts applauded news that the company could be free of U.S. government ownership by the end of the year.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first month in nearly two decades, the U.S. in October extracted more oil from the ground than it imported from abroad, marking an important milestone for a nation seeking to wean itself off foreign oil.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Just as one high-tech breakthrough often paves the way for the next big thing, technology IPOs move in virtuous cycles, too.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's gave the stock market some early holiday cheer.
Oil rose near $94 a barrel Wednesday, a day after falling to a five-month low.
NEW YORK (AP) — Motorola says it wants to equip the world with the latest smartphone technology, at less than a third the price.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market got a boost from Macy's on Wednesday, pushing the Standard & Poor's 500 index back into record territory.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is reprogramming the way its Internet video subscription service appears on millions of television screens in an attempt to hook viewers for even longer periods.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple demanded Wednesday that Samsung Electronics pay it $380 million for copying vital iPhone and iPad features, as a billion-dollar patent fight between the world's two biggest smartphone makers resumed in a Silicon Valley courtroom.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government started the first month of the 2014 budget year with a $91.6 billion deficit, signaling further improvement in the nation's finances at a time when lawmakers are wrestling to reach a deal that would keep the government open past January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Heather Zichal admits her job is unfinished.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's top five airports will continue to be served by a merged US Airways and American Airlines for the next five years under an agreement with the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam said Tuesday he's committed to improving the salaries of the state's teachers and plans to provide some degree of funding in his proposed budget to start the process.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ugly duckling of government health care programs has turned into a rare early success story for President Barack Obama's technologically challenged health overhaul.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Last Thanksgiving Day, Kimberly Mudge Via's mother, sister and nieces left in the middle of their meals to head for the mall.
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines and US Airways reached a deal with the government that lets the two form the world's biggest airline and opens up more room at key U.S. airports for low-cost carriers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Disappointing company earnings and falling oil prices pulled stocks back from record highs on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil sank 2 percent Tuesday, hitting a five-month low, as the market anticipated another increase in domestic supplies.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Fewer U.S. homeowners are falling behind on their mortgage payments, aided by rising home values, low interest rates and stable job gains.
NEW YORK (AP) — In the many years he spent as a trader at Bernard L. Madoff Investment Securities LLC, David Kugel learned that investments that Madoff claimed to be making for clients were fiction.
NATIONAL POLITICS
CORYDON, Iowa (AP) — The hills of southern Iowa bear the scars of America's push for green energy: The brown gashes where rain has washed away the soil. The polluted streams that dump fertilizer into the water supply.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new Associated Press investigation, which found that ethanol hasn't lived up to some of the government's clean-energy promises, is drawing a fierce response from the ethanol industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama's hopes for a nuclear deal with Iran now depend in part on his ability to keep a lid on both hard-liners on Capitol Hill and anxious allies abroad, including Israel, the Arab Gulf states and even France.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is nominating a top Treasury Department official to run the independent agency that regulates the futures and options markets.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam's annual budget hearings are getting under way this week.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Transparency advocates are warning about the ramifications of a recent Tennessee appeals court ruling that "high government officials" can keep documents secret if they deem them part of their decision-making process.
AUTO INDUSTRY
ANN ARBOR, Mich. (AP) — The University of Michigan has announced a collaboration with government and business to make its hometown of Ann Arbor the first American city with a shared fleet of networked, driverless vehicles by 2021.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) - About 66,000 people who get individual health plans through Blue Cross Blue Shield of Tennessee are being notified that they must pick a new plan due to new federal regulations.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average rose to another all-time high on Wall Street Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose above $95 a barrel Monday after negotiations in Geneva to curb Iran's nuclear program were stalled.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is teaming up with the U.S. Postal Service to deliver packages on Sundays.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States and the European Union, which already enjoy the world's biggest business relationship, resumed talks Monday on a deal to further grow two-way trade and investment.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. is becoming the latest retailer to open earlier on Thanksgiving this year.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's not just longstanding battles over taxes and curbing mandatory spending that are obstacles to a year-end pact on the budget. Another problem is a perception among some lawmakers that the automatic spending cuts known as sequestration haven't been as harsh as advertised.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's general fund revenues fell $97 million short of projections in the first quarter of the state's budget year.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee Republican Party and former chief of staff Mark Winslow have settled a lawsuit over the public disclosure of his severance pay after he left the state GOP.
NASHVILLE AREA
BOISE, Idaho (AP) - The two biggest private prison companies in the nation say they don't want the contract to run a troubled Idaho prison, and that could shrink the pool of potential bidders to just two smaller companies.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are asking fans coming to Sunday's game against Jacksonville not to forget their used cellphones.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) - Federal accident investigators called on Thursday for a probe of the government agency charged with ensuring the safety of commercial vehicles, saying their own look into four tour bus and truck crashes that killed 25 people raises "serious questions" about how well the agency is doing its job.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are investigating thousands of Volkswagen SUVs because the headlamps and other outside lights can fail with little warning.
DETROIT (AP) — A Tesla Model S electric car caught fire this week after hitting road debris on a Tennessee freeway, the third fire in a Model S in the past five weeks.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to intense criticism, President Barack Obama apologized to Americans who are losing health insurance plans he repeatedly said they could keep and pledged to find fixes that might allow people to keep their coverage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Insurance cancellations are fueling a political backlash against President Barack Obama and Democrats supporting his health care overhaul, but they may be a silver lining for the law itself.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chairman Ben Bernanke says the Federal Reserve is drafting rules to close large insolvent banks without bringing down the broader financial system, one of many steps regulators must take to prevent another financial crisis.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average is closing at another record high after the government reported an unexpected surge in hiring last month.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of gasoline is the lowest in nearly two years, an early holiday gift for U.S. drivers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A burst of hiring in October added a surprisingly strong 204,000 jobs to the economy in a month when the government was partly shut down for 16 days. And employers added far more jobs in August and September than previously thought.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers slowed their spending in September, even as overall income grew at solid pace for the second straight month.
NEW YORK (AP) — Home improvement retailer Home Depot Inc. on Thursday apologized for a tweet that showed a picture of two African-American drummers with a person in a gorilla mask in between them and asked: "Which drummer is not like the others?"
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter's stock took to its wings in its public debut, closing up more than 70 percent. The day flew by with nary a hitch and gave birth to a new batch of Silicon Valley millionaires — even a few billionaires.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on using their credit cards in September for the fourth straight month but boosted borrowing in the category that covers auto loans and student debt.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy expanded at a 2.8 percent annual rate from July through September, a surprising acceleration ahead of the 16-day partial government shutdown. But much of the strength came from a buildup in company stockpiling.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The third-ranking Republican in the House has told immigration advocates that there's not enough time left this year to deal with the issue.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after the Senate passed a historic measure to outlaw workplace discrimination against gays, activists turned their attention toward President Barack Obama and a long-sought executive order that would have the same effect, though on a much smaller scale.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Furloughing federal workers in last month's partial federal shutdown cost the government 6.6 million work days, according to a White House budget office report Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has approved a bill outlawing workplace discrimination against gay, bisexual and transgender Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service issued $4 billion in fraudulent tax refunds last year to people using stolen identities, with some of the money going to addresses in Bulgaria, Lithuania and Ireland, according to a Treasury report released Thursday.