VOL. 48 | NO. 45 | Friday, November 8, 2024
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
“If Rapunzel had a home like this, she would never have let her hair down” wrote the listing brokers on the condominium at 600 12th Avenue South.
REAL ESTATE
Top Davidson County residential real estate sales for October 2024, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. rose for the sixth straight week, returning to its highest level since early July.
U.S. housing costs continue to surge, increasing in value 48.55% over the past decade from an average of $173,000 to $257,000.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Versatile veteran steps up as fellow receivers fade
When Nick Westbrook-Ikhine first made the Tennessee Titans roster as an undrafted rookie back in 2020, he knew his primary role would be on special teams and specifically as a gunner on punts.
Did Tennessee have too many talented wide receivers? The team traded future Hall of Famer DeAndre Hopkins two weeks ago. Earlier that week, first-round disappointment Treylon Burks suffered a knee injury in practice that landed him on injured reserve.
The Titans travel Sunday to Los Angeles to play the Chargers, where they will be attempting to win consecutive games for the first time this season.
NEWSMAKERS
Alé Dalton, a partner in the firm’s Nashville office, has received Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP’s 2024 Diversity Leadership Award.
BRIEFS
Federal agents arrested a Tennessee man earlier this week with ties to white nationalist groups who they say attempted to use what he believed to be an explosive-laden drone to destroy a Nashville energy facility.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
While Lincoln’s full-size Navigator is great for big families and towing, the recently redesigned Lincoln Nautilus should have broader appeal for SUV shoppers. It’s a midsize SUV that seats five and boasts distinctive styling, many premium features and an eye-catching curved display that spans the width of the dashboard.
CAREER CORNER
Years ago, I interviewed for a job in Pittsburgh. I flew in late at night with the interview scheduled first thing the next morning. As I unpacked, I realized I had forgotten the pants to my suit. My mind was racing as I searched through the options.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Your parents talk about work all the time and, truthfully, it doesn’t seem like much fun.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Does holding cash still make sense amid this new monetary environment? Nervous consumers have long relied on cash during tumultuous times. Still, a recent Cardrates survey reveals 70% of Americans think the U.S. is becoming a cashless society. However, 77% don’t think it should be.
SEC SPORTS
ATHENS, Ga. (AP) — NIL money has added a new variable to the long-held practice of college coaches trying to flip recruits who have given verbal commitments to other schools.
UT SPORTS
Undefeated Oregon stayed on top in the second batch of College Football Playoff rankings, while Tuesday's poll shoved Georgia completely out of the bracket after its lopsided loss to Mississippi.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed likely to keep alive a class-action lawsuit accusing Nvidia of misleading investors about its dependence on selling computer chips for the mining of volatile cryptocurrency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who worked for the U.S. government has been charged with leaking classified information assessing Israel's earlier plans to attack Iran, according to court papers filed Wednesday.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — An insurance magnate who was once a big political donor in North Carolina is in federal custody after pleading guilty in connection to what prosecutors call a $2 billion scheme to defraud insurance regulators, policyholders and others through a myriad of companies from which he skimmed funds for personal benefit.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's election victory created a profound conundrum for the judge overseeing his criminal case in New York. Can he go ahead and sentence the president-elect, or would doing so potentially get in the way of Trump's constitutional responsibility to lead the nation?
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Donald Trump's election win is clouding the outlook for mortgage rates even before he gets back to the White House.
MEDIA
Conspiracy theory purveyor Infowars and most of its assets are set to go on the auction block Wednesday, with Alex Jones waiting to see if he will be allowed to stay or if he will get kicked off its online platforms.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation in the United States ticked up in October, driven by costlier rents, used cars and air fares, a sign that price increases might be leveling off after having slowed in September to their lowest pace since 2021.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Amazon has launched a low-cost online storefront featuring electronics, apparel and other products priced at under $20, an effort to compete with discount retailers that have increasingly encroached on the e-commerce giant's turf.
NEW YORK (AP) — European food delivery giant Just Eat Takeaway.com is selling Grubhub for $650 million, a fraction of the billions it spent to buy the U.S. platform just three years ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wow, much bull market.
MILAN (AP) — Global sales of personal luxury goods are forecast to shrink in 2025 for the first time since the Great Recession, according to a Bain consultancy study released Wednesday. The outlook could worsen if the sector is hit by tariffs promised by Donald Trump.
Food and beverage manufacturer Kraft Heinz said Tuesday that it no longer is serving the Lunchables meals it created for U.S. schools.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Wednesday said he will nominate Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida to serve as his attorney general, putting a loyalist in the role of the nation's top prosecutor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was the first seriously contested Senate Republican leadership election in decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump made a victor's return to Washington on Wednesday, visiting the White House for an Oval Office meeting with Democratic President Joe Biden and committing to a smooth transition of power as the Republican president-elect moves quickly to build out his new administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump stunned the Pentagon and the broader defense world by nominating Fox News host Pete Hegseth to serve as his defense secretary, tapping someone largely inexperienced and untested on the global stage to take over the world's largest and most powerful military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Mike Johnson is beginning the hard fight for his gavel, a weeks-long campaign that starts Wednesday during internal House Republican leadership elections and will establish the new power centers in Congress for a Washington dominated by President-elect Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators will gather behind closed doors Wednesday to decide who will replace longtime Senate leader Mitch McConnell and lead their new majority next year — a decision that could shape the future of the Senate, and the party, as Donald Trump reclaims the presidency.
BRUSSELS (AP) — President Joe Biden intends to bolster U.S. military support to Ukraine in the final months of his administration, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said on Wednesday, after Russia launched a sophisticated missile and drone attack on Kyiv.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said Elon Musk and former GOP presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy will lead a new "Department of Government Efficiency" — which is not, despite the name, a government agency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has long viewed the nation's spy services with suspicion, accusing them of trying to undermine his first term and campaigns. Now that he's returning to the White House, Trump's promises to overhaul the U.S. intelligence agencies put him on a collision course with one of most secretive and powerful parts of government.
LIMA, Peru (AP) — If things had gone differently last week, U.S. President Joe Biden could have arrived at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum in Peru on Thursday projecting confidence and pledging his successor's cooperation with eager Latin American partners. No longer.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 12
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
TORONTO (AP) — Shea Weber and David Poile's stories have been intertwined for more than two decades.
DENVER (AP) — Samuel Girard stole the puck and scored his first goal of the season on a breakaway 2:47 into overtime as the Colorado Avalanche beat the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Monday night.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Coach Josh Heupel said No. 6 Tennessee should have quarterback Nico Iamaleava available on Saturday night when the Vols visit 11th-ranked Georgia.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are busy trying to plug holes left and right in a season headed toward the franchise's highest draft pick in years.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Justice Department is suing to block UnitedHealth Group's $3.3 billion purchase of Amedisys, citing concerns the combination would hinder access to home health and hospice services in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A writer for a conservative media outlet pleaded guilty on Tuesday to joining a mob's attack on the U.S. Capitol nearly four years ago, after a federal judge refused to pause his case until after President-elect Donald Trump takes office.
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge on Tuesday postponed a decision on whether to undo President-elect Donald Trump's conviction in his hush money case as his lawyers argued that his election last week warrants dismissing the case altogether so he can run the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court refused Tuesday to let former Trump White House chief of staff Mark Meadows move the election interference case against him in Georgia to federal court, where he would have argued he was immune from prosecution.
BATON ROUGE, LA. (AP) — A new Louisiana law that requires the Ten Commandments to be displayed in every public classroom by Jan. 1 has been temporarily blocked after a federal judge granted a preliminary injunction on Tuesday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Waymo on Tuesday opened its robotaxi service to anyone who wants a ride around Los Angeles, marking another milestone in the evolution of self-driving car technology since the company began as a secret project at Google 15 years ago.
ENERGY
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — A Dutch appeals court on Tuesday overturned a landmark ruling that ordered energy company Shell to cut its carbon emissions by net 45% by 2030 compared to 2019 levels, while saying that "protection against dangerous climate change is a human right."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Oil and natural gas companies for the first time will have to pay a federal fee if they emit dangerous methane above certain levels under a rule being made final by the Biden administration.
MEDIA
Chris Wallace says he's leaving CNN after three years and, at age 77, is eager to see what a transformed media environment has to offer.
LONDON (AP) — Facebook and Instagram users in Europe will get the option to see less personalized ads if they don't want to pay for an ad-free subscription, social media company Meta said Tuesday, bowing to pressure from Brussels over privacy and digital competition concerns.
ENVIRONMENT
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — After nearly a decade of negotiations, leaders during the United Nations climate conference's first day decided on some of the finer points of much-debated sticking point aimed at cutting planet-warming emissions from coal, oil and gas.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Home Depot continued to deal with a pullback in spending from customers in its fiscal third quarter, but it was less severe than in the past, and its performance beat Wall Street's expectations. The home improvement retailer also boosted its full-year revenue outlook.
Vardis J. Vardinoyannis, a powerful and pivotal figure in Greek shipping and energy who survived a terrorist attack and cultivated close ties with the Kennedy family, died Tuesday in Athens. He was 90.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — One week after Election Day, control of the U.S. House rests on just over a dozen races where winners have not yet been determined.
President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson said Tuesday that Republicans are "ready to deliver" President-elect Donald Trump's agenda after his election victory, insisting the GOP won't make the mistakes of last time and will be much better prepared for a second-term Trump White House
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken is heading to Europe for urgent meetings on Ukraine with NATO and European Union officials following last week's U.S. presidential election and the return of Donald Trump to the White House in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — All that's left is for President-elect Donald Trump to put his name on it — if he wants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress returns to a changed Washington as President-elect Donald Trump's hard-right agenda is quickly taking shape, buoyed by eager Republican allies eyeing a full sweep of power on Capitol Hill while Democrats are sorting out what went wrong.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk's super PAC spent around $200 million to help elect Donald Trump, according to a person familiar with the group's spending, funding an effort that set a new standard for how billionaires can influence elections.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 11
TENNESSEE TITANS
INGLEWOOD, Calif. (AP) — When Jeffery Simmons chopped at Chargers quarterback Justin Herbert's elbow and sent the ball into the hands of Roger McCreary for an apparent defensive touchdown late in the first half, the Tennessee Titans thought they had created the break they so desperately needed.
SEC SPORTS
Oregon's dominance in its first year in the Big Ten and Indiana's monumental turnaround have helped the conference stack four of its teams in the top five of The Associated Press college football poll for the first time.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency is investigating complaints that engines can fail on as many as 1.4 million Honda and Acura vehicles.
DETROIT (AP) — Since it started selling cars in 2013, Carvana has disrupted the U.S. used vehicle market with no-haggle pricing and an online buying process that cuts out the often-dreaded salesman.
AGRICULTURE
LOST HILLS, Calif. (AP) — In a sprawling plant in the heart of California's farmland, millions of shells rush down a metallic chute and onto a conveyor belt where they are inspected, roasted, packaged and shipped off to groceries around the world.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The election of Donald Trump as president for a second time and the Republican takeback of the U.S. Senate could undo many of the national climate policies that are most reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions, according to climate solutions experts.
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — No matter what kind of U-turn President-Elect Donald Trump will make on climate change, America's clean energy economy won't reverse into the dirty past, a combative but "bitterly disappointed" top American climate negotiator said Monday.
BAKU, Azerbaijan (AP) — United Nations annual climate talks stuttered to a start Monday with more than nine hours of backroom bickering over what should be on the agenda for the next two weeks. It then turned to the main issue: money.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Toy giant Mattel says it "deeply" regrets an error on the packaging of its "Wicked" movie-themed dolls, which mistakenly links toy buyers to a pornographic website.
NEW YORK (AP) — Many veterans who've started small businesses tell a similar story: Their military service prepared them mentally for the task, but they were at a disadvantage when it came to the financial part.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
President-elect Donald Trump is starting to fill key posts in his second administration, putting an emphasis so far on aides and allies who were his strongest backers during the 2024 campaign.
The election of Republican Kelly Ayotte as New Hampshire's governor means 13 women will serve as a state's chief executive next year, breaking the record of 12 set after the 2022 elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Keeping the federal government open. Providing more disaster aid. Passing a defense policy bill. And for Senate Democrats, confirming more judges.
The Kremlin on Monday rejected reports that President Vladimir Putin spoke last week with President-elect Donald Trump about the war in Ukraine, and a spokesman for Trump refused to comment on what he called his "private calls" with world leaders.
NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has chosen Rep. Elise Stefanik to serve as his ambassador to the United Nations, picking a loyal ally with little foreign policy experience to represent the U.S. at the international organization.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump has said he wouldn't be a dictator — "except for Day 1." According to his own statements, he's got a lot to do on that first day in the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Before he comes back for good on Inauguration Day, Donald Trump will return to the White House briefly at the invitation of Democratic President Joe Biden, who had hoped to defeat his Republican predecessor a second time and reside there for four more years.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 8
TENNESSEE TITANS
EL SEGUNDO, Calif. (AP) — Admirers of defensive football should be in for a treat when the Los Angeles Chargers host the Tennessee Titans on Sunday.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
Signing three of the top players available in Steven Stamkos, Jonathan Marchessault and Brady Skjei made NHL free agency look like a big win for the Nashville Predators.
SUNRISE, Fla. (AP) — Carter Verhaeghe had two goals and an assist, Aleksander Barkov had three assists for the second time in less than a week and the Florida Panthers beat the Nashville Predators 6-2 on Thursday night for their sixth straight victory.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Friday disclosed an Iranian murder-for-hire plot to kill Donald Trump, charging a man who said he had been tasked by a government official before this week's election with planning the assassination of the Republican president-elect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The judge overseeing Donald Trump's 2020 election interference case canceled any remaining court deadlines Friday while prosecutors assess the "the appropriate course going forward" in light of the Republican's presidential victory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who stormed the U.S. Capitol and smashed glass panels on a door — moments before a police officer fatally shot another rioter climbing through the opening — was sentenced on Thursday to eight years in prison.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Global efforts to fight climate change stumbled but survived the last time Donald Trump was elected president and withdrew the United States from an international climate agreement. Other countries, states, cities and businesses picked up some of the slack.
MEDIA
Elwood Edwards, who voiced America Online's ever-present "You've got mail" greeting, has died. He was 74.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Savannah Britt owes about $27,000 on loans she took out to attend college at Rutgers University, a debt she was hoping to see reduced by President Joe Biden's student loan forgiveness efforts.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — About 1,100 workers at the Stellantis Jeep factory in Toledo, Ohio, are facing layoffs early next year as the company takes further steps to cut high inventory at dealerships.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks coasted to the close of their best week in a year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Maine residents this week overwhelmingly approved a referendum to limit donations to political action committees that spend independently in candidate elections, setting the stage for a legal showdown over caps on individual contributions to so-called super PACs that spend freely in elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. presidents usually pay lip service at least to being leaders of the free world, at the helm of a mighty democracy and military that allies worldwide can rally around and reasonably depend upon for support in return.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With her selection as President-elect Donald Trump 's incoming White House chief of staff, veteran Florida political strategist Susie Wiles moves from a largely behind-the-scenes role of campaign co-chair to the high-profile position of the president's closest adviser and counsel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 7
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans placed center Lloyd Cushenberry and veteran safety Quandre Diggs on injured reserve Wednesday and signed Mike Edwards to help replace Diggs in the secondary.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Being bowl eligible to start off November isn't enough for No. 24 Vanderbilt. No, coach Clark Lea wants much more for his 24th-ranked Commodores.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The seventh-ranked Tennessee Volunteers have one last chance to fix a nagging issue on their own field before hitting the road.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alex Ovechkin scoring to hand the Nashville Predators another defeat and keep his Washington Capitals rolling was not surprising to the folks on the other side who have seen him a lot over the years.
COURTS
DANBURY, Conn. (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried 's fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, began her two-year prison sentence Thursday for her role in a fraud that cost investors, lenders and customers billions of dollars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Jack Smith is evaluating how to wind down the two federal cases against Donald Trump before the president-elect takes office in light of longstanding Justice Department policy that says sitting presidents cannot be prosecuted, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — If you missed the early fall push for flu and COVID-19 vaccines, it's not too late.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan reported Thursday a loss for the latest fiscal quarter as its vehicle sales sank while costs and inventory ballooned, prompting the Japanese automaker to slash 9,000 jobs.
ENVIRONMENT
Carbon pollution from private jets has soared in the past five years, with most of those small planes spewing more heat-trapping carbon dioxide in about two hours of flying than the average person does in about a year, a new study finds.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve cut its key interest rate Thursday by a quarter-point in response to the steady decline in the once-high inflation that had angered Americans and helped drive Donald Trump's presidential election victory this week.
The number of Americans applying for jobless aid ticked up last week but layoffs remain at historically low levels.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England cut its main interest rate by a quarter of a percentage point to 4.75% on Thursday after inflation across the U.K. fell significantly, relieving some pressure on borrowers who have faced elevated mortgage and loan costs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Most U.S. stocks rose Thursday, as the Federal Reserve cut interest rates again to make things easier for the economy.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Amazon workers in Alabama will decide for the third time in three years whether to unionize after a federal judge ruled that the retail giant improperly influenced the most recent vote in which employees rejected a union.
The Small Business Administration said it backed $56 billion in financing to small businesses and disaster-affected areas during the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, up 7% from a year prior.
Beyond Meat reversed a sales slide in the third quarter, growing revenue for the first time since 2022 as it charged higher prices for its plant-based meat.
NEW YORK (AP) — The parent company of Donald Trump's social networking site Truth Social lost $19.2 million in the last quarter, according to an earnings report released on the same day he won back the presidency.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders projected confidence Thursday that they will keep control of the U.S. House as more races were decided in their favor, while Democrats insisted they still see a path toward the majority and sought assurances every vote will be counted.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Around 50 European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, were reassessing their trans-Atlantic relations at a summit Thursday in the hope that Donald Trump's second U.S. presidency will avoid the strife of his first administration.
BERLIN (AP) — After Germany's government coalition collapsed in dramatic fashion when Chancellor Olaf Scholz fired Finance Minister Christian Lindner of the pro-business Free Democrats, Scholz said he would lead the country with a minority government, despite calls from opposition leaders Thursday for early elections.