VOL. 36 | NO. 45 | Friday, November 9, 2012
Scott Wilson and Mark Fenelon were fighting the same battle in 2007 when they first met at an LEED certification conference.
As local architects, designers and builders increasingly move to sustainable building practices as a matter of standard, there continue to be leaders in standout energy-saving innovation.
REALTY CHECK
So, the election happened. We now know the results, but Realtors and anyone looking for homes knew well in advance how various neighborhoods would vote. A tally of campaign signs can yield results with a smaller margin of error than any poll taken.
TERRY McCORMICK
Everyone has an opinion as to why the Tennessee Titans have seemingly bottomed out midway through Mike Munchak’s second season as head coach.
NEWSMAKERS
Georgia Wiesner, M.D., M.S., has joined the Vanderbilt Department of Medicine, Division of Genetic Medicine and Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center as professor of Medicine and director of the newly created Clinical and Translational Hereditary Cancer Program.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You’d give your left leg for this account.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Despite your political affiliations or how your candidate fared in this year’s presidential election, it’s tough not to appreciate the full-court press the candidates give in selling and marketing their own personal brands. In fact, there are sales and marketing takeaways that we can glean from one of the most expensive elections (AKA “ad campaigns”) in our nation’s history – lessons we can leverage in promoting our own local brands.
SMART STUFF 4 WORK
Persuasion involves providing sound reasons for doing something and getting others to take action on your request. Sales professionals use persuasion to sell products, medical professionals use persuasion to sell healthy lifestyle choices, managers use persuasion to sell ideas, parents use persuasion (but often default to the old standard, “Because I said so!”) to get their children to do things. In other words, most of us frequently find ourselves in situations that call for us to persuade others of something.
I SWEAR
Joel Brown, 9, a fourth-grader at Moody Elementary in White Hall, Ark., and his dad, Chris, a Jefferson County deputy clerk, arrived at Little Rock’s Sturgis Hall at 4:20 a.m. on a recent Friday. Busy with her nursing school studies, mom Stacy couldn’t come.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Last weekend, Don and I attended a church dinner party at the home of a friend, where I ate a piece of cake – actually, I ate three pieces of cake, but they were cut into small squares – that was so delicious. Had we stayed long enough, I would have probably finished it off.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (BUSINESS WIRE) - AmSurg Corp. (Nasdaq: AMSG) today announced the pricing of $250 million in aggregate principal amount of its 5.625% senior notes due 2020 (the “Senior Notes”). The Senior Notes will be senior unsecured obligations of the Company and will be guaranteed by substantially all of the Company’s subsidiaries that guarantee its senior secured credit facility and senior secured notes due 2020.
R.A. Dickey, David Price win Cy Young awards
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — In Kentucky's fourth-largest city, there's no instant access to an interstate seen as a magnet for job growth, but officials in Owensboro are riding hopes that a new study will put them on a path toward becoming aligned with a highway running from Tennessee to Michigan.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Like Clark Griswold, the city of Nashville is on the hunt for that perfect Christmas tree.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Joe Gilliam Sr., who coached Tennessee State football as an assistant or head coach during four decades, has died. He was 89.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Four Tennessee educational institutions are being awarded a $780,000 grant to fund energy efficiency projects.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A person briefed on the matter says Chrysler plans to add 1,250 jobs at three Detroit-area factories in the near future.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil giant BP has agreed to pay the largest criminal penalty in U.S. history, totaling billions of dollars, for the 2010 oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, a person familiar with the deal said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Superstorm Sandy drove the number of people seeking unemployment benefits up to a seasonally adjusted 439,000 last week, the highest level in 18 months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock indexes fell Thursday, pushing the Dow to its lowest since July, after U.S. retailers turned in mixed earnings reports.
LONDON (AP) — The 17-country eurozone has bowed to the inevitable and fallen back into recession for the first time in three years as a sprawling debt crisis took its toll on the region's stronger economies.
Oil prices are slightly lower Thursday as investors focus on global economic issues, including the so-called "fiscal cliff" in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rising food costs and higher rents offset a drop in gas prices last month, leaving consumer prices only slightly higher in October compared with the previous month.
Modest good news for college students: An annual survey predicts employers will increase hiring of new 4-year college graduates about 5 percent in the coming year. Demand for graduates with associate's degrees is expected to increase more sharply — by about 30 percent compared to last year's survey— while MBA hiring appears headed for an unexpected decline.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. homes are entering the foreclosure process at a slower pace than a year ago, and fewer properties are being repossessed by lenders, new data show.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Target's third-quarter net income climbed 15 percent, helped by a gain related to the pending sale of its credit-card business.
SAN PEDRO, Belize (AP) — Software company founder John McAfee said Wednesday he is in hiding, unarmed and accompanied only by a young woman, changing locations and telephones frequently to stay one step ahead of a Belize police unit he says wants to kill him.
NEW YORK (AP) — Viacom Inc., owner of the Paramount movie studio and cable TV channels such as Nickelodeon and Comedy Central, said Thursday that its net income grew 13 percent in its fourth fiscal quarter even as revenue fell more than Wall Street expected with the lack of a strong theatrical release.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama walked a narrow path between ambition and realism, defiance and accommodation when he addressed reporters for the first time since winning a hard-fought election that gives him four more years to carve his place in history.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 14
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Contributor, a newspaper written by and sold by homeless and formerly homeless, is celebrating its fifth anniversary, but one Nashville suburb has won a federal lawsuit that prevents their street vendors from selling to motorists.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Contributor, a newspaper written by and sold by homeless and formerly homeless in Nashville, is celebrating its fifth anniversary.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Metro Nashville school officials have ordered one charter school closed and learned another group turned down earlier will not reapply.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Global South Summit is gathering in Nashville to discuss ways to use innovation to meet global demands for more food and health care.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The widow of a longtime southern Kentucky judge who died after receiving tainted steroid injections this year is giving her story to Congress.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - More than 5,000 consumers in and outside of Tennessee will be eligible for refunds following an agreement involving several East Tennessee telemarketing firms and their operators.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government should require automakers to make the latest collision prevention technologies standard equipment on all new cars and trucks, a move that could reduce fatal highway accidents by more than half, federal accident investigators said Wednesday.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling 2.77 million vehicles around the world for a water pump problem and a steering shaft defect that may result in faulty steering — the latest in a spate of quality woes for Japan's top automaker.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors drew little hope Wednesday for a quick compromise in U.S. budget talks after President Barack Obama insisted that higher taxes on wealthy Americans would have to be part of any deal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses increased their stockpiles in September, further evidence that economic growth was stronger over the summer than first thought.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices fell in October as a big drop in gasoline and other energy prices offset a rise in the cost of food.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on spending at retail businesses in October, an indication that some remain cautious about the economic outlook. Superstorm Sandy also depressed car sales and slowed business in the Northeast at the end of the month.
The price of oil rose Wednesday on new concerns about possible supply disruptions in the Middle East after Israel launched airstrikes in Gaza.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. on Wednesday will officially launch a mail subscription service, called Goodies, that lets shoppers discover new foods from the comfort of their homes.
ATLANTA (AP) — The CEO of Waffle House said Tuesday that a former employee who claims he tried to force her to have sex actually was a participant in consensual sex and has been trying to blackmail him.
BOSTON (AP) — Thanksgiving could be an opportune time to talk turkey about family finances, rather than merely eat the bird and prepare for the next big holiday. A detailed discussion could prove to be worthwhile, given the strong likelihood that older parents and their adult children have conflicting expectations about issues such as elder care, retirement security and inheritance.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama says he wants to begin a national "conversation" on climate change.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is lobbying business and labor groups to support $1.6 trillion in new revenue to avoid an impending fiscal cliff, telling the two sides he remains committed to requiring the wealthy to pay more in taxes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to prevent a raid on health care programs in upcoming budget talks, a think tank close to the White House on Wednesday released a plan for significant savings, mostly from Medicare.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 13
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee Finance Commissioner Mark Emkes says the state's sales tax collections for October fell below budgeted estimates.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Higher education officials are recommending tuition increases at Tennessee's community colleges and universities.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam said Tuesday that part of the delay in deciding whether Tennessee will design its own health insurance exchange required under the new federal health care law is finding out how much flexibility the state would have.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A task force appointed by Gov. Bill Haslam to study how to start a school voucher program has finalized its recommendations but couldn't reach consensus on many key aspects, such as the cost of each voucher or the scale of the program.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee smokers participating in the Great American Smokeout on Thursday can get their plan to quit in place with free help from the Tennessee Tobacco QuitLine.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — It looks like a minivan. It has sliding doors like a minivan. So why isn't Ford calling its new seven-seater a minivan?
NATIONAL BUSINESS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. homeowners are doing a better job of keeping up with their mortgage payments, aided by an improving housing market and low interest rates that are making it easier to refinance.
U.S. stocks closed lower after uneven trading Tuesday as fears about the "fiscal cliff" and Greece tipped major indexes between gains and losses. A surge in Home Depot's stock prevented a steeper drop for the Dow Jones industrial average.
The price of oil is little changed after making up declines from earlier in the day.
NEW YORK (AP) — Home Depot Inc.'s net income rose slightly in the third-quarter, as glimmers of a housing market recovery and storm-preparation added to sales and offset costs related to closing stores in China.
NEW YORK (AP) — Best Buy CEO says it's time to embrace "showrooming."
NEW YORK (AP) — Slightly more Americans will hit the road this Thanksgiving, according to AAA. But they'll take shorter trips to save on gas and other costs as household budgets remain tight.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Labor leaders said Tuesday that President Barack Obama remains committed to preserving tax cuts for middle class families and ensuring the wealthy pay more in taxes, outlining plans for a public campaign to pressure Republican lawmakers.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 12
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - A widow of a U.S. Army soldier killed in a blast in Afghanistan has sued Fox Cable Networks and the National Geographic Society over a documentary that showed her husband and family.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A coalition of Nashville poll watchers on Monday called for an audit of problems they documented with Election Day voting.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A recent poll shows Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has strong bipartisan support among Tennessee voters.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam will wrap up budget hearings this week.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam says Tennessee could design its own health insurance exchange required under Democratic President Barack Obama's health care law, but resistance in the GOP-controlled General Assembly may cause the state to hand that power off to the federal government.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new partnership being launched in Tennessee is seeking to curb complications during birth.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Members of Tennessee's Board of Pharmacy recently revoked the license of the Massachusetts pharmacy linked to a deadly meningitis outbreak, but a review by The Tennessean shows the board has been lenient on compounding pharmacies in this state accused of violations.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SUSONO, Japan (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. is testing car safety systems that allow vehicles to communicate with each other and with the roads they are on in a just completed facility in Japan the size of three baseball stadiums.
MILAN (AP) — Fiat Industrial has announced a new management structure aimed at making it easier to merge with its U.S. subsidiary CNH Global N.V., the agriculture equipment maker.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stocks rose modestly in uneven trading Tuesday as fears about the "fiscal cliff" and Greece dragged major indexes between gains and losses. A surge in Home Depot's stock lifted the Dow Jones industrial average.
The price of oil is down slightly in Veterans Day trading as amid uncertainty over a looming package of tax hikes and spending cuts that could hurt U.S. economic growth.
The United States will become the world's largest oil producer by around 2020, temporarily overtaking Saudi Arabia, as new exploration technologies help find more resources, the International Energy Agency forecast on Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney Co. executives may be confident in the department-store chain's everyday low pricing strategy, but its investors are panicking.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. will open its doors at 9 p.m. on Thanksgiving, three hours earlier than a year ago, to kick off the holiday shopping season.
TORONTO (AP) — BlackBerry-maker Research In Motion says it will hold a launch event for its much-delayed new BlackBerry 10 smartphones on Jan. 30.
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 9
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Just in time for Veterans Day, the Tennessee State Library and Archives opens new exhibits telling the story of the Korean and Vietnam wars through the eyes of two Tennessee veterans.
BRENTWOOD (AP) — The owner of a Kia car dealership in Nashville has turned himself in to police on charges of assault and being a felon in possession of a weapon.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — When they first hit the road as an opening act the members of Lady Antebellum rarely wasted their downtime, quizzing stars like Kenny Chesney and Keith Urban and their crews on the intricacies of a successful arena tour.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The number of patients in Tennessee sickened by an outbreak of fungal meningitis continues to grow.
NASHVILLE (AP) - An eight-month review of how the executive branch responds to requests for public records has resulted in Gov. Bill Haslam deciding not to make any major changes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The number of patients sickened in Tennessee by an outbreak of fungal meningitis has risen to 80, but the number of deaths in the state remained at 13.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Children's Services requested more than $8 million on Thursday to hire new staff and make other improvements to the agency that has been highly scrutinized over children's deaths.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Chrysler is recalling more than 919,000 older-model Jeep Grand Cherokee and Liberty SUVs worldwide because the air bags can inflate while people are driving them.
BEIJING (AP) — China's auto sales rebounded in October but Japanese brands suffered a sharp downturn amid a territorial dispute between Beijing and Tokyo, an industry group said Friday.
TOKYO (AP) — Mazda Motor Corp. will make Toyota-brand subcompacts at its new plant in Mexico, allowing Japan's top automaker to strengthen its North American model lineup.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale businesses increased their stockpiles in September at the fastest pace in nine months and their sales jumped by the largest amount in 18 months. The increases suggest the U.S. economy grew faster over the summer than first estimated.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is peering over the "fiscal cliff" and feeling vertigo.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The worst of Europe's financial crisis appears to be over.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose Friday as legislators began postelection talks on how to avoid the so-called fiscal cliff, and a report showed Americans' view of the economy is improving.
NEW YORK (AP) — A gasoline rationing plan that lets motorists fill up every other day went into effect in New York on Friday morning, as utility crews made some progress erasing outages that put thousands of new homes and businesses in the dark in a region still reeling from Superstorm Sandy.
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney Co. reported a bigger-than-expected loss in the third quarter on plummeting sales as customers continue to reject its move get rid of blockbuster sales in favor of everyday low pricing.
NORWALK, Conn. (AP) — Priceline.com Inc. plans to buy online travel research company Kayak for cash and stock worth $1.8 billion or $40 per share.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average U.S. rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage was little changed this week, staying slightly above its record low. Cheaper mortgages are helping drive a modest housing recovery.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon.com has added wine to the long list of products it sells through its online marketplace.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly re-elected President Barack Obama will use a White House appearance to set the tone for upcoming talks with congressional Republicans on avoiding the so-called fiscal cliff.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Austere "fiscal cliff" tax increases and federal spending cuts set for the end of the year would send the economy back into recession and cause a spike in the jobless rate to 9.1 percent by next fall, congressional budget analysts said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of lawmakers say data-mining companies that collect and sell personal information about consumers should make their operations more transparent.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart Stores Inc. reported a 9 percent increase in third-quarter net income as the world's largest retailer continues to woo back shoppers by reemphasizing it has the lowest prices. But the company is seeing its momentum slow as it grapples with an uncertain global economy.