VOL. 47 | NO. 49 | Friday, December 1, 2023
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The National Association of Realtors serves its Realtor members with forecasts, research and distribution of information on the national level, as well as assisting in advocating for homeowners rights at local, state and federal governments.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate fell for the fifth week in a row, more good news for prospective homebuyers grappling with an increasingly unaffordable housing market.
TENNESSEE TITANS
School is in session for Will Levis. The rookie quarterback just completed his fifth NFL start and realizes there is still a lot for him to learn about playing the position at this level.
The Titans have had more than their share of bad luck with draft picks over the past four years.
It’s difficult to believe, the Indianapolis Colts would be in the playoffs if the season ended now. Yes, the same Colts who committed to a rebuild around a raw rookie quarterback who suffered a season-ending injury in week five and are now in contention using former Jacksonville quarterback Gardner Minshew.
UT SPORTS
Ramel Keyton was among the University of Tennessee seniors who went out on a high note at Neyland Stadium with milestones against rival Vanderbilt.
BRIEFS
The 24th lighting of the grand Christmas tree in Public Square Park Friday at 5:30 p.m.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Pricing for the average new car continues to rise, with the latest reports pegging the average new vehicle transaction price around $48,000. High interest rates are a further impediment for shoppers on a tight budget.
CAREER CORNER
The holidays are here again. Along with the turkey, the stuffing and the loved ones, there’s more to consider. This season is a time of giving thanks.
PERSONAL FINANCE
See if any of this sounds familiar:
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
CHICAGO (AP) — The rivalry between the Nashville Predators and Chicago Blackhawks isn't much of a rivalry these days.
SPORTS
MURFREESBORO (AP) — Middle Tennessee has hired former Vanderbilt coach Derek Mason as the 15th head coach in the Blue Raiders' history.
COURTS
RENO, Nev. (AP) — A Nevada grand jury on Wednesday indicted six Republicans who submitted certificates to Congress falsely declaring Donald Trump the winner of the 2020 presidential election in their state, making Nevada the third to seek charges against so-called "fake electors."
DENVER (AP) — Oral arguments are set to for Wednesday afternoon before the Colorado Supreme Court over whether former President Donald Trump's role in the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol prevents him from running for office again in the state under a constitutional ban on those who "engaged in insurrection."
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Supreme Court refused Wednesday to immediately hear an appeal of a lower court's ruling that would allow former President Donald Trump's name on the state's presidential primary ballot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday said it has filed war crime charges against four members of the Russian military accused of abducting and torturing an American during the invasion of Ukraine in a case that's the first of its kind.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — A Tennessee man was sentenced Tuesday to more than five years in prison for his role in a scheme to defraud the Small Business Administration during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic by submitting fake loan applications and ultimately receiving more than $11 million.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Despite new electric vehicle market share and sales hitting a record in the U.S. this year, EV growth is starting to slow and fall short of the auto industry's lofty ambitions to transition away from combustion engines.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — A conglomerate of unions in Norway said Wednesday it will take action against Tesla in solidarity with its Swedish colleagues, who are demanding that the Texas-based automaker sign a collective bargaining agreement.
TECHNOLOGY
Google took its next leap in artificial intelligence Wednesday with the launch of project Gemini, an AI model trained to behave in human-like ways that's likely to intensify the debate about the technology's potential promise and perils.
ENERGY
NEW LONDON, Conn. (AP) — Despite some recent financial setbacks, U.S. offshore windpower has hit a milestone. An 800-foot tall turbine is now sending electricity onto the grid from a commercial-scale offshore wind farm on pace to be the country's first.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — A Donald Trump ally who worked in his Justice Department said Tuesday that if the former president is elected again, his administration will retaliate against people in the media "criminally or civilly."
RELIGION
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new guide from the Department of Homeland Security released Wednesday aims to help churches, synagogues, mosques and other houses of worship protect themselves at a time of heightened tensions in faith-based communities across the country.
HEALTH CARE
CVS Health is introducing changes to how its prescription drug pricing model works, and that could lead to some savings for customers starting next year.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — The heads of the nation's biggest banks say there are reasons to be concerned about the health of U.S. consumers — particularly poor and low-income borrowers — in their annual appearance in front of Congress on Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England, which oversees financial stability in the U.K., said Wednesday that it will make an assessment next year about the risks posed by artificial intelligence and machine learning.
TRANSPORTATION
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday said it will give more than $6 billion to a pair of high-speed electric rail routes in the U.S. West, injecting new life into long-stalled projects hailed by supporters as the future of public transportation but bemoaned by critics for their high price tags and lengthy construction times.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street ticked lower Wednesday after another sharp slide for the price of crude dragged down oil-and-gas stocks.
McDonald's expects to open nearly 10,000 restaurants over the next four years, a pace of growth that would be unprecedented even for the world's largest burger chain.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Hollywood's actors have voted to ratify the deal with studios that ended their strike after nearly four months, bringing an official finish to the labor strife that shook the entertainment industry for most of 2023.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is sending a $175 million package of military aid to Ukraine, including guided missiles for the High Mobility Artillery Rocket Systems (HIMARS), anti-armor systems and high-speed anti-radiation missiles, the Pentagon and State Department announced on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are warning Hunter Biden that they will move to hold him in contempt of Congress if he doesn't appear this month for a closed-door deposition, raising the stakes in the growing standoff over testimony from President Joe Biden's son.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Two months after his historic ouster as U.S. House speaker, Republican Rep. Kevin McCarthy said Wednesday that he is resigning and will leave Congress by the end of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday said it was "stunning" that Congress has not yet approved tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance for Ukraine, as his administration warned of dire consequences for Kyiv — and a "gift" to Russia's Vladimir Putin — if lawmakers don't act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats have introduced legislation that would allow people convicted of a felony to vote in federal elections, a proposal that if enacted could restore the voting rights of millions of people in U.S. elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Wednesday it has determined that both sides in the ongoing conflict in Sudan have committed atrocities in the African nation's western region of Darfur and elsewhere, saying the fighting "has caused grievous human suffering."
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump declined to rule out abusing power if he returns to the White House after Fox News Channel host Sean Hannity asked him Tuesday to respond to growing Democratic criticism of his rhetoric.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden told Native American nations gathered for a summit Wednesday that his administration was working to heal the wrongs of the past as he signed an executive order that seeks to make it easier for Indigenous peoples to access federal funding, and have greater autonomy over how to spend it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was a decade ago that Capitol Hill was consumed by an urgency to overhaul the nation's immigration system, fueled in no small part by Republicans who felt a political imperative to make inroads with minority voters by embracing more generous policies.
VERONA, Italy (AP) — Sitting on a terrace in Verona as the bells toll at a nearby medieval church, Igor Makarov sips coffee as he describes his life as a billionaire under Western sanctions.
ELECTION 2024
Former President Donald Trump is urging supporters to "guard the vote" during next year's election, a phrase that has set off alarm bells among pro-democracy advocates who say it signals permission to take extreme measures that could intimidate voters and threaten election workers.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 5
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel dispelled any thought that the Titans will coast to the finish of their struggling season Monday.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee defensive end James Pearce was arrested on traffic charges after a stop on Monday, according to a published report.
EL PASO, Texas (AP) — UTEP hired coach Scotty Walden away from Austin Peay on Monday, hoping the 34-year-old Texan's return to his home state can revive the Miners' moribund program.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Justice Sandra Day O'Connor will lie in repose at the Supreme Court on Dec. 18, with a funeral service at the National Cathedral the following day, the court said Monday.
Former President Donald Trump's civil business fraud trial turned Tuesday to one of the topics that has vexed him most — the value of his Mar-a-Lago club in Palm Beach, Florida.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday dismissed a case surrounding a Maine hotel that could have made it harder for people with disabilities to learn in advance whether a hotel's accommodations meet their needs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is taking up a case Tuesday over a Washington couple's $15,000 tax bill that is widely seen as a test of a never-enacted tax on wealth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors pushed back Monday against Hunter Biden's move to subpoena documents from Donald Trump and former Justice Department officials in the firearms case filed against the president's son.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.
AUTO INDUSTRY
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The labor conflict against Tesla in Sweden is spreading to neighboring Denmark where transport workers with the country's largest trade union said Tuesday they will take action in solidarity with Swedish workers against the Texas-based automaker.
California regulators are alleging a San Francisco robotaxi service owned by General Motors covered up the severity of an accident involving one of its driverless cars, raising the specter they may add a fine to the recent suspension of its California license.
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto safety regulators said Monday they are monitoring data from a group of mostly unrecalled Takata air bag inflators after one of them exploded in a BMW and hurled metal fragments that seriously injured a driver in Chicago.
TRANSPORTATION
BOSTON (AP) — A lawyer for JetBlue Airways said Tuesday that the biggest U.S. airlines are using their size to cement their dominance in a post-pandemic world, making it critical that a federal judge allow JetBlue to buy Spirit Airlines.
ENERGY
The United States will work with other governments to speed up efforts to make nuclear fusion a new source of carbon-free energy, U.S. Climate Envoy John Kerry said Tuesday, the latest of many U.S. announcements the last week aimed at combatting climate change.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Remember what you searched for in 2023? Well, Wikipedia has the receipts.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidents of Harvard, the University of Pennsylvania and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology said Tuesday that they were taking steps to combat antisemitism on campus since the start of the Israel-Hamas war, including increasing security and providing additional counseling and mental health support.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Students around the world suffered historic setbacks in reading and math during the COVID-19 pandemic, with declines in test scores so widespread that the United States climbed in global rankings simply by falling behind less sharply, a new study finds.
A prominent disinformation scholar who left Harvard University in August has accused the school of muzzling her speech and stifling — then dismantling — her research team as it launched a deep dive in late 2021 into a trove of Facebook files she considers the most important documents in internet history.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted 8.7 million job openings in October, the fewest since March 2021, in a sign that hiring is cooling in the face of higher interest rates yet remains at a still-healthy pace.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Most stocks slipped on Wall Street, but the market hung near its highest level in 20 months following a mixed set of reports on the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators are investigating ExxonMobil's $60 billion deal to acquire a Texas oil company in what would be one the largest mergers in the energy industry in two decades, according to securities filings.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Tommy Tuberville announced on Tuesday that he's ending his blockade of hundreds of military promotions, following heavy criticism from many of his colleagues in the Senate and clearing the way for hundreds to be approved soon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare punitive move against Israel, the State Department said Tuesday it will impose travel bans on extremist Jewish settlers implicated in a rash of recent attacks on Palestinians in the occupied West Bank.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson told fellow Republicans on Tuesday that sweeping changes to U.S. border policy would be their "hill to die on" in negotiations over President Joe Biden's nearly $106 billion package for the wars in Ukraine and Israel and other security needs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris broke a nearly 200-year-old record for casting the most tiebreaking votes in the Senate when she voted Tuesday to confirm a new federal judge in Washington, D.C.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. on Tuesday imposed sanctions on a Belgian involved in procuring electronics for the Russian military, his companies and a group of Belarusian firms and people tied to Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
NEW YORK (AP) — Open Society Foundations, the major philanthropy now led by Alex Soros, said Tuesday it will commit $50 million to increase civic engagement among women and young people over the next three years as part of its strategy to support democracy in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Christopher Wray called Tuesday for the reauthorization of a U.S. government surveillance tool set to expire at the end of the year, warning Senate lawmakers that there would be "devastating" consequences for public safety if the program is allowed to lapse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will address U.S. senators by video Tuesday during a classified briefing as the Biden administration urges Congress to approve the White House's nearly $106 billion request for funds for the wars in Ukraine, Israel and other security needs.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 4
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — Juuse Saros made 34 saves, Filip Forsberg scored his team-leading 13th goal and the Nashville Predators beat the Buffalo Sabres 2-1 on Sunday night.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee coach Mike Vrabel has fired special teams coordinator Craig Aukerman after the Titans had a punt blocked and returned for a touchdown followed by the punter suffering a season-ending injury on his next punt attempt.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans' ninth and final penalty could not have come at a worse moment.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday wrestled with a nationwide settlement with OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma that would shield members of the Sackler family who own the company from civil lawsuits over the toll of opioids.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Spotify says it's axing 17% of its global workforce, the music streaming service's third round of layoffs this year as it moves to slash costs while focusing on becoming profitable.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Hailed as a world first, European Union artificial intelligence rules are facing a make-or-break moment as negotiators try to hammer out the final details this week — talks complicated by the sudden rise of generative AI that produces human-like work.
TRANSPORTATION
Another proposed airline buyout has renewed debate over whether there has been too much consolidation in the industry, and whether it is hurting consumers.
ECONOMY
NEW YORK (AP) — Most business economists think the U.S. economy could avoid a recession next year, even if the job market ends up weakening under the weight of high interest rates, according to a survey released Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks slipped on Wall Street ahead of some key reports this week on the job market that might provide more insight into the Federal Reserve's thinking about interest rates.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Uber's stock is set to join the S&P 500 index later this month, the latest sign that the ride-hailing and delivery company is turning its business around after struggling through much of the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bitcoin is once again having a moment. On Monday, the world's largest cryptocurrency soared past $41,000 for the first time in over a year and a half — and marking a 150% rise so far this year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen is heading to Mexico this week to promote her agency's new strike force to help combat illicit fentanyl trafficking as the U.S. and China step up efforts to stop the movement of the powerful opioid and drug-making materials into the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As a cease-fire ticked down last week and Israel prepared to resume its round-the-clock airstrikes, Sen. Bernie Sanders and a robust group of Democratic senators had a message for their president: They were done "asking nicely" for Israel to do more to reduce civilian casualties in Gaza.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday sent Congress an urgent warning about the need to approve tens of billions of dollars in military and economic assistance to Ukraine, saying Kyiv's war effort to defend itself from Russia's invasion may grind to a halt without it.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 1
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have no margin for error or reason for overconfidence trying to start their first winning streak of the season with the calendar flipping to December.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Connor Dewar had a hat trick and added an assist, Filip Gustavsson made 26 saves and the Minnesota Wild routed Nashville 6-1 on Thursday night to end the Predators' winning streak at six games.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — A judge sided with Daryl Hall on Thursday in his request to keep John Oates temporarily blocked from selling his potentially lucrative share of the Hall & Oates duo's joint venture without his longtime partner's permission.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Parents of school shooting victims in Tennessee can seek a court order to keep the writings of the shooter from ever being released to the public, the Tennessee Court of Appeals ruled on Thursday.
EAST TENNESSEE
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — An attorney for the billionaire Haslam family called bribery allegations leveled by Warren Buffett's company a "wild invention.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's decades-old aggravated prostitution statute violates the Americans with Disabilities Act, the U.S. Department of Justice announced Friday after an investigation, warning that the state could face a lawsuit if officials don't immediately cease enforcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawsuits against Donald Trump over the U.S. Capitol riot can move forward, a federal appeals court ruled on Friday, rejecting the former president's bid to dismiss the cases accusing him of inciting the violent mob on Jan. 6, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired Supreme Court Justice Sandra Day O'Connor, an unwavering voice of moderate conservatism and the first woman to serve on the nation's highest court, died Friday. She was 93.
LONDON (AP) — Billionaire vacuum cleaner tycoon James Dyson lost a libel lawsuit Friday against the Daily Mirror for a column that suggested he was a hypocrite who "screwed" Britain by moving his company's headquarters to Singapore after supporting the U.K.'s breakup with the European Union.
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court Thursday reinstated a gag order that barred Donald Trump from commenting about court personnel after the former president repeatedly disparaged a law clerk in his New York civil fraud trial.
HEALTH CARE
Pfizer shares sank Friday when the drugmaker said it would abandon a twice-daily obesity treatment after more than half the patients in a clinical trial stopped taking it.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most U.S. cities would have to replace lead water pipes within 10 years under strict new rules proposed by the Environmental Protection Agency as the Biden administration moves to reduce lead in drinking water and prevent public health crises like the ones in Flint, Michigan and Washington, D.C.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Walmart is the latest company to join the growing flock of major advertisers to pull spending from X, Elon Musk's beleaguered social media company, amid concerns about hate speech — as well as reaching a sizeable audience on the platform.
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — The parent company of Instagram and Facebook has sued the Federal Trade Commission in an attempt to stop the agency from reopening a 2020 privacy settlement with the company that would prohibit it from profiting from data it collects on users under 18.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration proposed new rules Friday that could make it harder for electric vehicles to qualify for a full $7,500 federal tax credit, complicating efforts to meet President Joe Biden's goal that half of new passenger vehicles sold in the U.S. run on electricity by 2030.
DETROIT (AP) — With manufacturing kinks still to be worked out, Tesla delivered the first dozen or so of its futuristic Cybertruck pickups to customers Thursday, two years behind the original schedule amid uncertainty over when large-scale production will begin.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation is slowing steadily, but it's too early to declare victory or to discuss when the Federal Reserve might cut interest rates, Chair Jerome Powell said Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A broad rally on Wall Street closed out a fifth straight week of gains for the market Friday, driving the S&P 500 to its highest level in more than a year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans demanded Friday that Hunter Biden appear this month for a closed-door deposition, rejecting his offer to testify publicly while pledging to release a transcript of the private interview for transparency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an alternate reality, the prime-time showdown between California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis on Thursday could have been a preview of a 2024 general election debate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted on Friday to expel Republican Rep. George Santos of New York after a blistering ethics report on his conduct heightened lawmakers' concerns about the scandal-plagued freshman. Santos became just the sixth member in the chamber's history to be ousted by colleagues, and the third since the Civil War.
THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 30
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea has fired offensive coordinator Joey Lynch and will be his own defensive coordinator for his fourth season.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Ambassador to Poland and longtime Tennessee Republican politician Victor Ashe sued state election officials on Wednesday over a law he claims is so vague that he could be prosecuted for voting in a Republican primary.
COURTS
SMITHFIELD, N.C. (AP) — A founder of the group Students for Trump has been arrested in North Carolina and faces misdemeanor assault charges.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — A sporting goods chain is paying the families of three people shot to death by a South Carolina serial killer $2.5 million after one of its stores sold guns to a straw buyer who gave them to the killer, a felon who couldn't legally buy the weapons.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A lawsuit by Daryl Hall over John Oates' plan to sell his potentially lucrative share of the Hall & Oates duo's joint venture without the other's permission headed Thursday to court, where a judge will decide whether to keep pausing the deal.
NEW YORK (AP) — Deutsche Bank viewed Donald Trump as a "whale" of a client, was eager to land him and eagerly cultivated a relationship that grew from $13,000 worth of revenue to $6 million in two years, according to documents presented Wednesday at the former president's civil fraud trial.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A six-week United Auto Workers strike at Ford cut sales by about 100,000 vehicles and cost the company $1.7 billion in lost profits this year, the automaker said Thursday.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire Elon Musk said Wednesday that advertisers who have halted spending on his social media platform X in response to antisemitic and other hateful material are engaging in "blackmail" and, using a profanity, essentially told them to go away.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — An Indiana county judge on Wednesday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the state accusing TikTok of deceiving its users about the level of inappropriate content for children on its platform and the security of its consumers' personal information.
NASHVILLE (AP) — NASCAR has added two new partners and streaming elements to a seven-year media rights deal announced Wednesday that will run from 2025 through the 2031 season.
NONPROFITS
NEW YORK (AP) — Nonprofit organization GivingTuesday estimates that donors gave $3.1 billion this year on what has become one of the most important fundraising days of the year — the Tuesday after Thanksgiving.
ENERGY
LONDON (AP) — The OPEC oil cartel led by Saudi Arabia and allied producers including Russia made another big swipe at propping up lagging crude prices Thursday, expanding some output cuts into next year and bringing up-and-coming oil supplier Brazil into the fold.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's preferred inflation measure cooled last month, the latest sign that price pressures are waning in the face of high interest rates and moderating economic growth.
Slightly more Americans filed for jobless claims last week, pushing the overall number of people in the U.S. collecting unemployment benefits to its highest level in two years.
LONDON (AP) — Europeans again saw some relief as inflation dropped more than expected to 2.4% in November, the lowest in more than two years, as plummeting energy costs have eased a cost-of-living crisis but higher interest rates squeeze the economy's ability to grow.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended mostly higher on Wall Street and closed out November with big gains.
AbbVie will pay around $10 billion to add a potential blockbuster cancer treatment as cheaper versions of the drugmaker's all-time best seller, Humira, cut into sales.
ELECTION 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Someone in China created thousands of fake social media accounts designed to appear to be from Americans and used them to spread polarizing political content in an apparent effort to divide the U.S. ahead of next year's elections, Meta said Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the Senate Judiciary Committee voted Thursday to authorize subpoenas for two prominent conservatives who arranged luxury travel and other benefits for Supreme Court justices, but Republicans challenged the legitimacy of the move and pledged to withhold support for enforcing the legal order.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog will investigate how the Biden administration chose a site for a new FBI headquarters following a contentious competition marked by allegations of conflict of interest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anthony Fauci, former chief White House medical adviser, is expected to testify before Congress early next year as part of Republicans' yearslong investigation into the origins of COVID-19 and the U.S. response to the disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A defiant Rep. George Santos is refusing to resign and warned on Thursday that his expulsion from Congress before being convicted in a court of law would establish a precedent that "is going to be the undoing of a lot of members of this body."
WASHINGTON (AP) — California Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom and Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis are meeting in a nationally televised event on Thursday night that will feature two young, high-profile leaders with presidential aspirations who may have to wait for future cycles to realize them.
PUEBLO, Colo. (AP) — President Joe Biden used a backdrop of the world's largest facility for wind tower manufacturing to sharpen his criticism of Republicans Wednesday, saying the company's expansion validates an environmental agenda his political opponents want to undo.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, the diplomat with the thick glasses and gravelly voice who dominated foreign policy as the United States extricated itself from Vietnam and broke down barriers with China, died Wednesday, his consulting firm said. He was 100.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Decades later, the scene still is almost too bizarre to imagine: a tearful president and his perplexed aide, neither very religious, kneeling on the floor of a White House bedroom in prayer in the waning hours of a shattered presidency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, who died Wednesday at age 100, exerted far-reaching influence on global affairs under Presidents Richard Nixon and Gerald Ford between 1969 and 1977, earning both vilification and the Nobel Peace Prize.
WASHINGTON (AP) — National security adviser Jake Sullivan told lawmakers this week that the White House is not seeking to place conditions on U.S. military assistance to Israel, days after President Joe Biden signaled openness to the notion that was being pushed by some Democrats as the civilian death toll in Gaza from Israel's war against Hamas climbed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As record numbers of migrants surge at the southern U.S. border, many seeking asylum, Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas has told Congress the country's "broken" immigration system is in need of a top-to-bottom update.