VOL. 40 | NO. 49 | Friday, December 2, 2016
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The former Marine staff sergeant swears living in an RV resort filled with untold numbers of dancing Christmas lights and displays is among the best things he’s done in the years since he returned from the elder Bush’s Gulf War.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
One negative aspect of invasion of the tall skinnies is that they are tall. The skinny feature is of little concern to neighbors, but the tallness can be intimidating like a man using a bathroom stall between Kareem Abdul Jabbar and Manute Bol.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
By now, Tennessee fans have taken enough deep breaths to come to grips with losing to Vanderbilt.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
As the Tennessee Titans headed out the door for some long-overdue bye week days off, one veteran got more than he expected – the rest of the season off.
Marcus Mariota looks to be a franchise QB. Mariota, in just his second season, is emerging to be all the Titans could have hoped for and more at the most important position on the field.
NEWSMAKERS
William L. Norton III, a partner with Bradley Arant Boult Cummings, has been named the 2016 Outstanding Turnaround Professional Award from the Tennessee Chapter of the Turnaround Management Association.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Buick adds a third SUV this year with the compact Envision, a competent and nicely equipped five-seater that is the first SUV to be built in China and sold in the United States.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The house won’t write its own check. Car payments don’t happen by magic, food won’t drive to your doorstep and decent clothing isn’t free. In short, bills won’t pay themselves – but are they the sole reason to go to work each day?
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Good old-fashioned sales calls are making a revival. With digital communication now serving as the preferred form of initial outreach to new prospects, there is a sizable opportunity for sales reps skilled at making a truly impactful sales call.
CAREER CORNER
The holidays can be a difficult time in the life of a job seeker.
I SWEAR
In Dec. 1818 – 198 years ago –Thomas Jefferson wrote Robert Walsh, Jr., a letter. In it he included an anecdote that speaks to the relative value of revising a document.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Commerce and Insurance says the troubled jail in Rutherford County has been decertified.
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Interior Department said Wednesday it is designating nearly 75,000 acres or more than 550 miles of mountain ridgelines in east Tennessee as unsuitable for future surface coal mining operations.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. surgeon general is calling e-cigarettes an emerging public health threat to the nation's youth.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is starting legal action against Britain, Germany, Spain and Luxembourg for not imposing penalties against Volkswagen for using illegal software to hide vehicle emissions.
HAGERSTOWN, Md. (AP) — The trucking industry scored a victory this week when Republican lawmakers effectively blocked Obama administration safety rules aimed at keeping tired truckers off the highway. But there's more coming down the road.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edging higher in late morning trading Thursday, keeping major market indexes at record highs. Banks, technology and materials companies are leading the way higher. Defense contractors and other industrial companies are taking losses. Bond yields rose.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed up for unemployment benefits last week, another sign the U.S. job market remains healthy.
GENEVA (AP) — The world's leading association of airlines is lowering its projection for record industry net profit this year, while predicting a 16 percent drop next year due to rising oil prices.
BEIJING (AP) — Basketball legend Michael Jordan now owns his Chinese name, after China's highest court sided with him Thursday following a yearslong legal battle over a trademark dispute.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 7
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Authorities on Wednesday charged two juveniles in an East Tennessee wildfire that killed 14 people and destroyed or damaged more than 2,400 buildings in an iconic tourism spot at the foot of the Great Smoky Mountains.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee is proposing a plan that would give local school districts more control over issues such as improving poor-performing schools.
GATLINBURG (AP) — Chirping and beeping filled the air as Marion Paul fired up her Gatlinburg video arcade Monday, the first time she's seen her business since deadly wildfires set much of the city ablaze a week ago. Sooty floors needed dusting. Spoiled food had to be tossed. Otherwise, she was set to reopen.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Several Democratic state lawmakers from Tennessee have been elected to leadership roles within the National Black Caucus of State Legislators.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Sturgill Simpson's records have defied easy characterization (Country? Americana? Experimental Southern rock?), but this year The Recording Academy decided whatever genre he was, he made one of the best records of the year. And that's enough for him.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Repealing President Barack Obama's health care law without a replacement risks making nearly 30 million people uninsured, according to a study released Wednesday.
Why worry about buying health insurance when President-elect Donald Trump plans to dump the requirement that most Americans get coverage?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average and Standard & Poor's 500 indexes soared to their biggest gains since the presidential election on Wednesday and set all-time highs. Investors bought stocks that do well in times of faster economic growth, like technology and industrial companies, but they also snapped up stocks that pay large dividends.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer jobs in October than the previous month, but job openings are still at a mostly healthy level that points to steady hiring ahead.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senators questioning the logic of a proposed merger between AT&T and Time Warner turned their focus to the nickels and dimes of the issue, at least as to how the $85.4 billion mega-deal would affect Americans. OK, you say this huge merger will enhance, not quash, competition and benefit consumers. Will it actually reduce prices that consumers pay?
LONDON (AP) — British regulators fined U.S. drugmaker Pfizer and distributor Flynn Pharma a record 89.4 million pounds ($112.7 million) Wednesday for increasing the cost of an epilepsy drug by as much as 2,600 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After meeting with Donald Trump on Tuesday, Japanese tech billionaire Masayoshi Son said he will invest $50 billion in new startups in the United States, committing to creating 50,000 new jobs over an unspecified time period.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union regulators on Wednesday fined banks JPMorgan Chase, HSBC and Credit Agricole a combined $520 million for colluding to manipulate the price of financial products linked to interest rates.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — State lawmakers are scheduled to convene the 110th Tennessee General Assembly on Jan. 10.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are unveiling a bust of David Crockett at the state Capitol.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Records custodians across Tennessee would be left to decide over several contentious open government issues under a proposed model policy now open for public review and comment.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday sided with the government in a legal clash over the nation's insider trading laws, a victory for prosecutors seeking to curb corruption on Wall Street.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court unanimously sided with smartphone maker Samsung on Tuesday in its high-profile patent dispute with Apple over design of the iPhone.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday upheld a jury verdict that State Farm Fire and Casualty Co. committed fraud against the federal government after 2005's Hurricane Katrina.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is crossing a milestone in its quest to reduce pollution caused by its digital services that devour massive amounts of electricity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facebook, Microsoft, Twitter and YouTube are joining forces to more quickly identify the worst terrorist propaganda and prevent it from spreading online.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks posted slight gains on Tuesday, sending the Dow Jones industrial average to another record, helped by shares of telecommunications companies such as Verizon, Sprint and AT&T.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Airlines has won government approval to buy rival Virgin America after agreeing to reduce its flight-selling partnership with American Airlines.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The completion of the Dakota Access oil pipeline has been delayed after the U.S. Army declined to grant an easement for the final few thousand feet under a Missouri River reservoir in North Dakota pending further study. Pipeline company Energy Transfer Partners originally was expected to finish the pipeline before the end of this year, but the Army's move likely delays it by several months. That will be costly to the Dallas-based company, but industry experts say it's unlikely to kill the project completely. Here's a look at some of the ways the delay could impact the pipeline:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The productivity of American workers rose in the July-September quarter at the fastest pace in two years while labor costs slowed after a big jump in the spring.
NATIONAL POLITICS
BISMARCK, N.D. (AP) — A spokesman for President-elect Donald Trump isn't offering many clues about how the incoming administration will act regarding the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are tacking on money for security around Trump Tower in New York and funds for health care for retired coal miners to a stopgap spending bill that would avoid a government shutdown at week's end.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 5
STATEWIDE
GATLINBURG (AP) — Businesses remained closed Monday in the fire-ravaged Tennessee community of Gatlinburg, but many were in cleanup mode in hopes of reopening to the public — possibly by midweek.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is testing a grocery store model in Seattle that works without checkout lines.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — Volkswagen is launching a new company dedicated to car sharing and other "mobility services" in which people may need a ride but don't necessarily want to own the car.
YOKOSUKA, Japan (AP) — Nissan Motor Co. is testing self-driving cars at one of its plants in Japan that can tow vehicles on a trailer to the wharf for loading on transport ships.
EDUCATION
BOSTON (AP) — Presidents of eight private colleges in the U.S. were paid more than $2 million in 2014, the most ever to hit that mark, according to a new study.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average scored another record high close, led by gains in Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services companies expanded last month at their fastest pace in more than a year, an encouraging sign for the economy.
Americans should get used to a "new normal" of slow economic growth, business economists say.
CANNON BALL, N.D. (AP) — Industry leaders are urging President-elect Donald Trump to make approval of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline a "top priority" when he takes office next month, while opponents who have protested the project for months are vowing to stay put on their sprawling North Dakota encampment despite harsh winter weather and a tribal leaders' call to leave.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump's plan to use steep tariffs to punish companies that move overseas is running into an obstacle: Congressional Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump, moving to complete formation of his Cabinet and decide other key posts, chose former campaign rival Ben Carson on Monday to be secretary of the Department of Housing and Urban Development.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2
STATEWIDE
GATLINBURG (AP) — The wildfire that popped up on a steep, rugged peak in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park was just one of a dozen that fire crews had been fighting over the last month because of the drought.
GATLINBURG (AP) — People in cars and trucks rolled into the wildfire-ravaged city of Gatlinburg on Friday to get a first look at what remained of their homes and businesses, and a mayor raised the death toll to 13, including a woman who died of a heart attack during the firestorm.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Tennessee Chamber of Commerce is launching a program to encourage more workers to gain high school equivalency degrees.
GATLINBURG (AP) — Thousands of people were preparing Friday morning to get their first look at what remains of their homes and businesses in Gatlinburg after a wildfire tore through the resort community in the eastern Tennessee mountains, killing 11 people and damaging hundreds of homes and businesses.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The head of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is reemphasizing the agency's call for seat belts on school buses in the aftermath of a crash in Chattanooga that killed six students.
NASHVILLE AREA
GOODLETTSVILLE (AP) — Dollar General put up weak earnings numbers for the third quarter in an environment that has largely favored bargain stores, with so many people still looking to cut costs where they can.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's health care tab grew at the fastest rate in eight years in 2015, driven by the coverage expansion in President Barack Obama's law and by costly prescription drugs, the government said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Only about 1 in 4 people in the United States wants President-elect Donald Trump to entirely repeal his predecessor's health care law that extended coverage to millions, according to a poll.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Black Friday deals and postelection confidence helped pull November U.S. auto sales out of their recent slump — and increased the chances that 2016 could set a record for new vehicle sales.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates marked a fifth week of surges in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election win, reaching their highest levels this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. builders boosted spending on construction projects by a modest amount in October, helped by big gains in spending on home construction and the biggest increase in government projects in 10 months.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. jobs report on Friday made one thing clear: President-elect Donald Trump will inherit the same two-track U.S. economy that bedeviled his predecessor.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors made a small move back to safer assets Friday afternoon after the government's November jobs report showed continued hiring, but weak wages.
VELES, Macedonia (AP) — On the second floor of a noisy sports center in the Macedonian town of Veles, a teenage purveyor of fake news cracked open his laptop and laid out his case for why lying is more lucrative than the truth.
MIAMI (AP) — Princess Cruise Lines will pay a $40 million penalty after pleading guilty to seven federal charges in an illegal ocean pollution case that involved one ship's use of a so-called magic pipe to divert oily waste into the waters, authorities said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories expanded for the third straight month in November, another good sign for the American economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. But claims are still at low levels that point to greater job security.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump supports completion of the disputed Dakota Access oil pipeline in the Midwest, a policy that a spokesman says is not related to Trump's investments in a partnership building the $3.8 billion pipeline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Friday overwhelmingly backed a $611 billion defense policy bill that rejects a number of President Barack Obama's key proposals for managing the nation's vast military enterprise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Donald Trump named his Treasury secretary, Teena Colebrook felt her heart sink.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is nearing approval of legislation easing bank curbs that Democrats imposed to prevent another financial crisis.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed for the sixth straight week in the aftermath of Donald Trump's election win, marking new highs for the year.