VOL. 46 | NO. 48 | Friday, December 2, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Very few houses in Middle Tennessee have been built on slabs, as builders have chosen crawlspaces. Adam Epstein, the owner of AE Construction, notes that there are three major deterrents to building on a slab in the area: terrain, plumbing and insulation.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate ticked down for the third week in a row and have fallen more than a half-point since hitting a 20-year high less than a month ago.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk has very high standards for her Titans.
Another playoff matchup looming?
Sunday’s loss to Cincinnati felt a lot like the playoff defeat in January, with the Titans again squandering plenty of chances to come away with a victory.
The Titans are likely to get a stark reminder Sunday of just what they had in wide receiver A.J. Brown as they prepare to face their old teammate, who is now a Philadelphia Eagle.
There will be only one thing on the minds of Titans fans this week, and you can be sure that by kickoff the players and coaches will be sick of talking about it: A.J. Brown.
UT SPORTS
If you had asked anyone with an allegiance to Tennessee football two months ago what their reaction would be to a 10-win regular season, including victories over Alabama and Florida, and reaching No. 1 in the College Football Playoff rankings, nothing short of pure joy would have been expected.
NEWSMAKERS
Speedway Motorsports has promoted motorsports industry executive Matt Greci to senior vice president and general manager of Nashville Superspeedway, replacing Erik Moses, who is leaving to become executive director of the Fiesta Bowl.
BRIEFS
The Nashville Entrepreneur Center announced that Twende, its nine-month statewide accelerator program with world-class B2B curriculum, coaching, community and supplier diversity connections launched by the EC specifically for entrepreneurs that identify as Black and Latine, has officially opened its 2023 cohort for applications.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The Federal Reserve issued its latest interest rate hike in early November – the sixth increase this year – resulting in the highest auto loan finance rates since 2019. Rates for used cars have also hit their highest since 2010.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Thrifting is hot, and Goodwill finds are cool again. But while we’re thrilled to find the perfect throwback tee for our own closet, gifting used goods still carries a stigma for some.
For Ryan Decker, surviving the holiday shopping season is all about planning ahead. In fact, if he sees a gift for one of his two young sons in March, he’ll go ahead and buy it, instead of rushing through his shopping list in December.
TENNESSEE TITANS
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Jacksonville Jaguars quarterback Trevor Lawrence won't practice Wednesday because of a sprained big toe on his left foot, but coach Doug Pederson expects the second-year pro to get on the practice field later in the week and potentially play at Tennessee.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music journalist and Grammy-nominated musician Peter Cooper has died. He was 52.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Library & Archives is putting its collection of over a million historic photographs on display for a new exhibit on portraits.
REGION
MEMPHIS (AP) — The utility company in Memphis, Tennessee, said Wednesday it has rejected a 20-year contract with the Tennessee Valley Authority but will remain the power provider's largest customer for the "foreseeable future."
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump found at least two items marked as classified during a recent search of a storage unit in West Palm Beach, Florida, and have provided them to the FBI, according to a published report Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday seemed skeptical of making a broad ruling that would leave state legislatures virtually unchecked in making rules for congressional and presidential elections.
A former Theranos executive learns Wednesday whether he will be punished as severely as his former lover and business partner for peddling the company's bogus blood-testing technology that duped investors and endangered patients.
Juul Labs has reached settlements covering more than 5,000 cases brought by about 10,000 plaintiffs related to its vaping products.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The early work of the Justice Department's civil rights division meant confronting white supremacists who were intimidating Black voters, and 65 years later, its work is just as urgent amid a surge of hate crimes in the U.S., Attorney General Merrick Garland said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. federal judge on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit against Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman in the killing of U.S.-based journalist Jamal Khashoggi, bowing to the Biden administration's insistence that the prince was legally immune in the case.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's company was convicted of tax fraud Tuesday for helping executives dodge taxes on extravagant perks such as Manhattan apartments and luxury cars, a repudiation of financial practices at the former president's business as he mounts another run for the White House.
TRAVEL
LONDON (AP) — Britain's Conservative government on Wednesday threatened "tough" action to curb strikes, as airport passport officers became the latest public sector workers to announce December walkouts.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BANGKOK (AP) — Tesla has launched sales in Thailand, offering its popular Model 3 and Model Y at prices aimed at competing with rivals like China's BYD.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Expedited drug approvals slowed this year as the Food and Drug Administration's controversial accelerated pathway came under new scrutiny from Congress, government watchdogs and some of the agency's own leaders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The COVID-19 vaccine mandate for members of the U.S. military would be rescinded under the annual defense bill heading for a vote this week in Congress, ending a directive that helped ensure the vast majority of troops were vaccinated but also raised concerns that it harmed recruitment and retention.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times is bracing for a 24-hour walkout Thursday by hundreds of journalists and other employees, in what would be the first strike of its kind at the newspaper in more than 40 years.
LONDON (AP) — Microsoft agreed Wednesday to make the hit video game Call of Duty available on Nintendo for 10 years should its $69 billion purchase of game maker Activision Blizzard go through — an apparent attempt to fend off objections from rival Sony.
Video game developer Ben Esposito's first big break was a quirky game called Donut County starring a raccoon who dropped small objects and then entire neighborhoods into an ever-growing hole in the ground.
ENERGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States will increase exports of liquefied natural gas to Britain under a new agreement calling for the two countries to work together to boost energy security and drive down prices following Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
LONDON (AP) — Environmental groups on Wednesday welcomed a decision by Britain's Conservative government to lift its opposition to onshore wind farms. But they warned that any benefit would be erased if the government backs plans to open the U.K.'s first new coal mine in three decades.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said last month's international global warming talks didn't do enough to speed up cuts in emissions of heat-trapping gases.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
More weakness in tech stocks sent Wall Street mostly lower after another day of wobbly trading.
Italian confectioner Ferrero said Wednesday it is acquiring Wells Enterprises, one of the largest U.S. ice cream makers, in a deal that will broaden both companies' offerings.
Back in January, 109 container ships waited off the California coast to unload cargo in Los Angeles and Long Beach, the nation's two largest ports. Consumers, stuck at home amid the pandemic, had unleashed an avalanche of orders for goods that overwhelmed factories and ports.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed legislation curbing the use of confidentiality agreements that block victims of sexual harassment from speaking publicly about misconduct in the workplace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For Senate Democrats, an oh-so-slim 51-49 majority never sounded so good.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday signed off on two new significant arms sales to Taiwan in approvals that are sure to rankle China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell delivered another rebuke of former President Donald Trump on Tuesday, saying that anyone who thinks the Constitution can be suspended would have a "very hard time" becoming president in the United States.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — When Russian forces launched a military campaign against infrastructure in Ukraine nearly two months ago, they opened a front that carried the war along power lines, water mains and heating systems to homes, schools, offices and churches.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Drones struck inside Russia's border with Ukraine on Tuesday in the second day of attacks exposing the vulnerability of some of Moscow's most important military sites, experts said.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 6
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — Jim Stewart, the white Tennessee farm boy and fiddle player who co-founded the influential Stax Records with his sister in a Black, inner-city Memphis neighborhood and helped build the soulful "Memphis sound," has died at age 92.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A contentious charter school operator linked to a conservative Michigan college is taking another swing at opening schools in three Tennessee counties that have previously rejected them, as well as in two new counties.
EAST TENNESSEE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Employees of Knox County, Tennessee's government can now access up to eight weeks of paid family leave after the birth or adoption of a child.
COURTS
A former Theranos executive learns Wednesday whether he will be punished as severely as his former lover and business partner for peddling the company's bogus blood-testing technology that duped investors and endangered patients.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The family of country singer Naomi Judd on Monday filed a notice to voluntarily dismiss a lawsuit that sought to block journalists from accessing the police investigation records surrounding her death.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's one ballot former President Donald Trump would rather not be associated with: the verdict sheet at his company's criminal tax fraud trial.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Miami congressman who signed a $50 million consulting contract with Venezuela's socialist government was arrested Monday on charges of money laundering and representing a foreign government without registering.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court 's conservative majority sounded sympathetic Monday to a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for gay couples, the latest collision of religion and gay rights to land at the high court.
MEDIA
Facebook parent Meta Platforms Inc. said Tuesday it will be "forced to consider" removing news content from its platform if Congress passes legislation requiring tech companies to pay news outlets for their material.
NEW YORK (AP) — Digital media company BuzzFeed is cutting 12% of its workforce, citing worsening economic conditions.
LONDON (AP) — Facebook parent Meta's quasi-independent oversight board said Tuesday that an internal system that exempted high-profile users, including former U.S. President Donald Trump, from some or all of its content moderation rules needs a major overhaul.
ENERGY
BERLIN (AP) — The expansion of renewable power generation picked up sharply in 2022 and within three years it could pass coal as the top source of electricity, The International Energy Agency said in a new report published Tuesday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California could become the first state to fine big oil companies for making too much money, a reaction to the industry's supersized profits following a summer of record-high gas prices in the nation's most populous state.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Investigators believe a shooting that damaged power substations in North Carolina was a crime. What they haven't named yet is a suspect or a motive.
TRANSPORTATION
SEATTLE (AP) — After more than half a century, Boeing is set to roll its last 747 out of a Washington state factory on Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks fell again on Wall Street, extending the markets recent string of losses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday plans to visit the building site for a new computer chip plant in Arizona, using it as a chance to emphasize how his policies are fostering job growth in what could be a challenge to the incoming Republican House majority.
NEW YORK (AP) — Robinhood, the company that blazed onto Wall Street after turning millions of novices into investors by making trading fun, is now setting its sights on a more staid corner of the industry: saving for retirement.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Major freight railroads are facing pressure to add sick days for their workers from a new front: An influential investment group says some of its members are now pushing the measure that Congress declined to as part of the contracts they imposed last week to avert a potentially devastating nationwide rail strike.
TOKYO (AP) — A newly founded Japanese semiconductor company aiming to revive Japan's chip industry signed an agreement on Tuesday to collaborate with a Belgian research organization in developing next-generation chips for production in Japan.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol will make criminal referrals to the Justice Department as it wraps up its probe and looks to publish a final report by the end of the year, the panel's chairman said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hailed as heroes, the law enforcement officers who defended the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, were honored Tuesday with Congressional Gold Medals and praised for securing democracy when they fought off a brutal and bloody attack by supporters of then-President Donald Trump.
A panel on Tuesday called for changes at the federal agency that oversees most of the nation's food supply, saying revamped leadership, a clear mission and more urgency are needed to prevent illness outbreaks and to promote good health.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is playing host to roughly 50 Democratic state lawmakers from 31 states this week as legislatures prepare for their upcoming sessions, aiming to talk over strategy on top issues like climate change, gun violence, abortion rights and voting rights.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is still actively searching for ways to safeguard abortion access for millions of women, even as it bumps up against a complex web of strict new state laws enacted in the months after the Supreme Court stripped the constitutional right.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 5
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have to improve across the board if they want to do more than simply win a bad division for a third straight year.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A.J Brown pulled out a towel and wagged his finger at the goal post before he swatted the structure three times. The hard feelings didn't last. Brown hugged the goal post and let bygones by bygones.
UT SPORTS
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — The Orange Bowl will be the most aptly named bowl of all this year.
SPORTS
Iowa and Kentucky will meet Dec. 31 in the Music City Bowl. It marks the second straight season that the Hawkeyes and Wildcats will meet in a bowl game.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors started deliberating Monday in the Trump Organization's criminal tax fraud trial, weighing charges that former President Donald Trump's company helped executives dodge personal income taxes on perks such as Manhattan apartments and luxury cars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As a businessman and president, Donald Trump faced a litany of lawsuits and criminal investigations yet emerged from the legal scrutiny time and again with his public and political standing largely intact.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court 's conservative majority sounded sympathetic Monday to a Christian graphic artist who objects to designing wedding websites for gay couples, a dispute that's the latest clash of religion and gay rights to land at the highest court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is about to confront a new elections case, a Republican-led challenge asking the justices for a novel ruling that could significantly increase the power of state lawmakers over elections for Congress and the presidency.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Memphis hospital says it has paused, not stopped, its gender-affirming services in response to possible legal action by civil rights advocates who argue the hospital's move is illegal and discriminatory.
TECHNOLOGY
JERUSALEM (AP) — U.S. weapons maker Lockheed Martin Corp. and Israeli defense contractor Rafael on Monday said they will team up to develop a high-energy laser system to defend against aerial attacks.
MEDIA
Now that he's back on Twitter, neo-Nazi Andrew Anglin wants somebody to explain the rules.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and European Union agreed Monday to intensify talks to resolve EU concerns over major subsidies for American companies contained in a U.S. clean energy law.
ENERGY
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tuesday marks the first-ever U.S. auction of leases to develop commercial-scale floating wind farms, in the deep waters off the West Coast.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — At Gov. Gavin Newsom's prompting, California lawmakers kicked off a special legislative session on Monday to consider punishing big oil companies for their supersized profits during a time of record-high gas prices — the start of a likely lengthy process that will test the liberal Legislature's resolve in the face of fierce industry opposition.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed lower on Wall Street and Treasury yields rose after surprisingly strong economic reports highlighted the Federal Reserve's difficult fight against inflation.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Sunday the U.S. will not shrink from its unwavering support for Israel despite stark differences with Prime Minister-elect Benjamin Netanyahu and concerns the Biden administration may have about potential members of his incoming right-wing government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump faced rebuke Sunday from officials in both parties after calling for the "termination" of parts of the Constitution over his lie that the 2020 election was stolen.
UKRAINE
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Major Western measures to limit Russia's oil profits over the war in Ukraine took effect Monday, bringing with them uncertainty about how much crude could be lost to the world and whether they will unleash the hoped-for hit to a Russian economy that has held up better than many expected under sanctions.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India will prioritize its own energy needs and continue to buy oil from Russia, its foreign minister signaled Monday, as Western governments press Moscow with a price cap to squeeze its earnings from oil exports.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 2
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NEWARK, N.J. (AP) — Ryan Johansen scored his second goal of the game 33 seconds into overtime and Juuse Saros made 25 saves in the Nashville Predators' 4-3 victory over the New Jersey Devils on Thursday night.
MIDSTATE
Ultium Cells LLC, a joint venture of LG Energy Solution and General Motors, will expand its Spring Hill battery cell manufacturing operations.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than $27 million in Community Development Block Grants have been approved by Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee and Department of Economic and Community Development Commissioner Stuart McWhorter.
REGION
MEMPHIS (AP) — Distributors for the nation's largest public utility signed onto what amounted to "never-ending" contracts that unfairly tied them to power generated by the Tennessee Valley Authority, a lawyer argued Thursday as she represents environmental groups in a lawsuit.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — In the end, it wasn't a last-minute smoking gun but a prosecutor insisting that evidence shows Donald Trump was aware of a scheme that his Trump Organization's executives hatched to avoid paying personal income taxes on millions of dollars worth of company-paid perks.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump "knew exactly what was going on" with top Trump Organization executives who schemed for years to dodge taxes on company-paid perks, a prosecutor said Thursday, challenging defense claims that the former president was unaware of the plot at the heart of the company's tax fraud case.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous federal appeals court on Thursday ended an independent review of documents seized from former President Donald Trump's Florida estate, removing a hurdle the Justice Department said had delayed its criminal investigation into the retention of top-secret government information.
HEALTH CARE
Tech billionaire Elon Musk said his Neuralink company is seeking permission to test its brain implant in people soon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's 988 hotline, intended to help anyone experiencing a mental health emergency, was back up and running Friday after a daylong outage.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla delivered its first electric semis to PepsiCo Thursday, more than three years after Elon Musk said his company would start making the trucks.
ENERGY
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union tentatively agreed to a $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil, a key step as Western sanctions aim to reorder the global oil market to prevent price spikes and starve President Vladimir Putin of funding for his war in Ukraine.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Western governments are aiming to cap the price of Russia's oil exports in an attempt to limit the fossil fuel earnings that support Moscow's budget, its military and the invasion of Ukraine.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — FBI Director Chris Wray is raising national security concerns about TikTok, warning Friday that control of the popular video sharing app is in the hands of a Chinese government "that doesn't share our values."
Infowars host Alex Jones filed for personal bankruptcy protection in Texas on Friday as he faces nearly $1.5 billion in court judgments over conspiracy theories he spread about the Sandy Hook school massacre.
Twitter has suspended rapper Ye after he tweeted a picture of a swastika merged with the Star of David.
ENVIRONMENT
On Friday afternoon more than 2,000 experts will wrap up a week of negotiations on plastic pollution at one of the largest global gatherings ever to address what even industry leaders in plastics say is a crisis.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Asia's richest man, Gautam Adani, made his vast fortune betting on coal as an energy hungry India grew swiftly after liberalizing its economy in the 1990s.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Worries about inflation weighed on Wall Street, leaving major indexes mixed after another bumpy day of trading.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden assured Americans on Friday that the U.S. economy is chugging along in the holiday season, but the very strength of a new jobs report showed that high inflation remains a recession threat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For nearly nine months, the Federal Reserve has relentlessly raised interest rates to try to slow the U.S. job market and bring inflation under control.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's employers kept hiring briskly in November despite high inflation and a slow-growing economy — a sign of resilience in the face of the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed a bill Friday to avert a freight rail strike that he said could have plunged the U.S. into a catastrophic recession.
DETROIT (AP) — Members of the United Auto Workers union appeared on Thursday to favor replacing many of their current leaders in an election that stemmed from a federal bribery and embezzlement scandal involving former union officials.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Mexico's economy secretary on Thursday proposed yet another round of talks with the United States on a dispute over Mexico's energy sector.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron vowed to maintain a united front against Russia on Thursday amid growing worries about waning support for Ukraine's war effort in the U.S. and Europe. Biden also signaled he might be willing to tweak aspects of his signature climate legislation that have raised concerns with France and other European allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first White House state dinner of President Joe Biden's administration drew big names Thursday from fashion, entertainment, politics and business who turned out to help celebrate French President Emmanuel Macron and the return of large social events after the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — To help Democrats win their 51st Senate seat in a Georgia runoff election, President Joe Biden is headed to ... Massachusetts?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats voted Friday to remove Iowa as the leadoff state on the presidential nominating calendar and replace it with South Carolina starting in 2024, a dramatic shakeup championed by President Joe Biden to better reflect the party's deeply diverse electorate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on three members of North Korea's ruling party's central committee for their involvement in the country's ballistic missile program.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A top adviser to Ukraine's president has cited military chiefs as saying 10,000 to 13,000 Ukrainian soldiers have been killed in the country's nine-month struggle against Russia's invasion, a rare comment on such figures and far below estimates of Ukrainian casualties from Western leaders.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian embassies and consulates in six European countries have received packages containing animals' eyes in recent days, a Ukrainian official said Friday.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Treylon Burks has been compared to former Titans wide receiver A.J. Brown from the moment Tennessee drafted him using the selection gained in the trade that sent Brown to Philadelphia.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — A.J. Brown just wanted to get paid.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Education announced it is partnering with the Governor's Early Literacy Foundation to provide free books to children in kindergarten through second grade.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to decide whether the Biden administration can broadly cancel student loans, keeping the program blocked for now but signaling a final answer by early summer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's company "cultivated a culture of fraud and deception" by lavishing luxe perks on executives and falsifying records to hide the compensation, a prosecutor told jurors Thursday during closing arguments at the Trump Organization's criminal tax fraud trial.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The seditious conspiracy convictions of Oath Keepers founder Stewart Rhodes and another leader in the far-right extremist group show that jurors are willing to hold accountable not just the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, but those who schemed to subvert the 2020 election.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Google is challenging a record European Union antitrust fine that took aim at the Android operating system's role in restricting mobile competition and consumer choice.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon CEO Andy Jassy said Wednesday the company does not have plans to stop selling the antisemitic film that gained notoriety recently after Brooklyn Nets guard Kyrie Irving tweeted out an Amazon link to it.
NONPROFITS
NEW YORK (AP) — GivingTuesday raised a record $3.1 billion in 24 hours for charitable causes in the U.S. earlier this week, as the event that started as a hashtag in 2012 celebrated its 10th anniversary and its status as a staple of fundraising for nonprofits, the group's leader said Wednesday.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Civil rights advocates say a Memphis hospital is no longer providing gender-affirming surgeries, a move they argue is illegal and discriminatory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials have approved the first pharmaceutical-grade version of the so-called fecal transplant procedures that doctors have increasingly used against hard-to-treat intestinal infections.
ENERGY
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed increasing the amount of ethanol and other biofuels that must be blended into the nation's fuel supplies over the next three years, a move welcomed by renewable fuel and farm groups but condemned by environmentalists and oil industry groups.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended mixed after an uneven day of trading and bond yields fell broadly after the government reported that a measure of inflation that's closely watched by the Federal Reserve eased in October.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Austan Goolsbee, who was a top economic adviser to President Barack Obama, has been chosen as the next president of the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, the regional Fed bank announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Financial technology firms abdicated their responsibility to screen out fraud in applications for a federal program designed to help small businesses stay open and keep workers employed during the pandemic, a report by a House investigations panel said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of inflation that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve eased but remained at an elevated level in October, likely reinforcing the Fed's intent to keep raising interest rates to cool the economy and slow the acceleration of prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits came back down last week, hovering near levels suggesting the U.S. labor market has been largely unaffected by the Federal Reserve's aggressive interest rate hikes.
NEW YORK (AP) — The former CEO of the failed cryptocurrency exchange FTX said Wednesday that he did not "knowingly" misuse customers' funds, and said he believes his millions of angry customers will eventually be made whole.
LONDON (AP) — A top European Union official warned Elon Musk on Wednesday that Twitter needs to beef up measures to protect users from hate speech, misinformation and other harmful content to avoid violating new rules that threaten tech giants with big fines or even a ban in the 27-nation bloc.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate moved quickly Thursday to avert a rail strike that the Biden administration and business leaders warned would have had devastating consequences for the nation's economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House moved urgently to head off the looming nationwide rail strike on Wednesday, passing a bill that would bind companies and workers to a proposed settlement that was reached in September but rejected by some of the 12 unions involved.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wrapping up leadership elections, House Democrats unanimously chose Rep. James Clyburn of South Carolina for a new role Thursday, as the party whip relinquishes his current job and a younger generation of Democratic leaders takes charge in the new year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A watchdog investigation initiated after the tax returns of two former FBI directors were subjected to intensive audits during the Trump administration has concluded that the reviews from those years were conducted at random.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Emmanuel Macron vowed to maintain a united front against Russia on Thursday amid growing worries about waning support for Ukraine's war effort in the U.S. and Europe. Biden also signaled he might be willing to tweak aspects of his signature climate legislation that have raised concerns with France and other European allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Butter-poached Maine lobster, beef with shallot marmalade and an American cheese trio will be served when French President Emmanuel Macron takes his seat Thursday as the guest of honor at a red-white-and-blue themed White House state dinner, the first for President Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Voice of America said Wednesday that Taliban authorities have banned FM radio broadcasts from VOA and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in Afghanistan, starting Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said Wednesday that personal information of more than 6,000 people in its custody was inadvertently posted to its website for about five hours.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday pledged to give Native Americans a stronger voice in federal affairs, promising at the first in-person summit on tribal affairs in six years that he will bolster tribal consultations, inclusion of Indigenous knowledge in decision-making and funding for communities struggling with the impacts of climate change.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Wednesday it has complied with a court order to make former President Donald Trump's tax returns available to a congressional committee.
UKRAINE
BERLIN (AP) — Swiss authorities said Thursday that they have been notified of 46.1 billion francs ($48.5 billion) in assets held by Russian nationals and entities in the Alpine country since sanctions were introduced earlier this year.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's foreign minister on Thursday accused the West of becoming directly involved in the conflict in Ukraine by supplying it with weapons and training its soldiers.
One of Ukraine's most decorated Olympians is auctioning his medals — two golds and a bronze — in hopes of raising a six-figure donation to contribute to the war effort in his native land.