VOL. 43 | NO. 51 | Friday, December 20, 2019
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
There was a time when Dec. 26 was my favorite day of the year for one simple reason: It’s as far as possible from another Christmas.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Porch pirates are sailing through the community, and package theft is at an all-time high.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, November 2019, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates were unchanged this week, staying near historically low levels.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Ryan Tannehill’s emergence as Tennessee’s starting quarterback sort of came out of left field from the Titans’ perspective.
First Down: Get Derrick Henry healthy. Henry managed 86 yards on 21 carries against the Texans Sunday, despite not having practiced all week due to a hamstring injury. The Titans are in desperation mode now. If that means no practice for Henry to ensure his availability Sunday vs. the Saints, then so be it.
The Tennessee Titans had their destiny within their grasp last week. All they needed to do was to find a way to beat the Houston Texans. But that didn’t happen, and now the Titans are back in familiar territory – hoping to win out and hoping even harder for help from the outside.
NEWSMAKERS
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP has added five associate attorneys in the firm’s Nashville office. They are:
BRIEFS
Tennessee’s exports fell by more than $500 million for the third quarter compared to the same period last year, a 6.6% loss, the latest “Global Commerce” trade report from MTSU’s Business and Economic Research Center finds.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The midsize three-row SUV marketplace is becoming increasingly crowded with worthwhile choices. A traditional mainstay of this class is the Ford Explorer, and it’s been fully redesigned for 2020. Also making headlines is the new 2020 Hyundai Palisade, which is Hyundai’s biggest and most luxurious SUV yet.
PERSONAL FINANCE
The way our brains work can cost us a lot of money. But some of our mental quirks can be turned to our advantage.
CAREER CORNER
I received a text from a friend a few years ago stating: “I spent some time today figuring out a new video software.” And, it had a link to a fun, short video.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has appointed former GOP state Sen. Mae Beavers to serve on the state Board of Parole.
ENVIRONMENT
WARRENTON, Ore. (AP) — A rare environmental success story is unfolding in waters off the U.S. West Coast.
AUTO INDUSTRY
The day Youngstown's steel mills began shutting down 40 years ago remains fresh in the minds of those who live in the blue-collar corner of Ohio. Community leaders don't want the recent closing of General Motors' massive assembly plant to leave that same lingering gloom.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia (AP) — Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have ended a nearly five-year-long dispute over shared oil fields and have agreed to resume oil production from the divided Neutral Zone, but stressed this would not change their OPEC commitments to crude oil production cuts.
TUESDAY, DEC. 24
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's county health department clinics are offering flu vaccines at no charge.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Roman Josi is on such a roll lately, even the shots he doesn't expect to go in do just that.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major US stock indexes are closing nearly flat in muted trading as the market closes early for the Christmas holiday.
CHENGDU, China (AP) — Leaders from China, Japan and South Korea reiterated their commitment to ending North Korea's nuclear and missile programs at a trilateral summit Tuesday that comes against the backdrop of increasing demands by Pyongyang for sanctions relief.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A new cafe culture is brewing in the San Francisco area, where a growing number of coffee houses are banishing paper to-go cups and replacing them with everything from glass jars to rental mugs and BYO cup policies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
GUTHRIE CENTER, Iowa (AP) — Rep. Cindy Axne happily talked about trade, health care and agriculture with about three dozen constituents who gathered in a farm bureau office the weekend before Christmas. Missing from the Iowa Democrat's talking points: her recent vote to impeach President Donald Trump.
MONDAY, DEC. 23
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans find themselves in the same situation as a year ago with a playoff berth on the line in their regular-season finale.
REAL ESTATE
MURFREESBORO (AP) — Home prices increased last quarter in Tennessee compared to the same period in 2018, but total home permits dropped, according to a housing report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home-buying slumped in November, with many Americans priced out of the market by rising prices and a shortage of sales listings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of newly built homes increased 1.3% in November from the prior month, a sign that low mortgage rates are pushing up purchases as well as prices.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed modestly higher on Wall Street Monday, extending the major indexes' milestone-shattering run.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods fell by the largest amount in six months, led by a large decrease in orders for defense aircraft and parts. A closely watched category that tracks business investment ticked up 0.1%.
BEIJING (AP) — China said Monday it will reduce tariffs Jan. 1 on more than 850 foreign products including frozen pork, asthma medications and some high-tech components to spur economic development.
Joseph Segel, a "quintessential entrepreneur" who founded the home-shopping network QVC, has died, the company that owns the channel announced. He was 88.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee held open the possibility Monday of recommending additional articles of impeachment against President Donald Trump as it pressed anew for the testimony of former White House counsel Don McGahn.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — In a back corner of the swank H Bar in Houston, near a huge photo of Brigitte Bardot with a dangling cigarette and a deck of cards, two Russian-speaking men offered a Ukrainian gas executive what seemed like an outrageous business proposal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The night before the whistleblower complaint that launched President Donald Trump's impeachment was made public, Democrats and Republicans on the House Intelligence Committee crammed into the same room to get a first look at the document.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is projecting confidence that it will prevail in a constitutional spat with Democrats over the nature of the Senate's impeachment trial, which threatens to deprive President Donald Trump of the swift acquittal he seeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The closing passage in President Donald Trump's impeachment-eve letter to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had the ring of truth to it. He was writing his thoughts for history, he said. For 100 years from now, "when people look back at this affair."
FRIDAY, DEC. 20
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Trial Court Vacancy Commission is seeking applications for a circuit court vacancy in the 16th Judicial District in Rutherford and Cannon counties.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has landed a $5.3 million federal grant that aims to address opioid misuse among expectant mothers and improve care for their affected children, the Division of TennCare announced Thursday.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Michael Bloomberg swung through Tennessee on Thursday, highlighting his newly released health care plan and celebrating the opening of the Democrat's state campaign headquarters.
PREDATORS
OTTAWA, Ontario (AP) — The Ottawa Senators made Marcus Hogberg's first NHL win one to remember.
ENVIRONMENT
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a ruling hailed as an "immense victory for climate justice," the Netherlands' top court ruled Friday in favor of activists who have for years been seeking legal orders to force the Dutch government into cutting greenhouse gas emissions.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 8 million people have signed up for coverage next year under former President Barack Obama's health care law, the government said Friday, a sign of continued demand for the program amid persistent uncertainty over its future.
TECHNOLOGY
A Ukrainian security researcher reported finding a database with the names, phone numbers and unique user IDs of more than 267 million Facebook users — nearly all U.S.-based — on the open internet. That data was likely harvested by criminals, said researcher Bob Diachenko, an independent security consultant in Kyiv.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter says it has removed nearly 6,000 accounts it deemed tied to a state-backed information operation in Saudi Arabia.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped a mostly quiet week of trading Friday with broad gains for stocks and more record highs for the major indexes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their spending in November at the fastest pace in four months, and income growth rebounded to its strongest gain since August.
The U.S. economy, which only recently was flashing warning signs of a sharp slowdown, should finish the year in better shape, thanks to rate cuts from the Federal Reserve and a cease-fire in the U.S.-China trade war.
BERLIN (AP) — German Foreign Minister Heiko Maas said Friday he was "under no illusions" that proposed U.S. sanctions against companies involved in building a Russian gas pipeline to Europe might be stopped at the last minute.
PARIS (AP) — France's competition authority has fined Google 150 million euros ($166 million) for "abusing its dominant position" in the online ad market.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nancy Pelosi promised as speaker she would "show the power of the gavel."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump blasted a prominent Christian magazine on Friday, a day after it published an editorial arguing that he should be removed from office because of his "blackened moral record."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump railed behind closed doors about House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's decision to delay sending articles of impeachment to the Republican-controlled Senate, putting an expected trial in limbo.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is celebrating the launch of Space Force, the first new military service in more than 70 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seven Democratic presidential contenders tangled Thursday night in the last debate of the year, hard on the heels of President Donald Trump's impeachment.
THURSDAY, DEC. 19
NASHVILLE AREA
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — From the middle of the Obama administration to the midpoint of the Trump presidency, household income grew the most in tech and entertainment centers like Nashville, Austin, Texas and large chunks of the West Coast.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — A German lawyer representing a former Volkswagen manager jailed over the company's diesel emissions fraud says his client has been released from prison.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook plans to clamp down on attempts to use its services to interfere with the 2020 U.S. census, including the posting of misleading information about when and how to participate, who can participate and what happens when people do.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home-buying slumped in November, with some Americans priced out of the market by rising prices or constrained by a shortage of sales listings.
HEALTH CARE
A revamped North American trade deal nearing passage in Congress gives both the White House and Democrats a chance to claim victory and offers farmers and businesses clearer rules governing the vast flow of goods among the United States, Canada and Mexico.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A major change to how Americans save for retirement is close to becoming law.
NEW YORK (AP) — Nike's quarterly results again beat Wall Street expectations, as its online sales grew and customers shrugged off a series of corporate scandals.
Technology companies led stocks higher on Wall Street Thursday, extending the market's gains for the week and pushing the major indexes to more record highs.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Some farm groups and farm-state lawmakers expressed anger at the Trump administration Thursday over final ethanol rules that they said failed to uphold the president's promises to the industry.
NEW YORK (AP) — After a year of nirvana, investors may need to get ready for something a little more normal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One day after impeaching President Donald Trump, the Democratic-led House is expected to overwhelmingly pass one of his signature priorities, a rewrite of the 25-year-old free trade agreement he blames for shipping U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House approved legislation Thursday to suspend for two years the $10,000 cap on state and local tax deductions that came with President Donald Trump's massive 2017 tax law. The deductions are widely popular, especially in high-tax, heavily Democratic states like New York, New Jersey and California.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi insisted on Thursday that before she will send the Republican Senate the articles of impeachment her Democratic chamber approved against President Donald Trump, GOP leaders must provide more detail about how they will handle the expected trial.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's impeachment night crack that the late Michigan Rep. John Dingell might be "looking up" from hell drew wide scorn and scant defense from his allies Thursday, on the cusp of the 2020 election year and just days before Christmas.
The Senate approved a bill Thursday to crack down on robocalls, sending to President Donald Trump a measure meant to combat a persistent and costly problem for Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has voted to advance a $1.4 trillion government spending package in a last, bipartisan burst of legislating before bolting for the holidays from a Capitol that's toxic with impeachment.
The Senate has passed a bill that cracks down on robocalls, a persistent and costly problem for Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday that President Donald Trump's swipe at the late Rep. John Dingell during a raucous impeachment-day rally in Michigan was cruel. She added: "Let us pray. Let us pray for the president."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top Senate Republican on Thursday denounced the "most unfair" House impeachment of President Donald Trump and reassured Trump and his supporters that "moments like this are why the United States Senate exists."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump was impeached by the U.S. House of Representatives, becoming only the third American chief executive to be formally charged under the Constitution's ultimate remedy for high crimes and misdemeanors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just seven Democrats will take the stage for the sixth and final round of presidential debates in 2019. That's down from 20 candidates six months ago.