VOL. 41 | NO. 52 | Friday, December 29, 2017
Two issues poised to dominate 110th General Assembly
With the state’s budget projected to be tight and lawmakers lining up to run for re-election in 2018, the coming legislative session isn’t expected to yield many surprises.
Major League Soccer exploded onto the Nashville scene last week with the announcement of a new expansion team coming amid thousands of cheering supporters at the Country Music Hall of Fame.
MEMPHIS – A little more than a year ago, Scott McEwen had an epiphany that would end up bringing the Nashville recording studio owner to Memphis.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Historically, real estate begins to slow about this time of year as the community falls into the festivity of the seasons. Not this year.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
By now, Titans fans know winning Sunday’s game against Jacksonville would put the team in an NFL playoff game for the first time since Jan. 10, 2009.
First down: What will the Jaguars do? Jacksonville is locked into the No. 3 spot in the AFC playoff seedings. That means there is a chance they would rest key players and not risk injuries – even though that has seldom been the M.O., of a Tom Coughlin-run organization. If the Titans win, they would most likely travel to Jacksonville for the first round of the playoffs.
NEWSMAKERS
The members of Frost Brown Todd LLC have elected Nashville member Robert V. Sartin to serve as chairman of the firm. Sartin’s initial three-year term begins January 1.
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has announced the appointments of 217 Tennesseans to 93 boards and commissions.
BRIEFS
A law taking effect in January removes the Tennessee Alcoholic Beverage Commission from the Governor’s Task Force on Marijuana Eradication.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
When it comes time to buy an upscale fastback sedan, most people naturally consider models from European luxury brands. For 2018, though, those car shoppers have another option: the 2018 Kia Stinger. Yes, that’s right, a vehicle from the South Korean automaker known for affordability – and one with a name that could have been cribbed from a Nerf gun.
CAREER CORNER
Interviewing for a job is a nerve-racking process. When else do we want others to judge us? We spend so much time preparing – finding the perfect clothes, organizing our resume, and sneaking out of our job. We ask for recommendations from our old bosses.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A fiddle that Goodwill believes was once owned by country music legend Roy Acuff is expected to generate thousands of dollars for the charitable organization in the Kansas City area.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee board is scheduled to review proposed nominations to the National Register of Historic Places.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, making it slightly more affordable to borrow for a home.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Striving to fulfill a campaign promise, the Trump administration on Thursday proposed regulations to facilitate the interstate sale of health insurance policies that cost less but may not cover as much.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Volkswagen each say they're partnering with a U.S. autonomous vehicle tech firm led by former executives from Google, Tesla and Uber.
GREER, S.C. (AP) — BMW of North America plans to open its second training center in the South by the end of this year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average is trading above 25,000 points for the first time early Thursday, breaking another 1,000-point milestone. The market was rising broadly after a survey showed strong hiring by U.S. private businesses. Banks are leading the way as interest rates jump. European stocks are also rising.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies closed out 2017 with strong hiring in December, adding the most jobs in nine months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's says it enjoyed sales growth during the holiday season, but the improvement wasn't enough to offset a tough year.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Macy's is closing its store in downtown Cincinnati. The Cincinnati-based retailer confirmed Wednesday that the closure is part of a plan to close 100 stores that it announced in 2016.
LONDON (AP) — Former British Prime Minister Tony Blair is pressing his long-held view that voters should be given a chance to re-think Brexit once plans for Britain's departure from the European Union are clear.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions is going after legalized marijuana. Sessions is rescinding a policy that had let legalized marijuana flourish without federal intervention across the country.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — There's no winner yet in Virginia's hotly contested race for a House seat despite a general election, a recount and a legal battle. Now election officials are turning to a ceramic bowl.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his tough stance on nuclear weapons on the Korean Peninsula is helping push North Korea and South Korea to talk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is cracking down on staff using personal cellphones at work.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 3
REGION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority welcomed 2018 with a request to about 9 million customers to reduce their power consumption amid cold weather and high power demand.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Companies will have to disclose more information to secure future incentives from one Tennessee city, as part of the local government's bid to strengthen the transparency of economic development deals.
STATEWIDE
WARTBURG (AP) — The Obed Wild and Scenic River has added 161 acres (65 hectares) within the national park's boundaries through a donation.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Predators forward and leading scorer Filip Forsberg will miss four to six weeks with an upper-body injury.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Night after night, the Vegas Golden Knights keep proving it's no fluke they're the top team in the West.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. builders spent 0.8 percent more on construction projects in November, the fourth consecutive monthly gain.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. auto industry's historic growth streak has ended, but demand for new vehicles — especially SUVs — remains healthy as the new year begins.
DETROIT (AP) — Electric car maker Tesla Inc. has again fallen short of production goals for its new Model 3 sedan.
DETROIT (AP) — Car salesmen call it "the payment walk," when a customer wants a new vehicle but is walked instead to the used lot because they can't qualify for a new-car loan.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anchorage, Alaska, was warmer Tuesday than Jacksonville, Florida. The weather in the U.S. is that upside down.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Big gains for technology and health care companies helped U.S. stocks set records again Wednesday. Rising crude and heating oil prices also sent energy companies higher.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve policymakers largely agreed last month that the U.S. tax overhaul would likely benefit the economy, but they were split on whether the resulting growth would warrant a faster pace of rate hikes this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturers expanded at a faster pace in December, boosted by a sharp increase in new orders.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese billionaire Jack Ma has dropped his bid to buy U.S. money transfer company MoneyGram after Washington rejected the $1.2 billion deal in a fresh example of heightened American scrutiny of Chinese investment.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — There will be some familiar but stubborn clashes facing lawmakers Wednesday as Congress begins its 2018 session staring at the year's first potential calamity — an election-year government shutdown unless there's a bipartisan spending pact by Jan. 19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican majority in the Senate narrowed to 51-49 on Wednesday as two new Democratic senators were sworn into office, complicating GOP efforts to advance the party's legislative agenda before the 2018 midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump boasted that he has a bigger and more powerful "nuclear button" than North Korean leader Kim Jong Un does — but the president doesn't actually have a physical button.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 2
MUSIC INDUSTRY
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Alabama record producer Rick Hall, who recorded some of the biggest musical acts of the 1960s and '70s and helped develop the fabled "Muscle Shoals sound," has died.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — State officials say a wood manufacturing company will invest $3.3 million in a new Tennessee facility that will create 100 jobs.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans finally making the playoffs left Pro Bowl defensive lineman Jurrell Casey speechless.
HEALTH CARE
BOSTON (AP) — While much of corporate America will enjoy a tax cut in the new year, one industry is getting a tax increase it has fought hard but so far unsuccessfully to avoid.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology and health care companies jumped Tuesday as U.S. stocks started the new year the same way they spent the last one: rising steadily and setting records. Energy companies, which struggled in 2017, also climbed.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — From a pot shop in Santa Cruz that hung a banner proclaiming "Prohibition is Over!" to one in San Diego handing out T-shirts showing the first moon landing and declaring a "giant leap for mankind," the Golden State turned a shade greener with its first sales of recreational marijuana.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch of Utah says he will not seek re-election after serving more than 40 years in the U.S. Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is accusing the Justice Department of being part of the "deep state" and suggesting it "must finally act" against a top aide to former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former FBI director James Comey.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 29
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee junior running back John Kelly says on his Instagram account that he is entering the NFL draft.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans will play their important regular-season finale against the Jacksonville Jaguars without running back DeMarco Murray.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — State environmental regulators say it shouldn't cost ratepayers more money or take as long as estimated for the nation's largest public utility to complete a massive, court-ordered coal ash cleanup at a Tennessee power plant.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gubernatorial hopeful Randy Boyd's tax returns show he and his wife earned $42.5 million in total income in 2015 and 2016 and had $30.2 million in taxable income.
COURTS
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — The company in a deadly November 2016 school bus crash in Tennessee has settled a lawsuit for $323,000 on behalf of a 9-year-old boy injured in the wreck.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A senior adviser to the Tennessee House speaker is leaving to take a job at a law firm.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates increased this week, although they're lower than a year ago.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 8.7 million people signed up for coverage next year under the Obama-era health care law, the government reported Thursday, as the program that President Donald Trump has repeatedly pronounced "a disaster" exceeded expectations.
After decades of hope and high promise, this was the year scientists really showed they could doctor DNA to successfully treat diseases. Gene therapies to treat cancer and even pull off the biblical-sounding feat of helping the blind to see were approved by U.S. regulators, establishing gene manipulation as a new mode of medicine.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple apologized for secretly slowing down older iPhones, a move it said was necessary to avoid unexpected shutdowns related to battery fatigue.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped 2017 with a loss, weighed down by a broad slide in light trading ahead of the New Year's holiday.
Taken a look at your stock portfolio lately? It's a good bet it's racked up solid gains for the year.
NEW YORK (AP) — It was a strong year for the stock market, but 2017 was a great year if you made airplanes (think Boeing), were an online juggernaut (Amazon) or built homes (KB Homes). It was a year to forget if you were an energy company (Chesapeake) made Barbie dolls (Mattel) or if you were a storied industrial conglomerate about to go on a radical slim-down program (General Electric).
NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs expects to take a $5 billion hit to profits for the fourth quarter and year because of the tax overhaul signed into law last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of unemployed workers filing for jobless benefits remained the same from the previous week at 245,000, a low level signaling a healthy job market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In this season of giving, charity seems to be getting an extra jolt because next year the popular tax deduction for donations will lose a lot of its punch.
NATIONAL POLITICS
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is rescinding proposed rules for hydraulic fracturing and other oil- and gas-drilling practices on government lands, government officials announced Thursday.