VOL. 35 | NO. 52 | Friday, December 30, 2011
Is Twitter an effective music industry marketing tool or simply fun?
Blake Shelton says he is so drunk. How drunk is he?
Years ago Frank and Julie Boehm carved their initials into the tabletop of their booth at Sperry’s Restaurant in Belle Meade. Married 25 years, you can’t see the etching anymore but you can still catch the couple in that same booth two or three nights a week at the Nashville institution. It’s their favorite spot, and has been since they first started dating.
Sperry's owner Al Thomas’ latest service is the home delivery of the same beef served in his signature restaurant.
GREEN BUSINESS
Adjusting your lifestyle to accommodate your children is a struggle every parent goes through. And though it can be especially difficult when your child is telling you how to fix what it is you are doing wrong, it is hard to ignore when they are right.
REALTY CHECK
Residential real estate in Nashville has rebounded, as evidenced by the fact that there were more homes sold in 2011 than in 2010. This phenomenon has given hope to more than 300 area residents who have obtained real estate licenses and joined the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors in the past 12 months.
TERRY McCORMICK
There is still one game left on the Titans schedule, but since we are at the end of 2011 it’s not too early to go ahead and hand out team superlatives for this season.
NEWSMAKERS
State Tax Notes recently named Charles A. Trost of Nashville-based Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP, one of the country’s Top 10 Tax Lawyers of 2011. Trost serves as counsel for Waller Lansden and is a former Commissioner of Revenue of the state of Tennessee.
GUERILLA MARKETING
Cross selling is the practice of increasing revenue from existing customers by selling them additional products or services. It can be conducted at the time of the initial sale and over the lifetime of that relationship.
I SWEAR
I bet more than one of you readers out there heard an upstream relative say to you when you were a kid, “What do you say?” This, of course, was an effort to get you to remember to say the two magic words, “thank you.”
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
It’s a new year, which means it is time for fresh starts, new goals, and total re-evaluations of your life and habits. In other words, time for those dreaded New Year’s Resolutions!
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Officials at a Gallatin iron dust factory where five people died in accidents last year were aware that the dust could explode but did little to mitigate the dangers, a federal investigative agency has concluded.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Macy's Inc. says it will close five Macy's and four Bloomingdale's stores that are underperforming -- including the Macy's at Hickory Hollow Mall.
COLUMBIA (AP) — Officials in Maury County hope to lure industry along Interstate 65.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Haslam administration has launched a coordinated fight against drug abuse, gangs and violent crime in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republicans appear in no hurry to reveal their plans for reshaping Tennessee's congressional districts.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state has issued about 9,500 photo IDs since July 1 as Tennesseans prepare to comply with a new law.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The job market is looking a little brighter at the start of the new year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — 2012 looks to be another year of opportunity for the few who can afford to buy or refinance a home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. service companies grew at a faster pace in December, helping the economy end 2011 on a stronger note.
NEW YORK (AP) — Many retailers delivered solid sales gains for December, but heavy discounts needed to get shoppers to buy exacted a high price, clouding the holiday shopping season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Many retailers are reporting solid sales gains for December, capping a decent holiday season, but shoppers bent on discounts exacted a high price.
Stocks steadily gained ground Thursday after falling sharply at the open. Investors weighed renewed concern about Europe against the latest encouraging report about the U.S. job market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell further last week, ending the year on a three-month run of declines that point to stronger hiring in 2012.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors will strengthen the structure around the batteries in its Volt electric cars to keep them safe during crashes, a person briefed on the matter said Thursday.
DETROIT (AP) — Fiat has added 5 percent to its majority ownership of Chrysler.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — As they try to derail Mitt Romney's presidential campaign, his challengers face an urgent task: raising enough cash to compete.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is putting his personal stamp on a rejiggered Pentagon strategy for absorbing hundreds of billions of dollars in defense budget cuts, marking a turning point in U.S. security policy after a decade of war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is looking to boost summer job prospects for kids.
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican plans for Tennessee legislative redistricting released Wednesday would draw five black House members into three seats and place the top Senate Democrat into the same district as a GOP incumbent.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Senate Republicans have released a redistricting proposal that would place Senate Democratic Leader Jim Kyle of Memphis into the same district as a GOP incumbent.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee judges will no longer be able to make political contributions under new rules adopted by the state Supreme Court.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Conservative activist David Fowler of Signal Mountain favors legislative efforts to discourage student bullying but his group disagrees with providing special consideration for gay students.
Under the state's new teacher evaluation system, observations by principals make up half of their scores, but a first glimpse at those observation scores shows they are all over the map.
NASHVILLE AREA
FRANKLIN (AP) - Nissan North America Inc. said Wednesday its sales rose 14.7 percent in 2011, boosted by strong demand for its high-volume car and crossover models.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A bill that would allow urban residents in Nashville to keep chickens in their backyards has moved a step closer to approval after a colorful public hearing in which supporters donned yellow hats and shirts and presented the council members with Peeps marshmallow candies.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
DETROIT (AP) — Americans bought more cars and trucks last year, inspired by easier credit, an improved economy and the desire to replace aging vehicles that got them through the Great Recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for factory-made goods that signal business investment plans fell for a second straight month, part of a mixed report on manufacturing in November.
NEW YORK (AP) — A flurry of post-Christmas bargain shopping helped drive sales higher in the last week of December, according to a report Wednesday from a shopping mall trade group. Increased gift card use, mild weather and a federal holiday on Monday all contributed.
Stocks barely budged Wednesday, letting investors hold on to their gains from a strong opening to the year a day earlier.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices were little changed Wednesday as traders booked profits after a 4-percent surge at the start of the year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Yahoo Inc. has named Scott Thompson, president of eBay Inc.'s PayPal division, as its new CEO, the fourth one in less than five years for the struggling Internet company.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a defiant display of executive power, President Barack Obama on Wednesday will buck GOP opposition and name Richard Cordray as the nation's chief consumer watchdog. Outraged Republican leaders in Congress suggested that courts would determine the appointment was illegal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's whisker-thin Iowa caucus victory was underwhelming in scope and anti-climactic in its finality. But it moves him closer to the Republican presidential nomination chiefly because of who finished fourth and fifth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney won strong support Tuesday from Republicans seeking a candidate who can topple President Barack Obama in November's elections and from those most concerned about the weak economy, according to an entrance poll of GOP voters attending Iowa's presidential caucuses.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 3
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Some law enforcement officials expected bad weather would eventually disperse Occupy Nashville protesters encamped on the plaza across the street from the state Capitol, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A requirement that Tennessee voters show photographic identification could be challenged in a lawsuit.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennesseans will be required to have photo identification in order to vote and state employers will have to make sure their employees are legally authorized to work in the U.S. under new laws that take effect Jan. 1.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Manufacturing grew in December at the fastest pace in six months and hiring at U.S. factories picked up. The data helped bolster the view that the economy gained momentum at the end of last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction spending jumped in November as builders spent more on single-family homes, apartments and remodeling projects.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market got a big jump on a better year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices soared Tuesday as tensions grew over key Persian Gulf oil shipments.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Congress are starting the election year locked in a tussle over a proposed 1,700-mile oil pipeline from Canada to Texas that will force the White House to make a politically risky choice between two key Democratic constituencies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mitt Romney's surprisingly easy rise to the top of Iowa presidential polls, aided by his GOP rivals' in-fighting, masks vulnerabilities he will have to confront eventually.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will waste little time getting back in front of voters following a 10-day Hawaiian vacation spent largely out of the spotlight.
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 30
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - There are nine Republican presidential candidates on Tennessee's primary ballot, but four of them have no committed delegates to the party's nominating convention.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee traffic fatalities declined sharply this year, reaching their lowest figure in 49 years.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Police arrested a man for setting fire to a tent belonging to one of the protesters at the Occupy Nashville encampment near the state Capitol.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Vanderbilt University students will be heading to Iowa for the caucus meetings and will be teaming up to support a favorite candidate or just observe the first voting of the 2012 presidential election.
The Hickory Hollow Sears and the Hendersonville Kmart are on the initial list of 79 stores to be closed by Sears Holdings Corporation, which announced this week it will close 120 locations.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
LONDON (AP) — Stock markets around the world were seeing out 2011 fairly positively Friday, but many are still posting big declines for the year in the wake of Europe's debt crisis, a faltering U.S. economy and signs that China's economy is no longer sizzling.
PARIS (AP) — Just three years ago, the euro was being praised as the can-do currency that had delivered unprecedented prosperity in Europe.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — After a turbulent 2011, the 17 countries that use the euro will be quickly confronted in the new year with major hurdles to solving their government debt crisis, just as the eurozone economy is expected to sink back into recession.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market is set to end a tumultuous year more or less where it started.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil will finish 2011 about 8 percent higher, after concerns about tighter global supplies dominated energy markets throughout the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who signed contracts to buy homes in November rose to the highest level in a year and a half.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fixed mortgage rates rose slightly this week off their record lows. The year ends much like it began, with few people able to take advantage of the best rates in history.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The District of Columbia has been ordered to pay more than $1 million in attorneys' fees as a result of a historic gun case that was ultimately decided by the U.S. Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Homeland Security Department is launching a hot line for people jailed on immigration charges who believe they are victims of crime or may be U.S. citizens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fifty-nine percent of Hispanics oppose President Barack Obama's increased deportations of illegal immigrants, according to a new poll showing a weak spot in their otherwise broad support for the president in next year's election.