VOL. 44 | NO. 49 | Friday, December 4, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates edged lower this week, reaching record lows for the 14th time this year against the backdrop of the pandemic-ravaged economy.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Analogy has Titans champing at the bit
Two weeks ago, a day or so after the Tennessee Titans had lost for the third time in four games, they watched film.
There was a time when a Titans-Browns matchup would have been a battle of NFL dregs. But times have changed, and now both are solidly in contention for playoffs berths.
NEWSMAKERS
James E. Crowe Jr., M.D., a physician-scientist at Vanderbilt University Medical Center who has pioneered development of human monoclonal antibodies as potential treatments for viral diseases, has won a 2020 “Golden Goose” Award.
Lipscomb University’s College of Business has named longtime Tractor Supply Company executive Greg Sandfort a CEO-in-residence beginning in January.
BRIEFS
Tennessee is one of four states selected to participate in a pilot program for delivery of the Pfizer Inc. COVID-19 vaccine now under development.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Once a novel concept in dealership marketing, Black Friday car deals have become as common as the TV deals at your local big-box store. While the savings on new cars aren’t that dramatic – no 70% off fire sales here – they do generally make mid to late November a good time to buy a car.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Financial therapist Lindsay Bryan-Podvin of Ann Arbor, Michigan, specializes in helping people deal with their anxieties about money. But since the pandemic started, Bryan-Podvin has been hearing more about guilt than fear.
CAREER CORNER
A reader recently asked at what point in a career should one have reached ideal potential. In other words, when should one stop moving up and seeking more money and a better title?
MILLENNIAL MONEY
If you’re fortunate enough to be able to donate money this year, plenty of causes need your attention.
SPORTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Jackson lost its Double-A baseball team for next season, one of 40 cities dropped as professional affiliates as Major League Baseball went through with its plan to cut to 120 farm teams.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans placed first-round pick Isaiah Wilson on the Reserve/Non-Football Illness list Wednesday days after suspending the offensive lineman for a game.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vic Beasley Jr. is long gone, and Jadeveon Clowney is on injured reserve with an injured knee that limited him to eight games this season. Not a sack between them despite about $21 million combined in salary.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The leader of the Tennessee Highway Patrol is retiring next week after 33 years with the agency.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — Five years after the Paris agreement, the European Union's climate credentials will be put to the test as the bloc's leaders meet Thursday to try and seal an agreement to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by at least 55% by the end of the decade compared to 1990 levels.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — One by one, the fears creep in as Aura Morales rides the bus to her job at CVS in Los Angeles. A passenger boards without a mask but she doesn't dare confront him. More riders board and it's impossible to stay six feet apart. Driving to work isn't an option; Morales can't afford a car, especially after her work hours were cut.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. government advisory panel convened on Thursday to decide whether to endorse mass use of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine to help conquer the outbreak that has killed close to 300,000 Americans.
WASHINGTON — Commissioner Stephen Hahn says Thursday's meeting of the Food and Drug Administration's vaccine advisory panel is "an important day for all of America."
Can I stop wearing a mask after getting a COVID-19 vaccine? No. For a couple reasons, masks and social distancing will still be recommended for some time after people are vaccinated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Dr. Deborah Birx was brought into President Donald Trump's orbit to help fight the coronavirus pandemic, she had a sterling reputation as a former U.S. Army physician, a globally recognized AIDS researcher and a rare Obama administration holdover.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people applying for unemployment aid jumped last week to 853,000, the most since September, evidence that companies are cutting more jobs as new virus cases spiral higher.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices edged up 0.2% in November as a rise in the cost of energy and a number of other goods offset a drop in food costs.
PARIS (AP) — France's data privacy watchdog said Thursday it has fined Google 100 millions euros ($121 million) and Amazon 35 million euros ($42 million) for breaching the country's rules on advertising cookies.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank unleashed another half-trillion euro ($600 billion) wave of stimulus as a winter surge in COVID-19 infections shuts down large parts of the economy and wipes out pre-Christmas sales revenue ahead of the region's most important holiday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Wall Street has rolled out the welcome mat for companies going public this year, boosting proceeds from initial public offerings to the highest level in six years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The giant tech companies whose services are woven into the fabric of social life are now the targets of a widening assault by government competition enforcers. Regulators filed landmark antitrust lawsuits Wednesday against Facebook, the second major government offensive this year against once seemingly untouchable tech behemoths.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said Thursday that the European Union is on the brink of sealing an agreement on a massive budget and a coronavirus recovery package, signaling that it has almost overcome objections from his country and Poland about tying EU funds to upholding the rule of law.
BEIJING (AP) — S&P DJ Indices is removing 21 Chinese companies from its indexes, or groups of stocks and bonds used to track financial market movements, after Americans were barred from investing in them as part of a feud with Beijing over technology and security.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is naming Susan Rice as director of the White House Domestic Policy Council, giving her broad sway over his administration's approach to immigration, health care and racial inequality and elevating the prominence of the position in the West Wing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — There's plenty of noise but no cause for confusion as President Donald Trump vents about how the election turned out and vows to subvert it even still.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Still spinning their wheels on COVID-19 relief, lawmakers have grabbed a one-week government funding extension that buys time for more talks — though there is considerable disagreement over who is supposed to be taking the lead from there.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is set to nominate Katherine Tai to be the top U.S. trade envoy, according to two people familiar with his plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is heading to Georgia to campaign for the Democratic candidates in the state's two critical U.S. Senate runoffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is investigating the finances of President-elect Joe Biden's son, including scrutinizing some of his Chinese business dealings and other transactions, a person familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 9
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Luke Smith scored 23 points and Nick Muszynski added 22 points as Belmont defeated Tennessee State 79-64 on Tuesday night.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — After five pandemic-related postponements, No. 12 Tennessee made the most of its opener Tuesday night, struggling to a 56-47 victory over Colorado.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt's women's basketball team has decided to stay inside its locker room during the national anthem this season to both mourn and commemorate racial injustice in the United States.
AUTO RACING
GLADEVILLE (AP) — Nashville Superspeedway has undergone a rebranding campaign ahead of a NASCAR tripleheader in June that includes the track's inaugural Cup Series race.
TOURISM
NASHVILLE (AP) — Camping at Tennessee's state parks is reaching historic highs during the coronavirus pandemic.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Wednesday sued to force a breakup of Facebook as 48 states and districts accused the company in a separate lawsuit of abusing its market power in social networking to crush smaller competitors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court wrestled Wednesday with a case that could make it easier for the president to fire the head of the agency that oversees government-controlled mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — General Motors' self-driving car company is sending vehicles without anybody behind the wheel in San Francisco as it navigates its way toward launching a robotic taxi service that would compete against Uber and Lyft in the hometown of the leading ride-hailing services.
LONDON (AP) — Car maker Honda said Wednesday it has temporarily halted production at its plant in England after shipping delays linked to the COVID-19 pandemic and preparations for Brexit left it with a shortage of parts.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Since the presidential election, CNN has been on one of its best competitive rolls in almost two decades, enough that it is taking out newspaper ads touting its success.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Google and Facebook would risk multimillion-dollar fines if they failed to comply with proposed legislation introduced into the Australian Parliament on Wednesday that would make the tech giants pay for journalism they display.
HONG KONG (AP) — Companies including the Chinese arm of TripAdvisor Inc. have been ordered by regulators to overhaul their mobile phone apps in what the Chinese government said is a crackdown on pornography and other improper content.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's initial allotment of coronavirus vaccine will be administered at 16 defense sites in the United States and abroad, with health care workers, emergency service personnel and residents of military retirement homes getting top priority, officials said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As states frantically prepare to begin months of vaccinations that could end the pandemic, a new poll finds only about half of Americans are ready to roll up their sleeves when their turn comes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing broadly lower on Wall Street led by weakness in technology companies.
DoorDash shares soared 78% as the meal delivery service made its debut Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange. The shares opened at $182 after the San Francisco-based company priced them at $102 each late Tuesday. The opening price valued the company, which is trading under the symbol DASH, at around $58 billion. Virus-induced lockdown orders and the closure of indoor dining have made meal delivery services indispensable for many restaurants and diners this year. That's led to explosive growth for companies like DoorDash. The company hopes to keep the momentum going even if demand for food delivery eases in a post-pandemic world.
It's the time of year to start thinking about taxes — but the upcoming filing season is going to be a bit trickier for many Americans due to rampant unemployment, working from home and general upheaval due to COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised slightly more job openings in October but hiring slipped as a resurgence of COVID-19 threatens an economic recovery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is back in the middle of Capitol Hill's confusing COVID-19 negotiations, offering a $916 billion package to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi that would send a $600 direct payment to most Americans but eliminate a $300-per-week unemployment benefit favored by a bipartisan group of Senate negotiators.
DoorDash has priced its shares at $102 apiece heading into its stock market debut Wednesday, valuing the 7-year-old food delivery company at nearly $39 billion.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is trying to revive the president's stalled election-eve plan to send millions of Medicare recipients a $200 prescription discount card.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday that his campaign will join an improbable case before the Supreme Court challenging election results in Pennsylvania and other states that he lost as he tries to look past the justices' rejection of a last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania's certification of Democrat Joe Biden's victory
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden made two key domestic policy picks, selecting Ohio Rep. Marcia Fudge as his housing and urban development secretary and former Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to reprise that role in his administration, according to five people familiar with the decisions.
The former president of the nation's largest teachers union has received endorsements from the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and dozens of national Hispanic organizations as she pursues the top job at the U.S. Education Department in the Biden administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alabama Sen. Doug Jones and federal appeals court judge Merrick Garland are emerging as the leading contenders to be nominated as President-elect Joe Biden's attorney general, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Wednesday introduced his choice for secretary of defense, calling retired Army Gen. Lloyd Austin the right man for a potentially volatile moment in global security while hailing the prospect of the first African American to lead the Pentagon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House easily approved a wide-ranging defense policy bill, defying a veto threat from President Donald Trump and setting up a possible showdown with the Republican president in the waning days of his administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans waiting for Republicans in Congress to acknowledge Joe Biden as the president-elect may have to keep waiting until January as GOP leaders stick with President Donald Trump's litany of legal challenges and unproven claims of fraud.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has narrowly approved President Donald Trump's lame-duck nominee to become a member of the Federal Communications Commission, setting up the agency for a stretch of partisan gridlock likely to stymie President-elect Joe Biden's policies.
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 8
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans put wide receiver Adam Humphries on injured reserve Tuesday, two days after he played his first game after a month in the concussion protocol.
NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL on Monday suspended Titans defensive end Teair Tart and Bengals strong safety Shawn Williams for unnecessarily stepping on opponents last weekend.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have lost their margin for error chasing the franchise's first AFC South title since 2008.
SPORTS
Rick Barnes thought he was in the clear early in his bout with COVID-19.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new museum in Tennessee that focuses on African American music will open next month, officials said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Rev. Al Sharpton will be a distinguished guest lecturer at Tennessee State University next semester, the school announced Monday.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's House Democratic members on Monday unanimously voted to reelect Rep. Karen Camper as minority leader.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected Republicans' last-gasp bid to reverse Pennsylvania's certification of President-elect Joe Biden's victory in the electoral battleground.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. election and cybersecurity official who was fired last month by President Donald Trump filed a lawsuit Tuesday over threatening remarks by a lawyer for the president that prompted a wave of death threats against him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday dismissed the criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn but pointedly noted that a pardon Flynn received from the president last month does not mean that he is innocent.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple has one more thing for the holiday shopping season: over-the-ear, wireless headphones that will test how much people are willing to splurge on for high-quality sound.
LONDON (AP) — Apple is stepping up privacy for app users, forcing developers to be more transparent about data collection and warning they could be removed if they don't comply with a new anti-tracking measure, a company executive and regulators said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has blocked President Donald Trump's attempts to ban TikTok, the latest legal defeat for the administration as it tries to wrest the popular app from its Chinese owners.
BOSTON (AP) — Researchers at a cybersecurity firm say they have identified vulnerabilities in software widely used by millions of connected devices — flaws that could be exploited by hackers to penetrate business and home computer networks and disrupt them.
MEDIA
Christopher Nolan, one of Warner Bros.' most important filmmakers, has come out strongly against the company's decision to debut its films on HBO Max and in theaters in 2021. The "Tenet" filmmaker told The Associated Press Monday that it's not a good business decision and criticized how the company handled it.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Tesla is looking to raise up to $5 billion in capital through a stock offering as the electrical vehicle and solar panel maker seeks to take advantage of strong demand for its products.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden on Tuesday called for urgent action on the coronavirus pandemic as he introduced a health care team that will be tested at every turn while striving to restore normalcy to the nation.
BERLIN (AP) — Several German states moved closer to a "hard lockdown" Tuesday as officials warned that continued high coronavirus infections could overwhelm hospitals and that too many people were ignoring existing pandemic restrictions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is promising to distribute a coronavirus vaccine to 100 million people during the first three months of his incoming administration, pledging "100 million shots in the first 100 days."
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators Tuesday released their first scientific evaluation of Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine and confirmed it offers strong protection, setting the stage for the government to green light the biggest vaccination effort in the nation's history.
New results on a possible COVID-19 vaccine from Oxford University and AstraZeneca suggest it is safe and about 70% effective, but questions remain about how well it may help protect those over 55 — a key concern for a vaccine that health officials hope to rely on around the world because of its low cost, availability and ease of use.
Deaths from COVID-19 in the U.S. have soared to more than 2,200 a day on average, matching the frightening peak reached last April, and cases per day have eclipsed 200,000 on average for the first time on record, with the crisis all but certain to get worse because of the fallout from Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year's.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's administration is facing new scrutiny Tuesday after failing to lock in a chance to buy millions of additional doses of Pfizer's coronavirus vaccine, which has shown to be highly effective against COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's choices for his health care team point to a stronger federal role in the nation's COVID-19 strategy, restoration of a guiding stress on science and an emphasis on equitable distribution of vaccines and treatments.
RABAT, Morocco (AP) — Morocco is gearing up for an ambitious COVID-19 vaccination program, aiming to vaccinate 80% of its adults in an operation starting this month that's relying initially on a Chinese vaccine that has not yet completed advanced trials to prove it is safe and effective.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology and health care companies helped drive stocks to more gains Tuesday, leading to more milestones on Wall Street.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity increased at a solid 4.6% pace in the July-September quarter, slightly below the initial estimate, while labor costs fell at a slower pace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and COVID-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown this weekend.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is expected to unleash another blast of stimulus on Thursday to help businesses bridge the gap until the economy recovers from the pandemic - and to support governments that are ramping up spending to cushion the blow as the winter wave of the virus worsens.
BEIJING (AP) — Shares in China's biggest online health care platform rose 50% in their Hong Kong stock market debut Tuesday, reflecting investor enthusiasm for the fledgling industry as the country emerges from the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden's pick of Lloyd J. Austin to be secretary of defense is stirring unease in Congress, reflecting fears that putting a recently retired general in charge could further undermine the centuries-old principle of civilian control of the military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Happy Safe Harbor Day, America. Other than Wisconsin, every state appears to have met a deadline in federal law that essentially means Congress has to accept the electoral votes that will be cast next week and sent to the Capitol for counting on Jan. 6. Those votes will elect Joe Biden as the country's next president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies say their lawsuits aimed at subverting the 2020 election and reversing his loss to Joe Biden would be substantiated, if only judges were allowed to hear the cases.
MONDAY, DECEMBER 7
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — To many music lovers, Bob Dylan's songbook is priceless. Well, now he's put a price on it.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee kicker Brent Cimaglia has opted out of the Volunteers' final two games of the season, citing injuries and a need to focus on his mental well-being.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans proved they don't quit no matter how far behind they are.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee's office announced Monday that the head of Tennessee's Department of Veterans Services has resigned, as well as the agency's top deputy.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker has been hospitalized with COVID-19 after attending a House Republican caucus meeting nearly two weeks ago.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Symphony has reached an agreement with its musicians' union to provide them with a stipend while live performances are suspended.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court declined Monday to take up an appeal from parents in Oregon who want to prevent transgender students from using locker rooms and bathrooms of the gender with which they identify, rather than their sex assigned at birth.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Internet companies such as Google and Amazon should be more transparent in explaining how the search rankings work on their platforms, the European Commission said in guidelines released Monday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California is rolling out a voluntary smartphone tool to alert people if they spent time near someone who tests positive for the coronavirus as cases and hospitalizations soar throughout the state, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Monday.
The radiology technician slept in an RV in the parking lot of his rural Kansas hospital for more than a week because his co-workers were out sick with COVID-19 and no one else was available to take X-rays.
LONDON (AP) — It's been dubbed "V-Day" in Britain -- recalling the D-Day landings in France that marked the start of the final push in World War II to defeat Nazi Germany.
How could scientists race out COVID-19 vaccines so fast without cutting corners? A head start helped -- over a decade of behind-the-scenes research that had new vaccine technology poised for a challenge just as the coronavirus erupted.
REDDING, Calif. (AP) — Brenda Luntey is openly violating California's order to close her restaurant to indoor dining. But she wants her customers and critics to know she isn't typically a rule-breaker. It's a matter of survival.
NEW YORK (AP) — As the coronavirus epidemic worsens, U.S. health experts hope Joe Biden's administration will put in place something Donald Trump's has not — a comprehensive national testing strategy.
More than 8.1 million people in the U.S. have turned their iPhones and Android devices into pandemic contact-tracing tools, but it hasn't been of much use when their neighbors, classmates and coworkers aren't on the same system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing mostly lower on Wall Street Monday, taking a pause from their recent rally.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are giving themselves more time to sort through their end-of-session business on government spending and COVID-19 relief, preparing a one-week stopgap spending bill that would prevent a shutdown this weekend.
The deadly pandemic that tore through the nation's heartland struck just as Aaron Crawford was in a moment of crisis. He was looking for work, his wife needed surgery, then the virus began eating away at her work hours and her paycheck.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — Nationstar Mortgage, which operates under the brand Mr. Cooper, was ordered to repay $73 million to roughly 40,000 homeowners for repeatedly failing to provide even the most basic operations as a mortgage servicing company over four years, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. economy's growth is likely slowing as 2020 comes to a close, but a growing number of economists expect it to claw back to its pre-pandemic strength by the second half of next year as vaccines for the coronavirus become widely distributed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposed COVID-19 relief bill is expected to get backing from President Donald Trump and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell but it won't include $1,200 in direct payments to most Americans, a Republican senator involved in the bipartisan talks says.
NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic hasn't stopped Americans from keeping up with their credit card payments, thanks in large part to government relief programs passed by Congress earlier this year.
BEIJING (AP) — China's politically sensitive trade surplus soared to a record $75.4 billion in November as exports surged 21.1% over a year earlier, propelled by American consumer demand.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog agency on Monday reported that one of President Donald Trump's economic advisers repeatedly violated the law during the campaign season with his criticisms of Joe Biden, now the president-elect.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden has picked California Attorney General Xavier Becerra to be his health secretary, putting a defender of the Affordable Care Act in a leading role to oversee his administration's coronavirus response.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Neera Tanden has delighted in labeling Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell as "Moscow Mitch"; in the wake of the acrimonious vote to confirm Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh, she cuttingly dismissed Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins as "the worst."
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee wide receiver Adam Humphries has been cleared from concussion protocol after missing four games and should be available Sunday against the Cleveland Browns.
CLEVELAND (AP) — Nick Chubb's runner-up finish to Tennessee's Derrick Henry for the NFL rushing title last season still irks the Browns.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
The Southeastern Conference has announced a revamped schedule for Dec. 12 and Dec. 19, including Vanderbilt's game at No. 11 Georgia that could not be played as scheduled on Saturday because of coronavirus concerns.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A California company that makes gutter guards plans to invest $5.4 million into a Tennessee expansion that is expected to create 85 new jobs.
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Lee said Thursday that he intends to get a coronavirus vaccination when "the time is right," expressing confidence in the vaccine's ability to safely combat the virus that has killed more than 4,700 Tennessee residents.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Nissan said Friday that it will no longer support the Trump administration in its legal fight to end California's ability to set its own auto-pollution and gas-mileage standards.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California psychologist convicted of tax evasion was at the center of a mysterious, recently disclosed Justice Department investigation into whether White House officials were illegally lobbied to obtain a presidential pardon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the midst of a pandemic, the Supreme Court said Friday it will take up the Trump administration's stalled plan to allow states to require low-income people to work to receive health care under Medicaid.
ENVIRONMENT
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga pledged a 2 trillion yen ($19 billion) fund on Friday to promote ecological businesses and innovation to achieve his goal of zero net carbon emissions by 2050.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — By late morning on Oct. 28, staff at the University of Vermont Medical Center noticed the hospital's phone system wasn't working.
LONDON (AP) — America's top infectious disease expert has apologized for suggesting U.K. authorities rushed their authorization of a COVID-19 vaccine, saying he has "great faith" in the country's regulators.
States drafted plans Thursday for who will go to the front of the line when the first doses of COVID-19 vaccine become available later this month, as U.S. deaths from the outbreak eclipsed 3,100 in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) — Americans couldn't resist the urge to gather for Thanksgiving, driving only slightly less than a year ago and largely ignoring the pleas of public health experts, who begged them to forgo holiday travel to help contain the coronavirus pandemic, data from roadways and airports shows.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Thursday that he will ask Americans to commit to 100 days of wearing masks as one of his first acts as president, stopping just short of the nationwide mandate he's pushed before to stop the spread of the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street closed out a solid week for stocks Friday with more record highs as traders took a discouraging jobs report as a sign that Congress will finally move to deliver more aid for the pandemic-stricken economy.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is predicting a "bleak future" if Congress doesn't take speedy action on a coronavirus aid bill, amid a nationwide spike in the virus that's hampering the nation's recovery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After numerous fits and starts and months of inaction, optimism is finally building in Washington for a COVID-19 aid bill that would offer relief for businesses, the unemployed, schools, and health care providers, among others struggling as caseloads are spiking.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Evidence was abundant in the November jobs report that the U.S. economy's tentative recovery is sputtering as coronavirus cases accelerate and federal aid runs out.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi gave an optimistic assessment of the prospects for a mid-sized COVID-19 relief bill and a separate $1.4 trillion governmentwide spending bill on Friday, teeing up expectations for a successful burst of legislative action to reverse months of frustration on pandemic relief.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit widened 1.7% in October to $63.1 billion. The politically sensitive gap in the trade of goods with China and Mexico grew.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the viral pandemic accelerating across the country, America's employers sharply scaled back their hiring last month, adding 245,000 jobs, the fewest since April and the fifth straight monthly slowdown.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines warned nearly 7,000 workers on Thursday that they could lose their jobs unless labor unions accept concessions to help the airline cope with a sharp drop in travel caused by the pandemic.
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government has stepped up a feud with Beijing over security by adding China's biggest maker of processor chips and a state-owned oil giant to a blacklist that limits access to American technology and investment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-controlled House on Friday approved a bill to decriminalize and tax marijuana at the federal level, reversing what supporters call a failed policy of criminalizing pot use and taking steps to address racial disparities in enforcement of federal drug laws.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Joe Biden is adjusting the scope of his agenda to meet the challenges of governing with a narrowly divided Congress and the complications of legislating during a raging pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is accusing Facebook in a lawsuit of discriminating against U.S. workers in favor of foreigners with special visas to fill more than 2,600 high-paying jobs.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe says foreign adversaries are using social media and other platforms to amplify allegations of voter fraud. But he won't say which countries are using the issue to try to undermine public confidence in the U.S. democratic process.
For a man obsessed with winning, President Donald Trump is losing a lot. He's managed to lose not just once to Democrat Joe Biden at the ballot box but over and over again in courts across the country in a futile attempt to stay in power. The Republican president and his allies continue to mount new cases, recycling the same baseless claims, even after Trump's own attorney general declared the Justice Department had uncovered no widespread fraud.
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 3
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's path for those convicted of a felony to restore their right to vote has not only silenced Black voters but also contains constitutional and federal law violations, a newly filed federal lawsuit alleges.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday indefinitely postponed the execution of death row inmate Byron Black.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday ordered a lower federal court to reexamine California restrictions on indoor religious services in areas hard hit by the coronavirus in light of the justices' recent ruling in favor of churches and synagogues in New York.
ENVIRONMENT
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Bureau of Land Management plans to hold an oil and gas lease sale for Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge next month, weeks before President-elect Joe Biden, who has opposed drilling in the region, is set to take office.
GENEVA (AP) — Nestle, the world's biggest food company, said Thursday that it will spend 3.2 billion Swiss francs ($3.6 billion) over five years to improve its climate footprint.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Now that it's clear Joe Biden soon will be president, the fight over automobile pollution and fuel efficiency standards is likely to peter out, and U.S. consumers should see a broader selection of electric and efficient vehicles.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — In the most seismic shift by a Hollywood studio yet during the pandemic, Warner Bros. Pictures on Thursday announced that all of its 2021 film slate — including a new "Matrix" movie, "Godzilla vs. Kong" and the Lin-Manuel Miranda adaptation "In the Heights" — will stream on HBO Max at the same time they play in theaters.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three former presidents say they'd be willing to take a coronavirus vaccine publicly, once one becomes available, to encourage all Americans to get inoculated against a disease that has already killed more than 275,000 people nationwide.
Getting a COVID-19 vaccine to the right people could change the course of the pandemic in the United States. But who are the right people?
LONDON (AP) — Facebook said Thursday it will start removing false claims about COVID-19 vaccines, in its latest move to counter a tide of coronavirus-related online misinformation.
The U.S. recorded over 3,100 COVID-19 deaths in a single day, obliterating the record set last spring, while the number of Americans in the hospital with the virus has eclipsed 100,000 for the first time and new cases have begun topping 200,000 a day, according to figures released Thursday.
BOSTON (AP) — IBM security researchers say they have detected a cyberespionage effort using targeted phishing emails to try to collect vital information on the World Health Organization's initiative for distributing COVID-19 vaccine to developing countries.
WUHAN, China (AP) — In the early days in Wuhan, the first city struck by the virus, getting a COVID test was so difficult that residents compared it to winning the lottery.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes closed mostly higher Thursday after a late stumble pulled the S&P 500 just short of its third straight all-time high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Optimism about delivering long-sought COVID-19 relief is building on Capitol Hill after additional rank-and-file lawmakers voiced support for a bipartisan, middle-of-the-road plan taking shape in the Senate and as top congressional leaders connected on the topic for the first time in months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Thursday narrowly confirmed the nomination of Christopher Waller for the Federal Reserve's Board of Governors, placing another of President Donald Trump's picks on the Fed's influential board after a string of high-profile rejections.
Americans who struggled through 2020 could face more hardship in the year ahead as pandemic related payments and protections come to an end.
VIENNA (AP) — OPEC and a group of allied countries including Russia agreed Thursday to increase oil production by 500,000 barrels per day from January and will meet monthly after that to decide whether to further adjust output.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Irish budget airline Ryanair is ordering more Boeing 737 Max jets just weeks before the plane returns to flying after two crashes that killed 346 people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell as the nation celebrated Thanksgiving last week to a still-high 712,000, the latest sign that the U.S. economy and job market remain under stress from the intensified viral outbreak.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The U.S. services sector, where most Americans work, registered its sixth consecutive month of expansion in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. said Wednesday it would block imports from a major Chinese producer of cotton goods because of its reliance on workers detained as part of a crackdown on ethnic minorities in China's northwest.
LONDON (AP) — Much like a broken record, Brexit trade talks are rumored to be poised for success on the cusp of a deadline, only to face the same old fundamental differences on fishing rights, legal oversight and fair competition that have dogged the European Union and Britain for months.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — In politics, there can sometimes be an upside to losing.
LOS EBANOS, Texas (AP) — The U.S. government has been trying to take Pamela Rivas' land for a border wall since before Joe Biden was vice president.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Vice President-elect Kamala Harris has named Tina Flournoy, a veteran Democratic strategist and aide to the Clintons, as her chief of staff, the transition team announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Up soon for President-elect Joe Biden: naming his top health care officials as the coronavirus pandemic rages. It's hard to imagine more consequential picks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will award the nation's highest civilian honor on Thursday to former college football coach and political ally Lou Holtz.