VOL. 40 | NO. 7 | Friday, February 12, 2016
SPECIAL EMPHASIS: HOMEBOUND HEALTH CARE
10K in U.S. will turn 65 each day through 2030
When Gov. Bill Haslam gave his annual State of the State address on February 1, he proposed a $34.8 billion plan providing new spending on colleges and universities, road projects and a large deposit into Tennessee’s emergency budget reserves.
Aging in place, being able to live at home in more or less independent circumstances, is what most seniors say they long for, and what advocates for the elderly recommend when possible.
The literal nuts and bolts of aging in place – details such as “age proofing” the home with bath rails and grab bars or equipping it for a person with a chronic illness – can make the difference between staying at home and having to move into assisted care.
Brian Hooper works with adult children of aging parents as a part of his counseling practice, helping them process the often-overwhelming stresses and emotions connected to caregiving.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Pushing a budget with more than $100 million for K-12 teacher pay raises, Gov. Bill Haslam says Tennessee is taking education to new levels by raising standards, linking teacher evaluations to student performance and expanding education options.
LEGISLATIVE PROFILE
With the 2016 General Assembly at full tilt, state Sen. Richard Briggs – a retired Army colonel and surgeon – is fighting another battle, this time against Tennessee’s prescription drug epidemic.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
“We are the Nations and we are proud! We are the Nations and we will say it loud,” comes the cry from the Nations, the neighborhood located on what was once considered the wrong side of Charlotte Pike.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, January 2016, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the sixth straight week as markets around the globe continued the whipsaw trading that has marked this year so far.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The Vietnam-era Marine chomps into a jumbo bun bursting with barbecued pulled pork he’s nursed to perfection for the generations, literally, at his restaurant just off the Clarksville Highway.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
The Super Bowl is in the books, and so is the 2015 season.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville chapter of The Entrepreneurs’ Organization has announced today its 2016-17 board of directors.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
With the best warranty coverage of any minivan and an award-winning and inviting interior, the 2016 Kia Sedona is a must-see for anyone looking to buy a spacious and comfortable family ride.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
You likely haven’t gotten to where you are today with a “head-in-the-sand” approach to managing your business.
I SWEAR
“Dictionaries are mazes in which judges are soon lost.” Thus said Judge Richard Posner (7th Circuit Court of Appeals) in a review of “Reading Law: The Interpretation of Legal Texts” by Justice Antonin Scalia and legal lexicographer Bryan Garner.
CAREER CORNER
I must confess: Valentine’s Day is very possibly my favorite holiday.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Buttermilk brings to mind good old-fashioned home cooking. My Granny used it in just about everything, and was never out of it.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's general fund tax collections have beaten projections by nearly $400 million through the first half of the budget year.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates were unchanged this week, but remained at historically low levels amid worries about the global economy.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors plans to sell 20- and 30-year notes to make a payment on its huge U.S. pension obligation for hourly workers.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota said Thursday it is recalling nearly 2.9 million sports utility vehicles, including more than 1.1 million in the U.S., because of seat belts that might fail in a crash.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment aid fell last week to the lowest level since November, evidence that stock market turmoil and slow growth overseas haven't caused U.S. businesses to cut jobs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are edging mostly lower Thursday morning, led by declines in consumer stocks after Wal-Mart reported disappointing results and cut its sales projections. The market is coming off a three-day rally, its longest so far this year. The price of crude oil continued to recover.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — As the maker of trend-setting gadgets like the iPhone and iPad, Apple has changed the way people use technology in their daily lives. Now, after positioning itself as a champion of privacy, the tech giant has sparked a potentially momentous conflict with the federal government over encryption.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The United Arab Emirates threw its support on Thursday behind a plan by major oil producers to freeze output levels in an attempt to halt a slide in crude prices that has pushed them to their lowest point in more than a decade.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said Thursday his history-making visit to Cuba next month was part of an effort to "improve the lives of the Cuban people. He vowed to press the communist government on human rights and other policy differences.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 17
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The president of two Tennessee-based cancer charities accused of spending donations on six-figure salaries and luxury vacations has agreed to relinquish control of the businesses.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's administration announced Wednesday that it has agreed with higher education leaders to have an outside group review the Republican's privatization plan for building maintenance at Tennessee's public colleges and universities.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Therapists and counselors in Tennessee could decline to treat patients on the basis of "sincerely held religious beliefs" under a bill passed by the state Senate on Wednesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Senate Finance Committee has voted to approve funding for two new positions in Tennessee government to help clear a backlog of open record questions.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cold winter weather appears to have cut into homebuilding in the Midwest and Northeast, causing the pace of construction to tumble in January.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks climbed Wednesday as investors clung to hope for an international deal to stem a global glut in crude oil with production cutbacks. That sent the price of oil sharply higher, as well as the stocks of major energy companies like Chevron. Tech stocks also rose, led by Microsoft and Facebook.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve policymakers expressed growing concerns at their meeting last month about potential threats to the U.S. economy, including turbulence in financial markets, plunging oil prices and slowing growth in China and other emerging markets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories cranked out more autos, furniture and food last month, boosting production by the most since July.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices edged up slightly in January as the biggest rise in food costs in eight months offset a further decline in energy prices. The tiny overall increase indicated that inflation pressures remain modest.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran on Wednesday snubbed a proposal agreed to by four influential oil producers to cap their crude output if others do the same, with a senior Oil Ministry official saying Tehran has no intention of freezing oil output levels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook says his company will fight a federal magistrate's order to help the FBI hack into an encrypted iPhone belonging to one of the San Bernardino, California shooters. The company said that could potentially undermine encryption for millions of other users.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 16
STATE LEGISLATURE
FRANKLIN (AP) — The Tennessee attorney general's office has requested that Rep. Jeremy Durham turn over all state electronic devices and personal email accounts as part of an investigation into sexual harassment allegations, the Republican lawmaker said Tuesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The sponsor of a bill seeking to require ultrasound information to be shared with pregnant women seeking an abortion in Tennessee has withdrawn the measure from consideration.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The operator of a large chain of beer and liquor stores says an effort to cap new retail licenses is an effort to stamp out competition in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A resolution directing Tennessee's attorney general to mount a legal challenge to the federal refugee resettlement program is headed for a vote in the state Senate.
MIDSTATE
Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam and Economic and Community Development Commissioner Randy Boyd along with TwelveStone Health Partners officials announced today the company will build a new corporate headquarters, expanding its Murfreesboro operations.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - On the heels of legislation passed last year authorizing cities to donate land for affordable housing, Nashville is preparing to give away 13 lots.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam, first lady Crissy Haslam and state Education Commissioner Candice McQueen are launching a new literacy campaign on Wednesday known as Read to be Ready.
REAL ESTATE
U.S. homebuilders are feeling less confident about their sales prospects ahead of the spring home-selling season, though they remain positive overall that the housing market will continue to improve this year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling about 200,000 Saab and Saturn cars in the U.S. and Canada to replace the Takata driver's air bag inflators.
MILAN (AP) — The marquee Volkswagen brand saw its biggest sales contraction in January since the German carmaker was engulfed in its diesel emissions scandal.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed broadly higher as the market notched its second sizable gain in a row. Retail and industrial stocks made the biggest gains as they were lifted by company earnings, some good news from China's economy, and hope that Japan's struggling economy will get another boost.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight years after the financial crisis, the world is coming to grips with an unpleasant realization: serious weaknesses still plague the global economy, and emergency help may not be on the way.
HAVANA (AP) — The United States and Cuba signed an agreement on Tuesday morning to resume commercial air traffic for the first time in five decades, starting the clock on dozens of new flights operating daily by next fall.
NEW YORK (AP) — Alibaba has bought nearly 33 million shares of online daily deal service Groupon.
NEW YORK (AP) — Home security services company ADT has agreed to be purchased by affiliates of Apollo Global Management for about $6.94 billion.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 15
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Walt Whitlow was under treatment for cancer when he got an unwelcome surprise.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court abhors even numbers. But that's just what the court will have to deal with, perhaps for many months, after the death of Justice Antonin Scalia. Eight justices will decide what to do, creating the prospect of 4-4 ties.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Customers of Comcast Corp. lost part of their cable television service for several hours in many major U.S. metropolitan areas Monday, but the company said the problem was fixed in most places by early afternoon.
HAVANA (AP) — The Obama administration has approved the first U.S. factory in Cuba in more than half a century, allowing a two-man company from Alabama to build a plant assembling as many as 1,000 small tractors a year for sale to private farmers in Cuba.
HONG KONG (AP) — World stocks rallied on Monday, led by a jump in Japan's main index, amid hopes for more stimulus from central banks in Europe and Japan.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street is hurting, and Main Street doesn't care. It's got burgers and cars to buy.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran says it has exported its first crude oil shipment to Europe since it reached a landmark nuclear deal with world powers, the official IRNA news agency reported Sunday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The presidential election just got real. The unexpected death of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia — and the immediate declaration from Republicans that the next president should nominate his replacement — adds even more weight to the decision voters will make in November's general election.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 12
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam has proven to be enormously popular with Tennessee voters, but fellow Republicans in the Tennessee General Assembly have been a tougher crowd to win over.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposal to create a school voucher program stalled in the House on Thursday despite efforts to drum up support among wary rural lawmakers by limiting the areas of Tennessee where parents could receive state money to pay for private school tuition.
NASHVILLE (AP) — If it's up to the Republican speakers of the state House and Senate, the more than half-million Tennesseans with permits will soon be able to carry guns inside the legislative office complex.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — In two unanimous decisions, the Tennessee Supreme Court ruled Thursday that police have the right to stop motorists if their vehicles cross roadway markings, even if briefly, essentially making it easier to arrest and convict people driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Volkswagen resisted U.S. government efforts to recall more cars and trucks to fix potentially deadly Takata air bags — telling safety regulators that a recall isn't necessary.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Automaker Volkswagen says global sales rose 3.7 percent in January, held back by sagging economies in Brazil and Russia and by an emissions scandal that hurt figures in the United States.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress voted Thursday to permanently bar state and local governments from taxing access to the Internet, as lawmakers leapt at an election-year chance to demonstrate their opposition to imposing levies on online service.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stocks ended a down week on an up note, finishing sharply higher on the strength of energy and financial shares.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose modestly in January, evidence that Americans kept shopping despite sharp drops in stock prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen cautioned Thursday that global economic pressures pose risks to the U.S. economy but said it's too soon to know whether those risks are severe enough to alter the Fed's interest-rate policies.
NEW YORK (AP) — If we are indeed in the midst of a recession — and we won't know we're in one until well after it's begun — stocks likely still have a long way to go down.
BRYAN, Ohio (AP) — The Ohio company that has produced or owned the Etch A Sketch for decades has sold the classic toy to a toy firm in Toronto.