VOL. 44 | NO. 7 | Friday, February 14, 2020
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
It’s worrisome when officials try to turn their private religious principles into public policy. Turns out it can also be worrisome when they ignore those principles.
JIM MYERS: CULINARITY
Love, love, love, love. Love. Love. Love. Valentine’s Day is that time of year when food writers struggle to find another hackneyed turn of phrase to lionize the intersection of food and love.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Home sales increased a staggering 15.7% in January compared to January 2019, sales data from the Greater Nashville Realtors reveal.
TENNESSEE TITANS
The Tennessee Titans and coach Mike Vrabel have finalized the coaching staff for 2020 with two intriguing moves.
The two biggest questions the Tennessee Titans face as they head into the offseason are their plans are for running back Derrick Henry and quarterback Ryan Tannehill.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have started working on their long list of pending free agents by agreeing to a one-year extension with tight end Anthony Firkser.
UT SPORTS
Emblematic of their 2019 season, the Tennessee Vols made a strong closing run to complete their 2020 recruiting class.
NEWSMAKERS
Henry Leventis, former federal prosecutor and director of litigation for the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Nashville, has joined Bone McAllester Norton PLLC. He comes to the firm with more than 15 years of civil and criminal litigation experience.
BRIEFS
Genesco Inc. has announced plans for its new corporate headquarters in Nashville at 535 Marriott that will occupy approximately two thirds of the facility’s 310,000 square feet of space. Relocation is targeted for a early 2021.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Once exclusive to heavy-duty pickup trucks, diesel-powered engines have recently come to full-size light-duty trucks, as well. The Chevrolet Silverado 1500, Ford F-150 and Ram 1500 are among the most popular vehicles sold in America, and each one now offers a diesel engine.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Losing a job is almost always traumatic. Job loss in your 50s can be devastating – and devastatingly common.
CAREER CORNER
In this month of love, we spend some of our time reflecting on those who are special in our lives. It’s also a great time to reflect on our job and whether or not we love doing it.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former University of Kentucky basketball star and NBA player Tony Delk will be inducted into the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is backpedaling on a promise to offer up to 12 weeks of annual paid family leave for state workers through an executive order.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee inmate is scheduled Thursday to become the fifth to die in the state's electric chair in the past 16 months. Each of those inmates chose electrocution over the state's preferred execution method — lethal injection.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Southern California man charged with bilking nearly $150 million out of 70,000 investors worldwide through a phony digital currency scheme has agreed to enter a guilty plea to federal charges, it was announced Wednesday.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is attempting to make sure people know exactly what they're signing up for when they use its online services — though that will still mean reading a lengthy document.
HEALTH CARE
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates' plans to provide "Medicare for All" are driving a wedge through the labor movement, pitting union against union and fracturing a powerful constituency as the primary barrels toward heavily organized states.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Microsoft announced a five-year, $1.1 billion investment plan in Mexico on Thursday to develop training programs and increase the availability of cloud computing services.
NEW YORK (AP) — Victoria's Secret, beset by falling sales and uncomfortable questions about its billionaire founder who has run the company for five decades, is being sold.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investment bank Morgan Stanley announced it would buy the online brokerage E-Trade for roughly $13 billion, one of the biggest deals on Wall Street since the financial crisis.
GENEVA (AP) — Switzerland's financial market authority has penalized Julius Baer bank for violating its obligations to fight money laundering over a nearly nine-year span.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Roger Stone, a staunch ally of President Donald Trump, faces sentencing Thursday on his convictions for witness tampering and lying to Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced that Richard Grenell, the U.S. ambassador to Germany, will become acting director of national intelligence, a move that puts a staunch Trump ally in charge of the nation's 17 spy agencies, which the president has only tepidly embraced.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former national security adviser John Bolton on Wednesday denounced the House's impeachment proceedings against President Donald Trump as "grossly partisan" and said his testimony would not have changed Trump's acquittal in the Senate, as he continued to stay quiet on the details of a yet-to-be-released book.
WASHINGTON (AP) — There's a common thread among the 11 felons who found favor with President Donald Trump this week — all who were pardoned or set free had advocates among the president's wealthy friends and political allies.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Through a year of campaigning, the Democratic presidential candidates played nice, talking up party unity, disagreeing mostly politely on policy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The latest Democratic presidential debate was a raucous one, ripe for exaggerations and distortions as Mike Bloomberg made his debut on the debate stage and rivals went after him and each other. President Donald Trump weighed in on the feisty performance at a rally where he mischaracterized what some Democrats want to do with health care.
WEDNESDAY, FEB. 19
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Wednesday introduced a new proposal to amend the state's legally contentious voter-registration restrictions that are currently blocked from being enforced during the 2020 elections.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday he will not grant clemency to a death row inmate whose group of supporters includes family members of his victims and past and present prison workers.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee would be the first state in the nation to hold a presidential primary, freeing it from having to compete for attention on Super Tuesday, under a new bill.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A small group of Tennessee lawmakers advanced a proposal for a non-binding resolution Tuesday stating that the state recognizes CNN and The Washington Post as "fake news."
VANDERBILT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Jordan Bowden's steadiness at the foul line made sure Tennessee avoided a stunning collapse.
UT SPORTS
FRISCO, Texas (AP) — Tennessee offensive lineman Trey Smith has won the Jason Witten Collegiate Man of the Year Award given annually to a Division I football player who has shown exceptional courage, integrity and sportsmanship on and off the field.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Andrei Svechnikov and Nino Niederreiter each scored in the second period, and the Carolina Hurricanes beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 Tuesday night.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — Every month, the 30 staffers at Chris Boehlke's public relations firm each get $100 to pay for anything that contributes to their wellness. And not just for typical expenditures like gym memberships or yoga classes.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge in Texas has dismissed Chinese tech giant Huawei's lawsuit challenging a U.S. law that bars the government and its contractors from using Huawei equipment because of security concerns.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — The European Union unveiled proposals Wednesday to regulate artificial intelligence that call for strict rules and safeguards on risky applications of the rapidly developing technology.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PARIS (AP) — French prosecutors are turning up the heat on disgraced car industry executive Carlos Ghosn, opening a judicial inquiry into alleged money laundering, fraud and misuse of company assets during his time at the helm of the Renault-Nissan alliance.
MEDIA
BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday said it has revoked the press credentials of three reporters for the U.S. newspaper Wall Street Journal over a headline for an opinion column deemed racist by the government.
Two top executives at newspaper publisher Tribune are stepping down as the company deals with its largest shareholder, a hedge fund known for cutting newsroom jobs, and grapples with a decline in revenue as the print-ad business shrinks.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Construction of new homes edged back slightly in January after a December surge that had pushed home construction to the highest level in 13 years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks shook off their latest virus-induced loss and returned to record heights Wednesday, with several familiar faces doing the heaviest lifting.
If you earn six figures and haven't been filing your taxes, the IRS may come knocking.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials were mostly optimistic about the U.S. and global economies last month, though they noted the risk posed by China's viral outbreak and said they were ready to keep their benchmark interest rate at its current low level in the coming months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. producer prices climbed last month at fastest pace since October 2018 as higher prices for services more than offset a drop in the cost of energy.
Shares of Bed Bath & Beyond moved sharply higher at the opening bell Wednesday after executives rolled out a raft of initiatives to turn the struggling chain around.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ongoing uncertainty about the effects of Brexit is pushing an increasing number of foreign companies to set up offices in the Netherlands, the Dutch government said Wednesday.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan recorded a trade deficit for the month of January Wednesday, as exports declined amid worries about the spread of a new virus that could deaden regional economic growth.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
LONDON (AP) — WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange plans to claim during an extradition hearing that the Trump administration offered him a pardon if he agreed to say Russia was not involved in leaking Democratic National Committee emails during the 2016 U.S. election campaign, a lawyer for Assange said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump asserts that he is the nation's top cop, a title more typically accorded the attorney general.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has ousted the Pentagon's top policy official who had certified last year that the Defense Department had seen enough anti-corruption progress in Ukraine to justify releasing congressionally authorized aid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr has told people close to him he's considering quitting his post after President Donald Trump wouldn't heed his warning to stop tweeting about Justice Department cases, an administration official told The Associated Press.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — For Mike Bloomberg, the one-way conversation with Democratic voters is about to end.
TUESDAY, FEB. 18
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan shareholders vented their outrage at the Japanese automaker's top management Tuesday for crashing stock prices, zero dividends and quarterly losses after the scandal-ridden departure of former Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
BEIJING (AP) — The Beijing auto show, the industry's biggest global event of the year, is being postponed in response to the spread of China's new virus.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX aims to launch up to four tourists into a super high orbit, possibly by the end of next year.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday refused to delay sentencing for Roger Stone on his witness tampering and lying to Congress conviction as President Donald Trump kept up his unrelenting defense of his longtime confidant and said he wouldn't be quieted on social media even if he's making things harder for his attorney general.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mike Bloomberg would sell the financial data and media company he created in the 1980s — which bears his name and made him a multibillionaire — if he is elected U.S. president, a top adviser said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hoisting the spoils of victories in California's hard-fought water wars, President Donald Trump is directing more of the state's precious water to wealthy farmers and other agriculture interests when he visits their Republican Central Valley stronghold Wednesday.
U.S. stock indexes closed with mostly modest losses Tuesday as the market gave up some of its solid gains from the past two weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signaled Tuesday via Twitter that he opposes efforts to block the sale of jet engines to China.
Small business owners have received some upbeat news on the economy this month.
SAN MATEO, Calif. (AP) — Franklin Resources is buying rival investment manager Legg Mason for $4.5 billion, the latest shakeup in an industry grappling with customers who continue to clamor for lower fees.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart reported disappointing fourth-quarter profits and sales after a sluggish and shortened holiday shopping season.
BANGKOK (AP) — The virus outbreak in China has put South Korea's economy into an "emergency situation," its president says. Japan is on the brink of recession and big manufacturers are forecasting a whole world of woe.
LONDON (AP) — Europe's biggest bank, HSBC, will shed some 35,000 jobs as part of an overhaul to focus on faster-growing markets in Asia and as it tries to cope with a slew of global uncertainties, from Brexit to the trade wars to the new coronavirus.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — In a major legal defeat for the Russian government, a Dutch appeals court on Tuesday reinstated an international arbitration panel's order that it should pay $50 billion compensation to shareholders in former oil company Yukos.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump went on a clemency blitz Tuesday, commuting former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich's 14-year prison sentence and pardoning former New York City police commissioner Bernie Kerik, among a long list of others.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday pardoned Edward DeBartolo Jr., the former San Francisco 49ers owner convicted in a gambling fraud scandal who built one of the most successful NFL teams in the game's history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Chris Murphy on Tuesday defended a weekend meeting he held with Iran's foreign minister in Europe, after his actions were questioned in conservative media.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hours before a court session regarding his longtime ally Roger Stone, President Donald Trump is tweeting that Stone's recent conviction for witness tampering and lying to Congress "should be thrown out."
MONDAY, FEB. 17
MIDSTATE
Nashville is growing, but most of it isn't, the latest released Census data show as counties across the state and nation prepare for the 2020 U.S. Census count this spring.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have their first three-game winning streak since October and appear to finally be finding their way under new coach John Hynes as they try to fight their way into the playoff picture.
EDUCATION
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — A Tennessee university plans to offer discounted tuition starting this fall to students from nine surrounding states.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Courts are not properly screening out unreliable psychological and IQ tests, allowing junk science to be used as evidence, researchers have concluded. Such tests can sway judges or juries and influence whether someone gets custody of a child or is eligible for bail or capital punishment.
ENVIRONMENT
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said Monday that he plans to spend $10 billion of his own fortune to help fight climate change.
TRANSPORTATION
LONDON (AP) — Europe's busiest airport suffered the knock-on effects Monday of technical issues that disrupted travel over the weekend.
AUTO INDUSTRY
A German court has temporarily halted the site preparation for Tesla Inc.'s first electric car factory in Europe.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg met top European Union officials on a visit to Brussels on Monday, days before the bloc is expected to release new proposals on regulating artificial intelligence.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Denver (AP) — In this post-impeachment era of divisiveness and deadlock in the nation's capital, Uncle Sam has a message for top U.S. technologists:
Home goods retailer Pier 1 Imports Inc. said Monday that it has filed for bankruptcy protection.
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese economy shrank at an annual pace of 6.3% last quarter as growth was battered by typhoons and crimped consumer spending.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is misrepresenting the Justice Department's handling of the legal case of his confidant, Roger Stone.
FRIDAY, FEB. 14
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The U.S. Department of Agriculture is investing $9 million on high-speed broadband internet projects in 10 Tennessee counties, including Montgomery, Rutherford, Williamson and Wilson.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Spirit Airlines and Tennessee officials say the low-cost carrier is moving its operations control center from Florida to the Nashville area.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Craig Smith scored three times, Juuse Saros made 31 saves and the Nashville Predators beat the New York Islanders 5-0 on Thursday night.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Automaker Volkswagen has offered 830 million euros ($900.8 million) as a settlement for owners of diesel vehicles that used software to mask excessive emissions.
TECHNOLOGY
MUNICH (AP) — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi appealed Friday to an audience in Germany for countries to steer clear of Chinese tech giant Huawei as they build their next-generation cellular networks, adding her voice to pressure from the Trump administration.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog plans to launch a nationwide probe into how telemarketers may be getting hold of seniors' personal Medicare information, a red flag for potential fraud and waste.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facebook decided Friday to allow a type of paid political message that had sidestepped many of the social network's rules governing political ads.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing slightly higher on Wall Street Friday, as technology shares rise along with lower-risk sectors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturing output fell slightly in January, driven lower by Boeing's decision to halt production of its troubled 737 MAX aircraft.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose a modest 0.3% in January, a slight improvement over December, as unseasonably warm weather boosted sales at hardware stores and furniture stores.
LONDON (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg plans to throw his support behind international reforms that would require Silicon Valley tech giants to pay more tax in Europe.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Imagine a mortgage that pays you the interest, not the other way around. Or a savings account where it's the bank, not the saver, who collects interest.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration's effort to remake Medicaid by requiring low-income people to work for health care suffered a serious setback Friday when a federal appeals court ruled it goes beyond what's allowed by law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Secretary Ryan McCarthy said Friday there is no investigation into the Army officer who until last week worked at the White House National Security Council and was a key witness in the impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors have declined to charge former FBI Deputy Director Andrew McCabe, closing an investigation into whether the longtime target of President Donald Trump's ire lied to federal officials about his involvement in a news media disclosure, McCabe's legal team said Friday.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The Trump administration is asking Congress for $1.5 billion over 10 years to create a new national stockpile of U.S.-mined uranium, saying that propping up U.S. uranium production in the face of cheaper imports is a matter of vital energy security.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats frustrated over the Senate's acquittal of President Donald Trump are pushing their oversight efforts toward the Justice Department and what they call Attorney General William Barr's efforts to politicize federal law enforcement.
THURSDAY, FEB. 13
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday defended the rollout of his much-debated school voucher program and downplayed recent anger from lawmakers upset with how the state has prepared to give parents tax dollars to pay for private tuition.
NASHVILLE AREA
Mayor John Cooper today announced an agreement to move forward with the Fairgrounds soccer stadium.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Darius Rucker couldn't quite believe it when he was surprised this week with the news that his song "Wagon Wheel" was certified eight times platinum, making it one of the top five most popular country singles ever.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Americans shopping for a home this spring may face more competition than they have in years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates were flat to slightly higher this week after three straight weeks of declines, as the historically low levels continue as an incentive for potential homebuyers.
ENVIRONMENT
PARIS (AP) — France's leader called the battle against climate change and environmental destruction "the fight of the century" Thursday after visiting a melting glacier in the French Alps.
HEALTH CARE
ST. LOUIS (AP) — The CEO of a health care company whose holdings include a hospital in St. Louis is under civil and criminal investigation, the St. Louis Post-Dispatch reported Thursday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Shares of Tesla rose a bout 1.5% i n trading Thursday morning after the electric vehicle and solar panel maker said it would sell over $2 billion worth of additional shares.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan, reeling from a scandal over its former superstar executive Carlos Ghosn, sank into red ink in the latest quarter as its vehicle sales fell around the world, and the Japanese automaker slashed its profit forecast for the year.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — McClatchy, the publisher of the Miami Herald, The Kansas City Star and dozens of other newspapers, has filed for bankruptcy protection as it struggles to pay off debt while revenue shrinks because more readers and advertisers are going online.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal court has ordered a temporary halt in Microsoft's work on a $10 billion military cloud contract that Amazon was initially expected to win. Amazon sued in November to revisit that decision, alleging that President Donald Trump's bias against the company hurt its chances to win the project.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has added new criminal charges against Chinese tech giant Huawei and two of its U.S. subsidiaries, accusing the company in a plot to steal trade secrets from competitors in America, federal prosecutors announced Thursday.
MOSCOW (AP) — A court in Moscow fined Twitter and Facebook 4 million rubles each Thursday for refusing to store the personal data of Russian citizens on servers in Russia, the largest penalties imposed on Western technology companies under internet use laws.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed lower on Wall Street Thursday as investors turned cautious following a surge in cases of a new virus in China that threatens to crimp economic growth and hurt businesses worldwide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of President Donald Trump's nominees for the Federal Reserve came under sharp questioning Thursday from senators over her unorthodox economic views, including from two Republicans whose doubts about her nomination could imperil it.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The International Energy Agency expects demand for oil to fall in the first quarter as a result of the virus outbreak that emanated in China. Any fall would represent the first quarterly decline in a decade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices rose modestly last month, weighed down by falling gasoline prices.
NEW YORK (AP) — How's your 401(k) doing? President Donald Trump likes to ask that question around the country, sometimes throwing out big gains like 90% or 95%. The average 401(k) did indeed hit a record last year, although its growth was considerably less than that.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is transferring $3.8 billion in recently passed military funding to finance construction of the president's long-sought U.S.-Mexico border wall, angering not just Democrats but also GOP defense hawks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he might end the long-running practice of letting other administration officials listen in on presidential calls with foreign leaders. That's after Trump's impeachment was triggered by his July phone call with the president of Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved a bipartisan measure Thursday limiting President Donald Trump's authority to launch military operations against Iran.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a bid to revive the Equal Rights Amendment, the House on Thursday approved a measure removing a 1982 deadline for state ratification and reopening the process to amend the Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sex.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the week since his acquittal on impeachment charges, a fully emboldened President Donald Trump is demonstrating his determination to assert an iron grip on government, pushing his Justice Department to ease up on a longtime friend while using the levers of presidential powers to exact payback on real and perceived foes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hope Hicks, one of President Donald Trump's most trusted and longest-serving aides, is returning to the White House.