VOL. 41 | NO. 8 | Friday, February 24, 2017
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
I have never met a homeowner who believes they’re residing in a home that amounts to a powder keg with the fuse lit. It is difficult to convince buyers that is the case.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Johnny and Julie Erwin don’t look like typical protesters, but the senior couple joined the “moral Mondays” ruckus recently at the State Capitol, Johnny wearing his Air Force cap and Julie holding a list of social legislation they oppose.
NEWSMAKERS
Wooten’s career in the outdoors began in Virginia in 1996 at Pamplin Historical Park. He went on to the Land Between the Lakes National Recreation Area in Kentucky as well as working with two non-profit, private museums. In 2003, Wooten came home to Nashville to work for the state at the Tennessee Historical Commission.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
When Kenny was a young boy, he sometimes would listen in while Johnny Cash and Jim Polly poured coffee to fuel the banter as they talked over world events.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Josh Dobbs has spent the last four years preparing for a future in aerospace engineering.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Kia’s newest vehicle, the 2017 Niro, is the lowest-priced, gasoline-electric hybrid SUV on the market and is rated as high as 50 miles per gallon in combined city/highway travel.
Top commercial real estate sales, January 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You know exactly where Monday’s report is.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
How can two words speak volumes?
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposal to amend the state constitution to say that God is the source of Tennesseans' liberties has failed in the House.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes were mostly lower in early trading Thursday, giving up some of their gains from a day earlier when the market surged to its latest record high. Materials stocks were down the most. Energy companies also fell as crude prices headed lower. Utilities were up the most. Investors were sizing up the latest batch of company earnings.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just 223,000 Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, fewest in nearly 44 years.
AUTO INDUSTRY
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — A federal workplace safety agency wants to fine Nissan Motor Co. more than $21,000, saying the company's Mississippi plant should have better trained a maintenance worker who lost three fingers in July.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 21
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's sweeping transportation funding proposal has survived a key vote in the state House but without a provision to hike the state's gas and diesel taxes.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Strong demand for pickups and SUVs helped brighten February for the U.S. auto industry.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter is adding more tools to curb abuse on its service as part of its ongoing effort to protect users from hate and harassment.
NEW YORK (AP) — Watch what you do or say the next time you jump into an Uber: Your backseat phone calls, make-out sessions or drunken arguments could be recorded.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's plan to impose sharp cuts to foreign aid and domestic programs is a non-starter in the Republican-led Congress — and that's according to top GOP lawmakers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — If you didn't file a tax return for 2013, the IRS might have a refund waiting for you. But the deadline to claim it is only a few weeks away.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Results from a monthly survey of business supply managers suggest that manufacturing is boosting economic conditions in nine Midwest and Plains states, according to a report issued Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Builders cut back on construction spending in January by the largest amount in nine months, with weakness stemming from the biggest reduction in government activity in nearly 15 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer spending rose at only a sluggish pace in January, even as signs of growing optimism about the economy have emerged.
Investors bet big on U.S. stocks Wednesday, giving the market its biggest single-day gain in nearly four months and pushing the major indexes to record highs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories expanded last month at the fastest pace in more than two years.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 27
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE -- University of Tennessee-Knoxville Chancellor Beverly Davenport on Tuesday named John Currie as the school's new vice chancellor and director of athletics. Currie currently serves as the Director of Athletics at Kansas State. He will begin his duties at UT on April 1, 2017.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democrat Bill Freeman, who spent $3.5 million of his own money in his failed bid for Nashville mayor in 2015, says he won't run for governor next year.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Republican state senator is calling for a boycott of a national legislators' meeting in California next year in retaliation for that state's ban on state-funded travel to Tennessee and other states over laws considered anti-LGBT.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state Senate has passed a bill seeking to prevent campaign funds from being invested in private companies.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state Senate committee has agreed to changes to a bill seeking to label Tennessee driver's licenses issued to people without permanent residency status with the words "alien" or "non-U.S. citizen."
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon's cloud-computing service, Amazon Web Services, is experiencing an outage in its eastern U.S. region, causing unprecedented and widespread problems for thousands of websites and apps.
NEW YORK (AP) — It keeps getting cheaper to invest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at an anemic 1.9 percent rate in the fourth quarter, unchanged from an initial estimate, although consumers performed better than first thought.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence rose to the highest level in more than 15 years, good news for the economy.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Target reported a 43 percent drop in fourth-quarter profit and weak store sales overshadowed an improving online performance. Its outlook for the first quarter and all of 2017 were far below what industry analysts had been expecting.
A slide led by Target and other big retailers pulled U.S. stock indexes lower Tuesday, snapping a 12-day winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX said Monday it will fly two people to the moon next year, a feat not attempted since NASA's Apollo heyday close to half a century ago.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The late country star Merle Haggard will be honored a year after his death with an all-star concert featuring his longtime friend and duet partner Willie Nelson as well as Kenny Chesney, Miranda Lambert, John Mellencamp and more.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Attorneys for people suing air bag maker Takata and five automakers say the car companies knew that the company's products were dangerous yet continued to use them for years because they were inexpensive.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says nobody knew health care could be so complicated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump warned Monday that the nation's health care system was in danger of imploding and said Congress must make fundamental changes to the sweeping health law passed by his predecessor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump's upcoming budget will propose a whopping $54 billion increase in defense spending and impose corresponding cuts to domestic programs and foreign aid. The result is that Trump's initial budget wouldn't dent budget deficits projected to run about $500 billion.
NEW YORK (AP) — The latest on developments in financial markets (All times local):
LONDON (AP) — For 82 years, global accounting and consulting firm PwC has enjoyed a reputational boon from handling the balloting process at the Academy Awards.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses boosted their orders for long-lasting manufactured goods in January by the largest amount in three months, but a key category that tracks business investment plans slipped.
DALLAS (AP) — United Airlines, which lost the distinction of being the world's biggest carrier after shrinking for several years, plans to regain lost ground by adding more flights from key airports this summer.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 24
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose in December from a year earlier at the fastest pace in 11 months, as prospective buyers bid against each other for a limited supply of available property.
HONG KONG (AP) — Global stock markets traded in fairly narrow ranges Tuesday as investors awaited a speech by President Donald Trump to both houses of Congress that could have a major bearing on the outlook for all types of financial assets in the near-term.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two investigations released by the state comptroller's office Thursday are raising questions about what happened to hundreds of thousands of dollars in taxpayer money that was supposed to be used to feed poor children.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Please excuse singer Phillip Sweet if he gets a little emotional when Little Big Town performs Friday night during the first-ever residency in the 125-year history of the Ryman Auditorium, a venue that helped popularize country music.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — Volkswagen bounced back into the black in 2016 after suffering a loss the previous year due to the diesel emissions scandal, according to figures released by the German automaker Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans bought more new homes in January after a steep fall-off the previous month, a sign the housing market is healthy despite higher mortgage rates.
NEW YORK (AP) — A late push helped U.S. stocks finish higher Friday after indexes spent most of the day lower. There was far more selling than buying on Wall Street overall, but the Dow Jones industrial average managed to extend its winning streak to an 11th day.
NEW YORK (AP) — How much more can the "Trump Bump" lift the stock market?
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney said Friday that it will be closing anywhere from 130 to 140 stores as well as two distribution centers over the next several months as it aims to improve profitability in the era of online shopping.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 22
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are nearing a move into freshly overhauled offices at the state Capitol complex, but some Republicans are chafing at the building being named after Democrat Cordell Hull.
STATEWIDE
Tennessee Gov. Haslam won't rule out US Senate run
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks wobbled Thursday as investors changed course and tempered their expectations for faster economic growth. Industrial companies, which have surged over the last few months, finished lower as Wall Street focused on gold, bonds, and companies that pay big dividends.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Thursday the administration is committed to getting major tax reform legislation through Congress by August. He predicted that President Donald Trump's economic proposals will be able to boost growth significantly to annual rates above 3 percent.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker John Boehner predicted on Thursday that a full repeal and replacement of "Obamacare" is "not going to happen."
NATIONAL POLITICS
MEXICO CITY (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary John Kelly says there will be "no mass deportations" and "no use of military forces" in enforcing President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — U.S. Customs and Border Protection said Friday that it plans to start awarding contracts by mid-April for President Donald Trump's proposed border wall with Mexico, signaling that he is aggressively pursuing plans to erect "a great wall" along the 2,000-mile border.
ALGOOD, Tenn. (AP) — As Republican Gov. Bill Haslam takes his proposal to boost transportation funding on the road, there is a growing call for his plan to include greater tax break for middle-class Tennessee drivers who pay more at the pump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes last month as rising prices and a dwindling supply of available homes appeared to frustrate many potential buyers, especially in the West.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills were mixed in Monday's auction, with rates on six-month bills holding steady while rates on three-month bills dipped to their lowest level in five weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. banks' earnings in the final quarter of 2016 rose 7.7 percent from a year earlier, as lending continued to grow and banks set aside less for losses on loans for the first time since late 2015.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans confronted a conservative rebellion in their own party Tuesday over their long-promised plans to repeal and replace the health care law, and beseeched President Donald Trump to settle the dispute in his first speech to a joint session of Congress.
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — South Korean appliance maker LG Electronics Inc. announced Tuesday that it has selected Tennessee as the site for its first washing machine plant in the United States.