VOL. 38 | NO. 6 | Friday, February 7, 2014
REALTY CHECK
In case you missed the special edition of Life, Newsweek, People and Rolling Stone, along with specials on all 1,298 cable networks, this week marks the 50th anniversary of the Beatles invasion, or as they like to refer to it, first trip to America.
LEGISLATIVE PROFILE
As chair of the Tennessee Senate Education Committee, Sen. Dolores Gresham has plenty of hot-button issues crossing her desk these days.
IN THE WEEDS
You know things have changed in East Nashville when a restaurant puts up a valet stand. It happened on opening night at Two Ten Jack.
TERRY McCORMICK
Please excuse this brief interruption of the Seattle Seahawks’ Super Bowl celebrations and the post mortems being written about the Denver Broncos.
NEWSMAKERS
Capella Healthcare has announced the promotions of three senior leaders to executive management positions and four others to its senior management team. Promoted to executive vice president duties are:
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
Last week, the government released GDP statistics for the fourth quarter of 2013 showing the economy expanded at a 3.2 percent clip, which was above.
I SWEAR
Today’s I Swear Crossword, “Legal Programs – 3 of 4,” is the third of a four-part series. The first two ran in early the Dec. 13 and Jan. 10 editions of the Nashville Ledger. If you’ve not solved these three puzzles, please go back and do so before reading on.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Edamame. Pronounced: ay-duh-MAH-may. Funny word. But only to Americans. It’s a Japanese word that literally means “twig bean” – eda (twig) + mame (bean).
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Nearly 60,000 Tennesseans signed up for coverage under the federal health insurance exchange through January, a 65 percent increase since the beginning of year.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A measure to do away with local government's power to decide whether to allow firearms in public parks has passed the Senate.
NASHVILLE AREA
BOISE, Idaho (AP) — Corrections Corp. of America is pushing to get a forensic audit declared inconclusive after the auditors found the private prison company understaffed an Idaho prison by more than 26,000 hours.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Finance Commissioner Larry Martin says the state's overall tax collections fell below budgeted expectations in January.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling almost 780,000 older-model compact cars in North America because a faulty ignition switch can shut off the engines without warning and cause crashes.
TECHNOLOGY
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — You don't have to be just male or female on Facebook anymore. The social media giant is adding a customizable option with about 50 different terms people can use to identify their gender as well as three preferred pronoun choices: him, her or them.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional investigators say small fees add up for college students using college-issued debit and prepaid cards, which often are used to draw financial aid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment benefits rose 8,000 last week to 339,000, evidence that layoffs ticked up. Still, the increase wasn't enough to suggest the job market is worsening.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cold weather across much of the nation contributed to a drop in retail sales in January. Americans spent less on autos and clothes and at restaurants — a decline that suggests that momentum from consumer spending at the end of 2013 has tailed off.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Comcast Corp. will buy Time Warner Cable Inc. for about $45.2 billion in a deal that would combine the nation's top two cable TV companies and create a dominant force in creating and delivering entertainment.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks edged higher Thursday as investors assessed the latest corporate earnings and some weak economic reports. Goodyear Tire & Rubber soared after reporting a big earnings gain, while Cisco Systems and Whole Foods dropped after releasing disappointing results.
Oil fell back below $100 a barrel Thursday as investors worried upcoming data would show weakness in the U.S. economy.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Lenders repossessed fewer U.S. homes in January, bringing the number of completed foreclosures down to the lowest level in more than six years.
PRIMM, Nev. (AP) — A windy stretch of the Mojave Desert once roamed by tortoises and coyotes has been transformed by hundreds of thousands of mirrors into the largest solar power plant of its type in the world, a milestone for a growing industry that is testing the balance between wilderness conservation and the pursuit of green energy across the West.
WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 12
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Workers at Volkswagen's lone U.S. plant in Tennessee on Wednesday kicked off a three-day election that will determine whether they will be represented by the United Auto Workers union.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota said Wednesday it is recalling 1.9 million hybrid Prius cars globally for a software glitch that could cause the vehicle to stall.
MIDSTATE
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon says it is hiring more than 2,500 full-time workers at its order fulfillment centers around the U.S.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A lawsuit filed by a former Tennessee Republican party official that accused two high-ranking fellow Republicans of defaming his reputation has been thrown out.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The state of Tennessee has declared a state of emergency because of a winter storm that is expected to pound parts of the state with snow and ice.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam was on the guest list for a glitzy state dinner for French President Francois Hollande at the White House.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wide disparities are emerging among states in health insurance sign-ups, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal enrollment statistics released Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Big retail stores, hotels, restaurants and other companies with lots of low-wage and part-time workers are among the main beneficiaries of the Obama administration's latest tweak to health care rules.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Major U.S. stock indexes are ending mostly lower as a four-day rally peters out.
NEW YORK (AP) — You've got gaffes.
The price of oil rose above $100 a barrel Wednesday as OPEC predicted faster growth in oil demand this year and China reported record imports of crude oil. The gains were tempered by an increase in U.S. supplies.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. homeowners are doing a better job of keeping up with mortgage payments, a trend that has reduced the rate of late payment on home loans to the lowest level in more than five years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama increased the minimum wage for a few hundred thousand federal contractors on Wednesday, then pressed the divided Congress to pass broader legislation that would apply to all workers. Obama declared, "It's the right thing to do."
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a dramatic Senate tally in which top GOP leaders cast the crucial votes, must-pass legislation to allow the government to borrow money to pay its bills cleared Congress Wednesday for President Barack Obama's signature.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Rand Paul and a tea-party backed group are suing the Obama administration over the National Security Agency's phone record collection policies. Paul says the suit is filed for themselves and on behalf of all Americans who are or have been customers of phone service in the United States since 2006.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was once the backbone of the House Republican majority — the hard-line stand that brought President Barack Obama to the negotiating table and yielded more than $2 trillion in deficit reduction.
TUESDAY, FEBRUARY 11
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Detroit's troubles have been front and center in the heavy campaign by union opponents seeking to dissuade workers at Volkswagen's lone U.S. assembly plant from voting for representation by the United Auto Workers.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A groundbreaking slavery exhibition is opening Tuesday at the Tennessee State Museum and will feature the stories of both slaves and slaveholders at a former Robertson County plantation that was once the largest producer of tobacco in the U.S.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new report shows over the last decade more students are taking Advanced Placement courses in Tennessee.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The earnings gap between young adults with and without bachelor's degrees has stretched to its widest level in nearly half a century. It's a sign of the growing value of a college education despite rising tuition costs, according to an analysis of census data released Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Reassuring words from the new head of the Federal Reserve sent stocks soaring on Tuesday and gave the market its longest winning streak this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil slipped back below $100 a barrel Tuesday as the new head of the U.S. Federal Reserve promised to maintain the central bank's approach to monetary policy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen sought Tuesday to reassure investors that she will embrace the approach to interest-rate policy that her predecessor, Ben Bernanke, pursued before he stepped down as chairman last month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in December and hiring slowed, adding to evidence that the job market weakened that month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A drugmaker working to develop a pill to boost sexual desire in women says regulators are demanding more studies on the experimental drug.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unwilling to risk spooking the markets, and leading a fractured GOP majority, House Speaker John Boehner on Tuesday stepped back from a confrontation with Democrats to let Congress vote on increasing the government's borrowing cap without trying to extract any concessions from the White House.
MONDAY, FEBRUARY 10
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) - Bruce Springsteen is coming to Nashville.
STATEWIDE
MURFREESBORO (AP) - The latest Middle Tennessee State University poll released on Monday shows Gov. Bill Haslam's job approval has dropped since last spring.
NASHVILLE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander has announced that the U.S. Department of the Interior has approved a $4.3 million archive of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.
NASHVILLE (AP) — When Tennessee was competing for a half-billion dollars in federal education money, teachers agreed to allow the state to ramp up its use of student test scores for evaluating educators.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican lawmakers in Tennessee on Monday threatened that the state could turn off the spigot of incentives for Volkswagen if workers at the German automaker's plant decide this week to approve union representation.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan says quarterly profit rose 57 percent, driven by a weaker yen and strong sales in China and Japan.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Many experts believe online wagering is the future of gambling, but the casino industry is increasingly divided on the issue.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market ended up more or less where it began Monday in a quiet day for investors who had little economic data or company earnings to react to.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices rose slightly Monday, enough to close above $100 a barrel for the first time this year.
Activist investor Carl Icahn is backing off his proposal that Apple spend $50 billion buying back its own stock during the current fiscal year that ends in September.
SEATTLE (AP) — Mark Zuckerberg and his wife, Priscilla Chan, were the most generous American philanthropists in 2013, with a donation of 18 million shares of Facebook stock, valued at more than $970 million, to a Silicon Valley nonprofit in December.
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's says a key U.S. sales figure fell last month, even as it fights to attract more customers by aggressively promoting its value menu.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Little more than a week after Groundhog Day, the evidence is mounting that lawmakers have all but wrapped up their most consequential work of 2014, at least until the results of the fall elections are known.
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 7
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Bellevue YMCA, site of a small plane crash on Monday night, is expected to reopen today.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Two of the more vocal Republican critics of efforts to unionize the Volkswagen assembly plant in Tennessee are taking opposing approaches to a pending vote on the issue next week.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee municipalities are keeping a close watch on proposed legislation to eliminate or reduce the Hall tax.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Two lawmakers from eastern Tennessee have received the 2014 Open Government Award from state newspapers for opposing efforts to weaken the state's open records and public meetings law.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Lawmakers have proposed a number of measures this legislative session that seek to make changes to Tennessee's Common Core standards.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — "Do you guys have health insurance?" David Bransfield asks each time a group of backpack-toting college students passes by.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. stock market is ending the week with a modest gain after investors found bright spots in the government's monthly employment survey.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil briefly rose above $100 a barrel for the first time this year on rising demand for fuel and some positive sentiment about the U.S. job market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A surprisingly weak jobs report for a second straight month has renewed concern that the U.S. economy might be slowing after a strong finish last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers boosted their borrowing in December by the largest amount in 10 months as demand for auto, student and credit card loans showed big gains.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One of the most highly anticipated U.S. jobs reports in months might also prove to be among the most puzzling.
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple has repurchased $14 billion of its stock in the two weeks after its first-quarter financial results and second-quarter revenue outlook disappointed investors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Some flood insurance premiums won't be raised until the fall of 2015 at the earliest.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter's stock is sinking on worries that the short online messaging service is not popular enough.
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Times Co. said Thursday its fourth-quarter net income tumbled 63 percent, hurt by comparisons with the same period a year earlier that saw a hefty one-time gain and an extra week of revenue. The company's earnings still beat Wall Street predictions.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama and Congress stand at a junction.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner promised Thursday that the GOP-controlled House won't miss a late-February deadline to increase the government's borrowing cap.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner said Thursday it will be difficult to pass immigration legislation this year, dimming prospects for one of President Barack Obama's top domestic priorities.