VOL. 37 | NO. 11 | Friday, March 15, 2013
Middle Tennessee is home to scores of nonprofit agencies, with some organizations such as United Way offering a wide range of services, programs and aid, while others have a more narrow focus.
LEGISLATIVE PROFILE
State Rep. Kevin Brooks, (R-Cleveland), sees a simple, biblical guidepost for the lopsided Republican majority in the state House.
REALTY CHECK
Sales numbers from the Greater Nashville Association of Realtors’ show unit sales for the area up 18 percent compared to the same period last year, with year-to-date sales up 18.2 percent compared to 2012.
REAL ESTATE
February 2013 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
A look at Davidson County’s top lenders based on total number of all loans, commercial and residential, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
NEWSMAKERS
Sarah B. Krause, Stephanie A. Roth, Brittain W. Sexton and Marcia N. Topiwala have joined the Nashville office of Bass, Berry & Sims PLC as new associates, and Amanda Elliott Stanley has been promoted from associate to counsel.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Many small businesses devote time and resources to social media presence. Utilizing social media platforms to connect with your market is no longer “savvy.” It’s expected by today’s consumer.
SMART STUFF 4 WORK
Most people have no problem accepting that it’s possible to receive wireless signals with their computers. However, the fact that similar wireless-like communication occurs between human beings often seems mysterious to the same people. Interestingly, it is a proven fact that humans communicate with each other wirelessly all the time.
I SWEAR
My wife and I enjoy your sense of humor,” the note began. “You write the funniest things!!”
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Banana
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Coaches and school athletic directors would be required to complete a concussion safety education course under legislation that's headed to the governor for his consideration
NASHVILLE (AP) — The sponsor of legislation that was competing with Gov. Bill Haslam's to create a school voucher program withdrew her bill on Wednesday after proponents of a broader program decided they want to focus on the governor's plan.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposal that seeks to bar public universities and colleges from implementing nondiscrimination policies for student groups is advancing in the Senate.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — State attorneys general from the South are meeting in Nashville this week to learn more about health care fraud and consumer issues affecting the military.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A measure of the U.S. economy's health over the next six months increased in February from January, a sign that growth could be improving.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of previously occupied homes rose in February to the highest level in more than three years, further evidence of a sustained housing recovery that is benefiting the broader economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages fell this week and remained near historic lows, a trend that has supported a recovery in housing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. unemployment aid barely changed last week, while the average over the past month fell to a fresh five-year low. The decline in layoffs is helping strengthen the job market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As they struggle to get ahead, many low-wage workers are not taking advantage of job training or educational programs that could help them make the leap to better-paying jobs. They are often skeptical about whether such programs are even worth the trouble, a new survey shows.
Stocks fell on Wall Street Thursday as Oracle's weak sales results weighed down big U.S. technology companies. Traders worried about Cyprus running out of time to avoid bankruptcy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil fell below $92 a barrel Thursday, giving back gains from the day before.
NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola says it's cutting 750 jobs in the U.S. as it continues to streamline its business.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal judge ruled for The Associated Press on Wednesday in its lawsuit challenging the use of story excerpts by Meltwater U.S. Holdings Inc. and its Meltwater News Service.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday stood by its efforts to keep borrowing costs at record lows, saying it isn't yet convinced that the U.S. economy's growth can accelerate without significant help from the central bank.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-controlled House passed a tea party-flavored budget plan Thursday that promises sharp cuts in safety-net programs for the poor and a clampdown on domestic agencies, in sharp contrast to less austere plans favored by President Barack Obama and his Democratic allies.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 20
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Garth Brooks and George Strait will perform together for the first time at next month's Academy of Country Music Awards to honor Dick Clark.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A measure to ban mountaintop removal coal mining in Tennessee is dead this session.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are preparing to take up a measure that seeks to restrict police agencies in the state from using unmanned drones and the sponsor is someone with experience piloting the planes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to create a school voucher program in Tennessee is scheduled to be heard in the Senate Education Committee on Wednesday.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the University of Wisconsin Population Health Institute ranks the relative health of people living in Tennessee's counties.
STATEWIDE
DALLAS (AP) — FedEx said Wednesday that its third-quarter profit fell 31 percent as customers opted for less-expensive ground shipping, hurting the company's airfreight business.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling nearly 34,000 Buicks and Cadillacs in the U.S., Canada and elsewhere to fix a problem with the automatic transmissions.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal appeals court has struck down a significant portion of the $2.57 million in legal fees awarded to attorneys who have represented TennCare patients in a years-long fight with the state of Tennessee.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has blocked North Carolina from trying to take more than $900,000 from a legal settlement won by the family of a 13-year-old girl who suffered devastating injuries during her birth.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street after the Federal Reserve stood by its plan to continue with aggressive measures to boost the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose Wednesday as Federal Reserve officials signaled that they'll keep interest rates at historically low levels and maintain other measures meant to stimulate economic growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Wednesday that the U.S. economy has strengthened after pausing late last year but still needs the Fed's extraordinary support to help lower high unemployment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve foresees unemployment remaining high into 2015, suggesting it will keep short-term interest rates near record lows at least until then.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's lower-income workers have posted the biggest job gains since the deep 2007-09 recession — but few are bragging.
NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase has agreed to a deal that will return $546 million to former customers of trading firm MF Global Holdings Ltd., which collapsed in 2011 with $1.6 billion missing from its accounts.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate appears set to approve a huge, bipartisan spending bill to keep the government running through September and ruling out the chance of a government shutdown later this month.
TUESDAY, MARCH 19
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A study commissioned by the AARP finds that Tennessee would reap nearly $30 for every dollar spent on expanding Medicaid.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Legislation that would require incoming students at public higher education institutions to show proof of immunization against meningitis is advancing in the House.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Citing the importance of "making sure that the right people are voting," a House committee has stripped student identification cards issued by public universities from a bill about photo IDs that can be used to vote.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to create a school voucher program in Tennessee continued its progression in the House on Tuesday as the state's largest teachers' union mounted an ad campaign seeking to defeat the measure.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Sen. Bill Ketron has delayed a final committee vote on supermarket wine so he can rewrite the bill to keep cigarettes from being sold in liquor stores.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The House has passed a bill to bar public universities and colleges from implementing nondiscrimination policies for student groups.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's administration has served written notice that it opposes a freshman Republican lawmaker's bill to block Medicaid expansion under President Barack Obama's health care overhaul.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Transportation Commissioner John Schroer says his agency's new office is aimed at better coordinating transportation planning statewide.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court on Tuesday rejected efforts by a plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit to keep his claim in state court rather than more business-friendly federal court by limiting the amount of money sought to under $5 million.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
Workers appear to have little faith that the economic recovery and the stock market's climb have left them better-prepared for retirement.
NEW YORK (AP) — The latest twists in Europe's debt drama weighed down the stock market Tuesday, offsetting more good news on the U.S. housing market.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil fell Tuesday as Cyprus lawmakers rejected a measure to tax bank accounts as part of a bailout plan for its shriveled economy and worries persisted about Europe's debt problems.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. builders started more houses and apartments in February and received building permits for future construction at the fastest pace in 4½ years. The increases point to a housing recovery that is gaining strength.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is strengthening on the fuel of more job growth, rising home prices and solid retail sales. Just don't expect the Federal Reserve to let up in its drive to keep stimulating the economy with record-low interest rates.
NEW YORK (AP) — A bankruptcy judge on Tuesday approved the sale of Twinkies to a pair of investment firms, one of which has said it hopes to have the cakes back on shelves by summer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup has agreed to pay $730 million to settle a class-action lawsuit that claimed investors were misled by the bank's disclosures when they purchased its debt and preferred stock.
DUBLIN (AP) — Ryanair has made the biggest-ever order of Boeing planes by a European airline, announcing Tuesday it will buy 175 aircraft in a major boost for the U.S. aerospace giant.
DEERFIELD, Ill. (AP) — Walgreen is expanding its supply agreement with AmerisourceBergen through a 10-year deal that gives the nation's largest drugstore chain an ownership stake in the pharmaceutical wholesaler.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate panel has approved Mary Jo White's nomination to lead the Securities and Exchange Commission and sent it along for a final vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is finally cleaning up its unfinished budget business for the 2013 budget year with a bipartisan government-wide funding bill. But even as that measure heads toward approval, the House and Senate are gearing up for divisive votes that will underscore sharp differences on a bigger problem: how to fix the nation's long-term deficit woes.
MONDAY, MARCH 18
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - House Speaker Beth Harwell says she doesn't plan to press fellow Republican Rep. Matthew Hill to call for another vote on bill to hold local referendums on grocery store wine sales.
MIDSTATE
MURFREESBORO (AP) - A Tennessee college professor is celebrating his coast-to-coast trip using no petroleum fuel.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A former congressional candidate from Franklin says he won't challenge Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander next year.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The commissioner and deputy commissioner of Tennessee's Department of Labor and Workforce Development have resigned.
PIGEON FORGE (AP) — A wildfire burning in a resort area outside the Great Smoky Mountains National Park in eastern Tennessee has destroyed more than 30 large rental cabins.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment rates increased in half of U.S. states in January from December, as employers nationwide added the fewest jobs in seven months.
Confidence among U.S. homebuilders fell this month because of concerns that increased demand for new homes is exceeding supplies of ready-to-build land, building materials and workers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks have closed lower on Wall Street as investors worried that a controversial proposal to seize money from depositors in Cyprus could set off another bout of anxiety over Europe's shared currency.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil reversed sharp early losses and finished higher Monday as nervousness over a bailout plan in Cyprus abated.
NEW YORK (AP) — Years of newsroom cutbacks have had a demonstrable impact on the quality of digital, newspaper and television news and in how consumers view that work, a study released Monday found.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama nominated Assistant Attorney General Thomas Perez to be the next secretary of labor, choosing a Hispanic lawyer with experience in civil rights and workplace issues to his second-term Cabinet. Obama called Perez a consensus builder whose story "reminds us of this country's promise."
FRIDAY, MARCH 15
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Jack Greene, a longtime Grand Ole Opry star who earned fame with the hit "There Goes My Everything," has died in Nashville at 83.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - About 1,000 new teen drivers in Tennessee will be getting fresh drivers licenses after a printing error fouled up dates put on the cards.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hostess is moving forward with the sale of Devil Dogs, Yankee Doodles and Yodels to the maker of Little Debbie cakes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee wants to allow hydraulic fracturing to extract natural gas on a state-owned tract of rolling woodland, raising the hackles of environmentalists who question its stated goal of raising funds to research the environmental impact of such drilling.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Secretary of State Tre Hargett is warning home buyers and sellers about a scam involving real estate titles.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal appeals court has thrown out a 15-year-old legal agreement that mandated regular medical and dental care for the 750,000 children on TennCare, more than a third of all children in the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee woman has been charged with defrauding TennCare and theft after officiasl say she received healthcare insurance benefits through the program despite being ineligible.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal judge in Nashville has blocked Republican leaders' efforts to keep Planned Parenthood of Tennessee from participating in venereal disease prevention programs. The efforts are federally funded, but administered by the state and are aimed at reducing the infection rate of HIV and syphilis.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill that would allow people with handgun carry permits to store firearms in their vehicles no matter where they are parked.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposal to bar local governments from renaming parks or monuments honoring Tennessee's military figures is headed to the governor for his consideration.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to tighten enrollment requirements at privately run online schools has passed the Senate.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The votes have been cast and the bill is awaiting Gov. Bill Haslam's signature, but sponsors are still trying to clarify whether a contentious gun bill affects employment law in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey says he wants a supermarket wine bill to clear his chamber's committees even though the companion bill has fallen short in a House panel.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The state's attorney general has raised constitutional concerns over an effort to strip Vanderbilt University of its police force because of a nondiscrimination policy for student groups.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Senate has approved legislation that would protect student counselors at public higher education institutions who withhold their services because of religious beliefs.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Student identification from Tennessee's higher education institutions could be used for voting, under a measure that was approved Thursday by the state Senate after an attempt to kill the proposal failed.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock markets fell Friday, ending the longest winning streak for the Dow Jones industrial average in nearly 17 years.
Natural gas and oil ended the week with solid gains, with one boosted by forecasts for colder temperatures and the other by signs that U.S. manufacturing is heating up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A strong increase in auto output boosted U.S. factory production last month, the latest sign that manufacturing is helping drive economic growth after lagging for much of 2012.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A spike in gas prices drove a measure of U.S. consumer costs up in February by the most in more than three years. But outside the gain in fuel costs, inflation was mostly modest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon held back showing federal regulators reports in May that revealed the bank had accumulated billions of dollars in trading losses, according to congressional testimony Friday from the firm's former chief financial officer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Samsung Electronics is ratcheting up its rivalry with Apple with its new Galaxy S 4 smartphone, which has a larger, sharper screen than its predecessor, the best-selling S III.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's consumer finance watchdog wants stricter oversight of companies that collect and log student loan payments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week, reducing the average number of weekly applications last month to a five-year low. The drop shows that fewer layoffs are strengthening the job market.
NEW YORK (AP) — Former Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has a book deal.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is pushing Congress to authorize more federally funded research into clean energy technologies that can wean automobiles off oil.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At a recent gathering of House committee and subcommittee chairmen, Republican lawmakers were asked if they could name the legislative affairs staffer at the White House responsible for staying in contact with their panel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Polite yet firm, Senate Republicans told President Barack Obama on Thursday to tone down his political attacks and prod Democratic allies to support controversial changes in Medicare if he wants a compromise reducing deficits and providing stability to federal benefit programs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama said he had "a great conversation" with Senate Republicans on Thursday, the third stop in his ice-breaking tour of the Capitol this week on the budget and other topics.