VOL. 44 | NO. 12 | Friday, March 20, 2020
Starting March 23, Metro Schools will be offering free breakfast and lunch meals to Nashville children at locations throughout Davidson County.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
King Antonio – resting briefly on a 2-foot-tall retaining wall in front of his battered “home church” on Monroe Street – admits he’s worried about coronavirus, but he knows his time is better spent helping his old neighborhood dig out of the more-tangible disaster, the rubble left by the tornado.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
David Crockett, aka Davy: Great Tennessean or greatest Tennessean? Hold your fire, Andrew Jackson fans. I’ll explain later.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The Greater Nashville Realtors released its sales data last week with the activity reported having occurred before the acceptance of the fact by most that the COVID-19 virus is among us.
REAL ESTATE
February 2020 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top residential real estate sales, February 2020, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top commercial real estate sales, February 2020, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates climbed this week in a whip-sawing market amid deepening anxiety over devastation to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
SPORTS
Belmont coach Casey Alexander will be at a beach in Florida on Thursday and Friday. That wasn’t his original plan. The first-year basketball coach was supposed to be leading his team in the first round of the NCAA Tournament on one of those days before the event was canceled due to concerns about the coronavirus pandemic last week.
There will be no chance to win NCAA titles, no March Madness and likely no more games in baseball and softball or matches in tennis and golf.
BRIEFS
The Board of Education for Metro Nashville Public Schools has selected Adrienne Battle as director of schools. Battle, who has led the district as interim director for the past 11 months, is the first woman to serve in this role for Metro Schools.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Extra-small crossover SUVs make up the fastest-growing class in the automotive industry during the past five years, Edmunds data show. The segment surpassed the 1 million mark in number of vehicles sold for the first time in 2019.
PERSONAL FINANCE
A bad stock market is unsettling for any investor. For retirees and near-retirees, though, bad markets can be dangerous.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
So far, your business idea is going nowhere. The concept’s sound, so that’s not the problem. The execution’s been flawless. Issues have been quickly dealt with, so you’re a bit perplexed. Sales should be sky-high, so what gives?
MILLENNIAL MONEY
I know my friends’ joys and anxieties and Hogwarts houses. I can even identify their shoes from under a bathroom stall. (“Is that you, Lindsay?”) They know my family members and preferred pizza toppings.
CAREER CORNER
One of the most frustrating feelings can be a loss of control. There are things you wish you could influence. You try. You go out of your way to plan for everything that could go wrong.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Free agent offensive lineman Ty Sambrailo and the Tennessee Titans have agreed to terms on a one-year contract.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford wants to reopen five North American assembly plants in April that were closed due to the threat of coronavirus.
NASHVILLE AREA
Metro Public Health Department officials on Wednesday launched a COVID-19 telephone hotline with nurses and other public health professionals available to answer questions, provide the latest information about COVID-19, and assist Davidson County residents with the assessment process.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
From finding ways to help others cope to sheltering in place to canceling events, here's a look at some of the ways the entertainment industry is reacting to the spread of the coronavirus, which most people recover from but can cause severe illness in the elderly and those with preexisting medical conditions.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The contrast could hardly be more stark. Gov. Andrew Cuomo of New York has said that if all of his sweeping, expensive measures to stem the coronavirus saved one life, it would be worth it. President Donald Trump has another view: The costs of shutting down the economy outweigh the benefits, frequently telling Americans that 35,000 people a year die from the common flu.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — President Donald Trump wants the country open for business by mid-April, but some experts warn it's not as easy as flipping a switch: Economies run on confidence, and that is likely to be in short supply for as long as coronavirus cases in the United States are still rising.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 3.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — almost five times the previous record set in 1982 — amid a widespread economic shutdown caused by the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed a mammoth $2.2 trillion economic rescue package steering aid to businesses, workers and health care systems engulfed by the coronavirus pandemic, an unprecedented response amid record new jobless claims and mounting evidence that the economy is in a recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Partial highlights of a roughly $2.2 trillion package to rush aid to businesses, workers and a health care system slammed by the coronavirus pandemic. The package, written by Trump administration officials and Democratic and Republican Senate leaders, was released late Wednesday night and unanimously approved by the Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Jerome Powell says the Federal Reserve would provide essentially unlimited lending to support the economy as long as it is damaged by the viral outbreak.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed as it continues to spread across the world. Here is a look at some of the latest developments Thursday related to the global economy, particular economic sectors, and the workplace:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy grew by a moderate 2.1% in the fourth quarter of last year, but many economists believe that will be the last positive growth seen for some time as the country endures a sharp contraction due to the impact of the coronavirus.
NEW YORK (AP) — Goldman Sachs is warning of another sharp drop in oil prices, saying some oil producers are eventually going to have to shut some wells because of dramatic decline in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Five of the nation's largest banks have agreed to temporarily suspend residential mortgage payments for people affected by the coronavirus, California Gov. Gavin Newsom said Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England warned Thursday that the scale and duration of the economic shock stemming from the coronavirus pandemic will be "large and sharp but should ultimately prove temporary."
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders are convening Thursday for their third summit in three weeks as they battle to contain the spread of the coronavirus and its devastating health impact while managing the havoc the disease is wreaking on their 27 economies.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 25
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The American Red Cross said Wednesday it continues to offer emergency financial help for Middle Tennessee residents whose homes were damaged or destroyed in the tornadoes that tore through the region in early March.
HEALTH CARE
U.S. regulators on Tuesday warned the public about malfunctions involving some EpiPens, the emergency injectors for severe allergic reactions.
NASHVILLE AREA
Vice Mayor Jim Shulman, in partnership with Mayor John Cooper and Metro Council, has formed a small business task force to address the issues facing small businesses in Metro Nashville/Davidson County that have been affected by COVID-19 and the March 3 tornadoes.
Metro Parks officials today announced the immediate closure of playgrounds, dog parks, basketball courts, tennis courts, picnic shelters and skate parks.
AUTO INDUSTRY
The outbreak of the coronavirus that emerged in China in December has dealt an unprecedented shock to the global economy as it continues to spread across the world. Here is a look at some of the latest developments Wednesday:
TOURISM
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Fourteen miles of the Blue Ridge Parkway through southwestern North Carolina were closed to the public Tuesday in an effort to slow the spread of the coronavirus, the National Park Service announced.
REAL ESTATE
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed as it continues to spread across the world. Here is a look at some of the latest developments Wednesday related to the global economy, particular economic sectors, and the workplace:
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's "hope and expectation" is that there will be no "elective" abortions performed in the state under an executive order that bars non-essential medical procedures to free up protective equipment for hospitals treating the coronavirus, his spokesman said Wednesday.
MIAMI (AP) — Florida-based grocery chain Publix announced it will install plexiglass barriers to protect its cashiers, joining other retailers that are installing the shields to protect employees and customers from a coronavirus infection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing public criticism, the maker of a promising coronavirus drug said Wednesday it will waive a special regulatory designation that could have allowed it to block competition and boost profits for its treatment.
DUFUR, Ore. (AP) — The social distancing rules repeated like a mantra in America's urban centers, where the coronavirus is spreading exponentially, might seem silly in wide-open places where neighbors live far from each other and "working from home" means another day spent branding calves or driving a tractor alone through a field.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For most Americans alive today, the idea of shared national sacrifice is a collective abstraction, a memory handed down from a grandparent or passed on through a book or movie.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department has advised against all international travel because of the coronavirus, but that didn't stop Secretary of State Mike Pompeo from flying to Afghanistan this week.
BEIJING (AP) — Trains carrying factory employees back to work after two months in locked-down cities rolled out of Hubei province, the center of China's virus outbreak, as the government on Wednesday began lifting the last of the controls that confined tens of millions of people to their homes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making a baseless claim of surging suicides if the U.S. economy remains mostly shut due to the spread of the coronavirus. There's no evidence that suicides will rise dramatically, let alone surpass potential coronavirus deaths. Historically in a crisis, suicides tend to diminish as society pulls together in a common purpose.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks scored their first back-to-back gains Wednesday since a brutal sell-off began five weeks ago, but much of an early rally faded late in the day as a last-minute dispute threatened to hold up a $2 trillion economic rescue package in Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and Senate leaders announced agreement Wednesday on an unparalleled, $2 trillion emergency bill to rush aid to businesses, workers and a health care system slammed by the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Partial highlights of a roughly $2 trillion package to rush aid to businesses, workers and a health care system slammed by the coronavirus pandemic. Details of the package, written by Trump administration officials and Democratic and Republican Senate leaders, were still emerging Wednesday afternoon and were not immediately available for the entire bill.
The White House and Senate leaders agreed early Wednesday on a $2 trillion economic rescue package, the largest in the country's history. The bill comes in response to the viral pandemic that has shut down businesses and crippled economies around the globe. It would give direct payments to most Americans, expand unemployment benefits and provide direct grants and loans to businesses and hospitals.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Barely a week ago, David McGraw was cooking daily for hundreds of fine diners at one of New Orleans' illustrious restaurants.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is taking unprecedented action to help member countries endure the massive economic shock of the virus outbreak, but some nations are resisting the idea of shared borrowing to cover the heavy costs - suggesting that even during this crisis there are limits to solidarity in a bloc that is trying to reaffirm itself after Brexit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods rose by a solid amount in February, but the gain came before the coronavirus had shut down much of the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said it will suspend some of its bank supervisory activities to give banks more leeway in dealing with financially strapped customers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency said Tuesday that it's reviewing a request from the oil and gas industry to ease enforcement of hazardous air and water pollution and other regulatory issues during the coronavirus pandemic.
Major sports leagues and teams across the United States are being forced to write a new game plan on how to pay employees and keep the franchises solvent in the wake of a coronavirus pandemic that has all but stopped revenue and brought competition to a halt.
TUESDAY, MARCH 24
TENNESSEE TITANS
Tight end MyCole Pruitt has agreed on a one-year contract to re-sign with the Tennessee Titans.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has named an acting replacement to the state finance commissioner, who is leaving the post to the lead governor's coordination of the coronavirus response.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A political action committee is challenging a Tennessee law that criminalizes publishing false campaign literature, arguing that such bans violate the U.S. Constitution.
TECHNOLOGY
With so much of the U.S. workforce — and their families — now cooped up at home to combat the spread of the novel coronavirus, it's not a huge surprise that home internet is showing the strain.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. new home sales fell 4.4% in February with bigger declines expected in coming months as the coronavirus puts a major crimp on home sales.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — More cities and counties in Tennessee on Monday issued strict orders for nonessential businesses to shut down temporarily and people to stay at home as much as possible to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
TOURISM
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is shutting down for two weeks in an effort to help stop the spread of the new coronavirus, according to a news release from the park.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Inside a warehouse for MooTV, a live video production company in Nashville, Tennessee, the floor-to-ceiling shelves are lined with row after row of video screens, cables and rolling cases that normally would be out on the road with Brad Paisley, Chris Stapleton or Dierks Bentley. At one end of the warehouse sits an empty bar with beer taps where fans once sat on stage with Paisley.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Doctors across Tennessee pleaded with Gov. Bill Lee on Tuesday to take stronger action to prevent the spread of the new coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With lives and the economy hanging in the balance, President Donald Trump said Tuesday he is hoping the United States will be reopened by Easter as he weighs how to relax nationwide social-distancing guidelines to put some workers back on the job during the coronavirus outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making a baseless claim of surging suicides if the U.S. economy remains mostly shut due to the spread of the coronavirus. There's no evidence that suicides will rise dramatically, let alone surpass potential coronavirus deaths. Historically in a crisis, suicides tend to diminish as society pulls together in a common purpose.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has a new daily ritual now that a pandemic has put the kibosh on the signature campaign rallies that got him elected four years ago: the coronavirus briefing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pharmaceutical giant that makes a promising coronavirus drug has registered it as a rare disease treatment with U.S. regulators, a status that can potentially be worth millions in tax breaks and competition-free sales.
Malaysia's medical glove factories, which make most of the world's critical hand protection, are operating at half capacity just when they're most needed, The Associated Press has learned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals are gearing up to test if a century-old treatment used to fight off flu and measles outbreaks in the days before vaccines, and tried more recently against SARS and Ebola, just might work for COVID-19, too: using blood donated from patients who've recovered.
TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics were postponed until 2021 on Tuesday, ending weeks of speculation that the games could not go ahead as scheduled because of the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A series of missteps at the nation's top public health agency caused a critical shortage of reliable laboratory tests for the coronavirus, hobbling the federal response as the pandemic spread across the country like wildfire, an Associated Press review found.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The imagery floats in sepia-colored photographs, faintly recalled images of bedraggled people lined up for bread or soup. Shacks in Appalachian hollows. Ruined investors taking their lives in the face of stock market crashes. Desperation etched on the faces of a generation that would soon face a world war.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged to its best day since 1933 as Congress and the White House neared a deal on Tuesday to inject nearly $2 trillion of aid into an economy ravaged by the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional and White House officials said Tuesday they were closing out final details of unprecedented legislation to rush sweeping aid to businesses and workers facing ruin from the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tarred as villains during the 2008 financial meltdown, banks of all sizes are trying to help out Americans reeling from the economic crisis caused by the coronavirus outbreak.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus since it was first reported in China has dealt an unprecedented shock to the global economy. Here's a look at developments Tuesday as central banks, businesses and workers attempt to navigate a global outbreak that has brought economic activity to a standstill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As cases of coronavirus rise, President Donald Trump said that he wants to reopen the country for business in weeks, not months, and claimed, without evidence, that continued closures could result in more deaths than the pandemic itself.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve took several aggressive steps Monday to support an economy ravaged by the effects of the coronavirus. The amount of money involved is huge and the Fed's ambitions are vast: It wants to make loans available to companies and governments so they can pay bills and potentially avoid layoffs. It also committed to buy as much government debt and mortgage-backed securities it deems necessary to ensure those markets will function.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic and the country's collapsing economy are forcing Democrats and Republicans to rethink the messaging they thought would help them win November's elections for White House and congressional control.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is rejecting appeals to slow its deregulatory drive while Americans grapple with the coronavirus, pushing major public health and environmental rollbacks closer to enactment in recent days despite the pandemic.
MONDAY, MARCH 23
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed goaltender Connor Ingram to a three-year contract.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former staffer for Mike Bloomberg's presidential campaign filed a class-action lawsuit Monday alleging the billionaire broke a promise to pay his thousands of campaign workers through November, regardless of whether his 2020 bid was successful.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday threw out a lower court ruling in favor of a black media mogul and comedian who's suing cable giant Comcast alleging racial discrimination.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump will have to go to the U.S. Supreme Court if he wants to block critics from his personal Twitter account.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — More cities and counties in Tennessee on Monday issued strict orders for nonessential businesses to shut down temporarily and people to stay at home as much as possible to curb the spread of the coronavirus.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Sunday urged residents to work from home and ordered bars and restaurants to close for 14 days starting Monday with the exception of drive-thru, take-out and delivery services in response to the coronavirus pandemic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump expressed qualms Monday about extending the current 15-day shutdown recommended by the federal government, even as his officials warned that the coronavirus crisis is deepening and Congress ran into more roadblocks trying to complete a nearly $2 trillion economic rescue package.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul was tested a week ago for the novel coronavirus, but continued working at the Capitol because he "felt that it was highly unlikely" he was sick since had no symptoms of the illness, he said Monday. Paul also said he did not have direct contact with anyone who tested positive for the virus or was sick.
SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing is suspending operations at its Seattle area facilities due to the spread of coronavirus in the area, where dozens of people have died.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci says he can't jump in front of the microphone to stop President Donald Trump from speaking at daily White House briefings on the coronavirus outbreak.
PARIS (AP) — The hunt for masks, ventilators and other medical supplies consumed the U.S. and Europe on Monday, as new coronavirus infections soared and political paralysis stalled efforts for a quick aid package from Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Scam artists are preying on older people's fears by peddling fake tests for the coronavirus to Medicare recipients, a federal law enforcement agency warned on Monday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein tested positive for the coronavirus at a state prison in New York while serving a 23-year sentence for rape and sexual assault, the head of the state correctional officers union said Monday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee small businesses that have been economically harmed as a result of the coronavirus outbreak can apply for U.S. Small Business Administration disaster loans, the state said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is revising history as to how he described the dangers of the coronavirus as it swept across China and showed early signs in the U.S.
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump is falsely asserting how quickly automakers including GM, Ford and Tesla can manufacture ventilators to help fill an acute U.S. shortage of the medical equipment for coronavirus patients.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell about 3% on Wall Street Monday as Congress hit another roadblock in talks to inject nearly $2 trillion into the economy. Even an extraordinary flood of support from the Federal Reserve wasn't enough to lift stocks, as frustration with Washington and the number of coronavirus cases rise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is unleashing its boldest effort yet to protect the U.S. economy from the coronavirus by helping companies and governments large and small pay their bills and survive a devastating crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three weeks ago, EmpireCLS was heading toward a second straight year of record business. A car service company in New Jersey, Empire couldn't even find enough chauffeurs and office workers to meet its needs.
The rapid spread of the coronavirus since it was first reported in China has dealt an unprecedented shock to the global economy.
BANKGOK (AP) — The Japanese technology and telecoms company SoftBank said Monday it plans to buy back up to 4.5 trillion yen ($41 billion) of its assets as it seeks to trim its gigantic debt burden.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump put it bluntly: "WE CANNOT LET THE CURE BE WORSE THAN THE PROBLEM ITSELF."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has never been known for his patience or long attention span.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top-level negotiations between Congress and the White House churned late into the night over a now nearly $2 trillion economic rescue package, as the coronavirus crisis deepened, the nation shut down and the first U.S. senator tested positive for the disease.
Fallout of '08 bailout looms over Washington negotiations
A snapshot of the emerging rescue package in Congress to provide healthcare and economic aid amid the coronavirus outbreak and national shutdown.
FRIDAY, MARCH 20
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed forward Patrick Harper to a two-year, entry-level contract.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee announced Friday that his administration is working on allowing local officials to meet electronically, rather than in person, to mitigate the risk of spreading the new coronavirus.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Working in the close quarters health officials advised against, Tennessee lawmakers cut short their 2020 session and won't return until June 1 after passing a dramatically reduced spending plan for the upcoming year in reaction to widespread coronavirus-related disruptions.
NASHVILLE AREA
Dr. Michael Caldwell, Metro’s chief medical director, is enhancing COVID-19 public health protocols restricting dine-in service at all restaurants throughout Nashville and Davidson County.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville's smaller airport is reopening after it endured $93 million in infrastructure damage during a deadly night of tornadoes in Tennessee.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Beale Street Music Festival and the World Championship Barbecue Cooking Contest in Memphis, Tennessee, have been postponed because of the new coronavirus outbreak.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home sales jumped in February to their highest level in 13 years, a trend that will almost certainly be reversed as people stop showing their property out of fear of infection in the coronavirus outbreak.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — News organizations across the United States are lifting paywalls to share coverage of the coronavirus pandemic, a public service many hope will convince more readers to eventually become paying customers.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Grand Ole Opry, the longest running radio show in history, is playing on through the coronavirus outbreak by returning to its roots.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court reported Friday that the nine justices are healthy and trying to stay that way.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — In an extraordinary exchange, President Donald Trump and the government's top infectious disease expert, Dr. Anthony Fauci, publicly sparred Friday on whether a malaria drug would work to treat people with coronavirus disease.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's become a fixture of life under quarantine. Almost daily, President Donald Trump appears on television, flanked by officials, to announce his latest maneuver in the fight against the new coronavirus. He typically unveils a dramatic-sounding emergency measure, a solution that appears imminent or a bold promise meant to reassure Americans that he's got this.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an angry President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at reporters and broke with his own health officials on the science of the outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mexico and the U.S. announced Friday that they would prohibit all "non-essential" travel across their shared border as part of efforts to control the spread of the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — First, some of the coronavirus tests didn't work. Then there weren't enough to go around. Now, just as the federal government tries to ramp up nationwide screening, laboratory workers are warning of a new roadblock: dire shortages of testing supplies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defending his handling of the coronavirus pandemic, an angry President Donald Trump on Friday lashed out at reporters and broke with his own health officials on the science of the outbreak.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Netflix said Friday it is establishing a $100 million relief fund for workers in the worldwide creative community affected by the corona-virus caused halt of most film and television production.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The income tax filing date has been pushed back from April 15, to July 15, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Insisting the federal government is not a "shipping clerk," President Donald Trump on Thursday called on states to do more to secure their own critically needed masks, ventilators and testing supplies as the pressure mounted on hospitals struggling to cope with a rising number of coronavirus patients.
NEW YORK (AP) — Most Americans who rent their home, many of whom have lost their jobs in the sudden economic slowdown caused by the coronavirus outbreak, will not be eligible for eviction protections, despite what President Donald Trump said this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump misstated the facts Thursday when he asserted that the Food and Drug Administration had just approved a decades-old malaria drug to treat patients infected by the coronavirus. After his FDA chief clarified that the drug still needs testing, Trump also overstated the drug's potential upside in helping contain the outbreak.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — One company rushed to expand its delivery fleet. Another has seen sales triple. The global coronavirus pandemic has left millions of people locked out of bars, restaurants and theaters, but it's been an unexpected boost for some U.S. pot shops.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a world suffering a pandemic, cash is no longer king.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street ended the week the same way it began: in full retreat from the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders from Congress and the White House buckled down for high-stakes negotiations Friday on a mammoth $1 trillion-plus economic rescue package as President Donald Trump lashed out over questions of his handling of the coronavirus outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said it would seek to hold down spiking interest rates in the state and municipal bond markets by supporting banks' purchase of the bonds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Trump's Senate GOP allies Thursday released a $1 trillion-plus economic recovery plan to speed direct payments of up to $1,200 to individuals, help small businesses stay afloat, and provide subsidized loans to the airlines and other industries distressed by the economic wreckage of the coronavirus epidemic, among other provisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it is seeking $3 billion from Congress to top up the country's strategic petroleum reserves, potentially propping up U.S. oil producers after crude prices crashed globally.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Bloomberg is transferring $18 million from his presidential campaign to the Democratic National Committee in the largest single such transfer ever.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Richard Burr, R-N.C., is asking for an ethics review after coming under criticism for selling off as much as $1.7 million in stocks just before the market dropped in February amid coronavirus fears.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the three weeks since his blowout win in the South Carolina primary, Joe Biden has emerged as the Democratic presidential nominee-in-waiting. But, amid the uncertainty of the coronavirus pandemic, put the emphasis on waiting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — No more rallies. No more door-knocking. And no more in-person fundraisers, raking in dollars from dozens of millionaires at once.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley has resigned from the board of Boeing Co., cutting ties with a company she long supported as South Carolina governor because of her opposition to a bailout of the airplane manufacturer that is in the works amid the new coronavirus outbreak.
THURSDAY, MARCH 19
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican-led Legislature has asked the U.S. Supreme Court to consider their failed challenge of the federal refugee resettlement program, which claims the state shouldn't be forced to spend money on Medicaid and other services for refugees.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal court has temporarily blocked a Tennessee court rule that says people who have been jailed can't get their bail deposit back when their case is finished until court costs and other fees are paid.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee death row inmate is seeking a stay of his execution in June due to the coronavirus pandemic.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed forward Cole Smith to a one-year, two-way deal for the 2020-21 season.
NASHVILLE SC
NEW YORK (AP) — Major League Soccer is targeting a May 10 return to play and will consider pushing back its championship game by a month into December.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Academy of Country Music had to postpone their upcoming awards show because of the spreading coronavirus, but CBS will air a new television special featuring country stars performing from their homes.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Concerns about the spreading coronavirus forced most of North America's auto plants to close, at least temporarily.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian government said Thursday the Canada-U.S. border will be closed to all non-essential travel in both directions on Friday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has upgraded its already dire warning to Americans against all international travel as the coronavirus outbreak spreads.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Celebrities, politicians and professional athletes faced a backlash this week as many revealed that they had been tested for the coronavirus, even when they didn't have a fever or other tell-tale symptoms.
ROME — Italy has become the country with the most coronavirus-related deaths, surpassing China by registering 3,405 dead.
The chairman of Arizona's Asian Chamber of Commerce didn't see much downside to attending a small dinner at a local restaurant to bolster the business and bring together other leaders to discuss how to help Asian-American eateries devastated by the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing with solid gains on Wall Street Thursday after shaking off a rocky start.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress worked urgently Thursday to fashion a $1 trillion measure to prop up households and the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus outbreak, starting with a White House proposal to send Americans first-round aid checks — potentially $3,000 for a family of four.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Just a couple of weeks ago, Erika Vega hoped her temp job at a cafeteria would soon become permanent. But instead, the viral outbreak shut down the building where she worked and left her wondering where her next paycheck will come from.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it is seeking $3 billion from Congress to top up the country's strategic petroleum reserves, potentially propping up U.S. oil producers after crude prices crashed globally.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday the government should take an equity stake in some companies that need bailouts because of devastating effects of the coronavirus pandemic on the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first federal checks to families could be $3,000 for a family of four under the White House proposal to unleash $1 trillion to shore up households and the U.S. economy amid the coronavirus outbreak.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England slashed its main interest rate to 0.1%, its lowest-ever level since its founding in 1694, and reactivated its bond-buying program in response to the economic shock of the coronavirus pandemic.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sports are on hold, theaters are closed and so are amusement parks, a disaster-movie scenario that has Hollywood reeling. But Americans held captive at home by the coronavirus can turn to Netflix, Amazon, Hulu and other streaming services, outliers in an entertainment industry brought to an unprecedented standstill.
Business Fallout: Airlines fear failure, delivery in demand
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment benefits surged last week by 70,000 to the highest level in more than two years, indicating that the effect of the coronavirus was starting to be felt in rising layoffs in the job market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has set up a program to exchange dollars for foreign currency with nine central banks to support dollar lending in global markets that are under pressure from the impact of the viral outbreak.
BEIJING (AP) — Factories in China, struggling to reopen after the coronavirus shut down the economy, face a new threat from U.S. anti-disease controls that might disrupt the flow of microchips and other components they need.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hawaii congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard is suspending her presidential campaign, ending a long-shot effort that saw her feuding with Hillary Clinton and raising fears among Democrats that she would mount a third-party 2020 bid.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Leaders of the world's most powerful economies convened virtually on Thursday with the aim of coordinating a global response to the fast-spreading coronavirus, which has shuttered businesses and forced well over a quarter of the world's population into home isolation.
SOAVE, Italy (AP) — Italy has become the first western developed nation to idle most of its industry to halt the spread of the coronavirus, in a potential cautionary tale for other governments, such as the Trump administration, that are resisting such drastic measures.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is producing a series of public service announcements designed to encourage social distancing to prevent the spread of COVID-19. The campaign has the tag line, "Do your part, stay apart," and features Gov. Bill Lee and first lady Maria Lee plus other prominent Tennesseans.