VOL. 47 | NO. 13 | Friday, March 24, 2023
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
A flyer in the snail mail presented yet another topic on which I am – and, by extension, all Nashvillians are – apparently obliged to take a position. It came compliments of CARE, which stands for Citizens Against Racetrack Expansion for Nashville.
UT SPORTS
As most of the college sports world remains focused on the hardwood for March Madness, the Tennessee football team returned to the practice field this week to begin spring practice.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville office of Burr & Forman LLP has hired Summer J. Melton and Katherine “Kiki” R. Rogers.
BRIEFS
Nashville’s Sage Health, a new health care company that will serve seniors with primary care, cardiology and wellness services, will open its first 11 senior health and wellness centers across four states in the coming year.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The Toyota Prius, which has become synonymous with hybrid cars the past 20 years, is fresh off a full redesign for 2023. The prior generation’s oddball styling, quirky interior and feeble powertrain are now in the rearview mirror.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Some people rent in retirement because they don’t have much choice; they can’t afford to own homes. But financial planners say renting can make more sense than owning in some circumstances, even for retirees who can afford the costs of homeownership.
CAREER CORNER
Equal Pay Day this year fell was March 14. This day symbolizes how far into the new year women must work to earn what men earned in the previous year. But, it’s important to note that when you look at specific groups of women, the date is later in the year.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Real estate has been a popular investment for a very long time – for those who can afford it. But in recent years, trends such as house flipping, “house hacking” (living in one room of a property while renting out the others) and short-term vacation rentals have made real estate investment much more accessible, especially for millennials seeking a second income stream in an uncertain economy.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
BOSTON (AP) — Juuse Saros stopped 35 shots, Cody Glass scored late in the second period and the Nashville Predators beat NHL-best Boston 2-1 on Tuesday night, halting the Bruins' seven-game winning streak.
BOSTON (AP) — When the Nashville Predators' team flight took off for Boston, defenseman Ryan McDonagh wasn't aboard.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Dolly Parton will return for a second consecutive year as host of the Academy of Country Music Awards but this year she's bringing a new plus-one to help — Garth Brooks.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — First lady Jill Biden and Sheryl Crow were among those expected to attend a candlelight vigil Wednesday in memory of the three children and three adults killed in a shooting at a private Christian school in Nashville.
Details from the rich, full lives of the three adults killed Monday at a Nashville elementary school have emerged quickly in the aftermath, but information on the three 9-year-old children — whose lives ended tragically young — has been slower to publicly surface from a community buried in grief.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Six people were killed at a small, private Christian school just south of downtown Nashville on Monday after a shooter opened fire inside the building of about 200 students, police said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The shooter who killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven weapons in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before carrying out the attack by firing indiscriminately at victims and spraying gunfire through doors and windows, police said Tuesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — An alarm blared and lights flashed as a heavily armed assailant stalked the hallways of The Covenant School.
Public outrage is swift following mass shootings, such as the killing of six people at a Christian elementary school in Nashville. Sorrow and sympathy are widespread. But what comes next from policymakers is likely to depend on which political party is in charge of a state.
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Nashville residents reeled from a fatal grade school shooting that left six dead, a federal judge quietly cleared the way to drop the minimum age for Tennesseans to carry handguns publicly without a permit to 18 — just two years after a new law set the age at 21.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday grappled with whether a man serving a life sentence for his role on an international "kill team" should get a new trial.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating hush money paid on Donald Trump's behalf is scheduled to consider other matters next week before taking a previously scheduled two-week hiatus, a person familiar with the matter said Wednesday. That means a vote on whether or not to indict the former president likely wouldn't come until late April at the earliest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is offering support for the creation of an international court to prosecute alleged crimes of aggression by Russia against Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An FBI informant who marched to the U.S. Capitol with fellow Proud Boys members on Jan. 6 testified on Wednesday that he didn't know of any plans for the far-right extremist group to invade the building and didn't think they inspired the violence that day.
PODGORICA, Montenegro (AP) — South Korea and the United States have requested the extradition from Montenegro of Terraform Labs founder Do Kwon, who is wanted in connection with a $40 billion crash of the firm's cryptocurrency that devastated retail investors around the world, Montenegro's justice minister said Wednesday.
TRAVEL
U.S. Senate and House members proposed a new no-fly list for unruly passengers on Wednesday, an idea that was pushed by airline unions but failed to gain traction last year.
TECHNOLOGY
Are tech companies moving too fast in rolling out powerful artificial intelligence technology that could one day outsmart humans?
HEALTH CARE
The U.S. Food and Drug Administration on Wednesday approved selling naloxone without a prescription, setting the overdose-reversing drug on course to become the first opioid treatment drug to be sold over the counter.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican lawmakers accused top bank regulators Wednesday of dawdling as Silicon Valley Bank hurtled toward the second-largest bank failure in U.S. history and questioned whether tougher regulations would have made a difference.
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. lawmakers say Credit Suisse kept allowing wealthy Americans to dodge tax payments, finding after a two-year investigation that the embattled Swiss bank violated a 2014 plea agreement it entered for enabling tax evasion.
GENEVA (AP) — UBS said Wednesday that it's bringing back former CEO Sergio Ermotti to lead the Swiss bank as it executes a government-orchestrated plan to take over struggling rival Credit Suisse.
ENERGY
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Oil companies offered a combined $264 million for drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday in a sale mandated by last year's climate bill compromise.
The U.S. Energy Department said Wednesday it has a new strategy to meet the goal of vastly expanding offshore wind energy to address climate change.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It was just a few weeks ago that California Gov. Gavin Newsom called the oil industry the second most powerful force on earth, trailing only Mother Nature in its ability to bend the elements — both physical and political — to its will.
MADRID (AP) — Renewable energy investors who lost subsidies promised by Spain are heading to a London court to try to claw back $125 million from the government — a decadelong dispute with ramifications for clean energy financing across the European Union.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rallied Wednesday as Wall Street shakes off more of the fear that dominated it earlier this month.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette will retire at the end of the fiscal year will be succeeded by Bloomingdale's Chairman and CEO Tony Spring.
Longtime Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz insisted the coffee chain hasn't broken labor laws and is willing to bargain with unionized workers during an often testy, two-hour appearance before the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress on Wednesday approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration's protections for the nation's waterways that Republicans have criticized as a burden on business, advancing a measure that President Joe Biden has promised to veto.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday offered an optimistic outlook on the health of democracy worldwide, declaring that leaders are "turning the tide" in stemming a yearslong backslide of democratic institutions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the federal budget standoff, the majority of U.S. adults are asking lawmakers to pull off the impossible: Cut the overall size of government, but also devote more money to the most popular and expensive programs.
DURHAM, N.C. (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans' ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is opening his second Summit for Democracy with a pledge for the U.S. to spend $690 million bolstering democracy programs around the globe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate moved toward a vote Wednesday to repeal the 2002 measure that greenlighted the March 2003 invasion of Iraq, which would end more than 20 years of authorization for U.S. presidents to use force in that country and return those war powers to Congress.
TUESDAY, MARCH 28
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of the Christian elementary school in Nashville who was killed in a shooting there on Monday was described by friends as smart, loving and a rare female leader within a male-led religious culture.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The shooter who killed three students and three staff members at a Christian school in Nashville legally bought seven weapons in recent years and hid the guns from their parents before carrying out the attack by firing indiscriminately at victims and spraying gunfire through doors and windows, police said Tuesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville police released video Tuesday from a body-worn camera that shows a team of officers entering and searching an elementary school, then confronting and opening fire on an assailant who had murdered three children and three adults in the latest school shooting to roil the nation.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The six people who were fatally shot at a Christian elementary school in Nashville Monday included 9-year-old Hallie Scruggs, the daughter of the pastor whose church runs The Covenant School.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The former student who shot through the doors of a Christian elementary school in Nashville and killed three children and three adults had drawn a detailed map of the school, including potential entry points, and conducted surveillance of the building before carrying out the massacre.
CHICAGO (AP) — The survivor of a mass shooting last July 4th outside Chicago rushed to the scene of the latest such tragedy Monday in Nashville, expressing disbelief that one had occurred again.
A pediatric surgeon who left The Covenant School in Nashville moments before a shooter opened fire, killing six people, says she is horrified by the gun violence that has plagued the U.S.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury that has been hearing testimony about hush money paid on Donald Trump's behalf will not take up that inquiry again this week, meaning any potential vote on an indictment won't happen until next week at the earliest, two people familiar with the matter said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that former Vice President Mike Pence will have to testify before a grand jury in the Justice Department's investigation into efforts by former President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
NEW YORK (AP) — FTX founder Sam Bankman-Fried was charged with directing $40 million in bribes to one or more Chinese officials to unfreeze assets relating to his cryptocurrency business in a newly rewritten indictment unsealed Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — A pivotal figure in the hush money payment investigation of Donald Trump returned on Monday to the building where a grand jury has been meeting for months, a repeat appearance suggesting his testimony could be key as prosecutors push toward potential criminal charges.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison is slated to lead off opening statements expected for Tuesday in his state's lawsuit against Juul Labs – marking the first time any of the thousands of cases against the e-cigarette maker over its alleged marketing to young people is going to play out in a courtroom.
SPORTS
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — The U.S. gambling industry is adopting a new responsible marketing code that will ban sports books from partnering with colleges to promote sports wagering, bar payments to college and amateur athletes for using their name, image or likeness, and end the use of the terms "free" or "risk-free" to describe promotional bets.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Japan and the United States have reached an agreement on trade in critical minerals for electric vehicle batteries, part of an effort to ensure secure supplies of strategically important resources.
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. highway safety regulators have opened yet another investigation into problems with Teslas, this time tied to complaints that the seat belts may not hold people in a crash.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California lawmakers on Monday approved the nation's first penalty for price gouging at the pump, voting to give regulators the power to punish oil companies for profiting from the type of gas price spikes that plagued the nation's most populous state last summer.
Lyft co-founders Logan Green and John Zimmer are relinquishing their leadership roles to make way for a former Amazon executive as the ride-hailing service struggles to recover from the pandemic while long-time rival Uber has been regaining its momentum.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's bank supervisors warned Silicon Valley Bank's management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but its managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix the problems.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sarah Walker, owner of Nuance Interior Design Showroom in Bellevue, Washington, thought she had her banking arrangements fairly well protected. She kept deposits at Wells Fargo and a brokerage account at Fidelity under the federal insurance cap of $250,000.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's bank supervisors informed Silicon Valley Bank's management as early as the fall of 2021 of risks stemming from its unusual business model, a top Fed official said Tuesday, but the bank's managers failed to take the steps necessary to fix its problems.
ENERGY
BERLIN (AP) — Deployment of new wind and solar power plants needs to be drastically ramped up by the end of the decade to meet the world's climate goals, the International Renewable Energy Agency said Tuesday.
Electricity generated from renewables surpassed coal in the United States for the first time in 2022, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Monday.
ENVIRONMENT
A field that has long grown tomatoes, peppers and onions now looks like a wind-whipped ocean as farmer Don Cameron seeks to capture the runoff from a freakishly wet year in California to replenish the groundwater basin that is his only source to water his crops.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer confidence inched up in March after two straight monthly declines, even as persistent inflation, bank collapses and anxiety over a possible recession weighed on American households.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks were mixed Tuesday as Wall Street regains some stability at the tail end of what's been a turmoil-filled month.
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple is getting into the buy now, pay later space with a few tweaks to the existing model — including no option to pay with a credit card. The company will roll out the product to some consumers this spring, and will begin reporting the loans to credit bureaus in the fall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen affirmed America's commitment to enhancing corporate transparency along with more than 20 other countries participating in this week's Summit for Democracy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Alibaba is splitting itself into into six business groups as the Chinese e-commerce company attempts to become more nimble in reacting to changes in the market and increase the value of those units.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Just years after labor activists persuaded a handful of states to raise their minimum wage to $15 per hour, workers initially thrilled with the pay bump are finding their hard-won gains erased by inflation.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy, R-Calif., said Tuesday he's increasingly concerned about President Joe Biden's unwillingness to negotiate on lifting the nation's borrowing authority, saying in a letter to the president that the White House position could "hold dire ramifications for the entire nation."
DURHAM, North Carolina (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that Republicans' ideas for cutting the budget could undermine U.S. manufacturing and help China dominate the world economy.
MONDAY, MARCH 27
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — John Tavares scored two goals and added an assist, Joseph Woll made 22 saves and the Toronto Maple Leafs defeated the Nashville Predators 3-2 on Sunday night.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Administrators at a Wisconsin elementary school stopped a first-grade class from performing a Miley Cyrus and Dolly Parton duet promoting LGBTQ acceptance because the song "could be perceived as controversial."
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A former student killed three children and three adults at a Christian elementary school in Nashville on Monday, armed with two "assault-style" weapons and a handgun after elaborately planning the massacre by drawing out a detailed map and conducting surveillance of the building, police said.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A group of Tennessee Republicans began this year's legislative session hoping to add narrow exceptions to one of the strictest abortion bans in the country, armed with the belief that most people — even in conservative Tennessee — reject extremes on the issue.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed inclined Monday to rule against a man convicted of violating immigration law for offering adult adoptions he falsely claimed would lead to citizenship.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating former President Donald Trump over hush money payments was due to return Monday afternoon to hear more evidence, with still no word on when it might be asked to vote on a possible indictment.
STAMFORD, Conn. (AP) — More relatives of people shot to death at a Colorado supermarket in 2021 are suing gun-maker Sturm, Ruger & Co. over how it marketed the firearm used in the massacre, adding to litigation first filed earlier this month against the company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't hear a civil rights case brought by the parents of a teenager who was naked and unarmed when he was fatally shot by an Oklahoma police officer in 2019.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will decide whether a disabled activist can file disability rights lawsuits against hotels she doesn't intend to visit.
AUTO INDUSTRY
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal lawsuit filed Monday by the city of St. Louis accuses automakers Kia and Hyundai of failing to install industry-standard anti-theft technology, resulting in thousands of vehicle thefts in the Missouri city.
TECHNOLOGY
To use, or not to use, Bard? That is the Shakespearean question an Associated Press reporter sought to answer while testing out Google's artificially intelligent chatbot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government will restrict its use of commercial spyware tools that have been used to surveil human rights activists, journalists and dissidents around the world, under an executive order issued Monday by President Joe Biden.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's top financial regulator pledged Monday that the Federal Reserve and other agencies will take whatever steps they deem necessary to protect depositors and the banking system two weeks after two large bank collapses triggered financial turmoil in the United States and Europe.
NEW YORK (AP) — First Citizens Bank is buying much of Silicon Valley Bank, the tech-focused financial institution whose failure this month set off a chain reaction that helped rattle faith in banks around the world.
ENERGY
The wind power industry on Monday projected growth to rapidly accelerate this year, with incentives and policy changes in key nations helping to overcome factors that led to a slowdown in 2022.
TRANSPORTATION
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Union Pacific has become the second major freight railroad in the past week to back away from the industry's longstanding push to cut train crews down to one person as lawmakers and regulators increasingly focus on rail safety following last month's fiery derailment in Ohio.
MEDIA
William Shatner, Monica Lewinsky and other prolific Twitter commentators — some household names, others little-known journalists — could soon be losing the blue check marks that helped verify their identity on the social media platform.
NEW YORK (AP) — Some parts of Twitter's source code — the fundamental computer code on which the social network runs — were leaked online, the social media company said in a legal filing that was first reported by The New York Times.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed mostly higher on a steadying Wall Street as battered banks showed more strength, at least for now. The S&P 500 rose 0.2% Monday. The Dow Jones Industrial Averate also rose, while the Nasdaq fell. Markets have been in turmoil following the second- and third-largest U.S. bank failures in history earlier this month. Investors have been hunting for which banks could be next to fall as the system creaks under the pressure of much higher interest rates. First Citizens' stock soared after saying it would buy most of Silicon Valley Bank, whose failure sparked the industry's furor earlier this month.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Erik Paul didn't mind answering government questions about where his software development business was located or how many employees it had. But when queries from the U.S. Census Bureau broached the company's finances, the chief operating officer hesitated.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
LONDON (AP) — Scotland's governing party elected Humza Yousaf as its new leader on Monday, making him the first person of color and the first Muslim to lead the country of 5.5 million people.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China's global campaign to win friends and influence policy has blossomed in a surprising place: Utah, a deeply religious and conservative state with few obvious ties to the world's most powerful communist country.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — China's global influence campaign has been surprisingly robust and successful in Utah, an investigation by The Associated Press has found.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow was sitting in Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's conference room at the Pentagon, listening to him make the case that Saddam Hussein was hiding weapons of mass destruction.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Jim McKee is standing at the end of a line that snakes through five aisles of fiction inside the Books-A-Million store in Florida's capital city.
FRIDAY, MARCH 24
UT SPORTS
NEW YORK (AP) — When the horn sounded on the greatest victory in the history of Florida Atlantic athletics, Nick Boyd and Bryan Greenlee hopped onto the press row table to celebrate.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Matt Duchene and Philip Tomasino scored in the shootout to lead the Nashville Predators to a 2-1 victory over the Seattle Kraken on Thursday night.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for Donald Trump was back in court Friday after being ordered to answer questions before a grand jury investigating the possible mishandling of classified documents at the former president's Florida estate.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jurors' names will be kept secret at the upcoming civil trial in a writer's rape lawsuit against former President Donald Trump, a judge ruled Thursday, citing "a very strong risk" they would otherwise face harassment and more.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump over hush money payments turned to other matters on Thursday, delaying until next week at the earliest any vote on a historic indictment of the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter. The panel does not meet on Fridays.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As revelations that a defense witness was also an FBI informant roil the already contentious Capitol riot trial of members of the far-right Proud Boys group, prosecutors said Thursday that the informant was never told to gather information about the defendants or their lawyers.
AUTO INDUSTRY
STANTON (AP) — Ford said Friday that its assembly plant under construction in western Tennessee will be able to build up to 500,000 electric pickup trucks a year at full output, part of the automaker's drive to produce 2 million electric vehicles worldwide annually by late 2026.
BANKING
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leaders Friday played down the risk of a banking crisis developing from recent global financial turbulence and hitting the economy even harder than the energy crunch tied to Russia's war in Ukraine.
MEDIA
PARIS (AP) — France announced Friday it is banning the "recreational" use of TikTok, Twitter, Instagram and other apps on government employees' phones because of concern about insufficient data security measures.
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. lawmakers have grilled TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew about data security and harmful content, with some pushing to ban the popular short-video app nationwide.
TRANSPORTATION
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — Investigators said Friday that a passenger on a business jet was fatally injured in early March when the aircraft violently bucked up and down after pilots disconnected a system used to stabilize the plane.
ANACORTES, Wash. (AP) — A safety device meant to keep trains from tipping into Puget Sound knocked a train off the tracks last week, spilling 3,100 gallons (11,734 liters) of diesel fuel in Washington state, according to the Federal Railroad Administration.
ECONOMY
NEW YORK (AP) — Personal finances are a major source of stress for about half of the lower income households in the U.S., a new poll shows, illustrating the toll of high inflation and economic uncertainty on those who can least afford it.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks shook off a weak start and ended higher on Wall Street even as worries about banks on both sides of the Atlantic continue to weigh on markets. The S&P 500 rose 0.6% Friday, marking its second straight weekly gain. The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the Nasdaq composite also rose. Treasury yields stabilized after an early drop. Markets have been turbulent recently on worries that banks are weakening under the pressure of much higher interest rates. That's led to rising concerns about a recession and uncertainty about what central banks will do with interest rates going forward.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — As drought dried up rivers that carry California's newly hatched Chinook salmon to the ocean, state officials in recent years resorted to loading up the fish by the millions onto trucks and barges to take them to the Pacific.
LONDON (AP) — British antitrust regulators scrutinizing Microsoft's blockbuster purchase of videogame maker Activision Blizzard on Friday dropped concerns that the deal would hurt the console gaming market, narrowing the scope of their investigation.
TOKYO (AP) — Scandal-embattled Japanese electronics and technology manufacturer Toshiba has accepted a 2 trillion yen ($15 billion) tender offer from Japan Industrial Partners, a buyout fund made up of major banks and companies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House failed Thursday to override President Joe Biden's first veto — of a Republican-led bill that would have banned the consideration of environmental, social or governance issues in retirement and other investment decisions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans on Friday narrowly passed legislation that would fulfill a campaign promise to give parents a role in what's taught in public schools. It has little chance in the Democrat-run Senate and critics said it would propel a far-right movement that has led to book bans, restrictions aimed at transgender students and raucous school board meetings across the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Ethics Committee is admonishing South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham for soliciting campaign contributions inside a federal building after a Nov. 2022 Fox News interview in which he asked viewers to donate to a GOP candidate.
THURSDAY, MARCH 23
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Jordan Walker had 21 points, seven rebounds and seven assists, Trey Jemison added 17 points and 12 rebounds and UAB beat Vanderbilt 67-59 on Wednesday night to advance to the NIT semifinals in Las Vegas.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Pennsylvania woman linked to a far-right extremist movement was sentenced on Thursday to three years in prison for storming the U.S. Capitol, where she invaded then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's office with other rioters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Manhattan district attorney investigating Donald Trump rebuffed House Republicans' request Thursday for documents and testimony about the case, dismissing it as an "unprecedented inquiry" with no legitimate basis.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Manhattan grand jury investigating Donald Trump over hush money payments planned to hear testimony on other matters Thursday, seemingly further delaying a vote on whether or not to indict the former president, according to a person familiar with the matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court in a sealed order Wednesday directed a lawyer for Donald Trump to turn over to prosecutors documents in the investigation into the former president's retention of classified records at his Florida estate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors disclosed Wednesday that a witness expected to testify for the defense at the seditious conspiracy trial of former Proud Boys leader Enrique Tarrio and four associates was secretly acting as a government informant for nearly two years after the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, a defense lawyer said in a court filing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A dispute between Jack Daniel's and the makers of a squeaking dog toy that mimics the whiskey's signature bottle gave the Supreme Court a lot to chew on Wednesday.
TRANSPORTATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A small plane crash in Tennessee that killed weight-loss guru Gwen Shamblin Lara and six others likely happened when her husband piloting the plane — actor Joe Lara — became disoriented in heavy clouds, a final report by the National Transportation Safety Board says.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan consensus that Congress should act to toughen regulations on railroads emerged Wednesday as senators heard fresh testimony on the fiery hazardous train derailment last month on the Ohio-Pennsylvania border.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s electric vehicle business has lost $3 billion before taxes during the past two years and will lose a similar amount this year as the company invests heavily in the new technology.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — Leaders of the Senate's banking committee on Thursday warned former chief executive officers at the failed Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank that they expect them to testify before the panel, saying in a letter to each: "you must answer for the bank's downfall."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Only 10% of U.S. adults say they have high confidence in the nation's banks and other financial institutions, a new poll finds. That's down from the 22% who said they had high confidence in 2020.
GENEVA (AP) — The Swiss central bank hiked its key interest rate Thursday and insisted that a government-orchestrated takeover of troubled Credit Suisse by rival bank UBS ended the financial turmoil.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. lawmakers grilled the CEO of TikTok over data security and harmful content Thursday, responding skeptically during a tense committee hearing to his assurances that the hugely popular video-sharing app prioritizes user safety and should not be banned.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is getting some unwanted help in its drive to slow the U.S. economy and defeat the worst bout of inflation in four decades: A cutback in bank lending.
The labor market continues to defy Federal Reserve attempts to cool hiring, with U.S. applications for unemployment benefits down again last week and remaining at historically low levels.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England focused on fighting inflation, announcing an 11th consecutive interest rate increase Thursday despite concerns about the economic fallout from troubles in the global financial system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed mostly higher after a wobbly day of trading as worries continued to rise about the banking industry.
Shares of Coinbase tumbled 15% Thursday after the cryptocurrency trading platform received a warning from the Securities and Exchange Commission that it could face securities charges.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Actress Lindsay Lohan, rapper Akon and several other celebrities have agreed to pay tens of thousands of dollars to settle claims they promoted crypto investments to their millions of social media followers without disclosing they were being paid to do so.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden likes to say he's the most pro-union president in U.S. history. When he announces his expected reelection campaign in the coming weeks, he'll get the chance to prove it to his own staffers.
SEATTLE (AP) — Starbucks workers and labor activists rallied outside the company's Seattle headquarters Wednesday to protest what they describe as union-busting efforts by executives.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military must be ready for possible confrontation with China, the Pentagon's leaders said Thursday, pushing Congress to approve the Defense Department's proposed $842 billion budget that would modernize the force in Asia and around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Approval of President Joe Biden has dipped slightly since a month ago, nearing the lowest point of his presidency as his administration tries to project a sense of stability while confronting a pair of bank failures and inflation that remains stubbornly high.
A vote on President Joe Biden's choice to run the Federal Aviation Administration was delayed indefinitely Wednesday in the face of an opposition blitz by Republicans, who say the nominee lacks enough experience in aviation to lead the agency, which is under pressure to stem a surge in dangerous close calls between planes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his U.S. Capitol office, Rep. Jason Crow keeps several war mementos. Sitting on a shelf are his military identification tags, the tailfins of a spent mortar and a piece of shrapnel stopped by his body armor.