VOL. 46 | NO. 9 | Friday, March 4, 2022
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week and remain at historically low levels, just as the Federal Reserve prepares to raise its main borrowing rate later this month.
UT SPORTS
Zakai Zeigler was looking for anybody and everybody to hug. After the Tennessee men’s basketball team upset No. 3 Auburn Saturday at Thompson-Boling Arena, the freshman guard was swept up in the celebration.
NEWSMAKERS
The law firm of Gullett Sanford Robinson & Martin PLLC bas brought M. Clark Spoden into the firm as a partner in the firm’s litigation section.
BRIEFS
Lewis Thomason, P.C. and Manson Johnson Conner, PLLC have announced a strategic collaboration designed to further grow and enhance client services.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
It isn’t hard to see that the writing is on the wall for the V8-powered performance coupe. Tightening fuel economy and emissions standards, rising gas prices and the arrival of performance-oriented electric vehicles all point to the end of this famous automotive recipe.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Financial services companies have been bugging me for the past few years to name a “trusted contact.” Banks, brokerages and insurers increasingly want to have someone to call or email in case they notice suspicious activity and can’t reach the account holder.
CAREER CORNER
There has been a topic that people have talked to me about my entire life: My height. That’s right, I’m tall. Without shoes, I’m 5-foot-10. With the right shoes, I top 6 feet.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Among the different ways to trick yourself into saving, money-saving challenges are some of the most engaging.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
It probably wasn’t the smartest move you’ve ever made.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans finally have a strong pass rush they're going to keep together.
NASHVILLE SC
Nashville is the latest Major League Soccer team to join the crypto bandwagon, with one twist: The club's sponsorship deal with Valkyrie Investments is being paid for entirely in bitcoin.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A three-judge panel has denied a request to expedite a legal challenge seeking to block newly drawn state House and Senate maps in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A former Tennessee Republican lawmaker pleaded guilty Tuesday to a federal wire fraud charge over allegations she helped carry out a political consulting kickback scheme with a disgraced former state House speaker and his one-time chief of staff, even concocting a phony identity for the company's leader.
NASHVILLE (AP) — House Republicans in Tennessee advanced legislation on Tuesday that would ban public schools from using textbooks or materials that "promote, normalize, support or address LGBT issues or lifestyles."
MIDSTATE
LEWISBURG (AP) — A Tennessee company said it is voluntarily recalling 1-gallon containers of hand sanitizer after it was found to contain methanol, which can cause illness or death.
COURTS
OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma will ask a federal judge Wednesday to approve a nationwide settlement that will transform the company into a public trust and contribute up to $6 billion from members of the Sackler family, with most of the money going toward efforts to ease the nation's overdose and addiction crisis.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is restoring California's authority to set its own tailpipe pollution standards for cars, reversing a Trump administration policy and likely ushering in stricter emissions standards for new passenger vehicles nationwide.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Legislation to limit insulin costs for people with diabetes is getting revived in the Senate. Democrats say they want to move quickly, but they'll need Republican support to get anything through an evenly divided chamber — and they're not there yet.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — A bank's decision to loan Donald Trump's company $100 million is the latest evidence the former president might survive fraud investigations and a business-world backlash over his efforts to stay in office after losing the 2020 election.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
LONDON (AP) — The number of new coronavirus cases and deaths globally have continued to fall in the past week, the World Health Organization said Wednesday, with only the Western Pacific reporting an increase in COVID-19.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three checkered oil regimes that President Joe Biden and past U.S. leaders have spectacularly snubbed — Venezuela, Saudi Arabia and Iran — are now targets of U.S. outreach as global fuel prices reach jarring levels during the Ukraine crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers followed through Wednesday on their threat to seek a criminal investigation of Amazon, asking the Justice Department to investigate whether the tech giant and senior executives obstructed Congress or violated other federal laws in testimony on its competition practices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses posted a near-record level of open jobs in January, a trend that has helped push up worker's pay and added to inflationary pressures in the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has a solution for high inflation that seems counterintuitive: Bring factory jobs back to the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday signed an executive order on government oversight of cryptocurrency that urges the Federal Reserve to explore whether the central bank should jump in and create its own digital currency.
Gun violence in America is a public health crisis that is worsening with pandemic-like speed. So says Steve Ballmer, the billionaire philanthropist whose nonprofit is devising a new remedy to address it.
UKRAINE
BRUSSELS (AP) — Europe faces a tough choice: Is it worth a recession to choke off oil and gas money to Russia while it fights a war in Ukraine?
A Russian airstrike hit a maternity hospital in the besieged Ukrainian port city of Mariupol on Wednesday, wounding at least 17 people in what Ukraine officials described as a "war crime" and an "atrocity."
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Residents of the bombarded suburbs of Ukraine's capital snaked their way across the slippery wooden planks of a makeshift bridge that provided the only way to escape Russian shelling, amid renewed efforts Wednesday to rescue civilians from besieged cities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks into its war in Ukraine, Russia has achieved less and struggled more than anticipated at the outset of the biggest land conflict in Europe since World War II. But the invading force of more than 150,000 troops retains large and possibly decisive advantages in firepower as they bear down on key cities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders abruptly abandoned plans for a fresh infusion of $15.6 billion for battling the COVID pandemic on Wednesday, clearing the way for House debate and passage of a vast government spending bill that is anchored by aid for Ukraine and European allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris' trip to Warsaw to thank Poland for taking in hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians fleeing Russia's invasion took an unexpected turn before she even left Washington. She'll be parachuting into the middle of unexpected diplomatic turbulence over fighter jets.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Even though Russia has lost influence and friends since the collapse of the Soviet empire in 1989, the nuclear superpower still holds sway over several of its neighbors in Europe and keeps others in an uneasy neutrality.
ZAHONY, Hungary (AP) — After bombs started falling in her hometown of Kharkiv, Annamaria Maslovska left her friends, her toys, and her life in Ukraine and set off on a days-long journey with her mother toward safety in the West.
TUESDAY, MARCH 8
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Morgan Wallen won album of the year at the Academy of Country Music Awards on Monday night for "Dangerous: The Double Album," a year after he was removed from the ACMs ballot after he was caught on camera using a racial slur.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A community organizer is the first Democrat to announce a run in any of the three new congressional districts created by a Republican map that carved up Nashville to extend the GOP's steep advantage in the state.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican-controlled House on Monday advanced legislation allowing students and staffers to sue public colleges and universities if they feel they've been unfairly punished for not accepting "divisive concepts."
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee state representative was sworn in to temporarily replace a Democratic lawmaker who was ousted from her position by the Republican-led state Senate because of a federal wire fraud conviction.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's state parks saw 38.5 million visits in fiscal year 2021, an increase of nearly 4 million from the previous year, according to a study done for the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Parks are offering their annual guided Spring Hikes throughout the state this month.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Texas man was convicted on Tuesday of storming the U.S. Capitol with a holstered handgun, a milestone victory for federal prosecutors in the first trial among hundreds of cases arising from last year's riot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A leader of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was arrested Tuesday on a conspiracy charge for his suspected role in a coordinated attack on the U.S. Capitol to stop Congress from certifying Democrat Joe Biden's 2020 electoral victory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dozens of the nation's top law enforcement officials have signed a letter released Monday urging the U.S. Senate to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson to the Supreme Court.
REAL ESTATE
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge last week issued a preliminary injunction blocking Oregon's ban on so-called real estate "love letters" — the nickname for personal notes from prospective homebuyers to home sellers.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — As the Supreme Court mulls whether to uphold Mississippi's 15-week abortion ban, the American College of Obstetricians and Gynecologists filed a brief against the state law, calling it "fundamentally at odds with the provision of safe and essential healthcare."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's trip Tuesday to Fort Worth, Texas, is personal — a chance to talk with veterans and their caregivers and push for more help for members of the military who face health problems after exposure to burn pits.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO — Japanese automaker Nissan is planning to halt production at its plant in Russia because of "logistical challenges."
TECHNOLOGY
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Tuesday unveiled a new version of its budget-priced iPhone that's capable of connecting to ultrafast 5G wireless networks, an upgrade that's already been available on the company's upscale models for more than a year.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Google is fortifying its cloud services with a $5.4 billion acquisition of the cyber security firm Mandiant, the companies announced Tuesday.
EDUCATION
SAN DIEGO (AP) — A California judge has ordered an online, for-profit university and its former parent company to pay $22 million in penalties, saying they mislead students about the costs of their education, among other things, the state's attorney general announced Monday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — An expert group convened by the World Health Organization said Tuesday it "strongly supports urgent and broad access" to booster doses, in a reversal of the U.N. agency's previous insistence that boosters weren't necessary and contributed to vaccine inequity.
BOSTON (AP) — Major school districts around the country are allowing students into classrooms without masks for the first time in nearly two years, eliminating rules that stirred up intense fights among educators, school boards and parents throughout the pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended lower after another day of yo-yoing between gains and losses after crude oil prices rose anew as the U.S. banned imports from Russia.
DALLAS (AP) — Gasoline prices have smashed a 2008 record and are likely to head even higher, further fueling inflation and hitting consumers and businesses that are still coming to grips with the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In their latest case targeting alleged fraud in cryptocurrency, federal regulators have accused two siblings of defrauding thousands of ordinary investors out of some $124 million in unregistered securities offerings involving a digital token.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Striking harder at Russia's economy, President Joe Biden on Tuesday ordered a ban on Russian oil imports in retaliation for Vladimir Putin's onslaught in Ukraine. The major trade action, responding to the pleas of Ukraine's embattled leader, thrust the U.S. out front as Western nations seek to halt Putin's invasion.
The average price of gasoline in the U.S. hit a record $4.17 per gallon Tuesday as the country banned Russian oil imports after its invasion of Ukraine.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is seeking to fully phase out its reliance on Russian energy "well before 2030" to ensure the 27-nation bloc no longer faces difficult decisions about hurting their own economies in geopolitical crises like the invasion of Ukraine.
DETROIT (AP) — McDonald's said Tuesday it is temporarily closing all of its 850 restaurants in Russia in response to the country's invasion of Ukraine, a highly symbolic move for the U.S. chain that was among the first to enter the former Soviet Union three decades ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — With Russia intensifying its war on Ukraine, killing civilians and triggering a mass refugee crisis, President Joe Biden on Tuesday announced a U.S. ban on imported Russian oil. Critics of Russia have said that sanctioning its energy exports would be the best — perhaps only — way to force Moscow to pull back.
LONDON (AP) — Energy giant Shell said Tuesday that it will stop buying Russian oil and natural gas and shut down its service stations, aviation fuels and other operations in the country amid international pressure for companies to sever ties over the invasion of Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to sign an executive order on cryptocurrency this week that will mark the first step toward regulating how digital currency is traded.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers working on behalf of the Chinese government broke into the computer networks of at least six state governments in the United States in the last year, according to a report released Tuesday by a private cybersecurity firm.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for Democrats, the Supreme Court has turned away efforts from Republicans in North Carolina and Pennsylvania to block state court-ordered congressional districting plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Tuesday that he will ask Congress for $2.6 billion for foreign aid programs that promote gender equality worldwide, more than double the size of last year's request.
UKRAINE
LONDON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy evoked wartime British leader Winston Churchill on Tuesday as he told the U.K. Parliament that Ukrainians would fight Russian invaders to the end in the country's forests, fields and streets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States believes Russia underestimated the strength of Ukraine's resistance before launching an invasion that has likely caused thousands of Russian casualties, the Biden administration's top intelligence official told lawmakers Tuesday.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Buses carried civilians out of an embattled Ukrainian city Tuesday along a safe corridor agreed to by the two warring sides, while a parallel effort to relieve the besieged port of Mariupol was thrown into jeopardy by reports of renewed Russian shelling.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union officials on Tuesday defended the 27-nation bloc's decision to ban Russian state-controlled media outlets from broadcasting in the region as decisive steps to check a Kremlin-led "information war."
Two million people — half of them children — have fled Ukraine since Russia's invasion, according to key U.N. agencies and the International Organization for Migration.
MONDAY, MARCH 7
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LA VERGNE (AP) — Sometimes even Dolly Parton has a hard time keeping up with the legend of Dolly Parton.
Host Dolly Parton, classic country royalty, is about the only traditional thing about Monday night's Academy of Country Music Awards, a show that seeks a new flow in nearly every way.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee Republican lawmaker resigned Monday shortly after court documents were unsealed revealing that she faces a federal wire fraud charge involving a disgraced former state House speaker.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Highway Patrol has graduated 56 state troopers following months of instruction.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday narrowed the reach of a federal law that strengthens penalties for career criminals found to illegally have a gun.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will not take up the sexual assault case against comedian Bill Cosby, leaving in place a decision by Pennsylvania's highest court to throw out his conviction and set him free from prison.
TRANSPORTATION
Gasoline prices rose overnight, pushing Monday's national average above $4.06 a gallon, the highest price American motorists have faced since July 2008, according to auto club AAA.
DETROIT (AP) — The Biden administration is proposing stronger pollution regulations for new tractor-trailer rigs that would clean up smoky diesel engines and encourage new technologies during the next two decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As cities seek to fully reopen, public transit systems straining to win back riders after being crushed by the COVID-19 pandemic are getting a big funding boost to stay afloat and invest in new fleets of electric buses.
MEDIA
Netflix and TikTok suspended most of their services in Russia on Sunday as the government cracks down on what people and media outlets can say about Russia's war in Ukraine.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will soon begin to run out of money to bolster COVID-19 testing supplies and to guarantee that uninsured Americans keep getting free treatment for the virus unless Congress swiftly approves more funding, the White House warned.
BANGKOK (AP) — The official global death toll from COVID-19 eclipsed 6 million on Monday — underscoring that the pandemic, now entering its third year, is far from over.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell sharply on Wall Street Monday after another big leap for oil prices threatened to squeeze inflation's grip on the global economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of regular gasoline broke $4 per gallon (3.8 liters) on average across the U.S. on Sunday for the first time since 2008.
BEIJING (AP) — China's foreign minister on Monday called Russia his country's "most important strategic partner" as Beijing continues to refuse to condemn the invasion of Ukraine despite growing pressure from the U.S. and European Union to use its influence to rein Moscow in.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the prospect of a red wave grows, a series of Republican missteps including recruiting stumbles, weak fundraising and intense infighting is threatening the GOP's path to the Senate majority.
UKRAINE
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — The humanitarian crisis in Ukraine deepened Monday as Russian forces intensified their shelling and food, water, heat and medicine grew increasingly scarce, in what the country condemned as a medieval-style siege by Moscow to batter it into submission.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Ukraine pleaded with the United Nations' top court Monday to order Russia to halt its devastating invasion, saying Moscow is already committing widespread war crimes and "resorting to tactics reminiscent of medieval siege warfare" in its 12-day-old military onslaught.
Russian and Ukrainian delegations resumed talks on Monday following failed attempts to begin evacuating civilians from besieged Ukrainian cities, including the port city of Mariupol.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine entered its 12th day following what Ukrainian authorities described as increased shelling of encircled cities and another failed attempt to start evacuating hundreds of thousands of civilians from the besieged areas, including the southern port of Mariupol.
FRIDAY, MARCH 4
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Tennessee state representative has been appointed to temporarily replace a Democratic lawmaker who was ousted from her position by the Republican-led state Senate because of a federal wire fraud conviction.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Amazon has seen solid returns from its investment in streaming live sports, but its upcoming experiment with its first live music awards show is more of a gamble.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee State University history professor is working with Apple Inc. and a national technology center at the university to create an app highlighting some of the lesser known participants in the civil rights movement in North Nashville.
REGION
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — American whiskey exports, battered by tariffs and the COVID-19 pandemic, started rebounding in 2021, but distillers have more ground to make up to fully recover, an industry group said.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has reinstated the death sentence for convicted Boston Marathon bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev.
NEW YORK (AP) — A former CNBC and Fox News employee has been arrested in London for his work as a television producer for a Russian media baron tied to aggression in Ukraine over the past eight years, particularly in Crimea, U.S. prosecutors announced Thursday.
For those who lost loved ones in the opioid crisis, making sure the family behind OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma paid a price was never just about money. What many wanted was a chance to confront the Sackler family face to face, to make them feel their pain.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Victims of the Sept. 11 terror attacks have asked the U.S. government to seize Iranian crude oil suspected to be on an American-owned oil tanker in Asia, court documents show.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Two big names in Japanese electronics and autos are joining forces to produce an electric vehicle together.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — From the frightening, grief-filled early days of the pandemic until perhaps even now, a return to normalcy seemed so out of reach in New York City, where people kept breathing through masks and avoiding indoor gatherings even as other places abandoned COVID-19 safety protocols.
As demand for COVID-19 vaccines collapses in many areas of the U.S., states are scrambling to use stockpiles of doses before they expire and have to be added to the millions that have already gone to waste.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks around the world tumbled Friday, after even a gangbusters report on the U.S. jobs market wasn't enough to pull Wall Street's focus off its worries about the war in Ukraine.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple's shareholders have approved a proposal urging the iPhone maker to undergo an independent audit assessing its treatment of female and minority employees, delivering a rare rebuke to a management team that runs the world's most valuable company.
MIAMI (AP) — Sanctions on Russia are starting to wreak havoc on global trade, with potentially devastating consequences for energy and grain importers while also generating ripple effects across a world still struggling with pandemic-induced supply chain disruptions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a buoyant sign for the U.S. economy, businesses stepped up their hiring last month as omicron faded and more Americans ventured out to spend at restaurants, shops and hotels despite surging inflation.
President Joe Biden has been pushing for more U.S. factory jobs — and he was joined Friday by the CEO of technology company Siemens USA to announce a $54 million investment in producing equipment for the electrical infrastructure.
NEW YORK (AP) — Workers at a New York City outpost of outdoor clothing and equipment seller REI voted overwhelmingly to join a union — the first REI store to do so — amid efforts from workers at other big companies to do the same.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence will urge Republicans to move on from the 2020 election and will declare "there is no room in this party for apologists for Putin" as he escalates his break from former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The first person to be tried in the Jan. 6 assault on the U.S. Capitol was a Texas militia member who advocated for physically removing and replacing "corrupt" members of Congress as he drove to Washington, D.C., a former group member testified Friday.
UKRAINE
In better times, Ukrainian drone enthusiasts flew their gadgets into the sky to photograph weddings, fertilize soybean fields or race other drones for fun. Now some are risking their lives by forming a volunteer drone force to help their country repel the Russian invasion.
GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s top human rights body overwhelmingly approved a resolution Friday that aims to set up a three-member panel of experts to monitor human rights in Ukraine.
Russian state media is spreading misinformation about the location of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in what analysts said is an attempt to discourage resistance fighters and erode support for Ukraine around the globe.
BRUSSELS (AP) — NATO countries refused on Friday to police a no-fly zone over Ukraine, warning that such a move could provoke widespread war in Europe with nuclear power Russia, the organization's top civilian official said.
DUSSELDORF, Germany (AP) — Russians could face prison sentences of up to 15 years for spreading information that goes against the Russian government's position on the war in Ukraine, a move that comes as authorities block access to foreign media outlets.
MEDYKA, Poland (AP) — Walking the final 14 miles to Ukraine's border and to safety, Ludmila Sokol was moved by the mounds of clothes and other personal effects that many people discarded as they fled the fighting before her.
Russia's war on Ukraine is in its ninth day. Russian forces have shelled Europe's largest nuclear power plant, sparking a fire there that was extinguished overnight. The U.N. nuclear watchdog says there was no sign Friday of radiation leaks.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops Friday seized the biggest nuclear power plant in Europe after a middle-of-the-night attack that set it on fire and briefly raised worldwide fears of a catastrophe in the most chilling turn yet in Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.
SINGAPORE (AP) — As the West condemns Russia, President Vladimir Putin has vocal supporters in China, where the ruling Communist Party tells its people they are fellow targets of U.S.-led harassment.
THURSDAY, MARCH 3
PREDATORS
Kraken snap 7-game skid with 4-3 win over Predators
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — GOP legislative leaders on Thursday maintained that parents need more transparency on what students are being exposed to inside Tennessee's public schools, but a handful conceded the arguments recently used to condemn teachers and libraries had crossed a line.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee last week set three new execution dates for inmates in 2022, driving the total number of executions planned this year to five.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A California doctor known as a leading purveyor of coronavirus misinformation pleaded guilty to a misdemeanor charge on Thursday for joining the mob that stormed the U.S. Capitol last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided with the government Thursday and dismissed a case involving a Guantanamo Bay detainee captured after the Sept. 11 attacks and tortured by the CIA abroad who has sought information about his treatment. The United States insists its must remain secret even though much has been widely reported.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson began courting senators on Capitol Hill, making her case for confirmation in private meetings as Democrats worked to move her through the Senate within weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden knows better than anyone the unexpected turns a Supreme Court nomination can take after it lands on Capitol Hill.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's new plan to expand mental health and drug abuse treatment would pour hundreds of millions of dollars into suicide prevention, mental health services for youth, and community clinics providing 24/7 access to people in crisis.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk is inviting the United Auto Workers union to hold an organizing vote at Tesla's factory in Fremont, California.
TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo court gave Greg Kelly, a former American executive at Nissan Motor charged with underreporting his boss Carlos Ghosn's pay, a suspended sentence, but cleared him of most of the charges.
ENVIRONMENT
GATLINBURG (AP) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park and its nonprofit science research partner, Discover Life in America, need the public's help with their Smokies Most Wanted program. The initiative allows visitors to help preserve park species by recording sightings on their smartphones using the iNaturalist app.
Many Americans have woven green practices into their everyday lives — from recycling to going paperless and even cutting back on meat consumption.
MEDIA
Twitter is expanding Birdwatch, its crowd-sourced fact checking project it started as a small and little-publicized pilot program more than a year ago.
WASHINGTON (AP) — State attorneys general have launched a nationwide investigation into TikTok and its possible harmful effects on young users' mental health, widening government scrutiny of the wildly popular video platform.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Laying off 17 people in the Charlotte Checkers front office of 25 felt like gutting a team for chief operating officer Tera Black.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended another bumpy day lower on Wall Street and crude oil prices eased back as markets remain concerned about the broader impact of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell warned Thursday that Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has already driven up oil prices, will likely further magnify the high inflation that has engulfed the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week reflecting a low number of layoffs across the economy.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe is scrambling to reduce its dependence on Russia for energy and bracing for potential disruption to critical natural gas supplies as Russia's war in Ukraine sends prices to new highs.
LONDON (AP) — Car factories idled, beer stopped flowing, furniture and fashion orders ceased, and energy companies fled oil and gas projects.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House panel investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, insurrection at the Capitol has previewed some of its findings in a federal court filing, and investigators for the first time said they have enough evidence to suggest then-President Donald Trump committed crimes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi had stern words Thursday for two of the most right-wing members of her chamber after their outbursts during President Joe Biden's State of the Union.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill that would dramatically boost health care services and disability benefits for veterans exposed to toxic burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan won approval Thursday in the House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is signaling an election-year shift to the center, embracing a strategy he hopes will protect fragile Democratic majorities in Congress. But he's risking a revolt from key voices across his party's sprawling coalition.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A half-dozen U.S. lobbying firms severed ties with Russian-linked businesses over the past week, a dramatic pullback for an industry that often has few qualms about representing controversial interests.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration ordered new sanctions blocking Russian business oligarchs and others in President Vladimir Putin's inner circle on Thursday in response to Russian forces' fierce pummeling of Ukraine.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's top independent radio station was closed Thursday and a leading independent TV station has suspended its operations as Russian authorities moved forcefully to stifle criticism of the country's invasion of Ukraine.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces battled for control of a crucial energy-producing city in Ukraine's south on Thursday and gained ground in their bid to cut off the country from the sea, as Ukrainian leaders called on citizens to rise up and wage guerrilla war against the invaders.
PRZEMYSL, Poland (AP) — Russia's invasion of Ukraine has forced more than a million people to flee the war in just a week, an exodus so swift it almost matches the number of people who sought refuge in Europe in a whole year during the 2015 migration crisis.
More than 1 million people have fled Ukraine, and at least 160,000 have been displaced inside the country as fighting continues between Russian and Ukrainian forces in Europe's largest ground war since World War II.
Russian forces pressed their war Thursday on Ukraine, seizing a strategic seaport and threatening to overtake a major energy hub even as the two sides met in Belarus and negotiated safe corridors to safely evacuate citizens.
Associated Press journalists around Ukraine and beyond are documenting military activity during Russia's invasion. With disinformation rife and social media amplifying military claims and counterclaims, determining exactly what is happening can be difficult. Here's a look at what could be confirmed Thursday as Russia's war on Ukraine was in its eighth day.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Thursday denounced a report that it asked Russia to delay invading Ukraine until after the Beijing Winter Olympics as "fake news" and a "very despicable" attempt to divert attention and shift blame over the conflict.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The International Criminal Court prosecutor has launched an investigation that could target senior officials believed responsible for war crimes, crimes against humanity or genocide amid a rising civilian death toll and widespread destruction of property during Russia's invasion of Ukraine.