VOL. 44 | NO. 10 | Friday, March 6, 2020
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
A preliminary legislative update, with first things first: Tennessee is now officially the Volunteer State.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Instrument theft on rise in Music City, including kit Lynds played for 20 years
Stellar Nashville drummer Martin Lynds still possesses magnificent chops. But he may never again sound just like Martin Lynds.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The Nashville housing market has been afire for several years and is setting records already this year, leading many to worry if they would regret selling a Nashville property only to see it appreciate dramatically over the ensuing months and years.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on a 30-year fixed mortgage has hit a record low of 3.29%, driven down by investors shifting money into the safety of U.S. Treasurys as the coronavirus outbreak has deepened.
NASHVILLE SC
The first night of Nashville SC soccer was never going to be about what happened on the field. The evening of Feb. 29 in Nissan Stadium was going to always be about history. It was going to be about this unlikely place for a professional soccer team showing Major League Soccer and its fans that it belonged in the big leagues.
NEWSMAKERS
Robin Williams, M.D., has been named president of the Nashville Academy of Medicine for 2020. She is the first African American to be elected president of the organization, the oldest medical society in Tennessee, founded in 1821.
BRIEFS
In the wake of deadly and destructive tornados, power outages, road closures and rescues throughout Davidson and surrounding counties this week, The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee has activated the Middle Tennessee Emergency Response Fund to support the affected communities and nonprofits helping victims address their ongoing needs.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
New vehicles are more technologically advanced than ever. A car today can mirror your smartphone on its center display screen, warn you of objects in your blind spot, brake on its own in an emergency, adjust the climate control via voice and much more.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
“How does it look?” Your client just asked that loaded question, and you don’t know what to do. Truth: it looks awful, but you can’t say so. Feelings will be hurt, so maybe you should fib – but a dishonest answer could make things even worse.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Earlier this year, a judge denounced the myth that student loans can’t be erased in bankruptcy court as she excused a Navy veteran from having to pay $221,000 in education debt.
CAREER CORNER
When is the best time to leave your job? Have you ever wondered when you should look?
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Loyalty is often a good thing, but not in a relationship with your credit card. It’s often better to be like the “distracted boyfriend” from the internet meme and use your wandering eye to see if you can do better.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
A basketball tournament, with no fans. A St. Patrick's Day, with no parades. College campuses, with no students. Corporate headquarters, with barren cubicles. California's governor urged people to avoid even small social gatherings, if they can't remain six feet apart.
NEW YORK (AP) — The escalating coronavirus crisis is presenting President Donald Trump with a challenge for which he appears ill-equipped, his favorite political tactics ineffective and his reelection chances in jeopardy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is shutting the Capitol to the public until April in reaction to the spread of the coronavirus, officials announced Thursday, a rare step that underscores the growing gravity with which the government is reacting to the viral outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump misstated his administration's intended actions on the coronavirus pandemic when he spoke to the nation in his prime-time address Wednesday. He also appeared to hold out false hope of an imminent treatment for the spreading disease.
ROME (AP) — Sweeping travel bans accelerated across the globe on Thursday, walling regions apart, keeping people inside their homes and slowing the engines of commerce in an effort to stem the viral pandemic unfolding around the world.
COVID-19 spreads across Georgia, with cases now topping 30
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on Thursday lashed out at President Donald Trump's "unilateral" decision to restrict travel from Europe to the United States over the coronavirus, saying that the illness doesn't respect borders.
PARIS (AP) — A Las Vegas wedding with an Elvis impersonator: Canceled. A 3,500-kilometer (2,200-mile) trans-America road trip, a voyage of a lifetime that took months to prepare: On ice, too.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran said Thursday it had asked for an emergency $5 billion loan from the International Monetary Fund to help fight the spread of a new virus that's swept across the country, infecting more than 10,000 people and killing hundreds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump announced Wednesday night that he will instruct the Treasury Department to allow individuals and businesses negatively affected by the coronavirus to defer their tax payments beyond the April 15 filing deadline.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The University of Tennessee announced Wednesday that it would temporarily suspend all in-person classes as the state's cases of new coronavirus rose to nine.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Library and Archives says it is providing people with older marriage, divorce and death records that they could need to get a Real ID.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Tennessee continues to see an increase in executions, state lawmakers advanced legislation Wednesday that would exempt people with severe mental illness from receiving the death penalty.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Arkansas coach Eric Musselman is really glad his Razorbacks got one of the last chances to play a game in front of fans.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BEIJING (AP) — China's auto sales plunged 81.7% in February from a year ago after much of the economy was shut down to fight a virus outbreak, an industry group reported Thursday, adding to problems for automakers already struggling with shrinking demand.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — For the second time this week, stock prices tumbled so sharply at the opening bell a circuit breaker meant to slow down panic trading was triggered on Wall Street, halting all activity for 15 minutes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell 0.6% in February, the biggest decline in five years, led by a sharp drop in energy costs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans filing new claims for unemployment insurance fell last week for a second straight week, an indication that the coronavirus had not yet hit the labor market in a major way.
Wall Street's staggering skid that began less than three weeks ago has pulled the Dow Jones Industrial Average into what's known as a bear market.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank is deploying new stimulus measures to cushion the economic pain inflicted by the virus outbreak, but avoided cutting interest rates in a situation where economists say monetary policy can do little more than limit the damage.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Podiums get sanitized before the candidate steps up to speak. Fist or elbow bumps take the place of handshakes, and kissing babies is out of the question. Rallies are canceled, leaving candidates speaking to a handful of journalists and staffers instead of cheering crowds of thousands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bernie Sanders pledged to harness the energy from his first campaign to turn out more voters in 2020. He would build a coalition of black, young and working-class voters who were energized by his transformative vision for America to build a broad coalition that would make him an unstoppable force against Democratic rivals and President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies are planning sustained personal and reputational attacks against Joe Biden, casting him as ill-equipped for the presidency and pushing unsubstantiated claims of corruption as he emerges as the favorite for the Democratic nomination.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 11
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Tuesday he will make an appointment in the coming months to a panel considering what to do with the bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader in the Capitol.
PREDATORS
MONTREAL (AP) — Filip Forsberg scored twice and the Nashville Predators withstood a late comeback try by Montreal and beat the Canadiens 4-2 on Tuesday night.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BOSTON (AP) — A biotech meeting at a hotel in downtown Boston appears to be the source of a cluster of the coronavirus in the U.S. — and a warning for employers who are still holding big gatherings as the outbreak spreads.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Washington health officials recommended on Wednesday that all "non-essential mass gatherings, including conferences and conventions," be postponed or canceled through the end of March in light of the coronavirus outbreak, a move that could imperil the popular Cherry Blossom Festival.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is quickly unveiling a coronavirus aid package while President Donald Trump is considering a national disaster declaration and new travel advisories as Washington raced Wednesday to confront the outbreak that's moving dramatically across the country and disrupting the daily lives of Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seven weeks after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the U.S., the outbreak is now classified as a pandemic and it's doing widespread damage to critical economic sectors of the global economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is expected to announce an executive order Wednesday insisting on American-made medical supplies and pharmaceuticals in response to the coronavirus outbreak, according to a person familiar with the plan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is working on plans to delay the April 15 federal tax deadline for some taxpayers in a bid to soften the impact of the coronavirus outbreak on the U.S. economy.
ROME (AP) — Expressing increasing alarm about mounting infections, the World Health Organization declared Wednesday that the global coronavirus crisis is now a pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Washington Post is encouraging its staff to work at home and the Los Angeles Times is restricting air travel, two illustrations of how news organizations compelled to cover the coronavirus outbreak are balancing the need to keep employees safe.
EDUCATION
The Senate on Wednesday gave final congressional approval to a measure that would overturn rules issued by Education Secretary Betsy DeVos in 2019 that made it harder for students to get loans erased after being misled by for-profit colleges.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Nashville judge has set a hearing next week to consider a request to block Watkins College of Art's pending merger with Belmont University after two Watkins students and a teacher filed a lawsuit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday said it would allow the Trump administration to continue enforcing a policy that makes asylum-seekers wait in Mexico for U.S. court hearings, despite lower court rulings that the policy probably is illegal.
NEW YORK (AP) — Harvey Weinstein was sentenced Wednesday to 23 years in prison, pleading for mercy as his accusers said his punishment in the landmark #MeToo rape case was long overdue.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks tumbled Wednesday as fears about the economic damage from the coronavirus outbreak intensified and investors questioned whether any economic response from Washington will be effective — when and if they see one.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A gyrating stock market is seizing headlines as the coronavirus threatens corporate profits and economic growth. Yet it's in the normally temperate bond market, where companies go to borrow money, where the gravest dangers may lurk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. budget deficit through the first five months of this budget year is up 14.8% from the same period a year ago, keeping the country on track to record its first $1 trillion deficit since 2012.
NEW YORK (AP) — Analysts at Goldman Sachs predict the longest-ever bull market for stocks will soon end, citing expectations of weaker company profits this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin said Wednesday that a top priority for the Trump administration is to provide support for businesses that have been adversely affected by disruptions from the virus.
NEW YORK (AP) — There's no end in sight to the turbulence in the stock market.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — It's been a turbulent week for Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, and it's only Wednesday. Already pained by years of economic slowdown and unpopular austerity measures, Gulf Arab states now face the most challenging headwind to their stability: crashing oil prices.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Suddenly staring recession in the face, European leaders are lining up an array of tax breaks, financial support for companies and likely central bank measures in the hope of preventing the coronavirus outbreak from dealing long-term damage to the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices increased slightly last month, driven higher by more expensive food.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia steamed ahead on Wednesday with its new energy play by directing the kingdom's oil company Aramco on Wednesday to increase its maximum production capacity, while Abu Dhabi's oil and gas company ADNOC followed suit by saying it was boosting output by 25% to 4 million barrels per day.
NEW YORK (AP) — Buy and hold — and don't sell when the stock market plunges.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England slashed its key interest rate by half a percentage point to 0.25% on Wednesday, as part of an emergency package of measures to cushion the "economic shock" of the coronavirus outbreak.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is taking a first step toward addressing errors made by the FBI during its investigation of the Trump campaign and Russia, setting a House vote Wednesday on legislation that would impose new restrictions on the federal government's surveillance tools.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's proposed payroll tax break met with bipartisan resistance on Capitol Hill as pressure mounts on the administration and Congress to work more vigorously to contain the coronavirus outbreak and respond to the financial fallout.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a rare bipartisan agreement, the House is preparing to vote to extend surveillance authorities just days before they are set to expire while Congress takes a weeklong break.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden decisively won Michigan's Democratic presidential primary, seizing a key battleground state that helped propel Bernie Sanders' insurgent candidacy four years ago. The former vice president's victory there, as well as in Missouri, Mississippi and Idaho, dealt a serious blow to Sanders and substantially widened Biden's path to the nomination.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's path to the Democratic presidential nomination widened significantly Tuesday with commanding victories in Mississippi, Missouri and Michigan, a state that his rival Bernie Sanders won four years ago. Key takeaways:
TUESDAY, MARCH 10
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Autopsy and toxicology reports would remain largely hidden from public scrutiny under legislation that advanced Tuesday in Tennessee's GOP-dominated Statehouse.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — As residents continued to dig out from a series of deadly tornadoes that hit Tennessee last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency announced it was opening an intake center in Nashville on Tuesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Members of the Grammy-winning string band Old Crow Medicine Show put down their fiddles and banjos and picked up chainsaws last week after deadly tornadoes hit Middle Tennessee.
COURTS
JACKSON (AP) — A former federal prosecutor in Tennessee has been sentenced to one year of probation after pleading guilty to falsifying work attendance records.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is limiting what information it releases about coronavirus cases, becoming an outlier compared to most other states and sparking alarm among some officials worried the move will only stir public mistrust.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Major insurers pledged to cover coronavirus tests at no cost to patients at the White House Tuesday, but those assurances — while welcome — may not resolve public concerns about testing.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is enacting an emergency leave policy for its 1.4 million hourly U.S. workers that allowing them to take time off without penalty if they fear the spread of a new virus.
BEIJING (AP) — UNESCO says the coronavirus outbreak has interrupted schooling for nearly 363 million students worldwide and is urging nations to work harder to make sure affected students are still learning.
FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear called on nursing home operators Tuesday to severely restrict visitors to combat the spread of the new coronavirus.
Airlines are slashing flights and freezing hiring as they experience a sharp drop in bookings and a rise in cancellations in the face of the spreading coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Can any American who's sick get tested for the worrisome new coronavirus?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Securities and Exchange Commission employees have been encouraged to work remotely for the foreseeable future after a coronavirus scare at the agency's Washington headquarters.
ATLANTA (AP) — Five more people in Georgia have tested positive for COVID-19, and the Centers for Disease Control, health officials said late Sunday.
BEIJING (AP) — Starkly illustrating the global east-to-west spread of the new coronavirus, Italy began an extraordinary, sweeping lockdown Tuesday while in China, the diminishing threat prompted the president to visit the epicenter and declare: "We will certainly defeat this epidemic."
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks on Tuesday recouped most of their historic losses from the prior day as hopes rose, faded and then bloomed again on Wall Street that the U.S. government will try to cushion the economic pain from the coronavirus.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oil prices are surging a day after they plunged 25% amid a price war between producers Saudi Arabia and Russia, which are pulling more oil out of the ground even though demand is falling due to the coronavirus.
Seven weeks after the first case of COVID-19 was confirmed in the U.S., the spread of the virus that causes the disease has done widespread damage to critical economic sectors in the country.
It's hard to sit tight during uncertain times. But when it comes to long-term investing, it's the best time to do just that.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Saudi Arabia's state-run oil giant Saudi Aramco said Tuesday it would increase its crude oil production to 12.3 million barrels a day in April, a record amount.
Interested in building a fantasy home that looks like a boot? Or a UFO? Or some other unusual design? Airbnb is setting aside $1 million and enlisting the help of Billy Porter to make it a reality.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was supposed to be a bipartisan moment for the Senate.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday that House Democrats will stay at work this week as "captains of the ship" confronting the coronavirus outbreak as President Donald Trump came to Capitol Hill to confer with Senate Republicans about his proposed payroll tax relief.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pitched his proposed payroll tax break Tuesday on Capitol Hill as pressure mounts on the administration and Congress to work more vigorously to contain the coronavirus outbreak and respond to the financial fallout.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top U.S. commander for the Middle East painted a grim picture of the peace process with the Taliban in Afghanistan, saying the current level of attacks is higher than allowed in the plan and he has no confidence the group will honor its commitments.
NEW YORK (AP) — One of President Donald Trump's first impulses in response to the outbreak of the coronavirus in China was to suggest it was a buying opportunity in the U.S. stock market.
ELECTION 2020
DETROIT (AP) — Bernie Sanders proved his 2016 presidential bid was serious with an upset victory in Michigan powered by his opposition to free trade and appeal among working-class voters. Four years later, the state could either revive the Vermont senator's campaign or relegate him to the role of protest candidate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A quirk in how delegates are won under Democratic Party rules is raising the stakes for Tuesday's elections, allowing a candidate to make up ground in the race quickly — or fall further behind.
MONDAY, MARCH 9
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville nonprofits were so overwhelmed with volunteers and donations for tornado relief over the weekend that they had to ask the helpers to take a day off.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee man has been charged with drugging and sexually assaulting two women in a temporary tornado shelter.
STATEWIDE
The unemployment rate in Tennessee remained steady last month.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee defensive back Brandon Davis is recovering after being shot in the leg in an incident being investigated by Knoxville police.
NASHVILLE SC
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Diego Valeri scored an early goal and the Portland Timbers beat expansion Nashville SC 1-0 on Sunday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — A public health and economic maelstrom brought on by the coronavirus swirled around President Donald Trump and drew closer to him personally Monday as several of his congressional confidants placed themselves in quarantine, including one who traveled with him on Air Force One.
U.S. regulators warned seven companies to stop selling soaps, sprays and other concoctions with false claims that they can treat the new coronavirus or keep people from catching it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Capitol's attending physician said Monday that "several" members of Congress had contact with a person who attended a recent political conference and who subsequently developed COVID-19, the illness caused by the new coronavirus. They "remain in good health," the physician's office said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several hundred people are being asked to self-quarantine after potential exposure to the first confirmed case of the new coronavirus in Washington DC, identified as the rector of prominent Episcopal church.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials announced two more presumptive positive tests for the new coronavirus in Tennessee on Sunday, with the cases in Nashville and Memphis bringing the state's total to three.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A team of scientists jostled for a view of the lab dish, staring impatiently for the first clue that an experimental vaccine against the new coronavirus just might work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the stock market convulses, airline schedules buckle and businesses worry their overseas supply lines will snap, President Donald Trump is looking on the sunny side of an economy clouded by the coronavirus.
BEIJING (AP) — Riding the subway for the first time after weeks of working remotely from home, Zhuang Xue felt a sense of calm, outfitted in a blue surgical mask and protective goggles as she headed for the office.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — With coronavirus topping Americans' concerns, senior Trump administration officials tried to switch subjects Monday by announcing final rules aimed at delivering on the unfulfilled promise of electronic health records.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Juul Labs, the nation's largest electronic-cigarette company, donated tens of thousands of dollars to the campaigns of state attorneys general in an effort to build relationships with these powerful officials and potentially head off legal challenges over how it promoted and sold its vaping products.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX successfully launched another load of station supplies for NASA late Friday night and nailed its 50th rocket landing.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has filed a lawsuit against Fifth Third Bank, alleging the bank's employees opened fake accounts for customers in order to meet aggressive sales targets.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo Board Chairwoman Elizabeth Duke and director James Quigley are leaving the company.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks took their worst one-day beating on Wall Street since the global financial crisis of 2008 as a collapse in oil prices Monday combined with mounting alarm over what the coronavirus could do to the world economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is suggesting Americans should be happy about a plunge in oil prices because it'll mean cheaper gas. Those savings at the pump, though, are likely to come at a cost to other aspects of their lives.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. companies buffeted by supply chain chaos and a growing awareness of the scope of a viral outbreak are facing new threats to begin the week. An oil war between Saudi Arabia and Russia sent the price for a barrel of U.S. crude below $34.
ROME (AP) — A key U.N. trade organization is warning of looming recession in the world economy as countries respond to the novel coronavirus outbreak.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A clash of two oil titans - Saudi Arabia and Russia - is sending shock waves through energy markets, with wide-ranging implications for consumers and oil companies, including those in the No. 1 producing country, the United States.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — A clash of the oil titans - Saudi Arabia and Russia - is sending shock waves through energy markets, with wide-ranging implications for consumers and oil companies, including those in the No. 1 producing country, the United States.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Concerned about the growing influence of China, Russia and the United States in close neighbor Africa, the European Union on Monday launched what it called a new "comprehensive strategy" for relations with a continent whose population is forecast to double by 2050.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The response in stock markets to the growing risk from the coronavirus has been swift and fierce. But a better gauge of fear on Wall Street may be the bond market, where the moves over the past few weeks have been even more breathtaking.
KENAI, Alaska (AP) — A multinational investment bank has ended support for offshore drilling in the Arctic amid efforts to tackle climate change, a move that could affect future funding for oil and gas projects in Alaska, a newspaper said.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's economy contracted at a dismal 7.1% annual rate during the October-December period, worse than the initial estimate, raising fears the world's third largest economy could be headed to a recession.
BEIJING (AP) — China's exports fell by double digits in January and February as anti-virus controls closed factories, while imports sank by a smaller margin.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Democratic presidential candidate Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey has endorsed former Vice President Joe Biden. Booker announced on Twitter early Monday that Biden will "restore honor to the Oval Office and tackle our most pressing challenges."
FRIDAY, MARCH 6
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — For weeks the National Rifle Association has been publicizing plans to hold a fundraising dinner at the Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum where it planned to auction off firearms, even as many country music artists have distanced themselves from the gun rights organization.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Sheryl Crow, Brandi Carlile, Jason Isbell, Dan Auerbach and more Nashville artists will hold a benefit concert to raise money for people impacted by a recent deadly tornado.
COOKEVILLE (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday toured a neighborhood reduced to rubble by a tornado earlier this week and marveled at "the tremendous heart" he witnessed. He also offered a message for survivors and those who lost family members: "We love them, they're special people," he said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The storms that tore through Tennessee early Tuesday have left communities reeling from the loss of at least 24 lives. They were toddlers, young parents, a couple married nearly six decades, bartenders, a Walmart manager and Sunday school teachers.
REGION
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority plans to move toxin-laden coal ash from a retired plant in Memphis to an off-site landfill, at the cost of roughly $300 million, the federal utility said Friday.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators just missed the tornado that ripped through Music City not far from their arena, flying out of town for a road game.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Austin city officials have canceled the South by Southwest arts and technology festival.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Washington (AP) — The coronavirus legislation signed by President Donald Trump on Friday would let Medicare expand the use of telemedicine in outbreak areas, potentially reducing infection risks for vulnerable seniors.
NEW YORK (AP) — As an Arizonan, Gregory Cohen has never had to stock up ahead of a hurricane or other natural disaster.
As the new coronavirus keeps turning up in more places, health experts say it's wise to prepare for wider spread. But people shouldn't panic or hoard large amounts of supplies, they stress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's trip to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, briefly scuttled Friday because of unfounded fears that someone there had contracted the coronavirus, was back on, giving the president another chance to calm growing alarm about the spread of the virus in America.
BANGKOK (AP) — The global march of the new virus triggered a vigorous appeal from the World Health Organization for governments to pull out "all the stops" to slow the epidemic, as it drained color from India's spring festivals, closed Bethlehem's Nativity Church and blocked Italians from visiting elderly relatives in nursing homes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday signed an $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak that has killed more than a dozen people in the U.S. and infected more than 200.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his officials are falsely asserting that they've accelerated coronavirus testing by easing a restrictive policy introduced by the Obama administration.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump campaign filed a libel lawsuit against CNN on Friday for a column about the president and election help from Russia, the third such action against a news organization taken in the past two weeks.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Friday agreed to allow school choice advocates to intervene in a lawsuit challenging the legality of the state's school voucher program.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A dizzying, brutal week of trading dropped one last round of harrowing swings on investors Friday.
The Dow over the past five days: up 1,293, down 786, up 1,173, down 967. The Dow tumbled 800 points at the opening bell Friday. The VIX, an index known as Wall Street's fear barometer, is hovering at levels not seen since banks began to fall during the financial crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer borrowing slowed in January as borrowing on credit cards declined following a huge surge in December.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit narrowed in January as exports fell but imports fell more. The politically sensitive trade gap with China widened.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring in the United States jumped in February as employers added 273,000 positions, evidence that the job market was in strong shape before the coronavirus began to sweep through the nation.
VIENNA (AP) — OPEC and key ally Russia failed to agree Friday on a cut to oil production that would have contained the plunge in the price of crude caused by the new coronavirus outbreak's massive disruption to world business.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal agency that oversees the financial condition of U.S. banks says it will offer voluntary early retirement to about 20% of its 5,800 employees.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
A congressional committee investigating Boeing said Friday that a "culture of concealment" at the company and poor oversight by federal regulators contributed to two deadly crashes involving the grounded 737 Max.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — It took Joe Biden's moderate rivals just hours to unite behind his presidential campaign after they left the race. Bernie Sanders hasn't been so fortunate.
At her home in suburban Detroit, Jill Warren spent Thursday morning glued to her phone, searching for news about the woman she fiercely believed should be the next president of the United States: Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
THURSDAY, MARCH 5
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republican state Sen. Dolores Gresham says she will not be seeking reelection this year.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Taylor Swift is donating $1 million to tornado relief efforts in Middle Tennessee, where deadly storms ravaged counties this week, including in Nashville.
COOKEVILLE (AP) — Moments after a tornado tore through his quiet Tennessee neighborhood, Darrell Jennings walked out his front door and heard screaming.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has confirmed its first case of the new coronavirus, state Department of Health Commissioner Lisa Piercey announced in a Thursday morning news conference.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate passed an $8.3 billion measure Thursday to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak in hopes of reassuring a fearful public and accelerating the government's response to the virus, whose rapid spread is threatening to upend everyday life in the U.S. and across the globe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A day after Vice President Mike Pence assured Americans that lab tests for coronavirus would be covered by private and government health insurance, that promise appears to be less than airtight.
The economic affects of the coronavirus have preceded the spread of the virus itself, with financial markets swinging wildly, companies closing offices or asking employees work from home in affected areas, and throttling air travel across the globe. Following is a brief look at how things are changing in the economy and the workplace today as the outbreak widens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An $8.3 billion measure to help tackle the coronavirus outbreak should soon make its way to President Trump after a Senate vote planned for Thursday.
SINGAPORE (AP) — The International Air Transport Association says the virus outbreak that began in China could cost airlines as much as $113 billion in lost revenue due to the collapse of air travel.
NEW YORK (AP) — The growing fear over a new virus has transformed busy streets and shopping centers into ghost towns in parts of China, Japan and Italy.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Prosecutors on Thursday charged the former president of the United Auto Workers with corruption, alleging he plotted with others to embezzle more than $1 million to splurge on private villas, golf outings, boozy meals and horseback rides on beaches.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Fear dominated financial markets again on Thursday, and stocks fell sharply on worries about the fast-spreading virus outbreak. It's the latest shudder in Wall Street's most volatile week in more than eight years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies and consumers have scrapped travel plans, and factories have endured broken supply chains from the coronavirus outbreak. If employers were to respond by slashing jobs, it would significantly escalate the economic damage.
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil said Thursday it plans to reduce the number of oil rigs operating in an oil-rich region in the Southwest and may cut planned capital expenditures as the spreading coronavirus saps energy demand.
VIENNA (AP) — The OPEC oil cartel is calling for a deep production cut to keep crude prices from falling further as disruption to global business from the coronavirus slashes demand from air travel and industry.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The EU's chief negotiator in trade talks with former member Britain warned Thursday of "serious divergences" between the two sides after the conclusion of the first round of negotiations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity rebounded in the final three months of last year but by a smaller amount than initially reported, while labor costs increased at a slower pace than first thought.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — An additional 35,000 temporary foreign workers will be allowed into the U.S. this year to fill seasonal jobs amid a tight labor market, the Trump administration said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said Thursday that he "should not have used the words I used" when he declared at a rally in front of the Supreme Court that two justices would "pay the price" for their decision in an abortion case.
ELECTION 2020
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Mike Bloomberg is out of the Democratic presidential race, but he's not done trying to beat President Donald Trump. The billionaire businessman is funding an anti-Trump operation in six battleground states in an effort to oust the Republican president in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elizabeth Warren ended her once-promising presidential campaign on Thursday after failing to finish higher than third place in any of the 18 states that have voted so far. While the Massachusetts senator said she was proud of her bid, she was also candid in expressing disappointment that a formerly diverse field is essentially now down to two men.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Strapped for cash and badly outspent by his rivals, Joe Biden barely had enough money to air television ads in critical Super Tuesday battlegrounds.