VOL. 42 | NO. 10 | Friday, March 9, 2018
TRANSPORTATION
State fatality rate falling. Are Uber, Lyft the reason?
It was a warm Tennessee night in April of 1992 when 23-year-old Larry Randle got into his maroon Ford Thunderbird – the first car he ever owned – and drove a few miles to a friend’s house in his hometown of Martin, Tennessee to have a few beers and watch a basketball game on TV. He left around midnight to drive home, and just as he was pulling up to a stoplight he saw flashes of blue in his rearview mirror.
NASHVILLE SC
In the early days of the expansion Nashville Predators, one of the team’s top priorities was finding a quality captain – someone with experience, leadership qualities and the ability to serve as a bridge between players and coaches.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
For those who are unaware, there will be a referendum on May 1 that allows voters- residents of Davidson County to decide if the city should move forward with a transit plan. As the material being disseminated by the Nashville Area Chamber of Commerce notes, today is the best day you will have in Nashville traffic, plan or no plan.
REAL ESTATE
February 2018 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed this week to their highest average in more than four years, ratcheting up affordability pressures at the start of the traditional spring home buying season.
NEWSMAKERS
Tennessee Lieutenant Governor Randy McNally recently appointed Stites & Harbison, PLLC attorney Rebecca McKelvey Castañeda to the Tennessee Post-Conviction Defender Oversight Commission. She will serve a one-year term.
BRIEFS
Nashville law firm Waller Lansden Dortch and Davis LLP recently received the Pro Bono Leadership Award from the Legal Services Corporation Board of Directors, the national organization that is a key funder of Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Americans are buying more small crossover SUVs than ever before, and among the best sellers are the Honda CR-V and the Nissan Rogue.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Facebook is expected to lose nearly two million users younger than 25 to growing social platform Snapchat in 2018, leaving many to wonder whether Facebook will remain a prominent business partner in 2018.
CAREER CORNER
Social media used to be so fun. We could all stay connected with friends and family around the world. And it felt like social media was expanding our friend circles.
NASHVILLE AREA
GOODLETTSVILLE (AP) — Dollar General's light revenue during the fiscal fourth quarter was outshined by booming sales at established stores and a strong outlook.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Republican-led Tennessee House panel has revived legislation to ban child marriage.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — A new survey reveals fading optimism among homebuilders, and a downward revision in sentiment from February suggests a more sustained perception of deterioration.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are climbing Thursday as technology, industrial and health care companies lead the way following two days of broad losses. Discount retailer Dollar General is climbing after a strong profit forecast for the year. Toymakers Hasbro and Mattel are down as Toys R Us moves toward shuttering its U.S. stores.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials are taking the first step in a sweeping anti-smoking plan to drastically cut nicotine levels in cigarettes so they aren't addictive.
NEW YORK (AP) — The demise of Toys R Us will have a ripple effect on everything from toy makers to consumers to landlords.
DALLAS (AP) — Major U.S. airlines are hiring pilots at a rate not seen since before 9/11, and that is encouraging more young people to consider a career in the cockpit.
NORTH POLE, Alaska (AP) — Time has run out for one of the last remaining Blockbuster Video stores in the country.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Thursday imposed sanctions on 19 Russians for alleged interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election, including 13 indicted by special counsel Robert Mueller as part of his Russia-related investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is accusing Russia of a new and ongoing operation to penetrate the U.S. energy grid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump freestyled with the facts when talking trade with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump confirmed Thursday that he has picked CNBC contributor Larry Kudlow as his top economic adviser and said the country is in line for a long run of upbeat financial news.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The special counsel's office wants to talk to Donald Trump about the firings of James Comey and Michael Flynn, but as the president's lawyers negotiate the terms and scope of a possible interview, they're left with no easy options.
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 14
STATE GOVERNMENT
One of several bills considered retribution against the city of Memphis for the removal of Confederate statues died in a House committee today amid questions about its constitutionality.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee panel has dismissed two campaign finance complaints against Republican U.S. Rep. Diane Black in her gubernatorial bid.
NASHVILLE(AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam is joining several other Tennessee officials voicing concerns over President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Board of Regents has named the next presidents at Nashville State Community College and Motlow State Community College.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Shane Reeves has won a special election to fill a vacant seat in the Tennessee Senate.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx said Wednesday that it is investing more than $1 billion to modernize and expand its Tennessee hub, in a move the shipping giant says will improve its efficiency and reliability as it delivers packages throughout the world.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two years ago, country singer Scotty McCreery found out he lost his record deal with Mercury/Interscope while he was shooting an episode for "American Idol," the show he won in 2011. He was mentoring new contestants, but his own career, which he started as a teenager, was at a precipice.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans keep wrapping up their own players with defensive lineman DaQuan Jones the latest to reach agreement on a new deal keeping him on the roster.
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Jets have signed linebacker Avery Williamson to a three-year contract worth $22.5 million.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Facing a tired team, the Nashville Predators jumped on Winnipeg early.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are doing their best to recreate the Patriot Way in Music City.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Elizabeth Holmes, a Stanford University dropout once billed as the "next Steve Jobs" has forfeited control Theranos, the blood testing startup she founded, and will pay $500,000 to settle charges that she oversaw a "massive fraud."
SEATTLE (AP) — Only one of 118 gender discrimination complaints made by women at Microsoft was found to have merit, according to unsealed court documents.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House rejected legislation Tuesday easing how experimental drugs are provided to people with terminal illnesses, as Democrats calling the bill risky and misleading overcame support from President Donald Trump and emotional arguments by Republican lawmakers and ailing constituents.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell on Wall Street as banks and industrial companies posted sizable losses.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us's management has told its employees that it will sell or close all of its U.S. stores.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers spent less at auto dealers, gas stations and department stores in February, causing overall retail sales to slip 0.1 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose 0.2 percent in February as a pickup in services prices offset a drop in the cost of food and energy.
ATLANTA (AP) — A former Equifax executive who sold stock for nearly $1 million before the company's massive data breach was publicly announced faces insider trading charges.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart is expanding its same-day online grocery delivery service to more than 40 percent of U.S. households, or 100 metro areas, by year-end as it tries to keep pace with online leader Amazon.com.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Two days after President Donald Trump blocked Broadcom in its hostile takeover bid of U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm, the Singapore company is officially withdrawing its $117 billion bid.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union leader Donald Tusk urged U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday not to undermine the sides' longstanding trans-Atlantic ties by seeking economic gains through punishing trade tariffs.
NATIONAL POLITICS
MOUNT LEBANON, Pa. (AP) — Republicans eyed a recount and a lawsuit over perceived irregularities in a closely watched U.S. House race in Pennsylvania where Democrat Conor Lamb clung to a slender lead Wednesday in the longtime GOP stronghold friendly to President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has chosen Larry Kudlow to be his top economic aide, elevating the influence of a long-time fixture on the CNBC business news network who previously served in the Reagan administration and has emerged as a leading evangelist for tax cuts and a smaller government.
NEW YORK (AP) — The special election in Pennsylvania's 18th district has made one thing clear: Democrats turned a region that overwhelmingly backed President Donald Trump just 16 months ago into a dead heat. It didn't matter that this congressional district will effectively disappear next year. Each side fought hard and spent big knowing that the race would help shape the national political landscape heading into the November midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate confirmation isn't expected to go as smoothly for President Donald Trump's new selections for secretary of state and CIA director as they did last year.
TUESDAY, MARCH 13
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Cornerback Malcolm Butler's agent says he has agreed to a five-year deal worth more than $60 million.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee House subcommittee has approved legislation with in-state tuition for public college students whose parents brought or kept them in the country illegally.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican-led House has passed legislation seeking federal approval to ban TennCare payments to abortion providers, including Planned Parenthood, for non-abortion services.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Mayor David Briley says his city can begin to acknowledge, atone and seek reconciliation for slavery by replacing an unused minor league baseball stadium with a park commemorating a Civil War fort built by slaves.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — State parks throughout Tennessee will offer free, guided hikes later this month.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican bill easing how experimental drugs are provided to people with terminal illnesses headed toward a House vote Tuesday, but opposition by top Democrats and scores of patients' groups left its fate uncertain.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen CEO Matthias Mueller says the automaker had "an excellent year" in 2017 and is committed to addressing concerns about diesel pollution.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A seven-day surge in technology stocks ended Tuesday after President Donald Trump blocked Singapore-based chipmaker Broadcom's effort to buy Qualcomm. Trump said he opposed the $117 billion deal because it could have been detrimental to national security.
NEW YORK (AP) — The decision by President Donald Trump to scuttle a hostile takeover by Singapore's Broadcom of the U.S. chipmaker Qualcomm could signal a shift toward stronger sector oversight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices increased at a modest pace in February, underscoring that inflation pressures appear to be muted for now.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump blocked Singapore chipmaker Broadcom from pursuing a hostile takeover of U.S. rival Qualcomm, ruling the proposed combination would imperil national security.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump fired Secretary of State Rex Tillerson on Tuesday and said he would nominate CIA Director Mike Pompeo to replace him, ending Tillerson's difficult tenure by tweeting an ouster that had been long expected and yet was shocking in its abruptness.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., the Foreign Relations Committee chairman, says President Donald Trump's decision to fire his chief diplomat caught him by surprise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's choice to be the first female director of the CIA is a career spymaster who once ran an agency prison in Thailand where terror suspects were subjected to a harsh interrogation technique that the president has supported.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Tuesday he's strongly considering selecting CNBC senior contributor Larry Kudlow to succeed Gary Cohn as his top economic adviser, praising the veteran financial commentator and campaign supporter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Not two weeks ago, President Donald Trump wagged his finger at a Republican senator and scolded him for being "afraid of the NRA," declaring that he would stand up to the powerful gun lobby and finally get results on quelling gun violence following last month's Florida school shooting.
MONDAY, MARCH 12
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen says in his U.S. Senate campaign's second TV ad that he's "not running against Donald Trump."
SPORTS
NASVILLE (AP) — The Southeastern Conference's push to improve in men's basketball finally has paid off in record fashion.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Running back Madre London has tweeted that he's transferring from Michigan State to Tennessee.
Robert Morris University says former Tennessee athletic director John Currie will serve as executive-in-residence for a week at its business school.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Buried within new Senate legislation to roll back restraints on banks is a provision that would exempt an estimated 85 percent of all U.S. banks and credit unions from public reporting requirements, raising fears that discriminatory practices by lenders could go undetected.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican bill making it easier for terminally ill patients to try experimental drugs faces an uncertain fate due to opposition from a leading House Democrat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It started as a bipartisan attempt to curb soaring health care premiums.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A smartphone app that lets Medicare patients access their claims information. Giving consumers a share of drug company rebates for their prescriptions. Wider access to websites that reliably compare cost and quality of medical tests.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks were split Monday as technology companies continued to climb, but Boeing and other industrial companies gave back some of the ground they won on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government recorded a budget deficit of $215.2 billion in February, up significantly from a year ago as the impact of the GOP tax cuts passed in December begin to surface.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — America's gambling industry predicts $10 billion will be bet on the March Madness college basketball tournament — nearly all of it illegally or off-the-books.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — A judge ruled Monday that a New Hampshire woman who won a Powerball jackpot worth nearly $560 million can keep her identity private, but not her hometown.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government censored, withheld or said it couldn't find records sought by citizens, journalists and others more often last year than at any point in the past decade, according to an Associated Press analysis of new data.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A federal judge says the Trump administration violated federal law when it failed to meet a deadline to identify all parts of the U.S. with dangerous smog levels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's plan to prevent school shootings doesn't increase the minimum age for purchasing assault weapons to 21 — an idea Trump publicly favored just last month — and leaves the question of arming teachers to states and local communities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has a creative approach to numbers. Whether he's talking about a half dozen or a half trillion, he tends to make them what he wants them to be.
FRIDAY, MARCH 9
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — New Nashville Mayor David Briley, who was sworn in after ex-Mayor Megan Barry resigned in the fallout of her extramarital affair, says he plans to run to keep the job in an August election.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have told backup quarterback Matt Cassel, safety Da'Norris Searcy and receiver Eric Weems that they will be released.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has added former Stanford quarterback Keller Chryst to its roster as a graduate transfer.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A year after an appearance in the Stanley Cup Final, the Nashville Predators have been hard at work preparing for the postseason.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators waited a week to honor David Poile as the general manager with the most victories in the 100-year history of the NHL, throwing a big celebration before a home game Thursday night.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans plan to release running back DeMarco Murray.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state senator has halted efforts on his bill to make autopsy reports no longer public records in Tennessee.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Authorities have arrested a shop clerk who they say shot a suspected shoplifter.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — In Tennessee's U.S. Senate race, Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn and ex-Democratic Gov. Phil Bredesen are concerned about President Donald Trump's tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's education commissioner says the state has more than twice the national average of cases involving students bringing firearms to school.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen's campaign for U.S. Senate told the FBI on Thursday that it fears it has been hacked, amid growing concern that candidates in the 2018 election could be targets of cyberattacks.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The smirk wiped from his face, a crying Martin Shkreli was sentenced to seven years in prison for securities fraud Friday in a hard fall for the pharmaceutical-industry bad boy vilified for jacking up the price of a lifesaving drug.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Secret recordings have been released capturing the ex-president of the country's largest diesel fuel retailer using racial slurs and profanely criticizing his own board of directors and his boss' football team and fans.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is getting deeper into the professional sports streaming game, partnering with Major League Baseball to air 25 weekday afternoon games in an exclusive deal.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Just days after ride-hailing service Uber announced it was testing tractor-trailers that drive themselves, Google's autonomous vehicle operation announced similar testing in Georgia.
HEALTH CARE
Health insurer Cigna is buying the nation's biggest pharmacy benefit manager, Express Scripts, the latest in a string of proposed tie-ups as health care's bill payers attempt to get a grip on rising costs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street got exactly what it wanted from Friday's jobs report: solid hiring, moderate wage growth and continued low unemployment. Investors sent stocks sharply higher, particularly their recent favorites, technology companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers went on a hiring binge in February, adding 313,000 jobs, the most in any month since July 2016, and drawing hundreds of thousands of people into the job market.
NEW YORK (AP) — The bull market turned nine Friday, extending a run that began in the depths of the Great Recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A soaring U.S. stock market and healthy home price gains lifted Americans' net worth to $98.7 trillion in the final three months of last year, a gain that could lift household spending.
DENVER (AP) — Peyton Manning sold 31 Denver-area Papa John's stores last week, two days before the NFL dropped the chain as its official pizza sponsor.
NATIONAL POLITICS
The National Rifle Association has given more than $7 million in grants to hundreds of U.S. schools in recent years, according to an Associated Press analysis, but few have shown any indication that they'll follow the lead of businesses that are cutting ties with the group following last month's massacre at a Florida high school.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman of a Senate oversight committee is launching a review of the president's decision to impose tariffs on steel and aluminum imports.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union is seeking clarity from Washington about whether the 28-nation bloc will be exempt from President Donald Trump's steel and aluminum tariffs, the EU's top trade official said Friday.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The Trump administration's decision to impose tariffs on aluminum and steel imports drew warnings Friday from businesses and U.S. trading partners that the measure could backfire, provoking a trade war without resolving the problems it's intended to address.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Has President Donald Trump's romance with the Goldman Sachs crowd gone cold?
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korean President Moon Jae-in on Wednesday downplayed concerns that the resumption of inter-Korean dialogue will be accompanied by an easing of international sanctions and pressure on North Korea over its nuclear program.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate debated a banking bill Thursday after GOP leaders added some further limits on regulators as well as consumer benefits to the legislation rolling back restraints on banks, as substantial support from Democrats helped edge the bill closer to passage.
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) — Trade ministers from 11 Pacific Rim countries signed a sweeping free trade agreement Thursday to streamline trade and slash tariffs just hours before President Donald Trump announced his plans to impose new tariffs on aluminum and steel to protect U.S. producers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unswayed by Republican warnings of a trade war, President Donald Trump ordered steep new tariffs on steel and aluminum imports to the U.S. on Thursday, vowing to fight back against an "assault on our country" by foreign competitors. The president said he would exempt Canada and Mexico while negotiating for changes to the North American Free Trade Agreement.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe's top monetary official criticized U.S. President Donald Trump's proposal to put tariffs on steel and aluminum imports as a "dangerous" unilateral move.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his appointees have stocked federal agencies with ex-lobbyists and corporate lawyers who now help regulate the very industries from which they previously collected paychecks, despite promising as a candidate to drain the swamp in Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump raised concerns about the graphic depiction of violence in video games at a White House meeting Thursday with members of the industry and some of their most vocal critics.