VOL. 40 | NO. 14 | Friday, April 1, 2016
LEGISLATIVE PROFILE
To call Sen. Steve Dickerson a maverick might be an understatement. An oddity as a Republican in the Davidson County legislative delegation, Dickerson doesn’t quite fit in with the blue hue of Nashville voters or red-state Republicans who dominate the General Assembly.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Lots of smoke. But is there a fire? That is the issue at the University of Tennessee, where a Title IX lawsuit alleges the university has a “hostile sexual environment” and violates federal laws dealing with student discipline hearings for sexual assault cases, especially those involving student-athletes.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
With basketball’s March Madness drawing to a close, the residential real estate world opens its version with April Madness, often referred to as the spring selling season.
REAL ESTATE
February 2016 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates were unchanged to slightly higher this week after declining the previous week.
NEWSMAKERS
Frost Brown Todd has added two new attorneys to its Nashville office.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Hyundai’s top-selling car in the United States, the Elantra, has been nicely restyled and upgraded to the point that its 2017 model could pass for a higher-priced luxury car.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Another desk at the office is empty this week. Another co-worker packed up, leaving the place short-handed.
FAMILY TRAVEL
Every place has a food. Canada has poutine. Sure, the country probably has a few other things, too. But Canada has poutine.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Business owners, marketing professionals and sales professionals – those that carry perhaps the greatest responsibility for driving company growth – are collectively facing a potentially catastrophic time epidemic.
CAREER CORNER
There’s an elephant in the room. It’s something we’re talking about, but not really getting to the heart of. The elephant is our relationship with technology.
I SWEAR
I am always looking for useful proverbs, adages, mottos and the like. Especially stuff that can be easily memorized, like “Don’t chew with your mouth full.” And “I feel a whole lot more like I do now than I did when I got here.”
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Today’s recipe fizzes. Not sizzles, but fizzes. But before we get to that, I want to give you a few fizzing facts. It doesn’t have much to do with food though.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Country giant Merle Haggard, who rose from poverty and prison to international fame through his songs about outlaws, underdogs and an abiding sense of national pride in such hits as "Okie From Muskogee" and "Sing Me Back Home," died Wednesday at 79, on his birthday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Merle Haggard didn't just write great country songs, he lived them.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam has named Wendy Long as the state's new TennCare director.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee House panel has revived a bill seeking to require public school students to use restrooms that match their sex at birth.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates slid this week to their lowest level since February 2015, luring prospective purchasers during the spring home-buying season.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla Motors says worldwide orders for its new lower-priced Model 3 electric car have hit 325,000.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are sinking broadly Thursday morning. Banks and mining and metals companies are taking some of the biggest losses. Oil prices are inching lower after a 5 percent jump a day earlier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment aid last week, evidence that employers are holding onto their workers despite signs of weak growth.
BERLIN (AP) — The German newspaper that first obtained the so-called Panama Papers, a vast trove of documents on offshore companies, said Thursday that it won't publish all the files, arguing that not all are of public interest.
Offshore accounts conjure images of bad behavior by the rich and shady, and for good reason: they have been used to dodge taxes, fund organized crime and facilitate corruption. But many people use offshore accounts for more than just hiding bribes and laundering money.
President Barack Obama scored a victory this week when Pfizer scrapped a $160 billion overseas deal that would have kept a chunk of the drugmaker's profits beyond the U.S. tax man's reach.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 6
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - A documentary by retired journalist and NBC Universal executive Paula Williams Madison is being screened by the International Black Film Festival in Nashville this week.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A bill that would allow mental health counselors to turn patients away based on the counselors' religious beliefs and personal principles has passed in the House in Tennessee, the latest state to introduce measures that opponents say legalize discrimination against gays, bisexuals and transgender people.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Those opposed to a bill that would allow counselors to refuse to treat patients on the basis of "sincerely held religious beliefs" say the measure casts such a wide net that therapists could virtually turn anyone away.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's attorney general has called fantasy sports contests illegal gambling.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Issues have repeatedly plagued an $80 million food program run by the Tennessee Department of Human Services and DHS can't solve the situation without first acknowledging there is a problem, the state Comptroller told lawmakers Tuesday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tumbling sales of Fiat Chrysler's main midsize car have driven the company to indefinitely lay off 1,300 employees at a Detroit-area factory.
TECHNOLOGY
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook is rearranging the notification panel on its mobile apps in an effort to widen the audience watching live video on its social network.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks broke a two-day losing streak Wednesday as investors bought up drugmakers and other health care companies. Energy companies also jumped as the price of oil surged.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. lambastes and strong-arms countries that help drug lords and millionaire investors hide their money from tax collectors. Critics say it should look closer to home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration is unveiling rules that will require that brokers who recommend investments for retirement savers meet the stricter standard that now applies to investment advisers: They must act as "fiduciaries" — trustees legally obligated to put their clients' best interests above all.
The biggest U.S.-based drugmaker, Pfizer Inc., will stay put thanks to aggressive new Treasury Department rules that succeeded in blocking Pfizer from acquiring rival Allergan and moving to Ireland — on paper — to reduce its tax bill.
BERLIN (AP) — The president of Ukraine became the latest prominent politician to deny wrongdoing Wednesday after his name was linked to secretive offshore accounts arranged by a Panama law firm.
TUESDAY, APRIL 5
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee's top education official has announced that students will be spending less time taking standardized tests next year.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Insure Tennessee supporters have held a protest inside the lobby of Republican House Speaker Beth Harwell's office at the legislative office complex in Nashville.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of the state Department of Human Services is expected to be questioned about her agency's oversight of a nearly $80 million federal food program.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Derided by critics as everything from unconstitutional to sacrilegious, Tennessee lawmakers nevertheless plowed ahead with designating the Holy Bible as the state's official book.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's plan to spin off four-year public universities from the Tennessee Board of Regents system gained final approval in the state Legislature on Monday.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - Abortion rights supporters on Tuesday asked a federal judge to toss out a 2014 constitutional amendment that made it easier to restrict abortion in Tennessee.
TECHNOLOGY
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook is training its computers to become seeing-eye guides for blind and visually impaired people as they scroll through the pictures posted on the world's largest online social network.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks fell for a second day on Tuesday, as the head of the International Monetary Fund sounded downbeat on the outlook for the world economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama will speak from the White House about new rules aimed at deterring "tax inversions."
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring jumped to a nine-year high in February, a sign of robust business demand for new workers, while the number of open positions slipped.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A private survey says growth picked up last month at U.S. services companies.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund is warning that the global economy is losing momentum and urging governments to take action to preserve the recovery.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — Global military spending rose in 2015 to nearly $1.7 trillion, the first increase in several years, driven by conflicts including the battle against the Islamic State group, the Saudi-led war in Yemen and fears about Iran, a report released Tuesday shows.
PANAMA CITY (AP) — Panamanians have long shrugged off their country's checkered reputation as a financial haven for drug lords, tax dodgers and corrupt oligarchs. If they're crooks, they've learned from the world's wealthy nations, they like to joke.
TOKYO (AP) — Privacy has a price. For the super-wealthy, it can also have a big payoff.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trying to win over conservatives, House Republicans are sweetening their budget proposal by putting several programs on the chopping block, including President Barack Obama's health care law and tax credits for children of immigrants living in the country illegally.
MONDAY, APRIL 4
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Nashville and its surrounding areas are leading the state in population growth.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state representative under investigation after allegations he sexually harassed staff members says he will run for re-election.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A $1 million Powerball ticket has been sold in Washington County.
COURTS
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A federal judge in New Orleans has granted final approval to an estimated $20 billion settlement, resolving years of litigation over the 2010 BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is turning down appeals by Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Wells Fargo & Co. of multimillion-dollar class-action judgments.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla Motors' CEO says worldwide orders for a new lower-priced electric car hit 276,000 during the weekend.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks fell slightly in quiet trading Monday as investors worked through several company announcements and prepared for the start of company earnings releases.
BERLIN (AP) — The release of a vast trove of documents and data on offshore financial dealings of wealthy, famous and powerful people around the world is raising questions over the widespread use of such tactics to avoid taxes and skirt financial oversight.
TOKYO (AP) — An investigation published by an international coalition of more than 100 media outlets, based on 11.5 million records of offshore holdings, details how politicians, celebrities and other famous people use banks, law firms and offshore shell companies to hide their assets.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California and New York acted Monday to gradually push their statewide minimum wages to $15 an hour — the highest in the nation — as Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders again seized on wage disparity and the plight of the working poor as a defining issue in the presidential race.
DALLAS (AP) — More U.S. flights are arriving on time and airlines are losing fewer bags, yet more consumers are complaining about air travel.
NEW YORK (AP) — Alaska Air Group Inc. is buying Virgin America in a deal worth $2.6 billion, making Alaska the biggest carrier on the West Coast and reigniting the debate over airline consolidation.
FRIDAY, APRIL 1
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Brittany Hudson was pregnant, addicted to painkillers and afraid of a Tennessee law that calls for the arrest of mothers of drug-dependent babies. She eventually gave birth without medical help, on the side of a road in the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's plan for road construction involves $2 billion for 94 projects around Tennessee over the next three years.
NASHVILLE (AP) — State Rep. Jon Lundberg, a captain in the Navy Reserve, will miss the remainder of the legislative session after being called up for duty at the Pentagon.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A coalition of groups has launched an ad campaign against House Speaker Beth Harwell and other lawmakers over a controversial bill that would allow counselors to refuse to treat patients on the basis of "sincerely held religious beliefs."
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill to have state lawmakers fill U.S. Senate vacancies has been defeated.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's office says he has appointed J. Ross Dyer to the western section of the Court of Criminal Appeals.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Ask any restaurant server or bartender about side work and you are liable to get an earful. Sweeping floors, washing dishes, making salad? These are tasks that should pay minimum wage, but servers and bartenders routinely do them for as little as $2.13 per hour.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former state Rep. Randy Stamps has been named executive director of the Tennessee State Employees Association.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has named Jai Templeton as the state's commissioner of agriculture.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Most major automakers reported U.S. sales gains last month as stronger employment figures and consumer confidence drove the auto industry to its best March in 16 years.
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — It's the car thousands of people were waiting for: Tesla Motors' new, lower-priced Model 3 sedan.
DETROIT (AP) — Volkswagen is recalling about 91,000 Passat cars with diesel engines because wiring under the body can corrode, overheat and potentially start fires.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Another quarter, another lesson in long-term investing. Economic uncertainty around the world and a brutal start to the year for stocks helped send the price of gold surging to its best quarter in 30 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers notched another solid month of hiring in March by adding 215,000 jobs, driven by large gains in the construction, retail and health care industries.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks climbed Friday after the government said job growth continued at a strong clip in March. Makers of consumer goods and household products rose, and health care companies rebounded. The solid employment report helped U.S. stocks stay out of a steep global decline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer sentiment slipped last month to lowest level since October with Americans worried about the country's economic outlook, the University of Michigan said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturers expanded in March, ending a five-month streak of declining factory activity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending fell in February by the largest amount in three months. Weakness in nonresidential construction and government offset the strongest month for home construction in more than eight years.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California and New York are poised to become the highest-paid minimum-wage states in the nation after their governors each reached deals with lawmakers to raise the lowest amount a worker can be paid to a record-shattering $15 an hour.
Anbang says it is dropping its $15 billion offer to acquire Starwood Hotels, citing various market considerations and ending a bidding war for the parent of St. Regis and Sheraton resorts.
NEW YORK (AP) — General Electric Co. asked the U.S. to drop the "too big to fail" tag for GE Capital, saying that its financing operations are a shadow of what they were when the Federal Reserve placed it under strict oversight in the aftermath of the global economic crisis almost a decade ago.
BEIJING (AP) — McDonald's Corp. said Thursday it plans to open 1,500 new restaurants in China, South Korea and Hong Kong as it looks to faster-growing markets to help drive a global turnaround.