VOL. 46 | NO. 13 | Friday, April 1, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The “When will it end?” question continues to be floated as many are being priced out of the Nashville market. Those who have watched prices skyrocket faster than their income and their savings accounts are praying for relief.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose again this week as the key 30-year loan rate vaulted over 4.5% and attained its highest level since the end of 2018.
NEWSMAKERS
Aaron Chaloner has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP as a senior attorney in the Intellectual Property Practice Group.
BRIEFS
The Nashville Health Care Council has joined the humanitarian relief effort launched in Tennessee by former U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and Russell Street Ventures Founder and CEO Brad Smith to support Ukraine and Poland with medical supplies and equipment.
UT SPORTS
Reaching the Sweet 16 used to be a birthright for the Tennessee women’s basketball program. It was just another stop on the road to the bigger prize. But after six years away, the Lady Vols can appreciate how much it took to get back while also wondering what might have been if the team had ever been at full strength.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
We’re living in a golden age of off-road pickup trucks that you can buy straight from the factory, and the Ford F-150 Raptor and Ram 1500 TRX are the most high-profile examples.
PERSONAL FINANCE
After a working lifetime of alarm clocks and meetings, you might be looking forward to a lot more unstructured time once you retire. But taking care of one more to-do list early on can set you up for a better retirement.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
It’s hard not to “LIKE” videos of kittens. Seriously, they’re so cute. Puppies, too. You gotta LOVE dogs, CARE on this post, SAD on that comment and before you know it, a half-hour of your workday is gone.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Sure, you want to feel joy and love upon receiving a wedding invitation. But one little postcard or email can also pack loads of pricy pressure.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ryan Johansen's first career hat trick led the Nashville Predators to a 6-2 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Tuesday night.
SPORTS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame will make history in its 2023 home opener by hosting Tennessee State on Sept. 2, marking the first time the Fighting Irish have faced a Historically Black College or University.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Shipping giant FedEx Corp.'s logistics subsidiary has opened a new global headquarters in the building that once held the Gibson guitar factory in an entertainment district in downtown Memphis, Tennessee.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee point guard Kennedy Chandler has declared for the NBA draft and is signing with an agent after his freshman season with the Volunteers.
COURTS
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A wind energy company was sentenced to probation and ordered to pay more than $8 million in fines and restitution after at least 150 eagles were killed over the past decade at its wind farms in eight states, federal prosecutors said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday acquitted a New Mexico man of misdemeanor charges that he illegally entered the U.S. Capitol and engaged in disorderly conduct after he walked into the building during last year's riot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday reinstated for now a Trump-era rule that curtails the power of states and Native American tribes to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams and other waterways.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A judge has ordered the demolition of the deteriorating Packard auto plant in Detroit, finding that it had become a public nuisance.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — Nursing home residents are subjected to ineffective care and poor staffing, while facility finances are shrouded in secrecy and regulatory lapses go unenforced, according to a report Wednesday that called for wholesale changes in an industry whose failures have been spotlighted by the pandemic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — While many Americans are trying to move on with their lives after two years of the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. health officials are debating the best way to use vaccines to stay ahead of the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — GlaxoSmithKline's IV drug for COVID-19 should no longer be used because it is likely ineffective against the omicron subvariant that now accounts for most U.S. cases, federal health regulators said Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks fell and bond yields rose on Wall Street Wednesday after details from last month's Federal Reserve meeting showed the central bank intends to be aggressive in its efforts to fight inflation.
PARIS (AP) — French financial prosecutors have opened a preliminary investigation into suspected tax fraud by American management consulting firm McKinsey & Company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials are signaling that they will take an aggressive approach to fighting high inflation in the coming months — actions that will make borrowing sharply more expensive for consumers and businesses and heighten risks to the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats on Wednesday accused oil companies of "ripping off the American people" and putting profits before production as Americans suffer from ever-increasing gasoline prices amid the war in Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen told a House panel that Russia's actions in Eastern Europe "will have enormous economic repercussions in Ukraine and beyond."
Thousands of cryptocurrency enthusiasts are gathering in Miami as the city builds its reputation as one of the key locations to develop the blockchain technology despite its underdog status.
JetBlue Airways has offered to buy Spirit Airlines for about $3.6 billion and break up a plan for Spirit to merge with rival budget carrier Frontier Airlines.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans blocked a Democratic attempt to begin Senate debate on a $10 billion COVID-19 compromise, pressing to entangle the bipartisan package with an election-year showdown over immigration restrictions that poses a politically uncomfortable fight for Democrats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House moved Wednesday to hold former Trump advisers Peter Navarro and Dan Scavino in contempt of Congress as a new round of partisan fighting erupted over the House committee's investigation into the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has charged a Russian oligarch linked to the Kremlin with violating U.S. government sanctions, and disrupted a cybercrime operation that was launched by a Russian military intelligence agency, officials said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States on Wednesday announced sanctions targeting Russian President Vladimir Putin's two adult daughters and said it was toughening penalties against Russian banks in retaliation for "war crimes" in Ukraine. The United Kingdom piled on asset freezes against two major banks, a ban on British investment in Russia and a pledge to end dependency on Russian coal and oil by yearend.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kyiv was a Russian defeat for the ages. The fight started poorly for the invaders and went downhill from there.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Wednesday said images of civilian deaths in the Ukrainian town of Bucha are "deeply disturbing" but that no blame should be apportioned until all facts are known.
THE HAGUE (AP) — The Dutch government said Wednesday it is making sure a dozen yachts ordered by super-wealthy Russians are not delivered to anyone as part of sanctions imposed over the war in Ukraine.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Council president Charles Michel said on Wednesday that European Union countries should think about ways to offer asylum to Russian soldiers willing to desert Ukraine battlefields.
TUESDAY, APRIL 5
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ten families are suing CSX Transportation for up to $450 million over flooding that killed 20 people in Tennessee last year, claiming a clog underneath the railroad giant's bridge in rural Waverly allowed a "deadly tidal wave" to form.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's comptroller has selected Maria Bush as the state's new open records counsel.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer for the Hillary Clinton campaign charged with lying to the FBI during the Trump-Russia investigation is asking a judge to bar from his upcoming trial any evidence or testimony related to a dossier of uncorroborated allegations compiled by an-ex British spy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sens. Lisa Murkowski and Mitt Romney say they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson's historic elevation to the Supreme Court, giving President Joe Biden's nominee a burst of bipartisan support and all but assuring she'll become the first Black female justice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — By announcing they will vote to confirm Judge Ketanji Brown Jackson as the first Black woman to the Supreme Court, three Republican senators are marking the historical moment by building legacies of their own.
VATICAN CITY (AP) — The former head of the Vatican's financial watchdog testified Tuesday that the agency launched an intelligence investigation into a suspicious London real estate deal after it learned about it but had no power to stop the Vatican secretariat of state from concluding it.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — A Los Angeles judge ruled Friday that California's landmark law mandating that corporations diversify their boards with members from certain racial, ethnic or LGBT groups is unconstitutional.
MEDIA
Elon Musk, the billionaire Tesla CEO and power Twitter user who is now Twitter's largest shareholder and newly appointed board member, may have thoughts on a long-standing request from users: Should there be an edit button?
Elon Musk is joining Twitter's board of directors a day after disclosing that the Tesla CEO took a 9% stake in the social media platform.
TECHNOLOGY
BERLIN (AP) — German investigators on Tuesday shut down a Russian-language darknet marketplace that they say specialized in drug dealing, seizing bitcoin worth 23 million euros ($25.3 million).
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators have opened an investigation into electric and hybrid vehicle batteries after five automakers issued recalls due to possible defects that could cause fires or stalling.
TRANSPORTATION
Air travel in the United States improved Monday after a rocky weekend that left thousands of flyers stranded by thunderstorms in Florida, technology problems at the busiest domestic airline and labor problems at another carrier.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday proposed a rule to finally ban asbestos, a carcinogen that is still used in some chlorine bleach, brake pads and other products and kills thousands of Americans every year.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronting the pandemic's lasting shadow, President Joe Biden on Tuesday is ordering a new national research push on long COVID, while also directing federal agencies to support patients dealing with the mysterious and debilitating condition.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate bargainers have reached agreement on a slimmed-down $10 billion package for countering COVID-19 with treatments, vaccines and other steps, but both parties' bargainers ended up dropping all funding to help nations abroad combat the pandemic.
BEIJING (AP) — The COVID-19 outbreak in China's largest metropolis of Shanghai remains "extremely grim" amid an ongoing lockdown confining around 26 million people to their homes, a city official said Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed lower and bond yields jumped Tuesday as remarks by a Federal Reserve governor fueled expectations on Wall Street that the central bank is prepared to more aggressively raise interest rates and take other steps in a bid to tame surging inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Western allies plan to pile additional sanctions on Russia on Wednesday after the emergence of troubling new evidence of war crimes in Ukraine, according to the White House. The new penalties will include a ban on all new investment in Russia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration plans to freeze federal student loan payments through Aug. 31, extending a moratorium that has allowed millions of Americans to postpone payments during the coronavirus pandemic, according to an administration official familiar with the White House's decision-making.
LONDON (AP) — Britain has unveiled plans to regulate some cryptocurrencies as part of a broader plan to become a global hub for digital payments, coming as authorities in the U.S. and Europe are racing to draw up rules for crypto.
BANGKOK (AP) — Disruptions to supplies of commodities, financial strains and higher prices are among the impacts of the war in Ukraine that will slow economies in Asia in coming months, the World Bank says in a report released Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ivanka Trump, former President Donald Trump's daughter and among those closest to him during the insurrection at the Capitol, is set to testify Tuesday before the Jan. 6 committee, according to three people familiar with the situation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With hugs, laughs and good-natured ribbing, Barack Obama on Tuesday returned to the White House for the first time in more than five years to savor the 12th anniversary of his signature health care law and give a boost to President Joe Biden's efforts to expand it.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States should look at the development of more bases in Eastern Europe to protect against Russian aggression, but rotate forces through them rather than make permanent deployments, the top U.S military officer told Congress on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department will not allow any Russian government debt payments from accounts at U.S. financial institutions to be made in U.S. dollars, restricting one of the strategies President Vladimir Putin is employing to stave off default, an agency official said Tuesday.
BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow faced global revulsion and accusations of war crimes Monday after the Russian pullout from the outskirts of Kyiv revealed streets, buildings and yards strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians, many of them evidently killed at close range.
BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russian troops of gruesome atrocities in Ukraine and told the U.N. Security Council on Tuesday that those responsible should immediately be brought up on war crimes charges in front of a tribunal like the one set up at Nuremberg after World War II.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive branch proposed Tuesday a ban on coal imports from Russia in what would be the first EU sanctions targeting the country's lucrative energy industry over its war in Ukraine.
MONDAY, APRIL 4
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republicans are advancing legislation that would strictly regulate the dispensing of abortion pills, including imposing harsh penalties on doctors who violate them.
EAST TENNESSEE
SEVIERVILLE (AP) — Two Tennessee wildfires that have burned more than 3,000 acres near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park and damaged more than 300 structures were under control as of Saturday afternoon, officials said.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — James Alexander, the last surviving member of The Bar-Kays band that backed soul music star Otis Redding, will have a street renamed after him in his hometown of Memphis, Tennessee, Stax Museum said.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for people falsely accused by police of crimes, the Supreme Court removed a barrier Monday to lawsuits against law enforcement for malicious prosecution.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee took up debate on Ketanji Brown Jackson's nomination for Supreme Court justice on Monday as Democrats aimed to confirm her by the end of the week as the first Black woman on the court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Over a year ago, two off-duty police officers from a small town in Virginia were charged with storming the U.S. Capitol together. One of them is heading to trial and faced a courtroom full of potential jurors on Monday. The other could be a key prosecution witness.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — BMW has halted production at two German factories. Mercedes is slowing work at its assembly plants. Volkswagen, warning of production stoppages, is looking for alternative sources for parts.
MEDIA
Tesla CEO Elon Musk acquired a 9% stake in Twitter to become its largest shareholder at a time when he is questioning the social media platform's dedication to free speech and the First Amendment.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares in a company planning to buy Donald Trump's new social media business plunged Monday on a news report that two key staff members left, deepening losses from last week when it said it would miss a deadline to file its annual financial statements.
ENVIRONMENT
LULEA, Sweden (AP) — For hundreds of years, raging blast furnaces — fed with coking coal — have forged steel used in cars, railways, bridges and skyscrapers.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid worries that the latest coronavirus variant could spark another rise in cases, Medicare announced Monday that millions of enrollees will finally have access to free over-the-counter COVID-19 tests at drug stores.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks shook off a downbeat start to close higher Monday, as big gains by technology and communications companies helped offset losses elsewhere on Wall Street.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jamie Dimon laid out a laundry list of big risks looming for the global and U.S. economy in his letter to JPMorgan Chase shareholders on Monday,
NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses still have the pandemic and now high inflation to grapple with — and they're finding it's tough to get a loan to help with the daily grind.
Longtime Starbucks leader Howard Schultz — who returned to the company as interim CEO on Monday — said his first major action will be suspending Starbucks' share buyback program and plowing those billions of dollars into the company instead.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seven months before he faces a critical test from voters in the midterm elections, President Joe Biden is turning his focus to kitchen-table issues as he struggles to get credit for a recovering economy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — Deborah Caldwell-Stone, director of the American Library Association's Office for Intellectual Freedom, has never been so busy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home-district projects for members of Congress are back, sprinkled across the government-wide $1.5 trillion bill President Joe Biden signed recently. The official tally shows amounts modest by past standards yet spread widely around the country — and that understate what lawmakers are claiming credit for.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama will be returning to the White House on Tuesday for his first public event there since he left office in 2017.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday called for a war crimes trial against Russia President Vladimir Putin and said he'd seek more sanctions after reported atrocities in Ukraine.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Global reaction Monday to what appears to be deliberate killings of civilians in Ukraine in areas north of Kyiv, the capital, where Russian soldiers have either retreated or been pushed back:
BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — The United States plans to seek a suspension of Russia from its seat on the U.N.'s top human rights body, pointing to increasing signs that Russian forces may have committed war crimes in Ukraine, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Linda Thomas-Greenfield said Monday.
BUCHA, Ukraine (AP) — Moscow faced global revulsion and accusations of war crimes Monday after the Russian pullout from the outskirts of Kyiv revealed streets strewn with corpses of what appeared to be civilians, some of whom had seemingly been killed deliberately at close range.
FRIDAY, APRIL 1
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The homicide conviction of a former Tennessee nurse for a medication error that killed a patient in 2017 has become a flashpoint in the campaign for Nashville district attorney.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Legislation that would create a residency requirement for most U.S. House and Senate hopefuls is unconstitutional and unfairly blocks a candidate endorsed by Donald Trump from appearing on the ballot, a federal lawsuit argues.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Lee Pope, who has been Tennessee's open records counsel since 2017, has resigned.
COURTS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge struck down portions of a Florida election law passed last year, saying in a ruling Thursday that the Republican-led government was using subtle tactics to suppress Black voters.
BRENTWOOD (AP) — A Tennessee woman convicted in the death of a police officer has been sentenced to 8 to 12 years in prison.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee man was convicted Thursday in two stabbing deaths outside a Nashville bar in 2019.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homebuilder stocks have lagged far behind the broader market during Wall Street's swoon this year, weighed down by fears that rising mortgage rates could severely dampen sales.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — A controversial facial recognition company that's built a massive photographic dossier of the world's people for use by police, national governments and — most recently — the Ukrainian military is now planning to offer its technology to banks and other private businesses.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — New vehicles sold in the U.S. will have to average at least 40 miles per gallon of gasoline in 2026, up from about 28 mpg, under new federal rules unveiled Friday that undo a rollback of standards enacted under President Donald Trump.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has passed a bill capping the monthly cost of insulin at $35 for insured patients, part of an election-year push by Democrats for price curbs on prescription drugs at a time of rising inflation.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden vastly overpromised Thursday when he told Americans they can expect savings of $500 a month by transitioning to renewable energy. It's possible they might save that much over a year, not per month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Upholding a Trump-era environmental policy, the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday it will not regulate a drinking water contaminant that has been linked to brain damage in infants.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks notched modest gains and Treasury yields soared Friday on Wall Street after a healthy report on the U.S. job market strengthened expectations for coming interest rate hikes.
NEW YORK (AP) — One of the more reliable warning signals for an economic recession is shining brighter.
America's employers extended a streak of robust hiring in March, adding 431,000 jobs in a sign of the economy's resilience in the face of a still-destructive pandemic and the highest inflation in 40 years.
Shares of GameStop surged before the market opened Friday after the video game retailer announced that it would attempt its first stock split in 15 years.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — A spike in global energy prices benefits Saudi Arabia as the world's top oil exporter, but problems remain for the kingdom's impulsive crown prince.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Marijuana would be decriminalized at the federal level under legislation the House approved Friday as Democrats made the case for allowing states to set their own policies on pot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol are increasingly going public with critical statements, court filings and more to deliver a blunt message to Attorney General Merrick Garland and the Department of Justice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate acquitted former President Donald Trump last year of inciting the Capitol insurrection. But neither Trump nor any of his top advisers have faced charges over the attack in a court of law, and it's uncertain if they ever will.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers have moved to the brink of shaking hands on a scaled-back bipartisan compromise providing a fresh $10 billion to combat COVID-19, a deal that could set up final congressional approval next week.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Talks to stop the fighting in Ukraine resumed Friday, as another desperate attempt to rescue civilians from the shattered and encircled city of Mariupol failed and Russia accused the Ukrainians of launching a helicopter attack on a fuel depot on Russian soil.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Prime Minister Scott Morrison said Friday that Australia will send armored Bushmaster vehicles to Ukraine after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy specifically asked for them while appealing to Australian lawmakers for more help in Ukraine's war against Russia.
THURSDAY, MARCH 31
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Security screeners found guns in carry-on baggage at all five of Tennessee's major airports last week, the Transportation Security Administration said.
EAST TENNESSEE
PIGEON FORGE (AP) — Firefighters from across Tennessee continued working Thursday morning to contain a wildfire near the Great Smoky Mountains National Park that spread overnight despite rain from storms that passed through the area, officials said.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham said Thursday he won't vote for Supreme Court nominee Ketanji Brown Jackson, expressing concerns about her record despite supporting her confirmation as an appeals court judge last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal officials have revoked the license of a Nevada-based gun manufacturer that was accused of illegally selling guns and went bankrupt but then rebranded itself.
TECHNOLOGY
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — Russia's tech workers are looking for safer and more productive professional pastures.
TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. airport security procedures will become more gender-neutral, with changes to scanners used for screening and the use of an "X" for travelers going through Precheck who do not identify as male or female, the Biden administration said Thursday.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the end of the COVID-19 pandemic comes, it could create major disruptions for a cumbersome U.S. health care system made more generous, flexible and up-to-date technologically through a raft of temporary emergency measures.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health advisers on Wednesday narrowly ruled against an experimental drug for the debilitating illness known as Lou Gehrig's disease, a potential setback for patient groups who have lobbied for the medication's approval.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Federal health officials are dropping the warning they have attached to cruising since the beginning of the pandemic, leaving it up to vacationers to decide whether they feel safe getting on a ship.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A late slump left stocks decisively lower on Wall Street Thursday, wrapping up the worst quarter for the market since the pandemic broke out two years ago.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Thursday ordered the release of 1 million barrels of oil per day from the nation's strategic petroleum reserve for six months, a bid to control energy prices that have spiked after the United States and allies imposed steep sanctions on Russia over its invasion of Ukraine.
DALLAS (AP) — President Joe Biden is again dipping into the nation's petroleum stockpile to try to corral rising energy prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Got a dime you can spare? Coins are in short supply — again.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge that is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.4% in February compared with a year ago, with sharply higher prices for food, gasoline and other necessities squeezing Americans' finances.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but layoffs remain at historic lows.
LONDON (AP) — OPEC and allied oil producers including Russia decided Thursday to stick to a modest increase in the amount of crude they pump to the world, a step that supports higher prices even as the Biden administration plans to try to lower them by releasing oil from strategic reserves.
NEW YORK (AP) — An independent group formed by former and current Amazon workers is trying to organize a company warehouse in New York City, a David and Goliath scenario that could lead to the retail giant's first unionized facility in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's hiring boom of the past year has narrowed racial disparities in unemployment. Yet the Federal Reserve's ongoing interest rate hikes — shaping up to be the steepest in 15 years — threaten to reverse that progress.
BEIJING (AP) — China's manufacturing activity fell to a five-month low in March after most of Shanghai and two other industrial centers were shut down to fight coronavirus outbreaks, a survey showed Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lot is known about the few hours that shook American democracy to the core. The defeated president's incendiary speech, the march by an angry crowd to the U.S. Capitol, the breaking in, the beating of cops, the "hang Mike Pence" threats, the lawmakers running for their lives, the shooting death of rioter Ashli Babbitt. All of that chaos unfolded over about eight hours on one day: Jan. 6, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that his administration is "standing up" for transgender Americans against "hateful bills" being passed at the state level and that he is committed to advancing equality across society.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Postmaster General Louis DeJoy said Thursday that the Justice Department has closed without criminal charges an investigation into political fundraising activity at his former business.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian troops began leaving the Chernobyl nuclear plant after soldiers got "significant doses" of radiation from digging trenches at the highly contaminated site, Ukraine's state power company said Thursday as fighting raged on the outskirts of Kyiv and other fronts.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — As the United States prepares to accept up to 100,000 Ukrainian refugees following Russia's invasion of their country, existing communities in cities like Sacramento and Seattle are already mobilizing to provide food, shelter and support to those fleeing the war.
A fiery explosion rocked a Russian fuel depot near the border around dawn Friday, and Moscow said Ukraine had attacked the facility, but Kyiv denied any involvement. There was no independent confirmation of details about the incident.