VOL. 42 | NO. 15 | Friday, April 13, 2018
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
There are numerous avenues available to those seeking to build a nest egg for their golden years, with some bearing more risk than others.
REAL ESTATE
March 2018 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
First quarter 2018 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates were flat to slightly higher this week with the spring home buying season well underway.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Just when you think the Tennessee Legislature is going off the deep end, someone will throw them a bungee cord. Maybe a rope made out of hemp would work better because a bungee cord leaves people bouncing, never quite reeling them in.
Buoyed by Bible verses and compromise giving liquor stores a head start on Sunday sales, legislation allowing grocery stores to sell wine on Sundays has passed the Senate on a 17-11 vote.
PREDATORS
With three quick flicks of his wrist in the Predators’ regular-season finale, forward Filip Forsberg offered a glimpse of his immense skills, collecting the team’s first hat trick of the year and guiding Nashville to a franchise-record 53rd victory.
One of the toughest sports tickets in Nashville last year will be even harder for many fans to get their hands on this year. Such is the popularity of the Predators as the NHL’s playoffs get underway.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tossing catfish onto the ice has been a popular hockey tradition in Music City and the Nashville Predators finally have their own catfish tank inside the arena.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The tall, smiling fellow dressed in black – and with a slight, rockabilly hair-flip tickling his forehead – stops and points at a black guitar in a display case and nods.
BRIEFS
ATLASBX Co., LTD, will locate its first U.S. manufacturing facility in Clarksville. The global automotive battery manufacturer will invest $75 million and create approximately 200 jobs in Montgomery County.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Automakers have come a long way from safety features such as seat belts and air bags. Today, manufacturers are adding advanced driver aids that can fend off an accident in the first place. And there’s a good chance that your next new car will have them.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
In years past, plenty of brands adopted a “set it and forget it” email-automation mentality. Once a marketing email was released, it became a distant memory.
CAREER CORNER
I recently had the opportunity to attend South by Southwest (sxsw.com) in Austin, Texas, for the first time.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — Now that was more of the start Nashville was looking for. The finish? Not as much.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee athletic director Phillip Fulmer signed a contract that runs through 2021 and increases his annual pay to at least $900,000.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Republican candidates for Tennessee governor said Wednesday that Memphis did not do the right thing when it removed statues of Confederate-era leaders from city parks last year.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed upward this week, slightly worsening affordability for homebuyers.
HEALTH CARE
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — New data show that the number of prescriptions for opioid painkillers filled in the U.S. fell dramatically last year. They showed their biggest drop in 25 years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stocks moved lower in morning trading Thursday, weighed down by losses in technology companies and makers of consumer products. Banks bucked the trend, rising along with bond yields. Energy stocks also rose as a rally in oil prices continued, bringing crude to the highest level in more than three years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the International Monetary Fund is warning that the healthiest global economy in years is being threatened by rising debt levels and a simmering trade dispute between the world's two biggest economies.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German pharmaceutical and chemical company Merck says it has agreed to sell its global consumer health business to Procter & Gamble for 3.4 billion euros ($4.2 billion) in cash.
GENEVA (AP) — Russia has joined the European Union, India and China in demanding compensation from the United States for its tariffs on foreign steel and aluminum.
BANGKOK (AP) — The Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba has agreed to step up investments in Thailand as competition between online retailers heats up in fast-growing Southeast Asia.
NATIONAL POLITICS
HAVANA (AP) — A 57-year-old bureaucrat replaced Raul Castro as the president of Cuba on Thursday, launching a new political era as a government led by a single family for six decades tries to ensure the long-term survival of one of the world's last communist states.
PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe courted the new American president with a golden driver not long after Donald Trump won the White House. He's met with the billionaire businessman more than any other world leader, and he is Trump's second-most frequent caller.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said that although he's looking ahead optimistically to a historic summit meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un he could still pull out if he feels it's "not going to be fruitful."
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 18
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bird strike forced a Southwest Airlines jet to make an emergency landing in Nashville.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Amid contentious debate Tuesday, the House of Representatives pulled $250,000 for Memphis’ bicentennial celebration from the state’s $37.5 billion budget plan as retribution for the removal of Confederate monuments from city parks.
A GoFundMe page has been started on Facebook to raise funds to make up a $250,000 budget cut the Tennessee Legislature levied against the city of Memphis for removing Confederate monuments from two city parks late last year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill that would have barred adults in Tennessee from smoking in a vehicle with children appears dead for the year after lawmakers voiced concerns that it gave the government too much power over citizen freedoms.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee House passed a $37.5 billion budget, but only after arguments over whether to take money away from the city of Memphis as punishment for removing Confederate Statues last year.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — So about that swipe P.K. Subban took at the speedy forward causing Nashville so much grief.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have announced they will exercise their fifth-year option on quarterback Marcus Mariota.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Higher mortgage rates are making the already challenging task of buying an affordable home even tougher for many Americans this spring.
REGION
PARRISH, Ala. (AP) — A stinking trainload of human waste from New York City is stranded in a tiny Alabama town, spreading a stench like a giant backed-up toilet — and the "poop train" is just the latest example of the South being used as a dumping ground for other states' waste.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led Congress last year revoked more than a dozen Obama-era federal regulations. Now, it's poised to undo guidance a consumer protection agency issued five years ago to help ensure minority car buyers aren't charged higher interest rates.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Facebook is enhancing privacy safeguards for users around the world as it complies with new European rules designed to make it easier for consumers to give and withdraw consent for the use of their data.
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon is expanding its dominance globally by giving overseas customers access to more than 45 million items via its app.
MOSCOW (AP) — The chief of the Russian communications watchdog acknowledged Wednesday that millions of unrelated IP addresses have been frozen in a so-far futile attempt to block a popular messaging app.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
US stocks finished broadly higher Wednesday, giving the S&P 500 its third gain in as many days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's latest national survey has found that U.S. businesses are growing increasingly concerned about the impact higher tariffs could have on their companies and the overall economy.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's trade surplus with the U.S. grew nearly 6 percent in the fiscal year through March, the first increase in two years, according to data released Wednesday,
The manufacturer of bump stock devices like the ones used in the Las Vegas mass shooting last fall is shutting down its business.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS is giving all taxpayers an extra day to file after its website went down on deadline day.
HONG KONG (AP) — A massive Chinese infrastructure program that Beijing says is aimed at promoting global trade and economic growth is actually intended to expand the country's political influence and military presence, according to a report issued Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Starbucks, moving swiftly to confront a racially charged uproar over the arrest of two black men at one of its stores in Philadelphia, plans to close more than 8,000 U.S. stores for several hours next month to conduct racial-bias training for nearly 175,000 workers.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The investigation into a deadly engine failure on a Southwest jet is focusing on whether wear and tear caused a fan blade to snap off, triggering a catastrophic chain of events that killed a passenger and broke a string of eight years without a fatal accident involving a U.S. airliner.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday confirmed that his CIA chief secretly met with Kim Jong Un in North Korea and said "a good relationship was formed" heading into the adversaries' anticipated summit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wasted no time before seizing on last week's report by the Justice Department's internal watchdog on misconduct allegations against the FBI's former No. 2 official, Andrew McCabe. Trump tweeted it was proof that his archrival James Comey, the former FBI director, "totally controlled" McCabe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has thwarted a bipartisan effort to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job, saying he will not hold a floor vote on the legislation even if it is approved next week in the Senate Judiciary Committee.
TUESDAY, APRIL 17
STATE GOVERNMENT
Frustrated by a third year of TNReady foul-ups, this time with testing statewide disrupted by a suspected hacker, state lawmakers are set to step in and put an end to what they feel is a fiasco.
Years of work behind her, state Rep. Johnnie Turner is making the final push for creation of a state body designed to initiate investigations into civil rights cold cases, potentially solving decades-old murders or giving people the opportunity to put a heinous act behind them.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Legislature has passed a bill that bans the spanking of disabled children at public schools.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill aimed at making sure Tennessee prisoners are no longer encouraged to undergo sterilization if they want to spend less time in jail has passed in the state Legislature.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Another effort to expand the Tennessee's Medicaid program has failed after the state's Republican-dominated House refused to support an amendment on a bill on insurance coverage for certain cancer patients.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee bill that would require the disclosure of who paid for political ads on social media websites such as Twitter and Facebook is likely dead for the year after failing to get enough votes in the House on Monday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hotel allowances for Tennessee lawmakers would rise under a bill making its way through the Legislature.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche leaned on their speed to get off to another flying start.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. builders broke ground on more apartment buildings last month, pushing up overall home construction 1.9 percent.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Tuesday proposed steps to improve the government's system for overseeing medical devices, which has been criticized for years for failing to catch problems with risky implants and medical instruments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials say a closely watched medicine made from the marijuana plant significantly reduces seizures in children with severe forms of epilepsy and warrants approval in the country.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says Justice Sonia Sotomayor broke her right shoulder in a fall at her Washington home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sounded concerned Tuesday about doing away with a rule that has meant shoppers don't always get charged sales tax when they hit "checkout" online.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies led U.S. stocks solidly higher Tuesday, giving the market its second straight gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The International Monetary Fund warned Tuesday that rising trade tensions between the United States and China risk undermining a global economy that the IMF believes should otherwise grow solidly this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investment bank Goldman Sachs said Tuesday that its first quarter profits rose by 26 percent, helped by a lower tax bill and a surge in market volatility.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory output edged up a slight 0.1 percent in March, as strong production gains in motor vehicles and electronics were partially offset by declines in food and textiles.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Tuesday ordered importers of U.S. sorghum to pay deposits for possible higher tariffs in an anti-dumping investigation, adding to growing trade conflict with Washington.
NEW YORK (AP) — The 2017 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists:
NATIONAL POLITICS
Americans who waited until the last day to pay their taxes online got an unwelcome surprise: The IRS website to make payments and access other key services is down.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies have hit a new level of anxiety after the raid on his personal attorney's office, fearful of deeper exposure for Trump, his inner circle and his adult children — and more than concerned that they don't know exactly what is in those records and electronic devices seized last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several prominent lawyers asked to help represent President Donald Trump in the last year have spurned the assignment at least partly out of concerns he wouldn't pay his bills and doesn't listen to legal advice, according to people familiar with the conversations.
MONDAY, APRIL 16
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche will be without defenseman Samuel Girard for Game 3 against Nashville due to an upper-body injury.
NASHVILLE AREA
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Allegiant Air shares continue to fall in the aftermath of a news report that is raising serious safety questions about the low-cost carrier.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
The 2018 Academy of Country Music Awards marked a memorable night for the victims of the massive Las Vegas shooting, comeback queen Carrie Underwood and triple-winners Chris Stapleton and Miranda Lambert.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A list of winners at the 53nd annual Academy of Country Music Awards, held Sunday at the MGM Grand Garden Arena in Las Vegas.
OWENSBORO, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky building will be the Bluegrass Music Hall of Fame & Museum when it opens in October after a name change.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Senate is scheduled to vote on a bill that would ban the spanking of disabled children at public schools.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales Tax: $0. Online shoppers have gotten used to seeing that line on checkout screens before they click "purchase." But a case before the Supreme Court could change that.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix's video-streaming service has been thriving for so long that other companies are striving to duplicate its success in other kinds of digital entertainment and content.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — Homebuilder confidence slid for the fourth consecutive month with steadily rising mortgage rates and sky-high home prices putting ownership out of reach for more and more Americans.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Toyota says it will start equipping models with technology to talk to other vehicles starting in 2021, as it tries to push safety communications forward. The company says most of its U.S. models should have the feature by the mid-2020s.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Even as Hollywood moguls, elite journalists and top politicians have been pushed out of their jobs or resigned amid allegations of sexual misconduct, the world of medicine is more forgiving, according to an Associated Press investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep within President Donald Trump's plan to combat opioid abuse, overshadowed by his call for the death penalty for some drug traffickers, is a push to expand the use of medication to treat addiction.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Investors shrugged off geopolitical jitters Monday, sending U.S. stocks broadly higher and extending the market's gains from last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has selected Columbia University professor Richard Clarida to be vice chairman of the Federal Reserve and Kansas bank commissioner Michelle Bowman to fill another vacancy on the Fed's seven-member board.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers bounced back in March and bought more cars, furniture and appliances after three months of declining retail sales.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Starbucks wants to add training for store managers on "unconscious bias," CEO Kevin Johnson said Monday, as activists held more protests at a Philadelphia store where two black men were arrested when employees said they were trespassing.
BEIJING (AP) — Facing a possible U.S. tariff hike, one of China's biggest ball bearing makers, Cixin Group, is weighing plans to rush shipments to American customers before the increase makes its sales unprofitable.
NATIONAL POLITICS
HIALEAH, Fla. (AP) — President Donald Trump said Monday the Republican tax law and his push to slash regulations are driving one of the "greatest booms" to the U.S. economy and helping Hispanic workers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his scathing appraisal of the man who fired him as FBI chief, James Comey cited "some evidence of obstruction of justice" in President Donald Trump's actions and speculated that Russians might have dirt on the president. Trump struck back, branding Comey a criminal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is again twisting facts when it comes to former FBI director James Comey's disclosure of a sensitive investigation into Democrat Hillary Clinton right before the 2016 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Ambassador Nikki Haley has indicated new economic sanctions will be announced Monday against Russia for enabling the government of Syrian leader Bashar Assad to continue using chemical weapons.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee has committed $250 million to a midterm election strategy that has one goal above all else: Preserve the party's House majority for the rest of President Donald Trump's first term.
FRIDAY, APRIL 13
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville forward Filip Forsberg stunned his teammates and the Colorado Avalanche with one dazzling sequence. Forsberg passed the puck to himself through his own legs and rookie defenseman Samuel Girard's legs on his way to his second goal of the third period, helping Nashville beat Colorado 5-2 on Thursday night in Game 1 of the first-round Western Conference series.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Authorities say a Tennessee man has been sentenced to home confinement and ordered to pay $100,000 for having submachine guns that weren't registered.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Twenty of Tennessee's state parks are holding public meetings where community members can comment on current and future park improvement projects.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The first African-American has been named as the top leader of the Tennessee Highway Patrol, a veteran of the agency who was responsible for its daily operations for the past seven years.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill that would take coal mining regulation away from the federal government and put it back in the hands of the state of Tennessee is now headed to the governor.
One of Gov. Bill Haslam’s main legislative pushes has run afoul of a Legislature angry about everything from Sex Week at the University of Tennessee to the handling of the football coach hiring at the Knoxville campus.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 170 years after President James K. Polk died, the Tennessee Legislature is urging that his remains be exhumed and taken to a fourth resting place — but it might take a while longer before the shovels hit the ground.
COURTS
BOSTON (AP) — Exxon Mobil must hand over documents related to a state investigation into whether the company misled investors and consumers about what it knew about the link between fossil fuels and climate change, Massachusetts' highest court ruled Friday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — The chief executive of Backpage.com pleaded guilty to state and federal charges including conspiracy and money laundering, and agreed to testify in ongoing prosecutions against others at the website that authorities have dubbed a lucrative nationwide "online brothel," authorities said.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen's new CEO said Friday that the automaker must "significantly step up the pace" as it pushes into electric and self-driving vehicle technologies and shakes up its culture in the wake of a scandal over diesel emissions.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen replaced CEO Matthias Mueller with core brand head Herbert Diess on Thursday and said it is creating a new management structure to enable faster decision-making as autonomous and electric cars transform the industry.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Bank stocks buckled on Friday, even after several reported fatter profits than analysts expected, and the sharp declines overshadowed gains elsewhere in the market to drag the S&P 500 lower.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is again declining to name China as a currency manipulator, but it did target that country and five others for special monitoring of practices that the administration says are making America's trade deficit worse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses posted fewer open jobs in February than the previous month when openings reached a record level, though layoffs fell.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wells Fargo's profit jumped 6 percent during the first quarter, but that may be revised following an offer by federal regulators to settle a host of investigations into the consumer banking giant at a cost of $1 billion.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian lawmakers have submitted a wide-ranging bill that could freeze crucial exports to the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a striking reversal, President Donald Trump has asked trade officials to explore the possibility of the United States rejoining the Trans-Pacific Partnership agreement, a free trade deal he pulled out of during his first days in office as part of his "America first" agenda.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An array of business executives are expressing alarm to federal lawmakers Thursday about the impact that tariffs will have on their business.
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Trade Organization says he understands that President Donald Trump wants to create U.S. jobs, but warns that getting tough on trade can trigger a "domino effect" that could derail such goals in the first place.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan has endorsed his top lieutenant, Rep. Kevin McCarthy, to be his successor, giving a significant boost to the Californian's candidacy in hopes of averting a divisive contest that could make an already difficult election year even tougher for divided Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top fundraiser for President Donald Trump has resigned from the Republican National Committee following a report that he paid $1.6 million to a Playboy playmate he had an affair with.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI has announced a new leadership team that looks a lot like the old one.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of railing against online shopping giant Amazon, President Donald Trump signed an executive order Thursday creating a task force to study the United States Postal Service.
NEW YORK (AP) — A task force will study the U.S. Postal Service under an executive order from President Donald Trump, who has spent weeks criticizing online retailer Amazon and accused it of not paying enough in shipping costs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI Director James Comey blasts President Donald Trump as unethical and "untethered to truth" in a sharply critical new book that describes Trump as fixated in the early days of his administration on having the FBI debunk salacious rumors he insisted were untrue but could distress his wife.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has put off a final decision on possible military strikes against Syria after tweeting earlier that they could happen "very soon or not so soon at all." The White House said he would consult further with allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump issued a full pardon Friday to I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, a former top aide to Vice President Dick Cheney, suggesting he had been "treated unfairly" by a special counsel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that an attack on Syria could take place "very soon or not so soon at all," arguing he had never signaled the timing of retaliation for a suspected chemical weapons attack that he had suggested was imminent a day earlier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Pompeo, the congressman-turned-CIA director who's now been chosen to be secretary of state, promised Thursday to make the State Department as central to national security decisions as the intelligence agency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican National Committee plans an aggressive response to an upcoming memoir by fired FBI director James Comey. The focus will be on past Democratic criticism of Comey.