VOL. 47 | NO. 16 | Friday, April 14, 2023
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
High-end year sales for the first quarter were better than for the same period in 2022 with 254 closed sales of $1 million or more compared with 229 last year. In sales of $1 million to $2 million, there were 172 this year and 167 last year. In the $2 million to $3 million range, there were 42 this year and 37 in 2022.
NEWSMAKERS
Baker Donelson has named Michaela D. Poizner, a shareholder in Baker Donelson’s Nashville office, chair of the firm’s health law group, one of the largest health law practices in the country.
BRIEFS
One of the two Black Democrats who were expelled last week from the GOP-led Tennessee House was reinstated Monday after Nashville’s governing council voted to send him straight back to the Legislature.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
It’s an exciting time to be in the market for an electric vehicle. There are more EV options than ever before, and your selection isn’t just limited to compact urban runabouts.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Therapy can help improve your mental health, your stress levels and maybe even your relationship with your mom. It might also help improve your financial situation – a benefit many may not be aware of.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The thump hits your porch or mailbox, right on time. Your newspaper is there when you want it, accompanying your coffee at breakfast, sitting by your sandwich at lunch or as a part of your post-supper relaxation. It’s also where you need it: at school board meetings, common council sessions and high school sports.
PERSONAL FINANCE
More than half of older taxpayers (57%) are worried they’ll have to pay more taxes this year because of the 5.9% Social Security cost-of-living adjustment in 2022, states a January survey by The Senior Citizens League, a nonpartisan seniors group.
When a scam artist called Cameron Huddleston’s mom to tell her to wire money in order to claim a prize, Huddleston had to intercept the calls. Her mom, who had been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s, was convinced she had to wire the money as soon as possible.
NASHVILLE AREA
For the second consecutive year, the Vanderbilt Poll-Nashville shows more than half of respondents believe the city is on the wrong track.
STATE GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three Tennessee lawmakers who faced expulsion votes after participating in protests over last month's school shooting in Nashville will visit the White House to meet with President Joe Biden on Monday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — In the wake of a deadly school shooting last month, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee awarded final passage Tuesday to a proposal that would further protect gun and ammunition dealers, manufacturers and sellers against lawsuits.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Rep. Justin Pearson never guessed he'd be expelled for leading a gun control protest on the House floor after a deadly school shooting. Nor did he predict that he'd be propelled into the national spotlight, placing his state at the forefront of the conversation on gun regulations.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee budget writers on Tuesday said they will funnel $20 million of taxpayer dollars to help fund anti-abortion centers, marking a dramatic reduction from the original $100 million proposed by Gov. Bill Lee several months prior.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The family of Tyre Nichols, who died after a brutal beating by five Memphis police officers, sued the officers and the city of Memphis on Wednesday, blaming them for his death and accusing officials of allowing a special unit's aggressive tactics to go unchecked despite warning signs.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has temporarily extended women's access to an abortion pill until Friday while the justices consider whether to allow restrictions on mifepristone to take effect as a legal challenge to the medication's Food and Drug Administration approval continues.
DENVER (AP) — Fox News' nearly $800 million settlement of a voting machine company's defamation lawsuit marks the first milestone in a larger legal strategy designed to combat the false claims and conspiracy theories about elections that have rippled through the United States for nearly three years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Allen Weisselberg, the former chief financial officer at Donald Trump's company, got out of jail Wednesday but might not have freed himself from the legal morass surrounding the former president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday rejected a Turkish bank's main arguments for avoiding prosecution on charges it helped Iran evade U.S. sanctions, but the court sent the case back for additional review.
Fox News settled a major defamation lawsuit for $787.5 million on Tuesday, according to the voting machine company that sued the top cable news network.
NEW YORK (AP) — JPMorgan Chase & Co. CEO Jamie Dimon must undergo up to two days of questioning by lawyers handling lawsuits over whether the bank can be held liable in financier Jeffrey Epstein's sexual abuse of teenage girls and women, a federal judge said Tuesday.
BANKING
GENEVA (AP) — U.S. lawmakers have accused embattled Swiss bank Credit Suisse of limiting the scope of an internal investigation into Nazi clients and Nazi-linked accounts, including some that were open until just a few years ago.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla dropped the starting prices for its two top-selling models overnight, the company's fourth price cut in the U.S. this year.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Government inspectors concluded Tesla Inc.'s Shanghai factory where an employee died in a Feb. 4 accident has weaknesses in its safety measures, news reports said Wednesday.
MEDIA
Anyone in the U.S. who has had a Facebook account at any time since May 24, 2007, can now apply for their share of a $725 million privacy settlement that parent company Meta has agreed to pay.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix began the year with another burst in subscriber growth that eclipsed analysts' projections for the third consecutive quarter, providing further evidence the video streaming service has regained its momentum after a jarring downturn in customers prompted a shake up.
ECONOMY
LONDON (AP) — The price of food in the U.K. rose at the fastest pace in 45 years last month in, keeping inflation above 10% for a seventh straight month amid a cost-of-living crisis that has fueled a wave of strikes by government workers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Microsoft has agreed to buy a $50 million parcel of land in southeastern Wisconsin meant for Foxconn after the world's largest electronics manufacturer failed to fulfill grandiose promises to build a massive facility that would employ thousands of workers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street barely budged again on Wednesday following another set of mixed earnings reports from big U.S. companies.
TUMWATER, Wash. (AP) — The email went out to legal cannabis growers around Washington state, alerting them that another of their colleagues had gone under.
NEW YORK (AP) — The one-day volunteering event — where employees give back to their communities by packing boxes of food or cleaning up a park or fundraising — is so ingrained in corporations that it's long been lampooned by pop culture.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy unveiled a sweeping package Wednesday that would raise the nation's debt limit by $1.5 trillion into next year while imposing a long list of Republican priorities, including new spending caps, work requirements for recipients of government aid and others that are sure to be nonstarters for the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For some senators, the Democratic effort to temporarily replace ailing 89-year-old Dianne Feinstein on the Judiciary Committee is about speeding up confirmation of President Joe Biden's federal court nominees. But for others, particularly her most long-serving peers, it's personal.
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Ron DeSantis has yet to enter the 2024 presidential race, but former President Donald Trump is aiming to drum up support in the Florida governor's backyard, securing endorsements already from more than one-third of the Republicans in the state's congressional delegation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Washington slow-walks toward a crisis over the national debt, President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are talking to two very different Americas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates, people familiar with the probe told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal watchdog is investigating whether the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration under chief Anne Milgram improperly awarded millions of dollars in no-bid contracts to hire her past associates. That's according to several people familiar with the widening probe who spoke to The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy worked furiously Tuesday to build support for a Republican plan that would demand strict limits to federal spending in return for agreeing to raise the nation's debt limit and stave off an unprecedented U.S. default.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans for months have railed against the Biden administration's handling of the U.S. border with Mexico, holding hearings, visiting border communities and promising to advance legislation to clamp down on illegal immigration and drug trafficking.
LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. (AP) — Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis' appointees on Wednesday began trying to reshape Disney World's governing body with proposals to eliminate a planning board and prohibit mask mandates and COVID-19 vaccine requirements in an evolving showdown between the Republican governor and the world's best-known entertainment company.
LONDON (AP) — Russian hackers are seeking to "disrupt or destroy" Britain's critical infrastructure and not enough is being done to stop them, U.K. government officials said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, made $579,514 last year and paid $137,658 in federal income taxes. That works out to a 23.8% tax rate, more than the average of roughly 14% for all U.S. households.
TUESDAY, APRIL 18
STATE GOVERNMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The roster of Republican presidential hopefuls who flocked to the National Rifle Association's annual convention reflects the political potency of gun rights, despite the group's eroding revenues and an opposition movement that's growing increasingly vocal as the drumbeat of mass shootings marches on.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The recently reinstated Rep. Justin Jones carried an infant-sized casket into Tennessee's Capitol as protesters calling for gun safety legislation outside the Capitol were blocked from bringing caskets inside.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers on Monday kicked off a rushed effort to adjourn by the end of the week, looking for an exit from a session that has been eclipsed by the fallout of the Republican supermajority expelling two young Black Democrats and a growing push to pass some sort of gun restriction legislation.
COURTS
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Fox and Dominion Voting Systems reached a settlement Tuesday in the voting machine company's defamation lawsuit, averting a trial in a case that exposed how the top-rated network chased viewers by promoting lies about the 2020 presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Tennessee man and his mother were convicted on Tuesday of charges that they stormed the Capitol, where they brought plastic zip-tie handcuffs into the Senate gallery as a mob attacked the building, court records show.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for anti-abortion doctors on Tuesday urged the Supreme Court to allow restrictions to take effect on a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States, while a lawsuit continues.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A jury was seated Tuesday to hear a voting machine company's $1.6 billion defamation lawsuit against Fox News in a trial that will test First Amendment protections and expose the network's role in spreading the lie of a stolen 2020 presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court says New Jersey can withdraw from a commission created decades ago with New York to combat the mob's influence at their joint port.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Fugees rapper on trial in a multimillion-dollar campaign finance and foreign influence case was trying to reinvent himself as he entered the political arena, not break any laws, defense attorneys said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is being asked to decide under what circumstances businesses must accommodate the needs of religious employees.
TRAVEL
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines planes were briefly grounded nationwide Tuesday for what the airline called an intermittent technology issue, leading to more than 1,800 delayed flights just four months after the carrier suffered a much bigger meltdown over the Christmas travel rush.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators on Tuesday cleared another booster dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines for older Americans and people with weak immune systems.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SHANGHAI (AP) — Volkswagen unveiled an electric luxury sedan that promises a 700-kilometer (435-mile) battery range as global and Chinese automakers displayed their latest SUVs, sedans and muscle cars Tuesday at the world's biggest auto show.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is poised to shut down the DVD-by-mail rental service that set the stage for its trailblazing video streaming service, ending an era that began a quarter century ago when delivering discs through the mail was considered a revolutionary concept.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Unionized film and television writers have voted overwhelmingly to give their leaders the authority to call a strike if they're unable to reach an agreement on a new contract.
TORONTO (AP) — The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation paused its use of Twitter on Monday after the social media platform owned by Elon Musk stamped CBC's account with a label the public broadcaster says is intended to undermine its credibility.
TECHNOLOGY
Billionaire Twitter owner Elon Musk is again sounding warning bells on the dangers of artificial intelligence to humanity — and claiming that a popular chatbot has a liberal bias that he plans to counter with his own AI creation.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union lawmakers on Tuesday adopted key pieces of a package designed to achieve the EU's climate goals of cutting emissions of the gases that cause global warming by 55% over this decade.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed Tuesday almost exactly where it began after a mixed set of profit reports led to a quiet, meandering day of trading.
LONDON (AP) — The European Union was closing in Tuesday on approval for a plan to ramp up semiconductor production as it seeks to wean itself off reliance on Asia for the tiny computer chips that control everything from cars to washing machines.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America said its profits grew 15% last quarter, the latest of the big banks to do exceptionally well this earnings season as investors and consumers flock to Wall Street for safety after the failure of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed an executive order on Tuesday that contains more than 50 directives to increase access to child care and improve the work life of caregivers.
Johnson & Johnson beat first-quarter expectations, as growth in cancer treatments and the health care giant's home market helped counter another revenue hit from the strong dollar.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy convened House Republicans behind closed doors Tuesday to build support for his plan to allow the nation's debt limit to rise in return for strictly limiting future federal spending increases to 1% a year. It's a bid, including other major policy changes, to draw President Joe Biden into negotiations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged Monday to pass legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling — but only on condition of capping future federal spending increases at 1% — as he lashed out at President Joe Biden for refusing to engage in budget-cutting negotiations to prevent a debt crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force is investigating how a lone airman could access and distribute possibly hundreds of highly classified documents, and in the meantime has taken away the intelligence mission from the unit where the leaks took place, Air Force leaders said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Air Force has opened its own investigation into how a lone airman could access and distribute possibly hundreds of highly classified documents, top Air Force leaders told Congress on Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long before ballots are tallied and reliable polls are conducted, one of the earliest ways to gauge the popularity of presidential candidates is with dollars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate GOP leader Mitch McConnell said Tuesday that Republicans won't allow Democrats to temporarily replace California Sen. Dianne Feinstein on the Senate Judiciary Committee, arguing that they only want a stand-in to push through the most partisan judges.
MONDAY, APRIL 17
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville International Airport reopened Concourse C on Sunday after it was briefly evacuated due to the presence of a "noxious odor," officials said.
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — Squint a little as you take in the scene, or just close your eyes and listen to the voice, and 2023 stumbles back into another era. Another Memphis.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee Air National Guardsman was arrested after federal agents said he responded to an online ad for a hitman through a parody website that he thought was real.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's rape trial will begin next week as scheduled after a federal judge on Monday rejected his lawyer's request for a one-month delay, saying the former president cannot make public statements to promote pretrial publicity and then claim it's prejudicial to him and reason to delay a trial.
PERSONAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taxpayers who called the IRS had an average wait time of four minutes this tax season compared to 27 minutes a year earlier, the agency said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's that time of year when throngs of taxpayers are buckling down to file their income tax returns before Tuesday's filing deadline. Many often pay to use software from private companies such as Intuit and H&R Block.
EDUCATION
Frustrated by college diversity initiatives he says are "fomenting radical and toxic divisions," Texas state Rep. Carl Tepper set out to put an end to diversity, equity and inclusion offices in higher education.
NASHVILLE (AP) — It's almost 4 p.m. at the Nashville branch of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology, and the students in the auto collision repair night class are just starting their school day.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ten electric or plug-in hybrid vehicles will be eligible for a $7,500 U.S. tax credit, while another seven could get $3,750 under new federal rules that go into effect on Tuesday.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Global and Chinese automakers plan to unveil more than a dozen new electric SUVs, sedans and muscle cars this week at the Shanghai auto show, their first full-scale sales event in four years in a market that has become a workshop for developing electrics, self-driving cars and other technology.
ENVIRONMENT
SAPPORO, Japan (AP) — So much has been invested in clean energy that there can be no rolling back of moves to end carbon emissions, U.S. climate envoy John Kerry said Sunday.
ECONOMY
The fragmentation of the world economy into rival blocs led by the United States and China threatens to destabilize global commerce, increase inflation and weaken growth, Christine Lagarde, the president of the European Central Bank, warned Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing slightly higher on Wall Street Monday, the start of the first full week of earnings reporting season.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Gov. Ron DeSantis and Florida lawmakers ratcheted up pressure on Walt Disney World on Monday by announcing legislation that will use the regulatory powers of Florida government to exert unprecedented oversight on the park resort's rides and monorail.
CONSHOKOCKEN, Pa. (AP) — David's Bridal has filed for bankruptcy protection, the second time for the chain in the past five years.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Slovakia became the third European Union country to ban food imports from Ukraine on Monday, deepening the challenge for the bloc as it works to help Ukraine transport its grain to world markets.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz said Sunday that he will press for a trade agreement between the European Union and Indonesia as part of his country's efforts to reduce its reliance on China for crucial raw materials.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy pledged on Monday to pass legislation to raise the nation's debt ceiling — but only on condition of capping future federal spending increases at 1% — as he lashed out at President Joe Biden for refusing to engage in budget-cutting negotiations to prevent a debt crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Stepping gingerly over the lawn in their spiky heels, first lady Jill Biden and Yuko Kishida, the wife of Japan's prime minister, planted a cherry tree at the White House on Monday to honor decades of friendship between their countries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The job of chief White House economist is typically a wonky, low-profile one, with its occupant mainly tasked with producing analyses and poring over charts and graphs. But President Joe Biden's next pick to lead the Council of Economic Advisers is bracing for a barrage of political attacks centered on how the White House has tackled inflation.
MOSCOW (AP) — The U.S. ambassador to Russia said Monday that she was able to visit the Wall Street Journal reporter who was detained more than two weeks ago on charges of espionage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell is back at work in the U.S. Capitol on Monday, almost six weeks after a fall at a Washington-area hotel and extended treatment for a concussion.
NEW YORK (AP) — Republicans upset with Donald Trump's indictment are escalating their war on the prosecutor who charged him, trying to embarrass Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg on his home turf partly by falsely portraying New York City as a place overrun by crime.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukraine's leaders say they don't see a major U.S. intelligence leak as gravely damaging future offensives. A key reason: They have long held back on sharing their most sensitive operational information, doubting Washington's ability to keep their secrets safe.
FRIDAY, APRIL 14
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Friday it was temporarily keeping in place federal rules for use of an abortion drug, while it takes time to more fully consider the issues raised in a court challenge.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative mega-donor Harlan Crow purchased three properties belonging to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas and his family, in a transaction worth more than $100,000 that Thomas never reported, according to the non-profit investigative journalism organization ProPublica.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut their spending at retail stores in March for the second straight month, a sign consumers are becoming more cautious after a burst of spending in January.
UT SPORTS
Hendon Hooker is fluid on the football field and mobile in NFL meeting rooms, where he's been hurdling concerns about his age, health and playing style.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Juuso Parssinen scored at 2:44 of overtime to give the Nashville Predators a 4-3 victory over the Minnesota Wild on Thursday night.
CLASSIFIED DOCUMENTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Massachusetts Air National Guard member was arrested Thursday in connection with the disclosure of highly classified military documents about the Ukraine war and other top national security issues, an alarming breach that has raised fresh questions about America's ability to safeguard its most sensitive secrets.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — The chatting app Discord, which is one of the most popular ways gamers communicate online, finds itself at the center of an investigation into the leak of classified documents about the war in Ukraine.
SCIENCE
OTARU, Japan (AP) — Wealthy nations can lead by example in cutting carbon emissions, though much faster action is needed to stem global warming, U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said Friday in an interview with The Associated Press.
ELECTION 2024
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — Last year it was Uvalde. Now it's Nashville and Louisville. For the second year in a row, the National Rifle Association is holding its annual convention within days of mass shootings that shook the nation.
REGION
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — They went to their churches on the evening after Easter — to cry, to light candles, to ask God why, on this holiday of rebirth, they must mourn so much death.
THURSDAY, APRIL 13
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans took plenty of heat for selecting defensive tackle Jeffery Simmons at No. 19 overall in the 2019 NFL draft.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Previously unreleased songs recorded by the late country superstar Kenny Rogers will be on a new record coming out in June.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The second of two Black Democrats expelled from the Republican-led Tennessee House will follow his colleague in a return to work at the Capitol on Thursday, a week after their banishments for a gun control protest on the House floor that propelled them into the national spotlight.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump was expected to visit the offices of New York's attorney general Thursday for his second deposition in a legal battle over his company's business practices.
NEW YORK (AP) — A lawyer for a columnist who says former President Donald Trump raped her over a quarter century ago in a Manhattan department store dressing room urged a New York judge Wednesday to reject his request to delay this month's civil trial because of publicity about charges in his criminal case.
NEW YORK (AP) — Former President Donald Trump sued the key witness in his criminal case on Wednesday, accusing onetime lawyer and fixer Michael Cohen of "vast reputational harm" for talking publicly about the hush-money payments at the heart of the case.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to announce that his administration is expanding eligibility for Medicaid and the Affordable Care Act's health insurance exchanges to hundreds of thousands of immigrants brought to the U.S. illegally as children, according to two U.S. officials briefed on the matter.
ENVIRONMENT
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday temporarily blocked a federal rule in 24 states that is intended to protect thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways throughout the nation.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Biden administration is urging U.S. meat processors to make sure children aren't being illegally hired to perform dangerous jobs at their plants.
Delta Air Lines reported a $363 million loss for the first quarter on Thursday, with higher spending on labor and fuel overshadowing a sharp rise in revenue.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is closing out a three-week push to highlight the benefits of infrastructure investments in local communities by awarding nearly $300 million to help repair or replace more than a dozen bridges across the country.