VOL. 42 | NO. 16 | Friday, April 20, 2018
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Why should UT Knoxville be limited to its annual Sex Week when Tennessee legislators are celebrating year-round?
PREDATORS
In their formative years, forwards Austin Watson and Colton Sissons were goal-scorers, a significant part of the reason the Predators drafted them in the first and second round, respectively.
DENVER (AP) — The Nashville Predators are done dealing with the speed of Nathan MacKinnon and the Colorado Avalanche.
DENVER (AP) — Colorado had speed and youth. Nashville brought experience and know-how.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
By the end of next weekend, six new picks – give or take a few due to potential trades – will become the newest Tennessee Titans draft class.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Reaching the divisional round of the AFC playoffs has paid off with three prime-time games for the Tennessee Titans this year — the most since 2009.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
These multiple-offer scenarios are getting old, and buyers are mad as heck and aren’t going to take it anymore. That is until this weekend when they will dust the frustration off their jackets and boots and dive back into the fray.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, March 2018, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates climbed upward this week, slightly worsening affordability for homebuyers.
NEWSMAKERS
Littler, an employment and labor law practice representing management, has grown its Nashville office with the relocation of two attorneys and the addition of a new associate.
BRIEFS
Camping World Holdings, Inc. has agreed to buy Cullum & Maxey Camping Center in Nashville.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
It’s 3 a.m., and you’re still awake. Bedbugs are the least of your worries; the TV’s off, the lights are off, but your brain isn’t.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Most of us know the new-car basic warranty, often referred to as the “bumper-to-bumper warranty,” is designed to protect the owner against any factory defects during the first few years of ownership. But did you know this coverage doesn’t actually apply to the bumpers? The vehicle’s bumpers are considered body panels and so aren’t covered.
CAREER CORNER
I recently had the privilege of interviewing Margaret Heffernan, whose incredibly impressive career includes running five companies in the United States and the United Kingdom, being a college professor, authoring five books and giving multiple TED Talks. Originally from Texas, Margaret has lived all over, including in the U.K.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
New York Times best-selling author Robert Cialdini is known for his expertise on the subject of persuasion – specifically the role it plays in driving consumers to purchase a particular product or service.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers wrapped up an election-year legislative session late Wednesday, highlighting their last day by passing legislation that would require state and local law enforcement agencies to detain immigrants for deportation at the request of federal officials without requiring warrants or probable cause.
The House and Senate broke gridlock Wednesday night on problems stemming from the results of troubled TNReady testing by passing legislation saying no “adverse action” would be taken against teachers, students or schools for poor test scores.
MIDSTATE
MURFREESBORO (AP) — Rutherford County has revealed its new $73 million judicial center.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans say veteran NFL coach Dave McGinnis will return as color analyst for the 2018 season, paired again with the voice of the Titans, Mike Keith.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates continued to climb this week, reaching their highest level in more than four years and denting prospective home purchasers' prospects amid the spring buying season.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. said Wednesday it will shed most of its North American car lineup as part of broad plan to save money and make the company more competitive in a fast-changing marketplace.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' first-quarter net income fell 60 percent from a year ago, but the company handily beat Wall Street estimates as U.S. sales rose.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Profits have slipped at automaker Volkswagen in the first quarter due to a change in accounting rules, but sales increased and the company recorded no significant additional losses from its diesel emissions scandal.
MILAN (AP) — Carmaker Fiat Chrysler Automobiles reported Thursday a 60 percent rise in net profit for the first quarter of the year as sales improved, particularly in the Americas, and demand rose globally for its Jeeps.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are rising Thursday morning as Facebook leads a big rally for technology companies. The social media network jumped after its recent data privacy scandal didn't appear to affect its business in the first quarter. Other big technology companies also moved higher. Chipotle Mexican Grill, Ford and Visa also rose after they gave strong first-quarter reports.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines says bookings are down since the fatal accident on one of its planes last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for long-lasting manufactured goods rose 2.6 percent in March, but a key category that tracks business investment spending fell for the third month out of the past four.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said he "won't be involved" in the special counsel investigation into Russian election meddling Thursday, but added he may change his mind.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that his personal attorney Michael Cohen represented him "with this crazy Stormy Daniels deal," after previously denying any knowledge of a payment Cohen made to the porn actress alleging an affair with Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead Veterans Affairs, Ronny Jackson, withdrew Thursday in the wake of late-surfacing allegations about overprescribing drugs and poor leadership while serving as a top White House doctor, saying the "false allegations" against him have become a distraction.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee is poised to vote Thursday on a bill to protect special counsel Robert Mueller's job — legislation that has split Republicans as President Donald Trump has repeatedly criticized Mueller's Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt faces potentially make-or-break hearings Thursday on Capitol Hill, where he is expected to be peppered with questions about spending and ethics scandals that have triggered bipartisan calls for his ouster.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel is heading to Washington with the same message French President Emmanuel Macron delivered only days earlier: that America and Europe need to bury the hatchet on key issues, from global trade to international security.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 25
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is adding a shift at a Tennessee factory that makes GMC and Cadillac SUVs, putting about 700 people to work.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Waffle House where four people were fatally shot reopened Wednesday amid tears and solemn remembrance of the dead, as the company said it will donate a month of the restaurant's sales to help the wounded survivors and the families of the slain.
SALIDA, Colorado (AP) — The co-owner of a Colorado crane company that once employed the Waffle House shooting suspect said they urged the Secret Service to try to help him after he was arrested at the White House last year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Travis Reinking's erratic behavior began years before police say he showed up without pants at a Waffle House restaurant and killed four people with an assault-style rifle.
STATE GOVERNMENT
The day after Republican House leaders called for a review of the state’s TNReady testing vendor, the House of Representatives and Senate got stuck on the impact of botched testing this spring and the potential for incorrect student scores affecting teacher evaluations.
NASHVILLE (AP) — State lawmakers have approved five of Gov. Bill Haslam's nominees to serve on a newly configured University of Tennessee board of trustees.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill that would restrict local bans on short-term rentals, including Airbnb properties, has passed the Republican-led Tennessee General Assembly.
STATEWIDE
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. today announced plans to donate 5,763 acres on the Cumberland Plateau to The Nature Conservancy in Tennessee by June of this year. The property is located in White County, approximately 80 miles east of Nashville.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee lottery has a new game coming soon and is looking for photos of dogs to put on the tickets.
SPORTS
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The Commission on College Basketball sharply directed the NCAA to take control of the sport, calling for sweeping reforms to separate pro and college tracks, permit players to return to school after going undrafted by the NBA and ban cheating coaches for life.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter, driven by strong growth overseas, swung to a profit during the first quarter of the year, its second profitable quarter ever after a strong finish last year.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump appears likely to win his travel ban case at the Supreme Court.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A late round of buying erased early losses on Wall Street, leaving major indexes mixed at the close of trading. Stocks got off to a weak start as investors worried that growing costs for raw materials along with rising interest rates would hold back profit growth for U.S. companies.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you can't beat them, join them. Comcast is trying to refigure the traditional cable bundle, adding services like Netflix to its subscription packages and offering internet-only TV streaming.
LONDON (AP) — U.S. media giant Comcast on Wednesday offered 22 billion pounds ($30.7 billion) for Sky PLC, topping a bid from Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox and setting up a bidding war for Britain's biggest satellite television company.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sinclair Broadcast Group will sell nine TV stations to Standard Media Group for $441.7 million as part of its plan to meet regulatory approval for its pending $3.9 billion acquisition of Tribune Media.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron is casting climate policy in President Donald Trump's signature terms.
GLENDALE, Ariz. (AP) — It took a big money push from the Republican Party, tweets by the president and the support of the state's current and former governors, but the GOP held onto an Arizona U.S. House seat they would have never considered endangered in any other year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Donald Trump's pick to lead Veterans Affairs skids to a halt, senators from both parties are voicing frustration that the White House is skipping crucial vetting of nominees and leaving lawmakers to clean up the mess.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The security chief for the head of the Environmental Protection Agency worked on the side as a private investigator for the owner of a tabloid news company with close ties to President Donald Trump.
TUESDAY, APRIL 24
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — After Travis Reinking allegedly stole a BMW from a Nashville area car dealer last week, police say they found it outside the apartment where he lived.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Without knowing who he was or what he might do, police briefly had Travis Reinking in their sights days before the deadly assault on a Waffle House restaurant.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The man who snatched an AR-15 rifle away from a gunman at a Tennessee restaurant told Tennessee lawmakers Tuesday he faced "the true test of a man," drawing a standing ovation during his brief address.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Senate has passed a bill that calls for a monument to unborn children to be placed on the state Capitol grounds.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam that would require certain college scholarship students to finish 30 hours of credits annually has failed in the Tennessee House.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican-led legislature has passed a proposal to exempt Jack Daniel's and other distillers from property tax on whiskey barrels, a fee the company says it hasn't had to pay at least since Prohibition ended eight decades ago.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new U.S. homes jumped 4 percent in March, propelled by a surge of buying in the West.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices jumped in February as buyers are fiercely competing over a dwindling number of homes for sale.
COURTS
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — An ex-Tennessee school bus driver who was at the wheel in a wreck that killed six children has been sentenced to four years in prison for criminally negligent homicide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has upheld a challenged practice that is used to invalidate patents without the involvement of federal courts.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The company formerly known as Yahoo is paying a $35 million fine to resolve federal regulators' charges that the online pioneer deceived investors by failing to disclose one of the biggest data breaches in internet history.
LONDON (AP) — Ireland says it will begin collecting more than 13 billion euros ($15.9 billion) of back taxes from Apple, 19 months after the European Commission ruled that a tax deal with the tech giant amounted to illegal state aid.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you've ever wondered exactly what sorts of things Facebook would like you not to do on its service, you're in luck. For the first time, the social network is publishing detailed guidelines to what does and doesn't belong on its service — 27 pages worth of them, in fact.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you've made changes to how you use social media since Facebook's Cambridge Analytica privacy debacle, you're not alone.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Amazon's latest perk ... free delivery to your car. The Seattle company said Tuesday that it has begun delivering packages in 37 cities to Prime members who own newer General Motors or Volvo vehicles.
CHICAGO (AP) — O'Hare and Midway international airports will now be providing free unlimited Wi-Fi making long layovers a little more bearable.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — After a strong start, U.S. stocks abruptly sold off Tuesday after machinery maker Caterpillar said it doesn't expect to top its first-quarter profit for the rest of the year. The Dow Jones industrial average plunged as much as 619 points as investors feared that rising oil prices and other costs will slow down growth in company profits.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines runs its planes hard. They make many short hops and more trips per day than other U.S. airliners, which adds to wear and tear on parts, including the engines.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's escalating dispute with China over trade and technology is threatening jobs and profits in working-class communities where his "America First" agenda hit home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers were feeling more confident in April, rebounding to a level close to the 18-year high it had reached two months ago.
NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola's first-quarter profit jumped as the company introduced new flavors and continues to discard its bottling operations.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Democratic senator who supports rolling back some of the financial rules put in place after the 2008 financial crisis warned bankers Tuesday that the legislation will stall if it comes back to the Senate for another vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump suggested Tuesday that his pick for Veterans Affairs secretary might want to withdraw after the emergence of allegations about inappropriate workplace behavior, including over-prescribing prescription drugs and drinking on the job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Pompeo, President Donald Trump's choice for secretary of state, avoided a rare rebuke Monday as the Senate Foreign Relations Committee narrowly recommended him, but the vote served as a warning shot to the White House as nominees to lead the CIA and Veterans Affairs are hitting stiff resistance.
MONDAY, APRIL 23
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The mentally unstable gunman suspected of killing four people in a late-night shooting at a Waffle House restaurant was arrested near his apartment Monday after hiding from police for more than a day, authorities said.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The victims of the Waffle House shooting in Tennessee on Sunday morning were all in their 20s. They include a college student, an aspiring rapper and music producer, and a restaurant employee.
Travis Reinking exhibited multiple warning signs that he was mentally unstable: He talked openly about delusions that he was being stalked by Taylor Swift. He insisted unknown people were making barking noises outside his home. He even went to the White House on a mission to talk to the president.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The man who snatched an AR-15 rifle from a gunman at a busy Tennessee restaurant says his was a "selfish" act of self-preservation and he doesn't consider himself a hero. Never mind that he is being credited with saving several other lives.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Bureau of Investigation has released its annual crime report, which shows an increase overall in reported instances of crime.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Outgoing Republican Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee is sticking by his decision not to campaign against the Democrat seeking to fill his seat.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court wrestled Monday with a case brought by a former financial planner known for his "Buckets of Money" strategy, who is challenging the appointment of the administrative law judge who ruled against him.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — A personal finance expert launched a lawsuit against Facebook in Britain on Monday, claiming the social media company is allowing the publication of scam ads featuring his name.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety agency is expanding three investigations for brake and air bag troubles that could affect more than 2.3 million vehicles from Ford, Volkswagen and Nissan.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — General Motors said Monday that it has reached a tentative agreement with its South Korean labor union on measures to cut costs and allocate new car models to GM Korea factories.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of existing homes increased 1.1 percent on a monthly basis in March, which suggests that buyers are undeterred by the dwindling number of properties available on the market.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks couldn't hang on to an early gain and finished mostly lower Monday as technology companies slipped. Bond prices continue to fall and the yield on the 10-year Treasury note drew closer to 3 percent, a milestone it hasn't reached since January 2014.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's business economists are sketching a bright picture for the coming months, with a survey finding that more of their companies foresee rising sales and expect to continue hiring and raising pay.
SHANGHAI (AP) — The rivalry is so notorious it's been called the "great cat-and-dog war." On one side towers Alibaba Group Holding Ltd., China's e-commerce market leader, embodied by the black cat mascot of its Tmall platform. On the other is JD.com Inc., a fast-growing upstart represented by its white dog logo.
TOKYO (AP) — Robots that can weld, lift and bolt are being developed to help bridge labor shortages at Japanese construction sites, though their use will be limited to night shifts when no human workers will be nearby due to safety and regulatory concerns.
NATIONAL POLITICS
BOSTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has courted coal miners and cast doubt on whether fossils fuel contribute to climate change, but that hasn't translated into hostility for renewable energy — particularly offshore wind.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly believe teachers don't make enough money, and half say they'd support paying higher taxes to give educators a raise.
BERLIN (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is donating $4.5 million to the United Nations body that oversees climate change negotiations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee for secretary of state, Mike Pompeo, is facing serious opposition before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which may not have enough votes to recommend him for confirmation because all Democrats, and at least one Republican, have said they will oppose him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The sprawling network funded by the billionaire Koch brothers is having a very good run with President Donald Trump in the White House and Republicans in control of Congress.
FRIDAY, APRIL 20
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators Foundation is giving out grants totaling more than $600,000.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Seven Tennessee counties have been chosen by the state for a program that evaluates potential industrial sites.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennesseans will be able to buy liquor on Sunday after Gov. Bill Haslam signed a law allowing seven-day sales of wines and spirits.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Legislature has passed a $37.5 billion budget following days of controversy after Memphis was punished for removing Confederate statues and student testing failures threatened to hold up passage.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers scrambled to pass legislation Thursday to make sure no students, teachers or schools suffer as a result of repeated failures with the state assessment test.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee House has passed a bill that calls for a monument to unborn children to be placed on the state capitol grounds.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Republican-led Tennessee Legislature on Thursday passed a controversial bill aimed at imposing work requirements on people receiving Medicaid benefits. In Tennessee, the Medicaid program is called TennCare.
STATEWIDE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has endorsed Marsha Blackburn in the Republican primary for a U.S. Senate seat from Tennessee.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Kushner Cos. has been subpoenaed by federal prosecutors for information related to an Associated Press report that the company filed dozens of false documents about its buildings in New York City.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Tennessee man who dressed as Spider-Man and washed windows at a children's hospital has been sentenced to more than 100 years in prison on child pornography charges.
PREDATORS
NEW YORK (AP) — Drew Doughty of the Los Angeles Kings, Victor Hedman of the Tampa Bay Lightning and P.K. Subban of the Nashville Predators are the finalists for the James Norris Memorial Trophy as the NHL's top defenseman.
PITTSBURGH (AP) — Mario Lemieux had one question for Sidney Crosby after the Pittsburgh star slipped past his boss as the Penguins' career playoff scoring leader during a Game 4 romp over Philadelphia.
DENVER (AP) — The Colorado Avalanche will go with backup goaltender Andrew Hammond for Game 5 in Nashville after starter Jonathan Bernier suffered a lower-body injury.
DENVER (AP) — Now that was more of the start Nashville was looking for. The finish? Not as much.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Phillip Fulmer has said all along that his appointment as athletic director at his alma mater wasn't a mere short-term arrangement.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Prosecutors say one person is in custody in an investigation of current and former managers at automaker Porsche, a unit of Volkswagen, over the company's diesel emissions scandal.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A panel of government health advisers is recommending approval of a medicine made from the marijuana plant to treat childhood epilepsy, moving the medication closer to the U.S. market.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — An audit of Facebook's privacy practices for the Federal Trade Commission found no problems even though the company knew at the time that a data-mining firm improperly obtained private data from millions of users — raising questions about the usefulness of such audits.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A steep slide in technology companies weighed on U.S. stocks Friday, pulling the market lower for the second day in a row.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo will pay $1 billion to federal regulators to settle charges tied to misconduct at its mortgage and auto lending business, the latest punishment levied against the banking giant for widespread customer abuses.
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's six big Wall Street banks posted record, or near record, profits in the first quarter, and they can thank one person in particular: President Donald Trump.
NEW YORK (AP) — SunTrust Banks Inc. says accounts for 1.5 million clients could be compromised following a potential case of data theft.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says oil-producing cartel OPEC "is at it again," and that efforts to maintain high prices "will not be accepted!"
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines sought more time last year to inspect fan blades like the one that snapped off during one of its flights Tuesday in an engine failure that left a passenger dead.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Rashon Nelson initially brushed it off when the Starbucks manager told him he couldn't use the restroom because he wasn't a paying customer.
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.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a series of startlingly candid conversations, President Donald Trump told former FBI Director James Comey that he had serious concerns about the judgment of a top adviser, asked about the possibility of jailing journalists and described a boast from Vladimir Putin about Russian prostitutes, according to Comey's notes of the talks obtained by The Associated Press on Thursday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans largely fear the country's relationship with Russia and China will get worse in the coming year, and despite signs of diplomatic progress with Kim Jong Un on nuclear weapons, nearly half say the same about North Korea.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Rudy Giuliani, an outspoken supporter of Donald Trump since the early days of his campaign, is joining the team of lawyers representing the president in the special counsel's Russia investigation.
HAVANA (AP) — Raul Castro said Thursday that he expected 57-year-old Miguel Mario Diaz-Canel Bermudez to serve two five-year terms as president and eventually take Castro's place as head of the Communist Party, potentially dominating Cuban politics until 2031.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving toward oil and gas drilling in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, fulfilling a longtime Republican priority that most Democrats fiercely oppose.