VOL. 47 | NO. 18 | Friday, April 28, 2023
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
A feature recently added by The Tennessean caught my eye, and with good reason.
NEWSMAKERS
Coleman “Cole” J. Braun has joined Adams and Reese as special counsel in the financial services practice group.
BRIEFS
Tennessee’s Republican-led Legislature finished its annual session April 21 without taking action on a gun control plan offered by the GOP governor in the wake of a deadly shooting at a Christian school in Nashville.
UT SPORTS
Griffin Merritt could have been spending this year at the Ohio State College of Dentistry preparing for his future beyond baseball and dream of owning his own dental practice.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
If a traditional two-door sports car isn’t practical enough for you, consider one of these hot hatch options: the Volkswagen Golf R or the Honda Civic Type R.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Point A to Point B. That’s the route a map will take you. It’s how plans are written, but sometimes you know that’s not how life goes.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Melinda Perez, a financial educator, still remembers the first time she felt financially confident. She had recently started investing money outside of her employer-sponsored retirement account because she was finally earning more than she spent.
Scroll through TikTok’s finance feed and you’ll come across viral videos on “infinite banking.” The concept is making a splash on social media, fueled by celebrities like rapper Waka Flocka Flame.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
I was 10-weeks pregnant and craving pizza while on vacation in Germany. We picked a well-reviewed restaurant only to be told that no tables would be available that night. My husband, who meant well, suggested we try our luck at a different restaurant a few doors down. But it didn’t serve pizza, and for me at that moment, nothing but pizza would do.
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Veteran defenseman Mark Borowiecki has decided to retire from hockey after playing more than 450 games over parts of 12 NHL seasons.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Missy Elliott, Willie Nelson, Sheryl Crow, Chaka Khan, "Soul Train" creator Don Cornelius and the late George Michael have all been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, with Kate Bush also finally reaching the top of that hill.
STATEWIDE
The Vanderbilt Poll has found measured significant bipartisan support for various gun regulations, basic protections for abortion access as well as health care access for the LGBTQ community in its semiannual poll.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A man charged after a shot was fired into the lobby of a Memphis television station has faced mental health challenges for much of his life, his mother said.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The infamous "Access Hollywood" video in which Donald Trump bragged about grabbing women sexually without asking was played Wednesday for a jury considering columnist E. Jean Carroll's claims that he raped her two decades before he became president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Florida man accused of setting off an explosive and injuring several police officers during the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, was arrested Tuesday, officials said.
AUTO INDUSTRY
The green hydrogen company Nel announced plans Wednesday to build a massive new plant in Michigan as it works with General Motors to drive down the cost of hydrogen.
ENTERTAINMENT
The 11,500 members of the Writers Guild of America went on strike Tuesday after negotiations with Hollywood studios that began in March failed to result in an agreement. The guild has billed the issues behind the labor dispute as "an existential crisis." Writers say they're facing a host of new issues brought on by streaming and other recent technological shifts in the industry.
REAL ESTATE
DALLAS (AP) — Airbnb is making a renewed push into renting single rooms in a nod to its beginnings and a realization that renting an entire house is too expensive for many travelers, especially younger ones.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. approved the first vaccine for RSV on Wednesday, shots to protect older adults against a respiratory virus that's most notorious for attacking babies but endangers their grandparents, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eli Lilly and Co. said Wednesday its experimental Alzheimer's drug appeared to slow worsening of the mind-robbing disease in a large study.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk threatened to reassign NPR's Twitter account to "another company," according to the non-profit news organization, in an ongoing spat between Musk and media groups since his $44 billion acquisition of Twitter last year.
In an about-face, Twitter says it has restored free access to a key tool for verified government and "publicly owned" services so they can tweet weather, transit and other alerts after New York City's transit agency said earlier this week it would no longer use the platform for its service advisories.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Senior officials from dozens of nations meeting in Berlin remained divided Wednesday on how to meet international climate goals, with some pushing for a phaseout of fossil fuels and others insisting that oil and gas can continue to play a role in the future — provided their emissions are somehow contained.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Good news for all the password-haters out there: Google has taken a big step toward making them an afterthought by adding "passkeys" as a more straightforward and secure way to log into its services.
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) — Computer scientists who helped build the foundations of today's artificial intelligence technology are warning of its dangers, but that doesn't mean they agree on what those dangers are or how to prevent them.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Geoffrey Hinton, an award-winning computer scientist known as the "godfather of artificial intelligence," is having some serious second thoughts about the fruits of his labors.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Mastercard CEO Ajay Banga, an Indian army officer's son with decades of corporate experience, was confirmed Wednesday to lead the World Bank for a five-year term that starts next month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former top executives of two failed banks will testify before Congress this month as lawmakers dig into what caused a series of collapses at mid-sized financial institutions.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reinforced its fight against high inflation Wednesday by raising its key interest rate by a quarter-point to the highest level in 16 years. But the Fed also signaled that it may now pause its streak of 10 rate hikes, which have made borrowing for consumers and businesses steadily more expensive.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Federal Reserve has raised its key interest rate yet again in its drive to cool inflation, a move that will directly affect most Americans.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks dipped Wednesday after the Federal Reserve announced its latest hike to interest rates but said it's not sure what may come next.
CVS Health turned in a better-than-expected first quarter as revenue grew from all parts of its business. But the health care giant chopped its 2023 earnings forecast after closing a pair of multibillion-dollar deals that push it deeper into providing care.
Starbucks posted stronger-than-expected sales in its fiscal second quarter as demand in China began to recover, but the company said that sales growth could moderate as the year progresses.
Shares of the education technology company Chegg lost nearly half their value Tuesday after its CEO warned that OpenAI's free ChatGPT service was cutting into its growth.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats launched a new legislative effort Wednesday in one of the few areas that appears to be generating bipartisanship in Congress — taking on China.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democratic Rep. Colin Allred of Texas said Wednesday he will run for the U.S. Senate in 2024, becoming an early challenger to Republican Sen. Ted Cruz.
ROME (AP) — More than a quarter-billion people in 58 countries faced acute food insecurity last year because of conflicts, climate change, the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic and Russia's war in Ukraine, according to a report published Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Mexican officials have agreed on new immigration policies meant to deter illegal border crossings while also opening up other pathways ahead of an expected increase in migrants following the end of pandemic restrictions next week.
TUESDAY, MAY 2
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Education Commissioner Penny Schwinn is leaving the state department at the end of the school year, Gov. Bill Lee announced Monday.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A shot was fired at a Memphis television station on Tuesday, but no one was wounded, the station said.
RELIGION
A powerful Southern Baptist committee was looking to appoint a new leader Monday who could navigate controversies over its handling of sexual-abuse reforms and the ousting of churches with women serving as pastors.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A woman who says Donald Trump silently molested her on an airliner in the late 1970s testified Tuesday in support of the writer who alleges that a flirtatious 1996 encounter with the future president ended in a violent sexual attack.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats promised Tuesday to pursue stronger ethics rules for the Supreme Court in the wake of reports that Justice Clarence Thomas participated in luxury vacations and a real estate deal with a top GOP donor. Republicans made clear they strongly oppose the effort.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Newly opened records that belonged to Supreme Court Justice John Paul Stevens give the public a behind-the-scenes glimpse at his decades on the court, including the tense struggle over the 2000 presidential election and major cases on affirmative action and abortion.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. made $1.76 billion last quarter, swinging into the black from a $3.1 billion net loss for the same period a year ago.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Widespread loneliness in the U.S. poses health risks as deadly as smoking a dozen cigarettes daily, costing the health industry billions of dollars annually, the U.S. surgeon general said Tuesday in declaring the latest public health epidemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will end most of the last remaining federal COVID-19 vaccine requirements next week when the national public health emergency for the coronavirus ends, the White House said Monday.
ENTERTAINMENT
NEW YORK (AP) — The first Hollywood strike in 15 years began Tuesday as the economic pressures of the streaming era prompted unionized TV and film writers to picket for better pay outside major studios, a work stoppage that already is leading most late-night shows to air reruns.
NEW YORK (AP) — Television and movie writers declared late Monday that they will launch a strike for the first time in 15 years, as Hollywood girded for a walkout with potentially widespread ramifications in a fight over fair pay in the streaming era.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The union representing 11,500 writers of film, television and other entertainment forms could go on strike as soon as Tuesday. It would be the first writers' strike — and the first Hollywood strike of any kind — in 15 years. Here's a look at the storylines the fight has spawned.
EDUCATION
The average historically Black college and university received 178 times less funding from foundations than the average Ivy League school in 2019, according to a new report on the underfunding of HBCUs released Tuesday.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple and Google are teaming up to thwart unwanted tracking through Bluetooth devices that were created to help people find lost keys, keep tabs on luggage or to locate other things that have a tendency to be misplaced or lost.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sounding alarms about artificial intelligence has become a popular pastime in the ChatGPT era, taken up by high-profile figures as varied as industrialist Elon Musk, leftist intellectual Noam Chomsky and the 99-year-old retired statesman Henry Kissinger.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings fell in March to the lowest level in nearly two years, a sign that the American labor market is cooling in the face of higher interest rates.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Europe's painful inflation has inched higher, extending the squeeze on households and keeping pressure on the European Central Bank to unleash what could be another large interest rate increase.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's central bank on Tuesday surprised markets by increasing its benchmark interest rate by a quarter percentage point to 3.85% despite pausing its climb last month and new evidence that inflation is slowing.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed lower as shares of beleaguered banks tumbled again and worries about the economy worsened.
LONDON (AP) — British energy giant BP posted a strong quarterly profit on Tuesday even as oil and natural prices that soared after Russia's war in Ukraine last year have eased off.
NEW YORK (AP) — A bipartisan group of two dozen lawmakers is asking the Securities and Exchange Commission to put the brakes on an initial public offering by Chinese fast fashion retailer Shein until it verifies it does not use forced labor from the country's predominantly Muslim Uyghur population.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Even before he joined Lyft's board in 2021, David Risher had taken hundreds of trips as a passenger so he felt like he knew a lot about the ride-hailing service. But he never expected to be thrust into the driver's seat at a time when Lyft was running like a jalopy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Four people found shot to death in an RV in a small Mojave Desert community in California. Four partygoers slain and 32 injured in small-town Alabama during a Sweet 16 birthday that ended with a girl kneeling beside her fatally wounded brother. Six people, included three 9-year-old children, gunned down at an elementary school in Nashville.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will send 1,500 active-duty troops to the U.S.-Mexico border starting next week, ahead of an expected migrant surge following the end of coronavirus pandemic-era restrictions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing the risk of a an unprecedented U.S. government default by month's end, President Joe Biden has invited the top four congressional leaders to face-to-face talks at the White House next week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Defense Department and the Federal Aviation Administration have been tracking a balloon that was flying off the coast of Hawaii last week, but a defense official said Tuesday there's no indication it is connected to China or any other adversary, and it presents no threats to aviation or national security.
WASHINGTON (AP) — No president wants to give up the power and prestige that comes with the office after only one term, and Joe Biden is no exception. He's pushing forward even though polls show a majority of Americans don't want to see him run again.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — A Florida ethics board has dismissed a complaint that allies of former President Donald Trump filed against Republican rival Gov. Ron DeSantis, finding no legal basis for allegations that the governor violated campaign finance laws with a "shadow" run for the White House.
MONDAY, MAY 1
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Improving one of the NFL's worst offenses wound up the focus of Tennessee general manager Ran Carthon 's first NFL draft.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "Are there any more real cowboys?" Neil Young sang Saturday night at the Hollywood Bowl on a rare evening when he was neither the headliner nor, at age 77, even close to the oldest artist on the bill.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A magazine columnist who says Donald Trump raped her in a department store's dressing room two decades before he became president acknowledged Monday that she never followed her own advice to readers that they report sexual attacks to police.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump traveled to Scotland on Monday to open a new golf course at his resort near Aberdeen, in his first overseas trip since he was indicted in New York on criminal charges in a hush money scheme.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Monday it will decide whether to jettison a decades-old decision that has been a frequent target of conservatives and, if overruled, could make it harder to sustain governmental regulations.
ENVIRONMENT
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — Wildlife and environmental groups sued the Federal Aviation Administration on Monday over SpaceX's launch last month of its giant rocket from Texas.
AUTO INDUSTRY
Lordstown Motors warned that it is in danger of failing as the electronics company Foxconn wavers on a $170 million investment in the commercial electric vehicle startup.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Pilots at American Airlines voted to authorize a strike, a move that is highly unlikely to lead to an immediate walkout but puts more pressure on the airline to reach a new contract with the pilots' union.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two hospitals that refused to provide an emergency abortion to a pregnant woman who was experiencing premature labor put her life in jeopardy and violated federal law, a first-of-its-kind investigation by the federal government has found.
Shortages of drugs like Adderall are growing in the United States, and experts see no clear path to resolving them. For patients, that can mean treatment delays, medication switches and other hassles filling a prescription.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bound to Sudan by ailing parents and his devotion to treating the poor there, American doctor Bushra Ibnauf Sulieman kept working as long as he could after fighting engulfed Sudan's capital.
EDUCATION
First came the good news. After taking classes at a community college, Ricki Korba was admitted to California State University, Bakersfield, as a transfer student. But when she logged on to her student account, she got a gut punch: Most of her previous classes wouldn't count.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — CNN said Monday that former President Donald Trump will participate in a town hall forum next week in New Hampshire.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When it comes to the news media and the impact it's having on democracy and political polarization in the United States, Americans are likelier to say it's doing more harm than good.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Correspondents' Association dinner — known for its fun albeit ferocious jabs at Washington — took a more solemn tone this year as President Joe Biden acknowledged the several American journalists under siege in authoritarian countries around the world.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. businesses might be able to secure bank deposit insurance for accounts holding more than $250,000 if Congress agrees with the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp.'s new proposal to ease the industry turmoil that has sparked three bank failures in the past two months.
First Republic Bank has become the second large regional bank with assets over $200 billion to fail in just a few weeks. Like Silicon Valley Bank, which was seized by the government on March 10, First Republic catered to a wealthy clientele, which helped it grow deposits rapidly but may have also contributed to its undoing. The bank's business model left it susceptible to a sudden rise in interest rates.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is on track to raise its benchmark interest rate for the 10th time on Wednesday, the latest step in its yearlong effort to curb inflation with the fastest pace of hikes in four decades.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street as investors braced for what they hope will be the last hike to interest rates for a long time.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The slaughterhouse cleaning company that was found to be employing more than 100 children to help sanitize dangerous razor-sharp cutting equipment like bone saws has continued to lose contracts with the major meat producers since the investigation became public last fall.
NEW YORK (AP) — A homeowner fired shots at a couple's car when they mistakenly turned onto his property while making an Instacart delivery. A Florida man was charged with killing and dismembering an Uber Eats delivery driver who brought food to his home. A woman was kidnapped and sexually assaulted while making a DoorDash delivery to a hotel.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden reiterated U.S. commitment to the Philippines' security and noted the "deep friendship" of the two nations as he welcomed Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. for White House talks Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy's harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Monday it plans to increase its borrowing during the April to June quarter of this year, even as the federal government is close to breaching the $31.4 trillion limit on its legal borrowing authority.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy are finding it's easy to publicly shame each other over the debt limit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House said Monday it now estimates that just since December Russia has suffered 100,000 casualties, including more than 20,000 killed, as Ukraine has rebuffed a heavy assault by Russian forces in eastern Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy emphatically stressed his support for military aid to Ukraine on Monday, blistering Russia's "killing of the children" and distancing himself from some in his party who oppose additional major U.S. aid to stave off the Russian invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Ben Cardin of Maryland is expected to announce his retirement Monday after serving three terms, opening a rare vacancy in the Senate ahead of the 2024 election, according to his spokesperson.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Sen. Joe Lieberman, the Connecticut Democrat-turned-Independent long known for his centrist views, voted for Joe Biden in 2020. But as Biden's reelection campaign begins, Lieberman is preparing to recruit a third-party candidate capable of defeating the Democratic president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to host President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. of the Philippines for White House talks Monday as concerns grow about the Chinese navy's harassment of Philippine vessels in the South China Sea.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than a half million of the poorest Americans could be left without health insurance under legislation passed by House Republicans that would require people to work in exchange for health care coverage through Medicaid.
FRIDAY, APRIL 28
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Only four NFL teams allowed more sacks last season than the Tennessee Titans.
UT SPORTS
Kentucky quarterback Will Levis was projected as high as the second overall pick in the NFL draft. Instead, he's heading to Round 2 still waiting for a team to buzz his phone.
LAKE FOREST, Ill. (AP) — Darnell Wright helped Tennessee re-emerge as a national power. The Chicago Bears hope the feisty blocker can do something similar for them.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's abortion ban, known as one of the strictest in the United States, will now include an extremely narrow exemption under legislation signed into law by Republican Gov. Bill Lee on Friday.
Ten months after the U.S. Supreme Court struck down Roe v. Wade and a nationwide right to abortion, states are pushing in opposite directions on the issue.
Silenced by her Republican colleagues, Montana state Rep. Zooey Zephyr looked up from the House floor to supporters in the gallery shouting "Let her speak!" and thrust her microphone into the air — amplifying the sentiment the Democratic transgender lawmaker was forbidden from expressing.
COURTS
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — A federal judge on Friday rejected a motion from Google to toss out the government's antitrust case against it.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's lawyer sought Thursday to pick apart a decades-old rape claim against the former president, questioning why accuser E. Jean Carroll did not scream or seek help when Trump allegedly attacked her in a department store.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Vice President Mike Pence testified Thursday before a federal grand jury investigating efforts by then-President Donald Trump and his allies to overturn the results of the 2020 presidential election, according to a person familiar with the matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court wrapped up its arguments Wednesday with a case in which two of the three lawyers who took part are women. But that split was not at all reflective of the court's term, in which women presented less than a quarter of the arguments.
ENERGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House voted Friday to reinstate tariffs on solar panel imports from several Southeast Asian countries after President Joe Biden paused them in a bid to boost solar installations in the U.S., a key part of his climate agenda.
Portland General Electric, the utility serving Portland, Oregon, announced Friday it is putting in the second-largest battery storage installation in the United States, at 400 MW of power. The significance of such projects is they diminish the need for power plants that burn fossil fuels that warm the planet.
Exxon Mobil more than doubled its profit during the first quarter, producing more oil to overcome energy prices that have declined during a period of economic unease.
BANKING
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve blamed last month's collapse of Silicon Valley Bank on poor management, watered-down regulations and lax oversight by its own staffers, and said the industry needs stricter policing on multiple fronts to prevent future bank failures.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key index of underlying inflation that is closely followed by the Federal Reserve remained elevated last month, keeping the Fed on track to raise interest rates next week for the 10th time since March of last year.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European economy scraped out meager growth in the first three months of the year, barely gaining momentum as stubborn inflation raises the price of groceries and erodes people's willingness to spend paychecks that are failing to keep pace.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — The number of applications for visas used in the technology industry soared for a second straight year, raising "serious concerns" that some are manipulating the system to gain an unfair advantage, authorities said Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and their spouses will fete about 150 of the Democratic Party's top donors in Washington Friday evening as they lay the groundwork for their reelection campaign, which is expected to need to raise well over $1 billion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has commuted the sentences of 31 people convicted of nonviolent drug crimes who were serving time in home confinement, the White House announced Friday.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump turned his attention to the general election on Thursday, using his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own reelection bid to boast of his poll numbers and suggest that he has no need to debate his Republican rivals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's student loan agenda would be all but obliterated by the U.S. debt legislation passed by House Republicans, dooming his mass cancellation s, scrapping a more generous loan repayment option and permanently barring future regulation around student debt.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Kevin McCarthy surprised Washington when he showed he could unite the House's raucous Republican majority to pass a sweeping package to raise the nation's debt limit by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending reductions, an opening bid awaiting President Joe Biden's response.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Days out from a surgery and with a young son undergoing chemotherapy, Kyle McHenry was scrambling to figure out if his Florida family will still be covered by Medicaid come Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growing anger at the FBI from both parties in Congress has become a major hurdle for U.S. intelligence agencies fighting to keep their vast powers to collect foreign communications that often sweep up the phone calls and emails of Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday sanctioned Russia's Federal Security Service and Iran's Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps intelligence organization, accusing them of wrongfully detaining Americans.
THURSDAY, APRIL 27
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country superstar and newly minted Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Dolly Parton will give fans a glimpse of her upcoming rock album during the 58th Academy of Country Music Awards.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Republican-dominant Statehouse quickly adjourned last week after attracting national attention for the high-profile expulsion of two now-reinstated Democratic members, the refusal to address gun control following a fatal school shooting, and the resignation of a GOP member found in violation of workplace harassment rules.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Justice Department on Wednesday filed a lawsuit challenging Tennessee's new law banning transgender youth from receiving gender-affirming care, one of the several laws the state's GOP-dominated Statehouse enacted this year targeting LGBTQ+ people.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is speaking with one voice in response to recent criticism of the justices' ethical practices: No need to fix what isn't broken.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday night moved former Vice President Mike Pence closer to appearing before a grand jury investigating efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election, rejecting a bid by lawyers for former President Donald Trump to block the testimony.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Fugees rapper accused in multimillion-dollar political conspiracies spanning two presidencies was convicted Wednesday after a trial that included testimony ranging from actor Leonardo DiCaprio to former U.S. Attorney General Jeff Sessions.
HEALTH CARE
As a growing number of overweight Americans clamor for Ozempic and Wegovy — drugs touted by celebrities and on TikTok to pare pounds — an even more powerful obesity medicine is poised to upend treatment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials on Wednesday approved the first pill made from healthy bacteria found in human waste to fight dangerous gut infections — an easier way of performing so-called fecal transplants.
ENVIRONMENT
BENGALURU, India (AP) — Asia must rapidly cut fossil fuel subsidies and plow more money into a clean energy transition to avoid catastrophic climate change that puts its own development at risk, according to a new report Thursday from the Asian Development Bank.
MEDIA
Twitter under its 420-friendly owner Elon Musk earlier this year became the first major social media company to allow cannabis advertisements. Now, the platform is relaxing those rules in an attempt to lure in more advertisers from U.S. states where marijuana is legal.
MILITARY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of reported sexual assaults across the military inched up by about 1% last year, as a sharp decline in Army numbers offset large increases in the other three services, according to a Pentagon report released Thursday.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell was tricked into an extended phone call in January with Russian pranksters posing as Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, during which Powell appeared to discuss the economic impact of interest rate hikes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy slowed sharply from January through March, decelerating to just a 1.1% annual pace as higher interest rates hammered the housing market and businesses reduced their inventories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's report Thursday that the economy grew at a 1.1% annual rate last quarter signaled that one of the most-anticipated recessions in recent U.S. history has yet to arrive. Many economists, though, still expect a recession to hit as soon as the current April-June quarter — or soon thereafter.
Applications for unemployment benefits in the U.S. fell last week as the labor market continues to show strength despite some weakness in other parts of the economy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street steamed to its best day since January after Meta Platforms became the latest Big Tech company to blow past profit forecasts.
DALLAS (AP) — Most U.S. airlines lost money in the first quarter, traditionally the weakest time of year for travel, but they are all eagerly looking ahead to a summer of full planes and high fares.
Facebook parent company Meta's first-quarter results surpassed Wall Street's modest expectations on both profit and revenue, sending its stock soaring in after-hours trading.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is scheduled Friday to release a highly-anticipated review of its supervision of Silicon Valley Bank, the go-to bank for venture capital firms and technology start-ups that failed spectacularly in March, setting off a crisis of confidence for the banking industry.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Thursday blocked a Democratic measure to revive the Equal Rights Amendment, dealing yet another blow to supporters who have pushed for more than five decades to amend the Constitution to prohibit discrimination based on sex.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will open migration centers in Guatemala and Colombia for asylum seekers heading to the U.S.-Mexico border, in a bid to slow what's expected to be a surge of migrants seeking to cross as pandemic-era immigration restrictions end, U.S. officials said Thursday.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is returning to New Hampshire on Thursday for his first campaign appearance since President Joe Biden launched his own reelection bid, heading for a potential 2024 rematch.
MANCHESTER, N.H. (AP) — Donald Trump is again threatening to skip a presidential debate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans narrowly passed sweeping legislation Wednesday that would raise the government's legal debt ceiling by $1.5 trillion in exchange for steep spending restrictions, a tactical victory for Speaker Kevin McCarthy as he challenges President Joe Biden to negotiate and prevent a catastrophic federal default this summer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are trying to exact a price from Democrats for agreeing to increase the nation's borrowing authority and prevent the government from defaulting on the obligations it has accrued over decades. They're arguing for their priorities and going after President Joe Biden's in a separate bill that passed the chamber on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — She swaggered, she jabbed, she inspired. She even joked.