VOL. 46 | NO. 17 | Friday, April 29, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
I have observed during the past 43 years an increasingly creative use of the English language by my real estate peers. While there are apps and programs for translation for many languages, real estate translation is nowhere to be found.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, first quarter 2022, for Davidson County, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average long-term U.S. mortgage rate edged down for the first time in two months following a swift ascent to levels that have not been seen in more than a decade.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
Double-deckers are commonplace in downtown Nashville these days — everything from a grilled ham-and-cheese sandwich at Blake Shelton’s Ole Red lower Broadway venue to a ride aboard one of those slow-moving, open-air “transpotainment” party buses to one of those expensive parking garages.
NEWSMAKERS
Baker Donelson has added 16 new associates across the firm, including Katelyn R. Dwyer (labor & employment), Kareim S. Oliphant (corporate) and Kathryn White (corporate) in Nashville
BRIEFS
Richmond American Homes of Tennessee has entered into an asset purchase agreement to acquire substantially all of the homebuilding assets of The Jones Company of Tennessee, LLC.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Electrified vehicles are indiscriminate in their automotive expansion. First, it was hatchbacks and sedans, then SUVs. Next up: the pickup.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Everybody in. The meeting’s about to start, the train is leaving soon and the car is idling, so pack it up and let’s go. We’re not leaving anyone behind, and nobody can complain about being out of the loop if we’re together.
PERSONAL FINANCE
So much of our sensitive personal data is being tracked and sold that trying to protect our privacy can seem like a pointless exercise.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
With the recent rise of resale apps like Depop and Poshmark, the idea of selling old clothes online is becoming more fashionable. Many people have turned clothing resale into a lucrative side gig or even a full-time job, gaining thousands of followers and making dozens of sales per week.
CAREER CORNER
The world of work seems a little flatter now than it did just a few years ago, thanks to remote work and video conferencing.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Eminem, Lionel Richie, Carly Simon, Eurythmics, Duran Duran and Pat Benatar have been inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, a list that also includes Dolly Parton, who initially resisted the honor.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — The fast, scoring-spree start by Colorado led to some feistiness later on with Nashville. But through all those pushes and shoves, the Avalanche maintained their composure.
STATE GOVERNMENT
JACKSON (AP) — The head of Tennessee's wildlife agency says he is retiring.
WEST TENNESSEE
NASHVILLE (AP) — After alleging that Tennessee's top leaders were placing unfair scrutiny over a predominantly Black town's finances, the small town of Mason announced Wednesday it had reached a deal halting the threat of a state takeover of its finances.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The traditionally insular Supreme Court is about to face the full force of public pressure and abortion politics as justices make a final decision on whether to throw out the landmark Roe v. Wade ruling.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Supreme Court heard arguments in a major abortion case from Mississippi in December, it was clear to observers that there was substantial support among the court's conservative majority for overruling two landmark decisions that established and reaffirmed a woman's right to an abortion.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — A British parliamentary committee scrutinizing draft online safety legislation has invited Elon Musk to discuss his plans to buy Twitter and the changes he's proposing for the social media platform.
HEALTH CARE
COVID-19 vaccine sales helped Moderna triple its net income in a better-than-expected first quarter.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones Industrial Average surged more than 900 points and the S&P 500 had its biggest gain in two years Wednesday after Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell downplayed the likelihood of an even larger interest rate hike after announcing the sharpest rate increase since 2000.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Record-low mortgages below 3%, reached last year, are long gone. Credit card rates will likely rise. So will the cost of an auto loan. Savers may finally receive a yield high enough to top inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve intensified its fight against the worst inflation in 40 years by raising its benchmark interest rate by a half-percentage point Wednesday — its most aggressive move since 2000 — and signaling further large rate hikes to come.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Below is the statement the Fed released Wednesday after its policy meeting ended:
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California, which would have the world's fifth-largest economy if it was a country, on Wednesday became the first U.S. state to formally begin examining how to broadly adapt to cryptocurrency and related innovations, following a path laid out by President Joe Biden in March.
NEW YORK (AP) — The company behind the TurboTax tax-filing program will pay $141 million to customers across the United States who were deceived by misleading promises of free tax-filing services, New York's attorney general announced Wednesday.
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The world's biggest shipping company, Denmark's A.P. Moeller-Maersk, said Wednesday that it had delivered its "best earnings quarter ever," driven by higher freight rates and more contracts being signed.
COVID-19 vaccines and tests for the virus continue to boost CVS Health and the health care giant raised its annual forecast after yet another strong quarter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris and Labor Secretary Marty Walsh will meet with union organizers at the White House on Thursday, part of a broader effort by the administration to boost unionization campaigns at major employers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday highlighted new figures showing the government's red ink will grow less than expected this year and the national debt will shrink this quarter as he tried to counter criticism of his economic leadership amid growing dismay over inflation going into midterm elections that will decide control of Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will hold a conference on hunger, nutrition and health in September to notch progress on the Biden administration's goals of ending hunger, improving nutrition and physical activity and reducing diet-related diseases.
The primary elections in Ohio and Indiana on Tuesday stood as the first real test of former President Donald Trump's status as the Republican Party kingmaker — and he passed.
UKRAINE
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — She stood in just her bathrobe in the freezing basement of the Mariupol theater, coated in white plaster dust shaken loose by the explosion. Her husband tugged at her to leave and begged her to cover her eyes.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top official on Wednesday called on the 27-nation bloc to ban oil imports from Russia and target the country's biggest bank and major broadcasters in a sixth package of sanctions over the war in Ukraine.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian forces pounded targets across Ukraine, taking aim at supply lines for foreign weapons in the west and intensifying an offensive in the east, as the European Union moved Wednesday to further punish Moscow for the war with a proposed ban on oil imports.
TUESDAY, MAY 3
TENNESSEE TITANS
NEW YORK (AP) — The NFL has added four players from Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom to each team in the AFC South as part of the league's International Player Pathway Program.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — Goaltender David Rittich will start Game 1 for the Nashville Predators with starter Juuse Saros sidelined by a lower-body injury.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has refused to release records that could illuminate his decision to abruptly halt the execution of Oscar Smith last month, citing attorney-client privilege and the disputed "deliberative process privilege."
FRANKLIN (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Monday he plans to sign a bill that would let a politically appointed panel remove books from public school libraries statewide through a new veto power over local school board decisions.
FRANKLIN (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed into law Monday an overhaul he proposed for the formula for funding the state's multibillion-dollar K-12 education system.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — It's voting time again in Tennessee, as candidates from the Democratic and Republican parties compete in county primary elections Tuesday.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday blasted a "radical" Supreme Court draft opinion that would throw out the landmark Roe v. Wade abortion rights ruling that has stood for a half century. He warned that other privacy rights including same-sex marriage and birth control are at risk if the justices follow through on the draft that the court emphasized was not final.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer angrily denounced as an "abomination" the Supreme Court's leaked draft decision that would overturn the nation's landmark Roe v. Wade ruling and vowed that if it stands the Senate will vote on legislation to uphold women's access to abortions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's capital has a long tradition of stunning leaks, from national security secrets to political scandals, but this week's disclosure of a draft Supreme Court decision is one for the history books. The document obtained by Politico shows a majority of justices could be poised to overturn Roe v. Wade, the landmark 1973 decision that created a constitutional right to abortion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts on Tuesday confirmed the authenticity of a leaked draft opinion suggesting the Supreme Court may be be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide. He ordered an investigation into what he called an "egregious breach of trust."
If the U.S. Supreme Court follows through on overturning the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, it would immediately split the country into states with abortion access and those that outlaw it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A draft opinion suggests the U.S. Supreme Court could be poised to overturn the landmark 1973 Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion nationwide, according to a Politico report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court keeps secrets. Year after year, in major case after major case, there's little beyond what the justices say during oral arguments that suggests how they will rule until they actually do.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump's businesses and inaugural committee have reached a deal to pay Washington, D.C., $750,000 to resolve a lawsuit that alleged the committee overpaid for events at his hotel and enriched the former president's family in the process, according to the District of Columbia's attorney general.
HEALTH CARE
Biogen will replace its CEO and largely abandon marketing of its controversial Alzheimer's drug Aduhelm less than a year after the medication's launch triggered a backlash from experts, doctors and insurers.
COVID-19 vaccine and treatment sales helped Pfizer breeze past Wall Street's first-quarter expectations, as the drugmaker's profit grew 61%.
TECHNOLOGY
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Using a helicopter to catch a falling rocket is such a complex task that Peter Beck likens it to a "supersonic ballet."
COVID-19
What happens if I get COVID-19 while traveling?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock closed modestly higher on Wall Street Tuesday as investors await Wednesday's decision by the Federal Reserve on interest rates.
Airbnb sharply narrowed its first-quarter loss to $19 million, as the rebound in travel after two years of pandemic caused bookings to jump and revenue to nearly double from a year ago.
Starbucks' sales climbed to record levels in its fiscal second quarter, but its profits took a hit from climbing labor and ingredient costs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employers posted a record 11.5 million job openings in March and the United States now has an unprecedented two job openings for every person who is unemployed.
LONDON (AP) — BP posted its highest quarterly profit in more than a decade thanks to surging oil and gas prices, renewing calls for a U.K. government tax on energy companies' windfall earnings to help households struggling with rising energy bills.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australia's central bank on Tuesday lifted its benchmark interest rate for the first time in more than 11 years. The cash rate rose from 0.1% to 0.35% in a move potentially damaging to a government that will seek reelection on May 21.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaked draft of a Supreme Court abortion opinion that would overturn the landmark Roe v. Wade decision is shaking the U.S. political landscape in what has been expected to be a difficult election year for Democrats.
UKRAINE
VATICAN CITY (AP) — Pope Francis has told an Italian newspaper that he has offered to travel to Moscow to meet with President Vladimir Putin to try to end Russia's war in Ukraine, but that he hasn't yet heard back.
MONDAY, MAY 2
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans say they need to be excellent around Ryan Tannehill to help their quarterback take them on the deep postseason run they've missed since the 2019 season.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Randall Leal scored on a penalty kick in the 85th minute and Nashville SC opened GEODIS Park and gained a 1-1 draw with the Philadelphia Union in MLS action on Sunday.
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ray Charles and The Judds joined the Country Music Hall of Fame on Sunday in a ceremony filled with tears, music and laughter, just a day after Naomi Judd died unexpectedly.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee paused executions in Tennessee for the rest of the year on Monday after revealing that the state had failed to ensure its lethal injection drugs were properly tested. The oversight forced Lee to abruptly halt the execution of Oscar Smith an hour before he was to die last month.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal jury on Monday convicted a New York Police Department veteran of assaulting an officer during the U.S. Capitol riot, rejecting his claim that he was defending himself when he tackled the officer and grabbed his gas mask.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court ruled Monday that Boston violated the free speech rights of a conservative activist when it refused his request to fly a Christian flag on a flagpole outside City Hall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place the illegal campaign contributions conviction of Kentucky businessman and former Democratic Party chief, Jerry Lundergan.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union stepped up its antitrust case against Apple on Monday, accusing the company of abusing its dominant position by limiting access to technologies allowing contactless payment.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Automaker Stellantis said Monday it will invest $3.6 billion Canadian dollars ($2.8 billion) to upgrade two Canadian assembly plants and expand a research center as it accelerates its long-term electrification strategy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Continuing its push to dramatically boost sales of electric vehicles, the Biden administration on Monday announced $3.1 billion in funding to U.S. companies that make and recycle lithium-ion batteries.
TRANSPORTATION
Spirit Airlines said Monday that it still supports Frontier Airlines' $2.9 billion takeover bid for the airline, saying it was more likely to win regulatory approval than JetBlue's competing $3.6 billion offer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A late rally in big technology stocks erased an afternoon slump on Wall Street and left major indexes moderately higher.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is poised this week to accelerate its most drastic steps in three decades to attack inflation by making it costlier to borrow — for a car, a home, a business deal, a credit card purchase — all of which will compound Americans' financial strains and likely weaken the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Blazers in knit fabrics, pants with drawstrings or elastic waists, and polo shirts as the new button-down.
A federal labor board on Monday will count ballots cast by warehouse workers in a second Amazon union election on Staten Island.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three more House Republicans received requests Monday to voluntarily appear before the congressional committee investigating the U.S. Capitol insurrection and answer questions about their involvement in the effort to overturn Donald Trump's 2020 election loss.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson said Sunday he is weighing a presidential run in 2024 and his decision won't be affected by whether former President Donald Trump decides to join the race.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The planes take off almost daily from Dover Air Force Base in Delaware — hulking C-17s loaded up with Javelins, Stingers, howitzers and other material being hustled to Eastern Europe to resupply Ukraine's military in its fight against Russia.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union energy ministers will meet Monday to discuss Russia's decision to cut gas supplies to Bulgaria and Poland, and debate planned new sanctions over Moscow's war on Ukraine.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A top-level U.S. congressional delegation led by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was in Warsaw on Monday to express gratitude to Poland for their humanitarian and other support for Ukraine.
TEL AVIV, Israel (AP) — Israel on Monday lashed out at Russia over "unforgivable" comments by its foreign minister about Nazism and antisemitism — including claims that Adolf Hitler was Jewish. Israel, which summoned the Russian ambassador in response, said the remarks blamed Jews for their own murder in the Holocaust.
FRIDAY, APRIL 29
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans began the NFL draft trying to make the best of a tough situation.
PREDATORS
DENVER (AP) — Matt Duchene scored the lone goal of the shootout and David Rittich stopped all three attempts as the Nashville Predators rallied from a two-goal deficit to beat the Colorado Avalanche 5-4 on Thursday night.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Health Commissioner Dr. Lisa Piercey is leaving state government next month, Gov. Bill Lee said.
COURTS
EDGARD, La. (AP) — Descendants of slaves who lived and toiled in southeastern Louisiana won a key ruling Thursday allowing their legal challenge to go forward against a $400 million grain elevator planned along the Mississippi River, although the company behind the project said it would likely appeal.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk has sold 4.4 million shares of Tesla stock worth roughly $4 billion, most likely to help fund his purchase of Twitter.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is recalling more than a quarter-million Explorer SUVs in the U.S. because they can roll away unexpectedly while shifted into park.
BEIJING (AP) — Tesla has recalled 14,684 Model 3s due to a software glitch that could cause collisions, China's market regulator said Friday, in its second recall in the country this month.
REAL ESTATE
Fair housing advocates on Friday announced a settlement agreement to resolve a lawsuit against real estate brokerage Redfin that will expand housing opportunities for consumers in communities of color in numerous major cities.
BANKING
BERLIN (AP) — German police have searched offices of Deutsche Bank in connection with a money laundering investigation.
MEDIA
Google has expanded options for keeping personal information private from online searches.
PERSONAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new government watchdog report finds that while most Americans are eligible to file their taxes for free, only a fraction use the services provided through the government.
COVID-19
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Food and Drug Administration on Friday set tentative dates in June to publicly review COVID-19 vaccines for the youngest American children, typically the final step before authorizing the shots.
Black and Hispanic Americans remain far more cautious in their approach to COVID-19 than white Americans, recent polls show, reflecting diverging preferences on how to deal with the pandemic as federal, state and local restrictions fall by the wayside.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve jumped 6.6% in March compared with a year ago, the highest 12-month reading in four decades, further evidence that surging prices are pressuring household budgets and the health of the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon reported its first quarterly loss since 2015 on Thursday, its money-making juggernaut stalled by a slowdown in pandemic-induced online shopping and a huge write-down of its investment in an electric-vehicle startup.
NEW YORK (AP) — Exxon Mobil reported $5.48 billion in profits during the first quarter as oil and gas prices rose steadily, more than doubling its profits compared with the same quarter last year.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Thursday reported strong quarterly results despite supply shortages, but warned that its growth slowdown is likely to deepen. The company said it's still struggling to get enough chips to meet demand and contending with COVID-related shutdowns at factories in China that make iPhones and other products.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Inflation hit a record in April for the 19 countries that use the euro as skyrocketing fuel prices boosted by the war in Ukraine weigh on the region's economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Thursday against Donald Trump's former campaign chairman Paul Manafort — who was convicted in special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation and later pardoned — seeking to recover nearly $3 million from undeclared foreign bank accounts.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine's leader accused Russia of trying to humiliate the United Nations by raining missiles on Kyiv during a visit by Secretary-General António Guterres, an attack that shattered the capital's tentative return to normality as the focus of the war moved east.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The worst possible moment for bringing Trevor Reed home turned out to be the best.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden doesn't want to just seize the yachts, luxury homes and other assets of Russian oligarchs, he wants to sell off the pricey goods and use the money to help rebuild Ukraine.
THURSDAY, APRIL 28
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators will be without goaltender Juuse Saros for the final two games of the regular season because of an injured left leg.
NASHVILLE AREA
For the first time since the Vanderbilt Poll–Nashville was established in 2015, more than half of respondents say they believe the city is headed in the wrong direction.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers closed out their annual legislative session Thursday, striking a deal that would let a politically appointed panel remove books from public school libraries statewide through a new veto power over local school board decisions.
NASHVILLE (AP) — After an undisclosed "oversight" forced Tennessee to call off the execution of Oscar Smith an hour before he was to die last week, Smith's attorneys on Thursday asked for a moratorium on executions and a review of the state's execution protocols.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republicans advanced legislation Wednesday that would place more scrutiny over what books are placed in public schools libraries, moments after the bill's House sponsor said any inappropriate book should be burned.
MIDSTATE
CLARKSVILLE (AP) — A ransomware attack hit campus computers at Austin Peay University, but school officials said it was contained.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the dismissal of a discrimination lawsuit filed by a deaf, legally blind woman against a physical therapy business that wouldn't provide an American Sign Language interpreter for her appointments.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fertile mind of Justice Stephen Breyer has conjured a stream of hypothetical questions through the years that have, in the words of a colleague, "befuddled" lawyers and justices alike.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — A Delaware court sided with Tesla CEO Elon Musk in a bitter legal battle over whether he acted against the best interest of other shareholders when he steered the electric car maker into a $2.6 billion acquisition of a solar panel maker founded by two of his cousins.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DALLAS (AP) — Ford Motor Co. reported Wednesday that it lost $3.1 billion in the first quarter, weighed down by its investment in an electric-vehicle startup, and its revenue slid as a shortage of chips limited the supply of pickups and SUVs in North America.
BEIJING (AP) — China has granted Chinese internet services company Baidu and a rival autonomous car company, Pony.ai, permits to provide driverless ride-hailing services to the public in Beijing, a significant regulatory step in the country's pursuit of driverless technology.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government on Thursday released its long-awaited plan to ban menthol cigarettes and flavored cigars, citing the toll on Black smokers and young people.
ENVIRONMENT
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California's attorney general on Thursday subpoenaed ExxonMobil as part of what he called a first-of-its-kind broader investigation into the petroleum industry for its alleged role in causing a global plastic pollution crisis.
COVID-19
Moderna on Thursday asked U.S. regulators to authorize low doses of its COVID-19 vaccine for children younger than 6, a long-awaited move toward potentially opening shots for millions of tots by summer.
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing is closing all city schools in a further tightening of COVID-19 restrictions, as China's capital seeks to prevent a wider outbreak.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Major stock indexes on Wall Street notched their biggest gains in more than six weeks Thursday, as technology companies clawed back some of the ground they had lost recently.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Apple on Thursday reported quarterly results that topped analysts' profit projections despite supply shortages, economic fallout from the Russia-Ukraine war and a growth slowdown from the huge sales lift that technology products and service got from pandemic restrictions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said Thursday the global pandemic and Russia's invasion of Ukraine highlight the possibility of big economic shocks in the future, adding that downturns are "likely to continue to challenge the economy."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank in the first three months of the year, and faces threats from high inflation and rising interest rates, yet economists foresee a return to growth for the rest of 2022 based on the strength of the job market and consumer spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell again last week with numbers still at historically low levels.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Cutting off natural gas to Poland and Bulgaria cost Russian President Vladimir Putin very little — but it is adding stress on European countries wrestling with how to reduce the energy imports feeding the Kremlin's war chest and how to keep a united front on the war in Ukraine.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter posted quarterly earnings of $513 million days after it agreed to be sold to billionaire Elon Musk.
NEW YORK (AP) — Help wanted. The job: putting one of the nation's most far-reaching salary disclosure laws into practice. Location: New York City.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines lost $278 million in the first quarter, but it echoed other airlines with surging sales in March and it said on Thursday that it expects to be profitable for the remainder of the year.
Higher U.S. menu prices and easing COVID-19 restrictions elsewhere helped McDonald's offset troubled markets like China and Russia in the first quarter.
Caterpillar's first-quarter sales climbed with demand for construction equipment surging in the face of supply chain challenges that continue to plague businesses from car and phone makers to grocery stores.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Citing growing worries about high gasoline prices, Democratic leaders announced an effort Thursday to give the Federal Trade Commission increased authority to crack down on companies that engage in price gouging.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday that he's "taking a hard look" at canceling additional federal student loan debt and will reach a decision within a month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is asking Congress on Thursday for new powers to seize and repurpose the assets of Russian oligarchs as part of a new funding request to aid Ukraine in its defense against Russia's invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of U.S. adults say misinformation around Russia's invasion of Ukraine is a major problem, and they largely fault the Russian government for spreading those falsehoods.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is stepping up an effort to counter disinformation coming from Russia as well as misleading information that human smugglers circulate to target migrants hoping to travel to the U.S.-Mexico border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trevor Reed is back in the United States one day after the Marine veteran was swapped for a Russian drug trafficker in a prisoner exchange between Washington and Moscow, his mother tweeted early Thursday morning.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden asked Congress on Thursday for an additional $33 billion to help Ukraine fend off Russia's invasion, a signal that the U.S. is prepared to mount a robust, long-term campaign to bolster Kyiv and weaken Moscow as the bloody war enters its third month with no sign of abating.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. House gave final passage Thursday to legislation that would streamline a World War II-era military lend-lease program to more quickly provide Ukraine and other Eastern European countries with American equipment to fight the Russian invasion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The money that President Joe Biden has asked Congress to approve for Ukraine is designed to help with a range of needs — military equipment for the immediate fight, economic aid for the future and much more.
IRPIN, Ukraine (AP) — Ukraine said Thursday that Russia's offensive in the east picked up momentum, with several towns coming under intense attack as Moscow's forces attempt to surround Ukrainian troops.
BOSTON (AP) — Russia's relentless digital assaults on Ukraine may have caused less damage than many anticipated. But most of its hacking is focused on a different goal that gets less attention but has chilling potential consequences: data collection.