VOL. 40 | NO. 20 | Friday, May 13, 2016
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Rome wasn’t built in a day, and it will take more than a three-day draft to rebuild the Tennessee Titans.
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
Tennessee football fans probably remember Tyler Bray throwing for 34 touchdowns and more than 3,500 yards in 2013. Or, they might remember tales of Bray throwing golf balls and beer bottles off the balcony of an apartment building near the UT campus the previous year.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Everyone who has dipped a toe into the Nashville residential real estate waters knows the pool is shallow and the springs are running hot.
REAL ESTATE
April 2016 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Wilson counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for a third straight week, posting new lows for the year. The benchmark 30-year rate reached a three-year low.
NEWSMAKERS
The Tennessee Automotive Manufacturers Association is announcing former Nissan and Hyundai executive Ashley Frye as its first-ever executive director.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The Audi A4 luxury sedan has been revamped from top to bottom for 2017 with a more powerful engine, new transmission and more room and technology inside.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
I find myself inspired today by a book, recommended by a colleague, called The Speed of Trust by Stephen M.R. Covey. You are probably familiar with Covey’s father, who wrote The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People.
CAREER CORNER
One of the most common messages I received as a child was, “work hard and you will be rewarded.”
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You’ve got mail! Always nice to hear that coming from your computer, but these days it’s doubly-nice when it comes from a metal box. Greeting cards, checks, bills, even those offers-you-can’t-refuse, it all comes right to your door. And in the new book “Neither Snow nor Rain” by Devin Leonard, you’ll never take it for granted.
I SWEAR
Several years ago – and I do mean several – my good friend Fred Harrison tipped me off to a pair of cases from the Mississippi Supreme Court.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
I recently purchased a new cookbook, even though I have many from earlier years that I hardly ever use.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican U.S. Sen. Lamar Alexander is urging people to oppose what he calls an "unsightly" wind farm proposed for the Cumberland Plateau.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Electric car maker Tesla Motors is selling around $1.4 billion worth of stock to help bring its lower-cost Model 3 to market.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is expanding its Maven car-sharing service to Boston, Chicago and Washington, D.C.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Upcoming virtual-reality headsets based on Google's new Daydream VR system won't be as sophisticated as Facebook's Oculus Rift.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking U.S. jobless aid fell sharply last week, partially reversing two weeks of big gains that had raised concerns about rising layoffs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are dropping in early trading Thursday as telephone and industrial companies continue to drag major indexes lower. Some high-dividend stocks fell for a second day as investors braced themselves for the likelihood of an interest rate increase in June at the Federal Reserve's next policy meeting. Verizon fell 2 percent and AT&T lost 1.5 percent.
NEW YORK (AP) — Grab your sunglasses, a giant cup of coffee and prepare to hit the highway: 2016 is shaping up to be the summer of the road trip.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Securities And Exchange Commission is filing a complaint against professional golfer Phil Mickelson related to insider trading.
NEW YORK (AP) — Two-thirds of Americans would have difficulty coming up with the money to cover a $1,000 emergency, according to an exclusive poll released Thursday, a signal that despite years of recovery from the Great Recession, Americans' financial conditions remain precarious as ever.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — European Central Bank officials saw "grounds for cautious optimism about the economy" at their last meeting as the bank's stimulus measures take hold across the 19 countries that use the euro as their currency.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 18
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam is questioning the need for a special legislative session that some fellow Republican lawmakers want to have called over a directive issued by President Barack Obama's administration that public schools must allow students to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The president of the Tennessee Hospitality and Tourism Association has been selected as the chairman of the International Society of Hotel Association Executives.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The International Parking Institute is holding its annual meeting in Nashville this week.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — People who put their cars up as collateral for what are supposed to be short-term emergency loans are being hit with interest rates of 300 percent, a high rate of repossession and long repayment periods.
TOKYO (AP) — Mitsubishi Motors Corp. President Tetsuro Aikawa said Wednesday that he will step down to take responsibility for the mileage cheating scandal unfolding at the Japanese automaker.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Suzuki Motor Corp. apologized Wednesday for improper road tests, but denied reports that it illegally falsified mileage numbers.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW DELHI (AP) — Apple will set up an app design and development center in southern India, the company announced Wednesday, shortly after its CEO, Tim Cook, arrived in the country on his first visit.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — From virtual reality to a new smart-home speaker, Google is showing off just how pervasive it has become even as it's squeezed by its biggest competitors — Facebook, Apple and Amazon.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — New signs that interest rates may be heading higher sent stocks flitting between gains and losses Wednesday, but the major indexes ended up closing pretty much where they started.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Catching many investors off guard, the Federal Reserve made clear Wednesday that an interest rate hike in June is likely if the economy keeps improving.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are of two minds about the economy in the midst of an election race that largely hinges on the issue. They are strikingly pessimistic about the national economy yet comparatively upbeat about their own financial circumstances.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — More than 4 million U.S. workers will become newly eligible for overtime pay under rules issued Wednesday by the Obama administration.
TUESDAY, MAY 17
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam has named Ohio emergency operations administrator Patrick Sheehan as the new director of Tennessee's disaster response agency.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee has entered a contract with Pearson Education to have it score the TNReady assessments this year after the previous vendor was fired this spring.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Nashville International Airport has begun using an abandoned quarry to halve its cooling costs by taking advantage of the reservoir's year-round 50-degree temperature.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Texas singer-songwriter Guy Clark, who helped mentor a generation of songwriters and wrote hits like "L.A. Freeway" and "Desperados Waiting for a Train," has died. He was 74.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Many Twitter users — and more importantly, the billions more who don't use Twitter — feel constrained by the company's somewhat archaic 140-
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Builders ramped up construction of new homes in April, suggesting that the market remains solid despite sluggish economic growth at the beginning of the year.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Picture an 18-wheel truck barreling down the highway with 80,000 pounds of cargo and no one but a robot at the wheel.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed lower on Wall Street, undoing a rally from the day before.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve says U.S. industrial production in April posted the biggest increase since November 2014 as utility output surged.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices jumped in April by the largest amount in more than three years, reflecting a surge in the price of gasoline and other energy products. But outside of volatile food and energy, core inflation posted another modest gain.
ATLANTA (AP) — Home Depot topped expectations for the first quarter thanks in part to mild weather and the company, riding a strong rebound in housing, lifted its outlook for the year.
NEW YORK (AP) — The First Amendment is getting a new champion, with some deep pockets.
MONDAY, MAY 16
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, who opposed a transgender bathroom bill in the Tennessee Legislature, is speaking out against a directive by President Barack Obama's administration that public schools must allow students to use facilities consistent with their gender identity.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Nashville's Music Row should be designated a "cultural industry district," giving local property owners more options to protect the area's heritage, the National Trust for Historic Preservation and the local Music Industry Coalition say.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Any attorney who is working as in-house counsel in Tennessee for a corporation doing business here and does not have a Tennessee law license faces a July 1 deadline to register with the Board of Law Examiners.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says an Internet search site that posted false information about people can be sued only if the errors caused actual harm.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A unanimous Supreme Court says a pair of Ohio law firms did not use illegal tactics when they sent out debt-collection letters on stationery bearing the name of the state's attorney general.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will not hear Exxon Mobil's appeal of a $236 million judgment for its use of a gasoline additive that contaminated groundwater in New Hampshire.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has rejected Philip Morris USA's appeal of a $25 million punitive damages award to the family of a dead smoker in Oregon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says a lawsuit alleging securities fraud under New Jersey law can remain in state court even though the same claims could have been brought under federal law.
REAL ESTATE
U.S. homebuilders' confidence held steady in May for the fourth month in a row, reflecting an overall optimistic outlook for the new-home market even as the pace of sales has slowed recently.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's Environment Ministry said Monday that it will fine Nissan's South Korean operation for manipulating emissions tests on its sports utility vehicle models, an allegation Nissan is denying.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Self-driving cars are expected to usher in a new era of mobility, safety and convenience. The problem, say transportation researchers, is that people will use them too much.
STOCKHOLM (AP) — Norway's $850 billion national oil fund plans to sue Volkswagen over the company's emissions-cheating scandal.
HEALTH CARE
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Despite bitter resistance in Oklahoma for years to President Barack Obama's health care overhaul, Republican leaders in this conservative state are now confronting something that alarms them even more: a huge $1.3 billion hole in the budget that threatens to do widespread damage to the state's health care system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A jump in oil prices and some deal news helped send stocks up broadly Monday, breaking a three-day losing streak.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investors might question Warren Buffett's long-standing aversion to tech stocks after his Berkshire Hathaway bought 9.8 million shares of Apple.
NEW YORK (AP) — USA Today owner Gannett has boosted its takeover bid for Tribune Publishing Co. by about 22 percent one week after the owner of the Los Angeles Times, Chicago Tribune and other newspapers adopted a "poison pill" plan to thwart the unsolicited offer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Foreign holdings of U.S. Treasury securities rose in March, with the Treasury Department revealing for the first time in four decades how much Saudi Arabia owns.
FRIDAY, MAY 13
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam said Friday that the U.S. presidential race is weighing heavily on the minds of executives that he met with on a recently concluded trade mission to Asia.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Senate Speaker Ron Ramsey, a driving force in the Republican boom in Tennessee, is taking a final victory lap before retiring from politics.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The speakers of the Tennessee House and Senate say they don't expect any more vetoes from fellow Republican Gov. Bill Haslam.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - A Franklin man has been convicted in an extortion and wire fraud scheme stemming from the 2012 presidential election and Republican Mitt Romney's tax returns.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors Co. is telling dealers not to sell about 60,000 SUVs in the U.S. because the gas mileage listed on the window stickers was inadvertently overstated.
DETROIT (AP) — Subaru is telling owners of some newer Legacy and Outback vehicles not to drive them because the steering can fail.
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Nissan Chief Executive Carlos Ghosn is confident a 237 billion yen ($2.2 billion) investment in a controlling stake in scandal-embroiled Mitsubishi Motors will prove a bargain when sheer size is critical in the auto industry.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan Motor Co. is investing 237 billion yen ($2.2 billion) to take a 34 percent stake in scandal-ridden Mitsubishi Motors Corp. in what Nissan Chief Carlos Ghosn said is "a win-win" deal intended to repeat the success of his Nissan-Renault alliance.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A late slump Friday pulled U.S. stocks to their third straight weekly loss. Companies that make clothing, food and household goods dropped on more bad news from retailers, and energy companies fell with the price of oil.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Online shopping is reaching such a critical mass with American households that many of the icons of the traditional mall —from Macy's to The Gap and J.C. Penney — face an increasingly uncertain future.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans stepped up their online shopping and bought more autos in April, suggesting that consumers may be faring better than indicated by a slump among major retailers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prices charged by U.S. manufacturers, farmers and other producers rose for the first time since January, lifted by higher costs for gas, steel and medicines.
BRUSSELS (AP) — A new cyberattack has been made against an unnamed bank, part of a coordinated campaign that follows February's theft of $101 million from the Bangladesh central bank, the international money transfer supervisor Swift said Friday.
BEIJING (AP) — Apple Inc. has invested $1 billion in Chinese ride-hailing service Didi Chuxing, the main competitor in China for Uber Technologies Ltd.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In cities across America, the middle class is hollowing out. A widening wealth gap is moving more households into either higher- or lower-income groups in major metro areas, with fewer remaining in the middle, according to a report released Wednesday by the Pew Research Center.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since February 2015, more sobering news for the labor market after a disappointing April jobs report.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England warned Thursday that Britain could fall into recession should voters opt in a June referendum to leave the European Union — a stark assessment from an institution known for being independent of political campaigns.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration issued a final rule Thursday to cut methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas production by nearly half over the next decade as part of an ongoing push by President Barack Obama to curb climate change.