VOL. 44 | NO. 20 | Friday, May 15, 2020
NASHVILLE AREA
A survey of Entrepreneurs’ Organization of Nashville members show 65% of respondents reported a negative effect on revenue during March and April, with more than 30% seeing revenue decline by at least half compared to the same time period in 2019. However, only 12% expect worse revenues in May and June than the previous two months.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than 29,000 people filed new unemployment claims in Tennessee last week, bringing the number of jobless residents who have sought benefits to more than a half-million stemming from the shutdown of businesses during the response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Unit sales sagged 17% in April, Greater Nashville Realtors statistics show, while prices rose from a median of $306,975 in April 2019 to $330,000 for April 2020.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, April 2020, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
NONPROFITS
The Big Payback’s seventh annual 24-hour online giving event raised more than $4.3 million for participating area nonprofits, a record for the event.
BRIEFS
The Office of Workforce and Community Development at Nashville State Community College is offering 10 free online courses in professional development available through June 30.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The answer is always YES. YES, you want more from your job or your clients. YES, you’re sure there’s more they can give. YES, you need additional compensation, whether monetarily or in perks. Your heels are dug in and you’re not giving up until you get the answer you want.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
PERSONAL FINANCE
The coronavirus pandemic has significantly changed the way we live and conduct business in this country. Take, for instance, the act of terminating a vehicle lease.
Your estate plan might be your last words to those you leave behind. If you’re a parent, you should think carefully about the message you’ll be sending.
CAREER CORNER
One of the hot topics around the virtual water cooler is when we’re going back to work. Some states are beginning to open, while others continue to be locked down for what might be months.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Entrepreneurial types who freelance and side hustle their way through the week likely have access to a tool that could help them thrive: A business credit card.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are using $5.7 million from the Volkswagen diesel emissions scandal settlement for transit bus replacements in three cities.
AUTO INDUSTRY
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Wednesday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of existing home plunged 17.8% in April with the real estate market still in the grips of the coronavirus pandemic.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee-based Rinova The Wellness Group has agreed to pay more than $100,000 to settle claims that it defrauded Medicare, according to a news release from the U.S. Attorney's Office in Nashville.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials have quietly released more reopening guidance that was created more than a month ago but initially shelved.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 2.4 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week in the latest wave of layoffs from the viral outbreak that triggered widespread business shutdowns two months ago and sent the economy into a deep recession.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Thursday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's is warning that it could lose more than a $1 billion during its first fiscal quarter after the coronavirus pandemic paralyzed retail operations nationwide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Americans confront a crisis unlike any in modern times, the world's greatest deliberative body is doing almost anything but deliberate the coronavirus.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration has started giving energy companies temporary breaks on royalties and rent they pay to extract oil and gas from leases on public lands because of the coronavirus pandemic.
TOKYO (AP) — Recession-hit Japan's exports plunged nearly 22% in April, marking their worst drop in more than a decade, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed global demand for autos, machinery and chemicals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of a regional Federal Reserve bank that will oversee a groundbreaking business lending program said Wednesday that he thinks a slower-than-expected recovery from the economic downturn would lead companies to seek critical support from the program.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration notified international partners on Thursday that it is pulling out of a treaty that permits 30-plus nations to conduct unarmed, observation flights over each other's territory — overflights set up decades ago to promote trust and avert conflict.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic. He backed away from that threat but stuck with his unsupported claim that widespread voting by mail promotes "a lot of illegality."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to vote Thursday on the nomination of Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe to be Director of National Intelligence, potentially confirming him sooner than expected, as senators are eager to quickly fill the post.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is running against himself.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 20
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University President Glenda Glover said she was "thrilled" to receive a call from Oprah Winfrey asking what she could do to help Nashville residents suffering from the economic turmoil caused by the coronavirus.
NEW YORK (AP) — Oprah Winfrey is giving grants to the cities she's called home through her $12 million coronavirus relief fund.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services has received $200,000 to recruit physicians to the state's regional mental health hospitals, according to a news release from the agency.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former Green Beret and his son were arrested Wednesday in Massachusetts on charges they smuggled Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box while he awaited trial there on financial misconduct charges.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's Volkswagen has pulled a social media ad for a new car and apologized after an outcry over its racist overtones.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen said charges of securities-law violations against its CEO and board chairman are to be dropped in return for a 9 million-euro ($10 million) payment, removing a potential distraction for the company's management team as it copes with the virus crisis and oversees the rollout of a new generation of electric cars.
TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration outlined steps to change how it approves new passenger planes, but lawmakers said they will push ahead with legislation to change the current system that lets aircraft makers including Boeing play a key role in the certification process.
LONDON (AP) — Engine maker Rolls-Royce said Wednesday it plans to cut some 9,000 jobs globally as it grapples with the collapse in air travel due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on Wednesday blasted the Trump administration's moves to roll back environmental regulations during the coronavirus crisis, with one senator saying a "pandemic of pollution'' has been released.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple and Google on Wednesday released long-awaited smartphone technology to automatically notify people if they might have been exposed to the coronavirus.
AT&T says it will stop advertising its wireless network as "5G Evolution" after a division of the Better Business Bureau determined that its language was misleading. The network AT&T branded this way is not, in fact, 5G — a new technology for fast wireless data.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday temporarily prevented the House of Representatives from obtaining secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — With more businesses across the country easing back to life, the new challenge will be how to keep workers safe during the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Before COVID-19 killed thousands of nursing home residents, about 4 in 10 homes inspected were cited for infection control problems, according to a government watchdog report Wednesday that finds a "persistent" pattern of lapses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday threatened to hold up federal funds for two election battleground states that are trying to make it easier and safer to vote during the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican political operatives are recruiting "extremely pro-Trump" doctors to go on television to prescribe reviving the U.S. economy as quickly as possible, without waiting to meet safety benchmarks proposed by the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention to slow the spread of the new coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the nation's top infectious disease doctor warned it could be risky for schools to open this fall, President Donald Trump said that was unacceptable.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump emphatically defended himself against criticism from medical experts that his announced use of a malaria drug against the coronavirus could spark wide misuse by Americans of the unproven treatment with potentially fatal side effects.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday, clawing back all of its losses from a day earlier and extending its strong gains for the week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month worried about the coronavirus pandemic's toll on the U.S. economy, especially its impact on the most vulnerable, expressing fears that a large number of small businesses may not be able to survive the shock.
Suddenly out of work or making due with reduced paychecks, an estimated 4.1 million Americans have sought forbearance on their mortgage, according to data released Monday by the Mortgage Bankers Association. That's a staggering number, and experts anticipate more homeowners will seek this protection as the economic impact of the coronavirus wears on.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Wednesday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Germany's Deutsche Bank says it is in good financial shape and will push ahead with cost cuts to bolster profitability - and its CEO says working from home could play a role in that.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union signaled Wednesday that it will not punish member countries for breaking the bloc's deficit rules to tackle the coronavirus but that it could condition their access to sorely-needed recovery funds on them following its advice on how to manage their budgets.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Senate committee has voted to issue a subpoena as part of its investigation into former Vice President Joe Biden's son, a move that met immediate opposition from Democrats who said the panel should be focused on overseeing the federal response to the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Wednesday adamantly denied that he recommended firing the State Department's independent watchdog in retaliation for investigations into Pompeo's conduct as America's top diplomat. But Pompeo again declined to provide specific reasons for Steve Linick's dismissal as inspector general.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden warned Wednesday that those "tasked with enforcing the law are abusing their powers," offering a measured critique of the Trump administration a day after he declined to respond to President Donald Trump's attacks directly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — They fly at speeds of a mile a second or faster and maneuver in ways that make them extra difficult to detect and destroy in flight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Trump administration policy of quickly expelling most migrants stopped along the border because of the COVID-19 pandemic was indefinitely extended Tuesday, with a top U.S. health official arguing that what had been a short-term order was still needed to protect the country from the virus.
TUESDAY, MAY 19
NASHVILLE AREA
Music City will honor health care heroes, first responders and front-line workers with a televised fireworks show from downtown Nashville on July 4, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced today.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The last time bassist Jon Jones played a concert with his country group Eli Young Band was March 8. He hopes to hit the stage again in June to launch a new drive-in concert series in his first return to live music with fans since the devastating coronavirus.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Southeastern Conference has given a $100,000 grant to Vanderbilt to help students, staff and faculty affected by the tornado that hit Tennessee in March.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Public health officials in at least two-thirds of U.S. states are sharing the addresses of people who have the coronavirus with first responders. Supporters say the measure is designed to protect those on the front line, but it's sparked concerns of profiling in minority communities already mistrustful of law enforcement.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are pausing most construction-related lane closures on interstates and state routes for Memorial Day weekend.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home building plunged in April to the lowest level in five years, taken down by the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MILAN (AP) — European car sales bottomed out last month as the automotive industry faces its worst crisis in decades.
ENVIRONMENT
KENSINGTON, Maryland (AP) — The world cut its daily carbon dioxide emissions by 17% at the peak of the pandemic shutdown last month, a new study found.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — Holy Communion will have a different look when in-person worship services resume at the end of May in the Catholic Diocese of Knoxville, Tennessee: The wafers signifying the body of Christ will be placed in the hands of parishioners by priests and deacons wearing face masks and safety glasses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump emphatically defended himself Tuesday against criticism from medical experts that his announced use of a malaria drug against the coronavirus could spark wide misuse by Americans of the unproven treatment with potentially fatal side effects.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Restaurant owners gave President Donald Trump a sobering accounting of the widespread damage the coronavirus pandemic has dealt their industry and asked him to adjust a loan program for small businesses to address their concerns.
LONDON (AP) — An influential group of British lawmakers on Tuesday accused Prime Minister Boris Johnson's government of failing to conduct enough tests for the new coronavirus, saying the lapse helped COVID-19 cut a deadly swath through U.K. nursing homes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended broadly lower on Wall Street Tuesday as trading turned wobbly a day after the market notched its biggest jump in more than five weeks.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Tuesday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing the gravest U.S. economic crisis in decades, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell offered Congress contrasting views Tuesday of what the government's most urgent priority should be.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart became a lifeline to millions of people as the coronavirus spread and its profit and sales surged during the first quarter, topping almost all expectations.
ATLANTA (AP) — The cost of the spreading coronavirus pandemic dragged on profits early in the year at Home Depot.
MEDIA
TikTok, the popular short-video app that has also drawn national-security and privacy concerns, has a new high-profile CEO from Disney, Kevin Mayer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Michael Flynn are asking a federal appeals court to order the dismissal of the criminal case against the former Trump administration national security adviser.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump implored Senate Republicans to "be tough" on Democrats heading into the fall election, touting his own poll numbers against rival Joe Biden during a free-wheeling private lunch on Capitol Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate intelligence committee on Tuesday approved the nomination of Texas GOP Rep. John Ratcliffe to be director of national intelligence, sending the nomination to the Senate floor for his likely confirmation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's presidential campaign is bringing on the granddaughter of civil rights leader César Chávez as a senior adviser to help with Latino outreach and building out its operation in the states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham is scheduling a vote that would allow him to subpoena more than 50 current and former officials who were involved in the Justice Department's investigation of Russian involvement in the 2016 U.S. presidential campaign, as President Donald Trump and his allies have launched a broad, election-year attack on the investigation as a "deep state" conspiracy.
MONDAY, MAY 18
MIDSTATE
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — An aviation unit from Fort Campbell will deploy to South Korea this summer.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency has a new executive director.
TECHNOLOGY
HONG KONG (AP) — The latest U.S. sanctions on tech giant Huawei threaten to devastate the company and escalate a feud with China that could disrupt technology industries worldwide.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — The World Health Organization bowed to calls Monday from most of its member states to launch an independent evaluation of how it managed the international response to the coronavirus, which has been clouded by finger-pointing between the U.S. and China over a pandemic that has killed over 300,000 people and leveled the global economy.
An experimental vaccine against the coronavirus showed encouraging results in very early testing, triggering hoped-for immune responses in eight healthy, middle-aged volunteers, its maker announced Monday.
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — Harnessing today's technology to the task of fighting the coronavirus pandemic is turning out to be more complicated than it first appeared.
The global coronavirus pandemic has created a huge need for health care in the U.S., but it also is delivering a devastating financial blow to that sector.
GENEVA (AP) — China will provide $2 billion over two years to fight the coronavirus pandemic and the economic fallout from it, President Xi Jinping said Monday, rallying around the World Health Organization even as the United States has slashed funding for the U.N. health agency and sought to undermine its credibility.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Sgt. Antonio Gozikowski was planning to leave the military next month and head to college.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The stock market bounced back from its worst week in nearly two months Monday as optimism about a potential vaccine for the coronavirus and hopes for a U.S. economic recovery in the second half of the year put investors in a buying mood.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A small, overlooked federal agency is shouldering a massive relief effort for the nation's small businesses and their workers left reeling by the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department and Federal Reserve have lent hardly any money under a $500 billion fund created by the economic rescue law passed in response to the coronavirus crisis, a congressional oversight panel says in a new report.
NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses hoping for more leeway in using coronavirus loan money were disappointed as the government released instructions for seeking forgiveness for the loans.
BERLIN (AP) — The leaders of Germany and France agreed Monday on a one-off 500 billion-euro ($543 billion) fund to help the European Union recover from the coronavirus pandemic, a proposal that would add further cash to an arsenal of financial measures the bloc is readying to cope with the outbreak's economic fallout.
NEW YORK (AP) — Uber has cut 3,000 jobs from its workforce, its second major wave of layoffs in two weeks as the coronavirus slashed demand for rides.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell expressed optimism Sunday that the U.S. economy can begin to recover from a devastating recession in the second half of the year, assuming the coronavirus doesn't erupt in a second wave. But he suggested that a full recovery won't likely be possible before the arrival of a vaccine.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Europe reopened more widely on Monday, allowing people into the Acropolis in Athens, shops in Italy, museums in Belgium, golf courses in Ireland and beer gardens in Bavaria. China announced it will give $2 billion to the fight against the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats say the State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump last week was investigating possible impropriety in a massive arms sales to Saudi Arabia last year, adding new questions to the watchdog's abrupt dismissal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr said Monday that he did not expect an investigation into the origins of the FBI's Russia investigation to lead to criminal probes of either President Donald Trump's Democratic opponent, Joe Biden, or former President Barack Obama.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. attorney who oversaw the reversal of a sentencing recommendation for Trump ally Roger Stone and the motion to dismiss charges against ex-national security adviser Michael Flynn will become the nation's top drug enforcement official, according to an administration official.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his GOP allies are misrepresenting the facts behind the legal case of former national security adviser Michael Flynn as they seek to allege improper behavior during the Obama administration in the presidential campaign season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden has longed to win the White House for more than three decades. If he finally makes it there after November's election, he's already talking about leaving.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government agency that processes citizenship applications and work visas is running out of money because of the COVID-19 pandemic and says it needs to raise its fees and receive emergency funding from Congress to stay afloat.
FRIDAY, MAY 15
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — During a recent songwriting session, singer-songwriters Sarah Loethen and Christoffer Wadensten pieced together the lyrics and melody of a song they were writing about the global pandemic.
SPORTS
ATLANTA (AP) — Pepper Rodgers, a colorful personality who helped Georgia Tech to an unbeaten season as a player in 1952 and went on to coach the Yellow Jackets as well as Kansas, UCLA and Memphis teams in both the USFL and CFL, died Thursday. He was 88.
MEDIA
MEMPHIS (AP) — A journalism advocacy group has filed a federal lawsuit on behalf of a reporter in Memphis, Tennessee, who alleges she has been excluded from a media advisory list in retaliation for her coverage of the city.
REGION
GULFPORT, Miss. (AP) — The Mississippi Gaming Commission said Thursday that casinos in the state can start reopening May 21 — more than two months after the commission closed them because of the coronavirus pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SPRING HILL (AP) — General Motors plans to buy enough solar energy to power its Tennessee assembly plant by late 2022.
DETROIT (AP) — Defying a wave of layoffs that has sent the U.S. job market into its worst catastrophe on record, at least one major industry is making a comeback: Tens of thousands of auto workers are returning to factories that have been shuttered since mid-March due to fears of spreading the coronavirus.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A fourth Tennessee prison inmate has died after contracting the coronavirus, according to the Tennessee Department of Correction.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Facing growing criticism, the Department of Veterans Affairs said Friday that it will not halt use of an unproven malaria drug on veterans with COVID-19 but that fewer of its patients are now taking it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump expressed no concerns Friday about a rapid coronavirus test that the White House has been relying on to ensure his safety, despite new data suggesting the test may return an inordinate share of false negatives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As businesses reopened Friday in more of the U.S., an overwhelming majority of states still fall short of the COVID-19 testing levels that public health experts say are necessary to safely ease lockdowns and avoid another deadly wave of outbreaks, according to an Associated Press analysis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump vowed to use "every plane, truck and soldier" to distribute COVID-19 vaccines he hopes will be ready by year's end — even as the country's top scientists gear up for a master experiment to rapidly tell if any really work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Food and Drug Administration said Friday his agency has provided new guidance to the White House after data suggested that a rapid COVID-19 test used by President Donald Trump and others every day may provide inaccuracies and false negatives.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Friday that parts of the U.S. financial system came under severe strain in March as a global pandemic was shutting down much of the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The unparalleled speed of the collapse of the U.S. economy, forcing more than 36 million Americans out of work, has left an all-too-common political divide, with many Republicans seeing reasons to believe the worst is over while Democrats call for more aid to stave off a possible depression.
Stocks managed to close modestly higher on Wall Street Friday after a day of wobbling between gains and losses.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Friday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. retail sales tumbled by a record 16.4% from March to April as business shutdowns caused by the coronavirus kept shoppers away, threatened the viability of stores across the country and further weighed down a sinking economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. layoffs soared in March to a record 11.4 million after state and local governments closed restaurants, bars, movie theaters and other nonessential businesses in response to the intensifying viral outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed Congress' biggest coronavirus relief bill yet toward expected House passage Friday, a $3 trillion behemoth they said a beleaguered country badly needs but Republicans called a bloated election-year wish list.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American industry suffered the most severe plunge on record last month with factories, mines and utilities battered by the coronavirus pandemic.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Trying to silence criticism over the coronavirus pandemic, China is deploying a well-used weapon — trade sanctions.
BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. government imposed new restrictions on Chinese tech giant Huawei on Friday, limiting its ability to use American technology to design and manufacture semiconductors produced for it abroad.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Talks between the European Union and the United Kingdom on their post-Brexit relationship ground to a near-standstill Friday, with each side accusing the other of blocking progress on a trade deal just weeks before a crucial summit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi lashed out Thursday at Trump administration officials and congressional Republicans seeking to slow work on a fresh round of coronavirus relief. The White House responded minutes later with a threat that President Donald Trump would veto the $3 trillion economic package Democrats have proposed.
BERLIN (AP) — The German economy shrank by 2.2% in the first quarter compared with the previous three-month period as shutdowns in the country and beyond started to bite, official data showed Friday. That means Europe's biggest economy went into recession following a small dip at the end of last year.
BEIJING (AP) — Factory output rose in April as China's virus-battered economy reopened but job losses depressed consumer spending, a key driver of growth, challenging the ruling Communist Party's push to revive normal activity.
MIAMI (AP) — Carnival Corp., the world's largest cruise company, announced on Thursday it will be laying off hundreds of employees due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Space Force — the newest branch of the armed services — now has its own flag.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the sound of truck horns honking just south of the White House is a "sign of love" for him from truckers. But the truckers are actually protesting over low shipping rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Neither Civil War nor Great Depression or any other national crisis has convinced the House to allow lawmakers to vote by proxy — without being "present" as the Constitution requires. That's about to change during the coronavirus pandemic.
THURSDAY, MAY 14
SPORTS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — It will be a summer in the South for NASCAR: The stock car series announced Thursday it will stick to Tennessee, Georgia, Virginia, Florida and Alabama for June races — all of them without fans.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has promoted a senior adviser to become the state's next chief operating officer.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with fashion brand Lucky in a dispute with a Miami-based apparel manufacturer that owns the "Get Lucky" trademark.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite White House claims, the U.S. still lacks a comprehensive battle plan against the coronavirus in critical areas including masks, testing, treatments and vaccines, whistleblower Rick Bright warned Thursday in testimony before a House committee. "Our window of opportunity is closing," he declared.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. health officials on Thursday released some of their long-delayed guidance that schools, businesses and other organizations can use as states reopen from coronavirus shutdowns.
LONDON (AP) — The European Medicines Agency predicted that there could be licensed drugs to treat the new coronavirus in the next few months and that a vaccine might even be approved in early 2021, in a "best-case scenario."
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former chemical industry executive nominated to be the nation's top consumer safety watchdog was involved in sidelining detailed guidelines to help communities reopen during the coronavirus pandemic, internal government emails show.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump called on governors across the nation to work to reopen schools that were closed because of the coronavirus, pointedly taking issue with Dr. Anthony Fauci's caution against moving too quickly in sending students back to class.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street rallied back from a sharp morning drop on Thursday, led by a resurgence for some of the year's most beaten-down stocks.
Almost 75% of small businesses in a survey applied for help from a federal loan program designed to keep workers employed during the coronavirus pandemic, but only 38% of small businesses received any money, according to survey results the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Thursday branded House Democrats' $3 trillion economic relief bill a "totally unserious effort" to address the coronavirus pandemic, underscoring the deep election-year gulch over what Congress' next response to the crisis should be.
The Trump administration eased rules Thursday that limit working hours for truck drivers, and the changes brought immediate protests from labor and safety groups.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The lure of snapping up stocks at bargain prices has been too strong to pass up for many people, even as uncertainty over the coronavirus pandemic clouds the market and global economic outlook.
NEW YORK (AP) — Who remembers their last meal at a sit-down restaurant? Better yet: who knows when their next one will be?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Businesses are going belly up, tens of millions have been laid off and, by some measures, the U.S. seems headed for another Great Depression. But Republicans surveying the wreckage aren't ready for another round of coronavirus aid, instead urging a "pause."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 3 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week as the viral outbreak forced more companies to slash jobs even though most states have begun to let some businesses reopen.
GENEVA (AP) — The head of the World Trade Organization said Thursday he will leave his post a year before his term expires, an unprecedented mid-term resignation at the WTO that he called a "personal decision."
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Thursday related to national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
LONDON (AP) — The pandemic will cost the insurance industry over $200 billion, according to Lloyds of London, who estimated that its own payouts are now on a par with the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks or the combined impact of hurricanes Harvey, Maria and Irma in 2017.
When her Las Vegas hotel shut down and returned her money, and both Nevada and her home state of Ohio issued stay-home orders, Helen Moon canceled the flight that she and her husband had booked on Frontier Airlines and asked for a cash refund.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Lindsey Graham said Thursday his committee is opening a wide-ranging investigation into the origins of the Russia investigation, but rejected President Donald Trump's call to bring in former President Barack Obama to testify.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Richard Burr temporarily stepped aside as chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday after the FBI served a search warrant for his cellphone as part of an investigation into a well-timed sale of stocks tied to the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says the coronavirus pandemic highlights the importance of U.S. manufacturing and moving supply chains out of China, as he blamed that country anew for not doing enough to slow the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Republicans are launching a broad election-year attack on the foundation of the Russia investigation, including declassifying intelligence information to try to place senior Obama administration officials under scrutiny for routine actions.