VOL. 41 | NO. 20 | Friday, May 19, 2017
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
If you ask Gov. Bill Haslam, Republican government is the best thing since sliced bread.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
There are reports of apartment dwellers receiving notices from management offering a free month’s rent for referrals.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, April 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates inched lower this week. It was the fifth straight week that the benchmark 30-year rate hovered around the key threshold of 4 percent.
PREDATORS
It was a full decade ago that Nashville Predators center Mike Fisher made his first trip to the NHL’s Conference Finals. Fisher was just 26 then, emerging as one of the league’s better two-way forwards as he helped guide the Ottawa Senators to a surprising berth among the NHL’s final four teams that year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators, the final team into the NHL playoffs, are headed to the first Stanley Cup Final in franchise history.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
In a recent article at CBSSports.com, Nick Saban was ranked the top coach in the so-called Power Five conferences.
NEWSMAKERS
The Tennessee Medical Association has honored three Nashvillians – Barrett “Buddy” F. Rosen, MD, with one of three 2017 Outstanding Physician Awards, Adele Lewis, MD, as one of three Distinguished Service Awards, and Regina Mullins with its Community Service Award, at the annual meeting of the TMA’s House of Delegates.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Toyota’s Sienna van adds a more powerful and more fuel-efficient engine for 2017 and now ranks at the top in gas mileage ratings with competing family vans.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Negotiations occur several times throughout the day. They may not be as major as buying a new car or asking for a raise, but they happen almost every time you interact with another person.
CAREER CORNER
Sometimes, getting a job is dependent more on what you ask than what you answer. We spend so much time preparing for how we will answer the hiring manager’s questions but very little time thinking about what we want to know.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The U.S. Senate has voted to name Nashville's new federal courthouse after former Sen. Fred Thompson, the late actor who appeared in at least 20 movies and in the TV series "Law & Order."
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new report from Mayor Megan Barry's office says Nashville's shortage of affordable housing units is projected to rise to nearly 31,000 in 2025 if nothing is done to create new options for low-income residents.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week to their lowest levels of the year. The benchmark 30-year rate dipped below the key 4 percent mark.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The health care bill Republicans recently pushed through the House would leave 23 million more Americans without insurance and confront others who have costly medical conditions with coverage that could prove unaffordable, Congress' official budget analysts said Wednesday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii is suing auto manufacturers Ford, Nissan and Toyota over air bags that can spew shrapnel when they deploy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are climbing for the sixth day in a row Thursday as strong quarterly results from retailers including Best Buy, Williams-Sonoma and PVH give consumer-focused companies a lift. The Standard & Poor's 500 index and Nasdaq composite are trading at all-time highs. Stocks are stretching for their longest winning streak in three months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears' extended decline in sales continued during the first quarter and the storied retailer vowed additional spending cuts to offset its slowing business.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly more people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, but jobless claims remained at historically low levels.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's proposal to sell nearly half the U.S. emergency oil stockpile is sparking renewed debate about whether the Strategic Petroleum Reserve is still needed amid an ongoing oil production boom that has seen U.S. imports drop sharply in the past decade.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Nathan Singletary is beyond the traditional retirement age, but he's only just beginning a new career — helping other low-income, unemployed Americans over age 55 find jobs.
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24
STATEWIDE
Tennessee has joined 46 other states and the District of Columbia in an $18.5 million settlement with Target Corporation to resolve the states' investigation into the retail company's 2013 data breach, Attorney General Herbert H. Slatery III announced today.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee general fund tax collections have exceeded expectations by $159 million in April.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new report shows that suicides in Tennessee are increasing with middle-aged people being most at risk.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Musical performances, a memorabilia auction and a candlelight vigil are among events scheduled during Elvis Week, the annual celebration of the life and career of rock 'n' roll icon Elvis Presley.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee quarterback Marcus Mariota has progressed through his rehabilitation from only taking snaps from his center, to dropping back and then moving on to handing the ball off.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is expanding its fundraising tools that let users ask friends and strangers to give them money to help pay for education, medical or other expenses.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The health care bill Republicans have pushed through the House would leave 23 million additional people uninsured in 2026 compared to President Barack Obama's health care law, the Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday. The GOP bill would lower average premiums, but in part that would be because coverage would typically be skimpier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Candidate Donald Trump promised better and more affordable health care, but as president his first full budget calls for deep cuts to popular insurance programs. And it omits any proposal for negotiating prescription drug prices, a frequent Trump talking point.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SANTA ANA, Calif. (AP) — A jury has awarded nearly $256.5 million to a California auto dealership owner who claimed Nissan had a secret plan to put him out of business during the recession.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans pulled back their pace of home-buying in April, as the shrinking number of houses for sale and rising prices are putting them in a bind as their options dwindle.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose for the fifth consecutive day Wednesday as investors went on a late buying spree. The gains came after news that the Federal Reserve plans to start reducing its huge portfolio of bonds. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed at a record high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials signaled in discussions earlier this month that they would likely begin reducing the Fed's huge portfolio of bond holdings later this year, a step that could cause borrowing rates to rise.
NEW YORK (AP) — Women CEOs earned big bucks last year, but there's still very few of them running the world's largest companies.
These are the 10 highest-paid women CEOs for 2016, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
VIENNA (AP) — The OPEC oil cartel and other producers, notably Russia, are this week expected to extend last year's production cut in a concerted attempt to prevent oil prices from falling.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's budget chief delivered a spirited defense of the plan's deep spending cuts, but his agriculture secretary offered only a half-hearted endorsement of proposed reductions to farm subsidies and food stamps.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A senior Education Department official in charge of managing federal student aid has resigned ahead of a House hearing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's proposal to slash food stamps by a third will be a hard sell in Congress, even as Republicans have tried repeatedly to scale back the program's $70 billion annual cost.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's first budget proposal, snubbed by some Republican allies, is just the latest example of an administration that seems at times clueless or indifferent toward Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump budget director Mick Mulvaney, defending an administration that promises more economic growth than many think it can deliver, said Tuesday it's the Obama administration that went overboard in its forecasts for growth. His indictment glosses over significant differences in the economy now and then.
TUESDAY, MAY 23
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The William A. McMurry House in Springfield is one of eight sites in Tennessee added to the National Register of Historic Places.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University Medical Center officials are warning that doctors are already treating numerous people injured in accidents involving all-terrain vehicles and it's not even the peak trauma season of summer yet.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of new homes last month registered the biggest drop in more than two years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose for the fourth day in a row Tuesday as they continued to recover the ground they lost last week. Major indexes approached record highs again.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is allowing to go forward an Obama-era rule that puts stricter requirements on professionals who advise retirement savers on their investments. But it's leaving open the possibility that deep changes to the rule will still be made.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google already monitors your online shopping — but now it's also keeping an eye on what you're buying in real-world stores as part of its latest effort to sell more digital advertising.
NEW YORK (AP) — The typical CEO at the biggest U.S. companies got an 8.5 percent raise last year, raking in $11.5 million in salary, stock and other compensation last year, according to a study by executive data firm Equilar for The Associated Press. That's the biggest raise in three years.
Pay checks have remained healthy for executives in the health care industry. A year after earning the highest compensation of any industry, health care remained close to the top in 2016. The typical CEO in the industry made $12.9 million, just a touch below their counterparts in industrial goods. A look at the top and bottom-paid CEOs last year, by industry, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
Here are the three CEOs who got the biggest pay raises last year, and the deepest pay cuts, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
Here are the 10 highest-paid CEOs for 2016, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan told Congress Tuesday he personally warned Russia last summer against interfering in the U.S. presidential election and was so concerned about Russian contacts with people involved in the Trump campaign that he convened top counterintelligence officials to focus on it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's first budget proposal got an icy reception on Capitol Hill Tuesday, and that was just from the Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday sent Congress a $4.1 trillion spending plan that relies on faster economic growth and steep cuts to programs for the poor in a bid to balance the government's books over the next decade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The poor and the disabled are big losers in President Donald Trump's $4.1 trillion budget proposal while the Pentagon is a big winner.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Education organizations are lashing out at President Donald Trump's budget proposal to eliminate subsidized student loans and loan forgiveness programs.
JERUSALEM (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday pushed for elusive peace between Israel and the Palestinians, calling on both sides to put aside the "pain and disagreements of the past."
MONDAY, MAY 22
PREDATORS
NASVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — The Nashville Predators don't have their top center, and their captain is day to day with an upper-body injury.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has signed a bill creating a new Tennessee license plate design featuring the phrase "In God We Trust."
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Uncertainty over the future of health care for millions grew deeper Monday as insurers released a blueprint for stabilizing wobbly markets and the Trump administration left in limbo billions of dollars in federal payments.
REAL ESTATE
COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — People who sell or manage property in South Carolina will have to pass a background check to renew their license under a new law prompted by November's arrest of a real estate agent accused of killing seven people.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is making it easier for companies to defend themselves against patent infringement lawsuits.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is replacing CEO Mark Fields amid questions about its current performance and future strategy, according to a person familiar with the situation.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — A classic Corvette bought 50 years ago by an injured Vietnam veteran who returned from the war with a pair of Purple Hearts has been sold for $675,000.
TECHNOLOGY
BEIJING (AP) — China's biggest online retailer, JD.com Inc., announced plans Monday to develop drone aircraft capable of carrying a ton or more for long-distance deliveries.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Strong gains for technology companies like software and chip makers helped lead U.S. stocks higher Monday. Defense contractors also climbed as the market continued to bounce back from a bout of turbulence last week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Shares of the three major U.S. defense contractors are hitting all-time highs in the first day of trading after President Donald Trump bestowed Saudi Arabia with a $110 billion arms deal.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Saudi Arabia's energy minister said Monday that he doesn't expect any objections to a nine-month extension to the existing production cut deal between OPEC and non-OPEC members — an agreement that would extend the deal through March 2018.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — The European Union urged member states Monday to take advantage of the bloc's recovering economy to strengthen their public finances and push through reforms that tackle social inequality.
NEWPORT, R.I. (AP) — Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg says his quest this year to visit every state he hadn't before is about building relationships, not politics.
UNIONDALE, N.Y. (AP) — With laughter, hugs and tears — and the requisite death-defying stunts — the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Circus received its final standing ovation Sunday night as it performed its last show.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is proposing to balance the federal budget within a decade by making sharp cuts to social safety-net programs like food stamps and Medicaid and offering optimistic estimates of economic growth and tax revenues to fulfill the promise of a government back in the black.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump may have a tough time carrying out plans to kill a popular program that has helped build fire stations, provided meals to needy children and more. Plenty of lawmakers — including some key Republicans — enthusiastically support the Community Development Block Grant program.
FRIDAY, MAY 19
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Corey Perry just keeps finding the net in overtime this postseason, and his third goal in extra time helped the Ducks tie the Western Conference finals at 2-2.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University is receiving almost a $500,000 federal grant to expand its goat meat research.
NASHVILLE (AP) — An internal report on Nashville State Community College has found that professors feel they work in a climate of fear and hostility, engendered by top administrators.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LIVONIA, Mich. (AP) — Ford is pumping $350 million into a plant outside of Detroit where a new transmission for fuel-efficient vehicles will be built.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is backing a push for pollution-free vehicles that run on hydrogen and planning to build more hydrogen fueling stations so that fuel-cell vehicles on roads will grow to 40,000 by 2020, from the current handful.
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd became the country's first customer to drive Volkswagen's new Atlas SUV off a dealer lot Thursday.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal agency has voted to kick off the repeal of "net neutrality" rules designed to keep broadband providers like AT&T, Verizon and Comcast from interfering with the internet.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Industrial companies led U.S. stocks broadly higher, extending the market's modest gains from the day before.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Communications Workers of America union says that up to 40,000 AT&T workers have started walking off the job over contract fights with the phone company. They'll return to work Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration plans to announce $110 billion in advanced military equipment sales and training to Saudi Arabia this weekend as President Donald Trump visits the country, officials said Friday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Many men and women think men are the better investors. They're wrong.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin says a goal of 3 percent economic growth is achievable if the United States makes historic changes in taxes and regulation.
MERIDIAN, Miss. (AP) — Call them the unrecovered — a handful of states where job markets, nine years later, are still struggling back to where they were before the recession.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sizable majority of rural Americans backed Donald Trump's presidential bid, drawn to his calls to slash environmental rules, strengthen law enforcement and replace the federal health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump persists in suggesting that his 2016 campaign has been exonerated on the question of whether it colluded with Russians, even as a powerful investigation forms to look into that matter and multiple other inquiries press on.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Paul Ryan insisted on Thursday that Congress will overhaul the U.S. tax system this year despite the chaos consuming Washington and the political divisions in Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Business leaders began an aggressive lobbying effort Thursday to ensure that their vision for overhauling the U.S. tax system isn't lost in the chaos consuming President Donald Trump's administration.
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — In the weeks leading up to Montana's special congressional election, Democrat Rob Quist and his surrogates fanned out across college campuses throughout the state, hoping to tap into a trove of progressive votes in a place where conservative values are as sturdy as the nearby Rocky Mountains.
NEW YORK (AP) — Roger Ailes, the communications maestro who transformed television news and America's political conversation by creating and ruling Fox News Channel for two decades before being ousted last year for alleged sexual harassment, died Thursday, according to his wife, Elizabeth Ailes. He was 77.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at the appointment of a special counsel to investigate allegations that his campaign collaborated with Russia to sway the 2016 election, tweeting Thursday that it is "the single greatest witch hunt of a politician in American history!"