VOL. 45 | NO. 22 | Friday, May 28, 2021
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, April 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
NEWSMAKERS
Nashville law firm Sherrard Roe Voigt & Harbison has launched a new health care services group focused on dentists, optometrists and veterinarians.
BRIEFS
Fisk University has received its single-largest gift since the school’s inception in 1866, the donation coming from a Nashville family.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The pandemic appears to be receding in the U.S. and the economy recovering, yet car shoppers heading back to car dealerships are in for a surprise: There are fewer vehicles to choose from and those that are available are more expensive.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Nothing can hold you back. You’ve been through the storm and survived, and it’s made you stronger. Now you’ve seen the future, and that’s yours, too.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Long pandemic lockdowns forced many older adults to become comfortable with video calls to stay connected with family. That in turn means that long-distance caregivers have a better way to see how their loved ones are faring.
CAREER CORNER
Some people say it takes 21 days to change a habit. For those working from home, the habit is now fully set. It’s been more than 365 days since we first packed up our offices and began to work from the dining room table of our homes.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Last Memorial Day, Americans were dizzy from the pandemic, recession and widespread shutdowns. Many had shopping for hand sanitizer and toilet paper on the brain.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville police could have done a better job of following up on a 2019 tip about bomb-making activity by the man who later detonated an explosive in downtown Nashville on Christmas Day, a report released Wednesday concludes.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have promoted three scouts with Mical Johnson the franchise's first woman working full time in the scouting department.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has let legislation expanding school district training program options for current teachers become law without his signature, saying it's only due to cost discrepancies.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday will listen to arguments over whether to uphold a 48-hour waiting period for women seeking abortions in Tennessee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — German carmaker Volkswagen launched a five-year project Wednesday on the small Greek Aegean island of Astypalea to test the adoption of electric vehicles in areas switching to sustainable energy generation.
TECHNOLOGY
HONG KONG (AP) — Huawei is launching its own HarmonyOS mobile operating system on its handsets as it adapts to losing access to Google mobile services two years ago after the U.S. put the Chinese telecommunications company on a trade blacklist.
ENVIRONMENT
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — A next-generation, small nuclear plant will be built at a soon-to-be retired coal-fired power plant in Wyoming in the next several years, business and government officials said Wednesday.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — Ally Financial is ending overdraft fees entirely on all of its bank products, the company said Wednesday, being the first large bank to end overdraft fees across its entire business.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is announcing a "month of action" Wednesday to urge more Americans to get vaccinated for COVID-19 before the July 4 holiday, with an early summer sprint of incentives, including free beer, childcare and sports tickets to convince Americans to roll up their sleeves.
TOKYO (AP) — Will the postponed Tokyo Olympics open despite rising opposition and the pandemic?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks managed to end with modest gains on Wall Street after a day of wavering back and forth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a somewhat faster pace in April and May despite disruptions that choked supplies to the nations manufacturers, the Federal Reserve reported Wednesday.
After its movie theaters were shut and its stock was nearly left for dead because of the pandemic, AMC Entertainment is embracing the horde of fanatical investors who helped shock its shares back to life as part of this year's "meme stock" buying spree.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union countries will continue to benefit from an economic safety net through next year to help their economies recover from the damage inflicted by coronavirus restrictions, the EU's executive branch said Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Wednesday that it will hold its annual Prime Day over two days in June this year, the earliest it has ever held the sales event.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon said Tuesday that it will stop testing jobseekers for marijuana.
BEIJING (AP) — China's chief economic envoy and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen held their first meeting by video Wednesday, but the two sides gave no indication when negotiations on ending their tariff war might resume.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's finance minister on Wednesday welcomed an agreement requiring large companies in the European Union to reveal how much tax they paid in which country.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — At the luxurious Armani hotel inside the world's tallest skyscraper in Dubai, Israelis in kippas and Emiratis in long white robes and kanduras gathered Wednesday to discuss investment opportunities. They aimed to make the most of deepening ties nine months after the two countries agreed to formalize relations.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The world's largest meat processing company is getting back online after production around the world was disrupted by a cyberattack just weeks after a similar incident shut down a U.S. oil pipeline.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
A federal election watchdog fined the publisher of the National Enquirer $187,500 for squelching the story of a former Playboy model who claimed she'd had an affair with former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden used the 100th anniversary of Tulsa's race massacre to make a plea for sweeping legislation in Congress to protect the right to vote as Republican-led governments in Texas and other states pass new restrictions making it tougher to cast ballots.
MOSCOW (AP) — The Russian parliament's upper house voted Wednesday to withdraw from an international treaty allowing surveillance flights over military facilities following the U.S. exit from the treaty.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deadline looming, President Joe Biden is meeting Wednesday with the top Senate Republican negotiator on infrastructure as the administration signals time is running out to strike a bipartisan deal on the White House's big investment proposal and top legislative priority.
TUESDAY, JUNE 1
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Workers arrived at a Tennessee park Tuesday to begin the process of digging up the remains of Confederate Gen. Nathan Bedford Forrest and moving the former slave trader's body from its longtime resting place in Memphis to a museum hundreds of miles away.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Agriculture is warning residents that the state may have received boxwood plants infested with the box tree moth during the past year.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that tribal police officers can stop and search non-Indians on tribal lands for potential violations of state or federal law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using Johnson & Johnson talc products.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Two men accused of spying for China went on trial Tuesday in the Polish capital of Warsaw: a Chinese citizen who is a former sales director of Huawei in Poland and a Polish cybersecurity expert.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending rose a modest 0.2% in April as strength in housing offset further weakness in nonresidential construction.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Virtual reality — computer generated 3D environments that can range from startlingly realistic to abstract wonderlands — has been on the cusp of wide acceptance for years without ever really taking off.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
CAMBRIDGE, Mass. (AP) - American pharmaceutical company Moderna says it has begun the process to win full U.S. regulatory approval for the use of its COVID-19 vaccine in adults.
TOKYO (AP) — It may be too little, too late. That's the realization sinking in as Japan scrambles to catch up on a frustratingly slow vaccination drive less than two months before the Summer Olympics, delayed by a year because of the coronavirus pandemic, are scheduled to start.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major indexes struggled to a mixed finish on Wall Street after giving up an early gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is suspending oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge as it review environmental impacts of drilling in the remote region that has been the focus of a political fight for decades, according to two people who have been briefed on the administration's plan.
PARIS (AP) — The new head of the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development said Tuesday that he is "quietly optimistic" about reaching an international deal on taxing multinational companies, and he called U.S. President Biden's recent proposal a "game changer."
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Growth in U.S. manufacturing picked up in May, even as supply chain problems persist and businesses continue to struggle to find workers.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The OPEC oil cartel and allied producing countries have confirmed plans to restore 2.1 million barrels of crude per day of oil output, balancing fears that continuing COVID-19 outbreaks in some countries will sap demand against the rising need for energy in recovering economies around the globe.
The movie theater chain AMC is raising $230.5 million through an 8.5 million share sale, cashing in on the meme stock frenzy that has sent its stock price up more than 1,100% this year.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Eurozone inflation rose to 2.0% in May, driven higher by rising oil prices as other inflationary pressures appeared to remain subdued.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A ransomware attack on the world's largest meat company is disrupting production around the world just weeks after a similar incident shut down a U.S. oil pipeline.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to meet Wednesday with West Virginia Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, the top Republican negotiator on infrastructure as the administration signals time is running out to strike a bipartisan deal on the White House's big investment proposal and top legislative priority.
TULSA, Okla. (AP) — President Joe Biden led a remembrance Tuesday of one of the nation's darkest — and long suppressed — moments of racial violence, marking the 100th anniversary of the destruction of a thriving Black community in Tulsa.
MONDAY, MAY 31
SPORTS
Arkansas top seed in NCAA Tournament after dominant SEC run
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference matched its record with seven teams — including Vanderbilt and Tennessee — among 16 regional hosts announced Sunday for the NCAA baseball tournament.
UT SPORTS
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — The Arkansas Razorbacks polished off their dominant run through the Southeastern Conference regular season and tournament. Now, they can turn their attention to even bigger prizes.
MIDSTATE
SMYRNA (AP) — Investigators on Sunday continued searching for the bodies of seven people believed killed in the crash a day earlier of a small jet into a Tennessee lake, including an actor who portrayed Tarzan in a 1990s television series.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The owner of a Tennessee hat shop is dealing with pushback after posting a photo of herself to social media wearing a yellow patch resembling the Star of David with the words "not vaccinated."
REAL ESTATE
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California state lawmakers are grappling with a particularly 21st-century problem: What to do with the growing number of shopping malls and big box retail stores left empty by consumers shifting their purchases to the web.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnson & Johnson is asking for Supreme Court review of a $2 billion verdict in favor of women who claim they developed ovarian cancer from using the company's talc products.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Officials from around the globe begin three weeks of grueling climate talks Monday that will involve grappling with a number of thorny political issues without the benefit of face-to-face meetings, due to pandemic restrictions.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — In April, the Biden administration announced plans to share millions of COVID-19 vaccine doses with the world by the end of June. Five weeks later, nations around the globe are still waiting — with growing impatience — to learn where the vaccines will go and how they will be distributed.
LONDON (AP) — British health authorities were aiming to vaccinate 15,000 people at London's Twickenham rugby stadium on Monday as part of a race to contain a fast-spreading coronavirus variant.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The global economic rebound from the pandemic has picked up speed but remains uneven across countries and faces multiple headwinds. Most worrisome: the lack of vaccines in poorer nations, which could lead to new virus variants and more stop-and-go lockdowns.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's economy, pummeled by the coronavirus pandemic, contracted by 7.3% in the 2020-21 financial year, just before the country was hit by another catastrophic surge in infections.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said Sunday time is running short for a bipartisan deal on infrastructure, indicating that President Joe Biden will look to act without Republican support if there is no consensus when Congress returns from its Memorial Day break.
FRIDAY, MAY 28
UT SPORTS
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Luc Lipcius and Evan Russell both hit two-run homers and Tennessee rolled to an 11-0 victory over Alabama Friday in an elimination game of the Southeastern Conference Tournament.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators believe they're back to playing the way that makes them NHL title contenders despite another early postseason exit.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Carolina Hurricanes finally figured out how to beat the Nashville Predators in overtime: Score quickly.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Tyler Myers pitched seven-plus innings to outduel Vanderbilt star Jack Leiter Friday in Mississippi's 4-1 victory over the Commodores in a Southeastern Conference Tournament elimination game.
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Matt Goodheart drove in three runs and Kevin Kopps pitched three perfect innings in relief to help Arkansas advance to the SEC Tournament semifinals with a 6-4 win over Vanderbilt on Thursday night.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — No Ryan Tannehill, Derrick Henry or A.J. Brown on offense nor safety Kevin Byard from the defense.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville health officials say they will no longer publish daily COVID-19 reports.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawsuits filed by protesters who were forcefully removed from a park near the White House before a photo op by former President Donald Trump should be dismissed because the new administration is not likely to repeat the events of last June, lawyers argued Friday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Fiat Chrysler said Friday that it is recalling more than a half-million heavy-duty Ram trucks to fix a problem that can cause the wheels to fall off.
DETROIT (AP) — Two key groups that offer automobile safety ratings are yanking their top endorsements from some Tesla vehicles because the company has stopped using radar on its safety systems.
TRANSPORTATION
Americans hit the road in near-record numbers at the start of the Memorial Day weekend, as their eagerness to break free from coronavirus confinement overcame higher prices for flights, gasoline and hotels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas says people traveling for Memorial Day weekend should be patient because there will be long lines at U.S. airports.
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines has banned a woman accused of punching a flight attendant in the face last weekend in an incident that highlighted a recent increase in unruly passengers.
TECHNOLOGY
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) — The inaugural harvest of genetically modified salmon began this week after the pandemic delayed the sale of the first such altered animal to be cleared for human consumption in the United States, company officials said.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TOKYO (AP) — The president of the Tokyo Olympic organizing committee hinted Friday that even local fans may be barred from venues when the games open in just under two months.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — California is giving away the country's largest pot of vaccine prize money — $116.5 million — in an attempt to get millions more inoculated before the most populous state fully reopens next month.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks capped a listless day of trading on Wall Street with modest gains Friday and the S&P 500's first weekly gain in three weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their spending by 0.5% in April, a slowdown after a massive gain in March that had been powered by the distribution of billions of dollars in individual stimulus checks.
NEW YORK (AP) — As COVID-19 ravaged the world last year, CEOs' big pay packages seemed to be under as much threat as everything else.
Most of the women running the biggest U.S. companies saw their pay increase last year, even as the pandemic hammered the economy and many of their businesses.
Here are the highest paid male and female CEOs in the S&P 500 index for 2020, as calculated by The Associated Press and Equilar, an executive data firm.
BOSTON (AP) — The state-backed Russian cyber spies behind the SolarWinds hacking campaign launched a targeted spear-phishing assault on U.S. and foreign government agencies and think tanks this week using an email marketing account of the U.S. Agency for International Development, Microsoft said.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is setting a June vote on an elections overhaul bill, a Democratic priority that confronts restrictive new voting laws emerging after Donald Trump's defeat and puts pressure on lawmakers to change Senate rules to overcome Republican opposition.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sweeping Senate bill aimed at making the United States more competitive with China and shoring up domestic computer chip manufacturing with $50 billion in emergency funds was abruptly shelved Friday after a handful of Republican senators orchestrated a last-minute attempt to halt it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Friday blocked creation of a bipartisan panel to study the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol in a show of party loyalty to former President Donald Trump, aiming to shift the political focus away from the violent insurrection by his GOP supporters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Minority Republicans used a Senate filibuster Friday to block a Democratic bill that would have launched a bipartisan probe of the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol. It was the first time under President Joe Biden that the GOP used the tactic to derail major legislation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is warning naysayers in Congress not to "get in the way" of his big infrastructure plans as the White House panned a counteroffer from Republican senators to tap unused COVID-19 relief for a more modest investment in roads, highways and other traditional public works projects.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's $6 trillion budget proposal for next year would run a $1.8 trillion federal government deficit despite a raft of new tax increases on corporations and high-income people designed to pay for his ambitious spending plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm has sold her ownership interest in an electric bus maker that President Joe Biden touted during a "virtual visit" last month.
THURSDAY, MAY 27
UT SPORTS
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Max Ferguson and Pete Derkay each collected three RBIs and No. 2 seed Tennessee beat third-seeded Mississippi State 12-2 in eight innings on Thursday for its first victory in the SEC Tournament since 2007.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — Dominic Keegan hit a slider down and away to score Enrique Bradfield Jr. in the bottom of the ninth inning and No. 4-seed Vanderbilt rallied to beat fifth-seeded Mississippi 5-4 on Wednesday night.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The sponsor of Tennessee's new law requiring businesses and government facilities to post signs if they let transgender people use the bathrooms of their choice now says owners and officials who refuse could face up to six months in jail — a penalty that went unmentioned during legislative hearings and debate.
STATEWIDE
MARYVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee woman accused of driving through a COVID-19 vaccine distribution tent as a form of protest has been charged with seven counts of felony reckless endangerment, according to a police report.
REGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Four environmental organizations on Wednesday asked the Tennessee Valley Authority's internal watchdog to investigate whether the nation's largest public utility misused ratepayer money for lobbying and litigation that fought federal environmental regulations.
TOURISM
NEW YORK (AP) — Memorial Day weekend gasoline prices are at their highest levels in seven years, but experts don't expect the steep prices at the pumps to keep eager motorists off the road.
After a year of coronavirus lockdowns, the start of summer beckons with vacation plans made possible by relaxed COVID-19 restrictions. But a severe worker shortage brings a warning for travelers: Expect delays and pack a little patience.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The red-hot U.S. housing market is widening the gap between what a home is objectively worth and what eager buyers are willing to pay for it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates declined this week, pushing the benchmark 30-year home loan back down below the 3% mark. Signs continued of the economy's recovery from the pandemic recession.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in April as a lack of supply continues to foil would-be buyers.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. pipeline operators will be required for the first time to conduct a cybersecurity assessment under a Biden administration directive in response to the ransomware hack that disrupted gas supplies in several states this month.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the latest reversal of a Trump-era policy, the Environmental Protection Agency is restoring a rule that grants states and Native American tribes authority to block pipelines and other energy projects that can pollute rivers, streams and other waterways.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TOKYO (AP) — A physician representing a Japanese medical body warned Thursday that holding the postponed Tokyo Olympics in two months could lead to the spread of variants of the coronavirus.
Can employers make COVID-19 vaccination mandatory?
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ordered U.S. intelligence officials to "redouble" their efforts to investigate the origins of the COVID-19 pandemic, including any possibility the trail might lead to a Chinese laboratory.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen says that the economic recovery is going to be "bumpy" with high inflation readings likely to last through the end of this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chief executives of the nation's largest banks went in front of Congress for a second day Thursday, facing questions ranging from bitcoin to their efforts to keep Americans in their homes after government aid to pandemic-hit mortgage holders expires this summer.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are going back to one of their favorite pastimes: store shopping.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a robust annual rate of 6.4% in the first three months of this year, unchanged from the government's initial estimate. The recovery from last year's deep recession gained steam at the beginning of this year, helped by vaccines to combat the virus and trillions of dollars in government assistance.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped last week to 406,000, a new pandemic low and more evidence that the job market is strengthening as the virus wanes and economy further reopens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. orders for big-ticket manufactured goods dropped unexpectedly in April for the first time in 11 months as a shortage of computer chips disrupted auto production.
NEW YORK (AP) — Through the first year of the pandemic, the country's independent booksellers have — so far — avoided disaster.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Thursday will announce commitments from a dozen companies and organizations to invest in Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador as part of the Biden administration's efforts to address the root causes of migration from the region.
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. and Chinese trade envoys talked by phone Thursday for the first time since President Joe Biden took office, but the two sides gave no sign when negotiations on ending their tariff war might restart.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's $6 trillion budget proposal for next year would run a $1.8 trillion federal government deficit despite a raft of new tax increases on corporations and high-income people designed to pay for his ambitious spending plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is giving serious consideration to nominating Caroline Kennedy, the daughter of President John F. Kennedy who served as ambassador to Japan during the Obama administration, to serve in a high-profile ambassadorial role, according to a person familiar with the deliberations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration informed Russia on Thursday that it will not rejoin a key arms control pact, even as the two sides prepare for a summit next month between their leaders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Christine Wormuth was confirmed unanimously by the Senate on Thursday to be the first female secretary of the Army.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican senators outlined a $928 billion infrastructure proposal Thursday that would tap unused coronavirus aid, a counteroffer to President Joe Biden's more sweeping plan as the two sides struggle to negotiate a bipartisan compromise and remain far apart on how to pay for the massive spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are ready to deploy the filibuster to block a commission on the Jan. 6 insurrection, shattering chances for a bipartisan probe of the deadly assault on the U.S. Capitol and reviving pressure to do away with the procedural tactic that critics say has lost its purpose.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional bargainers should reach a bipartisan deal on revamping policing procedures by early summer or abandon the effort, Republicans said Wednesday, a day after George Floyd's family used visits to the White House and the Capitol to prod lawmakers to act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to announce he is nominating former senior State Department official Nicholas Burns to serve as his ambassador to China and Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti to be his ambassador to India, according to a person familiar with the matter.