VOL. 44 | NO. 22 | Friday, May 29, 2020
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, April 2020, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week as the key 30-year home loan marked an all-time low for the third time in the last few months since the coronavirus outbreak took hold.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
We’ve been awaiting the seasonal visitors, eager for reminders that some order still exists in this otherwise disorderly world. The first arrived the other evening, May 16, at 7:22 p.m. CDT, to be specific:
NEWSMAKERS
Patrick T. McNally has been named the recipient of the Nashville Bar Association’s 2020 Jack Norman, Sr. Award, given annually to criminal law practitioners – including specifically defense attorneys, prosecuting attorneys and judges of courts with criminal jurisdiction – who practice before or serve as judges of courts exercising criminal jurisdiction located in the Metropolitan Nashville area.
BRIEFS
Nashville-based Integrity Solutions has been named a Top 20 sales training firm by Training Industry, a resource for business training.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
There is usually a refresh or “midcycle update” during every new vehicle’s life span between full redesigns.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Every schedule, every plan you made in February was shot.
PERSONAL FINANCE
If you have money questions – and who among us doesn’t right now? – there are plenty of people willing to offer advice, including friends, relatives and random strangers on the internet.
CAREER CORNER
We can all agree this pandemic has been horrific. Regardless of how much or how little you were impacted, you were impacted.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
“I feel like such an idiot.” It’s something I’ve said more than once as I crumble in the face of a money mistake.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country stars highlighted the heroic work of citizens and communities around the country who were coming together to help each other in the middle of the coronavirus epidemic during the "CMT Celebrates Our Heroes" TV special.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Police have arrested a third person after a historic courthouse in Tennessee was vandalized during a weekend protest that turned violent.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge on Wednesday said the state's guidance about who can vote by mail due to the coronavirus is "very ambiguous," and she cited "weighty proof" that other states have expanded to let all voters cast absentee ballots this year — something Tennessee officials say is not feasible.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the time of the year when Supreme Court justices can get testy. They might have to find a new way to show it.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — For weeks, President Donald Trump has been eager to publicly turn the page on the coronavirus pandemic. Now fears are growing within the White House that the very thing that finally shoved the virus from center stage — mass protests over the death of George Floyd — may bring about its resurgence.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — After 78 days of historic quiet, cards will be cut, dice will roll and jackpots can jingle again 12:01 a.m. Thursday at casinos in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 1.9 million people applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that many employers are still cutting jobs even as the gradual reopening of businesses has slowed the pace of layoffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit hit the highest level in eight months in April. Exports and imports both posted record monthly drops as the coronavirus pandemic smothered America's commerce with other countries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity fell at a 0.9% rate in the first three months of this year, a smaller decline than first estimated, while labor costs rose at a slightly faster pace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Wednesday passed legislation to make it easier for businesses struggling during the coronavirus pandemic to take advantage of a payroll subsidy program that's been a central part of Washington's response to the corresponding economic crisis.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank has boosted its pandemic emergency support program by an unexpectedly large 600 billion euros to 1.35 trillion euros ($1.5 trillion), adding to a range of efforts in Europe and around the world to help the economy weather the steep downturn caused by the virus outbreak.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese regulators said Thursday more foreign airlines will be allowed to fly to China as anti-coronavirus controls ease, but it was unclear whether the change will defuse a fresh conflict with the Trump administration over air travel.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and some of his supporters are claiming authorities did not use tear gas against people in a crackdown outside the White House this week. There's evidence they did.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ousted State Department Inspector General Steve Linick on Wednesday told members of three congressional committees that before he was abruptly fired, he was investigating Secretary of State Mike Pompeo's use of government resources as well as the secretary's decision to approve a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's Pentagon chief shot down his idea of using troops to quell protests across the United States, then reversed course on pulling part of the 82nd Airborne Division off standby in an extraordinary clash between the U.S. military and its commander in chief.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats, powered by the Congressional Black Caucus, are preparing a sweeping package of police reforms as pressure builds on the federal government to respond to the death of George Floyd and others in law enforcement interactions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is pledging to unveil a series of proposals in coming weeks aimed at reversing the economic devastation wrought by the coronavirus pandemic and addressing inequalities that have contributed to protests sweeping the country.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 3
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — College Football Hall of Famer Johnny Majors, the coach of Pittsburgh's 1976 national championship team and a former coach and star player at Tennessee, died Wednesday. He was 85.
NASHVILLE AREA
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump said he is seeking a new state to host this summer's Republican National Convention after North Carolina refused to guarantee the event could be held in Charlotte without public health restrictions to contain the coronavirus pandemic.
It's music to NASCAR's ears: the stock car series is set to return to Nashville in 2021.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A House panel on Tuesday passed a bill that would block Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation from regulating how some types of sewage treatment systems are designed and built.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is launching a campaign to recruit poll workers for the Aug. 6 primary election during pandemic times.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A small county in the northwest corner of Tennessee is once again leading the nation in active coronavirus cases per capita after an outbreak at a state prison.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is sending about 1,000 members of its National Guard to the nation's capital to help quell continued civil unrest over George Floyd's death, a state official said Tuesday.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — A publicist for Amy Grant says the contemporary Christian singer had open heart surgery on Wednesday to fix a heart condition she has had since birth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eagles songwriter Don Henley urged Congress on Tuesday to "Take It to the Limit" to protect artists against online pirating, wading into a copyright fight pitting Hollywood and the recording industry against big tech platforms like Google's YouTube.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — The German government wants to increase offshore wind power capacity five-fold by 2040 as part of its plan to wean the country off fossil fuels.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — A tech-focused civil liberties group on Tuesday sued to block President Donald Trump's executive order that seeks to regulate social media, saying it violates the First Amendment and chills speech.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Zoom Video Communications is rapidly emerging as the latest internet gold mine as millions of people flock to its conferencing service to see colleagues, friends and family while tethered to their homes during the pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A former president of the United Auto Workers pleaded guilty Wednesday to conspiring with others to embezzle dues to pay for golf trips, expensive meals and stays at California villas — the most significant conviction yet in a scandal that has roiled the union.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
A malaria drug President Donald Trump took to try to prevent COVID-19 proved ineffective for that in the first large, high-quality study to test it in health workers and others closely exposed to people with the disease.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street, extending the market's winning streak to a fourth day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The epic damage to America's job market from the viral outbreak will come into sharper focus Friday when the government releases the May employment report: Eight million more jobs are estimated to have been lost. Unemployment could near 20%. And potentially fewer than half of all adults may be working.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve has approved an expansion of its $500 billion emergency program to support state and local governments.
Movie theater chain AMC warned Wednesday that it may not survive the coronavirus pandemic, which has shuttered its theaters and led film studios to explore releasing more movies directly to viewers over the internet.
A federal grand jury has indicted four current and former chicken company executives for price fixing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. services sector shrank for a second month in May as the coronavirus pandemic triggered shutdowns and layoffs around the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved Wednesday to block Chinese airlines from flying to the U.S. in an escalation of trade and travel tensions between the two countries.
BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. businesses shed 2.8 million jobs in May, significantly less than the 9.3 million job losses that were expected.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic pushed Australia's economy into recession for the first time in 29 years in the first quarter of the year, and the situation is expected to get worse.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Barack Obama is taking on an increasingly public role as the nation confronts a confluence of historic crises that has exposed deep racial and socioeconomic inequalities in America and reshaped the November election.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Snapchat will stop "promoting" President Donald Trump on its video messaging service, the latest example of a social media platform adjusting how it treats this U.S. president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Secretary Mark Esper said Wednesday he opposes using military forces for law enforcement in containing current street protests, tamping down threats from President Donald Trump, who had warned states he was willing to send troops to "dominate" the streets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Guard of the District of Columbia is investigating the use of one of its helicopters to make a "show of force" against protesters near the White House, while President Donald Trump is encouraging authorities to get tougher to quell the unrest over George Floyd's death.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protests were largely peaceful and the nation's streets were calmer than they have been in days since the killing of George Floyd set off sometimes violent demonstrations against police brutality and injustice against African Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials in the nation's capital pushed back on an aggressive response by the federal government to demonstrations over the death of George Floyd, with the mayor flatly rejecting a Trump administration proposal for the federal government to take over its police force and one Virginia county pulling its officers from Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Linick irritated powerful Democrats and Republicans alike in his seven years as the independent watchdog investigating waste and mismanagement at the State Department. Still, he was stunned by a Friday night phone call saying President Donald Trump had fired him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cloaking himself in religion for the second day in a row, President Donald Trump sought to seize the moral authority to justify his hard line against demonstrators protesting the killing of another black man in police custody and at the same time mobilize his religious conservative base.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Deputy Attorney General Rod Rosenstein told lawmakers Wednesday that he would not have approved an FBI surveillance application for a former Trump campaign aide during the Russia investigation had he known at the time about the problems that have since been revealed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats say they will hear testimony from Justice Department whistleblowers and attempt to slash the agency's budget, efforts they say are in response to Attorney General William Barr's defiance of Congress and "improper politicization" of his job.
TUESDAY, JUNE 2
NASHVILLE AREA
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Organizers of the Republican National Convention said Tuesday they will begin visiting potential alternative sites after North Carolina's governor told them the COVID-19 pandemic requires them to prepare for a scaled-back event if they want to hold it in Charlotte.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The wife of celebrated singer-songwriter John Prine, who died from complications of COVID-19, urged lawmakers Tuesday to expand absentee voting so Tennesseans would not have to put their health at risk exercising their right to vote.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill that would block Tennessee's Department of Environment and Conservation from regulating how some types of sewage treatment systems are designed and built is scheduled for a hearing in the House Agriculture and Natural Resources Committee on Tuesday.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The state of Tennessee has stopped distributing face masks provided for use by counties responding to the coronavirus after they were found to be treated with a chemical.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 50 people were arrested over the weekend in Tennessee, while many businesses saw property damaged and public buildings vandalized across the state during peaceful protests that turned violent in response to the death of George Floyd.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Monday defended his decision not to quickly approve the Justice Department's request to dismiss its own criminal case against former Trump administration national security adviser Michael Flynn, saying that the department's reversal was unusual and he wanted to consider the request carefully before ruling on it.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
U.S. air travel down almost 90% from a year ago. A ghostly emptiness at Hawaii's tourist hotels. Deserted Las Vegas casinos counting the days to reopening.
LONDON (AP) — People in Britain from ethnic minorities have died in larger relative numbers with COVID-19 than their white compatriots, according to a study by British health authorities published Tuesday. But it didn't answer the biggest question: Why?
PARIS (AP) — France is rolling out an official coronavirus contact-tracing app aimed at containing fresh outbreaks as lockdown restrictions gradually ease, becoming the first major European country to deploy the smartphone technology amid simmering debate over privacy fears.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump spread a number of false and misleading claims about the World Health Organization in announcing his decision to cut U.S. ties with the agency over the coronavirus epidemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street for the third day in a row, continuing a stretch of gains for the market.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Tuesday related to the national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
As thousands of protesters take to the streets in response to police killings of black people, companies are wading into the national conversation but taking care to get their messaging right.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Budget Office said Monday that the U.S. economy could be $15.7 trillion smaller over the next decade than it otherwise would have been if Congress does not mitigate the economic damage from the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican senator spoke out Tuesday against President Donald Trump's use of the Bible "as a political prop" as the president warned protesters he would deploy the U.S. military to end violent protests against police brutality.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Republicans continued Tuesday to avoid any criticism of President Donald Trump, though at least two GOP senators spoke out against police use of tear gas to clear peaceful demonstrators from a park near the White House so Trump could walk to a nearby church and pose with a Bible.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Tuesday turned up the pressure on governors to quell the violence set off by the death of George Floyd, demanding New York call up the National Guard to stop the "lowlifes and losers."
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Joe Biden on Tuesday blistered President Donald Trump a day after police drove back peaceful protesters near the White House so Trump could pose with a Bible before a damaged church. Biden said Trump's "narcissism has become more important than the nation that he leads."
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Tuesday called on President Donald Trump to be a "healer in chief" and not a "fanner of the flame" as the nation reels from mass protests over the treatment of black people in the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials vowed to "maximize federal law enforcement presence" in the nation's capital after days of violent demonstrations led to fires across Washington and left scores of businesses with broken windows and dozens of police officers injured.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump toured a Catholic shrine on Tuesday in his second straight religious-themed appearance as the nation grappled with widespread unrest over the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It began with Attorney General Bill Barr standing with his hands casually in his pockets, not wearing a tie, surveying the scene at Lafayette Park across from the White House, where several thousand protesters had gathered for more demonstrations after the police killing of George Floyd.
MONDAY, JUNE 1
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt senior defensive analyst Osia Lewis died Sunday following a lengthy battle with cancer, the school announced. He was 57.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A man who set fire to a historic courthouse in Tennessee during weekend protests has been arrested, police said.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nearly 50 people were arrested over the weekend in Tennessee, while many businesses saw property damaged and public buildings vandalized across the state during peaceful protests that turned violent in response to the death of George Floyd.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee sexual and reproductive health advocacy group is launching a billboard and digital ad campaign intended to show how COVID-19 has exposed inequality, according to a news release.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place a ruling that allows the trustee recovering money for investors in the Bernard Madoff Ponzi scheme to pursue more than $4 billion that went to overseas investors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday upheld the oversight board established by Congress to help Puerto Rico out of a devastating financial crisis that has been exacerbated by the coronavirus outbreak, recent earthquakes and damage from Hurricane Maria in 2017. The justices reversed a lower court ruling that threatened to throw the island's recovery efforts into chaos.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is declining to revive a lawsuit by supporters of Sen. Bernie Sanders who sued the Democratic National Committee in 2016 over claims officials improperly tipped the scales for Hillary Clinton during the nominating process.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Oral arguments are set for June 9 in an appeal by Tennessee officials after an inmate was spared execution due to his claim that racism tainted the jury selection at his trial.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. auto industry's coronavirus comeback plan was pretty simple: restart factories gradually and push out trucks and other vehicles for waiting buyers in states left largely untouched by the virus outbreak.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health authorities have received reports of nearly 26,000 nursing home residents dying from COVID-19, according to materials prepared for the nation's governors. That number is partial and likely to go higher.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — The jersey-wearing camaraderie. The scent of sizzling sausages. The buzz before a big game.
A California biotech company says its experimental drug remdesivir improved symptoms when given for five days to moderately ill, hospitalized patients with COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic lawmakers are raising questions about the federal Bureau of Prisons' release of high-profile inmates and are calling for widespread testing of federal inmates as the number of coronavirus cases has exploded in the federal prison system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks shook off a wobbly start on Wall Street and closed broadly higher Monday, adding to the market's recent run of solid gains.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories slowed for the third consecutive month in May as they continued to sustain economic damage from the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending fell 2.9% in April, the largest drop in 18 months, with broad declines across all building activity as shutdowns hobbled projects and workers were told to stay home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One small-town Oklahoma mayor testified before Congress she's worried the city's 18-bed hospital can't handle a second Covid-19 wave. Many counties are slashing sizable chunks of their government work force. States are staring down red ink as the fiscal year comes to a close.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is making claims on space that are off course from reality.
OAKLAND, Calif. (AP) — Facebook employees are using Twitter to register their frustration over CEO Mark Zuckerberg's decision to leave up posts by President Donald Trump that suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Joe Biden vowed to address "institutional racism" in his first 100 days in office as he met with community leaders at a predominantly African American church in Delaware Monday morning, leaving home for a second consecutive day to address exploding racial tensions that have begun to reshape the upcoming presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday derided many governors as "weak" and demanded tougher crackdowns on burning and stealing among some demonstrations in the aftermath of violent protests in dozens of American cities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and Twitter tangled over truth and consequences this past week as the social media giant flagged the president's tweets for spreading false information and potentially inciting violence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden's search for a running mate could be reshaped by the police killing of George Floyd and the unrest it has ignited across the country, raising questions about contenders with law-and-order backgrounds and intensifying pressure on the presumptive Democratic nominee to select a black woman.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is facing some stiff competition in getting his campaign message out.
FRIDAY, MAY 29
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee's administration announced Friday that long-term care facilities will soon be required to test all of their residents and staff for COVID-19 after initially just urging nursing homes to do so.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee has asked all state agencies to find ways to slash their budgets by 12% and submit their new proposals by the end of June.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say they have finalized plans to set up an alternate care site for COVID-19 at Metro Nashville General Hospital.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health regulators are telling five drugmakers to recall their versions of a widely used diabetes medication after laboratory tests found elevated levels of a contaminant linked to cancer.
Doctors are reporting success with newer drugs that control certain types of cancer better, reduce the risk it will come back and make treatment simpler and easier to bear.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BEIJING (AP) — Volkswagen is spending 2 billion euros ($2.2 billion) to expand its presence in China's electric car industry in the biggest foreign investment announced since the country's economy began to reopen following the coronavirus pandemic.
PARIS (AP) — French carmaker Renault said Friday it will cut 15,000 jobs worldwide as part of a 2 billion-euro ($2.2 billion) cost-cutting plan, as a brutal drop in industry sales during the pandemic worsened the company's pre-existing problems.
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla confirmed Thursday that CEO Elon Musk will get the first tranche worth nearly $770 million of a stock-based compensation package triggered by the company meeting several financial metrics.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that the U.S. will be terminating its relationship with the World Health Organization, saying it had failed to adequately respond to the coronavirus because China has "total control" over the global organization.
BERLIN (AP) — Many a journey to far-flung corners of Europe starts in a dusty industrial yard in east Berlin, where Felix Rascher carefully tends to his small fleet of Volkswagen camper vans, a favorite among free-spirited travelers the world over.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The stock market erased an early drop and ended mixed, capping a strong week and month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell acknowledged Friday that the Fed faces a major challenge with the launch in the coming days of a program that will lend to companies other than banks for the first time since the Great Depression.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer spending plunged by a record-shattering 13.6% in April as the viral pandemic shuttered businesses, forced millions of layoffs and sent the economy into a deep recession.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union criticized China on Friday for asserting more control over Hong Kong and suggested the move would have an impact on China-EU relations, but the 27-nation bloc ruled out taking any action against its major trading partner.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus crisis threw at least 2.1 million Americans out of work last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, stoking fears Thursday that the scourge is doing deep and potentially long-lasting damage to the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A debate in Congress over whether to extend $600 a week in federally provided benefits to the unemployed looks sure to intensify with the number of people receiving the aid now topping 30 million — one in five workers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration may soon expel thousands of Chinese graduate students enrolled at U.S. universities and impose other sanctions against Chinese officials in the latest signs of tensions between Washington and Beijing that are raging over trade, the coronavirus pandemic, human rights and the status of Hong Kong.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twitter escalated tensions with President Donald Trump on Friday, adding a warning to one of his tweets for the first time and saying he violated the platform's rules by glorifying violence when he suggested protesters in Minneapolis could be shot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump added fuel to racial fires Friday as he threatened to take action to bring the city of Minneapolis "under control," calling violent protesters outraged by the death of a black man in police custody "thugs" and reviving a civil-rights era phrase fraught with racist overtones.
THURSDAY, MAY 28
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge expects to rule next Thursday on whether to order a temporary injunction to let all voters cast ballots by mail in the August primary due to the coronavirus pandemic.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Top health officials say Thursday that Nashville will continue providing private medical data of COVID-19 patients to first responders despite the state's recently determining doing so created a false sense of security for those on the front line.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee lawsuit that seeks to let all voters cast ballots by mail due to the coronavirus pandemic is headed to court Thursday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CVS Health will try delivering prescriptions with self-driving vehicles in a test that begins next month.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Nissan plans to close auto plants in Spain and Indonesia after sinking into the red for the first time in 11 years as the pandemic squashed global demand and disrupted production.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is escalating his war on social media companies, preparing to sign an executive order Thursday challenging the liability protections that have served as a bedrock for unfettered speech on the internet.
REAL ESTATE
BALTIMORE (AP) — April had a record collapse in Americans signing contracts to buy homes, a reflection of the broader shutdown of economic activity in response to the coronavirus outbreak.
ENVIRONMENT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A U.S. appeals court on Thursday turned down a request by the Trump administration and energy industry groups to revive a permit program for new oil and gas pipelines that had been canceled by a lower court.
TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON (AP) — The U.S. National Security Agency says the same Russian military hacking group that interfered in the 2016 presidential election and unleashed a devastating malware attack the following year has been exploiting a major email server program since last August or earlier.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
New research shows how dangerous the coronavirus is for current and former cancer patients. Those who developed COVID-19 were much more likely to die within a month than people without cancer who got it, two studies found.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As U.S. coronavirus deaths top 100,000, Democrats are slamming the Trump administration for failing to protect front-line workers, including those at meatpacking plants and health care facilities where outbreaks of the disease are spiking.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Veterans Affairs Secretary Robert Wilkie said Thursday that his department has all but stopped use of an unproven malaria drug on veterans with COVID-19.
Chris Thompson is an NFL running back. He also is the father of a 4-month-old daughter, Kali. Guess which of those facts matters more to him when he ponders eventually returning to work amid a pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street's rally ran out of fuel in the last hour of trading on Thursday, and the market fell to its first loss in four days amid worries about rising U.S.-China tensions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House is moving to pass a bipartisan measure to modify a new "paycheck protection" program for businesses that have suffered COVID-related losses, giving them more flexibility to use federal subsidies for other costs and extending the program for four additional months.
Major airlines on both sides of the Atlantic are cutting even more jobs as they struggle to cope with a plunge in air travel that will leave the airline industry much smaller than it was before the coronavirus pandemic and economic collapse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will not release its official midyear economic update this summer, declining to put its stamp on data documenting the plunge into recession during the coronavirus pandemic and avoiding going on record with a prediction about the economy's future.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments Thursday related to the national and global response, the work place and the spread of the virus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus crisis threw at least 2.1 million Americans out of work last week despite the gradual reopening of businesses around the country, stoking fears Thursday that the scourge is doing deep and potentially long-lasting damage to the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy shrank at an even faster pace than initially estimated in the first three months of this year with economists continuing to expect a far worse outcome in the current April-June quarter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. orders for big-ticket factory goods plunged for the second straight month in April as the coronavirus pandemic hammered the economy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on Thursday pulled legislation from the House floor to extend FBI surveillance authorities after President Donald Trump and Republicans turned against the measure and ensured its defeat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Threatening to shut down Twitter for flagging false content. Claiming he can "override" governors who dare to keep churches closed to congregants. Asserting the "absolute authority" to force states to reopen, even when local leaders say it's too soon.