VOL. 38 | NO. 22 | Friday, May 30, 2014
REAL ESTATE
At the height of the foreclosure crisis, Affordable Housing Resources kept many people in their homes. Now the agency is working to help more people get into home ownership for the first time.
REALTY CHECK
With baseball season in full swing, I listened to the Atlanta Braves game on the radio over the weekend and once again lamented the death of Skip Caray, once the voice of the Braves who died in 2008.
NEWSMAKERS
Tennessee State University has named Lesia Crumpton-Young, a longtime educator, award-winning scientist and director of the Center for Advancing Faculty Excellence at the University of Central Florida, as associate vice president for research and sponsored programs.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
The Information Age has created a marketplace built predominantly of connected buyers who have largely determined whether or not to buy from us before they ever make contact with a sales rep.
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
With the S&P 500 back at all-time highs, investors may be experiencing a bit of altitude sickness. With the S&P 500 now up 180 percent from the bottom, it’s right to question how much upside remains. However, the better question might be how much downside lies below.
I SWEAR
David Rosenfelt has done it again. Kept me in my chair for two whole hours, that is. Once I got to page 100 of “Without Warning,” I had to just go ahead and finish it.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
I received a gift the other day from Susanne Reed, a sweet friend of our family who lives in Chattanooga. Susanne is general manager of The Hamilton County Herald, a sister newspaper to The Daily Record in Chattanooga.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - Two state senators say they plan an inquiry over the handling of a complaint against the chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - State officials say the Department of Labor has been expanding efforts to uncover employer fraud within the construction industry.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Experts with the University of Tennessee Institute of Agriculture are warning farmers and gardeners that an insect relatively new to the Volunteer State can cause significant damage to many fruits.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — General Motors says a pattern of incompetence and neglect, not a larger conspiracy or cover-up, is to blame for a long-delayed recall of defective ignition switches.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors said Thursday that it will launch a program to compensate crash victims or families affected by faulty ignition switches linked to at least 13 deaths that prompted a recall of 2.6 million cars.
DETROIT (AP) — Along rows of cubicles at the General Motors Technical Center in suburban Warren, engineers knew for years about faulty ignition switches in small cars. Safety officials in the same complex knew, too. So did the lawyers downtown.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is moving forward on a compromise bill to help veterans avoid long waits to see a doctor and make it easier to fire administrators who falsify records to cover up long wait times.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many of the 8 million people who signed up for coverage under President Barack Obama's health care now have an asterisk next to their names.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
The world's largest retailer faces new challenges at a time when low prices and one-stop shopping can be a few clicks away on a tablet computer or mobile phone.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly more Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, but claims for jobless aid continue to be anchored near seven-year lows.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank on Thursday cut interest rates and took a raft of unconventional steps to prevent the 18-country eurozone from sliding into a bout of deflation that could kill off a muted economic recovery.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are higher at midday after the European Central Bank took new steps to boost the region's sluggish economy.
Crude oil declined in price Thursday after an unexpectedly large drop in U.S. stockpiles was offset by rising supplies of refined fuels.
JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (AP) — Lawmakers in many states have been trying to boost their post-recession economies by cutting income taxes, curbing aid to the long-term jobless or holding down the minimum wage. Some have pursued all of these steps.
BRUSSELS (AP) — Leaders of the G-7 group of major economies are turning their attention during the concluding day of their summit to spurring growth and jobs in an attempt to reinforce a rebound from the global financial crisis.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 4
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Attorney General Bob Cooper says in a legal opinion that applications for chancery court clerk are covered by Tennessee's open records laws.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are united as ever in their election-year opposition to "Obamacare," but they're increasingly divided over their promise to vote this year on an alternative to it.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The volume of email cloaked in encryption technology is rapidly rising as Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other major Internet companies try to shield their users' online communications from government spies and other snoops.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve survey shows the U.S. economy strengthening over the past two months in areas from manufacturing and construction to retail sales and bank lending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. service firms grew more quickly last month as production, hiring and new orders increased, adding to signs that the economy is accelerating after dipping at the start of the year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose modestly Wednesday, erasing an early decline, as investors waited to hear from the European Central Bank on Thursday.
The price of oil climbed above $103 a barrel on Wednesday as a report showed a fall in U.S. crude stockpiles and more clashes in Ukraine and Libya increased supply risks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses pulled back on hiring in May, adding the fewest jobs in four months, a private survey showed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity fell even more than previously thought in the January-March period while labor costs rose at a faster pace.
WASHINGTON (AP) -?? The U.S. trade deficit jumped to a two-year high in April, as exports declined and imports surged to a record high.
NEW YORK (AP) — Private elevators, personal shopping assistants, six-bedroom suites with their own postal codes. Even helipads. This is what the super-rich have come to expect from hotels.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The Michigan Legislature's $195 million lifeline to help prevent steep cuts in Detroit's pensions and the sale of city-owned art is being hailed as a major step forward in ending the largest public bankruptcy in U.S. history.
TUESDAY, JUNE 3
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam and Commissioner of Mental Health and Substance Abuse Services Douglas Varney on Tuesday unveiled a multi-year plan to fight prescription drug abuse in Tennessee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — To understand how General Motors allowed a problem with a small part to balloon into a crisis, look at the organization chart.
DETROIT (AP) — Brisk demand for SUVs and pickup trucks and a strong Memorial Day weekend were expected to push U.S. auto sales to a seven-year high in May.
NASHVILLE AREA
GOODLETTSVILLE (AP) - Dollar General's fiscal first-quarter net income edged up 1 percent, with sales climbing and some expenses dropping.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - Seven candidates have applied to fill a vacancy on the state Court of Criminal Appeals created by Gov. Bill Haslam's appointment of Judge Jeffrey Bivins to the state Supreme Court.
REGION
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority appears to have a good start in meeting goals set by President Barack Obama's administration aimed at cutting carbon dioxide emissions from power plants, its CEO said Monday.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — AT&T says that if it's allowed to buy satellite broadcaster DirecTV, that means it can afford to pull fiber connections into more homes, for additional superfast broadband Internet coverage.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is expanding into home and health management as the company tries to turn its iPhones, iPads and Mac computers into an interchangeable network of devices that serve as a hub of people's increasingly digital lives.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market fell slightly Tuesday, pulling back from record highs the day before.
The price of oil was little changed Tuesday as traders awaited reports on U.S. supplies of crude and refined products.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories rose for a third consecutive month in April, adding to evidence that manufacturing is regaining momentum after a harsh winter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices rose in April compared with a year earlier, but the increase was the smallest annual gain in 14 months. Price gains have slowed this year as sales have faltered.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hillshire Brands says it will hold separate talks with Pilgrim's Pride and Tyson Foods, as the two meat processing heavyweights engage in a bidding war for the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs.
NATIONAL POLITICS
BRUSSELS (AP) — President Barack Obama's move to limit U.S. carbon emissions may prompt an important shift by China in its climate policies, where officials are increasingly worried about the costs of pollution anyway, according to a Chinese expert and activists closely following the international negotiations.
PRESTONSBURG, Ky. (AP) — President Barack Obama's ambitious plan to reduce the gases blamed for global warming from the nation's power plants gives many coal-dependent states more lenient restrictions and won't necessarily be the primary reason coal-fired power plants will be retired.
MONDAY, JUNE 2
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A reporter who has been ordered to divulge the identity of the source of classified information lost his bid Monday to get the Supreme Court to clarify whether journalists have a right to protect their confidential sources.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The coordinated campaign of three incumbent Tennessee Supreme Court justices announced Monday that it has raised $600,000 for the effort to keep them on the bench for eight more years.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court has refused to hear the appeal of a group of neighbors who tried unsuccessfully to block the construction of a mosque in Murfreesboro, Tennessee.
MURFREESBORO (AP) — The National Parks Service is offering free tours of the Stones River National Cemetery this summer.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple has spent most of this year promising to defy the skeptics who believe the iPhone and iPad maker lost its ingenuity when Steve Jobs died in 2011.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Details of a refashioned bill to address the problems plaguing the federally run veterans' health care system have been released by its sponsor, the chairman of the Senate Veterans Affairs Committee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. safety regulators are investigating whether a recall to fix air bags on nearly 745,000 Chrysler SUVs is working properly.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed mostly higher on a quiet Monday following two reports that showed the manufacturing industries of the world's two largest economies expanded last month.
The price of oil fell slightly Monday and closed at a two-week low.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Institute for Supply Management twice corrected its May manufacturing index on Monday to show that factories grew at a strong pace during the month. The original report said that manufacturers had expanded at a weaker pace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending posted modest gains in April, driven by an uptick in home building and government construction that lifted total activity to the highest level in five years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department says 77,000 foreign banks have agreed to share information about U.S. account holders as part of a crackdown on offshore tax evasion.
A strike at downtown Las Vegas casinos was averted as union negotiators reached settlements with several properties only hours before workers were scheduled to walk off their jobs.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House has asked the Department of Defense to delay a plan that would allow some immigrants who entered the U.S. illegally as children to obtain a limited path to citizenship by serving in the military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taking aim at global warming, President Barack Obama introduced a politically charged plan Monday to order big and lasting cuts in the pollution discharged by America's power plants. But the plan, though ambitious in scope, wouldn't be fully realized until long after Obama's successor took office and would generate only modest progress worldwide.
NEW YORK (AP) — Companies that generate electric power with anything other than coal — and companies that produce cleaner fuels or efficiency technologies — are likely to benefit from the Obama Administration's new proposed limits on carbon dioxide emissions from power plants.
FRIDAY, MAY 30
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie is headlining the Tennessee Republican Party's annual fundraiser in Nashville on Friday evening.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Two Republican Tennessee lawmakers have asked for an investigation into the delay of student test scores.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee man who appeared on "The Millionaire Matchmaker" is accused of trying to extort $2.5 million from a nuclear weapons plant in exchange for 1,200 slides that he allegedly claimed would be damaging if released publicly.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The U.S. House of Representatives has passed a measure that provides an additional $5 million in federal funds to help law enforcement agencies in Tennessee and elsewhere reduce their backlogs of untested rape kits.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal judge has given a former coal mining town in East Tennessee the go-ahead to change its name to Rocky Top - a move that developers have said is needed to entice them to build a massive tourist complex in the town of 1,800 people.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Apple's $3 billion purchase of Beats sheds light on a rarely recognized reality in the streaming music industry: It's hard to succeed in the business without offering other products and services.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Gov. Bill Haslam says his administration is talking again with officials from Volkswagen.
MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) — About four years ago, the Google team trying to develop cars driven by computers — not people — became convinced that sooner than later, the technology would be ready for the masses. There was one big problem: Driverless cars were almost certainly illegal.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors recalled a small number of Pontiac G6 midsize cars to fix a faulty brake light system in 2009, yet waited more than five years to call back over 2 million other cars with the same system, according to company documents filed with federal safety regulators.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic and societal harm from motor vehicle crashes amounted to a whopping $871 billion in a single year, according to a study released Thursday by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is starting to accept requests from Europeans who want to erase unflattering information from the results produced by the world's dominant search engine.
HAWTHORNE, Calif. (AP) — A company that has flown unmanned capsules to the Space Station unveiled a spacecraft designed to ferry up to seven astronauts to low-Earth orbit that SpaceX founder Elon Musk says will lower the cost of going to space.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — In a groundbreaking disclosure, Google revealed Wednesday how very white and male its workforce is — just 2 percent of its Google employees are black, 3 percent are Hispanic, and 30 percent are women. About a third of the company's workforce is Asian.
PERSONAL FINANCE
WASHINGTON (AP) — In dating, money may be the biggest taboo.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers cut back on spending in April for the first time in a year, taking an unexpected pause after a big jump during the previous month. The results, however, are unlikely to derail an expected spring rebound in the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Dow Jones industrial average has edged up to finish at a record high close.
The price of oil fell below $103 per barrel Friday on ample supplies of crude and fuels.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy took a beating from an especially harsh winter during the January-March quarter, skidding into reverse for the first time in three years. But spring has arrived and along with it, signs that the chill was just a temporary setback in the long road to recovery.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hillshire Brands is at the center of a barnyard brawl.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tanning beds and sun lamps will carry new warnings that they should not be used by anyone under age 18, part of a government action announced Thursday aimed at reducing rising rates of skin cancer linked to the radiation-emitting devices.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama is planning a public show of support for new climate change rules that his administration will unveil Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon faces election-year roadblocks in persuading Congress to back cost-saving defense cuts as the military moves away from robust wartime budgets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee has endorsed a Republican plan to allow some schools to opt out of healthier meal standards.