VOL. 42 | NO. 22 | Friday, June 1, 2018
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
In residential real estate, there are war stories, fairy tales and nursery rhymes, and it’s often hard to tell the differentiate.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week, breaking a steady climb that pushed them to their highest levels in seven years.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Say what you will about the Titans’ new head coach, the team’s pricey free-agent acquisitions and its talented draft picks during the offseason.
NEWSMAKERS
Chris Mayfield, assistant vice president of development for HCA Inc., has been honored as the Pro Bono Volunteer of the Year award by Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands, Tennessee’s largest nonprofit law firm.
BRIEFS
Adams and Reese has been included in BTI Consulting Group’s Brand Elite 2018: Client Perceptions of the Best-Branded Law Firms.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Summer is the busiest selling season at car dealerships. The weather is nice, people have more time to shop and the discounts are attractive enough to get buyers’ attention. Dealers also make full use of the summer’s holiday weekends, beginning with Memorial Day, as you might have noticed with balloon-decked lots, inflatable eagles and scads of car ads.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Your to-do list is a mile long. Every day, you add three things for every one you cross off and you’re starting to resent That List.
CAREER CORNER
Have you ever considered getting a tattoo? Or had a child ask you about getting one? If you have, you know it can be a tough decision.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Carrie Underwood continued to make history as the most decorated act at the CMT Music Awards with 18 wins, while Blake Shelton walked away with the night's top prize.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Americana Music Association will honor Canadian singer-songwriter k.d. lang, a four-time Grammy winner with hits in country and pop, with their trailblazer award at this year's Americana Honors and Awards show in September.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials at Andrew Jackson's historic Tennessee home say they are ready to unveil the restored tomb of the seventh president after it was vandalized in April.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the second straight week, providing a helpful jolt for potential home buyers.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — The English Premier League broadcasting landscape has been reshaped, with Amazon becoming the first internet streaming service to buy live rights in Britain and all cash from overseas channels no longer being shared equally by clubs.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Honda Motor Co. of Japan and U.S. automaker General Motors Co. are going to work together in developing batteries for electric vehicles, mainly for the North American market.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are mostly higher Thursday morning as gains for energy companies have the market on track for its fifth increase in a row. The price of crude oil rose about 1 percent. Industrial companies and retailers also edged higher. Packaged food company J.M. Smucker dropped after issuing a weak quarterly report and a disappointing forecast for the year.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Investor Warren Buffett and JP Morgan Chase's Jamie Dimon are encouraging public companies to stop predicting their quarterly earnings and focus on long-term goals.
NEW YORK (AP) — The United States and China have reached a deal that allows the Chinese telecommunications giant ZTE Corp. to stay in business in exchange for paying an additional $1 billion in fines and agreeing to let U.S. regulators monitor its operations.
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Housing Secretary Ben Carson says his latest proposal to raise rents would mean a path toward self-sufficiency for millions of low-income households across the United States by pushing more people to find work. For Ebony Morris and her four small children, it could mean homelessness.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House leaders want to push fractured Republicans toward consensus on immigration, racing the clock as they seek to defuse a GOP civil war threatening to wound their hopes for keeping control of the chamber in November's elections.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says he believes other countries wrongly regard Russia as a threat and that mistaken concept can end if they see that the economic sanctions the West has put on Russia don't serve their interests.
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — New Mexico, a state with deep historical ties to American Indians whose images and symbols are rooted in everything from the state flag to town names, has moved closer to electing the first Native American woman to the U.S. House of Representatives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers representing nearly 200 Democrats in Congress plan to argue in federal court that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by accepting foreign state favors without first seeking congressional approval.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6
HEALTH CARE
The co-founder and CEO of athenahealth is stepping down and the medical software company is exploring a potential sale. It is already weighing a buyout offer from a frustrated shareholder.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump will soon be signing a bill that will expand private care for veterans as an alternative to the troubled Veterans Affairs health system.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook says it will fund original news shows created by such news organizations as ABC, CNN and Mic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen has reinstated an executive suspended after he failed to prevent now-discredited experiments that exposed monkeys to diesel exhaust.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are opening mostly higher on Wall Street, putting the market on track for a fifth straight gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity grew at an annual rate of just 0.4 percent in the first quarter, even weaker than initially estimated, while labor costs rose at a bit faster pace.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Record exports shaved the U.S. trade deficit in April for the second straight month. But so far this year, the deficit is up 11.5 percent from a year ago despite President Donald Trump's vow to close the gap through new tariffs on imports and renegotiated trade deals.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union says it will start imposing duties from July on a list of U.S. products in response to President Donald Trump's decision to slap tariffs on steel and aluminum imports from Europe.
LONDON (AP) — Britain, France and Germany have joined forces to urge the United States to exempt European companies from any sanctions the U.S. will slap on Iran after pulling out of an international nuclear agreement.
SHENZHEN, China (AP) — The CEO of Taiwan's Foxconn, which assembles Apple iPhones and other products for tech companies, said Wednesday that Washington's dispute with China is over technology rather than trade.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP-controlled House is moving ahead on a White House plan to cut $15 billion in leftover spending, scheduling a vote after President Donald Trump took to Twitter to sell the idea.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers representing nearly 200 Democrats in Congress plan to argue in federal court Thursday that President Donald Trump is violating the Constitution by accepting foreign state favors without first seeking congressional approval.
NEW YORK (AP) — The head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau dissolved a group of outside experts that acts as an important sounding board for the watchdog agency on economic and financial issues as well as policy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Before President Donald Trump sits down next week with a notorious dictator, he will face what may turn out to be a tougher crowd — some of America's oldest allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan group of 10 senators introduced longshot legislation Wednesday that would require Congress to sign off on tariffs imposed in the name of national security, defying President Donald Trump on a bedrock issue that once defined the GOP.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama administration secretly sought to give Iran access — albeit briefly — to the U.S. financial system by sidestepping sanctions kept in place after the 2015 nuclear deal, despite repeatedly telling Congress and the public it had no plans to do so.
TUESDAY, JUNE 5
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee has finalized a $1.33 million settlement with ousted chancellor Beverly Davenport, formally ending her employment at the school after a tumultuous tenure that lasted less than 1 ½ years.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The new leader of the Tennessee Highway Patrol has assumed his new role with the agency, succeeding Col. Tracy Trott, who retired after 40 years in the post.
SPORTS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The NCAA has announced sites for the eight super regionals in the Division I baseball tournament.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Tennessee Tech has advanced to the NCAA super regional round by beating Mississippi twice on Monday.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare will run out of money sooner than expected, and Social Security's financial problems can't be ignored either, the government said Tuesday in a sobering checkup on programs vital to the middle class.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple will offer more ways for people to limit the time they spend on iPhones while introducing features designed to make its products even more indispensable.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks finished mostly higher Tuesday as weeks of up-and-down trading, much of it related to trade tensions, gave way to smaller moves. Technology companies, retailers, and U.S.-focused companies kept rising while banks fell with interest rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The steadily expanding global economy should remain resilient — at least for a couple of years — the World Bank says.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kate Spade, a fashion designer known for her sleek handbags, was found hanged in the bedroom of her Park Avenue apartment Tuesday in an apparent suicide, law enforcement officials said.
NEW YORK (AP) — Lord & Taylor is abandoning plans to keep a store in the Fifth Avenue flagship it is selling, as the chain's owner closes more stores and focuses on online sales.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time on record, the number of job openings in the United States exceeds the number of unemployed Americans — a trend that may soon give workers more leverage for pay raises.
LONDON (AP) — Britain's culture secretary threw Rupert Murdoch's 21st Century Fox a lifeline Tuesday in its 11.7 billion-pound ($16.4 billion) bid to buy the 61 percent of the U.K. satellite broadcaster Sky it doesn't already own.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services firms expanded at a stronger pace in May compared to the prior month, as companies saw gains in business activity, new orders and employment.
LONDON (AP) — The British economy appears to be bouncing back following a period of near-stagnation that had reinforced fears about the impact of Brexit, surveys indicated Tuesday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is asking an appeals court to restore his power to block critics on Twitter.
NEW YORK (AP) — Billionaire conservative icon David Koch is stepping down from the Koch brothers' network of business and political activities.
MONDAY, JUNE 4
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — If the term "outlaw country" evokes images of Willie Nelson's hippie braids or Waylon Jennings' "Honky Tonk Heroes," then you'll want to see a new museum exhibit offering a deeper look at the poets, pickers and characters who revolutionized country music in the 1970s.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A guitar that Elvis Presley played in "Girls! Girls! Girls!" will be offered for private sale after not drawing any bids at auction.
NASHVILLE AREA
LONDON (AP) — Tennessee officials are capitalizing on a new direct London flight with an interactive exhibit at one of the city's key transit hubs, featuring Jack Daniel's happy hours, live music and more.
SPORTS
CLEMSON, S.C. (AP) — Vanderbilt shortstop Connor Kaiser had three homers and an NCAA Tournament record-tying 10 RBIs in a game while the Commodores matched another single-game mark with nine homers in a 19-6 dismantling of Clemson to reach the super regionals on Sunday.
OXFORD, Miss. (AP) — Alex Hursey pitched a three-hitter to help Tennessee Tech beat Missouri State 2-1 in an elimination game at the Oxford Regional on Sunday night for its NCAA-best 50th victory.
NEW YORK (AP) — Discovery, Inc. has signed a $2 billion agreement that gives it media rights to PGA Tour programming for its 220 markets outside the United States.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawsuits over LGBT rights are making their way through courts and will continue, even after the Supreme Court ruled Monday in favor of a Colorado baker who refused to create a wedding cake for a same-sex couple.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday for a Colorado baker who wouldn't make a wedding cake for a same-sex couple in a limited decision that leaves for another day the larger issue of whether a business can invoke religious objections to refuse service to gay and lesbian people.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple introduced new controls for limiting how much time customers spend on their devices as the company tackles criticism that its devices are becoming increasingly addictive and distracting.
Microsoft is paying $7.5 billion for the popular coder hangout GitHub as the maker of Windows further embraces the types of open-source projects it used to shun.
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is pushing back against a media report saying that it provided extensive information about its users and their friends to third parties like phone makers.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Medicare recipients filled fewer prescriptions for pricey brand-name drugs — but spent more on such meds anyway, says a government report due out Monday. It blames rising manufacturer prices for squeezing older people and taxpayers.
CHICAGO (AP) — Most women with the most common form of early-stage breast cancer can safely skip chemotherapy without hurting their chances of beating the disease, doctors are reporting from a landmark study that used genetic testing to gauge each patient's risk.
CHICAGO (AP) — Patients with pancreatic cancer that hadn't spread lived substantially longer on a four-drug combo than on a single standard cancer drug,
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rose for the second consecutive day Monday with technology companies, retailers and household goods companies in the lead. Indexes of technology companies and smaller, more U.S.-focused companies both hit all-time highs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of top business economists believes the major tax cuts President Donald Trump pushed through Congress will give a significant boost to economic growth this year and next year. But they worry that by 2020, the country could be entering a new recession.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump defended his tough trade negotiations with China, Canada and Mexico on Monday, saying that U.S. farmers have been treated "unfairly." The president vowed to turn the tide and break down large trade barriers with top trading partners.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he has "absolute right to PARDON myself" but says has "done nothing wrong" in the Russia probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican newcomers stunned Washington back in 2010 when they seized the House majority with bold promises to cut taxes and spending and to roll back what many viewed as Barack Obama's presidential overreach.
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee has reached a deal that would buy out ousted chancellor Beverly Davenport for $1.33 million.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A super PAC is praising Tennessee Republican candidate for Bill Lee in radio ads as the "conservative outsider we need."
REGION
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Until now, whiskey tourists in Kentucky have been able to sniff the aromas from bourbon-making and sip the finished product during distillery tours. But they haven't been allowed to ship bottles home.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending surged 1.8 percent to a record high in April as home building rose by the largest amount in 24 years.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — YouTube is dominating social media use among teenagers, as Facebook fades from popularity, according to a new survey.
SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) — Apple is expected to preview new capabilities for its Siri digital assistant and showcase other upcoming software features to help build anticipation for the next iPhones.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BALOCCO, Italy (AP) — In his last big presentation as CEO of Fiat Chrysler before retiring next year, Sergio Marchionne said Friday that the Italian-American carmaker will this month hit its long-held goal of having no debt as it turns its focus to making more electrified cars.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A self-driving car service that Google spinoff Waymo plans to launch later this year in Arizona will include up to 62,000 Chrysler Pacifica Hybrid minivans under a deal announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency has sent the White House a proposal widely expected to roll back future fuel-economy standards for cars and trucks.
DETROIT (AP) — Shares of General Motors posted their largest one-day gain since the company's rebirth from bankruptcy eight years ago, after Japanese technology conglomerate SoftBank decided to pump $2.25 billion into GM's autonomous car unit.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks climbed Friday after a report showed the U.S. job market is still revving higher, even with the specter of a possible trade war hanging over markets around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. manufacturers expanded at a faster pace last month, another sign of strength for American industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers extended a streak of solid hiring in May, adding 223,000 jobs and helping lower the unemployment rate to an 18-year low of 3.8 percent from 3.9 percent in April.
PARIS (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron has told U.S. President Donald Trump that the new U.S. tariffs on European, Mexican and Canadian goods are illegal and a "mistake."
NORTH CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Flight-line employees at Boeing Co.'s South Carolina plant have voted to unionize in a rare victory for organized labor in the South.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The price of a private lunch with investor Warren Buffett could set a record this year, with bids already surpassing $3 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration delivered a gut punch to America's closest allies Thursday, imposing tariffs on steel and aluminum from Europe, Mexico and Canada in a move that drew immediate vows of retaliation.
MILAN (AP) — Financial markets calmed Thursday amid increasing signs that Italy may avoid imminent elections after the president gave two populist parties time to figure out whether they can agree on an alternative to a euroskeptic economy minister.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans boosted their spending by 0.6 percent in April, the biggest increase in five months and a strong indication that the economy is reviving after a winter slowdown.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears will close another 72 stores as sales shrink and losses grow, an announcement that has become a familiar refrain as the company retrenches.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With a tantalizing tweet, President Donald Trump seemed to tease a positive jobs report on Friday, a protocol-defying step that moved markets and raised questions about the appropriateness of the president publicly hinting at information that could make or lose fortunes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawyer tapped to lead a task force at the Environmental Protection Agency overseeing cleanups at the nation's most polluted places worked until recently for a top chemical and plastics manufacturer with a troubled legacy of creating some of those toxic sites.
GENEVA (AP) — The Trump administration has torpedoed a plan to recommend higher taxes on sugary drinks, forcing a World Health Organization panel to back off the U.N. agency's previous call for such taxes as a way to fight obesity, diabetes and other life-threatening conditions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday he's considering commuting the sentence of former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, who was convicted of corruption, and pardoning lifestyle entrepreneur Martha Stewart, who served a stint in federal prison after being convicted of charges related to a stock sale.