VOL. 44 | NO. 23 | Friday, June 5, 2020
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
With summer weeks away, the mercury beginning its trek upward and the children still underfoot after two weeks of spring break coupled with six weeks of quarantined home schooling, it is time for many Nashvillians to head to the mountains.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville Bar Association has chosen Margaret Behm, Jeanie Nelson and Juli Mosley as the recipients of the 2020 Liberty Bell Award for their work in creating Votes for Women, a permanent exhibit at the Nashville Public Library on woman suffrage and the legacy of the 19th Amendment.
BRIEFS
Zillow Group, Inc. has resumed buying homes in five additional Zillow Offers markets, bringing the total to nine.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Subaru has redesigned its popular Outback for the 2020 model year. It’s roomier and better-equipped with the latest safety and technology features.
PERSONAL FINANCE
If you get COVID-19 and struggle to breathe, would you want to be put on a ventilator? Whatever your answer, ask yourself another question: Who would make your wishes clear if you couldn’t speak for yourself?
CAREER CORNER
Have you ever felt micromanaged at work? If your boss doesn’t know what you’re doing for every moment of the day, you might as well be nonexistent. You definitely couldn’t be working or making logical, sound decisions on your own, using your years of expertise.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
When I originally set out to write this column, I wanted to share the unexpected benefits of cutting back on my online shopping habit.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
MEMPHIS (AP) — The Stax Museum of American Soul Music in Tennessee said it plans to reopen to the public after closing for three months due to the new coronavirus outbreak.
BRISTOL, Va. (AP) — The Birthplace of Country Music Museum in Bristol is reopening its doors on Thursday and offering free passes to health care workers.
SPORTS
BRENTWOOD (AP) — Rick Byrd, Belmont's former men's basketball coach, heads up the Ohio Valley Conference's newest members of the league's Hall of Fame.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — A Japanese prosecutor on Thursday urged the U.S. to extradite two Americans accused of helping Nissan's former chairman, Carlos Ghosn flee the country while he was out on bail.
HONG KONG (AP) — China's auto sales surged 14.5% in May, a second straight month of growth as the global industry's biggest market gradually recovers from the coronavirus pandemic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
The first experimental COVID-19 vaccine in the U.S. is on track to begin a huge study next month to prove if it really can fend off the coronavirus, its manufacturer announced Thursday — a long-awaited step in the global vaccine race.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 1.5 million laid-off workers applied for U.S. unemployment benefits last week, evidence that many Americans are still losing their jobs even as the economy appears to be slowly recovering with more businesses partially reopening.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose 0.4% in May, led by a gains in the cost of food and energy.
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing will honor its trade deal with the U.S. and wants to see better ties with Washington, senior Chinese officials said Thursday.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration has awarded energy companies hundreds of breaks on payments for oil and gas extraction from U.S. lands and the Gulf of Mexico during the coronavirus pandemic, according to a government database and federal officials.
Two pioneers in restaurant delivery — Just Eat Takeaway.com and Grubhub — are combining in a $7.3 billion deal that will create one of the world's largest delivery companies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Army Gen. Mark Milley, the nation's top military officer, said Thursday he was wrong to have accompanied President Donald Trump on a walk to a church through Lafayette Square, where he was photographed in his combat uniform with the presidential entourage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lobbed a broadside attack Thursday against the International Criminal Court by authorizing economic sanctions and travel restrictions against court workers directly involved in investigating American troops and intelligence officials for possible war crimes in Afghanistan without U.S. consent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At a moment of national reckoning over racism in America, President Donald Trump is increasingly becoming a bystander.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP is looking for an answer on how to respond to national outrage over the police killing of George Floyd. And they are looking to Sen. Tim Scott to provide it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden acknowledged Wednesday that questions raised about his support for the 1994 crime bill are "legitimate." But the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee insisted that people should judge him based on his current actions, not his past.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is demanding that statues of Confederate figures such as Jefferson Davis be removed from the U.S. Capitol.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 10
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee governors would no longer be required to issue a proclamation honoring a former Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader under legislation approved by the GOP-dominated Statehouse.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Attorneys for voting rights groups want Tennessee officials held in contempt of court over claims they have not immediately let all Tennessee voters get ballots to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic as ordered.
NASHVILLE (AP) — As more calls grow across the country to remove Confederate statues, Republican lawmakers in Tennessee remained steadfast Tuesday in their resistance to removing a bust of a former Confederate general and Ku Klux Klan leader on prominent display in the state capitol.
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's largest mall owner is backing out of a $3.6 billion deal to buy a major rival as the coronavirus pandemic shakes the retail industry.
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than a dozen city officials have signed a resolution seeking to oust a Tennessee police chief.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford and Volkswagen will each offer a small city van, a larger cargo van, a small pickup truck and an electric vehicle as part of their global alliance announced last year.
BERLIN (AP) — The German government agreed Wednesday on a long-term strategy for increasing production and use of hydrogen as part of a plan to cut the country's greenhouse gas emissions.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced Wednesday that it has expanded COVID-19 testing among people held at its detention facilities following criticism of its response to the outbreak.
ALLENTOWN, Pa. (AP) — Unfilled potholes, uncollected trash, un-mowed grass and, most significantly, fewer police on the street are some of what Allentown says it's contemplating unless Washington helps it plug a multimillion-dollar budget hole left by the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Veterans Affairs Department on Tuesday defended itself against criticism of past shortages of masks and other medical gear to protect employees from the coronavirus but acknowledged its current supplies may not be enough to handle a second wave.
PARIS (AP) — The virus crisis has triggered the worst global recession in nearly a century -- and the pain is not over yet even if there is no second wave of infections, an international economic report warned Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — After three months of near total blackout of cinemas nationwide, movie theaters are preparing to reopen — even if it means only a few titles on the marquee and showings limited to as little as 25% capacity.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The president of a Silicon Valley medical technology company was charged Tuesday with misleading investors by falsely claiming the company had developed a government-approved blood test for the new coronavirus — the first criminal securities fraud prosecution related to the COVID-19 pandemic, federal officials said.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed a choppy day on Wall Street with broad losses Wednesday, despite fresh assurances from the Federal Reserve that it would keep interest rates low through 2022 and would continue buying bonds to help markets function smoothly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government recorded a budget deficit of $1.88 trillion for the first eight months of this budget year, larger than even any annual shortfalls in U.S. history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Confronted with an economy gripped by recession and high unemployment, the Federal Reserve signaled Wednesday that it expects to keep its key short-term interest rate near zero through 2022.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin believes the U.S. economy will need more help to pull out of the recession, but said the next round of support should be more targeted to the hardest hit parts of the economy.
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.
Starbucks took a virus-related revenue hit potentially exceeding $3 billion in its third quarter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices dropped in May for the third straight month as the coronavirus pandemic pushed the American economy into a recession.
The CEO of CrossFit is stepping down after his tweet about George Floyd sparked a social media backlash and led to affiliated gyms and Reebok cutting ties with the exercise brand.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former federal judge appointed to review the Justice Department's motion to dismiss criminal charges against President Donald Trump's former national security adviser Michael Flynn said there was evidence of a "gross abuse" of prosecutorial power and that the request should be denied.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The independent State Department watchdog fired by President Donald Trump says top department officials tried to bully him and dissuade his office from conducting a review of a multibillion-dollar arms sale to Saudi Arabia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic Senate primary in Georgia is too early to call.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday said his administration will "not even consider" changing the name of any of the 10 Army bases that are named for Confederate Army officers. Two days earlier, Defense Secretary Mark Esper indicated that he was open to a broad discussion of such changes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his comments since George Floyd died, President Donald Trump has shared lots of opinions about the need for "law and order," about fighting crime and the dangerous ideas of the "liberal left." When it comes to addressing racism, not so much.
TUESDAY, JUNE 9
STATEWIDE
The partisanship of Tennesseans strongly influences their views on COVID-19, the latest Vanderbilt Poll-Tennessee reports. The poll also found that economic worries abound as Tennesseans feel the financial effect of the safer-at-home order.
NASHVILLE (AP) — All of Tennessee's 15 state forests are now certified to comply with the Sustainable Forestry Initiative's forest management standards, according to a Monday news release from the Agriculture Department's Division of Forestry.
ONEIDA (AP) — Big South Fork National River and Recreation Area in Tennessee and Kentucky has reopened parts of the park, coordinating with health officials during the coronavirus pandemic.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A white Tennessee lawmaker asked for forgiveness on the House floor Monday after he made a racially offensive joke hours before to a black representative.
NASHVILLE AREA
Metro Nashville city leaders have released a Nashville Plan for re-opening schools this fall with protocols and guidelines in place to protect students, staff, and families from the potential spread of COVID-19 while in schools. The guidelines are based on the level of community spread at the time of schools reopening and throughout the school year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — After years of delay, Nashville will begin rolling out body cameras and in-car cameras for much of its police force next month, Mayor John Cooper said in a news release Monday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Fair is being canceled this year due to the coronavirus pandemic, but it will be back in September 2021, fair officials said Monday.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The fate of a black death row inmate in Tennessee, whose sentence was reduced to life in prison over concerns about racism at his trial, is up in the air after the Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals on Tuesday heard an appeal of the sentence reduction.
ENVIRONMENT
BRUSSELS (AP) — Environmental groups are urging the European Union to take drastic action to protect insects, saying in a report Tuesday that more than 40% of the world's insect species are in decline because of pesticide use and industrial farming.
AUTO INDUSTRY
A former Green Beret and his son accused of smuggling ex-Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of Japan in a box are fighting their extradition to the country, arguing the offense is not a crime there.
LONDON (AP) — Japanese carmaker Honda said Tuesday that it has been hit by a cyberattack that disrupted its business, though it expects the overall impact to be contained.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street hit the brakes Tuesday, a day after its remarkable, weekslong rally brought the S&P 500 back to positive for the year and the Nasdaq to a record high.
The U.S. communications regulator on Tuesday proposed a $225 million fine, its largest ever, against two health insurance telemarketers for spamming people with 1 billion robocalls using fake phone numbers.
BALTIMORE (AP) — U.S. employers laid-off 7.7 million workers in April — a deep the economic hole that was created by the closure of thousands of offices, restaurants, stores and schools during the pandemic.
PARIS (AP) — France's government is pumping 15 billion euros ($16.9 billion) in rescue money into the pandemic-battered aerospace industry, in hopes of saving its hundreds of thousands of jobs and keeping plane maker Airbus and national airline Air France globally competitive.
HONG KONG (AP) — Financially battered Hong Kong airline Cathay Pacific Airways has become the latest airline to get government support to survive the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday unanimously confirmed Gen. Charles Brown Jr. as chief of staff of the U.S. Air Force, making him the first black officer to lead one of the nation's military services.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Tim Scott proposes a national database of police officer-involved shootings. Sen. Rand Paul wants to stop sending surplus U.S. military equipment to local law enforcement. And GOP Sen. Mitt Romney is trying to assemble a bipartisan package of bills in response to police violence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump ignited fresh controversy over his hard-line "law and order" push Tuesday by peddling yet another unfounded conspiracy theory, this time trying to raise suspicions about a 75-year-old protester who was hospitalized after being shoved by police and falling.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's top diplomat said Tuesday that since the United States has already withdrawn from an international agreement curbing Iran's nuclear ambitions, it can't now use its former membership of the pact to try to impose a permanent arms embargo on the Islamic Republic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats in Congress are proposing an overhaul of police procedures and accountability after the mass protests over the deaths of black Americans at the hand of law enforcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his allies have seized on calls to "defund the police" as a dangerous example of Democratic overreach as he fights for momentum amid crises that threaten his reelection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — That massive fence erected around Lafayette Park has become a do-it-yourself gallery of protest art. Messages, posters and portraits, ranging from loving to enraged, almost blot out the view of the White House across the way.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Utah Sen. Mitt Romney on Monday became the latest prominent Republican to cast doubt on his support for President Donald Trump's reelection, saying he would "stay quiet" about whom he'll be supporting in November.
MONDAY, JUNE 8
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The coronavirus pushed hospitals to the edge, and millions of workers lost job-based coverage in the economic shutdown to slow the spread, but a new poll suggests Americans have remarkably little interest in big changes to health care as a result of the pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — Volkswagen's CEO is giving up managing the company's core VW brand in order to concentrate more on the group as a whole, the German automaker said Monday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Marriott, Hilton and other big hotel companies are used to competing on price or perks. Now they are competing on cleanliness.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expanding the range of companies that will qualify for its soon-to-begin Main Street Lending Program, in which the Fed will lend directly to individual companies for the first time since the Great Depression.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's enthusiasm about the reopening economy sent stocks scrambling even higher on Monday, and the Nasdaq composite wiped away the last of its coronavirus-induced losses to set a record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States has been here before, staring into the deep chasm that divides white and black Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy entered a recession in February as the coronavirus struck the nation, a group of economists declared Monday, ending the longest expansion on record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank said Monday the world is facing an unprecedented health and economic crisis that has spread with astonishing speed and will result in the largest shock the global economy has witnessed in more than seven decades. Millions of people are expected to be pushed into extreme poverty.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Business economists expect the United States to suffer its worst downturn this year in more than seven decades before growth resumes sometime next year.
LONDON (AP) — Energy producer BP announced Monday that it will slash its global workforce by 10,000 jobs as the COVID-19 pandemic slams the oil and gas industry.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam ratified a landmark trade deal Monday with the European Union that is expected to energize the country's manufacturing sector and exports, as it recovers from the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — U.S. Sen. Chuck Schumer of New York, the top Senate Democrat, called on the Department of Labor to investigate Florida's glitch-ridden unemployment system, asserting on Monday that the state mismanaged claims and failed to deliver timely benefits after massive job losses from the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are mounting a new effort to push back against a well-funded Republican campaign that seeks to undermine public confidence in mail-in voting, which President Donald Trump has said, without offering proof, will lead to election fraud.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than five months before voters will decide his fate, President Donald Trump is confronting a vastly different political reality than he once envisioned. For starters, if the election were held today, he'd likely lose.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Mitt Romney marched Sunday in the nation's capital in a protest against police mistreatment of minorities, making him the first Republican senator known to do so.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is exaggerating economic gains for African Americans during his administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats proposed a far-reaching overhaul of police procedures and accountability Monday, a sweeping legislative response to the mass protests denouncing the deaths of black Americans in the hands of law enforcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Protesters are pushing to "defund the police" over the death of George Floyd and other black Americans killed by law enforcement. Their chant has become a rallying cry — and a stick for President Donald Trump to use on Democrats as he portrays them as soft on crime.
FRIDAY, JUNE 5
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee must give all of its 4.1 million registered voters the option to cast ballots by mail during the coronavirus pandemic, a judge ruled Thursday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals will begin offering a livestream of oral arguments during in-person proceedings next week in Nashville.
ENVIRONMENT
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The federal government must revoke its approval of a widely used weed killer that has damaged other crops and turned neighbor against neighbor in some farm communities, a federal appeals court in California ruled.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — In an embarrassing about-face, The New York Times said Thursday that an opinion piece it ran by U.S. Sen. Tom Cotton advocating the use of federal troops to quell nationwide protests about police mistreatment of black Americans did not meet its standards.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Leaders of a large study in the United Kingdom that is rigorously testing the malaria drug hydroxychloroquine and other medicines for hospitalized COVID-19 patients say they will stop putting people on the drug because it's clear it isn't helping.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed out the week with a bang after a closely watched report on the job market surprised investors by showing that employers added to their payrolls last month, defying predictions they would slash more jobs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. unemployment dropped unexpectedly in May to 13.3% as reopened businesses began recalling millions of workers faster than economists had predicted, triggering a rally Friday on Wall Street and giving President Donald Trump something to boast about amid his reelection bid.
The Trump administration said Friday it will let Chinese airlines operate a limited number of flights to the U.S., backing down from a threat to ban the flights.
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney said Thursday that it will start closing 154 of its stores next week in what it is calling the first phase of its efforts to shrink its footprint.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Twitter has blocked a Trump campaign video tribute to George Floyd over a copyright claim, in a move that adds to tensions between the social media platform and the U.S. president, one of its most widely followed users.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump took a victory lap Friday morning after the government reported surprising job gains for last month, seizing on the data to predict that the worst of the coronavirus pandemic and its economic disruption was in the rear-view mirror.
WASHINGTON (AP) — City workers and volunteers painted the words Black Lives Matter in enormous bright yellow letters on the street leading to the White House, a highly visible sign of the District of Columbia's embrace of a protest movement that has put it at odds with President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two Republican-led Senate committees have launched election-year investigations into the Justice Department's Russia probe, resurrecting the issue at the urging of President Donald Trump while reigniting the partisan hostility that comes along with it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A phalanx of law enforcement officers and soldiers is positioned on the streets of the nation's capital to keep protesters at bay. Helicopters circle overhead, sometimes dipping low to buzz the crowd. The country's leader warns that he's willing to go further to "dominate" the streets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's inability to unify the nation at a time of grave unrest is testing his uneasy alliance with mainstream Republicans, some emboldened by Gen. James Mattis' plea for a leader who lives up to the U.S. ideals of a more perfect union.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When Jim Mattis announced his resignation as defense secretary, President Donald Trump thanked him for "tremendous progress" in helping to rebuild the military and for "retiring with distinction." Times changed and so did Trump's story about losing his Pentagon chief.
BOSTON (AP) — Google said state-backed hackers have targeted the campaigns of both President Donald Trump and former Vice President Joe Biden, although it saw no evidence that the phishing attempts were successful.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — President Donald Trump won't accept his party's nomination in North Carolina, but the Republican National Committee confirmed Thursday that it would still hold meetings in Charlotte.
THURSDAY, JUNE 4
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville's police oversight board is asking the mayor to reconvene the task force that developed its memorandum of understanding with the police department after board and staff members said they have not been receiving the full cooperation of the police department. The call came after a police shooting Wednesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Police have arrested a third person after a historic courthouse in Tennessee was vandalized during a weekend protest that turned violent.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee delivered unemployment payments to more than 314,000 people last week, as the number of new jobless claims continued to run much higher than normal during the response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee's administration is proposing another $284 million in budget cuts next year due to the economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's highest court declined Thursday to take up an appeal of a lawsuit challenging the legality of a school voucher program that would let parents use public tax dollars for private school tuition.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A new study says that while autonomous vehicle technology has great promise to reduce crashes, it may not be able to prevent all mishaps caused by human error.
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) — The casino coronavirus closure has ended. Cards are being dealt, dice are rolling and slot machines flashed and jingled for the first customers who started gambling again early Thursday in Las Vegas and throughout Nevada.
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — Mayor Jim Kenney kicked off a recent briefing on Philadelphia's coronavirus response with an unusual request for residents: Be careful what you flush.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended mostly lower on Wall Street after a day of wavering, ending a four-day winning streak for the S&P 500, its longest in nearly four months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Gap is being sued for refusing to pay rent for stores temporarily closed during the coronavirus pandemic.
Just because stocks have scrambled nearly all the way back to their record heights doesn't necessarily mean the market is in the clear.
ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Helped by the continuing spread of legal sports betting, commercial casinos in the U.S. won $43.6 billion from gamblers last year, an increase of 3.7% from the previous year.
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 is not only drawing criticism from his usual political foes but also facing backtalk from his defense secretary, his former Pentagon chief and a growing number of fellow Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Several hundred active-duty troops brought in to help if needed with the civil unrest in the nation's capitol are leaving Washington, D.C. Thursday, just a day after their initially planned departure was abruptly delayed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Senate voted along party lines Thursday to confirm President Donald Trump's choice to head the Voice of America and other U.S. government-funded international broadcasters that have been the subject of harsh criticism from the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The two black SUVs travel from checkpoint to checkpoint, each guarded by federal drug enforcement agents alongside members of the National Guard.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Alaska Republican Sen. Lisa Murkowski acknowledged Thursday that she's "struggling" over whether she can support President Donald Trump given his handling of the virus and race crises shaking the United States.
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) — The Senate Judiciary Committee has advanced the nomination of a 38-year-old judge and ally of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to serve on a federal appeals court, despite Democrats' objections that he's inexperienced and biased against the Obama health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican Party is facing a reckoning over some of its most divisive candidates. So far the results are mixed, and that's dicey for the GOP as a country shuddering from coast-to-coast civic unrest hurtles toward November elections.
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.