VOL. 38 | NO. 23 | Friday, June 6, 2014
IN THE WEEDS
You might have noticed that a major music festival has taken over town this weekend. And after the cowboy boots scoot out Monday, the Birkenstocks will shuffle through on the way to Bonnaroo next weekend, June 12-15, in Manchester.
REALTY CHECK
John Brittle of Village Real Estate Services is the founding father of InFill Nashville, a group that specializes in locating infill lots or properties on which the current structures are being underutilized.
NEWSMAKERS
StyleBlueprint, the Nashville-based online lifestyle publication with sites featuring five Southern cities, has hired Coco Kyriopoulos as its new chief operating officer.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Your wallet is almost totally empty. The same goes for your checkbook. There were two credit card bills in yesterday’s mail, you owe your neighbor 10 bucks and, if you had a savings account … well, let’s just say you don’t much.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Having spent the lion’s share of my career marketing national corporations, I would certainly say there is a science to marketing at that level, with the better brands marketing like well-oiled machines.
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
As 2013 drew to a close, investors bid up “risky” assets and sold “safe” assets in anticipation of a robust 2014. “Risky” stocks rose 30 percent and the “safe” 10-year Treasury bond lost 4 percent.
I SWEAR
The latest version of the Little Rock Film Festival was the best yet. Ask anyone who gathered at the Old Statehouse for the Awards Gala. The enthusiasm of the filmmakers was infectious.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
Every time I get my hair trimmed (and gray covered), my hairdresser turns her TV to the Food Network Channel. She knows I write about, cook and eat a lot of food, and that I’ve been cooking since I was able to reach the stove by standing on a chair alongside my mom and granny.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Amazon is launching a music streaming service for its Prime members, adding yet another freebie to its popular free-shipping plan ahead of the expected unveiling of its first smartphone next week.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Latin American Chamber of Commerce is hosting a viewing party in Nashville on Thursday for the first match of the World Cup.
MIDSTATE
LEBANON (AP) — State officials say the expansion of an automotive parts manufacturer in Wilson County could create more than 200 jobs.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Lottery says a Powerball player who purchased a ticket in Knoxville has won the $259.8 million jackpot.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Finance Commissioner Larry Martin says the state's revenue collections recorded negative growth in May.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The director of the Tennessee Valley Healthcare System said Wednesday that it will soon receive as much as $15 million to address an audit showing long wait times for veterans.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Lawyers for a Georgia family that is trying to reopen a wrongful death lawsuit against General Motors say the company is trying to move the case to federal court so it can use bankruptcy as a shield from the claim.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses increased their stockpiles in April by the largest amount in six months, signaling business optimism that future demand will keep rising.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales rose for a fourth straight month in May, adding to evidence that consumer spending will contribute to stronger economic growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week, but claims for jobless aid remain near pre-recession levels.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged lower in afternoon trading on Thursday after a report showed that retail sales rose less than forecast in May. A separate report showed that more Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week. The price of oil surged amid renewed violence in Iraq.
The price of oil jumped to above $106 a barrel Thursday as an insurgency in Iraq raised the risk of disruptions to supplies at a time when other major crude-producing countries are already pumping near capacity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages rose this week for a second straight week but remained near historic lows.
NEW YORK (AP) — The oil market has balanced out quite nicely for OPEC in recent years. Now, upheaval in Iraq shows that balance may be more precarious than it has seemed.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 11
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - A federal appeals court has refused to grant an injunction that would have exempted Catholic groups in Tennessee and Michigan from the contraception coverage requirements of the Affordable Care Act.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) - To many, Tennessee means whiskey. But inside the state, the question is: What does Tennessee whiskey mean?
AUTO INDUSTRY
General Motors CEO Mary Barra will be back in front of Congress next week to be questioned further about how GM allowed a deadly defect in an ignition switch to go undisclosed for more than a decade.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. is recalling nearly 650,000 vehicles in Japan and repeating a recall for problems with front passenger air bag inflators announced last year, seeking to fix some 2.27 million vehicles.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — A tweet containing computer code has started propagating itself through Twitter by taking advantage of a security flaw in Twitter's TweetDeck application.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Insurers want to change President Barack Obama's health care law to provide financial assistance for people buying bare-bones coverage. That would entice the healthy and the young, the industry says, holding down premiums.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
The U.S. stock market is closing lower after the World Bank scaled back its outlook for global growth.
The price of oil bounced around before finishing with a slight gain Wednesday. U.S. supplies declined more than expected, but a reduction in the World Bank's estimate of global economic growth raised concerns about demand.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — The nation's wheat crop is smaller than earlier was predicted due to drought, but corn and soybean crop expectations have changed little in the latest report from the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew said Wednesday that the economy should grow at much stronger rates the rest of this year as the country overcomes the impact of a harsh winter. But Lew said millions of Americans continue to struggle as unemployment remains too high and economic growth is too slow.
WASHINGTON (AP) — City living has been a blessing for Tim Nelson.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans on Wednesday blocked legislation aimed at letting people refinance their student loans at lower rates, a pre-ordained outcome that gave Democrats a fresh election-year talking point against the GOP.
TUESDAY, JUNE 10
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Alcohol regulators have abruptly ended their investigation into whether liquor giant Diageo violated state laws by storing whiskey made in Tennessee in neighboring Kentucky.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Thirty-seven community organizations in Tennessee are getting grants to preserve historic and archaeological sites, districts and structures.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Democratic Party has hired a new staffer to work against a proposed constitutional amendment to give lawmakers more power to regulate abortion in the state.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A coalition that advocated for supermarket wine sales has kicked off a statewide campaign to gather signatures in an effort to get the measure on the November ballot.
NEW YORK (AP) — FedEx is raising its quarterly dividend to 20 cents from 15 cents.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The Governor's Public Safety Subcabinet is partnering with a national advocacy group to review Tennessee's sentencing and correction policies.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A thorough review of General Motors' safety issues is nearing completion and hasn't turned up any more serious problems, the company's CEO said Tuesday.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is buying Skybox Imaging in a deal that could serve as a launching pad for the Internet company to send its own fleet of satellites to take aerial pictures and provide online access to remote areas of the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Aviation Administration said Tuesday it has granted the first permission for commercial drone flights over land, the latest effort by the agency to show it is loosening restrictions on commercial uses of the unmanned aircraft.
NEW YORK (AP) — This year's World Cup will play out on Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and messaging apps like WhatsApp just as it progresses in stadiums from Sao Paulo to Rio De Janeiro.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service wants to read taxpayers their rights.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies advertised more jobs in April than in any month in six and a half years, suggesting that a recent pickup in hiring should continue.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale businesses built up their stockpiles of goods in April, a sign that companies expect stronger economic growth in the coming months.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Standard & Poor's 500 index has ended lower after rising four days in a row.
The price of oil slipped a few pennies Tuesday as the outlook for rising demand was offset by expectations of sufficient supplies.
DALLAS (AP) — Travelers who fly the most and pay the most will soon earn more miles on United Airlines' frequent-flier program.
MONDAY, JUNE 9
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A Veterans Affairs audit has found that two health care facilities in Tennessee have among the nation's longest wait times for new patients to receive specialist care.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Southern Baptists elected their first African-American president two years ago in a move widely seen as a watershed for efforts to broaden the appeal of the nation's largest Protestant denomination beyond its traditional white Southern base.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination, is in Baltimore this week for its annual meeting. Among the issues that will or are likely to come up:
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has canceled his lone public event this week pending the arrival of his fourth grandchild.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Nashville developer is planning to build a more than $1 billion mixed-use development near the scenic Natchez Trace Parkway.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The former volunteer treasurer for Tennessee Disabled American Veterans has been sentenced to 10 years in prison for theft.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court has turned away appeals from cigarette manufacturers of more than $70 million in court judgments to Florida smokers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A divided Supreme Court ruled Monday that immigrant children who waited for years with their parents to obtain visas still have to go to the back of the line when they turn 21.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Monday that a group of homeowners in North Carolina can't sue a company that contaminated their drinking water decades ago because a state deadline has lapsed, a decision that could prevent thousands of other property owners in similar cases from recovering damages after being exposed to toxic waste.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Call it the ho-hum market. Another day, another record high.
Oil prices rose Monday as positive news on exports from China and economic growth in Japan followed last week's solid jobs report in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. economic growth should accelerate in the second quarter and remain healthy for the rest of this year, according to a forecast by a group of U.S. business economists. Still, growth for the full year will likely come in lower than they previously estimated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy has finally regained the jobs lost to the Great Recession. But go easy on the hallelujahs. The comeback is far from complete.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple's resurgent stock may have as much to do with financial engineering as the company's technological wizardry.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tyson Foods Inc. has won a bidding war for Hillshire Brands, the maker of Jimmy Dean sausages and Ball Park hot dogs, with a $63 per share offer.
OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — An Oklahoma company has created a protective blanket that developers say could give children a better chance of surviving debris from a tornado — or bullets from a 9 mm handgun.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Aiming to alleviate the burden of student loan debt, President Barack Obama expanded a program Monday that lets borrowers pay no more than 10 percent of their income every month, and threw his support behind more sweeping Senate legislation targeting the issue.
FRIDAY, JUNE 6
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Inside General Motors, they called it "the switch from hell."
General Motors on Thursday released the results of an internal investigation into the delayed recall of 2.6 million cars with faulty ignition switches. But the 315-page report doesn't bring the issue to a close. Here's what's still to come in the ongoing recall case:
WARREN, Mich. (AP) — General Motors said Thursday it has forced out 15 employees for their role in the deadly ignition-switch scandal and will set up a compensation fund for crash victims, as an internal investigation blamed the debacle on engineering ignorance and bureaucratic dithering, not a deliberate cover-up.
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 older small cars.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher after the U.S. government reported more healthy job growth in May.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers increased their borrowing by a sizable amount in April, with growth in credit card debt rising at the fastest pace in more than 12 years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Coca-Cola is taking on obesity, this time with an online video showing how fun it could be to burn off the 140 calories in a can of its soda.
DENVER (AP) — Seeking to move marijuana businesses away from cash-only operations, Gov. John Hickenlooper signed legislation Friday that tries to establish the world's first financial system for the newly legal industry in Colorado.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 217,000 jobs in May, a substantial gain for a fourth straight month, fueling hopes that the economy will accelerate after a grim start to the year.
FAYETTEVILLE, Ark. (AP) — Wal-Mart's CEO Doug McMillon said the world's largest retailer's task is to more quickly bring e-commerce together with physical stores to better serve shoppers.
The price of oil was in a holding pattern Friday ahead of a key monthly U.S. jobs report.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Securities and Exchange Commission is embarking on a broad plan to tackle growing concerns about the impact of high-speed computer-based trading on equity markets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rising stock markets and home prices helped lift U.S. household wealth to a record in the first three months of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans are looking for a new address than they were a decade ago, the Census Bureau said Thursday.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank ventured into uncharted territory Thursday with a raft of unusual measures meant to revive the eurozone economy by getting credit flowing to companies and preventing a debilitating bout of deflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal board investigation into the 2010 BP oil spill concludes that a last-ditch safety device on the underwater well had multiple failures, wasn't tested properly and still poses a risk for many rigs drilling today.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed Sylvia Mathews Burwell to be the nation's new health secretary and steward of the president's health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan coalition on the Senate Appropriations Committee moved Thursday to roll back House GOP-backed cuts to Amtrak, transportation projects and affordable housing projects, but pressures elsewhere in the budget may make the funding levels unsustainable as the massive $108 billion spending bill moves ahead.