VOL. 43 | NO. 23 | Friday, June 7, 2019
JIM MYERS: CULINARITY
Taco Bell. If there’s a restaurant that sums up the minor league baseball experience, it might as well be Taco Bell, at least if you ask Nashville Sounds side-arm slinger Tim Dillard.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
One of the oldest myths in pet lore is that one year of a dog’s life is the equivalent of seven years of a human’s life. Hence a 5-year-old dog would be comparable in age to a 35-year-old human, and a 10-year-old dog would have the age comparable to a 70-year-old man or woman.
REAL ESTATE
Getting Chip Hayes on the phone isn’t easy. He’s often busy with would-be tiny home owners, taking them for a walking tour and, more often than not, completing some paperwork when that’s over.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell for the sixth consecutive week, with the key 30-year loan average running below 4% and at its lowest point since September 2017.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Julian Infante tipped his cap to the applauding fans after being named MVP of the Nashville Regional following his impressive hitting performance.
UT SPORTS
Declining attendance is an issue facing college football programs across the country.
NEWSMAKERS
Kristina Allen Reliford has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP as an associate in the Litigation Practice Group.
The Tennessee Intellectual Property Law Association has announced its 2019 officers during its spring CLE program.
BRIEFS
Noble Investment Group has broken ground on the Element by Westin Nashville. The West End hotel will be the brand’s debut in Nashville and will open in 2020. The upscale, lifestyle hotel will be a part of the 19-acre mixed-use development oneC1TY at Charlotte Avenue and 28th Avenue North.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Small luxury SUVs are one of the fastest-growing luxury vehicle types in recent years, representing 21.8% of luxury vehicles sold this year, Edmunds data show. That compares to 8.7% in 2009.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Seven dollars, 25 cents. That’s what the federal government says is the least an employer must pay you per hour now, more or less, depending on your city and your job.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Many people are frightened of long-term care costs, and for good reason.
CAREER CORNER
There are certain questions that are off limits during job interviews. Not only are they bad manners, they are against the law.
NASHVILLE AREA
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — Sharing a stage with tearful survivors of sex abuse, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention apologized Wednesday for the abuse crisis besetting his denomination and outlined an array of steps to address it.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee is not echoing warnings by fellow Republican officials that if a union vote passes at Volkswagen in Chattanooga, future talks about state incentives could become more difficult.
PARIS (AP) — France's finance minister says the government didn't oppose a merger deal between carmaker Renault and Italian-American rival Fiat Chrysler.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers and experts said Thursday that videos altered with artificial intelligence software pose a threat to national security and the 2020 U.S. election.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter says it has deleted nearly 4,800 suspect accounts linked to Iran that the company says secretly pushed that government's agenda.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — The virtual currency bitcoin is responsible for the same amount of carbon dioxide emissions as a city like Las Vegas or Hamburg and efforts to reduce its climate footprint should be considered, researchers said Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
SINGAPORE (AP) — World stocks mostly rose Thursday and energy prices surged after two oil tankers suffered a suspected attack in the Gulf of Oman, raising tensions over a key trade route for crude.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The euro has gained ground as a global currency used for government reserves as U.S. economic sanctions deter some countries' use of the dollar, the European Central Bank said in a report Thursday.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Ride-hailing companies Uber and Lyft say they are willing to change the way they treat drivers in California as long as state lawmakers don't require them to classify drivers as employees, a move that would entitle them to a wide range of benefits.
NEW YORK (AP) — How much would you be willing to pay to get those diapers within an hour or so?
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi says President Donald Trump doesn't know right from wrong and is "indifferent to law and any sense of ethics about who we are as a country."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says that if a foreign power offered dirt on his 2020 opponent he'd be open to accepting it and that he'd have no obligation to call in the FBI.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Intelligence Committee has subpoenaed former White House national security adviser Michael Flynn and former Trump campaign aide Rick Gates as part of its investigation into Russian efforts to interfere with the 2016 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former White House communications director Hope Hicks has agreed to a closed-door interview with the House Judiciary Committee, the panel announced Wednesday, a breakthrough for Democrats who have been frustrated by President Donald Trump's broad stonewalling of their investigations.
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee says he is heading to the White House for a round table event on workforce development and criminal justice reform.
NASHVILLE AREA
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — Confronting an unprecedented sex-abuse crisis, delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention's national meeting voted Tuesday to make it easier to expel churches that mishandle abuse cases.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The first woman ever appointed to the Tennessee Supreme Court has been honored with a portrait to hang in the courthouse.
MIDSTATE
RIDGETOP (AP) — The city of Ridgetop, Tennessee, has dissolved its police department amid budget constraints.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Controlling owner Amy Adams Strunk says nobody with the Titans will ever wear Eddie George's No. 27 nor the No. 9 of the late Steve McNair again, players who helped the franchise through its difficult relocation from Houston to Tennessee to its lone Super Bowl berth.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans opened their mandatory minicamp Tuesday with no drama and new left guard Rodger Saffold the lone absence, and he was excused for personal reasons.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt has added four more graduate transfers to its football roster.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee freshman offensive lineman Melvin McBride says he's giving up football due to health problems.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen says it is taking a stake in Swedish battery cell producer Northvolt AB and plans a joint factory in Germany ahead of increased production of electric vehicles next year.
TOKYO (AP) — Two investor research companies are advising Nissan shareholders to turn down a proposal to reappoint the automaker's chief executive, Hiroto Saikawa, as a board director, citing possible oversight problems at the Japanese automaker after the arrest of his predecessor Carlos Ghosn.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Tesla CEO Elon Musk assured shareholders the electric car maker has recovered from a disappointing start this year and promised to counter media coverage that he believes has distorted perceptions about the unprofitable company's long-term prospects.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nursing facilities have failed to report thousands of serious cases of potential neglect and abuse of Medicare beneficiaries even though the federal government requires such reporting, says a watchdog report due out Wednesday that calls for a new focus on protecting frail patients.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government's budget deficit in May rose to a record $207.8 billion, 41.5% higher than a year ago. Most of that increase reflected the impact of calendar quirks that shifted $55 billion in June benefit payments into May.
Stocks closed modestly lower on Wall Street Wednesday, handing the market its second straight loss.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's aggressive and wildly unpredictable use of tariffs is spooking American business groups, which have long formed a potent force in his Republican Party.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer prices increased a slight 0.1% in May, as inflation was tempered by lower costs for gasoline, electricity and used cars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department's antitrust chief suggested Tuesday he'll take a broad view of how competition is harmed when assessing whether big tech firms should be broken up.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump Jr., the president's eldest son, said he is "glad this is finally over" after speaking to the Senate Intelligence Committee for around three hours on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Intelligence Committee chairman is threatening to subpoena FBI Director Christopher Wray for information related to the bureau's counterintelligence investigation into Russian interference in the 2016 U.S. presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With three weeks to go, exactly what's going to happen in Washington on the Fourth of July remains a subject of intense confusion because of President Donald Trump plans to reshape the nation's premier celebration.
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
NASHVILLE AREA
BIRMINGHAM, Alabama (AP) — The Southern Baptist Convention opened a national meeting Tuesday that was expected to be dominated by discussion of a large-scale sex-abuse crisis . Delegates were expected to adopt new abuse prevention measures and consider a proposal making it easier to expel churches that mishandle abuse cases.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee State University agriculture professor has received almost $1 million to study how crops adapt to climate change.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States government has formally submitted an extradition request to the United Kingdom for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange (ah-SAHNJ'), according to a U.S. official.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee district attorney is under investigation after posting anti-Islamic social media comments and saying gay people shouldn't receive domestic violence protections.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
The Southeastern Conference flexed its baseball muscles Monday, with Auburn and Arkansas posting blowout wins in the deciding games of their super regionals and giving their league a record-tying four teams in the College World Series.
TECHNOLOGY
ALBUQUERQUE, N.M. (AP) — Facebook is building a massive solar farm in West Texas that's believed to be one of the largest solar projects in the nation and the social media giant's first direct investment in renewable energy.
Customs and Border Protection said Monday that photos of travelers and license plates collected at a single U.S. border point have been exposed in a malicious cyberattack in what a leading congressman called a "major privacy breach."
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental Protection Agency heads under three previous Republican presidents joined their Democratic counterparts Tuesday in telling lawmakers they were concerned with the Trump administration's rapid rollbacks of environmental protections.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks fell Tuesday for the first time in six days after the recent upward momentum gave way to lingering concerns about the U.S. trade war with China.
NEW YORK (AP) — A group of state attorneys general led by New York and California filed a federal lawsuit Tuesday to block T-Mobile's $26.5 billion bid for Sprint, citing consumer harm.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is closing its U.S. restaurant delivery service, a 4-year-old business that failed to take off amid fierce competition from Uber Eats, Door Dash and others.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices rose just 0.1% in May month, another sign that inflation remains under control.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Members of both parties on Tuesday suggested legislation may be necessary for the financially-struggling U.S. news industry as lawmakers began a bipartisan investigation into the market dominance of Silicon Valley companies.
SHANGHAI (AP) — Attention is turning to a possible meeting of President Donald Trump with Chinese leader Xi Jinping at a summit in Japan later this month as the next step in the vexing trade standoff between the two biggest economies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Judiciary Committee chairman says his panel will move "as quickly as possible" to seek court enforcement of a subpoena against former White House Counsel Don McGahn.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's eldest son will meet with the Senate intelligence committee Wednesday behind closed doors, according to two people familiar with the meeting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Comedian Jon Stewart scolded Congress Tuesday for failing to ensure that a victims' compensation fund set up after the 9/11 attacks never runs out of money.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are pushing a resolution through the House Tuesday that would make it easier to sue President Donald Trump's administration and potential witnesses, paving the way for legal action against those who defy subpoenas in Congress' Russia probe and other investigations.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Fox News host Greg Gutfeld can now add songwriter to his resume after a song he co-wrote with John Rich, which features his fellow co-hosts on the political talk show "The Five," has debuted on the Billboard charts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan push to increase lawmakers' salaries after a decade-long pay freeze is running into predictable obstacles and could be close to unraveling.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — After months of jabbing each other from afar, President Donald Trump and Democrat Joe Biden will overlap Tuesday in Iowa, a state that's critical to their political futures.
LONDON (AP) — Boris Johnson has solidified his front-runner status in the race to become Britain's next prime minister by gaining backing from leading pro-Brexit lawmakers.
MONDAY, JUNE 10
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Meharry Medical College is planning to research the impact of electronic cigarettes and vaping with a grant from vaping device maker JUUL Labs.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Eight Tennessee sites have been placed on the National Register of Historic Places.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Vanderbilt Commodores finally are headed back to Omaha and the College World Series for the first time since stringing together a national title in 2014 and a runners-up finish in 2015.
Florida State coach Mike Martin, the all-time wins leader in all NCAA sports, will get one more shot at winning his first national championship before he retires.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan chief executive Hiroto Saikawa criticized the Japanese automaker's French alliance partner, Renault, on Monday for trying to block changes to strengthen corporate governance following the arrest of former Nissan Chairman Carlos Ghosn.
PARIS (AP) — Lawyers for former Renault chief Carlos Ghosn say they're surprised the French automaker's board has launched legal proceedings against Ghosn.
COURTS
BUTTE, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court will decide whether residents of two Montana communities can continue their decade-long effort to get the Atlantic Richfield Co. to pay for a more thorough cleanup of arsenic left on properties after a century of copper smelting.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court sided Monday with an Alabama technology company over the U.S. Postal Service in a patent dispute.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday against workers on oil drilling platforms off California who argued they should be paid for the off-work time they spend on the platform, including sleeping.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court rejected a challenge to federal regulation of gun silencers Monday, just days after a gunman used one in a shooting rampage that killed 12 people in Virginia.
WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Internet entrepreneur Kim Dotcom and three of his former colleagues on Monday took their fight against being extradited to the U.S. to New Zealand's top court.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies and banks helped power stocks higher on Wall Street Monday as investors welcomed news that the U.S. and Mexico averted a trade war and potentially damaging tariffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump complained Monday that President Xi Jinping enjoys a major advantage in the U.S.-China trade war in that he controls China's central bank while Trump must deal with a Federal Reserve that is "very destructive to us."
CHICAGO (AP) — Seniors in major metropolitan areas, especially in the Northeast and around Washington, D.C., are more likely to continue working past age 65 than those in other areas around the country, according to an analysis of Census data by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam's government says it is taking more steps to prevent Chinese companies from using illegal "Made in Vietnam" labels to avoid high tariffs that have been imposed by the United States on Chinese goods.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says if Chinese President Xi Jinping doesn't meet with him at the upcoming Group of 20 summit in Osaka, Japan, this month, additional tariffs will go into effect.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Customer-management software developer Salesforce is buying Tableau Software in an all-stock deal valued at $15.7 billion.
STERLING, Va. (AP) — With his threatened Mexican tariffs now on the backburner, President Donald Trump was looking to claim victory even as some of his Democratic challengers for the White House criticized him for overselling a deal that mostly ramps up existing efforts.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — As Washington and Mexico City both took victory laps Saturday over a deal that headed off threatened tariffs on Mexican imports, it remained to be seen how effective it may be and migration experts raised concerns over what it could mean for people fleeing poverty and violence in Central America.
WALTHAM, Mass. (AP) — Raytheon and United Technologies will join to create a massive aerospace and defense company in a sector that is already rapidly consolidating.
PHOENIX (AP) — Rising trade tensions between the U.S. and China have sparked worries about the 17 exotic-sounding rare earth minerals needed for high-tech products like robotics, drones and electric cars.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Dean, a star witness during Watergate who helped bring down the Nixon presidency, testified Monday that special counsel Robert Mueller has provided Congress with a "road map" for investigating President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has agreed to turn over some of the underlying evidence from special counsel Robert Mueller's report, including files used to assess whether President Donald Trump obstructed justice, the chairman of the House Judiciary Committee said Monday.
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's leader signaled Monday that her government will push ahead with controversial amendments to extradition laws despite a massive protest against them that underscored fears about mainland China's broadening footprint in the semi-autonomous territory.
FRIDAY, JUNE 7
STATE GOVERNMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — Planned Parenthood says it is putting up new billboards criticizing Democratic Tennessee Rep. John DeBerry's stance on abortion.
REGION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — An attorney is asking the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission to review the Tennessee Valley Authority's new whistleblowing program before it's implemented.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Promise scholars can fulfill their community service requirement during a volunteer event in the Tennessee State Parks this month.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee district attorney is facing calls for an investigation after saying gay people shouldn't receive domestic violence protections, arguing that such laws are designed to protect the "sanctity of marriage."
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Carrie Underwood extended her run as the most decorated act in the history of the CMT Music Awards with her 20th win Wednesday night.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Top Tennessee Republicans are predicting economic harm if workers at Volkswagen's car assembly plant in Chattanooga vote to unionize, and they are following a blueprint that helped GOP officials sink a similar vote five years ago.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan wasn't consulted on the proposed merger between its alliance partner Renault and Fiat Chrysler, but the Japanese automaker's reluctance to go along may have helped bring about the surprise collapse of the talks.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Major automobile manufacturers urged the Trump administration and California on Thursday to restart negotiations over vehicle mileage standards to prevent a lengthy legal battle, warning that moving ahead with two sets of standards would create instability in the auto market.
MILAN (AP) — Fiat Chrysler's surprise decision to withdraw a merger offer with French carmaker Renault stunned the industry, collapsing Thursday on fundamental differences over when Renault's long-time alliance partner, Nissan, would be brought in.
TRANSPORTATION
FedEx is dropping a contract for air shipment of packages for Amazon within the United States, reducing its ties with the online retail giant that is already expanding its own delivery business.
Two key lawmakers said Friday that Boeing planned to delay fixing a nonworking safety alert on its 737 Max aircraft for three years and sped up the process only after the first of two deadly crashes involving Max planes last October.
Andrew Hardy was crossing the street on an electric scooter in downtown Los Angeles when a car struck him at 50 miles per hour and flung him 15 feet in the air before he smacked his head on the pavement and fell unconscious.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Facebook said Friday it has stopped letting its apps come pre-installed on smartphones sold by Huawei in order to comply with U.S. restrictions, a move that deals a fresh blow to the Chinese tech giant.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — A senior executive for Chinese technology giant Huawei said Thursday that he hopes the company's animosity with the United States will be resolved and warned that the U.S. would be shooting itself in the foot if it were to shun Chinese technology.
NEW YORK (AP) — Google will kick off its Stadia streaming service to challenge the video game industry in November — but initially only as part of a $130 bundle that includes hardware and a pass for a friend.
NEW YORK (AP) — Federal regulators voted Thursday to give phone companies the right to block unwanted calls without getting customers' permission first.
NEW YORK (AP) — Google is acquiring data analytics firm Looker for $2.6 billion cash in an effort to expand its Google Cloud business.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg is plunging $500 million into an effort to close all of the nation's remaining coal plants by 2030 and put the United States on track toward a 100% clean energy economy.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan is calling for further efforts to cut carbon emissions by promoting renewables but also nuclear energy despite the 2011 Fukushima reactors meltdowns.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharp pullback in U.S. hiring for May intensified fears that the economy has weakened and that many employers have grown nervous, in part from President Donald Trump's escalating trade wars.
NEW YORK (AP) — How much do you trust a stranger with your fridge?
Wall Street turned the page on a painful May in the stock market by notching its best week since late November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer borrowing accelerated in April to the fastest pace in five months as a rebound in credit card use offset slower demand for auto and student loans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Friday hit Iran with new sanctions that target its largest petrochemical company for providing support to the Revolutionary Guard Corps.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. hiring stumbled in May as employers added just 75,000 jobs, a sign that businesses have become more cautious in the face of weaker global growth and widening trade conflicts.
NEW YORK (AP) — The one-time bookselling giant Barnes & Noble is being acquired by a hedge fund for $476 million.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After a week of threats, President Donald Trump declared Friday that "there is a good chance" the U.S. will strike a deal with Mexico to avert the tariffs he's scheduled to take effect Monday to force the U.S. ally to stem the flow of Central American migrants into the United States.
U.S. stocks finished higher Thursday as optimism that the U.S. and Mexico can work out a deal before costly tariffs kick in next week helped power the market to its third straight gain.
VILNIUS, Lithuania (AP) — The European Central Bank has taken action to support the economy in the 19-country eurozone, joining other major central banks like the U.S. Federal Reserve in responding to fears about global growth.
CHICAGO (AP) — Some younger workers aren't particularly thrilled to see a rising share of older Americans forgo retirement and continue working, according to a recent poll by The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
NEW YORK (AP) — If milk is a few days past its "Sell By" date, is it safe to drink?
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity grew at a strong 3.4% rate in the January-March quarter, the best showing in more than four years, the Labor Department reported Thursday. It was an encouraging sign that productivity may finally be improving after a long stretch of weakness.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit shrank in April, but the politically sensitive deficit with China moved higher.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — With President Donald Trump threatening to slap tariffs on goods from Mexico, his transformation of Republican Party trade policy is nearly complete.
ST. PETERSBURG, Russia (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin has criticized the United States for using pressure and sanctions to maintain its economic supremacy.
BAGHDAD (AP) — Iran has chosen to "step back and recalculate" after making preparations for an apparent attack against U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf region, but it is too early to conclude the threat is gone, the top commander of American forces in the Mideast said.
In a mission to "improve the aesthetic appearance" of President Donald Trump's wall, active-duty troops will begin painting a stretch of border fence as part of a military deployment to secure the border at a time when tens of thousands of Central American families have been arriving in the U.S. and overwhelming the immigration system.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are poised to make it easier for their committee chairmen to take the Trump administration to court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has signed a $19.1 billion disaster aid bill aimed at helping communities across the country bounce back from hurricanes, floods, tornadoes and fires.