VOL. 45 | NO. 29 | Friday, July 16, 2021
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
So much for the “blood out of a turnip” adage. Each month, the Nashville real estate market continues to set records for the number of sales by pulling transactions from the lowest inventory level in decades.
REAL ESTATE
June 2021 real estate trends for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Second quarter 2021 real estate trends for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top residential real estate sales, June 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top residential real estate sales, second quarter 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal freeze on most evictions enacted last year is scheduled to expire July 31, after the Biden administration extended the date by a month. The moratorium, put in place by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention in September, was the only tool keeping millions of tenants in their homes. Many of them lost jobs during the coronavirus pandemic and had fallen months behind on their rent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates were mixed this week. The benchmark 30-year loan fell for the third straight week amid lingering concerns over the recent surge in inflation.
NEWSMAKERS
Bone McAllester Norton PLLC has hired Brandon Meredith, a University of Memphis Cecil C. Humphreys School of Law alumnus, as the firm’s newest attorney at its Sumner County office. Meredith joins Bone McAllester Norton with 13 years of legal experience at Phillips and Ingrum in Gallatin.
BRIEFS
Belmont University is launching a new program in supply chain management within its Jack C. Massey College of Business.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Last summer, like millions of Americans, I brought home a 7-pound ball of fluff. Over the past year, my mini-goldendoodle has turned into 23 pounds of pure joy. Close to one in five households have acquired a dog or cat since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, a recent survey from the ASPCA reports. That’s approximately 23 million American households.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Does a little outdoor adventure sound enticing to you? It does to many Americans, as evidenced by crowded national parks and increased demand for trucks and SUVs. If you’re looking for a vehicle that can handle going off-road yet still be your inexpensive source for daily transportation, there are several options at your disposal.
PERSONAL FINANCE
You may not own cryptocurrency or nonfungible tokens. You may not have a big Instagram following or run an online business. But if you do almost anything online, you probably have digital assets — electronic records that you own, control or license. Failing to make arrangements for those assets while you’re alive could cause unnecessary costs, stress and heartache to those you leave behind.
CAREER CORNER
Countless news stories have popped up in the last few weeks about the Great Resignation. Millions of American workers are quitting their jobs.
MIDSTATE
MT. JULIET (AP) — A pet product company plans to open a new facility in Tennessee that is expected to create 1,200 jobs.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say they've finished deconstructing emergency COVID-19 care sites in Nashville and Memphis.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A group that runs a Tennessee shelter for unaccompanied immigrant youth has sued the state over its decision to suspend the facility's license after an employee was arrested following abuse allegations.
Landscaping was hardly his lifelong dream. As a teenager, Alton Lucas believed basketball or music would pluck him out of North Carolina and take him around the world. In the late 1980s, he was the right-hand man to his musical best friend, Youtha Anthony Fowler, who many hip hop and R&B heads know as DJ Nabs.
The yearslong effort by state and local governments in the U.S. to force the pharmaceutical industry to help pay to fix a nationwide opioid addiction and overdose crisis took a major step forward Tuesday when lawyers for local governments announced they were on the verge of a $26 billion settlement with the nation's three biggest drug distribution companies and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A $26 billion settlement between the three biggest U.S. drug distribution companies and drugmaker Johnson & Johnson and thousands of states and municipalities that sued over the toll of the opioid crisis is certainly significant — but it is far from tying a neat bow on the tangle of still unresolved lawsuits surrounding the epidemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German auto maker Daimler reaped strong profits in the second quarter as demand for its Mercedes luxury cars continued to rebound from the depths of the pandemic, generating cash that the company can invest in its shift to electric vehicles.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. and a self-driving vehicle company it partly owns will join with the Lyft ride-hailing service to offer autonomous rides on the Lyft network.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's top automaker Toyota is adding two companies specializing in tiny "kei" cars, Daihatsu and Suzuki, to a partnership in commercial vehicles it set up with Hino and Isuzu earlier this year.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans would be freer to repair their broken cellphones, computers, videogame consoles and even tractors themselves or to use independent repair shops under changes being eyed by federal regulators that target manufacturer restrictions.
MEDIA
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Netflix reported its worst slowdown in subscriber growth in eight years as people emerge from their pandemic cocoons. So it's adding a new attraction to its marquee: Video games.
HONG KONG (AP) — China's internet watchdog said Wednesday it has fined platforms operated by e-commerce company Alibaba and gaming firm Tencent for spreading sexually suggestive content involving children, as regulators seek to clean up content harmful to minors.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. life expectancy fell by a year and a half in 2020, the largest one-year decline since World War II, public health officials said Wednesday. The decrease for both Black Americans and Hispanic Americans was even worse: three years.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Over the summer, Crimson Tide coach Nick Saban urged his fellow Alabama residents to get vaccinated against the coronavirus in a public service announcement.
Rising concern about the fast-spreading delta variant of COVID-19 is creating turbulence for the stocks of big travel companies, but airline executives say they don't see any slowdown in ticket sales, maybe because a high percentage of their best customers are fully vaccinated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lagging vaccination rates among nursing home staff are being linked to a national increase in COVID-19 infections and deaths at senior facilities in July, and are at the center of a federal investigation in a hard-hit Colorado location where disease detectives found many workers were not inoculated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell implored unvaccinated Americans Tuesday to take the COVID-19 shot, issuing a stark and grave warning of a repeat of last year's rising caseloads and shutdowns if people refuse to protect themselves from the coronavirus.
TOKYO (AP) — Over and over, year after year, the stewards of the Olympics say it: The Games aren't supposed to be political. But how do you avoid politics when you're trying to pull off an event of this complexity during a lethal and protracted pandemic?
LONDON (AP) — U.K. border officers have been directed to stop routinely checking whether travelers from many countries have tested negative for COVID-19, British media reported Wednesday, citing leaked government documents.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher again on Wall Street, extending their gains following a sharp drop at the beginning of the week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and Germany have reached a deal that will allow the completion of a controversial Russian gas pipeline to Europe without the imposition of further U.S. sanctions, a senior U.S. official said Wednesday.
CHARLESTON, W.Va. (AP) — Dozens of labor and advocacy groups on Wednesday called on President Joe Biden to save nearly 1,500 jobs at a pharmaceutical plant in West Virginia slated to close at the end of July.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and members of his national security team plan to meet next month with business executives about cybersecurity, an official said Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The world's richest man wanted to say thanks to the people who made his brief trip into space Tuesday possible.
LONDON (AP) — The British government said Wednesday that post-Brexit trade rules it negotiated with the European Union "cannot go on" and need a major rewrite, straining already tense U.K.-EU relations.
Coca-Cola Co.'s sales rebounded faster than expected as the impact of the pandemic abated.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's exports in June jumped 48.6% from the year before, marking the fourth straight month of growth, the Finance Ministry said Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday rejected two Republicans tapped by House GOP leader Kevin McCarthy to sit on a committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection, a decision the Republican denounced as "an egregious abuse of power."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats accused Republicans Wednesday of a "shameless, cynical" ploy that would damage the economy and the government's credit rating after the chamber's GOP leader said his party would vote against raising the federal debt limit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans rejected an effort Wednesday to begin debate on a big infrastructure deal that a bipartisan group of senators brokered with President Joe Biden. But supporters in both parties remained hopeful of another chance in coming days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deputy Secretary of State Wendy Sherman will travel to China this weekend on a visit that comes as tensions between Washington and Beijing soar on multiple fronts, the State Department said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden just can't quit Ohio — even if it rejected him in last year's election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden marked six months in office with a crowded Cabinet meeting, a gathering meant to symbolize both a return to normalcy due to vaccines and a display of the federal government doing the people's business.
TUESDAY, JULY 20
COURTS
The yearslong effort by state and local governments in the U.S. to force the pharmaceutical industry to help pay to fix a nationwide opioid addiction and overdose crisis took a major step forward Tuesday when lawyers for local governments announced they were on the verge of a $26 billion settlement with the nation's three biggest drug distribution companies and the drugmaker Johnson & Johnson.
HEALTH CARE
HCA Healthcare's second-quarter profit jumped past analyst expectations as patients returned to operating tables and hospital rooms after staying away last year at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Volkswagen says it will stop producing the Passat at its Chattanooga assembly plant.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Home construction in the U.S. jumped 6.3% in June, another big swing in a volatile year.
TECHNOLOGY
VAN HORN, Texas (AP) — Jeff Bezos blasted into space Tuesday on his rocket company's first flight with people on board, becoming the second billionaire in just over a week to ride his own spacecraft.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security on Tuesday announced new requirements for U.S. pipeline operators to bolster cybersecurity following a May ransomware attack that disrupted gas delivery across the East Coast.
MEDIA
ATLANTA (AP) — Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blasted social media companies over her temporary suspension from Twitter on Tuesday, calling it "a Communist-style attack on free speech."
ENVIRONMENT
LONDON (AP) — U.S. climate envoy John Kerry called on China to join America in urgently cutting greenhouse gas emissions and described the international alliances that rebuilt Europe after World War II as a model for fighting e against climate change.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert, angrily confronted Kentucky GOP Sen. Rand Paul on Tuesday in testimony on Capitol Hill, rejecting Paul's insinuation that the U.S. helped fund research at a Chinese lab that could have sparked the COVID-19 outbreak.
WASHINGTON — The nation's top infectious disease expert is suggesting parents follow new COVID-19 guidance for mask-wearing issued by the American Academy of Pediatrics.
TOKYO (AP) — The world needs to see that Japan can stage a safe Olympics, the country's prime minister told sports officials Tuesday ahead of the Tokyo Games.
TORONTO (AP) — Canada announced Monday it will begin letting fully vaccinated U.S. citizens into Canada on Aug. 9, and those from the rest of the world on Sept. 7.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's excess deaths during the pandemic could be a staggering 10 times the official COVID-19 toll, likely making it modern India's worst human tragedy, according to the most comprehensive research yet on the ravages of the virus in the South Asian country.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks jumped on Wall Street Tuesday, making up much of the ground they lost a day earlier when worries flared about spreading cases of the more contagious variant of COVID-19.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The bipartisan infrastructure deal senators brokered with President Joe Biden is hanging precariously ahead of a crucial Wednesday test vote as senators struggle over how to pay for nearly $1 trillion in public works spending.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — The chair of former President Donald Trump's 2017 inaugural committee was arrested Tuesday on charges alleging he conspired to influence Trump's foreign policy positions to benefit the United Arab Emirates and commit crimes striking "at the very heart of our democracy."
Washington (AP) — A prominent conservative group funneled valuable information about Republican voters between the Republican National Committee and state lawmakers, a move that violated its nonpartisan status and tax law, according to a whistleblower complaint filed Tuesday with the Internal Revenue Service.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Monday ordered the State Department to create a working group to review U.S. remittance policy to ensure that money that Cuban Americans send home makes it directly into the hands of their families without the regime taking a cut.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy has picked five Republicans to sit on the new select committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, signaling that Republicans will participate in the investigation that they have staunchly opposed.
MONDAY, JULY 19
PREDATORS
A Nashville Predators prospect has come out as gay, a milestone moment for the sport of hockey as the first player signed to an NHL contract to make that declaration publicly.
SPORTS
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — Southeastern Conference Commissioner Greg Sankey echoed the NCAA president's call for potential changes in how college athletics are governed Monday, though he did not endorse a breakaway by the five most powerful leagues.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Before a top Tennessee health official recommended firing the state's former vaccine director over claims that include shortcomings in her leadership, her supervisor had praised her "strong leadership" as recently as last month while her program faced "very intense scrutiny and performance expectations," according to a state job performance evaluation circulated publicly on her behalf.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say state tax revenues continued to exceed projections in the latest monthly report.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Education has approved 29 new virtual schools for upcoming 2021-22 school year.
COURTS
TOKYO (AP) — A Tokyo court handed down prison terms for the American father and son accused of helping Nissan's former chairman, Carlos Ghosn, escape to Lebanon while awaiting trial in Japan.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Billionaire Bill Ackman is walking away from a deal announced last month that would have given him a 10% stake in Universal Music Group, the label that is home to Taylor Swift, Billie Eilish, Lady Gaga and the Beatles.
MEDIA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Monday formally prohibited federal prosecutors from seizing the records of journalists in leak investigations, with limited exceptions, reversing years of department policy.
TECHNOLOGY
BERLIN (AP) — The United Nations' human rights chief voiced alarm Monday over the reported use of military-grade malware from Israel-based NSO Group to spy on journalists, human rights activists and political dissidents.
Zoom, the videoconferencing company whose growth was supercharged by the pandemic over the past year, will buy the cloud call center company Five9 in an all-stock deal valued at about $14.7 billion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday blamed China for a hack of Microsoft Exchange email server software that compromised tens of thousands of computers around the world earlier this year.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
LONDON (AP) — The British government has decided not to inoculate most children and teenagers against COVID-19 until more safety data on the vaccines become available.
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — Pandemic restrictions on Florida-based cruise ships will remain in place after a federal appeals court temporarily blocked a previous ruling that sided with a Florida lawsuit challenging the regulations.
The U.S. surgeon general said Sunday that he's concerned about what lies ahead with cases of COVID-19 increasing in every state, millions still unvaccinated and a highly contagious virus variant spreading rapidly.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks skidded on Wall Street and investors sought refuge in government bonds amid worries that a surge in virus infections around the world will threaten the economic recovery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It hit like a derailed train, was hugely destructive but short-lived.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that his infrastructure and families agenda must be passed to sustain the economic momentum of his first six months in office, aiming to set the tone for a crucial week of congressional negotiations on the two bills.
Air travel in the United States hit another pandemic-era record over the weekend as vacationers jammed airports, but shares of airlines, cruise lines, hotels and almost anything else related to travel tumbled Monday on growing concerns about highly contagious variants of coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tempered his assessment that social media giants are "killing people" by hosting misinformation about the COVID-19 vaccines on their platforms, saying Monday that he hoped they would not take it "personally" and instead would act to save lives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers' most consequential battle this year over President Joe Biden's expansive domestic agenda will snake through a legislative maze that's eye-rolling even by Congress' standards.
ATLANTA (AP) — Congressional Democrats are exploring ways to include financial incentives for states to expand voting access as part of a multitrillion-dollar infrastructure bill, a key senator said Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A proposal to strengthen IRS enforcement to crack down on tax scofflaws and help fund a nearly $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure spending bill is officially off the table, Republican Sen. Rob Portman said Sunday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is set to host King Abdullah II of Jordan during one of the most difficult moments of the Jordanian leader's 22-year rule and at a pivotal time in the Middle East for Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Monday transferred a Guantánamo Bay detainee to his home country for the first time, a policy shift from the Trump presidency that repatriated a Moroccan man years after he was recommended for discharge.
FRIDAY, JULY 16
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville leaders on Friday unveiled a new historical marker remembering former Rep. John Lewis, kicking off a weekend celebrating the civil rights icon.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Days after she was fired under pressure from Republican legislators, Tennessee's former vaccinations director has issued a point-by-point rebuttal to a letter recommending her removal and to other claims by state officials about the program she ran that offers shots for children.
NASHVILLE (AP) — As controversy raged on over the firing of Tennessee's vaccination leader after state lawmakers complained about efforts to promote COVID-19 vaccination among teenagers, state officials released documents Thursday that for the first time offer other reasons for her dismissal.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee death row inmate Stephen Hugueley was found dead early Friday morning, three days after the state filed a motion to set his execution date.
HEALTH CARE
KANSAS CITY, Kan. (AP) — Pfizer Inc. and two of its subsidiaries have agreed to pay $345 million under a proposed settlement to resolve lawsuits over EpiPen price hikes.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — So much for Donald Trump's quest for "perfect" hair.
BEIJING (AP) — Chinese power companies bid for credits to emit carbon dioxide and other climate-changing gases as trading on the first national carbon exchange began Friday in a step meant to help curb worsening pollution.
TRANSPORTATION
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — American Airlines is canceling extended leaves for about 3,300 flight attendants and telling them to come back to work in time for the holiday season.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended a wobbly week broadly lower, with much of Friday's loss attributable to weakness in big technology companies like Apple and Amazon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration issued a blanket warning Friday to U.S. firms about the risks of doing business in Hong Kong as China continues to clamp down on political and economic freedoms in the territory.
Americans spent more last month on clothing, electronics and dining out as the economy opened up and pandemic-related restrictions were lifted.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden, his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga and Russian President Vladimir Putin are among Pacific Rim leaders gathering virtually to discuss strategies to help economies rebound from a resurgent COVID-19 pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is pressuring lawmakers to reach agreement by next week on a pair of massive domestic spending measures, signaling Democrats' desire to push ahead aggressively on President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar agenda.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sheltered in a downtown D.C. hotel, the Democratic lawmakers who left Texas to block a restrictive voting bill are living a life of stress and scrutiny.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Welcoming Angela Merkel to the White House for a final time, President Joe Biden renewed his concerns to the German chancellor Thursday about a major, nearly complete Russia-to-Germany gas pipeline but said they agreed Russia must not be allowed to use energy as a weapon.
THURSDAY, JULY 15
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's former top vaccination official received a dog muzzle in the mail a few days before she was fired this week in what she has said was an attempt to use her as a scapegoat to appease lawmakers, a newspaper reported.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville police say all officers at precincts in the city are now equipped with body cameras after years of efforts to make it happen.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota plans to hire more people and invest heavily in its subsidiary Woven Planet to work on mobility technology so the Japanese automaker stays competitive amid the global shift to using artificial intelligence and robotics in everyday driving.
NORFOLK, Va. (AP) — Striking blue-collar workers at a Volvo heavy truck plant in southwestern Virginia have narrowly ratified what the company said was its final offer in a long-running labor dispute.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration said Thursday that it is ending large-scale, old-growth timber sales in the country's largest national forest — the Tongass National Forest in Alaska — and will focus on forest restoration, recreation and other noncommercial uses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Environmental groups hailed a sweeping $3.5 trillion domestic spending plan announced by Democrats, saying it would make "transformational investments" in clean energy and jobs and put the nation on a path to cut greenhouse emissions by at least 50% by 2030. The plan also would move the country toward a carbon-free electric grid by 2035, with 100% of U.S. electricity powered by solar, wind, nuclear and other clean energy sources.
HEALTH CARE
MINNETONKA, Minn. (AP) — UnitedHealth Group boosted its full-year outlook for a second time this year after a surprisingly strong second quarter despite sustained, elevated spending tied to the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Overdose deaths soared to a record 93,000 last year in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. government reported Wednesday.
MEDIA
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Netflix has hired veteran video game executive Mike Verdu, signaling the video streaming service is poised to expand into another fertile field of entertainment.
TECHNOLOGY
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — Microsoft said Thursday it has blocked tools developed by an Israeli hacker-for-hire company that were used to spy on more than 100 people around the world, including politicians, human rights activists, journalists, academics and political dissidents.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy on Thursday called for a national effort to fight misinformation about COVID-19 and vaccines, urging tech companies, health care workers, journalists and everyday Americans to do more to address a "serious public threat."
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — As many Asian countries battle their worst surge of COVID-19 infections, the slow flow of vaccine doses from around the world is finally picking up speed, giving hope that low inoculation rates can increase and help blunt the effect of the rapidly spreading delta variant.
Will COVID-19 vaccines work if I have a weak immune system? Probably not as well as they do in healthy people, but the shots should offer some protection.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed lower Thursday, pulling major indexes a bit further below the record highs they marked at the start of the week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For anyone watching with concern as prices surge for everything from food and gas to airplane tickets and clothes, the message from Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell over two days of congressional hearings this week was straightforward: Just give it more time and those price gains should slow, or even reverse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits has reached its lowest level since the pandemic struck last year, further evidence that the U.S. economy and job market are quickly rebounding from the pandemic recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory output slid last month as a shortage of computer chips disrupted auto production.
BEIJING (AP) — China's government rejected U.S. accusations of forced labor in Xinjiang and accused Washington on Thursday of hurting global trade after lawmakers endorsed import curbs and American companies were warned they face legal risks if they do business with the region.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The child tax credit had always been an empty gesture to millions of parents like Tamika Daniel.
The Biden administration is beginning to distribute expanded child tax credit payments, giving parents on average $423 this month, with payments continuing through the end of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden made a quick foray to the U.S. Capitol hunting support for his multitrillion-dollar agenda of infrastructure, health care and other programs, a potential landmark achievement that would require near-unanimous backing from fractious Democrats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Angela Merkel's farewell visit to the White House was shadowed Thursday by pressing issues as well as good will, as she met with Joe Biden to discuss differences over a major Russian pipeline and their nations' views on China as a rising global power.
LONDON (AP) — The U.K. recorded more than 50,000 new coronavirus cases in one day Friday for the first time in six months, as the British government's top medical adviser warned that the number of people hospitalized with COVID-19 could hit "quite scary" levels within weeks.