VOL. 46 | NO. 29 | Friday, July 22, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
In residential real estate, there are presumptions and assumptions made by buyers and sellers that are not accurate. In fact, they are just plain wrong.
NEWSMAKERS
The Tennessee Trial Lawyers Association recently elected Mark Chalos, managing partner of Lieff Cabraser Heimann & Bernstein’s Nashville office, as president for the 2022-23 term.
BRIEFS
The Tennessee Department of Human Services announced new actions to support child care providers and parents. TDHS increased child care payment assistance reimbursement rates July 1 by 20% across all categories of care in the Child Care Certificate Program.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The average national price for gasoline has gone up almost $2 during the past year, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reports. That’s not good news for some of the thirstiest vehicles on the road: pickup trucks. But there is a relatively new option if you’re looking to save on gas: a hybrid pickup.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Plates on one end, bowls on the other, glasses on top.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Savvy consumers consider price, performance and reliability when making a major purchase, such as a car or home appliance. The greatest of these is reliability – particularly lately.
CAREER CORNER
We’ve known that remote work is the new normal since early 2020. Now fresh signs are beginning to emerge that we might never go back to the way things were before.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — All that matters to the Tennessee Titans is having a healthy Derrick Henry, a driven Ryan Tannehill and one of the NFL's best defenses back essentially intact to chase a third straight AFC South title.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than 20 Republican attorneys general filed a lawsuit Tuesday against President Joe Biden's administration over a Department of Agriculture school meal program that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.
STATEWIDE
tnAchieves needs more than 7,500 mentors by Oct. 21 to ensure every student in the TN Promise Class of 2023 has access to local mentor support.
EAST TENNESSEE
GATLINBURG (AP) — A 7-year-old girl died when a tree fell on a tent at Great Smoky Mountains National Park on Wednesday, the park said.
COURTS
Drugmaker Teva announced Tuesday that it has agreed to contribute more than $4.3 billion in cash and medications to settle lawsuits in the state and local governments and Native American tribes that claimed the company contributed to the U.S. opioid epidemic.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — A Pennsylvania mortgage company owned by billionaire businessman Warren Buffett's company discriminated against potential Black and Latino homebuyers in Philadelphia, New Jersey and Delaware, the Department of Justice said Wednesday, in what is being called the second-largest redlining settlement in history.
MEDIA
Facebook and Instagram's parent company Meta posted its first revenue decline in history on Thursday, dragged by a drop in ad spending as the economy falters — and as competition from rival TikTok intensifies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Wednesday took legal action to block Facebook parent Meta and CEO Mark Zuckerberg from acquiring virtual reality company Within Unlimited and its fitness app Supernatural, asserting the deal would hurt competition and violate antitrust laws.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co.'s net income rose 19% in the second quarter as the company pulled together enough computer chips to boost factory output and sales.
BERLIN (AP) — The German government plans to reduce incentive payments for buyers of electric cars and end subsidies for buying plug-in hybrids at the end of this year.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Federal officials say that Southwest Airlines and the union representing its pilots have resisted cooperating with investigations into accidents and other incidents and pushed to close the matters quickly.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Major railroads will be required to maintain two-person crews under a new rule announced Wednesday that will thwart industry efforts to cut crews down to one person.
Spirit Airlines and Frontier Airlines agreed Wednesday to abandon their merger proposal, opening the way for JetBlue Airways to acquire Spirit.
Boeing Co. reported a smaller second-quarter profit that fell short of Wall Street expectations as its defense business weakened and it remained unable to deliver any of its 787 Dreamliner planes.
BERLIN (AP) — More than 1,000 Lufthansa flights were canceled Wednesday because of a one-day strike by the airline's German ground staff, affecting tens of thousands of passengers in the latest travel turmoil to hit Europe.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — After weeks of delays, nearly 800,000 doses of the monkeypox vaccine will soon be available for distribution, U.S. health regulators said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As U.S. opioid deaths mounted in 2016, the incoming head of the Food and Drug Administration promised a "sweeping review" of prescription painkillers in hopes of reversing the worst overdose epidemic in American history.
Two new studies provide more evidence that the coronavirus pandemic originated in a Wuhan, China market where live animals were sold – further bolstering the theory that the virus emerged in the wild rather than escaping from a Chinese lab.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ended his COVID-19 isolation on Wednesday, telling Americans they can "live without fear" of the pandemic if they take advantage of booster shots and treatments, the protections he credited with his swift recovery.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks on Wall Street are closing solidly higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve ratcheted up its campaign against surging inflation by raising its key interest rate three-quarters of a point.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve on Wednesday raised its benchmark interest rate by a hefty three-quarters of a point for a second straight time in its most aggressive drive in three decades to tame high inflation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher mortgage rates have sent home sales tumbling. Credit card rates have grown more burdensome, and so have auto loans. Savers are finally receiving yields that are actually visible, while crypto assets are reeling.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gun makers have taken in more than $1 billion from selling AR-15-style guns over the past decade, at times marketing them as a way for young men to prove their masculinity, even as the number of mass shootings increases, according to a House investigation unveiled Wednesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Visa Inc. said Tuesday that its fiscal third quarter profits rose 32% from a year earlier, helped by yet another double-digit rise in the amount of money processed on its credit and debit card network.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google's revenue growth during the past quarter decelerated to its slowest pace in two years as advertisers reined in their spending amid intensifying fears of an economic recession.
DOVER, Del. (AP) — Twitter has set Sept. 13 as the date for its shareholders to vote on the company's pending buyout by Tesla CEO Elon Musk.
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Australian inflation rose farther, according to new data released on Wednesday that increases the likelihood of the central bank next week hiking interest rates for a fourth consecutive month.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
The Congressional Budget Office said Wednesday that the end of pandemic-era spending, fast economic growth and higher tax revenues have caused the federal debt this year to be lower than forecast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has offered a deal to Russia aimed at bringing home WNBA star Brittney Griner and another jailed American, Paul Whelan, Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday. In a sharp reversal of previous policy, Blinken also said he expects to speak with his Kremlin counterpart for the first time since before Russia invaded Ukraine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill designed to encourage more semiconductor companies to build chip plants in the United States passed the Senate on Wednesday as lawmakers raced to finish work on a key priority of the Biden administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Presidents Joe Biden and Xi Jinping will speak Thursday, according to a U.S. official, their first conversation in four months coming amid new tension between Washington and Beijing over China's claims on Taiwan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With just days left in his tenure, the embattled director of the federal prison system faced a bipartisan onslaught Tuesday as he refused to accept responsibility for a culture of corruption and misconduct that has plagued his agency for years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional candidate whose compelling personal story of military valor and unfathomable loss helped him win former President Donald Trump's support has connections to right-wing extremists, including a campaign consultant who was a member of the Proud Boys.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The week before the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the U.S. Capitol, Missouri's Josh Hawley became the first Republican senator to announce he would object to the certification of the 2020 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The intensifying rivalry between former President Donald Trump and his once fiercely loyal vice president, Mike Pence, was put on stark display Tuesday as the two gave dueling speeches in Washington on the future of the Republican Party.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Ukrainian military used a U.S.-supplied precision rocket system to deliver a morale-lifting knockout punch Wednesday to a bridge Russia used to supply its forces in an occupied region of southern Ukraine.
BERLIN (AP) — Russia's Gazprom on Wednesday halved the amount of natural gas flowing through a major pipeline from Russia to Europe to 20% of capacity. It's the latest Nord Stream 1 reduction that Russia has blamed on technical problems but Germany calls a political move to sow uncertainty and push up prices amid the war in Ukraine.
Shipping companies are not rushing to export millions of tons of trapped grain out of Ukraine, despite a breakthrough deal to provide safe corridors through the Black Sea. That is because explosive mines are drifting in the waters, ship owners are assessing the risks and many still have questions over how the deal will unfold.
TUESDAY, JULY 26
VANDERBILT SPORTS
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — Third overall pick Kumar Rocker signed with the Texas Rangers on Tuesday, a week after the right-handed pitcher was drafted again and a year after concerns over a physical led to him going unsigned by the New York Mets as the 10th overall pick.
SPORTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of U.S. senators has given baseball Commissioner Rob Manfred a three-day extension until Friday to respond to questions about the sport's antitrust exemption and minor leaguers.
COURTS
KHIMKI, Russia (AP) — The drug trial of American basketball star Brittney Griner in a Russian court focused Tuesday on testimony that cannabis, while illegal in Russia, is regarded in other countries as having legitimate medicinal use.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — Volkswagen began production of its first electric vehicle assembled in the United States at a Tennessee plant Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A joint venture between General Motors and South Korean battery company LG Energy Solution is set to receive a $2.5 billion loan from the Energy Department to build battery cell factories for electric vehicles in three states.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' second-quarter net income fell 40% from a year ago as computer chip and parts shortages hobbled factory output and drove the company's U.S. sales down more than 15%.
ENVIRONMENT
NEW YORK (AP) — The Rockefeller Foundation, created with wealth generated from the oil industry more than a century ago, plans to make the fight against climate change central to all of its work, including its operations and investments.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing lower on Wall Street Tuesday after Walmart warned that inflation is negatively impacting American consumers' spending power.
WASHINGTON (AP) — By one common definition, the U.S. economy is on the cusp of a recession. Yet that definition isn't the one that counts.
Facing a potentially grim report this week on the economy's overall health, President Joe Biden wants to convince a skeptical public that the U.S. is not, in fact, heading into a recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is caught in an awkward, painful place. A confusing one, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence slid again in July higher prices for food, gas and just about everything else continued to weigh on Americans.
LONDON (AP) — Unilever, the consumer goods giant that owns brands ranging from Ben & Jerry's ice cream to Dove skin care, raised prices by more than 11% between April and June as inflation surged around the world.
Choco Taco, a favored poolside cuisine for generations, will soon be no more after owner and ice cream maker Klondike decided to discontinue the summer treat.
DHAKA, Bangladesh (AP) — Business leaders and officials from eight developing nations meeting in Bangladesh on Tuesday said more cooperation was needed among them to overcome dwindling foreign currency reserves, a growing energy crisis and supply chain disruptions.
McDonald's revenue fell short of expectations in the second quarter as coronavirus restrictions shuttered stores in China and higher prices took a toll on U.S. demand.
The Coca-Cola Co. posted strong sales in the second quarter due to price increases and rising demand from restaurants, theme parks and other venues.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — Shares of Allegiant Air's parent company tumbled in after-hours trading Monday after the budget airline gave a disappointing preview of its second-quarter earnings that it said were undercut by higher costs, including fuel.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart Inc. on Monday lowered its profit outlook for the second quarter and the full year, saying rising prices on food and gas are forcing shoppers to cut back on discretionary items, particularly clothing, that carry higher profit margins.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday advanced a $280 billion bill designed to boost the semiconductor industry in the United States and to accelerate high tech research that backers say will be critical to the economy in future decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate unexpectedly launched a new push Wednesday to protect same-sex marriage in federal law after a surprising number of Republicans helped pass landmark legislation in the House. Some GOP senators are already signaling support.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia will opt out of the International Space Station after 2024 and focus on building its own orbiting outpost, the country's newly appointed space chief said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The former chief of staff to former Vice President Mike Pence has testified before a federal grand jury investigating the Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump is returning to Washington on Tuesday for the first time since leaving office, delivering a speech hours after former Vice President Mike Pence, a potential 2024 rival, who called on the Republican Party to stop looking backward.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden decried his predecessor for failing to try and stop last year's deadly mob attack on the Capitol, saying Monday that " Donald Trump lacked the courage to act" as hours of "medieval hell" unfolded.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's reported plans to travel to Taiwan have upended Washington's political divide, with a rift emerging with President Joe Biden over the visit to the self-governing island while prominent Republicans offer encouragement to a political opponent they normally scorn.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia targeted Ukraine's Black Sea regions of Odesa and Mykolaiv with air strikes Tuesday, hitting private buildings and port infrastructure along the country's southern coast, the Ukrainian military said.
MONDAY, JULY 25
AUTO RACING
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) — Two-time IndyCar champion Josef Newgarden was released from a Des Moines hospital on Monday and returned to his Tennessee home, where he will wait for an evaluation to determine if he can race this weekend at Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
PREDATORS
TORONTO (AP) — Jordin Tootoo and Nathan Paetsch denied any involvement in an alleged group sex assault while with Canada's 2003 world junior hockey team.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's attorney general's office on Monday said it's still unknown when the state's anti-abortion "trigger ban" will go into effect, but some state lawmakers are raising alarm that the ban has no exceptions for victims of rape or incest.
EAST TENNESSEE
Bettors at Virginia's first full-fledged casino preferred slots to table games in its first week of operation, and were also slightly more likely to win their money back at the one-armed bandits as well.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SOUTHFIELD, Mich. (AP) — If the United Auto Workers union can't organize workers at new electric-vehicle battery factories that will supply Detroit's three automakers, the union's future would be in serious doubt.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing mixed Monday, as investors brace for a two-day meeting of the Federal Reserve this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conflicting signs about the health of the U.S. economy have thrust the Federal Reserve into a difficult spot.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department filed a lawsuit Monday against some of the largest poultry producers in the U.S. along with a proposed settlement seeking to end what it claims have been longstanding deceptive and abusive practices for workers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Sunday said the U.S. economy is slowing but pointed to healthy hiring as proof that it is not yet in recession.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union nations struggled Monday to find common ground on how to wean the bloc off its reliance on Russian natural gas, seeking to appease wary consumers at home while upholding unity as Moscow turns down the tap.
BERLIN (AP) — Russian energy giant Gazprom said Monday that it would further reduce natural gas flows through a major pipeline to Europe to 20% of capacity, citing equipment repairs. The move ramps up fears that Russia may cut off gas as political leverage over the war in Ukraine just as Europe tries to shore up storage for winter.
CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) — The average U.S. price of regular-grade gasoline plunged 32 cents over the past two weeks to $4.54 per gallon.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe has launched gold coins to be sold to the public in a bid to tame runaway inflation that has further eroded the country's unstable currency.
BERLIN (AP) — German business confidence has fallen more than expected this month, hitting a two-year low amid worries about higher energy prices and the prospect of a possible natural gas shortage, a closely watched survey showed Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — An original script for Donald Trump's speech the day after the Capitol insurrection included tough talk ordering the Justice Department to "ensure all lawbreakers are prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law" and stating the rioters "do not represent me." But those words were crossed out with thick black lines, apparently by Trump, according to exhibits released by House investigators.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Monday that he's "feeling better every day" as he recovers from his coronavirus infection, and the White House plans to hold a summit on Tuesday to discuss developing a new generation of vaccines that could more effectively guard against contagious variants.
WASHINGTON (AP) — About 2 in 3 Americans say they favor term limits or a mandatory retirement age for Supreme Court justices, according to a new poll that finds a sharp increase in the percentage of Americans saying they have "hardly any" confidence in the court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee said Sunday it will interview more former Cabinet secretaries and is prepared to subpoena conservative activist Virginia "Ginni" Thomas, who's married to Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, as part of its investigation of the Capitol riot and Donald Trump's role.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bill to boost semiconductor production in the United States has managed to do nearly the unthinkable — unite the democratic socialist Sen. Bernie Sanders and the fiscally conservative right.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russia's top diplomat said Moscow's overarching goal is to topple the government of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, making Russian war aims more explicit as its forces keep pummeling Ukraine with artillery barrages and air strikes.
POKROVSK, Ukraine (AP) — The missile's impact flung the young woman against the fence so hard it splintered. Her mother found her dying on the bench beneath the pear tree where she'd enjoyed the afternoon. By the time her father arrived, she was gone.
FRIDAY, JULY 22
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The NCAA on Friday charged Tennessee with 18 recruiting violations involving allegations of illegal cash, gifts and benefits given under fired football coach Jeremy Pruitt.
SPORTS
CHARLOTTE, N.C. (AP) — The plan wasn't for Georgia Tech to lose top running back Jahmyr Gibbs as a transfer to Alabama in the Southeastern Conference. Yet the Atlantic Coast Conference school has found its share of help from the SEC, too, in the form of seven transfers.
ATLANTA (AP) — Two-time defending champion Alabama was predicted to win a third consecutive Southeastern Conference title in voting by media attending this week's SEC Media Days.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Shonka Dukureh, who played Big Mama Thornton in this year's movie about Elvis Presley, was found dead Thursday in a bedroom at her home in Nashville, police said. She was 44.
COURTS
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Tennessee business owner who scaled a wall outside the U.S. Capitol has been convicted of five charges connected to the raid on Jan. 6, 2021.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't allow the Biden administration to implement a policy that prioritizes deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Steve Bannon, a longtime ally of former President Donald Trump, was convicted on Friday of contempt charges for defying a congressional subpoena from the House committee investigating the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee jury found a prominent prison reform advocate guilty of vandalism Thursday after he disguised himself as a construction worker to hide guns, handcuff keys and hacksaw blades inside the walls of a Nashville jail under construction.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is abandoning plans for a major change to its Medicaid program's pharmacy benefits after federal health officials raised concerns.
NEW YORK (AP) — The spread of monkeypox in the U.S. could represent the dawn of a new sexually transmitted disease, though some health officials say the virus that causes pimple-like bumps might yet be contained before it gets firmly established.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Twitter reported a quarterly loss Friday and declining revenue caught Wall Street off guard with the number of people using the platform on the rise.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — YouTube will begin removing misleading videos about abortion in response to falsehoods being spread about the procedure that is being banned or restricted across a broad swath of the U.S.
AUTO INDUSTRY
VIENNA (AP) — Herbert Diess, the CEO of the German automaker Volkswagen, is stepping down, the company announced Friday.
DETROIT (AP) — Clogged oil ports, electrical shorts and leaks of brake fluid are only some of the safety problems that have caused multiple fires and forced Hyundai and Kia to recall millions of vehicles in the past seven years.
TECHNOLOGY
FARNBOROUGH, England (AP) — Maverick's next wingman could be a drone.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Friday it is investigating illegal dumping in Houston, including dead bodies and medical waste, that officials said is plaguing Black and Latino neighborhoods in the nation's fourth largest city.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street gave back some of its strong gains from the week on Friday following discouraging readings on the global economy and another slew of profit reports from big U.S. companies. The S&P 500 lost nearly 1%, ending a three-day rally that had carried it back to its highest level since early June. The Nasdaq led the market lower with a drop of almost 2% following weaker-than-expected profit reports from tech-oriented companies. The Dow Jones Industrial Average held up better, in large part because constituent American Express gave an encouraging earnings report. Treasury yields slumped.
NEW YORK (AP) — Jay Carney, the top policy and communications executive at Amazon and one-time White House spokesman, has been named the head of policy at Airbnb, marking another high-profile departure for Amazon as it faces a shifting consumer landscape and heightened regulatory scrutiny.
NEW YORK (AP) — American Express' profits fell 14% in the second quarter, the company said Friday, as higher expenses more than offset record spending on its network by its cardmembers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — COVID-19 symptoms left President Joe Biden with a deep, raspy voice and persistent cough as he met Friday via videoconference with his top economic team. But the president tried to strike a reassuring tone, declaring at the top, "I feel much better than I sound."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic representatives are widening their scrutiny into the role of tech companies in collecting the personal data of people who may be seeking an abortion, as lawmakers, regulators and the Biden administration grapple with the aftermath of the Supreme Court ruling last month ending the constitutional protections for abortion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — This isn't the end of the Capitol riot story.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite desperate pleas from aides, allies, a Republican congressional leader and even his family, Donald Trump refused to call off the Jan. 6 mob attack on the Capitol, instead "pouring gasoline on the fire" by aggressively tweeting his false claims of a stolen election and celebrating his crowd of supporters as "very special," the House investigating committee showed Thursday night.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee closed out its set of summer hearings with its most detailed focus yet on the investigation's main target: former President Donald Trump.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House announced Friday that the U.S. is sending an additional $270 million in security assistance to Ukraine, a package that will include additional medium range rocket systems and tactical drones.
ISTANBUL (AP) — U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan were due on Friday to oversee the signing of a key agreement that would allow Ukraine to resume its shipment of grain from the Black Sea to world markets and Russia to export grain and fertilizers — ending a standoff that has threatened world food security.
KHARKIV, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling pounded a densely populated area in Ukraine's second-largest city Thursday, killing at least three people and injuring at least 23 others with a barrage that struck a mosque, a medical facility and a shopping area, according to officials and witnesses.
THURSDAY, JULY 21
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators offered forward Nino Niederreiter the perfect combination of a competitive team stocked with friends and former teammates along with a physical playing style. His new two-year contract also gives him the flexibility to either hit free agency again or stick around if everything works out as he hopes.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's going to be a "Beautiful Day" for the band U2 and four other artists when they receive this year's Kennedy Center Honors in December.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court won't allow the Biden administration to implement a policy that prioritizes deportation of people in the country illegally who pose the greatest public safety risk.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A federal magistrate judge has ordered an attorney suing a private prison firm over an inmate's death to delete certain tweets — one of which describes the company as a "death factory" — and restrict his public commentary going forward.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Trump ally Steve Bannon declined to testify and his lawyers did not call any witnesses in his contempt of Congress trial on Thursday, instead arguing the judge should just acquit him, saying prosecutors hadn't proven their case.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates ticked up again this week in a rapidly cooling housing market as the Federal Reserve gears up for what could be yet another bump to its benchmark interest rate.
NEW YORK (AP) — It's the summer that cooled off the housing market.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines earned $476 million in the second quarter on record revenue from summer travelers and said Thursday that it expects to remain profitable in the third quarter.
AUTO INDUSTRY
ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (AP) — A New Zealand-based company announced Thursday it plans to install more than 6,000 electric vehicle chargers in Florida over the coming months, mainly at commercial sites, parking lots and other developments.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford says it has contracts to deliver enough batteries to produce electric vehicles at a rate of 600,000 globally per year by late in 2023.
HONG KONG (AP) — Baidu, a Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm, unveiled its latest electric autonomous driving vehicle on Thursday.
MEDIA
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook is rolling out an update that enables its 2 billion daily users to more easily view their friends' posts in chronological order.
RICHMOND, Va. (AP) — A month after some members of Congress urged Google to limit the appearance of anti-abortion pregnancy centers in certain abortion-related search results, 17 Republican attorneys general are warning the company that doing so could invite investigations and possible legal action.
HEALTH CARE
CVS Health is asking pharmacists in some states to verify that a few of the prescriptions they provide will not be used end a pregnancy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon will acquire the primary care organization One Medical in a deal valued roughly at $3.9 billion, marking another expansion for the retailer into health care services.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Americans say Congress should pass a law guaranteeing access to legal abortion nationwide, according to a new poll that finds over half say they feel at least somewhat "sad" or "angry" about the Supreme Court's decision to overturn Roe v. Wade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The right to use contraceptives would be enshrined in law under a measure that Democrats pushed through the House on Thursday, their latest campaign-season response to concerns a conservative Supreme Court that already erased federal abortion rights could go further.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The monarch butterfly fluttered a step closer to extinction Thursday, as scientists put the iconic orange-and-black insect on the endangered list because of its fast dwindling numbers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks on Wall Street closed higher Thursday, building on their winning week, as investors sifted through a deluge of news about the economy, interest rates and corporate profits.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits last week rose to the highest level in more than eight months in what may be a sign that the labor market is weakening.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank raised interest rates Thursday for the first time in 11 years, joining steps already taken by the U.S. Federal Reserve and other major central banks but raising new questions about whether the rush to make credit more expensive will plunge major economies into recession at the price of fighting inflation.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — CSX on Wednesday delivered slightly better profit in the second quarter even though volume was flat and the railroad still struggled to handle all the goods companies wanted to ship because it is having a hard time hiring.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden tested positive for COVID-19 on Thursday and is isolating with "very mild symptoms," the White House said, as new variants of the highly contagious virus challenge the nation's efforts to get back to normal after two and a half years of pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee aims to show in what could be its final hearing Thursday night that Donald Trump's lies about a stolen election fueled the grisly U.S. Capitol attack, which he did nothing to stop but instead "gleefully" watched on television at the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Matt Pottinger was a journalist in China, concerned about the country's drift toward authoritarianism, when he decided — at age 31 — to enlist in the U.S. Marines after the invasion of Iraq.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Jan. 6 committee is headed back to prime time for its eighth hearing — potentially the final time this summer that lawmakers will lay out evidence about the U.S. Capitol insurrection and President Donald Trump's efforts to overturn his 2020 election defeat.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is proposing to spend roughly $37 billion for fighting and preventing crime, including $13 billion to help communities hire and train 100,000 police officers over five years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said on Wednesday that U.S. military officials believe it's "not a good idea" for House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to visit Taiwan at the moment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration dropped Nicaragua from a list of countries that can ship sugar to the United State at low import tax rates as the U.S. intensifies economic pressure on the authoritarian government of president Daniel Ortega.
UKRAINE
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union imposed more sanctions on Russia on Thursday over the war in Ukraine after the bloc's member states backed a series of measures that would include gold imports and tighten export controls on some high-technology goods.