VOL. 44 | NO. 30 | Friday, July 24, 2020
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The COVID-19 droplets flying through the Nashville air are having a diminishing effect on the residential real estate market.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average rates on long-term mortgages rose this week for the first time since June 25, after weeks of marking new record lows.
NEWSMAKERS
Attorney Russ Overby is retiring from Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee, where he began practicing in 1974.
BRIEFS
Vanderbilt University is launching a new instructional design support service, available this summer and fall to all faculty, designed to provide concierge-level support to help faculty transition to teaching online.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Upon its debut in 2019 for the 2020 model year, the Kia Telluride decisively captured the top spot in Edmunds’ three-row midsize SUV rankings and pushed aside more established rivals. One of those was the Toyota Highlander.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Parents who are downsizing or simply decluttering may have to get creative at finding homes for all their unwanted possessions – particularly these days.
CAREER CORNER
The unexpected pandemic of 2020 has decimated many jobs and some industries. Unemployment for June was 11.1%, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reports, and if you’re one of the millions impacted at work by COVID you are likely trying to decide what’s next.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Yes! If only your boss would say that more often. Yes, you get a raise. Yes, we’re putting you in charge of the team. Yes, you’re doing great! Yes, there’s a promotion in your future.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Many people have more time than money nowadays. If you’re one – maybe you’re taking a staycation or you freed up commuting hours by working from home – optimize that extra time by making smart financial moves that won’t cost a dime.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The top women's indoor volleyball players in the U.S. will be calling Nashville home for their new professional league.
LEBANON (AP) — Cumberland University baseball coach Woody Hunt has been given the Pat Summitt Lifetime Achievement Award by the Tennessee Sports Hall of Fame.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court is hearing oral arguments Thursday over whether to keep absentee voting open to all eligible voters for the November election due to the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg has undergone a nonsurgical medical procedure in New York City and expects to be released from a hospital there by the end of the week, the Supreme Court said Wednesday night.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Former Nissan executive Greg Kelly, who was arrested in connection with the financial scandal of his ex-boss Carlos Ghosn, will soon face trial in a Tokyo court. Both cases had been in limbo after Ghosn fled to Lebanon.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Carmaker Volkswagen recorded an after-tax loss of 1.54 billion euros ($1.81 billion) in the second quarter as the pandemic shut down auto plants and closed dealerships.
PARIS (AP) — French carmaker Renault reported a massive loss of 7.4 billion euros ($8.5 billion) in the first half of the year as the collapse in global auto sales due to the pandemic worsened troubles already brewing at the manufacturer.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The coronavirus pandemic took a toll on Comcast in the second quarter as movie theaters closed, theme parks shut down and advertisers cut back.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Capitol officials issued broad new mask requirements Wednesday after a Republican member of Congress tested positive for the coronavirus. The member, Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert, often shunned wearing masks and was known to vote without one.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A grim picture emerged Thursday of a U.S. economy that has endured a record-shattering plunge last quarter and is now struggling to rebound as the coronavirus keeps forcing more layoffs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1.4 million laid-off Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, further evidence of the devastation the coronavirus outbreak has unleashed on the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday dismissed Democratic demands for aid to cash-strapped cities in a new coronavirus relief package and lashed out at Republican allies as talks stalemated over assistance for millions of Americans. Another lawmaker tested positive for the virus.
A boom in online shopping during the pandemic pushed revenue higher at United Parcel Service Inc., which reported a $1.77 billion profit for the second quarter.
LONDON (AP) — Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that its second-quarter earnings plunged 82% as the COVID-19 pandemic slashed energy prices and demand.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and his Democratic challenger, Joe Biden, both promise sweeping progress over the next four years –- via starkly different paths.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is for the first time floating a "delay" to the Nov. 3 presidential election, as he makes unsubstantiated allegations that increased mail-in voting will result in fraud.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Thursday that he and his team have warned Russian officials about all threats that Russia poses to Americans and U.S. interests in various parts of the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional lawmakers finally got a chance to grill the CEOs of Big Tech over their dominance and allegations of monopolistic practices that stifle competition. But it's unclear how much they advanced their goal of bringing some of the world's largest companies to heel.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 29
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — After driving for Lyft for six years, Joni Bicknese decided to invest in a minivan at the beginning of 2020, reasoning that she could make more money if she could transport more riders. Then came what she calls Nashville's quadruple-whammy: a tornado, coronavirus closures, protests that rocked downtown, then more closures.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday that reopening schools in-person is the "medically sound, preferred option," but he said it's dependent on quickly isolating those who are sick and quarantining their close contacts.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The number of Americans signing contracts to buy homes rose for the second straight month after a devastating spring freeze brought on by the coronavirus outbreak.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Even though General Motors was able to reopen its U.S. factories for the last half of the second quarter, the company still lost $806 million from April through June.
MEDIA
BERLIN (AP) — Holocaust survivors around the world are lending their voices to a campaign launched Wednesday targeting Facebook head Mark Zuckerberg, urging him to take action to remove denial of the Nazi genocide from the social media site.
ENVIRONMENT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. energy consumption plummeted to its lowest level in more than 30 years this spring as the nation's economy largely shut down because of the coronavirus, federal officials reported Wednesday.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — The head of a congressional coronavirus oversight panel on Wednesday demanded Tennessee's Gov. Bill Lee and three other Republican governors provide documents showing how their states are combating the pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Texas Rep. Louie Gohmert tested positive on Wednesday for the coronavirus, forcing him to abruptly cancel his plan to travel to his home state with President Donald Trump. The Republican immediately faced criticism from colleagues for shunning masks on Capitol Hill, where face coverings are not mandatory and testing is sparse.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials say Russian intelligence officers are spreading disinformation about the coronavirus pandemic through English-language websites, trying to exploit a crisis that America is struggling to contain before the presidential election in November.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied on Wednesday, and the S&P 500 climbed 1.2% for its best day in two weeks after the Federal Reserve kept the accelerator floored on its support for the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Having endured what was surely a record-shattering slump last quarter, the U.S. economy faces a dim outlook as a resurgent coronavirus intensifies doubts about any sustained recovery the rest of the year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve expressed concern Wednesday that the viral outbreak will act as a drag on the economy and hiring in the coming months and said it plans to keep its benchmark short-term interest rate pegged near zero.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Below is the statement the Fed released Wednesday after its policy meeting ended:
Boeing lost $2.4 billion in the second quarter and the company will slow production and cut more jobs as demand for commercial aircraft shrinks during the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Russian oligarchs have skirted U.S. sanctions through murky high-end art deals, according to a congressional report released Wednesday that urged lawmakers to rein in an unregulated industry favored by money launderers.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Wednesday named a special envoy for the Arctic, filling a post that had been vacant for more than three years as the administration seeks a greater role in the region and tries to blunt growing Russian and Chinese influence there.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Spurred on by President Donald Trump's demand to pull troops out of Germany, the U.S. will bring about 6,400 forces home and shift about 5,400 to other countries in Europe, U.S. defense officials said Wednesday, detailing a Pentagon plan that will cost billions of dollars and take years to complete.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four Big Tech CEOs — Facebook's Mark Zuckerberg, Amazon's Jeff Bezos, Sundar Pichai of Google and Tim Cook of Apple — are set to answer for their companies' practices before Congress as a House panel caps its yearlong investigation of market dominance in the industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new $1 trillion COVID-19 response package by Senate Republicans is supposed to give the government more weapons to battle the surging coronavirus pandemic. But GOP lawmakers have more than just the "invisible enemy" in mind.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One by one, they passed through the grand Capitol Rotunda to pay respects to the civil rights icon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's visit to a U.S. fracking hub on the West Texas plains comes during the state's fierce coronavirus outbreak and a global oil and gas glut that is putting the squeeze on his loyal donors in the petroleum industry.
TUESDAY, JULY 28
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are trickling into the team's headquarters for a training camp with their first-round draft pick Isaiah Wilson on the COVID-19/reserve list.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans now have only their first-round draft pick left unsigned after agreeing to terms with cornerback Kristian Fulton, their second-round selection.
COURTS
A federal bankruptcy judge ruled Tuesday that OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma can't make any more contributions to partisan organizations that seek to boost the election efforts of candidates for state attorney general offices.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A federal lawsuit has been filed by a woman who says her son died after deputies in Tennessee used excessive force during an arrest.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home prices grew more slowly in May, but continued to show resilience in the face of the coronavirus outbreak.
AUTO INDUSTRY
A U.S. magistrate judge improperly denied release to a father and son wanted by Japan on charges that they helped sneak former Nissan Motor Co. Chairman Carlos Ghosn out of that country, their attorneys said Tuesday.
Drivers are holding on to cars and trucks longer during the coronavirus pandemic.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan reported a 285.6 billion yen ($2.7 billion) loss for April-June, as the Japanese automaker sales crashed amid the coronavirus pandemic and it struggled to recover from the loss of its former star executive Carlos Ghosn.
PARIS (AP) — The maker of Peugeot and Citroen cars, PSA Group, said Tuesday that it made a profit in the first six months of the year even as the coronavirus pandemic caused a deep drop in sales.
TECHNOLOGY
Having a tough time recognizing your neighbors behind their pandemic masks? Computers are finding it more difficult, too.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
LONDON (AP) — Concerns over a "second wave" of coronavirus infections brought on by returning vacationers are wreaking havoc across Europe's tourism industry, particularly in Spain, following Britain's effective ban on travel to the country.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Global air travel is recovering more slowly than expected and it will take until until 2024 to return to pre-pandemic levels, the trade association for the airline industry said Tuesday.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — Vietnam on Tuesday locked down its third-largest city for two weeks after 15 cases of COVID-19 were found in a hospital, the government said.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's reelection effort allegedly hid nearly $170 million in spending from mandatory public disclosure by routing payments through companies tied to his former campaign manager, a government oversight group said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden unveiled a plan Tuesday to ensure that the nation's post-pandemic economic recovery is built around promoting racial equality, promising to dramatically spur investment in Black-owned small businesses and encourage home ownership while closing wealth gaps among minority communities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A week after appearing to project a more serious tone about the coronaviru s, President Donald Trump is back to spreading misinformation about how to combat the virus and the credibility of Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's leading infectious disease expert.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville election officials say they have mailed almost 30,000 absentee ballots to voters so far for the Aug. 6 primary election, and only half have been completed and returned.
TALLAHASSEE, Fla. (AP) — Republicans once dominated voting by mail in Florida. But that was before President Donald Trump got involved.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks pulled lower on Wall Street Tuesday following a mixed set of earnings reports from dozens of big U.S. companies.
A Republican proposal to slash the $600 weekly benefit boost for those left jobless because of the coronavirus shutdown could result in weeks or even months of delayed payments in some states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Negotiations launched, the differences over the next coronavirus aid package are vast, a gulf between Democrats' $3 trillion proposal and Republicans $1 trillion counteroffer, with millions of Americans' jobless benefits, school reopenings and eviction protections at stake.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer confidence tumbled in July to a reading of 92.6 as coronavirus infections spread in many parts of the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unemployment assistance, eviction protections and other relief for millions of Americans are at stake as White House officials launch negotiations with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on a new coronavirus aid package that's teetering in Congress ahead of looming deadlines.
BEIJING (AP) — Antagonisms between the United States and China are rattling governments around the world, prompting a German official to warn of "Cold War 2.0" and Kenya's president to appeal for unity to fight the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of the U.S. House of Representatives has endorsed a provision calling for $32 billion to protect aviation workers from layoffs though next March, as airlines fight to survive a huge downturn in travel caused by the virus pandemic.
Business did improve for McDonald's throughout the second quarter as restrictions lifted across the globe, but the fast food giant faces a bumpy — and expensive — recovery.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target is joining Walmart in closing its stores on Thanksgiving Day, ending a decadelong tradition of jump-starting Black Friday door buster sales.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration will deny new applications for so-called "Dreamer" immigrants and cut renewals to one year from two years, despite reversals in court that kept alive the Obama-era program to shield young people from deportation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Republican says he opposes a push by President Donald Trump to include in a new coronavirus aid package nearly $1.8 billion to rebuild the FBI headquarters on its current site in downtown Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a solemn display of bipartisan unity, congressional leaders praised Democratic Rep. John Lewis as a moral force for the nation in a Capitol Rotunda memorial service rich with symbolism and punctuated by the booming, recorded voice of the late civil rights icon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General William Barr defended the aggressive federal law enforcement response to civil unrest in America as he testified for the first time before the House Judiciary Committee, pushing back against angry, skeptical Democrats who said President Donald Trump's administration is unconstitutionally suppressing dissent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former FBI counterintelligence agent Peter Strzok, who played a key role in the Russia investigation but whose pejorative text messages about Donald Trump during the 2016 campaign made him a target of the president's wrath, is releasing a book on his concerns about the president.
MONDAY, JULY 27
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University has been working with other historically Black colleges and universities and with Apple to create new coding hubs in other communities.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two more Tennessee counties have been placed in quarantine after a beetle that kills emerald ash trees was found there earlier this month.
TRANSPORTATION
LONDON (AP) — European budget airline Ryanair said Monday that the COVID-19 pandemic has wreaked havoc on its earnings, with lockdown restrictions leading to a 99% drop in passengers in the first quarter, and warned travel is likely to remain subdued for years.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Mitsubishi Motors Corp. reported Monday a 176 billion yen ($1.7 billion) loss for April-June, and forecast more red ink for the fiscal year, as the coronavirus pandemic slammed auto demand around the world.
MEDIA
LONDON (AP) — Some Twitter users are staging a 48-hour boycott of the platform over its handling of a stream of anti-Semitic comments that were posted on British rapper Wiley's social media accounts.
TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON (AP) — The GPS device maker Garmin Ltd. acknowledged Monday being victimized by a cyberattack last week that encrypted some of its systems, knocking its fitness tracking and pilot navigation services offline. It said systems would be fully restored in the next few days.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee stands at the cusp at being able to significantly decrease new cases of the coronavirus and must take stronger steps to prevent its spread, warned White House COVID-19 task force leader Deborah Birx, who met with state and local health leaders Monday in Nashville.
SAN RAMON, Calif. (AP) — Google has decided that most of its 200,000 employees and contractors should work from home through next June, a sobering assessment of the pandemic's potential staying power from the company providing the answers for the world's most trusted internet search engine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 3,000 federal workers have filed compensation claims for having contracted COVID-19 on the job, a number that is expected to double by early next month, according to a Department of Labor review.
MIAMI (AP) — Two major league games scheduled for Monday night were postponed after more than a dozen Miami Marlins players and staff members tested positive for the coronavirus in an outbreak that stranded the team in Philadelphia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's National Security Adviser Robert O'Brien has tested positive for the coronavirus — making him the highest-ranking official to test positive so far.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump in recent days suddenly acknowledged the gravity of the coronavirus pandemic and edged away from some of his most audacious falsehoods about it. That's not to say he gave the public an honest accounting.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street is in the throes of a gold rush, as investors drive the price of the precious metal to new heights.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's rally got back on track Monday, while gold rushed to a record at the start of a week packed with potentially market-moving events.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress and the White House resume their efforts to agree on a new economic aid package, evidence is growing that the U.S. economy is faltering. And so is concern that the government may not take the steps needed to support hiring and growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top White House negotiators are set to meet with House Speaker Nancy Pelosi late Monday at the Capitol on the next coronavirus relief package with deadlines looming as they race to prevent unemployment assistance and an eviction moratorium from expiring for millions of Americans.
NEW YORK (AP) — Under Armour said Monday that it received a warning from U.S. regulators that the company and two of its executives could be punished over past accounting disclosures.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for big-ticket manufactured goods rose a solid 7.3% in June, the second big monthly gain as manufacturing tries to climb out of a spring slump triggered by the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economic outlook of U.S. business economists has improved over the past three months, though their sunnier view may be jeopardized by the resurgence of the coronavirus.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — An important indicator of the German business outlook rose in July for the third month in a row as economic activity continues to pick up after many of the coronoavirus restrictions were eased or lifted.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — The University of Notre Dame has become the second university to withdraw as the host of one of this fall's three scheduled presidential debates amid the coronavirus pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Presidential politics move fast. What we're watching heading into a new week on the 2020 campaign:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Murtice Sherek is not excited about Joe Biden.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the November election 100 days away, more Americans say the country is heading in the wrong direction than at any previous point in Donald Trump's presidency, putting the incumbent in a perilous position as his reelection bid against Democrat Joe Biden enters a pivotal stretch.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deep-pocketed and often anonymous donors are pouring over $100 million into an intensifying dispute about whether it should be easier to vote by mail, a fight that could determine President Donald Trump's fate in the November election.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a solemn display of bipartisan unity, congressional leaders praised the late Democratic Rep. John Lewis as a moral force for the nation on Monday in a Capitol Rotunda ceremony rich with symbolism and punctuated by the booming, recorded voice of the late civil rights icon.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gathered in the small assembly hall in Little Rock, Arkansas, their chairs spaced 6 feet (1.83 meters) apart, the business leaders listen admiringly to the nation's chief law enforcement official.
FRIDAY, JULY 24
MIDSTATE
Amazon.com today announced plans to open a fulfillment center in Mt. Juliet.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday said he delayed the execution of a Tennessee death row inmate because he did not believe the amount of resources needed to pull off an execution in the middle of a pandemic was the "right thing to do."
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes rose a sharp 13,8% in June, the second straight increase after two months when sales plunged as the country went into lockdown because of the coronavirus.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — GPS device-maker Garmin's online fitness tracking service has gone down, leaving runners and cyclists struggling to upload data from their latest workouts.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Unable to land the big deal with Congress to curb drug costs, President Donald Trump is moving on his own to allow imports of prescription medicines, along with other limited steps that might have some election-year appeal.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's says it will be requiring customers to wear face coverings when entering its U.S. restaurants as the number of new virus cases continue to surge in many states.
Recovering from even mild coronavirus infections can take at least two to three weeks, according to U.S. research published Friday.
ROME (AP) — New rules on wearing masks in England came into effect Friday, with people going to shops, banks and supermarkets now required to wear face coverings. The move came a day after Belgium imposed its own mask requirement to slow increasing coronavirus infections.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee's administration on Thursday unveiled the latest public service campaign to help battle the COVID-19 outbreak in Tennessee.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Negotiations over the next COVID-19 rescue bill were in flux Friday after the White House floated cutting an unemployment benefits boost to as little as $100 and President Donald Trump turned to a new priority, adding money to build a new FBI headquarters.
Stocks closed broadly lower for the second day in a row Friday as Wall Street gave back some of its gains from a mostly solid July rally.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly half of Americans whose families experienced a layoff during the coronavirus pandemic now believe those jobs are lost forever, a new poll shows, a sign of increasing pessimism that would translate into roughly 10 million workers needing to find a new employer, if not a new occupation.
NEW YORK (AP) — A retail venture owned by licensing company Authentic Brands Group and mall owner Simon Property Group has entered into an agreement to buy the iconic Brooks Brothers for $305 million.
European planemaker Airbus says it is taking the last step to end 16 years of litigation with the United States at the World Trade Organization over subsidies.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Three California men were charged with running a phony securities scheme that defrauded investors around the world out of more than $10 million, authorities said Thursday.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic leaders in Congress are dialing up pressure on President Donald Trump's administration over foreign election interference, saying it's time for officials to make a "concrete and specific statement" to inform voters ahead of the 2020 contest.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As then-Vice President Joe Biden left the West Wing each evening to head home, he often popped his head into national security adviser Susan Rice's nearby suite of offices to check in — sometimes on pressing foreign policy matters, sometimes just to shoot the breeze.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden wants to address health care disparities, toughen gun control, overhaul policing, provide free community college, erase student loan debt, invest in green energy and improve the nation's infrastructure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It doesn't quite have the ring of "Morning in America" and "I Like Ike."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Bowing to the coronavirus threat, President Donald Trump has scrapped plans for a four-night Republican National Convention celebration in Florida that had been set to draw more than 10,000 people to a pandemic hot spot to mark his renomination.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump and a top Senate Republican are pushing Congress to preserve the names of military bases that honor Confederate generals, even though the House and Senate have overwhelmingly approved bills that rename them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is relying on an outlier interpretation of a recent Supreme Court decision to assert broad new powers as he prepares to sign a series of executive orders in the coming weeks.
THURSDAY, JULY 23
TOURISM
GATLINBURG (AP) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park Superintendent Cassius Cash has developed a new program that seeks to unite conversations about diversity and racism with the beauty of the mountains.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — While in isolation, Taylor Swift has created a new album and is releasing it Friday.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A judge ordered the release from prison of President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer on Thursday, saying he believes the government retaliated against him for planning to release a book about Trump before November's election.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States accused Russia on Thursday of conducting a test of an anti-satellite weapon in space, asserting that it exposed Moscow's intent to deploy weapons that threaten U.S. and allied satellites.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BRISTOL (AP) — Coronavirus cases at an East Tennessee nursing home have nearly doubled in less than a week, officials said.
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will provide at-home coronavirus tests for some employees and Southwest Airlines will tighten its rule on face masks by ending exceptions for medical reasons.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Three out of four Americans, including a majority of Republicans, favor requiring people to wear face coverings while outside their homes, a new poll finds, reflecting fresh alarm over spiking coronavirus cases and a growing embrace of government advice intended to safeguard public health.
WASHINGTON -- Two White House campus cafeterias have been closed after a person involved in food service tested positive for the coronavirus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Slumping stocks across most of Wall Street sent the S&P 500 to its worst loss in nearly four weeks on Thursday, undercut by a report showing layoffs are picking up across the country with coronavirus counts.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House reluctantly dropped its bid to cut Social Security payroll taxes Thursday as Republicans prepared to unveil a $1 trillion COVID-19 rescue package, yielding to opposition to the idea among top Senate allies.
NEW YORK (AP) — A long time ago in a pre-COVID universe far, far away, blockbusters opened around the globe simultaneously or nearly so. In 1975, "Jaws" set the blueprint. Concentrate marketing. Open wide. Pack them in.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation got another dose of bad economic news Thursday as the number of laid-off workers seeking jobless benefits rose last week for the first time since late March, intensifying concerns the resurgent coronavirus is stalling or even reversing the economic recovery.
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines will provide at-home coronavirus tests for some employees, while Southwest and American will tighten their rules on face masks by ending exceptions for medical reasons.
NEW YORK (AP) — The operator of Ann Taylor and Lane Bryant filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection on Thursday, the latest retailer to do so during the pandemic.
ELECTION 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden and former President Barack Obama stepped up their attacks on President Donald Trump and defended their time in the White House in a new video showing their first in-person meeting since the coronavirus outbreak began.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday that it is revoking an Obama-era housing regulation designed to eliminate racial disparities in the suburbs, a move that fair housing advocates have decried as an election year stunt designed to appeal to white voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez's outrage over a Republican lawmaker's verbal assault broadened into an extraordinary moment on the House floor Thursday as she and other Democrats assailed a sexist culture of "accepting violence and violent language against women" whose adherents include President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are trying to rein in President Donald Trump's clemency powers on Thursday as they advance legislation that would discourage pardons for friends and family and prevent presidents from pardoning themselves.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans facing electoral uncertainty in November turned on one another in a private meeting on Tuesday, as a small group of conservative lawmakers confronted House Republican Conference Chair Liz Cheney over what they said was disloyalty to President Donald Trump.