VOL. 41 | NO. 30 | Friday, July 28, 2017
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Home inspectors can prove to be burrs in the saddles of listing agents and sellers with the many deficiencies they uncover while plying their trade.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, second quarter 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top commercial real estate sales, second quarter 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the second week in a row, despite the Federal Reserve's efforts to lift borrowing costs.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Time flies, doesn’t it? A lot can happen in 20 years. Think about it: In 1997, Bill Clinton was sworn in for his second term as president. Princess Di was killed in a car crash. The Dow Jones Industrial Average closed above 8,000 for the first time.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
When the Tennessee Titans arrive for training camp on Friday, there will be something around the team that has not been inside the locker room in a long time – expectations.
The Tennessee Titans enter 2017 with players, fans and prognosticators expecting this to be the year the team makes its return to the postseason after eight years without.
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
Nashville’s Kyle Phillips never knew how good he had it as a University of Tennessee football player. Not until he went to Vietnam with The VOLeaders Academy for a 13-day study with numerous other student-athletes from UT. They left June 29 and returned two weeks later.
NEWSMAKERS
Patent attorney A.J. Bahou has opened Bahou Law, PLLC. Bahou is experienced in trials and mediations, and is a registered patent attorney who practices in the area of electrical and computer engineering technologies, Blockchain, data privacy, cyber security, health care and intellectual property law, including litigation management of patents, copyrights, trademarks, and trade secrets.
BRIEFS
The Vanderbilt University School of Nursing has received a $1,221,359 grant to aid students who plan to become nursing faculty.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
None of the other kids like you. They don’t include you in anything. In fact, they often just plain ignore you, and some even pick on you. You don’t understand why this is, but there isn’t much you can do: quitting your job is not an option.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Facebook now has two billion monthly users and accounts for 10 percent of all website visits. So, you’ve probably already taken the time to set up a Facebook page for your business and are making regular posts part of your marketing strategy.
CAREER CORNER
When most job seekers think of using social media to apply for a new job, they think of networking website LinkedIn. Now, McDonald’s and Snapchat recently pushed the boundaries of recruiting.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Country Music Hall of Fame and Museum is opening an exhibit on the life and career of Hall of Famer Loretta Lynn in Nashville.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Predators forward Mike Fisher has announced his retirement, a move that means the defending Stanley Cup finalists must select a new captain.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Businessman Bill Lee has hired former Tennessee Republican Party Chairman Chris Devaney to run his gubernatorial campaign.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CANTON, Miss. (AP) — It's now up to workers at Nissan's Mississippi assembly plant to decide if they will be represented by the United Auto Workers union.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates were little changed this week after declining for two straight weeks.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are edging lower in early trading Thursday as banks, technology and health companies fall. Prescription drug distributor AmerisourceBergen and women's health diagnostic company Hologic tumbled, while a solid quarter from cereal maker Kellogg helped makers of food and household goods move higher.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services firms grew last month at the slowest pace since August 2016, a performance consistent with only modest economic growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders at U.S. factories increased in June as demand surged for aircraft.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week, keeping the number of people seeking benefits close to historic lows.
NEW YORK (AP) — You could say the Dow cruised to 22,000: The blue chip index rose to its latest milestone without much excitement or drama as aerospace giant Boeing and a few other companies did most of the work.
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The proposed Keystone XL pipeline survived nine years of protests, lawsuits and political wrangling that saw the Obama administration reject it and President Donald Trump revive it, but now the project faces the possibility of death by economics.
NATIONAL POLITICS
ASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of the Senate Judiciary Committee are moving to protect Special Counsel Robert Mueller's job, putting forth new legislation that aims to ensure the integrity of current and future independent investigations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's endorsement of legislation to restrict and reshape legal immigration is based on some shaky assumptions, such as the idea that low-wage green-card holders are flooding in to take jobs from Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One day after getting sued by 15 states, Environmental Protection Agency chief Scott Pruitt reversed his earlier decision to delay implementation of Obama-era rules reducing emissions of smog-causing air pollutants.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The mayor of Memphis, Tennessee, is scheduled to dedicate a plaque honoring soul singer Aretha Franklin at her childhood home.
COURTS
CINCINNATI (AP) — A federal appeals court has shown competing skepticisms over a voting rights case challenging a 2014 Tennessee constitutional amendment that allows tougher abortion restrictions.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A family is suing Metro Schools for civil rights violations involving the alleged videotaping of sexual acts on school property.
NEW YORK (AP) — A new lawsuit lays out an explosive tale of Trump allies, the White House and Fox News Channel conspiring to push a false story about Democratic leaks and an unsolved killing in order to distract attention from the Russia investigation that has been swirling around the president
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Picking out the Tennessee Titans' controlling owner is very easy at training camp. Look for the woman wearing the red ball cap.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan Senate effort to continue federal payments to insurers and avert a costly rattling of insurance markets faces a dicey future.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Humana beat second-quarter earnings expectations and raised its 2017 forecast as the health insurer improved its individual coverage and privately run versions of the government's Medicare program for people who are over age 65 or disabled.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — For Michael Rizzo, answering the phone is too often a waste of time.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple's iPhone may be ready for its next big act — as a springboard into "augmented reality," a technology that projects life-like images into real-world settings viewed through a screen.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CANTON, Miss. (AP) — The 3,700 employees at Nissan's factory in Mississippi have been shown anti-union videos on the job. For weeks now, they've been lobbied by their supervisors, lectured to by politicians and been visited at home by union organizers. They've seen the rallies, pickets, yard signs and television ads. On Wednesday, they even got robocalls from former Vice President Joe Biden.
BERLIN (AP) — German automakers committed Wednesday to fitting over 5 million diesel cars in the country with updated software to reduce harmful emissions and to finance incentives for drivers to trade in older models, the transport minister said.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Being the world's most valuable public company has its privileges, like getting almost all the credit for the latest stock market milestone. Apple made its biggest jump in six months Wednesday, helping send the Dow Jones industrial average above 22,000 points for the first time.
NEW YORK (AP) — Movie theater stocks took a beating Wednesday after AMC Entertainment previewed a grim earnings report. AMC's announcement came amid broader pessimism about what has been a lackluster summer movie season.
NEW YORK (AP) — Beware of the stranger on the phone — it could be a scammer.
MADISON, Wis. (AP) — Foxconn Technology Group is not saying whether it plans to invest $30 billion in the United States, as President Donald Trump claimed he was told by the company's leader "off the record."
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added a solid 178,000 jobs in July, a survey found, evidence that employers remain confident enough about future demand to keep hiring.
Older people are dying on the job at a higher rate than workers overall, even as the rate of workplace fatalities decreases, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal statistics.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Wednesday embraced legislation from two Republican senators that would place new limits on legal immigration and seek to create a system based more on merit and skills than family ties.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are unveiling a new set of trade policies aimed at appealing to working-class voters and regaining advantage on an issue Donald Trump seized to great effect during last year's presidential campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — There wasn't a dramatic public break or an exact moment it happened. But step by step, Senate Republicans are turning their backs on President Donald Trump.
TUESDAY, JULY 25
STATEWIDE
BLOUNTVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee community college has laid off 28 employees — one of many measures it's taking to balance the budget.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic voters widely support Republican Gov. Bill Haslam and many of them want his education initiatives to continue through his successor, an education advocacy group found in a poll.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials and the United Way are using a $1.6 million grant to help Nashville families who live in poverty.
MIDSTATE
BALTIMORE (AP) — Under Armour is cutting almost 2 percent of its work force and it lowered its full-year revenue outlook, overshadowing a strong second-quarter and amplifying the pitfalls now facing companies across the retail sports sector.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Republicans think it's time to leave their derailed drive to scrap the Obama health care law behind them. And they're tired of the White House prodding them to keep voting until they succeed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's threat to stop billions of dollars in government payments to insurers and force the collapse of "Obamacare" could put the government in a legal bind.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — July saw the biggest year-over-year decline in U.S. vehicle sales so far this year, leaving automakers to hope that consumers are just waiting to pounce on Labor Day deals.
TOKYO (AP) — Improved sales and cost cuts helped Japanese automaker Honda Motor Co. shrug off lingering troubles from the Takata air bag recalls to log a nearly 19 percent improvement in its fiscal first quarter profit.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — An investigator who worked on the Seth Rich case claims Fox News fabricated quotes implicating the murdered Democratic National Committee staffer in the WikiLeaks scandal and coordinated with the Trump administration as it worked on the story.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Banks and technology companies took U.S. stocks higher Tuesday, and less-loved sectors including phone and real estate companies also climbed as companies continued to report strong second-quarter results.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple's earnings climbed 12 percent to $8.7 billion in the company's latest quarter amid rising demand for iPhones, iPads and Mac computers.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market has never been higher, and President Donald Trump would like more people to pay attention.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — At least one other state offered Foxconn more than the $3 billion incentives package Wisconsin used to lure a plant that will be the electronics giant's first in the U.S., Gov. Scott Walker said Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending declined in June for the second time in three months, as spending on government construction projects plunged by the largest amount in 15 years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factories expanded again last month — a good sign for the economy. But pace of growth was down from June.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer spending slowed in June as income growth turned in the weakest performance in seven months.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's son-in-law told a group of congressional interns that the Trump campaign couldn't have colluded with Russia because the team was too dysfunctional and disorganized to coordinate with a foreign government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats and independents said Tuesday that upcoming legislation to rewrite the nation's tax code should ensure the middle class doesn't pay more and the "top 1 percent" doesn't pay less.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Who are you going to trust when it comes to what's best for the flying public? Members of Congress or the hero of the Miracle on the Hudson, retired Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most Senate Democrats and independents said Tuesday that upcoming legislation to rewrite the tax code should make sure the middle class doesn't pay more.
MONDAY, JULY 31
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — After six years in court, Vanderbilt University Medical Center has settled a federal lawsuit for $6.5 million over claims that the hospital overbilled Medicare and Medicaid.
The only son of Nashville Mayor Megan Barry - whom her office described as "a kind soul full of life" - has died of an apparent drug overdose, and she asked for privacy as she and her husband face life "without his laughter and love."
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Longtime U.S. Rep. John Duncan said Monday that he will not run for re-election next year because he wants to spend more time with his family.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Discovery Communications will buy Scripps Networks for close to $12 billion, tying together two powerful stables of TV shows ranging from Animal Planet to the Food Network.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — There is wide disagreement in Tennessee on whether the state is violating recent U.S. Supreme Court decisions banning mandatory life-without-parole sentences for offenders under 18. That's because judges and juries have a choice in sentencing, but that choice is between life in prison or life with the possibility of parole after serving 51 years — which one leading advocate calls cruel.
Former teen offenders around the U.S. are seeking new sentences after their life-without-parole terms were ruled unconstitutional. Each case involves many others, from victims and their relatives to legislators, judges and more. Here are some of their stories.
DETROIT (AP) — Courtroom 801 is nearly empty when guards bring in Bobby Hines, hands cuffed in front of navy prison scrubs.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans signed more contracts to buy homes in June, snapping a three-month decline in pending sales.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is insisting that the Senate resume efforts to repeal and replace the nation's health care law, signaling that President Donald Trump stands ready to end required payments to insurers this week to let "Obamacare implode" and force congressional action.
AUTO INDUSTRY
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — With a union election scheduled this week, the National Labor Relations Board is newly charging that Nissan Motor Co. violated workers' rights at its Mississippi plant by engaging in anti-union activity.
TECHNOLOGY
ST. LOUIS (AP) — If you plan to livestream next month's solar eclipse from one of the prime viewing spots, here's a thought: Keep your phone in your pocket, put on your paper shades and just enjoy the celestial wonder.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks finished mostly higher Monday as banks, media and energy companies climbed just enough to cancel out losses for technology companies including Facebook and Amazon.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Los Angeles reached an agreement Monday with international Olympic leaders that will open the way for the city to host the 2028 Summer Games, while ceding the 2024 Games to rival Paris, officials announced Monday.
DETROIT (AP) — Ride-hailing service Lyft carried more passengers through June this year than it did in all of last year as it capitalized on missteps by Uber.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration started its public push Monday to overhaul taxes but, just as with health care, the White House lacks a detailed plan to promote to voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It didn't take long for President Donald Trump's new chief of staff to take charge in an unruly White House: Just hours after he was sworn in, former Gen. John Kelly made sure that Trump's profanity-spouting new communications director was gone, ignominiously ousted after less than two weeks on the job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new chief of staff is entering a West Wing battered by crisis.
FRIDAY, JULY 28
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee tourism officials are launching a website that aims to recruit retirees to settle down in the state.
MIDSTATE
FRANKLIN (AP) — Financial personality Dave Ramsey has broken ground on a new corporate headquarters in Tennessee.
COURTS
SPARTA (AP) — A Tennessee judge has rescinded his program that would reduce inmates' jail time if they voluntarily underwent birth control procedures.
HEALTH CARE
Soaring prices and fewer choices may greet customers when they return to the Affordable Care Act's insurance marketplaces this fall because insurers still don't know whether they will receive critical payments from the federal government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The resounding Senate crash of the seven-year Republican drive to scrap the Obama health care law incited GOP finger-pointing Friday but left the party with wounded leaders and no evident pathway forward on an issue that won't go away.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senator John McCain is calling on the Senate to "start fresh" on health care after he cast the decisive vote killing the GOP's "Obamacare" repeal effort.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Mo Brooks says the "failure" of the GOP health care overhaul is ultimately Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's responsibility.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The country's biggest organization of health plans is opposing the Senate Republicans' latest approach to scrapping the Obama health care law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Battered by repeated failures to repeal or replace "Obamacare," Senate GOP leaders retreated to a narrow approach Thursday that would undo just a few of the most unpopular elements of Barack Obama's law. Democrats vowed opposition as the Senate prepared for a bizarre Capitol Hill ritual, a "vote-a-rama" on amendments that promised to last into the wee hours of Friday morning.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — The alliance of Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. and Renault SA of France led in global vehicle sales for the first half of this year, the first time it has claimed top rank, beating perennial top-sellers Volkswagen, Toyota and General Motors.
FREMONT, Calif. (AP) — For Tesla, everything is riding on the Model 3.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's transport minister said Thursday that it's too soon to talk about burying the combustion engine, underlining his government's reluctance to follow Britain and others in banning the sale of new cars and vans using diesel and gasoline from 2040.
DETROIT (AP) — On any given day this summer, you might find 97-year-old Lennart Ribring driving his 2016 Ford Mustang GT on a winding road near his home in Sweden. Or you might see Chris Fitzpatrick polishing his 1967 Mustang convertible in Auckland, New Zealand. Guo Xin might be working on a Mustang in his car repair shop in Beijing, while in England, a happy bride and groom drive off in a Mustang GT California Special.
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Nissan Motor Co. says that despite strong overall sales its quarterly profit dipped in the last quarter, squeezed by rising costs and slowing growth in China.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — The iPod Nano and iPod Shuffle have played their final notes for Apple.
NEW YORK (AP) — Not that long ago, the clunky cable box looked like it was on its way out. The federal government was pressuring cable companies to open up their near-monopoly on boxes to more competition, and industry leader Comcast promised apps that could render some boxes obsolete.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stock markets around the world sagged on Friday after Amazon and other big companies reported quarterly results that underwhelmed investors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy acquired an exclusive label Friday: Recession-free for eight full years. Yet the third-longest economic winning streak in American history still doesn't get much love.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy revved up this spring after a weak start to the year, fueled by strong consumer spending. But the growth spurt still fell short of the optimistic goals President Donald Trump hopes to achieve through tax cuts and regulatory relief.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Randal Quarles, President Donald Trump's nominee for the Federal Reserve Board, says he likes a predecessor's ideas for where regulators should prune banking rules.
NEW YORK (AP) — Forbes has crowned Jerry Seinfeld as the king of the club when it comes to the highest-paid, stand-up comedians.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods posted the biggest gain in nearly three years last month, pulled up by a surge in demand for civilian aircraft.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says Gen. John F. Kelly is his new White House chief of staff.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says that if the Senate wants to pass legislation, it "must immediately go to a 51 vote majority," but his math is off.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump paints a rosy picture of an improved Department of Veterans Affairs under his watch where accessing electronic medical records is "so easy and so good" and health care is freely available without any delays. The problem: It's not true.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's new communications director exploded the smoldering tensions at the White House into a full-fledged conflagration Thursday, angrily daring Trump's chief of staff to deny he's a "leaker" and exposing West Wing backstabbing in language more suitable to a mobster movie than a seat of presidential stability.
SAN SALVADOR, El Salvador (AP) — After being berated for a week by President Donald Trump, Attorney General Jeff Sessions said Thursday he will stay in the job for as long as Trump wants him to serve.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is moving forward with legislation to combat cyberattacks and deter foreign interference amid an investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate debate over health care has made it painfully clear: behind their self-confident "repeal and replace" slogan, Republicans were never united around an alternative to the Affordable Care Act.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's decision to ban transgender service in the armed forces drove a wedge through military veterans in Congress, with one camp standing squarely behind the commander in chief and the other decrying his order as an ugly attack on dedicated troops.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is likely to sign a tough new sanctions bill that includes proposed measures targeting Russia — a remarkable concession that the president has yet to sell his party on his hopes for forging a warmer relationship with Moscow.