VOL. 40 | NO. 31 | Friday, July 29, 2016
Democratic leaders of our 4 largest cities push progressive agendas in GOP stronghold
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry, a Democrat in Tennessee’s sea of red, finds herself adapting to the control Republicans hold over the state Legislature.
Not yet a year into her first term, Nashville Mayor Megan Barry is standing shoulder to shoulder with Metro Nashville Police and the black community in an effort to avert disaster.
Democratic mayors Megan Barry of Nashville and Madeline Rogero of Knoxville, are surrounded by GOP-supporting suburban and rural voters. It’s reflected by solid majorities in the Tennessee Senate and House.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
A long, long time ago, I can still remember how that music used to make me smile – and so did contracts with FHA loans. The music still makes me smile, and FHA loans do if I have the buyer, but the “appraisal” can be tough on the seller.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, June 2016, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged higher this week for a second straight week. They still are near historically low levels to encourage potential homebuyers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The proportion of U.S. households that own homes has matched its lowest level in 51 years — evidence that rising property prices, high rents and stagnant pay have made it hard for many to buy.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Over the summer, Peyton Manning spoke with Josh Dobbs about the essence of a senior season for a college quarterback.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
Hope is what Tennessee Titans have to offer their fans when training camp officially opens on Saturday.
All practices at St. Thomas Sports Park unless otherwise indicated. Autograph sessions for the first five practices are indicated.
NEWSMAKERS
Robert “Bob” J. Martineau Jr., commissioner for the Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation, has been selected as president of the Legal Aid Society of Middle Tennessee and the Cumberlands.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Mazda gave the CX-9 bolder styling, a new engine and superb handling for 2016, making it a seven-passenger SUV that separates itself from the crowd.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Having spent the lion’s share of my career marketing national corporations, I would certainly say there is a science to marketing at that level, and the better brands market like well-oiled machines.
CAREER CORNER
A reader contacted me today with an important question: When is it appropriate to wear clothing, jewelry, or other items associated with her religion to an interview or to work.
I SWEAR
In a dystopian future era, applicable law dictates that if you are single after a certain age, you must take up residence in The Hotel for 45 days. If you don’t fall in love with someone in that time period, you will be transformed into the beast of your choice and released into the wild.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
One of the most beautiful signs of spring is the flowering cherry tree, promising succulent sweet, juicy fruits about two to three months away. The only thing better than seeing the beautiful tree is, a few months later, being able to enjoy the wonderful cherries.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - A campaign season that has been marked by sexual harassment allegations, stolen yard signs and physical altercations between candidates draws to a close when the primary polls close on Thursday evening.
STATEWIDE
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — An Ohio judge won't dismiss breach-of-contract and other claims against the truck-stop chain owned by Cleveland Browns owner Jimmy Haslam and his brother, Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee voters go to the polls Thursday to decide the Republican and Democratic nominees for Congress and the state Legislature.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota Motor Corp. reported Thursday a 14.5 percent drop in profit for the fiscal first quarter as sales fell and a strong yen slashed earnings for the Japanese automaker.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, but the number of remained close to historic lows in a positive sign for the job market.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are hardly budging Thursday morning as the market continues the small moves it's made in the last few weeks. European stocks are rising and the British pound is skidding after the Bank of England cut interest rates to shore up the British economy after the nation's vote to leave the European Union.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fannie Mae reported net income of $2.9 billion from April through June, down from a year earlier as low interest rates brought losses for the mortgage giant on its investments.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 3
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - With no statewide positions on the Tennessee primary ballot on Thursday, much of the attention this election season has focused on congressional and state legislative races.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Members of the Band Perry say they're taking precautions as they prepare to travel to Brazil for the Summer Olympics, due to the concerns about the Zika virus.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A longtime Tennessee state lawmaker parlayed his position of power to orchestrate a scheme to secretly reap more than $300,000 in untaxed earnings, federal prosecutors told jurors on the first day of Rep. Joe Armstrong's trial on Tuesday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto sales wilted in July, as hot weather and softening demand kept many buyers at home.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota's much ballyhooed plug-in hybrid Prius Prime is being pushed back by several months, with the new sales date set for late this year or early next year.
TECHNOLOGY
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Facebook built its fortune on the internet, that non-physical space where people share updates and digital videos with friends. But deep inside its Silicon Valley headquarters, engineers have stocked a new lab with computerized lathes, industrial mills and tools for making physical goods.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Federal Reserve official who has been a leading supporter of a slow approach to raising interest rates says one rate increase "could be appropriate" this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged higher Wednesday as energy companies climbed with the price of oil. Banks also rose, and investors sold traditionally safe stocks. A survey showed that hiring by private companies continued at a solid but uninspiring clip in July.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. companies added 179,000 jobs last month, according to a private survey, a steady gain that suggests hiring remains healthy after a sharp fall-off in the spring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A private survey has found that U.S. services companies expanded more gradually in July, with job gains slowing in a key gauge of economic growth.
LONDON (AP) — A closely watched monthly economic survey indicates that the British economy is heading for a sizeable contraction in the third quarter in the wake of the country's decision to leave the European Union, whereas the neighboring 19-country eurozone economy appears to have brushed aside any of the negative fallout from so-called Brexit — at least so far.
NEW YORK (AP) — In another win for cable cord-cutters, Time Warner has become the latest media company to invest in streaming service Hulu.
NEW YORK (AP) — Not even "Hamilton" can keep up with these numbers. The script to the London stage production "Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Parts One and Two" sold more than 2 million print copies in North America in its first two days of publication, Scholastic announced Wednesday.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 2
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Tennessee officials are advising people to take precautions after a horse in West Tennessee tested positive for Eastern Equine Encephalitis.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Just days before Tennessee's primaries, one veteran state lawmaker won't be battling on a ballot, but in federal court fighting fraud and tax evasion charges.
HEALTH CARE
Aetna became the latest health insurer to cast doubt upon its future in the Affordable Care Act's insurance exchanges after it called off a planned expansion Tuesday and suggested it could abandon that market completely.
HOLMDEL, N.J. (AP) — It's one of the most universal recommendations in all of public health: Floss daily to prevent gum disease and cavities.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. auto sales were expected to drop slightly in July as unusually hot weather — and softening demand — kept buyers at home.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers turned in another strong month of spending in June despite a decline in spending on autos.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks took their biggest loss in almost a month on Tuesday as investors worried about the health of the U.S. economy and sold shares in retailers and car companies. Machinery companies also fell and the price of oil continued to decline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage giant Freddie Mac reported net income of $1 billion for the second quarter, down from the same period of 2015.
NEW YORK (AP) — The call for paid family leave on the Democratic party platform is the most ambitious attempt by a major party in years to reverse the United States' status as the only industrialized nation without any standard for paid time off for new parents. But over the last five years a handful of states and some industries have been quietly increasing this benefit.
MONDAY, AUGUST 1
COURTS
MURFREESBORO (AP) - The mother of a Murfreesboro elementary school student has filed a lawsuit against an officer who handcuffed her daughter.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A statue honoring Adolpho A. Birch Jr., the first African-American chief justice of the Tennessee Supreme Court, is being dedicated this month in Nashville.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville International Airport is embarking on a $1.2 billion renovation aimed at changing virtually every aspect of a traveler's experience.
REGION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority is asking for public comment on a draft environmental assessment for a proposed purchase agreement with a planned solar generating facility in McNairy County.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending fell for a third straight month in June with spending on nonresidential construction dropping by the largest amount in six months.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Pharmaceutical giant GlaxoSmithKline is forming a joint venture with a unit of Google's parent that will invest 540 million pounds ($714 million) in the relatively new field of bioelectronic medicine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks wobbled and finished mostly lower Monday as the price of oil continued to nosedive thanks to the strong dollar. Energy companies took the biggest losses as U.S. crude hovered around $40 a barrel, its lowest price in almost four months, and materials companies also traded lower.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American factories expanded for a fifth straight month in July, another sign that U.S. manufacturers are recovering from damage caused by a strong dollar. But a measure of factory employment fell.
DALLAS (AP) — Two major unions at Southwest Airlines are demanding that the carrier replace CEO Gary Kelly because of the technology outage that caused the airline to cancel or delay thousands of flights in July.
NEW YORK (AP) — McDonald's, which is trying to shake its image for serving processed junk food, said Monday it's eliminating some unpalatable ingredients from its most popular menu items.
CONCORD, N.H. (AP) — In a small town just south of New Hampshire's capital, General Electric runs two plants filled with workers building jet engines for the world's leading airlines.
NATIONAL POLITICS
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. (AP) — Billionaire industrialist Charles Koch has declared that his expansive political network would not support Donald Trump, questioning whether the Republican presidential nominee believes in free markets.
FRIDAY, JULY 29
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Country music star George Strait will honor singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale with a lifetime achievement award at this year's Americana Honors and Awards Show, to be held Sept. 21 in Nashville.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's annual sales tax holiday is underway this weekend as parents prepare for children to return to school.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has named David Purkey as the new commissioner of the Tennessee Department of Safety.
MIDSTATE
Lowe's will locate a new direct fulfillment center in Robertson County and expects to invest approximately $100 million and create up to 600 jobs in Coopertown, northwest of Nashville, the company announced today.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has opened his wallet for state legislative campaigns throughout the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) - The subject of a state attorney general's sexual harassment investigation isn't the only Republican candidate facing uncertain prospects in Tennessee's Aug. 4 primary.
NASHVILLE (AP) - For Republican Gov. Bill Haslam, it's a happy coincidence that he can give a boost to embattled legislative incumbents while traveling the state to hand out community grant checks.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Cable and telecom industry groups want a federal appeals court to reconsider its ruling on net neutrality.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks ended slightly higher on Friday, helped by better-than-expected quarterly results from Google's parent Alphabet and retailer Amazon and a modest recovery in oil prices.
DALLAS (AP) — Cheaper oil is leading to the lowest summer gasoline prices in years, and it is causing heartburn for oil companies and their shareholders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A surprisingly lackluster economy last quarter served as a reminder of how choppy the pace of growth has been since the Great Recession ended seven years ago. Businesses pared their stockpiling and investment through the spring. But consumers — the heart of the U.S. economy — kept spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators say risk remains heavy in large loans made by banks and other financial institutions, though lending standards have improved.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — U.S. officials say applications to drill for oil and gas on federal and Indian lands are expected to decrease 40 percent in coming years versus their historical average.
NEW YORK (AP) — Chipotle is branching out from burritos and plans to open its first burger restaurant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama has signed into law a bill that will require labeling of genetically modified ingredients for the first time.
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling about 830,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Mexico because parts in the side door latches can break and the doors can open while the vehicles are moving.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dish Network is offering a new "skinny" bundle of about 50 cable channels that doesn't include ESPN and some other sports channels, giving people who don't care about sports a way to save money on TV without joining the ranks of "cord cutters."
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key category of orders to U.S. businesses that tracks investment posted a small gain in June after two months of declines.