VOL. 44 | NO. 27 | Friday, July 3, 2020
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
As the number of cases of COVID continue to grow, the Nashville residential real estate market continues to post baffling numbers.
REAL ESTATE
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week with the benchmark 30-year home loan hitting its lowest level ever.
UT SPORTS
One way UT will ‘create change’ is helping players register to vote
As a white male, Tennessee football coach Jeremy Pruitt can’t possibly understand what his Black players live through on a daily basis.
NEWSMAKERS
Kee Bryant-McCormick, an attorney with Bone McAllester Norton, PLLC, is this year’s winner of the Athena Leadership Award, and Grace Stranch, an attorney who has been honored by the Tennessee Supreme Court for her commitment to pro bono work, has been named winner of the Athena Young Professional Leadership Award.
BRIEFS
A record 27% of home searchers looked to move to another metro area in April and May 2020, a new report from Redfin finds, with Nashville seeing the biggest jump in the share of people looking to move in since last year.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Many people like SUVs because of the greater cargo space and a higher driving position they provide compared to a sedan. But one of the typical trade-offs is reduced fuel economy.
PERSONAL FINANCE
As a 58-year-old woman on disability, Robin Short of Wallingford, Connecticut, relies on her tax refund to catch up on bills. She filed her return electronically in February, opting for direct deposit so she could get her $773 refund quickly.
CAREER CORNER
If you’ve found yourself out of work because of COVID-19 you’re likely searching for something new. You might be doing some soul searching. You want to figure out what you should have been, or what you’d like to be in the future. You may even wonder if you’re living in the right city.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee panel is meeting Thursday to decide whether to recommend that the bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader be removed from the state Capitol.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee said Wednesday that the bust of a Confederate general and early Ku Klux Klan leader should be removed from the state Capitol and put in the state museum.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt has laid off at least two people with six more forced to re-apply for their jobs as the Southeastern Conference's lone private school works to merge its athletics communications department with the university's main communications office.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country group Lady A, which dropped the word "Antebellum," from their name because of the word's ties to slavery, has filed a lawsuit against a Black singer who has performed as Lady A for years.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld a prosecutor's demand for President Donald Trump's tax returns as part of a criminal investigation that includes hush-money payments to women who claim they had affairs with Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday upheld the Manhattan district attorney's demand for President Donald Trump's tax returns, but kept a hold on Trump's financial records that Congress has been seeking for more than a year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled Thursday that a large chunk of eastern Oklahoma remains an American Indian reservation, a decision that state and federal officials have warned could throw Oklahoma into chaos.
TRANSPORTATION
The Transportation Security Administration has improved coronavirus protection for airport screeners after a TSA official accused the agency of endangering travelers, the whistleblower's lawyer said Wednesday.
TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON (AP) — At the behest of the U.S. government, German authorities have seized a computer server that hosted a huge cache of files from scores of U.S. federal, state and local law enforcement agencies obtained in a Houston data breach last month.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's highest court ruled Thursday that online platforms don't have to disclose the full personal data including email addresses, telephone numbers or IP addresses of users who illegally upload movies and copyright material.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Despite President Donald Trump's sharp criticism, federal guidelines for reopening schools are not being revised, the head of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said Thursday.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee reported its largest single-day increase in COVID-19 cases as the state's total climbed to nearly 56,000 cases on Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 1.3 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week, a historically high pace that shows that many employers are still laying people off in the face of a resurgent coronavirus.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett has given away another $2.9 billion of his Berkshire Hathaway stock to five foundations as part of his plan to gradually give away his fortune.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's elections coordinator says all 95 counties have updated their websites or written materials to reflect a judge's ruling that every eligible voter can choose to vote by mail during the coronavirus pandemic.
Launching an economic pitch expected to anchor his fall presidential campaign, Democratic candidate Joe Biden is proposing sweeping new uses of the federal government's regulatory and spending power to bolster U.S. manufacturing and technology firms.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Political task forces Joe Biden formed with onetime rival Bernie Sanders to solidify support among the Democratic Party's progressive wing recommended Wednesday that the former vice president embrace major proposals to combat climate change and institutional racism while expanding health care coverage and rebuilding a coronavirus-ravaged economy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ousted U.S. attorney who was leading investigations into President Donald Trump's allies is set to appear before the House Judiciary Committee for a private interview as the panel deepens its probe of politicization at the Justice Department.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon's top leaders are going before Congress for the first time in months to face a long list of controversies, including their differences with President Donald Trump over the handling of protests near the White House last month during unrest triggered by the killing of George Floyd in police hands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has made building some 450 miles of wall on the U.S.-Mexico border a defining issue of his presidency, and long vowed that Mexico would pay for it.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 8
NASHVILLE SC
Major League Soccer is about to resume its season — in a state that has seen a huge spike in coronavirus infections, with one team absent because of a COVID-19 outbreak, and with plenty of worry about what will happen next.
COURTS
DETROIT (AP) — A federal judge in Detroit has tossed out General Motors' lawsuit alleging that Fiat Chrysler paid off union leaders to get better contract terms than GM.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is expected to rule Thursday on whether Congress and the Manhattan district attorney can see President Donald Trump's taxes and other financial records that the president has fought hard to keep private.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is siding with two Catholic schools in a ruling that underscores that certain employees of religious schools, hospitals and social service centers can't sue for employment discrimination.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More employers who cite religious or moral grounds can decline to offer cost-free birth control coverage to their workers, the Supreme Court ruled Wednesday, upholding Trump administration rules that could leave more than 70,000 women without free contraception.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Tuesday that the first-ever women to hold two prominent positions at the court, handling the justices' security and overseeing publication of the court's decisions, are retiring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chief Justice John Roberts spent a night in a hospital last month after he fell and injured his forehead, a Supreme Court spokeswoman said Tuesday night.
TECHNOLOGY
Facebook keeps telling critics that it is doing everything it can to rid its service of hate, abuse and misinformation. And the company's detractors keep not buying it.
HEALTH CARE
Walgreens will squeeze primary care clinics into as many as 700 of its U.S. stores over the next few years in a major expansion of the care it offers customers.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
BRANSON, Mo. (AP) — A surge in coronavirus cases is proving worrisome in the popular southwestern Missouri tourist destination of Branson.
A new report studying the impact of the coronavirus on workers at meat processing plants has found that 87% of people infected were racial or ethnic minorities and that at least 86 workers have died.
President Donald Trump launched an all-out effort pressing state and local officials to reopen schools this fall, arguing that some are keeping schools closed not because of the risks from the coronavirus pandemic but for political reasons.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's rally got back on track Wednesday after more gains for big technology stocks helped pull the S&P 500 to its sixth gain in seven days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers reduced their borrowing for a third straight month in May as the millions of jobs lost because of the coronavirus pandemic made households less eager to take on new debt.
United Airlines will send layoff warnings to 36,000 employees - nearly half its U.S. staff - in the clearest signal yet of how deeply the virus outbreak is hurting the airline industry.
LONDON (AP) — The British government unveiled a raft of measures Wednesday it hopes will limit an anticipated spike in unemployment as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.
Renters are nearing the end of their financial rope.
NEW YORK (AP) — Brooks Brothers, the 200-year-old company that dressed nearly every U.S. president, filed for bankruptcy protection Wednesday, the latest major clothing seller to be toppled by the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman, a national security aide who played a central role in President Donald Trump's impeachment case, announced his retirement from the Army on Wednesday in a scathing statement that accused the president of running a "campaign of bullying, intimidation, and retaliation."
WASHINGTON (AP) — At least a dozen lawmakers have ties to organizations that received federal coronavirus aid, according to newly released government data, highlighting how Washington insiders were both author and beneficiary of one of the biggest government programs in U.S. history.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With coronavirus cases surging in Florida, President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he's "flexible" on the size of the Republican National Convention in Jacksonville.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump is wielding America's racial tensions as a reelection weapon, fiercely denouncing the racial justice movement on a near-daily basis with language stoking white resentment and aiming to drive his supporters to the polls.
TUESDAY, JULY 7
NASHVILLE SC
Major League Soccer has postponed the second match of the MLS is Back tournament after five Nashville players tested positive for COVID-19, the league announced Tuesday.
ELECTION 2020
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennesseans are running out of time to register to vote in the Aug. 6 primary election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is promising to shift production of medical equipment and other key pandemic-fighting products "back to U.S. soil," creating jobs and bolstering a domestic supply chain he says has been exposed as inadequate and vulnerable by the coronavirus outbreak.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — As Nashville's coronavirus cases continue to surge, a city official on Tuesday called on the mayors of surrounding counties to require masks in public, saying the problem needs to be addressed regionally.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Some Nashville bar owners are seeking a temporary restraining order against city officials in an effort to push back against coronavirus restrictions.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A private prison company abruptly dropped efforts to keep running a jail in Nashville, saying it won't be used as a "punching bag" as city officials take steps to end the agreement on their own.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Center for Health Policy at Meharry Medical College has received an $8 million grant for its BRIDGE to Success program, according to a Monday news release.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee announced Tuesday that the state's K-12 schools and higher education institutions are receiving an $81 million round of federal money in response to the new coronavirus pandemic.
TECHNOLOGY
HONG KONG (AP) — TikTok said Tuesday it will stop operations in Hong Kong, joining other social media companies in warily eyeing ramifications of a sweeping national security law that took effect last week.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — Samsung Electronics Co. said Tuesday its operating profit for the last quarter likely rose 23% from the same period last year, helped by robust demand for memory chips used in personal computers and servers as the coronavirus pandemic has more people working from home.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — An appeals court on Monday said the CEOs of General Motors and Fiat Chrysler don't have to meet to settle a lawsuit between the two automakers.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Trump administration required nursing homes to report their COVID-19 cases, it also promised to make the data available to residents, families and the public in a user-friendly way.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Banks and companies that rely on consumer spending led stocks broadly lower on Wall Street Tuesday, as the market gave back some of the big gains it made the past couple of weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The job market took a big step toward healing in May, though plenty of damage remains, as a record level of hiring followed record layoffs in March and April.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government's small business lending program has benefited millions of companies, with the goal of minimizing the number of layoffs Americans have suffered in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. Yet the recipients include many you probably wouldn't have expected.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government on Monday identified roughly 650,000 mostly small businesses and nonprofits that received taxpayer money through a federal program that was designed to soften job losses from the coronavirus but also benefited wealthy, well-connected companies and some celebrity owned firms.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As much as $273 million in federal coronavirus aid was awarded to more than 100 companies that are owned or operated by major donors to President Donald Trump's election efforts, according to an Associated Press analysis of federal data.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's executive arm forecasts that the bloc's economy will contract more than previously expected because of the coronavirus pandemic, which has caused lockdowns on business and public life that are only slowly being eased.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of the Senate's most senior Republicans are skipping the GOP national convention in Jacksonville, Florida, where President Donald Trump will be nominated for a second term.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An eviction moratorium is lifting. Extra unemployment benefits are ending. Parents are being called to work, but schools are struggling to reopen for fall as the COVID-19 crisis shows no signs of easing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is setting a brisk pace lately in issuing executive orders and he's just getting started as he tries to position himself as a man of action on everything from foreign policy to racial justice in an election year. The impact of some of the orders, though, is less than meets the eye.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's June began with his Bible-clutching photo op outside a church after authorities used chemicals and batons to scatter peaceful demonstrators. It never got less jarring or divisive.
MONDAY, JULY 6
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Charlie Daniels, who went from being an in-demand session musician to a staple of Southern rock with his hit "Devil Went Down to Georgia," has died at 83.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Just a few weeks ago, Tennessee looked like a sure bet to become the latest state to protect businesses and other organizations from lawsuits by people impacted by the coronavirus in the push to reopen the economy. Republican Gov. Bill Lee had talked up the change and touted his advocacy on tort reform as a businessman, and he had GOP lawmakers in supermajorities lined up to seal the deal.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday upheld a 1991 law that bars robocalls to cellphones.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court ruled unanimously Monday that states can require presidential electors to back their states' popular vote winner in the Electoral College.
FARGO, N.D. (AP) — A federal judge on Monday ordered the Dakota Access pipeline shut down pending a more thorough environmental review, handing a victory to the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe three years after the pipeline first began carrying oil following months of protests.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — When it comes to rugged vehicles that go off the road, over rocks and into the mud to experience nature, Jeep for years has cornered the U.S. market.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — A group of critical care physicians on Monday called on Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee to do more to stop the spread of the new coronavirus.
The PGA Tour and the Memorial scrapped state-approved plans to have limited spectators next week because of what it described as rapidly changing dynamics of the COVID-19 pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Forty lobbyists with ties to President Donald Trump helped clients secure more than $10 billion in federal coronavirus aid, among them five former administration officials whose work potentially violates Trump's own ethics policy, according to a report.
The number of high school seniors applying for U.S. federal college aid plunged in the weeks following the sudden closure of school buildings this spring — a time when students were cut off from school counselors, and families hit with financial setbacks were reconsidering plans for higher education.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is understating the danger of the coronavirus to people who get it, as more and more become infected in the U.S.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government on Monday identified roughly 650,000 mostly small businesses and nonprofits that received taxpayer money from a program that was designed to soften job losses from the coronavirus but also benefited some politically connected firms.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rallied worldwide on Monday as investors bet that the economy can continue its dramatic turnaround despite all the challenges ahead.
NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses can still get help from the government's coronavirus relief plan after Congress extended the Paycheck Protection Program until Aug. 8.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Activity in the U.S. services sector rebounded strongly last month, but those gains are now being threatened by the resurgence of coronavirus cases in many parts of the country.
It's time to do your taxes — no more delays.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — Uber finally got its food delivery company, acquiring Postmates in a $2.65 billion all-stock deal, the ride-hailing giant confirmed Monday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday criticized a pair of sports teams that are considering name changes in the wake of a national reckoning over racial injustice and inequality.
WASHINGTON (AP) — NASCAR's layered relationship with President Donald Trump took a sharp turn Monday when Trump blasted the series for banning the Confederate flag and wrongly accused the sport's only full-time Black driver of perpetrating "a hoax" when a crew member found a noose in the team garage stall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Not long after noon on Feb. 6, President Donald Trump strode into the ornate East Room of the White House. The night before, his impeachment trial had ended with acquittal in the Republican-controlled Senate. It was time to gloat and settle scores.
WASHINGTON (AP) — On an average day, President Donald Trump sends about 14 posts to the 28 million Facebook followers of his campaign account. His Democratic rival, Joe Biden, delivers about half that many posts to an audience of just 2 million.
THURSDAY, JULY 2
COURTS
MEMPHIS (AP) — The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to hear the case of a Tennessee death row inmate who claims he should not be executed because he is intellectually disabled.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court agreed Thursday to hear a case involving the descendants of a group of Jewish art dealers from Germany who say their ancestors were forced to sell a collection of religious art to the Nazi government in 1935.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is denying Congress access to secret grand jury testimony from special counsel Robert Mueller's Russia investigation through the November election.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A University of Tennessee professor accused of trying to hide his ties with China asked a federal court this week to throw out the case, arguing the law he is accused of violating is too vague.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will consider ending a lawsuit that claims Nestle and Cargill facilitated the use of child slave labor on cocoa farms in Ivory Coast, a case that could further limit access to U.S. courts by victims of human rights abuses abroad.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville will roll back its reopening in response to a sharp increase in coronavirus cases, Mayor John Cooper said Thursday.
The recent upswing in COVID-19 cases in Nashville and Tennessee have prompted the cancellation of Nashville's Let Freedom Sing! Music City July 4th fireworks.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — It was a simple family get-together; a wedding gathering. About 30 people went out to dinner.
BERLIN (AP) — The United States and South Africa have both reported record new daily coronavirus infections, with U.S. figures surpassing 50,000 cases a day for the first time, underlining the challenges still ahead as nations press to reopen their virus-devastated economies.
Does wearing a mask pose any health risks?
Authorities are closing honky tonks, bars and other drinking establishments in some parts of the U.S. to stem the surge of COVID-19 infections — a move backed by sound science about risk factors that go beyond wearing or not wearing masks.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks closed broadly higher on Wall Street Thursday as investors welcomed a report showing the U.S. job market continues to climb out of the crater created by the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. unemployment fell to 11.1% in June as the economy added a solid 4.8 million jobs, the government reported Thursday. But the job-market recovery may already be faltering because of a new round of closings and layoffs triggered by a resurgence of the coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At first glance, the June employment report was a blockbuster.
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines and four smaller carriers have reached agreement with the government for billions more in federal loans, a sign of the industry's desperate fight to survive a downturn in air travel caused by the virus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit rose for the third straight month in May. Both exports and imports fell as the coronavirus outbreak continued to take a toll on world commerce.
SPERLONGA, Italy (AP) — Europe has limited the rise in unemployment caused by the pandemic with a wide array of government support programs, but that cannot hide widespread economic distress and anxiety among workers and small business owners.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A government watchdog says the Commerce Department is trying to block the findings of an investigation into the agency's role in rebuking forecasters who contradicted President Donald Trump's inaccurate claims about the path of Hurricane Dorian last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. intelligence chiefs conducted classified briefings Thursday for congressional leaders who have demanded more answers about intelligence assessments that Russia offered bounties for killing U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says President Donald Trump was never briefed on intelligence that Russia had put a bounty on U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan because there wasn't corroborating evidence.