VOL. 41 | NO. 27 | Friday, July 7, 2017
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Carl Jackson, who owes much of his musical success to Glen Campbell, wants to make sure people know the man and the music …. Even if the Alzheimer’s-stricken star knows neither who he is nor what he’s accomplished.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
July 7 – 7/7 – is the 77th birthday of Ringo Starr, the little lad from Liverpool who last month marked the 50th anniversary of the release of the “Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band’’ album.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
The folks at Pro Football Focus recently ranked the Tennessee Titans’ roster No. 3.
NEWSMAKERS
Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has appointed Erik Cole as chief resilience officer in the new Office of Resilience.
BRIEFS
Tennessee’s population continues to age, according to recently released census figures.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Porsche’s mid-engine convertible sports car, the Boxster, is revamped for 2017 with new engines, re-tuned suspension, styling updates and more standard features.
GUEST COLUMNIST
The November 2016 Gatlinburg fire killed 14 people and cost millions of dollars in damages. It was one of Tennessee’s worst disasters.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Why do some brands speak to us and ignite our souls while others leave us feeling … uninspired? What is it about a brand that makes us feel happy, excited or safe?
CAREER CORNER
A reader recently wrote to me with a unique situation. They landed an impressive contract position, and everything was going along great for 11 months until they were suddenly let go.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee at Knoxville and Vanderbilt University will help study results from Gov. Bill Haslam's initiatives to increase the percentage of residents with higher education degrees.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. prosecutors announced Thursday that they have charged more than 400 people with taking part in health care fraud and opioid scams that totaled $1.3 billion in false billing.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates rose this week for the second straight week. The benchmark 30-year rate surpassed the significant 4 percent level for the first time since May.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a high-stakes bid for conservative support, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has agreed to demands from Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas to allow insurers to sell low-cost, skimpier plans in new but still-reeling health legislation being released Thursday, two GOP aides said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican leaders are trotting out their new, but reeling, health care bill and angling toward a showdown vote next week amid signs that they have lots of work ahead to win over GOP lawmakers or face a resounding failure.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's antitrust authority has fined three suppliers of Volkswagen AG a total of 9.6 million euros ($11 million) for allegedly colluding on how to pass on increasing raw material prices to the automaker.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes edged higher in early trading Thursday, led by gains in technology companies. Big retail chains and other consumer-focused stocks were also among the gainers. Health care companies were among the laggards. Investors had their eye on Washington, where Federal Reserve chair Janet Yellen was testifying before Congress for the second day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans applied for jobless aid last week, as the number of people seeking benefits has stayed near historic lows pointing to a robust job market.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target boosted its guidance for the second quarter after its campaign to revitalize the brand pushed sales higher and boosted customer traffic.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — With "Game of Thrones" off the Emmy battlefield this time around, the likely beneficiaries will be streaming dramas and, in a reversal of fortune, a broadcast series.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Republicans and Democrats have reached initial agreement on the biggest expansion of college aid for military veterans in a decade, removing a 15-year time limit to tap into benefits and boosting money for thousands in the National Guard and Reserve.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's capital is bracing for a long, hot summer, and that's not even counting the weather.
WEDNESDAY, JULY 12
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Metro Nashville fought a losing battle this spring as a state law passed that lets people with gun permits enter city buses and its main bus terminal with their guns. Nashville is now among several cities in Tennessee to tweak its bus system rules just enough to follow the new law without advertising that guns can be carried more freely.
HOOVER, Ala. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference is exploring moving its annual media days out of the Birmingham area for the first time, and Nashville is being floated as a possible landing spot.
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Prosecutors say they have reached a plea deal with a Tennessee company that falsely claimed devices it shipped were tested to meet federal transportation requirements for radioactive containers.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday he will be "very angry" if the Senate fails to pass a revamped Republican health care bill and said Majority Leader Mitch McConnell must "pull it off," intensifying pressure on party leaders laboring to preserve the teetering measure.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican efforts to scrap much of Democrat Barack Obama's health care law hit a new complication on Wednesday: Wary House conservatives who insist that the bill satisfy their goals of low-premium insurance policies with bare-bones coverage.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A health care proposal from Senate conservatives would let insurers sell skimpy policies provided they also offer a comprehensive plan. It's being billed as pro-consumer, allowing freedom of choice and potential savings for many.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's ready to unwrap his latest bill repealing much of President Barack Obama's health care law. Another top Republican says the measure will likely keep a pair of tax hikes on wealthier Americans that Obama's statute imposed to help finance its expanded coverage.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies led U.S. stocks higher Wednesday in a broad rally that helped nudge the Dow Jones industrial average to a new high.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Janet Yellen raised the possibility Wednesday that the Fed would consider slowing the pace of its interest rate increases if inflation remained persistently below its target level.
PARIS (AP) — A French court annulled a 1.1 billion-euro ($1.27 billion) tax adjustment imposed on Google by France's tax authorities, saying Wednesday that the way the California firm operates in France allows it to be exempt from most taxes.
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Rex Tillerson met Wednesday with the king of Saudi Arabia and officials from other countries lined up against Qatar as he works to end a rift that has left the tiny, energy-rich state isolated from its neighbors.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The snowballing revelations about Donald Trump Jr.'s meeting with a Russian lawyer during last year's presidential campaign have broadsided the White House, distracting from its agenda as aides grapple with a crisis involving the president's family.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump White House picked the worst possible time to criticize a package of new Russia sanctions that is heading toward almost certain and overwhelming approval by Congress.
TUESDAY, JULY 11
NASHVILLE AREA
ASHLAND CITY (AP) — A former Democratic Tennessee state senator has pleaded not guilty to a felony charge of sexual battery.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A residential high school equivalency program is opening at the site of a former Tennessee youth detention center that had had a history of violent clashes, breakout attempts and attacks on guards.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans will introduce their reworked health care bill Thursday and begin trying to muscle it through the Senate next week, the chamber's GOP leader said Tuesday as the party tried healing divisions threatening to mortally wound the chances for one of its top goals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans find themselves in a no-win situation as they struggle to pass health care legislation in the Senate: Success could alienate a majority of the population, but failure could anger the crucial group of GOP base voters the party relies on to build election victories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's poorest families would lose thousands of dollars in health benefits so that millionaires could get huge tax cuts under the Senate Republicans' health bill, according to an independent analysis released Tuesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A long-time Republican lawmaker said Tuesday he is "very pessimistic" that his party will push a health care bill through the Senate, even as a colleague warned leaders about retaliation by conservative voters should they react to a collapse of the measure by striking a deal with Democrats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders are hoping to stage a climactic vote on their health care bill next week, though internal rifts over divisive issues like coverage requirements and Medicaid cuts leave the timing and even the measure's fate in question.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) — An electric car maker deserted its plan to construct a $1 billion manufacturing plant in southern Nevada in a move experts say could spell trouble for the company and the broader niche electric automobile industry.
CANTON, Miss. (AP) — Pro-union workers at Nissan Motor Co.'s Mississippi plant cast themselves as underdogs Tuesday, but encouraged workers to believe supporters of the United Auto Workers could triumph in a vote on union representation.
DETROIT (AP) — Electric car maker Tesla is expanding its service operations and hiring more than 1,000 technicians to meet expected demand for its new Model 3 sedan.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — First Amendment advocates are suing President Donald Trump, saying some of his critics have been unconstitutionally blocked from following him on Twitter.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Another day of listless trading on Wall Street ended Tuesday with the major stock indexes closing out having shifted marginally from the day before.
SIDNEY, Neb. (AP) — Cabela's shareholders have approved selling the outdoor outfitter to rival Bass Pro Shops for roughly $4 billion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer job openings in May. But hiring picked up and more people are quitting their jobs — both positive signs for the economy.
Microsoft wants to extend broadband services to rural America by using the buffer zones separating individual television channels in the airwaves.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Russian lawyer who met with Donald Trump's eldest son during the presidential campaign said she was summoned to Trump Tower and asked if she had damaging information on Hillary Clinton, painting a very different picture of the encounter from the one that Donald Trump Jr. has described.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A meeting between President Donald Trump's eldest son and a Russian lawyer during the presidential campaign occurred at the behest of a Moscow-based singer with family ties to Trump's businesses, according to a participant in the talks. Donald Trump Jr. acknowledged Monday he made time for the meeting hoping to get information about Democrat Hillary Clinton.
MONDAY, JULY 10
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Lawyers for Tennessee Titans teammates Tajae Sharpe and Sebastian Tretola say a lawsuit filed against their clients is a "blatant money grab."
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam has opened an alternative residential program operated by the Tennessee National Guard that gives some teens a chance to earn a high school equivalency diploma outside a traditional school setting.
GATLINBURG (AP) — The president of the Gatlinburg Convention and Visitors Bureau has eliminated two top administrative positions in the organization that works to attract tourism to the Tennessee city.
TELLICO PLAINS (AP) — Just like trout fishing, trout stocking is big business in Tennessee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — The United Auto Workers filed petitions Monday to force a unionization election at a Nissan Motor Co. plant in Mississippi after a yearslong pressure campaign to build support.
DETROIT (AP) — A company that distributes Primewell brand tires is recalling more than 394,000 of them in the U.S. because the sidewalls can crack and lose air, increasing the risk of a crash.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of U.S. adults without health insurance has grown by some 2 million this year, according to a major new survey that finds recent coverage gains beginning to erode.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped a mostly listless day of trading Monday with an uneven finish for U.S. stock indexes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interest rates on short-term Treasury bills fell in Monday's auction to the lowest levels in two weeks.
NEW YORK (AP) — A federal agency tasked with looking out for consumers moved Monday to broadly ban the use of mandatory arbitration clauses, setting up a likely showdown with Republicans who oppose the change and want more control over the bureau in general.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers increased their borrowing in May at the fastest pace in six months, reflecting a sharp rebound in the category that includes credit cards.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wells Fargo has received preliminary approval to pay out $142 million to customers affected by the bank's sales practices scandal.
NEW YORK (AP) — Abercrombie & Fitch is no longer up for sale, and that isn't sitting well with investors who were looking for a white knight to rescue the struggling teen retailer.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is defending a decision to have his daughter briefly sit in for him at a table with world leaders at an international summit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — How's that "blazing" economy? At home and abroad over the past week, President Donald Trump described an America where everyone's getting rich off the stock market, money has started gushing into NATO and practically everything's on the upswing since he took office. On Russian meddling in the U.S. election, he expressed an enduring uncertainty that his U.N. ambassador — convinced of Moscow mischief — doesn't share.
FRIDAY, JULY 7
STATEWIDE
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A Republican Tennessee congressman is defending paying nearly $300,000 to his son since his felony conviction for official misconduct in 2013.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Health officials say five people have been diagnosed with Legionnaire's disease in connection with an outbreak at the hotel at Graceland.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Nashville Mayor Karl Dean says he has raised $1.2 million for his bid for Tennessee governor.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Comptroller Justin Wilson has appointed Lee Pope as the state's new open records counsel.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — German prosecutors said Friday they have arrested a former employee of the Volkswagen unit Audi in connection with the company's diesel scandal.
After three months as the nation's most valuable automaker, a bad week in an otherwise stellar year has knocked Tesla from the top perch.
HEALTH CARE
GLASGOW, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he plans to produce a fresh bill in about a week scuttling and replacing much of President Barack Obama's health care law. But he's also acknowledging a Plan B if that effort continues to flounder.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks climbed Friday after the government said hiring grew at a stronger pace in June. Technology and consumer-focused companies led the way as investors were glad to see a positive sign for the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Friday it expects the U.S. economy will strengthen and warrant further gradual increases in its key interest rate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added a robust 222,000 jobs in June, the most in four months, a reassuring sign that businesses may be confident enough to keep hiring despite a slow-growing economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Struggling department store chain Sears says it's closing even more stores as it tries to turn around its business.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eight years after the Great Recession ended, the economy is steadily churning out jobs, and the unemployment rate is at a 16-year low.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time in decades, the United States got more electricity from renewable sources than nuclear power in March and April.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft is laying off thousands of employees in a shake-up aimed at selling more subscriptions to software applications that can be used on any internet-connected device.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. service companies expanded at a faster pace last month, pushed up by slightly better sales and a pickup in new orders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added a modest 158,000 jobs in June, a survey found — a sign that hiring has decelerated but remains healthy enough to lower the unemployment rate over time.
NEW YORK (AP) — QVC's parent company is taking control of the Home Shopping Network for about $2.6 billion in stock to create what they say will be the third-largest e-commerce company in the United States.
NEW YORK (AP) — "Wayne Tracker" cannot be forced to testify under oath. He does not exist.
NATIONAL POLITICS
HAMBURG, Germany (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel told leaders of the Group of 20 economic powers Friday that millions of people are hoping they can help solve the world's problems, and warned them that they must be prepared to make compromises.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Having lost patience with China, the Trump administration is studying new steps to starve North Korea of cash for its nuclear program, including an option that would infuriate Beijing: sanctions on Chinese companies that help keep the North's economy afloat.