VOL. 46 | NO. 32 | Friday, August 12, 2022
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Things have changed. Realtors have begun to incorporate the “price improvement” verbiage into their vocabularies and their postings, and many of the nearly 2,000 new Realtors in the area are venturing into uncharted waters with a sales technique known as “open houses.”
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates soared this week in a continued volatile market as the key 30-year loan rate jumped back over 5%.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Rookie QBs are fun to talk about, hard to watch
When you get something new, it’s human nature to give it special attention and hold it in high regard. It doesn’t matter whether it is a new house, a new car, a new phone or, in the case of Tennessee Titans fans, a new quarterback.
After draft classes that have not shown success collectively the past couple of seasons, the Titans came into 2022 needing their selections to make some immediate contributions if they are to fill holes and remain an AFC contender.
UT SPORTS
Because of the blink-and-you-might-miss-it style and amount of points scored, Tennessee’s offense usually gets most of the attention. But it could be Tennessee’s defense that determines the true potential of the team during the 2022 season.
NEWSMAKERS
Heather H. Sveadas has joined Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP as counsel in the health care practice group.
BRIEFS
A new study led by Vanderbilt showed the sustained benefits of health coaching for patients with chronic conditions like heart disease and diabetes.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
New cars are pricier than ever with inflation, low inventory and now rising interest rates taking a toll on prices.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Inflation is scary. Groceries, gas, airfare, car purchases, utilities: In so many areas, your buying power is shrinking as prices continue to rise.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Amid rising inflation, interest rates and recession worries, money is getting tighter for many folks – and probably for you. Yet there might be charitable organizations you want to support, friends or family asking for financial help and things you want to buy for yourself.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former U.S. Sen. Bill Frist will serve as the new board chairman of The Nature Conservancy.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hundreds of federal judges face the same task every day: review an affidavit submitted by federal agents and approve requests for a search warrant. But for U.S. Magistrate Judge Bruce Reinhart, the fallout from his decision to approve a search warrant has been far from routine.
MEDIA
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Social media companies are offering few specifics as they share their plans for safeguarding the U.S. midterm elections.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — People in Arizona and Nevada won't face bans on watering their lawns or washing their cars despite water shortages on the Colorado River.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America says the revenue it gets from overdrafts has dropped 90% from a year ago, after the bank reduced overdraft fees to $10 from $35 and eliminated fees for bounced checks.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks on Wall Street closed broadly lower Wednesday as drops by big technology companies wiped out the S&P 500's gains for the week.
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Bank of America said the recent debate over whether the U.S. economy is technically in a recession or not is missing the point. What matters is that current economic conditions are negatively impacting those who are most vulnerable.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — Two oil and gas companies have announced plans to invest $2.6 billion into developing a major oil field on Alaska's North Slope.
NEW YORK (AP) — After a quiet first half of 2022, the meme stock is back. Beyond and back, in fact.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials saw signs that the U.S. economy was weakening at their last meeting but still called inflation "unacceptably high'' before raising their benchmark interest rate by a sizable three-quarters of a point in their drive to slow spiking prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pace of sales at U.S. retailers was unchanged last month as persistently high inflation and rising interest rates forced many Americans to spend more cautiously.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target reported solid sales for the fiscal second quarter but its profit plunged nearly 90% after it was forced to slash prices to clear unwanted inventories of clothing, home goods and electronics.
LONDON (AP) — Elon Musk caused a stir by tweeting that he was buying the English soccer team Manchester United — whose current owners are opposed by many fans — then saying several hours later that it was a joke.
LONDON (AP) — Britain's inflation rate rose to a new 40-year high of 10.1% in July, a faster pace than in the U.S. and Europe as climbing food prices in the United Kingdom tightened a cost-of-living squeeze fueled by the soaring cost of energy.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Liz Cheney's resounding primary defeat marks the end of an era for the Republican Party as well as her own family legacy, the most high-profile political casualty yet as the party of Lincoln transforms into the party of Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Now that President Joe Biden signed Democrats' expansive climate, tax and health care bill into law, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen has directed the IRS to develop a plan within six months outlining how the tax agency will overhaul its technology, customer service and hiring processes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Planned Parenthood, the nation's leading reproductive health care provider and abortion rights advocacy organization, plans to spend a record $50 million ahead of November's midterm elections, pouring money into contests where access to abortion will be on the ballot.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Fires burned and ammunition exploded at a depot in Crimea on Wednesday, a day after the latest suspected Ukrainian attack on a military site in the Russia-annexed peninsula, highlighting the challenges facing Moscow.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — The head of Russian proxy forces in eastern Ukraine's Donetsk region has sent a message to North Korean leader Kim Jong Un calling for cooperation amid signs the North is considering sending laborers for restoration projects in Russian-occupied regions of Ukraine.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 16
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt coach Clark Lea understands he has a major building job ahead of him at his alma mater.
UT SPORTS
The Tennessee Volunteers say they know what they're doing and exactly what they want out of coach Josh Heupel's second season.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators Foundation is teaming up on an event offering people gift cards, preseason vouchers and giveaways if they turn in guns to the city's police.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Correction announced on Monday it has received a $200,000 grant to help temporarily house indigent offenders who are leaving prison.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A woman accused of smuggling drugs into a Tennessee prison has been charged with murder in the overdose death of an inmate, officials said on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump's longtime finance chief is expected to plead guilty as soon as Thursday in a tax evasion case that is the only criminal prosecution to arise from a long-running investigation into the former president's company, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department on Monday rebuffed efforts to make public the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's estate in Florida, saying the investigation "implicates highly classified material" and the document contains sensitive information about witnesses.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans will be able to buy hearing aids without a prescription later this fall, under a long-awaited rule finalized Tuesday.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — Students who used federal loans to attend ITT Technical Institute as far back as 2005 will automatically get that debt canceled after authorities found "widespread and pervasive misrepresentations" at the defunct for-profit college chain, the Biden administration announced Tuesday.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — American Airlines has agreed to buy up to 20 supersonic jets and put down a non-refundable deposit on the planes that are still on the drawing board and years away from flying.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than 484,000 large SUVs in the U.S. to fix a problem that can cause the third-row seat belts to malfunction.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart Inc. said Monday it has signed a deal with Paramount Global to offer the entertainment company's streaming service as a perk to subscribers of the discounter's shipping subscription service.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended mostly higher on Wall Street Tuesday after another bumpy day as investors cautiously reviewed mostly encouraging financial results from major retailers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amazon has complained to federal regulators that they are hounding company founder Jeff Bezos and senior executives, making "impossible-to-satisfy demands" in their investigation of Amazon Prime, the popular streaming and shopping service with free delivery and an estimated 200 million members around the globe.
Billionaire philanthropist MacKenzie Scott donated $38.8 million to Junior Achievement USA and 26 local operations — the largest single gift in its 103-year history — the national education nonprofit announced Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — With inflation hovering near levels not seen in 40 years, higher income Americans turned to Walmart to cut costs on groceries while its lower income customers swapped out deli meats for less expensive hot dogs and canned tuna.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats have pulled off a quiet first in their just-passed legislation addressing climate change and health care: the creation of a tax on stock buybacks, a cherished tool of Corporate America that had long seemed untouchable.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's main industry lobby group warned Tuesday that factories may have to throttle production or halt it completely because plunging water levels on the Rhine River are making it harder to transport cargo.
Home Depot is seeing sustained demand for goods related to home improvement projects despite soaring prices and mortgage rates for homes.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company bet more on high-tech darling Apple and e-commerce giant Amazon during the second quarter, while also investing billions in old-school oil producers Occidental Petroleum and Chevron.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed Democrats' landmark climate change and health care bill into law on Tuesday, delivering what he has called the "final piece" of his pared-down domestic agenda, as he aims to boost his party's standing with voters less than three months before the midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden arrived at the White House promising to "build back" America, and legislation he's signing Tuesday delivers a slimmer, though not insignificant, version of that once sweeping idea.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top congressional Democrats are demanding that the Department of Homeland Security's inspector general hand over information on deleted Secret Service text messages related to the Jan. 6, 2021 attack on the Capitol, accusing him of using delay tactics to stonewall their investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Taiwan is high on the summer travel list for U.S. members of Congress on their August recess this year, as U.S. lawmakers make a point of asserting American support for the self-governed island despite objections from China. The payoff photos from this week's five-member congressional visit, like that of House Speaker Nancy Pelosi less than two weeks earlier, are meant as a pointed message to China: newly arrived lawmakers disembarking on the tarmac of Taipei's international airport, greeted by beaming Taiwanese officials glad for the American support.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Migrants were stopped fewer times at the U.S. border with Mexico in July than in June, authorities said Monday, a second straight monthly decline.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Massive explosions and fires hit a military depot in Russia-annexed Crimea on Tuesday, forcing the evacuation of more than 3,000 people, the second time in recent days that the Ukraine war's focus has turned to the peninsula.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin accused the United States of trying to encourage extended hostilities in Ukraine as part of what he described Tuesday as Washington's alleged efforts to maintain its global hegemony.
MONDAY, AUGUST 15
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Anyone celebrating a birthday around the Tennessee Titans walks carefully around the team's headquarters to try and avoid center Ben Jones, who likes to surprise people usually with a pie to the face.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A new commander of the Tennessee State Guard has been appointed.
TOURISM
GATLINBURG (AP) — Beginning next March, visitors to Great Smoky Mountains National Park will need to purchase a parking pass to use the facilities.
COURTS
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors in Atlanta on Monday told lawyers for Rudy Giuliani that he's a target of their criminal investigation into possible illegal attempts by then-President Donald Trump and others to interfere in the 2020 general election in Georgia, one of Giuliani's lawyers said Monday.
ATLANTA (AP) — A federal judge on Monday said U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham must testify before a special grand jury in Atlanta that is investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and his allies broke any laws while trying to overturn his narrow 2020 general election loss in the state.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A private prison company has agreed to settle a federal lawsuit over a Tennessee inmate's killing that got national attention after a judge ordered the plaintiff's attorney to stop tweeting about it.
MOSCOW (AP) — Lawyers for American basketball star Brittney Griner on Monday filed an appeal against her nine-year Russian prison sentence for drug possession, Russian news agencies reported Monday.
TRANSPORTATION
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Tracks used by the nation's deadliest railroad will see added fencing to keep pedestrians away and safety improvements at crossings under a $25 million federal grant announced Monday.
ENVIRONMENT
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Banks along parts of the Colorado River where water once streamed are now just caked mud and rock as climate change makes the Western U.S. hotter and drier.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans are less concerned now about how climate change might impact them personally — and about how their personal choices affect the climate — than they were three years ago, a new poll shows, even as a wide majority still believe climate change is happening.
GILLETTE, Wyo. (AP) — The rolling prairie lands of northeastern Wyoming have been a paradise of lush, knee-deep grass for sheep, cattle and pronghorn antelope this summer.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks recovered from early losses and ended higher on Wall Street.
Starbucks on Monday asked the National Labor Relations Board to temporarily suspend all union elections at its U.S. stores, citing allegations from a board employee that regional NLRB officials improperly coordinated with union organizers.
BEIJING (AP) — China's central bank trimmed a key interest rate Monday to shore up sagging economic growth at a politically sensitive time when President Xi Jinping is trying to extend his hold on power.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's economy grew at an annual rate of 2.2% in the April-June quarter, the government said Monday, as consumer spending rebounded with the gradual lifting of pandemic precautions.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Elections in Wyoming and Alaska on Tuesday could relaunch the political career of a former Republican star and effectively end the career of another — at least for now.
UKRAINE
FRIDAY, AUGUST 12
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — At least three Ukrainian civilians have been killed and nearly 20 others wounded in the latest artillery barrages from the Russian military, Ukrainian officials said Monday.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have a competition for the job backing up Ryan Tannehill, and coach Mike Vrabel has made it very clear they want rookie Malik Willis throwing more.
BALTIMORE (AP) — Tyler Huntley went 16 of 18 for 110 yards and a touchdown in the first half, and the Baltimore Ravens extended their record streak of preseason victories to 21 with a 23-10 win over the Tennessee Titans on Thursday night.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI recovered documents that were labeled "top secret" from former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida, according to court papers released Friday after a federal judge unsealed the warrant that authorized the unprecedented search this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans in Congress who are relying on Donald Trump to excite voters in the fall elections are not only defending the former president against the FBI search of his Mar-a-Lago home but politically capitalizing on it with grave and potentially dangerous rhetoric against the nation's justice system.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate has already sent reverberations across the country, even as new details emerge about what agents were looking for in the investigation into whether he took classified records from the White House to his Florida residence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump called late Thursday for the "immediate" release of the federal warrant the FBI used to search his Florida estate, hours after the Justice Department had asked a court to unseal the warrant, with Attorney General Merrick Garland citing the "substantial public interest in this matter."
NEW YORK (AP) — Capping an extraordinary week in Donald Trump's post-presidency, a New York judge ordered Friday that his company and its longtime finance chief stand trial in the fall on tax fraud charges stemming from a long-running criminal investigation into Trump's business practices.
ENVIRONMENT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — A diesel pipeline in Wyoming owned by a company that's being sued by federal prosecutors over previous spills in two other states cracked open and released more than 45,000 gallons (205,000 liters) of fuel, a state official said Friday.
COVID-19
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's top public health agency relaxed its COVID-19 guidelines Thursday, dropping the recommendation that Americans quarantine themselves if they come into close contact with an infected person.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are closing higher on Wall Street, giving the S&P 500 its first 4-week winning streak since November.
NEW YORK (AP) — Best Buy, the nation's largest consumer electronics chain, is trimming jobs in an effort to adjust to new changes in consumer behavior as the virus wanes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Whether it's the fitness tracker on your wrist, the "smart" home appliances in your house or the latest kids' fad going viral in online videos, they all produce a trove of personal data for big tech companies.
PHOENIX (AP) — U.S. transportation officials announced $2.2 billion for local infrastructure projects on Thursday, paving the way for new bridges, roads, bike lanes, railways and ports in scores of communities across the country.
LONDON (AP) — The United Kingdom's economy shrank in the three months to June, figures released Friday showed — a smaller-than-expected contraction that nevertheless added to jitters about the rocky months ahead.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea's president will formally pardon Samsung heir Lee Jae-yong, one year after he was released on parole from a prison sentence for bribing former President Park Geun-hye as part of the massive corruption scandal that toppled Park's government, the justice minister announced Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats pushed their flagship climate change and health care bill toward House passage Friday, placing President Joe Biden on the brink of a back-from-the-dead triumph on his leading domestic goals that the party hopes will bolster their prospects in November's elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With inflation raging near its highest level in four decades, Congress is poised to approve President Joe Biden's signature Inflation Reduction Act. Its title raises a tantalizing question: Will the measure actually tame the price spikes that have inflicted hardships on American households?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The biggest investment ever in the U.S. to fight climate change. A hard-fought cap on out-of-pocket prescription drug costs for Medicare recipients. A new corporate minimum tax to ensure big businesses pay their share.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After decades of inaction in the face of escalating natural disasters and sustained global warming, Congress hopes to make clean energy so cheap in all aspects of life that it's nearly irresistible. The House is poised to pass a transformative bill Friday that would provide the most spending to fight climate change by any one nation ever in a single push.
UKRAINE
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — The U.N. nuclear chief warned Thursday that "very alarming" military activity at Europe's largest nuclear plant in southeastern Ukraine could lead to dangerous consequences for the region and called for an end to attacks at the Russian-controlled Zaporizhzhia facility.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Thrown between hope and despair, expectations were raised Friday that the first U.N. grain transport ship could soon be leaving Ukraine for Africa while more Russian shelling struck the east of the country.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 11
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Grammy-winning group of the world's top percussionists has reunited after 15 years on a new record that aims to bring the world together in rhythm and dance.
TOURISM
GATLINBURG (AP) — Masks will once again be required for visitors inside all Great Smoky Mountains National Park buildings due to the high transmission of the COVID-19 outbreak.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
ATLANTA (AP) — Tens of thousands of Music Midtown festivalgoers are no longer going to descend on Atlanta's massive Piedmont Park next month to cheer on hip-hop star Future or watch beloved rock band My Chemical Romance take the stage.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department has asked a court to unseal the warrant the FBI received before searching the Florida estate of former President Donald Trump, Attorney General Merrick Garland said Thursday, acknowledging the extraordinary public interest in the case.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A prominent prison reform advocate who disguised himself as a construction worker to hide guns, handcuff keys and hacksaw blades in the walls of a Nashville jail under construction pleaded guilty to a federal firearms charge on Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An off-duty Virginia police officer who stormed the U.S. Capitol with a fellow officer was sentenced Thursday to more than seven years in prison, matching the longest prison sentence so far among hundreds of Capitol riot cases.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Recently retired Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer has become the honorary co-chairman of a nonpartisan group devoted to education about the Constitution, joining Justice Neil Gorsuch at a time of intense political polarization and rising skepticism about the court's independence.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The director of the FBI had strong words Wednesday for supporters of former President Donald Trump who have been using violent rhetoric in the wake of his agency's search of Trump's Mar-a-Lago home.
MEDIA
Walt Disney Co. said Wednesday it is raising prices for streaming subscribers in the U.S. who want to watch Disney+ without ads, as more viewers switch to what CEO Bob Chapek described as the "best value in streaming."
AUTO INDUSTRY
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union expressed concern Thursday that a new U.S. tax credit plan aimed at encouraging Americans to buy electric vehicles would discriminate against European producers and break World Trade Organization rules.
TRANSPORTATION
NEW YORK (AP) — Gas prices have fallen from the record highs they reached earlier this summer, but they're still much higher than a year ago. And with inflation driving up the cost of pretty much everything else, finding the funds to cover your commute may be increasingly tricky.
NEW YORK (AP) — Gas prices are falling but still higher than they were a year ago. And inflation has made most everything else more expensive. If you're looking to save money on your commute, here are some tips:
DALLAS (AP) — Travelers got some welcome news in Wednesday's inflation report from the government: Airfares are coming down, and at a faster clip.
COVID-19
LONDON (AP) — The number of coronavirus deaths fell by 9% in the last week while new cases remained relatively stable, according to the latest weekly pandemic report released by the World Health Organization Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — An afternoon pullback left stock indexes on Wall Street mixed, erasing most of their morning gains fueled by another encouraging report about inflation. The S&P 500 closed 0.1% lower Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After decades of inaction in the face of escalating natural disasters and sustained global warming, Congress hopes to make clean energy so cheap in all aspects of life that it's nearly irresistible. The House is poised to pass a transformative bill Friday that would provide the most spending to fight climate change by any one nation ever in a single push.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prices at the wholesale level fell from June to July, the first month-to-month drop in more than two years and a sign that some of the U.S. economy's inflationary pressures cooled last month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans who signed up for unemployment benefits rose last week to the highest level since November, though the U.S. job market continues to show signs of strength.
CHICAGO (AP) — McDonald's will start reopening restaurants in Ukraine in the coming months, a symbol of the war-torn country's return to some sense of normalcy and a show of support after the American fast-food chain pulled out of Russia.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Olaf Scholz pledged his government won't leave citizens freezing or unable to pay their energy bills but acknowledged Thursday that his country faces considerable challenges in the coming months.
UKRAINE
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called on Western nations Thursday to provide more money to help Ukraine's military keep fighting nearly 5½ months after Russia invaded its neighbor.