VOL. 45 | NO. 33 | Friday, August 13, 2021
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates rose this week for the first time after six weeks of declines amid signs of strong economic recovery.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Some once-prominent historical figures are being eased into the background now, judged by contemporary standards as having been on the wrong side of history.
NEWSMAKERS
Gresham Smith, a national architecture and engineering firm based in Nashville, has expanded its executive management team, with Peter Oram, market vice president for the firm’s Transportation and Water + Environment businesses, being named chief operating officer, and Kelly Knight Hodges, market vice president for the firm’s Corporate + Urban Design business, selected as chief development and engagement officer, a new role that expands Gresham Smith’s executive management team from four to five members.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Taylor Lewan doesn’t come off as the sentimental type.
Taylor Lewan isn’t the only key Titan player coming off an injury to make his way back onto the practice field in this training camp.
Yes, it is preseason, but let’s look at four things to watch for when the Titans open with the Atlanta Falcons Friday in the Mercedes-Benz Dome. It will be interesting to see how the playing time is divvied up now with the preseason reduced from four games to three.
BRIEFS
Metro Council has approved 21 Opportunity Grants to nonprofits working to enhance community safety and reduce violence in Nashville-Davidson County. This is the first round of funding from the $2 million Community Safety Partnership Fund, which Metro Nashville created with Governor’s Grant dollars earlier this year.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Buying a hybrid vehicle is typically a smart way to help save money on gas and reduce your carbon footprint compared to a conventional gasoline-only vehicle.
CAREER CORNER
Job applicants have many social rules that are necessary to increase their chances of being taken seriously as a candidate. On the flip side, there also are rules companies should follow when interviewing candidates. These give the company the best chances of attracting the best candidates.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
As your financial and professional lives become more complex, going it alone will only get you so far.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Sam Hunt has pleaded guilty to drinking and driving in Tennessee.
UT SPORTS
Tennessee hasn't finished a season ranked higher than 22nd since 2007, yet there still figures to be a heavy Volunteer flavor to the playoff picture this year.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — An order by the Tennessee governor letting parents opt their children out of following mask rules at school has drawn defiance from officials in Memphis and Nashville, including a pledge Tuesday from Nashville's district attorney not to prosecute teachers and school officials for flouting the carveout during the COVID-19 pandemic.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say five counties will no longer require emissions testing of vehicles early next year under new federal approval, though Nashville won't be among them.
ENVIRONMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The nation's largest public utility plans to switch out 1,200 of its vehicles for electric ones by 2030, furthering its role in that market for a power supplier that also plans to help add charging stations across the region, the utility's top official said Wednesday.
COURTS
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A year and a half after the Boy Scouts of America sought bankruptcy protection amid an onslaught of child sex abuse lawsuits, a Delaware judge is poised to issue a ruling that could determine whether the organization might emerge from bankruptcy later this year.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Home construction fell a sharp 7% in July as homebuilders struggled to cope with a variety of headwinds.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — The names, Social Security numbers and information from driver's licenses or other identification of just over 40 million former and prospective customers that applied for T-Mobile credit were exposed in a recent data breach, the company said Wednesday.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — The pandemic accelerated changes in how people use their televisions, further reducing the dominance in traditional live viewing of what networks are showing, a new study has found.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials Wednesday announced plans to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to all Americans to shore up their protection amid the surging delta variant and signs that the vaccines' effectiveness is falling.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration will require that nursing home staff be vaccinated against COVID-19 as a condition for those facilities to continue receiving federal Medicare and Medicaid funding.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two men were arrested at the Nashville International Airport for refusing to wear face masks aboard their flights, police said.
Federal officials are extending into January a requirement that people on airline flights and public transportation wear face masks, a rule intended to limit the spread of COVID-19.
U.S. health officials may soon recommend COVID-19 booster shots for fully vaccinated Americans. A look at what we know about boosters and how they could help fight the coronavirus:
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis — who has been criticized for opposing mask mandates and vaccine passports — is now touting a COVID-19 antibody treatment in which a top donor's company has invested millions of dollars.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott tested positive for COVID-19 on Tuesday, according to his office, who said the Republican is in good health and experiencing no symptoms.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — After helping a new generation of investors get into stocks, Robinhood is increasingly doing the same for cryptocurrencies.
Stocks took a late turn lower on Wall Street, ending with their second straight loss.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials last month discussed the idea of beginning to dial back their extraordinary support for the U.S. economy later this year, though they stopped short of a firm decision on a timetable.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target's streak of strong results extended into its latest quarter but its skyrocketing online sales growth has come back to earth.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's exports in July jumped 37% from a year ago, the government said Wednesday, highlighting an overseas recovery from the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Democrats plan House votes next week on a budget resolution that could clear a path for future passage of a $3.5 trillion, 10-year social and environment package, suggesting a showdown ahead with rebellious party moderates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senior U.S. military officers at the Kabul airport are talking to Taliban commanders in the capital about Taliban checkpoints and curfews that have limited the number of Americans and Afghans able to enter the airport, the Pentagon said Wednesday.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 17
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ongoing construction at the Tennessee headquarters has prevented the Titans from having fans watch any of their practices so far during training camp.
REGION
MORGANTON, N.C. (AP) — A magnitude 2.7 earthquake rattled parts of western North Carolina on Tuesday and was felt in parts of Tennessee and Kentucky as well, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.
COURTS
Members of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma won't contribute billions of dollars to a legal settlement unless they get off the hook for all current and future lawsuits over the company's activities, one of them told a court Tuesday in a rare public appearance.
MEDIA
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — U.S. company Discovery Inc. has been granted a Dutch license that would allow it to keep broadcasting its independent news channel TVN24 into Poland.
AUTO INDUSTRY
A federal judge fined FCA US $30 million on Tuesday after the automaker admitted that it paid off United Auto Workers leaders to try to win concessions in negotiations covering thousands of factory workers.
TRANSPORTATION
Spirit Airlines said Monday the cancellation of more than 2,800 flights over an 11-day stretch this summer cost the budget airline about $50 million in lost revenue and caused spending to soar.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee signed an executive order Monday letting parents opt their children out of coronavirus-related mask mandates in K-12 schools, after a few school districts issued mask requirements for students and others.
Dr. Danny Avula, the head of Virginia's COVID-19 vaccination effort, suspected he might have a problem getting pastors to publicly advocate for the shots when some members of his own church referred to them as "the mark of the beast," a biblical reference to allegiance to the devil, and the minister wasn't sure how to respond.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health experts are expected to recommend COVID-19 booster shots for all Americans eight months after they get their second dose of the vaccine, to ensure longer-lasting protection as the delta variant spreads across the country.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Tuesday that the U.S. economy has been permanently changed by the COVID pandemic and it is important that the central bank adapt to those changes.
Stocks are closing lower Tuesday, as data showed the coronavirus pandemic is still holding back the U.S. economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans cut back on their spending last month as a surge in COVID-19 cases kept people away from stores.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. factory production in July posted the strongest gain in 4 months, reflecting a surge in production at auto plants that are still wrestling with major supply chain problems.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Billionaire Warren Buffett's company has again increased the size of its bet on grocery giant Kroger, while scaling back several of its health care industry investments.
Home Depot's sales continue to surge, though same-store sales appeared to come back to earth after a year in which the home improvement chain outperformed expectations repeatedly.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban have agreed to allow "safe passage" from Afghanistan for civilians hoping to join a U.S.-directed airlift from the capital, President Joe Biden's national security adviser said Tuesday, although a timetable for completing the evacuation of Americans, Afghan allies and possibly other civilians has yet to be worked out with the country's new rulers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A defiant President Joe Biden rejected blame for chaotic scenes of Afghans clinging to U.S. military planes in Kabul in a desperate bid to flee their home country after the Taliban's easy victory over an Afghan military that America and NATO allies had spent two decades trying to build.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When President Joe Biden announced he would stick to his predecessor's plan to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan, Republican reaction was mixed and largely muted. Foreign policy had become so contentious that the party's own leaders had no single position on the end of the nation's longest war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden ignored his own administration's failures when he tried to explain why desperate civilians in Afghanistan's capital have been left stranded and in danger from the Taliban because of the swift U.S. departure.
MONDAY, AUGUST 16
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — R&B legend Ray Charles, who helped redefine country music in the Civil Rights era, and Grammy-winning duo The Judds will be inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have signed goaltender Juuse Saros to a four-year, $20 million contract.
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — C.J. Sapong and Alex Muyl each scored two goals and Nashville beat D.C. United 5-2 on Sunday night.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Marcus Johnson never doubted how much the Tennessee Titans liked him. Not even when they traded for seven-time Pro Bowl wide receiver Julio Jones.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty is planning an annual economic development tour of Tennessee to visit with business owners, workers and farmers.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. officials on Monday are expected to declare the first-ever water shortage from a river that serves 40 million people in the West, triggering cuts to some Arizona farmers next year amid a gripping drought.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's top health official said Monday that just halfway through August, the state has already shattered its single-month record for new COVID-19 hospitalizations.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate's top Democrat says federal law enforcement officials need to crack down on fake COVID-19 vaccination cards being sold online.
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — There are plenty of places to turn for accurate information about COVID-19. Your physician. Local health departments. The U.S. Centers for Disease Control.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Warning of tough days ahead with surging COVID-19 infections, the director of the National Institutes of Health said Sunday the U.S. could decide in the next couple weeks whether to offer coronavirus booster shots to Americans this fall.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stock indexes are closing at record highs on Wall Street Monday, despite rising coronavirus infections in the U.S. and around the globe, as well as geopolitical concerns in Asia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has approved a significant and permanent increase in the levels of food stamp assistance available to needy families — the largest single increase in the program's history.
BEIJING (AP) — China's economic growth will soften this year due to summer flooding and anti-coronavirus controls, an official said Monday, after consumer sales and other activity weakened in July.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan's economy grew at an annual rate of 1.3% in the last quarter, raising hopes for a gradual recovery from the painful impact of the coronavirus pandemic.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Striking a defiant tone, President Joe Biden said Monday that he stands "squarely behind" his decision to withdraw U.S. forces from Afghanistan and that the Afghan government's collapse was quicker than anticipated.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Built and trained at a two-decade cost of $83 billion, Afghan security forces collapsed so quickly and completely — in some cases without a shot fired — that the ultimate beneficiary of the American investment turned out to be the Taliban. They grabbed not only political power but also U.S.-supplied firepower — guns, ammunition, helicopters and more.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has proposed a procedural vote this month that would set up future passage of two economic measures crucial to President Joe Biden's domestic agenda, a move Democratic leaders hope will win must-have votes from unhappy party moderates.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 13
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Areas in and around Nashville saw a population boom over the last decade, while the greater Memphis region saw low or no growth, or lost people, according to detailed national population data from the U.S. Census Bureau released Thursday that lawmakers in Tennessee will use to redraw state and congressional districts currently dominated by Republicans.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CANTON, Ohio (AP) — Each morning at a transit facility in Canton, Ohio, more than a dozen buses pull up to a fueling station before fanning out to their routes in this city south of Cleveland.
BERLIN (AP) — Tesla founder and chief executive Elon Musk said Friday that he hopes to start producing cars at its new factory outside Berlin in October.
MEDIA
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — A top Discovery Inc. executive said Friday that the U.S.-owned company will fight hard to keep control of a television network it owns in Poland, a $3 billion investment that is threatened by a new media bill that passed in parliament this week.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Friday refused landlords' request to put the Biden administration's new eviction moratorium on hold, though she ruled that the freeze is illegal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday blocked part of New York's moratorium on evictions, put into effect because of the coronavirus pandemic, less than a month before it was supposed to expire anyway.
WASHINGTON (AP) — John Durham, the federal prosecutor tapped to investigate the origins of the Russia investigation, has been presenting evidence before a grand jury as part of his probe, a person familiar with the matter said Friday.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the Obama health care law undergoing a revival under President Joe Biden, this Sunday is the deadline for consumers to take advantage of a special sign-up period for private coverage made more affordable by his COVID-19 relief law.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the pace of vaccinations in the U.S. first began to slow, President Joe Biden backed incentives like million-dollar cash lotteries if that's what it took to get shots in arms. But as new coronavirus infections soar, he's testing a tougher approach.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. regulators say transplant recipients and others with severely weakened immune systems can get an extra dose of the Pfizer or Moderna COVID-19 vaccines to better protect them as the delta variant continues to surge.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett on Thursday refused to block a plan by Indiana University to require students and employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks managed to eke out tiny gains after another day of wobbly trading, leaving the S&P 500 higher for the second week in a row.
Airbnb said Thursday that it narrowed its second-quarter loss to $68 million and gave a bullish forecast for revenue, but the company warned that new variants of COVID-19 will make future bookings and cancellations harder to predict.
DoorDash booked a record number of orders in the second quarter even as its revenue growth slowed from pandemic-induced highs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi faced a fresh hurdle Friday to passing President Joe Biden's multi-trillion dollar domestic policy aspirations, as nine moderate Democrats threatened to derail a budget blueprint crucial to opening the door to much of that spending.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prospects seem increasingly faint for a bipartisan Senate deal on overhauling policing practices as deadlocked lawmakers have fled the Capitol for August recess and political pressure for an accord eases with each passing week.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 12
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Robert Plant and Alison Krauss have reunited for another album more than a dozen years after their collaboration "Raising Sand" became a critical and commercial hit, earning six Grammy Awards.
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than a year ago, country pop duo Dan + Shay were just beginning their first headlining arena tour when COVID-19 started impacting the United States.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — All 73 Tennessee House Republicans signaled their support on Wednesday for a special session to limit the authority of local officials to make rules aimed at preventing the spread of COVID-19, as lawmakers fumed over mask requirements in a handful of school districts.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Purdue Pharma's quest to settle thousands of lawsuits over the toll of OxyContin and its other prescription opioid painkillers entered its final phase Thursday with the grudging support of many of those who have claims against the company.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge cleared the way Wednesday for a defamation case by Dominion Voting Systems to proceed against Sidney Powell, Rudy Giuliani and Mike Lindell, allies of former President Donald Trump who had all falsely accused the company of rigging the 2020 presidential election.
TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON (AP) — Cybercriminals have breached Accenture in an apparent ransomware attack but the global consulting giant says the incident was immediately contained with no impact on it or its systems.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal Health and Human Services Department is requiring employees who provide care or services for patients to get their COVID-19 shots, officials announced Thursday.
WASHINGTON — Dr. Anthony Fauci says an additional COVID-19 booster shot will be recommended for previously vaccinated people with weakened immune systems.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans are battling school districts in their own states' urban, heavily Democratic areas over whether students should be required to mask up as they head back to school — reigniting ideological divides over mandates even as the latest coronavirus surge ravages the reddest, most unvaccinated parts of the nation.
Do the COVID-19 vaccines affect my chances of pregnancy?
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California will become the first state in the nation to require all teachers and school staff to get vaccinated or undergo weekly COVID-19 testing, as schools return from summer break amid growing concerns about the highly contagious delta variant, Gov. Gavin Newsom announced Wednesday.
LONDON (AP) — As Britain enjoyed a summertime lull in COVID-19 cases, the nation's attention turned to the end of pandemic-related restrictions and holidays in the sun.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major U.S. stock indexes shook off a weak start and ended higher Thursday, notching another round of record highs for the S&P 500 and, just barely, the Dow Jones Industrial Average.
Wendy's plans to open 700 delivery-only kitchens by 2025 to meet the growing demand from people who want their fast food brought to them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits fell for a third straight time last week, the latest sign that employers are laying off fewer people as they struggle to fill a record number of open jobs and meet a surge in consumer demand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Inflation at the wholesale level jumped a higher-than-expected 1% in July, matching the rise from the previous month, and dimming hopes that the upward trajectory of prices would begin to slow.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kentucky Sen. Rand Paul waited more than a year to disclose that his wife purchased stock in a company that makes a COVID-19 treatment, an investment made after Congress was briefed on the threat of the virus but before the public was largely aware of its danger.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden overcame skepticism, deep political polarization and legislative gamesmanship to win bipartisan approval in the Senate this week of his $1 trillion infrastructure bill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Judiciary Committee met privately Wednesday with a former U.S. attorney in Georgia who resigned in January as then-President Donald Trump waged a pressure campaign on state and federal officials to overturn his presidential defeat — part of a larger probe into Trump's actions after the November election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The NAACP, one of the nation's leading civil rights groups, is urging the Justice Department to investigate whether a federal crime was being committed when Texas Republicans threatened to have their Democratic colleagues arrested for refusing to attend a legislative session in an effort to try and block a sweeping elections overhaul bill that makes it harder to vote in the state.