VOL. 42 | NO. 33 | Friday, August 17, 2018
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Sitting at a Greek restaurant and spooning raisins and brown sugar into 10:30 a.m. oatmeal, Bill Lloyd – one of Nashville’s nicest guys – gets only slightly sentimental when pondering the long road traveled since he was at the top of the charts, opening for heroes like Roy Orbison.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
By now, most are aware that Nashville is an inviting and welcoming city. Whether the number is 85 or 100 or even 50 new people moving into the area every day, it had better be welcoming because they are coming whether they are welcome or not.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, July 2018, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the second straight week, with relatively lower rates continuing to fail to spark home sales.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Deontay Burnett is so young that, to anyone’s knowledge, he is the first player to wear a Tennessee Titans uniform who was born after the team played its first game in the Volunteer State.
OK we get it. It’s preseason. Sometime in the second half of the Titans game Saturday night with Tampa Bay, even the most diehard of football fans will look on the field and wonder, who are these guys?
UT SPORTS
Tennessee fans can’t be blamed for having the sports version of post-traumatic stress disorder when it comes to their football program.
NEWSMAKERS
Davidson County General Sessions judges have unanimously elected Judge Melissa Blackburn to serve as presiding judge through Sept. 2019.
BRIEFS
Vanderbilt University Medical Center has been named to the “Honor Roll” of the nation’s top hospitals by U.S. News and World Report in their 2018-2019 ranking of ‘America’s Best Hospitals.’ VUMC is one of only 20 hospitals nationwide to earn this distinction.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
For people looking to buy a car that’s fun to drive, practical and relatively affordable, 2018 could be opportunity knocking. You might say that it’s the year of the performance hatchback.
CAREER CORNER
Every once in a while, I’m talking to a job seeker when something happens that I’m not expecting. It’s especially surprising if the job seeker doesn’t currently have a job and is unemployed.
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee panel has dismissed campaign finance complaints against two Republican gubernatorial candidates that preceded the Aug. 2 primary election.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new U.S. homes slumped 1.7 percent in July, the second straight monthly decline as the broader housing market appears to have lost some of its momentum despite an otherwise solid economy.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen says it's launching an all-electric car sharing service in Berlin using its battery powered Golf and Up! models as it seeks to build a business serving people in big cities who don't own cars.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional watchdog said the Trump administration needs to step up its management of sign-up seasons for former President Barack Obama's health care law after mixed results last year in the throes of a failed GOP effort to repeal it.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — Facebook banned a quiz app from its platform for refusing an inspection and concerns that data on as many as 4 million users was misused.
ENVIRONMENT
CINCINNATI (AP) — The nation's largest grocery chain will be plastic-bag free at all of its nearly 2,800 stores by 2025.
COURTS
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — The Tennessee Court of Criminal Appeals has dismissed a drunken driving conviction, ruling that a roadblock that led to the man's arrest in Chattanooga was unconstitutional.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A Georgia woman who leaked a secret report on Russian hacking of U.S. voting systems could get a tough sentence.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks are drifting between gains and losses in early trading on Wall Street Thursday as gains in the technology sector are offset by losses in banks, packaged food makers and other companies. Energy stocks fell along with the price of oil. Investors had their eye on trade as the U.S. and China rolled out more tariffs on each other, escalating their trade dispute even as representatives from both nations held their first high-level talks in two months.
BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China went ahead with tariff hikes on billions of dollars of each other's automobiles, factory machinery and other goods Thursday in an escalation of a battle over Beijing's technology policy that companies worry will chill global economic growth.
TOKYO (AP) — President Donald Trump's tariff policies reflect a serious misunderstanding of the importance of free trade and Japanese companies' contributions to the U.S. economy, Japan's trade minister said Thursday.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — George Clooney can raise a glass, even if he's not starring in any hit movies.
NATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Senate Banking Committee has approved Kathy Kraninger to run the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau with a 13-12 party-line vote.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump dug in to his denials of wrongdoing as his White House struggled to manage the fallout from allegations that he orchestrated a campaign cover-up to buy the silence of two women who say they had affairs with him.
NEW YORK (AP) — The plea deal reached by Donald Trump's former attorney Michael Cohen has laid bare a relationship between the president and the publisher of the National Enquirer that goes well beyond the tabloid's screaming headlines.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he believes the economy would tank if he were to be impeached.
CHICAGO (AP) — Democrats aren't ready to embrace the I-word.
WASHINGTON (AP) — After President Donald Trump was implicated in a federal crime, members of both parties dismissed talk of impeachment, with Republicans shrugging off the accusations or withholding judgment.
BOSTON (AP) — U.S. Sen. Elizabeth Warren has posted 10 years of her tax returns online.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 22
MUSIC INDUSTRY
WINDSOR LOCKS, Conn. (AP) — Grammy-winning country music star Gretchen Wilson has been arrested at a Connecticut airport after what was described as a minor disturbance on an incoming flight.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Officials in a Tennessee city have instituted a policy to assure that University of Tennessee personnel don't sit in on any police interviews involving investigations of that school's student-athletes.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans got their first-round draft pick back at practice. Linebacker Rashaan Evans left after individual drills, leaving his status in question again.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are doing their best to keep their core players together, and now wide receiver Rishard Matthews is the latest to receive a contract extension.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of existing homes slipped for the fourth consecutive month, declining 0.7 percent in July to the slowest pace in more than two years as the real estate market shows signs of cooling.
ENVIRONMENT
PORT ARTHUR, Texas (AP) — As the nation plans new defenses against the more powerful storms and higher tides expected from climate change, one project stands out: an ambitious proposal to build a nearly 60-mile "spine" of concrete seawalls, earthen barriers, floating gates and steel levees on the Texas Gulf Coast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration on Tuesday moved to prop up the declining coal industry with an overhaul of Obama-era pollution rules, acknowledging that the increased emissions from aging coal-fired plants could kill hundreds more people annually and cost the country billions of dollars.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook, Twitter and Google routinely squabble for users, engineers and advertising money.
NEW YORK (AP) — Parents lament their teenagers' noses constantly in their phones, but they might want to take stock of their own screen time habits.
Facebook has identified and banned hundreds of accounts, groups and pages engaged in misleading political behavior, a far larger discovery than a "sophisticated" effort it reported three weeks ago with great fanfare.
Facebook has identified and banned hundreds of accounts, groups and pages engaged in misleading political behavior, a far larger discovery than a "sophisticated" effort it reported three weeks ago with great fanfare.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The bull market in U.S. stocks is now the longest on record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials earlier this month said that a strengthening economy meant that it would "likely soon be appropriate" to boost their benchmark interest rate, a strong signal that rates will be going up in September.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Disney is offering to pay full tuition for hourly workers who want to earn a college degree or finish a high school diploma.
NEW YORK (AP) — Meet the generation of investors who haven't known a bear market.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target reported strong sales growth both at stores and online, helped by remodeled locations and new delivery services as well as a stronger economy. Like Nordstrom, Walmart and Home Depot, it also raised its outlook as retailers benefit from shoppers spending more freely.
NATIONAL POLITICS
MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. economic sanctions against Russia are senseless, President Vladimir Putin said Wednesday, voicing hope that Washington will eventually agree to a constructive dialogue.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Despite an ongoing FBI investigation into his campaign spending, U.S. Rep. Duncan Hunter coasted through the June primary election largely unscathed, finishing first by a 30-point margin and establishing himself as a strong favorite to hold the seat in November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer has pleaded guilty to campaign finance violations and his former campaign chairman convicted for financial fraud, raising questions about the president's own legal jeopardy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moments after Donald Trump's former personal attorney implicated the president of the United States in a felony, Sen. John Cornyn declared "People who do bad things, who break the law need to be held accountable."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's longtime fixer, Michael Cohen, once said he'd take a bullet for his boss, but on Tuesday he pleaded guilty to eight felonies and described payoffs to women at Trump's direction before the 2016 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Paul Manafort's 16-day trial ended with the former Trump campaign chairman convicted of eight felony counts and prosecutors facing a choice of whether to retry him on 10 other charges.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 21
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam is launching a statewide tour to hear ideas to improve the state's problem-plagued elementary and secondary school online testing process.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The number of Tennessee residents who died of drug overdoses has risen more than 8 percent, setting another record in 2017.
COURTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A teenage boy is suing a district school board in Tennessee, his former assistant football coach and the coach's wife, who is serving a three-year prison sentence for statutory rape.
MIAMI (AP) — Patricia and Jeff Rodgers figured they did everything right to get rich beyond their wildest dreams selling Herbalife health and personal care products. They attended all of the "Circle of Success" events, brought in new recruits, met their quotas on buying Herbalife goods to sell and even set up a storefront shop.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Heaven Hill Distillery of Kentucky is taking Bob Dylan's whiskey company to court, claiming trademark infringement involving its logo.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has added players from some of the nation's most successful programs in an attempt to jump-start the Volunteers' return to Southeastern Conference contention.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration moved to dismantle another major piece of President Barack Obama's environmental legacy on Tuesday, proposing to dramatically scale back restrictions on climate-changing emissions from coal-fired power plants even as it acknowledged that could lead to more premature deaths and serious illnesses.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — Support for charter schools and private school voucher programs has gone up over the past year, with Republicans accounting for much of the increase, according to a survey published Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The S&P 500 index briefly traded at an all-time high Tuesday just as the U.S. stock market's bull run came closer to becoming the longest on record.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration added to its growing list of sanctions against Russia on Tuesday as U.S. lawmakers urged tighter economic restrictions on Moscow and Britain's top diplomat accused Russia's leader of pursuing policies that are making the world more dangerous.
NEW YORK (AP) — It could become the longest bull market ever ... perhaps with an asterisk.
ATLANTA (AP) — With Amazon.com expected to soon name its site for a second headquarters, Atlanta's mayor said a colossal development planned for downtown represents a once-in-a-lifetime shot to transform the city.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Britain wants the European Union to ensure its sanctions on Russia are sufficiently comprehensive in response to accusations Moscow poisoned a former Russian spy in Britain, using a nerve agent.
ATHENS, Greece (AP) — Greece's eight-year bailout ordeal will forever be bookended by two of the country's iconic islands.
After more than a century behind bars, the beasts on boxes of animal crackers are roaming free.
NATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — Michael Cohen, President Donald Trump's former personal lawyer and "fixer," pleaded guilty Tuesday to campaign-finance violations and other charges, saying he and Trump arranged the payment of hush money to porn star Stormy Daniels and a former Playboy model to influence the election.
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — Paul Manafort, the longtime political operative who for months led Donald Trump's winning presidential campaign, was found guilty of eight financial crimes Tuesday in the first trial victory of the special counsel investigation into the president's associates.
Microsoft has uncovered new Russian hacking efforts targeting U.S. political groups ahead of the midterm elections.
MONDAY, AUGUST 20
REGION
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — A new project is documenting the history of LGBTQ people in the Deep South, a region that once all but forced gays, lesbians and others to live in hiding.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx Corp. plans to offer free tuition to employees at its international hub in Memphis, Tennessee.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans' secondary has taken another hit with cornerback Kalen Reed becoming their third defensive back to get placed on injured reserve this preseason.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The NFL tapped Titans coach Mike Vrabel to narrate a video detailing the new rule on lowering the head to initiate contact, hoping the man who played 14 years as a linebacker in the league could more easily explain how players should adapt.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is set to roll back the centerpiece of President Barack Obama's efforts to slow global warming.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Retailers and airlines helped lift U.S. stocks broadly higher Monday, extending the market's gains from last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. business economists are concerned about the risks of some of President Donald Trump's economic policies, saying they fear his tariffs and higher budget deficits could eventually slow the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fishermen off the Alaskan coast. A Florida maker of boat trailers. A building materials distributor in Tennessee.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conserving oil is no longer an economic imperative for the U.S., the Trump administration declares in a major new policy statement that threatens to undermine decades of government campaigns for gas-thrifty cars and other conservation programs.
TEHRAN, Iran (AP) — Iran's oil minister said on Monday that France's oil giant Total SA has officially pulled out of Iran after cancelling its $5 billion, 20-year agreement to develop the country's massive South Pars offshore natural gas field over renewed U.S. sanctions.
Arianna Huffington is calling on Elon Musk to adopt a healthier work-life balance, but the Tesla CEO says that's not an option.
NATIONAL POLITICS
ATLANTA (AP) — Women are not just running for office in record numbers this year — they are winning.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Monday railed against special counsel Robert Mueller in a second day of angry tweets that drew comparisons to Watergate, insisted his general counsel isn't a "RAT" like President Richard Nixon's and accused Mueller's team of "looking for trouble."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan said Sunday that he is considering taking legal action to try to prevent President Donald Trump from stripping other current and former officials' security clearances.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 17
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee hosts defending national champion Notre Dame on Jan. 24 to highlight the Lady Vols' 2018-19 nonconference schedule.
LEBANON (AP) — Cumberland University's arena will have its court named in honor of former Cumberland men's coach Cliff Ellis.
STATEWIDE
BEAN STATION (AP) — The owner of a Tennessee meatpacking plant where a federal immigration raid took more than 90 people into custody has agreed to plead guilty to employing unauthorized immigrants.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Aretha Franklin, the undisputed "Queen of Soul" who sang with matchless style on such classics as "Think," ''I Say a Little Prayer" and her signature song, "Respect," and stood as a cultural icon around the globe, has died at age 76 from pancreatic cancer.
Reaction to the death of soul icon Aretha Franklin, who died Thursday:
DETROIT (AP) — A timeline of major events in the life and work of Aretha Franklin:
COURTS
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — A federal judge has ordered the U.S. State Department to conduct a more thorough review of the Keystone XL pipeline's proposed pathway after Nebraska state regulators changed the route, raising the possibility of further delays to a project first proposed in 2008.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials have approved a new generic version of EpiPen, the emergency allergy medication.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — More than a thousand Google employees have signed a letter protesting the company's secretive plan to build a search engine that would comply with Chinese censorship.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla shares are closing with a loss of $29.95, about 9 percent, at $305.50 after CEO Elon Musk told the New York Times that the stress of the job is getting to him.
SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. (AP) — At a time when big-box retailers are trying to offer the same conveniences as their online competitors, the biggest U.S. grocery chain is testing the use of driverless cars to deliver groceries in a Phoenix suburb.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rose late in the day Friday as investors welcomed signs of progress in resolving the trade dispute between the U.S. and China. The Wall Street Journal reported that the countries hope to have a resolution by November.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is calling on federal regulators to consider scrapping the requirement for public companies to report quarterly results, after business executives told him twice-yearly reports would make better economic sense.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — A detained American pastor has become a symbol of a growing rift between Turkey and the United States, but problems in the Cold War-era alliance as well as Turkey's own financial crisis are unlikely to dissipate even if he is released and Washington eases economic penalties.
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — The main global group for certifying sustainable wood has suspended plans to give its influential endorsement to Indonesian paper giant Sinarmas after revelations it cut down tropical forests and used an opaque corporate structure to hide its activities.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart raised its financial outlook for the year after beating Wall Street's expectations for the quarter and seeing the strongest growth in more than a decade in sales at established stores. Its shares rose nearly 10 percent.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's finance chief tried to reassure thousands of international investors on a conference call Thursday, in which he pledged to fix the economic troubles that have seen the country spiral into a currency crisis.
NEW YORK (AP) — J.C. Penney reported a bigger-than-expected loss in its fiscal second quarter as a key sales metric fell well short of Wall Street's view. The department store operator also cut its full-year forecast again, and its shares plunged 24 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. housing starts ticked up just 0.9 percent in July, a sign that higher construction costs might be weighing on homebuilders.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A dragon winds around a cherry tree in the tattoo across MJ Hegar's arm and back, over the shrapnel wounds she had, at one point, not wanted to see with her young children around.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's lofty vision of big tanks, vintage aircraft and modern fighter jets swooping through the streets of Washington in a show of patriotic force crumbled Friday under the weight of logistics, including a $92 million estimated price tag.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has put more judges on the circuit courts this far into his first two years than other administrations had, thanks to Senate Republicans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former U.S. security officials issued scathing rebukes to President Donald Trump on Thursday, admonishing him for yanking a top former spy chief's security clearance in what they cast as an act of political vengeance. Trump said he'd had to do "something" about the "rigged" federal probe of Russian election interference.
NEW YORK (AP) — Newspapers from Maine to Hawaii pushed back against President Donald Trump's attacks on "fake news" with a coordinated series of editorials in defense of a free press on Thursday — and, not surprisingly, Trump didn't take it silently.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Omarosa Manigault Newman on Thursday released another secret audio recording that she says proves President Donald Trump wanted to silence her after firing her from the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman of the Federal Communications Commission, an independent agency, says a White House official called to talk about a proposed merger between Sinclair Broadcast Group Inc. and Tribune Media Co.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former CIA Director John Brennan said Thursday that President Donald Trump yanked his security clearance because his campaign colluded with the Russians to sway the 2016 election and is now desperate to end the special counsel's investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is lashing out at the press as newspapers nationwide launch a coordinated rebuttal to his attacks against what he calls "fake news."