VOL. 46 | NO. 33 | Friday, August 19, 2022
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Southern conservatives have long been fighting a war on public education. They don’t call it a war, of course. More recently it’s been going by the innocuous label of “parental choice.” Conservatives, it turns out, can be very pro-choice – depending on who’s doing the choosing and what’s being chosen.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Sales dropped 19% in July compared to July 2021, Greater Nashville Realtors sales data reveals. Last July, there were 4,314 sales and, even as recently as June of this year, there were 4,257 sales. But in July, the number dropped to 3,459.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, July 2022, for Davidson County, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates came back down slightly this week after the key 30-year loan rate jumped nearly a quarter point last week.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The housing market's comedown from its high-flying days early this year is deepening, with home sales in July falling for the sixth straight month.
SPORTS
When you glance at the Tennessee Titans roster and look at the years of experience beside Rashad Weaver’s name, it shows a “2,” indicating the outside linebacker is in his second year in the NFL.
The joint practices the Titans have scheduled with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the preseason game Aug. 20 took a bit of a hit this past week when news emerged that Tom Brady would not be in Nashville for the two practice sessions or the game.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have waived tight end Briley Moore to make room for safety Tyree Gillespie, who was acquired in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders.
There’s a stampede coming to Bridgestone Arena this weekend – and that’s no bull. Well, actually, it’s a lot of bulls – and bull riders – who are in Nashville this weekend for the inaugural PBR Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena.
Kiki Milloy and her Tennessee softball teammates had been pleading to add a Lady Vols blue jersey to their uniform rotation since the senior first arrived on campus.
NEWSMAKERS
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has selected Nashville attorney Kathy Sinback to lead the organization as its new executive director.
BRIEFS
Only one-third of homebuying offers written in the Nashville area in July encountered competition, down from 73% in July 2021, a new study from real estate brokerage Redfin reports.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Throughout 2022, new-car shoppers have been paying an average of about $700 more than manufacturer’s suggested retail price, Edmunds data shows. Those in the market for a new vehicle today may experience sticker shock after seeing a dealership has priced the vehicle they want well at more than MSRP.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Those of us who write and talk about money for a living tend to have our financial acts together. But that wasn’t always the case. I invited some personal finance experts to share what they wish they could have told their younger selves about money.
CAREER CORNER
Benjamin Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” It’s hard to overstate the importance of keeping your job search private from your work colleagues.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Every day, you go to work and quietly do your job.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
We all saw it at grocery stores in 2020. The shelves, once brimming with toilet paper and hand soap, were bare. We hid in our homes, deep-cleaning every surface, occasionally braving the threat of COVID-19 to hunt down the last remaining bottle of hand sanitizer in a 50-mile radius. We felt out of control, so we controlled what we could: the contents of our kitchens and bathroom cabinets.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have strung together six straight winning seasons, three consecutive playoff berths and back-to-back AFC South titles capped by earning the AFC's No. 1 seed.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are making sure they keep undrafted rookie kicker Caleb Shudak around a bit longer.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — The superintendent of Tennessee's largest school district has resigned as he was being investigated by an outside attorney for allegations that he abused his power and violated policies.
WHITESIDE (AP) — Two Tennessee law enforcement officers died when their helicopter hit power lines and crashed in a wooded area. The lines fell across I-24, and lanes of the highway were shut down as first responders looked for the crash site, officials said.
COURTS
HARTFORD, Conn. (AP) — A new lawsuit has exposed a deep rift between two of Paul Newman's daughters and the late actor's charitable foundation funded by profits from the Newman's Own line of food and drink products.
SYDNEY (AP) — Fox Corp. chief executive Lachlan Murdoch is suing Australian news website Crikey in a Sydney court for defamation over an opinion piece about last year's storming of the U.S. Capitol.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Officials in the Trump White House tried to pressure U.S. health experts into reauthorizing a discredited COVID-19 treatment, according to a congressional investigation that provides new evidence of that administration's efforts to override Food and Drug Administration decisions early in the pandemic.
MEDIA
DETROIT (AP) — U.S. securities regulators are questioning Twitter about the way it determines how many fake accounts are on its platform.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Startling new revelations from Twitter's former head of security, Peiter Zatko, have raised serious new questions about the security of the platform's service, its ability to identify and remove fake accounts, and the truthfulness of its statements to users, shareholders and federal regulators.
TRANSPORTATION
BERLIN (AP) — German officials launched what they say is the world's first fleet of hydrogen-powered passenger trains Wednesday, replacing 15 diesel trains that previously operated on nonelectrified tracks in the state of Lower Saxony.
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — Nevada-based discount airline aha! has stopped flying after its parent, ExpressJet Airlines, filed for bankruptcy protection and said it would sell its assets.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing higher as Wall Street recovered some of this week's steep losses ahead of a highly anticipated speech by the Federal Reserve chair later this week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Peloton's high-end exercise bikes and other gear will now be able to be bought on Amazon in the U.S., a partnership aimed at boosting the fitness company's sales that have languished since the easing of pandemic lockdowns.
STEPHENVILLE, Newfoundland (AP) — The leaders of Germany and Canada said Tuesday a new hydrogen pact will kick-start a transatlantic hydrogen supply chain, with the first deliveries expected in just three years.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Justice Department officials who evaluated then-President Donald Trump's actions during the Russia investigation concluded that nothing he did, including firing the FBI director, rose to the level of obstruction of justice and that there was no precedent for a prosecution, according to a memo released Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Wednesday announced detailed plans to deliver on a campaign promise to provide $10,000 in student debt cancellation for millions of Americans — and up to $10,000 more for those with the greatest financial need — along with measures to lower the burden of repayment for their remaining federal student debt.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Wednesday responded to Iran's latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of Americans were waiting to learn the fate of their federal student debt on Wednesday as President Joe Biden was set to deliver on his campaign promise to provide $10,000 in debt cancellation for many Americans — and up to $10,000 more for those with the greatest financial need.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Responding to an increasing number of threats born of conspiracy theories that agents were going to aggressively target middle income taxpayers, the Internal Revenue Service announced Tuesday that it was conducting a comprehensive review of safety at its facilities.
ELECTION 2022
Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis learned who his Democratic challenger will be this fall. The impact of redistricting was on full display. Democrats sorted through rivalries amongst themselves. And abortion may give Democrats a lifeline in an otherwise rough November.
MIAMI (AP) — U.S. Rep. Charlie Crist won the Democratic nomination for governor in Florida, setting him up to challenge Gov. Ron DeSantis this fall in a campaign that the Republican incumbent sees as the first step toward a potential White House run.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Six months after Russia's invasion of Ukraine, President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that he is sending $2.98 billion in new military aid to Ukraine that will enable forces there to fight for years to come.
European leaders pledged unwavering support for Ukraine as the war-torn country marked its Independence Day on Wednesday, coinciding with the six-month milestone of Russia's invasion.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24 in an unprovoked act of aggression, many expected a quick victory.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 23
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's disgraced former House Speaker Glen Casada and his top aide were arrested Tuesday on federal charges including bribery, kickbacks and conspiracy to commit money laundering.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The former director of a Tennessee drug abuse prevention group was sentenced Friday to 15 months in prison for using the nonprofit's money to buy an automobile, renovate his home and pay personal bills.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Archives and Records Administration recovered more than 100 documents bearing classified markings, totaling more than 700 pages, from an initial batch of 15 boxes retrieved from Mar-a-Lago earlier this year, according to newly public government correspondence with the Trump legal team.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for former President Donald Trump asked a federal judge Monday to halt the FBI's review of documents recovered from his Florida estate earlier this month until a neutral special master can be appointed to inspect the records.
HEALTH CARE
Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine was 73% effective in protecting children younger than 5 as omicron spread in the spring, the company announced Tuesday.
MEDIA
Elon Musk might have just gotten a leg up in his effort to back out of buying Twitter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former head of security at Twitter has filed whistleblower complaints with U.S. officials, alleging that the company misled regulators about its cybersecurity defenses and its problems with fake accounts, according to reports by The Washington Post and CNN.
ENVIRONMENT
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — A company seeking to mine in Georgia near the edge of the Okefenokee Swamp's vast wildlife refuge said Monday that its project is back on track after a federal agency reversed a June decision that had posed a big setback.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks drifted to a mixed close on Wall Street, as steadying Treasury yields help calm the market following its worst tumble in months.
NEW YORK (AP) — And back down goes Wall Street. After getting mauled most of the year, prices for all kinds of investments steadied in the summer and were heading back up. The recovery was so strong that some investors wondered if Wall Street's "bear market" was coming to an end.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's trimmed its expectations for the year Tuesday despite topping second quarter expectations as it faces a glut of unsold inventory that has afflicted almost the entire retail sector.
BEIJING (AP) — One of the world's few rare earths processors outside China has bought exploration rights to mine in Greenland, opening an avenue for diversifying supplies of the minerals critical for advanced and green technologies.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's natural gas storage facilities are now more than 80% full, showing steady progress despite a drastic reduction in deliveries from Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is forecasting that this year's budget deficit will be nearly $400 billion lower than it estimated back in March, due in part to stronger than expected revenues, reduced spending, and an economy that has recovered all of the jobs lost during the multi-year pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is expected to weigh in this week on Iran's latest offer to resume its compliance with the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, but neither side is offering a definitive path to revive the agreement, which has been on life-support since former President Donald Trump withdrew from it in 2018.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Russia's war on Ukraine drags on, U.S. security assistance is shifting to a longer-term campaign that will likely keep more American military troops in Europe into the future, including imminent plans to announce an additional roughly $3 billion in aid to train and equip Ukrainian forces to fight for years to come, U.S. officials said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. State Department on Monday issued a security alert warning that Russia is stepping up efforts to launch strikes against Ukraine's civilian infrastructure and government facilities in the coming days.
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — On the eve of Ukraine's independence day and the half-year mark of Russia's invasion of its neighbor, there was increasing unease in the country on Tuesday that Moscow could be focusing on specific government and civilian targets during the holiday.
CHERNIHIV, Ukraine (AP) — Danyk Rak enjoys riding his bike, playing soccer and quiet moments with the family's short-legged dog and two white cats, Pushuna and Lizun.
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) — South Korea said Tuesday that Russian warplanes entered its air buffer zone unannounced, and that it responded with unspecified "tactical action," a term that usually refers to the scrambling of fighter jets to chase away unauthorized foreign aircraft.
MONDAY, AUGUST 22
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — Hany Mukhtar scored twice in the first half and Nashville SC rolled to a 4-0 victory over FC Dallas on Sunday.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Finding Treylon Burks through two games is more a case of Where's Waldo with the preseason numbers for the Tennessee Titans' first-round pick downright anemic.
COURTS
ATLANTA (AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham is holding up the Constitution's "speech or debate" clause as a shield as he tries to avoid testifying before a special grand jury that's investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others tried to illegally influence the 2020 election in Georgia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge acknowledged Monday that redactions to an FBI affidavit spelling out the basis for the search of former President Donald Trump's Mar-a-Lago estate might be so extensive as to make the document "meaningless" if released to the public. But he said he continued to believe it should not remain sealed in its entirety because of the "intense" public interest in the investigation.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has subpoenaed his friend and former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey as part of an effort to back out of his $44 billion agreement to acquire the company Dorsey helped found, according to court documents.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The United States has reached a settlement with Knoxville, Tennessee,-based Covenant Health over claims that it violated the Americans with Disabilities Act.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is cutting about 3,000 white-collar jobs as it attempts to lower costs and make the transition from internal combustion to electric vehicles.
HEALTH CARE
Pfizer asked U.S. regulators Monday to authorize its combination COVID-19 vaccine that adds protection against the newest omicron relatives — a key step toward opening a fall booster campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the nation's top infectious disease expert who became a household name — and the subject of partisan attacks — during the COVID-19 pandemic, announced Monday he will leave the federal government in December after more than five decades.
REAL ESTATE
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Ballots haven't even been printed yet, but already a group of landlords, apartment managers and real estate agents in Florida want to stop voters from deciding on a measure that would implement rent control for a year in the theme park hub that has been one of the fastest-growing metro areas in the U.S.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Another broad stock market sell-off on Monday deepened Wall Street's losses from last week, leaving the S&P 500 with its biggest slide since mid-June.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Warren Buffett's company has received clearance to boost its 20% stake in Occidental Petroleum to as much as 50%, but it's not immediately clear how many more shares Berkshire Hathaway plans to buy or whether it will consider buying the entire company.
LONDON (AP) — Conditions are dimming at many movie theaters around the world.
JOHNSTOWN, Ohio (AP) — Ohio's largest-ever economic development project comes with a big employment challenge: how to find 7,000 construction workers in an already booming building environment when there's also a national shortage of people working in the trades.
BERLIN (AP) — Adidas CEO Kasper Rorsted will step down next year, the sports apparel maker said Monday, and the company has started looking for a successor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Aaliyah Manning's dreams of becoming a psychologist ended abruptly during her freshman year at Potomac State in West Virginia when the cost of continuing her education became overwhelming.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — A new gas discovery off Cyprus' southern coast that's estimated to contain around 2.5 trillion cubic feet of the hydrocarbon bolsters Europe's efforts to secure alternative energy sources, the Cypriot energy ministry said Monday, as a supply crisis triggered by Russia's invasion of Ukraine continues to trouble the continent.
CHICAGO (AP) — Blueberry bison tamales, harvest salad with mixed greens, creamy carrot and wild rice soup, roasted turkey with squash. This contemporary Native American meal, crafted from the traditional foods of tribes across the United States and prepared with "Ketapanen" – a Menominee expression of love – cost caterer Jessica Pamonicutt $976 to feed a group of 50 people last November.
ELECTION 2022
WASHINGTON (AP) — Tuesday's primary elections feature two top Florida Democrats squaring off for the chance to face Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis, a rising conservative star frequently mentioned as a top alternative to Donald Trump in the 2024 GOP presidential contest.
UKRAINE
NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russia's invasion of Ukraine has already killed some 9,000 Ukrainian soldiers since it began nearly six months ago, a general said, and the fighting Monday showed no signs that the war is abating.
MECKENHEIM, Germany (AP) — Martin Kopf needs natural gas to run his family's company, Zinkpower GmbH, which rustproofs steel components in western Germany.
NIKOPOL, Ukraine (AP) — Russian shelling across the river from Ukraine's main atomic plant wounded four people on Monday, an official said, only hours after the latest international pleas to spare the area from attacks to prevent a nuclear disaster.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's top counterintelligence agency on Monday blamed Ukrainian spy services for organizing the killing of the daughter of a leading Russian nationalist ideologue in a car bombing just outside Moscow.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 19
COURTS
ATLANTA (AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham can't put off his appearance before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, a federal judge said Friday.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge on Friday blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state's 1931 ban on abortion for the foreseeable future after two days of witness testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state's chief medical officer.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender kids in Utah will be not be subjected to sports participation limits at the start of the upcoming school year after a judge delayed the implementation of a statewide ban passed earlier this year.
ATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors investigating whether Donald Trump committed crimes as he sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia are running into increasing resistance as they seek to call witnesses to testify before a special grand jury.
NEW YORK (AP) — The numbers guy did the math: Allen Weisselberg — a longtime loyal lieutenant to Donald Trump — could have gotten years in prison if he went to trial and failed to beat tax evasion allegations. But if he agreed to testify in an upcoming trial of the former president's company, he would probably serve no more than 100 days.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Apple regularly issues updates to the software powering the iPhone, and sometimes it's OK to dawdle when it comes to installing them. But that's not the case with its latest — an upgrade that Apple released Wednesday to close a security hole that could allow hackers to seize control of iPhones and several other popular Apple products.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department has canceled its recognition of an accrediting agency that oversees mostly for-profit colleges, placing in jeopardy the survival of schools that serve about 5,000 students.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, the nation's largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue for months following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year after President Joe Biden signed legislation extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces.
MEDIA
Instagram and Facebook suspended Children's Health Defense this week after the anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr. repeatedly violated rules prohibiting misinformation about COVID-19.
TRANSPORTATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned airlines that his department could draft new rules around passenger rights if the carriers don't give more help to travelers trapped by flight cancellations and delays.
LONDON (AP) — A strike by London Underground workers brought the British capital's transit network to a grinding halt on Friday, a day after a nationwide walkout by railway staff. Another rail strike is scheduled for Saturday as the U.K. endures a summer of action by workers demanding pay increases to offset soaring food and energy price hikes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology stocks led Wall Street lower, leaving major indexes in the red for the week.
NEW YORK (AP) — The newest meme stock on Wall Street, Bed Bath & Beyond, tumbled even further in after-hours trading Thursday after a high-profile activist investor confirmed that he's bailed out of the stock.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The head of the nation's largest railroad union says the report designed to help resolve stalled contract talks with freight railroads doesn't do enough to address concerns about working conditions, even though it suggests 24% raises.
DALLAS (AP) — Labor unions are pressuring U.S. airlines not to buy back their own stock but instead spend the money on hiring more workers and fixing problems that caused widespread flight delays and cancellations this summer.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom said on Friday a key pipeline conveying natural gas to Europe will shut down for three days at the end of this month to undergo "routine maintenance."
BEIJING (AP) — A Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong in 2017 was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for a multibillion-dollar string of financial offenses and his company was fined $8.1 billion, a court announced.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden will host a White House summit next month aimed at combating a spate of hate-fueled violence in the U.S., as he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to "heal the soul of the nation."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last week's attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national in a plot to kill former national security adviser John Bolton have given the Biden administration new headaches as it attempts to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. for the first time Friday said it will give Ukraine Scan Eagle surveillance drones, mine-resistant vehicles, anti-armor rounds and howitzer weapons to help Ukrainian forces regain territory and mount a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Turkey's leader and the U.N. chief met in Ukraine with President Volodymr Zelenskyy on Thursday in a high-powered bid to ratchet down a war raging for nearly six months. But little immediate progress was reported.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt sophomore defensive end-linebacker Miles Capers will miss the season with an injured knee requiring surgery.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The NHL will be holding its awards and draft in Music City in June 2023, the first time the league has held both in the same city since 2006.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says Republican state Sen. Mike Bell will soon serve as the agency's legislative senior adviser.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A top executive at former President Donald Trump's family business pleaded guilty Thursday to evading taxes on a free apartment and other perks, striking a deal with prosecutors that could make him a star witness against the company at a trial this fall.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to put forward proposed redactions as he committed to making public at least part of the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's estate in Florida.
ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has formally appealed a judge's order requiring him to testify before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
A Virginia man who is facing trial on charges that he drove a Hummer packed with guns to Philadelphia to interfere with the 2020 presidential election has been arrested in a separate case that alleges his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for many of the nation's largest media companies will try to persuade a federal magistrate judge on Thursday afternoon to make public the affidavit supporting the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search former President Donald Trump's Florida estate last week.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two Black men who challenged their criminal convictions after jurors deliberated in a Tennessee courthouse room containing Confederate symbols have received opposite rulings from different judges on the same appeals court.
ENVIRONMENT
Clean energy incentives in the new spending package signed this week by President Joe Biden will trim America's emissions of heat-trapping gases by about 1.1 billion tons (1 billion metric tons) by 2030, a new Department of Energy analysis shows.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A judge's order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona and Nevada residents won't face bans on watering their lawns or washing their cars despite more Colorado River water shortages.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Thursday issued a first-of-a-kind warning to the maker of nicotine gummies, saying the illegal candies pose a growing risk to teenagers and younger children.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon appears to be getting the TikTok bug, joining other companies seeking to hold consumers' attention by introducing replicas of the popular social platform.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Another day of choppy trading on Wall Street ended with modest gains for stocks Thursday and the benchmark S&P 500 barely back into the green for the week.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to stand out as one of the strongest segments of the U.S. economy.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. oil industry hit a legal roadblock in January when a judge struck down a $192 million oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico over future global warming emissions from burning the fuels. It came at a pivotal time for Chevron, Exxon and other industry players: the Biden administration had curtailed opportunities for new offshore drilling, while raising climate change concerns.
Kohl's slashed its sales and profit expectations for the year as the department store chain stepped up price cutting to get rid of unwanted merchandise.
SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle CEO who announced in 2015 that he was giving himself a drastic pay cut to help cover the cost of big raises for his employees has announced his resignation.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After Terrence Hersey had a stroke on the way home from his railroad job in 2015, he underwent months of therapy to learn how to put words together in sentences and learn to walk again. He had to relearn how to get in and out of a car and how to dress himself before his doctors eventually cleared him to return to work with no restrictions.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection.
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government plans talks with Taiwan on a wide-ranging trade treaty in a sign of support for the self-ruled island democracy claimed by China's ruling Communist Party as part of its territory.
UKRAINE
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — As a potential power broker, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will use his first visit to Ukraine since the war started nearly six months ago to seek ways to expand the export of grain from Europe's breadbasket to the world's needy. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will use his visit to focus on containing the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Pfizer's COVID-19 pill appears to provide little or no benefit for younger adults, while still reducing the risk of hospitalization and death for high-risk seniors, according to a large study published Wednesday.