VOL. 45 | NO. 34 | Friday, August 20, 2021
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates were mixed this week and barely changed after rising for the first time last week following six weeks of declines. Average rates for home loans remain historically low at under 3%.
Top commercial real estate sales, July 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Welcome to the NFL and back to football, rookie. The switch from college football to the pros is an adjustment for any player. But when that player comes from the FCS level and only got to play one game his senior year due to COVID wiping out North Dakota State’s season, well, you get the idea that the adjustment could be a bit tough.
Thus far, the Titans 2021 draft picks have had mixed success in their first training camp and preseason.
The Titans travel to Tampa, where they play the Buccaneers Saturday following joint practices Wednesday and Thursday. Here are some things to look for in preseason game No. 2.
NEWSMAKERS
Tom Jurkovich has joined Mayor John Cooper’s administration as senior adviser for public affairs.
BRIEFS
Franklin has been listed at No. 10 in the 2021 Hottest ZIPs in America, selling three times faster than last year’s list, the seventh annual Realtor.com Hottest ZIP codes Report finds.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Although SUVs dominate automotive sales, midsize sedans are still a practical choice given their roomy seating, respectable fuel economy and value. They’re also better able to provide sporty performance than a comparably priced SUV.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Investing in cryptocurrency can be as easy as a few taps on your phone, and with crypto all over the news and coming up in conversations with friends, it’s tempting to dive right in. However, depending on your financial situation and appetite for investing risk, crypto might not be an appropriate investment for you right now – or ever.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Another sign went up nearby yesterday: “Now Hiring!”
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have ramped up precautions at their team headquarters with their COVID-19 outbreak growing to four, and coach Mike Vrabel said Tuesday he received a monoclonal antibody treatment under doctor's advice.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ernest "Rip" Patton, a member of the Nashville Freedom Riders and civil rights leader, has died, the Freedom Rides Museum announced. He was 81.
MIDSTATE
WAVERLY (AP) — The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency toured flood-devastated areas of Middle Tennessee on Wednesday to assess the damage from a weekend deluge that caught residents off guard in the morning hours, killing more than a dozen people and leaving hundreds homeless.
WAVERLY (AP) — Crews with chainsaws and heavy equipment cleared their way through trees densely matted with vegetation, garbage and building debris Tuesday as searchers scoured a normally shallow creek for more flooding victims in rural Tennessee.
WAVERLY (AP) — Matthew Rigney and Danielle Hall were sleeping with their four children in the Tennessee apartment they had just moved into two weeks earlier when the flash flooding struck.
COURTS
As much as some dislike it, Purdue Pharma's plan to settle thousands of lawsuits over opioids is better for states than allowing them to continue lawsuits against the company and its owners, a company lawyer told a judge Wednesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Supreme Court Justice Roger A. Page has been elected as the chief justice for the state's highest court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court says the Biden administration likely violated federal law in trying to end a Trump-era program that forces people to wait in Mexico while seeking asylum in the U.S.
MEDIA
TikTok users will soon be able to buy stuff directly through the short videos on the app — something they had only been able to do through ads until now.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is meeting Wednesday with top executives from some of the country's leading technology companies and financial institutions as the White House urges the private sector to help toughen cybersecurity defenses against increasingly sophisticated attacks.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Pfizer is seeking U.S. approval of a booster dose of its two-shot COVID-19 vaccine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Military troops must immediately begin to get the COVID-19 vaccine, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said in a memo Wednesday, ordering service leaders to "impose ambitious timelines for implementation."
Delta Air Lines will charge employees on the company health plan $200 a month if they fail to get vaccinated against COVID-19, a policy the airline's top executive says is necessary because the average hospital stay for the virus costs the airline $40,000.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan expanded its coronavirus state of emergency on Wednesday for a second week in a row, adding eight more prefectures as a surge in infections fueled by the delta variant strains the country's health care system.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks on Wall Street closed with modest gains Wednesday, driving the S&P 500 and Nasdaq to all-time highs for the second day in a row.
BERLIN (AP) — German business confidence has declined for the second consecutive month as concerns about lingering effects of the coronavirus pandemic and supply bottlenecks cloud companies' outlook, a closely watched survey showed Wednesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Secretary of State Antony Blinken said Wednesday that as many as 1,500 Americans may be awaiting evacuation from Afghanistan, a figure that suggests this part of the U.S.-led airlift could be completed before President Joe Biden's Tuesday deadline. Untold thousands of at-risk Afghans, however, are struggling to get into the Kabul airport.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military airlift of Americans and others from Kabul will continue until the final hours of President Joe Biden's Aug. 31 deadline for ending the frantic evacuation from Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Pentagon officials said Wednesday.
Congress provided hundreds of millions of dollars to shore up the nation's election system against cyberattacks and other threats, but roughly two-thirds of the money remained unspent just weeks before last year's presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House committee investigating the January insurrection at the U.S. Capitol is demanding a trove of records from federal intelligence and law enforcement agencies, showing the sweep of the lawmakers' review of the deadly attack by a mob of Donald Trump supporters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats have passed legislation that would strengthen a landmark civil rights-era voting law weakened by the Supreme Court over the past decade, a step party leaders tout as progress in their quest to fight back against voting restrictions advanced in Republican-led states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Striking a deal with moderates, House Democratic leaders have muscled President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle, ending a risky standoff and putting the party's domestic infrastructure agenda back on track.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two members of Congress are facing condemnation and questions following their surprise visit to Afghanistan this week, which diverted resources from the U.S.'s chaotic withdrawal, enraged military leaders and led House Speaker Nancy Pelosi to declare it not "a good idea."
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. Capitol Police didn't adequately respond to frantic calls for help from officers when they pressed panic buttons on their radios seeking immediate backup as scores of pro-Trump rioters beat officers with bats, poles and other weapons, an inspector general's report found.
HANOI (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris called on Vietnam to join the U.S. in challenging China's "bullying" in the South China Sea, continuing her sharp rhetoric against Beijing as she met with Vietnamese leaders on Wednesday.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 24
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt will turn an outdoor practice field into a new indoor facility, and the university's plan to upgrade athletics will use part of Vanderbilt Stadium's north end zone for basketball.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Titans coach Mike Vrabel anticipated further testing would confirm he has COVID-19.
MIDSTATE
WAVERLY (AP) — Crews with chainsaws and heavy equipment cleared their way through trees densely matted with vegetation, garbage and debris from homes Tuesday as searchers scoured a normally shallow creek for more flooding victims in rural Tennessee.
WAVERLY (AP) — Anna Mays woke up in a panic attack Monday, thinking she was back in the rising floodwater.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A rural Tennessee community was pummeled Saturday with up to 17 inches (43 centimeters) of rain in less than 24 hours, shattering the state record for one-day rainfall by more than 3 inches and leading to quick-rushing floods that killed at least 22 people and left a trail of destruction.
REGION
LYNCHBURG (AP) — The producers of Jack Daniel's are offering the brand's first age-stated whiskey in more than a century with the upcoming release of a 10-year-old Tennessee whiskey.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee House Speaker Cameron Sexton has hired Sammie Arnold as his new chief of staff.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes rose a modest 1% in July after a string of declines as new home prices soar to record levels.
RESTAURANTS
LONDON (AP) — McDonald's says it has pulled milkshakes from the menu in all 1,250 of its British restaurants because of supply problems stemming from a shortage of truck drivers.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
From Walt Disney World and Chevron to CVS and a Michigan university, a flurry of private and public employers are requiring workers to get vaccinated after the federal government gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine. And the number is certain to grow much higher.
NEW YORK (AP) — All New York City public school teachers and other staffers will have to get vaccinated against the coronavirus, officials said Monday, ramping up pandemic protections as the nation's largest school system prepares for classes to start next month.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed modestly higher on Wall Street Tuesday, enough to nudge the Nasdaq composite to a record high and past 15,000 for the first time.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart said Tuesday it will start farming out its delivery service, using contract workers, autonomous vehicles and other means to transport rival retailers' products directly to their customers' homes as fast as just a few hours.
NEW YORK (AP) — Best Buy raised its sales outlook for the year after breezing past Wall Street expectations in the second quarter.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's economy grew by 1.6% between April and June compared with the previous quarter, a slightly better showing than initially reported, official statistics showed Tuesday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats are poised to pass legislation Tuesday that would strengthen a landmark civil rights-era voting law weakened by the Supreme Court over the past decade, a step party leaders tout as progress in their quest to fight back against voting restrictions advanced in Republican-led states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Striking a deal with moderates, House Democratic leaders are set Tuesday to muscle President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar budget blueprint over a key hurdle, in a compromise designed to end a risky standoff and put the party's domestic infrastructure agenda back on track.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has decided to stick with his deadline next week for completing the U.S.-led evacuation from Afghanistan, an administration official said Tuesday. The decision reflects a growing fear of extremist attacks at the Kabul airport but also opens Biden to domestic political complaints of caving to Taliban demands and of potentially leaving some Americans and Afghan allies behind.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sharply divided leaders of the Group of Seven industrialized democracies clashed Tuesday over U.S. President Joe Biden's insistence on withdrawing from Afghanistan by August 31 in the face of the Taliban takeover of the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The lightning-fast changes in Afghanistan are forcing the Biden administration to confront the prospect of a resurgent al-Qaida, the group that attacked America on Sept. 11, 2001, at the same time the U.S. is trying to stanch violent extremism at home and cyberattacks from Russia and China.
MONDAY, AUGUST 23
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans may have seen enough to pick their kicker with one preseason game remaining.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel said Sunday he has tested positive for COVID-19 and has quarantined pending further testing.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Don Everly, one-half of the pioneering Everly Brothers whose harmonizing country rock hits impacted a generation of rock 'n' roll music, has died. He was 84.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Physician Jason Martin on Monday announced that he's running as a Democrat for governor in 2022, arguing that incumbent Republican Gov. Bill Lee's handling of the coronavirus pandemic prompted him to jump in the race.
MIDSTATE
WAVERLY (AP) — Search crews worked through shattered homes and tangled debris on Monday, looking for about a dozen people still missing after record-breaking rain sent floodwaters surging through rural Tennessee, killing at least 22 people.
REAL ESTATE
Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes rose for the second consecutive month in July, though only modestly from a year ago, suggesting the red-hot housing market may be cooling a little.
RESTAURANTS
Pop-up restaurants, many started as stopgap measures by struggling chefs and owners, may have staying power as consumers continue to embrace takeout and delivery and the delta variant threatens to make dining in less of an option.
EDUCATION
HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A Montana school district is dangling $4,000 bonuses and inviting people to test drive big yellow school buses in hopes of enticing them to take a job that schools are struggling to fill as kids return to in-person classes.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — The University of Tennessee on Monday announced that it will extend its mask mandate to all indoor public spaces due to the ongoing spike in coronavirus cases and increasing hospitalizations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Monday that it will require service members to receive the COVID-19 vaccine now that the Pfizer vaccine has received full approval.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. gave full approval to Pfizer's COVID-19 vaccine Monday, potentially boosting public confidence in the shots and instantly opening the way for more universities, companies and local governments to make vaccinations mandatory.
BOSTON (AP) — As COVID-19 cases surge around the country, a majority of Americans say they support mask mandates for students and teachers in K-12 schools, according to a new poll, but their views are sharply divided along political lines.
BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — The head of the World Health Organization on Monday called for a two-month moratorium on administering booster shots of COVID-19 vaccines as a means of reducing global vaccine inequality and preventing the emergence of new coronavirus variants.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A conservative talk radio host from Tennessee who had been a vaccine skeptic until he was hospitalized from COVID-19 has died. He was 61.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed higher on Wall Street Monday, allowing the S&P 500 to regain the ground it lost last week and bringing it just shy of another record high.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The host of a program for the right-wing website Infowars, Owen Shroyer, is in custody after being charged in the Jan. 6 riot at the U.S. Capitol, officials said Monday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. military reported its biggest day of evacuation flight out of Afghanistan by far on Monday, but deadly violence that has blocked many desperate evacuees from entering Kabul's airport persisted, and the Taliban signaled they might soon seek to shut down the evacuation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Outnumbered and with their party's most powerful leaders arrayed against them, nine moderate Democrats trying to upend plans for enacting President Joe Biden's multitrillion-dollar domestic program face a House showdown.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 20
NASHVILLE AREA
Tennessee-based Contour Airlines is adding five weekly flights between Greenville-Spartanburg and Nashville this fall.
STATE GOVERNMENT
When Congress sent states billions of dollars early in the coronavirus pandemic to help make schools safe, Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee saw an opportunity.
TOURISM
PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — Harvey Sutton, or "Little Man," as he is known on the Appalachian Trail, won't have long to bask in the glory of hiking its full length. After all, he starts kindergarten Friday.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Friday said a pause on evictions designed to curb the spread of the coronavirus can remain in place for now, setting up a battle before the nation's highest court.
TECHNOLOGY
BEIJING (AP) — China is tightening control over data gathered by companies about the public under a law approved Friday by its ceremonial legislature, expanding the ruling Communist Party's crackdown on internet industries.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
DENVER (AP) — Anxiety in the United States over COVID-19 is at its highest level since winter, a new poll shows, as the delta variant rages, more states and school districts adopt mask and vaccination requirements and the nation's hospitals once again fill to capacity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government on Friday extended a ban on nonessential travel along the borders with Canada and Mexico to slow the spread of COVID-19 despite increasing pressure to lift the restriction.
HONG KONG (AP) — Hong Kong's granting of a quarantine exemption to Hollywood star and part-time Nashville resident Nicole Kidman is drawing criticism from lawmakers as the city tightens entry restrictions for international travelers to control the coronavirus.
Do I need a booster if I got the Johnson & Johnson vaccine? Probably at some point, but health officials still are collecting the data needed to decide.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — As quickly as one COVID patient is discharged, another waits for a bed in northeast Florida, the hot zone of the state's latest surge. But the patients at Baptist Health's five hospitals across Jacksonville are younger and getting sick from the virus faster than people did last summer.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Millions of students in Florida, Texas and Arizona are now required to wear masks in class as school boards in mostly Democratic areas have defied their Republican governors and made face coverings mandatory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Three senators said Thursday they have tested positive for COVID-19 despite being vaccinated, a high-profile collection of breakthrough cases that comes as the highly infectious delta variant spreads rapidly across the United States.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks ended higher on Wall Street Friday but not enough to erase the market's losses from earlier in the week.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban face a frontal challenge in cementing control of Afghanistan: Money.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden pledged firmly on Friday to bring all Americans home from Afghanistan — and Afghans who aided the war effort, too — even as countless would-be evacuees struggled to get past crushing crowds, Taliban airport checkpoints and sometimes-insurmountable U.S. bureaucracy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Taliban takeover of Afghanistan has given new urgency to Vice President Kamala Harris' tour of southeast Asia, where she will attempt to reassure allies of American resolve following the chaotic end of a two-decade war.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 19
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — C.J. Sapong scored his fourth goal in the last three games and helped Nashville to a 1-1 tie with Orlando City on Wednesday night.
MIDSTATE
CLARKSVILLE (AP) — A new Amazon fulfillment center is planned for Tennessee, bringing with it 500 full-time jobs, officials said.
COURTS
DOVER, Del. (AP) — A Delaware judge ruled Thursday that the Boy Scouts of American can enter into a pivotal $850 million agreement that the organization hopes to use as a springboard to emerging from bankruptcy later this year, but rejected two key provisions of the deal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators sharpened their antitrust attack against Facebook on Thursday, filing a revised version of their complaint alleging that the social network giant has abused its market power to suppress competition.
The family that owns Purdue Pharma had hoped a reformulated version of Oxycontin would help rein in the burgeoning opioid crisis a decade ago, a member of the Sackler family said Thursday in court testimony that once again stopped short of an apology or acceptance of responsibility for the epidemic.
CHICAGO (AP) — Michael Williams' wife pleaded with him to remember their fishing trips with the grandchildren, how he used to braid her hair, anything to jar him back to his world outside the concrete walls of Cook County Jail.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — San Francisco's district attorney said Wednesday he is suing three California companies that make and distribute "ghost guns," the untraceable, build-it-yourself weaponry that accounted for nearly half the firearms recovered in gun killings in the city last year.
REAL ESTATE
NEW YORK (AP) — When Ryan David bought three rental properties back in 2017, he expected the $1,000-a-month he was pocketing after expenses would be regular sources of income well into his retirement years.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Workers at a General Motors plant in Mexico have voted to end a collective bargaining contract negotiated by an old guard union accused of intimidation tactics in earlier votes. It was an early display of the effectiveness of labor mechanisms negotiated under the U.S.-Mexico-Canada Trade Agreement.
TOKYO (AP) — Toyota is scaling back production in North America and Japan as the surging coronavirus pandemic in Southeast Asia and elsewhere crimps supplies.
TOKYO (AP) — Nearly three years later, former Nissan executive Greg Kelly is still wondering why the questions that led to his arrest and trial in Japan weren't simply taken up in the automaker's corporate boardroom.
TRANSPORTATION
Rowdy airline passengers have now racked up a record $1 million in potential fines this year, a toll of the tumult in the sky as travelers have returned after most were grounded by the pandemic in 2020.
ENVIRONMENT
MEMPHIS (AP) — A startup company co-founded by former Tennessee Gov. Phil Bredesen is funding a new, 1 million-watt solar farm in the city of Jackson.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say commercial anglers have removed 10 million pounds of invasive carp under a state incentive program.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A civilian Pentagon official ordered the Army Corps of Engineers on Wednesday to conduct a full environmental assessment of a $9.4 billion Formosa Plastics complex planned in Louisiana, drawing praise from environmentalists.
ANCHORAGE, Alaska (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday threw out Trump administration approvals for a large planned oil project on Alaska's North Slope, saying the federal review was flawed and didn't include mitigation measures for polar bears.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee hospitals warned Thursday that the intensive care units are full in nearly every hospital in the state's major metropolitan areas, pleading with Tennesseans to get vaccinated and wear masks while not going so far as to criticize Gov. Bill Lee's executive order allowing parents to opt their children out of mask mandates in K-12 schools.
The day before he was supposed to start fourth grade, Francisco Rosales was admitted to a Dallas hospital with COVID-19, struggling to breathe, with dangerously low oxygen levels and an uncertain outcome.
BURLINGTON, Vt. (AP) — Help is on the way for dairy farmers who got a lower price for their products because of pandemic-related market abnormalities, the U.S. Department of Agriculture said Thursday.
GULF SHORES, Ala. (AP) — Tourists and servers alike dance atop tables and in the aisles at one restaurant on the "Redneck Riviera," a beloved stretch of towns along the northern Gulf Coast where beaches, bars and stores are packed. Yet just a few miles away, a hospital is running out of critical care beds, its rooms full of unvaccinated people fighting for their lives.
In an escalating battle with Republican governors, President Joe Biden on Wednesday ordered his Education secretary to explore possible legal action against states that have blocked school mask mandates and other public health measures meant to protect students against COVID-19.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major indexes closed mixed on Wall Street Thursday after another choppy day of trading.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of people seeking unemployment benefits fell last week for a fourth straight time to a pandemic low, the latest sign that America's job market is rebounding from the pandemic recession as employers boost hiring to meet a surge in consumer demand.
NEW YORK (AP) — A return, at least temporarily, to near normalcy is giving a boost two of America's largest department stores hit hard by the pandemic last year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden says even with the Taliban in power in Afghanistan, he sees a greater threat from outposts of al-Qaida and its affiliated groups in other countries, and that it was no longer "rational" to continue to focus U.S. military power there.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The warnings were clear: The Afghan government would likely fall once U.S. troops pulled out. But intelligence agencies and ultimately President Joe Biden missed how quickly it would happen, losing weeks that could have been used for evacuations and spurring a foreign policy crisis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States struggled Thursday to pick up the pace of American and Afghan evacuations at Kabul airport, constrained by obstacles ranging from armed Taliban checkpoints to paperwork problems. With an Aug. 31 deadline looming, tens of thousands remained to be airlifted from the chaotic country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said he is committed to keeping U.S. troops in Afghanistan until every American is evacuated, even if that means maintaining a military presence there beyond his Aug. 31 deadline for withdrawal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic-led congressional committees are vowing to press President Joe Biden's administration on what went wrong as the Taliban swept to power in Afghanistan and the United States left scores of Americans and thousands who helped them over the years in grave danger.