VOL. 42 | NO. 34 | Friday, August 24, 2018
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Former Atlanta Braves pitcher Tony Cloninger died earlier this month, leaving behind his record for the most grand slams in one game by a pitcher when he knocked two balls out of Candlestick Park in San Francisco in 1966, the Braves first year in Atlanta.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, July 2018, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
June 2018 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for the third consecutive week, yet they remain significantly higher than a year ago.
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.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Anyone who’s been through it can attest to the grind that is a pro football training camp.
The third preseason game is traditionally the dress rehearsal for the regular season. Thus far, Marcus Mariota has played a grand total of three series in two preseason games. He should play at least the first half against the Steelers, and perhaps even into the third quarter for a series.
UT SPORTS
Fifth-year senior Kongbo still learning in only his sixth year of playing football
Perspective can hit a young guy like a ton of bricks. Anytime. Anywhere. Just a couple weeks ago, Jonathan Kongbo was walking across a bridge, heading from the University of Tennessee campus to downtown Knoxville.
NEWSMAKERS
The Best Lawyers in America, a nationally recognized referral guide to the legal profession that has been published since 1983, has selected several Nashville attorneys for inclusion on its 2019 list. Attorneys selected for the publication are reviewed by professional peers through an extensive survey.
BRIEFS
We Are Nations recently established two new companies, We Are Nations Pty Ltd. and Nations Connect, LLC., based in Nashville.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The average transaction price for new vehicles has been hovering at more than $35,000 this year and briefly broke $36,000 at the end of 2017. But instead of buying a new vehicle, what if you took that money and applied it to purchasing a late-model luxury vehicle?
STATE GOVERNMENT
A new legislative committee – the Joint Open Records Ad Hoc Committee – held its first meeting last week in an ambitious effort to come to terms with the growing number of exemptions to the public records act.
CAREER CORNER
For years, the job market has been tight. I’ve spoken to many job seekers who are suffering through work each day. They aren’t sure what their alternatives are, and they’re not prepared to be unemployed for any length of time.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Old-school word-of-mouth marketing has a new face in today’s world. It’s called influencer marketing, and it has some serious horsepower behind it. Engage the right influencers to talk about your brand through their social channels, and your message has the potential to reach brand new audiences, generally with a higher level of credibility behind the message than sheer self-promotion.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates ticked up this week as borrowing costs are meaningfully higher than a year ago.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — Dyson, the British company best known for its ground-breaking vacuum cleaners, said Thursday that it has submitted a planning application to expand facilities at a former British military airfield to develop electric vehicles.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are dipping Thursday morning after a four-day rally brought major indexes to record highs. Banks are slipping with interest rates and consumer-focused companies, which have made large gains recently, also lagged the market. Technology companies took small losses.
REDMOND, Wash. (AP) — Microsoft says it's requiring its contractors to offer their U.S. employees at least 12 weeks paid leave to care for a new child.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer spending rose a solid 0.4 percent in July, the sixth straight month of healthy gains. At the same time, a key gauge of inflation posted its sharpest annual gain in six years, likely keeping the Federal Reserve on track to keep raising interest rates gradually.
JUBA, South Sudan (AP) — Emboldened by a new peace deal, civil war-torn South Sudan says it will resume oil production in a key region next month to make up for more than $4 billion of revenue lost during years of fighting.
BEIJING (AP) — China will make economic changes at its own pace regardless of U.S. pressure, and their worsening dispute over technology policy can only be solved through negotiations as equals, a Commerce Ministry spokesman said Thursday.
TORONTO (AP) — It started with President Donald Trump's attacks on Canadian dairy farmers. Then Washington slapped tariffs on Canadian steel, citing national security. There was that disastrous G-7 summit in Quebec. Now it's a new North American free trade agreement that excludes America's northern neighbor.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House counsel Don McGahn, a consequential insider in President Donald Trump's legal storms and successes and a key figure in the administration's handling of the Russia investigation, will be leaving in the fall, the president announced Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Enquirer has long explained its support for Donald Trump as a business decision based on the president's popularity among its readers. But private financial documents and circulation figures obtained by The Associated Press show that the tabloid's business was declining even as it published stories attacking Trump's political foes and, prosecutors claim, helped suppress stories about his alleged sexual affairs.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 29
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Koch network has launched a $2 million TV and digital advertising attack against Democrat Phil Bredesen in Tennessee's U.S. Senate race.
STATEWIDE
GEORGETOWN (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority says it'll build a $300 million system operations center in the state as part of upgrades to its power grid but some residents have complained the federal utility hasn't been transparent.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Just how good a season Vanderbilt has will depend heavily on Kyle Shurmur, and coach Derek Mason believes the senior quarterback already has made the Commodores better before the first game of his final season.
REGION
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Brown-Forman Corp. on Wednesday reported fiscal first-quarter net income of $200 million.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts in July to buy homes compared to the previous month, as real estate sales are slipping even though economic growth is solid.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SPRING HILL (AP) — Tennessee officials say automotive components manufacturer Faurecia Interior Systems plans to build a new facility in the state that will create more than 140 jobs.
LONDON (AP) — Aston Martin, the maker of James Bond's favorite sports car, said Wednesday it may sell shares for the first time as it seeks to attract more wealthy buyers with an expanded product range including sedans, sports utility vehicles and even submarines.
TECHNOLOGY
BEIJING (AP) — More than a dozen human rights groups have sent a letter to Google urging the company not to offer censored internet search in China, amid reports it is planning to again provide the service in the giant market.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks climbed Wednesday, driven by gains for big technology companies and Amazon. The S&P 500 and Nasdaq finished at record highs for the fourth day in a row.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In a victory for the American newspaper industry, the U.S. International Trade Commission on Wednesday blocked tariffs imposed by the Trump administration on imported newsprint, finding that American producers weren't harmed by imports from Canadian paper mills.
NEW YORK (AP) — The store isn't dead for Home Depot, Kohl's, Best Buy or Target. Many traditional chains have posted strong sales, both online and at stores, as people are in a mood to spend.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy grew at a strong 4.2 percent annual rate in the April-June quarter, the best showing in nearly four years, as growth stayed on track to produce its strongest full-year gain in more than a decade. Strength in business investment offset slightly slower consumer spending.
NATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — President Donald Trump got his man in battleground Florida, but he watched a prominent immigration ally fall in Arizona in what was another eventful night in the 2018 midterm season.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 28
NASHVILLE AREA
Nashville’s tourism industry had $6.5 billion in visitor spending in 2017, one-third of the state’s total.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Chris Stapleton topped the list of finalists Tuesday with five nominations for the 52nd annual Country Music Association Awards.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials say a new program allowing adults to attend community college or technical schools tuition-free in Tennessee has received thousands more applications than anticipated.
EDUCATION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Retired quarterback Peyton Manning has donated $1 million to the University of Tennessee to establish the John Haas Student Experiential Learning Endowment.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Senate Republican Caucus Chairman Bill Ketron is resigning at the end of the month to take office as a county mayor.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have acquired linebacker Kamalei Correa from the Baltimore Ravens for an undisclosed draft pick.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee wide receiver Rishard Matthews has been in the NFL the past six seasons, and now the veteran is hoping his experience learning other offenses will help him get up to speed very quickly with the Titans' newest scheme.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt sophomore safety Zaire Jones has been suspended for the Commodores' season opener with Middle Tennessee after being arrested for aggravated assault with a deadly weapon against an off-duty police officer.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Jeremy Pruitt's dad says his son suffers from the "coaching disease." It's a 24-hour-a-day, 365-days-a year bug.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S home prices climbed 6.3 percent in June from a year earlier, as affordability is becoming a greater obstacle for would-be buyers.
ENVIRONMENT
PARIS (AP) — France's high-profile environment minister unexpectedly announced his resignation live on national radio Tuesday, lamenting the government's lack of decisive action on green issues. The move deals a stinging blow to the environmental credibility of President Emmanuel Macron.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A large hospital system in Tennessee has sued the state's Medicaid program, TennCare, saying it's purposefully siphoning money from hospitals that treat the neediest patients in order to favor insurance companies that often employ former TennCare employees.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Federal judges on Monday affirmed their earlier decision striking North Carolina's congressional districts as unconstitutional because Republicans drew them with excessive partisanship.
A U.S. judge in Seattle blocked the Trump administration Monday from allowing a Texas company to post online plans for making untraceable 3D guns, agreeing with 19 states and the District of Columbia that such access to the plastic guns would pose a security risk.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Major U.S. stock indexes wobbled and finished mostly higher Tuesday, led by technology companies and a handful of retailers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Canada's minister of foreign affairs is scheduled to hold talks in Washington on Tuesday in hopes of reaching a trade agreement with the United States, an urgent response after President Donald Trump announced a deal with Mexico on Monday that left out Canada.
MIAMI (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a Swiss bank has reached an agreement to pay more than $60 million to the U.S. and provide information to investigators about concealed accounts Americans used to avoid taxes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans' consumer confidence rose in August to the highest level in nearly 18 years as their assessment of current conditions improved further and their expectations about the future rebounded.
Despite a strong economy, about 40 percent of American families struggled to meet at least one of their basic needs last year, including paying for food, health care, housing or utilities.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's declaration of victory Monday in reaching a preliminary deal with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement raised at least as many questions as it answered.
NICOSIA, Cyprus (AP) — Cyprus' biggest lender, the Bank of Cyprus, says it had sold 2.7 billion euros ($3.1 billion) worth of bad loans to New York-based Apollo Global Management, the largest such deal in the east Mediterranean island-nation's history.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump lashed out at U.S. tech companies Tuesday, accusing Google and others of suppressing conservative voices and "hiding information" and good news. He cited no evidence for the claim, which echoes both his own attacks on the press and a conservative talking point.
Political leanings don't factor into Google's search algorithm. But the authoritativeness of page links that the algorithm spits out and the perception of thousands of human raters do.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump wants a hug from Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto. Who knew?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Glowering in public and near-silent for two days, President Donald Trump relented under pressure by tersely recognizing Sen. John McCain's "service to our country" and re-lowering the White House flag.
MONDAY, AUGUST 27
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — The first U.S. Senate debate between Democratic ex-Gov. Phil Bredesen and Republican Congresswoman Marsha Blackburn is set for Sept. 25.
REGION
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority has announced a new study to help it decide the future of coal fired plants in Tennessee and Kentucky.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans remain winless through three preseason games with a brand-new coaching staff busy trying to fix issues on offense and defense.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Titans wide receiver Rishard Matthews has passed his physical and been removed from the physically unable to perform list.
COURTS
A U.S. judge in Seattle blocked the Trump administration Monday from allowing a Texas company to post online plans for making untraceable 3D guns, agreeing with 19 states and the District of Columbia that such access to the plastic guns would pose a security risk.
Confidentiality agreements have come under fire during the #MeToo movement as one way abusive men have been able to hold on to their jobs, and keep harassing more women.
TECHNOLOGY
GENEVA (AP) — Experts from scores of countries are meeting to discuss ways to define and deal with "killer robots" — futuristic weapons systems that could conduct war without human intervention.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A person briefed on the matter says Toyota will invest $500 million in ride-hailing service Uber, and the companies will jointly develop self-driving vehicles.
DETROIT (AP) — A former Fiat Chrysler executive was sentenced to 5½ years in federal prison Monday in a scheme to curry favor with union officials by buying them expensive gifts.
GUANGZHOU, China (AP) — Nissan's first electric sedan designed for China began production Monday at the start of a wave of dozens of planned lower-cost electrics being created by global automakers for their biggest market.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The official overseeing Volkswagen's court settlements in its diesel scandal says he is pushing back against the company's practice of withholding some information on the grounds of confidentiality protections.
Shares of Tesla slipped on the first day of trading after the electric vehicle maker said it won't consider going private after all.
HEALTH CARE
Taking a low-dose aspirin every day has long been known to cut the chances of another heart attack, stroke or other heart problem in people who already have had one, but the risks aren't worth it for most folks, major new research finds.
EDUCATION
NEW YORK (AP) — The government's top official overseeing the $1.5 trillion student loan market resigned in protest on Monday, citing what he says is the White House's open hostility toward protecting the nation's millions of student loan borrowers.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Time and again, Chinese-American students consistently delivered top academic scores, only to be denied admission to their dream school. Parents bemoaned what they saw as an unfair racial advantage given to black and Latino children while their own children were overlooked.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks posted solid gains on Monday after the White House said it reached a preliminary agreement with Mexico on replacing NAFTA. The Nasdaq composite index topped 8,000 for the first time.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Snubbing Canada, the Trump administration reached a preliminary deal Monday with Mexico to replace the North American Free Trade Agreement — a move that raised legal questions and threatened to disrupt the operations of companies that do business across the three-country trade bloc.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is taking an out-of-the box approach to answering its critics — paying workers to be "ambassadors" and tweet full-time about how satisfied they were at their jobs.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — The proposed contract Walt Disney World's unionized workers will vote on next week would increase the starting minimum wage by at least 46 percent over three years to $15 an hour, while enabling Disney to use more part-time workers and require new workers to stay in their positions longer before transferring, according to new details released Monday.
THE HAGUE, Netherlands (AP) — Iran went to the United Nations' highest court Monday in a bid to have U.S. sanctions lifted following President Donald Trump's decision earlier this year to re-impose them, calling the move "naked economic aggression."
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The trade cease-fire between the European Union and U.S. President Donald Trump boosted optimism among German business executives heavily dependent on trade for their profits, a closely watched economic index showed Monday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge dealt a blow Saturday to President Donald Trump's efforts to "promote more efficient" government, ruling that key provisions of three recent executive orders "undermine federal employees' right to bargain collectively" under federal law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The rallying cry from some liberals to abolish Immigration and Customs Enforcement isn't a likely winner this election year, as a new poll finds only a quarter of Democrats support eliminating the agency that carried out the Trump administration's policy of separating immigrant children from their parents.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is living in an alternate reality when it comes to special counsel Robert Mueller's investigation and other controversies swirling around him.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For John McCain, a lifetime of courage, contradictions and contrarianism came down to one vote, in the middle of the night, in the twilight of his career.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain's service to his country began more than six decades ago at the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis and will end there in a cemetery overlooking Maryland's Severn River.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 24
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Bill Lee and Democrat Karl Dean are slated to face off in three Tennessee governor's race debates in October.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ed King, a former guitarist for Lynyrd Skynyrd who helped write several of the group's hits including "Sweet Home Alabama," has died in Nashville, Tennessee, according to a family friend. He was 68.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A city audit of former Nashville Mayor Megan Barry's affair with her police bodyguard does not reveal how much taxpayer money was used for overtime and out-of-town trips, but the auditor says he faced constraints in his work.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court on Thursday reversed a ruling that said it was unconstitutional for the state to require people found guilty of DUI to pay a fee if a blood or breath test was used to convict.
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.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A juror in Paul Manafort's financial fraud trial says a lone holdout prevented the jury from convicting the onetime Trump campaign chairman on all 18 counts.
AUGUSTA, Ga. (AP) — A former government contractor who pleaded guilty to mailing a classified U.S. report to a news organization was sentenced to more than five years Thursday as part of a deal with prosecutors, who called it the longest sentence ever imposed for a federal crime involving leaks to the media.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — A lawsuit against Ashford University describes an admissions office with a cutthroat sales culture more akin to a used-car lot than a place of higher learning, peddling "false promises and faulty information" to lure students eligible for federal financial aid.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — This week has seen major social media sites step up their policing of online disinformation campaigns.
Facebook has pulled one of its own products from Apple's app store because it didn't want to stop tracking what people were doing on their iPhones. Facebook also banned a quiz app from its social network for possible privacy intrusions on about 4 million users.
Tech companies want to protect U.S. political candidates from Russian hackers ahead of the midterm elections, but could that free help count as an illegal campaign contribution?
AUTO INDUSTRY
SMYRNA (AP) — Nissan has announced a $170 million investment at assembly plants in Tennessee and Mississippi to produce the 2019 Altima sedan.
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.
ENVIRONMENT
CINCINNATI (AP) — The nation's largest grocery chain has begun to phase out the use of plastic bags as more Americans grow uncomfortable with their impact on the environment.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A congressional watchdog said Thursday the Trump administration needs to step up its management of sign-up seasons under former President Barack Obama's health care law after mixed results last year in the throes of a failed GOP effort to repeal it.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street ended a week of milestones with a few more Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell signaled Friday that he expects the Fed to continue gradually raising interest rates if the U.S. economic expansion remains strong.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders for long-lasting U.S. factory goods fell 1.7 percent in July, the third decrease in the past four months.
FREEPORT, Maine (AP) — L.L. Bean is providing $3 million to the National Park Foundation's effort to encourage people to get outside and explore some of the more than 400 national parks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Chinese negotiators ended two days of meetings Thursday without breaking a deadlock over trade that has unnerved financial markets and disrupted global commerce.
LONDON (AP) — Britain's Treasury chief has been accused of reinitiating "dodgy project fear" after he repeated warnings that there would be significant consequences for the economy if the U.K. leaves the European Union without an agreement on future relations.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top Federal Reserve official said Thursday that she favors two more interest rate increases this year despite complaints from President Donald Trump that the Fed's continuing rate hikes risk slowing the U.S. economy.
CLEVELAND (AP) — The national chain JOANN Fabric and Craft has created an online petition asking customers to support the privately held company's efforts to obtain exemptions for tariffs on products imported from China.
LONDON (AP) — Businesses could face red tape at the border, customers could see higher credit card fees, patients could endure delays to medical treatment and there could even be a sperm shortage if Britain leaves the European Union next year without a deal, the U.K. government acknowledged Thursday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — John McCain, the six-term Arizona senator and 2008 Republican presidential nominee, has chosen to discontinue medical treatment for his brain cancer, his family said Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer than half of Americans expect President Donald Trump's tariffs to do much to help the U.S. economy, but their widespread unpopularity hasn't led most Republicans to stray from supporting the president's trade policy as the 2018 midterm elections approach.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Et tu, Michael Cohen?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate approved an $854 billion measure Thursday that funds much of the government, including $675 billion for the Defense Department.
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — New rules unveiled by the IRS undermine some states' attempts to help residents keep a version of a popular federal income tax deduction. Last year's Republican tax overhaul put a $10,000 cap on deductions for state and local income taxes, which could affect some high-earners in high-tax states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Enquirer kept a safe containing documents about hush-money payments and damaging stories it killed as part of its cozy relationship with Donald Trump leading up to 2016 presidential election, people familiar with the arrangement told The Associated Press.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, newly incensed by campaign allegations, plunged back into his criticism of Attorney General Jeff Sessions, claiming in an interview that Sessions "never took control of the Justice Department" after Trump put him there. Sessions quickly hit back, declaring that he and his department "will not be improperly influenced by political considerations."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump, incensed over a deal his longtime personal attorney Michael Cohen cut with prosecutors, says it might be better if "flipping" were illegal because people "just make up lies."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate Banking Committee on Thursday approved Kathy Kraninger as director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, as Republicans overlooked the protests of Democrats who said President Donald Trump's nominee is unqualified to lead the consumer watchdog.
CHICAGO (AP) — Democrats aren't ready to embrace the I-word.