VOL. 43 | NO. 35 | Friday, August 30, 2019
You can’t see it, but Ke’Shawn Vaughn confirms its existence, covered up by bulky shoulder pads and well beyond the scope of reality television star Dr. Pimple Popper.
The line stretches across the indoor practice field and might have reached all the way to Natchez Trace. That’s how many Vanderbilt fans stood in the long line to get an autograph, a handshake, a hug or a photograph with senior running back Ke’Shawn Vaughn at the fan-friendly Dore Jam event.
We’d already bought some two-toned hybrid squash, green beans and tomatoes, and just needed some corn to fill out the evening meal.
The Greater Nashville Realtors released sales data last week comparing the monthly numbers with the same periods as last year. Based on the monthly figures, the news is good with sales up 9.9% as unit sales increased from 3,812 to 4,189 and median prices are on the rise as well.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates ticked up slightly this week, yet they remain near historic lows.
BRIEFS
Sectra has announced the company will install its enterprise imaging PACS and VNA throughout Vanderbilt Health.
NEWSMAKERS
Nashville-based Butler Snow attorneys have been named Lawyers of the Year by the Best Lawyers 2020 listing.
JIM MYERS: CULINARITY
Nothing quite prepares you for the first time you try a really fresh and potent Sichuan peppercorn, because there’s nothing else in the world quite like it.
UT SPORTS
One player on Tennessee’s roster was the clear-cut starter at his position months before the season started. The coaches didn’t even need to pretend otherwise to create competition.
Reaching a bowl game and beating Vanderbilt used to be foregone conclusions for the Tennessee football team.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Wesley Woodyard is a self-made player.
The news of Andrew Luck’s sudden retirement from the NFL sent shockwaves throughout the league, and the Tennessee Titans were no exception.
PERSONAL FINANCE
A bank or brokerage can’t just take your money when you die. If you don’t have a will or other estate plan, the laws of your state determine who gets the value in those accounts.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Close-to-new vehicles with these features are now increasingly showing up on dealership lots as used vehicles. The upshot: You don’t have to buy a new car to get modern convenience and safety features.
WEDNESDAY, SEPT. 4
EDUCATION
DAYTON, Tenn. (AP) — A Christian college in Tennessee says it's cutting tuition by $11,000 in 2020-21 for incoming and returning students in on-campus undergraduate degree programs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added a healthy 195,000 jobs last month, a sign companies are still hiring despite the Trump administration's trade war with China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity rose at a healthy pace in the second quarter but dropped at American factories, another sign of trouble for manufacturers.
BEIJING (AP) — U.S. and Chinese envoys will meet in early October for more talks aimed at ending a tariff war that threatens global economic growth.
LONDON (AP) — Samsung says it will start selling its highly anticipated folding phone on Friday, after the original launch date was delayed by months because of embarrassing problems with the screen.
TUESDAY, SEPT. 3
ENVIRONMENT
CHARLESTON, S.C. (AP) — Weakened but still deadly, Hurricane Dorian crept up the Southeastern coast of the United States on Wednesday and millions were ordered to evacuate as forecasters said near-record levels of seawater and rain could inundate the area.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — A design flaw in Tesla's Autopilot semi-autonomous driving system and driver inattention combined to cause a Model S electric car to slam into a firetruck parked along a California freeway, a government investigation has found.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is awarding nearly $2 billion in grants to states and local governments to help fight the opioid crisis.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Former Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam has joined the faculty at Vanderbilt University starting this fall as a visiting professor of political science.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Google's video site YouTube has been fined $170 million to settle allegations it collected children's personal data without their parents' consent.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies led stocks broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday, erasing the S&P 500's losses from a day earlier.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Incoming European Central Bank head Christine Lagarde is defending the bank's record low rates and other stimulus measures as she prepares to take over with the economy facing trouble from trade wars and Brexit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit declined in July, including the gap with China that has been the focus of President Donald Trump's tariffs.
REGION
HENDERSONVILLE (AP) — Two Tennessee-based companies have been ordered to stop unlawfully distributing unapproved drugs and misbranded and contaminated devices and supplements.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic presidential candidates are releasing their plans to address climate change ahead of a series of town halls on the issue as the party's base increasingly demands aggressive action.
MONDAY, SEPT. 2
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A proposal to cover half the Medicaid costs in Tennessee with federal block grants would be the first of its kind in the nation if approved.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — More than 96% of United Auto Workers union members have voted to authorize strikes against Detroit's three automakers.
TECHNOLOGY
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The U.S. and Poland signed an agreement Monday to cooperate on new 5G technology as concerns grow about Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Mayor David Briley has directed city attorneys to investigate grounds for challenging Tennessee's anti-sanctuary-city law.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell says he's waiting for the White House to chart a path forward on gun violence legislation following another mass shooting in Texas.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks that moved substantially or traded heavily on Tuesday:
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S.-China trade war and slower global growth are weighing on the U.S. economy, reducing factory output in August for the first time in three years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart says it will discontinue the sale of handgun ammunition and also publicly request that customers refrain from openly carrying firearms in stores even where state laws allow it.
Every few months, social media lights up with a story or viral video about discrimination in home-sharing: A host kicks out a black guest or cancels a gay couple's booking or doesn't respond to a Muslim woman's inquiry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. construction spending ticked up just 0.1% in July, aided by government spending on schools, sewers and the water supply.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Factory activity in the U.S. shrank in August for the first time since August 2016, a sign that the trade war with China is weighing down a crucial sector of the economy.
LONDON (AP) — The pound dropped Tuesday to its lowest level against the dollar since 1985, excluding a brief "flash crash" in 2016 that may have been caused by technical glitches, as international investors fret over a political showdown over Brexit this week.
FRIDAY, AUG. 23
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Seven groups that conduct voter registration drives are asking a federal judge to stop a new Tennessee law that threatens them with fines and criminal prosecution for failing to comply with a slew of regulations.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States and China on Sunday put in place their latest tariff increases on each other's goods, potentially raising prices Americans pay for some clothes, shoes, sporting goods and other consumer items before the holiday shopping season.
BEIJING (AP) — Two surveys of Chinese manufacturing show demand is weak amid a mounting tariff war with Washington over trade and technology.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A published report says Google will pay at least $150 million to settle a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission over how it treats information from children on its video streaming site, YouTube.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee inmate is leaving death row, just eight months before his execution date, after a judge approved an agreement Friday to convert his death sentence to life in prison.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling more than 550,000 trucks and SUVs in North America because seat backs may not properly restrain people in a crash.
REGION
GATLINBURG (AP) — The Great Smoky Mountains National Park is recognizing the contributions of its first African American naturalist.
TECHNOLOGY
Researchers say cyberspies exploited security vulnerabilities to plant spyware on Apple iPhones when users merely visited a small group of malware-infected websites.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
The polarizing politics of climate change have forced companies to choose between supporting the Trump administration's deregulation policies that could boost profits or opposing them to win over environmentally conscious consumers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When shots rang out last year at a high school in Parkland, Florida, leaving 17 people dead, President Donald Trump quickly turned his thoughts to creating more mental institutions.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major U.S. stock indexes ended little changed Friday after a listless day of trading ahead of the Labor Day holiday weekend capped a solid week of gains for the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's trade war with China, until now mainly an abstraction for American consumers, is about to hit home.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumer spending grew 0.6% in July, a healthy gain that suggests American shoppers are driving the economy forward.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is painting a false picture of a U.S. economy unaffected by his trade war with China and other countries.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — New immigration rules on obtaining citizenship for children of U.S. service members and government employees born overseas do not affect birthright citizenship, officials said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mindful of President Donald Trump's intense interest in space, the Pentagon is declaring U.S. Space Command open for business as part of a broader effort to better defend American interests in space.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ex-Tennessee Gov. Bill Haslam isn't ruling out a future run for office, though he says he isn't currently planning on it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that the U.S. plans to reduce the number of American troops in Afghanistan from 14,000 to 8,600 and then will determine further drawdowns.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks finished with broad gains on Wall Street Thursday, driving the Dow Jones Industrial Average more than 300 points higher.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy slowed in the spring, and most analysts expect it to weaken further in the months ahead. Yet the main driver of growth — consumer spending — remains vigorous enough to keep the economy growing steadily if still modestly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans signed contracts to buy homes in July, signaling that the housing market has yet to enjoy a strong bounce from lower mortgage rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Caught in the crossfire of a trade war, American businesses operating in China say they've been hurt by the hostilities between the world's two biggest economies and are facing increasingly unfair competition from Chinese firms.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency on Thursday proposed revoking Obama-era regulations on climate-changing methane leaks from many oil facilities, a move that environmental groups said was meant to renounce the agency's overall legal authority to regulate the gas in the fight against global warming.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — It seemed like a new era in the half-century battle against the deadly toll of tobacco: U.S. health officials for the first time would begin regulating cigarettes, chew and other products responsible for a half-million American deaths annually.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal health officials issued a national warning Thursday against marijuana use by adolescents and pregnant women, as more states legalize the increasingly potent drug for medicinal and recreational use.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A report that probation officers in Nashville, Tennessee are working with Immigration and Customs Enforcement is leading to concern among activists and city leaders.
DETROIT (AP) — By the 2025 model year, nearly all new vehicles sold in the U.S. will come with electronic alerts to remind people to not leave children behind in the back seats.