VOL. 40 | NO. 32 | Friday, August 5, 2016
Volunteer farmers, formerly homeless help feed Midstate’s hungry
Crunching through an almost invisible gap in the fence and onto the rutted “road” of mostly loose gravel, I’m looking forward to meeting up with the produce and life nurturer I first met in a church parking lot on the other side of this very hill.
The Daily News Publishing Co. announced it has acquired The Hamilton County Herald, a 100-year-old Chattanooga-based paper of record that adds another holding to the newspaper properties the Memphis-based company now owns across the largest markets in Tennessee.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
State Rep. Raumesh Akbari identified herself with the “Fighting 26,” also known as the Tennessee House Democratic Caucus, when she took the podium to support Hillary Clinton at Philadelphia’s Democratic National Convention.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Offers for real estate should be delivered in containers marked “Fragile: Handle with Care.” Perhaps “Explosive” should be added to the warning.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
Get a good look at Dorial Green-Beckham.
Who is Tajae Sharpe? The fifth-round pick from Massachusetts has seemingly come from nowhere to claim a starting role for the Tennessee Titans.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
New Tennessee Titans coach Mike Mularkey’s stated desire to play “exotic smashmouth” football – especially on offense – requires a good offensive line.
NEWSMAKERS
Bridgestone Americas, Inc. has announced the retirement of its CEO, President and Executive Chairman Gary Garfield, effective Dec. 31, 2016. Gordon Knapp, the company’s chief operating officer, will become Bridgestone Americas’ president and CEO on Sept. 1, 2016, and William “Bill” Thompson, the company’s chief financial officer, will succeed Knapp as COO on that date.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
For 2016, Ford stocks its Edge SUV with more technology, including an adaptive steering feature and park assist that can handle even perpendicular spaces.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Executives often identify and promote top-shelf individual contributors to front-line managers. Six months into their new position, they are struggling. Team performance has decreased and turnover has increased.
CAREER CORNER
A common issue faced by many employees is the feeling that they’re not appreciated.
I SWEAR
It’s been a summer of ingestion: Taking things in. Reading books. Watching movies.
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
This past month our church had two picnics, both of which were perfect. The weather was perfect, the food was perfect and the fellowship was perfect.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - An ordinance in Nashville seeks to reduce the penalty for people caught possessing or exchanging small amounts of marijuana.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The organizers of an East Tennessee fair where three girls fell from a Ferris wheel kept their ride operator despite an incident across the state line that injured five and caused the owners' son to be jailed.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee State Guard has a new commander.
COURTS
MEMPHIS (AP) — A federal appeals court on Wednesday overturned a Federal Communications Commission ruling allowing city-owned broadband services to expand into areas overlooked by commercial providers.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates edged higher this week, though rates remain at historically low levels.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly fewer people sought U.S. unemployment benefits last week, a sign that layoffs are low and employers are probably adding new jobs.
Energy companies and retailers led U.S. stocks broadly higher in morning trading Thursday, as the market rebounded from modest losses the day before. Investors welcomed the latest quarterly results from several big department store chains and other companies. Crude oil prices surged following a forecast that called for a decline in global oil demand in 2017 year, but also a more even balance between supply and demand this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's said Thursday it plans to close about 100 stores next year and boost its online investments as the nation's largest department store chain tries to become more nimble in an increasingly fierce market. The closures represent close to 14 percent of its stores under the Macy's brand.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Huffington Post is going to be without a Huffington.
LONDON (AP) — The International Energy Agency expects global demand for oil to grow less than previously expected next year due to a weaker economy.
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 10
STATEWIDE
JACKSON (AP) — A Tennessee Bureau of Investigation special agent was shot to death Tuesday during an undercover drug investigation in West Tennessee, the agency said.
NASHVILLE (AP) - A private inspector and police are blaming "mechanical failure," but government investigators are still sorting out exactly how a Ferris wheel seat flipped over at a Tennessee county fair, sending three girls plummeting 30 to 45 feet to the ground.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) - Christian songwriter Jason Ingram has seven nominations at this year's Dove Awards, including song of the year, while singer Lauren Daigle has six, including artist of the year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Texas singer-songwriter Townes Van Zandt will be inducted into the Nashville Songwriters Hall of Fame, along with songwriters Aaron Barker, Beth Nielsen Chapman and Bob Morrison.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is blocking ad blockers on the desktop version of its service, saying well-made, relevant ads can be "useful."
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks are closing lower on Wall Street Wednesday as energy companies fall with the price of oil and banks and health care stocks slide. Phone company stocks are also up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised more openings and hired more people in June, adding to evidence that the job market has rebounded from a brief soft patch in the spring.
LONDON (AP) — Delta Air Lines expects some 90 more flight cancellations globally before operations return to normal later in the day.
TUESDAY, AUGUST 9
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - State House Speaker Beth Harwell has drawn a challenge for the chamber's top leadership post from fellow Republican Rep. Jimmy Matlock.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Some Nashville investors and supporters are making a push for Music City to be among the communities awarded expansion franchises by Major League Soccer.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Moving beyond "Obamacare," political activists are looking to state ballot questions to refocus the nation's long-running debate over government's role in health care.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stocks recovered from a late-afternoon slide to eke out small gains Tuesday, nudging the Nasdaq composite to its second record close in less than a week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans, Japanese and many Europeans are glum about their national economies. By contrast, Chinese, Indians and Australians feel positive about theirs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American workers' productivity slipped in the April-June quarter, feeding into a 12 month decline in how much people are producing for each hour worked.
DALLAS (AP) — Travelers on Delta Air Lines endured hundreds more canceled and delayed flights on Tuesday as the carrier slogged through day two of its recovery from a global computer outage.
NEW YORK (AP) — Employees of Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and New York University are suing the colleges over their handling of employee retirement plans.
NEW YORK (AP) — NBCUniversal has agreed to make customized episodes of "The Tonight Show," ''Saturday Night Live" and several other shows for Snapchat under a multiyear deal between the broadcast network and social media app.
MONDAY, AUGUST 8
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - The widow of actor-politician Fred Thompson is denying any changes were made to his will that would affect his adult sons from a previous marriage.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican Gov. Bill Haslam has named Bill Young to fill a vacancy on the chancery court bench in Nashville.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A mostly listless day of trading left U.S. stock indexes little changed Monday, hovering just below the record highs they set late last week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Hulu is dropping the free TV episodes that it was initially known for as it works on an online television service to rival cable TV.
NEW YORK (AP) — Wal-Mart is buying fast-growing online retailer Jet.com for $3 billion in cash plus $300 million in stock, scooping up a newcomer that launched a year ago with the intention of challenging online leader Amazon.
LONDON (AP) — Twelve hours after a power outage knocked out its computer systems worldwide, Delta Air Lines was struggling Monday to resume normal operations and clear backlogs of passengers stranded by canceled flights.
DALLAS (AP) — Twice in less than a month, a major airline was paralyzed by a computer outage that prevented passengers from checking in and flights from taking off.
NATIONAL POLITICS
DETROIT (AP) — Trying to turn the page after a tumultuous campaign stretch, Donald Trump unleashed a blistering attack Monday on Hillary Clinton's approach to the economy while promising he would provide deep tax cuts and jolt middle class workers back to prosperity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In his centerpiece speech on the economy, Donald Trump wrongly accused Hillary Clinton of proposing to increase middle-class taxes and blamed America's crumbling roads and bridges in part on the money spent on refugees, a minuscule expense in comparison with infrastructure.
FRIDAY, AUGUST 5
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The subject of a scathing attorney general's report on sexual harassment allegations lost his Republican primary for the Tennessee House on Thursday.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - Six Tennessee state House primaries were decided by fewer than 100 votes.
NASHVILLE (AP) - Jane Eskind, the first woman to win a statewide election in Tennessee and a longtime Democratic Party activist, died Thursday. She was 83.
COURTS
ALLIANCE, La. (AP) — The oil industry has left a big footprint along the Gulf Coast, where a Delaware-sized stretch of Louisiana has disappeared.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates declined this week after rising for three straight weeks, continuing to lure prospective homebuyers.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford is recalling about 830,000 vehicles in the U.S. and Mexico because parts in the side door latches can break and the doors can open while the vehicles are moving.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Years of steady job gains have finally begun to benefit a wider range of Americans, including those with less education and in lower-paying jobs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks had their best day in almost a month Friday as major indexes closed at record highs after a strong jobs report boosted investors' confidence for continued economic growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit increased to the highest point in 10 months, driven up by a big rise in imports of oil and Chinese-made computers, cell phones and clothing.
SEATTLE (AP) — Seattle-based Amazon is unveiling its first branded cargo plane, one of 40 jetliners that will make up the e-commerce giant's own air transportation network as it takes more control of its delivery process.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A key category of orders to U.S. businesses that tracks investment posted a small gain in June after two months of declines.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fannie Mae reported net income of $2.9 billion from April through June, down from a year earlier as low interest rates brought losses for the mortgage giant on its investments.
NEW YORK (AP) — Dish Network is offering a new "skinny" bundle of about 50 cable channels that doesn't include ESPN and some other sports channels, giving people who don't care about sports a way to save money on TV without joining the ranks of "cord cutters."
DALLAS (AP) — The cancellation of more than 2,000 Southwest Airlines flights due to a computer outage last month will cost the carrier an estimated $54 million.