VOL. 47 | NO. 36 | Friday, September 1, 2023
TENNESSEE TITANS
And so the kicking carousel spins again. No one seems to know when it will end.
The life of a kicker can be plenty nomadic, and the Titans were not the only team sorting and sifting Tuesday to try and remedy their placekicking situation.
It has taken a while, but the Tennessee Titans have rebuilt their offense for 2023.
The Titans are targeting another AFC South title after just missing out last season under coach Mike Vrabel.
NEWSMAKERS
Attorney Mary Elizabeth King has joined Stites & Harbison, PLLC’s Nashville office in its family law practice.
BRIEFS
The Tennessee Department of Transportation will halt all lane closure activity on interstates and state highways for the Labor Day holiday travel period. Construction crews will stop all lane closure activity at noon Friday until 6 a.m. Tuesday, Sept. 5. This will provide maximum roadway capacity for motorists traveling during the Labor Day holiday.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Just as TV shows get canceled due to poor performance or changing customer tastes, the same happens for cars and trucks.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
About that latest project at work: You and your team are all in the same boat, and it’s sinking, fast.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Making money, whether by putting cash into the stock market, buying a home or jumping to a better-paying job, requires some degree of risk. While embracing any of those moves might feel as scary as skydiving off a cliff, there are times when a little risk makes financial sense.
CAREER CORNER
Employees often wear many hats at work. You might play a role that you don’t typically play in your personal life. Or, you may go through periods of time when you put up with things at work that you wouldn’t normally be OK with.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks fell in afternoon trading on Wall Street Wednesday, continuing a weak stretch in a holiday-shortened week.
STATEWIDE
DETROIT (AP) — The U.S. government is taking a big step toward forcing a defiant Tennessee company to recall 52 million air bag inflators that could explode, hurl shrapnel and injure or kill people.
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — Tennessee state Rep. Gloria Johnson, a Democrat who shot to national fame after surviving a Republican-led expulsion effort for participating in a pro-gun control demonstration, has announced that she's running for U.S. Senate in a state that has solely elected GOP statewide candidates for nearly two decades.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
Democrats got a potential boost for the 2024 congressional elections as courts in Alabama and Florida ruled recently that Republican-led legislatures had unfairly diluted the voting power of Black residents.
TECHNOLOGY
BOSTON (AP) — Cars are getting an "F" in data privacy. Most major manufacturers admit they may be selling your personal information, a new study finds, with half also saying they would share it with the government or law enforcement without a court order.
LONDON (AP) — The European Union on Wednesday targeted Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Google parent Alphabet, Facebook owner Meta and TikTok parent ByteDance under new digital rules aimed at reining in the market power of online companies.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LAS VEGAS (AP) — The permanent memorial to the victims and survivors of the deadliest mass shooting in modern American history will feature 58 candle-like beams under a plan officials in Las Vegas approved Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency is delaying plans to tighten air quality standards for ground-level ozone — better known as smog — despite a recommendation by a scientific advisory panel to lower air pollution limits to protect public health.
UKRAINE
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — U.S. Secretary of State Anthony Blinken arrived in Ukraine's capital Wednesday for an unannounced visit hours after Russia launched a missile attack on the city, in a trip intended to show confidence in Kyiv's forces amid a grinding counteroffensive.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 5
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Shares opened lower in Europe on Tuesday after a day of declines in most Asian markets.
STATEWIDE
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will award the Medal of Honor on Tuesday to a Vietnam War Army helicopter pilot who risked his life by flying into heavy enemy fire to save four members of a reconnaissance team from almost certain death as they were about to be overrun.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After months of struggling to find agreement on just about anything in a divided Congress, lawmakers are returning to Capitol Hill to try to avert a government shutdown, even as House Republicans consider whether to press forward with an impeachment inquiry into President Joe Biden.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is worried about the safety of chemical facilities across the country after its power to keep dangerous substances out of the hands of extremists lapsed a month ago.
REGION
When the NFL season kicks off this week, Kentucky residents and visitors — for the first time — will be able to legally place sports bets on something other than horse racing. When they do, some of that money will also fund the state's first-ever program for people with gambling problems.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 1
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Derrick Henry, who has run for more yards than anyone else since the start of the 2016 NFL season, seems like a man on a mission.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — When thousands of fans couldn't get tickets for megastar Taylor Swift's summer stadium tour, some diehards paid upwards of 70 times face value to see their favorite artist in person — an outrage that prompted Congressional hearings and bills in state legislatures to better protect consumers.
STATE GOVERNMENT
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A vision of armed officers at every school in Texas is crashing into the reality of not enough money or police as a new mandate took effect Friday, showing how a goal more states are embracing in response to America's cycle of mass killings is proving unworkable in many communities.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former member of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group who smashed a window at the U.S. Capitol in the building's first breach of the Jan. 6, 2021, riot was sentenced on Friday to 10 years in prison — and then defiantly declared as he walked out of the courtroom, "Trump won!"
On Friday, Texas became the most populous state with a ban in effect against gender-affirming care for minors.
NEW YORK (AP) — In newly public testimony, Donald Trump boasts about building a multibillion-dollar brand and saving "millions of lives" as president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two former leaders of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group were sentenced to more than a decade each in prison Thursday for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to try to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
PERSONAL FINANCE
NEW YORK (AP) — Interest on federal student loans has started accumulating again after a three-year pause because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The United Auto Workers union says it has filed unfair labor practice complaints against Stellantis and General Motors for failing to make counteroffers to the union's economic demands.
HEALTH CARE
NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government will, for the first time, dictate staffing levels at nursing homes, the Biden administration said Friday, responding to systemic problems bared by mass COVID-19 deaths.
NEW YORK (AP) — The news lit up the world of weed: U.S. health regulators are suggesting that the federal government loosen restrictions on marijuana.
MEDIA
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday temporarily blocked Arkansas from enforcing a new law that would have required parental consent for minors to create new social media accounts, preventing the state from becoming the first to impose such a restriction.
TRANSPORTATION
ATLANTA (AP) — Delta Air Lines said Thursday that it has completed upgrading its fleet to protect key equipment against interference from 5G wireless signals, plugging a hole that could have disrupted flights during low visibility.
ENVIRONMENT
PENDLETON, Ore. (AP) — A federal judge has found that a Trump-era rule change that allowed for the logging of old-growth forests in the Pacific Northwest violates several laws.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's employers added 187,000 jobs in August, evidence of a slowing but still-resilient labor market despite the high interest rates the Federal Reserve has imposed.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks edged higher on Wall Street after a choppy day of trading.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Silicon Valley billionaires behind a secretive $800 million land-buying spree in Northern California have finally released some details about their plans for a new green city, but they still must win over skeptical voters and local leaders.
NEW YORK (AP) — The CEO of Walgreens Boots has stepped down after less than three years at the helm of the drug store chain that is undergoing a sizeable transformation, one that has come at a cost.
NEW YORK (AP) — Labor Day is right around the corner, along with the big sales and barbecues that come with it. But the activist roots of the holiday are especially visible this year as unions challenge how workers are treated — from Hollywood to the auto production lines of Detroit.
Food ads have long made their subjects look bigger, juicier and crispier than they are in real life. But some consumers say those mouthwatering ads can cross the line into deception, and that's leading to a growing number of lawsuits.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will seek an additional $4 billion to address natural disasters as part of its supplemental funding request, bringing the total to $16 billion — a sign that wildfires, flooding and hurricanes that have intensified during a period of climate change are imposing ever higher costs on U.S. taxpayers.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 31
NASHVILLE SC
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Inter Miami failed to score for the first time since Lionel Messi joined the team, playing a scoreless draw with Nashville on Wednesday night.
SPORTS
SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — Notre Dame coach Marcus Freeman cherishes every game day.
NASHVILLE AREA
NEW YORK (AP) — Kelly McKernan's acrylic and watercolor paintings are bold and vibrant, often featuring feminine figures rendered in bright greens, blues, pinks and purples. The style, in the artist's words, is "surreal, ethereal … dealing with discomfort in the human journey."
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift's Eras Tour is coming to movie theaters.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's first-in-the-nation law placing strict limits on drag shows is once again facing a legal challenge after a local district attorney warned Pride organizers that he intends to enforce the new statute despite a federal judge ruling the ban was unconstitutional.
COURTS
ATLANTA (AP) — Former President Donald Trump pleaded not guilty on Thursday and sought to sever his case from other defendants who are accused along with him of illegally trying to overturn the results of the 2020 election in Georgia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A former organizer of the far-right Proud Boys extremist group was sentenced on Thursday to 17 years in prison for spearheading an attack on the U.S. Capitol to prevent the peaceful transfer of power from Donald Trump to Joe Biden after the 2020 presidential election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas acknowledged Thursday that he took three trips last year aboard a private plane owned by Republican megadonor Harlan Crow even as he rejected criticism over his failure to report trips in previous years.
NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump defended his real estate empire and his presidency in a face-to-face clash with the New York attorney general suing him for fraud, testifying at a closed-door grilling in April that his company is flush with cash — and claiming he saved "millions of lives" by deterring nuclear war when he was president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Wednesday held Rudy Giuliani liable in a defamation lawsuit brought by two Georgia election workers who say they were falsely accused of fraud, ruling that the former New York city mayor gave "only lip service" to complying with his legal obligations while trying to portray himself as the victim in the case.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has delivered a recommendation to the Drug Enforcement Administration on marijuana policy, and Senate leaders hailed it Wednesday as a first step toward easing federal restrictions on the drug.
TRAVEL
DALLAS (AP) — By some measures, air travelers have enjoyed a less stressful summer than last year, but canceled flights remain elevated as airlines face their last big test of the prime vacation season: Labor Day weekend.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Hyundai Motor Group and LG Energy Solution said Thursday they will spend an additional $2 billion and hire an extra 400 workers to make batteries at the automaker's sprawling U.S. electrical vehicle plant that's under construction in Georgia.
YOKOHAMA, Japan (AP) — Batteries in older Nissan Leaf electric vehicles are getting a new life as portable power sources that can be used to run gadgets on the go or deliver emergency power in disasters.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Elon Musk said Thursday that his social network X, formerly known as Twitter, will give users the ability to make voice and video calls on the platform. Musk, who has a history of making proclamations about coming features and policies that have not always come to fruition, did not say when the features would be available to users.
LONDON (AP) — Microsoft will stop packaging its Teams videoconferencing app with its Office software in Europe in an effort to head off antitrust penalties by regulators.
HONG KONG (AP) — Chinese search engine and artificial intelligence firm Baidu made its ChatGPT-equivalent language model fully available to the public Thursday, raising the company's stock price by over 3% following the announcement.
ENERGY
ATLANTA (AP) — Residential customers of Georgia's largest electrical utility could see their bills rise $9 more a month to pay for a new nuclear power plant under a deal announced Wednesday.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — An inflation gauge closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month, adding to signs of cooling price increases and raising the likelihood that the Fed will leave interest rates unchanged when it next meets in late September.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Annual inflation held steady in Europe in August as food prices raced ahead of falling fuel costs, but there was no clarity about whether the European Central Bank will pause its record series of interest rate hikes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks gave up early gains and closed lower, a downbeat end to the market's first losing month since February. The S&P 500 ended with a loss of 0.2%, breaking a four-day winning streak. The Dow fell 168 points, or 0.5%. The Nasdaq edged up 0.1%. Treasury yields fell. The government reported that the measure of inflation that's closely tracked by the Federal Reserve remained low last month. That's the latest sign that price increases are cooling. Investors are hoping the Fed may be close to done raising interest rates. Discount retailer Dollar General sank 12.2% after cutting its profit forecast for the year.
U.S. applications for unemployment benefits fell slightly last week as companies held on to employees in an economy that has largely withstood rapidly rising interest rates, intended to cool hiring and spending, for more than a year.
NEW YORK (AP) — JCPenney said Thursday it plans to spend more than $1 billion by the end of 2025 in a bid to revive the storied but troubled 121-year-old department store chain.
GENEVA (AP) — Swiss banking giant UBS on Thursday announced plans to save $10 billion in costs, including through 3,000 staff reductions in Switzerland in the coming years, as it moves ahead with "full integration" of longtime rival Credit Suisse's domestic operations following a takeover.