VOL. 42 | NO. 37 | Friday, September 14, 2018
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
The Nations is the neighborhood located off Charlotte Avenue and is so named to memorialize a treaty between James Robertson and the Chickasaw Indians in which the Chickasaw were guaranteed certain boundaries in exchange for protecting the settlers. That’s one theory, even though the Chickasaw were one nation, failing to reach plurality.
REAL ESTATE
Average home sales prices in Nashville and Davidson County rose slightly in August while the number of home sales recorded for the month were down 9 percent from last year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates this week jumped to their highest level since the start of August, raising costs for would-be homebuyers.
TENNESSEE TITANS
“Next man up” is an old football adage invoked after a key player’s injury.
Regroup and assess the damage. The Titans lost tight end Delanie Walker to a gruesome leg ankle injury, lost quarterback Marcus Mariota to an elbow injury to his throwing arm and Taylor Lewan to a concussion. The Titans will have to try to replace Walker long term and monitor the situations on the other two this week as they prepare to face AFC South rival Houston.
NEWSMAKERS
Siloam Health, a faith-based, charitable health center for the uninsured, especially the immigrant and refugee community, has added four health, community and religious leaders to its board of directors.
BRIEFS
Two Nashville-based organizations, Advance Financial and Vanderbilt University Medical Center, have been named to Forbes’ first-ever ranking of The Best Employers for New Graduates.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
The 2019-model-year vehicles are hitting dealerships right now. Trucks are a big deal, and new and improved full-size pickups from General Motors and Ram will offer buyers a bumper crop of choices.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Your lucky penny is in your bag. Or you’re wearing your lucky shirt or socks or tie, and you performed your Lucky Dance before you left the house. What else could you do?
CAREER CORNER
The title of this column is a reference to the big elephant in the room. It’s that thing that everybody knows, but nobody is talking about. I’d like to talk about it a little today: illegal job interview questions.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
If you haven’t seen Nike in the news lately, it’s time to catch up.
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen said that the woman accusing Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh of sexual assault "has a very credible story." But he said the Judiciary Committee should consider proceeding with a vote if she does not testify under oath.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic Senate candidate Phil Bredesen went clay shooting in a TV ad released after the National Rifle Association endorsed his Republican opponent, Marsha Blackburn.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say tax revenues for the first month of the state's fiscal year came in nearly 3 percent higher, or $34.4 million higher than originally projected.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The chairman of the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that he is recommending former gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd to serve as the university system's interim president.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee man who pleaded guilty to bribing a postal worker to deliver a package later found to contain marijuana has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Marcus Mariota wakes up every morning hoping his injured right hand feels better.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — Aston Martin Lagonda, the maker of James Bond's favorite sports car, plans to raise as much as 1.27 billion pounds ($1.67 billion) when it sells shares to investors for the first time.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. sales of existing homes were unchanged in August, as a shortage of houses priced at less than $250,000 — a level considered to be affordable for the middle class — has become a drag on the real estate market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates are up for the fourth consecutive week, with the key 30-year rate reaching its highest level since May.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
An early wave of buying sent U.S. stocks solidly higher on Wall Street Thursday, pushing the Dow Jones Industrial Average above the all-time high it closed at in January.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is set to nominate former Federal Reserve economist Nellie Liang to the central bank's board of governors, tapping an official who played a key role at the Fed in dealing with the aftermath of the 2008 financial crisis.
LONDON (AP) — Comcast and 21st Century Fox will settle their battle for control of broadcaster Sky through a rare auction designed to put an end to months of offers and counteroffers from the American media empires seeking a foothold in the European pay TV market.
SALZBURG, Austria (AP) — Britain and its European Union partners failed on Thursday to secure a breakthrough in Brexit talks, largely because of seemingly intractable divisions over the best way to avoid a hard border on the island of Ireland and how to deal with future trade.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union's consumer protection chief said Thursday she's growing impatient with Facebook's lack of action in complying with the bloc's demands to be more transparent with users about their data.
TOKYO (AP) — Hackers have stolen 6.7 billion yen ($60 million) worth of cryptocurrencies from a Japanese digital currency exchange, the operators said Thursday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are warning that time is running out for Brett Kavanaugh's accuser to tell Congress about her claim he sexually assaulted her when both were teenagers, even as President Donald Trump called the woman's allegation hard to believe in one of the GOP's sharpest attacks on her credibility.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
EDUCATION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — The chairman of the University of Tennessee Board of Trustees announced Wednesday that he is recommending former gubernatorial candidate Randy Boyd to serve as the school's interim president.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The way music is licensed and songwriters are compensated for the digital age will be undergoing big changes under a bill making its way through Congress.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's office says the median household income in Tennessee grew by 5.8 percent in 2017 compared to 2016.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Board members for the Nashville Public Library have signed off on a plan to build a new exhibit dedicated to the role Nashville served in securing women the right to vote.
SPORTS
PHILADELPHIA (AP) — The Philadelphia Eagles have signed wide receiver Jordan Matthews and placed Mike Wallace on injured reserve.
ARLINGTON, Texas (AP) — The Texas Rangers are making a Sounds decision by moving their Triple-A affiliation to Nashville.
COURTS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Agribusiness company Monsanto has asked a San Francisco judge to throw out a jury's $289 million award to a former school groundskeeper who said the company's Roundup weed killer left him dying of cancer.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home construction rebounded in August at the fastest pace in seven months but applications for new building permits plunged, sending mixed signals for an industry that has been struggling with rising lumber costs.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERLIN (AP) — Germans are beginning to embrace electric cars, with experts predicting the country will have a million hybrid or battery-electric vehicles on the road by 2022.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Mike Jackson is stepping down after almost two decades leading AutoNation, the nation's largest dealership chain.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — What a difference a year makes. From predicting that the Affordable Care Act would "implode" and "explode," President Donald Trump is now claiming credit for modest average premium increases expected next year.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Major U.S. stock indexes finished unevenly Wednesday as gains in banks and other financial companies outweighed losses elsewhere in the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The path to peace in a trade war between the United States and China is getting harder to find as the world's two biggest economies pile ever more taxes on each other's products.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. and Canadian negotiators — facing a deadline at the end of the month — are working long hours to keep Canada in a North American trade bloc.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Global poverty has fallen to a record low. The World Bank said Wednesday that 10 percent of the world's population lived on less than $1.90 a day in 2015 — the last year for which numbers were available — down from 11.2 percent in 2013. That means 735.9 million people lived below the poverty threshold in 2015, down by 68.3 million from 804.2 million two years earlier.
About 3.4 million chickens and turkeys and 5,500 hogs have been killed in flooding from Florence as rising North Carolina rivers swamped dozens of farm buildings where the animals were being raised for market, according to state officials.
NATIONAL POLITICS
SPANGLE, Wash. (AP) — In the aptly named Harvester Restaurant, wheat farmer Roy Dube makes clear he's no fan of President Donald Trump's trade policy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is renewing his attacks on Jeff Sessions, saying, "I don't have an attorney general."
CHERRY HILL, N.J. (AP) — Congressman Leonard Lance voted last December with the interests of his northern New Jersey district in mind when he opposed his own party's sweeping tax overhaul.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Christine Blasey Ford wants the FBI to investigate her allegation that she was sexually assaulted by Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh before she testifies at a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing next week, her lawyers said in a letter to the panel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Anita Hill says the Senate Judiciary Committee could be holding a "sham" hearing next week without an FBI investigation of a woman's sexual-assault accusation against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Bill Lee on Tuesday pointed to a Nashville faith-based halfway home as a possible model for reducing Tennessee's recidivism rate.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence will be one of the top guests at a conference for conservative leaders in Tennessee.
STATEWIDE
DALLAS (AP) — Shortly before the Trump administration announced a new round of tariffs against Chinese goods, FedEx Corp. leaders tried to assure investors Monday that a widening trade war will have little direct effect on the company.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have brought back cornerback Kenneth Durden and promoted running back Dalyn Dawkins to the roster from the practice squad.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have signed wide receiver Nick Williams and have waived receiver Cameron Batson and tight end Anthony Firkser.
COURTS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Restaurants must pay waiters and bartenders minimum wage when they are engaged in tasks such as cleaning toilets that are unrelated to their main jobs and do not offer tips, a divided U.S. appeals court ruled Tuesday.
TECHNOLOGY
TOKYO (AP) — The Japanese billionaire who Tesla chief Elon Musk says plans to blast off on the first-ever private commercial space trip aboard the SpaceX Big Falcon Rocket often makes headlines in Japan. The SpaceX mission, set for takeoff in 2023, is just the latest exploit in tycoon Yusaku Maezawa's colorful and ambitious career:
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla Inc. has turned over documents to the U.S. Justice Department after statements by CEO Elon Musk about taking the company private, the electric car maker confirmed Tuesday.
DETROIT (AP) — Shares of electric car maker Tesla Inc. fell more than 5 percent Tuesday after a report that it's under criminal investigation over statements about taking the company private.
MARANELLO, Italy (AP) — Ferrari is going back to its roots.
BRUSSELS (AP) — European Union regulators have opened an in-depth investigation into whether automakers BMW, Daimler and Volkswagen colluded to limit the development and roll-out of car emission control systems.
DETROIT (AP) — The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance, one of the world's top-selling automakers, has decided to go with Google's Android operating system to run its dashboard information and entertainment features.
HEALTH CARE
SAN DIEGO (AP) — In a rare move, the U.S. government has approved the importation of marijuana extracts from Canada for a clinical trial, highlighting a new avenue for American researchers who have long had trouble obtaining the drug for medical studies.
EDUCATION
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has ruled that Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' move to ease protections for former students of for-profit colleges should be reversed, handing a victory to those who said they were defrauded by their schools.
SEATTLE (AP) — Bill Gates is rallying behind school quality in developing nations with a push for more assessment data, a new initiative that links the Microsoft co-founder's signature U.S. education priorities with his more prominent global philanthropy work.
ENVIRONMENT
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Trump administration rolled back an Obama-era rule meant to curb climate-changing pollution on Tuesday, easing restrictions on energy companies that allow huge volumes of natural gas to escape after drilling it from U.S. lands.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Once again, Wall Street's jitters over the escalating trade dispute between the U.S. and China proved to be short-lived.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Seeking better-skilled workers, Cedar Electronics decided last year to return some of its manufacturing to the United States from the Philippines, only to run smack into a worsening U.S.-China trade war.
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook is allowing job ads on its platform that exclude women, according to the American Civil liberties Union.
FUJAIRAH, United Arab Emirates (AP) — OPEC must stick together for the good of the global economy as founding member Iran faces renewed U.S. sanctions, the head of the cartel said Tuesday — though he did not address how an already-tight market will make up for the loss of Iranian supply.
BEIJING (AP) — Exporters scrambled to replace lost orders after U.S. President Donald Trump raised tariffs in July on $50 billion of Chinese imports. Waves of job losses loom over factory towns. But Chinese leaders expressed confidence in their $12 trillion-a-year economy and refused to budge on tactics they see as a path to prosperity and global influence.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The president of Poland is telling President Donald Trump that he'd like the U.S. to create a permanent American base in Poland that would be named Fort Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate on Tuesday approved a wide-ranging, $854 billion bill that funds the military and a host of civilian agencies for the next year and provides a short-term fix to keep the government open through early December.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are forging ahead with plans for a Senate hearing they had hoped to avoid on a woman's claims that Brett Kavanaugh sexually assaulted her when they were high schoolers, hoping to salvage the judge's endangered Supreme Court nomination with a risky, nationally televised showdown between him and his accuser.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump sided with his embattled Supreme Court nominee, defending Judge Brett Kavanaugh against allegations of sexual assault as the White House walked a fine line in addressing accusations that revived memories of the president's own #MeToo moments. Time and again, Trump has defended powerful men against the claims of women.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Creating a Space Force as a separate military service, as proposed by President Donald Trump, would cost an estimated $12.9 billion in its first five years, according to a detailed Air Force plan for how to go about it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. will slash the number of refugees it will accept for a second straight year, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said, insisting amid criticism from human rights groups that the country is still committed to providing sanctuary to people fleeing the world's danger zones.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican U.S. Senate candidate Marsha Blackburn says sexual misconduct accusations against Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh from high school are a "delay tactic," saying his female accuser should testify under oath and a committee vote shouldn't be delayed.
EDUCATION
KNOXVILLE (AP) — University of Tennessee President Joe DiPietro announced Monday that he plans to retire early next year.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A game ball for his first victory as an NFL coach is on Mike Vrabel's desk, and the Tennessee Titans got their first "Victory Monday" off of the season.
NASHVILLE (AP) — No Marcus Mariota. Both starting offensive tackles out, along with the top backup against Houston and three-time NFL Defensive Player of the Year J.J. Watt.
STATEWIDE
GATLINBURG (AP) — Officials at the Great Smoky Mountains National Park will begin assessing the impact of Tropical Storm Florence's remnants.
REGION
The death toll attributed to Florence stands at 17, including 11 in North Carolina and six in South Carolina.
ENVIRONMENT
Duke Energy said Saturday night that heavy rains from Florence caused a slope to collapse at a coal-ash landfill at a closed power station near the North Carolina coast.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A slide in technology companies helped pull U.S. stocks lower Monday, snapping a five-day winning streak for the market.
ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — Salaries on Wall Street rose last year to their highest level since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a report issued Monday by New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.
GENEVA (AP) — More than half of all workplace tasks will be carried out by machines by 2025, organizers of the Davos economic forum said in a report released Monday that highlights the speed with which the labor market will change in coming years.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May has warned opponents of her blueprint for Brexit that rejecting it means crashing out of the European Union without a deal, an outcome the International Monetary Fund said Monday would have "very large" economic costs.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon wants you to shop small. The online retailer launched a new section of its site Monday called Amazon Storefronts, which only lists products sold by small- and medium-sized businesses in the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Time Magazine is being sold by Meredith Corp. to Marc Benioff, a co-founder of Salesforce, and his wife, it was announced Sunday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is declaring on Twitter a premature victory from his tariffs. Despite the manufacturing renaissance he claims, it's too soon to determine the full scope of any benefit or harm they might create.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh said Monday he was willing to speak to a Senate panel to "refute" an allegation he sexually assaulted a woman while in high school, after his accuser said via her attorney that she was ready to testify in public.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly two years out of the White House, former President Barack Obama is facing another political test.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The prognosis for President Donald Trump and his party was grim.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 14
ELECTION 2018
MEMPHIS (AP) — U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen took some soft jabs at Republican opponent Marsha Blackburn on Thursday for refusing to debate him in Memphis, Tennessee, while also unnerving some supporters when he said he could back policies made by President Donald Trump — as long as they help the state.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A state attorney general's office lawyer is downplaying concerns that Tennessee code includes 553 public records exemptions, saying that's just nine added annually on average.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans limited Marcus Mariota at practice Thursday and gave more work to backup Blaine Gabbert, and coach Mike Vrabel says they want to evaluate which quarterback will give them the best chance against the Houston Texans.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Predators captain Roman Josi heard about San Jose trading for Erik Karlsson just before talking with reporters at the start of Nashville's training camp.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators started training camp explaining why they're keeping a player after the NHL suspended forward Austin Watson for the entire preseason and the first 27 games of the regular season for domestic abuse.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republican House Majority Leader Glen Casada has made his run for House speaker official, setting up at least a three-way race to succeed Speaker Beth Harwell.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Nashville prosecutor who was the son-in-law of country music star Alan Jackson has died in a fall in Florida.
ENFIELD, Conn. (AP) — Country singer Gretchen Wilson has agreed to donate $500 to charity to settle a criminal charge related to a disturbance at a Connecticut airport last month.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Attorneys for the state say Tennessee's Supreme Court shouldn't consider an expert's conclusions about "tortuous effects" of the latest execution in a challenge of the state's lethal injection protocol.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A former corrections officer at a Tennessee jail has pleaded guilty to making false statements to federal agents in connection to an incident in which a stun gun allegedly was used on a restrained detainee.
REGION
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence lumbered ashore in North Carolina with howling 90 mph winds and terrifying storm surge early Friday, splintering buildings and trapping hundreds of people in high water as it settled in for what could be a long and extraordinarily destructive drenching.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Florence's rain total will likely be staggeringly huge.
TECHNOLOGY
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple is trying to turn its smartwatch from a niche gadget into a lifeline to better health by slowly evolving it into a medical device.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — A $25 million donation will set up a scholarship program for military veterans to pursue graduate and professional degrees at Vanderbilt University.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Education Secretary Betsy DeVos' move to delay Obama-era protections for students defrauded by for-profit colleges was dealt a setback when a federal judge found her actions to be "arbitrary and capricious."
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — After selling it on and off in the U.S. for nearly seven decades, Volkswagen has decided to squash its iconic Beetle.
TECHNOLOGY
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX said it has signed the first private moon traveler, with some changes to its original game plan.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks hardly moved Friday as the market wrapped up a solid week. Smaller companies rose following signs of sustained economic growth and reports that more tariffs on Chinese goods could be on the way.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. retail sales barely rose in August as consumers slowed their spending after a robust month of shopping in July.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production rose by a healthy 0.4 percent in August, boosted by gains in the production of autos, oil and natural gas.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England governor has warned senior government ministers of the severe economic problems that would be created if Britain leaves the European Union without a deal on future relations.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears Holdings Corp., the struggling department store operator, said it key sales figure improved and its stock soared in after-hours trading Thursday.
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon founder and CEO Jeff Bezos said Thursday that he is giving $2 billion to start a fund that will open preschools in low-income neighborhoods and give money to nonprofits that helps homeless families.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target plans to hire more than 120,000 people for the busy holiday shopping season, a 20 percent increase from last year.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank pushed forward Thursday with its plan to gradually phase out its monetary stimulus, saying it is confident in the region's growth. But its president, Mario Draghi, warned that the United States' trade dispute with several major powers has become a key economic concern.
MOSCOW (AP) — The United States could impose sanctions on a new Russia-Germany gas pipeline, U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry said Thursday during a visit to Moscow.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices rose 2.7 percent in August from a year earlier, with higher housing and gasoline costs driving most of the increase.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort agreed Friday to cooperate with the special counsel's Russia investigation as he pleaded guilty to federal charges and avoided a second trial that could have exposed him to even greater punishment.
PARIS (AP) — President Donald Trump is finally making moves against foreign election meddling — and Russia says it couldn't care less.
The stage is set for a November brawl that could loosen President Donald Trump's grip on Washington.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of illegal voters. Crowd size. The GDP.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As Hurricane Florence bore down on the U.S., President Donald Trump angrily churned up the devastating storm of a year earlier, disputing the official death count from Hurricane Maria and falsely accusing Democrats of inflating the Puerto Rican toll to make him "look as bad as possible."
WASHINGTON (AP) — House lawmakers are debating a Republican proposal to expand the new tax law by making permanent the individual tax cuts now set to expire in 2026. But the move is undercut by election pressures faced by GOP lawmakers from high-tax states where residents are hurt by the law's limits on state and local tax deductions.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government racked up a $214.1 billion deficit in August, double the red ink from a year ago, although a big part of that increase reflected quirks in the calendar.