VOL. 41 | NO. 37 | Friday, September 15, 2017
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Roosting at the International Market on Belmont Boulevard, Chris Gantry laments that this landmark restaurant across the street from his apartment is one more signal that his beloved “NashLantis” – a mystical city that drew wild-eyed artists like him 50 years ago – soon will disappear.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
As you might recall, the year 2006 holds the record for the most unit sales in residential real estate for any year since the Greater Nashville Realtors have been reporting sales figures.
REAL ESTATE
August 2017 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson and Rutherford counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates were unchanged this week, leaving the average 30-year fixed mortgage rate at the lowest level this year.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Two games into the season, Quinten Dormady has established himself as Tennessee’s quarterback. For now.
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
Butch Jones will coach one of the biggest games of his Tennessee career against Florida on Saturday.
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
There were more than a few missteps and miscues by the Tennessee Titans in Sunday’s season-opening loss to the Oakland Raiders.
Taylor Lewan vs. Calais Campbell. Campbell had four of the Jaguars’ 10 sacks Sunday. Yes, you read that right, 10 sacks by the Jacksonville defense. Lewan and the Titans defense did a decent job of protecting Marcus Mariota against Oakland. Keeping Mariota upright is key, because, remember, this is where Mariota suffered the broken fibula on a sack last year.
NEWSMAKERS
J. Douglas Minor Jr., a partner at Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, will be moving to the firm’s Nashville office from Bradley’s Jackson, Mississippi, office.
BRIEFS
In an effort to address the negative impact some short-term rental properties have on residential neighborhoods, Mayor Megan Barry is announcing the launch of a hotline to catalog and respond to neighborhood complaints.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
White sandy beaches. Waves that gently kiss your toes with warm water. In your minds’ eye, they stretch for miles and are yours to explore. That will be your retirement – or so you hope.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
It is that time of year. No, not the start of football season – the start of budgeting season.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — After becoming a global icon and one of the world's best-selling singers of all-time, Shania Twain had to utter the scariest five words a vocalist would ever hear: "I may never sing again."
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are asking three state agencies to ensure that their policies allow residents to take cell phone photos of public records.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's divisive and difficult, but the Republican drive to erase the Obama health care overhaul has gotten a huge boost from one of Washington's perennial incentives: Political necessity.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the Republicans' last-resort "Obamacare" repeal effort remains two or three votes short, forecasting days of furious lobbying ahead with a crucial deadline looming next week.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Three companies lined up to sell insurance on the Obamacare exchange in Tennessee in 2018 have had their premium requests approved by the state's insurance commissioner.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Health has approved a proposed merger between two hospital systems.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term mortgage rates rose this week, lifting the 30-year fixed mortgage from the lowest levels of 2017.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PRINCETON, Ind. (AP) — Toyota has marked the production of its 5 millionth vehicle from its southwestern Indiana factory that opened 19 years ago.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Google is biting off a big piece of device manufacturer HTC for $1.1 billion to expand its efforts to build phones, speakers and other gadgets equipped with its arsenal of digital services.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes veered slightly lower in early trading Thursday as investors sized up the latest batch of company earnings and deal news. Technology stocks were down the most. Consumer focused-companies also fell, while energy stocks declined as the price of crude oil headed lower. Insurers and other financial companies led the gainers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us may have filed for Chapter 11 reorganization this week, but the toy chain is revving up its holiday hiring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits dropped by 23,000 last week to 259,000 as the economic impact of Hurricane Harvey began to fade.
The Securities and Exchange Commission says its corporate filing system was hacked last year and the intruders may have used the nonpublic information they obtained to profit illegally.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the middle of Donald Trump's presidential run, then-campaign chairman Paul Manafort said he was willing to provide "private briefings" about the campaign to a Russian billionaire the U.S. government considers close to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators is seeking information from the White House related to Michael Flynn's stint as national security adviser and about the response to a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was attended by President Donald Trump's oldest son, The Associated Press has learned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is considering a further reduction in the number of refugees allowed into the United States as the administration works to re-shape American immigration policy, officials say.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials are accepting grant proposals for projects that will improve water quality and reduce or eliminate certain types of pollution.
MEMPHIS (AP) — FedEx said Tuesday that its first-quarter profit fell 17 percent, hurt by a June cyberattack at its TNT Express business that caused shipping delays in Europe. It also cut its profit outlook for the year and its shares fell in after-hours trading.
SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has released a 2018 football schedule that includes a demanding five-game stretch of Southeastern Conference matchups that begins in late September and runs through the end of October.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home sales fell 1.7 percent in August, pulled down by the effects of Hurricane Harvey and a worsening shortage of available properties.
TECHNOLOGY
SANTA CLARA, Calif. (AP) — A chief gripe with Apple Watch is that it requires you to keep an iPhone with you for most tasks. The inclusion of GPS last year helped on runs and bike rides, but you're still missing calls and messages without the phone nearby.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Bill Cassidy defended his health care bill Wednesday after late-night TV host Jimmy Kimmel accused the Louisiana Republican of lying to him about it, heightening the tension around the last-ditch GOP effort to make good on years of promises to repeal "Obamacare."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most states would take a stiff budgetary hit if the latest Senate GOP health care bill becomes law, according to an independent analysis released Wednesday. That would likely result in more uninsured Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With time growing short, President Donald Trump and Republican Senate leaders are engaged in a frantic search for votes in a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace the Obama health law. The outcome is uncertain in a Capitol newly engulfed in drama over health care.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With time growing short, President Donald Trump and Republican Senate leaders are engaged in a frantic search for votes in a last-ditch effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare." The outcome is uncertain in a Capitol newly engulfed in drama over health care.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP's last-ditch effort to repeal "Obamacare" would redistribute hundreds of billions of dollars in federal financing for insurance coverage, creating winners and losers among individual Americans and states in ways not yet fully clear.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes overcame an afternoon wobble to close mostly higher Wednesday after the Federal Reserve said it would start reducing its huge bond portfolio next month and was still on track to raise interest rates later this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve will begin shrinking the enormous portfolio of bonds it amassed after the 2008 financial crisis to try to sustain a frail economy. The move reflects a strengthened economy and could mean higher rates on mortgages and other loans over time.
It's still summer, but UPS is gearing up for holiday deliveries.
NATIONAL POLITICS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau could have fined Wells Fargo in excess of $10 billion for its illegal sales practices but instead settled for $100 million, according to the agency's internal documents released by Congressional Republicans this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee to oversee chemical safety at the Environmental Protection Agency has for years accepted payments for criticizing studies that raised concerns about the safety of his clients' products, according to a review of financial records and his published work by The Associated Press.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 19
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee corrections officials have fined a private prison company $43,750 because of problems it had counting inmates at a jail it operates, according to state documents.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Car dealership owner Lee Beaman is launching a super PAC to support Andy Ogles' bid for the U.S. Senate seat held by Republican Bob Corker.
NASHVILLE (AP) — President Donald Trump is encouraging Sen. Bob Corker of Tennessee to run for another term, according to two people familiar with a meeting between the two Republicans at the White House last week.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Health officials say Tennessee saw a record number of overdose deaths in 2016.
MIDSTATE
ASHLAND CITY (AP) — After video from a Tennessee jail shows a stun gun being used multiple times on an inmate restrained in a chair, his attorney says a settlement has been reached in his case against three deputies.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Diane Black is being deposed in a lawsuit related to a television ad that ran in her first campaign for Congress.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Nashville Predators have named defenseman Roman Josi as the eighth captain in the franchise's history, replacing Mike Fisher who retired last month.
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — It has been five years since IndyCar last had an American champion as the face of the series. This time, the series is far better positioned to properly wield its newest asset.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A defamation lawsuit against Rolling Stone over the magazine's debunked article about a University of Virginia gang rape was reinstated Tuesday by an appeals court in a manner that one judge says would allow any member of a school fraternity to join the lawsuit.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Homebuilders slowed their pace of construction by a sharp 0.8 percent in August, the second straight monthly decline. A steep drop in multifamily construction more than offset a gain in single-family-home building.
HEALTH CARE
Only half of America's smallest businesses now offer health coverage to their workers because many say steady cost hikes have made it too expensive to afford a benefit that nearly all large employers still provide.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell on Tuesday praised the revived Republican effort to uproot former President Barack Obama's health care law, giving a public boost to a proposal that's given new life to a drive that seemed all but dead earlier this summer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Senate Republicans say their last-ditch push to uproot former President Barack Obama's health care law is gaining momentum. But they have less than two weeks to succeed and face a tough fight to win enough GOP support to reverse the summer's self-inflicted defeat on the party's high-priority issue.
TECHNOLOGY
SUNNYVALE, Calif. (AP) — Holding off on upgrading your trusty old iPhone? You won't need a spiffy iPhone 8 in order to get new maps, photos and other features with a free software update Apple began rolling out Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — The problems keep piling up for Facebook, and it's unclear how long the internet giant will be able to brush them aside as it barrels toward acquiring its next billion users.
WARSAW, Poland (AP) — The difference between Apple's new iPhone models is a bit like flying first class compared with coach. We envy first class, but coach gets us there without breaking the budget.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Ford Motor Co. is cutting production at five North American assembly plants through the rest of this year as U.S. demand for new vehicles slips due to lower gas prices.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped a day of mostly listless trading Tuesday with a slight gain, good enough to lift the major U.S. stock indexes to another set of all-time highs.
DALLAS (AP) — Prosecutors say CitiFinancial Credit Co. will pay $907,000 to settle a complaint that it violated federal law by repossessing the vehicles of active military personnel.
Walgreens and Rite Aid have finally devised a combination of the nation's largest and third-largest drugstore chains that will get past antitrust regulators.
NEW YORK (AP) — In filing for bankruptcy, Toys R Us joins a list of dozens of store chains that have done so already this year as online leader Amazon increasingly exerts its influence over a huge part of the retailing world.
MENOMEE FALLS, Wis. (AP) — Kohl's, which is opening some in-store Amazon shops, says it will start accepting returns for the online retailer at some of its stores in Los Angeles and Chicago starting next month.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top Republicans on a key Senate panel have reached a tentative agreement on a tax plan that would add about $1.5 trillion to the government's $20 trillion debt over 10 years, according to congressional officials.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican on the Senate Budget Committee said Tuesday that tax cut advocates on the panel are pressing for cuts that could add $1.5 trillion or more to the deficit over the coming decade.
ATLANTA (AP) — Republican governors are getting into the "news" business. The Republican Governors Association has quietly launched an online publication that looks like a media outlet and is branded as such on social media. The Free Telegraph blares headlines about the virtues of GOP governors, while framing Democrats negatively.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 18
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam is reinstating food stamp work requirements for most Tennessee counties starting Feb. 1.
MOUNTAIN CITY (AP) — Public land including more than 1,000 acres (400 hectares) in Tennessee will be added to Cherokee National Forest.
SPORTS
The Dallas Cowboys not only are the NFL's most valuable franchise for the 11th straight year, they are the top-valued team in the world.
JACKSONVILLE, Fla. (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are boring and bullish when they're at their best.
SONOMA, Calif. (AP) — Josef Newgarden of Hendersonville rushed through the doors on to the championship stage with an American flag draped around his shoulders. He felt silly, he said, like a boxer at a title fight.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republicans are revving up a final push to scuttle President Barack Obama's health care law. Though the effort faces low odds of success and just a two-week window to prevail, Democrats backed by doctors, hospitals, and patients' groups are mustering an all-out effort to smother the GOP drive once and for all.
COURTS
A federal judge overseeing the NFL's $1 billion concussion settlement with former players says she's concerned about "deceptive practices" by claims service providers, lenders and other groups seeking a share of the money.
BOSTON (AP) — After watching his mother die from meningitis in a nationwide outbreak caused by contaminated steroids, Scott Shaw is determined to make sure something like that never happens again.
REAL ESTATE
U.S. homebuilders are feeling less optimistic about their sales prospects, reflecting concerns that rebuilding efforts following hurricanes Harvey and Irma will drive up costs for construction labor and materials.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MARYSVILLE, Ohio (AP) — Honda says it has invested $267 million and will add 300 jobs in central Ohio to support production of its revamped Honda Accord sedan for 2018.
DETROIT (AP) — About 2,500 workers at a Canadian General Motors plant that makes the Chevrolet Equinox SUV are on strike in a dispute over job security.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Banks and other financial companies led U.S. stocks modestly higher Monday, nudging the stock market to another record high.
NEW YORK (AP) — Video streaming pioneer Roku hopes to raise just over $252 million in an initial public offering as it tries to expand into more households.
NEW YORK (AP) — Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner plans to sell his company's controlling stake in the legendary magazine that chronicled the music and politics of the counterculture movement and changed music journalism forever.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans straining to find about $1 trillion to finance sweeping tax cuts are homing in on two popular deductions that are woven into the nation's fiscal fabric — the mortgage interest deduction that millions of homeowners prize and the deduction for state and local taxes popular in Democratic strongholds.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to pass a defense policy bill that pumps $700 billion into the Pentagon budget, expands U.S. missile defenses in response to North Korea's growing hostility and refuses to allow excess military bases to be closed.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 15
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A legal opinion by the Tennessee attorney general says school districts must give a variety of student data to approved charter schools and their operators.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A nonprofit group is celebrating the release of State Parks Blonde Ale, a new beer from Tennessee Brew Works.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam says Tennessee has set a new high mark for its high school graduation rate.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Conservative activist Andy Ogles announced Thursday he will run for the U.S. Senate seat held by Tennessee Republican Bob Corker, who has so far refused to divulge whether he will seek a third term.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Republican gubernatorial candidate Beth Harwell says she won't privatize services at Tennessee state parks if she is elected governor.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer Troy Gentry of the popular duo Montgomery Gentry was memorialized Thursday by friends and Grand Ole Opry singers as funny and kind, an artist with a huge appetite for life who loved his family, his music, his band and his fans.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Folk singer songwriter John Prine was awarded the artist of the year, while one of his protégés, country singer Sturgill Simpson, took home album of the year at the Americana Honors and Awards show.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average premiums for individually purchased health insurance will grow around 15 percent next year, largely because of marketplace nervousness over whether President Donald Trump will block federal subsidies to insurers, Congress' nonpartisan fiscal analyst projected Thursday.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Worries rippled through the consumer market for antivirus software after the U.S. government banned federal agencies from using Kaspersky Labs software on Wednesday. Best Buy and Office Depot said they will no longer sell software made by the Russian company, although one security researcher said most consumers don't need to be alarmed.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PARIS (AP) — The Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi alliance is gambling that mass-market drivers are going to pivot soon to electric cars, announcing plans Friday to produce 12 new electric models by 2022 and to make electric cars 30 percent of its overall output.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged higher Friday as technology companies and banks rose. The Standard & Poor's 500 index closed above 2,500 for the first time as stocks had one of their best weeks this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — For President Donald Trump, what's good for General Motors is great for American workers. Same for Boeing. And AT&T. Not to mention small businesses.
Bitcoin, hailed in some quarters as the future of currency, is having a rough week, with a flurry of rumors that China will shut down exchanges and the head of a major U.S bank calling bitcoin a "fraud."
NEW YORK (AP) — Macy's is increasing the number of temporary workers it's hiring for distribution and warehouses for the holiday season as it chases fast growing e-commerce sales. But overall holiday hiring will fall nearly 4 percent.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hiring picked up in six U.S. states last month, fell in three and was mostly unchanged in 41 states in August.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial output plunged 0.9 percent in August, the most in eight years, mostly because of Hurricane Harvey's damage to the oil refining, plastics and chemicals industries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers cut back on their shopping in August by the largest amount in six months as declining auto sales offset gains in other areas.
BEIJING (AP) — One of China's biggest bitcoin exchanges says it will end trading after news reports regulators have ordered all Chinese exchanges to close caused the price of the digital currency to plunge.
NEW YORK (AP) — What is the sound of a stock market at a record high and nobody buying it?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Higher gas and housing costs boosted U.S. consumer prices 0.4 percent in August, the most in seven months. The increase suggests inflation could be picking up, but the figures were likely distorted by Hurricane Harvey.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The fate of 800,000 young immigrants hung in the balance Thursday as top lawmakers, White House officials and President Donald Trump himself squabbled over whether an agreement had been struck to protect them — and if so, exactly what it was.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The chairman and top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee have met with Special Counsel Bob Mueller. That's according to the committee, which says they met Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican-led House on Thursday passed a sweeping $1.2 trillion spending bill that provides billions more dollars for the military while sparing medical research and popular community development programs from deep cuts sought by President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Treasury Department said Thursday that a concern about secure communications is what prompted Secretary Steven Mnuchin to inquire about using a government plane for his European honeymoon in August.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The blaring, grinding noise jolted the American diplomat from his bed in a Havana hotel. He moved just a few feet, and there was silence. He climbed back into bed. Inexplicably, the agonizing sound hit him again. It was as if he'd walked through some invisible wall cutting straight through his room.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says that, "ultimately," funding for a border wall with Mexico must be part of any immigration deal. But he says that funding can come at a later date.