VOL. 48 | NO. 38 | Friday, September 20, 2024
REAL ESTATE
Top Davidson County commercial real estate sales for August 2024, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
The average rate on a 30-year mortgage in the U.S. edged closer to 6% this week to its lowest level since early February 2023.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August to the slowest annual pace in nearly a year even as mortgage rates eased and the supply of properties on the market continued to rise.
GUEST COLUMNIST
Late last year, the city of Memphis wrote a $7,419.68 check to reimburse the attorney fees of journalist Marc Perrusquia rather than risk losing a public records lawsuit.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Please, Will, don’t join VY, Locker, Mariota, etc.
Dear Will Levis, You told everyone that it wouldn’t happen again. Couldn’t happen again.
A very familiar face will lead the way when the Green Bay Packers stroll into Nissan Stadium Sunday.
The Titans have managed to give away two winnable games to start the season and now face what is really a must-win situation Sunday when the Green Bay Packers come to town. Here are four keys to accomplishing that.
UT SPORTS
Jarrail Jackson wasn’t expecting visitors when he heard a knock at the door a few months before the 1999 college football season began. Josh Heupel had just transferred to the University of Oklahoma from Snow College in Utah and wanted Jackson to run routes.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — A pair of five-star quarterbacks from the 2023 class will face off when Tennessee's Nico Iamaleava and Oklahoma's Jackson Arnold lead their teams on Saturday night.
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — It's finally here for No. 15 Oklahoma.
NEWSMAKERS
REED public relations and marketing agency has promoted Katherine Green and Tayhlor Blackwell from vice president to senior vice president positions. These promotions come two years after both individuals joined REED’s leadership team.
BRIEFS
The Music City Walk of Fame will induct legendary “tropical troubadour” Jimmy Buffett; iconic gospel quartet The Fairfield Four; visionary hospitality leader Colin Reed of Ryman Hospitality Properties; and beloved Grand Ole Opry announcer and host Bill Cody, the Nashville Convention & Visitors Corp announced.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
If you’re thinking about buying a new car but don’t need one right away, now is a great time to show a little patience. Generally, waiting until winter can create an opportunity to purchase an all-new or significantly updated vehicle.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Conventional wisdom asserts that buying a home is a better financial decision than renting, but average home prices have increased 39% faster than rent prices since 2019, calling that long-held assumption into question.
One in four female small-business owners has taken a pay cut in the past year, a new survey by Talker Research for Office Depot finds, while 53% of say the past year has been the hardest for their business.
UT SPORTS
NORMAN, Okla. (AP) — Georgia, Alabama and LSU have combined to win every Southeastern Conference championship game for the past decade.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — The quiet part about the evolving landscape of name, image and likeness compensation in college athletics was bound to be said out loud, and it wasn't that shocking when Tennessee's athletic department stepped forward, cleared its collective throat and stated the obvious.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville's district attorney secretly recorded defense attorneys, colleagues and other visitors without their knowledge, according to an investigation's findings released Wednesday.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A former Memphis police officer testified under a plea deal Wednesday that he helped cover up the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols because he wanted to protect his job, and was hoping Nichols would survive and the scrutiny of the officers would simply "blow over."
COURTS
Conspiracy theorist Alex Jones ' Infowars media platform and its assets will be sold off piece by piece in auctions this fall to help pay the more than $1 billion he owes relatives of victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting, under an order expected to be approved by a federal judge.
NEW YORK (AP) — A New York appeals court is set to hear arguments in Donald Trump's fight to overturn a civil fraud judgment that could disrupt his real estate empire and cost him close to a half-billion dollars.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A man who authorities say staked out Donald Trump for 12 hours on his golf course in Florida and wrote of his desire to kill him was indicted Tuesday on an attempted assassination charge.
ELECTION 2024
PITTSBURGH (AP) — A U.S. Secret Service agent has been accused of groping and sexually harassing a member of Vice President Kamala Harris' official staff during a trip last week, according to three people familiar with the matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, who has made anti-immigration rhetoric a key part of his reelection campaign, warned Wednesday that he would kick out hundreds of thousands of immigrants who have entered the country under two key Biden administration programs if he's reelected.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. intelligence officials said Wednesday that they briefed Donald Trump's campaign on Iranian threats against the Republican presidential nominee, though they declined to say if there is evidence of a new plot targeting Trump, or whether the briefing focused instead on previously reported threats.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris will visit the U.S.-Mexico border in Arizona on Friday as her campaign increasingly tries to make the issue of immigration more of a strength, countering a line of political attack from former President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Derided by Donald Trump as a "communist," Kamala Harris is playing up her street cred as a capitalist.
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday praised Russia's military record in historical conflicts and derided U.S. aid to Ukraine as he again insisted he would quickly end the war launched by Moscow's invasion if elected president.
INDIANA, Pa. (AP) — From former President Donald Trump to Ohio Senate candidate Bernie Moreno, male Republican candidates are struggling to speak to female voters, using language criticized as tone-deaf and patronizing as they try to win support from women and speak to issues important to them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ohio Sen. JD Vance, the Republican vice presidential candidate, is less popular among voters than his Democratic rival, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, according to a new survey from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
Melania Trump is the first lady who has seldom been there.
TECHNOLOGY
MENLO PARK, California (AP) — Meta unveiled updates to the company's virtual reality headset and Ray Ban smart glasses on Wednesday along with AI advances as it tries demonstrate its artificial intelligence prowess and the next generation of computing platforms beyond smartphones and computers.
TRAVEL
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines plans to eliminate about one-third of its flights to Atlanta next year to save money as it comes under pressure from a hedge fund to increase profits and boost the airline's stock price.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump on Tuesday pledged to stop U.S. businesses from shipping jobs overseas and to take other countries' jobs and factories by relying heavily on sweeping tariffs to boost auto manufacturing — despite warnings that domestic consumers would pay more and a lack of specifics about how his plans would work.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fall means it's time for just about everybody to get up to date on their flu and COVID-19 vaccines – and a lot of older adults also need protection against another risky winter virus, RSV.
MEDIA
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Social media platform X on Wednesday published its first transparency report since the company was purchased by Elon Musk. The report, which details content moderation practices, shows the company has removed millions of posts and accounts from the site in the first half of the year.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — "League of Legends" is caught in the middle of a dispute between Hollywood's actors union and an audio company that provides voiceover services for the blockbuster online multiplayer game.
HONG KONG (AP) — Writing to the Hong Kong court that convicted him of sedition, former Stand News editor Patrick Lam said he regretted missing a chance to tell a police officer about independent journalism.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks edged back from their records Wednesday as financial markets around the world took a pause following big recent moves.
NEW YORK (AP) — The rush for gold just keeps coming.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An executive at cybersecurity company CrowdStrike apologized in testimony to Congress for sparking a global technology outage over the summer.
MEXICO CITY (AP) — An American quarry company said Tuesday the Mexican government carried out a de facto expropriation of its properties on Mexico's Caribbean coast.
SEATTLE (AP) — Boeing is giving the union representing striking factory workers more time to consider a revised contract offer with bigger pay increases and more bonus money, but it was unclear Tuesday whether the union would schedule a ratification vote on the proposal.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has confirmed a new commander of U.S. Army forces in the Pacific after Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville dropped his objections and allowed a quick vote on the nomination.
NEW YORK (AP) — President Joe Biden said Wednesday that fighting between Israel and Hezbollah threatens to become an "all-out war" as his top diplomat and other advisers worked behind the scenes pressing for a temporary cease-fire to calm the escalating conflict that has killed more than 600 people in Lebanon in recent days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected Wednesday to give swift approval to a temporary spending bill that would keep federal agencies funded when the new fiscal year begins next Tuesday, avoiding a potential shutdown showdown just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hospitals are facing questions about why they denied care to pregnant patients and whether state abortion bans have influenced how they treat those patients.
NEW YORK (AP) — With the backdrop of elections worldwide that highlight strains on democracy, former President Bill Clinton urged attendees of his foundation's annual meeting to meet their communities' needs through collective action.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Multiple Secret Service failures ahead of the July rally for former President Donald Trump where a gunman opened fire were "foreseeable, preventable, and directly related to the events resulting in the assassination attempt that day," according to a bipartisan Senate investigation released Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The acting director of the Secret Service was incensed at what had happened that July evening. "What I saw made me ashamed," Ronald Rowe Jr. said. "I cannot defend why that roof was not better secured."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress is expected Wednesday to give swift approval to a temporary spending bill that would keep federal agencies funded when the new fiscal year begins next Tuesday, avoiding a potential shutdown showdown just weeks before the Nov. 5 election.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 24
NASHVILLE PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Barry Trotz won a Stanley Cup as a coach and is showing no patience for a rebuild toward some kind of fuzzy, optimistic future.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The winless Tennessee Titans remain confident they have a team capable of winning the Super Bowl.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A former Memphis police officer who has pleaded guilty to violating Tyre Nichols' civil rights testified in tears Tuesday, saying he left Nichols' young son fatherless, that he was sorry and that he wishes he had stopped the punches.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Memphis man testified on Monday that he and a second person shot and killed rapper Young Dolph after Big Jook, the brother of rapper Yo Gotti, put a hit on him.
LAW ENFORCEMENT
An influential group of law enforcement leaders is pushing police departments across the U.S. to change how officers use force when they subdue people and to improve training so they avoid "consistent blind spots" that have contributed to civilian deaths.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American drivers might universally wince or brace themselves at the sight and sound of flashing red and blue lights and blaring sirens, but all drivers have constitutional rights when pulled over on the road.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Johnny Cash can now be seen in the unlikeliest of venues: the U.S. Capitol.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Caroline Ellison, a former top executive in Sam Bankman-Fried 's fallen FTX cryptocurrency empire, was sentenced to two years in prison on Tuesday after she apologized repeatedly to everyone hurt by a fraud that stole billions of dollars from investors and customers of what once seemed like a groundbreaking company in an emerging financial industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The son of the man suspected in the assassination attempt in Florida against former President Donald Trump has been arrested on federal charges of possessing child sexual abuse images.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A federal jury in Texas on Monday rejected voter intimidation allegations against all but one of a group of former President Donald Trump supporters who surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus on an interstate days before the 2020 election.
ELECTION 2024
WASHINGTON (AP) — Donald Trump flubbed the name of Charlottesville, Virginia, while going off script during a speech on Tuesday otherwise focused on economic policy, slamming Vice President Kamala Harris for lying about "Charlottestown."
SAVANNAH, Ga. (AP) — Donald Trump is expected on Tuesday to pledge not only to stop U.S. businesses from offshoring jobs, but also to take other countries' jobs and factories.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is viewed more favorably by Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander registered voters than former President Donald Trump, according to a new poll. AAPI voters are also more likely to believe that she is the candidate who better represents their background and policy views.
SMITHTON, Pa. (AP) — Donald Trump sat in a large barn in rural Pennsylvania on Monday, asking questions of farmers and offering jokes but, in a rarity for his campaign events, mostly listening.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Prince Harry said today's youth is in the midst of an "epidemic" of anxiety, depression and social isolation due to negative experiences online, as he brought his campaign to help children and their parents navigate cyberspace to this week's Clinton Global Initiative.
TikTok has removed accounts associated with Russian state media for engaging in "covert influence operations" ahead of the U.S. presidential election.
TECHNOLOGY
GENEVA (AP) — Soccer fans arriving in North America for the 2026 World Cup have been promised help with their cell phone coverage from Verizon as part of a sponsor deal with FIFA announced on Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — As the use of artificial intelligence is expands, more small firms say they're harnessing AI to help their businesses.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Retired NFL quarterback Brett Favre has been diagnosed with Parkinson's disease, he told a congressional committee Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — First lady Jill Biden on Monday unveiled a new set of actions to address health inequities faced by women in the United States, plans that include spending at least $500 million annually on women's health research.
AUTO INDUSTRY
ROME (AP) — Workers in Italy's automotive sector will go on strike on Oct. 18, the main metalworkers unions said Tuesday, in protest of declining output from Stellantis, the biggest carmaker in the country.
DETROIT (AP) — Struggling Jeep and Ram maker Stellantis is looking for a CEO to succeed Carlos Tavares, but the company says it's just part of a normal leadership succession plan.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — American consumers are feeling less confident this month as concerns about jobs rose significantly.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks drifted to more records Tuesday after Chinese stocks soared following a slew of moves by the Chinese central bank to prop up the world's second-largest economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has filed an antitrust lawsuit against Visa, alleging that the financial services behemoth uses its size and dominance to stifle competition in the debit card market, costing consumers and businesses billions of dollars.
NEW YORK (AP) — Attention, Kmart shoppers, the end is near!
Boeing said Monday it made a "best and final offer" to striking machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses, but the workers' union said the proposal isn't good enough and there won't be a ratification vote before Boeing's deadline at the end of the week.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — One year since Kevin McCarthy was booted from the House speaker's office after Congress voted in a bipartisan way to fund the government and prevent a federal shutdown, the new House Speaker Mike Johnson finds himself courting, but so far avoiding, a similar political fate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee are moving Tuesday to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress after a contentious back-and-forth with the Cabinet secretary over an appearance to testify on the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
UNITED NATIONS (AP) — President Joe Biden declared in his final address to the U.N. General Assembly on Tuesday that the U.S. must not retreat from the world, as Israel and Hezbollah militants in Lebanon edged toward all-out war and Israel's bloody operation against Hamas in Gaza neared the one-year mark.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Partnerships between the U.S. and China at universities over the past decade have allowed hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding to aid Beijing in developing critical technology that could be used for military purposes, congressional Republicans asserted in a new report.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — First-year Titans coach Brian Callahan is sticking with young quarterback Will Levis despite all the turnovers through three losses to start the season.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A change of scenery and an injury gave Malik Willis a huge opportunity to show what he can do in the NFL.
UT SPORTS
Tennessee moved up to No. 5 in The Associated Press college football poll Sunday as the Volunteers continued to surge up the rankings, and No. 25 Boise State returned to the AP Top 25 for the first time in four years.
COURTS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California sued ExxonMobil Monday, alleging it deceived the public for half a century by promising that recycling would address the global plastic pollutions crisis.
ELECTION 2024
WILKESBORO, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial candidate Mark Robinson vowed Monday to rebuild his campaign staff after several top aides quit and a key Republican group backed away from his race following a CNN report alleging he made explicit racial and sexual posts years ago on a pornography website's message board.
NEW YORK (AP) — One presidential candidate is talking up gun ownership and promising tough border security measures. The other vows to cap credit card interest rates and force insurance companies to cover in vitro fertilization.
NEW YORK (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris raised $27 million at a packed New York City fundraiser on Sunday, her largest fundraising haul since she took over at the top of the ticket from President Joe Biden, according to a Harris campaign aide.
A top Donald Trump ally is pressuring Nebraska Republicans to award all of their state's Electoral College votes to the statewide winner, a late-stage rule change that could potentially help return Trump to the White House.
Former President Donald Trump said on Sunday that he doesn't "think" he'd run again for president in 2028 if he falls short in his bid to return to the White House in 2024.
SAN DIEGO (AP) — Donald Trump has long pledged to deport millions of people, but he's bringing more specifics to his current bid for the White House: invoking wartime powers, relying on like-minded governors and using the military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The man accused in the apparent assassination attempt of Donald Trump at a golf course in Florida left behind a note saying that he intended to kill the former president and kept in his car a handwritten list of dates and venues where Trump was to appear, the Justice Department said Monday.
The more Chelsea Walsh talked to the eccentric fellow American who seemed to pop up in every square and cobblestone street of Ukraine's capital, the more she got creeped out.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Several top staffers in North Carolina Republican Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson's campaign for governor have quit their posts, marking more fallout from a CNN report outlining evidence that he made disturbing posts on a pornography website's message board more than a decade ago.
CRIME
WASHINGTON (AP) — Violent crime in the U.S. dropped in 2023, according to FBI statistics that show a continued trend downward after a coronavirus pandemic-era crime spike.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — The Commerce Department said Monday it's seeking a ban on the sale of connected and autonomous vehicles in the U.S. that are equipped with Chinese and Russian software and hardware with the stated goal of protecting national security and U.S. drivers.
REAL ESTATE
The Federal Reserve gave home shoppers what they hoped for this week: a big rate cut and a signal of more cuts to come.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Starting this month, Americans will be able to order free COVID-19 test kits that will be mailed to their homes.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — With its larger-than-usual half-point cut to its key interest rate last week, the Federal Reserve underscored its belief that it's all but conquered inflation after three long years.
LIVERPOOL, England (AP) — British Treasury chief Rachel Reeves promised on Monday not to return to an era of public spending cuts despite the dire state of the U.K.'s national finances, as she tried to inject a dose of optimism after weeks of negative headlines for the country's new Labour Party government.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes added slightly to their record highs in relatively subdued trading on Wall Street.
Boeing said Monday it made a "best and final offer" to striking union machinists that includes bigger raises and larger bonuses than a proposed contract that was overwhelmingly rejected.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders announced an agreement Sunday on a short-term spending bill that will fund federal agencies for about three months, averting a possible partial government shutdown when the new budget year begins Oct. 1 and pushing final decisions until after the November election.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — At only 6 years old, Esai Reed has endured three emergency evacuations from orphanages across Haiti as gangs pillage and plunder their way through once peaceful communities.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 20
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Brian Callahan has seen winless starts finish with winning records in the NFL, so the first-year Tennessee coach has reminded his Titans that the season is long enough to rewarded those who fix mistakes quickly.
SEC SPORTS
Trent Dilfer was hardly surprised when his old quarterback, Hank Brown, made a mostly pristine starting debut for Auburn, avoiding blunders even during stretches where heavy rain was falling.
COURTS
NAIROBI, Kenya (AP) — Facebook 's parent company Meta on Friday lost its appeal in a Kenyan labor court that ruled the company could be sued in Kenya over the mass sacking of content moderators.
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — A civil trial in Texas over a so-called "Trump Train" that surrounded a Biden-Harris campaign bus days before the 2020 election reached closing arguments Friday before a federal jury decides whether the rolling highway encounter amounted to political intimidation.
ELECTION 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Georgia's State Election Board on Friday voted to approve a new rule that requires poll workers to count the number of paper ballots by hand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Communication breakdowns with local law enforcement hampered the Secret Service's performance ahead of a July assassination attempt on former President Donald Trump, according to a new report that lays out a litany of missed opportunities to stop a gunman who opened fire from an unsecured roof.
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Lt. Gov. Mark Robinson will not speak or appear at former President Donald Trump 's rally on Saturday in the eastern part of his state following a CNN report about his alleged posts on a pornography website's message board, two people familiar with the matter said Friday.
MINNEAPOLIS (AP) — In-person voting for this year's presidential election began Friday, a milestone that kicked off a six-week sprint to Election Day after a summer of political turmoil.
WASHINGTON (AP) — JD Vance not long ago described conspiracy theories as the feverish imaginings produced by "fringe lunatics writing about all manner of idiocy."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Thursday decried antisemitism hours after an explosive CNN report detailed how one of his allies running for North Carolina governor made a series of racial and sexual comments on a website where he also referred to himself as a "black NAZI."
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — North Carolina Republican gubernatorial nominee Mark Robinson vowed on Thursday to remain in the race despite a CNN report that he posted strongly worded racial and sexual comments on an online message board, saying he won't be forced out by "salacious tabloid lies."
WASHINGTON (AP) — For the first time since she ascended to the top of the Democratic ticket, Vice President Kamala Harris is set to give a speech focused squarely on abortion rights and she'll do so in Georgia, where news reports have documented women's deaths in the face of the state's six-week ban.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Going into November's election, neither Kamala Harris nor Donald Trump has a decisive edge with the public on the economy, turning an issue that was once a clear strength for Trump into the equivalent of a political jump ball.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawmakers are scrambling to ensure that the U.S. Secret Service has enough money and resources to keep the nation's presidential candidates safe amid repeated threats of violence. It's unclear, though, how much they can do with only weeks before the election, or if additional dollars would make an immediate difference.
HEALTH CARE
The federal government is suing some big pharmacy benefit managers over a system of drug rebates that regulators say has made the price of insulin soar for diabetic patients.
ENERGY
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The owner of the shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear power plant said Friday that it plans to restart the reactor under a 20-year agreement that calls for tech giant Microsoft to buy the power to supply its data centers with carbon-free energy.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — The GOP-controlled House approved a resolution Friday that would overturn a new Biden administration rule on automobile emissions that Republicans say would force Americans to buy unaffordable electric vehicles they don't want.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is awarding over $3 billion to U.S. companies to boost domestic production of advanced batteries and other materials used for electric vehicles, part of a continuing push to reduce China's global dominance in battery production for EVs and other electronics.
General Motors is recalling more than 449,000 of its SUVs and pickup trucks because the electronic brake control module software may fail to display a warning light when a loss of brake fluid takes place.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple is giving more people the chance to test a software update that will implant artificial intelligence into its virtual assistant Siri and automate a variety of tedious tasks on the latest iPhone coming out Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A record-setting week for Wall Street closed on a quieter note.
Shares of Trump Media & Technology Group slumped to their lowest level ever at the opening bell Friday, the first trading day that its biggest shareholder, former President Donald Trump, is free to sell his stake in the company behind the Truth Social platform.
NEW YORK (AP) — A broad group of civil rights organizations called on the CEOs and board members of major companies Thursday to maintain their commitments to diversity, equity and inclusion initiatives that have come under attack online and in lawsuits.
CACONDE, Brazil (AP) — Silvio Almeida's coffee plantation sits at an ideal altitude on a Brazilian hillside, whose clay-rich soil does well at retaining moisture from rainfall and a nearby reservoir.
BEAVERTON, Ore. (AP) — Nike Inc. said Thursday it has named Elliott Hill as its president and CEO, replacing John Donahoe, who will retire next month.
NEW YORK (AP) — All of 23andMe's independent directors resigned from its board this week, a rare move that marks the latest challenge for the genetic-testing company.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is opening a busy stretch Friday tending to international allies anxious about where U.S. foreign policy is headed when he leaves office in four months, most likely leaving behind a difficult set of crises for former President Donald Trump or Vice President Kamala Harris to contend with.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Israel warned U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin in a call Tuesday that a military operation was going to take place in Lebanon but gave no details, U.S. officials said Thursday. The same day of the call, in an attack widely blamed on Israel, thousands of pagers belonging to Hezbollah militants exploded.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 23
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Decades into one of the most consistent careers in contemporary country music, and you'd think Keith Urban has this whole album thing worked out. But his 11th studio album, "High," out Friday, was no walk in the park.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Will Levis has not looked at his social media for the past couple of weeks, and the Tennessee Titans quarterback spent part of Wednesday switching phone numbers to stop fans from deluging his cell with texts sharing their thoughts on his play.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
COLUMBIA, Mo. (AP) — Vanderbilt and Missouri both got wake-up calls last week, albeit much different ones.
NASHVILLE SC
NASHVILLE (AP) — Sam Surridge scored a goal in the 19th minute, Joe Willis had three saves the Nashville SC beat the Chicago Fire 1-0 Wednesday night.
COURTS
ALEXANDRIA, Va. (AP) — The judge who will decide whether Google holds a monopoly over technology that matches buyers and sellers of online advertising must choose whether to believe what Google executives wrote or what they have said on the witness stand.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An Alaska man accused of sending graphic threats to injure and kill six Supreme Court justices and some of their family members has been indicted on federal charges, authorities said Thursday.
TOKYO (AP) — The six-year-old criminal case of Greg Kelly, an American ensnared in the scandal of Nissan's former boss Carlos Ghosn, turned a page in a Japanese court Thursday, with his lawyer demanding "justice" with a verdict of total innocence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the summer of 1941, James F. Byrnes became a Supreme Court justice. Little over a year later, he had had enough and left the court to take a key role in planning the nation's wartime economy.
WEST TENNESSEE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Two emergency medical technicians just stood around for minutes, providing no medical aid to a seriously injured Tyre Nichols who was slumped on the ground after being kicked and punched by five Memphis police officers, according to video shown Thursday at the trial of three of the officers charged in the fatal beating.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A former Memphis police officer charged in the fatal beating of Tyre Nichols sent his ex-girlfriend a photo of the badly injured man on the night he was punched, kicked and hit with a police baton following a traffic stop, according to trial testimony Wednesday.
ELECTION 2024
ATLANTA (AP) — Four years ago, Georgia was at the center of former President Donald Trump 's attempts to overturn his loss to Democrat Joe Biden. Democrats worry that Trump is at it again, even before the first votes have been cast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the FBI said this week that Iran had tried to provide Democrats with material stolen from Donald Trump's campaign, it was only the latest allegation of foreign interference with the U.S. election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the most contested races for control of the U.S. House, many Republican candidates are speaking up about women's rights to abortion access and reproductive care in new and surprising ways, a deliberate shift for a GOP blindsided by some political ramifications of the post-Roe v. Wade era.
FLINT, Mich. (AP) — The FBI is investigating suspicious packages sent to elections officials in more than a dozen states. State police have begun sweeps of schools in an Ohio community where conspiracy theories have fueled bomb threats. Violent rhetoric is rippling across social media.
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — Leaders of a Democratic protest vote movement against the Israel-Hamas war said Thursday that they would not endorse Vice President Kamala Harris ' presidential bid but strongly urged their supporters to vote against Donald Trump in November.
PHOENIX (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris is stepping up her efforts to win over voters who belong to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, enlisting prominent members of the faith to make the case in pivotal Arizona that Donald Trump does not align with the church's values.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, Lillian Dunsmuir of Bullhead City, Arizona, "didn't really think about" Kamala Harris and had no opinion of the vice president. But now she likes what she's seeing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When the Rev. Lee Scott publicly endorsed Kamala Harris for president during the Evangelicals for Harris Zoom call on Aug. 14, the Presbyterian pastor and farmer said he was taking a risk.
HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Democrats are stepping up their outreach to Polish Americans in this year's presidential election as Kamala Harris and Donald Trump vie for support from a community that could play a decisive role in razor-thin battleground state contests.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Both major presidential candidates are making appearances Thursday meant to fire up their core supporters, with Vice President Kamala Harris participating in a livestream with Oprah Winfrey and Donald Trump attending an event with prominent Jewish donors before addressing a gathering of the Israeli-American Council.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Former President Donald Trump, following an apparent assassination attempt on him on Sunday, claimed that overheated rhetoric from Democrats was responsible for him being under threat.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Journalists at a news site that covers the Haitian community in the United States say they've been harassed and intimidated with racist messages for covering a fake story about immigrants eating the pets of people in an Ohio town.
RIO DE JANEIRO (AP) — Some Brazilian users regained access to X on Wednesday despite a nationwide ban put in place by the country's Supreme Court, a reunion apparently resulting from the social network changing the way its servers are accessed.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple is accelerating the rollout of a software update that will implant artificial intelligence into its virtual assistant Siri and automate a variety of tedious tasks to coincide with the release of its latest iPhone.
The small plastic box that beeped and flashed numbers was a lifeline to Laurie Dove in 1993. Pregnant with her first baby in a house beyond any town in rural Kansas, Dove used the little black device to keep in touch with her husband as he delivered medical supplies. He carried one too. They had a code.
LONDON (AP) — The European Union said Thursday it will outline steps to compel Apple to open up its iPhone and iPad operating systems to competing technologies under the bloc's tough new digital rulebook, which threatens hefty fines for breaches.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Hackers are demanding $6 million in bitcoin from the operator of the Seattle-Tacoma International Airport for documents they stole during a cyberattack last month and posted on the dark web this week, an airport official said Wednesday.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden said Thursday the Federal Reserve's decision to lower interest rates was "an important signal" that inflation has eased as he poked at Donald Trump's economic policies as a failure in the past and sure to "fail again" if revived.
The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits fell to their lowest level in four months last week.
LONDON (AP) — The Bank of England kept its main interest rate unchanged at 5% Thursday despite a big cut from the U.S. Federal Reserve, its first since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic more than four years ago.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sales of previously occupied U.S. homes fell in August to the slowest annual pace in nearly a year even as mortgage rates eased and the supply of properties on the market continued to rise.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street romped to records Thursday as a delayed jubilation swept markets worldwide following the Federal Reserve's big cut to interest rates.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
BOSTON (AP) — Members of a U.S. Senate committee looking into the bankruptcy of Steward Health Care adopted two resolutions Thursday designed to hold CEO Ralph de la Torre in contempt — one for civil enforcement and another for criminal contempt — for not testifying before the panel.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy will travel to Washington next Thursday for talks with President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris as he presses for the U.S. to allow Ukraine to use Western-provided weapons to strike deeper into Russia.