VOL. 36 | NO. 36 | Friday, September 7, 2012
Twenty-first century rat racers are looking for ways to stay fit without complications.
REALTY CHECK
In the recent past, the success of Nashville’s real estate market has mirrored the success of Vanderbilt football. In 2007, while real estate markets were crashing all over the country, Vanderbilt won a respectable three of its first four games, and the local market held its own. The team faded over the last eight games, and the market followed suit as it showed losses for the first time in 13 years.
TERRY McCORMICK
Darius Reynaud admits he watched NFL games last year with a little bit of envy. Released in final cuts by the New York Giants in September 2011, Reynaud had fallen completely off the NFL radar. Or so he thought.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Your favorite customer is playing with fire. He’s forgotten some important paperwork and, since he considers you a friend, he’s asked you to cover for him. Sign here, back-date, no problems.
NEWSMAKERS
Lattimore Black Morgan & Cain, PC, Tennessee’s largest regional accounting and business consulting firm, has named John A. Litchfield, Jr. as its COO.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
It’s not often that a company with essentially no revenue sells for nearly a billion dollars, but that’s just what happened when Facebook wrote the largest check for a social media network ever this year. So what inspired the Facebook founder’s record-breaking purchase of Instagram?
THE WORLDLY INVESTOR
The 2012 presidential election has two widely contrasting visions, larger than life personalities, and plenty of high praise and low blows. Over the next three months, the contest for the Oval Office will dominate American discourse. However, while the big game for the country may be the presidential race, the big game for the markets will likely be the Senate race.
SMART STUFF 4 WORK
Declarations can change the way we see, hear, interpret and respond to the events in our lives. Words, in the form of declarations, have been used throughout history to change the course taken by entire groups of people.
I SWEAR
This week I continue on the theme of quotable cases straight from “the record,” meaning stuff filed and/or said in courts around the world:
KAY'S COOKING CORNER
We are in the heat of the summer – one of the hottest on record for our little town – so other than ice cream and watermelon, here are a few recipes to keep you and the kitchen from heating up.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gillian Welch and her partner Dave Rawlings, The Civil Wars and Alabama Shakes took home trophies, but Music City was the big winner at Wednesday night's Americana Honors & Awards.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - An Arizona-based charter school company says it won't try to place schools in Tennessee until the state creates a more impartial charter school approval process.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve unleashed a series of bold and open-ended steps Thursday to stimulate the economy by making it cheaper for consumers and businesses to borrow and spend.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Chairman Ben Bernanke says the Federal Reserve does not have a specific economic target for its new stimulus program and will keep buying bonds until it sees more jobs, lower unemployment and stronger growth.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The average rate on the 30-year fixed mortgage held steady this week, staying slightly above the lowest level on record. Low mortgage rates have aided a modest housing recovery.
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market staged a huge rally Thursday after investors finally got the aggressive economic help they wanted from the Federal Reserve. The Dow Jones industrial average spiked almost 240 points.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil rose after the U.S. Federal Reserve announced steps to boost a U.S. economy it says is too weak to reduce high unemployment.
NEW YORK (AP) — New York City's Board of Health opened up a new, experimental front in the war on obesity Thursday, passing a rule banning sales of big sodas and other sugary drinks at restaurants, concession stands and other eateries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits jumped to the highest level in two months, although the figures were skewed in part by Hurricane Isaac.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharp rise in gasoline costs drove up wholesale prices last month by the most in more than three years. But outside energy and food, price gains were mild.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The evolution of the U.S. foreclosure crisis is increasingly diverging along state lines.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A customer in Shenzhen, China, took a new laptop out of its box and booted it up for the first time. But as the screen lit up, the computer began taking on a life of its own. The machine, triggered by a virus hidden in its hard drive, began searching across the Internet for another computer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A woman who paid $7 for a box of trinkets at a West Virginia flea market two years ago apparently acquired an original painting by French impressionist Pierre-Auguste Renoir without knowing it.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — As its last major act before leaving Washington for the fall campaign, the House is voting to put the government on autopilot for six months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The gunfire at the U.S. Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, had barely ceased when Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney seriously mischaracterized what had happened in a statement accusing President Barack Obama of "disgraceful" handling of violence there and at the U.S. Embassy in Cairo.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Metro Nashville Board of Education has — for a third time — denied the application for a charter school.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The office of Nashville District Attorney General Torry Johnson was evacuated Tuesday after a suspicious package arrived.
AUTO INDUSTRY
HONG KONG (AP) — Nissan President Carlos Ghosn met Wednesday with Hong Kong's leader to pitch a proposal for the Japanese car maker to supply electric taxis to the southern Chinese city.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple on Wednesday revealed that the new iPhone 5 will be in stores in the U.S. and several other countries on Sept. 21.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are finishing with slight gains after Germany's high court cleared the way for the country to participate in a European rescue fund. Attention shifted to the Federal Reserve, which began a big two-day meeting.
The price of oil is falling after the government said U.S. supplies of oil rose last week.
NEW YORK (AP) — After wrapping up a decent back-to-school shopping season, merchants are expected to see healthy sales gains for the critical winter holidays, though the pace should be slightly below last year, according to one of the first forecasts issued for the holiday sales season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The ranks of America's poor remain stuck at a record 15 percent, the Census Bureau reported Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesalers increased their stockpiles in July from June, but sales fell for a third straight month. Declining sales could force companies to cut inventories in coming months, a troubling sign that economic growth could weaken.
WASHINGTON (AP) — If the world's investors are right, the Federal Reserve is about to take a bold new step to try to invigorate the U.S. economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new federal agency charged with enforcing consumer finance laws is emerging as an ambitious sheriff, taking on companies for deceptive fees and marketing and unmoved by protests that its tactics go too far.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As it announced its first big enforcement action against Capital One Financial this summer, the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau was preparing to raid a California company that had offered to help lower at-risk homeowners' monthly payments.
NEW YORK (AP) — Expedia is starting a rewards program for small business travelers who carry Chase credit cards.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is warning East Tennessee residents of scammers who may pretend to be IRS employees conducting a telephone survey.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Bill Hagerty is stepping away from his role as commissioner of the Economic and Community Development Department to work for Republican Mitt Romney's presidential campaign.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Health Department and the Department of Environment and Conservation are encouraging Tennesseans to observe Protect Your Groundwater Day on Tuesday.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted fewer jobs in July than in June, further evidence that hiring may stay weak in the coming months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Small business owners are getting a little more optimistic about how their companies will do after the election, according to a survey released Tuesday.
NEW YORK (AP) — Investors spent Tuesday preparing for two events sure to move markets this week: a Federal Reserve meeting and a court decision on whether Germany can help support its struggling neighbors. And if the stock market's gains Tuesday are any sign, they expect both events to turn out well.
The price of gasoline is seeing the biggest gain in two weeks Tuesday. But relief should be in sight by the time autumn arrives.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It sounds like good news: Annual premiums for job-based family health plans went up only 4 percent this year.
NEW YORK (AP) — GoDaddy.com says a Web hosting outage that involved thousands and possibly millions of websites on Monday was due to internal problems, not an attack by hackers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Morgan Stanley and Citigroup settled a dispute Tuesday over the value of the brokerage firm Morgan Stanley Smith Barney, which they jointly own.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The National Retail Federation is opposing a proposed $7.25 billion settlement that Visa Inc., MasterCard Inc. and major banks have agreed to pay retailers for alleged fee fixing.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — YouTube is being reprogrammed for the iPhone and iPad amid the latest fallout from the growing hostility between Google and Apple.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit grew slightly in July as exports fell at a slightly faster pace than imports.
NEW YORK (AP) — The number of U.S. homes that don't get traditional television service continues to increase, but that doesn't mean they don't have TVs.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker John Boehner said Tuesday that he's not confident Congress can reach a budget deal and avoid a downgrading of the U.S. debt rating.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government's debt rating could be heading for the "fiscal cliff" along with the federal budget.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Warning to Amtrak from Mitt Romney and Republicans: You're on your own.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) - Former Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist and his wife of 31 years, Karyn, have divorced.
Microsoft released today a list of initial locations across the U.S. and Canada where it plans to launch holiday stores this fall.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Registration is now open for the 59th annual Governor's Conference on Economic and Community Development.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) — Silicon Valley, it turns out, doesn't revolve around the stock prices of Facebook and its playful sidekick, Zynga.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans cut back on their credit card use in July for the second straight month, suggesting many remain cautious in the face of high unemployment and slow growth.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks slipped on Wall Street as troubling economic news from China and the U.S. outweighed optimism about more stimulus from the Federal Reserve.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil finished slightly higher Monday after a push-pull between bad economic news and expectations that central banks will intervene to boost growth.
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon says buyers of its new Kindle Fire HD tablet will get the option to turn off the advertisements that appear on its standby screen for $15.
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook co-founder Dustin Moskovitz has sold 5.7 million shares of the company's stock, a small fraction of his total holdings.
NEW YORK (AP) — The U.S. government is selling more of its shares in insurer American International Group Inc., in a move that should decrease its holdings below a majority stake for the first time since the $182 billion bailout in 2008.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hewlett-Packard Co. is planning to cut about 2,000 more jobs than it had previously announced as CEO Meg Whitman tries to turn the company around.
NEW YORK (AP) — Kodak is reshuffling some executives and continuing to cut jobs as the pioneering photography company tries to emerge from bankruptcy protection.
LONDON (AP) — Oil company BP said Monday it is selling some deep-water assets in the Gulf Mexico to Plains Exploration & Production Co. for $5.55 billion, a big step in the BP's drive to cover the cost of its oil well blowout in the Gulf two years ago and concentrate investment elsewhere.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — When lawmakers return to Washington on Monday, they face big issues, including taxes, spending cuts and the prospect of a debilitating "fiscal cliff" in January. Yet Congress is expected to do what it often does best: punt problems to the future.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) - State Rep. Curry Todd's arraignment on drunken driving and weapons charges has been delayed until next week.
NASHVILLE (AP) - State Rep. Judd Matheny is no longer considering a challenge to fellow Beth Harwell for House speaker next year, the Tullahoma Republican told The Associated Press on Thursday.
NASHVILLE AREA
WASHINGTON (AP) — Assuming it's not a hoax, the purported theft of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's tax returns has all the trappings of a high-tech whodunit: a politically themed burglary, a $1 million demand in hard-to-trace Internet currency, password-protected data and a threat to reveal everything in three more weeks. But can it be believed?
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) - The case of a former Nashville FBI agent convicted of wire and bankruptcy fraud must be reconsidered after allegations of racial discrimination were raised in the dismissal of two prospective black jurors at his trial, a federal appeals court ruled Thursday.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) - The executive committee of the Tennessee Republican Party has rejected challenges to two primary election results.
NATIONAL BUSINESS
CERNOBBIO, Italy (AP) — Experts and leaders gathered in Italy may disagree on the cure, but the malady seems clear: the world economy faces a "perfect storm" of risks that include prolonged crisis in a structurally flawed Europe, political paralysis pushing America off a "fiscal cliff," a slowdown in the emerging economies drying up the last of global growth, and the spectacularly destabilizing prospect of war over Iran's nuclear program.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers added 96,000 jobs in August, a tepid figure that points to the economy's persistent weakness and slowing prospects for the unemployed.
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks on Wall Street are closing slightly higher following news that the U.S. economy added fewer jobs than expected in August.
NEW YORK (AP) — The price of oil finished higher Friday as concerns about a disappointing U.S. employment report gave way to the likelihood of action by the Federal Reserve.
CINCINNATI (AP) — Kroger's fiscal second-quarter net income dipped, pressured by a higher tax rate. But its earnings beat Wall Street's view and the supermarket chain raised its fiscal 2012 earnings outlook.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Amazon unveiled four new Kindle Fire tablet computers on Thursday, including ones with larger color screens, as the online retailer steps up competition with Apple ahead of the holiday shopping season.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average U.S. rates on fixed mortgages changed little this week and remained slightly above record lows reached earlier this year. The low rates have aided a modest housing recovery.
SANTA MONICA, Calif. (AP) — Amazon is updating its Kindle Fire tablet computer as it steps up competition with Apple's iPad and refreshing its whole line of Kindle gadgets.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Barack Obama laid claim to a peace dividend that doesn't exist when he told the nation he wants to use money saved by ending wars to build highways, schools and bridges.