VOL. 42 | NO. 36 | Friday, September 7, 2018
Several institutions in the state, including Chattanooga State Community College, Roane State Community College in Oak Ridge, South College in Knoxville and Volunteer State Community College, offer accredited two-year degrees that train students to be physical therapy assistants, often called a PTA.
Volunteer State Community College in Gallatin is home to one of six nationally accredited diagnostic medical sonography program in Tennessee. Others include Vanderbilt University, South College in Knoxville and Chattanooga State Community College.
Careers that require trained mathematicians and statisticians are on the rise in almost all sectors of the economy. That’s because technological, engineering and business problems are often of such complexity that they require a high level of mathematical treatment.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
With apologies to Robert Zimmerman, “the times they are a-changing.” Unlike Bob Dylan’s 1964 song of rebellion, Capitol Hill isn’t turning into a hotbed of liberals, although someday the first could be last. In fact, it could turn more conservative this fall before things take a different direction.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Fat Ricky – among the street monikers of the preacher who’s devoting the second half of his life to making up for the drug-selling damage he did in the first half – spins the basketball on his left index finger, eyes on the bucket and takes a long step or two across an urban ballcourt, one of his many “pulpits” in West Nashville.
TENNESSEE TITANS
Fans often identify players by their jersey number. And likewise, many players come to identify themselves with the number on their back during their playing career.
The Titans’ first-team offense got only limited work in the preseason, and the unit’s “dress rehearsal” two weeks ago against the Steelers was decidedly lacking. Now that things are for real with the regular season opening, it will be interesting to see just how much Marcus Mariota has soaked in the new scheme and what Matt LaFleur has up his sleeve.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
There was a time in the not so distant past when homebuyers venturing into the neighborhood to the east of 21st Avenue South were considered courageous, or perhaps insane.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates ticked up this week for the second straight week, remaining substantially higher than a year ago amid strength in the economy.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville Film Festival board has announced its executive committee for the festival’s 50th anniversary year.
BRIEFS
HCA Healthcare has announced it will acquire Mission Health for approximately $1.5 billion.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
As the summer season winds down, the car-business clearance season ramps up. Both car dealers and carmakers are offering deals to sell off the 2018 models and make room for the 2019s. This time period will feature some of the best prices of the year to date.
CAREER CORNER
If you’re looking for a new job and if you’re actively interviewing, I want to encourage you to hang in there. It’s going to work out. I’m sure of it.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Folk singer-songwriter John Prine won artist of the year for the second time in a row at the Americana Music Honors and Awards on Wednesday, while Jason Isbell took home three awards, including album of the year.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Soul songstress Aretha Franklin is headlining a diverse and influential class of performers and music industry personalities who are being inducted into the Memphis Music Hall of Fame.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Titans quarterback Marcus Mariota practiced fully Wednesday after being knocked out of Tennessee's season opener when he hurt the elbow on his right, throwing arm.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Predators forward Austin Watson has been suspended without pay for the entire preseason and first 27 games of the regular season for domestic abuse.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee prosecutor says it could take about two weeks to a month more to decide whether to charge a white officer who fatally shot a 25-year-old black man in July.
REGION
MYRTLE BEACH, S.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence put a corridor of more than 10 million people in the crosshairs Wednesday as the monster storm closed in on the Carolinas, uncertainty over its projected path spreading worry across a widening swath of the Southeast.
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.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors is recalling more than a million big pickup trucks and SUVs in the U.S. because of power-assisted steering problems that have been cited in a number of accidents.
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla apparently is having trouble informing customers about deliveries of the Model 3 mass-market electric car.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks are climbing Thursday morning after the Labor Department said inflation slowed a bit in August. Technology companies like Apple and Microsoft made some of the largest gains after a recent bout of uncertainty, and chipmaker Qualcomm jumped after it announced a big stock repurchase.
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.
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.
BEIJING (AP) — Washington has invited Beijing to hold new talks on their escalating tariff dispute, the Chinese foreign ministry said Thursday, ahead of a decision by President Donald Trump on whether to raise duties on $200 billion of Chinese imports.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Central Bank confirmed Thursday it is halving the size of its monthly bond-buying stimulus program as it scales back its post-crisis emergency efforts before stopping them at the end of the year.
NATIONAL POLITICS
MOSCOW (AP) — U.S. Energy Secretary Rick Perry has restated the United States' opposition to a new Russia-Germany gas pipeline during talks in Moscow.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As a potentially catastrophic hurricane heads for the Carolinas, Congress is moving to avert a legislative disaster that could lead to a partial government shutdown just weeks before the November midterm elections.
WASHINGTON (AP) — George Papadopoulos, the former Trump campaign adviser who triggered the Russia investigation, is willing to testify before the Senate intelligence committee, Thomas Breen, his lawyer, said Wednesday.
WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
ELECTION 2018
LEBANON (AP) — Democratic U.S. Senate candidate Phil Bredesen says he's "embarrassed by the circus" in the confirmation hearings for President Donald Trump's Supreme Court nominee — and he's pointing at both Democrats and Republicans.
REGION
WILMINGTON, N.C. (AP) — People who thought they were relatively safe from the onslaught of Hurricane Florence began boarding up and Georgia's governor declared a state of emergency Wednesday as uncertainty over the path of the monster storm spread worry along the Southeastern coast.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Jason Isbell may be the leading nominee for this year's Americana Music Association's Honors and Awards show Wednesday night, but he faces a strong challenge from multiple female nominees aiming to add more diversity to the genre.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country singer and songwriter Luke Bryan has hosted a free street concert to mark the opening of his new Tennessee restaurant that drew nearly 30,000 people to downtown Nashville.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Relatives of Confederate general Nathan Bedford Forrest are demanding $30 million from the city of Memphis, Tennessee, and a nonprofit to move his remains from a park and settle a lawsuit over the takedown of a statue of the former Ku Klux Klan leader.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tyler Adams showed he might be able to help when the rebuilding U.S. soccer team resumes competitive matches next June. So did Antonee Robinson and goalkeeper Zack Steffen.
TECHNOLOGY
BRUSSELS (AP) — European authorities are planning to slap internet companies like Google, Twitter and Facebook with big fines if they don't take down extremist content within one hour.
CUPERTINO, Calif. (AP) — Apple unveiled three new iPhones on Wednesday, including its biggest and most expensive model yet, as the company seeks to widen the product's appeal amid slowing sales.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks wobbled between gains and losses then finished with a split decision Wednesday as technology companies dropped. That canceled out gains for energy companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve reported Wednesday that its latest survey of business conditions nationwide found rising concerns over the impact Trump administration trade policies could have on the economy.
The United States may have reclaimed the title of the world's biggest oil producer sooner than expected.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The income of a median U.S. household rose for a third straight year in 2017 as solid economic growth helped put more people into full-time jobs. But income inequality also worsened as the wealthiest Americans enjoyed even larger pay increases.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell unexpectedly last month for the first time since February 2017, pulled down by falling prices for transportation and warehousing services. The drop suggests that inflationary pressures may be easing despite the strength of the U.S. economy.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union wants to shake up the way internet companies handle media, e-books, digital music, news articles and other content posted online by better protecting the rights of the authors and creators.
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — A top Chinese official and leaders of several Southeast Asian countries said Wednesday that moves by the U.S. to limit trade and protect American businesses pose a grave threat to the world economy.
NATIONAL POLITICS
Woodward's account of a dysfunctional Trump White House has already sold more than 750,000 copies, Simon & Schuster announced Wednesday, the day after the book arrived in stores.
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — A new state report shows special interest spending in last year's election spiked by 34 percent, or nearly $19 million, more than in the previous gubernatorial election year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump signed an executive order Wednesday authorizing sanctions against foreigners who meddle in U.S. elections, a move that counters critics who claim he has not taking election security seriously enough.
NEW YORK (AP) — The nation's most powerful banker, JPMorgan Chase's Chief Executive Jamie Dimon, caused a stir Wednesday when he said he would be able to beat President Donald Trump in an election.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the government is ready for massive Hurricane Florence and insisted that his administration's response to the devastation in Puerto Rico last year was an "underappreciated great job."
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — David Williams II, the first African-American athletic director in the Southeastern Conference, is retiring from his role overseeing Vanderbilt athletics and as vice chancellor.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — CMT is changing their Artists of the Year show to honor only women, including Carrie Underwood, Miranda Lambert, Kelsea Ballerini, Maren Morris, Karen Fairchild and Kimberly Schlapman of Little Big Town and Hillary Scott of Lady Antebellum.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have added offensive lineman David Quessenberry to their practice squad.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have lost their three-time Pro Bowl tight end at least for a big chunk of the season.
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two rivals in Tennessee's open U.S. Senate race are touting plans to curb the $21 trillion-plus national debt, with Democrat Phil Bredesen saying his idea could balance the budget within six years.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Democratic nominee for governor Karl Dean is running a TV ad that touts his support for expanding Medicaid, drawing a contrast with Republican nominee and expansion opponent Bill Lee.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is moving to roll back Obama-era rules intended to reduce leaks of climate-changing methane from oil and gas facilities.
REGION
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Hurricane Florence churned Tuesday toward the Eastern Seaboard as a storm of "staggering" size, forcing a million people to evacuate the coast. Many more were left to wonder where they might be safe if days of torrential rains unleash floods from the mountains to the sea.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona's new senator says he'd vote to repeal the nation's health care law. That's one additional Republican ready to obliterate the statute because his predecessor, the late Sen. John McCain, helped derail the party's drive with his fabled thumbs-down vote last year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Federal officials have announced $643,300 for six projects aimed at opioid prevention, treatment and recovery.
AUTO INDUSTRY
COPENHAGEN, Denmark (AP) — The CEO of Swedish automaker Volvo Cars, owned by China's Geely holding company, says "the timing right now is not optimal" for an initial public offering, citing "an escalating trade war, tariffs and market volatility."
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Apple is expected to unveil its biggest and most expensive iPhone on Wednesday as part of a lineup of three new models aimed at widening the product's appeal amid slowing sales growth.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday as technology companies continued to recover from their recent losses.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers advertised the most jobs on record in July, and the number of workers quitting their jobs also hit a new all-time high.
NEW YORK (AP) — Watch out for the 7-foot box on the doorstep. Amazon plans to sell and ship fresh, full-size Christmas trees this year.
BEIJING (AP) — An official of a U.S. business group says Chinese regulators are putting off accepting license applications from American companies in financial services and other industries until the two countries resolve a worsening tariff dispute.
NATIONAL POLITICS
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is referencing hurricanes to describe the "challenging election" that Senate Republicans are facing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Experts say violent extremism has grown since the Sept. 11 attacks and poses a greater global threat today than it did 17 years ago. And that's despite costly U.S. military action overseas.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump vented over White House leaks Monday as a new tell-all book commands attention, an anonymous writer detailing "resistance" in the administration remains at large and a former staffer reveals more private recordings of the commander in chief.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pitched a wildly off-base claim about economic growth Monday as the White House used selective statistics to build a case that the economy is doing much better than when Barack Obama was in office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — America's long-running reluctant relationship with the International Criminal Court came to a crashing halt as decades of U.S. suspicions about the tribunal and its global jurisdiction spilled into open hostility, amid threats of sanctions if it investigates U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10
ELECTION 2018
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vice President Mike Pence will headline another Tennessee fundraiser for Republican U.S. Rep. Marsha Blackburn in her Senate bid.
HEALTH CARE
HCA Healthcare CEO R. Milton Johnson will retire at the end of the year and be replaced by veteran executive Sam Hazen, the hospital chain's president and chief operating officer.
Brentwood-based Quorum Health Corporation's board of directors has appointed Jon H. Kaplan and William Paul Rutledge as independent, non-employee directors. In addition, the Company announced that Robert H. Fish, the Company’s president and CEO, has been appointed to the board.
TENNESSEE TITANS
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Jakeem Grant won the longest game with the longest play.
MIAMI GARDENS, Fla. (AP) — Around 10,000 spectators remained at the finish of the Miami Dolphins' marathon win over Tennessee, and they were hardly fair weather fans.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Trial proceedings have begun in the lawsuit brought against Volkswagen by investors alleging the company did not give them timely notice of its scandal over cars rigged to cheat on diesel emissions tests.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ford won't be moving production of a hatchback wagon to the United States from China — despite President Donald Trump's claim Sunday that his taxes on Chinese imports mean the Focus Active can be built in America.
ENVIRONMENT
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — California has set a goal of phasing out electricity produced by fossil fuels by 2045 under legislation signed Monday by Gov. Jerry Brown.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks broke a four-day losing streak Monday as industrial companies and retailers rose. Technology companies recovered some of their steep losses from last week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans increased their borrowing in July at nearly double the pace of the previous month, evidence that confident consumers are willing to take on more debt to support their spending.
BRUSSELS (AP) — U.S. trade officials say they hope to reach an agreement with the European Union on lifting some technical barriers to trade between the two powers by November.
BEIJING (AP) — China on Monday promised retaliation if U.S. President Donald Trump escalates their tariff battle, raising the risk Beijing might target operations of American companies as it runs out of imports for penalties.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sizing up a future of a network without its kingmaker, Wall Street sent shares of CBS down sharply Monday, the first day of trading since the departure of Les Moonves.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is pledging to use "any means necessary" to protect American citizens and allies from International Criminal Court prosecution.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration ordered the closure of the Palestinian diplomatic mission in Washington on Monday, citing the refusal of Palestinian leaders to enter into peace talks with Israel. The Palestinians accused the administration of dismantling decades of U.S. engagement with them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Eager to dismiss his critics, President Donald Trump is fabricating the circumstances regarding jobs, the economy and the social safety net.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats don't have the votes to block Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh. But that didn't stop them from putting up a rowdy, leave-nothing-on-the-table fight during four days of Senate confirmation hearings that marked a new stage in the party's resistance to President Donald Trump.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
ELECTION 2018
MEMPHIS (AP) — U.S. Sen. Cory Booker is headlining a Democratic rally in Tennessee this weekend.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee basketball coach Rick Barnes has received a three-year contract extension and raise that will earn him $21 million over the next six years.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people covered under the Affordable Care Act will see only modest premium increases next year, and some will get price cuts. That's the conclusion from an exclusive analysis of the besieged but resilient program, which still sparks deep divisions heading into this year's midterm elections.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's largest health insurer will stop covering OxyContin prescriptions as part of several measures to combat opioid addiction.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LONDON (AP) — The European Union has approved Apple's acquisition of song-recognition app Shazam after a months-long investigation found it wouldn't hurt competition in the music streaming market.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A doctor says in a lawsuit challenging Tennessee's three-drug lethal injection protocol that a man executed last month experienced "torturous effects."
WASHINGTON (AP) — A computer programmer accused of working at the behest of the North Korean government was charged Thursday in connection with several high-profile cyberattacks, including the Sony Pictures Entertainment hack and the WannaCry ransomware virus that affected hundreds of thousands of computers worldwide.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter's permanent ban of conspiracy-monger Alex Jones on Thursday again underscored the difficulty many social-media services face in trying to consistently apply their rules against harassment and other bad behavior.
BOSTON (AP) — An expert panel of the National Academy of Sciences called for fundamental reforms to ensure the integrity of the U.S. election system, which is handicapped by antiquated technology and under stress from foreign destabilization efforts.
NEW YORK (AP) — Twitter permanently banned right-wing conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and his Infowars show for abusive behavior — a day after CEO Jack Dorsey testified before Congress about alleged "conservative bias" on the platform.
AUTO INDUSTRY
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday he does not want to hurt Canada's economy but also warned that if he imposes taxes on cars it would be "devastating" for the neighboring country.
Another executive departure, another controversy over the CEO's behavior, another stock drop.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tesla's chief accounting officer, Dave Morton, is resigning after a month on the job because of the public attention and fast pace the post entails.
DETROIT (AP) — Under pressure from U.S. safety regulators, Ford is recalling about 2 million F-150 pickup trucks in North America because the seat belts can spark and cause fires.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes fell Friday after President Donald Trump said he may intensify his trade battle with China. A strong jobs report also pushed investors to gird for higher interest rates.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. economy is showing consistent strength even after nearly a decade of growth, with Friday's jobs report for August signaling that employers remain optimistic enough to hire freely and are finally paying more generously.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he's prepared to impose tariffs on an additional $267 billion in Chinese imports. Such a step would significantly escalate his trade war with Beijing and would likely increase costs for a broad range of U.S. businesses and consumers.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Wall Street Journal is reporting that Verizon's media and advertising chief, Tim Armstrong, is in talks to leave.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pace of hiring in the United States quickened in August, and wages grew at their fastest pace in nine years — evidence that employers remain confident despite the Trump administration's ongoing conflicts with its trading partners.
ORLANDO, Fla. (AP) — Thousands of Walt Disney World workers on Thursday overwhelmingly approved a new contract that increases the starting minimum wage to $15 an hour over the next three years while enabling Disney to use more part-time workers and require new workers to stay in their positions longer before transferring.
NEW YORK (AP) — Small business hiring fell by more than half in August, the likely result of a shrinking labor pool.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Wall Street Journal is reporting that CBS chief Les Moonves is negotiating with independent directors of CBS' board for a possible exit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. services companies grew at a faster pace in August as business activity and new orders rebounded.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. businesses added 163,000 jobs in August, a private survey found, a decent gain that suggests that employers are confident enough to keep hiring.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Labor Department on Thursday affirmed last month's report that U.S. productivity increased at an annual rate of 2.9 percent in the second quarter.
LONDON (AP) — British luxury fashion brand Burberry said Thursday it will stop using real fur in its products and also stop destroying products that it cannot sell.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — After two marathon days questioning Brett Kavanaugh, senators concluded his Supreme Court confirmation hearing Friday by hearing from friends, foes and legal experts making their cases for and against the judge who is likely to push the high court further to the right.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Meeting on the campus of Jackson State University on a recent Friday afternoon, dozens of black women came together to strategize about the upcoming midterm elections, opening the gathering with a freedom song.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats worked into the night in a last, ferocious attempt to paint Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh as a foe of abortion rights and a likely defender of President Donald Trump. But after two marathon days in the witness chair in a Senate hearing room, Kavanaugh appeared to be on a path to confirmation as a Supreme Court justice.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A newly disclosed email shows Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh has questioned whether the 1973 Roe v. Wade case on abortion access is settled law. The email was obtained by The Associated Press as senators were launching a final round of questioning Thursday of President Donald Trump's nominee.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it plans to circumvent a longstanding court agreement that governs how children are treated in immigration custody, in part to detain families longer as a way to deter migrants from crossing the Southwestern border illegally.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One after another, President Donald Trump's top lieutenants stepped forward to declare, "Not me."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democratic Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey says he's going to make public an email from Supreme Court nominee Brett Kavanaugh, even if it puts him at risk of being expelled from the Senate.