VOL. 47 | NO. 37 | Friday, September 8, 2023
Nashville’s next mayor faces significant challenges, opportunities
The year-long battle royal that’s been the Metro Nashville-Davidson County mayoral election cycle has come down to its final participants – two-term Metro Council member Freddie O’Connell, and business and political strategist Alice Rolli.
Four Metro Council at-large seats remain up for grabs after the general election, with only current at-large member Zulfat Suara surpassing the 10% threshold (40,575 votes) on Aug. 3. Eight candidates will vie for the four seats, with varying levels of public service experience, but for the most part similar priorities for Nashville’s near-term future.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
“Believe people when they tell you who they are,” the poet Maya Angelou advised. Smart woman, she was.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Interest rates are the talk of the real estate town, and few have experienced more rate fluctuation than award-winning Steadfast Mortgage Company senior mortgage loan advisor Connie Eddy, who has been loaning money to buyers for 25 years.
REAL ESTATE
Top Davidson County residential real estate sales for August 2023, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
Top Davidson County commercial real estate sales for August 2023, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — U.S. home loan applications are the lowest in decades as evidence mount that rising mortgage rates and home prices are shutting out many aspiring homeowners.
STOCK MARKETS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street churned to a mixed finish on Wednesday after a highly anticipated report showed inflation accelerated across the country last month, but not by much more than expected.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Social Security benefits were once tax-free. That changed in 1983, when Congress decided to tax a portion of benefits for the highest-income recipients.
BRIEFS
Tennessee’s Opioid Abatement Council (OAC) is opening its community grant application portal to receive proposals for its first round of funding. The portal will be open for groups to submit proposals through October 9.
NEWSMAKERS
Castlerock Asset Management, an integrated real estate development, ownership, marketing, hospitality management and asset management firm specializing in distinctive hospitality-driven properties, has appointed three industry experts to assume pivotal roles. The new executive leaders will report directly to founder and CEO Seamus Ross.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The Tennessee Titans had the New Orleans Saints fooled with a flea flicker that looked flawlessly executed -- right up until Ryan Tannehill released his pass.
You’ve undoubtedly heard the old saying, “If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.”
As the Titans broke camp with 11 rookies on their 53-man roster, it was especially exciting for two members of the group.
The regular season is finally here, and the Titans open the 2023 campaign on the road at the Superdome in New Orleans against a revamped Saints team that they might be catching at the right time with Derek Carr in his first game at quarterback and Alvin Kamara out due to suspension. Let’s look at the keys for the Titans:
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Pricing for new electric vehicles can be daunting for many shoppers. But more and more EVs are becoming available on the used vehicle market, and that’s creating greater opportunities for buying a lower-priced used EV. There’s also a further incentive to purchase a used EV that costs less than $25,000 thanks to an available federal tax credit of up to $4,000.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
LANSING, Mich. (AP) — The prospect of an auto workers strike could test Joe Biden's treasured assertion that he's the most pro-union president in U.S. history.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has been talking for months about accomplishing a potentially impossible task: passing bipartisan legislation within the next year that encourages the rapid development of artificial intelligence and mitigates its biggest risks. On Wednesday, he's convening a meeting of some of the country's most prominent technology executives, among others, to ask them how Congress should do it.
ECONOMY
WASHINGTON (AP) — A sharp increase in gas prices likely pushed inflation higher in August compared with a year ago, yet a measure excluding energy and food costs is expected to fall for the fifth straight month, suggesting that the Federal Reserve's interest rate hikes are still bringing down prices for many goods and services.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — More women across the U.S. filed lawsuits on Tuesday challenging abortion restrictions that went into effect in Republican-led states after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
MEMPHIS, Tenn. (AP) — Five former Memphis police officers were charged Tuesday with federal civil rights violations in the beating death of Tyre Nichols as they continue to fight second-degree murder charges in state courts arising from the killing.
TUESDAY, SEPTEMBER 12
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Google will confront a threat to its dominant search engine beginning Tuesday when federal regulators launch an attempt to dismantle its internet empire in the biggest U.S. antitrust trial in a quarter century.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for Donald Trump on Monday asked the federal judge presiding over his election subversion case in Washington to recuse herself, saying her past public statements about the former president and his connection to the Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol call into question whether she can be fair.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Major corporations from oil and gas companies to retail giants would have to disclose their direct greenhouse gas emissions as well as those that come from activities like employee business travel under legislation passed Monday by California lawmakers, the most sweeping mandate of its kind in the nation.
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) — Nearly 1 million California workers are poised to win major salary increases after labor unions flexed their collective muscle in the state's Democratic-led Legislature on Monday following a summer of high-profile strikes in the entertainment and hospitality industries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Immigrant farm workers would receive a raft of new protections under a Biden administration proposal to be announced Tuesday, which would boost safety requirements on farms and raise transparency around how such workers are brought to the U.S., to combat human trafficking.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has cleared the way for the release of five American citizens detained in Iran by issuing a blanket waiver for international banks to transfer $6 billion in frozen Iranian money from South Korea to Qatar without fear of U.S. sanctions. In addition, as part of the deal, the administration has agreed to release five Iranian citizens held in the United States.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple is expected to take the wraps off its next iPhone on Tuesday during what has become an annual late summer rite aimed at giving more people more reasons to buy the technology trendsetter's marquee product.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 11
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. approved updated COVID-19 vaccines Monday, hoping to rev up protection against the latest coronavirus strains and blunt any surge this fall and winter.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Stellantis is reporting progress in talks with the United Auto Workers union with just three days left before contracts expire with Detroit's three automakers.
REMEMBRANCE
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans are looking back on the horror and legacy of 9/11, gathering Monday at memorials, firehouses, city halls and elsewhere to observe the 22nd anniversary of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — President Joe Biden closed a visit to Vietnam on Monday by spotlighting new business deals and partnerships between the two countries and paying respects at a memorial honoring his late friend and colleague Sen. John McCain, who endured a lengthy imprisonment in Hanoi during the Vietnam War.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy is a man who stays in motion — enthusiastically greeting tourists at the Capitol, dashing overseas last week to the G7 summit of industrial world leaders, raising funds back home to elect fellow Republicans to the House majority.
TRANSPORTATION
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Federal inspectors said they found an alarming number of defects in the locomotives and railcars Union Pacific was using at the world's largest railyard in western Nebraska this summer, and the railroad was reluctant to fix the problems.
TECHNOLOGY
HONG KONG (AP) — The former CEO of Alibaba, Daniel Zhang, resigned as head of its cloud computing unit Monday in a surprise move as the Chinese e-commerce empire wraps up a leadership reshuffle.
INTERNATIONAL
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The European Union has lowered its forecast for economic growth this year and next, saying inflation is taking a heavy toll on people's willingness to spend in shops — while higher interest rates are sharply restricting the credit needed for investment and purchases.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India and Saudi Arabia agreed Monday to expand trade and security ties, two days after their leaders and others attending a Group of 20 summit announced a new railways and port corridor deal that will link India, Middle East and Europe.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 8
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is being asked to reverse an appellate ruling that would cut off mail-order access to a drug used in the most common method of abortion in the United States.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Tennessee bartender who carried plastic zip tie handcuffs and a stun gun into the Senate gallery on Jan. 6, 2021, where he was captured in one the most widely shared photos of the U.S. Capitol riot, was sentenced on Friday to nearly five years in prison.
One of the nation's largest grocery chains is the latest company to agree to settle lawsuits over the U.S. opioid crisis.
TECHNOLOGY
Apple has lost around $200 billion in market capitalization over several days as tensions between the U.S. and China rise, with several media outlets reporting this week that the iPhone maker is being singled out by Beijing.
Apple released a significant security update for iPhones and iPads Thursday to patch newly discovered security vulnerabilities in the devices' system software.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House Situation Room — a space of great mystique and even greater secrecy — just got a $50 million facelift.
EMPLOYMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — Online gig work is growing globally, particularly in the developing world, creating an important source of employment for women and young people in poorer countries where jobs are scarce, according to a World Bank report released Thursday.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BEIRUT (AP) — Lebanese judicial authorities have questioned two people at the request of Turkey on suspicion of being involved in the 2019 escape of auto tycoon Carlos Ghosn from Japan to Lebanon via Istanbul, officials said Friday.
TOURISM
KAHULUI, Hawaii (AP) — Richie Olsten has been in Maui's helicopter tour business for a half century, so long he's developed a barometer for the tourism-dependent economy: rental cars parked at the island's airport.
WEATHER
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Hurricane Lee on Friday charged through warm Atlantic waters as the season's first Category 5 storm, threatening to unleash heavy swells across the northeast Caribbean.
INVESTIGATIONS
ATLANTA (AP) — A judge on Friday is expected to release the full report compiled by a special grand jury that helped an investigation by the Georgia prosecutor who ultimately indicted former President Donald Trump and 18 others.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 7
MUSIC INDUSTRY
LOS ANGELES (AP) — It's another landmark year for breakout country superstar Lainey Wilson, who tops the CMA Awards nominations for the second year in a row.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
Wake Forest and Vanderbilt meet Saturday. The Commodores are trying to reach 3-0 for the first time since 2017. The Demon Deacons are looking for a 2-0 start after starting at least 3-0 in each of the previous two seasons. An area to watch will be how quickly Wake Forest quarterback Mitch Griffis gets rid of the ball after holding it too long and taking sacks in the opener. Vanderbilt receiver Will Sheppard has grabbed a pair of touchdown catches in each of the first two games. Wake Forest won last year's matchup at Vanderbilt.
UKRAINE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon announced a new $600 million package of long-term aid to Ukraine on Thursday, providing funding for an array of weapons and other equipment just a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken visited the country and pledged $1 billion in new military and humanitarian aid.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
President Joe Biden will nominate a former Obama administration official to lead the Federal Aviation Administration after his first choice withdrew March after running into opposition from Republican senators.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Concern for U.S. democracy amid deep national polarization has prompted the entities supporting 13 presidential libraries dating back to Herbert Hoover to call for a recommitment to the country's bedrock principles, including the rule of law and respecting a diversity of beliefs.
JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — In an aggressive move that angered Republicans, the Biden administration canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge on Wednesday, overturning sales held in the Trump administration's waning days, and proposed stronger protections against development on vast swaths of the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Top defense officials are accusing Alabama Sen. Tommy Tuberville of jeopardizing America's national security with his hold on roughly 300 military promotions, raising the stakes in a clash over abortion policy that shows no signs of easing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell declared again Wednesday that he plans to finish his term as leader despite freezing up at two news conferences over the summer, brushing off questions about his health as he sought to reassure colleagues he's still up to the job.
TECHNOLOGY
All 50 states, the District of Columbia and Puerto Rico have reached an agreement in principle with Google to settle a lawsuit filed in 2021 over the tech giant's alleged monopolistic control of app distribution for the software that runs most of the world's cellphones.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The head of the United Auto Workers warned Wednesday that the union plans to go on strike against any Detroit automaker that hasn't reached a new agreement by the time contracts expire next week.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — WeWork said Wednesday it will attempt to renegotiate nearly all of its leases and may exit some properties, an announcement coming just weeks after the workspace-sharing company sounded the alarm over its ability to remain in business.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal prosecutors plan to seek a grand jury indictment of President Joe Biden's son Hunter before the end of the month, according to court documents filed Wednesday.