VOL. 45 | NO. 38 | Friday, September 17, 2021
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, July 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term mortgage rates dipped lower this week as economic prospects continued muted amid a wave of new delta variant coronavirus cases. They remained under 3%.
GUEST COLUMNIST
In late April, the city of Memphis abruptly changed course and shut down access to records that show how the city-owned animal shelter treats the dogs and cats in its care.
NEWSMAKERS
YWCA Nashville & Middle Tennessee is recognizing five women and one corporate honoree who have made their mark in Nashville. This group will be officially inducted into the 2021 Academy for Women of Achievement in spring 2022.
BRIEFS
The Nashville Health Care Council board of directors has issued a statement urging every person to get vaccinated against COVID-19, and it invited top executives of health care companies nationwide to sign on to the statement.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
With all the developments in the auto industry you may think your next car will be electric, including a new federal target that would mean half of all new vehicles sold within a decade will have zero emissions. This will be a dramatic – and perhaps unsettling – shift for car shoppers.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Negotiating is an important personal finance skill that can help you earn more and pay less. Whether you’re discussing a job offer, dickering at a car dealership or just trying to work out a budget with your significant other, the ability to bargain effectively can have a huge impact.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
The joy of shouting to your friends over the roar of a crowded bar, the giddiness of seeing the world rushing by below you from the seat of an airplane, the weirdly constricting sensation of wearing pants that aren’t elastic – the summer of 2021 brought back many experiences we had forgone during the past year and a half of the pandemic.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
You thought you’d be back by now. When you left your job last year, they said they’d call you when things opened up, but here we are, 18 months in, and you’re still sitting at home.
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have done enough talking. In rallying for an overtime victory on the road, they may have found the formula to help defend their AFC South title.
SEATTLE (AP) — Derrick Henry and the Tennessee Titans found a way to silence Seattle's notorious noise that hadn't been heard for nearly two years.
RELIGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Rev. Marshall Blalock feels the weight of his new responsibility.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court will hear arguments Dec. 1 in Mississippi's bid to have the landmark Roe v. Wade decision guaranteeing a woman's right to an abortion overturned.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Twitter said Monday it will pay $809.5 million to settle a consolidated class action lawsuit alleging that the company misled investors about how much its user base was growing and how much users interacted with its platform.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal law enforcement officer was arrested carrying a gun at Saturday's rally at the U.S. Capitol billed to support the suspects charged in January's insurrection but will not be prosecuted.
REAL ESTATE
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Even in the hottest U.S. housing market in more than a decade, new home construction has turned into a frustratingly uncertain and costly proposition for many homebuilders.
ENVIRONMENT
BERLIN (AP) — Youth activists are hoping to turn up the heat on governments Friday with the first large-scale international protest against climate change in six months.
BERLIN (AP) — Computer-maker HP, consumer goods business Procter & Gamble and coffee capsule company Nespresso have joined a corporate pledge to sharply cut their greenhouse gas emissions over nearly two decades.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is moving to protect workers and communities from extreme heat after a dangerously hot summer that spurred an onslaught of drought-worsened wildfires and caused hundreds of deaths from the Pacific Northwest to hurricane-ravaged Louisiana.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dental work for seniors on Medicare. An end to sky's-the-limit pricing on prescription drugs. New options for long-term care at home. Coverage for low-income people locked out of Medicaid by ideological battles.
AUTO INDUSTRY
General Motors said Monday that production has resumed for battery modules used in recalled Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicles, and customers could start getting replacement parts by mid-October.
SILVER SPRING, Md. (AP) — The U.S. government's highway safety regulator has opened an investigation into a potential problem that surfaced last year with 56 million Takata airbags but that the agency eventually deemed safe based on industry research.
MEDIA
Li Zhanguo's two children, ages 4 and 8, don't have their own smartphones, but like millions of other Chinese children, they are no strangers to online gaming.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. said Monday it will ease airline restrictions this fall on travel to the country for people who have vaccination proof and a negative COVID-19 test, replacing a hodgepodge of rules that had kept out many non-citizens and irritated allies in Europe and beyond where virus cases are far lower.
Pfizer said Monday its COVID-19 vaccine works for children ages 5 to 11 and that it will seek U.S. authorization for this age group soon -- a key step toward beginning vaccinations for youngsters.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is expected this week to send its clearest signal yet that it will start reining in its ultra-low-interest rate policies later this year, a first step toward unwinding the extraordinary support it's given the economy since the pandemic struck 18 months ago.
GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.'s intellectual property agency said Monday that innovation marched forward last year despite the impact of the coronavirus outbreak. Technology, pharmaceuticals and biotech industries boosted their investments, even as hard-hit sectors like transport and travel eased back on spending.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress must fund the government in the next 10 days, or risk a federal shutdown.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden goes before the United Nations this week eager to make the case for the world to act with haste against the coronavirus, climate change and human rights abuses. His pitch for greater global partnership comes at a moment when allies are becoming increasingly skeptical about how much U.S. foreign policy really has changed since Donald Trump left the White House.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats can't use their $3.5 trillion package bolstering social and climate programs for their plan to give millions of immigrants a chance to become citizens, the Senate's parliamentarian said, a crushing blow to what was the party's clearest pathway in years to attaining that long-sought goal.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 17
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Titans left tackle Taylor Lewan says he didn't deal well with his first game back after the first injury of his career, getting so amped up the three-time Pro Bowler was drained by kickoff.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee education officials have selected five school districts to receive $300,000 grants under an early literacy program.
COURTS
SEATTLE (AP) — A Pakistan resident has been sentenced to 12 years in prison for a conspiracy to "unlock" phones from AT&T's network, a scheme the company says cost it more than $200 million.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A federal judge has indefinitely blocked Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee from allowing parents to opt out of school mask requirements in Shelby County, saying Friday that evidence shows Lee's order prevents children with health problems from safely going to school during the coronavirus pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is reviewing its policies on housing transgender inmates in the federal prison system after protections for transgender prisoners were rolled back in the Trump administration, The Associated Press has learned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge ruled Thursday that the U.S. government must stop using a Trump-era public health order to quickly expel migrants with children who are apprehended along the U.S.-Mexico border.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) — Ford Motor Co. plans to spend $250 million and add 450 jobs at three Michigan plants to meet demand for the new F-150 Lightning.
ENVIRONMENT
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — The Tennessee Valley Authority is giving up its construction permit for an unfinished nuclear plant in northeast Alabama nearly 50 years after work began on the facility.
Washington (AP) — President Joe Biden tried to hammer out the world's next steps against rapidly worsening climate change in a private, virtual session with a small group of other global leaders Friday, and announced a new U.S.-European pledge to cut climate-wrecking methane leaks.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration's embattled plan to dispense COVID-19 booster shots to most Americans faced its first major hurdle Friday as a government advisory panel met to decide whether to endorse extra doses of the Pfizer vaccine.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden entered the White House promising to stop the twin health and economic crises caused by COVID-19, but $1.9 trillion and countless initiatives later he's confronting the limits of what Washington can achieve when some state and local governments are unwilling or unable to step up.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Wall Street capped an up-and-down week of trading Friday with a broad sell-off that wiped out the major indexes' gains for the week.
NEW YORK (AP) — Massachusetts regulators are fining MassMutual $4 million and ordering it to overhaul its social-media policies after accusing the company of failing to supervise an employee whose online cheerleading of GameStop's stock helped launch the frenzy that shook Wall Street earlier this year.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The World Bank is canceling a prominent report on business conditions around the world after investigators found staff members were pressured by the bank's leaders to alter data about China and some other governments.
BEIJING (AP) — China has applied to join an 11-nation Asia-Pacific free trade group in an effort to increase its influence over international policies.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon retreated from its defense of a drone strike that killed multiple civilians in Afghanistan last month, announcing Friday that a review revealed that only civilians were killed in the attack, not an Islamic State extremist as first believed.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has been enlisting one emissary after another to convince Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell to help raise the federal debt limit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's decision to form a strategic Indo-Pacific alliance with Australia and Britain to counter China is angering France and the European Union. They're feeling left out and seeing it as a return to the Trump era.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Burned before, Capitol Police say they are taking no chances as they prepare for a Saturday rally at the U.S. Capitol in support of rioters imprisoned after the violent Jan. 6 insurrection.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The architect of a Washington protest planned for Saturday that aims to rewrite history about the violent January assault on the U.S. Capitol is hardly a household name.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Boasting that government policies can make a difference in improving the economy, President Joe Biden went too far Thursday in taking credit for job growth since taking office.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The leaders of a House committee investigating the Jan. 6 Capitol insurrection said Thursday they have sought records related to calls from Gen. Mark Milley, the top U.S. military officer, to his Chinese counterpart in the turbulent final months of Donald Trump's presidency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A prominent cybersecurity lawyer on Friday pleaded not guilty to making a false statement to the FBI in a charge stemming from a probe of the U.S. government's investigation into Russian election interference.
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 16
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are trying to get back to what they do on offense after a stumbling performance in their season opener, and Ryan Tannehill says that means playing up to their own standards.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — First-year Commodores coach Clark Lea is the latest attempting to build a football program at Vanderbilt.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee appears to have another quarterback quandary on its hands, not that coach Josh Heupel is tipping his hand just yet.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee officials say they are offering $180 million in grants through 2025 for public-private partnerships to develop welfare programs focused on helping low-income families become self-sufficient.
MIDSTATE
MURFREESBORO (AP) — A Tennessee university will once again seek permission to strip the name of a Confederate general from one of its buildings, officials said.
REGION
BOWLING GREEN, Ky. (AP) — A Kentucky welcome center has temporarily closed for sanitation and staffing shortages due to COVID-19, officials said.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House committee dealt an ominous if tentative blow Wednesday to President Joe Biden's huge social and environment package, derailing a money-saving plan to let Medicare negotiate the price it pays for prescription drugs.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union said Thursday that it will fund its new health preparedness and rapid response agency to the tune of 30 billion euros ($35 billion) over the next six years, even pushing it higher if individual efforts from the member nations and private sector are taken into account.
ENVIRONMENT
For Jared Anderman, of Croton-on-Hudson, New York, switching from gasoline-powered tools to electric ones for lawn care was a no-brainer.
MADRAS, Ore. (AP) — Phil Fine stands in a parched field and watches a harvester gnaw through his carrot seed crop, spitting clouds of dust in its wake. Cracked dirt lines empty irrigation canals, and dust devils and tumbleweeds punctuate a landscape in shades of brown.
TRANSPORTATION
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — SpaceX's first private flight streaked into orbit Wednesday night with two contest winners, a health care worker and their rich sponsor, the most ambitious leap yet in space tourism.
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. (AP) — The four people on SpaceX's first private flight are fairly ordinary, down-to-Earth types brought together by chance.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NAMBÉ, N.M. (AP) — Carmaker Tesla has opened a store and repair shop on Native American land for the first time, marking a new approach to its yearslong fight to sell cars directly to consumers and cut car dealerships out of the process.
TECHNOLOGY
Most Americans don't believe their personal information is secure online and aren't satisfied with the federal government's efforts to protect it, according to a poll.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
MILAN (AP) — Italian workers in both the public and private sectors must display a health pass to access their workplaces from Oct. 15 under a decree adopted Thursday by Premier Mario Draghi's broad-based coalition government.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Occupational Safety and Health Administration doesn't make many headlines. Charged with keeping America's workplaces safe, it usually busies itself with tasks such as setting and enforcing standards for goggles, hardhats and ladders.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is considering requiring vaccinations against COVID-19 and contact tracing of international visitors after the U.S. revamps current broad restrictions that bar many foreigners from traveling to the U.S., a top White House adviser said Wednesday.
HARARE, Zimbabwe (AP) — Zimbabwe's government has ordered all its employees to get vaccinated against COVID-19 or they won't be allowed to come to work.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks couldn't hold on to a brief afternoon gain and wound up ending mostly lower.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional Democrats are calling top executives at ExxonMobil and other oil giants to testify at a House hearing as lawmakers investigate what they say is a long-running, industry-wide campaign to spread disinformation about the role of fossil fuels in causing global warming.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve is reviewing the ethics policies that govern the financial holdings and activities of its senior officials in the wake of recent disclosures that two regional Fed presidents engaged in extensive trading last year.
NEW YORK (AP) — Americans continued to spend at a brisk pace last month in the face of rising COVID-19 infections, though much of it was done online and not at restaurants or other sectors in the U.S. economy beleaguered by the arrival of the delta variant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans seeking unemployment benefits moved up last week to 332,000 from a pandemic low, a sign that the spread of the delta variant may have slightly increased layoffs.
The gulf between record job openings and a lack of people taking those jobs is forcing Wall Street to reassess the pace of the economic recovery.
HAVANA (AP) — Opening a small business is a bureaucratic headache in many parts of the world. In Cuba, it's an adventure in largely unknown territory.
Japan's exports rose 26% in August from a year earlier, preliminary data released Thursday showed, below analysts' forecasts, as supply chain disruptions hit manufacturers.
LONDON (AP) — British retailer Marks & Spencer said Thursday that it will close 11 of its stores in France, mainly in Paris, as a result of fresh and chilled food supply issues related to Britain's departure from the European Union.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's summer of love with Europe appears to have come to an abrupt end.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell has warned Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen he is not budging on his demand that Democrats go it alone on the federal debt limit, deepening the emerging standoff in Congress over how to boost the government's borrowing authority.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One side is energized by the prospect of the greatest expansion of government support since the New Deal nearly a century ago. The other is fearful about dramatically expanding Washington's reach at an enormous cost.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's "build back better" agenda is poised to be the most far-reaching federal investment since FDR's New Deal or LBJ's Great Society — a prodigious effort to tax the rich and shift money into projects and programs touching the lives of nearly every American.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration began notifying governors and state refugee coordinators across the country about how many Afghan evacuees from among the first group of nearly 37,000 arrivals are slated to be resettled in their states.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden announced Wednesday that the United States is forming a new Indo-Pacific security alliance with Britain and Australia that will allow for greater sharing of defense capabilities — including helping equip Australia with nuclear-powered submarines. It's a move that could deepen a growing chasm in U.S.-China relations.