VOL. 44 | NO. 14 | Friday, April 3, 2020
Musicians see a lean year ahead as virus precautions cancel shows
He’s seen fire and he’s seen rain, but his violinist and accompanying vocalist, Andrea Zonn, says James Taylor never thought that he’d see a time when a virus from China would wipe out his spring and, likely, summer schedules.
From “Classroom to Cloud.” That’s what the Northshore School District of Washington state is calling its shift from in-person to online schooling. The shift occurred after the coronavirus, COVID-19, forced schools to shut down to slow the spread of the virus.
Nashville Metro Schools are closed at least through April 24 due to the COVID-19 virus, but the system will provide free breakfast and lunch to children.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
In this awkward and isolating time, we should be especially thankful for those people in our lives who make an effort to maintain a personal connection. For me of late, this has included my friends Vaughn, Mona, Jill and Sen. Mitch McConnell.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
With the COVID-19 pandemic reaching across the country and state, and beginning to claim lives in Nashville – recognizable names and treasured residents – many are concerned about real estate values.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates fell this week for the second straight week as anxiety has spiraled over devastation to the economy from the coronavirus pandemic.
NONPROFITS
The Community Foundation of Middle Tennessee is adding 25 grants totaling $904,600 to support nonprofits and organizations helping victims of the March 3 tornadoes.
NEWSMAKERS
Kat McElroy has joined Tennessee Bank and Trust as senior vice president, commercial banking.
BRIEFS
Marcus & Millichap, a leading commercial real estate investment services firm, has sold two medical office buildings located in Lebanon.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Every year brings new technology features in vehicles. Most of them undeniably enhance a vehicle's modern appeal and safety, such as widescreen infotainment displays and safety systems that can automatically help prevent or mitigate accidents.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
The disappointment arrived just after lunch. That promotion you hoped to get? Nope. No raise, either, because your boss wants you to make a few improvements in your job, tweak your skills, have more time to grow – even though you’ve been improving, tweaking and growing for months at work.
PERSONAL FINANCE
CAREER CORNER
Adding an adult child to your house deed – or giving them the home outright – might seem like a smart thing to do. It usually isn’t.
One question I hear often from readers concerns military transitions. Many members of the military devote the first 20 years of their career to the U.S. Military. Around age 40, they’ll retire and start entirely new careers in the civilian world.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
No one plans for infertility. But that doesn't stop it from being a reality for millions of people.
STATEWIDE
The Tennessee Department of Environment and Conservation today announced it will close all 56 Tennessee state parks and state-owned state natural areas to the public effective April 4-14 in support of Gov. Bill Lee’s Executive Order 23.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Jody Hull had been editing youth sports images for a photography company in Tennessee until the coronavirus forced schools — and their athletics — to shut down. Now she's laid off, and like many thousands of Tennesseans is trying to navigate the state's flooded unemployment claim process.
FORT CAMPBELL, Ky. (AP) — The Army's 101st Airborne Division at Fort Campbell has canceled its Week of the Eagles because of the coronavirus pandemic.
EDUCATION
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Board of Regents says it plans to discuss colleges' responses to the coronavirus pandemic and consider two dozen proposed career and technical education programs at its next meeting.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration abruptly changed its description of the Strategic National Stockpile, the federal government's repository of life-saving medicines and supplies, to conform with President Donald Trump's insistence that it is only a short-term backup for states, not a commitment to ensure supplies get quickly to those who need them most during an emergency.
Manufacturing giant 3M pushed back Friday against criticism from President Donald Trump over production of face masks that are badly needed by American health care workers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — An odd new front in the U.S.-Russian rivalry has emerged as a Russian military cargo plane bearing a load of urgently needed medical supplies landed this week at New York's JFK airport.
ROME (AP) — San Marino needed medical masks. Badly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks ago, the Pentagon promised to make as many as 2,000 military ventilators available as the federal government strains to contend with the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday, less than half had been allocated, despite a desperate need across the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden said Thursday that he wants to speak with President Donald Trump in the hope that the president can "learn some lessons" from the Obama administration on how to deal with the coronavirus outbreak.
NEW YORK (AP) — Tiffany Pinckney remembers the fear when COVID-19 stole her breath. So when she recovered, the New York City mother became one of the country's first survivors to donate her blood to help treat other seriously ill patients.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is formalizing new guidance to recommend that many Americans wear face coverings in an effort to slow the spread of the new coronavirus as the president defends his response to the crisis.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The stock market's first reaction to Friday's stunningly bad jobs report was to take it in stride. But Wall Street slid through the day as investors looked ahead to the likelihood that even worse numbers are on the way.
MOSCOW (AP) — Russian President Vladimir Putin says he supports cutting oil production by about 10 million barrels a day to shore up falling prices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell said Friday that health care must be at the "top of the list" in the next coronavirus rescue package.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A record-long streak of U.S. job growth ended suddenly in March after nearly a decade, as employers slashed hundreds of thousands of jobs because of the viral outbreak that has all but shut down the U.S. economy. The unemployment rate jumped to 4.4% from a 50-year low of 3.5%.
NEW YORK (AP) — The federal government's relief program for small businesses is off to a slow start Friday, with only some businesses able to apply and several banks either not accepting applications or seeing long waits to do approvals.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Growth in the U.S. service sector slowed in March with a much bigger decline expected in coming months from all the shutdowns and job layoffs that have occurred because of efforts to contain the coronavirus.
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments on Friday related to the global economy, the work place and the spread of the virus.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — Tesla's sales of its increasingly popular electric cars got off to fast start this year, even though the company had to slam the brakes along with other major automakers last month because of worldwide efforts to contain the worst pandemic in a century.
COURTS
The Supreme Court on Friday announced it will postpone arguments scheduled for April because of the coronavirus pandemic, but the court didn't rule out hearing some arguments within months.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is nominating a 37-year-old judge and former clerk to Supreme Court Justice Brett Kavanaugh to a seat on the powerful U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are zeroing in on health care as one of the few issues that might resonate among Americans who have largely shelved election year politics as they focus on protecting their families from the spreading coronavirus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of the most powerful people in Washington have not spoken in five months at a time when the nation is battling its worst health crisis in a century, one that has already killed more than 6,000 Americans and put 10 million others out of work.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It may be an odd gesture at a time of social distancing, but President Donald Trump is leaning into his plea to Congress to restore full tax benefits prized by business for fine dining and schmoozing. Trump is seizing on the pandemic crisis to push for an item on his economic wish list: full tax deductions for business meals in restaurants and for other entertainment expenses.
THURSDAY, APRIL 2
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Pop superstar Taylor Swift is helping out a Nashville record store closed by the COVID-19 pandemic.
EDUCATION
MARTIN (AP) — The University of Tennessee says summer session classes at all campuses will be delivered online in response to the new coronavirus outbreak.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee strengthened a stay-at-home order Thursday after initially resisting a statewide mandate despite pleas from the medical community that more robust action was needed to confront the coronavirus.
MEMPHIS (AP) — As more people get sick from the new coronavirus in Tennessee, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has evaluated sites in the Memphis area to convert to medical care facilities to ease the burden on hospitals facing an incoming wave of patients.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The deadline to qualify to run for many offices in this year's elections in Tennessee is quickly approaching.
NASHVILLE (AP) — When Jose Cojom's house collapsed around his family in a tornado that struck after midnight, he knew his life was going to get much harder. But that was just the beginning. A few weeks later, the restaurant where he cooks closed its doors because of the coronavirus.
SPORTS
Athletic directors at the nation's biggest sports schools are bracing for a potential financial crisis related to the coronavirus pandemic.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two weeks ago, the Pentagon promised to make as many as 2,000 military ventilators available as the federal government strains to contend with the coronavirus pandemic. As of Wednesday, less than half had been allocated, despite a desperate need across the country.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government expects to begin making payments to millions of Americans under the new stimulus law in mid-April, but some people without direct deposit information may not get checks until mid-August or later, according to a memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Nursing homes across the country have been in lockdown for weeks under federal orders to protect their frail, elderly residents from coronavirus, but a wave of deadly outbreaks nearly every day since suggests that the measures including a ban on visits and daily health screenings of staffers either came too late or were not rigorous enough.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Dr. Anthony Fauci, the top U.S. infectious disease official, said Thursday he feels safe despite reports he's received online threats and has had uncomfortable personal encounters with admirers that prompted the Trump administration to assign him a security detail.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Thursday it is distributing about $3 billion in the first round of coronavirus aid to help the homeless find emergency shelter and communities expand testing and treatment.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research finds that a majority of Republicans and Democrats alike approve of how state and local governments are handling the coronavirus outbreak. Fewer than half of Americans say the same of the response by the federal government and President Donald Trump, opinions driven by deeply partisan views about the president and his administration.
WASHINGTON (AP) — About half of all working Americans report some kind of income loss affecting themselves or a member of their household due to the coronavirus pandemic, with low-income Americans and those without college degrees especially likely to have lost a job, according to a new poll from The Associated Press-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street rallied Thursday for its first gain in three days after a sudden surge in oil prices revived beaten-down energy stocks. But, as has so often been the case in this year's market sell-off, it took a few U-turns to get there.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fresh data on Thursday that detailed a record avalanche of unemployment claims offered no signs of easing the rift between Democrats and Republicans over the need for new legislation financing infrastructure and other job-creation programs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The new report that a knee-buckling 6.6 million more Americans filed for unemployment insurance makes it more urgent for Congress to approve a fresh jobs package, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — More than 6.6 million Americans applied for unemployment benefits last week — doubling a record high set just one week earlier — a sign that layoffs are accelerating in the midst of the coronavirus outbreak.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he expects Saudi Arabia and Russia will end an oil war and dramatically cut production.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. trade deficit tumbled in February to the lowest level since 2016 as exports fell and imports fell more. The politically sensitive gap in the trade of goods with China narrowed in February when the world's No. 2 economy was locked down to combat the coronavirus outbreak..
The outbreak of the coronavirus has dealt a shock to the global economy with unprecedented speed. Following are developments on Thursday related to the global economy, the work place and the spread of the virus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump aims to shovel $2.2 trillion into the U.S. economy over the next few weeks to try to cushion its free fall. But that means putting his fate in the hands of banks, profit-minded businesses and government bureaucrats he has frequently derided, along with a man who has emerged as arguably the biggest power broker to business in Washington: Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. business regulators are suing to break up the multibillion-dollar deal between tobacco giant Altria and e-cigarette startup Juul Labs, saying their partnership amounted to an agreement not to compete in the U.S. vaping market.
AUTO INDUSTRY
BEIJING (AP) — Toyota Motor Co. and Chinese electric automaker BYD Co. announced a partnership Thursday to develop battery-powered vehicles, adding to a flurry of industry tie-ups to share soaring development costs.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Thursday she will establish a special House committee with subpoena power to oversee the government's spending of the more than $2.2 trillion approved to bolster the economy hard hit by the coronavirus pandemic.