VOL. 41 | NO. 29 | Friday, July 21, 2017
Nashville mega-baker among top female business owners in US
Women-owned companies are just like those owned by men, which is to say some are big, some are small, some are well-known and some aren’t.
Ask Jacqueline Hayes about what it’s like to be a female business owner, much less a minority female business owner, and she doesn’t mince words.
Sisters may be doing it for themselves, but a little help along the way never hurt anybody.
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
If you think the state Legislature is full of gun nuts, Rep. Micah Van Huss begs to differ. “No, not at all,” Van Huss says when asked if the General Assembly is too pro-gun. “I don’t think they’re pro-gun enough. In fact, … I think our laws in Tennessee infringe on our constitutional rights. There are now 16 states – we’ve added two or three this year – that allow constitutional carry. So, we’re falling behind.”
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
By inchworm standards, this future moth is a monster. And it is “attacking” the truly gentle man who taught 14-year-old cellist Kate Roller how to repair the engine on a 2000 Mitsubishi Eclipse. Unusual request, perhaps, but Kate couldn’t have turned to a better guy than Andy Kimbro.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Greater Nashville Realtors President Scott Troxel drew some double takes when, after giving a summary of June real estate closings, he pronounced: “I suspect that we will come close to the record of 40,000 annual closings” that occurred in 2006.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, June 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top commercial real estate sales, June 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates declined this week after two straight weeks of increases. The benchmark 30-year rate slipped back below the significant 4 percent level.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
When it comes to Southeastern Conference football coaches, there are three kinds of seats – hot, hotter and hottest.
NEWSMAKERS
Butler Snow’s Anita Modak-Truran has been elected president of the Tennessee Intellectual Property Lawyers Association. The organization is composed of patent, trademark and copyright attorneys who volunteer to educate others on emerging trends and best practices within the industry.
BRIEFS
The Annette and Irwin Eskind Biomedical Library at Vanderbilt University will be renovated beginning Aug. 1, a year-long process.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
While the actual activities take on different forms, I’ve ultimately come to the realization that I’m a change agent for companies dissatisfied with their current sales and marketing outcomes.
CAREER CORNER
A reader recently wrote me seeking advice on how his teenage daughter might find an after-school job for her high school years.
REGION
MEMPHIS (AP) — Weather officials have issued a heat advisory for parts of Tennessee, Mississippi and Arkansas as heat indexes rise above 100 degrees.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Republican candidate for governor Randy Boyd says he'll run more than 537 miles (864 kilometers) across the state in about 100 days to meet voters.
NASHVILLE (AP) — State officials say Tennessee has set a record for federal college aid applications.
GREENVILLE (AP) — A family whose daughters were injured when they fell from a Ferris wheel at a Tennessee county fair has filed lawsuits against the ride's owners and manufacturer.
COURTS
ST. LOUIS (AP) — A federal judge on Friday approved an $11.2 million settlement between the marital infidelity website Ashley Madison and users who sued after hackers released personal information, including financial data and details of their sexual proclivities.
SPARTA (AP) — A program in a Tennessee county reduces inmates' jail time if they voluntarily undergo birth control procedures, in a move that has drawn criticism from the local district attorney and the American Civil Liberties Union.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican leaders pushed toward a Senate vote next Tuesday on resurrecting their nearly flat-lined health care bill. Their uphill drive was further complicated by the ailing GOP Sen. John McCain's potential absence and a dreary report envisioning that the number of uninsured Americans would soar.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans were never too thrilled with "Obamacare" and they definitely disapprove of Republican alternatives in Congress, so what does the public want to do on health care?
WASHINGTON (AP) — A revised Republican health care bill would drive up the number of uninsured Americans by 22 million by 2026, the Congressional Budget Office estimated Thursday in a report unlikely to help GOP leaders persuade their party's senators to back the reeling legislation in an upcoming showdown vote.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CANTON, Miss. (AP) — The United Auto Workers faces a strong anti-union campaign from Nissan Motor Co. as it tries to gain a foothold in the union-averse South by organizing workers at the Japanese automaker's Mississippi plant.
DETROIT (AP) — Lyft said Friday that it is setting up its own unit to develop autonomous vehicle technology, but its approach will be different from other companies and partnerships working on self-driving cars..
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California says Volkswagen will pay the state another $154 million in penalties and costs over the automaker's emissions scandal.
BERLIN (AP) — German automaker Audi says it will fit up to 850,000 diesel cars with new software to improve their emissions performance, following a similar move by rival Daimler as the auto industry tries to get ahead of public controversy over the technology.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks finished barely lower Friday as energy companies fell with oil prices and a 10-day rally for technology companies came to an end. But Wall Street mostly avoided the sharp losses that hit European stocks.
DALLAS (AP) — The ban on laptops in the cabins of planes flying from the Middle East to the U.S. is over, as federal officials say that large airports in the region have taken other steps in increase security.
OFFUTT AIR FORCE BASE, Neb. (AP) — Hey veterans, you can soon shop tax free. Starting later this year, all honorably discharged veterans, no matter their branch of service, will be eligible to shop tax-free online at the Army & Air Force Exchange Service with the same discounts they enjoyed on base while in the military.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. must pay a $2 million fine for showing "reckless disregard" for U.S. sanctions on Russia while Secretary of State Rex Tillerson was the oil giant's CEO, the Treasury Department said Thursday. Exxon sued the U.S. government to stop the fine.
HOFFMAN ESTATES, Ill. (AP) — Sears will begin selling its appliances on Amazon.com, including smart appliances that can be synced with Amazon's voice assistant, Alexa.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — White House press secretary Sean Spicer, President Donald Trump's embattled spokesman during the first six months of his presidency, is resigning his position, according to two people with knowledge of the decision.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A brutal reality is settling over Capitol Hill: The Republican effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare," which has consumed the first six months of the Trump administration, may never yield results.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's legal team is evaluating potential conflicts of interest among members of special counsel Robert Mueller's investigative team, according to three people with knowledge of the matter. The revelation comes as Mueller's probe into Russia's election meddling appears likely to include some of the Trump family's business ties.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain is telling his best friend in the Senate to keep it together as he grapples with brain cancer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Jeff Sessions, publicly skewered by his boss for stepping aside from the Russia-Trump investigations, declared Thursday he still loves his job and plans to stay on. Yet Donald Trump's airing of his long-simmering frustrations with Sessions raised significant new questions about the future of the nation's top prosecutor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans are targeting a rule that would let consumers band together to sue their banks or credit card companies rather than use a mediator to resolve a dispute.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Battling brain cancer, Sen. John McCain on Thursday promised to return to work, making a good-natured dig at his Republican and Democratic colleagues who were jolted by news of the six-term lawmaker's diagnosis.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's persistent overtures toward Russia are placing him increasingly at odds with his national security and foreign policy advisers, who have long urged a more cautious approach to dealing with the foreign adversary.