VOL. 45 | NO. 16 | Friday, April 16, 2021
REAL ESTATE
March 2021 real estate trends for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
First quarter 2021 real estate trends for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
Top residential real estate sales, March 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates fell for a second straight week amid signs of economic improvement.
NEWSMAKERS
Lipscomb University’s College of Business, recognized across Tennessee and nationally as a leader in business education, has appointed international supply chain expert and U.S. Army veteran Hannah Stolze as director of its Center for Transformative Sales & Supply Chain Leadership and associate professor of supply chain management.
BRIEFS
Bridgewood Property Company, a Texas-based developer of high-end senior living properties, has acquired property at 3808 Cleghorn Avenue in Green Hills for the development of a mid-rise, luxury retirement community.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
SUVs top nearly every automaker’s sales charts, and they’re not cheap. Any given SUV costs a few thousand more than its closest sedan counterpart. To help ease the sticker shock, Edmunds’ experts have compiled a list of five SUVs that come in a variety of sizes and have unusually low starting prices for their competitive segments.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Yeah, says who? The answer likely depends on who’s asking but the outcome is still the same: Once was, if it was a parent or teacher, you took a deep breath before replying. Now, as an adult, you still want to think before answering.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Your doctor needs to know certain numbers to judge your physical health, such as your weight, your blood pressure and your cholesterol levels.
CAREER CORNER
The unfortunate truth of today’s job market is that applying for jobs is very competitive. Employers can be picky about who they hire and how much they want to pay. For many job seekers older than 50, the search process is a longer, harder road than they remember from years past.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
In 2020, I was looking forward to leaving Los Angeles for a socially distanced vacation in San Diego. I had stocked up on food, hand sanitizer, wipes and masks.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two good minutes for the Nashville Predators were two very bad ones for the Chicago Blackhawks.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — On April 20, 1960, the Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr., stood at a podium at Fisk University and said he had come to Nashville "not to bring inspiration, but to gain inspiration from the great movement that has taken place in this community."
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Medical providers in Tennessee would be required to cremate or bury fetal remains from surgical abortions under legislation advanced by the GOP-controlled House on Monday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee House lawmakers on Monday passed a bill that would put public schools and districts at risk of civil lawsuits if they let transgender students or employees use multi-person bathrooms or locker rooms that don't reflect their gender at birth.
STATEWIDE
SOMERVILLE (AP) — A company that makes beauty products and hand sanitizer used to ward off COVID-19 is planning to expand its operations in West Tennessee.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — There will be no hands to shake or backs to slap, no way to look a foreign leader in the eye. The small human moments that define statecraft will be reduced to images on a screen.
TECHNOLOGY
Many of us may be suffering from virtual event fatigue after a year of video calls. But not Apple, which plans new product announcements at what seems likely to be an iPhone-less online event on Tuesday
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration is taking steps to protect the country's electric system from cyberattacks through a new 100-day initiative combining federal government agencies and private industry.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Monday urged Americans reconsider any international travel they may have planned and said it would issue specific warnings not to visit roughly 80% of the world's countries due to risks from the coronavirus pandemic.
LONDON (AP) — Experts at the European Medicines Agency are preparing to present Tuesday the conclusions of their investigation into possible links between the Johnson & Johnson coronavirus vaccine and very rare cases of unusual clotting disorders detected in the U.S.
LONDON (AP) — The number of workers on U.K. corporate payrolls dropped by 0.2% in March as young people were hardest hit by coronavirus restrictions that closed bars, restaurants and hotels, according to the latest government statistics.
NEW DELHI (AP) — Seema Gandotra, sick with the coronavirus, gasped for breath in an ambulance for 10 hours, as it tried unsuccessfully at six hospitals in India's sprawling capital to find an open bed. By the time she was admitted, it was too late, and the 51-year-old died hours later.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Diners got used to delivery during the pandemic, and the habit may stick long after dining rooms reopen. But restaurants and delivery companies remain uneasy partners, haggling over fees and struggling to make the service profitable for themselves and each other.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — George W. Bush says the Republican Party he served as president has become "isolationist, protectionist and, to a certain extent, nativist" and says he's especially concerned about anti-immigration rhetoric.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders have always faced rebels in their ranks. But Reps. Matt Gaetz and Marjorie Taylor Greene are presenting top House Republicans with a test of how to handle a new breed of Trump-era, social media-savvy firebrands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Employees of the two main U.S. immigration enforcement agencies were directed Monday to stop referring to migrants as "aliens," a dated term that many people consider offensive.
MONDAY, APRIL 19
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Carrie Underwood brought the Academy of Country Music Awards to church. Maren Morris won two honors, including song of the year. Miranda Lambert performed three times and held on to her record as the most decorated winner in ACM history. And Mickey Guyton, the first Black woman to host the awards show, gave a powerful, top-notch vocal performance.
A list of winners in the top categories at Sunday's Academy of Country Music Awards, held at various locations in Nashville, Tennessee:
Like many young football players growing up in North Carolina, Chase Rice had his sights set on the NFL. After an outstanding sophomore season with the Tar Heels, that goal seemed realistic.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two churches are among five Tennessee properties named to the National Register of Historic Places.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — CoreCivic says it will pay $56 million to settle a lawsuit by shareholders who accused the private prison operator of inflating its stock prices by misrepresenting the quality and value of its services.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Fisk University has received a $500,000 grant from The Andrew W. Mellon Foundation to help make the school's art more accessible to students and the community.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Civil liberties groups are asking the Supreme Court to give the public access to opinions of the secretive court that reviews bulk email collection, warrantless internet searches and other government surveillance programs.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court seemed inclined Monday to say that hundreds of millions of dollars in coronavirus relief money tied up in court should benefit Alaska Natives rather than be spread more broadly among Native American tribes around the U.S.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday said it will not hear a case out of Pennsylvania related to the 2020 election, a dispute that had lingered while similar election challenges had already been rejected by the justices.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is leaving in place an appeals court decision that upheld Tennessee's rationing of life-saving hepatitis C drugs to prisoners as constitutional.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday rejected an appeal from a Kentucky man whose pickup truck was seized at the Mexican border and held by the federal government for more than two years.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SHANGHAI (AP) — Volkswagen, Ford and Chinese brands unveiled new SUVs for China on Monday at the Shanghai auto show, the industry's biggest marketing event in a year overshadowed by the coronavirus pandemic.
HOUSTON (AP) — Two people were killed in Texas in the fiery crash of a Tesla and authorities say there was no one in the driver's seat at the time of the crash, although it's not clear whether the car's driver-assist system was being used.
ENVIRONMENT
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) — Organizers of a $20 million contest to develop products from greenhouse gas that flows from power plants announced two winners Monday ahead of launching a similar but much bigger competition backed by Elon Musk.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As President Joe Biden convenes a virtual climate summit on Thursday with 40 world leaders, he faces a vexing task: how to put forward a nonbinding but symbolic goal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions that will have a tangible impact on climate change efforts not only in the U.S. but throughout the world.
MEDIA
Apple said it has reached an agreement with the right-wing social app Parler that could lead to its reinstatement in the company's app store. Apple kicked out Parler in January over ties to the deadly Jan. 6 siege on the U.S. Capitol.
A Maryland hotel executive is trying to assemble new financing for a $680 million offer to buy Tribune Publishing after his partner, a Swiss billionaire, pulled out of the bidding for the newspaper chain.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Marie Watson wanted to be among the first in line when she and other essential workers became eligible for the coronavirus vaccine — and with good reason.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Half of all adults in the U.S. have received at least one COVID-19 shot, the government announced Sunday, marking another milestone in the nation's largest-ever vaccination campaign but leaving more work to do to convince skeptical Americans to roll up their sleeves.
NEW DELHI (AP) — New Delhi imposed a weeklong lockdown Monday night to prevent the collapse of the Indian capital's health system, which authorities said had been pushed to its limit amid an explosive surge in coronavirus cases.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The nation's largest coal miners' union said Monday it would accept President Joe Biden's plan to move away from coal and other fossil fuels in exchange for a "true energy transition" that includes thousands of jobs in renewable energy and spending on technology to make coal cleaner.
Technology companies helped drag U.S. stocks broadly lower Monday, pulling the indexes below the record highs they reached last week.
NEW YORK (AP) — The retail union that failed to organize Amazon workers at a Alabama warehouse wants the results of a recent vote to be thrown out, saying that the company illegally interfered with the process.
The overhaul in the top ranks of GameStop continues with the announced departure of CEO George Sherman at the end of July.
LONDON (AP) — British authorities are exploring the possibility of creating a new digital currency that Treasury chief Rishi Sunak indicated could be known as "Britcoin."
Sales are steadily improving at Coca-Cola Co. as vaccinations allow for the opening of stadiums, restaurants and theaters in many regions globally.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
ATLANTA (AP) — Atlanta-area voters looking to return their ballots using a drop box in next year's gubernatorial election will have to do some searching.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Rep. Steve Stivers of Ohio, the former campaign chair for House Republicans, announced on Monday that he's stepping down next month to oversee his home state's chamber of commerce.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Less than three months after former President Donald Trump left the White House, the race to succeed him atop the Republican Party is already beginning.
FRIDAY, APRIL 16
PREDATORS
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Warren Foegele scored the first of three Carolina goals in under eight minutes and the Hurricanes beat the Nashville Predators 4-1 to snap a two-game skid Thursday night.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Forward John Fulkerson announced Friday he is returning to Tennessee for his sixth season, using the extra year of eligibility granted by the NCAA because of the coronavirus pandemic.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Forward Brandon Huntley-Hatfield has reclassified from the class of 2022 and signed with Tennessee, helping boost the Volunteers' 2021 signing class to No. 2 in the nation.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt is turning the berm in one end zone into new premium seating before the upcoming season.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee plans to sign a bill requiring school districts to alert parents of any instruction on sexual orientation or gender identity and let them opt their student out.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are inching closer to advancing legislation designed to prevent death row inmates with an intellectual disability from being executed.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Lee announced Thursday that Maj. Gen. Tommy H. Baker will officially serve as commissioner for the Department of Veterans Services.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A member of the far-right Oath Keepers militia group and heavy metal guitarist on Friday became the first defendant to plead guilty to federal charges in connection with the insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General Merrick Garland on Friday rescinded a Trump-era memo that curtailed the use of consent decrees that federal prosecutors have used in sweeping investigations of police departments.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — The United Auto Workers union is calling on General Motors to pay full union wages at electric vehicle battery factories, thrusting what had been a festering conflict into the spotlight.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. housing construction rebounded strongly in March to the fastest pace since 2006 as home builders recovered from an unusually frigid February that shut down projects.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt University Medical Center announced on Thursday it is launching a new program to increase the number of patients with undiagnosed diseases that it can help each year.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. is setting up a $1.7 billion national network to identify and track worrisome coronavirus mutations whose spread could trigger another pandemic wave, the Biden administration announced Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Ten liberal senators are urging President Joe Biden to back India and South Africa's appeal to the World Trade Organization to temporarily relax intellectual property rules so coronavirus vaccines can be manufactured by nations that are struggling to inoculate their populations.
TECHNOLOGY
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — Google broke Australian law by misleading users about personal location data collected through Android mobile devices, a judge found Friday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks continued to march higher on Wall Street Friday, giving the S&P 500 its latest record high and its fourth straight weekly gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Interior Secretary Deb Haaland on Friday revoked a series of Trump administration orders that promoted fossil fuel development on public lands and waters, and issued a separate directive that prioritizes climate change in agency decisions.
ANKARA, Turkey (AP) — Turkey's central bank is banning the use of cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin in payments for goods and services, according to a decision published in the country's Official Gazette on Friday.
BEIJING (AP) — China's economy grew by double digits in the latest quarter but an explosive rebound from the coronavirus pandemic is slowing abruptly as manufacturing and consumer spending return to normal.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Friday signed an emergency determination to speed refugee admissions to the U.S., but kept his predecessor's historically low cap of 15,000 refugees for this year, triggering an outcry from advocates for refugees and even Biden allies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Calling democracy the foundation for global prosperity, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga met with President Joe Biden at the White House on Friday in a bid to underscore the two countries' alliance as a counter to an autocratic and increasingly assertive China.
BEIJING (AP) — A top Chinese diplomat said Friday that U.S. policy toward China is "too negative" and that cooperation could be critically important as the Biden administration focuses on combatting COVID-19 and promoting economic recovery.
WASHINGTON (AP) — One by one, the Republican leaders of Congress have made the trip to Mar-a-Lago to see Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — It was one of the more tantalizing, yet unresolved, questions of the investigation into possible connections between Russia and Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign: Why was a business associate of campaign chairman Paul Manafort given internal polling data — and what did he do with it?
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House says the intelligence community does not have conclusive evidence that Russian intelligence operatives encouraged the Taliban to attack American troops in Afghanistan.
THURSDAY, APRIL 15
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Shea Ralph said the possibilities coaching Vanderbilt offered were too good to pass up, though leaving UConn was very tough after investing in the Huskies as both a player and assistant coach for 13 seasons.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has signed 7-foot forward Jonas Aidoo, the Vols' fourth signee for the 2021 recruiting class.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee has signed Quentin Diboundje from France, the seventh international player during coach Rick Barnes' tenure.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Oracle Corporation plans to bring 8,500 jobs and a $1.2 billion investment to fast-growing Nashville over the coming decade, a deal Mayor John Cooper's office announced Wednesday as unprecedented in the history of Tennessee economic development projects.
MIDSTATE
NASHVILLE (AP) — General Motors is expected to announce Friday that one of its joint ventures will build a second U.S. electric vehicle battery factory in Spring Hill.
CLARKSVILLE (AP) — LG Electronics is planning to add a new shift to its washing machine factory in Tennessee, spurring an anticipated 334 new jobs.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Daimler AG on Thursday unveiled a battery-powered counterpart to its top Mercedes-Benz luxury sedan as German carmakers ramp up their challenge to electric upstart Tesla.
DETROIT (AP) — More than a dozen consumer groups and three federal employee unions are asking the U.S. government to stop using vehicles in its fleet with unrepaired safety recalls.
HEALTH CARE
UnitedHealth's first-quarter profit jumped about 44%, and the nation's largest health insurer also hiked its 2021 outlook despite expecting more hits from the COVID-19 pandemic.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has been slow-walking its work on the extension of a legislative order that would keep in place a sweeping tool that's helped federal agents crack down on drugs chemically similar to fentanyl, three people familiar with the matter told The Associated Press.
TRANSPORTATION
Delta Air Lines lost $1.2 billion in the first quarter but executives said Thursday that the airline could be profitable by late summer if the budding recovery in air travel continues.
A new study says leaving middle seats open could give airline passengers more protection from the virus that causes COVID-19.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
GENEVA (AP) — A top official from the World Health Organization says Europe has surpassed 1 million deaths from COVID-19 and the situation remains "serious," with about 1.6 million new cases reported each week in the region.
NEW DELHI (AP) — India's two largest cities imposed stringent restrictions on movement and one planned to use hotels and banquet halls to treat coronavirus patients as new infections in the country shot past 200,000 Thursday amid a devastating surge that is straining a fragile health system.
Johnson & Johnson's COVID-19 vaccine will remain in limbo for a while longer after government health advisers declared Wednesday that they need more evidence to decide if a handful of unusual blood clots were linked to the shot — and if so, how big the risk really is.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks rallied to more record highs on Wall Street as a suite of stellar data suggested the recovery for the economy and corporate profits is accelerating.
WASHINGTON (AP) — American industry rebounded last month as the United States recovered from an unusually frigid February.
NEW YORK (AP) — Newly vaccinated and armed with $1,400 stimulus checks, Americans went on a spending spree last month, buying new clothes and going out to eat again.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A much-awaited economic boom coming off the pandemic recession appeared to edge closer to reality Thursday with fresh data showing the pace of layoffs dwindling, consumers spending freely and manufacturing rebounding.
NEW YORK (AP) — After a union battle at an Alabama warehouse, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos acknowledged that Amazon has to do better for its workers and vowed to make Amazon a safer place to work.
NEW YORK (AP) — Bank of America's profits doubled in the first quarter, the bank said Thursday, as the improving economy allowed it to release billions from its loan-loss reserves that it originally set aside in the early days of the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — Citigroup's profits more than tripled in the first quarter, the banking conglomerate said Thursday, helped by the release of billions of dollars from its loan-loss reserves.
MOREHEAD, Ky. (AP) — "Hillbilly Elegy" author J.D. Vance has resigned from the board of a company that uses green technology to mass-produce food in Appalachia, days after sending some controversial tweets.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — A group of congressional Democrats introduced legislation Thursday to add four seats to the Supreme Court, a long-shot bid designed to counter the court's rightward tilt during the Trump administration and criticized by Republicans as a potential power grab that would reduce the public's trust in the judiciary.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats were poised to pass legislation Thursday that they say would help close the gap between what men and women are paid in the workplace, though the measure faces little chance of overcoming Republican opposition in the Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration on Thursday announced the U.S. is expelling 10 Russian diplomats and imposing sanctions against dozens of companies and people, holding the Kremlin accountable for interference in last year's presidential election and the cyber hacking of federal agencies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The top watchdog for the U.S. Capitol Police will tell a House committee on Thursday that there is a need for a culture change within the force after broad failures in its response to the Jan. 6 insurrection, including missed intelligence predicting a "war" and weapons that were so old that officers didn't feel comfortable using them.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel advanced a decades-long effort to pay reparations to the descendants of slaves by approving legislation Wednesday that would create a commission to study the issue.