VOL. 46 | NO. 33 | Friday, August 19, 2022
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Southern conservatives have long been fighting a war on public education. They don’t call it a war, of course. More recently it’s been going by the innocuous label of “parental choice.” Conservatives, it turns out, can be very pro-choice – depending on who’s doing the choosing and what’s being chosen.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Sales dropped 19% in July compared to July 2021, Greater Nashville Realtors sales data reveals. Last July, there were 4,314 sales and, even as recently as June of this year, there were 4,257 sales. But in July, the number dropped to 3,459.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, July 2022, for Davidson County, as compiled by the Nashville Ledger.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Average long-term U.S. mortgage rates came back down slightly this week after the key 30-year loan rate jumped nearly a quarter point last week.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — The housing market's comedown from its high-flying days early this year is deepening, with home sales in July falling for the sixth straight month.
SPORTS
When you glance at the Tennessee Titans roster and look at the years of experience beside Rashad Weaver’s name, it shows a “2,” indicating the outside linebacker is in his second year in the NFL.
The joint practices the Titans have scheduled with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers ahead of the preseason game Aug. 20 took a bit of a hit this past week when news emerged that Tom Brady would not be in Nashville for the two practice sessions or the game.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have waived tight end Briley Moore to make room for safety Tyree Gillespie, who was acquired in a trade with the Las Vegas Raiders.
There’s a stampede coming to Bridgestone Arena this weekend – and that’s no bull. Well, actually, it’s a lot of bulls – and bull riders – who are in Nashville this weekend for the inaugural PBR Stampede Days at Bridgestone Arena.
Kiki Milloy and her Tennessee softball teammates had been pleading to add a Lady Vols blue jersey to their uniform rotation since the senior first arrived on campus.
NEWSMAKERS
The American Civil Liberties Union of Tennessee has selected Nashville attorney Kathy Sinback to lead the organization as its new executive director.
BRIEFS
Only one-third of homebuying offers written in the Nashville area in July encountered competition, down from 73% in July 2021, a new study from real estate brokerage Redfin reports.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Throughout 2022, new-car shoppers have been paying an average of about $700 more than manufacturer’s suggested retail price, Edmunds data shows. Those in the market for a new vehicle today may experience sticker shock after seeing a dealership has priced the vehicle they want well at more than MSRP.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Those of us who write and talk about money for a living tend to have our financial acts together. But that wasn’t always the case. I invited some personal finance experts to share what they wish they could have told their younger selves about money.
CAREER CORNER
Benjamin Franklin said, “Three can keep a secret, if two of them are dead.” It’s hard to overstate the importance of keeping your job search private from your work colleagues.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Every day, you go to work and quietly do your job.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
We all saw it at grocery stores in 2020. The shelves, once brimming with toilet paper and hand soap, were bare. We hid in our homes, deep-cleaning every surface, occasionally braving the threat of COVID-19 to hunt down the last remaining bottle of hand sanitizer in a 50-mile radius. We felt out of control, so we controlled what we could: the contents of our kitchens and bathroom cabinets.
COURTS
3:30pmATLANTA (AP) — Sen. Lindsey Graham can't put off his appearance before a special grand jury investigating whether then-President Donald Trump and others illegally tried to influence the 2020 election in Georgia, a federal judge said Friday.
11:09amLANSING, Mich. (AP) — A Michigan judge on Friday blocked county prosecutors from enforcing the state's 1931 ban on abortion for the foreseeable future after two days of witness testimony from abortion experts, providers and the state's chief medical officer.
11:10amSALT LAKE CITY (AP) — Transgender kids in Utah will be not be subjected to sports participation limits at the start of the upcoming school year after a judge delayed the implementation of a statewide ban passed earlier this year.
4:53amATLANTA (AP) — Prosecutors investigating whether Donald Trump committed crimes as he sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia are running into increasing resistance as they seek to call witnesses to testify before a special grand jury.
4:53amNEW YORK (AP) — The numbers guy did the math: Allen Weisselberg — a longtime loyal lieutenant to Donald Trump — could have gotten years in prison if he went to trial and failed to beat tax evasion allegations. But if he agreed to testify in an upcoming trial of the former president's company, he would probably serve no more than 100 days.
TECHNOLOGY
3:28pmNEW YORK (AP) — Apple regularly issues updates to the software powering the iPhone, and sometimes it's OK to dawdle when it comes to installing them. But that's not the case with its latest — an upgrade that Apple released Wednesday to close a security hole that could allow hackers to seize control of iPhones and several other popular Apple products.
EDUCATION
3:29pmWASHINGTON (AP) — The Education Department has canceled its recognition of an accrediting agency that oversees mostly for-profit colleges, placing in jeopardy the survival of schools that serve about 5,000 students.
HEALTH CARE
1:56pmNEW YORK (AP) — Walmart, the nation's largest employer, is expanding its abortion coverage for employees after staying largely mum on the issue for months following the Supreme Court ruling that scrapped a nationwide right to abortion.
9:25amWASHINGTON (AP) — Millions of people in the United States will be spared from big increases in health care costs next year after President Joe Biden signed legislation extending generous subsidies for those who buy plans through federal and state marketplaces.
MEDIA
4:52amInstagram and Facebook suspended Children's Health Defense this week after the anti-vaccine group led by Robert Kennedy Jr. repeatedly violated rules prohibiting misinformation about COVID-19.
TRANSPORTATION
1:57pmWASHINGTON (AP) — Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg has warned airlines that his department could draft new rules around passenger rights if the carriers don't give more help to travelers trapped by flight cancellations and delays.
4:49amLONDON (AP) — A strike by London Underground workers brought the British capital's transit network to a grinding halt on Friday, a day after a nationwide walkout by railway staff. Another rail strike is scheduled for Saturday as the U.K. endures a summer of action by workers demanding pay increases to offset soaring food and energy price hikes.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
3:27pmTechnology stocks led Wall Street lower, leaving major indexes in the red for the week.
4:49amNEW YORK (AP) — The newest meme stock on Wall Street, Bed Bath & Beyond, tumbled even further in after-hours trading Thursday after a high-profile activist investor confirmed that he's bailed out of the stock.
4:50amOMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The head of the nation's largest railroad union says the report designed to help resolve stalled contract talks with freight railroads doesn't do enough to address concerns about working conditions, even though it suggests 24% raises.
4:50amDALLAS (AP) — Labor unions are pressuring U.S. airlines not to buy back their own stock but instead spend the money on hiring more workers and fixing problems that caused widespread flight delays and cancellations this summer.
1:13pmMOSCOW (AP) — Russia's state-owned energy company Gazprom said on Friday a key pipeline conveying natural gas to Europe will shut down for three days at the end of this month to undergo "routine maintenance."
5:02amBEIJING (AP) — A Chinese-born Canadian tycoon who disappeared from Hong Kong in 2017 was sentenced Friday to 13 years in prison for a multibillion-dollar string of financial offenses and his company was fined $8.1 billion, a court announced.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
9:27amWILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — President Joe Biden will host a White House summit next month aimed at combating a spate of hate-fueled violence in the U.S., as he works to deliver on his campaign pledge to "heal the soul of the nation."
9:26amWASHINGTON (AP) — Last week's attack on author Salman Rushdie and the indictment of an Iranian national in a plot to kill former national security adviser John Bolton have given the Biden administration new headaches as it attempts to negotiate a return to the 2015 nuclear deal with Iran.
UKRAINE
3:30pmWASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. for the first time Friday said it will give Ukraine Scan Eagle surveillance drones, mine-resistant vehicles, anti-armor rounds and howitzer weapons to help Ukrainian forces regain territory and mount a counteroffensive against Russian invaders.
4:47amLVIV, Ukraine (AP) — Turkey's leader and the U.N. chief met in Ukraine with President Volodymr Zelenskyy on Thursday in a high-powered bid to ratchet down a war raging for nearly six months. But little immediate progress was reported.
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt sophomore defensive end-linebacker Miles Capers will miss the season with an injured knee requiring surgery.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The NHL will be holding its awards and draft in Music City in June 2023, the first time the league has held both in the same city since 2006.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Wildlife Resources Agency says Republican state Sen. Mike Bell will soon serve as the agency's legislative senior adviser.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A top executive at former President Donald Trump's family business pleaded guilty Thursday to evading taxes on a free apartment and other perks, striking a deal with prosecutors that could make him a star witness against the company at a trial this fall.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — A federal judge on Thursday ordered the Justice Department to put forward proposed redactions as he committed to making public at least part of the affidavit supporting the search warrant for former President Donald Trump's estate in Florida.
ATLANTA (AP) — U.S. Sen. Lindsey Graham has formally appealed a judge's order requiring him to testify before a special grand jury investigating whether former President Donald Trump and others illegally sought to overturn his 2020 election defeat in Georgia.
A Virginia man who is facing trial on charges that he drove a Hummer packed with guns to Philadelphia to interfere with the 2020 presidential election has been arrested in a separate case that alleges his involvement in the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol.
WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — Attorneys for many of the nation's largest media companies will try to persuade a federal magistrate judge on Thursday afternoon to make public the affidavit supporting the warrant that allowed FBI agents to search former President Donald Trump's Florida estate last week.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Two Black men who challenged their criminal convictions after jurors deliberated in a Tennessee courthouse room containing Confederate symbols have received opposite rulings from different judges on the same appeals court.
ENVIRONMENT
Clean energy incentives in the new spending package signed this week by President Joe Biden will trim America's emissions of heat-trapping gases by about 1.1 billion tons (1 billion metric tons) by 2030, a new Department of Energy analysis shows.
NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A judge's order that forced the Biden administration to resume sales of oil and gas leases on federal land and waters was vacated Wednesday by a federal appeals court in New Orleans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Arizona and Nevada residents won't face bans on watering their lawns or washing their cars despite more Colorado River water shortages.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal regulators on Thursday issued a first-of-a-kind warning to the maker of nicotine gummies, saying the illegal candies pose a growing risk to teenagers and younger children.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon appears to be getting the TikTok bug, joining other companies seeking to hold consumers' attention by introducing replicas of the popular social platform.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Another day of choppy trading on Wall Street ended with modest gains for stocks Thursday and the benchmark S&P 500 barely back into the green for the week.
MEMPHIS (AP) — A federal judge is ordering Starbucks to reinstate seven employees in Memphis who were fired earlier this year after leading an effort to unionize their store.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Slightly fewer Americans filed for unemployment benefits last week as the labor market continues to stand out as one of the strongest segments of the U.S. economy.
BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The U.S. oil industry hit a legal roadblock in January when a judge struck down a $192 million oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico over future global warming emissions from burning the fuels. It came at a pivotal time for Chevron, Exxon and other industry players: the Biden administration had curtailed opportunities for new offshore drilling, while raising climate change concerns.
Kohl's slashed its sales and profit expectations for the year as the department store chain stepped up price cutting to get rid of unwanted merchandise.
SEATTLE (AP) — A Seattle CEO who announced in 2015 that he was giving himself a drastic pay cut to help cover the cost of big raises for his employees has announced his resignation.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — After Terrence Hersey had a stroke on the way home from his railroad job in 2015, he underwent months of therapy to learn how to put words together in sentences and learn to walk again. He had to relearn how to get in and out of a car and how to dress himself before his doctors eventually cleared him to return to work with no restrictions.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and his allies hope big recent wins on climate, health care and more will at least temporarily tamp down questions among top Democrats about whether he will run for reelection.
BEIJING (AP) — The U.S. government plans talks with Taiwan on a wide-ranging trade treaty in a sign of support for the self-ruled island democracy claimed by China's ruling Communist Party as part of its territory.
UKRAINE
LVIV, Ukraine (AP) — As a potential power broker, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will use his first visit to Ukraine since the war started nearly six months ago to seek ways to expand the export of grain from Europe's breadbasket to the world's needy. U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres will use his visit to focus on containing the volatile situation at a Russian-occupied nuclear power plant.