VOL. 45 | NO. 10 | Friday, March 5, 2021
Fifth + Broadway food hall will be largest in the US
We’re No. 1 – and in a really good way. This week, Phase 1 of Assembly Food Hall, the largest food hall in the country, opened in the new Fifth + Broadway development, which also includes retail, office, residential units, the National Museum for African American Music and abundant parking (cheers to downtown parking!). It fills the entire footprint of the old convention center.
The Assembly Food Hall is opening in two initial phases. There are eight restaurants and two themed bars now open, plus just enjoy the cool space. A wine bar is offering more than 40 choices, and another bar is serving both locally and nationally recognized brands of beer.
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
They’re relatively rare, thank goodness, which makes them stand out even more: People in the grocery store, pharmacy or wherever who refuse to even pretend to wear masks.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Spring break is two weeks away for most schools, although in many homes the break means little as the children were not attending school and many families are not comfortable traveling.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates were steady to higher this week, as the benchmark 30-year loan breached the 3% mark for the first time since July 2020. Rates remain near historic lows as the economy strains toward recovery in the pandemic's wake.
NEWSMAKERS
Entertainment and IP attorney Brenner McDonald has joined McGlinchey Stafford as a member of the firm and resident in its Nashville office.
BRIEFS
Six Tennessee bottlenecks for trucks – including four in Nashville – have made the top 100 of most congested traffic locations, the American Transportation Research Institute reports.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Among luxury SUVs, the Cadillac Escalade has long made no apologies about being big and brash. Now Cadillac has redesigned the Escalade for 2021 with a new look and an infusion of new technology. Do these updates make it the best large luxury SUV you can buy?
PERSONAL FINANCE
Death and taxes may be the only certainties in life, but death taxes are only a remote possibility for most people. The vast majority of Americans won’t ever have or give away enough to owe estate or gift taxes.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
A little over a year ago, you didn’t think it would last.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
The past year has fractured our world in countless ways. Now, as people look to pick up the pieces, those managing debt need to account for their position in our uneven economic recovery.
CAREER CORNER
It sometimes feels as if the pandemic has changed everything about the nature of work. One notable thing that has changed: Our work attire.
MIDSTATE
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors says it's looking for a site to build a second U.S. battery factory with joint venture partner LG Chem of Korea.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Health announced Wednesday that Tobi Adeyeye Amosun has been named assistant commissioner of the agency's Division of Family Health and Wellness.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday made it harder for longtime immigrants who have been convicted of a crime to avoid deportation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Amy Coney Barrett has delivered her first opinion.
ENVIRONMENT
TRAVERSE CITY, Mich. (AP) — Cities along the Mississippi River will take part in a global system to determine where plastic pollution comes from and how it ends up in waterways as a first step toward solving the problem, officials said Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The world's hopes for curbing climate change hinge on action by two giant nations whose relations are deteriorating: China and the United States. The two countries both say they are intent on retooling their economies to burn less climate-wrecking coal, oil and gas. But tensions between them threaten their ultimate success.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — Pandemic lockdowns and stay-at-home orders kept many drivers off U.S. roads and highways last year. But those who did venture out found open lanes that only invited reckless driving, leading to a sharp increase in traffic-crash deaths across the country.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Jean Andrade, an 88-year-old who lives alone, has been waiting for her COVID-19 vaccine since she became eligible under state guidelines nearly a month ago. She assumed her caseworker would contact her about getting one, especially after she spent nearly two days stuck in an electric recliner during a recent power outage.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Breaking with other Southern GOP governors, Alabama Gov. Kay Ivey extended her state's mask order for another month Thursday but said the requirement will end for good in April.
BERLIN (AP) — Germany's independent vaccine committee has formally approved giving the AstraZeneca shot to people age 65 and over, the health minister said Thursday.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks turned lower on Wall Street as bond yields made another upward spike, renewing pressure on high-flying technology companies.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate voted Thursday to begin debating a $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief bill after Democrats made eleventh-hour changes aimed at ensuring they could pull President Joe Biden's top legislative priority through the precariously divided chamber.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell suggested Thursday that inflation will pick up in the coming months but that it would likely prove temporary and not enough for the Fed to alter its record-low interest rate policies.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Caution about the pandemic took the upper hand Thursday at a meeting of the OPEC oil cartel and allied countries, as they left most of their production cuts in place amid worry that coronavirus restrictions could still undermine recovering demand for crude.
Roughly 98% of U.S. households that received a COVID-19 relief check in December will also qualify for the next round of payments being championed by President Joe Biden, according to a White House official.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits edged higher last week to 745,000, a sign that many employers continue to cut jobs despite a drop in confirmed viral infections and evidence that the overall economy is improving.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity fell at an annual rate of 4.2% in the fourth quarter, the largest quarterly decline in nearly four decades.
LONDON (AP) — The U.S. agreed Thursday to suspend millions of dollars' worth of tariffs on U.K. exports including Scotch whisky as part of an effort to resolve a long-running trans-Atlantic trade dispute over aerospace subsidies.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union executive wants to force employers to be much more open about how much their staff earn to make it easier for women to challenge wage imbalances and close the gender pay gap.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Members of oil producer cartel OPEC and allied countries are weighing an increase in production now that prices have recovered to near their pre-pandemic levels.
LONDON (AP) — Amazon has opened a cashier-free supermarket in London, its first bricks and mortar expansion outside the U.S. as the company bets on strong demand for its contactless shops.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union said Wednesday that Britain's "unilateral action" on trade rules will breach international law and is threatening legal action as post-Brexit tensions continue to escalate between the two sides.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Democrats passed sweeping voting and ethics legislation over unanimous Republican opposition, advancing to the Senate what would be the largest overhaul of the U.S. election law in at least a generation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is reviewing a police request to keep National Guard troops patrolling the U.S. Capitol for another 60 days following evidence of a "possible plot" by a militia group to storm the building again, two months after Trump supporters smashed through windows and doors in an insurrection meant to halt the certification of Joe Biden's presidential victory.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Defense Department leaders placed unusual restrictions on the National Guard for the day of the Capitol riot and delayed sending help for hours despite an urgent plea from police for reinforcement, according to testimony Wednesday that added to the finger-pointing about the government response.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Many questions remain unanswered about the failure to prevent the Jan. 6 insurrection at the U.S. Capitol. But after six congressional hearings, it's clear that the Capitol Police were unprepared and overwhelmed as hundreds of Donald Trump's supporters laid siege to the building. It's also clear that no one wants to take responsibility for it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Oversight Committee is investigating the agency that operates the Texas power grid, seeking information and documents about the lack of preparation for the recent winter storm that caused millions of power outages and dozens of deaths across the state.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Kirsten Gillibrand was the first Democratic senator to call for her colleague Al Franken's resignation in 2017 as he faced allegations of sexual misconduct, building a profile as a leading advocate for women that became the centerpiece of her 2020 presidential bid.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Democrats in Congress are jamming their agenda forward with a sense of urgency, an unapologetically partisan approach based on the calculation that it's better to advance the giant COVID-19 rescue package and other priorities than waste time courting Republicans who may never compromise.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Cheered on by President Joe Biden, House Democrats hustled to pass the most ambitious effort in decades to overhaul policing nationwide, able to avoid clashing with moderates in their own party who are wary of reigniting a debate they say hurt them during last fall's election.