VOL. 43 | NO. 2 | Friday, January 11, 2019
REAL ESTATE
Tight housing inventory led to a significant increase in average home sales prices and a reduction in the number of units sold for Nashville and Davidson County in 2018.
December 2018 real estate trends for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates continued to fall this week, reaching their lowest levels in nine months.
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
The biology professor from a small Illinois college and his family are visibly upset after pulling off Dickerson Pike onto Ewing Drive to find their desired hot chicken shack dark, disheveled, smoke-stained and empty.
TENNESSEE TITANS
As the Tennessee Titans went their separate ways after missing out on the playoffs this season, there were plenty of reminders that things will be different when the team reconvenes in April to begin off-season workouts.
NEWSMAKERS
Waller Lansden Dortch & Davis, LLP has elected five partners from the firm’s Healthcare Compliance and Operations, Finance and Restructuring Corporate, and Litigation & Dispute Resolution practices.
BRIEFS
Gladson, a Chicago-based portfolio company of The Jordan Company and Wicks Capital Partners, has acquired Nashville-based Edgenet, a product content management software provider.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Think you’ve got a long commute? You’re not alone. A 2017 Census Bureau survey found that Americans average nearly 27 minutes on a one-way trip to the office. An earlier census study revealed that 61 percent of us spend at least one hour driving to the office.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Most financial to-do lists focus on what you need to get done by Dec. 31, but there’s also a brief window early in the new year to save yourself some significant cash. Here are three tasks to consider doing now:
CAREER CORNER
I am so excited! This year is set to be a record year for job searching. If I could knock on the door of every reader to personally deliver this message, I would. This message deserves to be yelled from rooftops everywhere.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov.-elect Bill Lee has announced that his inaugural worship service is moving locations to meet increased demand.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Officials say Nashville International Airport has broken its record for number of passengers for a sixth straight year.
PREDATORS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Viktor Arvidsson is feeling healthier with each passing game, and the results are showing in the back of the net.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court appeared ready Wednesday to strike down a Tennessee provision that requires people to live in the state for two years before obtaining a license to sell alcohol.
BOSTON (AP) — A member of the family that owns OxyContin maker Purdue Pharma told people at the prescription opioid painkiller's launch party in the 1990s that it would be "followed by a blizzard of prescriptions that will bury the competition," according to court documents filed Tuesday.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday called climate change "a huge issue" but not the "greatest crisis," drawing fire from Democrats at his confirmation hearing over the regulatory rollbacks he's made in six months as the agency's acting administrator.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Banks surged Wednesday following strong results from a slew of financial companies, and U.S. stock indexes finished broadly higher. Concerns about trade tensions between the U.S. and China derailed a bigger gain.
NEW YORK (AP) — A study has found that America's largest companies added women and minorities to their boards of directors at a faster pace over the past two years, a period when sexual harassment scandals thrust workplace equality into the spotlight.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve said Wednesday business contacts in many regions of the country are expressing less optimism amid a host of adverse developments, from plunging stock prices to uncertainty about a widening trade war.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Shutdown pressure on President Donald Trump mounted Wednesday as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi called on him to delay his State of the Union address and his own economists acknowledged the prolonged standoff was having a greater economic drag than previously thought.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Delta Air Lines can't get eight new aircraft in the air. Roughly a million government employees and contractors aren't being paid. Some Americans who are trying to start small businesses face delays in obtaining the required tax identification number from the IRS.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May survived a no-confidence vote in Parliament on Wednesday to remain in office — but saw more of her power ebb away as she battled to keep Brexit on track after lawmakers demolished her European Union divorce deal.
LONDON (AP) — International tensions and nationalist politics can further weigh on the global economy this year and hinder efforts to deal with big issues such as climate change, the organizers of next week's Davos forum warned Wednesday.
MILWAUKEE (AP) — The nation's craft beer taps are being squeezed by the government shutdown, which has put new releases on hold, prevented new breweries from opening and stopped shipments of some suds across state lines.
NEW YORK (AP) — Sears will live on, at least for now. The company's chairman and largest shareholder, Eddie Lampert, won a bankruptcy auction for Sears, averting liquidation of the iconic chain, according to a source familiar with the negotiations. The person agreed to speak on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the negotiation publicly.
SAN BRUNO, Calif. (AP) — YouTube is trying to prevent otherwise bright people from doing dangerous things.
SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — Dozens of protesters crowded outside a federal courthouse in Puerto Rico on Wednesday as a judge prepared to hear a major debt restructuring case that critics say will only further indebt the U.S. territory if approved.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate has narrowly upheld a Treasury Department decision to lift sanctions from three companies connected to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has asked President Donald Trump to postpone his State of the Union address to the nation — set for Jan. 29 — until the government reopens.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House is describing comments by Republican Rep. Steve King about white supremacy as "abhorrent."
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vowing "I will not be bullied," President Donald Trump's nominee for attorney general asserted independence from the White House, saying he believed that Russia had tried to interfere in the 2016 presidential election, that the special counsel investigation shadowing Trump is not a witch hunt and that his predecessor was right to recuse himself from the probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Attorney General nominee William Barr made one thing clear during his Senate confirmation hearing : He may want the job, but he doesn't need it.
TUESDAY, JANUARY 15
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov.-elect Bill Lee has announced his picks to head the state's transportation, environmental and human resources departments.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A county commission has picked ex-state Sen. Rosalind Kurita of Clarksville to fill the Tennessee Senate opening left by new Republican Congressman Mark Green.
AUTO INDUSTRY
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — Volkswagen and Ford are forming a global alliance to develop commercial vans and medium-sized pickups together while exploring broader cooperation on future battery-powered and autonomous vehicles and services.
TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo District Court turned down a request by Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn for release on bail Tuesday, prolonging his detention by weeks and possibly months.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration cannot put a question about citizenship status on the 2020 census, a federal judge in New York ruled Friday in a boost to proponents of counting immigrants.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Doug and Mary Ketchum chose Memphis as a place to live with their disabled adult daughter because it has clearer air than their former home in Utah.
LAS VEGAS (AP) — A legal opinion from the U.S. Department of Justice made public Monday could threaten the viability of online gambling that crosses state lines such as poker.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Environmental Protection Agency hit a 30-year low in 2018 in the number of pollution cases it referred for criminal prosecution, Justice Department data show.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Facebook says it is investing $300 million over the next three years in local news programs, partnerships and other initiatives.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A Gillette ad for men invoking the #MeToo movement is sparking intense online backlash, with accusations that it talks down to men and groups calling for a boycott. But Gillette says it doesn't mind sparking a discussion. Since it debuted Monday, the Internet-only ad has garnered nearly 19 million views on YouTube, Facebook and Twitter — a level of buzz that any brand would covet.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Internal Revenue Service is recalling about 46,000 of its employees furloughed by the government shutdown — nearly 60 percent of its workforce — to handle tax returns and pay out refunds. The employees won't be paid.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks rallied to their highest level in more than a month Tuesday after China's government moved to inject more life into its economy by cutting taxes and increasing spending. Netflix led a surge in high-tech companies.
LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the European Union, plunging the Brexit process into chaos and leading to a no-confidence vote in her government.
LONDON (AP) — British lawmakers on Tuesday overwhelmingly rejected Prime Minister Theresa May's divorce deal with the European Union, plunging the Brexit process into chaos.
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines expects to lose $25 million in revenue this month from the partial government shutdown that is also creating checkpoint delays and long lines at the airline's Atlanta hub.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Netflix is raising its U.S. prices by 13 to 18 percent, its biggest increase since the company launched its video streaming service 12 years ago.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. wholesale prices fell last month, dragged down by a steep drop in gas costs, suggesting that inflation will remain tame in the coming months.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin is urging senators to vote against a Democratic resolution that would maintain sanctions on companies linked to Russian oligarch Oleg Deripaska.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House has approved a Democratic measure disapproving of Republican Rep. Steve King's comments about white supremacy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House ran quickly into the limits of trying to bypass Speaker Nancy Pelosi in shutdown negotiations when rank-and-file House Democrats declined an invitation to lunch Tuesday with President Donald Trump.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's attorney general nominee will have to navigate his confirmation hearing skillfully, emphasizing his support for Trump's policies while assuring Democrats he will act independently and won't interfere with the special counsel's Russia investigation.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As he did almost 30 years ago, William Barr is appearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee to make the case he's qualified to serve as attorney general.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the government mired in shutdown week four, President Donald Trump rejected a short-term legislative fix and dug in for more combat, declaring he would "never ever back down."
MONDAY, JANUARY 14
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music queen Loretta Lynn has big plans for her 87th birthday this April in the form of an all-star tribute concert featuring Jack White, Garth Brooks, George Strait and many more.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — A coyote sprinted past a security checkpoint and into a Nashville convention center where a boat show was packing up Sunday night.
STATEWIDE
GATLINBURG (AP) — Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee is reopening some areas that were closed during the federal government shutdown.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee board is scheduled to review seven possible nominations to the National Register of Historic Places, including the Clover Bottom Farm boundary expansion in Davidson County.
PREDATORS
RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — Sebastian Aho and the Carolina Hurricanes got into a groove after Micheal Ferland tangled with Austin Watson.
UT SPORTS
NEW YORK (AP) — Tennessee saw three of its incredible streaks end this week as the 13th-ranked Lady Vols have a three-game losing streak for the first time in 33 years.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — A leading House Democrat is announcing a sweeping investigation of the pharmaceutical industry's pricing practices.
TECHNOLOGY
Federal officials plan to ease restrictions on flying drones over crowds and at night.
AUTO INDUSTRY
German automaker Volkswagen said Monday its factory in Tennessee will be the focus of an $800 million investment in the company's manufacturing of electric vehicles in North America.
DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai scored two out of three wins on Monday in the North American Car, Truck and Utility Vehicle of the Year awards, as the Detroit auto show's press previews officially got underway.
TOKYO (AP) — The wife of Nissan's former chairman Carlos Ghosn has written a letter to Human Rights Watch, a global advocacy group, criticizing her husband's long detention and Japan's criminal justice system as unfair and harsh.
DETROIT (AP) — Automakers have promised to start selling hordes of electric cars in the next few years, but only two will be unveiled at the big Detroit auto show that kicks off this week — and those aren't even ready for production.
DETROIT (AP) — SUVs and a big pickup truck will get top billing at Detroit's auto show this year, but there are some surprise sports cars and electric vehicles on the agenda.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court is rejecting appeals from military veterans who claim they suffer health problems because of open burn pits in Iraq and Afghanistan.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks took small losses Monday after China reported a drop in exports in December, but the market didn't come close to matching the plunges it took in the last few months.
NEW YORK (AP) — NBCUniversal will launch an ad-supported streaming service in 2020, free for anyone who pays for a cable service.
BEIJING (AP) — China's 2018 trade surplus with the United States surged to a record $323.3 billion but exports contracted in December as the delayed impact of President Donald Trump's tariff hikes started to hurt demand.
NEW YORK (AP) — A hedge-fund-backed bid to buy Gannett Co., the publisher of USA Today and several other major dailies across the U.S., is renewing fears of consolidation and job losses — as well as a decline in the quantity and quality of news coverage — in the already battered newspaper industry.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Facing potentially colossal liabilities over deadly California wildfires, PG&E will file for bankruptcy protection.
LONDON (AP) — British Prime Minister Theresa May offered both a promise on workers' rights and a reassuring letter from European Union leaders on Monday as she implored British lawmakers to support her floundering Brexit deal.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump pointed to farmers Monday as winners from the administration's proposed rollback of federal protections for wetlands and waterways across the country, describing farmers crying in gratitude when he ordered the change.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In Rochester, New York, a maker of furnaces for semiconductor and solar companies is moving its research and development to China to dodge President Donald Trump's import taxes — a move that threatens a handful of its 26 U.S. jobs.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump kept his hard line Monday on the partial government shutdown, now in a fourth week over his insistence on billions of dollars for a long, impregnable wall at the U.S. Mexico border.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress returns to Washington for its first full week of legislative business since control of the House reverted to Democrats, but lawmakers will be confronted with the same lingering question: When will the partial government shutdown end?
WASHINGTON (AP) — Military salutes. Heaps of contraband. Oval Office optics.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A Republican lawmaker advising President Donald Trump said he is encouraging the president to reopen the government for several weeks to continue negotiating with Democrats over funding for a U.S.-Mexico border wall before the president takes the more drastic step of declaring a national emergency.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When William Barr was attorney general in the early 1990s, he was outspoken about some of America's biggest problems — violent crime, drug addiction, teenage pregnancy. The "Age of Aquarius," he warned, had given way to crack babies and broken families, misery and squalor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Vacation jaunts and hobnobbing with global elites at a Swiss ski resort are out for President Donald Trump. Visits with troops and farmers are OK.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The House Republican leader said Sunday he will meet with Rep. Steve King this week to discuss King's future and role in the party and promised action following the Iowa congressman's recent comments in defense of white supremacy.
FRIDAY, JANUARY 11
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Metro Nashville Police Department has named its first liaison to the LGBTQ community.
PREDATORS
COLUMBUS, Ohio (AP) — A drama-filled day for the Columbus Blue Jackets started with the public reprimand and benching of the No. 1 goaltender and ended with an overtime goal in a game that nearly slipped away.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Retired health care executive Herb Fritch is taking over as chairman of the Nashville Predators' board of directors.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee House signed off Thursday on a proposal dictating that ethics complaints must be co-signed by at least two lawmakers before they can be filed.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee Republican lawmaker who has been accused of sexual misconduct by three women was tapped Thursday to lead a legislative education panel.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled that a man who hid a video camera in the bedroom of a 13-year-old relative while she was in the shower is not guilty of attempting to produce child pornography.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors strengthened its pretax profit estimate for 2018 and predicted even stronger performance for this year as it executives made a presentation to investors on Friday.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan's ex-chairman Carlos Ghosn was charged Friday with breach of trust, according to the Tokyo District Court, making the star executive's release unlikely for months to come.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — German automaker Volkswagen posted another annual sales record in 2018 as new SUV models boosted deliveries and the company managed to increase its share in China even as the car market there shrank for the first time in years.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fiat Chrysler will pay a $305 million fine to the U.S. government over emissions cheating allegations.
FRANKFURT, Germany (AP) — The headwinds buffeting the global auto industry made themselves felt in Europe on Thursday as mass-market carmaker Ford and luxury-focused Jaguar Land Rover announced sweeping restructurings that will cost thousands of jobs.
HEALTH CARE
SEATTLE (AP) — Doctors who specialize in female pelvic medicine say lawsuits by four states, including Washington and California, over products used to treat pelvic floor disorders and incontinence might scare patients away from the best treatment options — or maybe even push the products off the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Challenging President Donald Trump to make good on his pledge to cut prescription drug prices, congressional liberals proposed legislation Thursday to bring U.S. prices in line with the much lower costs in other countries.
TECHNOLOGY
AT&T says it will stop selling all location data from mobile phones to brokers following a report that companies are still selling that information to shadowy companies without customer knowledge.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumer prices slipped 0.1 percent last month, pulled down by sharply lower gas prices and cheaper air fares, used cars, and mobile phone plans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The partial shutdown of the U.S. government has begun to make it harder to assess the health of the economy by delaying or distorting key reports on growth, spending and hiring.
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes nestled a hair lower on Friday after the falling price of oil weighed on energy companies, but the S&P 500 nevertheless closed out its third straight winning week following a brutal stretch in December.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said Thursday that the central bank has the ability to be "patient" in determining when to hike interest rates.
FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Airline stocks are falling as American Airlines says fourth-quarter revenue and full-year profit will be lighter than expected.
A U.S. supplier of T-shirts and other team apparel to college bookstores cut its ties Wednesday with a Chinese company that drew workers from an internment camp holding targeted members of ethnic minority groups.
NEW YORK (AP) — It was supposed to be a great holiday shopping season. Many investors had expected department stores to enjoy robust sales in light of a U.S. economy buoyed by low unemployment, higher wages, strong consumer confidence and cheap gas.
BEIJING (AP) — The United States and China gave no indication of their next step after wrapping up talks aimed at resolving a tariff fight that threatens to chill global growth.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump tamped down expectations that he is close to declaring a national emergency to get the money he desires to build his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall as a three-week impasse closing parts of the government continued on Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is edging closer to declaring a national emergency to pay for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall as pressure mounts to end the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government and deprived hundreds of thousands of workers of their salaries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says changes are coming in the way that the U.S. handles temporary H1-B visas, which allow American companies to bring high-tech and other skilled workers into the U.S. from abroad.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is edging closer to declaring a national emergency to pay for his long-promised U.S.-Mexico border wall as pressure mounts to end the three-week impasse that has closed parts of the government and deprived hundreds of thousands of workers of their salaries.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Somehow, some day, the nasty deadlock between President Donald Trump and congressional Democrats that's shuttered federal agencies for a record-tying 21 days will end. The only real questions are when, how and who will be crowned the winner in public opinion polls and ultimately by voters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration is considering using billions in unspent disaster relief funds earmarked for areas including hurricane-pounded Puerto Rico and Texas and more than a dozen other states to pay for President Donald Trump's border wall as he weighs signing a national emergency declaration to get it built without Congress.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With the deceptive use of a video, President Donald Trump on Thursday heartily thanked his White House predecessor for supporting his policy at the Mexican border. Barack Obama has offered no such support; only criticism.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's former lawyer, Michael Cohen, will testify publicly before a House committee next month in a hearing that could serve as the opening salvo in a promised Democratic effort to greater scrutinize Trump, his conflicts of interest and his ties to Russia.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Thursday that he's canceling his trip later this month to a global forum in Switzerland because of the partial government shutdown, now in its 20th day.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump threatened on Thursday to declare a national emergency to circumvent Congress if he can't reach a deal with Democrats to fund his promised border wall. He headed to the U.S.-Mexico border to draw further attention to his case after negotiations with lawmakers blew up.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he did not know anything about allegations his former campaign chairman, Paul Manafort, shared polling data during the 2016 presidential campaign with a business associate accused of having ties to Russian intelligence.