VOL. 44 | NO. 48 | Friday, November 27, 2020
Word walks familiar path with purchase of 4 markets
North Nashville has always held a special place in Jason Word’s heart, and now his journey truly has come full circle. Word, 49, the new owner of Nashville’s four Save A Lot discount grocery stores, recalls many good times in the Brooklyn Heights area – between Trinity Lane and the Cumberland River – where his late grandmother, Ethel Watkins, ran the family grocery store, Watkins and Sons, following the death of her husband.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
In 2013, when Mayor Karl Dean announced plans to build the Nashville Sounds a new ballpark, it surprised many when he proposed the new facility to be constructed at the site of Sulphur Dell, the old Nashville Vols park, in Germantown.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. long-term mortgage rates remained at record lows this week as the coronavirus pandemic continues to threaten the economy.
NEWSMAKERS
MP&F Strategic Communications has promoted five members of its senior leadership team.
TENNESSEE TITANS
What doesn’t kill the Titans seems to make them stronger. Given up for done, the Titans somehow seem to save their most improbable performances for when its least expected.
If the Titans want to win the AFC South and guarantee themselves at least one home playoff game, they probably must win this week at 7-3 Indianapolis.
BRIEFS
Nashville-based The Mainland Companies, LLC, working in partnership with Chicago-based Speedwagon Capital Partners, is creating New Heights District, an urban, mixed-use opportunity zone business district on the south side of downtown Nashville.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
While most people start learning how to drive with a hand-me-down car from parents or relatives, there comes a time when they want to get their first new car. With hundreds of models to choose from, narrowing the list to just one can seem overwhelming.
CAREER CORNER
This week, we will celebrate Thanksgiving. Normally, it’s an opportunity to gather together with loved ones, eat way too much good food and watch a little football.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
‘Twas days before Black Friday when all around the country, shoppers were gearing up for a day full of shopping.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Whom should you hire? That’s a question you ask yourself often, and you strive to be fair with it by hiring the best person for the job, no matter what.
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Women's soccer player Sarah Fuller will don a football uniform Saturday for Vanderbilt and is poised to become the first woman to play in a Power 5 game when the Commodores visit Missouri.
Missouri and Vanderbilt were supposed to play last month, only to have a combination of positive COVID-19 tests and contact tracing force the Southeastern Conference to juggle the schedule.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — A prominent voucher group's outreach efforts to families of students "caused nothing but confusion" while Tennessee attempted to enact a program that would have allowed parents to use tax dollars to pay for private school tuition, a state official said in emails detailing the implementation efforts.
ENVIRONMENT
The Trump administration moved forward Friday on gutting a longstanding federal protection for the nation's birds, over objections from former federal officials and many scientists that billions more birds will likely perish as a result.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
COLCHESTER, Vt. (AP) — St. Michael's College managed to keep coronavirus cases at bay for almost two months this fall with students tested upon arrival and once every three weeks.
TUTTLINGEN, Germany (AP) — Hulking gray boxes are rolling off the production line at a factory in the southern town of Tuttlingen, ready to be shipped to the front in the next phase of Germany's battle against the coronavirus as it became the latest country to hit the milestone of 1 million confirmed cases Friday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — With coronavirus cases surging again nationwide, the Supreme Court barred New York from enforcing certain limits on attendance at churches and synagogues in areas designated as hard hit by the virus.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — The S&P 500 rose to a record high Friday as investors continue to look forward to the distribution of a COVID-19 vaccine and relief for the global economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The raging coronavirus pandemic kept crowds thin at malls and stores across the country on Black Friday, but a surge in online shopping offered a small beacon of hope for struggling retailers after months of slumping sales and businesses toppling into bankruptcy.
NEW YORK (AP) — The pandemic is turning this into a holiday shopping season like no other.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Obama-Biden administration was a charmed era for America's tech companies — a moment when they were lionized as innovators, hailed as job creators and largely left alone.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump still won't bring himself to concede the election he decisively lost to President-elect Joe Biden. But he's now acknowledging he will leave the White House if Biden's win is affirmed by the Electoral College, which is firmly on track to do just that in a few weeks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Monday seemed like the end of President Donald Trump's relentless challenges to the election, after the federal government acknowledged President-elect Joe Biden was the "apparent winner" and Trump cleared the way for cooperation on a transition of power.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 25
VANDERBILT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Women's soccer player Sarah Fuller has practiced with the Vanderbilt football team, and coach Derek Mason said Wednesday she's a good option to be the Commodores kicker Saturday against Missouri.
UT SPORTS
LINCOLN, Neb. (AP) — The NCAA has suspended Nebraska's Derrick Walker for the first 16 games of the season for a rules violation while he was at Tennessee in 2018-19.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — More than four decades ago, Lamar Alexander won a ticket to the governor's mansion after he walked more than 1,000 miles (1,609 kilometers) around Tennessee in a plaid shirt and hiking boots. He spent the night with 73 families and called his campaign headquarters from payphones.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court said Wednesday it will continue to hear arguments by telephone through at least January because of the coronavirus pandemic.
TECHNOLOGY
LONDON (AP) — The European Union is laying out new standards for data giving Europeans more control over their personal information as it seeks to counter the power of U.S. and Chinese tech companies.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Delta Air Lines on Wednesday dropped a threat to furlough more than 1,700 pilots after they ratified a cost-cutting agreement that the airline said was needed to help it cope with a downturn caused by the pandemic.
HEALTH CARE
When it filed for bankruptcy last year, Purdue Pharma agreed to an innovative plan: It would make $200 million available immediately to help those those harmed by its signature painkiller, OxyContin, and ease the effects of the opioid crisis.
MEDIA
NEW YORK (AP) — "No New 'Movies' Till Influenza Ends" blared a New York Times headline on Oct. 10, 1918, while the deadly second wave of the Spanish Flu was unfolding.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
Millions of Americans took to the skies and the highways ahead of Thanksgiving at the risk of pouring gasoline on the coronavirus fire, disregarding increasingly dire warnings that they stay home and limit their holiday gatherings to members of their own household.
BERLIN (AP) — German Chancellor Angela Merkel and the country's 16 state governors are expected Wednesday to extend a partial shutdown well into December, and discuss tightening some restrictions while allowing somewhat more generous rules for the Christmas period.
NEW YORK (AP) — Cleaning wipes are harder to find on store shelves, and businesses are reassuring customers with stepped up sanitation measures. In New York, the subway system is shut down nightly for disinfecting.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks closed mostly lower on Wall Street Wednesday, even as gains for technology companies pushed the Nasdaq to its first record high close since September.
WASHINGTON (AP) — At their meeting earlier this month, Federal Reserve officials discussed possible future adjustments to the central bank's monthly bond purchases to boost the economy.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gripped by the accelerating viral outbreak, the U.S. economy is under pressure from persistent layoffs, diminished income and nervous consumers, whose spending is needed to drive a recovery from the pandemic.
NEW YORK (AP) — When Jenna Powell gets in front of a camera, she can sell $10,000 worth of sparkly dresses and tie-dye hoodies in 40 minutes.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cannabis stocks are flying high after voters in New Jersey, Arizona and three other states cleared the way for expanding legal sales of marijuana.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. consumers increased their spending by a sluggish 0.5% last month, the weakest rise since April, when the pandemic first erupted, and a sign that Americans remain wary with the virus resurging across the country and threatening the economy.
BERLIN (AP) — German media giant Bertelsmann said Wednesday that its Penguin Random House division is buying rival Simon & Schuster in a megadeal that would reshape the U.S. publishing industry.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for a second straight week to 778,000, evidence that the U.S. economy and job market remain under strain as coronavirus cases surge and colder weather heighten the risks.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The second of three estimates on U.S. growth for the July-September quarter was unchanged at a record pace of 33.1%. But a resurgence in the coronavirus is expected to slow growth sharply in the current quarter with some economists even raising the specter of a double-dip recession.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Orders to U.S. factories for big-ticket manufactured goods showed a modest gain in October but much of the strength came from a big jump in orders for military equipment.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WILMINGTON, Del. (AP) — In a time of plague and raw division, President-elect Joe Biden appealed for unity Wednesday in a Thanksgiving-eve address to the nation asking Americans to "steel our spines" for a fight against the coronavirus that he predicted would continue for months.
NEW YORK (AP) — Competence is making a comeback.
WASHINGTON (AP) — As the ravages of the novel coronavirus forced millions of people out of work, shuttered businesses and shrank the value of retirement accounts, the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged to a three-year low.