VOL. 41 | NO. 38 | Friday, September 22, 2017
SAM STOCKARD: VIEW FROM THE HILL
Forgiveness or farewell: What should be the fate of the Achievement School District? Among Memphis legislators, it just depends.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
In three weeks, the Greater Nashville Realtors will release the September sales numbers showing record sales for the month. These sales figures will show more sales this month than there were a year ago and in all the years prior to that.
REAL ESTATE
Top residential real estate sales, August 2017, for Davidson, Williamson, Rutherford, Wilson and Sumner counties, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term mortgage rates rose this week, lifting the 30-year fixed mortgage from the lowest levels of 2017.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
Who would’ve thought the center of the Southeastern Conference football universe would be Nashville in late September?
TERRY McCORMICK: TENNESSEE TITANS
Some Titans fans have been eager for a running back controversy ever since the Tennessee Titans drafted Derrick Henry in the second round of the 2016 NFL Draft.
Russell Wilson vs. Brian Orakpo. Orakpo dominated against the Jaguars on Sunday, including a strip sack of Blake Bortles that Erik Walden recovered. The Seahawks offensive line has struggled this season, but Wilson is an elusive target with an ability to escape matched by few quarterbacks in the NFL. Might the Titans put a spy on the Seahawks signal-caller to limit his scrambling?
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
It’s been a long week for Tennessee football. UT’s Sept. 30 game against Georgia at Neyland Stadium can’t get here soon enough. Not after the Vols’ 26-20 loss to Florida last Saturday in Gainesville.
BRIEFS
The Tennessee Housing Development Agency has released its list of nominees for the 2017 Tennessee’s Best Awards.
NEWSMAKERS
L. Gino Marchetti, Jr., managing partner at Taylor, Pigue, Marchetti and Blair, PLLC, has been elected to serve as the 2018-2019 president of the National Foundation for Judicial Excellence.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Throw it out. That’s what always seems to happen to your best ideas, your finest interviews, the proud moments that fall flat as pavement. Ugh.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
Disasters are chaotic and complex. Just a few minutes of howling wind or shaking earth can leave years of cleaning up, rebuilding and coping with a new reality.
CAREER CORNER
Recently, I began receiving a question I haven’t heard much before: “Should I put my photo on my resume?”
MIDSTATE
A probation-for-profit company that heaped fees on central Tennesseans convicted of minor offenses, even though many were too poor to pay, has agreed to a $14.3 million settlement to reimburse those charges.
SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee tight end Delanie Walker smothered the ball on the onside kick attempt inside the final two minutes.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Sen. Susan Collins' decision to oppose the GOP push to repeal President Barack Obama's health care overhaul leaves the effort all but dead, with even party leaders conceding that their prospects are dismal.
TECHNOLOGY
WASHINGTON (AP) — Twitter is citing "newsworthiness" and the public interest as reasons why it didn't remove President Donald Trump's declaration in a tweet that North Korean leaders may not "be around much longer."
MOSCOW (AP) — Russia's communications watchdog has threatened to block the access to Facebook next year if the company does not store its data locally.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
BEIJING (AP) — Global stocks declined Tuesday as investors watched U.S.-North Korean tensions and looked ahead to a speech by the American central bank chief.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional Republicans are finalizing a tax plan that would slash the corporate rate while likely reducing the levy for the wealthiest Americans, with President Donald Trump ready to roll out the policy proposal at midweek.
NEW YORK (AP) — The chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission is likely to face an especially tough hearing in front of Congress on Tuesday, after the agency acknowledged that it also was a victim to a hack.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 25
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The pastor shouted "Run, run, gunshots!" and congregants hid under pews or in bathrooms as a masked man armed with two guns opened fire at a Tennessee church, killing one person and wounding six before being subdued.
MIDSTATE
A preservation group is inviting the public to vote on projects to improve Main Streets around the U.S.
DAVE LINK: UT SPORTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans believe they can play with the NFL's best this season, and a big win over the Seattle Seahawks is just the latest proof to back them up.
HEALTH CARE
Only one thing is certain for insurance shoppers if the latest attempt to replace former President Barack Obama's health care law succeeds: Uncertainty.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Conservative Sen. Rand Paul remained opposed Monday to the Republican bill repealing the Obama health care law despite fresh revisions, darkening White House and GOP leaders' hopes of staving off defeat in a Senate showdown this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Memo to Republican senators: Many of the states President Donald Trump won last year would lose significant federal financing under the last-ditch Republican health care bill headed for a possible showdown in the Senate this week.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. researchers are getting ready to recruit more than 1 million people for an unprecedented study to learn how our genes, environments and lifestyles interact.
AUTO INDUSTRY
MEXICO CITY (AP) — Auto worker Ivan Flores spends his days transporting parts for U.S.-bound Audi SUVs at a plant in central Mexico, but he laughs when asked if he could ever buy one of the $40,000 Q5 SUVs the plant produces on his $2.25 per hour salary.
RIDGEVILLE, S.C. (AP) — Even before the first vehicle rolls off the line at Volvo Cars' new factory in South Carolina, the Swedish automaker has nearly doubled its investment to $1 billion and promised to build a second vehicle at the site.
DETROIT (AP) — General Motors' Cadillac luxury brand is embarking on a cross-country drive to show off its version of a car that almost drives itself on the freeway.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Technology stocks slammed into reverse on Monday, and the losses overshadowed gains in other areas of the market to send broad U.S. indexes lower.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target Corp. is raising its minimum hourly wage for its workers to $11 starting next month and then to $15 by the end of 2020 in a move it says will help it better recruit and retain top-quality staff and provide a better shopping experience for its customers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Most business economists expect the Trump administration's efforts to renegotiate the North American Free Trade Agreement will make no difference to the U.S. economy or cause harm.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House and congressional Republicans are finalizing a tax plan that would slash the corporate rate while likely reducing the penalty for the wealthiest Americans, with President Donald Trump ready to roll out the policy proposal at midweek.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is indulging in his favorite kind of drama — personal, aggressive, culturally volatile and entirely of his own making.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The three major long-haul airlines of the Gulf say they are aware of the new travel restrictions implemented by U.S. President Donald Trump's administration.
NEW YORK (AP) — Anthony Weiner must report to prison by Nov. 6 to begin serving his 21-month sentence for sexting with a 15-year-old girl.
FRIDAY, SEPTEMBER 22
MUSIC INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — After becoming a global icon and one of the world's best-selling singers of all-time, Shania Twain had to utter the scariest five words a vocalist would ever hear: "I may never sing again."
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are asking three state agencies to ensure that their policies allow residents to take cell phone photos of public records.
REGION
BIRMINGHAM, Ala. (AP) — President Donald Trump will nominate people from four states to serve on the nine-member board of directors of the Tennessee Valley Authority, the White House said Thursday.
TECHNOLOGY
The federal agency responsible for ensuring that markets function properly and for protecting investors is under fire after disclosing its computer system was hacked despite repeated warnings about deficiencies in its cybersecurity measures.
NEW YORK (AP) — An automated teller machine. The cash machine. In Britain, a cashpoint. ATMs, known for spitting out $20 bills (and imposing fees if you pick the wrong one), turn 50 years old this year. They're ubiquitous — and possibly still a necessity, despite the big changes in how people pay for things.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. John McCain declared his opposition Friday to the GOP's last-ditch effort to repeal and replace "Obamacare," dealing a likely death blow to the legislation and, perhaps, to the Republican Party's years of vows to kill the program.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump used Twitter Friday to slam Sen. Rand Paul and other Republicans who might oppose the GOP's last-gasp effort to topple the Obama health care law. Paul fired back, calling the Senate bill "fake repeal" and saying the White House just wants a victory without caring about the legislation's details.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Who's right — President Donald Trump and Sen. Bill Cassidy, or late-night host Jimmy Kimmel?
WASHINGTON (AP) — It's divisive and difficult, but the Republican drive to erase the Obama health care overhaul has gotten a huge boost from one of Washington's perennial incentives: Political necessity.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Jimmy Kimmel used his late-night platform to continue his assault on the GOP health care bill, firing back at critics including U.S. Sen. Bill Cassidy and "Fox & Friends" co-host Brian Kilmeade.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Wednesday the Republicans' last-resort "Obamacare" repeal effort remains two or three votes short, forecasting days of furious lobbying ahead with a crucial deadline looming next week.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SPRING HILL (AP) — General Motors is laying off the third shift at its Spring Hill, Tennessee, SUV factory as it deals with a slowing U.S. auto market.
DETROIT (AP) — Mercedes-Benz says it will spend $1 billion to expand its Alabama facilities and start production of a new line of fully electric SUVs.
DETROIT (AP) — Tesla Inc. is denying claims that it threatened to fire pro-union workers at its Fremont, California, factory and tried to prevent them from passing out union literature.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
A listless day on Wall Street finished with U.S. stocks eking out small gains Friday, as strength in energy, phone and industrial companies offset losses elsewhere.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A U.S. trade panel has ruled that low-cost solar panels imported from China and other countries have caused serious injury to American manufacturers, raising the possibility of the Trump administration imposing tariffs that could double the price of solar panels from aboard.
NEW YORK (AP) — Would you be OK with letting a stranger into your house for the sake of convenience?
LONDON (AP) — London's transport authority said Friday it won't renew Uber's license to operate in the British capital, arguing that it demonstrates a lack of corporate responsibility with implications in public safety and security.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Prospects are good for a public shaming in the Equifax data breach, but it's unlikely Congress will institute sweeping new regulations after hackers accessed the personal information of an estimated 143 million Americans.
NEW YORK (AP) — Allstate expects insurance losses of about $593 million in August after Hurricane Harvey left a path of destruction along the Gulf Coast.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A healthy gain in the stock market and steadily increasing home prices boosted Americans' household wealth this spring, a trend that likely adds to the nation's inequality.
NEW YORK (AP) — In a world where nearly every investment is rising, so is gold. But a big part of why many investors are buying gold is that they're worried those other investments, such as stocks and bonds, are due for a drop.
NEW YORK (AP) — Toys R Us may have filed for Chapter 11 reorganization, but the toy chain is revving up its holiday hiring.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump on Friday called allegations of Russian election meddling a "hoax," and insisted the media was the "greatest influence" on the 2016 campaign.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Special counsel Robert Mueller's team of investigators is seeking information from the White House related to Michael Flynn's stint as national security adviser and about the response to a meeting with a Russian lawyer that was attended by President Donald Trump's oldest son, The Associated Press has learned.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans plan a retreat away from the Capitol next week to discuss a tax overhaul that congressional leaders have been working on for month.