VOL. 43 | NO. 33 | Friday, August 16, 2019
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
It may be the one thing Tennessee legislators enjoy more than designating official state dogs, rocks and such: authorizing new specialty license plates.
NEWSMAKERS
Benchmark Litigation has selected Lee Adair Floyd, an attorney at Butler Snow, for its 2019 40 & Under Hot List.
BRIEFS
XOi Technologies, a Nashville-field service communication solutions company, has announced the completion of its Series C financing round.
TENNESSEE TITANS
The Tennessee Titans are banking that 2019 will be the year that Corey Davis becomes what is known in league circles as a “WR1.”
Davis said he spent a good portion of the offseason watching Atlanta’s Julio Jones, and then-Pittsburgh Steeler Antonio Brown (presumably only Brown’s on-field antics, and not the sideshow circus off the field).
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Ford’s F-Series has dominated the full-size pickup sales race for as long as anyone can remember. For much of that time, Ram trucks have languished in third place behind the Chevrolet Silverado. But Ram has been steadily winning converts over the past few years, and it just recently leapfrogged Chevy into the No. 2 sales position.
UT SPORTS
A sacrifice would have to be made no matter which option Erin Gilroy chose.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Believing that fraud can’t happen to us — because we’re too smart, logical or informed — may make us more vulnerable. Successful scam artists skillfully overcome our defenses and get us into emotional states that override logical thinking, says Kathy Stokes, AARP’s director of fraud prevention programs.
BUSINESS BOOK REVIEW
Every day of the week, you want to pound your head against your desk.
TUESDAY, AUG. 13
REGION
TOWNSEND, Tenn. (AP) — The Great Smoky Mountains National Park has received what it calls a "priceless" donation of Cades Cove artifacts.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Conservative political commentator and former congressional candidate Steve Gill has been jailed in Tennessee after he allegedly failed to pay $170,000 in child support to his ex-wife as ordered by a judge.
HEALTH CARE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Opponents to a Tennessee law requiring women to wait 48 hours before getting an abortion argue that such restrictions help perpetuate negative stereotypes about gender.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Local health departments in Tennessee are offering free hepatitis A vaccine for people in high-risk groups.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Strong earnings reports from several big retailers helped drive stocks broadly higher on Wall Street Wednesday as the market bounced back from its first loss in four days.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials were widely divided at their meeting last month when they decided to cut rates for the first time in a decade, with some arguing for a bigger rate cut while others insisted the Fed should not cut rates at all.
NEW YORK (AP) — The divide between retail winners and losers is widening.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. job market isn't quite as strong as originally believed — with revised figures showing that the economy had 501,000 fewer total jobs this March than initially reported.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Congressional Budget Office is upping its projections for this year's federal deficit by $63 billion and increasing its forecast for deficits over the next decade by $809 billion.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon is pulling the plug on a billion-dollar, technically troubled project to build a better weapon to destroy incoming missiles. The move is aimed in part at considering new approaches to missile defense at a time of rapid technological change.
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Student loan debt held by disabled veterans will be forgiven under an order signed Wednesday by President Donald Trump.
NEW YORK (AP) — Target topped expectations in just about any way measureable during the second quarter as it pushed faster delivery for customers and invested heavily in new private label brands.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. home sales increased 2.5% in July, a sign that lower mortgage rates have produced a spurt of home-buying.
BEIJING (AP) — Beijing appealed to Washington on Wednesday to "meet China halfway" and end a tariff war after President Donald Trump said Americans might need to endure economic pain to achieve longer-term benefits.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Showing a fresh willingness to play politics along religious lines, President Donald Trump said that American Jewish people who vote for Democrats show "either a total lack of knowledge or great disloyalty."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump acknowledged his aggressive China trade policies may mean economic pain for Americans but insisted they're needed for more important long-term benefits. He contended he does not fear a recession but is nonetheless considering new tax cuts to promote growth.
MONDAY, AUG. 12
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — More women may benefit from gene testing for hereditary breast or ovarian cancer, especially if they've already survived cancer once, an influential health group recommended Tuesday.
TECHNOLOGY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Soon, you could get fewer familiar ads following you around the internet — or at least on Facebook.
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee has announced a nearly $10 million investment by Surface Dynamics LLC to expand its operations in western Tennessee.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — Democrats still shaken by the 2010 tea party wave that netted Republicans six governors' offices, flipped 21 statehouse chambers and drove nearly 700 Democratic state legislators from office are mounting a comeback, pouring millions of dollars into state level races.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks fell broadly on Wall Street Tuesday after another slide in bond yields and a mixed batch of corporate earnings weighed on the market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says his administration is a looking at tax cut proposals but not as a response to a potential recession. He says, "I'm looking at that all the time anyway." Trump talked about the economy and trade with China during a meeting Tuesday in the Oval Office with the president of Romania.
Americans continue to shop, vacation and buy cars at a brisk clip. But corporate America is starting to worry out loud that President Donald Trump's tariffs will depress consumer spending and undermine the economy.
NEW YORK (AP) — Out with the new and in with the old.
Home Depot cut its sales expectations for the year as lumber prices slid and the company braces for the potential impact of tariffs on its customers.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The "fundamentals" of the U.S. economy are solid, the White House asserted, invoking an ill-fated political declaration of a decade ago amid mounting concern that a recession could imperil President Donald Trump's reelection.
FRIDAY, AUG. 16
HEALTH CARE
TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — Drug companies are still raising prices for brand-name prescription medicines, just not as often or by as much as they used to, according to an Associated Press analysis.
MUSIC INDUSTRY
Carrie Underwood, who has hosted the Country Music Association Awards since 2008 with Brad Paisley, is losing her partner-in-crime.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Voter registration groups are asking a judge to block Tennessee's new restrictions for signing up voters from taking effect in October.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Commerce Secretary Wilbur Ross says the U.S. will extend by 90 days the ability of Chinese telecommunications giant Huawei to buy supplies from U.S. companies.
AUTO INDUSTRY
PALO ALTO, Calif. (AP) — Tesla is trying to spark its solar-panel business by letting consumers rent rooftop systems rather than buy them.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Technology companies powered a rally on Wall Street Monday that gave the market its third straight gain.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump is calling on the Federal Reserve to cut interest rates by at least a full percentage point "over a fairly short period of time," saying that such an action would make the U.S. economy even better and would also "greatly and quickly" enhance the global economy.
The shareholder comes first has for years been the mantra of the Business Roundtable, a group representing the most powerful CEOs in America.
BERKELEY HEIGHTS, N.J. (AP) — President Donald Trump dismissed concerns of recession on Sunday and offered an optimistic outlook for the economy after last week's steep drop in the financial markets.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A strong majority, 74%, of U.S. business economists appear sufficiently concerned about the risks of some of President Donald Trump's economic policies that they expect a recession in the U.S. by the end of 2021.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Call it the diplomacy of coercion.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee city of Nashville is piloting a first-in-the-nation program to address homelessness among teenagers and young adults.
COURTS
HOUSTON (AP) — A federal appeals court's ruling Friday will allow the Trump administration to begin rejecting asylum at some parts of the U.S.-Mexico border for migrants who arrived after transiting through a third country.
UT SPORTS
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is the latest Southeastern Conference school to sell alcoholic beverages at upcoming home football games.
TECHNOLOGY
SEATTLE (AP) — Amazon has announced its facial recognition program used by one Washington state police agency can now detect emotion, generating concerns from privacy advocates.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two of President Donald Trump's strongest allies in Congress pushed back Friday on his administration's plans to slash some $4 billion in foreign aid that lawmakers have already approved.
You're not the only one confused about where the economy is headed. Just look at the stock market, where perplexed investors have been sending stocks on a wild ride in August.
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Hundreds of Google employees are calling on the company to pledge it won't work with U.S. Customs and Border Protection or Immigration and Customs Enforcement. It's the latest in a year full of political and social pushback from the tech giant's workforce.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The pace of U.S. home construction fell a sharp 4% in July despite strong demand from would-be buyers, held back by a shortage of skilled labor and affordable land.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
TASIILAQ, Greenland (AP) — Greenlanders are giving Donald Trump the cold shoulder.
NEW YORK (AP) — The Trump administration is appointing a long-time student loan industry executive to be the government's top watchdog for the $1.5 trillion student loan market.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats on the House Judiciary Committee will be returning early from their summer recess to consider gun-violence legislation in the wake of this month's mass shootings in Texas and Ohio.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration has informed Congress it plans to sell F-16 fighters worth $8 billion to Taiwan in a move that will inflame already high tensions with China.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Aiming to put his mark on the world map, President Donald Trump has talked to aides and allies about buying Greenland for the U.S.
JERUSALEM (AP) — Democratic Rep. Rashida Tlaib said Friday she would not visit her grandmother in the occupied West Bank, despite being granted an Israeli permit on humanitarian grounds, saying Israel's "oppressive" conditions aimed to humiliate her.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's encouragement and support of Israel's decision to ban two Democratic lawmakers may play well to his political base, but it could endanger the foundations of the U.S.-Israel relationship in the longer term.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel said Thursday that it will bar two Democratic congresswomen from entering the country ahead of a planned visit over their support for a Palestinian-led boycott movement, a decision announced shortly after President Donald Trump tweeted that it would "show great weakness" to allow them in.
COURTS
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — A panel of judges on Thursday dismissed an appeal by the U.S. government that contended detained immigrant children might not require soap during shorter stints in custody under a longstanding settlement agreement.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee judge says a special prosecutor who's come under fire for making anti-gay and anti-Islam remarks will continue to handle a young black activist's court case.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Stocks around the world remained stuck in the spin cycle Thursday, as worries about a possible recession collided with hopes that the strongest part of the U.S. economy — shoppers spending at stores and online — can keep going.
WASHINGTON (AP) — How fragile is the global economy? The U.S.-China trade war is weakening businesses in both countries, Germany's economy shrank in the second quarter, and Britain appears headed for a disruptive exit from the European Union this fall.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. productivity increased at a decent pace in the second quarter, a trend that could lead to higher wages if it continues.
NEW YORK (AP) — Walmart offered a dose of optimism amid growing concerns over weakening economic growth by raising its annual outlook after a strong second quarter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans spent more at retail stores and restaurants in July, a sign that concerns over weakening economic growth and a persistent trade war that have roiled financial markets have yet to dampen consumer confidence.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. industrial production fell 0.2% in July, as factory activity slumped in a worrisome sign for the economy.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. health officials are making a new attempt at adding graphic images to cigarette packets to discourage and Americans from lighting up. If successful, it would be the first change to U.S. cigarette warnings in 35 years.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Vanderbilt plans to conduct alcohol sales to the general public for home football games this season.