VOL. 41 | NO. 14 | Friday, April 7, 2017
TIM GHIANNI: STREET LEVEL
Other than the time I interviewed Al McGuire about Magic Johnson while we used the facilities during a March Madness regional round 38 years ago in Murfreesboro, I don’t usually write about visiting the bathroom.
PREDATORS
In his first year as president of the Nashville Predators, Sean Henry recalls walking into an organizational meeting that included general manager David Poile.
In a matter of days, the Nashville Predators will hit the ice for the start of the 2016-17 National Hockey League playoffs.
DAVID CLIMER: OUT OF LEFT FIELD
The NFL Draft is fast approaching, which raises an interesting question: Is this the year the Titans finally shop locally and target Southeastern Conference talent?
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Yes, the spring real estate market is here and is better/worse than ever, depending on whether the situation is viewed from the perspective of the buyer or the seller.
NEWSMAKERS
The Nashville Health Care Council has promoted Katie Schlacter to senior director of communications and content strategy.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
Chevrolet has given its popular Trax a more contemporary look, a new instrument panel and more safety features for 2017, and the early reviews are good, as it continues to set U.S. sales records in the fast-growing small SUV market.
GUERRILLA MARKETING
It’s a Catch-22 type of situation. You need to put your business out there in this age of social media, but in doing so, you open yourself up to criticism, bad reviews and the like.
CAREER CORNER
Things move fast in the business world. You write a business proposal, seek approval and move on to your next project.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee Senate panel has voted down legislation to make it a felony to deface someone's property, or hurt or threaten injury on someone based on their political beliefs.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Nashville Mayor Megan Barry has announced a program intended to help provide housing for working people of various incomes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The former director of the Davidson County Animal Shelter has pleaded guilty to animal cruelty charges.
STATEWIDE
MARYVILLE (AP) — Handgun maker SCCY Industries has announced it will move its factory and headquarters to new 68-acre campus in East Tennessee.
AUTO INDUSTRY
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Austin Russell, now 22, was barely old enough to drive when he set out to create a safer navigation system for robot-controlled cars. His ambitions are about to be tested.
DETROIT (AP) — Hydrogen fuel cell cars could one day challenge electric cars in the race for pollution-free roads — but only if more stations are built to fuel them.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes are wavering between small gains and losses in morning trading Thursday as investors size up earnings from several major banks and new economic data. Technology stocks led the gainers, while energy companies were down the most. Trading was light ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend.
Miss Kindergarten is in the million-dollar club. So are Lovin Lit, the Moffatt Girls and about a dozen other teacher-entrepreneurs who are spinning reading, math, science and social studies into gold by selling their lesson plans online to fellow teachers around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Fewer Americans sought unemployment benefits last week, which is evidence of a stable job market and greater security for workers.
PARIS (AP) — The International Energy Agency expects growth in the global demand for crude oil to slow for a second consecutive year in 2017.
WEDNESDAY, APRIL 12
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam's proposal to boost transportation funding in large part through a hike in Tennessee's fuel taxes is headed for a full floor vote in the state Senate.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee lawmaker is questioning the attorney general for describing parts of his abortion ban bill as "constitutionally suspect."
House Speaker Beth Harwell says she believes it’s important to have a transportation funding plan counter to Gov. Bill Haslam’s gas tax/tax cut act after House Republican Caucus members voted to oppose the governor’s idea.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A bill that had sought to make the names of people who refused to pay traffic camera fines confidential has been withdrawn for the year.
Gov. Bill Haslam’s transportation funding/tax cut bill raced ahead of a measure backed by House Speaker Beth Harwell in the House Finance, Ways and Means Committee on Tuesday. But the battle isn’t done.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Republican bill in Tennessee that would exempt churches from having to report campaign spending on "public or private morality" has been withdrawn.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State Troopers arrested at least two of the 11 demonstrators who called for Medicaid expansion during a sit-in in the governor's office.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — Federal prosecutors say a man who scammed his way into getting an insurance company to ship out nearly 2,500 fraudulently obtained cellphones has been sentenced to serve more than five years in prison.
AUTO INDUSTRY
NEW YORK (AP) — Fred Croatti often drives his silver Dodge Charger Hellcat to the grocery store, turning heads as he rumbles through the parking lot with a supercharged 6.2-Liter 707-horsepower engine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
Industrial and materials companies led U.S. stocks modestly lower Wednesday on another day of subdued trading ahead of the long Easter holiday weekend.
CHICAGO (AP) — The chief executive of United Airlines said the carrier will no longer ask police to remove passengers from full flights after the uproar over a man who was dragged off a plane by airport officers in Chicago.
NEW YORK (AP) — The results of a staff survey jolted Alex Slater into realizing how drastically his business needed a culture change.
NEW YORK (AP) — If you can't afford to pay your student loan bill, don't blow it off. There are steps that you can take that may save you from financial ruin.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government ran a budget deficit in March that was sharply higher than a year ago because of special factors.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Almost 1,500 economists have addressed a letter to President Donald Trump and top congressional leaders stressing the importance of immigrants for economic growth.
GENEVA (AP) — The World Trade Organization is predicting an uptick in global trade this year and next after a lackluster 2016, while cautioning that uncertainty about policies like protectionism and anti-globalization present risks to its forecast.
CHICAGO (AP) — After people were horrified by video of a passenger getting dragged off a full United Express flight by airport police, the head of United's parent company said the airline was reaching out to the man to "resolve this situation."
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Backing away from a campaign pledge, President Donald Trump says his administration will not label China a currency manipulator in a report due this week, though he does feel the U.S. dollar "is getting too strong."
WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government hiring freeze implemented by President Donald Trump as one of his first acts in office will be lifted Wednesday. But budget director Mick Mulvaney says many jobs will remain unfilled as the White House embarks on a government-wide effort to overhaul the executive branch and significantly reduce its workforce.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Last August, a handwritten ledger surfaced in Ukraine with dollar amounts and dates next to the name of Paul Manafort, who was then Donald Trump's campaign chairman.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI obtained a secret court order last summer to monitor the communications of Carter Page, an adviser to then-candidate Donald Trump, because the government had reason to believe Page was acting as a Russian agent, The Washington Post has reported.
TUESDAY, APRIL 11
STATE LEGISLATURE
Karla Meza dreams of enrolling in the University of Tennessee Law School after growing up in Knoxville and watching college students walk along Cumberland Avenue.
Rep. Antonio Parkinson’s bill designed to cut felony charges for possession of small amounts of marijuana didn’t exactly light up the House Monday evening.
NASHVILLE (AP) — An effort to strip a proposed gas tax hike from Gov. Bill Haslam's plan to boost transportation funding in Tennessee is scheduled for a vote in a key House committee on Tuesday.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Twenty-four large companies would reap about half of the savings of a $113 million corporate tax cut proposed by Republican Gov. Bill Haslam's administration.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Ahead of an expected committee vote, several conservative Tennessee representatives are decrying a push by fellow Republicans to offer in-state tuition rates to public college students whose parents brought them to the country illegally.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee legislature on Monday passed a bill that could make it easier for rural areas to get access to the internet amid concerns that it doesn't do enough to get high-speed access across the state.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump claimed direct credit Tuesday for Toyota's new investment in a Kentucky plant, calling it new evidence of economic improvement in a White House discussion with CEOs. The company says the move was planned long before Trump even announced he was running for president.
JACKSON, Miss. (AP) — Federal labor regulators have added to charges to a complaint that Nissan Motor Co. and a contract worker agency at Nissan's Mississippi plant have violated workers' rights.
DETROIT (AP) — President Donald Trump's relentless push for more manufacturing jobs has forced the auto industry into a delicate dance of contradictions in order to keep him happy, tell the truth, and avoid alienating customers in both red and blue states.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
The major U.S. stock indexes barely budged Tuesday on another day of mostly light trading ahead of the Easter holiday weekend.
NEW YORK (AP) — Google said it's "taken aback " by the government's claim that it doesn't compensate women fairly.
WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. employers posted more open positions in February, but the number of people getting hired and the number quitting jobs fell. The overall figures suggest that the job market remains healthy, although it has yet to take off during the early stages of the Trump presidency.
CHICAGO (AP) — The man dragged from a full United Express flight by airport police in Chicago is a Kentucky physician who was convicted more than a decade ago of felony charges involving his prescribing of drugs and spent years trying to regain his medical license.
BEIJING (AP) — Images of a bloodied man being forcibly removed from a United Airlines flight in Chicago drew widespread condemnation in China, where state media fueled the public's anger with reports that noted the unidentified victim was an "Asian passenger."
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — As a top aide to Florida's attorney general, Carlos G. Muniz helped defend the office's decision to sit out legal action against Trump University. Now the president is naming him to be the top lawyer in the U.S. Education Department.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate's top Democrat said Tuesday that President Donald Trump's refusal to release his tax returns is going to make this year's promised overhaul of the tax code "much harder."
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump promised "pleasant surprises" from planned renegotiations of the decades-old North American Free Trade Agreement. Trump spoke at a White House meeting Tuesday with business leaders who are part of his strategic and policy forum.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump says he gave his Chinese counterpart Xi Jinping an ultimatum in their meeting last week: solve the North Korea crisis and you'll get a good trade deal.
MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Alabama Republicans who pledged honest government when they won control of the state now have what might be their toughest job yet: picking up the pieces after a third top GOP leader was run out of office in only nine months.
MONDAY, APRIL 10
STATE LEGISLATURE
State Sen. Lee Harris is calling on the Legislature to rethink its stance on refugees amid legal action taken against the federal government after President Donald Trump ordered an air strike against Syria.
Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris gets revved up when he talks about the IMPROVE Act as a tax-cutting and bridge-safety measure. It’s a message he’s been sending for weeks, yet other lawmakers aren’t catching on.
Twenty states already offer cheaper in-state college tuition to students who are in the United States illegally. Legislation making its way through the Tennessee Legislature would make that state the 21st.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Gov. Bill Haslam and his wife, Crissy, are hosting their seventh annual Easter egg role at the governor's mansion on Monday.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Supreme Court has sided with police who found a methamphetamine lab on the property of man who posted a "no trespassing" sign near his driveway.
AUTO INDUSTRY
LOUISVILLE, Ky. (AP) — Toyota said Monday it is investing $1.3 billion to retool its sprawling factory in Georgetown, Kentucky, where the company's flagship Camry sedans are built.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Move over, "Obamacare." The health care debate has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don't like what they see.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Something new is happening in a health care debate dominated for seven years by the twists and turns of Barack Obama's signature law. The focus has shifted to ideas from President Donald Trump and GOP lawmakers in Congress, and most people don't like what they see.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
U.S. stock indexes closed barely higher, led by gains in energy companies as the price of crude oil rose for the fifth day in a row.
WASHINGTON (AP) — "Fake news" is not limited to presidential politics and conspiracy theories. Investors also have to be on the alert for stock promotions masquerading as unbiased reports online.
NEW YORK (AP) — The New York Daily News and ProPublica won the Pulitzer Prize for public service Monday for uncovering how police abused eviction rules to oust hundreds of people, mostly poor minorities, from their homes.
The 2017 Pulitzer Prize winners and finalists:
NEW YORK (AP) — An investigation into sales practices at Wells Fargo released Monday has blamed the bank's top management for creating an "aggressive sales culture" that led to a scandal involving millions of unauthorized accounts being opened.
CHICAGO (AP) — Video of police officers dragging a passenger from an overbooked United Airlines flight sparked an uproar Monday on social media, and a spokesman for the airline insisted that employees had no choice but to contact authorities to remove the man.
United Airlines booted 3,765 passengers off flights last year just because it sold more tickets than there were seats on the plane, but none of those got as much attention as the man who was dragged off a plane in Chicago over the weekend.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has scrapped the tax plan he campaigned on and is going back to the drawing board in a search for Republican consensus behind legislation to overhaul the U.S. tax system.
FRIDAY, APRIL 7
MIDSTATE
The Nashville Symphony will play seven free concerts in three weeks this summer in Davidson, Williamson, Sumner, Wilson and Macon County parks.
STATE LEGISLATURE
NASHVILLE (AP) — University officials who fired a Chattanooga public radio reporter for not identifying herself in sessions with Tennessee lawmakers were worried about losing state funding if they didn't take action, according to emails obtained by The Associated Press.
Legislation designed to lower the cost of oral chemotherapy will have to wait until next year.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's attorney general is questioning the constitutionality of a bill banning most abortions after 20 weeks.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Senate has passed a bill eliminating background check requirements when gun dealers occasionally sell from their personal firearm collections.
NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee bill that would outlaw and block funding for immigrant-protecting sanctuary cities is dead for the year.
STATEWIDE
MEMPHIS (AP) — A Tennessee Attorney General opinion has left some Achievement School District students in limbo.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — Tennessee is preparing to replace most of the roughly 1,700 guardrails tied to deaths both there and in other states.
AUTO INDUSTRY
TOKYO (AP) — Japanese automaker Honda said Friday it was recalling 37,000 vehicles in the U.S. to check if replacement air bags contain the recalled Takata inflators that may have been installed prior to the massive Takata recalls last year.
DETROIT (AP) — Hyundai and Kia are recalling nearly 1.2 million cars and SUVs because the engines can fail and stall, increasing the risk of a crash.
DETROIT (AP) — Used car prices are falling, U.S. sales are off to a slow start, car inventories are growing and interest rates are on the rise. Still, General Motors is sticking to its profit forecast.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Long-term U.S. mortgage rates fell this week for a third straight week, approaching their low points for the year.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican health care bill remained in shambles Thursday as House leaders threw up their hands and sent lawmakers home for a two-week recess. GOP chiefs announced a modest amendment to curb premium increases, but internal divisions still blocked their promised repeal of former President Barack Obama's law.
TECHNOLOGY
NEW YORK (AP) — Google will expand the use of "fact check" tags in its search results — the tech industry's latest effort to combat false and misleading news stories.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stocks never got going Friday after a slightly disappointing jobs report and word of U.S. missile strikes against Syria. Investors bought shares of defense contractors and stocks that are traditionally considered safe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers stepped up their borrowing in February as a rebound in the use of credit cards offset a slowdown in auto and student loans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. jobs report for March delivered a mixed message Friday as hiring fell to its weakest pace in nearly a year. Yet at the same time, the unemployment rate reached the lowest level in nearly a decade.
BERLIN (AP) — Global investments in renewable energy fell by almost a quarter in 2016 amid a drop in prices and lower spending in some markets, according to a U.N.-backed report published Thursday.
NATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate confirmed Neil Gorsuch to become the newest associate justice on the Supreme Court Friday, elevating Donald Trump's nominee following a corrosive partisan confrontation that could have lasting impacts for the Senate and the court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Amid measured support for the U.S. cruise missile attack on a Syrian air base, some vocal Republicans and Democrats are reprimanding the White House for launching the strike without first getting congressional approval.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. missile strikes Thursday on a Syrian air base were conducted without formal congressional approval. Some questions and answers about how and why presidents can conduct military action without permission from the 535 representatives of the American people.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Republicans invoked the "nuclear option" in the Senate Thursday, unilaterally rewriting the chamber's rules to allow President Donald Trump's nominee to ascend to the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is poised to "go nuclear." Republicans and Democrats are on a collision course over Neil Gorsuch, President Donald Trump's nominee to the Supreme Court.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats had hoped the one big policy area they could find common ground with President Donald Trump on was infrastructure, but they don't like what they're hearing from administration officials about the transportation portion of the plan that's still in the works.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Republican chairman is stepping aside from leading a congressional investigation of Russian interference in last year's U.S. presidential election, citing ethics complaints that he mishandled classified information.
NEW YORK (AP) — Volkswagen of America's CEO says he's confident the brand's sales will recover from a diesel emissions cheating scandal as it rolls out new SUVs for the U.S.