VOL. 45 | NO. 25 | Friday, June 18, 2021
JOE ROGERS: MY TAKE
Clickbait internet teases are generally best avoided, being frequently of the “15 foods you should never eat naked” variety. But they can be tempting. And I couldn’t resist one I came across recently: “Best counties to raise a family in Tennessee,” for various reasons.
RICHARD COURTNEY: REALTY CHECK
Middle Tennessee real estate unit sales increased 24% in May compared to May 2020, Greater Nashville Realtors figures show. With inventory as low as it is, there are those who might wonder how these sales could occur.
REAL ESTATE
Top commercial real estate sales, May 2021, for Davidson County, as compiled by Chandler Reports.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Mortgage rates were mostly lower this week as the economy continued to show signs of recovery from the pandemic recession and recent bursts of inflation were deemed temporary by federal policymakers.
BRIEFS
SVP-Singer Holdings, Inc., with corporate headquarters in La Vergne, has reached a definitive agreement for Platinum Equity to acquire a controlling stake in the company along with its wholly owned subsidiaries.
BEHIND THE WHEEL
New and used car prices remain high as a global semiconductor chip shortage and increased consumer demand have caused a shortage of vehicles on dealer lots. The situation is expected to last many months, making it hard on people who are in need of a car today.
PERSONAL FINANCE
Gwen Merz was fresh out of college in 2014, working an information technology job she hated, when she decided early retirement was the answer. She socked away every dollar she could, saving as much as 70% of her income so that she could quit when she was 35.
CAREER CORNER
Sometimes, the devil really is in the details. This is especially true when it comes to the questions you ask when you’re looking for a job.
MILLENNIAL MONEY
Vaccination rates are climbing, and employers are rolling out back-to-office, back-to-normal plans. But some employees might want a new normal – one that includes flexible scheduling and benefits that align with their needs and values.
UT SPORTS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Freshman nerves? Apparently there's no such thing to Texas relief pitcher Tanner Witt.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee State University is adding an Academic eSports Center that's expected to open on the school's main campus this fall.
COURTS
NEW YORK (AP) — A Chicago bank owner traded $16 million in loans to ex-President Donald Trump's ex-campaign manager in a bid for a prestigious position in Trump's administration, a prosecutor told jurors in an opening statement Wednesday before a defense attorney assured them that the banker committed no crimes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday ruled that the structure of the agency that oversees mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac violates separation of powers principles in the Constitution.
MADRID (AP) — John McAfee, the creator of the McAfee antivirus software, has been found dead in his cell in a jail near Barcelona, a government official told The Associated Press on Wednesday.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday sided with California agriculture businesses in their challenge to a state regulation that gives unions access to farm property in order to organize workers. As a result of the ruling, California will have to modify or abandon the regulation put in place in 1975 after the efforts of labor leader Cesar Chavez.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Wednesday put limits on when police officers pursuing a fleeing suspect can enter a home without a warrant.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In the case of the cursing cheerleader, the Supreme Court notched a victory for the free speech rights of students Wednesday, siding with a high school student whose vulgar social media post got her kicked off the junior varsity squad.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of new homes fell unexpectedly in May and the 5.9% retreat was the second consecutive monthly decline even as the median price hit an all-time high.
AUTO INDUSTRY
CHATTANOOGA (AP) — A company that develops materials for lithium-ion batteries for electric cars and other uses is planning another $160 million investment expected to create 290 more jobs in Tennessee.
MEDIA
Facebook's recommendation algorithm amplifies military propaganda and other material that breaches the company's own policies in Myanmar following a military takeover in February, a new report by the rights group Global Witness says.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Southwest Airlines said Wednesday that longtime CEO Gary Kelly will step down in February and be succeeded by another veteran at the nation's fourth-largest airline.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Airports around the country will share $8 billion in federal grants to help them recover from the pandemic, which caused a steep drop in air travel and a loss of revenue that airports expect from airlines and passengers.
BANKING
NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street's big investment banks are sending a message to their employees this summer: Get back into the office and bring your vaccination card.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
TOKYO (AP) — The Tokyo Olympics, already delayed by the pandemic, are not looking like much fun: Not for athletes. Not for fans. And not for the Japanese public. They are caught between concerns about the coronavirus at a time when few are vaccinated on one side and politicians who hope to save face by holding the games and the International Olympic Committee with billions of dollars on the line on the other.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — A listless day on Wall Street ended with indexes mixed on Wednesday, as nervousness continues to wash out of the market following last week's jolt by the Federal Reserve.
NEW YORK (AP) — The International Brotherhood of Teamsters, a union that represents 1.4 million delivery workers, is setting its sights on Amazon.
NEW YORK (AP) — Small businesses that endured shutdowns and lower revenue during the COVID-19 outbreak now must contend with another crisis: spiking prices for goods and services that squeeze profits and force many owners to pass the increases along to customers.
NEW YORK (AP) — Warren Buffett resigned Wednesday as trustee of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which says it will announce plans in July to answer questions raised about its leadership structure as it deals with the divorce of its two founders.
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Sherry Villanueva's family of Santa Barbara restaurants employed 350 people before the pandemic took hold and darkened dining rooms across California. Now, with the state's economy officially reopened, about 250 workers are back on the job.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A House panel pushed ahead Wednesday with ambitious legislation that could curb the market power of tech giants Facebook, Google, Amazon and Apple and force them to sever their dominant platforms from their other lines of business.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Utah Rep. John Curtis says he's tired of hearing that Republicans — his party colleagues — don't care about climate change or slowing global warming.
WASHINGTON (AP) — When New York Democratic Rep. Mondaire Jones was at the White House for the signing of the proclamation making Juneteenth a national holiday last week, he told President Joe Biden their party needed him more involved in passing voting legislation on the Hill.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A new poll on American attitudes toward a core conflict in the Middle East finds about half of Democrats want the U.S. to do more to support the Palestinians, showing that a growing rift among Democratic lawmakers is also reflected in the party's base.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is announcing new efforts Wednesday to stem a rising national tide of violent crime but questions persist about how effective the federal efforts will be in calming what could be a turbulent summer.
WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is signaling that she is poised to create a new committee to investigate the Jan. 6 insurrection at the Capitol, pushing closer to a partisan investigation of the attack after Senate Republicans blocked the creation of an independent probe.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden plans to lay out new steps to stem a rising national tide of violent crime, with a particular focus on gun violence, as administration officials brace for what they fear could be an especially turbulent summer.
TUESDAY, JUNE 22
VANDERBILT SPORTS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — North Carolina State's postseason just keeps getting better.
NASHVILLE AREA
NASHVILLE (AP) — First lady Jill Biden will travel to Nashville, Tennessee, on Tuesday as part of a national effort to get more Americans vaccinated against COVID-19.
STATEWIDE
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Board of Regents said it has approved a tuition increase for the state's community colleges and technology colleges.
STATE GOVERNMENT
Fifteen Republican governors sent a letter Tuesday to the U.S. Department of Commerce urging that the U.S. Census Bureau release redistricting data as soon as possible, saying further delays would hurt efforts to redraw congressional and legislative districts.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A panel of federal appellate judges on Tuesday reinstated a Tennessee law requiring first-time voters in the state to appear in person to vote, reasoning in part that the COVID-19 pandemic is "unlikely to pose a serious threat during the next election cycle."
WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge dismissed most claims filed by activists and civil liberties groups who accused the Trump administration of violating the civil rights of protesters who were forcefully removed by police before then-President Donald Trump walked to a church near the White House for a photo op.
REAL ESTATE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sales of previously-occupied homes fell for the fourth straight month in May as soaring prices and a limited number of available properties discouraged many would-be buyers.
TRANSPORTATION
Air travel can be difficult in the best of times, with cramped planes, screaming babies, flight delays and short tempers.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — When it was new, the window sticker price on a typical 2019 Toyota Tacoma SR double cab pickup was just under $29,000. Two years later, dealers are paying almost $1,000 more than that to buy the same vehicle, even though it's used.
TOKYO (AP) — Nissan Chief Executive Makoto Uchida pleaded for patience from disgruntled shareholders Tuesday and promised a turnaround at the Japanese automaker, which is projecting a third year of losses as it struggles to distance itself from a scandal over its former chairman, Carlos Ghosn.
TECHNOLOGY
PROVIDENCE, R.I. (AP) — When U.S. law enforcement officials need to cast a wide net for information, they're increasingly turning to the vast digital ponds of personal data created by Big Tech companies via the devices and online services that have hooked billions of people around the world.
HEALTH CARE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Deaths among Medicare patients in nursing homes soared by 32% last year, with two devastating spikes eight months apart, a government watchdog reported Tuesday in the most comprehensive look yet at the ravages of COVID-19 among its most vulnerable victims.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — Roughly 900 U.S. Secret Service employees tested positive for the coronavirus, according to government records obtained by a government watchdog group.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. government is stepping up efforts to get younger Americans vaccinated for COVID-19 as concerns grow about the spread of a new variant that threatens to set the country back in the months ahead.
COVID-19 deaths in the U.S. have dipped below 300 a day for the first time since the early days of the disaster in March 2020, while the drive to put shots in arms hit another encouraging milestone Monday: 150 million Americans fully vaccinated.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks finished higher on Wall Street Tuesday, nudging the S&P 500 closer to the record high it reached last week. The benchmark index added 0.5%.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell on Tuesday responded to concerns from Republican lawmakers about spiking inflation by reiterating his view that current price increases will likely prove temporary.
SALT LAKE CITY (AP) — The number of people stopped from buying guns through the U.S. background check system hit an all-time high of more than 300,000 last year amid a surge of firearm sales, according to new records obtained by the group Everytown for Gun Safety.
GameStop raised more than $1 billion in its latest stock sale, capitalizing on a newly arrived and fervent army of online investors.
BANGKOK (AP) — The U.K. launched negotiations Tuesday to join a trans-Pacific trade bloc as it looks to explore new opportunities following its departure from the European Union and strengthen its strategic interests in Asia.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Proponents of statehood for Washington, D.C., vowed Tuesday to keep pushing even though the prospects were dim as the bill began working its way through the Senate.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democrats' expansive elections and voting bill headed for all but certain rejection late Tuesday in a key Senate test vote, providing a dramatic example of Republicans' use of the filibuster to block legislation and forcing hard questions for Democrats over next steps.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional negotiators and the White House appear open to striking a roughly $1 trillion deal on infrastructure. But they are struggling with the hard part — how to pay for it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The economy is growing at a healthy clip, and that has accelerated inflation, Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell says in written testimony to be delivered Tuesday at a congressional oversight hearing.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Biden administration officials are insisting that the election of a hard-liner as Iran's president won't affect prospects for reviving the faltering 2015 nuclear deal with Tehran. But there are already signs that their goal of locking in a deal just got tougher.
MONDAY, JUNE 21
VANDERBILT SPORTS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Vanderbilt made it to Omaha with a young team, one almost entirely different from the one that won the national championship here in 2019.
UT SPORTS
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — Logan Michaels gave his dad one of the greatest Father's Day gifts imaginable Sunday.
NASHVILLE AREA
Metro Nashville has for the first time surpassed $5 billion in the value of its issued construction permits, Metro Department of Codes officials say.
COURTS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Monday ruled that Congress erred when it set up a board to oversee patent disputes by failing to make the judges properly accountable to the president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court decided unanimously Monday that the NCAA can't enforce rules limiting education-related benefits — like computers and paid internships — that colleges offer to student-athletes, a ruling that could help push changes in how the student-athletes are compensated.
NEW YORK (AP) — In the eyes of the law, pets are property when it comes to divorce, but new ways of working out custody of the dog, cat or parrot have sprung up with special mediators and "petnups" to avoid courtroom disputes.
NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Department of Correction announced it is participating in a service that provides the public with criminal case information and custody status of inmates.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is expected to fall short of his commitment to shipping 80 million COVID-19 vaccine doses abroad by the end of June because of regulatory and other hurdles, officials said as they announced new plans Monday for sharing the shots globally.
TOKYO (AP) — A limited number of local fans will be allowed to attend the Tokyo Olympics, organizers announced Monday as they tried to save some of the spirit of the Games where even cheering has been banned.
JAMSOTI, India (AP) — In Jamsoti, a village tucked deep inside India's most populous state of Uttar Pradesh, the common refrain among the villagers is that the coronavirus spreads only in cities. The deadly infection, they believe, does not exist in villages.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks rebounded on Wall Street Monday and clawed back most of their sharp loss from last week. The S&P 500 snapped 1.4% higher as the initial jolt passed from the Federal Reserve's reminder that it will eventually offer less help for markets. Oil producers, banks and other companies that were hit particularly hard last week made the biggest gains. High-growth tech stocks lagged. Shorter-term yields fell, and longer-term yields rose in another reversal from last week's initial reaction to the Fed's saying it may raise rates twice by late 2023.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Two months of sharply rising prices have raised concerns that record-high government financial aid and the Federal Reserve's ultra-low interest rate policies — when the economy is already surging — have elevated the risk of accelerating inflation.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Federal regulators have brought a complaint against a zinc mining company, claiming that an employee in Tennessee was illegally fired for making safety complaints about the mine.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House sought Monday to raise awareness of the federal government's new expanded child tax credit, which will start paying out monthly in July to families with children who are 17 years old and younger.
BRUSSELS (AP) — The United States, the European Union, Britain and Canada joined forces Monday to impose sanctions on several senior officials in Belarus over the forced diversion to Minsk of a passenger plane travelling between two EU countries last month.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Until recently, the act of governing seemed to happen at the speed of presidential tweets. But now President Joe Biden is settling in for what appears will be a long, summer slog of legislating.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Their countries at crossroads, the new leaders of the United States and Israel have inherited a relationship that is at once imperiled by increasingly partisan domestic political considerations and deeply bound in history and an engrained recognition that they need each other.
FRIDAY, JUNE 18
STATE GOVERNMENT
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee lawmakers are calling for more scrutiny of a Chattanooga shelter for immigrant children after state officials confirmed that an unaccompanied migrant child reported being abused there.
COURTS
KANSAS CITY, Mo. (AP) — A southwest Missouri man has admitted that he threatened U.S. Reps. Emanuel Cleaver II of Missouri and Steve Cohen of Tennessee because he was upset by comments they made.
TOURISM
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee tourism officials have launched a $150,000 ad campaign in and outside the state to help fill leisure and hospitality jobs amid a bounce-back from the COVID-19 pandemic's impact on the industry.
ENVIRONMENT
WASHINGTON (AP) — The head of the Environmental Protection Agency said Thursday he has fully reinstated one of two key advisory boards he dismantled earlier this year in a push for "scientific integrity" at the agency.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is marking another milestone in his quest to bring the COVID-19 pandemic under control and help Americans return to a more normal way of life.
MEMPHIS (AP) — Many Americans are relaxing precautions taken during the COVID-19 pandemic and resuming everyday activities, even as some worry that coronavirus-related restrictions were hastily lifted, a new poll shows.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Stocks sank again on Wall Street Friday, knocking the S&P 500 to its worst weekly loss since February, as more steam comes out of banks and other stocks that soared earlier this year with expectations for the economy and inflation.
Carnival Corp. said Thursday that a data breach in March might have exposed personal information about customers and employees on Carnival Cruise Line, Holland America Line and Princess Cruises.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Gas prices have whizzed past $3 per gallon in much of the nation. The cost of used cars and new furniture, airline tickets, department store blouses, ground beef and a Chipotle burrito are on the rise, too.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Senate is set for a key vote Tuesday on a sweeping rewrite of voting and election law, setting up a dramatic test of Democratic unity on a top priority that Republicans are vowing to block.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court's latest rejection of a Republican effort to dismantle "Obamacare" signals anew that the GOP must look beyond repealing the law if it wants to hone the nation's health care problems into a winning political issue.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is facing a formidable to-do list now that he's back from his summit-filled trip to Europe, with pressing legislative challenges, foreign policy follow-up and a need to steer the country's reopening as the coronavirus threat recedes.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Black Americans rejoiced after President Joe Biden made Juneteenth a federal holiday, but some said that, while they appreciated the recognition at a time of racial reckoning in America, more is needed to change policies that disadvantage too many of their brethren.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand is on the brink of success in her yearslong campaign to get sexual assault cases removed from the military chain of command. But getting over the finish line may depend on whether she can overcome wariness about broader changes she's seeking to the military justice system.
THURSDAY, JUNE 17
TENNESSEE TITANS
NASHVILLE (AP) — The phrase "Pick your poison" has been used a lot to describe the Tennessee offense since the Titans traded for Julio Jones.
COURTS
NASHVILLE (AP) — A former Tennessee doctor who pleaded guilty to unlawfully distributing opioids has been sentenced to three years in prison, the Justice Department said.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Thursday sided with food giants Nestle and Cargill in a lawsuit that claimed they knowingly bought cocoa beans from farms in Africa that used child slave labor.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court, though increasingly conservative in makeup, rejected the latest major Republican-led effort to kill the national health care law known as "Obamacare" on Thursday, preserving insurance coverage for millions of Americans.
WASHINGTON (AP) — In another victory for religious groups at the Supreme Court, the justices on Thursday unanimously sided with a Catholic foster care agency that says its religious views prevent it from working with same-sex couples. The court said the city of Philadelphia wrongly limited its relationship with the group as a result of the agency's policy.
NASHVILLE (AP) — Tennessee's Trial Court Vacancy Commission on Wednesday selected three possible candidates to fill a vacancy in the 19th Judicial Circuit.
NEW YORK (AP) — Prosecutors urged a judge Wednesday to impose a "very substantial" prison sentence on Michael Avenatti for trying to extort millions of dollars from Nike.
KNOXVILLE (AP) — A federal judge declared a mistrial Wednesday in the case of a former University of Tennessee researcher charged with hiding his relationship with a Chinese university while receiving research grants from the federal government.
RELIGION
NASHVILLE (AP) — Delegates at the Southern Baptist Convention's annual meeting voted overwhelmingly Wednesday to create a task force to oversee an independent investigation into the denomination's handling of sexual abuse.
TRANSPORTATION
DALLAS (AP) — Passengers on Southwest Airlines had to deal with canceled flights and delays for a third day on Wednesday, as the airline tried to recover from technology problems that started earlier this week.
AUTO INDUSTRY
DETROIT (AP) — The head of Detroit's big international auto show says it will return to the Motor City next year, but with smaller indoor displays, and more emphasis on experiencing vehicles and technology outside.
Ford's outlook for the second quarter is improving, as the automaker is seeing strong customer reservations for four of its new vehicles.
VIRUS OUTBREAK
WASHINGTON (AP) — The United States is devoting more than $3 billion to advance development of antiviral pills for COVID-19, according to an official briefed on the matter.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan ordered a near-complete lockdown Thursday because of a massive spike in coronavirus cases among employees.
TOKYO (AP) — Japan on Thursday announced the easing of a coronavirus state of emergency in Tokyo and six other areas from next week, with new daily cases falling just as the country begins final preparations for the Olympics starting in just over a month.
TOKYO (AP) — Public sentiment in Japan has been generally opposed to holding the Tokyo Olympics and Paralympics, partly based on fears the coronavirus will spike as almost 100,000 people — athletes and others — enter for both events.
KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — Hati Maronjei once swore he would never get a COVID-19 shot, after a pastor warned that vaccines aren't safe.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL BUSINESS
NEW YORK (AP) — Most stocks ended lower on Wall Street Thursday as investors continued to interpret new guidance from the Federal Reserve, which is now looking at potentially raising interest rates as soon as 2023.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The number of Americans applying for unemployment benefits rose last week for the first time since April despite widespread evidence that the economy and the job market are rebounding steadily from the pandemic recession.
LONDON (AP) — Scotch single malt whisky makers breathed a sigh of relief Thursday after the United States agreed to suspend tariffs on one of Scotland's main exports following the resolution of a long-standing trade row between the U.S. and the EU over subsidies to aircraft companies Boeing and Airbus.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration has sued to block the merger of two of the world's largest insurance brokers, asserting the deal could eliminate competition, raise prices and hamper innovation for U.S. businesses, employers and unions that use the companies' services.
NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL POLITICS
WASHINGTON (AP) — Democrats are eyeing a $6 trillion infrastructure investment plan that goes far beyond roads and bridges to include core party priorities, from lowering the Medicare eligibility age to 60 and adding vision and hearing benefits to incorporating a long-running effort to provide legal status for certain immigrants, including "Dreamers."
Shocked by an Associated Press investigation into the loss and theft of military guns, the Pentagon's top general signaled Thursday that he will consider a "systematic fix" to how the armed services keep account of their firearms.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden spent his first trip overseas highlighting a sharp break from his disruptive predecessor, selling that the United States was once more a reliable ally with a steady hand at the wheel. European allies welcomed the pitch — and even a longtime foe acknowledged it.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden's first overseas trip put his diplomatic and negotiating philosophy on display, as he rallied traditional U.S. democratic allies to confront new and old challenges and offered an often rosy take on the possibilities of cooperation with Russian President Vladimir Putin after a one-on-one summit.
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden signed legislation Thursday establishing a new federal holiday commemorating the end of slavery, saying he believes it will go down as one of the greatest honors he has as president.
WASHINGTON (AP) — A bipartisan senators' group working on a $1 trillion infrastructure compromise more than doubled in size to 21 members Wednesday, a key threshold that gives momentum to their effort as President Joe Biden returns from overseas at a pivotal time for his big legislative priority.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Democratic-led House, with the backing of President Joe Biden, is expected to approve legislation to repeal the 2002 authorization for use of military force in Iraq, a step supporters say is necessary to constrain presidential war powers even though it is unlikely to affect U.S. military operations around the world.
WASHINGTON (AP) — Both Republican and Democratic senators pressed Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for answers Wednesday after a federal court blocked the Biden administration's suspension of new oil and gas leases on federal lands and waters.
WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department is warning Missouri officials that the state can't ignore federal law, after the governor signed a bill last week that bans police from enforcing federal gun rules.