News - Friday, January 3, 2025

A modern-day Nashville commute can be crazy-making on the best of days.

Yet last fall, as Dan Rogers made his way along Briley Parkway toward one of the city’s most enduring venues, he felt a surprising amount of calm.

As the senior vice president and executive producer of the Grand Ole Opry, Rogers was at the center of the planning for the venerated radio broadcast and stage show’s 100th anniversary in 2025, and they were just about to release the first set of plans for what would be an ambitious celebration.

As Anna Frierson was exiting the polling location where she’d voted in Hamilton County’s 2024 election for circuit court judge, her father, Jim Frierson, asked her for the name of the candidate who’d received her vote.

“Alex McVeigh!” came Anna’s unhesitant reply, the elder Frierson recalls.

Attorneys Alexander Blankers and Isabelle Thibault have joined the roster at Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel. The new associates will support a variety of the firm’s practice areas, including business, health care, litigation and risk management and real estate.

As 2024 draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on a year of growth, challenges and incredible accomplishments.

When I stepped into the role of president for Greater Chattanooga Realtors, I was inspired by the idea of “Igniting Others,” as championed by the National Association of Realtors. This concept of sparking action and making a meaningful impact has guided not only my leadership but also the collective efforts of our association.

In 1893, writer Katharine Lee Bates stood at the apex of Pikes Peak in Colorado and beheld a view that inspired her to write the poem that would become the song “America the Beautiful.”

“All the wonder of America seemed displayed there with sea-like expanse,” history records Bates as noting.

Have you ever thought about how much you have to protect? Between your family, your finances, your independence and your legacy, it can be quite a lot – and that’s why it’s important to have the right protection plan in place.

Let’s look at these areas of need and some possible protection solutions:

Spears, Moore, Rebman & Williams is expanding its leadership team with the promotion of Christopher Ramsey to shareholder.

Ramsey is a Chattanooga native and McCallie School alumnus. He graduated magna cum laude from the University of Georgia with a degree in history. Ramsey then continued his education at the University of Georgia School of Law, where he joined the editorial board of the Journal of Intellectual Property Law.

It happens every year about this time: Whatever gym I’m going to suddenly becomes overpopulated with people I’ve never seen before.

“Resolutionaries,” my Ledger colleague Lucas Hendrickson called them in an article two Januarys ago. I’ve always called them “resolutionists,” but either term serves: People who have resolved to get in better physical shape for the New Year.

Decisions, decisions. After this weekend’s developments around the NFL, the Tennessee Titans might finally find some sort of reward for this season’s consistent futility.

After losing to four-win Jacksonville for the second time this season – and thanks to the New York Giants’ shocking upset of the Indianapolis Colts – the Titans now find themselves holding the No. 2 overall pick in next year’s draft.

The University of Tennessee men’s basketball team will begin SEC play ranked No. 1 in the country. If the Vols end SEC play in the same spot, they will have earned it.

The SEC is clearly the strongest conference in the nation in men’s basketball this season by nearly every metric. The SEC has 10 teams in the Associated Press Top 25 poll, including five – Tennessee (1), Auburn (2), Alabama (5), Florida (6), Kentucky (10) – in the top 10. All 16 teams in the expanded conference appear in the top 68 in Ken Pomeroy’s adjusted-efficiency rankings.

Just about everyone has a car they wish they could own, and there’s no better time than the holidays to make a list of vehicles you’d love to have in your driveway.

The car pros at Edmunds rounded up five of their favorite dream-worthy vehicles. But rather than just list the most outlandish and expensive exotics, they focused on highlighting models that are expensive but not so pricy that it’d be completely unrealistic for you to own one day. The vehicles are ordered in ascending order of price and include destination fees.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The FBI now says that the pickup truck driver responsible for a deadly rampage in New Orleans acted alone.

Officials said Wednesday that they were seeking additional potential suspects in an attack being investigated as an act of terrorism.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Investigators were looking into whether others were involved in the rampage that killed 15 people and injured dozens when the driver of a pickup truck sped through a crowd of pedestrians in New Orleans' bustling French Quarter district early on New Year's Day.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. mortgage rates rose this week to the highest level since July.

The benchmark 30-year fixed rate loan rate rose to 6.91% from 6.85% last week, according to mortgage giant Freddie Mac. It was at 6.62% a year ago.

The uptick in the cost of home loans reflects a rise in the bond yields that lenders use as a guide to price mortgages. The increase is occurring with the price of homes rising steadily.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Just days after Tennessee announced it had a new manual for executing death row inmates, the state's top prison officials said they aren't going to release the document to the public.

The Tennessee Department of Correction last week told The Associated Press to file a public records request to obtain a copy of the latest execution manual, known as a protocol. However, the agency this week denied the AP's request, saying it needs to keep the entire document secret to protect the identities of the executioner and other people involved.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — The U.S. Army veteran who drove a pickup truck into a crowd of New Year's revelers acted alone, the FBI said Thursday, reversing its position from a day earlier that he likely worked with others in the deadly attack that officials said was inspired by the Islamic State group.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — The person inside the Tesla Cybertruck that burst into flames outside President-elect Donald Trump's Las Vegas hotel suffered a gunshot to the head before the explosion, officials said Thursday.

Clark County Sheriff Kevin McMahill said at a news conference that a handgun was found at the feet of the man who's been identified as Matthew Livelsberger. Officials believe the shot was self-inflicted.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mike Johnson is fighting for his political life, again.

The Louisiana Republican's hold on the House speaker's gavel and his position as second in line to the presidency will be tested Friday when a new Congress convenes and House Republicans weigh whether to reelect him to the post.

The New York Jets were scheduled to interview former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel on Friday for their head coaching vacancy, a person with knowledge of the situation told The Associated Press.

Vrabel will be the second known coaching candidate to meet with the Jets, who spoke to former Washington and Carolina coach Ron Rivera on Thursday.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Houston coach DeMeco Ryans is balancing the need to keep his Texans healthy for their AFC wild-card playoff game against the desire to knock off rust after a long break leading into Sunday's regular-season finale.

A little good mojo certainly would help going into the postseason. The Texans also have lost two straight since clinching a second straight AFC South title.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal courts will not refer allegations that Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas may have violated ethics laws to the Justice Department, the judiciary's policymaking body said Thursday.

Thomas has agreed to follow updated requirements on reporting trips and gifts, including clearer guidelines on hospitality from friends, the U.S. Judicial Conference wrote to Democratic senators who had called for an investigation into undisclosed acceptance of luxury trips.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Alcohol is a leading cause of cancer, a risk that should be clearly labeled on drinks Americans consume, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy proposed on Friday.

Murthy's advisory comes as research and evidence mounts about the bad effects that alcohol has on human health.

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — A mix of law enforcement, street performers and football fans has filled New Orleans' blocks as the city inches back to normalcy while mourning victims of the deadly New Year's rampage in which an Army veteran plowed a truck into revelers.

BEAUMONT, Texas (AP) — Shamsud-Din Jabbar grew up in Texas, joined the U.S. Army and eventually settled in Houston, where he spun up a real estate business and made $120,000 a year for one of the world's largest consulting firms.

But the 42-year-old U.S. citizen, who authorities say plowed a rented truck through New Year's revelers in New Orleans before being shot and killed by police, also faced pressures. He finalized a third divorce in 2022, saying in filings he couldn't pay his mortgage and his business was losing money.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has rejected the nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel — affirming his earlier vow to block the acquisition of Steeltown USA's most storied steel company.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The new Congress has opened with one major task at hand — the election of the House speaker.

Newly-elected lawmakers are in place at the U.S. Capitol but current Speaker Mike Johnson's weak grip on the gavel threatens not only his own survival but President-elect Donald Trump's ambitious agenda of tax cuts and mass deportations as Republicans sweep to power in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — On Feb. 15, 1951, Army Pvt. Bruno R. Orig was returning from a mission when he found his fellow soldiers under attack in what's now known as the Battle of Chipyong-ni.

The infantryman provided first aid to his comrades wounded in the Korean War attack and began helping move those men to safety. He then took over a machine gun post and allowed a friendly platoon to pull back without a casualty. When the ground was recaptured later that day, Orig was found dead beside the machine gun, surrounded by enemy combatants he had killed.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A majority of Republicans say they are confident in the 2024 vote count after Donald Trump's win, according to a new poll that finds a sharp turnaround from GOP voters' skepticism about U.S. elections after the president-elect spent four years lying about his loss to President Joe Biden.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Will Levis will start at quarterback for the Tennessee Titans in their regular-season finale Sunday against the Houston Texans.

First-year coach Brian Callahan made the announcement Friday that Levis will make his 12th start this season, returning to the lineup after being benched for veteran Mason Rudolph the past two games. Levis was removed from the lineup after his fourth turnover, a pick-6 in a loss to Cincinnati on Dec. 15, and has not played since.

The New York Jets interviewed former Tennessee Titans coach Mike Vrabel on Friday for their head coaching vacancy.

Vrabel is the second known coaching candidate to meet with the Jets, who announced they completed their interview with him. New York also spoke to former Washington and Carolina coach Ron Rivera on Thursday.

NEW YORK (AP) — The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau has sued Walmart and work scheduling platform Branch Messenger for allegedly forcing delivery drivers that are part of the discounter's gig program to use costly deposit accounts to get paid and mispresented how they could access their wages.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden has blocked the nearly $15 billion proposed deal for Nippon Steel of Japan to purchase Pittsburgh-based U.S. Steel — affirming his earlier vow on the presidential campaign trail to prevent the acquisition of Steeltown USA's most storied steel company.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Republican Mike Johnson narrowly won reelection Friday to the House speakership on a first ballot, overcoming hard-right GOP holdouts after a tense standoff and buoyed by a nod of support from President-elect Donald Trump.

The uneasy scene brought an ominous start to the first day of the new Congress. A small collection of hardline Republicans convened in the back of the House chamber, one by one declining to vote or choosing another lawmaker. Johnson's face turned grim, acknowledging fresh turmoil and signaling trouble ahead under unified GOP control of Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — New Senate Majority Leader John Thune is kicking off the new session with a promise to preserve the filibuster, saying in his first floor speech as leader that his priority will be to "ensure the Senate stays the Senate."

Thune, R-S.D., and Senate Republicans are taking power on Friday a little more than two weeks before Donald Trump will be inaugurated, cementing a firm GOP hold on Washington. And Thune will have to navigate his new responsibilities along with the new president, who has made clear he expects allegiance from Congress – and has previously called for eliminating the filibuster.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Houston Texans gave what coach DeMeco Ryans wanted from their trip to Music City.

Leave with a win and a healthy roster before hosting an AFC wild-card game.

C.J. Stroud completed all six of his passes for 50 yards and a touchdown Sunday on the Texans' opening drive before going to the bench as Houston snapped a two-game skid with a 23-14 victory over the Tennessee Titans.

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Monday moved to indefinitely postpone this week's sentencing in his hush money case as he appeals a ruling that upheld the verdict and put him on course to be the first president to take office convicted of crimes.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nippon Steel and U.S. Steel filed a federal lawsuit Monday challenging a Biden administration decision to block Nippon's proposed $15 billion acquisition of the Pittsburgh company and said that the head of the Steelworkers union and a rival steelmaker worked together to scuttle the buyout.

WASHINGTON (AP) — It's the largest prosecution in Justice Department history — with reams of evidence, harrowing videos and hundreds of convictions of the rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021. Now Donald Trump's return to power has thrown into question the future of the more than 1,500 federal cases brought over the last four years.

NEW YORK (AP) — The man who drove a truck into a crowd of people in New Orleans on New Year's Day, killing 14, had previously scouted the French Quarter and recorded video with his Meta smart glasses, the FBI said.

On Oct. 31, Shamsud-Din Jabbar recorded video with the glasses as he cycled through the French Quarter and plotted the attack, said Lyonel Myrthil, FBI special agent in charge of the New Orleans field office. Jabbar also wore the glasses, which are capable of livestreaming, during the attack, but did not activate them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.

OMAHA, Neb. (AP) — The federal Consumer Financial Protection Bureau says in a lawsuit that a unit of Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway "ignored clear and obvious red flags" that borrowers couldn't afford the mortgages they were given to buy manufactured homes from another Berkshire company.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Federal Reserve's top financial regulator said Monday that he would resign next month, avoiding a potential confrontation with the incoming Trump administration and Republicans in the Senate.

Fed governor Michael Barr said in a letter to President Joe Biden that he would step down as vice chair of supervision Feb. 28, or earlier if a successor was confirmed. Yet Barr said he would remain on the Fed's board of governors.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau plans to announce his resignation Monday, an official said, in the face of rising discontent over his leadership, and after the abrupt departure of his finance minister signaled growing turmoil within his government.

BANGKOK (AP) — China has slammed a decision by the U.S. Treasury to sanction a Beijing-based cybersecurity company for its alleged role in multiple hacking incidents targeting critical U.S. infrastructure, while the Chinese cyber security agency complained Monday of attacks on Chinese networks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is taking a message to the grieving families of victims in the deadly New Year's attack in New Orleans: "It takes time. You got to hang on."

Biden on Monday will visit the city where an Army veteran drove a truck into revelers in the French Quarter, killing 14 and injuring 30 more. It's likely to be the last time Biden travels to the scene of a horrific crime as president to console families of victims. He has less than two weeks left in office.

WASHINGTON (AP) — As Congress convenes during a winter storm to certify President-elect Donald Trump's election, the legacy of Jan. 6 hangs over the proceedings with an extraordinary fact: The candidate who tried to overturn the previous election won this time and is legitimately returning to power.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday is set to preside over the certification of her defeat to Donald Trump four years after he tried to stop the very process that will now return him to the White House.

In a video message, Harris described her role as a "sacred obligation" to ensure the peaceful transfer of power.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden on Sunday called on incoming Democratic lawmakers who will govern in the minority to always be mindful of other people's perspectives — even when they may be wrong.

At a reception meant to welcome new, mostly young, Democratic lawmakers to Washington, the nation's oldest and outgoing Democratic president — reflective as he shared some war stories of his past and pointed to challenges ahead — urged the new generation of legislators to listen and work across the aisle.

Tennessee tightened its grip on No. 1 in the AP Top 25 on Monday following a pair of lopsided wins, including one over SEC rival Arkansas, that left the Volunteers as the only undefeated team in men's Division I college basketball.

The Vols picked up four more first-place votes and had 45 of 60 from the national panel to remain atop the poll for the fifth straight week. Auburn earned the other 15 first-place nods and stayed at No. 2, while Iowa State, Duke and Alabama rounded out a top five that was unchanged following the first week of conference play for many leagues around the country.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans are embarrassed, angry and a bit relieved the season is over after the promise bolstered by one of the NFL's biggest offseason spending sprees disappeared into a 3-14 record and the No. 1 overall pick in the NFL draft next April.

NASHVILLE (AP) — A Tennessee law requiring pornographic websites to verify their visitors' age was largely blocked in court before it was to take effect Jan. 1, even as similar laws kicked in for Florida and South Carolina and remained in effect for more than a dozen other states.

NEW YORK (AP) — CES, the annual trade show of all things tech, is upon us. The multi-day event, organized by the Consumer Technology Association, kicks off this week in Las Vegas — where swaths of the latest gadgets and advances across industries like personal tech, transportation, health care, sustainability and more are set to be on display. And, like last year, artificial intelligence is everywhere you look.

TORONTO (AP) — Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau announced his resignation Monday after nearly a decade in power, bowing to rising discontent over his leadership and growing turmoil within his government signaled by the abrupt departure of his finance minister.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congress certified President-elect Donald Trump as the winner of the 2024 election in proceedings that unfolded Monday without challenge, in stark contrast to the Jan. 6, 2021, violence as his mob of supporters stormed the Capitol.

WASHINGTON (AP) — There was no drama on Monday as Kamala Harris oversaw the ceremonial certification of her defeat to Donald Trump. The vice president kept her remarks perfunctory, and she stood with her hands clasped in front of her while the results from each state were read out loud.

NASHVILLE (AP) — General manager Ran Carthon paid the price for the Tennessee Titans going 9-25 in his two seasons.

The Titans introduced Carthon as the franchise's first Black general manager in January 2023, and he helped the franchise hire a new coach in Brian Callahan a year later. A year after that, Carthon was fired.

Chaz Lanier of Tennessee is the AP men's college basketball player of the week. He is the second straight player from the top-ranked Vols to take home the award after Zakai Zeigler on New Year's Eve.

Lanier had 24 points in a win over Norfolk State, then had five 3-pointers and 29 points in a 76-52 rout of then-No. 23 Arkansas in his SEC debut.

The SEC spent the first couple weeks of the men's college basketball season beating up on the rest of the nation, and the result was No. 1 Tennessee and second-ranked Auburn leading nine teams from the league into this week's AP Top 25.

Now, after opening up conference play last weekend, they begin to beat each other up in earnest.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge has temporarily blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on investigations into President-elect Donald Trump as an appeals court weighs a challenge.

U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon made the ruling Tuesday, the morning after an emergency request by defense lawyers to stop the Justice Department from making the report public — a step that Smith had said could come as early as Friday.

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump tried again Tuesday to delay this week's sentencing in his hush money case, asking a New York appeals court to intervene as he fights to avoid the finality of his conviction before he returns to the White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Pentagon said Monday it had transferred 11 Yemeni men to Oman this week after holding them for more than two decades without charge at the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

The transfer was the latest and biggest push by the Biden administration in its final weeks to clear Guantanamo of the last remaining detainees there who were never charged with a crime.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump complained on Tuesday that President Joe Biden was undermining his transition to power a day after the incumbent moved to ban offshore energy drilling in most federal waters.

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, used his authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska's Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing. All told, about 625 million acres of federal waters were withdrawn from energy exploration by Biden in a move that may require an act of Congress to undo.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The federal government is rolling out a consumer labeling system designed to help Americans pick smart devices that are less vulnerable to hacking.

Under the voluntary program, called the U.S. Cyber Trust Mark Initiative, manufacturers can affix the label on their products if they meet federal cybersecurity standards. The types of devices that can seek to carry the label include baby monitors, home security cameras, fitness trackers, refrigerators and other internet-connected appliances.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — In a packed Las Vegas arena, Nvidia founder Jensen Huang stood on stage and marveled over the crisp real-time computer graphics displayed on the screen behind him. He watched as a dark-haired woman walked through ornate gilded double doors and took in the rays of light that poured in through stained glass windows.

NEW YORK (AP) — Visual content companies Shutterstock and Getty Images will join to become a $3.7 billion visual content company.

The companies said Tuesday that they have complementary portfolios and that a merger will provide customers with a broader array still imagery, video, music, 3D and other media.

WASHINGTON (AP) — U.S. job openings rose unexpectedly in November, showing companies are still looking for workers even as the labor market has cooled overall.

Openings rose to 8.1 million in November, the most since February and up from 7.8 million in October, the Labor Department reported Tuesday. They were down from 8.9 million a year earlier and a peak of 12.2 million in March 2022 as the economy was roaring back from COVID-19 lockdowns. But they still exceed pre-pandemic levels.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday announced a $20 billion investment for data centers in the United States by an Emirati company led by billionaire Hussain Sajwani, a close business partner of the Trump family.

The investment by DAMAC Properties in the United Arab Emirates is intended to highlight Trump's personal ability to attract new money for big projects. The announcement follows a pledge made last month by the Japanese billionaire investor Masayoshi Son, while at Trump's side, to invest $100 billion in the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Vowing to stop machines from taking their jobs, 45,000 U.S. longshoremen are threatening to go on a strike that would shut down ports on the East and Gulf coasts and could damage the American economy just as President-elect Donald Trump returns to the White House.

LONDON (AP) — Fresh from pouring his money and energies into helping Donald Trump win re-election, Elon Musk has trained his sights on Europe, setting off alarm bells among politicians across the continent.

The Tesla and SpaceX chief executive has endorsed the far-right Alternative for Germany, demanded the release of jailed U.K. anti-Islam extremist Tommy Robinson and called British Prime Minister Keir Starmer an evil tyrant who should be in prison.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The last time a president was inaugurated, there was a global pandemic and a violent siege at the very spot at the U.S. Capitol where the ceremony takes place. This time, the event is happening as part of an unprecedented string of high-stakes security events in the nation's capital.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Living to 100 let Jimmy Carter fulfill his wish to vote for Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris against Republican Donald Trump in November. His death means flags at the White House will be at half-staff when Trump regains the presidency on Jan. 20.

HONG KONG (AP) — The U.S. Defense Department has added dozens of Chinese companies, including games and technology company Tencent, artificial intelligence firm SenseTime and the world's biggest battery maker CATL, to a list of companies it says have ties to China's military, prompting some to protest and say they will seek to have the decision reversed.

BANGKOK (AP) — U.S. President Joe Biden's decision to reject a bid by Nippon Steel to acquire U.S. Steel on national security grounds isn't the first time friction over trade and investment has irked Washington's closest ally in Asia.

There have been plenty of scraps over trade in the past few decades, and Secretary of State Anthony Blinken sought to smooth ruffled feathers in a visit to Tokyo on Tuesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — More Americans say immigration should be a top focus for the U.S. government in 2025, as the country heads toward a new Republican administration in which President-elect Donald Trump has promised the mass deportations of migrants and an end to birthright citizenship.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Peter Yarrow, the singer-songwriter best known as one-third of Peter, Paul and Mary, the folk-music trio whose impassioned harmonies transfixed millions as they lifted their voices in favor of civil rights and against war, has died. He was 86.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal judge on Tuesday temporarily blocked the public release of special counsel Jack Smith's report on investigations into Donald Trump as an appeals court weighs a challenge to the disclosure of a much-anticipated document just days before the president-elect reclaims office.

NEW YORK (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is still set to be sentenced in his hush money case this week — at least for now — after a New York appeals court judge on Tuesday swiftly rejected his second attempt to get it called off.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. regulators have opened an investigation into 2.6 million Teslas after reports of crashes involving the use of company technology that allows drivers to remotely command their vehicle to return to them, or move to another location, using a phone app.

NEW YORK (AP) — Lenders will no longer be able to consider unpaid medical bills as a credit history factor when they evaluate potential borrowers in the U.S. for mortgages, car loans or business loans, according to a rule the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau finalized Tuesday.

NEW YORK (AP) — A national rights group said Tuesday that more U.S. companies are providing strong benefits and protections to LGBTQ+ employees despite an ongoing effort by conservative activists to get high-profile brands to stop participating in the organization's annual workplace report card.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington for three days of state funeral rites starting Tuesday.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Tuesday said he would not rule out the use of military force to seize control of the Panama Canal and Greenland, as he declared U.S. control of both to be vital to American national security.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration in its final days is shifting more than $100 million in military aid from Israel and Egypt to Lebanon as it tries to bolster a ceasefire agreement it helped mediate between Israel and Hezbollah.

In separate notices sent to Congress, the State Department said it was moving $95 million in military assistance intended for Egypt and $7.5 million for Israel toward supporting the Lebanese army and its government. The notices were dated Jan. 3 and obtained by The Associated Press on Tuesday.

GAINESVILLE, Fla. (AP) — Tennessee coach Rick Barnes walked into the locker room and delivered a brief message to his downtrodden team: "This is good for us."

At least in the long run.

The top-ranked Volunteers became the last Division I team to lose this season, getting thumped 73-43 at No. 8 Florida on Tuesday night. This one was over shortly after it tipped.

NASHVILLE (AP) — RJ Melendez scored 19 points and No. 14 Mississippi State beat Vanderbilt 76-64 on Tuesday night for its eighth straight victory.

The Bulldogs (14-1, 2-0 Southeastern Conference) came in with their highest ranking yet under coach Chris Jans. They leave having won six of eight in this series.

WINNIPEG, Manitoba (AP) — Morgan Barron and Josh Morrissey scored 16 seconds apart to help Winnipeg Jets goalie Connor Hellebuyck record his 300th NHL career win 5-2 over the Nashville Predators on Tuesday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Justice Department said Wednesday that it intends to release special counsel Jack Smith's findings on Donald Trump's efforts to undo the results of the 2020 presidential election but will keep under wraps for now the rest of the report focused on the president-elect's hoarding of classified documents at his Mar-a-Lago estate.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump is asking the Supreme Court to call off Friday's sentencing in his hush money case in New York.

Trump's lawyers turned to the nation's highest court on Wednesday after New York courts refused to postpone the sentencing by Judge Juan M. Merchan, who presided over Trump's trial and conviction last May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records. Trump has denied wrongdoing.

NEW YORK (AP) — On the night Stephanie Cosme died, her sister and brother said they received a curt explanation from a U.S. Air Force official who met them at the hospital: The civilian contractor was failing to follow protocol when she was hit by an aircraft's rotating propeller and killed.

SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — Exxon Mobil Corp. filed a federal defamation lawsuit against California Attorney General Rob Bonta and several environmental groups, months after Bonta sued the oil and gas giant alleging that it deceived the public for half a century by promising the plastics it produced would be recycled.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Prosecutors will ask a judge on Wednesday for six years in prison for a former FBI informant whose bogus story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes became central to Republicans' impeachment effort.

Alexander Smirnov will be sentenced in Los Angeles federal court after pleading guilty last month to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme in what prosecutors say was an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Biden administration asked a federal appeals court on Tuesday to block a plea agreement for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed that would spare him the risk of the death penalty in one of the deadliest attacks ever on the United States.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A record 24 million people have signed up for insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act, former President Barack Obama's landmark health legislation, as the program awaits an uncertain future under a Republican-controlled White House and Congress.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly a quarter of animals living in rivers, lakes and other freshwater sources are threatened with extinction, according to new research published Wednesday.

"Huge rivers like the Amazon can appear mighty, but at the same time freshwater environments are very fragile," said study co-author Patricia Charvet, a biologist at Brazil's Federal University of Ceará.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The IRS boosted taxpayer services through Democrats' Inflation Reduction Act but still faces processing claims from a coronavirus pandemic-era tax credit program and is slow to resolve certain identity theft cases, according to an independent watchdog report released Wednesday.

ROME (AP) — Pope Francis on Monday named the first woman to head a major Vatican office, appointing an Italian nun, Sister Simona Brambilla, to become prefect of the department responsible for all the Catholic Church's religious orders.

The appointment marks a major step in Francis' aim to give women more leadership roles in governing the church. While women have been named to No. 2 spots in some Vatican offices, never before has a woman been named prefect of a dicastery or congregation of the Holy See Curia, the central governing organ of the Catholic Church.

NEW YORK (AP) — At a particularly inopportune time for legacy media and CNN, the news outlet is on trial in Florida this week, accused of defaming a Navy veteran involved in rescuing endangered Afghans from that country when the U.S. ended its involvement there in 2021.

New tax credits are available for companies that generate clean electricity, the Biden administration announced Tuesday, while arguing it would be a mistake for President-elect Donald Trump to try to undo them.

The Treasury Department and the Internal Revenue Service released final rules for the clean electricity investment and production tax credits, less than two weeks before Trump is inaugurated. The credits are among roughly two dozen tax provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act,passed in 2022 with only Democrat support. The credits are designed to save families money on their energy bills and accelerate the deployment of clean energy, electric vehicles, energy efficient buildings and low-carbon manufacturing.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A top policymaker at the U.S. Federal Reserve said Wednesday that he still supports cutting interest rates this year, despite elevated inflation and the prospect of widespread tariffs under the incoming Trump administration.

Christopher Waller, an influential member of the Fed's board of governors, said he expects inflation will move closer to the Fed's 2% target in the coming months. And in some of the first comments by a Fed official specifically about tariffs, he said that greater import duties likely won't push up inflation this year.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden, in a new interview days before he leaves office, cast doubt on his fitness to serve another four years even as he maintained that he could have won election to a second term.

The outgoing Democratic president also told USA Today in the interview published Wednesday that he tried during his Oval Office meeting with President-elect Donald Trump to discourage the Republican from going after his political opponents, as he has said he would. And Biden said he had not decided whether to issue sweeping pardons to preemptively protect those individuals from any possible retribution by Trump or the incoming administration.

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Speaker Mike Johnson often says he sees himself as the quarterback and President-elect Donald Trump as the coach calling plays on their legislative priorities as Republicans take power in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Joe Biden is the consummate Washington insider. Jimmy Carter was anything but.

Yet the 46th and 39th U.S. presidents had a decades-long friendship starting when Biden, as a young Delaware lawmaker, became the first sitting senator to endorse Carter's outsider White House bid in 1976. Their bond will be on display one final time Thursday as Biden eulogizes Carter during his state funeral at Washington National Cathedral.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Nearly 44 years after Jimmy Carter left the nation's capital in humbling defeat, the 39th president returned to Washington on Tuesday for state funeral rites that featured the kind of bipartisan praise and ceremonial pomp the Georgia Democrat rarely enjoyed at his political peak.

BILLINGS, Mont. (AP) — The Biden administration on Tuesday abruptly dropped its nascent plan to protect old-growth forests after getting pushback from Republicans and the timber industry.

The move was announced by U.S. Forest Service Chief Randy Moore in a letter to forest supervisors.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The Tennessee Titans have been granted permission to interview Catherine Hickman by the Cleveland Browns as the team looks for a new general manager, a person familiar with the request told The Associated Press.

JUNEAU, Alaska (AP) — The U.S. Interior Department on Wednesday said no bids were submitted for this week's oil and gas lease sale in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge — a sale the state has challenged as too restrictive and at odds with a 2017 law aimed at opening the refuge's sweeping coastal plan to exploration and development.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Federal Reserve officials at their meeting Dec. 17-18 expected to dial back the pace of interest rate cuts this year in the face of persistently elevated inflation and the threat of widespread tariffs and other potential policy changes.

Frank Wycheck, the NFL tight end best known for throwing the lateral that started the "Music City Miracle" and launched the Tennessee Titans' run to the franchise's lone Super Bowl appearance, had stage III chronic traumatic encelphalopathy when he died on Dec. 9, 2023, at his Chattanooga home, his family said Thursday.

ALBANY, N.Y. (AP) — New York's highest court on Thursday declined to block Donald Trump's upcoming sentencing in his hush money case, leaving the U.S. Supreme Court as the president-elect's likely last option to prevent the hearing from taking place Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In one of the most important cases of the social media age, free speech and national security collide at the Supreme Court on Friday in arguments over the fate of TikTok, a wildly popular digital platform that roughly half the people in the United States use for entertainment and information.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Supreme Court Justice Samuel Alito spoke with President-elect Donald Trump about a former law clerk the day before Trump went to the high court in a push to delay the sentencing in his New York hush-money case, the justice said Wednesday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Lawyers for accused 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed are urging a federal appeals panel to let his scheduled guilty plea Friday n Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, go forward in a plea agreement that would spare him and two co-defendants the risk of the death penalty in al-Qaida's notorious Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant who fabricated a story about President Joe Biden and his son Hunter accepting bribes that became central to Republicans' impeachment effort was sentenced Wednesday to six years in prison.

Alexander Smirnovpleaded guilty last month in Los Angeles federal court to tax evasion and lying to the FBI about the phony bribery scheme in what prosecutors say was an effort to influence the outcome of the 2020 presidential election.

NEW YORK (AP) — Electric vehicle demand is expected to keep rising this year, but uncertainty over policy changes and tariffs is clouding the forecast.

S&P Global Mobility expects global sales of 15.1 million battery electric vehicles in 2025, which would mark a 30% jump. Battery electric vehicles are expected to make up 16.7% of the market share for light vehicles.

BANGKOK (AP) — Nearly all of the world's 35,000 online pharmacies are being run illegally and consumers who use them risk getting ineffective or dangerous drugs, according to the U.S. Trade Representative's annual report on " notorious markets." The report also singled out 19 countries over concerns about counterfeit or pirated products.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Thousands of people were dying from COVID-19 every day. Americans were still being ordered to stay-at-home or mask in public. Millions of people were eager to line up for jabs of the newly-released COVID-19 vaccines.

That's the scene the nation's top health official, Xavier Becerra, wants Americans to remember as he readies to leave the office, possibly to Robert F. Kennedy Jr., President-elect Donald Trump's nominee to lead the Department of Health and Human Services. Kennedy is a vehement critic of the vaccine that government officials — Becerra included — promoted to combat the deadly virus.

"Everyone is entitled to his own opinion, but not his own facts," the late New York Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan memorably wrote four decades ago.

That seems like a simpler time — especially when you consider Meta's decision to end a fact-checking program on social media apps Facebook, Instagram and Threads and what the ramifications might be for an industry built to bring clarity and to seek truth itself.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Service Employees International Union is returning to the AFL-CIO after 20 years, betting that a united labor movement will do more to help workers overcome legal challenges to organize and join unions.

The union groups' executive boards each unanimously approved the combination on Wednesday, with plans to formally announce the affiliation at a Thursday roundtable discussion in Austin, Texas, with workers who are attempting to become union members. There are roughly 2 million SEIU workers in the health care, janitorial and food services sectors, among others. Their addition would bring the total number of AFL-CIO members to nearly 15 million, helping increase the political heft of a federation already composed of 60 unions.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Here is Thursday's schedule for the final day of rites honoring Jimmy Carter, the 39th president, who died Dec. 29. All times are Eastern:

9 a.m. — Carter's casket departs the U.S. Capitol. The funeral motorcade travels to Washington National Cathedral.

NEW YORK (AP) — Donald Trump ran on a return to his "America First" foreign policy platform. The U.S., he said, could no longer afford to be the world's policeman. On his watch, he pledged, there would be no new wars.

But since winning a second term, the president-elect has been embracing a new imperialist agenda, threatening to seize the Panama Canal and Greenland — perhaps by military force — and saying he will use economic coercion to pressure Canada to become the nation's 51st state.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump likes the idea of "one, big beautiful bill" for his top legislative priorities, but he emerged from a lengthy closed-door meeting with Republican senators late Wednesday open to other strategies as GOP leaders strain to develop a plan before the party gains full power in Washington.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has raised more than $170 million for his upcoming inauguration, a record amount as tech executives and big donors have eagerly written large checks to help bankroll the ceremony.

The private donations collected thus far were confirmed by a person with firsthand knowledge of the fundraising who was not authorized to speak publicly. The person said Trump's inaugural committee is expected to raise more than $200 million by the end of the effort.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Someone inside Fox News gave Donald Trump's presidential campaign the questions he would face ahead of a town hall the network produced in January 2024, a forthcoming book alleges, according to excerpts reported by CNN.

The claim appears in "Revenge: The Inside Story of Trump's Return to Power" by Politico reporter Alex Isenstadt, which is set to be published in March.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden canceled the final overseas trip of his presidency just hours before he was set to depart for Rome and the Vatican, choosing to remain in Washington to monitor the response to devastating fires raging in California.