News - Friday, December 13, 2024

Matthew Macaulay grew up in a city that inspired grand dreams and then swallowed them whole.

Born in Manchester, England, and reared in London, Macaulay learned to think big at a young age. He watched his grandfather turn his trade as a hairdresser into a chain of high-end salons that stretched across the city, he joined his father and the epic crowds at Old Trafford in cheering on Manchester United and he eschewed his studies and immersed himself in an ocean of music, where Van Morrison, Mike and the Mechanics and Dire Straits released songs that lured him like chanting sirens into deep waters.

Bill of Rights Day is Sunday, Dec. 15. Although it is not a national holiday, it is nevertheless an important day of remembrance. We commemorate this date to mark the adoption of the Bill of Rights, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution. This crucial document is one of the cornerstones of our representative democracy.

Teresa Clegg’s journey to real estate is a testament to her dedication, versatility and passion for helping others.

From her early days with BellSouth to raising a family and assisting her husband with his home-building career, Teresa has embraced every phase of her life with purpose.

It was just another day in Highland Park when an unexpected visitor stepped onto Megan Morris’ porch in search of a meal.

Morris was happy to oblige, which encouraged a return appearance. Before long, she was the daily meal ticket for a feral cat.

Paige Baker has changed the job title on her business card from “marketing and business development specialist” to “marketing manager” following a promotion at Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel.

As marketing manager, Baker oversees branding, content marketing, social media and advertising strategies at Chambliss. She also manages vendor partnerships, drives the development of digital and print assets and enhances the firm’s online presence through strategic website management and SEO initiatives.

A new public enterprise will fund housing developments featuring a mix of market-rate and affordable units.

If approved by City Council, Invest Chattanooga will administer the $20 million Housing Production Fund the council created in 2022.

How much will Invest Chattanooga loan? Invest Chattanooga’s low-interest loans will cover up to 25% of the development cost of a housing development. 

How many units will be required to be affordable and how do you define ‘affordable?’

In exchange for becoming a partner in the development, Invest Chattanooga will require that a housing development dedicate 20% of its units as affordable for Chattanoogans earning less than 50% of area median income (AMI); which would currently be someone making $35,000 or less per year. Invest Chattanooga will negotiate the affordability level on 10% of the units according to market conditions, requiring that they be affordable to households making between 50 and 100% AMI, which would currently be someone making $70,000 or less per year. That means 30% of the total units will be dedicated as affordable, while the remaining 70% will rent for market rate.

Your life might well become busier as we enter the holiday season. Still, you might want to take the time to consider some financial moves before we turn the calendar to 2025.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Review your investment portfolio. As you look at your portfolio, ask these questions: Has its performance met my expectations this year? Does it still reflect my goals, risk tolerance and time horizon? Do I need to rebalance? You might find that working with a financial professional can help you answer these and other questions you may have about your investments.

The destination was New Orleans, and I had two primary goals: get a muffuletta from Central Grocery and visit the National World War II Museum. Missions accomplished.

Spotting the actress Linda Hamilton of Terminator franchise fame at the table next to ours at breakfast? That was, in New Orleans terms, lagniappe.

Tennessee isn’t settling for a postseason cup of coffee, even though that or a hot chocolate might be needed on a cold, December night in Central Ohio.

 The ninth-seeded Vols (10-2, 6-2 SEC) earned a spot in the inaugural 12-team College Football Playoff and will play No. 8 Ohio State (10-2, 7-2 Big Ten) in the first round at Ohio Stadium in Columbus, Ohio, Dec. 21 at 8 p.m. EST (ABC/ESPN).

Every week, fans say the Titans can’t possibly be worse. And almost every week, they defy that by springing another leak and sinking to another more embarrassing loss.

In sinking Sunday at home to the Jacksonville Jaguars, the Titans sank at least to the bottom of the AFC South, sharing a pitiful 3-10 record with the Jags.

By Terry McCormick

The Titans organization should be at the point in this season at which they have to start sorting through who fits and who doesn’t for 2025.

For two and a-half years, the Titans have been in a free fall that no one – not Jon Robinson, Mike Vrabel, Ran Carthon, Brian Callahan nor Amy Adams Strunk – has been able to pull them out of.

Have you ever heard companies don’t hire over the holidays? Me too. I’ve heard it more times than I can count. So many job seekers make the decision to pause their job search around Thanksgiving. They wait to restart it after the New Year because they assume their search is a waste of time.

There’s big news for the 2025 Honda Civic: It’s now available as a hybrid. More than that, its new gasoline-electric powertrain replaces the Civic’s previously optional turbocharged engine, making the Civic Hybrid both a max fuel economy choice and giving it better performance. It seems like a compelling pick for a small hybrid sedan. But it’s not the only one.

The NCAA is taking its Football Championship Subdivision title game back to Tennessee, with games at the end of the 2025 and 2026 seasons played in Nashville on the Vanderbilt campus.

This season's FCS championship game will be played Jan. 6 at Toyota Stadium in Frisco, Texas, which will host the game for a record 15th season in a row.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — If Texas coach Steve Sarkisian holds aloft the College Football Playoff trophy next month, that will be bad news for BetMGM Sportsbook.

It would be similarly disappointing if any of the coaches at Boise State, Indiana or Arizona State end up celebrating a title with confetti falling all around them inside Atlanta's Mercedes-Benz Stadium.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Country music star Morgan Wallen on Thursday pleaded guilty to two misdemeanor counts of reckless endangerment for throwing a chair from the rooftop of a six-story bar in Nashville and nearly hitting two police officers with it.

Wallen, who appeared in court alongside his attorney, was sentenced to spend seven days in a DUI education center and be under supervised probation for two years.

A turnover trashcan foreshadowed a coaching search best described as a dumpster fire that wound up costing both a coach and athletic director their jobs. A revolving door to the coaching office. NCAA investigations and scholarship reductions.

Don't forget the mustard bottle thrown onto the Neyland Stadium field or the golf ball that came perilously close to Ole Miss coach Lane Kiffin — whose one-year stint made him the first of seven coaches, counting two interims, at Tennessee after Philip Fulmer's firing after the 2008 season.

DALLAS (AP) — Ryan O'Reilly scored two of three Nashville goals within a three-minute span midway through the second period as the Predators snapped an eight-game losing streak that tied a franchise record and beat the Dallas Stars 4-1 on Thursday night.

WASHINGTON (AP) — McKinsey & Company consulting firm has agreed to pay $650 million to settle a federal investigation into its work to help opioids manufacturer Purdue Pharma boost the sales of the highly addictive drug OxyContin, according to court papers filed in Virginia on Friday.

BANGKOK (AP) — Chinese leaders met this week to plot economic policy for the coming year, sketching out plans to raise government spending and relax Beijing's monetary policy to encourage more investment and consumer spending.

Leaders of the ruling Communist Party wrapped up their two-day Central Economic Work Conference on Thursday with praise for President Xi Jinping's guidance and a pledge to "enrich and refine the policy toolbox" and defuse risks facing the world's second-largest economy. One of the biggest: threats by President-elect Donald Trump to sharply raise tariffs on imports from China once he takes office.

PORTLAND, Maine (AP) — The incoming administration of President-elect Donald Trump is likely to bring big changes for one of the oldest sectors of the U.S. economy — seafood — and some in the industry believe the returning president will be more responsive to its needs.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump on Thursday voiced his support for the dockworkers union before their contract expires next month at Eastern and Gulf Coast ports, saying that any further "automation" of the ports would harm workers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans may have recently elected Donald Trump to a second term, but that doesn't mean they have high confidence in his ability to choose well-qualified people for his Cabinet — or effectively manage government spending, the military and the White House, according to a new poll from the AP-NORC Center for Public Affairs Research.

NEW YORK (AP) — Amazon is planning to donate $1 million to President-elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, a move that comes as major tech companies seek to improve their relationship with the incoming president.

A company spokesperson confirmed Thursday evening that the e-commerce giant will also stream Trump's inauguration on its Prime Video service, a separate in-kind donation worth another $1 million.

TORONTO (AP) — Canada's most populous province may bar American-made alcohol in addition to restricting electricity exports to Michigan, New York and Minnesota if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump imposes sweeping tariffs on all Canadian products, a senior official said Thursday.

WEST PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump has invited Chinese President Xi Jinping and other world leaders to his inauguration next month — an unorthodox move that would fold U.S. allies and adversaries into a very American political tradition.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. has updated a decades-old science and technology agreement with China to reflect their growing rivalry for technological dominance. The new agreement, signed Friday after many months of negotiations, has a narrower scope and additional safeguards to minimize the risk to national security.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Home shoppers hoping for more attractive mortgage rates next year may be disappointed.

That's the takeaway from several economists' 2025 housing forecasts, most released over the past couple of weeks.

Most of the eight forecasts call for the average rate on a 30-year mortgage to remain above 6% next year, with some including an upper range as high as 6.8%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a business-backed appeal that could make it easier to challenge federal regulations, acting in a dispute related to California's nation-leading standards for vehicle emissions.

The justices agreed to hear an appeal filed by fuel producers who object to a waiver granted to California in 2022 by the Environmental Protection Agency during Joe Biden's presidency. The waiver allows California to set more stringent emissions limits than the national standard.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday said it would take up a new religious rights case over whether a Catholic charitable organization must pay Wisconsin's employment tax.

The justices will review a divided state Supreme Court ruling that refused to grant an exemption to the Catholic Charities Bureau, based in Superior, Wisconsin. The state court ruled that the work of Catholic Charities and four related organizations is primarily not religious, although it found that the motivation to help older, disabled and low-income people stems from Catholic teachings.

A 7-year-old rivalry between tech leaders Elon Musk and Sam Altman over who should run OpenAI and prevent an artificial intelligence "dictatorship" is now heading to a federal judge as Musk seeks to halt the ChatGPT maker's ongoing shift into a for-profit company.

DETROIT (AP) — Elon Musk says the Securities and Exchange Commission wants him to pay a penalty or face charges involving what he disclosed — or failed to disclose — about his purchases of Twitter stock before he bought the social media platform in 2022.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has been hospitalized after she "sustained an injury" during an official engagement in Luxembourg, according to a spokesman.

Pelosi, 84, was in Europe with a bipartisan congressional delegation to mark the 80th anniversary of the Battle of the Bulge in World War II. Her spokesman, Ian Krager, said in a statement that she is "currently receiving excellent treatment from doctors and medical professionals" and is unable to attend the remainder of events on her trip.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is planning to make a $1 million personal donation to President-Elect Donald Trump's inauguration fund, joining a number of tech companies and executives who are working to improve their relationships the incoming administration.

NASHVILLE (AP) — The best ovation Will Levis got Sunday came when first-year Tennessee coach Brian Callahan benched the second-year quarterback.

That sums up not just Levis' performance in a 37-27 loss to the Cincinnati Bengals, but the dilemma the Titans find themselves in right now.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Joe Burrow knows the Cincinnati Bengals' playoff hopes are slender at best at the bottom of the AFC's bubble teams.

He still wants Cincinnati to play better no matter how this season ends.

NEW YORK (AP) — Kane Brown is in his new home studio just outside Nashville, preparing to have the first sit-down conversation about his fourth studio album, "The High Road." It's a fitting title, because pounding the pavement is something he's more than familiar with. A few short days ago, he was in Los Angeles, performing at the iHeartRadio Jingle Ball alongside an eclectic mix of the biggest performers — SZA, Tate McRae, Madison Beer, T-Pain, Paris Hilton and K-pop group NCT Dream among them.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court turned back an appeal Monday from Peter Navarro, the former White House official who is set to return in Donald Trump's second term after serving prison time on contempt of Congress charges.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A former FBI informant is set to plead guilty on Monday to lying about a phony bribery scheme involving President Joe Biden and his son Hunter that became central to the Republican impeachment inquiry in Congress.

Alexander Smirnov is expected to make the plea in Los Angeles to a felony charge in connection with the bogus story, along with a tax evasion charge stemming from a separate indictment accusing him of concealing millions of dollars of income, according to court papers.

NEW YORK (AP) — For the press heading into a second Trump administration, there's a balancing act between being prepared and being fearful.

The return to power of Donald Trump, who has called journalists enemies and talked about retribution against those he feels have wronged him, has news executives nervous. Perceived threats are numerous: lawsuits of every sort, efforts to unmask anonymous sources, physical danger and intimidation, attacks on public media and libel protections, day-to-day demonization.

CHICAGO (AP) — Ismael El-Amin was driving his daughter to school when a chance encounter gave him an idea for a new way to carpool.

On the way across Chicago, El-Amin's daughter spotted a classmate riding with her own dad as they drove to their selective public school on the city's North Side. For 40 minutes, they rode along the same congested highway.

PALM BEACH, Fla. (AP) — President-elect Donald Trump will join SoftBank Group CEO Masayoshi Son at his Florida home on Monday to announce that the company is planning to invest $100 billion in U.S. projects over the next four years.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Americans hoping for lower borrowing costs for homes, credit cards and cars may be disappointed after this week's Federal Reserve meeting. The Fed's policymakers are likely to signal fewer interest rate cuts next year than were previously expected.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — The new year will usher in the bitcoin-friendly administration of President-elect Donald Trump and an expanding lobbying effort in statehouses that, together, could push states to become more open to crypto and for public pension funds and treasuries to buy into it.

SAN PEDRO SULA, Honduras (AP) — As dozens of deported migrants pack into a sweltering airport facility in San Pedro Sula, Norma sits under fluorescent lights clutching a foam cup of coffee and a small plate of eggs – all that was waiting for her in Honduras.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will sign a proclamation Monday establishing a national monument honoring the late FDR-era Labor Secretary Frances Perkins, the first woman appointed to serve in a presidential Cabinet and a driving force behind the New Deal, according to the White House.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Sunday thanked deep-pocketed Democratic donors who raised record sums in last month's election loss to President-elect Donald Trump and urged them not to lose hope and to remain politically engaged.

Tennessee held onto No. 1 in the AP Top 25 for the second consecutive week, though No. 2 Auburn closed the gap as the top five remained unchanged in the men's college basketball poll Monday.

The Volunteers received 50 first-place votes from the national media panel after wins over Miami and Illinois pushed coach Rick Barnes' program to 10-0 for only the fifth time in school history. Auburn picked up nine first-place votes from last week and had 12 total. Iowa State, Duke and Kentucky rounded out the top five.

NASHVILLE (AP) — Brian Callahan is going to take a couple of days to decide if the Tennessee Titans need to keep their starting quarterback on the bench.

Callahan sat Will Levis after his fourth turnover, a pick-6, in a 37-27 loss to Cincinnati. If Callahan and the Titans keep Levis on the bench and start veteran backup Mason Rudolph on Sunday at Indianapolis, Callahan said it's not a final decision on the second-year quarterback's future with the team.

WASHINGTON (AP) — TikTok on Monday asked the Supreme Court to step in on an emergency basis to block the federal law that would ban the popular platform in the United States unless its China-based parent company agreed to sell it.

Lawyers for the company and China-based ByteDance urged the justices to step in before the law's Jan. 19 deadline. A similar plea was filed by content creators who rely on the platform for income and some of TikTok's more than 170 million users in the U.S.

DETROIT (AP) — Starting in September of 2027, all new passenger vehicles in the U.S. will have to sound a warning if rear-seat passengers don't buckle up.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said Monday that it finalized the rule, which also requires enhanced warnings when front seat belts aren't fastened.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell is challenging President-elect Donald Trump to reject the isolationist voices within their party and build his foreign policy around military strength, arguing that if the U.S. retreats from global engagement, "its enemies will be only too happy to fill the void."

WASHINGTON (AP) — At a time of heightened political division, Americans' confidence in their country's judicial system and courts dropped to a record low of 35% this year, according to a new Gallup poll.

The United States saw a sharp drop of 24 percentage points over the last four years, setting the country apart from other wealthy nations where most people on average still express trust in their systems.

BANGKOK (AP) — Japanese tycoon Masayoshi Son and President-elect Donald Trump have announced plans for technology and telecoms giant SoftBank Group to invest $100 billion in projects in the United States over the coming four years.

LONDON (AP) — European Union regulators said Tuesday they're investigating whether TikTok breached the bloc's digital rulebook by failing to deal with risks to Romania's presidential election, which has been thrown into turmoil over allegations of electoral violations and Russian meddling.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The unemployment rate is healthy and the stock market is up, but Democrats are feeling more pessimistic about the U.S. economy after Donald Trump's election victory, according to a new poll.

Republicans, meanwhile, are still dour about the current state of the economy but hopeful that growth will be stronger next year when Trump returns to the White House as president.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Robert F. Kennedy Jr. swept onto Capitol Hill late Monday as the anti-vaccine health guru from the famous political family reintroduced himself to senators, this time as President-elect Donald Trump's pick to lead the nation's Health and Human Services Department.

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. stock indexes are slipping on Tuesday and trimming some of their stellar gains for the year.

The S&P 500 fell 0.5% in afternoon trading, though it's still near its all-time high set earlier this month. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was down 343 points, or 0.8%, as of 2:27 p.m. Eastern time, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.4% from its record set the day before.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Congressional leaders are nearing the unveiling of a spending agreement that will keep the federal government funded through March 14 and provide more than $100 billion in emergency aid to help states and local communities recover from Hurricanes Helene and Milton, and other natural disasters.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Consumers stepped up their spending at retail stores last month, providing a boost to the economy in the early phases of the winter holiday shopping season.

Retail sales rose 0.7% in November, the Commerce Department said Tuesday, a solid increase and higher than October's 0.5% gain. Sales jumped 2.6% at auto dealers, driving most of the gain. Some of that demand likely reflected a need for new cars in parts of the southeast slammed by Hurricane Helene in October, as well as healthy incentives provided by car dealers. Big discounts at many retail chains also attracted some consumers.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden endorsed a ban on congressional stock trading in an interview that's being released this week, belatedly weighing in on an issue that has been debated on Capitol Hill for years.

"Nobody in the Congress should be able to make money in the stock market while they're in the Congress," Biden said.

WASHINGTON (AP) — In a rare joint statement, the archivist and deputy archivist of the United States said Tuesday that the 1970s-era Equal Rights Amendment cannot be certified without further action by Congress or the courts, as Democrats press President Joe Biden to act unilaterally on its ratification before he leaves office next month.