News - Friday, May 30, 2025

For decades, the accounting industry has operated on a simple model: Licensed professionals founded certified public accountant (CPA) firms, operated them as partnerships and passed them down through internal succession as founding partners retired.

Many years before Trip Farmer became a partner at HHM Certified Public Accountants in Chattanooga, he learned the value not just of a dollar – but of a dollar sensibly invested.

The casual reader might assume the young Farmer followed a timeless entrepreneurial rite of passage, such as saving his allowance to buy a lawnmower, then spending summer vacations tending neighbors’ yards.

HHM CPAs partner Trip Farmer considers reading an essential part of his growth – both personally and professionally. In this list, he shares four books that have shaped his thinking around productivity and self-improvement along with others he recommends simply for the enjoyment they bring.

In recent months, there’s been much public discussion regarding the federal courts, especially the United States Supreme Court. Much of the discussion has been about controversial decisions, ethical rules and judicial temperament. Sometimes underlying these discussions are common misperceptions about the roles and responsibilities of federal chief judges and of the chief justice of the United States.

Every member of our board brings a unique story, skill set and heart for service to Greater Chattanooga Realtors. This week, I’m proud to shine the spotlight on Director Robert Baker, whose diverse career path spanning finance, international marketing, ministry and academia has profoundly shaped how he approaches real estate and leadership.

After nearly three decades of service, Chattanooga Fire Chief Phil Hyman has announced his retirement, effective this July.

Hyman joined the Chattanooga Fire Department in the 1990s and steadily rose through the ranks – first as a lieutenant, then as a captain, battalion chief and training chief. He was appointed fire chief in 2017.

The University of Tennessee at Chattanooga Research Institute’s Center for Urban Informatics and Progress has secured a $500,000 grant to lead two innovative transportation safety projects, further solidifying the city’s role as a national leader in smart mobility and urban innovation.

You should always be able to ask as many questions as you’d like when working with your financial adviser. So, before you have your annual review, think carefully about what you’d like to ask.

Here are a few suggestions:

• Are my goals still realistic? When you first began working with your financial adviser, you may well have articulated several financial goals. For example, you might have said that you wanted to pay for most of your children’s college education, or that you’d like to retire at age 55, or that you hope to travel internationally every year during retirement. In fact, you could have many different goals for which you’re saving and investing.

A bit of trivia here for openers: What is the official state question of New Mexico, as designated by its legislature?

Answer: Red or green? (Explanation to come.)

This is by way of introduction to the Land of Enchantment, which recently became the 36th of these United States that I’ve visited. There’s no plan to hit all 50 – Who needs Idaho or the Dakotas? Why Wyoming? – but for a short, two-and-a-half-hour jump from BNA, New Mexico promised a very un-Tennessee experience.

What seemed a near lock last month became more precarious down the stretch of the regular season. But in the end, the Tennessee baseball team still managed to receive a national seed in the NCAA Division I Baseball Championships.

The Vols are the No. 14 seed and will begin their national title defense at Lindsey Nelson Stadium Friday at 6 p.m. ET against Miami (Ohio) in the double-elimination format. Wake Forest and Cincinnati are the other teams in the Knoxville Regional.

The week of Memorial Day has long been one of the busiest times of year for car dealerships. Many car shoppers decide to pull the trigger on that long-considered purchase because of the major sales promotions and the symbolic start of summer. But things are a little different this year.

Between collections resuming, courts blocking student loan programs and layoffs at the Department of Education, borrowers might be confused about the status of their student loans.

Recently, the Department of Education announced it would start involuntary collections on defaulted loans, meaning the roughly 5.3 million borrowers who are in default could have their wages garnished by the federal government.

BERKELEY, Calif. (AP) — A new supercomputer named after a winner of the Nobel Prize in chemistry will help power artificial intelligence technology and scientific discoveries from a perch in the hills above the University of California, Berkeley, federal officials said Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Frayed by tariff wars and political battles, the academic ties between the U.S. and China are now facing their greatest threat yet as the Trump administration promises to revoke visas for an unknown number of Chinese students and tighten future visa screening.

More than $14 billion in clean energy investments in the U.S. have been canceled or delayed this year, according to an analysis released Thursday, as President Donald Trump's pending megabill has raised fears over the future of domestic battery, electric vehicle and solar and wind energy development.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday allowed President Donald Trump to continue collecting tariffs under an emergency powers law for now, as his administration appeals an order striking down the bulk of his signature set of economic policies.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A little-known federal court threw a giant monkey wrench into a foundational part of President Donald Trump's economic agenda by striking down most of the sweeping tariffs he has imposed since taking office.

The Court of International Trade, based in New York, on late Wednesday said that Trump had overstepped his authority by using a 1977 law, the International Economic Emergency Powers Act, to justify tariffs on Canada, Mexico, China, and more than 50 other nations.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has audaciously claimed virtually unlimited power to bypass Congress and impose sweeping taxes on foreign products.

Now a federal court has thrown a roadblock in his path.

A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of International Trade ruled Wednesday that Trump overstepped his authority when he invoked the 1977 International Emergency Economic Powers Act to declare a national emergency and plaster taxes – tariffs – on imports from almost every country in the world.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The State Department on Thursday notified Congress of an updated reorganization of the massive agency, proposing cuts to programs beyond what had previously been revealed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio and a steeper 18% reduction of staff in the U.S.

OKLAHOMA CITY (AP) — Ella Parker hit a three-run, walk-off homer to lift Oklahoma to a 4-3 win over Tennessee on Thursday in the Women's College World Series opener for both teams.

NEW YORK (AP) — Taylor Swift has regained control over her entire body of work.

In a lengthy note posted to her official website on Friday, Swift announced: "All of the music I've ever made now belongs to me."

MIRAMAR BEACH, Fla. (AP) — The Southeastern Conference is ratcheting up penalties on schools whose fans storm the field or rush the court, doing away with an escalating fine system and now charging $500,000 per incident.

"The motivation was 'field rushing is field rushing, the first time or the 18th time,'" commissioner Greg Sankey said Thursday in announcing the decision. "The random nature of, if you're the one getting rushed, it doesn't feel good. It might be the first time (it happened) there, but it might be your sixth time in a row, literally."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The U.S. Justice Department has formally moved to dismiss a criminal fraud charge against Boeing and has asked a judge to cancel an upcoming trial connected to two plane crashes that killed 346 people off the coast of Indonesia and in Ethiopia, according to court documents filed Thursday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — An information technology specialist for the Defense Intelligence Agency was charged Thursday with attempting to transmit classified information to a representative of a foreign government, the Justice Department said.

Prosecutors say Nathan Vilas Laatsch, 28, of Alexandria, Virginia, was arrested at a location where he had arranged to deposit sensitive records to a person he thought was an official of a foreign government, but who was actually an undercover FBI agent. The identity of the country Laatsch thought he was in communication with was not disclosed, but the Justice Department described it as a friendly, or allied, nation.

LONDON (AP) — Actor and comedian Russell Brand pleaded not guilty in a London court Friday to rape and sexual assault charges involving four women dating back more than 25 years.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — Homeowners eager to sell may have to wait a while before a buyer comes along.

As of April, the U.S. housing market had nearly 34% more sellers than buyers shopping for a home, according to an analysis by Redfin.

Aside from April 2020, when the pandemic brought the economy and home sales activity to a standstill, there haven't been this few buyers in the market for a home before, based on records that date back to 2013.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The White House will fix errors in a much-anticipated federal government report spearheaded by U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr., which decried America's food supply, pesticides and prescription drugs.

Scientists say 4 billion people, about half the world's population, experienced at least one extra month of extreme heat because of human-caused climate change from May 2024 to May 2025.

The extreme heat caused illness, death, crop losses, and strained energy and health care systems, according to the analysis from World Weather Attribution, Climate Central and the Red Cross.

WASHINGTON (AP) — A key U.S. inflation gauge slowed last month as President Donald Trump's tariffs have yet to noticeably push up prices. Spending by Americans slowed despite rising incomes, potentially an early reaction to higher prices on some imported goods.

NEW YORK (AP) — Businesses rattled by President Donald Trump's on again, off again tariffs absorbed more jolts on Thursday after a U.S. appeals court temporarily blocked a federal court order that would have halted most of his taxes on foreign imports.

TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba expressed determination Thursday to defend rules-based, free and multilateral trade systems and work on expanding the main Asia-Pacific trade group at a time of tension over U.S. tariffs.

"High tariffs will not bring economic prosperity," Ishiba told a global forum in Tokyo. "A prosperity built on sacrifices by someone or another country will not make a strong economy." Japan seeks to work with the U.S. on investment, job creation and manufacturing high quality products for the prosperity of America and the rest of the world, he said.

NEW YORK (AP) — Elon Musk is leaving Washington after a short but turbulent stint in government and getting back to his numerous businesses, each with their own set of issues for the billionaire to address.

Start with his electric car company Tesla. While how much Musk accomplished in his role as President Donald Trump's chief cost-cutter is up for debate, it's clear his association with right-wing politics damaged Tesla's brand and tanked sales.

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — President Donald Trump is holding a rally in Pennsylvania on Friday to celebrate a details-to-come deal for Japan-based Nippon Steel to invest in U.S. Steel, which he says will keep the iconic American steelmaker under U.S.-control.

SINGAPORE (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron warned the United States and a large audience of Indo-Pacific nations on Friday night that they risk a dangerous double standard as they concentrate on a potential conflict with China, if that shift comes at the cost of abandoning Ukraine.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The government is investigating after elected officials, business executives and other prominent figures in recent weeks received messages from someone impersonating Susie Wiles, President Donald Trump's chief of staff.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Once again, President Donald Trump's biggest policy plans were stopped in their tracks.

On Wednesday, an obscure but powerful court in New York rejected the legal foundation of Trump's most sweeping tariffs, finding that Trump could not use a 1977 law to declare a national emergency on trade imbalances and fentanyl smuggling to justify a series of import taxes that have unsettled the world. Reordering the global economy by executive fiat was an unconstitutional end-run around Congress' powers, the three-judge panel of Trump, Obama and Reagan appointees ruled in a scathing rebuke of Trump's action.

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Department of Homeland Security is putting more than 500 "sanctuary jurisdictions" across the country on notice that the Trump administration views them as obstructing immigration enforcement as it attempts to increase pressure on communities it believes are standing in the way of the president's mass deportations agenda.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Elon Musk arrived in the nation's capital with the chain saw-wielding swagger of a tech titan who had never met a problem he couldn't solve with lots of money, long hours or a well-calibrated algorithm.

President Donald Trump was delighted to have the world's richest person — and a top campaign donor — working in his administration, talking about how he was "a smart guy" who "really cares for our country."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The agency tasked with carrying out President Donald Trump's mass deportation campaign is undergoing a major staff reorganization.

In a news release Tuesday, Immigration and Customs Enforcement announced leadership changes at the department tasked with finding, arresting and removing immigrants who no longer have the right to be in the country as well as at the agency's investigative division.

NEW YORK (AP) — As he crisscrossed the country in 2024, Donald Trump pledged to supporters that voting him back into the presidency would be "our final battle."

"With you at my side, we will demolish the deep state," he said repeatedly on the campaign trail. "We will liberate our country from these tyrants and villains once and for all."

WASHINGTON (AP) — The Supreme Court on Friday again cleared the way for the Trump administration to strip temporary legal protections from hundreds of thousands of immigrants for now, pushing the total number of people who could be newly exposed to deportation to nearly 1 million.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Google returned to federal court Friday to fend off the U.S. Justice Department's attempt to topple its internet empire at the same time it's navigating a pivotal shift to artificial intelligence that could undercut its power.

WASHINGTON (AP) — Since coming from China as a teenager for boarding school, Bob Zeng has imagined building a career in the United States. But as he prepared to graduate Thursday from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, it felt like the last chapter of his life in America.

Nearly four dozen people in 18 states have been sickened in an expanding outbreak of salmonella food poisoning tied to recalled cucumbers sent to restaurants, hospitals, cruise ships and grocery stores, including Target stores, federal health officials said Friday.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump said Friday that he will no longer be "Mr. NICE GUY" with China on trade, declaring in a social media post that the country had broken an agreement with the United States.

Hours later, Trump said in the Oval Office that he will speak with Chinese President Xi Jinping and "hopefully we'll work that out," while still insisting China had violated the agreement.

NEW YORK (AP) — Wall Street closed its winning week and month with a quiet Friday following a mixed set of profit reports from Gap, Ulta Beauty and other companies navigating the challenges created by President Donald Trump's on-and-off tariffs.

The S&P 500 finished the day nearly unchanged after edging down by less than 0.1%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average added 54 points, or 0.1%, and the Nasdaq composite slipped 0.3%.

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump's pick to lead a federal watchdog agency is a former right-wing podcast host who has praised criminally charged influencer Andrew Tate as a "extraordinary human being" and promoted the false claim that the 2020 election was rigged.