Working & the Economy

First Republic received $30 billion in deposits from 11 large banks, including J.P. Morgan Chase, Citigroup and Bank of America. (Photo by Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)

Regulators end week like they started — tamping down fears, rescuing a bank

BY: - March 20, 2023

Financial regulators, policymakers, and bank executives spent the week trying to abate fears that a banking crisis will spread across the U.S. financial system.  On Friday, President Joe Biden released a statement calling on Congress to take action to make it easier for regulators to hold senior bank executives accountable for their mismanagement.  “It should […]

A restaurant on Lower Broadway in mid-April. (Photo by Jason Kempin/Getty Images)

Tootsie’s Honky Tonk owner pushes bill to exempt Lower Broadway bars from Nashville oversight

BY: - March 14, 2023

Tootsie’s Entertainment LLC, the company behind several honky tonks on Lower Broadway, is pushing legislation in the Tennessee General Assembly to remove all bars from oversight by Nashville’s beer board.   The legislation, filed last week, would block Metro Nashville’s authority to regulate all bars in the downtown tourism development zone and instead give oversight to […]

Fewer businesses hiring would actually be seen as a good thing for inflation right now. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images

Powell signals higher interest rates. Here’s why Friday’s jobs report will affect Fed’s decision.

BY: - March 9, 2023

Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell said this week that interest rate increases could be higher and come faster if Friday’s unemployment data shows the nation’s labor market isn’t cooling off. Stock indexes fell after his comments. That’s been a familiar pattern over the past year as the federal bank has tried to combat inflation. A […]

Throughout the pandemic, families have turned to food banks for help. In this picture, food is distributed in North Nashville in fall 2020. (Photo by John Partipilo

Families are taking a hit as pandemic aid ends, inflation continues

BY: - February 27, 2023

Forty million people in the U.S. are having difficulty affording household expenses, and a little more than 25 million people say they sometimes or often do not have enough to eat, according to the U.S. Census Bureau’s most recent Household Pulse survey data. The survey is designed to collect data on household experiences during the […]

Nashville Fairgrounds Speedway, photographed by John Partipilo.

The NASCAR race next door

BY: - February 22, 2023

On days when the racetrack is in use at the Fairgrounds Nashville, Nicole Trammel braces for the ongoing, loud hum of the circling race cars. And, when Nashville Soccer Club fans flock to the new Geodis Park just a block from her house for game nights, gridlocked traffic can add 30 minutes to her drive […]

U.S. Secretary of the Treasury Janet Yellen speaking in Spring Hill, Tenn. at the under-construction Ultium plant on Feb. 8, 2023. Ultium produces batteries for General Motors electric vehicles. (Photo: John Partipilo)

U.S. Treasury Secretary Yellen talks manufacturing, clean energy in Tennessee

BY: - February 8, 2023

U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen touted President Joe Biden’s economic recovery plan in Spring Hill, Tenn. on Wednesday at a $2.6 billion manufacturing plant for electric vehicle batteries.  Yellen’s trip came a day after Biden’s State of the Union address, and on the home turf of U.S. Rep. Andy Ogles, who was among the GOP […]

Many states allocated their first rounds of federal COVID relief funds to replace revenue lost and keep essential services running, but others used the money for programs that were not aimed at alleviating the effects of the pandemic. (Photo by Spencer Platt/Getty Images)

States criticized for spending federal relief funds on tax cuts, prisons

BY: - February 6, 2023

As states plan how they’ll spend the $25 billion remaining in federal COVID relief funds, some also are facing criticism and renewed scrutiny over how they allocated money already received from the American Rescue Plan Act. Of the $198 billion authorized by Congress in 2021, $173 billion already has been appropriated by states, the District […]

Tyson chicken barns, like these in West Tennessee, house more than 624,000 chickens each and produce massive quantities of waste. (Photo: John Partipilo)

In West Tennessee, a group of Black farmers take on Tyson Foods

BY: - December 19, 2022

Brenda Scott’s father came to west Tennessee as a sharecropper. By 1971 — as a result of hard work and government loans — he had 129 acres of his own, some of which his descendants occupy today. His adult children and grandchildren belong to an enclave of Black farming families that have lived in Henderson […]

Jeffrey, who asked that his last name not be used, in his tent near Nashville’s Green Street Church of Christ. (Photo:John Partipilo)

Voters embraced affordable housing initiatives. Advocates say Congress should do the same.

BY: - December 15, 2022

Voters in Colorado approved a statewide affordable housing initiative in November; while voters in nine cities across the country OK’d measures to finance the construction of affordable housing, preserve existing rental properties and support renters. But as housing costs soar, analysts and advocates say more needs to be done and argue that federal action is […]

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Democratic Sen. Pat Leahy of Vermont at the U.S. Capitol going into lunch with Senate Democrats prior to a vote on an agreement to end a looming rail strike on Dec. 1, 2022. (Ariana Figueroa/States Newsroom)

U.S. Senate averts freight rail strike, but bid to include worker sick leave fails

BY: - December 1, 2022

WASHINGTON — The U.S. Senate on Thursday voted to codify an agreement the White House brokered between rail unions and freight companies in order to avoid a catastrophic rail strike, but fell short of enough votes to include paid sick leave for workers. The Senate backed the rail deal on an 80-15 vote and rejected […]

Photo: U.S. Department of Transportation.

U.S. House votes to avert calamitous rail strike, but Senate prospects murky

BY: - November 30, 2022

The U.S. House moved Wednesday to avoid an economically disastrous nationwide rail strike, voting to codify an agreement that members of some unions had already rejected and separately add paid sick leave that workers had demanded. The two-track approach allows Democrats to avert a strike that could cost the U.S. economy up to $2 billion […]

WASHINGTON, DC - NOVEMBER 29: Activists in support of unionized rail workers protest outside the U.S. Capitol Building on November 29, 2022 in Washington, DC. President Joe Biden has called on Congress to pass legislation averting a railroad shutdown ahead of the December 9 coordinated strike date. (Photo by Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

U.S. House to intervene in rail workers strike, heeding Biden call

BY: - November 29, 2022

WASHINGTON — U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Monday said the House will take up legislation to ratify an agreement between rail workers and operators in order to avert a nationwide rail strike. “This week, the House will take up a bill adopting the Tentative Agreement — with no poison pills or changes to the […]