Santa Parade set for Nov. 4 at Hamilton Place mall
Hamilton Place will kick off the holiday season on Saturday, Nov. 4, with the 19th Annual Santa Arrival Parade.
The parade this year benefits the Forgotten Child Fund, a Chattanooga-based nonprofit comprised of firefighters, emergency management service technicians and police officers who donate their time to provide a better Christmas for needy children in the tri-state area.
People attending the parade are encouraged to bring a new toy to donate at the food court entrance, according to the mall. The parade begins at 11 a.m. along the perimeter of the mall.
“This is our favorite time of year. It’s wonderful to have so many families attend the parade to help us welcome Santa,” said David Meadows, Hamilton Place senior general manager.
Local high school and middle school bands, community groups and businesses are invited to participate. Last year more than 1,000 participants took part in the parade.
First Tennessee passes stress test
First Horizon National Corp., the parent company of First Tennessee Bank, said Tuesday the bank has passed regulatory stress tests and maintains adequate capial reserves to handle severely adverse economic and financial conditions. The annual stress tests, which are designed to ensure banks would have enough capital to operate in economically challenging times, are required of national banks and federal savings associations with assets of at least $10 billion.
First Tennessee, founded in 1864, operates the biggest bank in Chattanooga and has 160 bank locations across Tennessee.
Court overturns award in talcum powder case
A Missouri appeals court on Tuesday that vacated a $72 million award to an Alabama woman who claimed her use of Johnson & Johnson products that contained talcum contributed to her ovarian cancer has thrown the fate of awards in similar cases into doubt.
The Missouri Eastern District Courts ruled Missouri was not the proper jurisdiction to hear a lawsuit filed by Jacqueline Fox, 62, of Birmingham, Ala., who claimed the baby powder she used for feminine hygiene for about 25 years contributed to her cancer. She died in 2015, about four months before her case went to trial in St. Louis Circuit Court. In February 2016, a jury awarded Fox $10 million in actual damages and $62 million in punitive damages – the first award in the lawsuits against Johnson & Johnson.
The appeals court cited a Supreme Court ruling in June that placed limits on where injury lawsuits could be filed, saying state courts cannot hear claims against companies not based in the state where alleged injuries occurred. The case involved suits against Bristol-Myers Squibb over the blood-thinning medication Plavix.
More than 1,000 others have filed similar lawsuits in St. Louis against Johnson & Johnson.
McKenney elected to U.S. Bancorp board
U.S. Bancorp on Tuesday elected Unum Corp. CEO Richard P. McKenney as a director of the company
McKenney, 48, is the president and chief executive officer of Chattanooga-based Unum, a leading provider of financial protection benefits in the workplace, including disability, life, dental, and voluntary benefits.
He joined Unum in 2009 as executive vice president and chief financial officer, where he was responsible for overall financial management of the company. Previously, McKenney worked for Sun Life Financial, Inc. as executive vice president and chief financial officer. He began his career at General Electric, transitioning from manufacturing to financial leadership roles over the course of his career.
“Rick’s extensive leadership experience makes him a valuable addition to our Board of Directors,” said Richard K. Davis, executive chairman of U.S. Bancorp.
Trump’s wealth rank falls in Forbes list
President Donald Trump’s ranking in the Forbes list of wealthiest Americans has dropped, as the magazine said the value of some of his Manhattan real estate holdings has declined recently.
Forbes ranked the first billionaire president as the 248th-wealthiest person in America and put his wealth at $3.1 billion. The year before, he was ranked 156th and Forbes said he was worth $3.7 billion.
As a candidate, Trump said his net worth was more than $10 billion, but Forbes pegged that figure at $4.5 billion in September 2015. By Forbes’ estimates, Trump’s wealth has fallen 31 percent in two years.
According to Forbes, half of Trump’s wealth comes from New York City real estate. It says the value of luxury real estate is down, especially around Fifth Avenue. That sharply reduced the value of Trump Tower and other properties Trump owns or has stakes in.
Forbes also said some of Trump’s golf properties declined in value and that he spent $66 million on the presidential campaign as well as $25 million to settle a fraud lawsuit brought by former students in his defunct Trump University program for real estate investors.
Soros foundation 2nd biggest in U.S.
George Soros, the billionaire hedge fund manager and Democratic political donor, has given the bulk of his wealth to the Open Society Foundations, the philanthropy he founded to promote democracy and human rights around the world, foundation officials said Tuesday.
In recent years Soros has moved about $18 billion of his own money into Open Society, making it the second-largest foundation in the United States by assets, according to the National Philanthropic Trust.
The only larger charity is the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, which has an endowment worth some $40 billion and focuses on global health and development issues.
The foundations have funded treatment centers during the Ebola outbreak in 2014 and, more recently, efforts to protect people in the United States targeted during “a national wave of hate incidents following the 2016 election,” the organization said.
The foundation said it did not plan to increase its grant-making activity anytime soon, or to dramatically expand its programming.
Trump narrows Fed search to 5 finalists
President Donald Trump said Tuesday that he is likely to make his selection for the next Federal Reserve chairman from five candidates, a group that includes current Chair Janet Yellen.
“I would say within those five, you’ll probably get the answer,” he said when asked by a reporter if he is considering other candidates.
Trump is expected to make a decision before he begins a trip to Asia on Nov. 3. The five finalists are Yellen, current Fed board member Jerome Powell, National Economic Council director Gary Cohn, former Fed board member Kevin Warsh and Stanford University economist John Taylor, the official said.
“Honestly, I like them all,” Trump said when asked if he had a favorite.
The president is scheduled to interview Yellen on Thursday. After that meeting, he will have met and discussed the job with all five candidates.
Yellen’s four-year term as chairman ends on Feb. 3. Trump criticized Yellen on the campaign trail last year, saying she was too political and was keeping interest rates low to favor Democrats. But since taking office, Trump has been complimentary, saying he and Yellen both favor low interest rates and that she has done a good job at the central bank.