Convenience store planned for South Broad Street site
A new convenience store is planned for a tract at Broad and West 33rd streets across from the studio of WDEF-TV and not far from the proposed new Chattanooga Lookouts ballpark.
Robert B. Maclellan of NAI Charter Real Estate said in a telephone interview that the 1.5-acre site was sold for $2.3 million by a Nashville company.
The property is expected to hold a 7-Eleven convenience store with a fuel center. The convenience store chain also is raising new stores on Highway 153 in Hixson and across from Chattanooga State Community College on Amnicola Highway.
A $79.5 million multi-use stadium with the Chattanooga Lookouts as the primary user has been approved by Chattanooga and Hamilton County at the former U.S Pipe/Wheland Foundry site in the South Broad District.
Fleischmann wins award for support of ARC projects
U.S. Rep. Chuck Fleischmann, the only Tennessee member of the U.S. House of Representatives on the Appropriations Committee, was recognized by local government officials Friday with the Development District Association of Appalachia (DDAA) Congressional Award for his leadership and support of the Appalachian Regional Commission.
Fleischmann, R-Tennessee, was given the honor at the McMinn County Higher Education Center, one of the facilities that has been aided by ARC funding to help train workers and aid businesses to grow. City and county mayors in McMinn County, along with education and development leaders from across the region, praised Fleischmann's support of the ARC in his role as the ranking Republican of the Appropriations subcommittee on Energy and Water, which funds the federal development agency.
Created 59 years ago by then President John F. Kennedy, the ARC focuses on aiding the most economically challenged 423 counties across the Appalachian region, including many of the rural counties in East Tennessee. ARC grants have helped to build schools, aid businesses, train workers and provide infrastructure in the more economically distressed parts of the 13-state Appalachia region.
"I have represented many of these counties for more than a decade and I am so thankful to see the impact of the appropriated funds that I have advocated and fought for," Fleischmann said Friday after receiving the top DDAA Congressional Award. "I don't want any of our counties left behind and it's wonderful to see how ARC has been able to help in areas that are not doing as well economically."
China to allow regulators to inspect company audits
The U.S. and China have reached a tentative agreement to allow U.S. regulators to inspect the audits of Chinese companies whose stocks are traded on U.S. exchanges. In a long-festering dispute, U.S. regulators have threatened to boot a number of Chinese companies off the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq if China doesn't permit inspections.
The deal announced Friday by market regulators in the U.S. and China is preliminary. Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Gary Gensler said, "The proof will be in the pudding."
"While important, this framework is merely a step in the process," Gensler said in a prepared statement. "This agreement will be meaningful only if (U.S. regulators) actually can inspect and investigate completely audit firms in China. If (they) cannot, roughly 200 China-based issuers will face prohibitions on trading of their securities in the U.S. if they continue to use those audit firms."
An agreement would mean that U.S. investors will maintain access to shares of important Chinese companies while at the same time being protected by the integrity of company audits.
"This is unequivocally positive news and a major step toward averting mass delisting of Chinese companies in the U.S.," analyst Tobin Marcus at Evercore ISI said in a note to clients. However, he said, "a deal is only the first step toward avoiding delisting. What ultimately needs to happen is that (U.S.) Inspectors need to show up and complete inspections." He said the inspections could take months.
The U.S. regulators plan to have inspection teams on the ground in China by mid-September.
July income growth outpaces inflation
Americans' incomes rose more slowly last month -- but, for once, those gains weren't swallowed up by higher prices.
Personal income, after taxes, rose 0.2% in July, the Commerce Department said Friday. That was slower than the 0.7% gain in June. But while the gains in June were more than offset by sharply higher prices, in July, Americans saw their inflation-adjusted incomes rise 0.3% as lower gas prices led to a respite from inflation.
Consumer spending also cooled in July, as Americans pulled back on purchases of goods. Overall consumer spending rose 0.1%, the weakest showing since a decline in December and down from a 1% gain in June.
Spending on services, which has rebounded sharply as the pandemic has ebbed, continued to rise, but more slowly than in prior months.
— Compiled by Dave Flessner