10 artists picked for MLK murals

EPB’s 10th Street Community Mural is adding paintings from 10 more Chattanooga-area artists whose work will be displayed on the third side of its 10th Street substation.

The 2023 mural theme is “Traditions on MLK” and highlights family traditions throughout the years in downtown Chattanooga’s Martin Luther King Boulevard area. An outside group of community stakeholders selected artists who live or work in EPB’s service territory based on their submission’s artistic value, community reflection and thematic relevance. The chosen artists include Jonathon Bidwell. Lexi D’Ambrosio. Laura Swift Dahlke, Mason Elmore, Karen Estes, Jerome Foster, Jody Harris, Ann Jackson, Caitlin Maupin and Olivia Reckert

This year, the selected artists will paint new murals on nine panels located in the alley behind Memo’s grill, running parallel to E. Martin Luther King Boulevard. Murals completed over the last two years honor Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Chattanooga history, and well-known Chattanooga community members on the Foster and E. 10th Streets sides of the building.

“We are honored to provide a platform for local artists to share their talents with the community,” EPB Director of Residential Energy and Environmental Solutions Elizabeth Hammitt said in a statement Wednesday.

Stock market rallies as banks fear subsides

Stocks rallied Wednesday as Wall Street shook off more of the fear that dominated it earlier this month.

The S&P 500 rose 1.4% for its fourth gain in the last five days. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 323 points, or 1%, while the Nasdaq composite jumped 1.8%.

They followed similar sized gains in other markets around the world and put the S&P 500 on track to close a tumultuous month with a modest gain. That’s despite the month being dominated by worries about banks and whether the industry is cracking under the pressure of much higher interest rates.

Forceful actions by regulators have helped to calm some of the worries about banks. By Wednesday, a measure of fear among stock investors on Wall Street fell to nearly where it was on March 8. That was the day before Silicon Valley Bank’s customers suddenly yanked out $42 billion in a panicked dash. It became the second-largest US bank failure in history and sparked harsher scrutiny of banks around the world.

“I think the market has been very much focused on a set of extremes, like what we saw in the COVID period, where it was either: The sky is falling, or everything is euphoric,” said Zach Hill, head of portfolio management at Horizon Investments.

While he doesn’t think fears about banks are completely gone, he says now “we’re in much more of a middle ground environment, in terms of the economy and in terms of rate hikes flowing through to economic activity.”

Macy’s CEO retires, Spring is the successor

Macy’s says Chairman and CEO Jeff Gennette plans to retire and will be succeeded by Bloomingdale’s Chairman and CEO Tony Spring in February.

Gennette, 61, has served as Macy’s CEO since March 2017 and became chairman in February 2018. Spring, 58, will become president and CEO-Elect of Macy’s, effective immediately, according to a regulatory filing on Wednesday.

He’s served as an executive vice president at Macy’s since 2021.

UBS brings back Ermotti as CEO

UBS says it’s bringing back former CEO Sergio Ermotti to lead the Swiss bank as it moves forward with a government-orchestrated plan to take over struggling rival Credit Suisse.

The bank said Wednesday that Ermotti’s appointment takes effect in a week. Ermotti was the bank’s top executive for nine years and will take over from CEO Ralph Hamers.

The bank says Hamers will remain at UBS during a transition period.

The hastily arranged, $3.25 billion deal for Credit Suisse aimed to stem the upheaval in the global financial system after the collapse of two US banks and jitters about long-running troubles at Credit Suisse led shares of Switzerland’s second-largest bank to tank and customers to pull out their money.

Congress overturns water protections

Congress on Wednesday approved a resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s protections for thousands of small streams, wetlands and other waterways.

The Senate voted 53 to 43 to approve the Republican-led effort. President Joe Biden has promised to veto the measure.

The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to block recently enacted executive branch regulations and only needs a majority vote. This is the latest development in a long-running fight over the reach of the Clean Water Act.

Environmental groups have sought protections that cover more waters to reduce pollution while business and farming groups have supported proposals to curtail regulations that can impose permitting requirements on builders.

— Compiled by Dave Flessner