U2 has been around a long time, and while it doesn’t look like they are calling it quits anytime soon, The Edge sounds ready to see some new artists carry the mantle for rock and roll.
“I don’t think rock music has that same power currently but I think things come and go, there’s pendulum swings within the culture,” he writes in an opinion piece for Hot Press. “Music, far from it going away, it’s being democratized to an incredible extent but with regard to rock music’s power to speak to people, we are due another wave of importance and I think it’s going to come… it’s time.”
He adds, “Music has been a little asinine for the last number of years and now, there’s so much at stake, music is going to end up being a very important vector of change.”
Finally, he notes, “I’m reminded of The Who song, ‘Won’t Get Fooled Again’, and I think that’s the case – we hand on the torch to the next generation and just hope that they aren’t fooled again…”
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Two Democratic lawmakers have been ousted from the Republican-controlled Tennessee state House of Representatives and one was allowed to stay in what marks the first partisan expulsion in the state’s modern history.
State Rep. Justin Jones, the first lawmaker expelled when lawmakers voted to adopt HR65, called the resolution “a spectacle” and “a lynch mob assembled to not lynch me, but our democratic process.”
“We called for you all to ban assault weapons and you respond with an assault on democracy,” Jones said during his 20-minute opening statement.
Following the adoption of the expulsion resolution, Jones said his ouster “is just setting a precedent that any member who voices dissent or opposition can be expelled from the legislative body.”
“Whether I’m a member on the inside or a community member on the outside, I will continue to stand with the people demanding change because this is not the end. But today is a very dangerous day for America,” he said in a hallway interview after the vote, according to NewsNation.
State Rep. Justin Pearson, who sang “Power to the People” and quoted from the Bible, said the resolution to remove him was an “injustice against the First Amendment.”
“Speaking up on behalf of the last, the lost, the least, those who’ve been left out, those who’ve been ignored, those who’ve been silenced but refuse to be silent anymore, that does not deserve expulsion from this House,” he said before he was expelled from the chamber Thursday evening.
State Rep. Gloria Johnson, the sole lawmaker to survive the expulsion resolutions, denied allegations that she shouted from the well and said she breached House decorum in a needed effort to stir “good trouble.”
“My friends in school all called me ‘Little Miss Law and Order’ because I’m a rule-follower, and I know that rules sometimes have to be broken and sometimes you have to get in good trouble,” she said.
“I may have broken a rule, but the words in this document are false and I did what I was compelled to do based on speaking for the voters in my district who were begging me to bring this issue forward,” she later added, gesturing at HR64, which would have expelled her from the legislative body.
President Joe Biden said the move to oust the lawmakers was “shocking, undemocratic, and without precedent,” arguing Republicans in Tennessee were focused on “punishing lawmakers who joined thousands of peaceful protesters calling for action” rather than pushing for reforms.
Earlier in the Thursday session, the legislature passed HB322, a bill that requires schools to implement a number of safety plans and security systems, over the objections of the three members who face expulsion.
“This bill is not about school safety that will not make our students safer,” Jones said, adding the move to “make our schools militarized zones” is borne out of refusal “to address the real issue, which is easy access to military grade weapons, which is easy access to weapons of war on our streets.”
Johnson, a former teacher, decried the possibility of “gun battles at our schoolhouse door,” and Pearson argued that “the root cause that each of us have to address is this gun violence epidemic do the due to the proliferation of guns.”
“We don’t need a solution that says if you don’t lock a door or get someone with a gun, we need a solution that says people shouldn’t be going to schools and to houses and to neighborhoods with weapons of war,” Pearson added.
Protesters gathered both inside — in the gallery, where they were told to remain silent — and in large groups outside, in apparent support of the three Democratic lawmakers.
Jones, Johnson and Pearson are facing expulsion resolutions for allegedly violating the chamber’s rules of decorum by participating in a gun control protest at the state Capitol last week. The demonstration came in the wake of the deadly Covenant School shooting in Nashville on March 27, where a former student fatally shot three children and three adults, police have said.
When protesters crowded the state House and gallery hallways last week, calling for stricter gun laws, only one Democratic lawmaker was granted permission to address them.
Others, particularly young progressives like freshman Reps. Pearson and Jones, also wanted to speak but were prohibited by Republican leadership.
So, during a recess, the duo, along with Johnson, used the well of the House chambers to demand action. With their mics shut off, they brought a megaphone, leading chants.
Days later, Tennessee’s Republican Reps. Bud Hulsey, Gino Bulso and Andrew Farmer sponsored the expulsion resolutions Monday. They argued the Democratic lawmakers “did knowingly and intentionally bring disorder and dishonor to the House of Representatives through their individual and collective actions.”
Hulsey, Bulso and Farmer did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
Republican state lawmakers including Speaker Cameron Sexton have accused the trio of attempting to incite an insurrection, even likening their actions to the violent Jan. 6, 2021, riot at the U.S. Capitol, according to ABC affiliate WKRN.
Since the Civil War, the Tennessee state House has voted only twice to expel a member.
As of Thursday, the trio of Democrats said they have already lost ID access to the state Capitol and been stripped of any committee assignments.
But Pearson and Johnson told ABC News, no matter the results of the expulsion vote, they will remain undeterred in fighting for their constituents.
“If we are expelled on Thursday, you can expect the protest to continue the resistance to build, and the advocacy for our communities and for the people that we care about,” said Pearson.
“This is not going to stop me in the least,” Johnson added.
ABC News’ Sarah Beth Guevara and Nakylah Carter contributed to this report.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The Republican-led Tennessee House of Representatives held a hearing to vote to expel three Democratic members on Thursday over their involvement in a gun control protest last week following the Nashville school shooting.
After a day-long hearing, the House voted to expel Justin Jones and Justin Pearson, but not Rep. Gloria Johnson.
Over the last few days and during the hearing, the three said they have no regrets about speaking out against gun violence and calling on their colleagues to do more to enact laws that crack down on gun access.
Pearson told ABC News’ “Start Here,” before the vote that he and his colleagues were never allowed to speak out on behalf of their constituents, many of whom are demanding common sense gun reform, and dismissed the GOP member’s arguments that they violated the chamber’s rules of decorum.
“The people elected us, not our colleagues,” he told “Start Here.” “That is not the status quo. None of us expected that we had broken a rule that could lead to our expulsion.”
Each elected official has had deep ties to the state’s politics and has been vocal about their support for gun control.
Gloria Johnson
Johnson, 60, was born in Colorado and moved several times during her youth for her father’s work with the FBI until she was in seventh grade when her family, which had long Tennessee roots, settled in Knoxville, according to her official campaign bio.
She graduated from the University of Tennessee at Knoxville with an education degree and taught elementary and high school classes for several years. In addition to teaching, Johnson was active in local politics, helping with some field campaigns for Democratic elected officials, her bio said.
She was Knox County Democratic Party chairwoman in 2009. Three years later, Johnson was first elected to the Tennessee House representing the 13th district, which covered Knoxville.
She was defeated in the 2014 election by Republican Eddie Smith but in 2018 she regained her seat in a rematch with Smith.
Johnson, who is a gun owner, has made gun safety a top priority.
“As someone who worked in a classroom where we lost one of our students, you never forget the faces, the people, the children, and the traumatic experience. And we do not want that to happen to another child and another school,” she told ABC News.
Justin Jones
Jones, 27, was born in Oakland, California, and said he has been active in political movements since he was a teenager.
In high school, he organized rallies to speak out against “stand your ground laws” following Trayvon Martin’s death, according to his campaign bio.
He began attending Fisk University in Tennessee in 2013 and continued to take part in political activism, including a 62-day sit-in outside the Tennessee State House in protest of the controversial Dakota Pipeline construction at Standing Rock.
After graduating from the university with a degree in political science, Jones continued to work with local community activist groups, including the Tennessee Healthcare Campaign, a non-profit that advocates for affordable healthcare for all state residents.
Jones ran for office last year for the open house seat for Tennessee’s 52nd district, which includes Nashville. He had no opponents in the general election.
Jones has kept gun control at the forefront of his agenda and has repeatedly called out his Republican colleagues on their bills to loosen the state’s firearm restrictions.
“There comes a time when you have to do something out of the ordinary. We occupied the House floor today after repeatedly being silenced from talking about the crisis of mass shootings,” he tweeted before the March 30 protest.
Justin Pearson
Pearson, 27, was born and raised in Memphis and graduated from Bowdoin College in Maine with a degree in government & legal studies and education studies, according to his campaign bio.
Pearson was part of several community organizing groups, including Memphis Community Against Pollution and the Poor People’s Campaign: National Call for Moral Revival, his bio said.
After years of political work in the non-profit sector, Pearson officially became an elected member of the Tennessee House this year in a special election to replace Barbara Cooper, the 86th district’s representative who died in October 2022.
Pearson told “Start Here” he recently lost a classmate to gun violence. He noted that murders in his district are up 44% this year compared to last year.
“I think about responsibility as an elected official and the care and compassion that we should just have as people, those are together,” Pearson said.
Pearson said he and his fellow Democratic colleagues are speaking with attorneys about their next move but vowed to continue speaking out.
“Our work is not ending today. Our work is continuing,” he said.
ABC News’ Brad Mielke and Amanda Su contributed to this report.
(UVALDE, Texas) — The Texas Department of Public Safety on Thursday released a pair of videos depicting an altercation between one of its troopers and a visibly anguished mother of one of the students who died in last year’s mass shooting at Robb Elementary School, after an edited version of the dispute erupted on social media earlier this week.
The incident, which happened on Wednesday during a student-led walkout in protest of gun violence, reflects a distraught community’s simmering distrust of law enforcement after officers waited 77 minutes to confront the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers on May 24, 2022.
By sharing the video publicly, law enforcement officials said they hope the additional context and transparency will help mend divisions between police and the community they are tasked to protect.
A video shared late Wednesday on social media begins with Ana Rodriguez, whose 10-year-old daughter Maite was among those killed in the rampage at Robb Elementary School, attempting to enter the elementary school to retrieve her son.
After a student inside the building opens the door, Rodriguez enters — but is immediately confronted by a Texas state trooper, who physically forces her out of the school.
“When your daughter is murdered on school grounds, then you talk to me sir,” Rodriguez tells the trooper.
The video quickly ricocheted across social media, overwhelmingly attracting sympathy for Rodriguez and generating outrage toward at the trooper. State Sen. Roland Gutierrez slammed the trooper’s conduct and called for a probe.
“I am demanding a full investigation of this incident, with bodycam footage to be released immediately,” Gutierrez tweeted. “This is a disgrace and is no way to treat a grieving family.”
By Thursday afternoon, the Texas Department of Publican safety had fulfilled Gutierrez’ request. Officials released an 11-minute clip from the trooper’s body-worn camera and a seven-minute video taken from a hallway surveillance camera, and a department spokesperson said they were looking into the matter.
The two videos show the moments leading up to the physical altercation. Rodriguez is first seen in the hallway of the school shouting at the trooper — although the trooper’s camera initially does not record any audio of the interaction.
In a statement obtained by ABC News, the trooper who confronted Rodriguez said that Rodriguez initially complied with his orders to check in with a secretary, pursuant to school protocol — but then “attempted to make her way into the auditorium and began yelling loudly, yelling ‘Walk-out’ several times.”
According to the body-worn camera, the officer then placed his hand on Rodriguez’ back and led her toward an exit. Rodriguez can then be heard banging on the door from outside, in an apparent attempt to get back in.
When another parent waiting for their child opens the door for Rodriguez, the trooper returns to the entryway, grabs Rodriguez around the arms and shoulders, and physically forces her back outside.
A moment later, the trooper returned to the doorway and allowed Rodriguez into a nearby office, where Rodriguez again presented her identification to the secretary and asked to retrieve her son. While she waited for her son, the trooper approached her and asked, “Can I please talk with you?”
“No, you may not,” Rodriguez replied. “You wouldn’t understand. Was your daughter shot up? No she was not f—ing shot! So this means something to me. It means something to me for my son to be able to protest.”
The Uvalde School District did not respond to comment about the incident, but a spokesperson released a statement saying the larger walk-out was an unsafe demonstration.
Hundreds of students throughout the district participated in the walk-out on Wednesday, marching to the memorial in the Uvalde town square and waiting 77 minutes, the length of time it took police to subdue the gunman during the attack last May.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Education on Thursday announced a proposed change to Title IX to prohibit categorical bans on transgender student athletes.
If adopted as a rule, the change would make it illegal for schools or universities to bar transgender student athletes from participating on sports teams consistent with their gender identities “just because of who they are,” the department wrote.
While the change would make “one-size-fits-all” prohibitions a violation of Title IX, it would still give schools discretion to develop eligibility rules for sports teams that could ultimately restrict a transgender athlete’s ability to participate.
A senior department administration official said if a school assessed there was a need to limit transgender athletes for the purpose of fairness in competition, safety or other educational interests, it “could identify what basis it was using to do that and why.”
“The proposed regulation would give schools flexibility to identify their own important educational objectives,” the official said. “They might include, for example, fairness and competition, or preventing sports related injuries.”
When asked Thursday how the administration will implement the rule in states that have already passed bans on transgender girls, the official said the government will be “eager” to enforce it throughout the country without providing details.
“The federal civil rights law is the law of the land and we would be eager to ensure its full satisfaction in every school community around the country,” the official said.
Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona applauded the proposal as a move that will benefit students’ health.
“Every student should be able to have the full experience of attending school in America, including participating in athletics, free from discrimination. Being on a sports team is an important part of the school experience for students of all ages,” said U.S. Secretary of Education Miguel Cardona. “Beyond all the benefits to physical and mental health, playing on a team teaches students how to work hard, get along with others, believe in themselves, and build healthy habits that last a lifetime.”
The American Federation of Teachers also celebrated the announcement, saying the change would protect transgender students from politically motivated blanket bans.
But the proposal was met with criticism from Republicans on Capitol Hill. Speaker Kevin McCarthy said that the suggested change is “anti-women,” adding, “Protecting women’s sports is essential.”
Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind., who sits on the House Education and the Workforce Committee, also criticized the proposed change.
“As a father of three girls who all play sports, I’m outraged that the Biden administration wants to force them to compete against biological males,” told ABC News.
“This is scientifically and morally wrong and a slap in the face to girls and women across the country,” he said.
The announcement comes on the heels of a Supreme Court decision in favor of a 12-year-old transgender girl and her parents who challenged a West Virginia law that would impose such a ban.
Twenty states have passed laws banning transgender students from participating in sports consistent with their gender identities, according to the Movement Advancement Project, a gender equality-focused nonprofit think tank.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans on Thursday took the next step in their probe of the Manhattan district attorney’s yearslong investigation of former President Donald Trump by issuing a subpoena to depose a former prosecutor in the office.
House Judiciary Committee Chairman Jim Jordan, one of Trump’s closest allies on Capitol Hill, subpoenaed Mark Pomerantz related to his role in investigating Trump and Trump’s businesses. The subpoena — which comes two days after Trump was arraigned on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records, to which he has pleaded not guilty — is the first from the committee.
Pomerantz is one of the prosecutors who resigned in 2022 over District Attorney Alvin Bragg’s unwillingness to pursue their case against Trump. Bragg has said that he felt “more work was needed” on the matter. After Pomerantz left his role as a special assistant district attorney, he wrote a memoir about his time on the investigation.
Jordan wrote to Pomerantz along with the subpoena that his book and media appearances indicate he “has no basis to decline to testify about matters before the committee.”
“Based on your unique role as a special assistant district attorney leading the investigation into President Trump’s finances, you are uniquely situated to provide information that is relevant and necessary to inform the Committee’s oversight and potential legislative reforms,” Jordan wrote.
Pomerantz declined to appear before the committee last month for a transcribed interview. He could not be reached for comment on Thursday.
Earlier this week, in the wake of Trump’s arraignment, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said “Bragg’s weaponization of the federal justice process will be held accountable by Congress.”
Bragg’s office has been engaged in a back-and-forth with the House Republicans seeking to investigate his investigation, which his counsel has called an undue intrusion into New York affairs.
The Judiciary Committee said in a statement on Thursday that the GOP-led House may consider “legislative reforms that would, among other things, prevent state or local politically motivated prosecutions of current or former presidents.”
Bragg responded to the subpoena in a statement, saying Republicans continue “to attempt to undermine an active investigation and ongoing criminal case with an unprecedented campaign of harassment and intimidation.”
“These elected officials would better serve their constituents and the country, and fulfill their oath of office, by doing their jobs in Congress and not intruding on the sovereignty of the state of New York by interfering in an ongoing criminal matter in state court,” Bragg said.
He has refused to cooperate with the congressional requests so far and Jordan has left the door open on whether to take the step of subpoenaing him while he is overseeing an ongoing criminal case.
(EVERMAN, Texas) — The search for a missing 6-year-old Texas boy who hasn’t been seen since October is now a death investigation, police said Thursday, while vowing to find his body.
Texas authorities issued an endangered missing person alert late last month for Noel Rodriguez-Alvarez of Everman, a city in the Dallas-Fort Worth metropolitan area.
After conducting interviews with families and investigating stories they believe his mother allegedly told to cover for his disappearance, including that she had sold him, “it has led to a very unfortunate, unimaginable, devastating conclusion that Noel is likely deceased,” Everman Police Chief C.W. Spencer said at a press briefing Thursday.
Noel was last seen alive around the birth of his twin sisters in October, “appearing unhealthy and malnourished,” according to Spencer. In early November, his mother, Cindy Rodriguez-Singh, applied for passports for all of her children except for Noel, the police chief said.
Around that time, Rodriguez-Singh “began trying to explain the disappearance of Noel … through various stories,” including reportedly telling people he was with his biological father in Mexico, with his aunt in Mexico or that Noel was sold to another woman in a Fiesta Market parking lot, Spencer said.
“Investigators have been able to disprove each one of these stories,” Spencer said.
Family members reportedly told police that Rodriguez-Singh was abusive and neglectful toward Noel, including allegedly withholding food and water “often” and on one occasion striking him in the face with a set of keys, Spencer said. She also “referred to him as evil, possessed or having a demon in him,” the police chief said.
Rodriguez-Singh, her husband Arshdeep Singh and her six other children are currently in India, Spencer said. Warrants have been issued for the couple’s arrest on the felony charge of abandoning and endangering a child, according to the police chief.
“We want these fugitives arrested and extradited back to the United States so we can seek answers for the disappearance of Noel,” Spencer said.
Investigators are now conducting recovery operations and organized searches to find Noel’s body, the chief said.
“Nobody is more committed, more determined or more eager to locate Noel than this investigative team,” Spencer said.
Metallica is raffling off a VIP concert experience to raise money for the band’s All Within My Hands charity foundation.
The grand prize winner will get to take up to six guests on a private flight to a U.S. city on Metallica’s 2023-2024 M72 tour, which features two unique, no-repeat shows for each stop. You and your party will get to watch both concerts from an “exclusive viewing platform,” as well as complimentary beverages, limited edition merch items and a $5,000 gift card for lodging, transportation and additional expenses.
The contest ends June 23 at 11:59 p.m. PT, ahead of the U.S. tour launch in August. For more info, visit Fandiem.com.
Metallica will be touring in support of their upcoming album 72 Seasons, which drops April 14.
Dropkick Murphys have premiered the video for “Gotta Get to Peekskill,” their collaborative song with Violent Femmes.
The visual begins with newspaper clippings telling the backstory of the track, which refers to a 1949 concert headlined by musician Paul Robeson and attended by Woody Guthrie. Concertgoers were attacked by the Ku Klux Klan upon leaving the show.
“Gotta Get to Peekskill” appears on the upcoming Dropkick album Okemah Rising, due out May 12. The songs on the record are based on the unpublished writings of Guthrie.
(BROOKSVILLE, Fla.) — A young Florida doctor who discovered her own cancer last year is opening up about her personal health journey in the hopes of raising awareness and encouraging others to get a screening if they suspect something is amiss.
Dr. Lauren Juyia, a gynecologist at Elite Women’s Care in Brooksville, Florida, and Clearwater, Florida, told “Good Morning America” she started feeling “pelvic heaviness” last August but otherwise, had not noticed anything out of the ordinary. When she started feeling a “pelvic mass” however, she went to get an ultrasound at HCA Florida Oak Hill Hospital.
“Having a background in obstetrics, we describe size by weeks of pregnancy and so I was like, ‘Oh my god, I have a 16-week-size mass.’ From experience, I could tell that this was my ovary,” Juyia, 38, recalled.
After the ultrasound confirmed she did indeed have larger-than-normal masses by her ovary, Juyia said she started to consult other doctors and sought multiple opinions, especially since within two weeks of first noticing the pelvic mass, it grew in size, expanding 8 centimeters to about 24 centimeters.
“I had never seen anything benign, meaning not cancer, grow that fast before,” Juyia said. “So we kind of knew, deep down, that this was not going to be good. And we suspected ovarian cancer of course, because it was the ovaries being the masses.”
Juyia was 37 at the time and at that point, she hadn’t had any of the typical signs of the cancer she later learned she actually had — colon cancer. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , the symptoms of colon cancer, also known as colorectal cancer, include changes in bowel movements, blood in the stool, constipation, diarrhea, abdominal pain and cramps or unexplained weight loss.
“I did have a little bit of fatigue. I was a little tired in the afternoon for about two months previous to this and as a mom with two little kids — I had been recently nursing them, they were still waking up in the night, I work full time — I didn’t think anything of saying, ‘Oh, I think I need a tea in the afternoon.’ Whereas maybe someone in their 50s or 60s would be much more tired from stage 4 tumors taking up their energy,” Juyia recounted.
The mom of two was eventually diagnosed with stage 4 (late stage) colon cancer and started six months of chemotherapy treatments with Dr. David Wenk, an oncologist at Florida Cancer Specialists. She also continued working throughout, something she said helped take her mind off her own cancer.
“For me, it was therapeutic to get to still be useful to my patients,” she said. “When I am with someone in a patient room, I forgot I was ill. Even the nausea, I wouldn’t feel it for that 15-20 minutes. So for me, it was most important to try to have a normal life and try to continue to be useful.”
Juyia, who along with her husband Dr. Rushad Juyia, a spine and sports medicine physician, are parents of a 6-year-old daughter and 3-year-old son, said she’s grateful for the care and support she’s received from her medical team and from her own community of family and friends.
“What I remember from that time is just wanting to raise my children, to live long enough for them to remember me because they were 5 and 3,” Juyia said.
In late March, Juyia underwent one more surgery to remove an inactive tumor, and so far, tests have shown she has “no evidence of disease.”
Today, she wants others, especially those under the CDC-recommended age of 45, to get a colon cancer screening if they notice anything unusual.
“People that are younger than the screening age should still be paying attention to our symptoms because we’re not eligible for screening usually. We might not have any symptoms because we are young, our bodies are more resilient. We can tolerate more symptoms,” Juyia said.
“We just need to be aware if we’re not lucky enough to be in the range where we should be screened. And if you are in the range that you should be screened, take advantage of that. Don’t squander that opportunity. There’s a reason we want to screen you and keep you safe,” she added.
