(DEARBORN, Mich.) — A suspect has been taken into custody following a shooting and hourslong negotiations with authorities at a Hampton Inn in Dearborn, Michigan, the Michigan State Police said.
“The barricaded gunman has been taken into custody without incident,” police said Thursday night. “Michigan Ave. is still closed and will be as the investigation continues. This will be our final update.”
One victim has been hospitalized, according to Dearborn police. Authorities said they did not have an update on the victim’s condition.
Police said the suspect was firing shots with a long gun from inside the hotel.
Dearborn police said they had been in contact with the suspect’s family to get him to surrender peacefully.
According to police, the suspect was in a dispute with hotel staff over money.
Officers evacuated hotel employees and guests, police said.
Authorities are urging people to stay away from downtown Dearborn.
(LAS VEGAS) — Two people are dead and three are in critical condition from a series of stabbings outside a Las Vegas casino on Thursday, according to police.
There are eight victims total from the incident, which started around 11:40 a.m. local time, Las Vegas police said. They include both locals and tourists, Sheriff Joseph Lombardo said during a press briefing Thursday.
The initial stabbing, which occurred on the sidewalk along Las Vegas Boulevard, appears to have been unprovoked, Deputy Chief James LaRochelle told reporters.
The suspect then proceeded south and stabbed five more victims, and then an additional victim on Sands Avenue, he said. It’s unclear when or where the eighth victim was stabbed.
One victim was pronounced dead at the scene, and a second died after being transported to the University Medical Center of Southern Nevada, police said. Three patients are hospitalized in stable condition, police said.
The suspect was taken into custody within a “matter of minutes” by a security guard and police officer after fleeing the scene, police said.
LaRochelle said the suspect is a man in his 30s who recently arrived in Las Vegas. Police are working to confirm his identity, he said.
A large kitchen knife used in the incident has been recovered from the scene, police said.
A motive is unknown, according to police.
“[It’s] hard to comprehend, hard to understand murder investigation,” LaRochelle said.
The victims will be identified pending family notification, the sheriff said.
Authorities stressed there is no known threat to the public at this time, with Lombardo describing the scene of the attacks as “static.”
Ron Galella/Ron Galella Collection via Getty Images
Judy Tenuta, the popular comedian who called herself “The Love Goddess” while playing the accordion, has died, her publicist confirms to ABC News. She died of ovarian cancer on Thursday afternoon in Studio City, CA. She was 72.
Tenuta, who got her start in Chicago comedy clubs, broke out nationally in 1987 thanks to the HBO special Women of the Night, which also starred Ellen DeGeneres, Paula Poundstone and Rita Rudner.
Between 1987 and 1988, the quirky Tenuta toured with George Carlin, won the inaugural “Best Comedy Club Stand-Up Comic – Female” honor at the American Comedy Awards and starred in a series of Diet Dr. Pepper commercials, which you can see on YouTube. Her over-the-top stage shows included outrageous outfits, her signature greeting “Hi, Pigs!” and sarcastic references to herself as “The Love Goddess,” and to her own religion, “Judyism.”
A gay icon, Tenuta was nominated for two Grammys, wrote two books, starred in stand-up specials on Showtime, HBO and Lifetime and appeared in TV shows and movies including General Hospital, Material Girls,Space Ghost Coast to Coast, Dr. Katz, Professional Therapist, The Weird Al YankovicShow and many more.
Last year, Tenuta shared her health issues in a comedic viral video called Kicking Cancer’s A**.
(NEW YORK) — Elon Musk accused Twitter on Thursday of failing to accept his restored offer to purchase the social media platform at the original price of $54.20 per share.
The billionaire entrepreneur also asked the Delaware Chancery Court to halt a trial that’s scheduled to begin later this month. Musk and Twitter have been embroiled in a legal battle since he made an offer to buy the platform and then decided to back out after the company allegedly did not provide him with the information he requested about bot accounts.
“Twitter will not take yes for an answer. Astonishingly, they have insisted on proceeding with this litigation, recklessly putting the deal at risk and gambling with their stockholders’ interests,” Musk’s attorneys said in a new court filing.
“Twitter offered Mr. Musk billions off the transaction price. Mr. Musk refused because Twitter attempted to put certain self-serving conditions on the deal. Any statement to the contrary is a lie,” Musk’s attorney, Alex Spiro of Quinn Emanuel, said in a statement.
In response, Twitter said it opposes the attempt to stop the trial.
Shortly after Musk requested canceling the trial on Thursday, the judge postponed it, a source familiar with the matter told ABC News.
The trial, which was initially scheduled to start on Oct. 17, has now been pushed to Oct. 28, according to the source — the same date by which Musk said he expects the deal with Twitter to close.
“As a result, there is no need for an expedited trial to order Defendants to do what they are already doing and this action is now moot,” Musk said in the filing.
In a statement later on Thursday, Twitter said it plans to close the deal by that date.
“We look forward to closing the transaction at $54.20 by Oct. 28,” the company said.
After a monthslong effort to terminate the agreement, Musk announced on Tuesday he had put forward a proposal to Twitter that would complete the deal at Musk’s original offer price of $54.20 a share — for a total cost of roughly $44 billion, a person familiar with the proposal told ABC News.
Twitter had said in a statement Tuesday it intends to “close the transaction at $54.20 per share.”
Musk initially reached an acquisition deal with Twitter in April, before raising concern over spam accounts on the platform and claiming Twitter had not provided him with an accurate estimate of their number. Twitter rebuked that claim, saying it had provided Musk with information in accordance with conditions set out in the acquisition deal.
In May, Musk said the deal was on “temporary hold” over the bot concerns. Dan Ives, a managing director of equity research at Wedbush, an investment firm, told ABC News at the time that the grievance could serve as a pretext for Musk to renegotiate or abandon the deal amid a market downturn that had proven especially pronounced for tech stocks.
Musk continued to threaten to pull out of the deal if Twitter didn’t provide additional information about the prevalence of bots, before moving to terminate his acquisition of Twitter in July.
Days later, Twitter filed a lawsuit against Musk over his effort to terminate an acquisition agreement.
A new interactive exhibition celebrating the Rock & Roll Hall of Famers who graced the Ryman Auditorium stage over the years is set to open at the historic Nashville venue on November 2.
The Rock Hall at the Ryman exhibit is part of a multiyear partnership between the Ryman and Cleveland’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame.
While the Ryman is one of the world’s most famous country-music venues, it’s also been the site of performances by over 100 Rock Hall inductees. The non-country artists who are acknowledged in the exhibit include Eric Clapton, Foo Fighters, Joan Jett, James Brown, The Byrds, The Who‘s Roger Daltrey, James Brown and Joni Mitchell.
The exhibit includes a display featuring Clapton’s famous “Blackie” model Fender Stratocaster guitar, which he played on tour during the 1990s; an outfit that late Foo Fighters drummer Taylor Hawkins wore during the 2013 Rock Hall ceremony while helping to induct Rush; a red latex halter bra top Jett wore during the 2006 Vans Warped Tour; and a belted suede coat Elvis Presley wore around 1970.
The Rock Hall at the Ryman exhibit will be located at the Ryman’s recently transformed 5th Avenue vestibule.
Entry into the exhibition will be included in all of Ryman’s daytime tour tickets. For more information, visit Ryman.com.
Earlier in 2022, the Ryman Auditorium was named an official Rock Hall landmark, joining 11 other famous rock-related sites around the U.S., including Austin City Limits in Austin, Texas, and the Whisky a Go Go club in West Hollywood, California.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Thursday announced he’s pardoning all Americans who’ve been convicted of simple marijuana possession under federal law, coming closer to keeping a 2020 campaign promise to try to get the drug decriminalized a little more than a month before the midterm election.
The executive action will benefit 6,500 people with federal convictions from 1992 to 2021 and thousands of others charged under the District of Columbia’s criminal code, according to senior administration officials. Elaborating on the number of people affected, officials said “there are no individuals currently in federal prison solely for simple possession of marijuana.”
“As I said when I ran for president, no one should be in jail just for using or possessing marijuana,” Biden tweeted in an unusual video statement. “It’s legal in many states, and criminal records for marijuana possession have led to needless barriers to employment, housing, and educational opportunities. And that’s before you address the racial disparities around who suffers the consequences. While white and Black and brown people use marijuana at similar rates, Black and brown people are arrested, prosecuted, and convicted at disproportionate rates.”
His action before the consequential midterm elections, in which Democrats are vying to maintain control of the House and Senate, could be viewed as a move to energize voters, particularly younger voters.
When asked about the timing of the executive action, administration officials only said that Biden’s been “clear that our marijuana laws are not working.”
Biden said Thursday he’s urging governors to do the same for individuals with state convictions, which administration officials said account for the vast majority of possession-related convictions.
He’s also requesting Health and Human Services Secretary Xavier Becerra and Attorney General Merrick Garland expeditiously review how marijuana is scheduled under federal law. Currently, marijuana is classified as a “Schedule 1” drug — along with LSD, ecstasy and heroin — under the Controlled Substances Act, which Biden said Thursday “makes no sense.”
“Too many lives have been upended because of our failed approach to marijuana. It’s time that we right these wrongs,” Biden added.
Biden’s faced pressure from his own party this year to take more decisive action, as recent elections have shown Americans’ views on legalization have changed.
In the 2020 cycle alone, four states approved ballot measures to legalize the sale and possession of cannabis for adult use. An analysis from FiveThirtyEight found a majority of registered voters in all 50 states favor making marijuana legal.
This past summer, a group of lawmakers including Sens. Elizabeth Warren, D-Mass., and Bernie Sanders, I-Vt., wrote a letter to Biden, Garland and Becerra urging them to deschedule cannabis and issue pardons to all individuals convicted of nonviolent cannabis-related offenses.
Biden, while slower to embrace marijuana reform than many of his Democratic colleagues, pledged on the 2020 campaign trail to decriminalize cannabis use and expunge prior convictions.
Senate Democrats this year also finally released their long-awaited marijuana legalization proposal, which would lift the federal prohibition and allow states to determine how they want to regulate marijuana. But the legislation faces an uphill battle in the 50-50 chamber, where 10 Republicans would need to support it, and Senate leadership has yet to announce when the bill will be brought up for a vote.
“Members of Congress have been working on this issue,” Biden administration officials said Thursday. “But that effort has stalled and we’re almost at the end of the Congress. So the president has been considering his options and he’s now taking executive action to address the country’s failed approach to marijuana.”
Republican Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson claimed Biden’s move was to score political points.
“The President, in his announced policy on marijuana, has waived the flag of surrender in the fight to save lives from drug abuse and has adopted all the talking points of the drug legalizers,” Hutchinson said. “Biden is simply playing election-year politics and sacrificing our national interest to win votes.”
Meanwhile, advocacy groups are welcoming the announcement.
“We commend this important and necessary step to begin the process of repairing the harms of prohibition and look forward to working with Congress and the administration to develop policies that would ultimately solve the underlying problems in our outdated cannabis policies,” Aaron Smith, Co-founder and CEO of the National Cannabis Industry Association said in a statement.
The Drug Policy Alliance said it was “thrilled” by Biden’s decision, which they called “incredibly long overdue.”
– ABC News’ Darren Reynolds and Anne Flaherty contributed to this report.
(NEW YORK) — The plaintiffs’ attorney in a defamation trial against Alex Jones argued the conspiracy theorist should pay more than half a billion dollars to victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting for calling the massacre a hoax.
“It is your job to make sure he understands the wreckage he has caused,” the attorney, Chris Mattei, told the Connecticut jury during his closing argument Thursday at a trial to determine how much the Infowars host should pay in damages.
A judge last year found Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, liable in the defamation lawsuit, with plaintiffs that include an FBI agent who responded to the scene and eight families of victims that Jones called actors.
Mattei said $550 million was a “baseline” and did not take into account the emotional distress of the families, who claim Jones violated a Connecticut law that prohibits profiting off of lies.
“He built a lie machine,” Mattei said. “You reap what you sow.”
Mattei asked the six jurors to “think about the scale of the defamation,” citing as one example Jones’ claim the families, “faked their 6- or 7-year-old’s death.”
Defense attorney Norm Pattis said he represents a “despised human being” but balked at the half-billion-dollar sum proposed by the plaintiffs’ attorney.
“It would take a person earning $100,000 a year hundreds of years to make $550 million,” Pattis said during his closing statement.
The defense said the plaintiffs presented no evidence that put a price tag on the harm the families said they suffered.
“You heard from no physician. You saw no medical bill. You heard nothing about a lost wage. No receipt for anything has been put before you,” Pattis said.
Pattis told jurors it was not their job to bankrupt Jones so he would stop broadcasting lies.
“That’s not why you’re here,” Pattis said.
Each of the plaintiffs, which include parents of some of the 20 children killed in the 2012 massacre, have testified during the weeks-long trial, detailing how they have faced years of death threats, rape threats and confrontations outside their homes from people who believed Jones’ lies.
In his closing argument Thursday, Mattei told the jurors that Jones built an argument based on “fear, anger and demonization” that the 2012 mass shooting was a hoax so his loyal audience would buy products he was selling.
Mattei said Jones knew “darn well” his lies about the massacre prompted harassments of the families that sued Jones for defamation and infliction of emotional distress.
“As these families were living out their daily lives Alex Jones was waiting to pounce,” Mattei said. “He knew his army was coming after them.”
In his testimony last month, Jones declined to apologize, declaring he was done saying sorry and actually believed the government staged the shooting to generate support for gun control legislation.
“Is this a struggle session? Are we in China? I’ve already said I’m sorry hundreds of times and I’m done saying I’m sorry,” Jones said.
Jones declined to testify as a witness for the defense this week, claiming he could be held in contempt if he says he is “innocent.”
After closing arguments wrapped, Judge Barbara Bellis gave the jury final instructions and they are now deliberating on how much Jones should pay to the plaintiffs.
In August, a Texas jury ordered Jones to pay nearly $50 million in damages to the parents of one of the Sandy Hook victims in a separate defamation trial.
The Weeknd released a new trailer for his upcoming HBO show The Idol that leaves little to the imagination. The trailer features actress Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring singer wearing barely there clothes as she gets entangled in The Weeknd’s sordid world.
Carly Rae Jepsen teased the music video for new song “The Loneliest Time,” which is the title track off her forthcoming album, arriving October 21. “We’re going to the moon! Who’s coming?” she wrote on Instagram, sharing a photo of herself wearing an intergalactic shimmering green dress.
Nick Jonas will be the upcoming cover star of Man About Town magazine and teased of the Jonas Brothers‘ new music in a preview clip, “[We’re] definitely going in a newer direction; we’ve been finding the right people to work with on a sound that feels age-appropriate for where we’re at now, like Jon Bellion, for example.” The article will be featured in the publication’s Fall/Winter 2022 edition.
Meghan Trainor and Harry Connick Jr. are both Down Under to judge the new season of Australian Idol. Meghan showed off the bright yellow suit she’s wearing to the premiere, while Harry shared an Instagram Story of him getting hyped up at a stadium in Perth.
What does Ingrid Michaelson do all day? Well, aside from her music career, she likes to lounge in bed with her beloved pets. She shared a photo on her Instagram story of her dog snuggling up with her on the bed and captioned it, “By my side all day. We don’t deserve dogs.”
Robin Thicke paid tribute to his late father, Alan Thicke, by emotionally singing the Growing Pains theme on The Masked Singer Wednesday night.
After Britney Spears‘ mother, Lynne,publicly begged for forgiveness on Instagram, Britney responded Wednesday. “Mom take your apology and go f*** yourself,” she wrote in a since-deleted Instagram post. She added, “I pray you all burn in hell” for what her family allegedly did to her during the conservatorship.
Zedd previewed his upcoming Sunday concert, which celebrates the 10th anniversary of his debut album, Clarity. He’ll perform the album in its entirety, accompanied by a 50-piece orchestra, and shared a teaser of rehearsals for the Sunday night show.
Lizzo has joined the world of Beat Saber, with the game releasing an exclusive music pack for the Meta Quest 2 headset. The expansion features nine Lizzo hits — including “Good As Hell,” “Juice” and “About Damn Time.” It retails for $11.99.
Louis Tomlinson is rumored to have been in the crowd at Harry Styles‘ show in Austin on September 28, according to United Kingdom radio station Capital FM. This has obviously sent One Direction fans into overdrive, although it wouldn’t be the only one of Harry’s former bandmates to support him at a live show. Niall Horan was there for his Wembley show in June.
Post Malone has some new ink and it pays tribute to his kid. Billboard reports he had his daughter’s initials, DDP, tattooed on his face. The big, bold letters are on the singer’s left temple. Post hired artist Chad Rowe to do the tattoo; he later shared a photo of it to his Instagram.
The Weeknd released a new trailer for his upcoming HBO show The Idol and it leaves little to the imagination. The trailer features actress Lily-Rose Depp as an aspiring singer that’s wearing barely-there clothes as she gets entangled in The Weeknd’s sordid world.
Robin Thicke paid tribute to his late father, Alan Thicke, by emotionally singing the Growing Pains theme on The Masked Singer Wednesday night.
Two of Paramore‘s upcoming concerts have been rescheduled due to a positive COVID-19 case within the band’s touring party.
The affected dates include an October 6 stop in Omaha, Nebraska, and an October 8 show in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma, which have been rescheduled for November 25 and November 23, respectively.
Paramore launched their first tour in four years last weekend. The Omaha and OKC concerts were only the third and fourth shows on the tour.
The next stop on Paramore’s schedule is a headlining set at the Austin City Limits Festival this Sunday. Should it still happen, the performance will be shown on the festival’s livestream.
