(WASHINGTON) — The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that the state of Maine must allow parents who receive taxpayer-funded tuition assistance payments to use them at religious schools, saying a ban on the practice had violated the First Amendment.
The decision is a significant expansion of religious liberty and opens the door for wider use of taxpayer funds for sectarian education.
“The State pays tuition for certain students at private schools — so long as the schools are not religious. That is discrimination against religion,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the majority opinion joined by the court’s five other conservatives.
Justices Stephen Breyer, Elena Kagan and Sonia Sotomayor dissented.
“The Court continues to dismantle the wall of separation between church and state that the Framers fought to build,” Sotomayor wrote.
Half of Maine’s school districts — mostly in rural and sparsely populated areas of the state — do not operate their own public schools. Instead, they either contract with a neighboring district to provide public education for residents, or they provide parents with tuition assistance payments to use at a private school of their choice. About 5,000 students currently use the assistance to attend private schools.
State regulations have prohibited use of the funds at a school that promotes a specific faith or belief system and teaches academic material through a “lens of faith.”
A pair of families who want to send their children to religiously-affiliated private schools using the program sued the state alleging discrimination under the First Amendment. Two lower federal courts sided with the state, saying that the program was rightly restricted because of the First Amendment’s Establishment Clause, which prohibits government establishment of religion.
“A neutral benefit program in which public funds flow to religious organizations through the independent choices of private benefit recipients does not offend the Establishment Clause,” Roberts writes. “Maine’s decision to continue excluding religious schools from its tuition assistance program …thus promotes stricter separation of church and state than the Federal Constitution requires.”
Chief Justice Roberts noted that Maine is not required outright to fund religious schools, but that once it allows general subsidy of private education it could not discriminate. “The State retains a number of options: it could expand the reach of its public school system, increase the availability of transportation, provide some combination of tutoring, remote learning, and partial attendance, or even operate boarding schools of its own,” he wrote.
In dissent, Justice Stephen Breyer argued that the Constitution gives the states some leeway to choose how scrupulous they want to be in keeping taxpayer dollars away from religious use.
“That need is reinforced by the fact that we are today a Nation of more than 330 million people who ascribe to over 100 different religions. In that context, state neutrality with respect to religion is particularly important,” Breyer wrote.
Justice Sotomayor, in a separate dissent, sharply rebuked the court’s conservative majority.
“Today, the Court leads us to a place where separation of church and state becomes a constitutional violation,” she writes. “If a State cannot offer subsidies to its citizens without being required to fund religious exercise, any State that values its historic anti-establishment interests more than this Court does will have to curtail the support it offers to its citizens.”
Advocates for the Maine families challenging the program celebrated the court’s decision.
“We are thrilled that the Court affirmed once again that religious discrimination will not be tolerated in this country,” said First Liberty president and chief counsel Kelly Shackelford. “Parents in Maine, and all over the country, can now choose the best education for their kids without fearing retribution from the government.”
Rachel Laser, president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, said the justices were infringing on the rights of those who believe the government must remain neutral in matters of religion.
“This nation was built on the promise of religious freedom, which has always prevented the state from using its taxing power to force citizens to fund religious worship or education,” Laser said in a statement. “Here, the court has violated that founding principle by requiring Maine to tax citizens to fund religious schools. Far from honoring religious freedom, this decision tramples the religious freedom of everyone.”
(WASHINGTON) — The House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the Capitol holds another hearing Tuesday at 1 p.m. on the pressure campaign it says former President Donald Trump and allies put on state election officials as part of a larger “seven-part scheme” to overturn the results of the 2020 election.
Please check back for updates. All times Eastern.
Jun 21, 3:47 pm
Schiff calls Trump’s action ‘unpatriotic’ but punts to DOJ on whether criminal
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., who led the hearing Tuesday focused on Trump’s pressure campaign on state election officials, appeared to speak to Attorney General Merrick Garland and other prosecutors at the Department of Justice watching the committee unfold its findings, reminding the public that lawmakers will not be the ones to bring charges to Trump and allies.
“Whether his actions were criminal will ultimately be for others to decide. But what he did was without a doubt unconstitutional. It was unpatriotic, and it was fundamentally un-American,” Schiff said.
The committee has appeared to make the case that Trump directly engaged in a conspiracy to defraud the government.
Jun 21, 3:37 pm
Mother-daughter election duo describe impact of ‘hateful’ attacks
Ruby Freeman, the mother of Shaye Moss, both former election workers in Fulton County, Georgia, sat behind her daughter in the hearing room Tuesday as Moss detailed “racist” and “hateful” threats to their lives after Trump and his attorney Rudy Giuliani falsely accused them of “smuggling” ballots in suitcases.
Both women told the committee they are now scared to use their names, and Freeman was told by the FBI she had to leave her home for two months because of threats. Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said that in Trump’s call with Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, he mentioned Freeman’s name 18 times.
“I’ve lost my name and I’ve lost my reputation,” Freeman, a 62-year-old grandmother, said in taped testimony. “I’ve lost my sense of security, all because a group of people starting with No. 45 and his ally Rudy Giuliani decided to scapegoat me and my daughter Shaye, to push their own lies about how the presidential election was stolen.”
“I can’t believe this person has caused this much damage to me and my family,” she added. “It was horrible.”
Asked how the false attack espoused by the president and his allies affected her, Moss said it has “in every way.”
“I haven’t been anywhere at all. I’ve gained about 60 pounds. I just don’t do nothing anymore. I don’t want to go anywhere,” she said. “All because of lies — for me doing my job, same thing I’ve been doing forever.”
Jun 21, 3:30 pm
Former elections worker describes moment she learned about threats against her
Shaye Moss, a former election worker in Fulton County, Georgia, told the committee about the moment she learned Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani was falsely accusing her and her mother of smuggling ballots in suitcases.
“When I saw the video, of course the first thing that I said was, ‘Why? Why are they doing this? What’s going on?'” Moss recalled.
Moss then described the onslaught of threats and hateful messages she received online — a situation she had never been in during her 10 years as an elections worker.
“It was just a lot of horrible things,” she said.
“A lot of threats, wishing death upon me, telling me that, you know I’ll be in jail with my mother,” Moss added.
Moss opened her remarks by telling the committee what she had loved about her job, stating she took pride in helping elderly voters and college students cast their ballots.
Jun 21, 3:13 pm
Committee plays audio of Trump’s call to Raffensperger to ‘find’ votes
The committee played audio clips of the now-infamous phone call between Trump and Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger on Jan. 2, 2021, in which Trump told Raffensperger he needed to “find” 11,780 votes in Georgia — just one vote over the margin by which he trailed President-elect Joe Biden — so he could be declared the winner of an election that three separate counts in the state confirmed he lost.
The call lasted 67 minutes and appeared to follow a cycle of Trump offering false election conspiracies and Raffensperger calmly explaining to him that each one was not accurate. At one point, Trump suggested to Raffensperger that his inaction could mean he was criminally liable.
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., leading Tuesday’s hearing, also said that White House chief of staff Mark Meadows reached out to Raffensperger 18 times to set up the call with Trump.
Jun 21, 3:04 pm
Audio of Trump pressuring Georgia official aired in hearing
The committee aired audio from a call in which Trump tried to convince Frances Watson, the Georgia secretary of state’s lead elections investigator, to reverse his loss.
“You know, you have the most important job in the country right now,” Trump told her as he continued to falsely claim victory in the Peach State — which he lost to Joe Biden by some 11,000 votes.
“When the right answer comes out, you’ll be praised,” Trump said to Watson.
Jun 21, 2:55 pm
Sterling describes threats to election workers amid Trump’s pressure
Gabe Sterling, the chief oversight officer of Georgia’s election, said trying to combat misinformation spread by Trump and his team was “kind of like a shovel trying to empty out the ocean,” adding that he even argued with his own family members over the ‘big lie.’
With Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., asking the Georgia election officials about threats made against them, Sterling said the “straw that broke the camel’s back” for him was a message to a Dominion contractor which said, “You committed treason — May God have mercy on your soul,” accompanied with a “slowly twisting GIF of a noose,” he said.
“I lost my temper, but it seemed necessary at the time because it was just getting worse,” Sterling said.
The committee went on to play a video of him from December 2020 in which he pleaded with Trump to “stop inspiring people to commit potential acts of violence.”
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger was the first to testify after a short recess and was immediately asked by Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., to address the false allegations of widespread voter fraud Trump and his allies pushed in the battleground state.
“Our election went remarkably smooth,” Raffensperger said. “President Biden carried the state of Georgia by approximately 12,000 votes,” he reminded.
Raffensperger, a Republican who supported Trump’s re-election bid, recounted how three separate audits in the state confirmed President Joe Biden as the winner.
“Three counts — all remarkably close — which show that President Trump did come up short,” he said.
Jun 21, 2:38 pm
GOP Sen. Johnson attempted to give fake electors to Pence, committee shows
The committee showed evidence that Sen. Ron Johnson, R-Wis., attempted to deliver slates of “fake” Trump electors from Wisconsin and Michigan to then-Vice President Mike Pence.
Text messages the House panel obtained between Johnson staffer Sean Riley and Pence aide Chris Hodgson were displayed on-screen during Tuesday’s hearing.
Riley wrote that Johnson wanted to hand over fake electors from the two states — which Joe Biden won — to Pence ahead of Jan. 6.
“Do not give that to him,” the Pence aide replied.
Jun 21, 2:32 pm
Arizona House speaker recounts faith in standing up to pressure
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers emotionally recounted the pushback he and his family faced under immense pressure from Trump’s top team, who tried to convince him there was a law in Arizona that would have allowed him to overturn electors in the state — which did not legally exist.
Bowers summarized the effort to go around him and send fake Arizona electors to Washington as a “tragic parody” and recounted how people turned on him as Trump continued to espouse the ‘big lie.’
“It is painful to have friends who have been such a help to me turn on me with such rancor,” he said. “I may, in the eyes of men, not hold correct opinions or act according to their vision or convictions, but I do not take this current situation in a light manner, a fearful manner, or a vengeful manner.”
“I do not want to be a winner by cheating,” he added. “I will not play with laws I swear allegiance to with any contrived desire towards deflection of my deep, foundational desire to follow God’s will as I believe he let my conscience to embrace. How else will I ever approach Him in the wilderness of life knowing that I ask of His guidance only to show myself a coward in defending the course he led me to take.”
He mentioned the threats around his home and how it upset is daughter, Kacey Rae Bowers, who was gravely ill at the time. She passed away at age 42, just days after the attack on the Capitol, on Jan. 28, 2021.
Jun 21, 2:15 pm
RNC chairwoman Ronna McDaniel appears in videotaped testimony
Republican National Committee Chairwoman Ronna McDaniel, niece of Republican Sen. Mitt Romney, made her first appearance at a Jan. 6 hearing in video testimony where she was asked about the scheme to send “fake” electors to Congress to decertify President-elect Joe Biden’s win.
The House select committee says the RNC assisted Trump in coordinating the effort “at the president’s direct request.”
“He turned the call over to Mr. Eastman, who then preceded to talk about the importance of — helping the campaign gather these contingent electors in case any of the legal challenges that were ongoing change the results of any states,” McDaniel recounted.
“The campaign took the lead, and we just were helping them in that role,” she added, appearing to try to distance the RNC from the effort.
Jun 21, 2:07 pm
Arizona House speaker says he told Eastman twice he wouldn’t break oath
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers said he told Trump election lawyer John Eastman on two occasions that he would not break his oath of office and decertify electors for President-elect Joe Biden and recalled the conversations before the committee.
“I said, ‘What would you have me do?’ He said, ‘Just do it and let the courts sorted out.’ I said, ‘You’re asking me to do something that is never been done in history, the history of the United States. And I’m gonna put my state through that without sufficient proof? That’s going to be good enough with me that I would put us through that, my state?”
Bowers recalled telling Eastman, “‘I swore to uphold both in the Constitution and in law — no, sir,'” and said that Eastman suggested he “do it” and let the courts figure it out.
Bowers also said he also received a call from Arizona Rep. Andy Biggs the morning of Jan. 6, 2021, asking Bowers if he’d support the decertification of electors. Bowers told Biggs he would not.
Jun 21, 1:58 pm
Arizona Republican gets emotional describing pressure to violate his oath
Rusty Bowers, the Republican speaker of the Arizona House of Representatives, got emotional Tuesday as he described to the committee the pressure placed on him by Trump and others to violate his oath to the Constitution.
Bowers said he was not presented with any strong evidence that would have given him doubt as to the integrity of the election.
“It is a tenet of my faith that the Constitution is divinely inspired, one of my most basic foundational beliefs,” Bowers said. “And so for me to do that because somebody just asked me to is foreign to my very being. I will not do it.”
Jun 21, 1:49 pm
Arizona House speaker rejects Trump’s claim, says he told Giuliani he wouldn’t be ‘used as a pawn’
After Trump claimed earlier Tuesday on his social media platform Truth Social that Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers told him the election was rigged, Bowers said that was “false.”
“I did have a conversation with the president. That certainly isn’t it. There are parts that are true. There are parts that are not,” Bowers said, asked about Trump’s claim. “Anyone, anywhere, anytime [saying] I said the election was rigged, that would not be true,” he added.
Bowers said Trump’s team claimed widespread fraud in Arizona but couldn’t provide evidence of it.
“I did not feel that the evidence, and its absence, merited the hearing,” he said, explaining that Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani wanted him to reconvene his state legislature to change the state’s vote. “I didn’t want to be used as a pawn.”
“I said, look, you are asking me to do something that is counter to my oath that I swore to the Constitution to uphold it. I also swore to the Constitution and the laws of the state of Arizona — this is totally foreign as an idea or a theory to me,” Bowers recalled. “You’re asking me to do something against my oath. I will not break my oath.”
Jun 21, 1:36 pm
Arizona House speaker faces 1st questions
Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, a Republican who was pressured by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to decertify Biden’s victory in the state, according to emails reviewed by ABC News, as well as Trump attorney Rudy Giuliani, according to The Arizona Republic, faced the first questions from the committee on Tuesday, establishing that he did support Trump’s re-election bid.
Bowers and other state officials on the first panel did not deliver opening statements, but Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., said the Republican House speaker of Arizona will talk about “conversations with the president, with Rudy Giuliani and John Eastman, what’s the president’s team asked of him and how his oath of office would not permit it.”
A spokesperson said for the Arizona House of Representatives said that Bowers is appearing in response to a committee subpoena.
-ABC News’ Ali Dukakis
Jun 21, 1:30 pm
Trump’s election lies are ‘a dangerous cancer,’ Schiff warns
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., described the pressure placed on state officials as a “dangerous precursor” to the violence the nation witnessed on Jan. 6, 2021.
“This pressure campaign brought angry phone calls and texts, armed protests, intimidation, and, all too often, threats of violence and death,” Schiff said in his opening statement. “State legislators were singled out. So, too, were statewide elections officials. Even local elections workers, diligently doing their jobs, were accused of being criminals, and had their lives turned upside down.”
Trump’s supporters, Schiff said, saw his conduct toward local officials as “a call to action.”
“The president’s lie was — and is — a dangerous cancer on the body politic,” Schiff said. “If you can convince Americans that they cannot trust their own elections, that anytime they lose, it is somehow illegitimate, then what is left but violence to determine who should govern?”
Jun 21, 1:20 pm
Cheney says committee will show Trump’s ‘direct and personal role’ in fake electors scheme
Vice Chair Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., in her opening statement, said the committee will provide evidence that Trump “had a direct and personal role” in a scheme to have key states send fake electors to Congress and for Vice President Mike Pence to overturn the results, “as did Rudy Giuliani, as did John Eastman.”
“In other words, the same people who were attempting to pressure Vice President Mike Pence to reject electoral votes illegally, were also simultaneously working to reverse the outcome of the 2020 election at the state level,” Cheney said.
Cheney said the public will learn about calls Trump made to officials of Georgia and other states, and asked, “As you listen to these tapes, keep in mind what Donald Trump already knew at the time he made those calls — he had been told over and over again that his stolen election allegations were nonsense,” she said, going on to play video testimony of Trump’s attorney general Bill Barr.
Also raising threats of violence to election workers, Cheney said, “Donald Trump didn’t care about the threats of violence” and “made no effort to stop them; he went forward with his fake allegations anyway.”
“Do not be distracted by politics,” she added, as the former president and GOP allies continue to attack the committee’s investigation. “This is serious. We cannot let America become a nation of conspiracy theories and thug violence.”
Jun 21, 1:10 pm
Chairman opens hearing
Chairman Bennie Thompson convened the committee’s fourth hearing this month shortly after 1 p.m. and previewed the pressure campaign he said Trump and his allies put on election officials in key states with the aim of overturning the 2020 election.
In his opening statement, Thompson said “pressuring public servants into betraying their oaths was a fundamental part of the playbook” and that, in 2020, only a handful of election officials in key states “stood between Donald Trump and the upending of American democracy.”
“Everything we describe today — the relentless, destructive pressure campaign on state and local officials — was all based on a lie. Donald Trump knew it,” Thompson said. “He did it anyway.”
Explaining how the U.S. elects its president with the Electoral College system, Thompson also warned that “the lie hasn’t gone away” but is still “corrupting our democratic institutions,” citing an example of a county commissioner in New Mexico who refused to certify primary results last week.
“People who believe that lie are now seeking positions of public trust,” Thompson said. “If that happens, who will make sure our institutions don’t break under the pressure? We won’t have close calls. We’ll have catastrophe.”
Jun 21, 12:18 pm
Committee subpoenas filmmaker for new footage of Trump
The House select committee has subpoenaed a British documentary filmmaker who had substantial access to Trump, his family and closest aides both before and after the Jan. 6 attack, according to a statement from the filmmaker obtained by ABC News.
A spokesperson for filmmaker Alex Holder, who began filming Trump for a project in September 2020, confirmed the subpoena, first reported by Politico.
Holder said he has “fully complied with all of the committee’s requests” and handed over footage which includes interviews with Trump, Donald Trump Jr., Ivanka Trump, Eric Trump, son-in-law Jared Kushner and Vice President Mike Pence, shot in the weeks around the Jan. 6 attack.
-ABC News’ Ali Dukakis and Benjamin Siegel
Jun 21, 12:09 pm
Former election worker to describe threats against her, family
Shaye Moss, a former election worker in Georgia, will testify Tuesday about the threats she said she and her family received in the aftermath of the 2020 race, according to a copy of her opening statement obtained by ABC News.
“Ever since December 2020, I have been under attack for just doing my job,” the statement reads. “My mom too.”
Moss will describe how they were the target of lies spread by Trump and Rudy Giuliani, including false accusations that they brought ballots into the State Farm Arena in a suitcase.
“People showed up at my grandmother’s home trying to bust the door down and conduct a citizen’s arrest of my mom and me,” her statement reads. “The threats followed me to work. People would email the general email address for our office so everyone could see their threats and the hateful messages directed at me.”
Jun 21, 12:04 pm
4th June hearing to include 4 live witnesses
Georgia Secretary of State Brad Raffensperger, whom Trump asked to “find” just one vote over the margin by which he trailed President-elect Joe Biden in a now-infamous phone call on Jan. 2, 2021, will testify before the committee this afternoon, along with his blunt-spoken deputy, Gabe Sterling, after facing backlash from their own party for pushing back on Trump’s claims of election fraud in Georgia.
Joining them will be Arizona House Speaker Rusty Bowers, who was pressured by Ginni Thomas, the wife of Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, to decertify Biden’s victory in the state, according to emails reviewed by ABC News. Bowers previously described to The Arizona Republic that Rudy Giuliani also called him after the election to pressure him to involve the state legislature to manipulate results in his state.
Former Fulton County election worker Shaye Moss, who was falsely accused by Giuliani and other Republicans of election fraud and smuggling “suitcases” of illegal ballots in Atlanta on election night, will testify on a second panel. She’s said that she and her mother, another election worker, were subject to harassment and threats online even after Georgia election officials debunked fraud allegations.
Jun 21, 11:42 am
What to expect at Tuesday’s hearing
The committee’s afternoon hearing will focus on what it says was then-President Donald Trump’s “unprecedented” effort to push key state officials to reject the election results and his central role in the plot to create “fake” slates of electors to overturn Joe Biden’s victory.
Trump “drove a pressure campaign bases on lies” about the election, an aide told reporters on a briefing call Monday, and was “warned that his actions risked inciting violence” but “did it anyway.”
Rep. Adam Schiff, D-Calif., will lead the 1 p.m. ET hearing that the aide said will reveal new information obtained by the committee detailing Trump’s involvement and feature live witness testimony from Arizona and Georgia officials.
(HOUSTON) — A 5-year-old boy has died after being left in a hot car in Houston as record-high temperatures struck the city.
The boy had been inside the car, which was parked outside his home, for several hours before he was found dead on Monday, according to the Harris County Sheriff’s Office.
Houston hit a scorching 102 degrees Monday, marking the hottest temperature this early in the summer since 2011.
The family told authorities they had been preparing for the boy’s sister’s birthday party, the sheriff’s office said.
The boy’s mother was “excited, trying to get things together [for the party] … with the busyness of the activities that they were preparing for, it took them awhile to notice that the child wasn’t in the house,” Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told reporters.
The sheriff said it appeared the boy knew how to unbuckle himself from his carseat and exit his family’s car on his own, but it’s believed that on Monday the family had a rental car.
“Perhaps the child wasn’t as familiar with” the rental car, the sheriff said, noting, “the door didn’t have any kind of child safety lock.”
The sheriff’s office said “investigators will meet with the Harris County District Attorney’s Office to present their finding of the investigation.”
The little boy, who hasn’t been identified, is the fifth child to die in a hot car in the U.S. this year, according to national nonprofit KidsAndCars.org. Click here for tips on how to keep children safe from hot cars this summer.
(WASHINGTON) — Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy, the top Democratic negotiator on a pending package to address gun violence, told reporters on Tuesday afternoon that a deal had been reached on the legislative text — and that the bill will be out soon.
“We have an agreement and the text will be coming out very shortly,” Murphy said before walking onto the Senate floor to preside.
Murphy declined to give more specific timing on when the draft bill would be introduced ahead of what leaders have signaled would be a quick vote.
A bipartisan group of senators has been working for days behind the scenes to turn a previously announced legislative framework into a specific bill that retains enough Republican support to avoid a filibuster.
Democratic leadership, including Illinois Sen. Dick Durbin, have been clear they need bill text by Tuesday to get to a vote before the July 4 recess.
The disagreements negotiators faced
Sources previously told ABC News that abortion funding had emerged as the latest snag in the Senate’s talks to finalize the legislative agreement, with the informal deadline looming at the end of Tuesday in order to keep a potential bill on track for a vote before the two-week holiday break.
Negotiators had recently been focusing on the Hyde Amendment, which forbids federal funding from being used to pay for abortions. That provision got caught up in the portion of the possible gun law dealing with mental health funding, with Republicans pushing for language barring any money in an ultimate agreement from being used pay for abortions, according to a source familiar with the matter.
That snag marked the latest curveball in the discussions.
Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, the lead Republican working on the deal, expressed optimism to ABC News earlier on Tuesday that an agreement could be reached later that day, saying that draft text would emerge “hopefully shortly.”
Still, Cornyn said — without elaborating — that certain “details” needed to be worked out.
“It’s a complicated bill and it’s been a tough negotiation,” he said.
The other core negotiators have been Sens. Murphy, Kyrsten Sinema (D-Ariz.) and Thom Tillis (R-N.C.).
The gun talks recently narrowed in on two other disagreements: funding for “red flag” laws, which would allow law enforcement to remove firearms from those deemed a danger to themselves or others, and how extensively to address the “boyfriend loophole” by expanding the kinds of domestic abusers barred from having firearms.
Sen. Durbin, the majority whip, suggested to ABC News on Tuesday that conversations over the Hyde Amendment could be resolved quickly and aides were still optimistic that an overall deal would not be derailed.
Negotiators have been pressing for a bill that can get the filibuster-proof support of 10 Republican senators, the same number who previously supported the framework announced on June 12.
Democrats want a deal to be wrapped up shortly to maintain momentum amid public outcry following high-profile mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas. Republicans, meanwhile, are facing calls from their base to blunt the gun-access aspects of any legislation, with that pressure on display over the weekend when Cornyn was booed at a state party convention in Texas.
When asked by ABC News on Tuesday if that made negotiations more difficult, Cornyn replied, “Oh no. No it hasn’t.”
Larry Busacca/PW/WireImage for Parkwood Entertainment
In normal Beyoncé-like fashion, the singer broke the internet the past few days when she teased, then released, her new single “Break My Soul.” But it seems as if she isn’t done with the surprises yet.
Around the time the song dropped at midnight Monday, her longtime publicist, Yvette Noel-Shure, posted a cryptic message to her Instagram Story. Fans immediately speculated that the Grammy winner will be dropping new music again and very soon.
“Tuesday Friday Tuesday” reads the post by Noel-Shure, later shared by The Shade Room. Many people believe the listed days of the week represent each time Beyoncé will deliver a new project — starting with “Break My Soul” on Tuesday, June 21. If the Beyhive’s instincts are correct, the world will receive something fresh from Bey Friday, June 24, and next Tuesday, June 28.
“Break My Soul” is an upbeat dance track that begins with a sample from Big Freedia‘s “Explode” before Beyoncé lays down her vocals. The house genre is a new sound for the singer, who’s rumored to have produced her entire seventh-studio album, Renaissance, as a dance and country collection.
Beyoncé first alerted fans of new music Monday morning, after she changed her Instagram and Twitter bios to reflect the release: “6. BREAK MY SOUL midnight ET.” Her socials now read, “6. BREAK MY SOUL out now.”
Renaissance, which is expected July 19, will be Beyoncé’s first solo studio album since her 2016 award-winning project, Lemonade. It also follows the critically acclaimed Homecoming, the live album of her 2018 Coachella headlining performance.
The series, produced to coincide with the British rock legends’ 60th anniversary, will trace the band’s journey from a young blues-inspired musicians act to one of the world’s all-time great musical acts.
Each episode of the series will offer an intimate look at one of the band’s four main members — singer Mick Jagger, guitarists Keith Richards and Ronnie Wood, and late drummer Charlie Watts — and will delve into their unique personalities, talents and impact on the culture. My Life as a Rolling Stone will also examine the band members’ inspirations, struggles and other personal aspects as they worked together to create their enduring catalog of songs.
My Life as a Rolling Stone was directed by Oliver Murray — director of the 2019 Bill Wyman documentary The Quiet One — and Clare Tavernor, whose credits include a Keith Richards-themed episode of the BBC TV newsmagazine The Culture Show. Mercury Studios is producing the docuseries.
“Compelling music docuseries have become a pillar of EPIX’s slate of premium original programming, and My Life as a Rolling Stone is a perfect addition to that mix,” says network president Michael Wright. “This distinctive documentary captures the raw and organic energy that defines The Rolling Stones, and tells the gripping, epic story of their journey. I am excited for viewers to experience this legendary band as few ever have before.”
Adds Mercury Studios CEO Alice Webb, “As they celebrate 60 years we couldn’t be prouder that EPIX viewers will enjoy exclusive access to The Rolling Stones through these special shows.”
It’s a battle of the brothers on the new teen romance series The Summer I Turned Pretty, which dropped its first season last week on Prime Video.
Sean Kaufman co-stars as Steven Conklin, childhood best friend to brothers Conrad (Christopher Briney) and Jeremiah Fisher (Gavin Casalegno).
The most sought-after boys in Cousins Beach all gave ABC Audio their takes on who they think Belly, played by Lola Tung, should be with at the end of the series.
Well, almost all of them did. Kaufman couldn’t pick between Briney’s mysterious Conrad or Casalegno’s fun-loving Jeremiah.
“If I say one answer, either way, I’m going to walk out of here fisticuffs with one of them,” he said. “I will say, for Steven, he knows Belly is in love with Conrad. Jeremiah, that’s a shocker.”
Naturally, both Fisher brothers took the time to defend themselves.
“Conrad understands that he has a lot to learn,” Briney said. “I think he understands that he needs to work on himself. And I think that’s an important thing for someone who you want to be with.”
Casalegno went in full force for Team Jeremiah, arguing that “what you really want in a relationship is to be with your best friend, not with, like, sparks at the moment, because those are only temporary. And I think that best friendship will last you a lifetime.”
While we don’t know who Belly will choose when it’s all said and done, one thing is for certain – the series has been renewed for season two. Briney teased what he’s most looking forward to in the show’s second season.
“I’m excited for the happy ever after to be shattered, because that’s not a real thing,” he said. “This isn’t the end of all their relationships, it’s the beginning. There’s so much more to be learned.”
Led Zeppelin singer Robert Plant and acclaimed country-bluegrass artist Alison Krausshave added four new dates to the end of their forthcoming second U.S. tour leg in support of their 2021 album, Raise the Roof.
The trek, which kicks off with an August 15 concert in San Diego, California was originally plotted out through a September 4 performance in Austin, Texas. The new shows are scheduled for September 7 in Franklin, Tennessee; September 9 in Boston, Massachusetts; September 10 in Mashantucket, Connecticut; and September 12 at New York City’s famed Beacon Theatre.
In addition, an Atlanta concert that was to have taken place on June 16 but was postponed because of bad weather has been rescheduled for September 6.
Tickets for the Beacon Theatre show go on sale to the general public this Friday, June 24 at 9 a.m. ET, while tickets for the other three concerts will be available to the public that day at 10 a.m. local time. Pre-sale tickets for all four performances will go on sale starting tomorrow.
The first leg of Plant and Krauss’ 2022 U.S. tour wrapped up on Friday, June 17 with a performance at the Bonnaroo festival in Manchester, Tennessee. The duo will launch a series of European shows with an appearance this Friday, June 24 at U.K.’s Glastonbury Festival. The trek will run through a July 20 gig in Berlin.
Released in November 2021, Raise the Roof peaked at #7 on the Billboard 200 chart. The album is a follow-up to Plant and Krauss’ Grammy-winning 2007 collaborative record, Raising Sand.
Dropkick Murphys have announced a new album called This Machine Still Kills Fascists.
The title, which references folk legend Woody Guthrie‘s famous motto, consists of new songs recorded using unused lyrics that Guthrie had written. The album was recorded with the blessing of Woody’s daughter Nora Guthrie, who provided and curated the lyrics for Dropkick to use.
“I collected lyrics on all kinds of topics…lyrics that seemed to be needed to be said — or screamed — today,” Nora says. “[Dropkick vocalist/bassist] Ken Casey is a master at understanding Woody’s lyrics, which can be complicated, long, deadly serious, or totally ridiculous. DKM is capable of delivering them all.”
“The project has been a long time in the making,” Casey adds. “Nora Guthrie thought her father would’ve got a kick out of us, would’ve liked us, that we were somewhat kindred spirits so to speak, which to us was a huge honor.”
Dropkick Murphys have previously covered Woody and used his lyrics before, perhaps most famously in their song “I’m Shipping Up to Boston.”
This Machine Still Kills Fascists will be released September 30. Lead single “Two 6’s Upside Down” will premiere July 6.
Dropkick Murphys will support This Machine Still Kills Fascists on a U.S. tour this fall, bringing their normally raucous live show to seated theaters to perform the new album in full. Tickets for the outing, which launches October 20 in Concord, New Hampshire, go on sale this Friday, June 24.
Here’s the This Machine Still Kills Fascists track list:
“Two 6’s Upside Down”
“Talking Jukebox”
“All You Fonies”
“Never Git Drunk No More” feat. Nikki Lane
“Ten Times More”
“The Last One” feat. Evan Felker of Turnpike Troubadours
“Cadillac, Cadillac”
“Waters Are A’risin”
“Where Trouble Is At”
“Dig a Hole” feat. Woody Guthrie
Ahead of the new Prime Video documentary Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby premiering in August, the streaming platform released a special sneak peek on Tuesday.
The short video clip begins with a monologue by Lil Baby, who is seen spending time with his two young boys Jason and Loyal.
“Family more important to me than anything. I don’t ever see me leaving my kids,” he says. “Like, I don’t wanna be no holiday dad and I just talk to you. My dad kinda stayed out of town. It was like, I see him every now and then, a couple times a year.”
Untrapped: The Story of Lil Baby chronicles the life of the Grammy-winning rapper from his early rap days as a teenager in Atlanta to becoming a highly sought-after and successful hip-hop artist.
“This film is a real look into my journey,” Baby said in a press release. “And if it inspires even one person to believe that they can get through hard stuff and dare to follow a dream, then it was worth every penny spent and hour worked.”
The feature length documentary about the life and career of the Atlanta rapper is set to premiere on Prime Video on August 26.
