Doors guitarist Robby Krieger has lined up a solo concert at one of his old band’s famous haunts in the Los Angeles area, the Whisky a Go Go club, on December 8.
The show, which currently is Krieger’s only confirmed upcoming gig, coincides with what would’ve been late Doors frontman Jim Morrison‘s 78th birthday. Tickets are available now at WhiskyaGoGo.com.
Meanwhile, Krieger and The Doors’ other surviving band member, drummer John Densmore, were interviewed together for a segment about Morrison that aired on CBS Sunday Morning over the weekend.
Though she only had five concerts planned for 2021, Stevie Nicks is calling them all off.
The singer, who spent much of last year isolated and asked fans to respect social distancing and wear masks, has now announced that out of an abundance of caution, she won’t be performing this year.
In an Instagram post, she writes, “These are challenging times with challenging decisions that have to be made. I want everyone to be safe and healthy and the rising COVID cases should be of concern to all of us.”
The longtime Fleetwood Mac member continues, “While I’m vaccinated, at my age, I’m still being extremely cautious and for that reason have decided to skip the [five] performances I had planned for 2021.”
She concludes, “Because singing and performing have been my whole life, my primary goal is to keep healthy so I can continue singing for the next decade or longer. I’m devastated and I know the fans are disappointed, but we will look towards a brighter 2022.”
Stevie was to have performed at the 2021 New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, but that event was called off a few days ago anyway. She had also been scheduled to perform at the Jazz Aspen Festival in Snowmass, Colorado, and California’s BottleRock Napa Valley, both over Labor Day weekend, as well as twice during Texas’ Austin City Limits Music Festival in October.
HBO announced on Tuesday that the dark comedy has been renewed for a second season. The first, six-episode season follows a group of travelers at a resort in Hawaii over the course of the week, where the darker aspects of their lives come to the surface in paradise. Connie Britton, Murray Bartlett,Steve Zahn and Jennifer Coolidge are among the first season’s ensemble cast.
According to Variety, series creator Mike White says the second season will focus on a new group of travelers in a different location, but there is a chance some of the current cast members could make an appearance as well.
The White Lotus’ season one finale airs Sunday night at 9 p.m. ET.
(PARIS) — Soccer star Lionel Messi has signed a two-year contract with Ligue 1 team Paris Saint-Germain.
“I am excited to begin a new chapter of my career at Paris Saint-Germain,” Messi said in a statement. “Everything about the club matches my football ambitions. I know how talented the squad and the coaching staff are here. I am determined to help build something special for the club and the fans, and I am looking forward to stepping out onto the pitch at the Parc des Princes.”
Messi will wear number 30 for the team.
“I am delighted that Lionel Messi has chosen to join Paris Saint-Germain and we are proud to welcome him and his family to Paris,” said Nasser Al-Khelaifi, Chairman and CEO of Paris Saint-Germain. “He has made no secret of his desire to continue competing at the very highest level and winning trophies, and naturally our ambition as a club is to do the same. The addition of Leo to our world class squad continues a very strategic and successful transfer window for the club. Led by our outstanding coach and his staff, I look forward to the team making history together for our fans all around the world.”
Messi had been a free agent since June 30th when his contract with Barcelona FC ended. He had wanted to stay with the team, but last Thursday the Spanish giant said it would not be financially possible.
During a Sunday news conference, Messi said he wanted to remain with the team and even offered to take a 50% pay cut.
Messi scored a record 672 goals in 778 appearances for Barca and won 10 La Liga and four Champions League titles.
(WASHINGTON) — President Joe Biden on Tuesday marked the Senate’s passage of a bipartisan infrastructure plan earlier in the day with a White House speech touting the political win and thanking Republican senators who voted with Democrats for what he said was their “courage” to come together to strike a deal for the American people.
“After years and years of infrastructure week, we’re on the cusp of an infrastructure decade that I truly believe will transform America,” Biden said in triumphant remarks delivered from the White House East Room.
Biden praised the bipartisan negotiators, touching on themes from his candidacy — the idea that this 36-year veteran of the Senate could reinvigorate the bipartisan cooperation of an era gone by.
“I want to thank the group of senators, Democrats and Republicans, for doing what they told me they would do. The death of this legislation was mildly premature as reported. They said they were willing to work in a bipartisan manner. And I want to thank them for keeping their word. That’s just what they did,” Biden said.
The package, with $550 billion in new spending, will address core infrastructure needs. It includes $110 billion in new funds for roads and bridges, $66 billion for rail, $7.5 billion to build out electric vehicle charging stations, $17 billion for ports, $25 billion for airports, $55 billion for clean drinking water, a $65 billion investment in high-speed internet and more.
“This bill shows that we can work together,” he continued. “From the time I announced my candidacy, and bringing the country together, doing things in a bipartisan way, it was characterized as a relic of an earlier age. I never believed that, and still don’t.”
Biden also gave an unusual, specific shout-out to Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, who voted with 18 other Republicans to pass the bill.
“I want to thank the Republican — Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell for supporting this bill,” Biden said. “And special thanks to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. Your leadership, Chuck, in the Senate was masterful.”
But the bill is not close to becoming law yet.
Biden’s victory lap is somewhat premature given a weeks or months-long delay in final passage could lie ahead. Biden did note that there was still a lot of work to be done to get the bill on to his desk.
“Look, let’s be clear. The bill is far from down,” Biden continued. “The bill goes to the House of Representatives where I look forward to winning its approval. We have to get to work on the next critical piece of my agenda, my Build Back Better plan,” he said, referring to the need to have the House pass the bipartisan bill, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi continues to insist she receive the $3.5 trillion Democratic budget bill before she will hold a vote on the bipartisan package.
Earlier, at the daily White House briefing, press secretary Jen Psaki was asked about pressure from some moderate House Democrats to hold an immediate vote.
“His message is that he remains committed to passing each of these pieces of legislation, on dual tracks. That he is going to work in lockstep with Speaker Pelosi, just as we have worked in lockstep with [Senate Majority] Leader Schumer, successfully over the last several weeks and months to get this done, and he is confident in the leadership, the strategic approach of Speaker Pelosi and looks forward to being her partner in the weeks ahead,” Psaki told reporters.
Still, Biden took every opportunity to tout this achievement, noting that the infrastructure bill passed the Senate with more bipartisan support than Federal Highway Act of 1956.
“America has often had the greatest prosperity and made the most progress when we invest in America itself. And that’s what this infrastructure bill does,” he added, praising the “overwhelming support” with which it passed. “A vote margin bigger than when the Interstate System passed in the United States Senate in 1956,” he said.
Biden also proudly pointed out that he had kept his promise not to raise taxes on those making less than $400,000 — and would benefit working class families the most.
“We’re going to do all of this by keeping my commitment. We will not raise taxes by one cent on people making less than $400,000 a year. Everyone from union to business leaders, to economists, left, right and center, believe the public investment contained in this bill will generate more jobs, higher productivity, higher growth for our economy over the long-term,” he insisted.
Vice President Kamala Harris spoke before the president, also extolling praise for the deal that moves the country “one step closer to making a once in a generation investment in our nation’s infrastructure,” and Biden, for his commitment to bipartisanship.
“Even when you sign the bill into law, our work will not stop,” she said.
After the Senate passed the $1.1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure bill by a vote of 69-30, with 19 Republicans joining Democrats, Schumer immediately turned the chamber’s business to the $3.5 trillion “human infrastructure” package which Democrats are hoping to pass via budget reconciliation, a process would not require the Republican support they do not have.
Camila Cabello, who immigrated from Cuba at the age of six, recently visited the U.S./Mexico border so she could get a deeper understanding of the situation there. Speaking to People, she calls the visit, conducted alongside the organization This Is Humanity, “transformational.”
Camila visited the Caritas migrant shelter in Tijuana, and she tells People, “Without a doubt, these are some of the most resilient people I have ever met. Many of them are fleeing life-threatening situations and experiencing unspeakable traumas just for the chance to live a safe life with more opportunity.”
“These parents have some of the same hopes and dreams for their children as my mom had for me when we left Cuba,” the singer notes. “Our stories started out in search of a better life but timing created two completely different outcomes. This realization will always stay with me.”
“There are so many articles in the news about policies and crises at the border, but it is important to remember that these are stories about real people,” says Camila.
She adds, “Spending time with and hearing the stories of these families and children during our trip was transformational for me….the visit helped me better understand…the heartbreaking realities that so many migrants and asylum seekers are facing at our borders.”
Camila explains that watching the young children at the shelter was “a simple but heartbreaking reminder that they are all just kids.”
“The difference is that these children are forced to deal with incredible challenges and trauma that no child or person should ever have to face,” Camila notes.
(TUCSON, Ariz.) — A family of colorless and tasteless man-made chemicals — largely unregulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency — has become a growing concern for drinking water safety in thousands of American communities, as scientists increasingly see links to liver damage, high cholesterol, weakened immune systems and cancer.
“They basically fulfill the characteristics of a ticking time bomb,” said Dr. Bo Guo, a University of Arizona hydrologist and expert on per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS, which are commonly used in hundreds of consumer products and in firefighting foams, a top source of PFAS contamination.
“They’re very dangerous and they’re migrating very slowly,” Guo said of the heat-resistant chemicals.
While the health concerns around PFAS are not new, greater detection of the chemicals in water systems nationwide in recent years has begun to alarm state and local leaders and prompted Congress to consider urgent action.
Last month, the city of Tucson, Arizona, abruptly shut down a major water treatment facility that delivered drinking water to 60,000 residents because of a sudden surge in PFAS contamination that threatened to overwhelm groundwater filtration systems.
“We don’t have enough confidence to go to drinking water supply at this time,” said John Kmiec, interim director of Tucson Water. “We know that there’s this contamination out there. We don’t know exactly what it does, but we know it’s not going away.”
Some level of PFAS, widely known as “forever chemicals” because they do not break down in the environment, have been found in water samples of 2,790 communities across 49 states, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group (EWG), an independent research and consumer watchdog organization pushing to limit exposure to chemicals through water, food and household products.
The contamination is likely much more widespread, experts said, because the EPA does not require testing for the chemicals and has not set a mandatory limit for how much PFAS are safe to drink in tap water.
“It’s likely an issue in every community, and that’s why we need testing to find out,” said Sydney Evans, an EWG water quality analyst who has conducted PFAS testing across the country.
In 2016, concerned by emerging health study data, the EPA issued an advisory to local water systems warning that prolonged exposure to the chemicals over 70 parts-per-trillion (ppt) may result in “adverse health effects.” The agency encouraged utilities to voluntarily monitor and filter to below that level, but does not enforce a standard.
President Joe Biden pledged during the 2020 campaign to accelerate the study and regulation of PFAS, but his EPA has yet to designate the class of substances as hazardous under the Safe Drinking Water Act.
There is growing momentum in Congress to pressure the agency over the issue. In a bipartisan vote last month, the House approved a bill that would force the EPA to establish mandatory national limits for PFAS in drinking water within two years, requiring more water systems to start filtering the chemicals out. The Senate’s pending bipartisan infrastructure bill would include billions to help communities get the job done.
“The thing that gives me the greatest concern is not every community or every water company in the U.S. is actively testing for PFAS,” said Kmiec. “So, there’s a lot of small to medium sized utilities that may have no idea if they even have a problem in their watershed.”
The chemicals have been detected on the shores of Michigan lakes, in the neighborhoods around old Naval Air Stations in Pennsylvania and even in the groundwater of a New Mexico dairy farm whose owner alleges in federal court documents that PFAS has poisoned the cows.
Water samples Evans collected and tested in March found elevated PFAS levels in the taps of some Virginia suburbs around the nation’s capital. A firefighting foam spill at a small regional airport is a suspected source of the contamination.
“It’s in the backyard of the people who are working on these issues,” Evans said.
Groundwater contamination, like that in Tucson, has often been linked to industrial sites, landfills, airports and military bases where the chemicals may have seeped into the ground years ago. Analysts with EWG estimated that more than 200 million Americans could be drinking some amount of PFAS in their tap water every day.
“We don’t want them in our bodies because we know that they can make some people sick,” said Dr. Jamie DeWitt, an East Carolina University toxicologist and pharmacologist leading cutting-edge research into how PFAS affect human bodies.
“Some of the effects that have been uncovered through studies of people who are exposed are different types of cancer. The ones that are most strongly linked are kidney and testicular cancer,” DeWitt said. “We know they can produce negative effects on the liver; affect levels of cholesterol in the body; affect your body’s immune system. They can also have effects on developing babies and on women while they are pregnant.”
The EPA declined ABC News’ request for an interview but said in a statement that addressing PFAS in drinking water is “a top priority” and that the agency is “developing a multi-year strategy to deliver critical public health protections.”
The agency said it is moving “as expeditiously as possible” while balancing the law, industry interests and the science. The EPA recently announced steps to collect more data on PFAS in drinking water systems and said they plan to move forward with regulations on two specific, older types of the chemicals linked to known health problems.
The American Chemistry Council, an industry trade group representing PFAS manufacturers, said in a statement responding to this ABC News report that it’s “committed to the responsible production, use and management” of the substances and supports the EPA consideration of national drinking water standards for two of the more than 4,000 types of PFAS chemicals.
“Most health effects that have been attributed to PFAS related to legacy substances that have been voluntarily removed from the market,” the group said in a statement.
Many environmental and consumer advocates said the EPA’s delay in regulating the chemical class more broadly is highly troubling.
“I think that the EPA — we need to hold their feet to the fire because nothing is going to change, nothing will go forward until they set those limits,” said Yolanda Herrera, a longtime Tucson community advocate for safe drinking water. “It’s going to take all of us together to go to Congress, to go to the EPA to make major changes that need to be done.”
Remediation of PFAS in water systems can be time-consuming and costly. The lack of an EPA-mandated drinking water standard complicates the process, state and local officials told ABC News, because there is not a clear benchmark for how much needs to be cleaned up and what resources governments need to meet it.
“We have no way of removing PFAS from the body,” said Dr. Philippe Grandjean, a top environmental health expert and leading researcher on PFAS at the Harvard University School of Public Health. “We need to do everything we can to protect women … against these compounds so that they are not burdening the next generation.”
Estimates for eliminating the toxins in soil and water at sites nationwide exceed tens of billions of dollars.
“We have been cleaning and remediating PFAS with our own dime,” said Tucson Mayor Regina Romero, “but the residents of our community should not be left holding the bag of something that they did not create.”
Arizona state and local officials believe PFAS-laden firefighting foam deployed in training exercises and emergencies decades ago at Tucson’s International Airport and Air National Guard complex is only now reaching groundwater wells miles away.
“The firefighting foam — (the Air Force) has told us that they either, if it was used on the runway, they’d hose this stuff into the soil. If it was used in the hangars, they’d dilute it and dump it down the sewer system,” said Tucson Councilman Steve Kozachik about the facility, which is home to one of the largest F-16 training installations in the world.
The base is one of an estimated 687 military installations with known or suspected PFAS contamination, according to Pentagon data published by the Government Accountability Office in June.
A June 2021 report by the Arizona Department of Environmental Quality found PFAS concentrations in groundwater samples around the Tucson airport at 10,000 ppt — far above the EPA’s 70 ppt advisory. Scientists believe a plume of PFAS in the soil has been slowly migrating underground north and west toward wells that feed into the city’s now-shuttered water treatment plant.
“The PFAS people see in groundwater is just a little fraction of the total PFAS at those contamination sites,” Guo said.
The Defense Department said it is investigating the scope of known or suspected contamination at or near hundreds of facilities but needs more time before it can launch a large-scale clean-up plan. Five years ago, the military began deploying what it calls a “new, environmentally responsible” firefighting foam, however it is not yet PFAS-free.
“Tucson is a bellwether. We’re the canary in the coal mine right now,” said Kozachik. “We’re saying to every other city in the country, this is an issue if you’ve got a military base in your community.”
The indefinite shutdown of the water treatment facility on Tucson’s south side because of PFAS has resurfaced old fears.
In 1983, the EPA listed Tucson as a Superfund site after the city’s tap water was poisoned by an industrial spill of the chemical solvent trichloroethylene, or TCE. The pollution, which went undetected for years, is linked to cancer cases and deaths across the city’s south side.
Hundreds of residents received financial settlements in major lawsuits, and state and local governments later funded construction of the water treatment facility. It has been cleaning up the water ever since — until PFAS arrived.
“How is this being allowed to happen?” said Tucson native Pattie Daggett, 47, who was diagnosed with a rare form of blood cancer in 2014 that her doctor linked to TCE exposure in the water.
“They haven’t even finished cleaning up the chemicals that were in the water before,” said Daggett. “We’ve got PFAS now. Like, what? I wish I could tell you how worried I am.”
The Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam, scheduled for September 3-5 in Panama City Beach, Florida, will not take place this year after all. Instead, the festival has been moved to June 3-5, 2022, according to a statement from festival organizers.
The postponement comes amid the current uptick in COVID-19 cases in Bay County, where the festival was set to be held, as well as across the country.
It’s the second time the Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam has been postponed. It originally rescheduled its 2020 lineup to 2021, keeping previously-booked headliners Lynyrd Skynyrd, Luke Bryan and Brad Paisley on the lineup for the makeup dates. It’s not yet clear whether those artists, or the others scheduled to perform, will be a part of the event in 2022.
The news from Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam comes as many festivals and events are implementing different levels of COVID-19 safety protocols. Last week, Live Nation announced they’ll give touring artists the option to mandate proof of vaccination or a current negative test from anyone attending their shows.
This week, Milwaukee’s all-genre Summerfest and Bonnaroo both decided to enact that policy for their events this year. A few artists, such as Jason Isbell, are also beginning to require proof of COVID-19 vaccination or a negative test at their shows.
Tickets for this year’s Pepsi Gulf Coast Jam will be honored in 2022; alternately, concertgoers can request a refund on the event’s website.
Following the news that Alessia Cara had recorded a new song for the upcoming animated film PAW Patrol: The Movie, the song has now been officially released.
Called “The Use in Trying,” the song carries a message of encouragement, urging the listener not to give up, because you’ll learn a valuable lesson if you keep on pushing.
“Hold your head up/You’ll find your way home/You won’t get what you give sometimes,” Alessia sings. “When the dust all settles/And the smoke all clears up/There’s pieces of yourself you’re gonna find/Maybe that’s the use in trying.”
As previously reported, Alessia wrote the song for a specific scene in the movie that emphasizes “the importance of courage.”
“I wanted to write something that could not only teach kids that they’re not always going to win, but that there’s real value in trying anyways because of the lessons you find on the other side,” she explained. “That’s a sentiment we can all understand, the further into life we go. Navigating life is never easy, but it is always worth the shot.”
PAW Patrol: The Movie, based on the preschool series, arrives in theaters and on streaming on Paramount+ on August 20. Adam Levine also has a song in the movie, titled “Good Mood.”
Alessia’s no stranger to movie songs, of course: She sang “How Far I’ll Go,” which appears over the end credits of the 2016 Disney film Moana, and the song “I Choose,” which appeared in the 2020 Netflix animated film The Willoughbys. She voiced one of the characters in that film.
Tinashe is sharing why she’s “so excited” about her fifth studio album, 333.
In an interview with Billboard prior to the album’s release on August 6, Tinashe says she couldn’t “wait to finally” have her fans hear her completed work.
“Especially thinking about shows and performing these songs live,” she says. “The best part is always before a project drops, when the anticipation is building.”
It’s safe to say that this album is extremely meaningful for Tinashe, who reveals that she actually finalized her album in 2020 amid the pandemic.
“There were things I learned out of having time to sit with myself and my thoughts and I think that led to creating this music,” she explains.
After ending her record deal with RCA Records in 2019, and releasing 333 independently under her own label, Tinashe Music, the independent singer-songwriter says it’s been “awesome” to have “full creative control.”
“The majority of the songs, I wrote myself in my studio in my house where I feel the most in tune,” she says. “It’s empowered me and feels good to have that thread of continuity in my work, it’s been a game changer.”
As an independent artist, Tinashe also is managed by Jay Z‘s Roc Nation. She says working on Jay’s imprint “has been a great home” for her.
“They’ve allowed me the space to have creative freedom and given me that confidence, because they really support all of my creative decisions,” she adds.
