(NEW YORK) — As the end of summer approaches, teachers are already preparing for the school year ahead, which is happening again this year amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
To help teachers, select retailers are offering special back-to-school deals and discounts. Here are some of the retailers offering special deals now for teachers.
Target
Target is offering teachers a one-time, 15% discount on select classroom supplies and essentials now through July 31. Teachers need to sign up for Target Circle and verify their teacher status to be eligible.
All K-12 teachers, homeschool teachers, teachers working at daycare centers and early childhood learning centers, university or college professors and vocational/trade/technical school teachers are eligible, according to Target.
Staples
At Staples stores across the country, teachers and school administrators can get 20% off select purchases now through Sept. 30.
Parents can also help support teachers through Staples’ Classroom Rewards program, which gives a percentage of their qualifying purchase made at a Staples store back to an enrolled teacher or school administrator of their choice, according to the company.
To start getting discounts, parents, teachers and school administrators must download the Staples Connect app and enroll in Classroom Rewards.
Abt Electronics
Teachers who purchase $500 worth of Abt Electronics supplies are eligible for a $50 discount. This offer applies to teachers, teachers aides, teaching assistants, educational assistants, lifetime teaching credential holders, professors, speech pathologists and school administrators.
To use the discount, teachers must verify that they are eligible when they check out. Then, they will receive a promotion code to access their discount.
Meijer
Teachers can now get 15% off back-to-school supplies with a coupon at Meijer. The coupon covers 1,500 items that teachers can use in the classroom.
Michaels
Teachers are eligible year-round for a 15% discount at Michaels after verifying their profession and creating a Michaels account. The discount will apply if they provide their phone number or email at checkout online or in-person.
JOANN
By signing up for the Teacher Rewards Digital Discount Card, teachers can receive a 15% year-round discount at JOANN. To register for the card, teachers must show a valid educator identification.
Barnes & Noble
Teachers will receive 20% off qualifying book purchases at Barnes & Noble if they sign up to become a B&N Educator. The sign-up process, while free, must be done in-person at a Barnes & Noble location.
Dollar General
Dollar General is offering teachers a 30% discount on back-to-school supplies until Sept. 6. Teachers can use the discount after signing up for a Dollar General account, completing a teacher verification process and waiting 24 to 48 hours.
The discount applies to the purchase of pens, pencils, crayons, paper, notebooks, scissors, binders, folders glue, rulers, backpacks, lunch boxes and more.
Office Depot
Through Sept. 30, teachers who are Office Depot OfficeMax Rewards members are eligible for a coupon that allows them to earn 20% back in rewards when completing in-store purchases.
Teachers can also receive a 40% discount for school supplies such as classroom posters, instructional materials and name tags when completing an in-store purchase. For the discount to apply, teachers must show a valid teacher ID at checkout.
(ATLANTA) — Spelman College announced it will use federal funding to clear outstanding tuition balances for the past academic year of to address the financial hardships of students during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The historically Black college based in Atlanta, Georgia, will also offer a one-time 14% discount on tuition for the 2021-2022 academic school year and rollback mandatory fees to the 2017-2018 rate.
“This reset to the lower tuition rates of four years ago will have a long-term impact on affordability,” said Mary Schmidt Campbell, Ph.D., president of Spelman, in a statement Tuesday.
The Spelman College financial relief comes after Clark Atlanta University, a neighboring HBCU in Atlanta, announced it would cancel outstanding tuition balances for the spring 2020 and summer 2021 semesters.
“We understand these past two academic years have been emotionally and financially difficult on students and their families due to the COVID-19 pandemic. That is why we will continue to do all we can to support their efforts to complete their CAU education,” Dr. George T. French, President of Clark Atlanta University, said in a statement last Friday.
For Ta’Lar Scott, a 21-year-old junior at Clark Atlanta University, having her $500 tuition balance canceled was the fresh start she needed to re-enroll to finish her undergraduate degree in social work after taking a semester off.
Like thousands of HBCU students, Scott has relied on federal grants and student loans to pay for her college education. With aspirations of becoming a teacher and now as an expectant mother, paying for school expenses in addition to re-enrollment was so daunting she considered not attending the fall semester.
“I was going to take this semester off and it was really because I knew I had a balance,” Scott told ABC News. “The university clearing my balance up kind of pushed me and let me know that I can do this. I’ll be fine. Regardless, I’ll have to learn how to adjust, which I’ve been doing all my life.”
HBCUs received approximately $2.6 billion through the CARES Act Higher Education Emergency Relief Fund, a $40 billion funding allocation set aside for higher education as part of the American Rescue Plan.
Clark Atlanta University and Spelman College are the latest of over 20 HBCUs using federal funding to provide financial relief and emergency funds for students in recent months. South Carolina State University, Delaware State University and Wilberforce University used federal COVID relief dollars to cancel student loan debt for eligible students.
ABC News’ Jianna Cousin contributed to this report.
(GREEN BAY, Wisc.) — Green Bay Packers quarterback Aaron Rodgers considered retiring amid a tumultuous offseason, he told reporters gathered at the team’s training camp Wednesday.
In his second day back with the team, Rodgers admitted he’s still not sure what, if anything, will change about the organization with whom his relationship had grown challenging.
Still, Rodgers is beginning preparations for his 17th NFL season, all of which have come with the Packers.
“I just want to be involved in conversations that affect my ability to do my job,” Rodgers explained. That, before detailing some of the examples of veteran players the team has released or failed to re-sign at different points in his career.
Asked whether he has any assurance his guidance will be followed more closely now, Rodgers admitted he couldn’t be certain.
“I wanted to help to organization, maybe learn from some of the mistakes in the past,” he said.
Rodgers said he voiced that desire in February, even offering to help recruit players to Green Bay. That conversation, he said, changed in March, after the team declined to commit to him as their quarterback beyond the 2021 season. In response, Rodgers says, he told the team “if you want to make a change and move forward, then go ahead and do it.”
And then, in April, when ESPN’s Adam Schefter broke news that Rodgers had told some people within the organization that he did not want to return, negotiations began. He says the team initially offered more money, which was not what he was looking for.
Earlier this week, the two sides agreed to void the final year of Rodgers’ current contract, and discuss his future with the team after 2021.
The tension between player and organization increased last year, when the Packers selected quarterback Jordan Love with their first-round draft pick.
Still, Rodgers was quick to point out that he is “not a victim here.”
“I made a ton of money here, and I’ve been really fortunate to play a long time and to play here.”
“At the same time,” he said, “I’m still competitive and I still feel like I can play, I proved it last year.”
Rodgers won the third NFL MVP Award of his career in 2020.
While he didn’t rule out a return to the Packers, he also said he was not promised the ability to dictate where he would play in 2022.
Will Smith is channeling Richard Williams, the father tennis champions Venus and Serena Williams, in the first trailer for King Richard.
Executive-produced by the Williams sisters, the film is based on real-life story of their father Richard, a man undeterred in “raising two of the most extraordinarily gifted athletes of all time.” The feature follows Richard’s journey to take Venus and Serena “from the streets of Compton, California to the global stage as legendary icons.” King Richard also stars Saniyya Sidney and Demi Singleton as Venus and Serena Williams, as well as Aunjanue Ellis, Jon Bernthal, Tony Goldwyn and Dylan McDermott. The film hits theaters and HBO Max on November 19.
In other news, a teaser for Lee Daniels‘ upcoming FOX drama, Our Kind of People, has been released. The promo features Yaya DaCosta as Angela Vaughn, a single mother who “risks it all” by moving her family to Martha’s Vineyard in hopes of taking her natural hair-care line to the next level. As previously reported, the series, also starring Morris Chestnut, LeToya Luckett and Lance Gross, is based onLawrence Otis Graham’s critically acclaimed book, Our Kind of People: Inside America’s Black Upper Class. Our Kind of People premieres on Tuesday, September 21, at 9 p.m. ET on FOX.
Finally, Lesley-Ann Brandt, Luke James and Erica Ash are among the stars added to Shudder’s upcoming horror anthology series Horror Noire, Deadline has learned. The anthology, which is said to showcase horror stories from Black directors and screenwriters, will feature six stories presented as a two-hour film. Those stories include Daddy,Bride Before You, Brand of Evil, The Lake, Sundown, and Fugue State.Horror Noire premieres in October on Shudder.
Luke Bryan’s not shying away from the tougher parts of his past in his upcoming new docu-series, Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary.
He’ll offer candid reflections on some of his family’s darkest days, when tragedy struck the Bryan household in unfathomable ways. In 1996, Luke lost his older brother, Chris, in a car accident. Then, in 2007, his older sister, Kelly, died at home of still-unknown natural causes.
Finally, in 2014, Kelly’s husband, Lee, died of a heart attack, leaving the couple’s three children parentless. Luke and his wife Caroline ultimately stepped in to help raise the kids, whose ages at the time ranged from 12 to 20.
Through sharing this side of his story, Luke hopes to provide some hope for viewers who might be going through similar tumult.
“When [people] walk up to me on the street and they’re like, ‘Hey, man, you really inspire us,’ that’s what it’s all about to me,” the singer tells Entertainment Tonight. “…I always believe there’s a lot of people out there going through similar scenarios as me. If we can inspire them and help them dust themselves off, that’s what this thing is really about.”
Luke adds that he hopes My Dirt Road Diary will paint a clear picture of the good and not-so-good times he’s experienced along the way to success.
“It’s been quite the story and quite the ride,” Luke says. “…You gotta celebrate the ups, and you gotta really try to work together to get through the downsides.”
All five episodes of Luke Bryan: My Dirt Road Diary will stream for free on August 6 on IMDb TV, which is Amazon’s free streaming service.
Now that Katy Perry and Carrie Underwood are doing residencies at Las Vegas’ new Resorts World property, and Celine Dion is staging her comeback residency there, could Adele be far behind?
British tabloid The Sun says Adele is considering doing a residency at the same theater in Resorts World where Celine, Katy, Carrie and Luke Bryan will all be performing in the coming months. Said residency, a Vegas source told The Sun, would earn the U.K. singer nearly $140,000 a night.
Adele, who hasn’t performed live since 2017, has said in the past that she prefers to perform for smaller crowds, and that instead of traveling around the world, she’d like to stay in one place because of her eight-year-old son Angelo.
The superstar is said to be ready to release new music and, according to The Sun, the rumor is that she plans to launch her comeback with a Vogue feature. The tabloid points to the fact that both Adele and Vogue‘s editor, Edward Enniful, were both in New York City last week.
Of course, nobody in Adele’s camp has confirmed any of these rumors, so stay tuned.
Dusty Hill, the long-bearded, longtime bassist for beloved Texas blues-rock trio ZZ Top, has died at age 72.
ZZ Top frontman Billy Gibbons and drummer Frank Beard announced Hill’s passing with a message on the band’s official Facebook page.
“We are saddened by the news today that our Compadre, Dusty Hill, has passed away in his sleep at home in Houston, TX,” the note reads. “We, along with legions of ZZ Top fans around the world, will miss your steadfast presence, your good nature and enduring commitment to providing that monumental bottom to the ‘Top.’ We will forever be connected to that ‘Blues Shuffle in C.'”
Hill joined ZZ Top shortly after the group’s formation in 1969. Gibbons sang lead on most of the group’s songs, while Hill usually handled backing vocals, although he occasionally did take over as lead singer for select tunes, including the band’s classic 1975 hit, “Tush.”
Dusty co-wrote many of ZZ Top’s songs, including “Tush” and other enduring classics including “Cheap Sunglasses,” “Gimme All Your Lovin’, “Got Me Under Pressure,” “Sharp Dressed Man,” “Legs,” and “Sleeping Bag.”
Hill was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame as a member of ZZ Top in 2004.
The band’s plans for a major 50th anniversary tour in 2020 were sidetracked because of the COVID-19 pandemic. ZZ Top had recently started playing shows again, but the band announced last week that Hill had to return home to Texas “to address a hip issue,” and that the group’s longtime guitar tech, Elwood Francis, was filling in for him.
These recent shows marked the first time since Hill had joined ZZ Top that they performed with out him.
ZZ Top’s most recent album, La Futura, was released in 2012, although Gibbons revealed in recent interviews that the band had been working on material for a new record.
Kevin Mazur/Getty Images for The Recording Academy
After a fan begged him to do something, Billie Eilish‘s brother and musical collaborator FINNEAS called out a post from a Twitter account called “Billie Eilish Updates,” denouncing it as “fake.”
Retweeting the post, the fan asked FINNEAS, “Can you do something right for once and get this account suspended thank u.” The since-deleted post was a mock-up of a People story that quoted Billie as saying, “When I got rich I started balling [sic] my eyes out, I wanted to be poor so I can relate to most of my fans” and “I still want to be broke and poor, it looks really fun and cute.”
FINNEAS responded to the post, which features numerous punctuation errors and misspellings, as “Fake obviously,” adding, “Honestly I just wish they’d label this account satire like the onion or something. I have no problem with a joke as long as people know it’s a joke.”
Earlier this week, FINNEAS tweeted that the same site was “posting relentless lies about billie so if you see that account, report and block Em.”
Fans begged FINNEAS to go further and take legal action, claiming that those who run the account were deliberately trying to ruin Billie’s career. In just the last few minutes, the account has been taken down.
Prior to that, it was labeled, “Your best source on 7x Grammy Winner, Billie Eilish. NOT Affiliated with anything related to Billie Eilish. Parody Account.” However, it’s not clear when that description was added to the account.
(TOKYO) — Tokyo reported a record number of 3,177 new COVID-19 cases Wednesday as the Olympic games remain underway.
It’s the second day in a row in which Japan’s capital reported record-breaking cases. On Tuesday, the city reported 2,484 COVID-19 cases, which exceeded its previous record of 2,520 cases set on Jan. 7, 2021, according to Kyodo News.
Japan’s National Institute of Infectious Disease (NIID) has estimated that the highly contagious delta variant is responsible for nearly 80% of infections in Tokyo.
Patients who make up the new cases mainly involve people ranging in age from their 20s to 40s, according to the NIID, which reported an increase in hospitalization in people under the age of 50.
As of Wednesday, at least 27% of the country has had at least one dose of the vaccine, according to a government report at the beginning of the month. Tokyo remains under its fourth coronavirus state of emergency.
Last week, the International Olympic Committee reported that nearly 80 people accredited to the games had tested positive for the virus, including more than two dozen athletes.
Although Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga urged people during a press conference Tuesday to avoid non-essential travel, he said there is no reason to consider suspending the Games at this time, saying, “Please watch the Olympic Games on TV at home.”
(WASHINGTON) — A day after its first hearing with emotional testimony from police officers brought the Jan 6. Capitol attack back into the national spotlight, the House select committee investigating the assault will meet this week on possible next steps, including issuing subpoenas.
“I have no reluctance whatsoever in issuing subpoenas for information,” Chairman Bennie Thompson, D-Miss., told MSNBC’s Morning Joe Wednesday morning, asserting the committee “absolutely” has the authority. “Nothing is off limits in this investigation.”
His comment comes after the Department of Justice said in letters to former DOJ officials and provided to congressional committees that they can participate in investigations related to the Jan. 6, according to sources and letters reviewed by ABC News Tuesday, which the House Oversight Committee later confirmed. Therefore, if witnesses try to fight subpoenas, they may have to do so on their own dime.
“Members of Congress have already admitted that they talked to the White House while it was going on. Now many of them are trying to walk back the conversation they had,” Thompson said. “We plan to pursue it.”
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-Wyo., who sits on the committee, told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that the committee had not ruled out calling Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, who has criticized the committee and was vetoed from it by House Speaker Pelosi over comments she said would damage its credibility, to testify.
Jordan admitted on Tuesday evening that he — like GOP Leader Kevin McCarthy — spoke to former President Donald Trump on the phone on Jan. 6, and in another interview Wednesday with Ohio Spectrum News reporter Taylor Popielarz, confirmed he spoke to Trump on Jan. 6.
Asked by Popielarz if he spoke to Trump before during or after the attack, Jordan said he didn’t remember.
“I spoke with him that day. After? I think after. I don’t know if I spoke with him in the morning or not. I just don’t know,” he said.
Fox News host Brett Baier also pressed Jordan Tuesday on whether he spoke to Trump that day, and Jordan repeatedly deflected, saying he’s “talked to the former president umpteen times — thousands, countless times.”
Baier followed up, “But I mean on January 6, congressman.”
“Yes,” Jordan said. “I mean, I’ve talked to the president so many — I can’t remember all the days I’ve talked to him, but I’ve certainly talked to the president.”
Conversations in Trump’s orbit, such as the apparent call with Jordan, are key to what the committee is seeking to investigate, with Cheney saying Tuesday that Americans should know what happened “what happened every minute of that day in the White House.”
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi affirmed the committee’s subpoena power in her weekly news conference on Capitol Hill, but distanced herself from the committee itself as House Republican leaders disparaged the two GOP members who joined the panel as “Pelosi Republicans.”
When asked what will happen if House members don’t comply with subpoenas, Pelosi emphasized she is not involved with the select committee and “has not been a party to any of those decisions, so I cannot tell you what they might decide.”
The speaker also dismissed concerns that there will be political backlash if the committee’s work drags out or loses momentum, asked if she would like to see the committee move more expeditiously.
“They will take the time that they need,” she said. “We were very late in getting to this because we were striving for the bipartisan commission, which we thought was very possible.”
While lawmakers have a seven-week recess coming up, Thompson said Wednesday that the committee will meet again to discuss its next steps this week.
“We’ll have a meeting before we break for the August recess, but in reality, I think you know we’ll be back during that recess doing our work because we have to get to the bottom of it,” he told MSNBC. “Our democracy depends on it.”
At its first hearing, the committee heard from four officers who recounted they feared for their lives on Jan. 6 as they were brutally beaten and outnumbered by a pro-Trump mob. One officer described fearing he would be “torn apart” and chants of “kill him with his own gun.” Another said he was taunted with racial slurs in uniform for the first time in his career.
They all criticized lawmakers who have downplayed the attack and pleaded with the panel to uncover if those in power aided and abetted rioters, including the former president.
“There was an attack on Jan. 6, and a hit man sent them,” said Capitol Police officer Harry Dunn. “I want you to get to the bottom of that.”
Democrats are already coming to the defense of the officers after right-leaning cable news hosts attacked the testimonies as performative Tuesday night.
“Stupidity has no reach. It can go anywhere. It’s unfortunate that people would interpret the brave people who defended the Capitol as somehow disingenuous in their presentations,” Thompson said Wednesday.
While Capitol police officers watched the hearing on TVs and phones in the hallways of the building that was attacked, Republican leaders who blocked efforts to investigate the day dismissed the hearing as a political play and said they didn’t watch.
Senate GOP Mitch McConnell, who said after the attack that the “mob was fed lies” and “provoked by the president and other powerful people,” said he was “busy doing work” during the hearing.
“I don’t see how I could have expressed myself more forthrightly than I did on that occasion, and I stand by everything I said,” he said.
McCarthy, who held an event outside the Capitol ahead of the hearing as a preemptive strike to the officers’ testimony, told a Politico reporter he wasn’t able to because he was stuck in “back-to-back meetings.”
Notably, McCarthy has suggested Pelosi didn’t do enough to secure the Capitol that day, but McConnell, as leader of the Senate, has not faced the same criticism. Security at the Capitol is controlled by the Capitol Police Board.
GOP Rep. Matthew Rosendale of Montana told ABC News he only watched the opening statement from Cheney, who was ousted as the No. 3 House Republican earlier this year following her criticism of Trump’s role on Jan. 6.
“I was quite disappointed,” he said, before launching into a series of questions he wanted to be answered.
But because Republicans gave up their ability to participate in the hearing, with McCarthy withdrawing all of his members, they couldn’t lead the discussion in their preferred direction.
Rep. Pete Aguilar, D-Calif, who sits on the committee, blasted Republicans to ABC News who chose not to hear from the officers who helped protect them.
“For Kevin McCarthy and for my colleague from Montana to just say, ‘Oh I didn’t have the time to watch this hearing,’ you know, is just unfortunate and sad, and they just want to play politics with this,” he said. “That’s all this is.”
Aguilar added the public can expect more public hearings to come, though the date for the committee’s next hearing has not yet been announced.
ABC News’ Alex Mallin, Katherine Faulders and Ben Siegel contributed to this report.
