Graham Nash, the British singer/songwriter who has made his mark on the music world with The Hollies, Crosby, Stills & Nash and Crosby, Stills, Nash & Young, as well as a solo artist, turns the big 8-0 today.
Nash co-founded The Hollies with his childhood friend Allan Clarke in 1962. Graham mainly handled high harmonies with the group, while Allan sang lead. Among the British Invasion group’s hits co-written by Graham were “Stop Stop Stop,” “On a Carousel” and “Carrie Anne.”
In 1968, Graham left The Hollies to form Crosby, Stills & Nash with former Byrds member David Crosby and ex-Buffalo Springfield singer/guitarist Stephen Stills. The folk-rock trio’s self-titled 1969 debut reached #6 on the Billboard 200 and included the Nash-penned hit “Marrakesh Express.”
Shortly after the Crosby, Stills & Nash album’s release, Stills’ Buffalo Springfield band mate Neil Young joined the group. The quartet’s 1970 debut, Déjà Vu, topped the Billboard 200, and featured two enduring Nash compositions, “Our House” and “Teach Your Children.”
Other notable Nash-penned tunes include the 1971 protest anthem “Chicago,” from Graham’s first solo album, Songs for Beginners, and “Just a Song Before I Go,” a top-10 hit for CSN in 1977.
For decades, Nash continued to record and tour with CSN and CSNY, while also working solo and as a duo with Crosby.
Nash was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame twice — with CSN in 1997 and with The Hollies in 2010.
Graham has focused on his solo career recently after a rift with Crosby led to CSN going on indefinite hiatus in 2015.
Reflecting on reaching 80, Nash recently told ABC Audio, “I can’t believe how young I feel inside,” adding, “I’ve got so much to do, so much to accomplish, and I intend to do as much as I can before I pass.”
(WASHINGTON) — The FBI on Monday issued a stern warning for U.S. Olympic athletes traveling to Beijing for the Winter Olympics: keep your personal cellphones at home and use a burner phone.
“The FBI urges all athletes to keep their personal cell phones at home and use a temporary phone while at the Games,” according to a notice sent by the agency. “While there were no major cyber disruptions, the most popular attack methods used were malware, email spoofing, phishing and the use of fake websites and streaming services designed to look like official Olympic service providers.”
“These activities include distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks, ransomware, malware, social engineering, data theft or leaks, phishing campaigns, disinformation campaigns, or insider threats, and when successful, can block or disrupt the live broadcast of the event, steal or leak sensitive data, or impact public or private digital infrastructure supporting the Olympics,” the FBI warned.
During the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, there were more than 450 million attempted cyber-related incidents, “though none were successful due to cybersecurity measures in place,” the FBI said.
The agency said the use of digital wallets and mobile COVID-19 vaccination cards “could also increase the opportunity for cyber actors to steal personal information or install tracking tools, malicious code or malware,” adding that athletes will be required to download an app which will be used to track health and travel.
During the 2018 Winter Olympics, Russian cyber actors “conducted a destructive cyberattack against the Opening Ceremony, enabled through spear phishing campaigns and malicious mobile applications,” the FBI said. “The download and use of applications, including those required to participate or stay in country, could increase the opportunity for cyber actors to steal personal information or install tracking tools, malicious code, or malware.”
The Canadian Olympic Committee has also issued a similar statement urging athletes to leave their phones at home.
“The Canadian Olympic Committee works with cybersecurity experts, government agencies, the International Olympic Committee, and other National Olympic Committees to ensure we have appropriate plans for every Games environment we work in.,” a COC spokesperson told ABC News last week. “Some of our recommendations to Team Canada members include leaving personal devices at home, limiting personal information stored on devices brought to the Games, only connecting to official wifi, turning off transmitting functions when not in use, removing any Games related apps when they’re no longer necessary, and to practice good cyber-hygiene at all times.”
(BRIDGEWATER, Va.) — A campus police officer and a campus safety officer were killed during a shooting at a Virginia college Tuesday afternoon after responding to reports of a “suspicious” person on campus, officials said.
Multiple agencies responded to Bridgewater College in Bridgewater following a report of an active shooter around 1:20 p.m. local time, school officials said.
The two officers were responding to a call of a “suspicious male individual” on the grounds of the college’s Memorial Hall, according to Virginia State Police spokesperson Corinne Geller. After a brief interaction, the suspect opened fire, striking both officers, she said.
The suspect fled on foot and was apprehended about a half-hour later off-campus, officials said. Officers followed the suspect after he waded into the North Rive, onto an island in the river, and he was taken into custody without incident, Geller said.
The two officers died from their injuries, Bridgewater spokesperson Logan Boger confirmed to ABC News. They were identified by the college’s president as Campus Police Officer John Painter and Campus Safety Officer J.J. Jefferson.
“Today our campus community experienced unspeakable tragedy. Two members of the Bridgewater College family were senselessly and violently taken from us,” Bridgewater College President David Bushman said in a statement.
“This is a sad and dark day for Bridgewater College. I know we all have so many questions and not many answers,” he said.
The officers were known as the “dynamic duo” and were close friends, Bushman said. Painter was Jefferson’s best man in his wedding this year, he said.
The suspect was identified by authorities as 27-year-old Alexander Wyatt Campbell, of Ashland, Virginia. He has been charged with felonies: 2 counts of capital murder, 1 count of first-degree murder and 1 count of use of a firearm in the commission of a felony, according to Geller, and is being held without bond at the Rockingham County Jail.
Campbell was treated for a non-life-threatening gunshot wound, according to Geller. It is unclear if he was shot by Painter, who was the only one of the two officers armed, or if it was self-inflicted, she said.
Multiple firearms “associated with Campbell” were recovered on and off-campus and seized as evidence, Geller said.
Virginia State Police did not comment on Campbell’s relationship to the college, but Geller said several college employees called 911 after seeing the suspect in and around Memorial Hall. “He was not supposed to be in this particular location,” she said.
A motive is still under investigation, and Campbell is the lone suspect, police said. It is unclear if he has an attorney.
Bridgewater Mayor Ted Flory said the community is “shocked by today’s senseless violence.”
“We are heartbroken by the needless injuries and loss of life. And we are rightly angered at the evil which alighted upon us,” he said in a statement. “But even in our grief, we turn our heads and we see the goodness of humanity: police officers running toward the danger, rescue personnel rushing in, and neighbors keeping each other safe.”
Agencies including the Virginia State Police, the Rockingham County Sheriff’s Office and the Harrisonburg Police Department responded to the college following reports of an active shooter. The FBI was also sending agents to the scene, according to a spokesperson.
By 4:33 p.m., the university gave an “all clear” message on its website.
Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin said in a statement on social media that he had been briefed on the situation and “will continue to monitor the situation in conjunction with law enforcement.”
Bridgewater, a small private liberal arts college, enrolled around 1,500 full-time students as of fall 2021.
Classes were canceled for Wednesday. School officials said they will provide information soon on grief counseling and other support.
The is a developing story. Check back for updates.
(WASHINGTON) — While President Joe Biden works to address the crisis over Russia menacing Ukraine, there is another critical one looming, with a senior State Department official telling reporters the “end game” is just weeks away.
Iran nuclear talks are scheduled to resume this week for their ninth round — with the U.S. and Iran still negotiating indirectly about both countries returning to the Obama-era nuclear deal that is in tatters.
This could be the final round before a deal is reached or the U.S. and its European allies call it quits — because after 10 months of negotiating with two different Iranian governments, the country’s nuclear program is advancing to the point of no return, the U.S. says.
“This can’t go on forever because of Iran’s nuclear advances. This is not a prediction. It’s not a threat. It’s not an artificial deadline. It’s just a requirement… Given the pace of Iran’s advances, its nuclear advances, we only have a handful of weeks left to get a deal — after which point it will unfortunately be no longer possible to return to the JCPOA and to recapture the nonproliferation benefits that the deal provided for us,” said the senior State Department official, who briefed reporters on condition of anonymity to discuss the talks using an acronym for the deal’s formal name, the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action.
Some critics have said the U.S. should have called it quits long ago, with Iran enriching uranium up to 60% and enriching uranium metal, spinning more advanced centrifuges and more of them, and obstructing access for the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog, the International Atomic Energy Agency. Nuclear weapons-grade uranium is enriched at 90%, while the nuclear deal capped Iran’s enrichment at 3.67% for 15 years.
With those steps, Iran is now a matter of weeks away from having enough fissile material to build a nuclear bomb, the official said. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and others have warned for a couple of weeks now that Iran is just a “few weeks” away from that critical threshold — although the senior State Department official said it would take some additional time to actually build a nuclear bomb, declining to provide a timeline for that.
“Do the math. There are many fewer weeks left now than there were when we first said it,” they added.
That puts the pressure on this new round of talks to reach a conclusion before time runs out. The Iranian delegation returned to Tehran after the eighth round broke up last Friday, just as chief U.S. negotiator Rob Malley returned to Washington.
Ahead of talks resuming, the senior State Department official said Biden remains ready to make that decision and return to compliance by lifting sanctions on Iran.
“Now is a time for political decisions. Now is the time to decide whether — for Iran to decide whether it’s prepared to make those decisions necessary for a mutual return to compliance,” they said.
But notably, they repeatedly took the occasion to bash the “prior administration’s catastrophic error” and “terrible mistake” of withdrawing from the deal — seeming to lay the groundwork for a blame game if talks blow up and Iran’s enrichment only grows.
Former President Donald Trump exited the deal in May 2019 and reimposed strong U.S. sanctions on Iran, driving down its oil exports and sparking tit-for-tat attacks across the Middle East region. His administration repeatedly said its campaign of “maximum pressure” would drive Iran to negotiate a new deal, but Iran refused to meet U.S. officials, even after Biden took office.
With talks expected to resume this week, according to Enrique Mora, the senior EU diplomat who coordinates the talks, one key sign to watch will be whether the U.S. and Iran finally engage directly. Iran’s Foreign Minister Hossein Amir-Abdollahian expressed an openness to it last week if Iran sees a “good deal” in sight, but the senior State Department official said there’s no indication so far the Iranians will sit down. The U.S. has consistently said it’s prepared to meet directly, calling the indirect talks an impediment to reaching a deal so far.
If a deal isn’t reached soon, the U.S. is “ready” to “fortify our response, and that means more pressure — economic, diplomatic, and otherwise,” the senior official said, adding, “We will use the tools that we have to ensure that our interests are preserved and that Iran cannot acquire a nuclear weapon.”
Notably, the Biden administration has refused to say out loud whether that includes supporting the use of force, including by Israel — just that no option is off the table.
The one thing the U.S., European allies in the talks, France, the U.K., Germany, and even China and Russia seem to agree on is that time is running out. But while the senior State Department official called a deal a “big if,” Russia’s envoy was been more buoyant about a resolution.
“My instinct tells me that agreement will be reached soon after mid February,” Ambassador Mikhail Ulyanov tweeted Friday as the talks ended.
That’s in stark contrast to the heavy pessimism in early December after talks finally resumed under Iran’s new government, with its much more hard-line approach.
But the Iranians now are “back in a serious, businesslike negotiation in which there are still significant gaps — so I don’t want to in any way understates those — but we are in a position where… we can see a path to a deal if those decisions are made and if it’s done quickly,” the senior State Department official said.
In the meantime, the U.S. continues to press for the release of four U.S. citizens detained by Iran on specious charges, including father and son Baquer and Siamak Namazi. At 84-years old, Baquer is in particularly vulnerable health and had emergency heart surgery in Tehran in October to clear a “life-threatening” blockage in his carotid artery, according to his lawyer Jared Genser. This month marks his sixth year in Iranian custody, while his son Siamak has been held since October 2015.
“We are negotiating on the release of the detainees separately from the JCPOA, but as we’ve said, it is very hard for us to imagine a return to the JCPOA while four innocent Americans are behind bars or are detained in Iran,” the senior State Department official said.
In addition to the Namazi’s, Iran has detained conservationist Morad Tahbaz and businessman Emad Shargi. All four men are dual U.S.-Iranian citizens whose detentions have been called “hostage diplomacy” by Tehran.
(WASHINGTON) — Chinese artisans have crafted 100 paper lanterns lit by 10,000 LED lights to celebrate the Lunar New Year, according to The REACH at the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C., where the free outdoor exhibition is being displayed nightly through Sunday.
The lanterns, some of which stand parallel to the Potomac River, include “playful pandas, butterflies and flowers, frogs and flamingos, sea creatures, and more,” according to REACH.
Tuesday is Lunar New Year, a traditional holiday observed in many Asian cultures. Each year is represented by an animal from the Chinese Zodiac. This is the year of the Tiger.
Over 4,500 people visited the lanterns last weekend alone, according to Kennedy Center President Deborah Rutter.
“Whether you’re driving by over the Teddy Roosevelt bridge, or you come as a destination to walk through the center, it’s just really, really beautiful,” Rutter said.
Next to the lanterns shaped like squirrels in the mushroom forest, Ming Gault, who recently moved to the area, reflected on her Chinese American heritage.
“Every year I learn something new about what it means to be like Asian and Chinese American,” said Gault, who was adopted. “This year, it really just means friends. A lot of times New Year’s is for time with my family, but for me, my family is like a found family and my friends.”
Visiting the lanterns — which have been displayed annually since 2016 — has become a tradition for many Asian Americans like Grace Jeong and her boyfriend, Gary Winthorg, both from Virginia. Jeong said this year has been challenging with attacks on Asian Americans and the pandemic but she hopes the new year will bring brighter times.
“I feel like, during the two years that we’ve been cooped up, a lot of people have gotten really used to being inside and being alone as well,” said Jeong. “Hopefully, as things get better people do get together and enjoy events like this where it helps people come outside and enjoy different things.”
For the next week, the REACH will host various Chinese and Korean artists, musicians and performances.
(NEW YORK) — The remains of two American women who went missing after their plane crashed off the coast of Panama a month ago have been recovered, officials said.
Debra Ann Velleman, 70, of Waukesha, Wisconsin, and Sue Borries, 57, of Teutopolis, Illinois, both retired public school teachers, were part of a community of snowbirds and expats living in the area of Chame, Panama.
The two friends were traveling home after spending New Year’s Eve weekend at a bed and breakfast on the Panamanian island Isla Contadora on Jan. 3 when their small plane, piloted by the B&B owner, suffered an engine failure and crashed off the coast of Chame, according to friends and family.
Debra Ann Velleman’s husband, Anthony Velleman, another passenger and the pilot were rescued by Panamanian search and rescue teams. Their families believed the women were still in the unrecovered plane wreckage, and as the search stretched on for days and then weeks, they pleaded with the U.S. government for help they said never came.
Tuesday morning, Velleman and Borries were recovered from inside the plane, according to Albert Lewitinn, a representative for the Velleman family.
A Panamanian search and rescue team helped recover the bodies after more than 690 hours of searching, authorities said.
The Panamanian government had requested that the U.S. deploy assets including Navy salvage divers and sonar to aid in the search effort and locate the wreckage in the days after the crash, but the request was denied due to a lack of assets and jurisdiction, according to a statement from the Velleman and Borries families.
The families continued to plead with the U.S. government to send equipment and personnel to aid in the search and recovery effort. As the effort wore on, they enlisted the help of the Wisconsin-based volunteer search and recovery organization Bruce’s Legacy and set up a GoFundMe to help defray the costs of bringing the nonprofit to Panama.
The plane was located with the help of Bruce’s Legacy, as well as a local family whose boats were used in the mission, Lewitinn said.
The families are now working on having the womens’ remains brought back to the U.S., he said.
“It is our intention — almost exactly one month following this tragic accident — to give proper thanks to all those who supported our families during this difficult time, as well as to have many outstanding questions answered by way of a swift and thorough investigation,” the families said in a joint statement. “For now, however, this finally marks the beginning of our grieving process and provides us with a path to closure.”
The Velleman family had been in touch with several Wisconsin and Illinois representatives as they sought assistance from the U.S. government in the search and recovery effort.
According to Wisconsin Sen. Tammy Baldwin’s office, the U.S. Coast Guard provided Panamanian authorities with technical modeling to support the search for the aircraft.
ABC News had previously reached out to the U.S. Embassy in Panama for comment but did not receive a response.
Slash and his solo band Myles Kennedy & the Conspirators have announced a streaming concert to celebrate the release of their upcoming new album, 4.
The virtual event, which will feature a live performance of 4 in its entirety, will premiere Friday, February 11, at 2 p.m. ET, via Slash’s YouTube channel and Facebook page. YouTube Premium subscribers can also tune in for a live Q&A session after the show.
4, the aptly titled fourth studio effort from the Conspirators, will also be released February 11. The record includes the lead single “The River Is Rising.”
Meanwhile, Slash is set to appear on ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live! this Wednesday, February 2, for an interview and performance with the Conspirators. The band will hit the road on a U.S. headlining tour February 8 in Portland.
The event, which is being presented by the Rock Hall in partnership with the Motown Museum, will feature founding Temptations member Otis Williams and the rest of the current lineup, as well as the group’s manager, Shelly Berger, discussing their band’s storied history and their new studio album, Temptations 60.
The album, which was released last Friday, celebrates the 1989 Rock Hall inductees’ 60th anniversary, and is made up almost entirely new original songs. One of those tunes, “Is It Gonna Be Yes or No,” was written and produced by fellow Motown great Smokey Robinson, who also provides guest vocals on the track.
“When we started out as a part of that Motown movement that took the world by storm in the ’60s, I never could have imagined we’d still be performing today,” says Williams, who turned 80 this past October. “To mark our 60th anniversary with two of the most distinguished institutions in American music culture, recognized for preserving, inspiring and teaching music history between generations, is such a great honor for me and The Temptations.”
After the livestream ends, the Q&A will be archived for viewing on demand on YouTube.
(WASHINGTON) — As the federal investigation into possible sex trafficking allegations against Rep. Matt Gaetz continues, his campaign’s fundraising has been dwindling.
In its latest campaign finance disclosure filed on Monday, the Gaetz campaign reported raising $534,000 in the final three months of last year — a major drop from the $1.8 million he raised in the first three months of the year, fresh off the 2020 election.
Overall, Gaetz’s fundraising has been gradually slowing down, dropping to $1.4 million in the second quarter and then to $527,000 in the third quarter.
A dip in fundraising between election years isn’t uncommon, and some of Gaetz’s GOP colleagues, like Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, saw a similar slowdown in fundraising from their earlier hauls. A joint fundraising operation between Gaetz and Greene also reported bringing in only $19,000 in the final quarter of 2021, compared to the nearly $360,000 it raised in the second quarter.
Meanwhile, as the sex trafficking investigation unfolded over the past year, disclosure records show that the Gaetz campaign’s legal bills rose significantly.
In total, from July 2020 through the end of December 2021, the Gaetz campaign reported spending nearly $200,000 on legal bills, minus $25,000 that was returned by a firm named Zuckerman Spaeder LLP two months after the Gaetz campaign paid that amount to the firm.
In the first few months of 2021, as news of the investigation into Gaetz and his associates emerged, the campaign also spent more than $800,000 on strategic consulting by PR firm Logan Circle Group — but the campaign’s payments to the firm dropped to under $3,000 in the final three months of 2021.
The latest financial disclosure filing also shows the Gaetz campaign has continued to pay the office of New York criminal defense attorney Marc Fernich, who lists on his website “notable clients” that include convicted sex offender Jeffrey Epstein. Among Fernich’s other clients are Mexican drug lord El Chapo, former mobster John “Junior” Gotti, and “alleged propagandist in Nazi Hungary” Ferenc Koreh, according to his firm’s website.
The Gaetz campaign made a $50,000 payment to Fernich’s firm in October, according to the latest filing — its second payment to the firm after a payment of $25,000 in June of last year.
As his fundraising slowed down last year, Gaetz’s campaign spending also dropped significantly, with disclosures showing most of his money going to direct mail messaging and fundraising.
“I’m the only Republican in Congress who doesn’t take lobbyist or PAC money. I rely exclusively on donations that average around $38,” Gaetz said in a statement to ABC News. “HBO made a movie about it called The Swamp.”
The financial disclosures come as the federal probe into possible sex trafficking allegations against Gaetz continues.
Earlier this month Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, a one-time Capitol Hill staffer, testified in front of a federal grand jury that’s hearing evidence in the investigation, according to multiple sources. The ex-girlfriend, who ABC News is not naming, was one of the women allegedly on a 2018 trip to the Bahamas with Gaetz and others that prosecutors are investigating.
Sources familiar with the grand jury proceedings said the woman provided information regarding a phone call that prosecutors say occurred between her, Gaetz, and another woman who is also a witness in the sex-crimes probe and who met the congressman through his one-time friend, former Florida tax collector Joel Greenberg.
A week after Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend testified in front of the grand jury, Joe Ellicott, a close friend of Greenberg — who himself pled guilty last year to multiple charges including sex trafficking a minor — also agreed to plead guilty to fraud and drug charges. Ellicott, like Greenberg, allegedly attended multiple gatherings that involved drugs and young women who were paid for sex, sources told ABC News.
Ellicott also allegedly knows the one-time minor at the center of the sex trafficking investigation into Gaetz, as well as another woman who is involved, sources said. ABC News previously reported that in a private text exchange over the encrypted messaging app Signal, Ellicott allegedly told Greenberg in August 2020 that a mutual friend was worried she could be implicated in the investigation into the sex ring involving a minor.
The attorney for Gaetz’s ex-girlfriend, Tim Jansen, declined to comment when reached by ABC News.
The latest developments come after Greenberg, as part of a plea deal, had been steadily providing prosecutors with information that allegedly included years of Venmo and Cash App transactions and thousands of photos and videos, as well as access to personal social media accounts, ABC News previously reported.
Gaetz has denied all wrongdoing and has not been charged with any crimes. In a statement to ABC News responding to Ellicott’s guilty plea agreement, Gaetz’s chief of staff Jillian Lane Wyant, said, “After nearly a year of false rumors, not a shred of evidence has implicated Congressman Gaetz in wrongdoing. We remain focused on our work representing Floridians.”
Ellicott’s guilty plea hearing is set for Feb. 9, while Greenberg’s sentencing is slated for the end of March after being pushed back multiple times amid the ongoing investigation.
Jon “Johnny Z” Zazula, co-founder of the influential label Megaforce Records, has died at age 69.
According to Variety, Zazula passed Tuesday while surrounded by family and friends in Florida. A statement posted to the Megaforce Instagram reads, “The world of rock and metal would not be what it is today without Jon Zazula. Jon’s love of music and musicians was unwavering. A giant was lost today. Rest In Peace Jon.”
Zazula launched Megaforce alongside his wife, Marsha Zazula, in 1982, and soon signed a then-unknown Metallica to their first-ever record deal. Megaforce would eventually become the home of artists including Anthrax and Testament.
Marsha Zazula passed away in January 2021.
The story of Megaforce Records — and of the Zazulas’ relationship — is detailed in Jon’s 2019 book Heavy Tales: The Metal. The Music. The Madness.
