Melissa Etheridge is spending a lot of time on the road this year. The singer is set to embark on a 44-city tour that will keep her on the road through most of the summer.
The trek kicks off April 22 in Los Angeles and wraps August 15 in Annapolis, Maryland, with Etheridge just announcing more than 20 new shows in such cities as Las Vegas, Toledo, Charlotte and Nashville.
In addition to her solo shows, the trek features appearances at the Stagecoach Festival in Indio, California, the New Orleans JazzFest and the Kemptville Live Music Festival in Ontario, Canada.
Tickets for all new shows go on sale to the general public beginning Friday, April 14, at 10 a.m. local time. A complete list of dates can be found at melissaetheridge.com.
The new tour follows Melissa’s successful one-woman off-Broadway show, Melissa Etheridge — My Window: A Journey Through Life, which ran at New York’s New World Stages through October 2022.
There’ll be a meeting of the R&B groups at Jodeci‘s Summer Block Party Tour. Announced last weekend, the trek will feature fellow groups Dru Hill and SWV, and possibly some surprise guests.
It’s unclear when and where the singing stars will be headed, but on Instagram Jodeci encourages fans to “Sign up at link in our bio for an exclusive presale code good for Monday April 24.”
“General on sale starts Friday, April 28,” the post continued. “Cities + more details to be announced soon.”
Jodeci is also booked to perform at Mary J. Blige‘s second Strength Of A Woman Festival in Atlanta this May.
Tampa, Florida, is the latest city to attempt to impress Taylor Swift ahead of her arrival this weekend for the latest stop on her Eras Tour.
So far, Glendale, Arizona, renamed itself “Swift City”; Arlington, Texas, gave her the key to the city and named a street after her; and Las Vegas illuminated its gateway arches in her honor. But Tampa is going one step further. In a video posted on Twitter, Jane Castor, the mayor of Tampa, says, “We’ve got a Reputation to uphold. We wanna go bigger.”
Not only is Castor ready to give Taylor the key to the city, she’s invited her to be the “honorary mayor for a day. Mayor Swift has a nice ring to it. We can’t wait to welcome you and your fans to Tampa — Taylor’s version!”
Taylor’s set to play in the city April 13-15.
In addition to all that, Tampa has renamed its Twitter feed from City of Tampa to City of Tampa (Taylor’s Version) and announced that it will lighting up the town’s city hall, river walk and downtown bridges in honor of Red.
Fans are joking about how much bigger future Eras Tour cities can go. One fan predicted that by the time she gets to LA, California Gov. Gavin Newsom will resign and turn the office over to her.
One fan tweeted, “I adore this friendly competition against the cities. I think we should just rename the whole country The United States of Taylor.”
Brothers Osborne‘s John Osborne and his wife, Lucie Silvas, have returned with their twins from their second stay at the NICU.
John and Lucie welcomed Arthur and Maybelle on March 21. However, Lucie shared on Instagram on April 8 that the newborns had returned to the NICU again.
“Back and forth to NICU but looking forward to being at home yet again. This babies are so so strong. Like their Mum and dad. John is working hard and coming home tomorrow to be with our little babies,” Lucie wrote, before praising her husband. “So proud of him , for working tirelessly on @brothersosborne new music and other projects… but he is truly the best care taker of me and the twins and it’s totally blown me away, even tho I’m not surprised.”
“I’m so proud of you Artie and May – you’re already so strong cause we stayed strong for you and never gave up,” she continued. “This is the biggest lesson in self love and care I’ve ever had in 45 years on this planet…. they taught me that, and they deserve a mother who does that , for me, for them, for our family. Thank you for the love and support.”
Arthur and Maybelle were discharged on Sunday, April 9, just in time for Easter.
“EASTER SUNDAY AND WE ARE FAMILY!!! Home [ward] bound,” Lucie posted in an Instagram story. In her latest Instagram post, she added, “Ok. Round 2. Bye Bye NICU. You are all incredible … We’re so eternally grateful… will never forget you, and we never wanna see you ever again!”
On the music front, Brothers Osborne released their three-song Nobody’s Nobody Sampler on April 7, with a full-length album arriving later this year.
(WASHINGTON) — Last week’s decision from a federal judge in Texas has thrown access to a common abortion pill into limbo.
In the ruling, Judge Matthew Kacsmaryk of the Northern District of Texas reversed the U.S. Food and Drug Administration’s approval of mifepristone, potentially blocking access to the abortion medication across the country.
Kacsmaryk stayed his own order for seven days to give the federal government time to file an appeal, which it has already done.
However, immediately after that decision, U.S. District Judge Thomas Rice in Washington state issued a ruling barring the FDA from pulling mifepristone off the market.
For the time being, the medication is available, but the conflicting decisions mean a battle is almost certainly heading to the Supreme Court — and are confusing for patients who may need access to the pills.
‘Understanding what it means, how soon that might go into effect, all of these things are sort of unclear for a lot of a lot of people,” Dr. Sadia Haider, an OBGYN at Rush University Medical Center in Chicago, told ABC News. “And I do think it’s confusing, and it’s concerning, both from a provider and patient standpoint.”
Mifepristone is a drug typically used in combination with another drug, misoprostol, to induce an abortion or to help manage an early miscarriage.
The medication works by blocking progesterone, a hormone that the body needs to continue a pregnancy.
This causes the uterine lining to stop thickening and to break down, detaching the embryo. The second drug, misoprostol, taken 24 to 48 hours later, causes the uterus to contract and dilates the cervix, which will expel the embryo.
The FDA authorized mifepristone for medication abortion in September 2000 for up to seven weeks’ gestation, which was then extended to 10 weeks’ gestation in 2016.
However, the World Health Organization says the two drug-regiment can be taken up until the 12-week mark of pregnancy.
Medication abortion now accounts for more than half of all abortions in the U.S., according to the Guttmacher Institute.
In December 2021, the FDA announced it permanently lifted its restriction that abortion pills had to be dispensed in-person. In January, it went further by allowing retail pharmacies to provide the drug too, either by mail or in person, so long as they meet certain requirements.
“It’s a very safe medication and it’s highly effective in optimizing treatment of medical abortion, but also miscarriage management as well as helping improve outcomes with induction of labor for fetal demise,” Haider said. “All of these usages have been studied extensively from a safety standpoint, efficacy standpoint, patient acceptability standpoint, patient experience standpoint, et cetera.”
However, Alliance Defending Freedom, a Christian conservative legal advocacy group — the plaintiff that the Texas judge ruled in favor of — claims mifepristone is not safe and that the FDA didn’t study it closely enough before it was approved.
Haider said she and her colleagues will continue to prescribe mifepristone over the next week for medical abortion and miscarriage care and encourages patients who are planning to receive the drugs to get them.
At the end of the week, they will analyze to see if they can keep using the drugs or not.
Misoprostol would still be available for both abortions and miscarriages on its own, but as an off-label use.
Data from around the world shows misoprostol is safe and effective — and that they’re ready to provide misoprostol-only abortions — but that the two-dose regimen is more effective and has fewer side effects.
When given alone to induce an abortion, patients need to take three to four doses of misoprostol about three hours apart.
“We can provide this, we will provide it if needed, we will just have to do a lot of a lot more counseling and support for the patients to go through it in this way, and just really prepare them for the scenarios where the side effects might experience that higher side effects,” Haider said. ‘In my career — I’ve been practicing for over 20 years — and never had to go to this route of medication abortion, so it’s going to be a new experience for our patients and providers.”
It’s unclear how the ruling will affect clinicians and companies that are currently able to send abortion pills through the mail.
If mifepristone does end up being restricted, Haider said clinical care teams, platforms and groups that currently mail mifepristone will likely not continue to do so, therefore patients need to be careful that they’re not being duped by receiving bogus pills.
‘Using a trusted resource would be really important,” she said. “I think patients just asking questions of whoever they are utilizing for these medications. It’s just being aware of where they’re getting it.”
Between threats to stop making pop music and start rapping exclusively, threats to quit music altogether and threats to release a country album, Doja Cat is having a ball trolling fans on Twitter.
Over the weekend, Doja tweeted, “no more pop. i also agree with everyone who said the majority of my rap verses are mid and corny. I know they are. I wasnt trying to prove anything I just enjoy making music but I’m getting tired of hearing yall say that i can’t so I will.”
Then, late on Sunday night, she switched gears and tweeted, “The whole album is no longer rap yall its rock/spoken word and the album title is not Hellmouth anymore.” She then wrote, “Album is called Moist Holes.”
She followed that up by writing, “jk…its gonna be a french conceptual experimental country/bohemian fusion with the essence of blue-grass.”
When asked how many features would be on this album, she wrote, “100.”
Right after that, she posted a series of tweets, saying in rapid succession, “i quit music. jk. no im serious i quit music. jk im not. relax.”
And then she added, “jk i quit im done with this music s*** its only making me sadder every day. i cant take it anymore.” But, she noted, “ima finish this album yall dont worry.”
When one fan snarked, “As long as it’s not a country album,” Doja replied, “and THAT it is.”
The set list for Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band‘s current tour is a hits-packed extravaganza that includes nearly every song a casual fan would want to hear, from “Dancing in the Dark” to “Born to Run,” plus some deep cuts for the Bruce fanatics. But those fanatics are also keeping careful track of Bruce’s surprise “tour premieres”: a different song he throws into the set every night, many of which he hasn’t performed in years.
Sunday night’s show at the UBS Arena in Elmont, New York, brought the tour premiere of “Mary’s Place,” a song from Springsteen’s 2002 album The Rising, which he hasn’t performed since 2017.
Shows in Maryland and Cleveland featured the tour premieres of “Lucky Town,” the title track of one of The Boss’ two 1992 albums, and “Atlantic City,” from 1992’s Nebraska.
For his April 3 concert in Brooklyn, New York, Bruce threw it back to his debut album, Greetings from Asbury Park, NJ, for “It’s Hard to Be a Saint in the City.” His April 1 show at New York’s Madison Square Garden brought the first performance of “Jungleland” since 2017.
Other songs that have so far gotten a single airing on the tour include “Workin’ on the Highway,” “Hungry Heart,” “I’m On Fire” and “Darkness on the Edge of Town.”
As previously reported, if you missed your favorite song’s tour debut, you can stream all of the tour’s shows via nugs.net and buy recordings of every show, as well. All the details are available on live.brucespringsteen.net.
The current leg of the tour wraps up April 14 in Newark, New Jersey, but Bruce and the band are coming back to North America to play stadiums starting in August. The set list may change even more by then.
The Super Mario Bros. Movie is the number one movie in the world, with an opening weekend haul of more than $377 million. But co-star Jack Black had already become number one at home — when he was cast as Bowser.
“I did get some dad points. It’s true,” Black told ABC Radio, adding of sons Sammy, 16, and 14-year-old Tommy, “The boys were impressed. They’re not easily impressed. But this one, they were like, ‘Nuh uh.’ I was like, ‘Yep.’ ‘Really?’ ‘Yeah,'” he recalled with a hearty laugh. “Oh, yeah. It was good. It was a good day at Casa de Black.”
It’s easy to imagine his role in the most recent episode of The Mandalorian had that same effect at home — but Jack wasn’t allowed to spoil that when he chatted with us.
Black explained his love of the Super Mario saga goes way back. “When I was a kid, I was there for the very first Nintendo video game. Little game. You might not have heard of it: Donkey Kong. It was Mario saving the Princess from the Donkey Kong. And it was incredible. I mean, I — I was obsessed with it. I was 12 and I played the hell out of it. I must have sunk thousands of quarters into the local machine.”
Complete with an imitation of the game’s sound effects, Black recalls, “I never conquered it. It was a tough game. You had to time those jumps of the barrels perfectly.”
He adds, “I have great, great, fond memories of Nintendo. … that was like the seed, the sprout of Nintendo. And to see it grow over the decades into a whole gigantic universe, that’s pretty impressive. Unprecedented in the world of video games.”
(LOUISVILLE, Ky.) — Four victims were killed and eight others were injured following a mass shooting at a bank in Louisville, Kentucky, on Monday morning, according to police.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
Apr 10, 3:50 PM EDT
Suspect worked at the bank, was armed with rifle
The suspected shooter, 23-year-old Connor Sturgeon, was armed with a rifle when he allegedly carried out a mass shooting at the Old National Bank, where he worked, according to police.
The suspect was livestreaming, police said, though officials did not elaborate.
Authorities said the suspect was killed by police.
Nine people were hospitalized, including three currently in critical condition, said Dr. Jason Smith, chief medical officer at University of Louisville Health. Three victims are in the hospital with non-life-threatening injuries and the three others have been released, Smith said.
Among the nine injured is 26-year-old police officer Nickolas Wilt, who was shot in the head, according to police. He underwent brain surgery and is in critical but stable condition, police said.
Wilt just graduated from the police academy on March 31.
The four slain victims were identified by police as Joshua Barrick, 40; Thomas Elliott, 63; Juliana Farmer, 45; and James Tutt, 64.
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg said Elliott was “a very good friend of mine” and of Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear.
“This was an evil act of targeted violence,” the mayor said.
“Today, I’m hurt and I’m hurting, and I know so many people out there are, as well,” Beshear said. “We lost four children of God today, one whom is one of my closest friends. Tommy Elliott helped me build my law career, helped me become governor, gave me advice on being a good dad. … He was an incredible friend.”
The governor said of all four victims, “These are irreplaceable, amazing individuals.”
Apr 10, 2:56 PM EDT
Biden: ‘When will Republicans in Congress act?’
President Joe Biden tweeted Monday, “Once again, our nation mourns after a senseless act of gun violence.”
“Jill and I pray for the lives lost and impacted by today’s shooting. Too many Americans are paying for the price of inaction with their lives,” he wrote. “When will Republicans in Congress act to protect our communities?”
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said at Monday’s briefing, “Once again, today the president has called on Republicans in Congress to work together with Democrats to take action to ban assault weapons and high-capacity magazines, to require safe storage of firearms, to require background checks for all gun sales, to eliminate gun manufacturers’ immunity from liability.”
“These are common sense actions we can ask for and should be getting right now,” she said.
“We need to act and we need Republicans to show some courage,” she said.
Apr 10, 1:02 PM EDT
2 officers among the injured, 1 in critical condition
Two officers and seven civilians were injured in the Louisville shooting, according to the University of Louisville Hospital.
One of those officers is in critical condition, according to police.
At least three patients have already been discharged, according to the hospital.
Apr 10, 11:27 AM EDT
McConnell ‘devastated’ by news of Louisville shooting
Republican leader and Kentucky Sen. Mitch McConnell, who lives in Louisville, tweeted that he’s “devastated” by the news of Monday morning’s mass shooting.
“We send our prayers to the victims, their families, and the city of Louisville as we await more information,” McConnell tweeted.
His fellow Kentucky senator, Rand Paul, tweeted, “Our hearts break for the families of those lost.”
Apr 10, 11:21 AM EDT
Officers exchanged gunfire with suspect who died at scene
Officers arrived within three minutes of being dispatched and found the suspect still firing, Louisville police said.
Officers exchanged gunfire with the suspect who died at the scene, police said. It’s not yet clear if the suspect’s wounds were self-inflicted, police said.
Four victims were killed and eight people are injured, police said.
At least two officers were shot during the exchange of gunfire, police said, including one who is undergoing surgery.
It appears the suspect was a previous or current employee, police said.
“This is awful. I have a very close friend that didn’t make it today. And I have another close friend who didn’t, either, and one who is at the hospital that I hope is gonna make it through,” Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said at a news conference.
Apr 10, 10:53 AM EDT
At least 15 mass shootings so far this month
There have been at least 15 mass shootings in the U.S. in the first 10 days of April, including Monday morning’s shooting in Louisville, according to the Gun Violence Archive.
So far this year, the nation has seen at least 146 mass shootings.
The Gun Violence Archive defines a mass shooting as at least four people shot, not including the suspect.
“It feels like every day in this country we are totally consumed by yet another mass shooting. Nowhere else in the developed world do people wake up to this preventable horror every single morning,” Kris Brown, president of the Brady Center to Prevent Gun Violence, said in a statement Monday. “Whether it’s a bank, a school, a supermarket, or a church, Americans no longer feel safe in their communities. And Americans are increasingly tired of living in fear of being a victim of a mass shooting.”
“It does not have to be this way,” Brown said. “But until the gun industry no longer has a vice grip on our elected officials, this will continue to be our daily reality.”
Apr 10, 10:32 AM EDT
Shooting unfolded in bank conference room
The gunman opened fire in the bank’s first-floor conference room at about 8:30 a.m. local time, according to officials.
Eyewitnesses said the shooter appeared to have been armed with a long gun.
“He just started shooting,” Troy Haste told ABC Louisville affiliate WHAS-TV. “Whoever was next to me got shot. Blood is on me from it.”
Police said the suspect is dead.
A responding police officer was shot in the head, sources told ABC News. The officer’s condition is unknown.
According to preliminary information, this shooting is not believed to have been terror-related, sources told ABC News.
Apr 10, 10:19 AM EDT
Suspected shooter neutralized
Louisville police tweeted that the “suspected shooter has been neutralized,” adding, “There is no longer an active aggressor threat.”
There is no longer an active aggressor threat. The suspected shooter has been neutralized.
Apr 10, 10:05 AM EDT
Residents urged to avoid area
Louisville Mayor Craig Greenberg tweeted that residents should avoid the area around Slugger Field until further notice.
There is an active police situation downtown. Please avoid the area around Slugger Field until further notice. We will provide information as soon as possible.
— Mayor Craig Greenberg (@LouisvilleMayor) April 10, 2023
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said he is heading to the scene.
“Please pray for all of the families impacted and for the city of Louisville,” he tweeted.
FBI and ATF agents are assisting with the incident.
Erin Clark/The Boston Globe via Getty Images, FILE
(BOSTON) — Democratic governors from at least three states — Massachusetts, California and Washington — have announced they’ve begun stockpiling abortion medications, ahead of a court-ordered injunction that could pull the drug from the market as early as Friday.
It’s a dramatic escalation in the fight over abortion rights that’s pitted red states versus blue, and emboldened Democrats to look for novel ways to defy the potential nationwide injunction slated to go into effect at the end of the week.
The court ruling “harms patients, undermines medical expertise, and takes away freedom. It’s an attempt to punish to shame to marginalize women. It’s unnecessary. It’s terrible,” said Gov. Maura Healy of Massachusetts.
Healy announced on Monday that under her direction the University of Massachusetts Amherst has already purchased 15,000 doses — more than a year’s worth of mifepristone for the state. Another $1 million from state coffers would be offered to health care providers in the state to buy the drug before a nationwide injunction takes hold.
The governor also said she would sign an executive order noting that existing state law protect pharmacists and providers from criminal and civil legal liability if they continue to stock and dispense the drug.
“Here in Massachusetts, we are not going to let one extremist judge in Texas turn back the clock on this proven medication and restrict access to care in our state,” Healey said in a statement. “The action we are taking today protects access to mifepristone in Massachusetts and protects patients, providers and pharmacists from liability.”
Also on Monday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom announced that his state will purchase an emergency stockpile of up to 2 million pills of misoprostol – a drug not approved for abortion but commonly used around the world as an alternative to terminate early pregnancies.
Misoprostol is considered slightly less effective when taken without mifepristone. It also comes with more painful side effects because it needs to be taken in larger doses to end a pregnancy.
When asked why the California governor didn’t buy mifepristone instead, spokesperson Brandon Richards said the state would continue to “fight this battle on multiple fronts.”
“California is purchasing and securing misoprostol to ensure people across California and the country know medication abortion will remain accessible and affordable regardless of what happens in the courts,” he said.
The announcements from Massachusetts and California follow Washington Democratic Gov. Jay Inslee’s decision last week to purchase a three-year supply of the drug for that state.
The bulk buys comes after a Trump-appointed federal judge in Texas ruled to suspend he FDA’s approval of mifepristone, the only drug specifically approved to end early pregnancies up to 10 weeks. The judge gave the Biden administration until this coming Friday to appeal with ruling.
Since then, the Biden administration has appealed the case and asked the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals on Monday to put a hold on the judge’s nationwide injunction while the case is being considered by the upper court. It’s expected that the case will eventually go to the U.S. Supreme Court.
If the 5th Circuit does not agree to freeze the judge’s ruling as the Biden administration has asked, production and manufacturing of the abortion drug mifepristone would stop as early as Friday. Abortion clinics were expected to continue to offer the drug to patients until their supply runs out.
ABC News’ Teresa Mettela contributed to this report.
