Mott the Hoople and David Bowie are forever linked thanks to the 1972 classic “All The Young Dudes,” which Bowie wrote for the band. But it turns out the relationship between the artists didn’t last beyond the collaboration.
“David was a different kettle of fish,” Mott the Hoople’s Ian Hunter tells Classic Rock magazine. “David was great all the time I knew him, but he wasn’t a guy I would have hung out with.”
Hunter says it was “nothing personal,” and they “got on fine in the studio” and even hung out a few times. “But I don’t make mates easy. I never did,” he says. “And when I do make a mate, it’s for life. He was a friend like lots of people you meet along the way.”
Bowie, who was a fan of the band, reportedly offered them a song after hearing they considered breaking up after their 1971 album Brain Capers didn’t perform well. Hunter is still a little surprised by the tune they got.
“It’s a great song,” he says. “God knows why he gave it to us. I’ve said that many times, but really, if I’d’ve had that song I wouldn’t have given it to anybody.”
Hunter describes Bowie as determined and ambitious, which he wasn’t, noting, “I just wanted to play rock ’n’ roll because it excited me.”
“But generous to a tee, lovely with the band,” he says of Bowie. “I mean, he gave us ‘Dudes.’ I’ve got nothing but praise for David.”
(LOS ANGELES, Calif.) — When California’s Pajaro River flooded around midnight on March 11, breaching a levee, the neighboring area was urged to evacuate — with many leaving around 1 a.m. carrying only the clothes on their backs, according to some of those forced to flee.
It was “the worst case scenario,” Luis Alejo, chair of the Monterey County Board of Supervisors, wrote in a tweet.
Nonprofits and the state government have stepped in to assist residents, but advocates say they have growing concerns that Pajaro is being overlooked and that many of the local immigrant families may be left behind because some of them don’t have legal status in the country — though California government officials insist otherwise, saying that their aid isn’t tied to immigration laws.
Pajaro is an unincorporated community that sits about 90 miles south of San Francisco. It is 92% Hispanic and slightly more than 18% of the 3,000 residents live under the poverty line, according to one estimate.
“I see my grandfather in a lot of these older workers. It hurts me when people fail to recognize their hard work, their humility,” said Ray Cancino, CEO of Community Bridges, a nonprofit that is helping the flood victims.
More than 330 residents are still receiving emergency shelter services as of this week, according to a statement from Monterey County Second District Supervisor Glenn Church, and more than 521 households have been served at the local assistance center.
“The County of Monterey will provide whatever assistance we can to individuals in Monterey County impacted by these terrible winter storms regardless of immigration status. In addition to any County resources, we are working with several non-profit groups that are supporting relief efforts for those with or without documentation,” a spokesman for Monterey County’s government, Nicholas Pasculli, said in a statement to ABC News. He also pointed to the state’s services for disaster victims, regardless of immigration status.
But Cancino, with the nonprofit, said the situation still raised concerns. He said that many migrants in Pajaro don’t have legal status, though situations vary and some are in the U.S. lawfully, and that complicates how much the Federal Emergency Management Agency can help them.
“There isn’t enough philanthropic opportunity for us to take care of them,” he told ABC News.
Community leader Sergio Villaron said that he is especially worried about his neighbors who are field and farm workers. With the fields flooded, Villaron said that many of them are not going to be able to work.
“That’s how they feed their families, and if they don’t have that, it’s gonna be hard times for them,” Villaron said.
A FEMA flyer said that non-monetary aid such as medical care or shelter is available to all who face disasters, no matter their immigration status, Villaron said, but he does not know if he and everyone else in his community can apply or where to start the process. (FEMA did not respond to a request for comment for this story.)
California Gov. Gavin Newsom has requested a major disaster declaration as a result of the floods. In a press release, he said that the state would support “undocumented workers and communities ineligible for FEMA individual assistance due to immigration status.”
A spokesperson for Newsom said that the state has provided $15 million through local levee assistance and other support to fund the Pajaro River Flood Risk Management Project, which would cover up to 100% of the non-federal costs for the management of the levees.
Cancino believes the majority of evacuated people in Pajaro will likely not be eligible for certain aid from FEMA because of their immigration status, and those that may qualify are the children of laborers.
He said support is crucial while Community Bridges and other nonprofits work to provide housing to the victims.
“Their landlord is going to take probably 18 to 24 months to get their funding from FEMA, to get people to fix things to get it out of habitable and during that time, there’s not gonna be any affordability available anywhere in this county,” Cancino said.
Nonprofits in the area have raised $1.2 million in cash for flood victims and more in supplies, he said, but it is “absolutely not” enough to cover all of the damages.
Newsom said in a news conference last month that $42 million was available for United Way, the international nonprofit network. But the United Way of Monterey County Director Katy Castagna said in a statement to ABC News that the correct amount for local assistance is around $300,000 and the money was from a COVID-19 relief fund, not for the flooding.
“Regarding the overall financial situation, we know it is dire for the whole community of Pajaro,” Castagna said. “A number of community-based organizations and philanthropic partners are collaborating to provide basic needs for those in the shelters, staying in cars and motels. Damage assessments have not been done and we anticipate recovery will take years.”
Amid the struggle to rebuild, Villaron said that the community thinks a lot like him: Stay positive and keep moving forward.
(MADISON, Wis) — Wisconsin’s high-stakes Supreme Court race culminated Tuesday in a victory for the liberal candidate and a fiery, bitter concession speech by the conservative contender that underscored the acrimony by the end of their contest — the most expensive such election in history.
Dan Kelly, a former justice on the high court who was running for a return, lambasted Justice-elect Janet Protasiewicz for discussing her personal views on policies and issues expected to come before the state Supreme Court, including her support for abortion rights and criticism of Republican-drawn legislative maps.
“This didn’t turn out the way that we were looking for, and I think there are a couple of reasons for it and I think we need to address them head on. And it brings me no joy to say this. I wish that in a circumstance like this I would be able to concede to a worthy opponent. But I do not have a worthy opponent to which I can concede,” Kelly said Tuesday night.
“This was the most deeply deceitful, dishonorable despicable campaign I have ever seen run for the courts,” he said. “It was truly beneath contempt. Now I say this not because we did not prevail — I do not say this because of the rancid slanders that were launched against me, although that was bad enough. But that is not my concern. My concern is the damage done to the institution of the courts.”
The rhetoric reflected the repercussions of the race, with Protasiewicz’s win flipping the court from a 4-3 conservative majority to one that liberals will control by a 4-3 margin until at least 2025. It’s the first time liberal-aligned judges will be in the majority in 15 years.
Among the issues the court is anticipated to take up are an 1849 law that bans nearly all abortions and challenge to the legislative maps, which Republicans drew after 2010 and which are widely seen as gerrymandered despite Wisconsin’s status as a swing state.
Republicans had knocked Protasiewicz throughout the campaign for discussing her beliefs on issues she could soon decide on, though it appears the attacks were insufficient to prevent Kelly’s 11-point loss, which is almost identical to his margin of defeat when he lost his seat on the court in 2020.
Kelly had stayed away from commenting as directly on those issues, but he won endorsements from anti-abortion groups and previously worked for the state GOP in private practice.
Protasiewicz’s campaign, meanwhile, said it was important to communicate with voters what her views are and rejected the premise that such comments forecasted how she would rule form the bench.
“She’s been very clear that these are her personal values: She believes in democracy, she believes in access to health care. But that’s not saying how she’s going to vote on these if they’re before the court. We have no idea of knowing who will bring those challenges to the court, what will be made,” campaign spokesperson Sam Roecker told ABC News on Monday.
“She has made no promises to rule one way or the other on any case before the court. But I think part of this as she’s here on the campaign trail is that voters expect to know some of the values of who they’re voting for,” Roecker said then. “This is a big election. There’s a lot at stake.”
Still, Kelly pulled no punches, casting his defeat in nearly apocalyptic terms for his state’s future.
“I respect the decision that the people of Wisconsin have made. But I think this does not end well. Now as I look forward, I hope, I hope it does end well. This has been a beautiful, beautiful life here in Wisconsin with all of you,” he said Tuesday. “And I wish, Wisconsin, the best of luck because I think it’s going to need it.”
(WARREN, Mich.) — A Michigan man has been arrested for allegedly assaulting a grocery store clerk with a 4-pound frozen fish during a dispute, prosecutors said.
The incident occurred Sunday around 7:13 p.m. local time at a grocery store in Warren, in the Detroit metro area, Macomb County prosecutors said.
After the fish counter clerk informed the man that the counter had closed at 7 p.m. due to the Ramadan holiday, the suspect allegedly “became angry and argued with the clerk,” the Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office said in a press release on Wednesday.
“The suspect then allegedly assaulted the clerk on the head with a 4-pound frozen hilsa fish,” a type of herring, the prosecutor’s office said.
Local police arrested the suspect and the victim was transported to the hospital, prosecutors said. The Macomb County Prosecutor’s Office did not have an update on the victim’s condition as of Wednesday.
The suspect — identified by prosecutors as MD Jobul Hussain, 60 — was charged with one count of aggravated assault, a misdemeanor. He was arraigned on Monday in Warren District Court and has posted a $5,000 bond, online court records show. A pretrial hearing has been scheduled for April 27, according to court records.
“I never thought I’d have to say this, but if you assault someone with a fish in our county you will be prosecuted,” Macomb County Prosecutor Peter Lucido said in a statement. “A frozen fish is dangerous if you use it to hit someone on the head.”
Michael Brochstein/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images
(NEW YORK) — Just days after a new report revealed antisemitic incidents reached an all-time high in 2022, a new ad campaign calling on non-Jewish people to condemn such discrimination crossed millions of Americans’ TV screens.
The Anti-Defamation League (ADL) found antisemitic incidents increased by more than 30% in 2022 compared to 2021, according to a report published last month. The anti-hate and anti-bias advocacy group counted 3,697 antisemitic incidents in 2022 — the highest total since the ADL began tabulating those incidents in 1979, according to group’s March report. Those incidents mark a 36% increase from the 2,717 incidents the organization tabulated during the previous year, which was at the time a historic high. Reported incidents range from harassment to vandalism and assaults on individuals.
The organization collects data through reports from victims, which ADL staff work to verify, as well as details from law enforcement and the media.
“There is no one single reason why antisemitic incidents are on the rise. But there are several trends, including the emboldening of extremists and hate groups, in part due to the political discourse,” Emily Snider, an Antisemitic Incident Specialist at the ADL’s Center on Extremism, told ABC News.
Some organizations announced they were taking action following the report’s release. On March 27, New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, donning a blue lapel pin on his blazer, announced the The Foundation to Combat Antisemitism’s “Stand Up to Jewish Hate” campaign, slated to air on national television.
“This little blue square represents the Jewish population in the United States — 2.4%,” said Kraft, pointing to the pin. “But we’re the victims of 55% of the hate crimes in this country.”
“Let the Jewish community know they are not fighting alone,” one online video states.
Biden administration officials have also spoken about the importance of protecting Jewish institutions and other faith communities. On March 23, the Department of Homeland Security rolled out PreventionResourceFinder.gov, a website that provides resources to prevent “targeted violence and terrorism.”
Antisemitism serves as a “connective tissue” that brings together different hate and extremist groups, Susan Corke, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC), told ABC News.
When asked whether the SPLC has tracked a similar rise in antisemitic incidents, Corke said that while the SPLC does not track specific events, statistics from the ADL along with other data from the SPLC show “that there’s been a shift to more public spectacle, that there’s more hateful incidents that are intersecting people in their daily lives.”
Those incidents include “flyering,” defined as hate groups distributing flyers with antisemitic propaganda. One such incident occurred in October 2022, when antisemitic flyers faulting Jewish people for health, social and racial issues were distributed in Beverly Hills, California.
“My family was forced to flee our homeland when I was a year old because of antisemitism and violence, so to see some of the same ideas, Jewish conspiracy theories, pop up at our home it’s really terrifying,” Sam Yebri, a Jewish refugee from Iran, told ABC News after the incident.
Another public spectacle of antisemitism: graffiti on Jewish institutions. In October, Ben and Esther’s Vegan Jewish Deli in Portland, Oregon, was vandalized with a swastika.
“As a Jew, it’s something that I’ve dealt with my whole life,” Justin King, the deli’s owner, told ABC station KATU. “My childhood synagogue was shot up in Miami, and to this day they still have the shotgun holes in the stained glass windows.”
“This type of action needs to upset people. And if it didn’t, I would have to question where I am living,” King told KATU.
Corke noted that hate crimes are often underreported, as police departments are not required to report hate crimes to the federal government. She noted the rise in hate crimes against one group is often indicative of discrimination on the rise more broadly, such as the increased harassment against Asian Americans since the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic.
“When we see rises in hate crimes or hate incidents, among any particular group of people, you tend to see that across all the categories,” Snider said.
Snider said there could also be some overlap between the perpetrators of antisemitic and anti-Asian American crimes, including within organized white supremacist groups.
The rise of antisemitic incidents requires the appropriate attention to be fully understood, Snider and Corke said.
“I don’t think it’s ever too much work to shine light on hate. … And we do need media, and politicians, and school officials, and also our entire society to shine light when hate happens in order to hopefully effect the change,” Snider told ABC News.
Corke called for “a different kind of awareness” that places these incidents in a broader context.
“Because when there’s a hate crime, there’s expressions of concern and then it dies down. I think what people are failing to understand, that this is a more organized and longer-term, campaign, movement, by the far right to undermine democracy in America,” she said.
“[We should be] recognizing that a hate crime is more than just that one crime, but it really harms the whole community and is intentional to create this larger fear in society,” she added.
But even amid the concerning trends, Snider said that the Jewish community in America should use the ADL’s report as a renewed wakeup call — while still remaining proud of its identity.
“Our communities are strong. We’re strong. We’re resilient. I wish we didn’t have to be resilient, but we are. And I hope that the Jewish community continues to take these incidents seriously, continues to firm up security at their institutions,” Snider said. “But always, always, always, it’s important to remain firmly proud, proud to be Jewish, and feel empowered to express your Jewish identity authentically, however that looks like for you.”
ABC News’ Luke Barr and Kendall Ross contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Former Vice President Mike Pence will not appeal a district court ruling and will comply with the grand jury subpoena requesting documents and testimony related to attempts to overturn the 2020 election, his spokesperson said.
“Vice President Pence will not appeal the Judge’s ruling and will comply with the subpoena as required by law,” his spokesperson, Devin O’Malley, said in a statement.
The top federal judge for the D.C. district court last week rejected former President Donald Trump’s assertion of executive privilege to prevent Pence from testifying before the grand jury, sources told ABC News.
Pence was subpoenaed in February by special counsel Jack Smith to provide documents and testimony related to Smith’s election interference probe, following months of negotiations between federal prosecutors and Pence’s legal team, sources said.
In addition to claims of executive privilege, Pence’s attorneys had argued that Pence should be exempt from providing records or answering certain questions that align with his duties as president of the Senate overseeing the formal certification of the election on Jan. 6, 2021.
Pence’s team had argued that such communications could run afoul of the Speech and Debate Clause that shields officials in Congress from legal proceedings specifically related to their work.
D.C. Chief Judge James Boasberg narrowly upheld parts of that legal challenge, ruling last week that Pence should have to provide answers to the special counsel on any questions that implicate any illegal acts on Trump’s part, according to sources.
Speaking last month with ABC News’ Jonathan Karl for “This Week,” Pence said, “We’re going to respect the decisions of the court, and that may take us all the way to the highest court in the land.”
Smith, a longtime federal prosecutor and former head of the Justice Department’s public integrity section, was tapped in November by Attorney General Merrick Garland as special counsel to oversee the DOJ’s investigation into efforts to overturn the results of the 2020 election and Trump’s handling of classified materials after leaving office.
(SAN FRANCISCO) — Bob Lee, Cash App founder and executive at cryptocurrency firm MobileCoin, is dead after a “horrific” act in San Francisco on Tuesday, San Francisco District Attorney Brooke Jenkins said on Wednesday.
Police responded to a report of a stabbing early Tuesday, around 2:35 a.m., and found a 43-year-old man suffering from stab wounds, a San Francisco Police Department report said.
The report did not name the victim, but the details matched Lee, who was 43 years old.
Officers called for medics, who transported the victim to a nearby hospital with life-threatening injuries, the police report said, adding that the victim ultimately died from the injuries.
“We do not tolerate these horrific acts of violence in San Francisco,” Jenkins said.
Lee served as the first chief technology officer at Square, a digital payment company founded by former Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey.
“Bob was a dynamo, a force of nature,” Joshua Goldbard, the CEO of MobileCoin, told ABC News in a statement.
“He was made for the world that is being born right now, he was a child of dreams, and whatever he imagined, no matter how crazy, he made real,” Goldbard added.
During the 2000s, Lee worked at Google, where he helped develop Android.
Cash App and the San Francisco Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Lee is survived by his wife, Krista, and their two children.
“Bob’s real resume is the hearts and minds he touched in his time on earth,” Goldbard said. “Bob’s legacy is the feeling that you can make a difference if you try, and of course his amazing children.”
(BALTIMORE) — A Maryland man was charged Tuesday for allegedly threatening the Human Rights Campaign, a prominent LGBTQ+ rights organization, in what police say appears to be a response to the March 27 Nashville, Tennessee, mass shooting at a Christian school.
The man who allegedly threatened the Human Rights Campaign, Adam Michael Nettina, is charged with interstate communications with a threat to injure for allegedly leaving a voicemail on March 28 in which he threatened to “slaughter,” shoot and assault members of the organization.
Authorities say they believe he references the Nashville shooting in his voicemail. Nashville police have said the school shooter identified as transgender, adding the shooter was assigned female at birth but pointed to a social media account linked to the shooter that included use of the pronouns he/him.
“You guys going to shoot up our schools now? Is that how it’s going to be?” the voicemail said, according to DOJ documents.
It continued, “We’re waiting. And if you want a war, we’ll have a war.”
The threat follows concerns from LGBTQ groups about anti-LGBTQ hate and violence.
Some prominent Republicans promoted anti-transgender rhetoric and speculated that the Nashville shooter’s gender identity played a role in the gun violence despite research showing that mass shootings are overwhelmingly committed by cisgender men and that transgender people are four times more likely to be victims of violence.
“The LGBTQ+ community is under attack in statehouses across the country and on social media platforms,” read a statement from Elizabeth Bibi, spokesperson for the Human Rights Campaign, sent to ABC News. “This violent, hateful rhetoric leads to stigma, and stigma leads to physical violence.”
“As we see radical politicians sow hate and fear with anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric, we have seen the physical threats to our community multiply – from armed men at Pride parades, to threats of violence against local drag shows at libraries, to bomb threats at children’s hospitals, to the continued rise in fatal violence against members of our community, especially Black transgender women,” Bibi continued.
Advocates say that falsely painting the entire LGBTQ community as inherently dangerous and responsible for the actions of one person will promote violence against the community.
“Every study available shows that transgender and nonbinary people are much more likely to be victims of violence, rather than the perpetrator of it,” the Human Rights Campaign said in a statement following the shooting. “Regardless of the reason for this shooting, the use of violence is reprehensible and we renew our call for common-sense gun safety.”
If convicted, Nettina faces a maximum sentence of five years in federal prison. Legal representation for Nettina was not available.
The case was investigated by the FBI Baltimore Field Office.
The Human Rights Campaign said it received two threatening voicemails late last month.
“We are grateful to law enforcement for acting so quickly to keep our community safe, and we condemn any and all violent words or deeds. We will continue our work to call out those who spread violence, fear and disinformation.”
ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to the report.
(CHICAGO) — Before his victory speech Tuesday, Chicago’s mayor-elect Brandon Johnson was introduced at the podium by the president of his greatest benefactor: The Chicago Teachers Union (CTU). The alliance, which puts the city’s most powerful labor union in tight alignment with the new administration, is a significant departure for Chicago where both sides have traditionally sparred in public and behind closed doors.
“Make no mistake, Chicago is a union town,” Johnson, 47, said after listing the numerous labor organizations that supported his campaign.
A union Johnson did not mention was the Fraternal Order of Police, the powerful organization that backed former Chicago Public Schools CEO Paul Vallas, who Johnson claimed a slim victory over, 51% to 49%, late Tuesday.
Chicago mayoral race: Brandon Johnson wins runoff, Paul Vallas concedes
Crime and education emerged as the two primary issues of the six-week campaign with both candidates introducing starkly opposite agendas for both.
Johnson, who taught in the classroom for four years and later served as a Cook County commissioner, worked as a paid organizer for the CTU over the last two administrations. The CTU also raised more than $2 million for Johnson by appropriating a portion of monthly membership dues to a PAC supporting his campaign. Last week a group of Chicago schoolteachers filed an unfair labor practices charge with the Illinois Education Labor Relations Board alleging those actions are illegal.
Johnson’s ties with the CTU were seen as vulnerabilities by those who worried he will be too beholden to the powerful union, which represents more than 25,000 members. The CTU’s current five-year contract expires in 2024 and bargaining is expected to start this summer. Other issues at play are continued declines in enrollment and a transition to an elected school board in 2027, which decentralizes power over the school system away from the mayor’s office, where it has remained for the last three administrations.
Although he was little-known as a Cook County commissioner, Johnson first gained notoriety in 2020 when he became active in the police reform movement following the murder of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer that spring. Johnson later tried walking back his call to defund the police and pledged he would increase the number of detectives by 200 and not reduce the current number of officers on the approximately 12,000-member force. However, he also said he would not fill the department’s widening gap of beat cops and he would redirect funds to wraparound services like social workers and youth programs.
Chicago logged nearly 700 homicides in 2022, which is lower than those in 2021 — the worst year for shooting deaths since the 1990s — and robberies are up nearly 20%. Like elsewhere in big cities since the COVID-19 pandemic, Chicago crime in the form of carjackings, looting, and muggings became more visible, spreading from concentrated parts of the city to everywhere else, including sleepier neighborhoods that, until recently, were immune from violence.
When Johnson takes office on May 15, he faces having to deal with significant financial challenges. The city’s deficit is nearly $600 million due to mounting pension obligations and drops in tourism, public transit ridership, and retail occupancy.
Johnson campaigned on promising to raise $800 million by imposing a slate of new taxes on airlines, real estate transactions, financial transactions, hotels, and a “head tax” on large companies, which will charge them $4 a month per employee. He also proposed a $40 million “city surcharge” to suburbanites for commuting to the city for work via Metra. According to his website, his plan will make “the suburbs, airlines and ultra-rich pay their fair share.”
On Wednesday, the Chicago Board of Elections said that about 35% of Chicago’s registered voters participated in the election.
The Lost Weekend: A Love Story, opening April 13, is a documentary about John Lennon’s relationship with his personal assistant May Pang. It began in 1973 when Lennon and Yoko Ono were on a break, with Ono encouraging Pang to become her husband’s girlfriend, although Pang wasn’t on board at first.
“I refused,” Pang tells People. “I respected their marriage. I said, ‘That’s not what I want to do.’ I was very happy as a worker.”
When they finally got together, Pang says she cried after their first sexual encounter because she didn’t know “where it was going to lead.” She says Lennon told her, “‘I don’t know where this is going to lead, but let’s just do the jump.'”
They eventually moved in together, and their relationship lasted 18 months. “He was just an interesting person. He really loved everything, and wanted to explore,” Pang says of TheBeatles member. “He loved to get up, have his coffee in the morning. He loved blueberry pancakes, he loved swimming. He was just an awesome person who wanted to discover things.”
Lennon and Ono reconciled in 1975, although Pang says she and Lennon continued to see each other until his death in 1980.
“He’d secretly come over to see me. He would say, ‘You know, I still love you,'” she offers. “He said things to me that were really very intimate and you could sense there was something still. It was gnawing at him. It was not a finished situation.”
All in all, Pang seems grateful for the relationship. “The beginning was still raw. Now, I see it as a gift. Our relationship was a gift and it was meant to be,” she says. “I was happy I could give him something that he felt good about, that he never felt before.”
