If you can’t stop the feeling that we need another Trolls movie, well, we’ve got good news for you.
Justin Timberlake and Anna Kendrick are back with a new chapter in the animated franchise, Trolls Band Together. In this installment, Anna’s Poppy and Justin’s Branch are officially a couple, and Poppy learns of his secret past: He was once part of her favorite boy band, BroZone, with his four brothers — because of course he was.
The group disbanded when Branch was very young and he hasn’t seen his brothers since, but the movie finds a way for them to reunite. When brother Floyd, played by Australian pop star Troye Sivan, is kidnapped, Branch and Poppy must reunite the other brothers — played by Daveed Diggs, rapper/actor Kid Cudi and Eric André — and rescue him.
Camila Cabello joins the cast as a character named Viva, while RuPaul is coming onboard as Miss Maxine. Zosia Mamet, Amy Schumer and Andrew Rannells round out the newcomers, while most of the original cast is returning, including Zooey Deschanel, Silk Sonic‘s Anderson .Paak and Kenan Thompson.
You can watch the first trailer now. The movie hits theaters November 17. There’s no word yet on the soundtrack, but the trailer features such beloved ’70s hits as Sister Sledge‘s “We Are Family,” Van McCoy‘s “The Hustle” and The Bee Gees‘ “Stayin’ Alive.”
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — A friend of Nashville school shooter Audrey Hale tells ABC News that she contacted local authorities on Monday morning after Hale messaged her online about “planning to die today” — but that the authorities didn’t come to speak to her until after the attack had taken place.
Hale, 28, shot and killed three children and three adults in a mass shooting at the Covenant School Monday before being killed by responding police officers, according to authorities. Police said Hale may have previously attended the school.
Paige Patton, a Nashville radio host who goes by the name Averianna, told ABC News that said she played basketball with Hale in eighth grade and remained in occasional contact with Hale.
She said was contacted Monday morning by Hale, who told her, “I’m planning to die today. This is not a joke. You will probably hear about me on the news after I die.”
“This is my last goodbye,” Hale wrote, according to Patton. “I love you, see you again in another life.”
Patton said she messaged Hale back, saying, “Audrey, you have so much more life to live.'”
“I know, but I don’t want to live, I’m so sorry. I’m not trying to upset you or get attention, I just need to die. I wanted to tell you first because you are the most beautiful person I’ve ever seen and known all my life,” Hale responded, according to Patton.
Patton said she sent her father a screenshot of Hale’s messages and asked him if she should call somebody. Her father said yes and recommended that she call the suicide prevention line, Patton told ABC News.
She spoke to someone at the suicide prevention line who suggested she call local authorities, according to Patten. When she did, they said they would send someone out to her location to review the screenshots, Patton said.
But Patton said no one came to see the messages themselves until that afternoon, after the shooting had taken place.
“The call stamp was 3:29 when someone finally had come to see the screenshots and see if they could, like, ping that Instagram [account] or whatnot,” Patton told ABC News.
Page said that Hale and her were “more so acquaintances” than friends, but Hale would come to various events that Patton hosted around Nashville, and that Hale, a graphic designer, would post drawings of Patton on social media.
Patton said she had heard over the years that Hale was suicidal, even as she described Hale as “happy” and “feisty” on the basketball court.
She said she doesn’t know why Hale was struggling, and wasn’t aware of any issues regarding Hale’s gender identity. A police spokesperson told ABC News that Hale, who was assigned female at birth, had a social media account that included the use of the pronouns he/him.
“I knew she liked girls, but I didn’t know anything about the preference of the he/she or switching over or transgender … I only know her as Audrey,” Patton told ABC News.
On her efforts to alert authorities, Patton said, “I just wanted to get help — I didn’t really know the severity of it. Just something in me told me, like, ‘You need to make these phone calls. You need to do what needs to be done.’ And I did the best I could.”
Page said that when she first heard Audrey was the shooter, “I literally was like, ‘I cannot believe this. I cannot believe this.’ And so I called my dad, and I was like, ‘Daddy, that was her.'”
“My heart is just … it’s just … I’m speechless,” Patton said of the attack. “It’s just so much to feel … the kids, and then the families, it’s a lot to try to wrap your head around. And to know that we don’t know what or why — it’s just crazy. It’s crazy.”
If you or someone you know is struggling with thoughts of suicide, free, confidential help is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Call or text the national lifeline at 988.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — The swift and organized police response to the school shooting in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday was roundly lauded by local officials and credited with preventing additional carnage and casualties.
A six-minute body camera video released Tuesday showed officers weaving through classrooms and corridors before approaching and neutralizing the shooter, who by then had shot and killed six people, including three students.
“They trained for that. And this moment happened and they didn’t hesitate at all,” Metro Nashville Chief of Police John Drake said Tuesday on “Good Morning America.”
He added, “They responded, immediately went inside, knew the danger that was going on. Shots were being fired at the police cars. That did not deter them. They went anyway inside.”
The law enforcement response in Nashville stood in stark contrast with the events that unfolded last year at Robb Elementary School, where officers waited 77 minutes before confronting and killing the shooter.
John Cohen, a former Homeland Security official, veteran police training expert and ABC News contributor, reviewed and scrutinized body camera footage available from both incidents and found that the officers in Nashville did “exactly what we hope those who put on the badge will do when they confront a dangerous situation like an active shooter.”
“As a law enforcement professional, I watched The Covenant School video with an intense sense of pride,” Cohen said. “I know how hard those officers’ hearts are pumping and what that fear feels like. But this is why you sign up for the job. And they went in there and did it.”
Cohen laid out several key points that demonstrated how the officers successfully responded. They communicated with school officials and immediately tried to assess the situation — learning the number of suspects and determining where people were sheltered in place, he said. Moreover, officers operated with urgency and purpose to quickly clear rooms and communicate which rooms were cleared. After neutralizing the shooter, officers immediately formed security teams and began providing aid to the victims, he noted.
In Uvalde, responding law enforcement officials faced a deluge of scrutiny after a gunman shot and killed 21 people, including 19 students. After initially praising first responders for their efforts, state and local leaders eventually acknowledged cascading missteps that compounded the outcome of the attack.
“We failed,” Col. Steve McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, told ABC News. “And I say ‘failed’ and I said ‘we’ … because collectively we did.”
(ROLLING FORK, Miss.) — The South was devastated by tornadoes last weekend – destroying homes, shattering families and leaving thousands to pick up the pieces of what they’ve lost. More than 20 people have died in connection with the storms, according to authorities.
Residents in Rolling Fork, Mississippi, one of the towns most devastated by the tornadoes, were first put under a tornado watch more than 2.5 hours before the first tornado touched down.
However, being prepared for a disaster at any moment’s notice can be difficult for low-income residents.
Sharkey County, home to Rolling Fork, has a 35% poverty rate, which is higher than Mississippi’s 19% poverty rate and the less than 12% U.S. poverty rate, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.
More than half of Mississippi residents have fewer than $1,000 in savings and about 38% have no savings at all, the State Treasury of Mississippi reports.
Poverty can impact someone’s access to cellphones and other technology to receive weather alerts, access and financial support to transport oneself to a shelter or to evacuate, and more.
You have to “create a culture” of ongoing preparedness, particularly in a place where “but at the same time, the economics don’t let you do that,” said Tanya Gulliver-Garcia, the director of learning and partnerships at the Center for Disaster Philanthropy,
Research from the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at Columbia University found that nearly two-thirds of American households don’t have adequate plans and supplies for a disaster.
Studies have also shown that people in poverty, with low incomes and with less education, are less prepared for disasters.
According to FEMA Administrator Deanne Criswell, cellphones have been a great tool for warning residents with emergency alerts.
However, ensuring that people of all economic backgrounds have the technology to be reached “is something that we have to – to continually look at what we can do to better inform people,” Criswell told ABC News in an interview.
“We need to really talk to these families and find out how they would have better gotten this message because we have to always work on giving people early warnings,” she told ABC News.
Especially in places like Mississippi, which experiences 30 to 100 tornadoes each year, ensuring that tornado watches and warnings are being heeded is a struggle within itself, according to ABC News’ meteorologist Ginger Zee.
Gulliver-Garcia also found that access to transportation plays a big role before and after a disaster.
The closest rated tornado shelter from Rolling Fork is 17 miles west in Mayersville.
“A number of people didn’t have cars or cars that were properly working and then they got destroyed,” said Gulliver-Garcia. “Because they’re small towns, they also don’t have a public transit system. Even the ability to access any kind of support – to go to a disaster recovery center, get to a shelter, to a feeding program – those are all challenges.”
Living paycheck-to-paycheck makes it harder to save and be prepared for a tragedy — and it also hinders recovery, .
“Your home is destroyed and the place where you lived is no longer accessible to you … And then if you are working paycheck-to-paycheck or you’re working a job that was destroyed – If you’re not allowed back in the community right away, you’re not even getting that paycheck-to-paycheck anymore. That’s gone as well,” Gulliver-Garcia said.
With thousands in likely home repair and recovery costs, rebuilding can snowball into compounding debt.
“In some of these communities, they are certainly some of the poorest communities in the state,” Criswell said. “And we know that we’re going to have to bring the full force of the federal family in there to come help them.”
Humble Pie founding drummer Jerry Shirley is ready to celebrate the band’s legacy, launching a new incarnation of the late ’60s/early ’70s group.
Shirley’s announced a new tour, Jerry Shirley Presents: Humble Pie Legacy – 50 Years of Smokin’, which will feature a group of artists he’s handpicked to carry on the band’s name: band leader and guitarist Dave “Bucket” Colwell, bassist Ivan Bodley, drummer Bobby Marks and vocalist/guitarist Jim Stapley.
Shirley shares, “Having spent a long time carefully putting together such a wonderful band of top-class players with the help of Dave ‘Bucket’ Colwell, my musical director and band leader using his recruiting skills, I am thrilled with the outcome and can’t wait to see and hear them light up the live stage later this year.”
And the new incarnation of Humble Pie has the blessing of at least one of its former members, with Peter Frampton sharing, “I wholeheartedly support this venture.”
The nine-date tour is set to kick off September 13 in Virginia Beach, Virginia, wrapping September 24 in Kent, Ohio, with additional dates to be announced. Tickets for all shows go on sale Friday. A complete list of tour dates can be found at humblepieofficial.com.
Scotty McCreery has partnered with UScellular for their Locally Grown, Locally Live music campaign.
The campaign, which spotlights artists, and the people and places that have shaped them, will also feature Greylan James,Kalie Shorr, Corey Kent, Hailey Whitters and Morgan Wade.
“I love how UScellular is creating an opportunity for me and other artists to stay connected with fans in communities across the country,” Scotty shares. “The amazing people in my hometown of Garner, North Carolina, helped give me my start in music, and it’s great to see that UScellular is working in a similar way to show how they are committed to enriching the communities they serve.”
The campaign kicked off on March 27 with the Locally Grown, Locally Live VIP Fan Experience Sweepstakes and will end on May 28.
There will be special appearances from the featured artists at the UScellular Connection Stage, headlined by Scotty, at Summerfest music festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, on July 8.
Additionally, on April 5 at 8 p.m. CT, Scotty will host an Ask Me Anything session on Instagram Live to chat and interact with fans.
Fans can get a glimpse of Scotty’s hometown life, including a trip to his guitar teacher’s home, the Garner Baseball fields and Lake Benson Park, in a promotional video on Twitter.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Three children and three adults were killed in a mass shooting at the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee, on Monday.
The alleged shooter, who was identified by police as 28-year-old Nashville resident Audrey Elizabeth Hale, was killed by officers.
Here is the timeline of what we know took place, according to investigators. All times are local.
9:54 a.m.: The suspect’s vehicle is seen on surveillance cameras arriving at the school and parking in the parking lot.
10:10 a.m.: The suspect is seen in surveillance footage shooting through the front door and entering the building.
10:13 a.m.: Nashville Police receive a call of an active shooter inside Covenant School.
The suspected shooter allegedly entered the Christian school through a side entrance and went from the first floor to the second floor, firing multiple shots, police said.
Officers entered the school and began clearing it when they heard shots coming from the second level, according to investigators.
A team of five officers arrived on the second level and saw a shooter who was firing. Two officers engaged the suspect, who was fatally shot, according to investigators.
10:27 a.m.: The suspected shooter is declared dead, investigators said.
boygenius has announced more North American headlining tour dates.
The newly added dates begin with a pre-Coachella show taking place April 12 in Pomona, California, and conclude August 5 at Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre.
Tickets go on sale Friday, March 31, at 10 a.m. local time. For the full list of dates and all ticket info, visit xboygeniusx.com.
As previously reported, boygenius is also among the headliners for June’s traveling Re:SET festival tour, along with LCD Soundsystem and Steve Lacy.
boygenius, which consists of Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker, will release their debut full-length album, the record, on Friday.
(NASHVILLE, Tenn.) — Over the last few years, gun laws in Tennessee have become less strict after lawmakers approved legislation that removed requirements for permits and background checks.
Despite calls from local law enforcement, Republican lawmakers are now looking to loosen the state’s gun laws even further, contending that gun owners’ rights need to be expanded.
Debate over the bill continues as the state recovers from Monday’s mass shooting at a Christian school outside Nashville that left three children and three adults dead. Nashville Chief of Police John Drake told reporters Tuesday that the suspect legally purchased the weapons used in the Covenant School shooting.
State lawmakers have introduced gun-related bills that would allow permit carriers to bring their weapons to college campuses and another that would allow school staff members to carry a handgun.
On March 21, the Tennessee House’s Civil Justice Subcommittee voted to approve HB1005, a bill introduced by Rep. Rusty Grills that would rename “enhanced and concealed handgun carry permits as enhanced and concealed firearm carry permits.”
According to the state’s constitution, residents “have a right to keep and to bear arms for their common defense; but the Legislature shall have power, by law, to regulate the wearing of arms with a view to prevent crime.”
Tennessee enacted a law in July of 2021 that allowed the permitless carry of handguns, both concealed and unconcealed, for anyone over the age of 21.
“I signed constitutional carry today because it shouldn’t be hard for law-abiding Tennesseans to exercise their #2A rights,” Gov. Bill Lee tweeted after signing the law.
He thanked the Republican-led general assembly and National Rifle Association for “helping get this done.”
Currently, there are no requirements for background checks or trainings for handgun owners in Tennessee. Under the provisions, law enforcement members and military members between 18 and 20 are also allowed to carry their handguns without a permit.
Rifles and shotguns are allowed to be purchased by anyone over 18 and be carried without a permit but there are restrictions. Firearms are not permitted “if it is not concealed on or about the person and must be unloaded” and the owner is not allowed to carry the ammunition of those long guns on their person or in their “immediate vicinity,” according to the law.
Guns are prohibited for residents who have a felony conviction, a DUI conviction, reported mental health problems and undocumented legal status.
The state prohibits guns from being brought to locations like schools, any place that serves alcohol, public parks, courts and government buildings, according to the law. Private businesses are also allowed to prohibit firearms from their properties and must make it clear with signage, according to the law.
State gun owners can still apply for gun permits in other states through the state’s Department of Homeland Security. Those include enhanced permits, which require an eight-hour safety training course, and concealed permits which require a background check and a $100 fee.
When the permitless carry bill was being debated in the statehouse, several law enforcement agencies said they opposed the move.
During testimony in 2021, Tennessee Bureau of Investigation senior policy adviser Jimmy Musice said the state’s previous handgun permit system helped prevent roughly 5,500 people from carrying a weapon after the checks determined they were ineligible.
“We don’t have any issue and support the underlying policy that those that are legally permissible to carry possess a firearm and defend themselves,” he testified. “The permit process allows us to actually do that by knowing if that person truly is lawful.”
Lee told reporters at the time that he was committed to loosening the state’s gun laws.
“You can protect the Second Amendment and you can protect the citizens of our state at the same time,” he said.
Tennessee Highway Patrol Col. Matt Perry testified at the March 21 hearing, saying he was worried about law enforcement interacting with residents with high-capacity ammo weapons.
“Because of constitutional carry, we can’t ask them who they are, what they’re doing, [or] why they have it. We just have to let it happen,” he said.
Lee tweeted out a statement after Monday’s shooting, saying that he was “closely monitoring the tragic situation.”
“Please join us in praying for the school, congregation & Nashville community,” he said.
Shortly after Monday’s shooting, Democratic state Rep. Bo Mitchell, who represents parts of Nashville, spoke with ABC News Live about his frustrations with his colleagues over their stances on gun control.
“I spoke with a lot of these parents all day. During the hours I was there, not a single parent asked me for a thought or a prayer. They asked for me and my colleagues to have some courage and do something about this,” he said.
Actress Melissa Joan Hart took to Instagram to vent about yesterday’s Covenant School shooting in Nashville, explaining that she and her husband Mark Wilkerson helped children flee the scene.
The shooter, identified by police as 28-year-old Audrey Hale, was shot and killed by police officers after murdering three students and three adult staff members at the Christian school Monday morning.
New Nashville resident Hart explained her children attend a nearby school, and she and Wilkerson were in the area to attend parent teacher conferences when the chaos unfolded.
“We moved here from Connecticut where we were in a school a little ways down from Sandy Hook, so this is our second experience with a school shooting with our kids being in close proximity,” the actress told her followers.
The former Sabrina, The Teenage Witch star pointed out her kids “luckily” didn’t have class on Monday.
“We helped a class of kindergartners across a busy highway,” Hart said, her voice quavering. “They were climbing out of the woods; they were trying to escape the shooting situation at their school. So we helped all these tiny little kids cross the road, and get their teacher over there. We helped a mom reunite with her children,” she continued.
“I just don’t know what to say anymore,” Hart said, clearly emotional. “Just enough is enough. And pray. Pray for the families.”
The actress captioned the video, “This was too raw to post yesterday but wanted you to hear this story.”
