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Prince Harry, Meghan to use prince and princess titles for children Archie and Lilibet

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Prince Harry and Meghan’s children Archie Harrison Mountbatten-Windsor and Lilibet “Lili” Diana Mountbatten-Windsor are now using their official royal titles of prince and princess, respectively.

Archie, who will turn 4 in May, and Lili, who turns 2 in June, came into the titles when their grandfather King Charles III took the throne in September, following the death of his mother Queen Elizabeth II.

It was not known though whether Harry, fifth in line to the throne, and Meghan would use the titles for their children. The Sussexes stepped down from their roles as senior working royals in 2020 and now live in Montecito, California.

The question of titles was answered on Wednesday when a spokesperson for the Sussexes confirmed that Harry and Meghan hosted a christening for Lili. In the statement, the spokesperson used Lili’s princess title.

“I can confirm that Princess Lilibet Diana was christened on Friday, March 3 by the Archbishop of Los Angeles, the Rev John Taylor,” the spokesperson said in a statement.

A royal source also confirmed to ABC News Wednesday that the royal family’s official website will soon be updated as well to refer to Archie and Lili with their prince and princess titles.

The three children of Harry’s older brother Prince William — George, Charlotte and Louis — have always used the titles of prince and princess as William is the heir to the throne.

Harry and Meghan’s decision to use prince and princess titles for Archie and Lili comes even as they have distanced themselves from their official royal roles.

In his bombshell memoir Spare, released in January, Harry spoke openly about his rift with his father and brother, saying the “divide” with his family, “couldn’t be greater before this book.”

Still, he also spoke of his hope for a reconciliation with his family, saying that hope is what pushed him to speak out.

“If we can get to the point of reconciliation, that will have a ripple effect across the world,” Harry told Good Morning America co-anchor Michael Strahan in an interview before the book’s release. “I genuinely believe that, and that’s kind of what is pushing me. And if that doesn’t happen, then that’s very sad.”

Neither Kensington Palace — the office of William and Kate, the Princess of Wales — nor Buckingham Palace, the office of Charles and Camilla, the Queen Consort, have commented on the claims Harry made in Spare.

Members of the royal family are not believed to have attended Lili’s christening last week in California.

With her birth in 2021, Lili made history as the first senior royal baby born in the United States, and the first great-grandchild of the queen to be born outside of the United Kingdom.

She is also the first senior royal baby to be christened in the U.S. Her brother Archie and their three cousins, George, Charlotte and Louis, were all christened in the U.K.

Lili’s christening was reportedly attended by 20 to 30 guests that included her godfather Tyler Perry and her grandmother Doria Ragland, Meghan’s mother, according to People magazine.

Harry and Meghan revealed in their Netflix docuseries last year that they asked Perry to be Lili’s godfather after establishing a close bond with him when they moved to the U.S. in March 2020 and stayed temporarily in Perry’s Los Angeles mansion.

In the docuseries, Perry described the moment Harry and Meghan asked him to be Lili’s godfather. The Sussexes have not publicly released the name of the toddler’s godmother.

“They said, ‘Well, we’d like for you to be Lili’s godfather.’ I go, ‘Whoa.’ I had to take a minute to take that in,” Perry said in “Harry & Meghan. “And I thought, ‘I’d be honored. I’d absolutely be honored.'”

This famous Taylor Swift pal says she’ll be Taylor’s “most embarrassing friend” on the Eras Tour

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

It’s a safe bet that Taylor Swift‘s many celebrity friends won’t have a problem getting in to see her upcoming Eras Tour. It’s what those celebrity friends do when they’re at the show that’s an issue.

“I’m a psychopath at a Taylor show,” Gigi Hadid told E! News. “I go nuts. I’m not cool at all. I’m like the most embarrassing friend.”

As for how many shows she plans on attending during the tour, which kicks off on March 17, Gigi says, “I try to make it to as many as I can.”

And as for attire, Hadid likes to stay comfy to have room to dance the night away. “I like to boogie, so I’m usually in jeans and a T-shirt. I’ll rep some Taylor merch if I get some,” she added.

But while Gigi dresses down, her co-host on her new TV show Next In Fashion, Queer Eye‘s Tan France, says he approves of fans who dress up when attending Taylor’s concerts.

“I do love seeing how extra the girls go, or anyone goes, when they go watch Taylor,” he told E! “My nanny has full-on got three full looks.”

The Black Crowes to headline the 2023 Pilgrimage Festival

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

The lineup for the 2023 Pilgrimage Festival is here, with The Black Crowes headlining opening night.

The festival, now in its ninth year, is happening September 23 and 24 in Franklin, Tennessee, with The Lumineers also headlining night one. Other artists on the bill include Better Than Ezra, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats and The Head & The Heart, as well as country artists like Zach Bryan, Ashley McBryde and Margo Price.

Tickets for the festival go on sale Thursday at 10 a.m. local time. More ticket information and the complete lineup can be found at pilgrimagefestival.com.

After Tyre Nichols’ death, Memphis passes police reforms

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — The Memphis City Council passed new police reform policies two months after the death of Tyre Nichols, who died several days after a traffic stop with Memphis police that turned violent.

Body camera footage captured officers striking and beating Nichols repeatedly. His death has prompted protests and unrest across the country.

At the Tuesday meeting, City Council members voted to pass the new ordinances banning police from conducting routine traffic stops with unmarked vehicles, unless in special circumstances, as well as requiring officers to regularly submit data on traffic stops, arrests, use of force and complaints.

The policies also establish annual review procedures for the police academy and training.

Complaints involving police use of force and deaths or injuries of people while in police custody will now be required to go through an independent investigation.

In the meeting, City of Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink announced that internal investigations related to the Tyre Nichols’ case resulted in four Memphis Fire Department personnel being charged, and 13 Memphis Police Department personnel being charged.

According to Sink, these are not criminal investigations, but rather administrative investigations.

Seven officers involved in the incident have been fired.

Memphis Police Department Chief Cerelyn “CJ” Davis said the department also has undergone reforms of its own.

“The last several weeks we have really taken a closer look into, not just our policy and procedures, but just best practices,” Davis said in the City Council meeting.

This includes more frequent and random audits of body worn cameras, enhancing radio communications, creating a selection criteria for special assignments and enhancing the protocol for response to critical incidents.

The move came one day before the Justice Department confirmed it has launched a review into the Memphis Police Department’s use-of-force and de-escalation policies, along with a separate review of specialized police units deployed in cities across the country.

FTC’s new rule could end noncompete agreements for millions of workers

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — For nearly four years, Arizona realtor Courtney Van Cott has been consumed by a legal battle involving a noncompete agreement.

“You just have this cloud over you every single day,” she told ABC News in an exclusive interview.

In 2019, Van Cott’s former employer sued her for nearly $200,000, alleging multiple breaches of her contract, including a competitive clause. The contract required her to pay the old firm a 75 percent cut of homes she sold at her new job for three years.

“I definitely read it and I saw that it was not something I was comfortable with,” Van Cott said.

In a statement to ABC News, Van Cott’s former employer denied it forced her to sign the contract, saying it is “not a noncompete” but rather a “shared referral agreement” applying to both the company and Van Cott. The statement added Van Cott was an “independent contractor” who engaged in “unethical behavior,” a claim she denied.

Noncompete agreements are clauses in employment contracts that bar an employee from working at a rival company, usually within a certain geographic area or for a certain amount of time.

In a sweeping step earlier this year, the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposed a rule that would void noncompete clauses and ban their use in future contracts. The agency said the move would affect 30 million Americans, roughly one out of every five workers.

“This would say not only are all of those clauses unenforceable, but employers have to tell their workers, you no longer have a noncompete, you’re free to leave,” FTC Director of Policy Planning Elizabeth Wilkins told ABC News. “Effectively, that would mean that all of a sudden those 30 million workers could leave their jobs and find a better one for them tomorrow.”

Wilkins said the rule would boost wages and promote competition by allowing workers to move more freely between jobs, pointing to the widespread use of the agreements in low-wage service industries.

“People think this is about folks in the boardroom, but it’s not,” she said. “It’s also about hairstylists. It’s about security guards. It’s about journalists. People all across the income spectrum, all kinds of job descriptions have noncompetes.”

At Man & Machine, a small business that manufactures keyboards in Maryland, some employees have signed noncompete agreements.

But CEO Clifton Broumand said he supports the FTC’s proposed rule, saying it would allow him to recruit from a bigger pool of workers without fearing legal action from their employers.

“I think businesses will become more efficient when they’re not afraid of being sued, when they can innovate and focus on their businesses rather than focus on the possibility of legal action against them,” Broumand said in an interview with ABC News.

Critics accuse the FTC of overstepping its authority to enact such a sweeping change to the American workforce.

Neil Bradley, the executive vice president and chief policy officer at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, which represents businesses across the nation, called the proposed rule “regulatory overreach.”

“If this rule comes to fruition, the U.S. Chamber will sue,” Bradley told ABC News. “If the FTC can wake up one day, [if] three unelected individuals can wake up one day, and decide that we think this business practice, that we think this employment practice is uncompetitive, therefore we are going to ban it, then there actually is no limit to what the FTC can do.”

He added noncompete agreements are an essential tool to protect trade secrets and retain workers in a highly competitive age of information.

“Employees today are often exposed to things that, while may not be technically trade secrets, really are kind of the ‘secret sauce’ for how a company’s going to operate,” Bradley said.

The public comment period for the FTC’s proposed rule is set to end on April 19 and the final rule could be issued by the agency in the coming months.

On This Day – March 8, 2016: The “fifth Beatle,” Sir George Martin, dies at age 90

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

On This Day, March 8, 2016…

Legendary music producer Sir George Martin, often referred to as the so-called “fifth Beatle,” passed away at age 90.

With a career that spanned more than six decades, Martin produced all but one of The Beatles’ albums, including 1967’s Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band, which became the first rock album to win the Grammy for Album of the Year.

Martin won six Grammys throughout his career and had 23 number-one singles in the U.S. In addition to The Beatles, he produced works by such artists as Elton John, Jeff Beck, Kenny Rogers, Cheap Trick and others.

Among his many honors, Martin was inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame in 1999 and received a knighthood in 1996.

Road to the Oscars: Brian Tyree Henry reveals what he’s scared will happen if he wins

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Brian Tyree Henry is on the road to the Oscars for the first time.

The Causeway star is nominated for Best Supporting Actor for playing a disabled car mechanic dealing with serious emotional and physical trauma, opposite Jennifer Lawrence. The 40-year-old Yale School of Drama graduate tells ABC Audio he’s here now with an Oscar nomination after taking time to realize a few things about himself.

“To realize that me being, you know, considered unconventional actually worked in my favor. To really be true to myself. And to always surround myself with a community of people who believed in me,” Henry says.

“I find that the reason that I’m able to do what I do is that I had a lot of people standing behind me and beside me saying this is where you should be,” he continues. “And sometimes the monologue you have in your head is never really what you think you should be hearing. And so sometimes when you have people who are there advocating for you, it makes all your dreams possible. So that’s how I got here.”

Now that Henry’s “here”, there’s just a few things that he’s a little nervous about — for example, what might happen if he has to make his way to the Oscars stage.

“That if I win, that I will trip. One, because I’m a tripper, I will always trip. And then like literally getting up there and talking like Yoda,” he admits. ” It’s going to be terrible. But also, I don’t know, I’m just like, screaming like the wrong names at people. Like calling people by their character names rather than their government names, which I’ll probably do anyway.”

Jamie Lee Curtis wants Bruce Springsteen, U2 and more to play matinee concerts

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

You don’t often associate rock ‘n’ roll with daylight, but that’s exactly when actress Jamie Lee Curtis wishes more rockers would hit the stage.

While talking to The Hollywood Reporter on the red carpet, the Oscar-nominated actress revealed her preference for going to bed early, and offered up a “taunt” and a “suggestion” to stars like Bruce Springsteen, U2 and Coldplay to do shows earlier in the day so she could enjoy them before her bedtime.

“U2, do a matinee. Coldplay, do a matinee,” she says. “What about a 12-noon concert, Coldplay? What about it?”

Addressing The Boss, she offers, “Bruce Springsteen, do a f***ing matinee. You’re old. Why wouldn’t you let me come see you, Bruce Springsteen, in your glory days — pun intended — and do it at noon or one o’clock? Two o’clock. Two o’clock matinee — theater in New York, two o’clock.”

She adds, “I will come and hear your five-hour concert, Bruce, at two o’clock, then I’m gonna be home and in bed by 7:30.”

Justice Department to review Memphis Police Department following Tyre Nichols’ death

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Wednesday confirmed it has launched a review into the Memphis Police Department’s use-of-force and de-escalation policies, along with a separate review of specialized police units deployed in cities across the country following the death of Tyre Nichols, a Black man who died several days after he was beaten during a traffic stop in the city.

The Office of Community Oriented Policing Services, or COPS, will release a public report upon the conclusion of the review.

The COPS office is set to conduct a review of “policies, practices, training, data, and processes related to MPD’s use-of-force, de-escalation, and specialized units” at the request of Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland and Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn J. Davis.

The COPS office said it will also work to produce a guide for police chiefs around the country about the use of specialized units and how they should be properly managed.

“In the wake of Tyre Nichols’s tragic death, the Justice Department has heard from police chiefs across the country who are assessing the use of specialized units and, where used, appropriate management, oversight and accountability for such units,” Associate Attorney General Vanita Gupta said in a statement.

Gupta continued, “The COPS Office guide on specialized units will be a critical resource for law enforcement, mayors and community members committed to effective community policing that respects the dignity of community members and keeps people safe.”

Nichols, 29, died after a violent traffic stop captured in body camera footage, which showed officers striking Nichols repeatedly.

His death prompted protests and unrest across the country.

The DOJ announcement comes one day after Memphis officials announced that more than a dozen police and fire personnel were charged in internal administrative investigations, and that a seventh officer had been terminated in connection with Nichols’ death.

About 20 more hours of video and audio recordings concerning the traffic stop is expected to be released Wednesday.

This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.

New ‘The Midnight Special’ YouTube channel features classic performances from David Bowie, Elton John & more

March 8, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Some classic rock and roll performances from the ’70s and ’80s have just become available on YouTube for the first time in nearly 50 years.

A new YouTube channel has just launched dedicated to the popular ’70s/’80s late night music program The Midnight Special. It features clips of the show’s classic performances from stars like Elton John, David Bowie, Tina Turner, Fleetwood Mac and more.

“The Midnight Special was a groundbreaking and revolutionary show that pushed the boundaries of what was possible on television as not one broadcaster had programming available after 1:00 AM back then,” the show’s producer/creator, Burt Sugarman, tells Deadline. “I insisted on live performances in front of an audience, there was no lip syncing.”

He adds, “I’m thrilled that it will be available for all fans, as well as a new generation of viewers who may not be familiar with the show. Audiences can enjoy hours of classic performances and interviews from the biggest stars of that era.”

Other of the hundreds of artists who appeared on The Midnight Special, which ran from 1972 to 1981, include Led Zeppelin, Aerosmith, KISS, Aretha Franklin and more, in addition to comedians like Billy Crystal, Richard Pryor, George Carlin and others.

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