(ST. PAUL, Minn.) — Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz signed an executive order protecting and supporting access to gender-affirming health care for LGBTQ people in the state on Wednesday.
The move comes amid Republican-backed efforts across the country to limit transgender health care for minors and young adults.
“Minnesota strives to be a welcoming and supportive place for LGBTQIA+ community members,” the executive order read. “We uphold the essential values of One Minnesota when all people, including members of the LGBTQIA+ community, are safe, celebrated, and able to live lives full of dignity and joy.”
Walz called gender-affirming care a “deeply personal decision” for transgender patients and their families.
Numerous medical organizations, including the American Medical Association, the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have said that access to gender-affirming care is essential to the health and wellness of gender diverse people.
As states across the country move to ban access to gender-affirming care, this Executive Order delivers the urgent action that our LGBTQ+ Minnesotans deserve. pic.twitter.com/GTSvfFWgfk
Studies have shown that gender-affirming care can be life-saving for transgender and nonbinary children and adolescents, promoting positive mental and physical health and well-being.
States like Tennessee, Arizona, Utah, Arkansas, Alabama, Mississippi, South Dakota and Florida have passed policies or laws restricting transgender health care. Supporters of these laws believe that gender transitioning is harmful to youth and young adults. Some say patients should wait until they are older to make this kind of health decision.
In Minnesota, several legislative protections for LGBTQ people are in front of lawmakers, including banning conversion therapy and establishing Minnesota as a “Trans Refuge” state.
More than 388 anti-LGBTQ bills have been introduced in 2023 alone, according to the ACLU.
Stevie: Erika Goldring/WireImage; Billy: Kevin Mazur/Getty Images
Billy Joel and Stevie Nicks‘ joint stadium tour gets underway Friday in Inglewood, California. And Billy says you just might hear him singing “Landslide” at the shows, while she sings “Just the Way You Are” — or something along those lines.
Speaking to the Los Angeles Times about the pairing, Billy says he and Stevie met about 10 years ago backstage at a Fleetwood Mac show. “We’ve never worked together, even though we both kind of hit at the same time,” he notes. “So this’ll be a completely new thing for me. I’ll probably do one of her songs and she’ll probably do one of mine.”
Asked which Stevie song he’s considering, he says, “That’s up to her.”
Billy traded songs with Elton John when the two toured together years ago, and he says teaming up with another artist, like Stevie, really appeals to him.
“I did very much enjoy touring with Elton John. It was like I joined something. As a solo artist, it’s always ‘me, me, me’ — gets kind of boring,” he admits. “But when I hooked up with Elton, I got to play his material, which was a hell of a lot of fun. I miss that.”
And speaking of Elton, Billy, who’s nine years into his Madison Square Garden residency, in addition to the stadium shows he does each year, says a farewell tour like the kind Elton’s doing isn’t really for him.
“I have a disdain for capitalizing on that: ‘Let me threaten that it’ll be the end, and then I’ll make a lot of money,'” he tells the Los Angeles Times. “I’ve seen bands so many times announce their farewell tours and then they never go away.”
(NEW YORK) — Crystal and Brian Clark are on a mission to save lives after their children were struck and killed by a falling tree during a family camping trip last year.
The Clarks started a billboard campaign to honor their children, 9-year-old Xander and 8-year-old Ziva, who they described as “very loving” and “kindhearted,” and shine a light on the hidden dangers of falling trees.
Their sign includes a photo of Xander and another photo of his sister Ziva, alongside a message that reads: “Check your trees! After storms, heavy rains and windy days. You could save a life! Xander and Ziva Clark killed by a fallen tree 4/23/22.”
“My whole thought of a billboard came a few months after the kids had passed, to where I can share who they were and how great of kids they were, but also spread awareness of something that isn’t ever thought of really by a parent until it actually affects you or a family member,” Crystal Clark told ABC News’ Good Morning America.
“You expect your child to fall out of a tree, not a tree to fall on them,” Brian Clark added. “But apparently, deaths by tree are not as uncommon as we all thought. So to me, that’s why it is important to get the word out.”
The Clarks had gone for a golf cart ride on April 23, 2022, a day Crystal Clark remembered as a sunny one but also marked by strong winds. She said they were driving under a “canopy of trees” at a Cloverdale, Indiana, campground when the unthinkable happened.
“We heard a very loud noise, almost sounded like a plane crashing into the woods,” Crystal Clark said. “Next thing we know, the tree had fallen. It was too late for us to notice it and I shouted, ‘Our babies!’ and Brian and I got off the golf cart and that’s where we saw that they were gone.”
“It was just a sight that you hoped you never had to see,” Brian Clark added.
In the months since their children’s unexpected deaths, the Clarks said they started hearing from other people with similar heartbreaks.
“After we went through our incident with the children, we realized it was more frequent than anybody really ever talked about,” Brian Clark said. “The more we heard from people, the more people that reached out and said, ‘We know what you’re going through.'”
Last Sunday, a mother hiking with her son and his Boy Scout troop in Cupertino, California died after a tree fell on her.
The U.S. Forest Service notes that trees can fall at any time, without warning, and warns people to be alert for trees on windy days or after an ice storm or snowstorm. The agency also said trees with “structural defects” can have a lack of needles, bark or limbs and those with internal rot may have “conks, broken tops, basal scars, numerous downed limbs, ants, or an abundance of woodpecker holes.”
“Look up while on trails, especially when it’s windy,” the Forest Service advises. “Stay out of the forest when there are strong winds that could blow down trees. If you are already in the forest when winds kick up, head to a clearing out of reach of any potential falling trees.”
After hearing of the Clark family’s motivation to turn their heartbreaking tragedy into purposeful action, Lamar Advertising Company decided to sponsor nine additional digital billboards in the central Indiana area, along Interstate 70.
“The digital billboards actually went up last Thursday. It was kind of nice because that was my husband’s birthday. So that was a nice surprise for us,” Crystal Clark said.
Brian Clark said they “greatly appreciate” the company’s support and generosity and hope their important message can help others.
“If you save one more life, that to me, is a good thing,” he said.
Jimmy Kimmel is hosting the Oscars for the third time on Sunday, and he’s sharing how he’ll address Will Smith‘s infamous slap of Chris Rock from last year’s show.
“I have given it much thought,” Kimmel told GMA co-anchor Lara Spencer. “I know that a million jokes have been made about it, a million think pieces have been written on it… There has been a lot said about it, so whatever I say has to be I think — you know, it has to be good.”
“And I do have some good things to say about it. I think that it’s gonna be on everybody’s mind,” he added. “Everybody’s gonna be waiting for that moment. And that will be part of the show, but certainly not the focus of the show.”
Kimmel first hosted the awards show in 2017, which had its own memorable mishap during the broadcast. That year, Warren Beatty incorrectly announced La La Land as the Best Picture winner instead of the actual winner, Moonlight.
“We had a little envelope problem the first time,” Kimmel said. “That was that. And then — but I’ll tell you what, nobody got hit when I hosted the show,” he joked. “Everybody was very well-behaved at my Oscars.”
As for “the slap heard ’round the world,” as it has come to be known by some, Jimmy snarked, “…[T]here’s kind of an idea now that this is an epidemic of some kind. Like the — this year, maybe two people will come up stage — and hit. Maybe in the future, it’ll be three, four, and it’ll just be — eventually it’ll be everyone rushing the stage and slapping whoever’s on it.”
Variety reports Julianne Moore and Euphoria‘s Sydney Sweeney have been tapped to star in Echo Valley, the dramatic feature from Apple Original Films. Written by Mare of Easttown creator Brad Inglesby, Echo Valley follows Moore as a Pennsylvania woman whose wayward daughter — played by Sweeney — shows up at her doorstep “frightened, trembling and covered with someone else’s blood,” per Apple. “From there, Echo Valley becomes a heart-pounding thriller about just how far a mother will go to save her child.” Production is expected to begin this summer…
Morgan Freeman and Bridgerton breakout star Regé-Jean Page are both on board to executive-produce an eight-part series for Peacock on boxing legend Muhammad Ali, titled Excellence: 8 Fights, according to Deadline. The series, based on Jonathan Eig‘s biography Ali: A Life, will chronicle eight definitive moments from Ali’s life, each framed by one of his fights, though the essence of the episode will be his struggles outside the ring. There’s no deal as yet for either Freeman or Page to star in the series…
Mary Tyler Moore will be the subject of an upcoming HBO Original documentary from Soul of a Nation filmmaker James Adolphus and Master of None writer Lena Waithe. Being Mary Tyler Moore chronicles the late movie and TV icon’s 60-year-long career. The film gives us a glimpse of Moore’s comedic roles as Laura Petrie in the 1960s sitcom The Dick Van Dyke Show, a single career woman Mary Richards on The Mary Tyler Moore Show in the ‘70s, and her Oscar-nominated turn as a grieving mother in the 1970 film Ordinary People, as well as a peek into her personal life, in which she dealt privately with tragedy. Lending their voices to the film will be Waithe, Rob Reiner, Julia Louis-Dreyfus, Phylicia Rashad and Norman Lear, among others. Being Mary Tyler Moore debuts in May…
Jennifer Aniston, Judd Apatow, Drew Barrymore, Steve Buscemi, Dana Carvey, Luis Guzmán, Tim Herlihy, Idina Menzel, Conan O’Brien, Chris Rock, Rob Schneider, David Spade and Ben Stiller are among the performers who will salute Adam Sandler at the 24th annual Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize for American Humor on Sunday, March 19. The event will be taped for worldwide broadcast on CNN, airing March 26, 2023 at 8 p.m. ET. Previous winners of the prize include Richard Pryor, Whoopi Goldberg, Bob Newhart, Jay Leno and, most recently, Dave Chappelle and Jon Stewart…
Meghan Trainor has done a lot of things, but there is still one thing that remains on her bucket list — performing on Saturday Night Live.
During Wednesday’s episode of the Workin’ On Itpodcast, which Meghan hosts with her brother Ryan Trainor, the singer shared that she would love to appear on the comedy sketch show.
“My goal in life, the only thing I haven’t done…I’ve literally done everything. I have not done SNL, and that’s a big bucket list for me, even though it terrifies the f*** out of me because it is live,” said Meghan who is currently pregnant with her second child.
“That’s a goal,” she added. “If I went there and did ‘Made You Look’ and ‘Mother.’ I’m gonna be like eight months pregnant by the time this song is poppin’, hopefully…So that’s the only other place I could perform.”
(NEW YORK) — When Pat Clynes pushed down the gas pedal on his Ford Explorer during a drive in Houston, Texas, in July 2022, an otherwise routine day became the start of what he later described as a nightmare.
The car failed to accelerate like it usually did, triggering immediate concern that something was wrong, Clynes said.
Since he thought the car was under warranty, Clynes brought it to a Ford dealership, where an employee later told Clynes it would cost nearly $1,400 just to identify the problem.
Weeks later, the dealership identified the problem as engine failure and said it would cost another $10,000 to fix, due partly to pandemic-induced supply chain snags that made car parts more expensive, he said.
Making matters worse, the company ultimately voided his warranty, determining the cause was maintenance-related, he said.
After balking at the repair prices, Clynes instead sold the car back to Ford last October for $8,000, less than a quarter of what he paid when he bought it used three years earlier.
“It was crazy,” Clynes said. “It just wore me down.”
Clynes is hardly the only car owner encountering high auto repair prices. Motor vehicle repair prices have jumped a staggering 23% over the last year, an inflation rate nearly four times higher than overall price increases, government data showed.
The price hikes stem from a shortage of workers and car parts that has sent costs soaring for auto shops, industry experts said. On top of that, the rise of high-tech cars, equipped with features like rearview cameras and traffic sensors, has added cost to even some routine repairs, they added.
“It’s a perfect storm because everything is coming together at once,” Tara Topel, the owner of Topel’s Service Center, a car repair shop in Lake Mills, Wisconsin, told ABC News. “The pandemic exacerbated what was already an issue.”
The high prices that weigh on the economy trace back to pandemic-induced supply bottlenecks that made it harder to access a slew of goods, including essentials like gas and food.
The pandemic also caused a shortage of workers, as mass layoffs at the outset of the pandemic diminished the workforce and coronavirus fears slowed the return of some workers. In turn, companies raised wages to attract workers, passing along some of those costs to customers and pushing prices higher.
These supply shocks pummeled the auto repair industry immediately, but the worst effects took time to emerge as repair shops slowly exhausted inventory on hand, said Brian Moody, executive editor at Autotrader.
“Manufacturing stopped or slowed down because of COVID restrictions or people didn’t come to work or they couldn’t find the right people,” Moody told ABC News. “In 2022, we [saw] the delayed reaction where there isn’t the same supply of stuff that there was.”
Meanwhile, a shortage of car repair technicians has deepened. The industry will stand 642,000 workers short of capacity by 2024, a TechForce report showed.
“There’s a scarcity of technicians,” David Whiston, an auto industry analyst at Morningstar, told ABC News. “This was a problem before the pandemic and it just gets worse.”
In turn, the U.S. hosts fewer car repair shops. In 2016, there were 225 cars and trucks on the road for every active service bay; five years later, there were 246 cars and trucks per service bay, according to a study from industry outlet Aftermarket Matters.
The lack of supply has coincided with another trend driving up repair prices: high-tech cars.
Cars contain more sophisticated materials and features, such as cameras and sensors, said Moody, of Autotrader.
“Let’s say someone has a 2020 model car and they back into a pole – something pretty simple,” Moody said. “You have to replace the bumper.”
“In that bumper can be sensors that house blind-spot monitoring or rear-park alert,” he added. “All of those live in the bumper.”
Topel, the repair shop owner, said the company’s prices have gone up as much as 20% over the last year.
To attract workers amid the shortage, the company has raised hourly pay by $5 per hour over the past two years, which amounts to a 20% increase in the base pay for entry-level technicians, she said.
Meanwhile, the repair shop faces added costs as it purchases big-ticket items that allow it to fix high-tech cars, she said. The company recently spent $38,000 for a machine that allows for the calibration of advanced driver-assistance systems, a set of technologies that help drivers navigate.
“More and more new technology comes into our shop,” she said. “It becomes a bigger deal by the month.”
As repair prices rise, Topel notices customers opting for basic repairs rather than more comprehensive ones, she said, noting that customers and shops alike are trying to weather elevated costs.
“All of these I call opportunities, but they really are challenges for the industry in how we solve for them and how people will make it through,” she said.
(WASHINGTON) — Norfolk Southern CEO Alan Shaw will face a Senate panel on Thursday as Washington lawmakers hold their first hearing on railroad safety about a month after a train carrying toxic chemicals derailed in East Palestine, Ohio.
“I am deeply sorry for the impact this derailment has had on the people of East Palestine and surrounding communities and I am determined to make it right,” Shaw will tell a Senate panel while promising, “I pledge that we won’t be finished until we make it right.”
Senators leading the hearing say they’re on a fact-finding mission and committed to working on a bipartisan basis to ensure that Norfolk Southern is held financially responsible for damages in East Palestine and surrounding communities.
“To me, our bipartisan hearing tomorrow should abide by what we call the golden rule: and that’s the idea we ought to treat other people the way we want to be treated. Love thy neighbor as thyself,” Senate Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Tom Carper, D-Del., said Wednesday. “If this was our community, East Palestine involved our family members of our family or businesses that we were involved with, how would we want to be treated? And we would want to know that everything that is being done in response to this incident can be done.”
“The people of East Palestine need to know that we care that somebody cares about what has happened and what the response going forward is and also what the response was past,” said Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., the committee’s ranking member. “So we are going to be investigating the environmental and policy impacts in the committee we are going to look at local state and federal response and ongoing efforts in the area to protect.”
Capito added: “Norfolk Southern will be held completely liable and no expense should be spared.”
Carper and Capito both said they expect to learn more about what safety measures failed that caused the incident, what actions were taken in the immediate aftermath and weeks since the derailment, and what more can be done.
They’ll aim to put on a bipartisan front — but partisan disagreements about the effectiveness of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Transportation in handling the fallout will likely emerge as the hearing progresses.
On a call with reporters on Wednesday previewing the hearing, Carper and Capito seemed fundamentally at odds over the EPA’s response.
As Carper thanked the agency for what he called a swift and consistent response, Capito raised what she saw as critical “communication errors” she hopes will get their time in the spotlight.
“Personally, I think the EPA failed on the risk communication,” Capito said. “We are going to ask why did it take the EPA administrator three weeks before he actually drank the water. He was telling everybody that it was safe. Why did it take a month to establish a response center?”
Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown and J.D. Vance, who introduced bipartisan railroad safety legislation last week, are also scheduled to appear as witnesses on Thursday along with representatives from the EPA, Ohio EPA, Beaver County Department of Emergency Services and Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission.
The hearing comes on the heels of a second derailment on Saturday and after the National Transportation Safety Board announced Tuesday that it would launch a special investigation of Norfolk Southern’s safety and culture. The last time the NTSB made such a move was in 2014, when it investigated Metro North for several significant accidents.
“Given the number and significance of recent Norfolk Southern accidents, the NTSB also urges the company to take immediate action today to review and assess its safety practices, with the input of employees and others, and implement necessary changes to improve safety,” the NTSB said.
Responding to the investigation, Shaw told ABC News in a statement on Monday that “moving forward, we are going to rebuild our safety culture from the ground up.”
“We are going to invest more in safety. This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue,” Shaw said.
Earlier this week, Norfolk Southern also reported a fatal injury of one of their conductors — in addition to several precious fatal accidents of their employees in recent years.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer laid out questions on Wednesday he said Shaw will need to answer at the hearing, like “how the railroad addresses rail safety inspections in the future, whether they’ll commit to having their conductors and rail employees undergo additional safety and response training, and how they will help communities if God forbid, another accident occurs,” Schumer said.
(NEW YORK) — Federal regulators are looking into a previously unreported incident involving Norfolk Southern potentially mishandling a conductor’s concern on a train carrying hazardous material just weeks after a similar defect precipitated the derailment in East Palestine, Ohio.
According to a complaint obtained by ABC News, on the morning of Feb. 27, a Norfolk Southern train was lurching through Stoneville, North Carolina, when a safety official manning a hot-box detector desk in Atlanta radioed the crew to alert them that car number 32 was “trending hot,” but not hot enough to trigger an alarm, and that the nearly two-mile train should proceed.
The conductor of the train checked his manifest and made a startling discovery: Car 32 was carrying ethanol, and five cars away, another was carrying propane. Both were labeled as “dangerous” on the train’s manifest, according to the complaint, which was filed with the Federal Railroad Administration.
The complaint alleges that the conductor, now concerned that the “trending hot” warning could lead to an overheated wheel, radioed the desk back and suggested that they stop the train and inspect it. But the dispatcher overruled the crew and urged them onward.
Meanwhile, a maintenance worker in the train’s vicinity allegedly overheard the radio chatter and offered to observe the train as it passed by. The complaint states that when the worker reported that he hadn’t witnessed any smoke, the crew was told to keep going some 40 miles south to Winston-Salem, North Carolina.
Crew members were “shocked,” according to the complaint. To continue into a heavily populated area after being notified that a car carrying hazardous materials was “trending hot” could potentially pose a profound threat not only to the crew, but to adjacent communities, crew members feared.
Ultimately, the train was able to complete its trip without further incident. But the Federal Railroad Administration is now looking into the previously unreported Feb. 27 incident as part of a broader “safety assessment” of Norfolk Southern, a spokesperson confirmed. The agency said in a press release this week that its assessment would scrutinize “operational control center procedures and dispatcher training,” among other things.
A spokesperson for Norfolk Southern did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the record.
The reported incident on Feb. 27 raises fresh safety and accountability concerns regarding Norfolk Southern and the rail industry at large, three weeks after a wheel bearing overheated on a Norfolk Southern train carrying hazardous materials through East Palestine, derailing the train and causing an environmental crisis for nearby residents.
Over the past two decades, major rail carriers and trade groups have spent more than $650 million lobbying in Washington, often advocating against stricter government oversight of its safety procedures, according to the federal watchdog OpenSecrets.
In the wake of the East Palestine derailment, a bipartisan group of lawmakers led by Ohio Sens. Sherrod Brown, a Democrat, and J.D. Vance, a Republican, introduced legislation that would tighten government-backed safety requirements for trains carrying hazardous materials.
But some Senate Republicans have balked at the bill, leaving its fate in question. Sen. John Thune, R-S.D., has said that “an immediate quick response heavy on regulation needs to be thoughtful and targeted.”
Norfolk Southern, for its part, has already taken steps to self-regulate. Earlier this week, CEO Alan Shaw laid out a six-point plan to “immediately enhance the safety of its operations,” the company said. The initiative will improve its defect detector network, pilot next-generation hot bearing detectors, and generally support a more stringent safety culture, according to officials.
On Wednesday, the Association of American Railroads, a trade group representing major freight railroad companies, announced its own list of new measures, including a commitment “to stopping trains and inspecting bearings whenever the temperature reading from a [hot bearing detector] exceeds 170° above ambient temperature” — a lower threshold than previously required.
But federal regulators aren’t waiting around. In addition to the Federal Railroad Administration safety assessment, the National Transportation and Security Board has taken the extraordinary step of opening a special investigation into Norfolk Southern.
The agency said Tuesday it would scrutinize the company’s “organization and safety culture” after a series of incidents, including the derailment in East Palestine and another derailment in Springfield, Ohio, earlier this month. A press release did not list the reported Feb. 27 incident in North Carolina.
“The NTSB will conduct an in-depth investigation into the safety practices and culture of the company,” the agency said in a statement. “At the same time, the company should not wait to improve safety and the NTSB urges it to do so immediately.”
Rail unions are also pressing for more government oversight. After the death of a Norfolk Southern conductor earlier this week near Cleveland, Eddie Hall, president of the Brotherhood of Locomotive Engineers and Trainmen, called for “significant improvements in rail safety for both workers and the public.”
“All railroad accidents are avoidable,” Hall said.
Shaw, the Norfolk Southern CEO, said in a statement Tuesday that Norfolk Southern would “cooperate fully” with the NTSB and continue to find new solutions to improve the company’s safety practices.
“We are going to invest more in safety,” Shaw said. “This is not who we are, it is not acceptable, and it will not continue.”
Shaw is scheduled to testify Thursday on Capitol Hill before the U.S. Senate Environment and Public Works Committee.
Philipp Hülsmann/picture alliance via Getty Images
(TACOMA, Wash.) — Former Seattle Supersonics star and NBA great Shawn Kemp has been arrested for his alleged involvement in a drive-by shooting at a mall, police say.
The incident occurred at approximately 1:58 p.m. Wednesday when officers from the Tacoma Police Department in Washington responded to reports of shots being fired in the parking lot of the Tacoma Mall, the largest shopping center in the city.
“Responding officers determined an altercation had occurred between two parties in vehicles,” said the Tacoma Police Department in a statement following the incident. “One of the drivers fired off several rounds at the occupants of the other vehicle.”
A short time later, officers say they were able to locate the suspect who had fired shots at the driver of the other car and arrest the 53-year-old suspect without incident. Authorities also confirmed that a firearm was recovered from the scene.
Online arrest records for Pierce County Corrections show that Kemp, 53, was booked on a felony drive-by-shooting charge at 5:58 p.m. — four hours after the incident took place at the Tacoma Mall.
Kemp, a six-time NBA all-star who led the Seattle Supersonics to the 1996 NBA Finals, was denied bail and is set to be arraigned on Thursday, according to ABC News’ Seattle affiliate KOMO-TV.
The motives behind the alleged shooting are currently unclear.
Kemp — nicknamed “Reign Man” — played 14 seasons in the NBA, including eight with the Seattle SuperSonics who selected him 17th overall in the 1989 draft, as well as stints with the Cleveland Cavaliers, Portland Trailblazers and the Orlando Magic before dropping out of the league following the conclusion on the 2003 NBA season.
In 2020, Kemp opened a cannabis shop in the Seattle’s Belltown neighborhood and just last month he opened a second location in Seattle’s SODO neighborhood, according to KOMO.
The investigation into the shooting is currently ongoing and anyone with information regarding this incident is asked to contact Crime Stoppers.
