(MEMPHIS) — The release of additional footage in the Tyre Nichols case has been delayed due to a court order, Memphis officials said.
About 20 more hours of police video and audio were initially slated to be released Wednesday, City of Memphis Chief Legal Officer Jennifer Sink said during a city council meeting on Tuesday.
Following a motion for protective order filed by defense attorneys Wednesday morning, the Criminal Court of Tennessee for the 30th Judicial District Division 3 “has ordered that no video, audio, or records related to the City’s administrative investigation may be released until further order by the court,” Memphis city spokesperson Allison Fouche’ said in a statement Wednesday afternoon.
The release of materials related to the investigation, including videos and personnel files, will be delayed while the state and defendants review the information, according to the order.
“The release of this information shall be subject to further orders of this court and, in the public interest, will be ordered as soon as practicable,” the order stated.
Nichols, 29, died several days after a violent traffic stop captured in body camera footage, which shows officers striking Nichols repeatedly.
His death has prompted protests and unrest across the country.
In Tuesday’s city council meeting, Sink also announced that a seventh officer who was involved in the Jan. 7 incident was fired following an internal investigation.
The internal investigations resulted in four Memphis Fire Department personnel being charged, and 13 Memphis Police Department personnel being charged, according to Sink, who clarified that these are administration — not criminal — investigations.
Prior to the meeting the Memphis Police Department announced that six officers involved in the incident were fired. Sink revealed to council members that a seventh unidentified officer who was under investigation was terminated.
Of the remaining officers under investigation, three officers received a suspension, two had their charges dismissed and one individual resigned in lieu of termination, Sink said.
All officers directly involved in Nichols’ beating were part of the first round of terminations and criminal charges, Sink said.
Those five officers — Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley, Desmond Mills Jr., Emmitt Martin III and Justin Smith — have pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder and other charges in Nichols’ beating and subsequent death.
A sixth officer, Preston Hemphill, was fired in February, days after the body camera footage was released to the public.
Another officer, who was suspended, “did place hands on [Nichols’] legs,” Sink said, but asserted that it was not a strike or assault.
ABC News’ Meredith Deliso, Ivan Pereira and Will McDuffie contributed to this report.
Jenna Ortega won raves for her lead performance in Netflix’s hit Wednesday, and on Dax Shepard‘s Armchair Podcast, the actress explained how she was so “protective” of her character that she took it upon herself to change her dialogue, and yes, create that viral dance all by herself.
“…When I first signed onto the show, I didn’t have all the scripts,” she explained. “I thought it was going to be a lot darker….I didn’t know what the tone was…”
She continued, “I don’t think I’ve ever had to put my foot down more on a set in a way that I had to on Wednesday…Everything that…I had to play [in the script], did not make sense for her character at all…There were times on that set where I even became almost unprofessional in a sense where I just started changing lines.”
Jenna added, “I had to sit down with the writers, and they’d be like, ‘Wait, what happened to the scene?’ And I’d have to go through and explain why I couldn’t go do certain things.”
She credits the “collaborative” nature of director Tim Burton for letting her get away with it.
As for the dance, Ortega said she declined Burton’s offer to hire a choreographer. “…[A]t that point, I was so…protective of Wednesday, that I didn’t want anyone else touching her, because I stopped trusting outside opinion, and I was like, ‘No. I got it. I’ll handle it. I should know her at this point, don’t even worry about it.'”
And the Scream VI star also expressed she has other aspirations. “I think there’s a big part of me that would much rather direct than act, and I kind of look at my acting career as a [gateway],” she admitted.
(ARKANSAS) — In a major legislative victory for Arkansas’ new governor, Sarah Huckabee Sanders on Wednesday signed the LEARNS Act into law, making the state the latest to adopt what she calls a system-changing universal school voucher program, which critics warn could decimate the public school system.
Sanders’ signature at the state Capitol in Little Rock comes 16 days after the 144-page bill was introduced.
“I am not interested in being a caretaker of the failed status quo. I vowed to be a changemaker for our people,” she tweeted ahead of the signing. “Today, I am delivering on that promise, and will sign into law my transformational education plan, unleashing a new era of freedom, opportunity and prosperity for all.”
Backed by a Republican supermajority in the state Legislature, the omnibus bill cornerstone to Sanders’ education agenda saw a 26-8 vote in the State Senate and 78-21 in the House.
“I know it is not popular, I know it went against the Republican Party platform, but right is right and wrong is wrong,” said State Rep. Jim Wooten, a former public school teacher, questioning his colleagues’ support. “I would say that 50% of them are trying to get close to the governor, and the other 50% are afraid of her.”
In its short lifespan, the LEARNS Act, intended to revamp education from early childhood classes through the 12th grade, has seen both praise and protests.
The legislation calls for raising minimum teacher salaries, introducing universal pre-K, banning teaching on “gender identity, sexual orientation, and sexual reproduction” before fifth grade — prompting comparisons to similar legislation in Florida — and banning curriculum that would “indoctrinate students with ideologies, such as Critical Race Theory.”
When I sign my education plan into law today, CRT and all forms of racism and leftist indoctrination in our schools will be outlawed.
Under my leadership we will do what’s right, not what’s politically correct or convenient.
— Sarah Huckabee Sanders (@SarahHuckabee) March 8, 2023
It also makes Arkansas the fifth state — following Arizona, Iowa, Utah and West Virginia — to enact a universal program for so-called school choice, as more Republican-led legislatures prioritize taking up voucher policies.
“Arkansas is the 5th government school monopoly domino to fall in the past 2 years. A school choice revolution has ignited and there’s nothing the teachers unions can do about it,” Corey DeAngelis, a prominent advocate for such programs and senior fellow at the American Federation for Children, tweeted on Wednesday.
Supporters of school choice say the vouchers, or “Education Freedom Accounts,” as they’ll be called under Sanders, allow taxpayers to support “students not systems” in the redirection of public funds to private schools.
“This isn’t an us vs. them, red vs. blue, teachers vs. the legislature,” said State Sen. Breanne Davis, who introduced the bill. “This is all of us working together and rooting for the success of our children.”
The cost of each student’s “Education Freedom Account” to pay for private and home-schooling must be equal to 90% of the state’s per-student funding for public schools, which is currently $7,413, according to the Associated Press.
But critics say the voucher program essentially functions as a tax stipend for families with the means to enroll their child into private or charter institutions or home-schooling, among other concerns like funding the program long-term.
“At the end of the day, this is only going to be for a few people,” said Jim Ross, a history teacher at the University of Arkansas at Little Rock, who said the program could serve to “re-segregate” Arkansas schools. “And it’s gross that no one will be honest about that.”
Those voting against the bill also expressed wanting separation of its sweeping reforms.
“We’ve never put this many important topics into one piece of legislation and voted on it with one vote,” state Sen. Reginald Murdock, a Democrat, said on Tuesday.
‘The education governor’
In her inaugural address, Sanders — a former Trump White House spokesperson whose father, Mike Huckabee, previously served as Arkansas’ governor — said she hopes to be known as “the education governor.” She then laid out details of her agenda in the Republican State of the Union response last month.
But the overwhelming support she’s seen since in the legislature hasn’t been matched by a universally positive public response.
More than 1,000 students at Little Rock Central High School, Sanders’ alma mater, walked out of classes on Friday to protest LEARNS.
On Tuesday, when a group of 10 students tried to speak about the bill at the state Capitol, State Sen. Jane English required the students only speak on its procedural amendment, leaving them feeling “silenced” and “belittled,” according to Little Rock Central senior Gryffyn May.
“It was already stressful to have to speak in front of a Senate but then to have to speak without a prepared speech, while you’re constantly getting interrupted, was much worse,” May told ABC News in a phone interview. “I absolutely had frustrated tears, but they were also tears of embarrassment … I think it just hit me that this bill was going to be passed on their time, no matter what.”
Little Rock Central Junior Addison McCuien told the lawmakers on Tuesday, “I started off my speech here by saying that I wanted to thank y’all for the opportunity to speak. However, I take that back. You’re not allowing us the opportunity to speak.”
McCuien and May are among the students and educators planning to hold a protest on Wednesday afternoon at the state Capitol. Although the bill will have already been signed, May said it will give students the chance to voice concerns they weren’t able to during the session.
“We were completely shut down when people were voting on it, but we’re not going to give up the walk away,” May said. “We’re still going to be out here calling out what’s a bad idea.”
(WASHINGTON, D.C.) — Intelligence chiefs from across the U.S. government faced a grilling on Wednesday from members of the Senate Intelligence Committee on the origins of COVID-19 and China’s influence in the world, along with other topics.
The annual hearing on worldwide threats included testimony from, among others, the Director of National Intelligence Avril Haines, CIA Director William Burns, FBI Director Christopher Wray and National Security Agency Director Gen. Paul Nakasone.
“The People’s Republic of China, which is increasingly challenging the United States economically, technologically, politically and militarily around the world, remains our unparalleled priority,” Haines said.
She said Chinese President Xi Jinping, embarking on an unprecedented third term as his country’s leader, will continue to work toward a goal of making China “the preeminent power in East Asia and a major power on the world stage.”
China’s ruling Community Party, Haines said, “is increasingly convinced that it can only do so at the expense of U.S. power and influence and by using coordinated whole-of-government tools to demonstrate strength and compel neighbors to acquiesce to its preferences, including its land, sea and air claims in the region and its assertions of sovereignty over Taiwan.”
Defense Intelligence Agency Director Lt. Gen. Scott Berrier said China’s military capabilities “are advancing very, very rapidly in every … warfighting domain that exists.”
“The Defense Intelligence Agency is taking note of that and watching very carefully,” Berrier said.
On COVID-19, Wray reaffirmed his bureau’s assessment that the origin of the pandemic was likely a lab leak incident in Wuhan, China, a position he also voiced recently on Fox News.
But Haines, speaking next, said there is not yet agreement across the intelligence community on the virus’ origins.
“There’s a broad consensus in the intelligence community that the outbreak is not the result of a bio-weapon or genetic engineering,” she said. “What there isn’t a consensus on is whether or not it’s a lab leak, essentially as Director Wray indicated, or natural exposure to an infected animal.”
Pressed on the matter by Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, Haines detailed some of the conflicting views.
“There are four elements plus our National Intelligence Council that assess with low confidence that the infection was most likely caused by natural exposure to an infected animal,” she said, adding, “We have the FBI, as you noted, that sees it as more likely that it’s a lab leak and has done that with moderate confidence. And the Department of Energy has changed its view slightly with low confidence. It says that a lab leak is most likely, but they do so for different reasons than the FBI does. And their assessments are not identical.”
“So you can see how challenging this has been across the community,” Haines said.
On TikTok — the immensely popular video-sharing app owned by the Chinese company ByteDance — Wray reiterated the concern among some lawmakers and intelligence officials that the platform could be used to exploit the data of millions of American users.
“So if you were to ask Americans, ‘Would you like to turn over your data, all your data, control of your devices, control of your information to the [Chinese Communist Party]?’ — most Americans would say, ‘I’m not down with that,’ as my kids would say,” Wray testified.
On Tuesday, Senate Intelligence Committee Chairman Mark Warner, a Virginia Democrat, unveiled a bill that would empower the president to ban TikTok and maybe other Chinese technology in the United States — a measure with White House and bipartisan congressional support.
In recent weeks, Congress’ intelligence committee leaders have been briefed by officials on a multitude of issues, including the suspected Chinese spy balloon that flew over the U.S. before being shot down off the coast of South Carolina in February and classified documents found at the homes and offices of former President Donald Trump, President Joe Biden and former Vice President Mike Pence.
Sen. Tom Cotton, R-Ark., said at Wednesday’s hearing that he wasn’t satisfied with the lack of information the panel has gotten on the classified documents issue. He asked Haines and Wray why they haven’t personally reviewed all of the classified documents found at the residences of Trump, Biden and Pence to assess what risk their apparent mishandling could have posed to national security.
Both Wray and Haines said they’ve reviewed some of the classified materials but not all.
“When we get documents that have been compromised in the context of a leak investigation or other things like that, I don’t personally review them generally, even when they have significant consequences. There are the subject-matter experts within the institutions that do that. They provide their views and then they typically will summarize or otherwise indicate issues that have to be addressed as a consequence, if there are any,” Haines said.
Other topics covered at Wednesday’s hearing included Russia’s strategy in Ukraine, Iran’s pursuit of nuclear weapons, North Korea and more.
In one barbed moment, Cotton took exception to a passage in an annual assessment report released by Haines’ office on Wednesday: “Transnational [racially or ethnically motivated violent extremists] continue to pose the most lethal threat to U.S. persons and interests, and a significant threat to a number of U.S. allies and partners through attacks and propaganda that espouses violence.”
“Are you serious? You seriously think that racially and ethnically motivated violent extremists are the most lethal threat that Americans face?” he asked.
“Yes, sir, in terms of the number of people killed or wounded as a consequence,” Haines replied. She could not offer a number of victims off-hand when asked.
Cotton then brought up the high number of U.S. fentanyl deaths, asking, “Isn’t that a more lethal threat?”
Haines said, “Absolutely,” and clarified the context of the quote from the report — that it was in comparison to terror threats.
An FBI spokesperson, when asked about the hearing ahead of Wednesday, said Wray would face a number of topics but declined to share anything specific about what the focus would be.
“The hearing will have multiple speakers and cover a variety of topics,” FBI spokesperson Christina Pullen told ABC News in an e-mail.
GOP senators on Monday also sent a letter to Haines demanding they receive an intelligence briefing on the origins of COVID-19.
“We write to request that you immediately deliver to Congress each [intelligence community] assessment used and relied upon by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) for its consensus publications,” wrote Republican Sens. Collins, Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee and Roger Marshall of Kansas.
“Congress should be able to review the independent evaluations without filters, ambiguity or interpretations of the intelligence,” they wrote. ‘There is clear bipartisan support in Congress to make these assessments available immediately in full as evidenced by the unanimous March 1, 2023 Senate passage of the COVID-19 Origin Act to declassify information related to the origin of COVID-19.”
Universal Music Enterprises, a Division of UMG Recordings, Inc.
Billy Squier is back with new music. The rocker just released the new track “Harder On A Woman,” which is his first new single in 25 years.
The song was written around a hook Squier first heard during a writing session with New Orleans blues artist C.C. Adcock back in 2012. He says he felt compelled to write the tune after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade last year.
Billy enlisted a host of well-known musicians for “Harder On A Woman,” including G.E. Smith on guitar, BadCompany’s Simon Kirke on drums and Mark Clarke, who appeared on Squier’s 1981 album Don’t Say No, on bass.
(CHICAGO) — The mother of Chicago postal worker Kierra Coles, who mysteriously vanished more than four years ago, is hoping the FBI will take the lead in the search for her daughter.
Coles was about three months pregnant and eager to meet her first child when she disappeared on Oct. 2, 2018, according to her mother, Karen Phillips.
Phillips said every day without her daughter is a mental struggle.
“One minute I want to scream and holler, I want to cry all day,” she told ABC News. “But I know I have to keep going, because I still have to live my life and pay my bills. But it’s just so stressful. Sometimes I don’t even want to get up — I just want to sleep all day.”
Phillips said Wednesday, “I’m hoping the FBI can get us a conviction, or maybe find something that the [Chicago] police hasn’t found. … Working with just the [Chicago] police, it’s getting nowhere.”
She said she hopes answers will bring her “some type of closure.”
Chicago police, who classify the 26-year-old’s disappearance as an open and cold case, has not responded to ABC News’ request for comment on Phillips wanting the FBI to join the investigation.
The FBI would not comment on this case directly, but a spokesperson said, in general, “The FBI is always willing to work with law enforcement partners to the greatest extent possible to provide critical resources on local cases.”
Chicago police released surveillance video in 2022 that captured some of Coles’ last known movements on Oct. 2, 2018.
The surveillance video showed a man — who is considered a person of interest — arriving at Coles’ home, and later Coles and the man were seen driving away in Coles’ car.
At about 10:43 p.m. that night, Coles was spotted on surveillance video making ATM withdrawals — the last known images of her, according to police.
Later that night, Coles’ car was parked in another part of the city, police said. The person of interest was seen getting out of the passenger side, but nobody got out of the driver’s side, according to police.
The next day, the person of interest was seen parking Coles’ car near her home and going inside, police said. He then left Coles’ home and drove away in his car.
When the person of interest was interviewed, police said he gave varying accounts of the last time he saw Coles.
As the search continues, Phillips vowed, “I’m never gonna stop looking for my daughter.”
“Sometimes I find myself talking to her,” she said. “‘Kierra, where are you? Give us a sign.'”
ABC News’ Sarah Beth Guevara contributed to this report.
The 2023 Bourbon & Beyond Festival returns to Louisville, Kentucky, in September, with a lineup that includes The Black Crowes, Duran Duran and Blondie.
The festival is set for September 14 to 17 at Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center, with a lineup of over 50 artists, including headliners Brandi Carlile, The Killers, Bruno Mars and The Black Keys, along with Mavis Staples, Brittany Howard, Bastille andThe Gaslight Anthem.
Tickets for the festival are on sale now. More info and the complete lineup can be found at bourbonandbeyond.com.
Nick Cannon and Kevin Hart recently announced a game show poking fun at Nick’s many children, but it turns out it was part of E!’s marketing plan. The prank was the network’s way of promoting its new competition series, which Nick and Kev will host together.
Celebrity Prank Wars, airing April 6 at 10 p.m. ET/PT, will capture the “all-out war” between two celebrities. Each episode will see them “planning and perpetrating some of the wildest and most viral pranks on each other,” with Nick and Kevin serving as judges.
The likes of Anthony Anderson, Lil Duval, Fantasia, Tiffany Haddish, Taraji P. Henson, Lil Jon, Ludacris, Killer Mike, Chance The Rapper, T-Pain, T.I. and more will appear as celebrity participants of the game show.
It’s been 23 years since American Psycho hit theaters and Huey Lewis still hasn’t seen it, even though hishit song “Hip to Be Square” is featured in the film. As for why, he reveals on Mark Hoppus’ After School Radio podcast that it stems from a disagreement over the movie’s soundtrack.
Lewis says he gladly allowed the song to be in the Christian Bale film, noting, “When I read the book, it was like a review of art stuff,” referring to the Bret Easton Ellis novel. “And not only us, but Phil Collins and Tina Turner, and man, he really knew this stuff, he got us pretty much correct.”
The problem revolved around the soundtrack, with Lewis explaining that he “politely declined” to let the song be included on it because he didn’t want to “make our fans buy that for just that one song.”
Following Lewis’ rejection, the studio issued a press release claiming he didn’t want the song on the soundtrack because of the violence in the film, which he says they did “to pump up interest.” “That pissed me off, frankly,” he shared, “so I boycotted the film. I’ve never seen the film.”
But he couldn’t escape the movie completely. Lewis says he did see a clip of the film when he appeared in a spoof of it for Funny Or Die back in 2014. He also saw the musical, which hit Broadway in 2016, calling it “very good.”
The 2023 Bourbon & Beyond Festival returns to Louisville, Kentucky, in September, with The Killers and The Black Keys among this year’s headliners.
The festival is set for September 14 to 17 at Highland Festival Grounds at the Kentucky Exposition Center, with a lineup of over 50 artists, including Brittany Howard, The Black Crowes, Bastille, The Gaslight Anthem, Inhaler, The Avett Brothers, Spoon and Blondie.
Tickets for the festival are on sale now. More info and the complete lineup can be found at bourbonandbeyond.com.
