Wednesday is International Women’s Day, and to mark the occasion and support a cause that’s important to them, MisterWives have shared a video they’ve created from fan-shot footage, showing them performing No Doubt‘s “Just a Girl” live in concert.
While the video footage was shot at various shows last summer, the audio you hear in the clip was recorded in Boston on June 24, 2022, the day Roe v. Wade was overturned. The caption of the YouTube video reads, “A tribute to the iconic No Doubt anthem we grew up on that was released in 1995- when women had more rights than they do in 2023. May we continue to put our love and rage into fighting for all bodies and their autonomy.”
MisterWives is using the video to encourage fans to donate to the ACLU and the National Network of Abortion Funds, and they’re also making their own donations.
In a statement, frontwoman Mandy Lee says of “Just a Girl,” “An anthem I was raised on that stood up to a male dominated world of oppression and inequality rings louder almost 30 years later with the devastating overturning of Roe v. Wade. Covering this song last summer, while our fundamental rights were being stripped away, was a catharsis I don’t think I’ve ever had that intense while performing.”
She adds, “Whether that be through protest, voting, and donating to organizations that provide access to abortion care, we must continue the fight to protect and liberate all bodies and their autonomy.”
The 2023 Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival’s star-studded lineup has been announced.
Held on September 23 and September 24 at The Park at Harlinsdale Farm in Franklin, Tennessee, this year’s event will feature performances from Ashley McBryde, Zach Bryan, Hailey Whitters, Ian Munsick, Charlie Worsham, The War and Treaty, Lucas Grimes, Boy Named Banjo, Margo Price, Yola and many more.
The Lumineers and The Black Crowes will headline on Saturday, while Bryan and Nathaniel Rateliff & The Night Sweats will cap off the festival on Sunday.
Tickets go on sale Thursday, March 9, at 10 a.m. CT on the festival’s website.
(WASHINGTON) — Republicans on the House Oversight Committee said Wednesday they are planning a visit with some defendants who are being held in connection with the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer of Kentucky and Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, who also sits on the panel, told ABC News that the committee is planning to send a letter this week to lawmakers regarding the planned visit to the Washington, D.C., detention facility.
Greene said the visit would focus on the conditions of those jailed over Jan. 6, including what she claimed to be “reports of abuse.”
“They’re pretrial and they haven’t even been convicted and they’re not allowed to see their families, many times are not allowed to see their attorneys — the food has been a major complaint,” Greene alleged. “There’s been complaints of it tasting like cleaner.”
The vast majority of defendants charged in connection with Jan. 6 have not been ordered to be detained pending trial, but in the several dozen cases where individuals have been held, a judge has determined that there’s no combination of conditions that could be placed on them to ensure that they either wouldn’t pose a danger to the general public or risk obstructing justice in their case.
In late 2021, the U.S. Marshals Service conducted an inspection of the D.C. jail’s Central Detention Facility – a separate facility from where the Jan. 6 defendants have been detained — and said they would relocate roughly 400 inmates to a separate jail in Pennsylvania after finding the conditions there did not meet minimum federal standards.
An inspection of the facility holding the Jan. 6 defendants, however, “did not identify conditions that would necessitate the transfer of inmates,” the Marshals Service said in 2021.
Greene has previously visited some Jan. 6 defendants in jail where she saw they were “suffering greatly,” she said in 2021.
She was criticized in December for what she said was a “sarcastic joke” about the riot at the Capitol: “If Steve Bannon and I had organized that, we would have won. … Not to mention, it would’ve been armed.”
She said Wednesday that the jail visit would be open to members outside of the Oversight Committee but that a date has not been confirmed.
“We’re gonna try and see what it looks like … that’s part of what the Oversight Committee does with everything pertaining to the federal government, so we have some members that are going to hopefully tour that prison,” Comer told reporters.
The news comes as House Speaker Kevin McCarthy faces bipartisan backlash over exclusively sharing security footage from Jan. 6 with Fox News’ Tucker Carlson, who used the clips to try and downplay the Capitol attack — drawing a rebuke from the Capitol Police chief. McCarthy said Tuesday he released the video in the interest of “transparency.”
The Department of Justice said earlier this week that at least 1,000 people have been charged in connection with the Capitol assault, which sent lawmakers briefly into hiding. One of the people who breached the building, Ashli Babbitt, was also fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer.
Pink has a reputation for performing aerial acrobatics during her performances, but there was a time when a stunt went horribly wrong and nearly severed her legs.
Speaking to the United Kingdom’s Heart Radio, Pink spoke about the nature of her stunts and the toll they have taken on her body, revealing, “Oh, I’ve been hurt! I almost had my legs ripped off.”
While not revealing where or when the accident happened, Pink recalled, “I was in this sort of ankle knot hold, and the winches started going apart and you can’t get out of that. And especially when your weight is down on it.”
She said the hold acted similarly to a Chinese finger trap, adding, “It was awful.”
Pink praised the person in charge of ensuring the stunts are performed correctly for his quick response. “He got under me and took the pressure off so I could get my feet out in time. But, had he not, it would have been really bad,” she explained.
The singer also spoke of another incident in which she crashed on her “360 device,” which she says allows her to “fly like ‘Pinker Bell.'” She remarked, “That crashed and that hurt a lot.”
“But! The best thing that came from that was our tour T-shirt then became, ‘I made that barricade my b****.’ And that was my favorite tour T-shirt,” she grinned.
In other Pink news, she made her debut at the 19th annual Desert Smash charity tennis event on Tuesday at La Quinta Resort & Club in Hollywood.
She teamed with tennis pro Grigor Dimitrov in a match against Robin Thicke and pro Victoria Azarenka.
Pink also celebrated International Women’s Day with Azarenka and served as a special chair umpire during a match between Casper Ruud and Frances Tiafoe.
Mötley Crüe is spending 2023 on their world tour with Def Leppard, and while some may worry this will be the last we’ll see of the rockers, bassist Nikki Sixx doesn’t think that’s the case.
In an interview with Brazil’s A Radio Rock, Sixx suggests that new Motley music may happen, sharing, “I think new music always comes when the band is, like, getting along. We get along so great right now. We’ve been having the best time. We spend time together. We go out to dinner.”
As for the band’s future, Sixx says, “Me and Tommy (Lee) and Vince (Neil) had this conversation. I said, I go, ‘What are you guys doing for the next eight years?’ And everybody’s laughing, ‘I don’t know.’ I said, ‘Why don’t we just keep going? Let’s just take it to 50,’” which would be in 2031.
He adds, “So this isn’t a final tour. What does that look like? I have no idea. I’m just telling you, you have the band saying, ‘We’re having a blast. Why stop?'”
(WASHINGTON) — A nearly two-year civil rights investigation into the Louisville, Kentucky, police department and Louisville Metro Government, touched off by the killing of Breonna Taylor, found the city and law enforcement engaged in a pattern of unlawful and discriminatory conduct, depriving people of their constitutional liberties, the Department of Justice announced on Wednesday.
“This conduct is unacceptable and it is heartbreaking,” Attorney General Merrick Garland said at a press conference, outlining a damning portrait of the Louisville police as he announced the findings of the civil rights investigation.
“It erodes the community trust necessary for effective policing. It is an affront to the vast majority of officers who put their lives on the line every day to serve Louisville with honor and it is an affront to the people of Louisville who deserve better,” Garland said.
He said that Louisville has signed an agreement in principle with the DOJ to negotiate toward a legally binding consent decree that will include the appointment of an independent monitor to oversee a series of reforms to address the problems that investigators uncovered.
The DOJ plans to hold a virtual community meeting on Wednesday night to discuss their findings with Louisville residents.
The department launched its pattern or practice investigation into the Louisville police in April 2021, more than a year after the botched raid that resulted in Taylor’s shooting death in her home, which spurred nationwide protests along with the murder of George Floyd in Minnesota.
According to the DOJ’s report released Wednesday, one police leader told investigators that Taylor’s death “was a symptom of problems that we have had for years.”
The DOJ’s review, based on hundreds of interviews, thousands of documents and thousands of hours of body-worn camera footage, found Louisville officers routinely used excessive force in arrests, including unjustified neck restraints and wrongful use of police dogs and tasers.
The police department also conducted searches based on “invalid warrants,” the review found, and officers unlawfully executed search warrants without knocking and announcing.
“For years, [the Louisville police department] has practiced an aggressive style of policing that it deploys selectively, especially against Black people, but also against vulnerable people throughout the city,” the report stated. “Some officers have videotaped themselves throwing drinks at pedestrians from their cars; insulted people with disabilities; and called Black people ‘monkeys,’ ‘animal,’ and ‘boy.'”
The federal review found police officers conducted unlawful stops and arrests of suspects and that the department routinely discriminated against Black people in their enforcement actions. The department and city also were found to have discriminated against people who had behavioral health disabilities when they were in crisis, the report stated.
Investigators singled out members of a specialized group in the department that was once called the “Viper Unit.” Those officers were found to have routinely made dubious traffic stops in Black neighborhoods and violated residents’ Fourth Amendment rights, according to the report.
“The unit’s activities were part of an overall enforcement approach that resulted in significant and unlawful racial disparities,” Garland said at the press conference.
The DOJ investigation further found that Louisville police leaders “endorsed and defended” unlawful conduct by their officers, with some supervisors accused of defending instances of obviously excessive force or search warrants that lacked probable cause.
Last August, Garland announced civil rights charges against four Louisville police officers for a range of alleged offenses in connection with Taylor’s death, including unlawful conspiracies, unconstitutional use of force and obstruction.
One of those officers, former Louisville Detective Kelly Goodlett, has pleaded guilty to one count of conspiring to violate Taylor’s civil rights while the others, Sgt. Kyle Meany and Joshua Jaynes and Brett Hankison, both former detectives, have pleaded not guilty.
The DOJ’s Civil Rights Division head, Assistant Attorney General Kristen Clarke, said at Wednesday’s press conference that their investigation found disturbing disparities in how Black residents were treated by police in comparison with white residents.
Black drivers were nearly four times as likely as white drivers to be cited for improperly tinted windows and nearly five times as likely as white drivers to be cited for improper tags, with Black drivers almost 50% more likely to be searched when stopped by police in their cars than white people, Clarke said.
Louisville police brought charges against Black people at higher rates than white people for the same misdemeanor offenses, she said.
“For example, [the Louisville police department] charges Black people for loitering more than four times the rate of white people, for disorderly conduct two-and-a-half times the rate of white people and for littering at three times the rate of white people,” Clarke said. “This pattern of racial discrimination fuels distrust and impedes the community’s confidence in the [police] and their law enforcement operations.”
The DOJ expects to continue working with Louisville police and the city government on a host of reforms to their law enforcement practices, including some that have already been implemented in the years following Taylor’s killing.
The newly released report outlines more than 30 recommendations for the department and city to implement, including structural changes to its use-of-force policies and reporting and an overhaul of their training protocols.
Mike Coppola/Getty Images for 2022 Robert F. Kennedy Human Rights Ripple of Hope Gala
(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.'”
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.”
Courtesy of the Pilgrimage Music & Cultural Festival
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 andThe 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.
(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.
