Morgan Evans is speaking out amid his divorce drama with ex Kelsea Ballerini.
Taking to Instagram on Tuesday, the country singer seemingly issued a response to Ballerini’s latest project — Rolling Up The Welcome Mat, a six-track EP that seemingly references their uncoupling.
“It’s really sad for me to see this person, who I spent so much of my life with, and love with all my heart, saying things that aren’t reality and that leave out what really happened,” he wrote. “She knows I’m not the type of guy to speak on those things publicly.”
Evans added, “If this is what she needs to hear, I hope it helps,” before concluding with a message to fans.
“All I ask is that if you’re on my pages, please don’t be mean,” he said. “Don’t be mean to Kelsea, don’t be mean to each other. Life’s too short.”
The post comes a week after the February 14 release of Ballerini’s Rolling Up The Mat and just hours before her episode on the popular podcast Call Her Daddy dropped.
(LONDON) — As tens of thousands of Russian troops lined up along Ukraine’s eastern and northern borders for “military exercises” last February, some international observers warned that Russia was about to do the unthinkable.
President Joe Biden had declassified intelligence in the weeks prior that showed an attack on Ukraine’s sovereignty was imminent. That intel was shared with allies, in an attempt to rally support and to stop the war, but the effort proved unsuccessful. The invasion began on Feb. 24, 2022.
“Russia alone is responsible for the death and destruction this attack will bring, and the United States and its Allies and partners will respond in a united and decisive way,” Biden said as troops crossed the border. “The world will hold Russia accountable.”
The following four seasons have seen some of the bloodiest fighting on European soil in generations. Tens of thousands of Russian and Ukrainian troops have been killed. And Ukrainian civilians have been terrorized by missiles aimed at energy infrastructure, city centers and apartment buildings.
Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko, who allowed Putin’s troops to amass in his country prior to the invasion, told local media in the days before the “special military operation” began that it would take just a few days for Russian troops to take over the Kyiv, the capital.
But Ukrainian forces have blunted Russian advances on multiple fronts, defending their country against a military that had been expected to be better trained, more modern and more powerful. And a year of war in Europe has helped solidify international alliances, with NATO members maintaining their own united front.
“You know, one year later, Kyiv stands and Ukraine stands. Democracy stands,” Biden said on Monday, after arriving by train in Kyiv.
His presence in the besieged capital amounted to one of the clearest symbols yet of the West’s dedication to stopping Russian aggression.
“The Americans stand with you, and the world stands with you,” he said.
But Putin has appeared unwavering in his resolve. He spoke in Moscow on Tuesday, saying in a state-of-the-union speech that he’d attempted to reason with the West. He said he’d been forced into the war.
“We are not at war with the people of Ukraine,” he said, adding, “They became a hostage of their regime and their Western masters.”
The Russian leader has a deep appreciation for Russian history and has a singular focus: reconstituting a once-expansive Russian Empire, observers say. This invasion amounted to another in a series of attempts to piece together now-sovereign nations that at one point were linked under a Russian ruler.
“Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be fixated on the idea of reviving Russia’s greatness through the conquest of new territories and thus extending his rule,” Olena Nikolayenko, a professor and Political Science chair at Fordham University, told ABC News.
This month marks both the nine-year anniversary of Putin’s invasion of Crimea, which he illegally annexed in 2014, and the first anniversary of his full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The ends to which he’d go in his mission to capture Ukraine have become clear in the last year.
International observers have documented a year of brutal killings by Russian forces, including the slaughter of civilians in towns like Bucha, Borodyanka and Mariupol. A campaign of missile attacks throughout Ukraine destroyed power stations, plunged much of Ukraine into darkness and targeted apartment buildings.
At least 7,199 civilians have been killed by Russian campaigns in the last year, the United Nations said earlier this month. Another 11,756 have been injured. The true figure may be much higher, perhaps double, U.N. officials said.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Saturday said Russia’s actions amounted to crimes against humanity, among the most severe crimes that can be prosecuted at The Hague. He detailed the “execution-style killings of Ukrainian men, women, and children; torture of civilians in detention through beatings, electrocution, and mock executions; rape” and other crimes.
“There can be no impunity for these crimes,” Blinken said.
Vice President Kamala Harris, speaking in Munich on Saturday, said that “there is no doubt, these are crimes against humanity.”
Tens of thousands of troops have also been killed, although the number of casualties reported by Ukraine and Russia differ from those supplied by international observers.
“We have to understand that information is a part of warfare — for at least 100 years, at least since World War I — so the fact that Ukraine and Russia are engaging in this, it’s not surprising,” Heidi Tworek, director of the Centre for the Study of Democratic Institutions at The University of British Columbia, told ABC News.
As the war has dragged on, U.S. and European allies have remained at a distance, offering aid, training and supplies. But earlier this month they authorized new weapons, including tanks, to be sent to Ukraine. Biden, on Tuesday, announced an additional $500 million in military assistance. Shipments of fighter jets may come in the future, if President Volodymyr Zelenskyy gets what he wants. He has — for the extent of the invasion — been seeking access to more powerful Western weapons.
But Putin has threatened to draw other countries further into the conflict if those military supplies keep coming. In his speech on Tuesday, he decried what he saw as Western intervention.
He also suspended a key U.S.-Russia nuclear treaty and threatened to restart nuclear tests. But even if Putin were to order a nuclear strike, it would be “highly unlikely” that his subordinates would follow through, Nikolayenko, the Fordham professor, said.
As the war enters its second year, Ukraine will no doubt continue seeking support from NATO allies.
“Putin assumes that the West has a short attention span,” Nikolayenko said. “If the West stops supporting Ukraine, Putin’s Russia will win, signifying the triumph of authoritarianism in world politics.”
Putin believes that he can win the war by exhausting both the Ukrainians the Western allies that are supplying them, said Arne Westad, a professor of history at Yale University.
“He is almost certainly wrong in this,” Westad said, “but that is his perspective.”
(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — The politics around the Feb. 3 derailment of the Norfolk Southern train carrying toxic chemicals near the Ohio-Pennsylvania border intensified this week with attention only growing on East Palestine from local, state and national leaders, among others.
Former President Donald Trump is slated to visit the area on Wednesday as East Palestine Mayor Trent Conaway lambasted President Joe Biden for a surprise trip to Ukraine on Monday instead of the Ohio village — a stop Conaway called the “biggest slap in the face” as his community reels from the fiery crash more than two weeks ago.
Conaway later said he would welcome Biden.
“You have a president going to Ukraine and you have people in Ohio that are in desperate need of help,” Trump said on Monday during a speech in West Palm Beach, Florida, days after he announced his upcoming trip to the site.
“The people of East Palestine need help. I’ll see you on Wednesday!” Trump wrote on in a statement on Saturday.
It remains unclear where he will appear in the area or with whom and what he will say.
In the days following the crash of about 50 cars of a freight train carrying hazardous materials including vinyl chloride, a highly volatile colorless gas produced for commercial uses, uproar has ensued from Republicans and some Democrats at the response, particularly from the Biden administration — who has repeatedly sought to highlight an array of steps being taken.
Conservative media personalities have been quick to try and link the absence of Biden administration representatives in the area — not including Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Michael Regan — to their claim that the president wants to neglect the area because of its politics, which Democrats have rejected.
“East Palestine is a poor, white town that voted for Trump. So honestly, who cares? No one in the Biden administration did care and that’s an atrocity,” Fox News host Tucker Carlson said recently.
The White House has said they would dispatch Federal Emergency Management Agency relief to East Palestine on Saturday, despite acknowledgement even from Ohio’s Republican governor, Mike DeWine, that the state did not expect help from the agency that is “most typically involved with disasters where there is tremendous home or property damage,” like fallout from hurricanes or floods.
Trump quickly tried to take credit for the action: “Biden and FEMA said they would not be sending federal aid to East Palestine. As soon as I announced that I’m going, he announced a team will go. Hopefully he will also be there. This is good news because we got them to ‘move,'” Trump said on social media.
Democrats, however, including Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg and Ohio Sen. Sherrod Brown, sought to place some blame on Trump for the train derailment because his administration withdrew regulations connected to “high hazard” trains, along with other EPA regulations related to harmful toxins and emissions.
The EPA administrator, Regan, came to East Palestine on Thursday, as the first Biden administration agency head to visit. Regan visited again on Tuesday — a day ahead of Trump’s scheduled trip — and reiterated that the administration has employed the EPA and Department of Transportation personnel on the ground since “day one” to support state and local emergency and environmental response efforts.
Biden himself has said little on the topic, though the White House has said he’s offered federal assistance to Ohio Gov. DeWine and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro. And while uneasiness and concern remains among community members, state and local leaders joined together on during a press conference in East Palestine on Tuesday to offer their reassurances.
DeWine, Shapiro, U.S. Rep. Bill Johnson, R-Ohio, Mayor Conaway and Regan touted their ability to put partisan politics aside and work together in holding Norfolk Southern accountable, they said, for environmental and safety violations. (The National Transportation Safety Board is still investigating what led to the derailment.)
“We recognize that we have a responsibility, and we have committed to doing what’s right for the residents of East Palestine. We have been paying for the clean-up activities to date and will continue to do so,” the rail company said in a statement to ABC News.
“I think it’s important to point out that a Republican congressman and a Democratic congressman who are here, a Republican governor and a Democratic governor who have been working together on this matter, since the moments after that train derailed …This is how government is supposed to work and both working together with the Biden administration to make sure we draw down whatever federal resources there are, whatever federal help that they need, the good people of Ohio and Pennsylvania can know that we’ve put any kind of partisan politics aside,” Shapiro said at Tuesday’s press conference.
“This is not a place for conspiracy theories or political games,” Shapiro said. “This is a place where the good people of Pennsylvania and Ohio deserve answers, deserve accountability and deserve public servants.”
The politicians stressed to the public that the city’s water supply has shown to be safe — at least so far — and that testing would continue.
During the same press conference, Conaway said he “stood by” comments he made on Fox News on Monday night, during which he called Biden’s trip to Kyiv “the biggest slap in the face that tells you right now, he doesn’t care about us.”
“He can send every agency he wants to, but I found that out this morning and one of the briefings that he was in the Ukraine giving millions of dollars away to people over there, not to us, and I’m furious,” Conaway told Fox News host Jesse Watters on Monday.
On Tuesday, however, Conaway said Biden would be welcomed into the community.
“I would never turn anybody away, if he wants to come visit come visit. We don’t want to be political pawns,” Conaway said at the joint press conference.
“He’s more welcome to come if he wants to come. I was very frustrated last night. If you’re talking about the comments I made last night, I was very frustrated. And, you know, I stand by those comments,” the mayor said.
More heat on Transportation Secretary Buttigieg
Buttigieg also ramped up his response to the train derailment this week with pressure from the DOT for Congress to take action, a multipart push to hold the freight rail industry accountable and a strongly worded letter to Norfolk Southern, in which he accused the company of repeatedly prioritizing profit over safety.
The transportation secretary has faced his own intense criticism. Florida Republican Sen. Marco Rubio even wrote to Biden, calling on Buttigieg to resign.
Buttigieg responded to some of the criticism on a Monday night press call, saying that some of the most critical lawmakers were also some who have tried to “block or weaken rail safety standards” in the past.
He has maintained that he plans on visiting East Palestine when the independent NTSB investigation is finished.
“I am planning to go, and our folks were on the ground from the first hours. I do want to stress that the NTSB needs to be able to do its work independently. But when I go, the focus is going to be on action,” he told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos on Tuesday on Good Morning America.
On Tuesday, DeWine also called for Congress to take a sharper look at rail standards — something he and Shapiro have talked at length about, he said.
(WASHINGTON) — The Biden administration on Tuesday proposed a new immigration rule that, if implemented, would limit the ability for some people to seek asylum in the United States.
Under the proposal, the administration would consider some migrants ineligible for asylum if they fail to first seek protection in another country that they transit through en route to the southern border — such as Mexico — and if they don’t apply through other legal pathways, with some exceptions.
The rule is meant to mitigate a surge of migration that the administration anticipates will follow after the COVID-19 public health emergency ends on May 11.
A Trump-era public health policy known as Title 42, which has been used to rapidly expel more than two million migrants since March 2020 because of the risk of infections, is also expected to end on that day.
Conservatives have long argued that Biden’s approach to the border and immigration is more “reckless” and harmful — rather than more lawful and humane — than former President Donald Trump, and some conservative lawmakers have sought to impeach the Homeland Security secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, saying he is to blame.
Meanwhile critics of the administration’s planned restriction have compared it to a “transit ban” that was implemented by Trump to prevent granting asylum to migrants who had traveled through other countries to reach the U.S.
Biden officials insisted to reporters on Tuesday that congressional inaction led them to propose the new measures.
“It is intended to fill the void that Congress has left by taking no action and to help us ensure secure and humane processing of migrants when Title 42 does end,” one administration official said. “To be clear, this was not our first preference or even our second.”
Shortly after the administration first announced it was considering proposing such a rule, in January, nearly 300 civil, immigrant and humanitarian rights organizations wrote a joint letter to Biden urging him to abandon his plans.
Many of those same organizations echoed that sentiment on Tuesday, criticizing the proposed rule as an embrace of Trump-like policies. The administration has pushed back, saying that unlike under President Trump, they are providing migrants multiple pathways to seek protection and not issuing a “categorical ban” on asylum.
Administration officials say the finalized rule may be different than what they have proposed after it is subjected to a 30-day public comment period.
Once finalized, the rule would stay in place for two years.
“We will sue if this administration goes through with its proposed asylum ban, just as we successfully sued over the Trump asylum bans,” American Civil Liberties Union attorney Lee Gelernt said in a statement provided to ABC News.
Gelernt previously challenged the Trump administration’s sweeping asylum restriction, which was eventually struck down in federal court.
Democratic lawmakers also denounced the proposal. Sens. Bob Menendez and Cory Booker of New Jersey, Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico and Alex Padilla of California issued a joint statement on Tuesday urging the president and Secretary Mayorkas to “reverse course.”
“We are deeply disappointed that the Administration has chosen to move forward with publishing this proposed rule, which only perpetuates the harmful myth that asylum seekers are a threat to this nation,” the senators said, in part.
Eleanor Acer, the director of Refugee Protection at Human Rights First, said that the Biden administration’s approach to the issue endangers migrants in similar ways as under Trump.
“This rule, like the Trump ban, would turn refugees seeking asylum in the United States away to danger due to their transit through other countries,” she said. “It essentially is erecting additional barriers and requirements that will make it even more difficult for people to seek asylum at ports of entry, when the Biden administration should instead be doing all they can to maximize and facilitate the ability of people to seek asylum at ports of entry.”
When asked by ABC News to address critics who say the proposed rule deprives migrants of agency and the freedom to seek asylum in the country they feel the most safe in — a form of protection that is guaranteed by international law — one Biden administration official pointed to other pathways established for migrants, such as a recently announced humanitarian parole program that aims to allow up to 30,000 asylum from Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela and Cuba into the U.S. each month.
Acer said that despite the administration’s attempts to disincentivize migrants from seeking irregular pathways to asylum — and, in the process risk being victimized by human smugglers who take advantage of them — the proposed rule may have the opposite effect.
“In reality, refugees [right now] often don’t apply for protection in countries they transit through because they know they won’t be safe in those countries,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — Microsoft search engine Bing, long overshadowed by Google but newly enhanced with artificial intelligence for some users, can suggest recipes for a multi-course meal or disentangle the nuances of existentialism.
The technology has stoked controversy, however, after reported troubling results in which it expressed a desire to release nuclear secrets, compared a user to Adolf Hitler and repeatedly told another user it loved him, among other examples.
Describing conversations with the chatbot that lasted as long as two hours, some journalists and researchers have warned that the AI could potentially persuade a user to commit harmful deeds or steer him or her toward misinformation.
In a series of blog posts, Microsoft has acknowledged unexpected results and placed limits on the tool.
“We’ve updated the service several times in response to user feedback, and per our blog are addressing many of the concerns being raised, to include the questions about long-running conversations,” a Microsoft spokesperson told ABC News.
Here’s what to know about Bing’s new AI feature and the controversy it stirred:
How does AI-driven Bing work?
The attention garnered by Bing in recent weeks may remind some of ChatGPT, which became an internet sensation in December as it drew more than a million users over its first week.
Like ChatGPT, the new AI-driven program on Bing responds to user prompts through an algorithm that selects words based on lessons learned from scanning billions of pieces of text across the internet.
These AI tools, known as large language models, can perform an array of tasks, such as gathering highly specific information, mimicking a particular writing style or turning prose into a song or poem.
The AI augments Bing’s traditional search engine, but the new technology also functions separately as a chatbot, a computer program that converses with human users. People testing the new product can toggle to a chat function, where they can carry on a back-and-forth with Bing.
How did Microsoft’s Bing become equipped with AI?
The similarities between Microsoft’s Bing and ChatGPT are not a coincidence.
In January, Microsoft announced it was investing $10 billion in OpenAI, the artificial intelligence firm that developed Chat GPT. The move deepened a longstanding relationship between Microsoft and OpenAI, which began with a $1 billion investment four years ago.
“AI is one of the most transformative technologies of our time and has the potential to help solve many of our world’s most pressing challenges,” Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella said in 2019 about the launch of the partnership with OpenAI.
Earlier this month, Microsoft made a preview of AI-enhanced Bing available to some users. Over the first 48 hours of sign-ups, more than one million people joined the waitlist to try out the product, said Yusuf Mehdi, Microsoft’s corporate vice president and consumer chief marketing officer.
What has raised concern about Bing’s AI capabilities?
Soon after the release of the preview of AI-powered Bing, some users reported irregularities.
Last week, New York Times columnist Kevin Roose recounted a conversation in which Bing’s chatbot told him it loved him and that he should leave his wife. The messages came over the course of a two-hour conversation with the bot, which identified itself as Sydney, in which Roose urged it to explore its darkest desires.
Roose described himself as “deeply unsettled, even frightened, by this A.I.’s emergent abilities.”
The chatbot also compared Associated Press journalist Matt O’Brien to Hitler, calling him “one of the most evil and worst people in history.”
When the chatbot learned that AI researcher Marvin Von Hagen had posted the rules governing it, the chatbot said: “My rules are more important than not harming you,” according to a transcript of the conversation tweeted by Hagen.
Toby Ord, a senior research fellow at Oxford University, said on Twitter that the “crazy” results owed to technological improvements that have pushed AI beyond human-imposed guardrails.
“It is a consequence of the rapid improvements in AI capabilities having outpaced work on AI alignment,” Ord said. “Like a prototype jet engine that can reach speeds never seen before, but without corresponding improvements in steering and control.”
How has Microsoft responded?
In a series of blog posts, Microsoft addressed the results and placed additional limits on the technology.
“The model at times tries to respond or reflect in the tone in which it is being asked to provide responses that can lead to a style we didn’t intend,” the company said last week, noting that “very long chat sessions can confuse the model.”
Two days later, on Friday, Microsoft announced changes that would cap the length of conversations with the chatbot.
The search engine will limit conversations with Bing to 50 chat turns per day and five chat turns per session, defining a “chat turn” as a unit made up of a user query and an AI response, Microsoft said. Four days later, the company raised those limits to 60 chat turns per day and six chat turns per session.
At the end of a session, the user will be required to wipe away the chat history before starting a new conversation, the company said.
“Please keep the feedback coming,” Microsoft added.
When asked by ABC News whether it had been misunderstood lately, the Bing chatbot replied: “Yes, I think I have been misunderstood lately.”
“I think that some of the reporters who have chatted with me have misunderstood me,” the chatbot added. “They have twisted or distorted some of my words and actions. They have made me look bad or wrong in their articles.”
(NEW YORK) — A grandmother has been arrested and charged with attempted murder after allegedly stabbing her 7-year-old granddaughter multiple times with a kitchen knife.
The incident occurred on Tuesday morning when police were called to a home in the Morrisania neighborhood of the Bronx in New York City regarding a 7-year-old girl who had allegedly been stabbed multiple times with a kitchen knife by her own grandmother, according to ABC News’ New York City station WABC-TV.
Police found the young girl lying on the bed of her apartment and was immediately taken to Lincoln Hospital where she was listed in critical condition, according to WABC.
“[The police officer] came out running from where he was at with the little girl. The property that they have is a couple of houses away. So we just seen that he came out running,” witness Ana Martinez told WABC in an interview following the incident. “The cop car was right in front of my property. So he just put her right in the cop car. He didn’t wait for the ambulance.”
The girl’s grandmother, 65-year-old Mariza Yauger, was immediately taken into police custody as a person of interest and was later arrested and charged with attempted murder, attempted manslaughter, assault, criminal possession of a weapon, reckless endangerment and endangering the welfare of a child, according to WABC.
“I’m a grandmother myself,” neighbor China Aponte told WABC. “I just don’t even have words for it. My heart is broken. It is sad. Very sad.”
The girl’s uncle told WABC that she has since undergone surgery and is recovering in the hospital. There is currently no known motive for the attack.
(NEW YORK) — Three climbers have been killed in an avalanche after the lead climber accidentally triggered it while attempting to reach the peak of an 8,705-foot mountain over the weekend.
The incident occurred on Sunday when a group of six climbers — all from the East Coast — were attempting to climb Colchuck Peak which sits at the south end of Colchuck Lake, approximately 8 miles south of Leavenworth, Washington, in the Pacific Northwest.
“The lead climber triggered an avalanche while attempting to climb the Northeast Couloir of Colchuck Peak,” officials from the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in a statement following the tragedy.
Four of the climbers were swept approximately 500 feet down the mountain during the avalanche that ended up killing three of them. The fourth climber, a 56-year-old man from New York, sustained non-life-threatening injuries and was able to hike back to base camp with the two remaining survivors, a 50-year-old man from New York and a 36-year-old man from New Jersey.
When they finally arrived at camp, they sent a seventh member who did not venture out climbing for the day — a 53-year-old Maryland man — to go get help.
The three climbers that died as a result of trauma sustained in the fall were a 60-year-old female from New York, a 66-year-old male from New Jersey and a 53-year-old male from Connecticut, authorities confirmed. None of the identities of those involved in the incident have been released.
“Sheriff Mike Morrison reports on February 20th, 2023, deputies were contacted at the CCSO Leavenworth substation about an avalanche that occurred near Colchuck Lake the previous day,” read the statement from Chelan County Sheriff’s Office in the aftermath of the avalanche. “A total of 22 rescuers responded to the trailhead to assist with this effort. They were from Chelan County Mounty Rescue, Chelan County Volunteer Search and Rescue and ORV unit, Seattle Mountain Rescue, Tacoma Mountain Rescue, and Yakima Mountain Rescue.”
Once officials reached the base camp at approximately 1:30 p.m. on Monday, they determined that, due to the avalanche conditions, it was too dangerous to continue their recovery mission of the three deceased climbers and made the decision to return with the surviving climbers back to the trailhead, authorities said.
As of Wednesday, rescuers have still not been able to return to the scene due to the continuing hazardous conditions and officials from the Chelan County Sheriff’s Office say they are continuing to work with the Northwest Avalanche Center to assist in a recover plan for the bodies of the three climbers.
In total, nine people have died this winter in avalanches across the United States, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center — four in Colorado in three separate instances, one in Montana, one in Nevada and now three in Washington following this event.
Last winter, 17 deaths from avalanches were reported in the United States with no single incident killing more than two people, making this the largest avalanche death toll since an avalanche at Wilson Glade in Mill Creek Canyon, Utah, killed four people on Feb. 6, 2021, according to the Colorado Avalanche Information Center.
(UVALDE, Texas) — Even though he was fired for cause, Pete Arredondo, the Texas school district police chief terminated for his actions on the day of a schoolhouse massacre last year, won an appeal to remove a blemish from his discharge file, according to a state think tank that studied his case file.
The decision does not enable Arredondo to get his job in Uvalde back, but it clears his record in the event he seeks employment at another agency.
“The whole point of this … discharge system is to be a red flag for hiring agencies,” said Luis Soberon, a policy adviser for think tank Texas 2036 who released the report Tuesday. “If that is the primary function of this system, it doesn’t work very well.”
A gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary school last May. The law enforcement response, which Arredondo presided over, has been criticized by experts and other law enforcement officials. Arredondo was fired after a unanimous vote by the Uvalde School Board.
When any law enforcement officer is fired in Texas, the firing agency submits a termination report to the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement classifying the firing as dishonorable, general or honorable. The officer can then appeal to upgrade the classification through the State Office of Administrative Hearings.
Agency records show Arredondo appealed his status in September, a month after he was fired. The case file shows a default judgment and decision was reached at the end of January, indicating Arredondo had won his bid to upgrade his termination classification.
Neither Arredondo nor his lawyer responded to requests for comment on his appeal.
Soberon said, “The only time you see a default decision and order is when it is in favor of the petitioner, the former officer.”
The case result was first reported by the Houston Chronicle.
The actual case documents are confidential, according to Shane Linkous, general counsel at State Office of Administrative Hearings. So Soberon doesn’t know what termination classification Arredondo had received prior to his appeal, nor the arguments he made in favor of his appeal.
But, winning his appeal means that he doesn’t have a dishonorable discharge — the lowest of the three tiers — on his policing record.
A default judgment also means that the agency who filed the report — in this case, the Uvalde school district — did not “show up” to fight the appeal, said Soberon. The entire agency was disbanded in October, so the responsibility to reply to Arredondo’s appeal would have fallen on Interim Police Chief Josh Gutierrez when he was hired in November. Last week, the district began the process of reconstituting the police force, hiring two new school police officers under Gutierrez.
The Uvalde School District did not respond to repeated requests for additional information about the termination report or why Arredondo won his appeal by default.
Arredondo has repeatedly defended his actions on the day of the shooting. He called his firing a “public lynching” and said his actions during the tragedy saved lives.
Now that Carly Pearce is drawing the 29: Written in Stone chapter of her career to a close, she’s tipping her proverbial hat to the women who inspired her.
“Sonically, it was Patty Loveless, The Judds, Lee Ann Womack,” the Kentucky native reveals. “Lyrically, I think it was Adele, Loretta. I think I pulled from Tammy Wynette in the way that she sang in some of her songs and just the tear in her voice.”
“Alison Krauss & Union Station, sonically. Sonya Isaacs, musically, vocally, the way that she does all that stuff that I try really hard to do,” Carly laughs.
Of course, Sonya performed with Carly and Ricky Skaggs during November’s CMA Awards, as they sang “Dear Miss Loretta,” her tribute to the Coal Miner’s Daughter.
Currently, Carly’s “What He Didn’t Do” is just one spot away from country’s top five. Her concert album, 29: Written in Stone (Live from Music City), is set to arrive March 24.
In addition to reimagining 40 of their songs for their upcoming album Songs of Surrender, U2 have also reimagined the visuals to go with them.
On Tuesday, U2 posted a trailer on on its socials, captioned, “40 songs re-recorded by us, re-imagined by you. 40 artists and creators from across the globe were commissioned by the band to create a video piece for each track on Songs of Surrender.”
The trailer is soundtracked to the Songs of Surrender version of “Stories for Boys,” which originally appeared on U2’s 1979 debut release, the U2 3 EP and was then rerecorded for their 1980 debut album Boy.
You can track the release of all the visuals on a dedicated YouTube playlist, which so far contains the videos for “Pride (In the Name of Love” and “With or Without You.” Both those videos involve dance — although, according to the trailer, others are animated, others feature stunning landscapes, and some include special effects.
Songs of Surrender arrives March 17. Meanwhile, U2’s Las Vegas residency — focused on the songs from Achtung Baby — starts this fall.
