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EPA chief provides update on air following East Palestine derailment

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(EAST PALESTINE, Ohio) — As the cleanup and investigation continues into the freight train derailment in East Palestine, Ohio, concerned residents have been pushing government officials for more answers on the state of the surrounding environment.

EPA Administrator Michael Regan spoke with GMA 3 about the latest updates Friday.

GMA3: We have a lot to talk about, so let’s get right into it. Why are you so confident that it’s safe for residents to go back to their homes? And what do you tell people who are still skeptical?

MICHAEL REGAN: First of all, I tell them I’m thankful for state, local and federal coordination and our emergency responders. There have been no loss of life or serious injuries because of this derailment. I understand people’s anxiety. I’ve spent time on the ground with families just yesterday and in the community. And I’m confident because we’ve deployed some of the highest technologies we have to monitor the air. We have mobile vans in and out of the community. We have stationary air monitors and we’ve been in nearly 500 homes testing the indoor air quality. So for homes that have been tested, we are confident that if your home has been tested and you’ve been given the green light, the air is safe. The state is leading on the testing of the water quality. And I trust what Gov. [Mike] DeWine is saying, which is if the state has tested your water and you’ve been given the green light, then that water is safe. But if the state has not tested your water, he is advising and the state is advising that the residents continue to use bottled water.

GMA 3: So, Mr.Administrator, you were in East Palestine yesterday. You say that you trust the science here, but as a father, would you keep your family there if this was your town? And what were you hearing from residents yesterday?

REGAN: I spent time in [a resident’s] home yesterday listening to her talk about her experience. And she has aging parents that she’s taking care of as well. I understand the concerns as a father, as a husband, as a son who has parents over the age of 70. All families should feel that their water is safe to drink and the air is clean and breathable in the homes that have been tested. And looking at the data of our advanced technology in terms of air quality monitoring, if I were in the community, I would return if state, local and federal government had cleared me to do so. I would not drink the water if the water had not been tested. But if the water has been tested, I trust what the science is saying.

GMA 3: Sir, let’s talk about some numbers here. This train had 141 freight cars with some carrying, of course, those extremely hazardous materials. It had three people on board. You had two rail workers and one trainee. Do you believe that’s enough when you’re transporting toxic chemicals?

REGAN: I don’t want to get out in front of a very serious investigation by NTSB and the Department of Transportation. But I think there are a lot of folks asking that question. I know D.O.T. is leading a very thorough investigation, and I know Congress is reevaluating that as well. What we want to stress is that we’ve been there since Day One. The president has talked to the governor, and the White House has been in constant contact with the governor, offering resources that span HUD, HHS, EPA [and] D.O.T. And so while this investigation continues, I think we all have to be there for the residents and assure them that the air is safe and the water is safe.

GMA3: And we know the investigation is happening now, but I think a lot of people want to know how will the rail company, Norfolk Southern, be held accountable and what can the federal government do?

REGAN: I’ve said it a couple of times and I’ll say it again: We will use all of our oversight and enforcement authority to be sure that Norfolk Southern is on the hook for the full cleanup and reimbursement of this community. I’m not the only one that feels that way. You know, the governor of Ohio feels that way. I was on the ground with Congressman [Bill] Johnson, whose district this occurred in and Sen. Sherrod Brown. There is state, local and federal unanimity here in terms of Norfolk Southern will be held accountable for this disaster.

GMA3: Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin of West Virginia said in a statement yesterday that, quote, “While I am glad EPA Administrator Regan will visit the site today, it is unacceptable that it took nearly two weeks for a senior administration official to show up.” Mr. Administrator, why did it take so long?

REGAN: I have to say that again, the emergency responders have done an excellent job, including my EPA staff, who have been on site since Day One, just hours after this disaster occurred. I think we have to be responsible here. And any time you send a senior official into a disaster area like this one, you take away resources from the emergency responders. You take away resources from the state highway patrol. You take away resources from state government. So we wanted to be sure that emergency responders stay focused on the task and ensure that no lives were lost and no serious injury occurred. And that’s what happened. And I was glad to be on the ground yesterday.

Wrongfully convicted man speaks out after governor’s full pardon

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Last month outgoing Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan issued a full pardon to John Huffington, who spent years in prison for a murder that he didn’t commit.

Huffington and his attorneys worked for years to get his conviction overturned, especially after DNA evidence exonerated him. In 2013 he took an “Alford plea,” which is a special type of plea by which the defendant asserts his innocence and does not admit to the charged act while acknowledging that a plea is in his best interest, according to his attorneys.

Huffington and his attorney Chong Park spoke with ABC News Live Thursday about the governor’s pardon.

ABC NEWS LIVE: John, you were released back in 2013 on a plea agreement, but that agreement still left a felony conviction on your record. At long last, your record is now clear. How has that changed your life from a practical standpoint and also emotionally?

JOHN HUFFINGTON: Well, from a practical standpoint, it sort of removes the neon sign above my head. There’s a full declaration of innocence pardon the governor, Larry Hogan of Maryland, gave me. [It] was a long journey to get to that point.

It’s definitely changed, and I’m still sort of absorbing it right now, how to, how it affects me personally.

ABC NEWS LIVE: Understood. Tell us what you’re doing right now and how you are coping.

HUFFINGTON: Work-wise, I work for a construction company, Holdings Management Company, and I basically do business development for that. And we have our own community foundation, the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation. I guess my career pathway since I’ve come home has always been in the nonprofit arena. I work with returning citizens. I do a lot in the realm of workforce development and job training. And then with the Kinetic Capital Community Foundation, I’m able to do more and work with marginalized communities and try to deal with financial inequities and things like that. So it’s been my passion. I’ve been fortunate enough to find a career that lets me give back and have some impact, I guess you could say. And so that’s what I enjoy doing.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And Chong would like to bring you in here briefly. Give our viewers some background on John’s case. He was tried and wrongfully convicted on two counts of first-degree murder back in 1981. A year later, a Maryland court of appeals reversed his conviction. And then what happened?

CHONG PARK: And then he was tried a second time. And unfortunately, he was convicted, put on death row. He spent 10 years on death row. He was re-sentenced to life. And then what happened was, in 1999, the prosecutor received a memo from the Department of Justice talking about one of the key pieces of evidence that was used to convict John, which was the expert testimony of FBI analysts that had done what he called microscopic hair analysis that said the hair that linked John to the crime scene, to the murders was a 99.9% match. But then main justice sent this prosecutor a memo in 1999 saying there are some serious deficiencies and that the FBI expert had testified beyond his expertise. And what did the prosecutor do with that memo? Nothing. It wasn’t until 2011 that a Washington Post reporter sent that memo to us at Ropes and Gray.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And John’s pardon ultimately took more than 40 years, more than 160 attorneys dedicated to overturning his conviction and proving his innocence. Do you have a message for others who are dealing with wrongful convictions?

PARK: Fight. Fight for people and fight to do the right thing. In this case, the prosecutor did not do the right thing. It took legions, as you said, 13,000 pro-bono [attorneys], free legal hours dedicated to getting John the justice he needed. It took the attorney grievance commission to take our ethics complaint and to prosecute the prosecutor for ethics violations. The highest court in Maryland now, the Maryland Supreme Court, then the Court of Appeals, unanimously set forth a decision barring Joseph Castelli, the prosecutor, only the fifth prosecutor in U.S. history, to be disbarred. And then finally, in January of this year, Gov. Larry Hogan gave John a full innocent pardon. And so it took a long time and it finally took people doing the right thing to achieve justice for John.

ABC NEWS LIVE: And John, just want to give you the last word here. We just heard from Chong and the perspective from an attorney as far as what one should do. But for the many people who are behind bars, who said, like you, they could go free if they just admitted to guilt. But then they’re saying, “Look, I actually didn’t do this, and so I’d rather fight my way out.” What would you recommend to that person behind bars?

HUFFINGTON: Well, to keep fighting, I mean, you know, you have to stand on your truth. That’s all we have. And my battle, you know, I could have taken the plead guilty deal and it would have been over. I could have let it stay with the [2013] plea, and it would have been over. But my quest was for my name. That was it’s kind of unfathomable to explain that to somebody that hasn’t experienced it. But when they take your name, they take everything. And I just, I had to keep fighting.

Bruce Springsteen introduced by George Strait at Austin show

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band brought their tour to Austin, Texas, Thursday night, which kicked off with a very special introduction. Rolling Stone reports that when The Boss walked out onstage at the Moody Center he was accompanied by none other than country legend George Strait.

“Austin, Texas!” Strait said. “It’s my honor tonight to introduce to you a band that really needs no introduction, right? Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band!”

Bruce responded, “Thank you, George. Good evening, Austin!”

As for the show, Bruce played a 27-song set, opening with “No Surrender,” as he has most nights of the tour. The set included tracks like “Cadillac Ranch,” “Rosalita (Come Out Tonight),” “Out in the Streets” and “Thunder Road.”

The show was down one E Street Band member, however, with saxophone player Jake Clemons, nephew of original E Streeter Clarence Clemons, out with COVID.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s next stop is Kansas City, Missouri, Saturday night.

Judi Dench explains her vision loss has made reading scripts “impossible”

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Legendary actress Judi Dench has been living with age-related macular degeneration for years now, but in a new appearance on The Graham Norton Show, she explains her conditioned has worsened to the point that reading new roles “has become impossible.”

According to People, Dench said she has a photographic memory and noted, “I used to find it very easy to learn lines and remember them. I could do the whole of Twelfth Night right now.”

Dench explained in a 2021 Guardian interview that she’s had to come up with other strategies to compensate for her eyesight, including having others read her lines to her. “I have to learn through repetition, and I just hope that people won’t notice too much if all the lines are completely hopeless,” she said.

On Friday’s installment of Norton’s chat show, she joked, “I need to find a machine that not only teaches me my lines but also tells me where they appear on the page.”

In spite of her issues, the stage and screen star and former James Bond series lead continues working, recently appearing in a cameo as herself in Ryan Reynolds‘ holiday musical Spirited. In 2022 she was nominated for an Academy Award for her performance in longtime friend and collaborator Kenneth Branagh‘s drama Belfast.

Her latest film, the play-adapted dramedy Allelujah, is about to be released in the United Kingdom.

Friday evening’s The Graham Norton Show with Dench also features Tony winner Hugh Jackman, Creed III star and director Michael B. Jordan, Schitt’s Creek star Eugene Levy, and Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania‘s Paul Rudd and Michael Douglas.

‘Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur’ hits Disney+ Friday

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Based on the comics following the same unlikely superhero duo, Marvel’s Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur comes to Disney+ Friday.

In the animated series, she’s a 13-year-old super genius named Lunella Lafayette and he’s a red T. rex named Devil Dinosaur that Lunella accidentally teleported into our time, who team up to fight evil in New York’s Lower East Side.

Diamond White plays the motor-mouthed teen, and the actress explained to ABC Audio that took a little getting used to. “In my everyday life, I speak very slowly because I have to get the words — I’m not as smart as Lunella. Lunella’s superpower is her brain, OK? My superpower is not my brain, but it’s my voice,” she laughs.

The actress adds, “I came to getting the vibe from this role through kind of looking at my 9-year-old self. Lunella’s 13, but I had to go a bit younger to get the whole, like, spazzy kind of like Moon Girl magic vibe.

Veteran voiceover actor Fred Tatasciore [TAHta-SHORE] has voiced everything from the evil Transformer Megatron to Yosemite Sam, but here he has to communicate only as a cartoon dinosaur can.

“Pretty soon you start to develop a lexicon, you know, and I mean a little language going on, you know?” the actor says. He demonstrates Devil’s speaking voice, which is a series of snarls, snorts and growls.

“It’s a wonderful vocal challenge,” he noted. “Peter Cullen, he actually invented the Predator voice, right? From an actor’s point of view and a vocal artist point of view, it’s the most fun to be able to try to paint colors and nontraditional colors with that texture.”

He adds with a laugh, “I call it a broken saxophone.”

Blondie drummer says they are playing England’s Glastonbury Festival

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

The full lineup for England’s Glastonbury Festival has yet to be announced, but it looks like Blondie will be on it, at least according to their drummer, Clem Burke.

During an appearance on Foxy Radio, Burke was talking about Blondie’s July show with Iggy Pop at Crystal Palace Park in London when he let it slip that the band’s booked for the famed festival.

“We’re also doing Isle of Wight and we’re doing some other festivals,” Burke said. “I guess it hasn’t really been announced, the full list of artists to be playing Glastonbury, but we are going to be playing Glastonbury, so maybe you got an exclusive there.”

Glastonbury Festival is happening June 21 to 25. So far the only artist officially confirmed for the festival is Elton John, who is headlining June 25.

Over 150 guitars owned by Fleetwood Mac’s Peter Green going up for auction

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

A huge auction of guitars once owned by original Fleetwood Mac member Peter Green is set to take place this summer. Guitarist reports The Peter Green Collection auction will happen through the auction house Bonhams from June 16 to 28, featuring over 150 electric and acoustic guitars once owned by the late Rock & Roll Hall of Famer.

“We hope that Peter’s guitars and other items included in the auction will be of great interest to his fans and find good homes,” says a rep from Green’s estate. The auction will also include “several important handwritten lyrics and some of his psychedelic sketches,” including a rare set of lyrics for Fleetwood Mac’s “Man of the World,” which Green wrote.

A full list of the guitars up for auction has yet to be announced, but some that have been confirmed include a 1999 Fender Custom Shop Stratocaster in sea foam green and a 1968 Gretsch White Falcon 6137. Some of the items are set to go on exhibit at the annual Guitar Show in Birmingham, England, happening February 25 to 28.

“Peter Green was one of the greatest guitarists,” said Bonhams’ director of popular culture department, Katherine Schofield. “Even when out of the limelight, the tributes paid to his playing throughout his lifetime continued to highlight his reputation and the esteem his fellow artists held him in. This sale is a celebration of his love for the guitar.”

Joan Baez opens up about new documentary ‘Joan Baez: I Am a Noise’

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

The new Joan Baez documentary Joan Baez: I Am a Noise premieres Friday at the Berlin Film Festival, and the legendary folk singer tells Variety she looks at the film as her “third memoir.”

“I’ve written one in my twenties, and one in my thirties,” the 82-year-old shares. “It’s probably what would’ve happened if I had written a memoir at this point in my life.”

The film follows Baez on her 2018 Fare Thee Well final concert, combined with footage from Baez’s vast personal archives, touching on subjects like the child abuse she endured from her father, as well as her relationship with Bob Dylan, who she says “broke her heart.”

Asked if she is still in touch with Dylan, she says “not really,” adding, “But it so much doesn’t matter. Whatever resentment I might have had hanging on there [inside myself] for all those years” is in the film.

She says she actually wrote Dylan a letter telling him she was over it, sharing, “I just wanted him to know how much he meant to me. How much his music had meant to me. And I may never see him again, and that’s okay too.”

As for whether Baez has really given up performing for good, it sounds like she has no intention of going back on her decision. She says of the two guitars she used on tour, one was given away and the other is hanging on her wall: “I haven’t touched it since the end of the last tour.”

“I came home, and I never played the guitar again,” she says. “I hung it up on the wall, and I’ve sung under duress a few times, but not really, I just went into other things. I’m drawing and painting.”

Celtics legend Paul Pierce pays $1.5 million penalty for promoting crypto without disclosing payment

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Celtics legend Paul Pierce pays .5 million penalty for promoting crypto without disclosing payment

(NEW YORK) — Basketball Hall of Famer Paul Pierce has come to a settlement after he touted EMAX tokens, crypto asset securities offered and sold by EthereumMax, on social media without disclosing the payment he received for the promotion, the Securities and Exchange Commission said Friday.

“Pierce did not disclose that he was being compensated by the entity offering and selling the security for giving the crypto asset security publicity,” the SEC order said.

Pierce also made false and misleading promotional statements, the SEC said.

Pierce, 45, agreed to settle the charges and pay $1.4 million in penalties, disgorgement and interest.

“This case is yet another reminder to celebrities: The law requires you to disclose to the public from whom and how much you are getting paid to promote investment in securities, and you can’t lie to investors when you tout a security,” said SEC Chair Gary Gensler. “When celebrities endorse investment opportunities, including crypto asset securities, investors should be careful to research if the investments are right for them, and they should know why celebrities are making those endorsements.”

Pierce failed to disclose he was paid more than $244,000 worth of EMAX tokens to promote them on Twitter, according to the SEC’s order. Pierce also tweeted misleading statements related to EMAX, including a screenshot of an account showing large holdings and profits without disclosing that his own personal holdings were in fact much lower than those in the screenshot.

“Despite the claim in this Tweet that he ‘made more money with this crypto in the past month then [sic] [he] did with [ESPN] in a year[,]’ Pierce was at least negligent in not knowing that this statement was materially misleading. Pierce, whose gross compensation from ESPN was over $1 million the prior year, only received EMAX tokens two days prior to the post, the value of which was approximately $46,000 at the time he was paid,” the SEC order said.

Pierce, who worked as a commentator, was let go by ESPN in 2021 after posting offensive photos from a poker game.

The shooting guard played 19 seasons in the NBA, including 15 with the Boston Celtics, where he won a title in 2008. He made 10 All-Star Games and was inducted into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2021.

He’s just the latest in a number of prominent celebrities to end up paying huge fines for promoting crypto on social media without disclosing their personal interest in the brands. Kim Kardashian settled with the SEC for $1.26 million for promoting EMAX tokens in October 2022.

Disney is the parent company of both ESPN and ABC News.

Cardi B and Offset release McDonald’s merch

February 17, 2023 by WDNY Radio

Cardi B and Offset‘s McDonald’s collaboration goes beyond the limited-edition meal the couple’s been advertising. It now includes a 34-item merch collection, which includes T-shirts, hoodies, shorts and head gear.

Released Friday, the merchandise is available on cardiboffset.com. The exclusive collection will only be on sale for four days.

Cardi B and Offset’s Golden Arches merch drop comes days after their special meal was added to the menu. Promoted in ad during Super Bowl LVII, the franchise’s first celebrity duo meal is designed for date night purposes and includes a Quarter Pounder with Cheese, cheeseburger, barbecue sauce, large fries, apple pie, a large Hi-C Orange Lavaburst and a large Coca-Cola.

“Whether it’s going for a date night or grabbing a bite after late-night studio sessions … I’m always asking Offset to take me to McDonald’s. And now, Offset and I have a meal named after us!” Cardi B said. “I want all my fans to try it – especially with that BBQ sauce.”

Offset added in his own statement, “Let me tell you, McDonald’s is date night done right … It doesn’t have to be all boujee. Get your date, grab some good food, and have fun, that’s it.”

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