Incubus bassist Ben Kenney will miss the band’s upcoming shows in Costa Rica, Texas and New Orleans over the next week as he continues to recover from a medical procedure.
In a statement posted to their Twitter, the “Drive” rockers share that Tal Wilkenfeld, who’s played with artists including Mick Jagger, Prince and Jeff Beck, will be filling in for Kenney during the performances.
“We look forward to performing with [Wilkenfeld] on these shows!” Incubus writes. “We wish Ben a speedy recovery and can’t wait for him to rejoin us onstage soon!”
Incubus will next hit the road in May to play a run of dates including the Sick New World festival in Las Vegas and shows with Coheed and Cambria.
(BALTIMORE) — Baltimore County Public Schools failed to act on several state recommendations to help mitigate cyber attacks before a hack disrupted school operations and cost the school system millions of dollars in damages and repairs, according to a report from a state inspector general.
BCPS was hacked using a phishing email in November 2020 — a process that disrupted the school system’s website and remote learning programs for several days, according to the report from the Maryland Office of the Inspector General for Education.
The inspector general’s report found that the initial network compromise occurred 15 days before the network disruption and came in the form of an e-mail.
A teacher flagged the e-mail to the in-house tech support who forwarded the e-mail to a contracted tech support supervisor, according to the report.
“The OIGE investigation revealed that the contractor mistakenly opened the email with the attachment using their unsecured BCPS email domain account and not in their secured email domain. Consequently, opening the attachment in the unsecured environment served as the catalyst, which delivered the undetected malware into the BCPS IT network,” the report says.
The OIGE report says BCPS did not fully implement several network recommendations from the Maryland Office of Legislative Audits in recent audit reports, including the relocation of publicly accessible database servers and the adequate maintenance of internal network servers. BCPS has implemented an array of new network security measures since the cyber attack, the report says.
The report says the network upgrades and damages from the cyber attack cost BCPS nearly $10 million.
An investigation by the FBI and Homeland Security’s Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) is ongoing, the report says.
BCPS did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
(NEW BRUNSWICK, N.J.) — A 29-year-old New Jersey woman fraudulently posed as a high school student for several days after allegedly filing false documents, school officials and police said.
The incident was announced during a New Brunswick School Board meeting Tuesday night.
The woman attended New Brunswick High School for four days last week before staff uncovered the “ruse,” New Brunswick Public Schools Superintendent Aubrey Johnson said during the meeting. She was barred from district property and “all the appropriate authorities were immediately notified,” Johnson said.
“This is an unfortunate event,” he said.
The New Brunswick Police Department said Hyejeong Shin, of New Brunswick, was charged on Tuesday with one count of providing a false government document with the intent to verify one’s identity or age.
“Specifically, Ms. Shin provided a false birth certificate to the New Brunswick Board of Education with the intent to enroll as a juvenile high-school student,” the police department said in a statement.
Students in New Jersey are able to attend school on a provisional basis and have 30 days to confirm their identity before they’re declared ineligible to attend classes.
The woman gained provisional admittance to the high school last week after allegedly filing false documents last week, according to Johnson. Staff members discovered the “deception” during their vetting process, he said.
School officials contacted students who may have encountered the fake student, Johnson said.
“We have told our students to refrain from having any further contact with her either remotely or in person,” he said.
In light of the incident, the district is going to examine its enrollment processes to “better look for fake documentation,” he added.
The Middlesex County Prosecutor’s Office told ABC News it is not currently investigating the incident.
The New Brunswick Police Department did not immediately respond to a request for more information on the case, including a possible motive.
ABC News was unable to reach Shin or an attorney on her behalf.
(WASHINGTON) — The Department of Homeland Security is taking a victory lap as preliminary data released Wednesday shows a sharp decline in certain migrants crossing the border.
Border Patrol apprehensions of Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans are down 97% since December. The average number of migrant apprehensions from those countries — a key indicator of illegal migration — is at 115 per day, down from 3,367 per day at the beginning of December, according to the agency.
In the face of continued Republican criticism of “reckless” border policies, Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas said in a statement: “These expanded border enforcement measures are working.”
“It is incomprehensible that some states who stand to benefit from these highly effective enforcement measures are seeking to block them and cause more irregular migration at our southern border,” Mayorkas said.
The new data comes as a group of mostly GOP-led states is suing the Biden administration over its latest immigration policy initiative.
But the administration is crediting the migration decline to the simultaneous rollout of its border crackdown and parole programs for Cubans, Haitians and Nicaraguans.
Earlier this month, Mexico agreed to accept 30,000 unauthorized migrants a month from those three countries plus Venezuela while the U.S. committed to establishing a narrow parole pathway for 30,000 more each month.
“We realize that these are temporary solutions and not a permanent fix,” one senior administration official said Wednesday, stressing the need for action from Congress.
The parole program was an expansion of a prior process only for Venezuelan nationals that had been capped at a lower level. Now since Jan. 5, about 1,700 have been paroled into the U.S. through the expanded program while thousands more have been approved and are awaiting travel.
Owl City earned his first RIAA-certified Diamond song for his 2009 debut “Fireflies.” The song has officially sold over 10 million units and is now the second dance/electronic song to earn the honor.
Camila Cabello released the music video for “Ambulancia,” the collab she recorded with Latin singer Camilo.
Niall Horan told fans he has an announcement to make on Thursday. “I’ve been working really hard on my music over the last couple of years and it’s almost time to get things going now,” he teased on Instagram. “I have so much coming over the next few months so keep your eyes peeled for the first of many announcements.”
Doja Cat went from covering herself in red Swarovski crystals to wearing false eyelashes as eyebrows, a goatee and a mustache at Paris Fashion Week. She attended the Viktor & Rolf runway show and shared her look on Instagram. She accessorized with a pinstripe suit, and a ruffled white and green-striped shirt.
BLACKPINK‘s Lisa earned three new Guinness World Records. She is the first solo K-pop artist to win a MTV Video Music Award after taking home the VMA for Best K-Pop Video last year, an award BTS had previously dominated. She similarly made history by becoming the first solo K-pop artist to win at the MTV Europe Music Awards. She also boasts the record of being the most-followed K-pop artist on Instagram with 87 million followers.
Justin Timberlake warned actress Anna Kendrick about going on First We Feast’s Hot Ones series. She shared a teaser of the upcoming interview, where she revealed, “He did the show and he was like, ‘By the end of it, you feel drunk.'” Find out how Anna handled her hot sauce when the interview goes live Thursday.
A new book about Asia co-founder, singer and bassist John Wetton is in the works. John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life is being put together by his family and management, with input from over 70 people who were close to or worked with him.
The book will follow Wetton, who died in 2017, from the early days of his life through his work with bands like Family, King Crimson, Uriah Heep and Asia. It will feature contributions from Wetton’s fellow musicians, like Steve Howe, Rick Wakeman, Robert Fripp and Carl Palmer, with his Asia bandmate Geoff Downes writing the book’s preface.
Downes shares, “[Wetton] had a love for fast cars, fine food, coffee, the Rams (that’s Derby County for non-football followers), films, books, crosswords, current affairs, sport, languages, classical music – anything that would stimulate his mind that he could use to great effect in his music and lyrics.”
In addition to stories about Wetton’s friendships, problems and triumphs, the book will be filled with personal photos of him at home and at work.
So far John Wetton: An Extraordinary Life does not have a release date, but the book is now available for preorder at Johnwettonbook.com.
(NEW YORK) — A Florida woman was arrested Wednesday for orchestrating a yearslong romance scam that defrauded an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor.
Peaches Stergo began her alleged scheme in May 2017 and bilked the victim out of $2.8 million over the next four years, federal prosecutors said.
Stergo met the victim on a dating website and eventually asked him to borrow money to pay her lawyer, who she claimed was refusing to release funds from an injury settlement, according to the indictment. After the victim gave her the money, Stergo said the settlement funds had been deposited into her TD Bank account.
In reality, bank records show Stergo never received any money from an injury settlement.
The alleged lies continued over the next four years. Stergo is charged with one count of wire fraud, which carries a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison.
“Stergo deceived an 87-year-old Holocaust survivor, maliciously draining his life savings so she could become a millionaire through fraud. Stergo forged documents and impersonated a bank employee in exchange for a life of fancy trips, Rolex watches, and luxury purchases,” U.S. Attorney Damian Williams said in a statement.
Stergo, 36, of Champions Gate, Florida, repeatedly demanded the victim deposit money into her bank accounts. She claimed that if he did not, her accounts would be frozen and he would never be paid back. In total, the victim wrote 62 checks — totaling more than $2.8 million — that were deposited into Stergo’s bank accounts, the indictment said.
While the victim lost his life savings and was forced to give up his apartment, prosecutors said Stergo lived a life of luxury with the millions she received from the fraud. She bought a home in a gated community, a condominium, a boat and numerous cars, including a Corvette and a Chevy Suburban.
During the course of the fraud, Stergo also took expensive trips, staying at places like the Ritz Carlton, and spent many tens of thousands of dollars on expensive meals, gold coins and bars, jewelry, Rolex watches and designer clothing from stores like Tiffany, Ralph Lauren, Neiman Marcus, Louis Vuitton and Hermes, according to prosecutors and the FBI.
“Today we allege the defendant callously preyed on a senior citizen simply seeking companionship, defrauding him of his life savings,” the FBI’s Mike Driscoll said in a statement.
MacKenzie Porter will perform the track “One Night Left” with the Cheat Codes Monday on ABC’s Good Morning America. It’s one of the tracks from the LA-based trio’s One Night in Nashville record, which comes out this Friday.
You can check out the new video for Texan Randall King‘s “You In A Honky Tonk” now. It was shot in Cahoots Dancehall and Honkytonk in Lebanon, Tennessee, on the outskirts of Nashville.
Luke Bryan, Shania Twain and Zac Brown Band will headline this year’s Faster Horses Music Festival July 14-16 in Brooklyn, Michigan.
(NEW YORK) — Meta announced it is allowing former President Donald Trump back on Facebook and Instagram “in the coming weeks,” ending a two-year suspension.
Trump was locked out of his accounts on Facebook and Instagram on Jan. 7. 2021, in the wake of the Jan. 6 Capitol attack, over concerns that his posts were inciting violence. Facebook later said the suspension will hold for two years, at which point it would come under reassessment.
“The suspension was an extraordinary decision taken in extraordinary circumstances,” Meta President of Global Affairs Nick Clegg said in a statement Wednesday. “The normal state of affairs is that the public should be able to hear from a former President of the United States, and a declared candidate for that office again, on our platforms.”
“Now that the time period of the suspension has elapsed, the question is not whether we choose to reinstate Mr. Trump’s accounts, but whether there remain such extraordinary circumstances that extending the suspension beyond the original two-year period is justified,” the statement continued.
Clegg said Meta is instating “new guardrails,” and that Trump now faces “heightened penalties for repeat offenses.”
“In the event that Mr. Trump posts further violating content, the content will be removed and he will be suspended for between one month and two years, depending on the severity of the violation,” Clegg said.
Attorneys for Trump had recently written to executives of Meta requesting a meeting to discuss “prompt reinstatement to the platform,” according to a copy of the letter reviewed by ABC News.
The letter, which is addressed to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg and two other executives, claims the ban on Trump’s account “has dramatically distorted and inhibited the public discourse,” and represents “a deliberate effort by a private company to silence Mr. Trump’s political voice.”
Trump, who announced a third bid for the White House last year, responded to his reinstatement in a post on his social network Truth Social
“Such a thing should never again happen to a sitting president, or anybody else who is not deserving of retribution,” he said.
Trump did not indicate in the post if he intends to use Facebook or Instagram.
The former president was also permanently suspended from Twitter in the wake of the Capitol attack, with the social media site’s leadership at the time saying the ban was due to fears of further incitement of violence.
Elon Musk eventually reinstated Trump’s Twitter account in November 2022, after posting an online poll asking Twitter users if he should unban the former president.
Trump has not tweeted since being reinstated.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
Metallica bassist Robert Trujillo‘s son, Tye Trujillo, has announced a new album with his band OTTTO.
The upcoming record is titled Life Is a Game and will arrive March 24. You can listen to the single “My Pain” and watch its accompanying video streaming now on YouTube.
Life Is a Game is the sophomore OTTTO album, following the trio’s 2020 self-titled debut.
Last year, OTTTO toured with the band Bastardane, which features ‘Tallica frontman James Hetfield‘s son, Castor. Meanwhile, drummer Lars Ulrich‘s kids Myles and Layne also have a band, Taipei Houston.
