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Brazilian soccer legend Pelé dead at 82

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Brazilian soccer legend Pelé, a three-time World Cup champion who’s largely considered to be one of the best players ever, has died. He was 82 years old.

His daughter, Kely, confirmed his death on social media.

“All that we are is thanks to you,” she wrote. “We love you forever. Rest in peace.”

Brazil has planned 48 hours of national mourning. Pele is expected to be buried in Santos, southeast of Sao Paulo, where he played club soccer from 1956 to 1974.

Pelé had been in and out of the hospital over the past year as he fought colon cancer. In November, Albert Einstein Hospital in Sao Paulo announced that his cancer had advanced and that he was in palliative care.

Albert Einstein Hospital confirmed Pelé died at 3:27 p.m. local time from multiple organ failure as a result of colon cancer.

The soccer star, whose real name was Edson Arantes do Nascimento, was hospitalized in December 2021 shortly after undergoing chemotherapy to treat a reported colon tumor. He had posted on Instagram that he was recovering.

Over the past year, Pelé had dismissed fears over his health and continued to thank fans for their support.

“Dear friends, it’s been a while since we talked about this. I want to let you know that I’m fine. I feel better every day. I don’t think even the mask for my protection can hide my happiness. Thank you very much to all of you who send me good energy daily,” he wrote in a November 2021 post on Instagram.

Named FIFA co-Player of the Century in 1999 along with Diego Maradona of Argentina, Pelé spent his retirement as a global ambassador for the sport and devoted to other humanitarian causes. In 2020, when Maradona died, Pelé remarked, “One day, I hope we can play football together in the sky.”

Pelé was born on Oct. 23, 1940, in the town of Tres Coracoes in the southern Brazilian state of Minas Gerais. His parents named him after U.S. inventor Thomas Edison. Pelé’s father, João Ramos do Nascimento, nicknamed Dondinho, was also a professional soccer player.

The young Edson received the nickname Pelé in school when schoolmates mocked his pronunciation of the popular Brazilian goalkeeper Bilé, he explained in a 2016 column for The Players’ Tribune.

He began playing at 13 with a youth team in Bauru. He was scouted by the Brazilian club Santos at 15 and began playing professionally with the team.

At just 17, he emerged as a superstar with his performance during Brazil’s victorious 1958 World Cup, and he played his entire career in Brazil with Santos.

Pelé won two additional World Cup titles — in 1962 and 1970 — before ending his storied career with the New York Cosmos in 1977.

His last game on Oct. 1, 1977, an exhibition game between the Cosmos and Santos, was played before a sellout crowd at Giants Stadium. The game was televised on ABC’s “Wide World of Sports.”

He later starred in John Huston’s 1981 World War II sports film “Escape to Victory” alongside Sylvester Stallone and Michael Caine.

A biopic about his life, “Pele: Birth of a Legend,” was released in 2016.

Pelé is largely credited for sparking interest in the game in the United States during the 1970s, a legacy that lives on to this day.

He is survived by wife Marcia Aoki, as well as seven children: Brazilian soccer coach and former player Edson Cholbi do Nascimento, better known as Edinho; daughter Sandra Regina Machado Arantes do Nascimento; soccer player Joshua Nascimento; son Celeste Arantes do Nascimento; and three other daughters, Kely Cristina Nascimento, Flávia Christina Kurtz Nascimento and Jennifer Nascimento.

David Lee Roth compares relationship with Eddie Van Halen to “love affair”

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

David Lee Roth is opening up about his relationship with his late Van Halen bandmate Eddie Van Halen, who passed away in October 2020.

In the latest episode of his The Roth Show podcast, Roth shares, “My dear departed Ed. Boy, I miss him. I had a ball with Ed.”

As for their working relationship, Roth notes, “Walt Disney once said, ‘You know what? My love affair with Mickey Mouse was better than any love affair with a woman I ever had,’” offering, “I’ve gotta tell ya: playing with Ed, writing songs with Ed, presenting those songs with Ed was better than any love affair I ever had.”

He adds that some of the tunes they made together in Van Halen “might last forever – or until the last syllable of time, like Shakespeare said. They became anthems.”

Kate Winslet on being welcomed to Pandora by ‘Avatar”s original stars

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

20th Century Studios

While jumping into the long-awaited sequel to the highest-grossing movie of all time might have been intimidating, Avatar: The Way of Water star Kate Winslet says she found the water just fine.

The two-time Oscar winner reunited with writer-director James Cameron — who steered her as the captain of Titanic, the one-time all-time box office champ — and credits him and the 2009 original’s stars, Zoe Saldaña and Sam Worthington, with making her feel at home on Pandora.

“You know, Zoe and Sam, what they did the first time around was to create that heartbeat,” Winslet explained at a press event.

She continues, “You know, it’s one thing for Jim to write it. It’s quite another to find it and to give it a life and a pulse and real blood in those veins. And … it’s really, really extraordinary to be around that. It’s not a performance. It’s not things they came up with on the day. It is a universe. It is a love. It is something that is palpable. And you feel it.”

Winslet adds that while Pandora — and even her character, the fearless matriarch Ronal — are brought to life onscreen thanks to computer wizardry, the world was already very much alive. “You step into that space, it’s an empty space, but it is absolutely loaded with truths and dynamics and pulses that these guys built … And it’s honestly very, very special to have been part of it.”

Avatar: The Way of Water has grossed over $1 billion and counting after its debut in the States December 16.

Investigation underway after man dies in Connecticut jail

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SOUTH WINDSOR, Conn.) — The Connecticut Office of the Inspector General announced it is launching an investigation into the death of a man in police custody in South Windsor.

Kevin Doherty, 55, of Boston, was arrested by South Windsor police on Dec. 23 on family violence charges and was being held on $250,000 bond, according to the inspector general’s office.

In surveillance footage posted by the inspector general’s office, Doherty appears to stand up from his bed and is red in the face. He appears to get on the ground and lay on his side while he is shaking. Shortly after, he can be seen falling onto his back and lying still.

Dispatchers noticed Doherty “in apparent distress in the South Windsor Police Department holding facility” around 12:20 p.m. on Monday, according to the inspector general. Officers responded to the alert regarding Doherty’s condition and found him unresponsive.

They began CPR procedures and transported Doherty to Manchester Hospital where he was pronounced dead just over one hour later, according to officials.

The South Windsor Police Department is cooperating with the investigation, according to the office of the inspector general, and Police Chief Kristian Lindstrom has extended “thoughts and prayers to the Doherty family.”

The Connecticut Office of the Chief Medical Examiner has yet to determine the manner of death.

The investigation, conducted by the Connecticut Department of Emergency Services and Public Protection and the Connecticut State Police Eastern District Major Crime Squad, in conjunction with the office of the inspector general, is ongoing.

The South Windsor Police Department directed ABC News’ request for comment to the inspector general’s office.

Arizona recount shows Democrat Kris Mayes beat Republican Abe Hamadeh

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(PHOENIX) — Democrat Kris Mayes is the winner of Arizona’s attorney general race, a state judge announced Thursday.

Mayes defeated Republican Abraham Hamadeh by 280 votes after a mandatory recount was triggered due to how close they were separated after the initial tally in November, when Mayes led by roughly 500 votes out of 2.5 million cast.

Maricopa County Superior Court Judge Timothy Thomason unveiled the results of the recount in a hearing on Thursday.

Mayes’ lead from November was nearly halved in the recount. The results showed she had 1,254,809 votes to Hamadeh’s 1,254,529 votes.

Mayes’ victory is another win for Democrats this midterm cycle against candidates who endorsed former President Donald Trump’s election denialism. In Arizona, a traditionally red state, Democrats defeated GOP election deniers in races for Senate, governor, secretary of state and now attorney general.

“I will say once again that I’m thankful to everyone who took their time to vote, and democracy is truly a team sport,” she said after the results were announced. “I’m thankful for my campaign, transition and legal teams. I’m excited to get to work as your next Attorney General and vow to be your Lawyer for the People. Onward…”

Hamadeh, who was backed by Trump, denied the legitimacy of the 2020 election.

In late November, he sued Mayes and a range of state officials alleging there were procedural and tabulation errors that, if corrected, would make him victorious.

The lawsuit was thrown out last week by Mohave County Superior Court Judge Lee Jantzen, who said Hamadeh failed to prove the errors he claimed happened. Hamadeh’s attorney also acknowledged he hadn’t gained enough votes during the litigation to change the outcome of the contest.

After the lawsuit was tossed, Hamadeh said he would wait for the results of the recount before deciding “next steps,” but continued to maintain the election was mishandled.

Following the announcement of the recount results, Hamadeh again claimed discrepancies and questioned the outcome of the race. He wrote on Twitter, “We MUST get to the bottom of this election. Transparent elections are fundamental to a democracy.”

Mayes celebrated the case’s dismissal last week and said she believed the results of the mandatory recount would still show her ahead of Hamadeh.

“The will of Arizona voters will not be undermined,” she said at the time.

Mayes, a former member of the Arizona Corporation Commission and a former Republican, campaigned heavily on reproductive rights and voting rights. She’s vowed not to prosecute abortion ban violations and to pursue threats to election workers.

Judge Thomason on Thursday also announced the recount results of two other tight races for state superintendent and for a state legislative seat. Republican Tom Horne won the race for superintendent of public instruction and Republican Liz Harris won the state legislative seat for House District 13.

The Weeknd teases big plans for 2023

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The Weeknd reflected on his ultra busy 2022 and teased 2023 will be even greater.

Taking to Instagram, the singer shared a collage of all the projects he took on over the past year. Among the many achievements he enjoyed in 2022, highlights included him releasing his Dawn FM album, his cameo on The Simpsons, launching his sold-out After Hours til Dawn Stadium Tour, getting a kitten and performing an original song for the new Avatar: The Way of Water movie.

After walking down memory lane, The Weeknd turned his sights on the new year and released a trailer recounting his sold-out tour to preview what’s to come. “xo bout to F*** up 2023,” he warned in the caption.

A fan responded to the clip by asking the artist how he feels about Dawn FM being almost a year old.

He cryptically responded, “i feel istheresomeoneelsemusicvideo-ish” — thus sparking theories that he’ll soon release a cinematic visualizer for his album’s 10th track, “Is There Someone Else?“

As for what else he has up his sleeve, we will just have to wait and see.

How a stranger helped three Buffalo nurses get to work during the historic storm

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — When the historic Buffalo, New York, storm stranded nurses at home, they turned to a stranger in a snowmobile club to give them an unconventional ride to work.

Ally Mederer, an ICU nurse at Buffalo General Medical Center, spent days trapped in her house during the deadly storm.

“I’ve lived in Buffalo my whole life,” she told ABC News. “I have never seen anything to this extent.”

But while Mederer was at home, some of her coworkers were stuck at the hospital.

“They had worked anywhere from 50 to 60 hours straight with minimal relief in the hospital, so we just felt awful for them,” she said.

Mederer’s colleague turned to social media, asking if someone had a way to help three nurses get to work.

She said they found a man who was a friend of one of the nurse’s dads. He was in a snowmobile club and had a “snow groomer” machine, which can shape trails for snowmobiles.

The nurses agreed to the unusual ride.

“We were like, ‘Whatever it takes, let’s get there,'” Mederer said.

“We obviously were a little nervous,” she added. “Until we actually physically got there, I didn’t think that there was any way it was going to happen. Even by the time we got picked up in the snow groomer, we weren’t sure what we were going to see on the streets — none of us had been out.”

Once they arrived at the hospital, she said “our coworkers were just ecstatic” to have the chance to go home.

“They had been working so many hours painlessly with no break, and they needed people to come relieve them, and they needed to try and get home to their loved ones,” Mederer said.

Mederer said she’s grateful for her Buffalo neighbors who are coming to one another’s aid.

“There are so many people out there right now like Rich McNamara, the one who drove the snow groomer. They’re literally putting their lives at stake for random strangers like me,” she said.

Buffalo “really is the city of good neighbors,” Mederer said.

ABC News’ Caroline Rotante contributed to this report.

Buffalo braces for possible flooding as temperatures rise after major storm

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — Residents of western New York are going from shoveling snow to filling sandbags as a historic blizzard that killed at least 39 people in metropolitan Buffalo gives way to a big meltdown with temperatures forecast to soar.

A record 51 inches of snow over the Christmas weekend paralyzed New York’s second largest city, which is now facing fears of flooding as the mercury is expected to climb into the 50s on Friday, according to the National Weather Service.

The warm-up has already started, with Buffalo hitting a relatively balmy 40 degrees Thursday morning.

With mountains of snow piled up in Buffalo and surrounding communities in Erie County, New York Gov. Kathy Hochul has made additional resources available from the state’s stockpile, including 775,000 sandbags and 312 generators to help communities cope with the radically changing weather.

“As we turn the corner on this historic winter storm, New York State is continuing to stay prepared ahead of potentially dangerous flooding conditions,” Hochul said in a statement Wednesday. “Our state agency personnel and local emergency responders have been coordinating throughout the storm, and we will continue to do everything we can to protect Western New Yorkers and help our communities recover.”

The weekend blizzards sent Buffalo’s seasonal snow total to over 100 inches, the most the city has ever gotten this early in the season, and it’s already surpassed its average annual snowfall mark of 89 inches.

The blizzard came after a monster lake-effect storm in November dumped 77 inches of snow on the area and prompted a state of emergency Erie County.

Hochul has called the Christmas weekend storm the “blizzard of the century” and the deadliest in the region since the Blizzard of 1977. President Joe Biden approved a federal emergency declaration in New York Monday evening.

Thirty-seven of the 40 New York deaths are in Erie County, which includes the city of Buffalo, Mark Poloncarz, the executive of Erie County, said Thursday. One storm-related death was reported in neighboring Niagara County, officials said.

Poloncarz said 31 of the deaths in Erie County occurred in the city of Buffalo. Seven of the deaths occurred in the Buffalo suburb of Cheektowaga, he said.

Among the storm-related causes of death confirmed by the Erie County Medical Examiner’s Office were three people who suffered heart attacks while shoveling or blowing snow; 17 people succumbed to the elements outside, three died due to an EMS delay and nine deaths were the result of people having no heat in their homes, Poloncarz said.

A driving ban that had been imposed in Buffalo during the snowstorm was lifted just after midnight Thursday as snow-removal crews worked to clear city streets.

Cropping out with the Kardashians? Christmas photo draws Photoshop hisses

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

When the Kardashian clan drops photos on Instagram — which is obviously often — some snarkers analyze them like the Zapruder film.

In the past, Kim, Khloé, Kendall Jenner and the rest of the clan have weathered claims they’ve Photoshopped themselves to an impossible standard — but you wouldn’t think that would be the case with a friendly Christmas photo.

Wrong.

“Every single jawline is photoshopped looks like there [sic] heads been cut an [sic] pasted on,” one follower commented of the pic of Khloé, Kim and Kourtney Kardashian and Kylie, Kris and Kendall Jenner, shoulder to shoulder, dressed to the nines.

“Why do their faces all looked photoshopped in the picture like none of them were actually there?” asked another.

One user posed the question, “Did they just take everyone’s favorite picture and paste it all together?”

Another user got more than skin deep, saying of the stars’ serious expressions, “With all they have they are apparently missing happiness.”

For all the sniping, however, the photo was liked more than 5.4 million times.

Find My iPhone leads to car crash rescue in California

December 29, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(SAN BERNARDINO, Calif.) — A California woman was saved after her car crashed off a 200-foot cliff on Christmas Day thanks in part to her iPhone’s location tracking feature, the San Bernardino County Fire Department said.

The woman likely crashed her vehicle driving home from a family gathering overnight on Christmas Day, according to a press release from the fire department. Family members grew concerned when they didn’t hear from her on the morning of Dec. 26, so used her phone’s tracking functionality to see it was located off the side of a California highway, the release said.

Apple products are sold with software called Find My, which can be used to track Apple products or other people’s products with their consent.

After locating the woman on the app, the family called 911 to report an accident, which prompted firefighters to find the car off California Highway 18. The fire department said the vehicle was 200 feet below the roadway on its side, and they began staging a rescue around roughly 7 a.m.

Firefighter-paramedic crews located one female adult in the car with serious injuries. Photos provided by the fire department show paramedics attending to the severely injured woman, whose body was resting through the front windshield of the mangled car.

Firefighters used specialized urban search and rescue equipment including a rope system and capstan raising system to haul both the injured woman and the firefighter-paramedics to the road, the department said.

The section of California Highway 18 where the car and woman were found is north of San Bernardino and does have metal guardrails.

The woman was transported to a local trauma center after being loaded into an ambulance.

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