Primal Scream keyboardist Martin Duffy has died at age 55.
In a post shared on the “Movin’ on Up” outfit’s Instagram Tuesday, frontman Bobby Gillespie writes that Duffy passed on Sunday after he “suffered a brain injury due to a fall at his home.”
“We in Primal Scream are all so sad,” Gillespie shares. “Martin was a very special character. He had a love and understanding of music on a deep spiritual level. Music meant everything to him.”
Duffy played on every Primal Scream album beginning with their 1987 debut, Sonic Flower Groove, and officially joined the band in 1991. He previously was a member of the band Felt and also played with the group The Charlatans UK.
“He lived to laugh and play music,” Gillespie writes of Duffy. “He was loved by all of us in the Scream. A beautiful soul. We will miss him.”
Future‘s FreeWishes Foundation blessed families in metro Atlanta during its ninth annual Winter Wishland Christmas giveaway. The event took place over the weekend and saw many treated to a free shopping spree at Target.
“We’re here to make sure that some of the kids will be able to get some of the toys and personal hygiene items of their desire,” said Future’s mother, Stephanie Jester, CEO and co-founder of the foundation. “We understand that everyone just can’t go out and shop this year, so why not be a blessing to the families, especially when we’re blessed all year long.”
“Christmas has always been another opportunity to give and not receive for the foundation. We’ve been committed to giving back to those in need for over 10 years, especially in metro Atlanta and the neighborhood we grew up in, Kirkwood,” adds Future’s sister Tia Wilburn. She co-founded the foundation with Jester 13 years ago.
The Winter Wishland Christmas giveaway is one of many events the foundation hosts throughout the year. Jester and Wilburn have previously given out scholarships, hosted wellness events for senior citizens and brought free grocery pop-up markets to families for Thanksgiving.
Dave Grohl and Greg Kurstin cover Pink‘s “Get the Party Started” for night two of this year’s The Hanukkah Sessions.
The pop star, who is Jewish, joined the Foo Fighters frontman and the producer for a rendition of her 2001 single during the pair’s recent show at the Largo club in Los Angeles. Compared to Pink’s usual, often acrobatic arena show, the performance was much more minimalist, with her vocals accompanied only by Grohl’s drums and Kurstin’s keyboards, as well as some background singers, including Tenacious D‘s Jack Black.
You can watch the Hanukkah Sessions’ version of “Get the Party Started” streaming now on YouTube.
For TheHanukkah Sessions, which is now in its third year, Grohl and Kurstin release a cover of a song by a Jewish artist for each of the holiday’s eight nights. This year’s edition began with a version Blood, Sweat & Tears‘ “Spinning Wheel” featuring director Judd Apatow.
The last two Hanukkah Sessions spawned covers of artists including KISS, Beastie Boys, Bob Dylan, Drake, Lisa Loeb, Ramones, Amy Winehouse and Billy Joel.
(NEW YORK) — As the holiday travel rush begins, a major storm is expected to move from the West Coast to the East Coast, bringing heavy snow, blizzard conditions and damaging winds.
This week’s forecast
On Tuesday morning, the storm is hitting Seattle and the Pacific Northwest, dropping several inches of snow.
By Wednesday afternoon, snow and brutal cold will slam Denver to Minneapolis.
On Thursday, the snow moves into Kansas City, St. Louis and Chicago.
Snow totals could top 1 foot in parts of the Midwest.
On Friday, gusty winds will blow all that snow around and may produce blizzard conditions in the Heartland and Chicago. Major airport delays are possible.
Meanwhile, on the East Coast, heavy rain and damaging winds are possible Thursday night into Friday night. Winds gusts could reach 50 to 60 mph from Washington, D.C., to Boston. Major flight delays are possible.
Brutal cold
Behind this winter storm will be brutally cold air.
The temperature in Denver might remain below zero all day on Thursday, making it the coldest day in eight years.
In Montana, actual temperatures on Thursday are expected to be in the minus 40s, with a wind chill — what temperature it feels like — near minus 60 degrees. This could be the coldest air for the region in almost 40 years.
On Friday morning, the wind chill is forecast to plunge to minus 42 degrees in Minneapolis and minus 31 degrees in Chicago and Kansas City. On Christmas morning, the wind chill will be slightly more bearable with forecasts of minus 29 degrees in Minneapolis, minus 16 degrees in Chicago and minus 6 degrees in Kansas City.
This bitter cold moves into Texas, the Gulf Coast and Florida on Friday and will last through Christmas weekend. On Christmas morning the wind chill is forecast to be 24 degrees in Houston, 23 degrees in New Orleans and 32 degrees in Tampa.
In New York City, a brutal wind chill of 5 degrees is forecast for Christmas morning.
Terry Hall, lead singer of the influential British band The Specials, has died, the band announced on social media. He was 63. In addition to his work with that band, he also co-wrote The Go-Go‘s debut single, “Our Lips Are Sealed,” with his then-girlfriend, Jane Wiedlin.
The band writes that Hall, “our beautiful friend, brother and one of the most brilliant singers, songwriters and lyricists this country has ever produced,” has passed away “following a brief illness.”
The statement described Terry as “one of the kindest, funniest, and most genuine of souls,” adding, “His music and his performances encapsulated the very essence of life … the joy, the pain, the humour, the fight for justice, but mostly the love.”
The Specials were part of the United Kingdom’s two-tone movement, which blended Jamaican ska — an early form of reggae — with punk and new wave. They’re best known for songs like “Gangsters,” “A Message to You, Rudy,” “Free Nelson Mandela” and, most famously, “Ghost Town,” which captured the mood of the civil unrest and riots experienced in the U.K. in the summer of 1981.
Hall was also a member of Fun Boy Three, which he formed with two other Specials members after they’d left the group. During that time, Hall and Wiedlin had a brief affair and co-wrote “Our Lips Are Sealed,” which was first recorded by the Go-Go’s in 1981 on their debut album, Beauty and the Beat. It was then recorded by Fun Boy Three in 1983.
On Twitter, Wiedlin writes, “Gutted to hear of the passing of #terryhall. He was a lovely, sensitive, talented and unique person. Our extremely brief romance resulted in the song Our Lips Are Sealed, which will forever tie us together in music history. Terrible news to hear this.”
Sharon Osbourne is obviously back on her feet after being rushed to the hospital for a “medical emergency” over the weekend. As reported, The Osbournes matriarch fell ill while shooting a paranormal-themed show with her son Jack, who later updated the stay was brief, and his “mum” was back home.
Page Six reports former The Talk co-host Sharon was seen shopping at the James Perse store in Beverly Hills on Monday, and seemingly back to her feisty self: The publication noted she “seemed irritated” at the paparazzi who snapped her picture.
Osbourne later updated fans with a cheery Christmas tree picture on Instagram featuring a smiling Husky dog, noting, “Back home and doing great! Thank you for all the ❤️.” Amanda Klootz and Carrie Ann Inaba were among the first of tens of thousands to chime in with their relief in the replies.
Jack Osbourne noted on a now-vanished Instagram Story on Saturday that he was, “gonna leave it to [his mom] to share about when she is ready.”
Vertical Entertainment dropped the first official trailer for their new multi-generational rom-com Maybe I Do, starring Diane Keaton, Richard Gere, Susan Sarandon, Emma Roberts, Luke Bracey, and William H. Macy on Monday. The movie follows Michelle and Allen — played by Roberts and Bracey, respectfully — who need to decide if their relationship is heading towards wedding bells and decide to introduce their parents to each other. However, their parents already know each other well — intimately well. The film is slated to hit theaters January 27…
The milestone season 15 of RuPaul’s Drag Race will include a blast from the past, having contestants recreate the very first challenge from season 1, which saw the contestants pose for photos while being sprayed in the face with water. The 15th season will also have the biggest prize in the show’s history, standing at $200,000 and will include guest judges like Ariana Grande, Marin Morris, Ross Mathews, Ali Wong, Janelle Monáe, Julia Garner, and more. RuPaul’s Drag Race season 15 debuts Friday, January 6 on MTV…
On Monday, Disney’s Onyx Collective announced the film Bruiser, starring Trevante Rhodes and Jayln Hall, will premiere February 24 on Hulu. The short film, which debuted in theaters December 2, is a story “about fathers, families and the effects of toxic masculinity,” per the announcement. It tells the story of 14-year-old Darious — played by Hall — who “explores the boundaries of his manhood through tumultuous interactions with Malcolm, his strict but loving father, and Porter (Rhodes), a charismatic drifter. When Darious learns Porter’s true identity, he is thrust into a conflict between the two men that may rip his family apart and threaten his safety”…Disney is the parent company of ABC News…
Preliminary data placed the center of the quake along the Pacific coast about 7.5 miles away from Ferndale, California, USGS said. The quake was recorded at about 2:34 local time.
A tsunami wasn’t expected, according to the U.S. National Tsunami Warning Center, which reported the quake at a preliminary magnitude of 6.1.
More than 59,000 customers — about 60% of those in Humboldt County — had lost power as of about 3:30 a.m. local time, according to tracking website PowerOutage.us.
Power is out across the county,” officials said on Twitter, adding in all-caps: “Do not call 911 unless you are experiencing an emergency.”
The quake was large enough to trigger a “ShakeAlert” that was sent to cell phones by FEMA’s Wireless Emergency Alert System, USGS said.
“We hope everyone is safe and if you felt shaking or got an alert you took a protective action like Drop, Cover, and Hold On,” the agency said.
(NEW YORK) — Cryptocurrency has always been volatile, says one economics expert who spoke with ABC News. But 2022 was a stomach-churning, roller-coaster ride for investors and major players in the market.
The prices of popular cryptocurrencies plummeted throughout 2022. Moreover, some cryptocurrency companies and their founders are facing bankruptcy and even the threat of imprisonment.
Here are some of the events that shook the cryptocurrency world to its core in 2022:
Bitcoin, other currencies plunge
Some experts, including David Yermack, a professor of finance at the New York University Stern School of Business, say crypto’s free fall started after investors began selling off digital assets in response to the Federal Reserve’s interest rate hikes. The market took a nosedive after Celsius Network — a former cryptocurrency lending company — announced it was pausing all withdrawals and transfers between accounts in order to “honor, over time, withdrawal obligations.”
A drop in the crypto market in the first half of a year is not unusual, Yermack told ABC News.
“Cryptocurrency has been volatile throughout its history and has experienced a large number of sharp rises and falls,” Yermack told ABC News.
What really affected the market, he said, was the collapse of TerraUSD, a payment platform for so-called stablecoins.
‘Stablecoins’ take a hit
Stablecoins are a form of digital currency backed by another form of currency like the U.S. dollar or a commodity like gold, according to experts who spoke with ABC News. They are designed to be less volatile than other forms of cryptocurrency. But some of the heaviest-traded stablecoins saw a massive drop in value in 2022.
The most notable hit was the collapse of the Luna token and its associated TerraUSD stablecoin, said Yermack.
TerraUSD’s price “fell from $116 in April to a fraction of a penny” and the company had a market cap of over $40 billion, according to an analysis by CNET.
Yermack summed up why this particular collapse contributed to the crypto market’s crash.
The “Luna token and the TerraUSD stablecoin [were] two assets that were promoted by the same issuer and were linked to one another by a trading algorithm. Many people on the Terra platform had taken out loans in the stablecoin and posted the Luna tokens as collateral. When Luna’s value began to drop in the context of the overall market decline, it impaired the collateral for many of the stablecoin loans. Many of the borrowers, in turn, couldn’t repay these loans because they had used the stablecoins to purchase other investments that had themselves dropped in value. The interconnections among all of these transactions amounted to a ‘death spiral’ that dragged down Luna and TerraUSD simultaneously and had negative effects on many investors’ portfolios,” he said.
Bill Starkov, an NFT and crypto entrepreneur and founder of Apocalyptic Apes, LLC, who is known online as Fity.eth, said Luna’s demise was inevitable.
“If you looked at Luna and you watched it and you understood what it does, it was very inflated. It was very high,” he told ABC News.
Layoffs, bankruptcies plagued some of the most successful crypto companies
This past year saw the downfall of FTX, one of the largest cryptocurrency exchange platforms.
After raising multibillion dollars from investors, according to a complaint filed by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, FTX is in bankruptcy, and its 30-year-old founder, Sam Bankman-Fried, stands accused of defrauding investors and has since been arrested. Bankman-Fried faces numerous charges leveled by the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, which says FTX customer losses total $8 billion.
But FTX was not the only crypto company to crumble in 2022. BlockFi, a cryptocurrency lender, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in November.
Kraken, another previously high-valued cryptocurrency exchange and bank, recently announced it was reducing its workforce by 30% to “adapt to current market conditions.”
Crypto outlook for 2023
Cryptocurrency has always been a risky investment, according to economist and stockbroker Peter Schiff.
“I don’t think they have any underlying value,” Schiff, who also hosts The Peter Schiff Show Podcast, said about digital currency.
“There’s no real wealth that’s being created out of crypto,” he said. “Money is just transferring from the people who buy it to the people who sell it. And it’s not even a zero-sum game. It’s a negative game, because there’s so much cost, you know, that’s involved in the process. But it’s unfortunate that so much capital has been wasted and so many companies have been formed around crypto and blockchain. It’s all a complete waste.”
According to Yermack, one shouldn’t confuse crypto for what happened to FTX.
“FTX is an offshore operation run by very inexperienced people who seem to have behaved very badly,” he explained. “The fact that they were trading crypto is a little bit beside the point. They could have been trading real estate or stocks and bonds, or whatever. They had no accounting, no internal controls, they were very irresponsible with the money that was entrusted to them by their customers. But that’s not to say that everyone behaves that way in the crypto universe.”
Starkov said FTX’s crisis is “unfortunate because a lot of people got hurt.” But despite a tumultuous year for cryptocurrency, he says people have made money with crypto and that will keep attracting investors.
“If you look at where people bought [cryptocurrency] in from, they’re still on profit,” he said. “If you bought ETH at $80, $90 or if you bought Bitcoin at $1,000 $2,000, you’re still sitting at $17,000.”
Volatility and uncertainty, he said, is not endemic to cryptocurrency.
“We have the same thing with the stock market. We have the same thing with the real estate market,” he added.
(NEW YORK) — With a new year comes a host of new laws and regulations in states and cities across the country.
Residents and business leaders will have to abide by some major changes to their current policies following laws passed by state legislatures and ballot measures approved by voters. These laws deal with issues like raising the minimum wage, improving workplace pay transparency and legalizing marijuana.
Here are some of the notable new laws to hit the books next year:
Minimum wage
Twenty-six states will see their minimum wages rise starting Jan. 1.
The new salary floor comes following calls from workers’ rights groups, elected officials and others to increase wages for low-income workers.
Of the states that increased their minimum wages in 2023, Montana is the state with the lowest rate at $9.95 an hour, while Washington state is the highest at $15.74 an hour.
New York City, and its surrounding counties, will have a $15.00 minimum wage, which is 80 cents higher than the new minimum wage for the rest of the state, according to New York’s minimum wage laws.
Pay transparency
Two states are joining Oregon and New York City as locations that will require employees to post information about their salaries to prospective employees starting Jan. 1.
Under California and Washington state’s pay transparency laws, businesses and organizations with more than 15 employees must include a pay scale for any external job postings for non-employee applicants, including postings published by third parties.
The California law also requires employers who have over 100 employees to submit an annual report to the California Civil Rights Department that includes their organization’s pay data, the number of employees by race, ethnicity and sex for 10 specified job categories, and the mean hourly rates and summaries of earnings.
New legalized drug laws
Maryland and Missouri are slated to roll out their rules and regulations for legalized recreational marijuana for adults over 21.
Voters in both states, which currently offer medical marijuana to adults, passed ballot measures in November that approved the change.
As of Jan. 1, 21 states and the District of Columbia offer adult residents legalized recreational and medicinal marijuana.
In 2020, Oregon voters approved a ballot measure that made the state the first in the nation to legalize recreational psychedelic mushrooms, specifically Psilocybin. However, adult residents will only be allowed to use the drug in a supervised, state-approved center.
Starting Jan. 4, 2023, the Oregon Health Authority will begin accepting applications for Psilocybin manufacturers and the agency is expected to begin opening Psilocybin centers for residents later in the year.
Colorado voters also passed a ballot measure in the last election to legalize psychedelic mushrooms. While the substance won’t be available for some time as the state works out the specifics of its regulations, the state will decriminalize those substances by Jan 4. 2023, according to the Colorado Sec. of State’s office.
Criminal justice reform
Several states will implement changes to their criminal justice policies beginning Jan. 1.
Illinois is slated to become the first state in the union to end cash bail. Under the “SAFE-T Act,” courts will use “a more equitable system where pre-trial detention is based on community risk rather than financial means,” according to Gov. JB Pritzker’s office.
California will become the first state to restrict the use of rap lyrics in criminal investigations in 2023. Under the law, a judge will have to determine the admissibility of the lyrics in question as evidence, and whether they are directly linked to an alleged crime.
Several states will have new regulations that will expunge the records of former felons who don’t commit any crimes after they are released from prison.
Under Michigan’s new rules, up to two felony convictions will automatically be expunged 10 years after a person’s sentence is complete if they don’t commit another crime.
There are several exceptions, including felonies that involve sex crimes, and a felony conviction for domestic violence.
California will allow people with violent felony records to petition to have their records sealed if they completed their sentence and have not had a new felony offense in four years.
