(NEW YORK) — Ninety flights are canceled across the country on Monday, including 36 in Boston, as winter storms wreak havoc on roadways.
Up to 6 inches of snow hit near Hartford, Connecticut, and Scranton, Pennsylvania.
Up to 9 inches of snow slammed western Massachusetts and upstate New York.
In the west, a weekend storm dropped up to 5 feet of snow in California’s Sierra Nevada mountain range and heavy rain fell from the Bay Area to Los Angeles.
That West Coast storm is now moving east and forecast to bring blizzard conditions to the Heartland and a tornado threat to the south.
Five states — South Dakota, Nebraska, Wyoming, Montana and eastern Colorado — are under blizzard warnings, as the combination of falling and blowing snow are expected to create whiteout conditions.
Snowfall totals in the Plains and the Heartland could reach 1 to 2 feet.
Tuesday will be the big day for damaging winds, large hail and tornadoes in the south. Strong tornadoes are possible from Lufkin, Texas, to Alexandria, Louisiana.
On Wednesday, the severe weather threat moves into the Gulf Coast. Damaging winds will be the biggest threat from New Orleans to Tallahassee.
That storm system will move into the Northeast later in the week, bringing heavy snow inland and rain to the coast by Thursday and Friday.
Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga, Rihanna and Selena Gomez are among the music stars who received Golden Globe nominations on Monday morning.
Of the four, Selena is the only one to capture an acting nod: She’s up for Best Actress in a TV Series, Musical or Comedy, for her role as Mabel in Hulu’s Only Murders in the Building.
Taylor, Gaga and Rihanna, meanwhile, are all nominated for Best Original Song for a Motion Picture. Taylor’s nominated for “Carolina,” her song for Where the Crawdads Sing, while Rihanna is nominated for co-writing “Lift Me Up,” from Black Panther: Wakanda Forever. Lady Gaga is nominated for co-writing “Hold My Hand,” from Top Gun: Maverick.
Of the three, Lady Gaga is the only one who’s won in this category before, for “Shallow,” from A Star Is Born. Taylor has been nominated but has never won, while this is Rihanna’s first nomination.
Their competition includes the songs “Naatu Naatu” from the Indian film RRR, and “Ciao Papa,” from Guillermo del Toro’s Pinocchio.
The 2023 Golden Globes will air January 10 on NBC and Peacock. That’s a Tuesday, since the scandal-prone awards show has lost its prime Sunday night slot. The show was dropped by NBC this past year and boycotted by celebrities because of the lack of diversity among the show’s organizer, the Hollywood Foreign Press Association. The HFPA’s process was also called into question.
(HAMPTON, Va.) — Incoming freshmen at Virginia’s Hampton University will be the recipients of a large-scale school donation through the digital investing platform Stackwell Capital aimed at decreasing what research has shown is a yawning racial wealth gap.
According to Federal Reserve data, white households hold on average eight times more wealth than Black households, with that figure more than doubling for millennials and members of Gen Z.
Stackwell Capital — with that discrepancy in mind, its leaders and the university says — will be helping to provide each of the roughly 860 students in the class of 2026 at Hampton, a historically Black university, with a funded investment account coupled with a free financial literacy course available for all students and their families.
The first-year students will be able to start signing up for their accounts on Dec. 19 and, once they sign up using their Hampton accounts, at least $25 seeded with funds from a donation from the school will be loaded on within a few days.
“The biggest contributing factor to a person’s ability to build wealth is in fact time,” Stackwell’s co-founder and CEO Trevor Rozier-Byrd told ABC News. “That’s why we’re starting with freshmen in college because if they start now, the impacts for them, their families and generations to come will be massive.”
Rozier-Byrd, an asset management professional, said he believes the racial wealth gap is the greatest modern social justice issue. He said he is bringing his years of experience in financial markets to communities that have historically had the most acute racial income gaps.
Therefore, he said, some of Stackwell’s latest initiatives include providing investment education to Black communities across the Washington metropolitan region — where white households hold 81 times more wealth than Black households, according to the DC Fiscal Policy Institute — in part by teaming with professional basketball organizations like the Washington Wizards.
Last month, Stackwell also partnered with billionaire Robert Smith’s Student Freedom Initiative and Prudential Financial on a national investment program for historically Black colleges and universities (HBCUs) and minority-serving institutions.
“Developing relationships with HBCUs is important for us,” Rozier-Byrd said, as is “promoting the sense of confidence and empowerment to believe that this is something that they [HBCU students] can do and something that they can be successful with the right tools and support around them.”
Hampton freshman Joshua Elias Hoover, 18, said he started investing when he was 13. Hoover told ABC News he was excited for the Stackwell program because he and his peers won’t have to stress quite as much over budgetary concerns.
“I’m so happy we’re doing it because a lot of students need this,” said Hoover, a journalism major and minister in training from Louisiana. “It’s going to save us a lot of worry when we want to get some DoorDash or something like that and we’re scared because we’re trying to spend our own money that we’ve built over time. But with this set in stone, we have money we can actually budget and think thoroughly and analyze the importance of saving,” he added.
Hampton University President Darrell K. Williams is an alum and former “Mister Freshman.” He said he regrets not investing when he was his students’ ages but calls Monday’s announcement a chance for the Hampton Pirates to “get ahead of the game.”
“Start now,” he told ABC News. “The earlier you start, the smaller amounts of money you need to invest to achieve phenomenal results over time — don’t wait like I did, until two or three years after I graduated from college.”
Rozier-Byrd learned from his experiences too, and is paying it forward.
“Part of the way that I was able to pay back my [law school] student loans was by investing in the market,” he said. “There are a myriad of ways in which they [students] can address the financial challenges of college affordability and their ability to go to school, get a great education and pursue the careers that are aligned with their interests and their dreams.”
Williams lauded Stackwell’s involvement, saying it is elevating the student experience at Hampton — an HBCU widely considered among the “Black Ivy League” — not only for the investment accounts but also for the financial wellness of alums and their families.
“What we really hope is that one day, through this financial literacy program, some of our graduates will go out and become among the wealthiest people in America,” Williams said. “They will sow those financial seeds and the other legacy seeds back into the students who will be at Hampton 20 years from now. So this is not just about today. We understand how this will transform Hampton University, the communities that all of these students will go back to and eventually the world.”
A free, 10-hour virtual financial literacy course from the Society for Financial Education and Professional Development is already available at Hampton that the university is placing “phenomenal emphasis” on, Williams said.
Rozier-Byrd said Stackwell adds to that instruction.
“We believe that this can be a powerful tool to helping people meet their long-term financial goals and objectives, and we want to make sure that we’re continuing to invest in the future advancement of students on Hampton’s campus,” he said.
(NEW YORK) — Justice Brooks is 19 years old and a majority of his lifetime has been spent searching for a bone marrow donor.
“I always knew that I had a medical condition and that … my life was a little bit different,” Brooks told Good Morning America.
Brooks was diagnosed with sickle cell disease when he was 11 months old. His mother Raychelle Brooks said she knew early on that something was not right.
“My child was so swollen, his face was glassy, and when I touched him, he moaned,” said Raychelle Brooks. “I was crying because my touch would make him cry louder.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, sickle cell disease is made up of a group of inherited red blood cell disorders, when abnormal protein in the blood causes red blood cells to become hard, sticky and like a C-shaped farm tool called a “sickle.” As a result, the blood cells will get stuck and clog blood flow, causing severe pain.
Dr. Michelle Schoettler is a pediatric hematologist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta and treats patients with the disease. She said many of her patients report pain outside of the widely-used 1 to 10 pain scale.
“Many of my patients would say they have pain at 11 – beyond the scale,” said Schoettler.
To help continue to raise awareness of the bone marrow registry, GMA is partnering with Be The Match in our “One Match, Second Chance” series from September 20 through February 20 to continue to raise awareness and to help save lives. Learn how to take the first step to sign up to become a donor today.
Raychelle Brooks is the mother of Justice Brooks.
Brooks nearly came close to having a life-saving bone marrow transplant last summer, but because his donor wasn’t a perfect match, there was a complication that stopped the process.
“While I was going through the process, I caught a lung infection and they had to stop it immediately,” said Brooks.
After years of waiting, Raychelle Brooks said that moment felt like when the “Earth stopped moving.”
“I normally am very strong for my baby, but I couldn’t even look at him. It took everything out of me. It was hard to breathe,” said Raychelle Brooks. “I’ve never felt so hopeless in life. But I was so happy he pulled through.”
Sickle cell disease is most common among those of African American descent, occurring among about 1 out of every 365 Black or African-American births, according to the CDC.
Only 7% of the 9 million U.S. donors in the match registry are African American, according to Be The Match.
“If you are a Caucasian – from European descent, you have an 80+ percent chance of finding an excellent match in the registry. And if you are Black or African American like Justice, your chances are much lower – 30 percent,” said Schoettler.
As Brooks gets older, his chances in finding a successful bone marrow transplant decreases even further.
But there is still hope. This fall, NBA Celtics star Marcus Smart became an advocate for “Be The Match,” to help spread the word of people like Brooks.
Smart said the cause “hits home” because he lost his oldest brother and mother to cancer.
“So for me to be able to join and educate people and get that notice out there, that we need this to increase when it comes to getting matches,” said Smart.
Brooks and Smart were able to meet up and discuss ways to further raise awareness for the registry.
“It’s just really great to see the work that he’s doing and continuing to stay positive with everything he’s going through in life,” said Smart. “To this day we still check up on each other.”
Brooks said he’s grateful for how far he’s come, but continues to look at the future.
“I’ve just made a bunch of memories. I’ll never forget these things, so I really appreciate Marcus,” he said. “I feel hopeful that one day I’ll have that perfect match.”
Sure, everybody puts up a tree and queues up the holiday music, but plenty of country stars have some seasonal traditions that are pretty unique to their family.
For example, while Brett Young and his wife might keep things classic and traditional when it comes to holiday decor, the singer grew up with some surprising Christmas meals.
“Every Christmas Eve — my dad was a pastor, and a woman from my dad’s church would make him homemade tamales. Not a Christmas dish, but we would have tamales every Christmas Eve,” he remembers.
He’s not the only one who opts for a non-traditional Christmas Eve meal. “For Christmas Eve we host my mom’s side of the family and we do gumbo, which is kind of unique, I guess — for around here at least it is,” Justin Moore — whose wife Kate hails from south Louisiana — tells his record label.
Tim McGraw also leans into his heritage for the big Christmas Eve meal — and in his case, that means cooking Italian.
“Our Christmas Eve dinner is homemade spaghetti and meatballs,” he explains. “It takes me about three days to prepare it and make it, and I let it slow cook for a long time.”
Tim’s spaghetti is a hit for all the members of the family, including wife Faith Hill and the couple’s three young adult daughters. The entire extended family comes over for Christmas Eve, too, Tim goes on to say.
“We have a big ol’ Christmas Eve, sort of a noon meal, so everybody gets time to go home and take care of Christmas,” Tim recounts. “But that’s always special, and that’s probably one of the dishes that everybody always looks forward to.”
Alicia Keys brought the holiday cheer — and glitz and glam — to New York’s majestic United Palace.
The 15-time Grammy award-winner returned to her hometown to host a one-night-only Holiday Masquerade Ball on Saturday, which treated the audience to a live performance of her greatest hits. She also sprinkled in a sample of the songs from her first-ever Christmas album, Santa Baby, which came out exclusively on Apple Music on November 4.
Keys stunned in a black ensemble with a glitzy top and matching masquerade mask as she opened up the show with her 2003 classic “You Don’t Know My Name.” Other hits she performed included “In Common,” “Girl On Fire,” “No One,” “If I Ain’t Got You,” and, of course, the song that set her career ablaze, “Fallin’.”
Songs from the R&B icon’s holiday project and ninth studio album included “Ave Maria” and “Santa Baby.”
Keys also had a few surprises up her sleeve, bringing out the pop artist JVKE who joined her at the piano to perform his hit single “Golden Hour,” which they mashed up with Keys’ song “Never See Me Again.”
Later, she united with Academy Award-winner Jon Batiste to perform a medley of songs that included Nina Simone‘s “Feeling Good” and Nat King Cole‘s “The Christmas Song.”
There’s no need to fret if you missed the festive event. The concert will broadcast later this month as the closer to the first season of Apple Music Live. The date has yet to be announced.
Steve Martin and Martin Short hosted this weekend’s Saturday Night Live for their 16th and third times, respectively, and this time they got some help from their Only Murders in the Building co-star, Selena Gomez.
During their opening monologue, Martin, 77, and Short, 72, prepared eulogies in which they roasted each other, trading barbs, beginning with Martin, who commented, “Wow, not much of a turnout.”
“There are so many good things I could say about Steve Martin,” Short noted, “but this hardly seems the time nor the place. I know Steve is looking down on us because he looked down on everybody.”
The swipes continued, until Martin asked, “Now that Marty is gone, who will I ever work with?”
Selena showed up once again in a parody of the Father of the Bride films, with Martin and Short reprising their respective roles as George Banks and wedding planner Franck Eggelhoffer. Kieran Culkin joined the reunion as a grown-up version of his Father of the Bride character, Matty Banks. Selena played the wedding singer, noting that it cost them “$1.8 million, easy” to book her.
SNL castmember Chloe Fineman played mother Nina Banks, originally played by Diane Keaton; Heidi Gardner played the titular bride Annie, originally portrayed by Kimberly Williams-Paisley; and Bowen Yang stepped into BD Wong‘s role as Franck’s assistant, Howard Weinstein
In other SNL news, Lizzo was announced as the musical guest on December 17, replacing Yeah Yeah Yeahs, who dropped out due to guitarist Nick Zinner‘s ongoing bout with pneumonia.
In an otherwise dismal box office weekend, Black Panther: Wakanda Forever earned an estimated $11.1 million and spent its fifth consecutive week at #1 — the first film to accomplish that since 2018’s Black Panther. That brings the Marvel Studios movie’s domestic take to $409 million.
Violent Night took second place with an estimated $8.7 million. Its two-week global tally currently stands at $41.8 million
Third place went to Strange World, bringing in an estimated $3.6 million in its third week of release. That brings its North America total $30.5 million and its worldwide gross to $53.5 million.
The Menu landed in fourth place, grabbing an estimated $2.7 million in its fourth weekend. The film has earned a total of $29 million in North America and $57.7 million globally.
Rounding out the top five was Devotion, collecting $2 million in its third weekend. Its domestic total now stands at $17 million.
Elsewhere, The Whale, starring Brendan Fraser, set a new record for the year’s highest theater average, earning $60K from just six theaters and beating the previous record of $50,000 set by Everything Everywhere All at Once.
(LOS ANGELES) — A Los Angeles City Councilman who has refused to resign over a leaked audio recording of him participating in a meeting in which racist comments were made about his colleagues, is now being investigated by police after a video surfaced allegedly showing him getting into a fight with a community activist at a holiday event, authorities said.
Councilmember Kevin de León was video recorded Friday night getting into a physical confrontation in front of parents and children at a toy giveaway and Christmas tree lighting event in the Lincoln Heights neighborhood of Los Angeles to which police were called to quell the violence, according to a statement issued by the Los Angeles Police Department on Sunday.
A video obtained by ABC Los Angeles station KABC showed de León, wearing a red and white Santa Claus hat, being confronted by a group of activists calling him a racist and apparently attempting to block his path as he tried to leave the event. In the footage, which has been posted on social media, one of the activists, identified as Jason Reedy, is seen standing nose-to-nose with de León before the councilman shoved him onto a table and grabbed his jacket, pushing him out of the camera’s view.
After the incident, de León claimed he was attempting to defend himself after saying Reedy had headbutted him. De León filed a battery complaint against Reedy, who countered by filing his own battery complaint against de León, according to the LAPD.
The LAPD said the incident is under investigation and no one was taken into custody.
“Kevin de León is a disgrace. Video footage clearly shows him and his supporters initiating this assault while Mr. Reedy stands with his hands up,” Reedy’s lawyer said in a statement. “Not only has Kevin de León lost all political legitimacy, his claims that he was the one attacked here simply underscores how he’s lost touch with reality.”
De León released a statement alleging Reedy is part of “a group of so-called ‘activists'” that has been harassing him and his staff for more than a year.
He claimed the group “cornered and physically assaulted me, a staff member, and a volunteer during a holiday event on Friday evening.”
He said Reedy and other members of the group started shouting obscenities and disrupting the holiday event, prompting him to attempt to exit the event to “draw the disrupters away from the attending families and children,” but the activists blocked all the exit doors.
“Once we were able to push open a door and try to get out, Reedy launched a pelvic thrust, followed by a headbutt to my forehead,” de León alleged. “My response, in defense of myself, was to push him off of me. In the ensuing struggle, Reedy struck me in the face with a closed fist, violently elbowed a female staff member, and injured a volunteer in front of horrified parents and children.”
Earlier Friday, chaos ensued at a city council meeting when de León showed up for the first time since becoming embroiled in the scandal over the closed-door meeting in October 2021 he attended with then-City Council President Nury Martinez and a third Latino member of the city council, Gil Cedillo. In the recording of the meeting, leaked earlier this year, Martinez allegedly made racist comments about her colleagues and the Black son of white councilmember Mike Bonin while discussing redistricting to hold onto their power.
During Friday’s council meeting, community members in attendance booed de León’s presence and Bonin abruptly stood up and stormed out of the meeting. The uproar caused a recess to be called and de León did not return to the meeting.
De León said he attempted to attend the meeting to represent his constituents.
“I remained out of the room after the outburst by agitators to give the council president the opportunity to regain control of the meeting and allow public comment to continue since so many of those present were my constituents,” de León said. “Unfortunately, neither of those things happened.”
But de León’s departure did not curtail the raucous meeting. Instead, outgoing City Councilmember Paul Koretz used his farewell speech to take a parting shot at protesters, saying they “have done their best to make it difficult for us to do our work in the last 2½ years.”
“In their own words: I yield the rest of my time. F*** you,” Koretz said.
De León is also purportedly heard making racially charged comments on the tape recording about Bonin’s son and calls for him and Cedillo to resign have grown louder in recent weeks. Martinez resigned from the city council in October and apologized for her comments.
De León and Cedillo have refused to step down from the council despite calls from California Gov. Gavin Newsom and President Joe Biden for them to do so.
On Oct. 26, the city council voted 12-0 to publicly reprimand the three councilmembers.
A photo of Ken DeLand provided by his family. – DeLand Family
(NEW YORK) — The parents of a senior at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, said their son has been missing since last month while studying abroad in France.
Ken DeLand Jr.’s family launched a website to get information about their missing son out to the public.
His family said they last heard from their son on Nov. 27 on the popular WhatsApp messaging app after he left the home of his host and was headed on a train to Valence, France. According to his dad, the last time his son’s phone pinged was on Nov. 30.
DeLand Jr. was in “constant communication” with his family while abroad, said his father Kenneth DeLand, who also spoke to Good Morning America in an interview airing Monday morning.
“Good Morning America” airs at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.
“He would reach out to me almost daily, sometimes every other day,” DeLand Sr. said.
The 22-year-old was last seen wearing a red jacket, scarf, grey beanie, blue pants, black backpack and sneakers, his family said on the website, alongside a picture from a surveillance camera of him walking inside a sporting goods store on Dec. 3.
According to French authorities, DeLand Jr. has officially been reported missing,
DeLand Jr. was learning abroad at the University of Grenoble Alpes through the study abroad program, American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS).
“AIFS joins others concerned for his safety and we are working with local law enforcement who have begun a search. We have been in contact with Kenneth’s family and university and we are hoping for his swift and safe return,” AIFS told ABC News.
According to DeLand Sr., a liaison from the program had reached out to the family saying he didn’t attend class, which was unusual.
“Kenny’s a friendly, outgoing college student, a young man,” the elder DeLand said. “He loves to travel. So, this trip has been something that he’s really looked forward to and enjoyed
Teddy Grant, ABC News
(NEW YORK) — The parents of a senior at St. John Fisher University in Rochester, New York, said their son has been missing since last month while studying abroad in France.
Ken DeLand Jr.’s family launched a website to get information about their missing son out to the public.
His family said they last heard from their son on Nov. 27 on the popular WhatsApp messaging app after he left the home of his host and was headed on a train to Valence, France. According to his dad, the last time his son’s phone pinged was on Nov. 30.
DeLand Jr. was in “constant communication” with his family while abroad, said his father Kenneth DeLand, who also spoke to Good Morning America in an interview airing Monday morning.
“Good Morning America” airs at 7 a.m. ET on ABC.
“He would reach out to me almost daily, sometimes every other day,” DeLand Sr. said.
The 22-year-old was last seen wearing a red jacket, scarf, grey beanie, blue pants, black backpack and sneakers, his family said on the website, alongside a picture from a surveillance camera of him walking inside a sporting goods store on Dec. 3.
According to French authorities, DeLand Jr. has officially been reported missing,
DeLand Jr. was learning abroad at the University of Grenoble Alpes through the study abroad program, American Institute for Foreign Study (AIFS).
“AIFS joins others concerned for his safety and we are working with local law enforcement who have begun a search. We have been in contact with Kenneth’s family and university and we are hoping for his swift and safe return,” AIFS told ABC News.
According to DeLand Sr., a liaison from the program had reached out to the family saying he didn’t attend class, which was unusual.
“Kenny’s a friendly, outgoing college student, a young man,” the elder DeLand said. “He loves to travel. So, this trip has been something that he’s really looked forward to and enjoyed.”
