(NEW YORK) — The Carolina Panthers are trading star running back Christian McCaffrey to the San Francisco 49ers in exchange for second, third, and fourth round picks in 2023 and a fifth-round pick in 2024, according to a report by ESPN’s Adam Schefter.
“I’m forever grateful for all of the people who have helped make these past 5 1/2 years so special for me,” McCaffrey posted to Twitter on Friday morning. “Thank you from the bottom of my heart. Carolina, I will always love you.”
I’m forever grateful for all of the people who have helped make these past 5 1/2 years so special for me. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.
The deal gives San Francisco another weapon in their arsenal as they push for their first Super Bowl since 1994. In 2019, McCaffrey became the third player in league history to have 1,000 rushing yards and 1,000 receiving yards.
The Panthers are currently 1-5 and fired head coach Matt Rhule on Monday, with the team already looking to the future. The 49ers, on the other hand, are 3-3 and lead the NFC West, putting them in good position to contend for a spot in the playoffs.
The blockbuster trade made waves on Twitter with McCaffrey’s new teammate, tight end George Kittle chiming in.
(MIAMI) — A Florida man had his election fraud charges dismissed on Friday, making him the first of 20 people who Gov. Ron DeSantis announced had been charged with voter fraud in August, to beat his case.
The ruling by a Miami judge may now pave the way for similar motions and rulings in the other 19 election fraud cases, which garnered national attention and controversy when they were announced on Aug. 18. DeSantis said at the time that they were the “opening salvo” by Florida’s newly funded Office of Election Crimes and Security to crack down on voter fraud.
Robert Lee Wood, who faced one count of making a false affirmation on a voter application, and one count of voting as an unqualified elector, had his charges dismissed on the grounds that the prosecutor lacked jurisdiction to bring them.
Wood was facing up to five years in prison and $5,000 in fines and fees, for allegedly illegally voting in the 2020 election.
When the charges were announced on Aug 18, DeSantis said local prosecutors had been “loath” to take up election fraud cases.
“Well, now we have the ability with the attorney general and statewide prosecutor to bring those on behalf of the State of Florida,” he added at the press conference.
But a judge found on Friday that the statewide prosecutor did not have jurisdiction over one case in Miami.
In order for the statewide prosecutor to have jurisdiction, the crimes alleged must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
The judge found with the defense, which argued that the act of applying to vote and voting only occurred in Miami Dade. All 20 cases are being prosecuted by the statewide prosecutor.
In order for the Attorney General’s office to have jurisdiction, the crimes that they allege must have occurred in at least two judicial circuits.
State prosecutors argued that the crimes were committed in Leon County in addition to Miami Dade County, because the defendants’ applications and votes were later transmitted to the Department of State in Tallahassee.
The defense argued the alleged offenses only happened in Miami Dade.
The judge found with the defense.
Larry Davis, the attorney for Wood, said that his motion to dismiss on grounds of jurisdiction has been circulated to attorneys representing the other election fraud defendants.
The statewide prosecutor can now appeal the case. If unsuccessful, a similar case could be brought by the Democrat Miami Dade State Attorney Katherine Fernandez.
Digging up the past isn’t necessarily a productive step in moving on, but for half brothers Raymond and Ray, played by Ethan Hawke and Ewan McGregor, it’s their deceased father’s last request. In the new film Raymond and Ray, out Friday on Apple TV+, the estranged siblings embark on an awkward road trip to dig their father’s grave. Along the way, they grapple with painful memories caused by his psychological abuse.
McGregor, who plays Raymond, tells ABC Audio that his character has never fully moved on from his traumatic upbringing.
“It’s his brother Ray that just teases out of him, like, ‘You’ve got to experience the anger, can’t you be angry with him, can’t you be angry with him?’” he says. “And finally Raymond can unlock it, and oh my goodness, does it come pouring out, the rage.”
For Hawke, the premise of the film reminds him of his own life experience. After the death of his well-liked grandfather, he learned things about a person he thought he knew.
“I remember, that was the first time at his funeral that I really realized how many aspects to a human being there were,” he says. “People that were telling these stories that seemed so far away from anything — I knew this person really well, and there were these huge chapters of his life that I never had contact with.”
In this tale of two Rays, Hawke says we learn that our perception of someone may not be universal. “I think the script gets at that in a really beautiful way,” he says.
A week after Adam Levine teased his first Spanish-speaking single, “Ojalá,” with Colombian star Maluma and The Rudeboyz in a 20-second TikTok video, we now have the official video.
The steamy video kicks off with The Rudeboyz — a.k.a. Chan El Genio and Kevin ADG — driving while listening to the “incredible” beat they just produced and sharing how great it would be to have Maluma and Levine on the song.
“We’d kill it. Can you imagine? That would be a dream,” they say.
Next we hear the Maroon 5 singer and Marry Me star trading verses about getting over the heartbreak of losing a girl. While Adam starts off singing in Spanish, he switches to English later in the song.
Levine first hinted at a possible collaboration with Maluma back in June, posting a photo on Instagram of them in a recording studio, captioned, “World ain’t ready.”
In addition to being Maluma’s longtime collaborators, The Rudeboyz have produced hits for artists such as Shakira, Sech, Jennifer Lopez, Prince Royce and Sebastián Yatra.
(WASHINGTON) — Everytown for Gun Safety, the prominent gun violence prevention organization, on Friday announced its first-ever investments in local secretary of state races amid what they described as worries the GOP nominees would not certify presidential election results in 2024 — if elected this year.
The $1 million investment is funding ads and mailers targeting Mark Finchem and Kristina Karamo, the Republican secretary of state nominees in Arizona and Michigan, respectively, and will boost the Democratic Association of Secretaries of State, Everytown said.
The media campaign will be featured on digital platforms like Instagram, Facebook, Roku and YouTube, as well as via direct mail, according to the advocacy group.
Both Finchem and Karamo have spread baseless fraud claims about the 2020 presidential election and have declined to firmly commit to certifying the 2024 election results in their states, if they are in office.
“Electing gun sense champions requires fair elections — and that requires electing Secretaries of State who will stand up to armed extremists threatening our democracy and fight for free and fair elections,” John Feinblatt, president of Everytown, said in a statement.
“Everytown is going to make sure voters know that far-right candidates like Mark Finchem and Kristina Karamo, who deny election results and cozy up to extremist groups, are putting both our democracy and our lives at risk,” Feinblatt said.
The ad against Finchem, who was at the U.S. Capitol during last year’s insurrection (but said he didn’t go inside), highlights his association with the Oath Keepers militia and denial of the veracity of the 2020 election results. And a mailer focusing on Karamo casts her as “too dangerous for Michigan” while noting her election denialism and opposition to abortion access.
Neither Finchem’s nor Karamo’s campaigns responded to requests for comment from ABC News.
Pressed on his own election denialism in the past, Finchem has said that as secretary of state, he would theoretically certify a reelection win for President Joe Biden “if the law is followed, and legitimate votes have been counted” and “if there’s no fraud.” But he told Time magazine, that “quite frankly, is a fantasy.”
Everytown is one of the country’s major supporters of increased gun laws. But Charlie Kelly, the group’s senior political adviser, said that electing lawmakers who will advocate for those changes is only possible if election results are certified — and if voters are free from violence while casting ballots.
“That’s why we’re engaging the secretary of state races,” Kelly told ABC News in an interview.
Kelly said Everytown is hoping that their investment can reach tens of thousands of voters, indicating the new emphasis on secretary of state and other down-ballot races. Both Finchem and Karamo are candidates in swing-states.
Former President Donald Trump’s refusal to accept his own defeat in the 2020, by some seven million votes, has spurred a slew of Republicans running for office this year to cast doubt on the last election and this year’s races, with some candidates preemptively saying that if they win, it would be in spite of fraud — not because of the absence of it.
Kelly, the Everytown adviser, said that Arizona and Michigan were chosen for the advertising blitz after a collaboration with other groups to determine where the investment would go the furthest.
“These are ones that we determined we have an opportunity in. And again, as you’re looking at the battlefield, there are certainly a number of secretaries of state races across the board and across the country where there are extremist candidates running,” Kelly said, “but working again with partners to fill gaps and sort of where the needs are, these two rose to that level.”
Still, Kelly indicated that Everytown will not shy away from investing in secretary of state races in the future, suggesting that the contests will be focuses of Democrats and their allies beyond the midterms.
“If there are extremists and dangerous candidates like Finchem and Karamo running in future cycles, yes, we will be there in a significant way,” Kelly said. “These folks are putting their own sort of political priorities before our constitutional right to vote and our safety and should individuals like this decide to run in future elections, of course we’ll be there. We need to draw that contrast.”
(PHOENIX) — As Yesenia Cruz-Bejarano emerged from the Moose Lodge, an early voting location in South Phoenix, tears streamed down her face even as she smiled brightly with joy.
“I’ve been here for so long, you know, more than half of my life. So, I feel so proud,” said Cruz-Bejarano, who had just cast her first ballot as a newly-naturalized U.S. citizen. “I’m happy that I can make a difference, you know, with my vote.”
The married mother of three from Mexico, who works full-time at a local children’s shelter, is among a highly diverse wave of new American voters that could play a critical role in one of the hottest political battlegrounds of the midterm elections.
More than 64,000 immigrants gained citizenship in Arizona since 2016, according to a report last month by a coalition of immigrant, labor and voting rights groups in partnership with researchers at the University of California, San Diego.
“Arizona is at the top of the list of states for newly-naturalized voters,” said Nicole Melaku, executive director of the National Partnership for New Americans, a nonpartisan, nonprofit group that sponsored the report. “We know that they will play an outsized role in determining the fate of the U.S. Senate and, of course, their state legislative body.”
Melaku points out the 2020 presidential election in Arizona was decided by just over 10,000 votes. The voting bloc of newly-naturalized citizens is more than six times that margin.
“In order to have a better future, we need to show up and vote and elect those that represent our values,” said Eduardo Sainz, a father of three who recently became a naturalized citizen after waiting 16 years in line. “We have to take out racist politicians out of office.”
Arizona’s population of naturalized American voters is a racially and ethnically diverse mix of immigrants from all over the world. More than half immigrated from Latin America and a third came from Asia, according to the report. Both groups of new citizens have a historically high rate of voter participation.
“They’re important because they’ve come to this country to be part of the American dream. They’ve come here to be part of the fabric of our country,” said Petra Falcon, executive director of Promise Arizona, a nonpartisan immigrant advocacy group.
The issues most important to them mirror those of the U.S. electorate more broadly, Falcon said, sharing concerns about the economy, health care, education, immigration and abortion rights.
“No voting bloc is a monolith, but they are most certainly not all Democrats,” said Melaku, “and they’re certainly people who need to be engaged, courted to really fully understand the issues at stake.”
Tuach Ruon, a father of five, and Tema Patrick, father of six, became U.S. citizens earlier this year as refugees from north and central Africa. Both now have union jobs working the overnight shift at a distribution warehouse — and both said health care is a top issue.
“In my native Congo, I never vote,” said Patrick, 45, who explained in broken English that he had never been able to cast a ballot. “This is my first time. I’m very happy.”
“It is important for us to vote to show that we are American,” added Ruon, “and to show that the people who we are voting for are doing the job that we are expecting them to do.”
Researchers say the newest Arizona voters are disproportionately young and female: More than half are under the age of 45 and nearly 6-in-10 are women.
“Self autonomy is a very big thing, specifically to women, non-binary individuals, anyone,” said Arisbeth Valenzuela, who became a U.S. citizen in 2019 and is now a grassroots organizer with Mi Familia Vota, a civic engagement group.
“There’s been a lot of women that have the same concerns that I do, and a lot of them are now getting much more invested in politics,” she said.
Overall, Arizona is home to nearly half a million naturalized citizens that comprise more than 6% of the state’s total population. Nearly one-fifth of those immigrants joined the voter rolls since 2016.
“We have a diversity of new people that are changing the electorate of Arizona,” said Arizona State University political scientist Irasema Coronado.
“The fact that we have two Democratic senators is a change. The fact that we have progressive members of the city council is a change. And so, you have a variety of people with new experiences and more progressive politics,” she said.
Their political power may depend in part on the ability to navigate new state voting restrictions, advocates said.
“That really could have a negative impact for voter behaviors, but we’re actually feeling quite hopeful that this year,” said Melaku, whose group is spearheading outreach to newly-minted American citizens.
“This is a powerful, rising voting bloc of people who are most likely bilingual, multicultural, come from, you know, diverse families and, of course, who care about a lot of issues,” she said.
Cruz-Bejarano said the responsibility and excitement of being a new voter instills a natural sense of engagement.
“There’s so many people becoming American citizens,” she said. “I have a lot of friends, you know, they are doing it right now. It’s — I think it’s really going to make the difference.”
(WASHINGTON) — Former Trump adviser Steve Bannon is scheduled to be sentenced today following his conviction on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, after he defied a subpoena from the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack on the U.S. Capitol.
He was subpoenaed by the Jan. 6 panel for records and testimony in September of last year. He refused to comply and was found guilty of contempt in July.
Here are the latest developments. All times Eastern:
Oct 21, 8:58 AM EDT
Courthouse arrival
Bannon arrived at the courthouse before 9 a.m. He thanked the TV news cameras for being there and called the Biden administration illegitimate.
He also thanked a woman who was chanting “traitor.”
Oct 21, 8:43 AM EDT
‘This is just Round 1’
Bannon, whose sentencing hearing is scheduled for 9 a.m. EST, blasted members of the Jan. 6 committee on his way out of the courtroom after being found guilty in July.
“We may have lost a battle here today, but we’re not going to lose this war,” he said. “[The jury] came to their conclusion about what was put on in the in that courtroom. But listen, in the closing argument, the prosecutor missed one very important phrase, right? ‘I stand with Trump and the Constitution, and I will never back off that, ever.'”
Bannon’s attorney, David Schoen, said that Bannon’s defense team would appeal the case, saying, “This is just Round 1.”
Oct 21, 8:17 AM EDT
Bannon ‘willing to pay any fine’
Bannon is scheduled to be sentenced this morning in Washington, D.C. He was interviewed as part of the court’s presentencing investigation, but prosecutors said he refused to disclose any information about his finances.
They did, however, say that Bannon insisted “that he is willing and able to pay any fine imposed, including the maximum fine on each count of conviction,” according to Monday’s court filing.
“For his sustained, bad-faith contempt of Congress, the Defendant should be sentenced to six months’ imprisonment — the top end of the Sentencing Guidelines’ range — and fined $200,000 — based on his insistence on paying the maximum fine rather than cooperate with the Probation Office’s routine pre-sentencing financial investigation,” prosecutors said in Monday’s filing.
Oct 21, 6:55 AM EDT
DOJ seeks six months’ jail time for Bannon
The Department of Justice is seeking six months in prison and a fine of $200,000 when Steve Bannon is sentenced this morning, according to a court filing Monday.
The adviser to former President Donald Trump was convicted in July on two counts of criminal contempt of Congress, after he refused to appear before the House select committee investigating the Jan. 6 attack.
“From the time he was initially subpoenaed, the Defendant has shown that his true reasons for total noncompliance have nothing to do with his purported respect for the Constitution, the rule of law, or executive privilege, and everything to do with his personal disdain for the members of Congress sitting on the Committee and their effort to investigate the attack on our country’s peaceful transfer of power,” prosecutors said in Monday’s filing. “[Bannon’s] abject refusal to heed the Committee’s subpoena, under the circumstances with which this country is confronted, could not be more serious.”
Bannon faces a maximum sentence of one year per count, for a total of two years behind bars.
In his own sentencing memorandum, Bannon asked that he be sentenced to a period of probation and is seeking a stay of any sentence pending appeal of his conviction.
Swifties got all they wanted and more on Friday. Taylor Swift not only released her highly-anticipated 10th studio album, Midnights, she also gifted fans seven surprise bonus tracks.
Those new tracks are part of what Taylor’s calling Midnights (3am Edition). The songs include “The Great War,” “Bigger Than the Whole Sky,” “Paris,” “High Infidelity,” “Glitch,” “Would’ve, Could’ve, Should’ve,” and “Dear Reader.”
“Surprise! I think of Midnights as a complete concept album, with those 13 songs forming a full picture of the intensities of that mystifying, mad hour,” Taylor wrote on Instagram. “However! There were other songs we wrote on our journey to find that magic 13. I’m calling them 3am tracks.”
In a separate Instagram post, Taylor thanked her collaborators on the album, including Jack Antonoff,Lana Del Ray, Zoe Kravitz and William Bowery — the latter of whom we know as her boyfriend, Joe Alwyn.
Taylor also dropped the music video for “Anti-Hero” on Friday morning. The visual, which was written and directed by Swift, shows her “nightmare scenarios and intrusive thoughts play out in real time,” as she described it on Instagram. The video culminates in a brawl at Taylor’s funeral, featuring Mike Birbiglia and John Early as her grown sons and Mary Elizabeth Ellis as her daughter-in-law.
(NEW YORK) — The 20-year-old Purdue University student stabbed to death in his dorm room was effusive, close with his family and wise beyond his years, according to his parents.
Varun Manish Chheda, a senior majoring in data science, was found dead in his room on the school’s West Lafayette, Indiana, campus on Oct. 5 after his roommate called 911, university police said. The roommate, 22-year-old Ji “Jimmy” Min Sha, was arrested and charged with Chheda’s murder.
Although Varun was a busy college student, he always stayed in touch with his mom, dad and little sister. He’d call his mom between classes, share his Wordle score with her, and check in over text each morning and night, his mother, Seema Dedhiya, told ABC News in an exclusive interview.
On Varun’s final night alive, Dedhiya said she texted her son her usual evening message: “Eat well, sleep well. … Finish your homework.”
“He said, ‘Yes, Mom, I’ve done it all,'” she recalled.
She said Varun’s final text to her at 11:45 p.m. read, “Goodnight, Mama.”
Early on the morning of Oct. 5, two police officers came to the family’s door in Indianapolis with the tragic news. The 20-year-old suffered multiple stab wounds in an “unprovoked” attack, according to Purdue University Chief of Police Lesley Weite.
Seema Dedhiya and her husband, Manish Chheda, said they had no sense of problems with Varun’s roommate and said their son rarely mentioned him. They described Varun as a peacemaker, which they said made his violent death all the more shocking.
Varun was a minimalist and environmentalist. He never asked his parents for money and insisted he didn’t need a nicer car or nicer computer, they said.
He was passionate about Taekwondo, strategy games and especially science, said his father, Manish Chheda.
Varun was recently studying medical genomics and “was even thinking maybe of following in my footsteps and becoming a physician,” he said.
“How it would’ve turned out, we just only can guess at this point,” he said. “I think he would’ve been involved in … helping people face-to-face or in a research realm.”
He was a kind big brother and a thoughtful friend, his dad said, recalling the time Varun encouraged a friend to donate his long hair to cancer survivors.
“We think he did a lot of good in the time he had,” Manish Chheda said. “We’re proud of that.”
Asked what she’ll miss most, Dedhiya replied through tears: his laugh, his hugs, “his brilliance” and “all the conversations.”
“I miss him terribly,” Dedhiya said.
Manish Chheda said he doesn’t know when he’ll “be psychologically ready” to return to his work as a doctor.
“I need to be more focused than I am right now. We’re gonna get help, we’re gonna get counseling,” he said.
The family will “never be normal again,” but he said he hopes they’ll find a “new normal.”
“You can’t lose someone like this and ever get over it. But we have to try,” he said.
Sha has not entered a plea. As he headed to his first court appearance on Oct. 7, Sha told reporters “I am very sorry” when asked if he had a message to the victim’s family. Sha also said, “I was blackmailed,” but did not elaborate.
His defense attorney did not immediately respond to ABC News’ request for comment.
The Critics Choice Awards has announced that Chelsea Handler will host this year’s ceremony. The event will take place January 15 at the Fairmont Century Plaza in Los Angeles, where it will be broadcast live, starting at 7 p.m. Eastern on the CW. Handler will be succeeding Taye Diggs for the 28th annual awards show; Diggs hosted the event for the past four years…
CBS’ drama FBIposted online a short video teasing the return of lead Missy Peregrym. The actress, who plays Agent Maggie Bell on the hit show, has been on maternity leave, but will return on the November 15 installment of the series. Missy’s onscreen partner, Zeeko Zaki, is shown with his suit jacket hiding the actress from frame, before shouting, “Look who’s back!” and revealing her, to the cheers of the castmates on set. The show dealt with her absence by saying Bell was recovering after a terrorist gas attack…
Trevor Noah‘s has dropped a teaser of his third Netflix special. I Wish You Would will premiere globally on November 22. The Hollywood Reporter points out Noah shot the stand-up show in Toronto 24 hours after he announced he was stepping away from The Daily Show…
Amazon has canceled As We See It after just one season, Variety has learned. The series is about three adults with autism — played by Rick Glassman, Albert Rutecki, Sue Ann Pien — and the various challenges they face trying to navigate work and love and life. Sosie Bacon, Chris Pang and Joe Mantegna also starred…
