Beloved Reading Rainbow host LeVar Burton will be presented with a Lifetime Achievement honor by fellow Emmy winner Laurence Fishburne at the inaugural Children’s & Family Emmy Awards.
Hosted by former 30 Rock star Jack McBrayer — himself a nominee this year — the event will be held December 11 at the Wilshire Ebell Theatre in Los Angeles.
Throughout his career, Star Trek: The Next Generation veteran Burton has received 13 Emmy Awards, a Grammy Award for Spoken Word Album, a Peabody Award, three NAACP Awards and a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame, among other accolades.
The Children’s & Family Emmy Awards establishes a dedicated ceremony separate from the Daytime Emmy Awards, in response to an explosion in programming for its titular demographic.
A full list of this year’s nominees can be found here.
Billboard is out with their annual year-end charts, and their list of the Top Rock Albums of 2022 certainly has a throwback feel.
Topping the list is Fleetwood Mac’s 1977 album, Rumours, followed by Queen’s Greatest Hits at two, Elton John’s Diamonds at three and Creedence Clearwater Revival’sChronicle:The Greatest Hits at five.
And those aren’t the only classic albums on the list: Nirvana’s Nevermind is at six, with Tom Petty and TheHeartbreakers’ Greatest Hits at eight, Guns N ‘Roses‘ Greatest Hits at nine and AC/DC’s Back in Black at 10.
The only 2022 album to make the top five is Zach Bryan’s American Heartbreak.
Several classic artists also makeBillboard’syear-end list of the Top Rock Artists of 2022, including Kate Bush at five, Fleetwood Mac at seven, The Beatles at eight, Elton John at nine and Queen at 10.
Paramount Pictures’ billion dollar blockbuster Transformers franchise is literally roaring back to life with the new teaser for the upcoming Transformers: Rise of the Beasts.
The movie, which stars In The Heights‘ Anthony Ramos and hits theaters on June 9, 2023, has fan favorites like Bumblebee and Optimus Prime (veteran Peter Cullen) coming face-to-face with once-hidden robots in disguise that take the form of fearsome jungle creatures.
Ramos’ military vet character becomes an unwitting soldier in the battle between the Autobots and the Decepticons, thanks to a white-knuckled ride — against his will — in the driver’s seat of a classic Porsche 911 that Transformers-heads know as the hero Jazz.
Jazz and his robotic allies team up with Optimus Primal (Ron Perlman), the gorilla-likeleader of the Maximals, who battles with not only the Decepticons but the Maximals’ evil-animal-like nemeses, the Predacons.
“Of all your threats from both your past and future, you’ve never faced a threat like this,” the robotic ape warns Prime in the snippet.
The truck-robot answers defiantly, “Let them come.”
Creed II director Steven Caple Jr. calls the shots on the action-packed film, which also stars Pete Davidson as the voice of the Autobot Mirage and Dominique Fishback.
(NEW YORK) — The so-called culture wars are deeply affecting schools across the country, according to a new UCLA report that surveyed principals from across the country.
The report, released Wednesday, showed a vast majority of principles reporting “substantial and growing political conflict” that’s making it harder to combat misinformation and interfering with productive discussions in classrooms.
Over the last year, a conservative-led effort to target topics on race, oppression and the LGBTQ community have prompted state legislators and some school boards across the country to adopt policies that limit or restrict dialogue or curriculum on certain identities.
Principals in “Purple” districts, or politically divided communities, often faced more challenges than others, according to the survey.
The report found that these communities have been targeted by “small groups of vocal parents and community members” who are connected to conservative national organizations to “aggressively” challenge or threaten educators on such topics.
According to one principal in Minnesota who was quoted in the report: “My superintendent told me in no uncertain terms that I could not address issues of race and bias etc. with students or staff this year. He told me, ‘This is not the time or the place to do this here. You have to remember you are in the heart of Trump country and you’re just going to start a big mess if you start talking about that stuff.'”
Almost two-thirds or 64% of principals said parents and community members have challenged the information or media sources used by teachers in their school.
Nearly half of all principals – and 63% of principals in Purple communities – said parents or community members “sought to limit or challenge …teaching and learning about issues of race and racism.”
Between 2018 and 2022, heightened community-based contention over teachers’ use of media sources and information grew almost three-fold in Purple districts from 12% to 35%, the survey found.
In Purple communities, almost a quarter (23%) of principals reported their school board or district leaders took action on limiting teaching and learning about race and racism.
Nearly half of all principals reported efforts to challenge LGBTQ+ rights in the 2021–2022 school year. In Purple communities, principals were nearly twice as likely to say such attacks occurred multiple times than in Red or Blue communities.
According to the report, the communities in which principals reported high rates of hostility and disrespect towards LGBTQ+ youth were also the communities in which principals reported fewer efforts to address these concerns.
Principals say these new policies have not only deeply affected the actual content being delivered in the classroom but also the way students responded to one another.
Roughly 69% of principals said students made derogatory remarks to liberal or conservative classmates, a problem that was much more likely to occur repeatedly in Purple communities.
Principals at schools in Purple communities were also more likely than Red and Blue districts to report high levels of political conflict.
One Iowa principal said: “I had to come down and help the teacher, like a veteran teacher, who’s never had problems having discussions. And the kids were just so stuck in their trenches, they weren’t willing to be open to even listen to the other side.”
(ATLANTA) — The number of HIV tests and people diagnosed with the virus dropped significantly during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to new federal data.
The report, published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, looked at data from two commercial laboratories and found decreases during the first half of 2020.
Between April and June 2020, in the early months of the pandemic, about 1.68 million HIV tests were performed, a 33% decline from the 2.52 million tests performed during the same period in 2019.
As a result, fewer people were diagnosed with HIV. During the first six months of 2019, 18,919 people tested positive for HIV. By comparison, 14,666 people received an HIV diagnosis during the same six-month period of 2020.
Rebounds were seen in late 2020, but not returns to pre-pandemic levels. From October to December 2020, 2.27 million HIV tests were performed and 7,758 people received positive diagnoses.
The use of pre-exposure prophylaxis, or PrEP — a daily pill containing two medications that prevent HIV-negative patients from being infected — saw just a slight drop in the first half of 2020.
A total of 179,280 prescriptions were written from April to June 2020, a 6% drop from January to March 2020. However, by September, the number of prescriptions had surpassed pre-pandemic levels.
“I think most people would agree that those kinds of drops are mostly attributable to the complete disruption of medical services that appeared early in the COVID-19 pandemic,” Dr. Uriel Felsen, medical director for HIV testing at the Montefiore AIDS Center in New York City, told ABC News.
When cities and states across the country issued lockdowns and stay-at-home orders, this resulted in the closure of non-emergency health care services, which limited the number of HIV tests performed and number of PrEP prescriptions written, the CDC report stated.
Additionally, people fearful of contracting COVID-19 avoided doctors’ offices or hospitals, where they may have received care. Also, millions of people lost health insurance after being laid off from their jobs, limiting their ability to access care.
“It’s absolutely alarming that the services were disrupted this profoundly,” Felsen said. “Overall, there were more missed diagnoses and the more time people go without getting tested, the more time they have to transmit HIV unbeknownst to themselves.”
The authors noted that the COVID-19 public health emergency laid bare the need to deliver HIV services outside of traditional settings.
Felsen agreed and said, for example, he is part of a team at his hospital investigating a new strategy to try and improve PrEP access by prescribing it in emergency departments directly to those who are at risk.
“It has really reminded us that we need to be able to implement HIV prevention in a diverse array of settings so that, in cases where services are so extremely disrupted, people are still getting the care that they need, because the HIV epidemic didn’t stop because of COVID,” Felsen said.
(NEW YORK) — The Manhattan district attorney’s office failed to prove former President Donald Trump’s namesake real estate firm is guilty of tax fraud, a defense attorney insisted Thursday during closing statements in the criminal tax fraud trial of the Trump Organization.
Two entities of the Trump Organization — the Trump Corporation and the Trump Payroll Corporation — are on trial for paying the personal expenses of some executives without reporting them as income and for compensating them as independent contractors instead of full-time employees.
In her closing statement, defense attorney Susan Necheles pinned the scheme on Allen Weisselberg, the Trump Organization’s former chief financial officer who pleaded guilty in August to a 15-count indictment, and said the company is not liable for his criminal conduct.
“The prosecution’s case rests on one thing: trying to convince you, the jurors, that Mr. Weisselberg’s actions were done in behalf of the company,” Necheles said. “They were not. They were done solely to benefit himself. And that is the critical issue in this case.”
The longtime CFO testified at trial that he reduced his reported salary by the total amount of the personal expenses that the company covered, and that the company benefitted by paying less in payroll taxes. He also testified that his primary motive was greed.
Weisselberg “testified that Allen Weisselberg committed these crimes solely to benefit himself — solely to benefit himself,” Necheles said. “In other words, no intent to benefit the corporation.”
“This case is about greed. But only the greed of Allen Weisselberg,” said defense attorney Michael van der Veen, who represents the Trump Payroll Corporation. “There’s not any dispute about what Allen Weisselberg did. The real question is, ‘Who did he do it in behalf of?'”
Van der Veen suggested that the real crime was not the company’s decision to pay Weisselberg’s rent, the lease on his Mercedes Benz, or his grandchildren’s school tuition — but Weisselberg’s failure to report those perks on his income taxes. The attorney questioned why the Manhattan district attorney’s office charged the company.
“They wanted something with the Trumps attached to it,” van der Veen said, drawing an objection from prosecutor Josh Steinglass that the judge overruled.
The defense also tried to convince the jury the Trump Organization’s outside accountant, Donald Bender of Mazars USA, should be blamed for failing to flag the company to fraud or other criminal conduct.
“Bender never told the owner of the Trump Corporation, President Trump, that there was anything wrong,” defense attorney Susan Necheles said. “There can be no claim that President Trump had any knowledge or belief that the fringe benefits were illegal.”
The defense prepared a scorecard for the jury that listed elements of the scheme and boxes to check “yes” or “no” regarding whether there was an intent to benefit the Trump Organization. Necheles paired it with transcripts of select testimony in which witnesses said the sole beneficiary was Weisselberg.
But some of the transcript pages displayed for the jury included answers to questions that had been successfully objected to, which caused a delay while the pages were reviewed and prosecutors sought corrections.
“It’s your responsibility to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Judge Juan Merchan told the defense. “I don’t fault the People for being upset.”
The outcome of the case could turn on the vagaries and nuances of a part of New York criminal law that even the presiding judge has called “confusing.” Judge Juan Merchan said Wednesday he would allow defense attorneys to argue in their closing statements that prosecutors failed to show Weisselberg acted “in behalf of” the company.
The confusing part, the judge said, is that the New York state legislators who drafted the relevant statute did not define exactly what “in behalf of” means in that context.
The judge said he would not allow the defense to “overstate what that intent was.”
Prosecutor Josh Steinglass said he planned to tell the jury in his closing statement that Weisselberg qualifies as a “high managerial agent” of the company and that he committed his crimes while in his official capacity in a manner that benefitted the company.
“It was understood that by having less payroll you’d have less payroll taxes,” Weisselberg acknowledged on the stand.
The longtime CFO, who agreed to testify as part of a plea deal with prosecutors, said his primary goal in arranging the perks was to “save pretax dollars.”
If convicted, the company faces fines of up to $1.7 million. Potentially more significant could be collateral consequences if banks call in loans or partners cancel contracts.
The trial also revealed that Trump reported nearly $1 billion in operating losses over a two-year period about a decade ago, spilling into public view tax information that the former president had tried repeatedly to keep private.
The past year has been a good one for touring artists, especially for some heritage acts, who made big bucks on the road this year.
While Bad Bunny tops Billboard’s year-end Top Tours chart for 2022, bringing in $373.5 million and selling 1.8 million tickets across 65 shows, acts like Elton John, The Rolling Stones,Mötley Crue and Def Leppard all make the top 10.
Elton lands just under Bad Bunny at two, with over $334 million from 63 shows; The Rolling Stones comes in at six, with over $179 million from 20 shows.
Others making the list include the Red Hot Chili Peppers at seven ($176.9 M), Def Leppard and Motley Crue at eight ($173.4 M), Paul McCartney at 15, Eagles at 16 ($105 M), Guns N’ Roses at 17 ($93.3 M) and Genesis at 25 ($81.9 M).
(NEW YORK) — Gas prices nationwide have plunged to their lowest level since February as demand has dropped from peak summer travel season and the price of crude oil has fallen.
Softening pain at the pump offers welcome relief for households battered by inflation that stands near a 40-year high.
The national average price for a gallon of gas, which stands at $3.47, has fallen more than 30% since it reached a peak of $5.01 in mid-June, according to data AAA provided to ABC News.
Over the last month alone, the price for a gallon of gas has fallen nearly 8%.
In California, the state with the highest average price, a gallon of gas costs $4.90, though that price has fallen more than 11% over the past month. In Texas, the state with the lowest average gas price, a gallon costs $2.84, AAA data showed.
Despite the recent price dip, the cost of gas remains elevated — roughly 3% above a $3.38 national average one year ago, according to AAA data.
The decline in gas costs owes in part to a fall-off in demand as weather has cooled and Americans have dialed back travel, industry analysts told ABC News.
“In North America, there is a summer driving season when demand is particularly high and refineries are running all out,” Pavel Molchanov, a senior energy analyst at Raymond James, told ABC News. “In the fall and winter, demand cools off.”
In addition to a drop in demand, gas prices have benefited from a decline in the cost of crude oil, allowing refineries to generate fuel at lower prices.
The cost of a barrel of oil, which stands at about $83, has plummeted nearly 8% over the last month.
The fall in oil prices — which are set on a global market — has stemmed from discussions at the European Union on a plan to place a price cap on Russian oil, analysts said.
The compromise measure would limit the oil revenue enjoyed by Russia as it wages war against Ukraine, but would also allow for the continued purchase of Russian oil, boosting global supply and pushing down prices.
The price of oil has also been pushed downward in recent months by the Biden administration’s release of petroleum from the strategic reserve as well as a decline in demand in China due to continued COVID lockdowns, the analysts said.
“The big wild card is China, which seems to change day to day,” Peter McNally, a global sector leader for industrial materials and energy at Third Bridge, told ABC News.
In recent days, the price of oil has inched upward amid civil unrest in China and the possibility of a relaxation of the lockdown policy, threatening to reverse the decline in U.S. gas prices, Molchanov said.
“If the Chinese government signals COVID lockdown easing in response to popular protest, then that stimulates among other things oil demand in China and it boosts oil prices,” he said.
“So when oil prices go up, you will see that reflected in gas at the pump,” he added.
Archaeologists explore a dig site in the Omnogovi Province in Mongolia, where they discovered a new species of dinosaur, the Natovenator polydontus, in 2008. – Sungjin Lee and Yuong-Nam Lee
(NEW YORK) — Scientists have discovered a new predatory dinosaur fossil in Mongolia that was likely a semiaquatic diving predator.
A near-complete skeleton, found in the Omnogovi Province, depicts a bird-like specimen and was named “Natovenator polydontus,” or “Swimming hunter with many teeth,” according to a paper published in Communications Biology on Thursday.
Researchers from the Korea-Mongolia International Dinosaur Expedition located the fossils at the Baruungoyot Formation in 2008, Young-Nam Lee, a professor of vertebrate paleontology who led the dig, told ABC News.
During the expedition, 27 members of the team gathered 196 cataloged specimens. The Natovenator polydontus was found by Robin Sissons, a graduate student of the University of Alberta, Lee said.
The fossil was not fully exposed in the field, so Sissons, despite not knowing what it was at the time, made a plaster jacket for it, Lee said.
All of the fossils from that collection were then shipped to South Korea for preparation and study, where “a whole skeleton came to light” of the new species of dinosaur, Lee said.
The specimen “was so delicate but beautifully preserved,” Lee said.
It included a skull, spinal column, one forelimb and the remains of two hindlimbs. Its streamlined body, with ribs that point toward its tail, is similar to modern diving birds and its long neck resembles modern water birds such as geese, the researchers said. These adaptions may have reduced the drag that Natovenator would have been subjected to when swimming, helping it to catch prey.
The fossil also included an “unusually high number of teeth” compared to the size of the dinosaur’s jaw, indicating that it ate a fish or insect-based diet, according to the researchers.
“Instantly we realized it was something important,” Lee said. “It had a skull with many tiny teeth and a very long neck was distinct.”
This is the first time that a non-avian theropod — a type of carnivorous dinosaur that walked on two legs — was discovered with a streamlined body similar to some birds, according to the researchers.
Analysis of evolutionary relationships also indicate that the new species is closely related to halszkaraptorines, a group of non-avian theropods that previous research has suggested may have been adapted for a semiaquatic lifestyle.
“Natovenator is a valuable discovery,” Lee said. “Finding semi-aquatic dinosaurs means that the ecological diversity was very high in dinosaurs. Halszkaraptorines could change our prejudice about the lifestyle of dinosaurs.”
