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LA City Council member resigns over racist comments

October 13, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(LOS ANGELES) — Former Los Angeles City Council President Nury Martinez announced Wednesday she has resigned her seat, amid demands for her to step down after a recording emerged of her making racist and offensive comments about fellow council members.

In a lengthy statement, Martinez, who served on the council for the past nine years, thanked her staff, saying, “I’m sorry that we’re ending it this way. This is no reflection on you. I know you all will continue to do great work and fight for our district. I’ll be cheering you on.”

“While I take the time to look inwards and reflect, I ask that you give me space and privacy,” she said.

The resignation comes hours after the Los Angeles City Council adjourned its meeting before even starting after protesters demanded the resignations of Martinez and two other council members on the recording.

Protesters chanting in the LA City Council’s chambers caused repeated delays to the start of the meeting, chanting “no resignation, no meeting” and “step down or we shut down.”

A recording posted anonymously to Reddit over the weekend captured Martinez making allegedly racist and offensive comments about a fellow council member’s son. Two other city council members were also on the recording, with protesters calling on them to resign, as well.

The three council members on the recording were not in the chamber Wednesday, according to President Pro Tempore Mitch O’Farrell.

“For Los Angeles to heal, and for its City Council to govern, there must be accountability. The resignation of Councilmember Nury Martinez is the first, necessary step in that process,” O’Farrell said in a statement, while calling on the two other council members implicated in the scandal to resign, as well.

“There is no other way forward,” he said.

Martinez resigned from her role as city council president on Monday, but remained a member of the council. On Tuesday, she announced she was taking a leave of absence from her position.

O’Farrell tried to quiet protesters several times on Wednesday, even saying the council would open the floor for public comments, but protests continued. O’Farrell called two recesses at the beginning of the meeting to quiet protesters, without success. The meeting was scheduled to begin at 10 a.m. and was adjourned just over an hour later after the council was unable to conduct any business.

Protesters could be heard criticizing members of the council who were in the chamber for trying to continue the meeting.

In a recording of three Latino city council members, Martinez allegedly referred to white council member Mike Bonin’s son, who is Black, as an “accessory.” The recording was first posted to Reddit and later deleted. The Los Angeles Times reviewed the recording and confirmed it was authentic.

ABC News has not independently confirmed the authenticity of the recording.

In the recording, Martinez allegedly said Bonin’s young son behaved “parece changuito,” or “like a monkey.” In a statements released on Monday and Tuesday, Martinez apologized to her colleagues, Bonin and his family.

Bonin appeared at the beginning of the meeting via video call, telling the council he tested positive for COVID-19 and would be appearing remotely.

Protesters gathered at City Hall on Tuesday, calling for Martinez and the city council members in the recording to resign from their positions. protesters even made their way into the chamber where a council meeting was being held, disrupting it from starting while chanting “resign now” and “not one more day.”

Bonin condemned the statements and called for Martinez and the two other city council members allegedly speaking with her on the recording — Kevin de León and Gil Cedillo — to resign.

The California Department of Justice announced it was launching an investigation into the Los Angeles City Council redistricting process on Wednesday as well. The recording that captured the racist comments was made while the three were discussing redistricting, offering a rare look into the bitterness surrounding those decisions.

“The leaked audio has cast doubt on a cornerstone of our political processes for Los Angeles,” California Attorney General Rob Bonta said in a statement. “Given these unique circumstances, my office will investigate to gather the facts, work to determine the truth, and take action, as necessary, to ensure the fair application of our laws. We will endeavor to bring the truth to light as part of the sorely-needed work to restore confidence in the redistricting process for the people of our state.”

On Tuesday, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden was “glad to see” Martinez’s resignation, and added that all participants in the conversation “should resign.”

Jean-Pierre did not appear to recognize that Martinez only resigned as president of the council, not as a member.

“The president is glad to see that one of the participants in that conversation has resigned but they all should,” Jean-Pierre said. “He believes that they all should resign. The language that was used and tolerated during that conversation was unacceptable, and it was appalling.”

ABC News’ Sarah Kolinovsky contributed to this report.

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness premieres new single, “Skywriting”

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness has premiered a new single called “Skywriting.”

“Creating for a living, you want every song to be your biggest, every lyric to be your best, but in the end, it takes time to know whether or not what you’ve made will outlast you or at least the moment of its creation,” McMahon says. “When I think about the act of skywriting it really is a perfect metaphor, not just for creating but for living. It’s a big gesture to own a place in the clouds even if it’s just for a moment.”

You can listen to “Skywriting,” which was co-written by K.Flay, now via digital outlets.

“Skywriting” follows the single “Stars,” which was released in August. The most recent Wilderness album is 2018’s Upside Down Flowers.

In addition to working on new Wilderness material, McMahon got back together with his band Something Corporate for a surprise show in September. The Something Corporate reunion will continue with a set at the 2023 When We Were Young festival.

School Bells: New kids book teaches ABCs with AC/DC

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

In addition to spreading the word of rock, AC/DC will soon be providing another educational service.

The Australian company Love Police Books has announced a new children’s book using the “Back in Black” rockers to teach the alphabet.

Titled The AC/DC AB/CD High-Voltage Alphabet, the book introduces each letter with an AC/DC-themed cartoon and a short poem, such as, “A is for Angus, who thinks it’s good luck, to wear a school uniform, and walk like a duck.”

High-Voltage Alphabet will be released November 11 and is available to preorder now.

If you’re looking for an AC/DC book aimed at an older demographic, frontman Brian Johnson is releasing his memoir, The Lives of Brian: AC/DC, Me, and the Making of Back in Black, on October 25.

In other AC/DC news, the Royal Australian Mint has announced a new series of coins commemorating the band’s 50th anniversary. Brothers Angus and Malcolm Young founded AC/DC in Sydney in 1973.

Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams charged with misdemeanor assault for pushing photographer after game

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(NEW YORK) — Las Vegas Raiders wide receiver Davante Adams has been charged with misdemeanor assault for shoving a freelance photographer working for “Monday Night Football” while walking off the field after losing the game to the Kansas City Chiefs.

According to a police report filed with the Kansas City Police Department, the TV crew member had to go to the hospital after Adams allegedly shoved him while the star receiver was on his way to the locker room after the loss. Video of the incident has been widely shared on social media.

If convicted, Adams could face up to 15 days in prison and a $750 fine.

Ryan Zebley, who was working as a photographer for ESPN, was pushed by Adams as he walked toward the tunnel to the locker room following the Raiders’ 30-29 loss. Zebley suffered whiplash and a headache after being pushed down, according to the police report, which also says he suffered a “possible minor concussion.”

Adams is scheduled to appear in court for the assault charge on Thursday, Nov. 10, four days after the Raiders play the Jaguars.

The NFL is reviewing the incident for a possible league punishment, according to ESPN’s Adam Schefter.

The receiver, who was traded from Green Bay to Las Vegas in the offseason, apologized for the shove at his locker after the game.

“I want to apologize to the guy, there was some guy running off the field, and he ran, like jumped in front of me coming off the field, and I bumped into him, kind of pushed him, and he ended up on the ground,” Adams told reporters. “So I wanted to say sorry to him for that because that was just frustration mixed with him literally just running in front of me. I shouldn’t have responded that way, but that’s how I initially responded. So, I want to apologize to him for that.”

Adams and fellow Raiders receiver Hunter Renfrow ran into each other on fourth down as a pass sailed over their heads on the Raiders’ final play of the loss. Adams slammed his helmet on the ground after walking to the sideline.

The Raiders are 1-4 on the season.

Adams signed a five-year, $140 million contract with the Raiders after being traded to the team in March.

Why Pennsylvania may not have election night results and why that’s OK

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WASHINGTON) — Pennsylvania is unlikely to have results on election night this November, the state’s top election official said Tuesday, because of a law limiting when mail votes can be processed.

That means voters may again have to wait to learn who wins key races in the battleground state, where the vote count in 2020’s presidential election lasted for days.

“We must again ask for patience,” Leigh Chapman, Pennsylvania’s acting secretary of state, told reporters over Zoom.

“Official results will be available within a few days,” she said, predicting that unofficial results also wouldn’t be available on Nov. 8. “This delay does not mean anything nefarious is happening. It simply means that the process is working as it is designed to work in Pennsylvania and that election officials are doing their job to count every vote.”

Chapman attributed the expected delay to the state’s General Assembly deciding not to pass legislation allowing counties to begin processing mail-in ballots before Election Day.

As it stands, processing cannot begin until 7 a.m. that day.

News organizations often declare a winner before an official count is issued, based on a detailed analysis of the partial results. But in the 2020 presidential race, it still took four days for ABC News to call Pennsylvania for Joe Biden, a reflection both of how thin the margins tend to be in the longtime purple state and the increased use of mail ballots.

In another election season change, the U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday vacated an appellate judge’s ruling that had required Pennsylvania counties to count undated ballots, though state rules require voters to date their mail-in envelopes.

But Chapman is still allowing undated ballots to be counted, saying in a statement issued Tuesday afternoon that the Supreme Court ruling “was not based on the merits of the issue and does not affect the prior decision of the Commonwealth Court in any way.”

According to Chapman, more than one million mail-in ballots have been requested, with roughly 5% having been returned. An overwhelming majority of voters requesting mail-in ballots are Democrats, she said. During the last midterm elections, in 2018, roughly 5 million total Pennsylvanians voted.

The state is taking a stronger stance on voter intimidation, Chapman told reporters, and will require county officials to report any intimidation that occurs at drop boxes. The boxes have been baselessly criticized by some Republicans for fostering fraud.

Chapman cited instances in which sheriff’s deputies in Berks County have asked voters at drop boxes if they are returning their own ballot or someone else’s (Pennsylvania law forbids people to return another person’s ballot except in certain circumstances).

“My concern is that when there is law enforcement present, when there is questioning of voters at drop boxes, there could be potential for voter intimidation,” she said. “A lot of voters might not even decide to show up and return their ballot because of that concern.”

Asked whether she worries that Doug Mastriano — the Republican gubernatorial candidate who led the effort to challenge Pennsylvania’s election results in 2020 and has organized a vast poll watcher recruitment effort this fall — may leverage this year’s expected vote count delay to question the results of his own race, Chapman declined to say.

“I don’t comment on what one candidate says or does,” she said, “but my job is to ensure that every eligible voter in Pennsylvania is registered to vote, can cast their ballot and have it counted.”

TJ Miller says Ryan Reynolds smoothed things over after “clickbait” interview

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

TJ Miller, who played Weasel in the first two Deadpool movies, admits he found himself “in hot water” after recent comments he made about co-star Ryan Reynolds “were misconstrued.”

Miller appeared on SiriusXM’s Jim Norton & Sam Roberts show on Wednesday to clarify comments he’d previously made on the Adam Carolla Show podcast — and to say Reynolds reached out to him to smooth things over.

On the latter program, Miller was quoted as calling Reynolds an “insecure dude” and talked about a “horrifically mean” comment Reynolds’ Deadpool had made about Miller’s character in the film.

He also said Reynolds “hates me” and vowed he wouldn’t work with him again.

However, a “disappointed” Miller on Wednesday struck a different tone, explaining to Norton and Roberts that the whole thing was a misunderstanding.

“In India they were talking about it!” Miller said of the Carolla Show comments. “I wasn’t saying anything negative. He is so funny, which I always maintained, and he’s so amazing in those movies … I said all those complementary things, and none of that shows up.”

He called the negative headlines “clickbait.”

“I feel bad that it was picked up and it was misconstrued,” Miller said. “I just have a thing … where I say something, and not thinking about what the repercussions of saying this or that would be.”

Miller said after the headlines came out, “It was really cool. [Ryan] emailed me the next day … and I emailed him back, and we’re fine,” Miller said. “He’s a good dude,” he clarified.

Miller is no stranger to controversy: He denied accusations of sexual assault in 2017 and in 2018 allegedly called in a bomb threat on a woman who reportedly rebuffed him on an Amtrak train. He later blamed the incident on a manic episode.

Alex Jones ordered to pay hundreds of millions in Sandy Hook defamation trial

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

(WATERBURY, Conn.) — A Connecticut jury awarded hundreds of millions of dollars in damages to 15 plaintiffs defamed by conspiracy theorist Alex Jones when the Infowars host called the 2012 Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting a hoax staged by actors following a script written by the government to build support for gun control.

With the plaintiffs sobbing in the gallery, the clerk read out the verdict in which the jury decided compensatory damages for both slander and for emotional distress.

The compensatory damages total about a billion dollars, far exceeding the award in a prior case in Texas. He was ordered to pay just shy of $50 million in that case, which was decided in August.

The jury also awarded attorneys fees and costs Wednesday.

Jones, who was on the air with his radio program as the verdict was read, told his listeners, “This must be what hell is like — they just read out the damages, even though you don’t got the money.”

His attorney, attorney Norm Pattis, told reporters they plan to appeal the decision.

“Candidly, from start to finish, the fix was in in this case,” Pattis said outside the courthouse. “We disagree with the basis of the default, we disagree with the court’s evidentiary rulings.”

“In more than 200 trials in the course of my career, I’ve never seen a trial like this,” he continued.

The plaintiffs, relatives of victims and an FBI agent who responded to the scene, testified that they were tormented by Jones’ followers who believed his lies about the massacre. The families said they were harassed and threatened in the decade since the shooting.

One of the plaintiffs, Robbie Parker, whose 6-year-old daughter Emilie was killed in the Sandy Hook massacre, thanked his lawyers for helping him “fight and stand up to what had been happening to me for so long.”

“I’m just proud that what we were able to accomplish was just to simply tell the truth. And it shouldn’t be this hard. And it shouldn’t be this scary,” he said in an emotional statement given outside the courthouse.

Parker expressed gratitude for the jury “not just because of their verdict, but for what they had to endure, what they had to listen to,” he continued.

Jones testified he believed at the time the shooting might have been staged but he has since said he now believes it’s real. He declined to apologize to the families on the stand in this trial, saying he had already apologized enough.

A judge last year found Jones and Infowars’ parent company, Free Speech Systems, liable in the defamation lawsuit, with plaintiffs that include an FBI agent who responded to the scene and eight families of victims that Jones called actors.

The plaintiffs’ attorney had asked that Jones pay $550 million to a group of Sandy Hook parents, who claim the Infowars host spread lies about the mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 elementary school children.

The attorney, Chris Mattei, asked the six jurors to “think about the scale of the defamation,” citing as one example Jones’ claim the families, “faked their 6- or 7-year-old’s death.”

Pattis told jurors it was not their job to bankrupt Jones so he would stop broadcasting lies.

Pattis said he represents a “despised human being” but balked at the half-billion-dollar sum proposed by the plaintiffs’ attorney.

“It would take a person earning $100,000 a year hundreds of years to make $550 million,” Pattis said during his closing statement.

Jones faces a third, and final, trial that could result in another hefty damage award.

John Stamos, Yvette Nicole Brown talk up season 2 of ‘Big Shot’, now on Disney+

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

The entire second season of Disney+’s high school hit Big Shot drops on the streaming service Wednesday.

A “very grateful” John Stamos, who plays girls basketball coach Marvyn Korn, tells ABC Audio he literally couldn’t wait. “I remember talking to them at the end of shooting the first season. I said, ‘Let’s just, let’s take a month off, just roll into season 2.’ They said, ‘Well, let’s see how it does.’ I said, ‘Look, the girls are going to get older. Let’s let’s just take a month off … let’s pick it up [for season 2].'”

Yvette Nicole Brown returns as Westbrook High Principal Sherilyn Thomas. She explained with a laugh, “It’s almost Pavlovian: The first show I did 18 years ago with Kevin Hart was called The Big House, and we got canceled after six episodes. So I always start twitching somewhere around the sixth episode ’cause I’m like, ‘Are we going to make it?’ And then to make it beyond the six episodes, and then to get a second season of anything, is always just a wonderful surprise.”

Brown adds, “And, you know, I love Disney+, I love John. I love the girls, I love [co-star] Jessalyn [Gilsig]. So to get to come back and work with these people that I enjoy working with has been such a gift.”

Stamos teases some big changes for the school. “The first episode, we see … that the school becomes co-ed. And I think that opens up a lot of things. I mean, obviously the girls and boys and all that, but also really we get a chance to highlight the inequality of men’s sports versus women’s sports.”

He adds, “The season just felt right.”

Disney is the parent company of ABC News.

Heart’s Nancy Wilson selling collection of guitars, other music gear online

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

A selection of instruments and other gear belonging to Heart guitarist Nancy Wilson will be available for purchase via Wilson’s shop at the Reverb.com online marketplace starting Wednesday, October 19.

The Rock & Roll Hall of Famer will be selling more than two dozen items from her long career with Heart, including guitars, amplifiers and keyboards.

Among the guitars Wilson is selling is a late-1960s Gibson SG that she says has been one of her main guitars for playing the Heart classic “Barracuda” in concert. The instrument features a Bigsby vibrato bar, and the back of the body has two Marine Corps stickers affixed to it.

“It’s traveled really far with me. We’ve done a lot of stages and shows together … and you might recognize this Marine Corps symbol here that I used to flash at the end of ‘Barracuda,'” Wilson says.

Other guitars that will be sold include a 1957 Fender Stratocaster, a Paul Reed Smith 12-string prototype electric guitar with a dragon inlay, a late-1970s David Petschulat Mini Les Paul that appeared on the cover of Heart’s Greatest Hits Live album, and a red-and-white TV Jones Spectrasonic model Wilson says she also frequently used to play “Barracuda” live.

A video of Wilson showing off and talking about the various guitars she’s selling has been posted on Reverb’s official YouTube channel.

The sale was organized by Wilson and Reverb in partnership with the DEFINITIVE Authentic company, which works directly with artists and other celebrities to help certify, preserve and exhibit their artifacts.

Brendan Fraser talks “tragic” cancellation of ‘Batgirl’

October 12, 2022 by WDNY Radio

In a chat with Variety along with his The Whale director Darren Aronofsky, Brendan Fraser once again addressed the shelving of Batgirl, the film in which he played the pyromaniac heavy, Firefly.

“It’s tragic,” the actor said of Warner Bros. Discovery’s decision to write off the film.

Fraser continued, “It doesn’t engender trust among filmmakers and the studio. Leslie Grace was fantastic [as the titular heroine]. She’s a dynamo, just a spot-on performer. Everything that we shot was real and exciting and just the antithesis of doing a straightforward digital all green screen thing. They ran firetrucks around downtown Glasgow at 3 in the morning, and they had flamethrowers. It was a big-budget movie, but one that was just stripped down to the essentials.”

He lamented that everything directors Adil El Arbi and Bilall Fallah shot “felt real and exciting.”

Aronofsky, who helped Natalie Portman win an Oscar for Black Swan, and who most agree put Fraser on the Academy Award track with The Whale, called the Batgirl news “a disappointment for all the fans.”

And he was speaking from experience, as he explained he tried to helm a dark take on the Caped Crusader, only to have the studio pass.

“It was after Batman & Robin, the Joel Schumacher one,” Aronofsky recalled of the notorious 1997 franchise-chilling bomb. “That had been a big hiccup back then at Warner Bros., so I pitched them a rated-R, boiled down origin story of Batman …”

Aronofsky’s draft was based on Frank Miller‘s bruising Batman: Year One comic.

A rated-R superhero movie was, incidentally, ahead of its time back then, the filmmaker mused, considering the successes of Deadpool and Joker, the latter of which became not only a blockbuster, but an Oscar winner, set in the Batman universe.

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